27

"27th Heaven" was the ubiquitous headline around the sports world today, as the New York Yankees won their 27th World Series title, ending a kind of dull match between the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Regular readers of this blog recall that I have a deep-rooted hatred of the Yankees, so the most fascinating aspect of all this is how little I really care that they won. There may be a number of factors involved: 1) I'm in financial straits, so the result of a game played by millionaires is low on my list of priorities, 2) I'm older and mellower, 3) My sister and her boys are big Yankee fans, and the one who likes baseball is only eight years old, and thus had never lived through a Yankee title before, and every baseball fan should get that chance, 4) Except for Alex Rodriguez, this Yankee team is not made up of prima donnas--instead they are smart players who look like they work hard. I'm sorry to see A-Rod get a ring, but oh well, 5) The Phillies won it all last year, and I have no special affection for them.

That being said, I rooted for the Phils, but didn't hang on every pitch. They were clearly overmatched, with a weak starting rotation exposed. When your hopes hang on a 38-year-old pitcher who hadn't thrown a pitch this season until August, things are pretty tenuous. If it weren't for Cliffe Lee and Chase Utley, this series would have even been more one-sided.

As I said, it was a lackluster series in the drama department. The only game that was in doubt into the late innings was game two, a dandy pitching duel between Pedro Martinez and A.J. Burnett. The others were pretty much decided by mid-game, with each side getting chances to wear their hitting shoes. But the series wasn't without interest. The best part of it was a two-batter sequence in game five, with Utley hitting his fifth home run, to tie a record, and the following batter, Ryan Howard, whiffing, also tying a record (Howard would go on to break the record for strikeouts in a World Series in game six with thirteen).

I was also kind of fascinated with the game Hideki Matsui had in game six, one of the better in series history. He had three two-run hits: a homer, single, and double, to tie the record for RBI in a game (initially set by Yankee Bobby Richardson in 1960) to account for six of the seven runs scored. Matsui had become almost an afterthought for the Yankees in the last few years, after being a celebrated transfer from the Japanese league earlier this decade. Unable to play the field, he wasn't even in the starting lineup in the games held in Philadelphia, but still managed to hit a pinch-hit homer. But in game six he was in a classic groove, hitting off his back foot (he has a curious little step forward with his lead foot, one that a little league hitting coach would seek to eradicate in a kid) but able to keep his hands back long enough to get solid wood on the ball. And even after all these years in the U.S., he still communicates through an interpreter, giving us all the stereotypical inscrutable Oriental stereotype, his face rarely registering any changes in emotion. I read this morning that he likes dirty jokes--who would have known?

Many will talk about how the Yankees bought the title, with the addition of high-priced superstars like Burnett, C.C. Sabathia, and Mark Texeira, but today I'm thinking about the home-grown talent that has now added a fifth ring to their digits: Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera. Two are surefire, first-ballot Hall of Famers: Jeter and Rivera. Posada has been an exemplary backstop for over ten years, but not a HOFer. I would have said the same about Pettitte, but I have to wonder. He's won 229 games in his career in the regular season, but he's added another season's worth of post-season wins: he's 18-9 in those. If he plays long enough to get around 250 wins, he may just have a plaque in Cooperstown. I hope the sculptor manages to get that look of almost sinister cool in his eyes.