Evan3457 wrote:

Today, maybe just for today, all’s right in the world. A silly, stupid game that only kids really care about? Yeah, right. Tell me another.

Great story Evan, it’s so much fun to share this stuff. Ever since blogging blew up, the Yankees haven’t accomplished something like this…so reading everybody’s stories about how happy they are in such a joy for me. I used to only hear about my close friends, but I find myself so happy for every Yankee fan in this community as well.

I was there last night.

I did a ton of cheering and clapping for the first 7 1/2 innings plus. They were nerve-wracking, especially when the Yanks blew those chances in the 1st and 2nd innings.

When Kazmir threw his bunt play away, and Cano scored, I said to myself “We’re home.” The Angels had just done something very difficult; they had scored an earned run of Mariano with a clutch 2-out clean hit by Vlad after a tough battle (and kudos to Vlad this post-season…very quietly, while the rest of the team except Mathis and Hunter was floundering at the plate to the tune of a .217 BAVG and a .317 SPCT, he had the best series on the Angels, and the best post-season of his career, breaking his own horrible A-Rod-like post-season nightmare), and they had made him throw more than 20 pitches in the 8th. They had a small, but real, shot of tying it up in the 9th.

But when they botched back-to-back bunt plays, I knew that the Angels knew the jig was up. Having just gotten a very tough run off of Mariano, they weren’t going to get two more.

Tex’s sac fly made the whole park sound like he just hit a grand slam. The noise and cheering dropped only slightly when it didn’t go out and Gardner scored. I made a point to not cheer much in the 9th inning. I felt it was over, and never having been at a clincher of any kind (despite having attended over 200 games at the old and new Stadiums), I wanted to watch and listen and soak it all in.

And soak it in I did. I listened to the noise. Watched the whole crows rise as one to watch the top of the 9th on their feet. Every strike brought a blast of cheers. Kendrick grounds out to Cano. Cacophony of noise. Rivera flies out to Melky in right. Wall of sound. Mariano gets ahead of Matthews, 1-2 after a foul ball, crescendo of cheering. Slight boos on ball 2. More boos on ball 3.

And then…I click my phone camera as the pitch comes toward the plate….swingandamiss!!! strike 3!!!. Tidal wave of noise and cheering. People high-fiving the strangers next to them. (I high-fived five people sitting near me.) People hugging each other. People jumping up and down, waving their arms. Couples kissing.

The players charge onto the field. Mo hugs Posada. Jeter, A-Rod and Tex come together in front of short. I’m clicking and saving with the phone camera as fast as I can, knowing the moment is ephemeral, and wanting it to last forever.

The big-screen in right-center has it up there…I’m staring for a moment at a screen saying something nobody needs to be told: 2009 American League Champions. As the players break their group huddle by shortstop, the caps and shirts start appearing The players start putting them on. Some of the Angels are leaning on their dugout fence, wistfully watching the Yanks celebrate. Their dream of redeeming the Adenhart tragedy has evaporated.

The Yanks slowing moving toward their dugout. Some of them are saluting the fans behind the dugout. A naive, sentimental tear comes to my eyes. I say softly to no one: “Thank you, boys.”

The moment seems to last forever.
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A few minutes of celebration later, I make my way out of the ballpark, immersed in a swirling mass of happy fans. Spontaneous chants ring out as I walk toward Babe Ruth Plaza, as I cross 161st street, as I walk through the mall between the new parking garage and the sadly shrouded old Stadium. (Side note. As I was walking from my lot to the new Stadium earlier in the evening at around ten minutes to 6:00, two guys walk past me, and for no reason, one of them stops and asks me, as if I know, why the walls of the old place are still up. I don’t know, but I give him my best guess: they’re waiting for the off-season to implode them, because they don’t want rubble and debris until then. He thinks about it for a moment, and agrees that’s likely the reason why. I then make a comment: It looks like a ghost, doesn’t it? He says, yeah, but that’s to make sure the ghosts make it across the street. I laugh and say: OK.)

I make it back to my parking lot. Because I got there so early so as to get a spot in my favorite overpriced lot, I’m pinned against the back wall of the lot. Four cars have to be moved before I can go, and all the attendants are already tied up moving other cars. I’ll have to wait…and for once, I don’t mind it at all. I put on the radio post-game, and this time, I don’t have to cringe listening to Sterling and Waldman (actually, she’s in her best element; the post-game interview). After about a 15-minute wait, all the cars clear behind me, and after a 5-minute life-and-death struggle for inches of space, move my car out of the lot, and head home. It is 12:40 in the morning.

