Posted on 09/21/2005 7:28:09 AM PDT by gridlock
September 21, 2005 -- YOU probably don't need more than five fingers to be able to count the number of dramatic pennant races in which the Yankees have been involved throughout their history. They've won, they've won pretty much all the time within any sports context, but finishing in first place by at least eight games the way the Yankees have 22 times since moving into the Stadium in 1923 doesn't leave much elbow room for stretch-drive heroes.
This year, however, the Yankees are running in a race rather than parading to a coronation. It's no given that postseason October is going to present itself for this year's Don Larsen or Reggie Jackson or Scott Brosius. Instead, the door is open for regular-season September theatrics, the kind of which mortal franchises would sign up for every opening day even if the one in The Bronx would just as soon pass.
Last year's final four games were as much a disappointment for Gary Sheffield as for any Yankee. Alex Rodriguez might not have done this and Mariano might not have done that, but Sheffield went 1-for-17 in the final four losses against Boston after going 9-for-13 in the opening three wins.
What have you done for us lately, Sheff?
Until last night, in this sprint to the finish, Sheffield lately had been hobbled by a strained left thigh muscle he sustained running after a fly ball in the first inning on Sept. 7. (...snip...) But last night, still in the DH spot he might be able to escape before this is all over, Sheffield had a night that will be cited when people talk about the Great Race of Ought Five.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Half a game, and the momentum is with the Yankees.
It's win or go home. After the Yankees and Boston are done beating up on each other, the loser in the AL East is not going to get that Wild Card.
This is gonna be good...
Only after I make a winning post twenty six times...
And more often than once every 90 years or so...
I like your line of thinking other than I have the Tribe winning it all in 7.
Dream on. The Yankees are coming! The Yankees are coming!
I take it you don't figure the NL West Division winner is going to be up to much ;-)
I'd wish you a foul growth on your mechanics of reproduction.
The only thing that makes the NL West Division race interesting is the possibility that the division champion will win the division with a sub-.500 record.
Wake pitches great in the Trop and we next face the Os without Brian Roberts, who is their leadoff man and was hot in September.
So, whaddya gotta do to get tix to the Boston/Yankees three-game set coming up in Fenway?
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