ghost of miles

From Slate: Geezers win! Geezers win! They are a very old team--that's why this championship feels very different from the 1996-2000 titles...much more like a last hurrah, at least for the old guard of Jeter and company. If Philadelphia picks up another decent starter in the offseason, I'll give them very good odds of taking back the title from the Yanks or whoever else the AL ends up sending to the WS in 2010.

Nice quote from A-Rod in Rhoden's NY Times piece today:

Two Times stories on reaction to Matsui and the WS in Japan: Matsui goes wild, and so do his fans Japanese fans celebrate Matsui's MVP performance

I'd love to see Damon and Matsui each come back for another year. The team's definitely getting older--A-Rod's 34, Jeter's what, 34 or 35, Pettite's 37, Rivera turns 40 soon, Matsui and Damon each around 36, Posada 38. They might have one more championship, or at least one more really good run at a championship, in them. CC and Tex are still young and in their prime... NY will definitely be a contender for the pennant again next year. Do you think Pettitte will come back? What I really hope they can hold onto is their sense of team--their chemistry. It came up again and again tonight in the post-game interviews, how different the clubhouse atmosphere was this year, how everybody was really focused on pulling together to win and yet having a lot of fun at the same time. MartyJazz, Dave, other NY fans--did the Yankees exorcise the demons of 2004 tonight? I feel like they did. And 2001, to some extent, as well... that meltdown at the end of Game 7, after the incredible 9th-inning home runs in Games 4 and 5, all coming in the weeks after 9/11 (I'd say those HRs in my top 5 of all-time incredible baseball moments, emotionally enhanced considerably by the atmosphere of the city and the crowds at Yankee Stadium) always felt like a sad, wrong ending for the O'Neill/Cone/Brosius era. Even if Pettitte/Jeter et al never win another championship, I feel as if they've finally put the right punctuation mark on the story of their careers. And with that said... Can't wait for the hot-stove thread!

Man, hats off to Philadelphia--they are a GREAT team. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see them back in the WS yet again next year. They really gave me a sense of dread while they were blowing through the NL playoffs...I'm still a bit in disbelief that NY actually managed to win it all against them.

J.H., Noj and Patrick... Thanks so much. I'm just really, really happy to see the Core 4 win another championship in what is undoubtedly the twilight of their careers. Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte, Posada... they truly belong in the Yankee pantheon with Gehrig, DiMaggio, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra and all the other past NY greats. There's a good chance that this is their last hurrah as world champs. I can't imagine that I'll ever see another generation of Yankee players like that in my lifetime. What a likable and unrelenting team NY had this year. Lots and lots of heroic moments throughout the season from everybody, and the metamorphosis of A-Rod from where he was during spring training to where he ended up in the postseason was just amazing to watch--and moving, too. God, they made me fall in love with baseball all over again.

I'm very lucky--I'm supposed to play jazz in the office... it's part of my job. Bernard Gordillo-Brockmann, who writes WFIU's widely-syndicated early-music show Harmonia, snapped a pic of my desk while I was away from it for a few minutes yesterday:

Clear weather forecast for tonight, but rain for tomorrow (Thursday) evening. What if Philadelphia wins tonight and Game 7 has to be pushed back to Friday? Then you'd have CC on 4 days' rest, and the Phillies would have the option of pitching Cliff Lee on 3 days' rest. Surely they would... would be a hell of a finale. Obviously I'm hoping it won't come to that and that NY will put it away tonight. Great match-up, Pettitte and Martinez going against each other!

Sorry, Big Al, fixed (and thanks, rockefeller center).