I listen to the post-game show as I head south on the Deegan. I cross the Triboro Bridge (sorry, it’ll never be the RFK bridge to me; old habits die hard), and take the Grand Central. I pass Citifield. It looks pretty in the night, all lit up. But it looks sad and lonely, too. I say to it: “You’ll get your chance, someday. But not today. Today is ours.” I take the Van Wyck back to the Belt, and head home.
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You have to understand, I always have a bad night’s sleep on Sunday night, knowing I have to get up in the morning to start another week. If I get more than 5 hours’ sleep, it’s a miracle; 4 hours is about average. And so I’m always frazzled and grumpy on Monday mornings; too tired to be grouchy. More like the 20-yard stare than biting someone’s head off.

Not today. Today I am a happy old young man again. The pall of 2004 (and 2005, 6, 7, and 8 ) is lifted, The Yanks are back in the World Series, where they belong. I bounce out of my house in the morning, and I bounce into work.

I get to the Math Office, where people are tired and slightly gloomy at the prospect of the beginning of another week. The look at me, tired and happy, and say, oh, yeah, the Yankees won last night…did you watch the whole game? (schoolteachers, as a general rule, don’t stay up late watching ball games of any kind). I say uh-huh. Then I ask with a foolish grin, “Why so glum? Didn’t everybody get to see the Yanks clinch the pennant in person?…Oh wait, that was just me!!” And I laugh, and they get excited, and start asking me questions about how it was. And I tell them…

Today, maybe just for today, all’s right in the world. A silly, stupid game that only kids really care about? Yeah, right. Tell me another.

Just think, this is the 105th World Series, and the Yankees are participating in their 40th!!!! That breaks down to one every three years or less. Even sicker when you consider they had droughts of 13 (1982-95, sans ’94) and 11 (1964-75) years with no World Series trips within the last 50 years.

@ MJ:
The paramedics were already tied up at my place and didn’t get freed up until 62 left the mound.

Just heard on the FAN that Pedro is on for game 2. WOOOOO

Nice one guys… yesterday certainly ranks high in my list… ofcourse nothing can top the Boone HR, i still feel the energy when i see it in highlights.. that was a great series and a great clinch.. i think the way they won it, most fans didnt seem to care that we lost to the Marlins.. the win over the Sox was so exhausting and ultimately befitting the tone of that series.. i will never forget that series EVER.. unless the Yanks get down 0-3 and win it 4-3 in a series.. 03 was the best i have ever witnessed…

thatsaid, 2009 ranks very high in the list of fine seasons, good guys, an ARod rebirth and a team with some genuine characters… last night was great.. now lets get it done one last time this year… i wouldnt mind winning it in 6… infact i would love to win it in 6… cant take the tension of 7… i want us to clinch at home this year… bring home 27…

@ MJ:Regarding your thoughts from last night – I feel ya big guy.

I was lucky enough to be there in the ALCS clinching games of 2000, 2001 and 2003. And, the ones for 2000 and 2003 were magical. The one in 2001 was nice, too, but, not up there with 2000 and 2003. Those two, because of the Justice and Boone HRs, were just “love-in’s.” I never high-fived so many strangers in my entire life as I did those nights. I swear, truly, both times, I probably slapped hands with at least 15 or 20 people who I had no idea who they were…

By far, the most G-rated fun I ever had with strangers in my life!

And, if not for some girl that I met at the Paramount Theater at a New Year’s Eve party circa 1981-1982, well, the Yankee Stadium ALCS winning game experiences might just rank higher?

Shoot, screw that, nothing could beat the Boone HR game…yeah, best time ever.

@ Tresh Fan:Let’s just hope this WS is more like ’23 and less like ’76

So now we know….

The surest way for the Yankees to win a pennant is to open a new park.
Worked in 1923.
Worked in 1976.
Worked this year, too.

What the hell…Let’s open a new stadium EVERY year?

oh, btw…anyone buy some of those ’76 YS seats? If so, what’s been your take?

@ YankCrank:
@ Corey:
Thanks, amigos. I wish you guys coulda been there too. One day we’re gonna have to stop talking about it and actually meet up for beers and a ballgame.