Close Shave...

         It’s times like these the Mrs. wishes she married a guy who was really into horticulture.  She was out with her teaching crew for their monthly dinner, having a great time.  I got back in from Atlanta in time to see the bottom of the second inning.  Now, this time of year is what it is.  You’re really not looking at too many highs or lows.  You just kind of glide along, keeping a keen eye on the home-field stuff.  So I actually dozed off for a couple of the middle innings, and flipped over to Inside the NFL on HBO for a while.  I flip back in the sixth, and I couldn’t believe what I saw.  After all of the euphoria of yesterday and the “magical destruction” lineup, the mighty, magnanimous Yankees were getting no-hit by Daniel Cabrera.  [As I tap the keys, here, I’m following the Royals/Twins game on the gamecast, and I just toggled over and saw that there were three outs and the Royals pulled off a 1-0 win against the Twins, giving the Yanks a huge boost in the home-field stuff.  But no…  Apparently I missed that Joe Mauer hit a game-tying bomb with two outs in the ninth.  Whoops.  Going to the top of the tenth….the Royals are toast…].  So right there I started getting agitated.  A no-hitter?  This was humiliating.  This couldn’t be happening.  This was inconceivable.  I got up and started pacing.  As I watched the game unfold, I got more agitated.  By the time the Mrs. walked through the door, big smile on her face as usual, I was up, pacing, and cursing like Joe Pesci.  She knew something was up.  I got angrier as the game went on.  The Mrs. just sat quietly on the oversized chair, planning out her lessons for tomorrow with her fourth graders.  She gets pretty good practice at home, because I pretty much act like a fourth grader most of the time.  So anyway, ninth inning, one out.  I’m pacing furiously in the living room; lucky hat on.  And Robbie came through….  Thank you, whoever it is I need to thank.  Because my life would have taken a long time to get back to normal if that had gone down differently.  And the Mrs. thanks you too, because she was probably in the midst of planning to move to her mom’s for the next few days.

So I have two comments on this game. The first is about the almost-no-no.  I have to tell you; one of the things I was so incensed about was that two of those three “errors” should have been base-hits.  I’m sorry.  Nothing against Daniel Cabrera.  He pitched an absolute whale of a game.  And it’s not his fault.  He didn’t score them errors.  But the official scorer, I think, got a bit swept up in what was going on.  Brian Roberts played Abreu’s ball way into left field, and Abreu beat the throw.  There is no way that was a “routine” play.  And replays showed, despite what Ken Singleton thought, that the ball hit the lip of the grass and bounced up on him.  Under ordinary circumstances that would have been an unbelievably tough error to hand somebody.  But under ordinary circumstances that would not have been an error.  If that had been in the first inning it would have been a base hit.  [Just toggled over to the gamecast.  Well, as expected, the Twins pulled out the win after the ninth-inning dramatics.  They’re tied with the Tigers.]  The same goes for the ball that Sheffield smashed at Mora.  Here’s a newsflash.  That’s what Sheffield does.  He smashes the ball down that way.  It would have been an extremely tough play for Mora.  Error?  No way…  But that’s one man’s opinion, admittedly.  So anyway, I would have had a tough time if he had walked off the field with a no-hitter.  Not with three controversial errors bailing him out like that, two of them scoring a run.

My other comment has to do with Joe Torre.  By now, most BPS readers know that I get frustrated with the “resting-starters” thing late in the year.  But I understand that there’s a certain amount of merit to it.  But my one other beef with Torre is that he doesn’t have enough respect for the fans.  A funny statement, I know, but I’ve always had this beef with him.  I remember a few years ago, when the Yankees had a pretty decent lead against the Mets on a Sunday-night ESPN game.  I could be off, but I think the Yanks were leading by three or so in the ninth.  But Mo Rivera had pitched a few days in a row, so Torre gave him the night off, and had some schmegma-head out there, who promptly gave up a game-winning bomb to Piazza in the bottom of the ninth with Mo sitting idle in the bullpen.  I remember being so p*ssed at Torre for doing that to the Yankee fans.  Don’t give one away to the Mets.  Torre famously gives absolutely no credence to the idea that these games mean anything more; and is notorious for saying “it’s just another game” and all that.  But not to the fans it’s not.  How about respecting that.  They pay your salary and the team’s salary.  Rest Mo tomorrow night.  And the next if you have to.  A loss like that might not mean anything to Torre.  For the fans it means everything.  And Torre needs to respect that.  Well we got another taste of that tonight.  Here was Daniel Cabrera, pitching a no-no in the eighth inning with one out, and Miguel Cairo and Andy Cannizaro due up.  So what does Torre do?  He lets Cairo hit and pinch-hits Melky Cabrera for Canizzaro.  Nothing against those guys, but I, and all Yankee fans, were staring right at the possibility that Daniel Cabrera was, in four outs, going to be jumping around like a conquering hero on our sacred field, having handed the Yankees just the sixth no-hitter in their 103-year history.  Sorry, Joe, I know you’re obsessed with all of this resting stuff, but you need to get Jeter, A-Rod, and/or Bernie in that game.  The nonchalant attitude kills me.  Again, the fans show up, go nuts, and spend tons of money so this team can be where it is.  Have some respect for them.  Just last night when I was at the Stadium, Bob Sheppard read the announcement that thanked the fans for making the Yankees just the second team in the history of baseball to draw four million fans two years in a row.  Have some respect for those fans, Joe.  I get that you are trying to win a championship.  That’s the number one priority for everybody.  But there was absolutely nothing to be gained by not sending up your best guys in a scenario like that.  Do everything you can to avoid subjecting your fans to that.  And these are moments that transcend a singular baseball season.  Chris Woy and I were in the stands the night that Bartolo took a no-no into the eighth.  Luis Polonia took care of that one.  But I haven’t forgotten it.  Nobody but me remembers that when the Astros came to the Bronx for a three-game set in 2003, the Yankees took two of three.  Everybody remembers that the one they lost was a no-no by six different pitchers.  Everybody.  Don’t subject your fans to that Joe.  Show some respect.

While the game was unfolding I was trying to look on the bright side.  I figured that if the Yankees got no-hit, there would probably be a bunch of gloating Yankee-haters logging on to the BPS, coming back in from pumpkin-picking or wine-tasting or whatever it is the rest of the world does this time of year.  My comments haven’t been double-digits since my mom was president of Ancient Greece. 

Happymeds, sorry for the slip-up on my part, and thanks for catching it.  I forgot the key words “extra-inning” when talking about the home-team winning in the playoffs.  If you recall the other night we were talking about the Yankee extra-inning playoff games over the last 11 years.  As far as Acc and I could tell, the home teams were 13-0. 

Lucky, I’m not afraid of the Twins and Santana.  I think they’ll be tougher than Detroit, definitely.  Just one man’s opinion.  And given my preference, I would take them in a seven-game series.  But the Yankees will be, and should be, heavily favored against Minnesota, even in a three game series.  It’s one of those things where if you’re going to lose that series, you were meant to lose it, and that’s that.

By my next post on Sunday night, we’ll have the playoff match-ups set, and the regular season will be over.  And the new Wifflemania champions will have been crowned.  See you then.