OAKLAND – This was 90 minutes before the first pitch yesterday as the Yankees were solemnly taking batting practice, understanding well all the possibilities – good and ugly – that were before them. Up on the giant scoreboard in right field, the press conference of Eric Chavez was being broadcast.
The question was about the A’s having an opportunity to end the Yankee dynasty over the next few hours and Oakland’s talented, young third baseman said, “I don’t mind at all. They’ve won enough times.” Chavez giggled. By now, many of the Yankee were focused on the big screen, ignoring the rhythms of batting practice. “It’s time for some other people to have some glory. But, no, they had a great run.”
A few Yankees shook their heads, a few grimaced. Scott Brosius said, Chavez is talking about the run in the “past tense. It’s over? You win two games and it’s over.”
But it was not over. The Yankees knew no matter how bad their September, no matter how awful their Saturday night, no matter how distressing the need to fly cross-country one more time, it still takes three wins in the Division Series to advance. Three wins to kill off a champion for good. And the 2000 Oakland A’s will be still stuck on two forever.
“You can’t beat us in the papers or by words,” Derek Jeter said after the Yankees beat the A’s 7-5 to win a decisive Game 5. “We are still the champions. Someone is going to have to beat us – not any place else – but on the field.”
They are going to be a tough out. They are wounded and flawed in a way they have never been under Joe Torre, yet they are moving on to the AL Championship Series against Seattle, not the upstart A’s. It is the Yankees who are not ready to let New York become fully a Met town, joining their cross-city rival in baseball’s Final Four for a second straight year. It is the Yankees who can still three-peat, who can hold off for a little bit longer the talk about roster reconstruction and the end of championship run.
Paul O’Neill and David Cone and Tino Martinez and a few others so responsible for this glorious period in franchise history can wear the pinstripes a little longer, and shun an uncertain future.
“We are still on the road,” O’Neill said. “We’ll keep driving and see what happens.”
It is no longer in these Yankees’ power to win dominantly or elegantly or, perhaps, even confidently. But it is still in their power to win. Last night, they won because for one inning – the first against Gil Heredia – their offense awoke to score six runs. And they won because Mike Stanton and Jeff Nelson came out of a bullpen Torre does not trust to get 10 vital outs after Andy Pettitte pitched miserably.
Pettitte, who was an A’s killer, allowed Oakland to go 10-for-19 off him in not surviving the fourth inning. The offense managed just one more run after the first inning. And so a feeling swelled inside the Oakland Coliseum that the A’s comeback would never stop and the Yankees would be branded with one of the most distressing losses in the history of the franchise. It felt as if the Yankees were going to blow a clinching chance in Game 4 and a six-run lead in Game 5. These Yankees simply do not inspire confidence like in their recent past. The Yankee era seemed as if it was closing and the Oakland era opening.
“I think tonight if we can get this game, I think people are going to start looking at this team, you know, for years to come as hopefully starting something that they accomplished a couple of years ago and have done the last couple of years,” Chavez had said before nightfall, the Yankees still watching the big screen.
Martinez noted to his teammates that Chavez’s spiel was filled with “if” and “maybe” and “hopefully,” and said, “there are too many ‘ifs’ here. They have no chance.” Brosius said, “he confused me. He talked about us like we were done and I didn’t think the series was over yet.”
Perhaps, these Yankees have reached a point where they need an unintentioned Knute Rockne moment from a 22-year-old to add inspiration to their desperation.
“It is their job to end the dynasty,” Yankee GM Brian Cashman said. “And it is our job to keep this thing going.”
The Yankees live. Their bullpen performed wonderfully, which is why you are not reading a dynasty obituary in this space today. He made sure the Yankees’ second cross-country flight in as many days was taking them to more season, taking them to a Game 1 tomorrow night, not to the uncertainty of the offseason.
This is the last ride as Yankees for many of these champions. But the ride continues. The Mariners are next and, who knows, maybe the Mets and that Subway Series will end up being the last test to more history. October is still a month in which the Yankees play baseball.
They had heard a young, enthusiastic player talk confidently about a new wave rolling in. The Yanks still were not ready to get off the old one. They limp on toward history. Hardly perfect. But still alive.
Still the champions. Still waiting to see if someone is good enough to take it away with more than words.