Bleacher Creature Feature

#31: Tween Games 1 & 2

2 October 2002

In a word: wow.

Seeing it on television simply does not prepare you for the sheer energy in the stands at Yankee Stadium during a postseason game.

There were three moments this season that compared to the atmosphere at the Stadium throughout most of Game 1 last night. One was the ninth inning of the 21 July game against the Red Sox when Grady Little overmanaged the Red Sox to a 9-8 loss. One was during the Old-Timer's Day festivities, especially when Don Mattingly was introduced. And one was the microsecond that the first note of "Enter Sandman" played on 8 August, Mariano Rivera's first game back after being on the Disabled List for the second time.

Virtually the entire game was like that. The only time it quieted down was when Roger Clemens coughed up a lead, and when Ramiro Mendoza gave up Troy Glaus's second homer of the game. But as soon as Alfonso Soriano drew his eighth-inning walk, nobody was sitting, nobody wasn't shouting, and you could feel the intensity, the sheer energy of people who wanted the Yankees to win this damn game.

And when Bernie hit the homer-- Whoosh. Total strangers in the bleachers were hugging each other. It was glorious.

Last night, when we went downstairs to head to the Stadium, one of our neighbors (also a big Yankee fan) saw us dressed in our t-shirts and hats (Terri wore her Nick Johnson shirt, I wore my Jorge Posada shirt), and asked if we were going somewhere cool to watch the game.

We just smiled and said, "The Stadium."

Like everyone else we told this to, her jaw fell open and she asked how we got tickets.

Elsewhere in baseball; managers just keep dropping like flies. There are now managerial jobs available in Detroit, Milwaukee, Texas, Chicago, Tampa Bay, and, yes, New York. Can't bring myself to be surprised at any of them, though solely blaming Bobby Valentine for the Mets' woes gives him far too much credit, and lets Steve Phillips, who stitched together this Frankenstein's Monster of a team, off the hook way too easily.

Buck Showalter is one of many names being bandied about as a candidate, and I think the wisest course would be to put him on the Tigers or Cubs. Showalter doesn't get anywhere near the credit he deserves for laying the foundation for the current Yankees, but he's the one who brought the team from a last-place embarrassment to a contending team again, and both the Tigers and the Cubs are teams that, with the right on-field management, could turn into contenders in a year or two with the talent they have in place. And, in the case of Detroit, I think Showalter's a good enough tactician to make Comerica work for him.

Some have accused the Mets of trying to steal the Yankees' thunder by announcing Valentine's firing the afternoon before Game 1, but it didn't really work that way. Both the Daily News and the Post had Valentine's firing dominating the front page, and the Yanks' win dominating the back page, but the actual stories on Valentine were buried after all the playoff coverage. I suspect that this was, not an attempt to steal the Yankees' thunder, but to use the Yankees' thunder to mute the firing.

The A's were the A's again today, blowing away the Twins 9-1, but now they have to win in the Metrodome. Home-field advantage isn't as big a deal in baseball as it is in other sports, but the Twins are a huge exception to this rule. They're 11-1 in the Metrodome in postseason, and they had a huge home/road differential this season (they were only .500 on the road).

Me, I'm just hoping that the series goes five so they're nice and exhausted....

The two NL teams I despise -- the Braves and the Diamondbacks -- lost their first games to teams I kinda like -- the Giants and the Cardinals -- so all's right with the world in that regard.

I never made any actual predictions, and now there are five games in the can, but here goes:

Twins in four (I really think they're going to take both games in Minnesota), Yankees in four (Scioscia is going to manage himself right into a lost series), Giants in five (though this could go either way -- you've got two mediocre offenses, so these'll be low-scoring games that will hinge on luck as much as skill), and Cardinals in five (because I think that offense can beat Schilson).

The Yankee game has started. More anon....

NEXT: LDS Game 2

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