When the Yankees took the field at Yankee Stadium for Game 4 of the World Series last night against the Braves, they were poised to capture the most prestigious title in sports via a four-game sweep. A pulsating, come-from behind victory in Game 3 when they erased a 5-1 deficit against Tom Glavine and won it 6-5 on Chad Curtis’ second homer, a solo blast to left leading off the 10th inning, had given them a 3-0 advantage in the best-of-seven series.
This is the 20th World Series to have a team take a 3-0 lead and no team has ever climbed all the way back to win a title. In fact, no World Series that started 3-0 has ever gone past five games.
“It’s never been done before and it’s probably going to happen at some time,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said. “Maybe that’s one thing we can look forward to. Maybe we will be the team. That’s one thing we can at least talk about.”
While the Braves chatted that theory up, parade talk dominated the city yesterday. Would the Yankees be riding up the Canyon of Heroes for the second straight year tomorrow? Yankee fans holding tickets for Game 5 were rooting against their team in order to see the Yankees win their 25th World Series title tonight.
The Braves? Outside of the Yankees’ clubhouse, they were reduced to an afterthought. Of course, inside the clubhouse, the Yankees viewed the NL champions as dangerous as long as they had a pulse. Even a faint one.
“The only way to win as consistently as we have is to have respect for your opponents,” Joe Torre said. “It’s important to me.”
That’s why the Yankees, a team America used to love to hate along with most of the other clubs in baseball, don’t stir the emotions they used to. Who is there to hate? Derek Jeter? Bernie Williams? Paul O’Neill? David Cone? Mariano Rivera? Darryl Strawberry? Torre? Don Zimmer?
There isn’t a bit of swagger in their walk or trash in their talk. Yet, they aren’t wallflowers, either. You want to fight, they will. You want to throw at their hitters, be prepared for retaliation. They break up double plays at second and don’t apologize.
And their thirst for victory matches George Steinbrenner’s need to succeed at any cost.
“We want to win tonight,” Torre said before sending Roger Clemens to face John Smoltz. “We want to keep the momentum on our side and win at home with Roger Clemens. The Braves won 103 games so we have our work cut out for us. Hopefully, we can come through.”
The irony that it was Clemens on the mound for the Yankees with a chance to secure his first World Series ring wasn’t lost on anybody in the park. Minutes after Chad Curtis’ game-winning homer late Tuesday night, the Yankees were juiced over having the Rocket put the Braves to sleep for the winter.
Chili Davis and Tino Martinez talked about making sure to give Clemens early run support. They all were aware of Clemens’ inconsistent season, less-than-stellar post-season track record and couldn’t ignore the beating administered to Clemens by the Red Sox in Game 3 of the ALCS in Fenway Park.
Still, he was the Rocket, a pitcher with five AL Cy Young awards who orchestrated his escape from Toronto to The Bronx for the sole purpose of adding a World Series ring to his Hall of Fame resume. How perfect would it be for him to be on the mound for the final out?
“This is the start Roger Clemens has been dreaming about for a long time,” Torre said.
Torre was hoping to get the pitcher who dominated the Rangers in Game 3 of the ALDS instead of the hurler who the Red Sox spanked.
“[Pitching coach] Mel [Stottlemyre] was real pleased with his workouts,” Torre said.
That’s nice, but until Clemens proved it on the mound there was going to be a feeling of uneasiness smothering the chilly evening.
There were other issues facing the Yankees, a team that always seems to have things going on off the field. When they arrived at the Stadium last night, they learned that Paul O’Neill’s father, Charles, had passed away in a Cincinnati hospital at 3 a.m.
It was the third Yankee players’ father to die this year. Scott Brosius lost his father, Maury, and Luis Sojo buried his dad Ambrosio this past weekend.
Whatever O’Neill wanted to do was OK by the club. To the surprise of nobody who knows and understands O’Neill, he was in right field and hitting third in Torre’s lineup.
Even though Torre loved Curtis’ two homers, it didn’t make him go against his normal routine of playing the left-handed Ricky Ledee in left against Smoltz. Darryl Strawberry replaced Chili Davis at DH and Jorge Posada was behind the plate after Joe Girardi had caught Clemens in the last nine starts.
“We are a good team and they are obviously a good team,” Torre said of the Braves, who haven’t pitched very well, hit very well and fielded very poorly in the first three games. “If we do our job, the likelihood isn’t there that they can win four in a row.”