When the powers that be scheduled the Yankees’ last homestand at there current address for the next nine days, they undoubtedly thought the Yankees would be in the playoff race and that it would be a minor milestone en route to the postseason, when they would officially close the place down.
Instead, about the only drama remaining that figures to unfold in The Bronx is whether Derek Jeter will catch Lou Gehrig as the all-time hits leader at The House That Ruth Built.
Jeter enters today nine away from tying Gehrig’s Stadium mark.
But in spite of the fact that the fourth-place Yankees remain hopelessly behind both the AL East-leading Rays, as well as the wild card-leading Red Sox, Jeter insists he’s only focusing on winning games.
“You can’t think about it,” Jeter said of the record before last night’s series opener against the Rays was rained out.
It will be made up today as part of a day-night doubleheader, with Mike Mussina facing James Shields in the first game and Sidney Ponson going against Matt Garza in the nightcap.
“With the position we’ve put ourselves in, it’s not something that you think about,” Jeter said. “It would be unfair to do that when we’re trying to win games. So I haven’t sat down and thought about it. If it happens, I can tell you about it but at this point it’s not something that’s on my mind.”
As improbable as it is that the Yankees play into October for the 14th straight season, Jeter said it isn’t impossible.
“We’ve had to catch teams before, so in that sense, it’s not a new thing for us,” Jeter said. “You never know what kind of crazy thing can happen. Until we know for sure that that’s not possible, that’s where our focus has to be.”
It would, indeed, be crazy for anything other than the Yankees missing the playoffs to occur. Instead, the math looks a lot better for Jeter catching Gehrig than the Yankees catching up to the three teams ahead of them in the wild-card race. And that would mean that this would be the last homestand at the place where Jeter has played all of his home games – and collected 1,260 hits, compared to Gehrig’s 1,269. The records will not carry over to the new stadium when it opens next year.
“To be honest, it hasn’t even set in,” Jeter said of the prospect of playing his last games at the Stadium. “In terms of us being in the position where we have to win every day, maybe that has something to do with it not setting in.”
That and the fact that at the beginning of the season almost no one could have imagined that Sept. 21 would be the final game. But that is becoming closer to reality every day.
“Maybe it will set in the closer we get to Sunday,” Jeter said. “When you first come here and play in the first game [this year] and they have the countdown clock dwindling down, you can’t help but notice, but I can’t tell you how I’ll be feeling 10 days from now.”
Probably not too good.
He may have Gehrig’s record, but that’s just about the only positive Jeter or anyone else will be able to take from this last regular season homestand.