US News

GRITTY, NOT PRETTY – JUST LIKE THE CITY

SO NOW, we get Roger Clemens vs. Mike Piazza. Tino Martinez vs. Armando Benitez. Mariano Rivera vs. Matt Franco.

More precious than all those fiery matchups, we get New York vs. New York. We get a Subway Series that no longer is in grainy black and white or alive only in memories. We get a parade up The Canyon of Heroes – we just don’t know for which team yet. We get an exclusive Big Apple end to the baseball season for the first time in 44 years, starting Saturday night at Yankee Stadium. We get the Mets vs. Yankees for what promises to be a nearly two-week-long, citywide block party. A best-of-seven that is the best we can imagine.

“It is going to split up a lot of families,” Joe Torre said.

The Yankees finally put their half of New York into the Fall Classic last night. It was not easy. With the 2000 version of the Yankees, nothing seems easy. But it was gutty. Because the last thing that apparently is going to die with these Yankees is their guts.

With a six-run seventh inning – highlighted by David Justice’s three-run homer – the Yankees sent the Stadium into an uproar and the city into a tizzy by rallying to beat the Mariners, 9-7, in ALCS Game 6.

“It was magical to see this place erupt,” Justice said.

The Yanks fell behind by four runs and, strangely, had to carry Orlando Hernandez to victory, rather than the other way around. Nevertheless, they showed their one constant: the fortitude of a champion, a trait that is allowing them to continue on, even with diminished talent.

They won a postseason game they trailed after six innings for the 11th time under Torre. That is a remarkable sign of resolve and a reminder, as well, to the Mets that the Yankees are going to defend their title with their final baseball breath.

“We are the sports capital of the world, certainly the baseball capital of the world,” Mayor Giuliani said as he was doused with champagne over his Yankee cap. “We have the luxury of planning a parade right now. We just have to find out if it is for the Mets or Yankees. Obviously, I am hoping it is for the Yankees.”

This was the second time in this series the Yankees rallied in the late innings to win for Hernandez. In Game 2, he held the Mariners to one run until the Yankees broke out with a seven-run eighth inning. Last night, El Duque put the Yankees in a 4-0 hole by the third inning. To his credit, however, Hernandez was tenacious in keeping Seattle at four runs through seven innings to become the first pitcher ever to win his first eight post-season decisions. He won gritty rather than pretty, which describes the current state of the Yankees.

Even at the end, after building a five-run lead, the Yankees had to hold on to win their 37th AL pennant, as Seattle scored three times in the eighth, including the first postseason run against Mariano Rivera since 1997.

“There is no way to dodge the question about the Mets anymore,” Paul O’Neill said. “It is here.”

On a chilly night in The Bronx, Don Mattingly threw out the first pitch to a standing ovation. How many in the capacity crowd were thinking Mattingly represented something besides the great Yankee? He was at the Kingdome as a player in 1995 when Seattle won three clinch-or-go-home games to end the Yankee season dramatically, memorably and miserably.

Seattle needed to win three more games in similar fashion to advance this year, to spoil the Subway Series plot line. The Mariners won Game 5 at Safeco Field, where a banner read, “There is no subway in Seattle.” They arrived for Game 6 in a city that was accepting a Subway Series as a foregone conclusion, especially after the Mets won the NL pennant Monday night.

It gave the Mariners a mental edge to play this game, and their manager, Lou Piniella, had been mining for every psychological advantage he could find. “The only thing they have not talked about is an all-wild-card World Series,” Piniella had said, making allusion to what would be if the Mets and Mariners had played.

Seattle seemed on its way, scoring four times in four innings against Hernandez, who had never allowed more than two earned runs in eight previous postseason starts. But neither Hernandez nor his teammates quit. The Yankees scored three in the fourth. And brought chants of “Subway Series” in the seventh.

Justice had been part of the shifting face of the 2000 Yankees, obtained in June by GM Brian Cashman when Sammy Sosa was filling headlines. The Indians traded him to clear salary space for the off-season, notably to try to retain Manny Ramirez. Now, the Yankees’ big postseason move will probably be to try to land the free agent Ramirez.

“There is some irony in that,” Indian GM Mark Shapiro had said by phone earlier in the day. “How can I deny that?”

If Ramirez is coming, it probably means O’Neill, a cornerstone of these champions, is going. This has been the worst six weeks in O’Neill’s otherwise glorious, eight-year Yankee run. His bat has looked lifeless. But he found one more big night. He drove in a run in the fourth.

And after twice pinch-hitting earlier in the series for O’Neill against Arthur Rhodes, Torre let O’Neill hit in the seventh, and he responded with a two-run single that proved huge as Hernandez and Rivera faltered in the eighth.

The Yankees were going to the World Series for the fourth time in five years. But they were going nowhere. They will never leave New York. The championship of baseball is going to be decided right here. The best teams separated by seven miles and a bridge.

After 44 years, the subway is open.