These guys have all the angles figured out: Spinal Tap on jazz

We're re-airing this program this week on Night Lights--it's already archived for online listening: Come On Down to Central Avenue: Jazz & More in Mid-20th Century Los Angeles

I still like the Yankees chances. Pettitte, pitching at Yankee Stadium with the crowd behind him, certainly has a better shot at getting by on three days rest than did poor A.J. Burnett. Pedro has to get over his Yankee Stadium history and even if he does, the Phillies are stuck between a rock and a hard spot if this goes to seven games. Lee is out unless they need him for an inning, so that leaves them with slim pickings. If Pettitte doesn't have it, then Sabbathia goes and if he doesn't, Burnett didn't pitch enough tonight so as to be completely off the list. Like I said, I still like the Yankees chances. Knock on wood. Up over and out. I do too, Dave. I really didn't think NY had much of a shot at winning tonight--though it's a shame to get 5 ER off Lee and not come away victorious. I am concerned about Pettitte on 3 days' rest, but Mo should be rested enough to pitch 2 innings. Get a lead, hold the lead, and get to Mo. I'd love to see NY win it at home with Pettitte leading the way. It'll be a hell of a showdown, that's for sure. Kudos to the Phillies for their win tonight, and to their fans. I'll say it again--we did well to take 2 of 3 there, especially given Philadelphia's 11-1 record at home against everybody else in the postseason for the past two years.

God--Tex has just been worthless this WS. Killing us with all of those outs batting third. At least the Yankees put some drama into it there at the end.

Hasn't the #/% of African-American players decreased since the 1970s, Matthew? Well, if nothing else comes of this game, at least Phil Hughes got in 1 1/3 innings without giving up a run.

Crap! If Phil Coke hadn't given up those 2 HRs, this would be a ballgame again. NY couldn't ask for more than getting 4 runs against Lee at Philadelphia and chasing him with no outs in the 8th... but they need to score 4 MORE runs just to tie. It would have to be the WS comeback of all-time. Sigh.

Yeah--one hell of a WS performance, and if the Phillies end up winning it all, he'd seem a cinch for MVP, even over Lee. Take away Utley's hits tonight and it would be a 3-2 ballgame. Maybe we should start walking him to get to Ryan Howard, eh? EDIT: OK, this game is thoroughly OVER. No 6-run comebacks in the works here, I'm afraid. I just hope NY can get it together again by Wednesday night...not good at all to let a team like Philadelphia bounce back up off the ground so vigorously. Hats off to the Phillies for thoroughly kicking pinstriped butt tonight. At least Mo will be well-rested and ready to throw 2 innings Wednesday night if necessary. Hopefully this shuts down all of the premature celebration/expectation that I saw out there in media/bloggerland today; NY will have their hands full w/Pedro and a revived Phillie lineup come Wednesday (and 37-yr-old Pettitte on three days' rest). I'm just happy to be leaving Philadelphia and its sea of waving towels with a 2-1 split in NY's favor.

Patrick, the reasons for my long-running Yankee fandom are a bit off the wall--I actually posted them on the NY Times Bats blog a few days ago (they asked readers for accounts of how they came to be lifelong Phillie or Yankee fans). I was 8 years old in 1974, starting my first season of Little League, in search of a team to follow. I was obsessed with the Civil War and militantly pro-North... I'm sure I'd heard the name "Yankees" before, there was probably a team in our league with that moniker, but I saw it one day in the AL scores round-up of our local paper and thought, "There's my team!" Later that afternoon I went down to the corner drugstore to buy a pack of baseball cards (I'd just started collecting) and when I opened it, Horace Clarke was on top of the deck. I've been a fan ever since, and I've followed them through some pretty crappy years...not to compare such a lot at all to folks who've followed teams for decades without ever seeing them land in the WS. And I'm very sympathetic to the smaller markets...I wish baseball could devise a better way of giving them more opportunity. The Yankees do pay a hefty luxury tax for the payroll that they carry. Short of a more radical redistribution of the baseball wealth, I'm not sure what the answer is. I guess I get a bit irked that other teams have long since jumped into the free-agent market and tried to buy themselves championships as well (I remember Gene Autry trying to do it with the Angels in the late 1970s), and yet it's NY who continually gets vilified for it. Part of the pleasure of following NY for the past 15 years has been the presence of Jeter, Rivera, Posada and Pettitte (w/Pettitte gone for several years, and Posada not coming aboard until the late 1990s). I think all of those guys are worthy of the great, classy Yankees of the past. I'd love to see them win one more WS before they start to call it a day. None of them were free-agent signings...neither was Bernie Williams, another player I just loved to watch. Brosius and O'Neill were incredibly scrappy and likeable players who came to NY via shrewd trades. The late-1990s team had an incredible chemistry that had little or nothing to do with high-paid guns for hire. There's such a sense of history and greatness with NY, which is one big reason why so many players DO want to play there, and that again doesn't have anything to do with money. But I don't begrudge anybody their animosity towards NY, really. I mean, it's baseball, and there's a long-running narrative of "damn Yankees." All I can say is that NY, when their teams come together--particularly with Jeter leading them--gives me a little-kid-like sense of being in love with baseball all over again. One last thing--I think this year is their best shot at winning it all. They are starting to age a great deal...and nobody will be able to replace the spirit of Jeter, Mo, Pettitte and Posada after they're gone, no matter how many $$$ the Yankees are willing to spend.

