If You Want To Be The Best...

A win against the Yankees is like no other win.  They are the best franchise in the history of professional sports.  You know every position player in their line up and they are all great ballplayers.  They have no weakness.  Every batter can beat you, and probably has at some point.  The Yankees are the standard of excellence.  Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you have to respect ‘em.  They are who you want to be.

The Yankees jump out in the lead.  The Os go with three when Wang turns into Cabrera and can’t find the strike zone.  The Yankees go ahead.  The Os do it again.  The Yankees pull within one.

A one run lead, bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, 2 outs, the count is 3-2, and 51,000 screaming Yankee fans are on their feet.  Chris Ray, a rookie closer with a 96 mile an hour fastball, is facing Hideki Matsui.  Buck Martinez, who you know is an honest broker because he was the manager of Team USA in the WBC, has been saying throughout the game that you never get the close ball/strike calls in Yankee Stadium, but honestly the strike zone has looked pretty random all night.

Everybody knows what’s coming.  Ray is going to reach back and throw the best fastball of his life.  He will use the adrenaline of the situation and find a way to get a couple more miles per hour.  The only question is where Matsui will hit it.  The runners are off with the pitch, and Ray throws a SLIDER!  My heart sinks into my stomach as the ball breaks towards the outside corner.  Matsui is called out looking!  It could have been called either way, but in this game, that pitch was a strike.

At this stage of the season, this was not a big defeat for the Yankees, but it was a big win for the Orioles.  On this April night, they beat the best.