Serious Likeability

While the Mets couldn't get out of their own way in Houston, playing a totally un-watchable game in managing to get swept by the middlin' till now Astros, the Yankees were locked in a death match with their most formidable foes, the Los Angeles Angels (yeah, that's right the ones of Anaheim).

From beginning to end, it was a classic. John Lackey, the Angels starter, had everything going his way early in the game, and looked much as he'd looked five days earlier when he no-hit the Red Sox for 8 1/3. Darrell Rasner, the Yankees starter, seemed to have trouble every inning, and the locals seemed lucky to be down by only 4-0 after four innings.

In the bottom of the fourth, in fact, the Bombers were embarrassingly bad. Bobby Abreu and Derek Jeter combined to erase an RBI Nady should have had after he’d hit a sacrifice fly to left field with one out. But Abreu tried to take 3^rd and was thrown out before Jeter crossed home plate. Jeter could’ve run harder and Abreu shouldn’t have tried to advance.

In the fifth though, the entire complexion of the game seemed to change, as Dan Giese struck out two of the three Angels he faced. And, in the bottom of the inning, newly acquired Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez knocked one over the left field wall. It was still 5-1 but you had the feeling the Yanks wouldn’t lie down just yet.

After Giese delivered another uneventful inning in the 6^th, the Yankees went to work, Jeter, Abreu and Arod managed to load the bases once again. After Giambi popped out to left, Nady struck again, cracking a long, seeing-eye ground rule double to deep right-center. Betemit knocked in a third run on a groundout, and now it was really a game, the Yanks down just 1 after six.

Giese set the Angels down still again in the seventh, withstanding a Garrett Anderson double, and you had the feeling the Yanks were ready to roll. And they did. Bobby Abreu knocked in Jeter with the tying run before Nady struck once again, homering to score Abreu and Arod, who had singled. So it was 8-5 Yankees after 7.

Edwar Ramirez looked like gangbusters by fanning the first two batters he faced in the eighth. But then he started to unravel, two walks and a single loading the bases for the newly acquired Angel, Mark Teixeira, who wasted no time at all in smashing one into the right field seats for a grand slam. So now the Yanks were down one yet again.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Yanks would come back once again though, and Joe Girardi showed why he’ll be a manager in this league for a long time. After Pudge had singled, and with the weak-hitting Melky Cabrera at the plate, Joe seemed to manage Melky’s at bat, pitch by pitch, until, after he had worked the count to full, Girardi sent in a pinch-runner for Pudge.

Joe became a genius after Melky bounced one to short, but with the speedy Christian running on the pitch, shortstop Eric Aybar muffed the play, and all hands were safe. Then Christian stole third and scored on the bad throw to third. The Yanks had tied it once again. After that, the Angels started unraveling, seemingly making mistakes every time there was an opportunity. The Yanks would finish the eighth inning up 14-9, which turned out to be the final score after Jose Veras set the Angels down in the ninth.

What was most remarkable about the game, besides the wild swings in fortune, were the main perpetrators of the scoring. They were the “new guys” for both teams., Xavier Nady and Mark Teixeira, and, of course, Pudge, who smacked that first home run to open the Yankees scoring and prove that John Lackey was not invincible.

In fact, it was another “new guy”, Justin Christian, the pinch-runner, who really broke the game open, not only with his speed on the hit-and-run, but also the steal of third and subsequent errors he forced. Yes, speed did kill on this afternoon, and, for once, it was the Bombers who would put it on display.

It had to be a most unnerving experience for the Angels. Hadn’t it always been the Angels who’d used speed and guile to outscore their opponents? And hadn’t it been their heavy-hitter Teixeira who should have knocked these upstarts out with his grand slam in the eighth? And wasn’t it the Angels who had the best relief pitching in the land?

Not yesterday. Dan Giese pitched three beautiful innings to keep the Yankees around. And, even though Edwar Ramirez gave up that big grand slam to Teixeira, he didn’t really look that bad doing it. By that I mean he had some trouble with his control, in part because his ball has such movement. And Veras looked great in the ninth. There would be no need for Mariano on this particular afternoon. Even their other “new guy”, the lefty specialist Marte, showed his face in the pen, perhaps just for show.

How can I be a Yankee-hater with the team they have now? What’s not to like? Nady adds zing to their lineup, in just the right spot. Pudge looks like a new man. I always liked the Giambino and Damon. And Melky, he can grow on you too. Cano’s been a hit machine.

I haven’t liked a Yankees team this much since the one I found impossible to hate, the one with Tino at first, and O’Neil in the outfield, and that clutch third-baseman Scott Brosius. Not to mention Chuck Knoblauch at second and there was even the young Alfonso Soriano. That was the year 2000. It’s been about eight years of Yankee-hating ever since.

But these guys are seriously likeable. Look out, American League East, this Yankees team is for real. They knew what they needed. They went out and got it….unlike the Mets.

