Where Will You Be Tonight?

I have a feeling the Yanks will win the World Series tonite. They are, on paper, the better team, they have the advantage of playing with a DH, and they will be before a home crowd in the Bronx. Mariano Rivera means the Phils are playing with somewhere between 21 and 24 outs to the Bomber's full 27. 

The last time the Yanks won the Series I was in Europe on business. I will never forget the night in 1996 when they finally won, after so many years of futility. I watched with my future wife in her studio apartment, and afterward met up with all my diehard friends outside the bar where the Yanks were celebrating their victory, just a few blocks away.

I'm not invested in baseball the way I was at that time, or even a few years ago. Losing Yankee Stadium was a blow. But I still care—even when I've wanted to give up this franchise I just have never been able to do it. Certainly, the players this year have rewarded those of us who've been watching, and it's been an especially memorable series. Cliff Lee's nonchalance in Game 1 and Johnny Damon's crazy-genius dash for third in Game 4 will forever have a place in my mental Hall of Fame. So too will the pomaded Chase Utley and Alex Rodriguez, the fearsome slugger we always knew he was.

Will the season end tonight? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. The Phils could always steal two in the Bronx—I don't put it past them. Whatever the result, there will be some sadness, as there always is on the last day of the season. Our childish game will be put away for the year. So savor it while you've got it. And put that champagne on ice. 

Comments

[sam-YF]

ill be at the game!

im finding it exceedingly hard to work today.

[krueg]

Lucky Sam...that would be amazing.

We'll be out at our bar, same as Monday night...got all 3 of us YF's down here in Memphis ready to rock.

We need to end this because I am getting too old to be constantly drinking on school nights!!! ;)

LET'S GO YANKEES!!!

[SF]

Robin gets eliminated tonight, that's my thought.

[IronHorse (YF)]

I'll be alone in a hotel room in Cairo where it will be somewhere around 7am and I won't even be able to watch the game until I get home and catch it DVR'ed. This is all very depressing to me, but it will be infinitely less so if the Yanks can actually do this tonight. As noted elsewhere, I do NOT think Pettitte is a guy for short rest any more, but I hope I'm very wrong on that count.

[walein]

Mine and Nick's youngest brother just texted me to say our cousin (die-hard Mass-raised Sox fan) got 2 free tickets to tonight's game). So at least 1 Yankee fan will be at the game for sure.
I will race home after work (out here in SF) to begin watching the game. No dinner will be made by me tonight. Instead I will order mediocre pizza delivery and be happy with that.

[walein]

I will also be online IMing with Nick in Jakarta when his online feed breaks down. As the game progresses he will write to me back and forth, then disappear to pace around his room back and forth.

[attackgerbil]

I will be home planted.

And I agree with SF. No way Robin makes it past tonight.

[krueg]

My heart bleeds for you IH...you are a warrior, a gentleman and a scholar. Yankees are going to win it for you tonight brother!!!

[Atheose - SF]

I will be playing 7 sets of tennis. Good way to pound out my frustration at the Yanks getting to clinch at home ;-)

[Hudson]

While even SFs have to agree that Rivera is a baseball god, all this talk of him being automatic for 3-6 outs is just tempting the rest of the deities on Mount Olympus to lob a thunderbolt at the Yankees' hopes.

Have people completely forgotten the 9th innings of Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS or 2001 Game 7?

Buncha jinxers...

[krueg]

3 hours and 24 minutes...

[krueg]

Have people completely forgotten the 9th innings of Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS or 2001 Game 7?

Yep...sure have. 2 times out of how many?

[Lar]

I'll be drinking my ass off at a bar downtown. Let's hope I'm drinking to celebrate!

[krueg]

1 hour, 31 minutes...

[IronHorse (YF)]

not...where....I.......want.......to.......be.......

GO YANKS!!!!!!!!!!!

(and Robin)