Clean-Up

        Mike Sherry left me a voicemail this afternoon.  “Dude, I have a demand.”  That’s Mike Sherry’s way of making it clear that he’s dispensing with any of the niceties that one would usually afford when asking you to do something.  “Since baseball is pretty much in s*ck-mode right now, I think you need to devote at least half of a blog to a full preview of The 2nd Annual Wifflemania at Accle-stick Park.”  It’s a valid request.  The first pitch of Wifflemania will be this Saturday at 11am.  The excitement is mounting and the smack is already starting to fly.  “The Bombers” will try and defend their title, while “The Pig” will try to climb that last hurdle to win the coveted “Whitey Ford Trophy.”  But I won’t get into it now.  There will be plenty of time for that later in the week.  Stay tuned.

         The Yankees came out of their shell a little bit tonight, tearing the translucent cover off of the Tropicana Dome.  I got home early tonight, so by the time I turned on the game it was only the first inning, but already 3-0.  And I have to be fair.  Alphonso Marquez was squeezing Jae Seo as bad as I’ve ever seen anybody get squeezed.  And Seo was furious.  I don’t blame him.  And two Tampa coaches got themselves thrown out of the game before the first inning was closed out.  After putting two on with one out and three already in, Seo found himself locked up in a battle with the Ferocious Lion.  Personally, I thought The Ferocious Lion struck out at least twice in that sequence.  Marquez didn’t see it that way.  And then he started fouling balls off.  Seo was clearly exasperated.  So on pitch number fourteen, he puts one right down Broadway, and The Ferocious Lion lit it up like Acc’s face when the food comes at the Diner.  In any case, I’ve never had a problem with Jae Seo, but I’m not about to feel bad for him.

         The Yankees cleaned up their half game deficit to the Tigers in the American League, which means they once again own the best record in all of baseball.  The Tigers have the same record, but the Yankees won the season series, so all they need to do is hold court.  And now the Tigers and Yankees will take turns with the Blue Jays, who have just moved ahead of the Red Sox for second place (whoops).  The Jays are playing good ball, and will get some well-deserved respect in the next week, although they play some tough opponents.  The Yankees have three at home against Baltimore, and if they can pick up a game on the Tigers here, the Tigers will need to gain two games in the final three days to secure home-field.  Same with the Twins, who will spend the better part of their week knocking the jockstraps off of the Royals.

          Nice problems to have, I know.  H810, you’ll never hear me discount home-field.  It means so much more in baseball than it does in the other major sports, because it’s the only sport where it actually changes your vantage point in the game.  Baseball’s home team has last licks, which is a wildly effective psychological advantage.  How many playoff extra-inning games are won at home versus on the road?  Off the top of my head in the last eleven years, I can think of the ’95 Leyritz game, game 5 in Seattle, the Jeffrey Maier game, Bernie’s walk –off of Rod Beck in game 1 against Boston in ’99, the Chad Curtis WS game in ’99, game 1 of the 2000 Subway Series, both 2001 miracle games, game 7 in 2001, the Aaron Boone game, the Jeff Weaver game in the ’03 series, and two nightmare games in Boston in ’04.  And I’m probably forgetting some.  How many games have gone to the road team?  I’m sure some.  But I can’t think of any this second.  The psychology of it tells you a lot.  If you’re the home team, as soon as the road team has two outs and no one on base, you start to feel empowered.  You’re going to get a chance to come up and win with a walk-off, and even if you don’t score it this inning, you’ll still get a chance to answer any runs the other teams score with another inning.  It’s a daunting proposition.  The results bear that out.  And whether the road team wins a game early in a series or not, it never changes the fact that both teams know where that seventh game will be played.  Again, a tremendous psychological advantage.   

         Nick, you make a good point.  I was focused partly on the home-field aspect, and partly on the “rust” aspect, although I probably didn’t give the latter enough run.  I think Torre may have some sort of disease when it comes to this stuff.  Sheffield was pulled from this game tonight.  Sheffield.  This guy needs absolutely every at-bat and every fielding chance he can get.  And Torre is sitting him down.  Just in case he didn’t get enough rest for the four months he was off….

         Ras, I understand your concern.  The good news is that there isn’t one team going into the playoffs that doesn’t have the same problem.  And given the rest of the pieces of the puzzle, I have to believe we have the strong advantage.

          Happymeds/Umair, the destruction they waged tonight was something I would like to see continue towards the end of this week, if it’s all the same to everyone.  Peak at the right time and work up some momentum for next week.  And then, boom…..