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Look back at: Divisional Playoffs |
League Championship
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Wednesday, October 25
There's something eerie about Yankees' win
By David Schoenfield
ESPN.com
NEW YORK -- If only the padding had been a little less soft. If only the ball had a little more backspin. If only the Ghost of the Bambino hadn't been hanging out in the left-field bleachers, giving Todd Zeile's long smash a little nudge back into fair territory.
|  | | If Timo Perez ran hard on contact, he might have scored on Todd Zeile's sixth-inning double instead of getting thrown out at the plate. |
After all, you'd think the Babe would be hanging out in right field, wouldn't you? But not on this night -- and that's how things always seem to work for the Yankees, don't they?
Jeffrey Maier? You think he'd have pulled Derek Jeter's ball back into the stands back in '96 without the Babe giving him a little help? Jason Varitek and Troy O'Leary, hitting those balls in last year's ALCS for the Red Sox that landed just inches below the top of the outfield fence? That was the Babe as well, haunting the team that sold him to the Pinstripers in the first place. And Jeter's home run against the Braves in the World Series that bounced off the top of the wall? Hey, the Babe is a busy ghost.
So, it should come as no surprise that Zeile's near two-run homer with two outs in the top of the sixth inning resulted in Timo Perez getting cut down at home plate on a nifty relay from left fielder David Justice to shortstop Jeter to catcher Jorge Posada, who easily blocked the diminutive Perez from scoring the game's first run.
"We needed Jeffrey Maier," said Zeile, whose Baltimore Orioles were robbed by the youngster. "Where was he when we needed him?"
It should come as a surprise, however, that Perez wasn't running hard on the play. Here's a guy who was cut from the Japanese minor leagues after last season, signed with the Mets in the offseason and worked his way up from Class A to the majors on the strength of some scrappy hitting, good defense and all-out hustle.
But when Zeile's blast -- on an 0-2 cut fastball from Andy Pettitte -- hit the top of the wall, Perez, who had singled leading off the inning, paused as he reached second and slowly rounded the bag. Only as he neared third base did he turn the jetstreams on again.
By then, it was too late. Justice picked the ball up off the warning track, relayed to Jeter, who made a terrific short-hop pickup and wheeled and fired a strike to Posada. Perez lowered his shoulder, but he's a 5-foot-8 outfielder, not a 240-pound fullback. Out.
Jack Nelson, of Park Ridge, N.J., the fan sitting in the first row in left field, decided not to try to catch the ball and pull it into the stands.
"I saw the ball coming towards me and I just let it go so that
it wouldn't be fan interference," Nelson said. "If I had touched
it, my Yankees could have been down 2-0. An educated baseball fan knows not to touch that ball.
"I haven't missed a Yankees World Series game since 1976."
Backing up the play, Pettitte yelped "Yeah, baby" as Posada applied the tag. The Mets were left circling their hands in the universal home run motion. Zeile looked confused as he watched the play unfold. And Perez was left wondering why he hadn't hustled instead of waiting for an umpire's call.
Sorry, Mets fans, Richie Garcia wasn't out in left field to blow this one.
As good as the Yankees have been in winning three World Series titles in four years, they have also been lucky. Garcia's missed call on the Jeter/Maier home run cost the Orioles a victory in Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS, a win that spurred the Yankees on to the World Series. If either of those balls hit by Varitek or O'Leary clear the fence, the Red Sox likely win another game and make a series of it.
And if Zeile's blast lands one inch higher, the Mets take a 2-0 lead instead of falling behind 2-0 when the Yankees scored two runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. And Perez, the toast of New York just a few days ago after scoring eight runs in the Mets' five-game NLCS win over the Cardinals, wouldn't be viewed as the goat of Game 1 of the 2000 World Series.
Of course, all that happened and then something even more odd happened. The Mets rallied to take a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh.
Apparently, the Babe got stuck in the concession line grabbing a beer. But he returned to see the end of the ballgame.
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