Gotta love those New Yawkers. The umpires actually get something (actually two somethings) right, and how do the Yankee fans respond? By throwing baseballs and other debris on the field, leading to a half-inning where NYPD officers in riot helmets lined the field. Real class. And don’t try to argue that the umps had it in for the Yanks. Both calls were clearly correct. Somewhere a blue jacket-bedecked fan sports a circular bruise left by Mark Bellhorn’s home run. Call that karma for Jeffrey Maier. And A-Rod? Get outta here with that lame “part of his running style” line. Unless A-Rod runs with an open palm. I’ve seen five year-olds run that way, but not A-Rod. Face it, Yanks fans, he tried to cheat, and got spanked for it. Or as Buster Olney put it at ESPN, “A-Rod tried to pull a Reggie, ‘78 World Series, and it didn’t work.” Call that one karma for Chuck Knoblauch.
Will the Sox win the series? I still doubt it, as they’ll have to win Game 7 in Yankee Stadium behind crafty knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (all knuckleball pitchers are required to be called “crafty”). Big mo’ (not that Big Mo) may be on the Sox’s side, but it’s still the Yankees, still the cursed Sox. Yanks are only 2-3 in Game 7s at the Stadium, and there is no precedent for a Game 7 following a 3-0 lead, so who knows. Maybe we can add a baseball series to the heretofore-hockey-only list of ignominious seven-game collapses.
UPDATE THE FIRST: Michele makes a good point. One should not extrapolate from the actions of some drunken, boorish, violent Yankee fans that all Yankee fans are drunken, boorish and violent. Certainly not, any more than one should extrapolate from the behavior of Eagles fans in the 700 level that all Eagles fans are homicidal. The amount of debris on the field seems to indicate that this was not merely a few troublemakers, however. Still, keep the net only as large as is appropriate. And I should have perspective on this - the Indians remain to this day the only team ever to forfeit a game due to fan behavior (see Night, Nickel Beer, 1974). Jeff Jarvis says that “the best replay I heard of last night’s amazing Yankees/Sox game (not that I tend to hear much sports, mind you) was Artie Lang regaling the Stern show this morning with tales of the angry, drunken, desperate Yankee fans in the stands.”
UPDATE THE SECOND: This is the dumbest commentary on last night’s game you are likely to read:
Twice, the umpires set aside their professional egos, practiced true collegiality, erased a mistake, and did the right thing, risking the wrath of Yankee fans. Think how rare that’s been in the Bush-Cheney years, admitting error and correcting it–taking the right stand after making the wrong stand. Last night the umps reminded me of a better America I’d almost forgotten we’d had, one where reason every once in a while prevails.