If the Phillies keep this up and win tonight, there'll be bigtime second guessing about starting Burnett on 3 days' rest on the road. I'd normally feel really good about having Andy Pettitte on the mound at home for Game 6, but he's 37 and he'll be going on 3 days' rest as well. We might as well have started Gaudin...he couldn't have gotten hit much harder than Burnett's been hit so far. Martyjazz may scold me, but with Burnett collapsing and Philly staking a 5-1 lead, I just can't see NY getting back in this game...even with Lee just a bit off tonight. This is turning into a slaughter, and it'll breathe a lot of life back into the Phillies for Game 6 and a possible 7. EDIT: hell, put Phil Hughes in there! It can't get any worse...

If anybody has a copy of this CD, could he or she contact me via PM or e-mail? I'm working on a Brookmeyer program and would like to include a single track from the album. Many thanks in advance for any assistance.

Well, that decision to start A.J. with three days' rest on the road isn't looking so hot right now. Too bad, too, because Lee looked strangely nervous and very hittable in the top of the 1st... with a 3-run lead (and Burnett yet to get a single out!), I can't help but think Lee will settle down now. If only A.J. could too and stop the bleeding... we might be able to stay in this game. (At least keep it close enough that we might get to the Philly bullpen if Lee's pitch count goes high enough. He threw 20 in the 1st.) Bad odds, though--the bottom of the NY lineup is particularly weak tonight

Money alone can't buy a championship. If it did, the Yankees would have about 20 additional World Series titles. That's my point. The Phillies' payroll last year was what--2.5 times as big as Tampa Bay's? Did anybody make a big deal out of that? But that's not why they beat Tampa Bay. On another topic completely: last night's game was the most-watched World Series game in 5 years.

Agree w/you BB; I'm sure not writing the Phillies off for dead. Never mind 2004, teams have definitely come back from 3-1 deficits in the WS before...and as I posted above, I share your concerns about Pettitte in Game 6. On the brighter side, I was glad to see Joba pitch so well last night, even though he did give up that game-tying HR to Feliz. That felt like an aberration, whereas with Hughes an out feels like an aberration right now (what is his WS E.R.A. now..81.00 or something? I'm not exaggerating! I just hope he can recover from this and get it together next season...a scout yesterday was quoted as saying that "Hughes doesn't look like the same pitcher right now...he looks frightened.") I just want to say re: "best team money can buy"--the Core 4 are still powering NY to a large extent, and they are all farm-grown--Jeter, Pettitte, Rivera and Posada. A-Rod came to the Yankees in a trade. Of the Big 3 free agents that came to NY this past year, Tex has been MIA for just about all of the postseason, save a hit here or there, and CC has lost one game and given up 3 runs in a no-decision in the WS so far. I'm not denying the power or positives of NY's high payroll, but they're not just a collection of bought players. In the 35 years that I've been following NY (good Lord!), I think the only time NY might have "bought" a championship successfully was with Reggie Jackson in 1977...even then that team was so much more than Jackson. I wouldn't deny that Steinbrenner's tried to do it, but he failed miserably for years! And the legendary late-1990s team was built almost exclusively on farm players and shrewd trades (as has been said before, in large part because the Boss was out of commission for a couple of years and Jeter/Pettitte/River et al weren't traded away for aging stars past their prime).