Not Just Three Musketeers

God knows I was pulling for West Virginia last night. I had them in one of my pools advancing. Joe Alexander is my favorite player. The Big East is my favorite conference. The Mountaineers also have some real hustlers, fun guys to watch like Ruoff and Mazzulla.....guys with talent like Da 'Sean Butler. They have a big-time and colorful coach in Bob Huggins.

But it wasn't meant to be. There were Musketeers all over the place. Yes, Xavier just brought it all last night. They shot 28-59 from the field and a cool 11-19 from 3-point land, supposedly a favorite Mountaineer hangout. They out-rebounded the Mountaineers too, 39-34. But it wasn't really a game about statistics, as impressive as they were.

It was really a lot like all those "Three Musketeers" movies, one for all and all for one and all that. But it wasn't just three guys. Sure, you could point to Josh Duncan and his career-high 26 points. Or you could say Stanley Burrell won the game with his all-around game and his cross-court pass to B.J. Raymond that finally iced the boys in blue. C.J. Anderson went 6 for 12 from the field and had 10 rebounds, 6 on the offensive boards.

But if you were clad in white last night, and only eight players were, you were touched by the angels. Derrick Brown only scored 9 but played 30 minutes with just 1 turnover and had 3 rebounds and 2 assists. Drew Lavender played 38 minutes, had 7 assists and just 1 turnover. B.J. Raymond did not too much all night but then went nuts in overtime, making more three-pointers in that period than the entire West Virginia team made all night.

But there was also big sophomore Jason Love, 6'9" and 255 pounds muscling 10 rebounds in just 21 minutes and freshman Dante Jackson didn't embarrass himself either. In 18 minutes, he took one 3-pointer and made it, while chipping in with an assist, a rebound and a steal.

They just wouldn't be denied, these Musketeers. Even when Joe Alexander went off in the second half, and for about ten minutes or so, anybody watching and listening had to think he'd take it all away, either by a nice shot, a strong rebound or sheer hustle. And with little Joe Mazzulla running around loose and Alex Ruoff in the right spots, and those refs hanging foul after foul on the Musketeers, surely the Mountaineers would prevail, right?

I mean, couldn't they just accept they were "beat", I mean, the refs were against them, Joe Alexander was everywhere, these little pesky guys were doing all the right things, and it was, after all, the Big East they were fighting. How could this little upstart Atlantic friggin' 10 team from Cincinnati think they could play with the Big Boys from the Big East?

And then there was a sequence that gave me the willies, that seemed to turn the game around. Surely D’Artagnan laid his sword over the basket in that 4^th quarter. Not only did Alexander miss the jumper, but then one Mountaineer grabbed the rebound, went back up and missed. Then another Mountaineer did the same thing and just missed, then still ANOTHER Mountaineer grabbed that rebound and AGAIN could not put that ball down from two feet. Finally, after an eternity of misses, Xavier finally grabbed the ball, and, as it turned out, the game.

Of course it didn’t end there. Big East fans everywhere would later thrill to Alexander’s jumper that floated right in with just over14 seconds on the clock, thus tying the game and, as he was fouled on the play, surely Joe would finally put this game away at the line. But he missed.

The game went into overtime, as do so many of these NCAA tournament games. And it seemed for a while that West Virginia would finally prevail, going up by 6. But, lo and behold, Joe Alexander fouled out. “That isn’t good,” I said to myself.

But that wasn’t all that wasn’t good. West Virginia missed four of six free throws in the extra period, and they shot only 18-27 from the foul line all night. The 18,103 in the live audience and millions at home could readily see that the hex was truly on the Mountaineers.

One for all, all for one. That one turned out to be B.J. Raymond in the final minutes. He hit a three from the top of the key with 1:18 left to put the Musketeers on top once again. Shortly afterwards, he got loose, snagged the nice pass from Burrell and sunk still another three to put his team up by four with just 30 seconds left.

By then, it was all over, at least it was to me. West Virginia, after all, did not deserve to win this game. Xavier certainly did. And when I really thought about it, I had to figure that, if any team could jolt UCLA in the final of the West Region, it would be this band of upstarts from Xavier, these damned all-for-one guys.

It was a great game though. Good hustle all-around, great plays on offense and defense, the lead going back and forth. It was so good that not even CBS could ruin it, not with skatey-eight commercials or the inane superlatives that kept issuing from the mouths of the succubi in the booth.

Never was a team more deserving of advancing. Hopefully, they will not have left it all on the floor last night. Hopefully, they can gut out one more win against the favorite to win it all, UCLA.

Despite my misgivings about big-time college basketball, I have to admit that games such as this one perhaps make it all worthwhile. There are, after all, worse things going on in America. The President, the war, the gas, the dollar, the economy, health care, Hillary or Barack as the alternatives, lots of things.

And only one winner will take this thing. Xavier ?