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Tuesday, Nov 24, 2009
The New Yorkers sweep their second straight World Series. They may be one of history's best teams, but their charm is starting to fade.
Oct 28, 1999 | A four-game sweep is to a great World Series about what masturbation is to great sex. That's no knock on auto-gratification, of course. But anyone wanting the best for baseball this October has to feel kind of cranky and disappointed at how the New York Yankees seemed mostly to be playing with themselves during their four-game -- excuse me while I yawwwwn -- sweep of the Atlanta Braves, capped off by Wednesday night's 4-1 win at Yankee Stadium. These Yankees of Jeter and Brosius and Hernandez and Rivera and Williams and O'Neill have swept two Series in a row, and might have to be included on any good short list of the best ever to play the game.
Blank-faced closer Mariano Rivera finished off the Braves, just as he finished off the San Diego Padres in Game 4 a year ago, though using him was a little like driving the Lamborghini down the block to the video rental shop: unnecessary, but very, very cool. Rivera proceeded to mesmerize and overpower the Braves and make a statement that he's the No. 1 closer in baseball, and any team that would try to pry the World Series out of the Yankees' grip will have to shoot him or something. He was named Series Most Valuable Player.
"The ball comes out of his hand like a chain saw, busting wood everywhere," said Braves slugger Chipper Jones.
A lot of people rooted for the Yankees a year ago because of manager Joe Torre, the man everyone would want to manage their own sons, and such a likable, close-knit group of players. Some of that appeal evaporated when the Yankees added Roger Clemens to the team during the offseason, almost just because they could. Clemens has won the Cy Young Award enough times to almost lose count (five, more than anyone), and he even made it onto that all-century team honored over the weekend in Atlanta. But he had never won a World Series ring, and as he took to the mound in Game 4 he was coming off a humiliating loss to the Boston Red Sox, his old team, during the American League Championship Series. He was not the ace of the staff, not even close, but he was lucky enough to get a chance to close out the Braves, and his step and fastball both had more noticeable hop to them.
"You could probably see the foam coming out of his mouth," said Braves starter John Smoltz. "Everyone wants to be in that spot."
"I heard people talk about how I could be rattled and things like that," Clemens said. "I don't get rattled. Maybe earlier in my career. I pitched a big game tonight and put pressure on myself to rise to the occasion."
The Braves were here without Andres Galarraga, who missed the entire season with a cancerous tumor in his back, and Javier Lopez, who's injured, and there was no question of them being on par with this Yankees team. Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News wondered in print earlier this week, "What is the sound of one team playing baseball?" and again Wednesday night it felt most of the time as if the Braves weren't even here, so easy was it for the Yankees to be the Yankees.
"You can't say we should have won this Series," Smoltz said. "You can't feel like you were the better team."
Chuck Knoblauch opened the bottom of the third with a grounder to short that sure-handed Walt Weiss somehow let get under his glove. An error, of course, though it wasn't scored that way. Derek Jeter came up next, practically flaring his nostrils at the strong smell in the air of imminent Yankee feasting, and dropped his wrists on an outside pitch for an opposite-field single that was so textbook, they're going to have to put out a new textbook.
Later in the inning, Tino Martinez hit a sharp grounder to the right side with the bases loaded. First baseman Ryan Klesko got eaten up and the ball rolled into the outfield, giving the Yanks a 2-0 lead. Another error, of course, but not in the official scorer's world. Soon Jorge Posada was ripping a single to right to make it a three-run inning, the celebration was on and the Braves felt about as relevant to the proceedings on the field as Spike Lee. The Braves did score a run later, helped by a bad call at first and a seeing-eye single, but that just encouraged the ever-tasteful Yankees to turn up the heat.
"I'm just glad it's over," said Braves closer John Rocker, the man with the rare knack for firing up the New York fans, adding with a cocky grin: "If I played here, they'd love me."
Before the game, he taunted some fans during batting practice. "I'm a 25-year-old millionaire and you're a bunch of degenerates."
The Yankees fans' reaction? A chant of "Where's your ring? Where's your ring? Where's your ring?"
But Rocker still had his admirers. Actor Danny Aiello, the star of "Moonstruck" and "Do the Right Thing" and a lifelong Yankees fan, went over to the Braves clubhouse afterward. He leaned over Rocker, who was poking at his plate of Spanish rice and strip steak, rather than doing much eating, and said: "Hi, I'm Danny Aiello and I'm a big fan" as Rocker nodded and smiled and then got back to poking at his food.
"How can you not be a fan?" said Aiello.