Yeah, it's a really tough call re: tonight. With Burnett pitching, the Yankees' chances of winning increase slightly, but they're increasing from a low, low percentage. And you're setting up NY's greatest vulnerability with this 3-1 lead...all three remaining Yankee starts being made on 3 days' rest, with your Game 5 starter (A.J.) a full E.R.A. run worse on the road, your Game 6 starter (Pettitte) now 37 years old, and your Game 7 starter (CC) pitching on 3 days' rest for the second time in a row. That's one big reason why I wouldn't be giving up just yet if I were a Phillies fan, and why I'm not sitting here today feeling supremely confident as a Yankees fan. (Of course, after 2004 it's hard to imagine ever feeling supremely confident until a series is won and over, even with a 3-0 lead.) So the notion of starting Gaudin tonight is intriguing, but it does seem like a real crapshoot--or rather like a chess move, sacrificing a game for a much-improved pitching position in the next two. (And if they did, wouldn't they be better off starting Pettite on full rest for Game 7, with CC taking over as mid-relief/bridge to Mo?) Plus Burnett would be pitching at home, as opposed to on the road. I just hope NY can get some runs off Lee tonight. I'd love to win the WS against him, but in all likelihood we'll be going back to NY to face Pedro for Game 6. Speaking of moves--I'm still a bit in disbelief about this one: Did any other Yankee fan here just about lose it when he saw Damon take off from second? I had no idea that nobody was covering at third and at first thought Feliz was going to get Damon in a rundown with either Lidge or Ruiz...very happily surprised when the camera pulled back to reveal Damon's unobstructed path to the next base.

Well, I obviously hope they do, J.H., but Lee on 4 days' rest vs. Burnett on 3... I dunno. I suppose Lee is due to have an off game one of these days, but that day will probably occur sometime in the 2010 season. According to the NY Times writers' live analysis blog, A-Rod's now tied with Max Carey of the 1925 Pittsburgh Pirates for most HBP in a World Series. Probably not the postseason record he wanted to earn. I thought Joe Girardi was very classy in the postgame interview when asked about all of the HBP. Couple other posts from the Times' blog--glad to see somebody else was nauseated by the AVATAR clips being woven into the pre-game introduction. God, that was horrible! I'm also sick to death of all of the advertising plugs Fox throws in... "this foul ball brought to you by..." etc., etc. For the query upstream about Ryan Howard and the WS record for most K's by a batter:

A-Rod heaping praise on Johnny Damon right now in the post-game interview. Great at-bat and great heads-up baserunning by Damon. And really happy to see A-Rod drive in the game-winner. This really was a must-win for NY, what with Lee pitching tomorrow night. I would love--LOVE--to see NY win the WS by beating Lee on the road, but frankly, that would be just about a miracle. I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing Game 6 and Pedro again come Wednesday night. At least Mo only threw 8 pitches tonight (and 5 last night). NY's big vulnerability now is everybody pitching on 3 days' rest for the remainder of the series. And if there's a Game 7, I'm sure we'll be seeing Cliff Lee in relief at some point. Still, overall just fantastic to see NY rally like that with 2 outs and 2 strikes on Damon at Philadelphia, especially after Philadelphia and Feliz had electrified the crowd by tying it in the bottom of the 8th. I really felt that the Phillies were going to win it if NY didn't retake the lead in the 9th...and that in all likelihood we'd be looking at a 3-2 Philly series lead after tomorrow night.