Bleacher Creature Feature

#50: Postseason Prognostications 2003

29 September 2003

David Wells pitched quite well on his way to his 200th career win, though he did have an unusually high number of groundouts -- a nigh-Pettittesque twelve of his 23 outs were on the ground. However, he walked nobody, leaving his seasonal walk total at a nice even 20 (against an equally nice and even 100 strikeouts, giving him a mind-boggling .2 to 1 BB-K ratio), which is .88 walks per nine innings -- that's less than one per complete game. (Not that that's relevant, as few pitchers ever pitch nine innings in a game anymore. Shouldn't this be altered to per six or seven innings? Maybe figure out what the league average inning count for starters is each year and make it that?)

Otherwise, the game had a big home run, fine pitching, some cool defensive plays, and it ended with a Mariano Rivera strikeout. What more could you ask?

The paid attendance was listed at over 42,000, but that many people did not actually show up. I suspect that the inclement weather combined with the minimal overall meaning of the game beyond the individual (Derek Jeter shooting for the batting title, Wells's 200th win) kept many folks from venturing out. And we did get rained on a bit in the middle innings, but it was nothing compared to our last regular-season game last year -- didn't even necessitate a delay.

However, despite the lower numbers, the place was just as loud as ever -- louder even, as the ones who were there were the die-hards. Jay Gibbons got his fair share of abuse in right field (Terri and I shouted "Laugh while you can, monkey-boy!" at him at one point, which nobody around us got....), the box-seats were ridiculed for overpaying for their seats, and Luis Sojo got a special roll call when he came in as a defensive replacement for Nick Johnson in the eighth.

That 42K-plus put the Yankees attendance at a mark that was not only the highest for a single season in franchise history, but the best in the major leagues for 2003.

The coolest thing, though, was the tribute to Eddie Layton. Layton's been the Yankees' organist since 1967, and he's retiring after this year. He'll still play the post-season games this year, but Sunday was his last regular season game. In honor of that, they played "Cotton-Eyed Joe" a few innings early in order give Layton the chance to play "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" twice during the seventh-inning stretch, with Bob Sheppard encouraging all and sundry to sing it loud both times.

Afterward, he got a standing ovation.

My favorite Eddie Layton story was a game I went to with my father when I was a kid. It was a game that went into extra innings, and had started earlier than usual for some reason that I no longer recall. (Rain delay, maybe?) In any case, it was getting onto the thirteenth inning or something, and the clock flipped over to midnight. As soon as the time switched from 11.59 to 12.00 (it was between innings), Layton played a low note twelve times in succession, simulating a clock striking twelve. Two seconds after the twelfth "bell" played, he then broke into a rendition of "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning."

My father and I and the guy in front of us laughed for about an hour after that.....

I don't agree with ESPN's Harold Reynolds all that often, but I got his back on the most petty thing that happened in baseball on Sunday.

No, it's not Grady Little sitting both Manny Ramirez and Bill Mueller so they could keep their batting averages intact and give them the batting title, not bringing Mueller into the game until after Jeter had gone 0-3, thus guaranteeing he wouldn't get it. That was just dumb (especially since resting Mueller and Ramirez hardly seems necessary, since the Red Sox-A's series doesn't start until Wednesday night).

Far worse than that were the Padres. With Todd Helton and Albert Pujols in a dead heat for the batting race, Helton came up late in the game. The Cardinals' game is over, so Pujols is done, settled at a .35871 average. Helton needs a single hit to get the batting title. He's up with one on and his team already up 10-7.

And the Padres intentionally walk him.

In certain circumstances I can see how this is strategically sound, but not on the 162nd game of the season between two teams whose sole connection after Sunday to the 2003 baseball season would involve tuning their TVs at home to ESPN or Fox. Reynolds tore the Padres a new one on Baseball Tonight Sunday night, and I'm right there with him -- let the man at least have a decent shot at the batting title. Instead of getting a chance to win it, he was left at .35849. That was just lame.

So here we go into the postseason for the ninth year in a row. Before we look ahead, let's look back to the 37th BCF, wherein I made what I called my Wholly Inaccurate Predictions, so called in order to give me an easy out for when I screwed them up totally. Let's see how I did.

AL EAST: Here, I was perfect, but it wasn't a tough call, either. Since the Tampa Bay franchise sprung forth in 1998, the East has gone New York-Boston-Toronto-Baltimore-Tampa Bay every single year. This year was, not surprisingly, no different.

AL CENTRAL: I didn't expect the Royals to do what they did, but I take solace in the fact that nobody else did, either. Aside from the Royals finishing third instead of last, I called this one, too.

AL WEST: I called Oakland on top and the other three in any order. The order I actually put down, however, was all wrong, as I underestimated Seattle and overestimated Anaheim and Texas. C'est la vie.

NL EAST: Again, I didn't expect Philadelphia to perform so poorly but again, neither did anyone else. Ditto Florida not sucking. So yeah, I was off, but understandably so, and I got the relative order of Atlanta, Florida, Montreal/San Juan, and New York right, at least, it was just Philadelphia's placement that was off by two spots.

NL CENTRAL: This one I totally screwed up. The only thing I got right was Milwaukee in the cellar, but that was a gimme.

NL WEST: All I got right here was Arizona finishing third. The Dodgers didn't pull off the expected miracle, and the Padres tanked early.

On to the postseason....

Making note of the ACHIASS mantra (anything can happen in a short series), here's how I see things going:

ALDS: New York beating Minnesota in four games, Oakland beating Boston in five.
NLDS: San Francisco beating Florida in three games, Chicago beating Atlanta in four.
ALCS: New York beating Oakland in seven.
NLCS: Chicago beating San Francisco in seven.
World Series: New York beating Chicago in six.

I'm picking Chicago to go all the way partly for sentimental reasons, partly because I think Prior, Wood, and Zambrano will wipe the floor with their NL opposition.

Then again, I thought that about the Yankees facing the Angels last year.

Will be at the game tomorrow, and also Thursday night. Will report after each.

This is my fiftieth BCF. I feel like I should say something profound, but I'm not sure what. I've been enjoying these little rants, and I hope you all have, too. I intend to keep this up throughout the postseason (at least as long as the Yankees are involved). I suspect that winter BCFs will be as scarce as they were last year (all of one between the Yankees' elimination in the ALDS and the middle of March), but one never knows. We definitely plan to be back in the bleachers next year....

NEXT: LDS Games 1-2

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