By Clifford F. Thies
N1Y1 went viral on Wednesday, October 30, 2009, when Jay-Z and Alicia Keys rocked the stage at the new Yankee Stadium in New York City, before the second game of this year’s World Series. With Yankee flags flapping in the wind, the instrumentalists wearing Yankee jackets, and New York landmarks being displayed on the giant screen in the outfield, N1Y1 immediately overwhelmed the players in both dugouts. From there, it spread to the fans in the stadium and to the vast worldwide television audience.
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There’s nothing you can’t doAfter failing to make the playoffs last year, losing in the first round of the playoffs each of the prior three years, losing to the Boston Red Sox after being up three games to none the year before that, and Mariano Rivera blowing a save in a seventh game World Series loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks the year before that, the luster on the Yankees seemed a bit tarnished.
Things seemed to go from mediocre to worse early this year, when Alex Rodriguez went under the knife, Chin Ming Wong failed to return to the starting rotation, CC Sabbathia looked like a .500 pitcher, and Mark Texaria performed like a defensive specialist. Then, when A-Rod re-joined the team, everything just seemed to come together. The starting pitchers, the bullpen, the bats and the gloves all did well, and the combination looked unstoppable.
Now you’re in New York,
These streets will make you feel brand new
In the first round of the playoffs, a three-game sweep against the pesky Minnesota Twins, it was just too easy. In game two, when the Twins were ahead late in the game, A-Rod slammed a two-run home-run to tie the game. The Twinkees then ran themselves out of a win, with a base-running snafu at 3rd base. In the top of the eleventh inning, a second-tier relief pitcher for the Yanks kept the Twins from scoring after they had loaded the bases. Then, Texaria blasted a wall-scrapper that ended the game in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the inning.
In the second round, against the Los Angeles Angels, whom the Yankees had never before defeated in a playoff series, things didn’t look so easy. With a strong outing by CC Sabbathia, the Yanks took the first game. Game 2 tuned out to be a classic that the Yankees only won, in extra innings, because of several uncharacteristic base-running and fielding errors by the Yankee nemesis. This would be the last game in which the pie-in-the-face antics of A.J. Burnett seemed appropriate. In Game 3, the Angels bounced back to win in extra innings, and things suddenly turned serious. CC Sabbathia took the mound again in Game 4, on short rest, and again had a strong game. But, the Angels again bounced back in Game 5. By Game 6, the Angels’ bull-pen was in shreds and the Yankees’ seemed to not be able to rely on any of their relief pitchers except Rivera. In the sixth game and subsequently in the World Series, Joe Girardi, the Yankee manager, shortened his bull-pen. In the game, Andy Pettite registered 6.1 solid innings, was relieved by Joba Chamberlain, who got two outs, and then Rivera was called upon for the final six outs.
The lights will inspire you,
Lets hear it for New York, New York, New YorkAfter the ceremonial “opening pitch,” by Iraqi veteran Tony Odierno accompanied by First Lady Michelle Obama, Second Lady Jill Biden, and Yankee legend (and WWII veteran) Yogi Berra, the defending World Champion Philadelphia Phillies began the series with Cliff Lee. Lee completely shut down the Yankee batters. Suddenly, it was the Yankees who had to bounce back, which they did behind Burnett in Game 2, evening-up the series at one game apiece. In a hard-fought Game 3, the Yanks pieced together a win from a so-so start by Pettite, one inning or less from each of several relief pitchers, and from some clutch hitting that included a pinch hit home run by Hideki Matsui. Godzilla, who hit an amazing 0.615 for the series, was named the series MVP, the first Asian recipient. After a win in Game 4 fueled by another solid start by Sabbathia, the Yankee starter in game 5 came up empty, as did the Phillies starter in game 6. The series ended, fittingly, in New York, with the commander of the newly-christianed U.S.S. New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, hizzoner Rudy Guiliani, Mary J. Blige, Kate Hudson, Spike Lee and many other great Yankee fans in attendance. For the 27th time, the Yankees are the World Champions.
# # #
Clifford F. Thies, the Eldon R. Lindsay Chair of Free Enterprise and a Professor of Economics and Finance in the Byrd School of Business, is originally from Brooklyn, New York.
We have Sex Clubs, why not private Cigar Clubs?
