|
  ino
Ties It In the Ninth, Derek Wins It In the Tenth!"
Ho-hum. Wednesday
rolls into Thursday, October becomes November. Down to their last
out, the New York Yankees have tied the World Series 2-2.
Things are
back to "normal" in the Big Apple. Sort of.
Twenty-four
hours or so before, the storyline was just as wild.
"Jordan
Returns to Basketball — and Madison Square Garden!!!"
"Clemens
Pitches to Keep the Yankees' World Series Hopes Alive!!!"
"Oh, Yeah,
The War is Still Going On and this Anthrax Thing Is Scary, Too —
But Dubya's Throwing Out the First Pitch!"
In other words,
Tuesday was also just another day in New York City.
Truth is, getting back to "normal" is an intriguing concept
— especially when you're dealing with New York. Most of America
wouldn't consider New York to be normal to begin with.
We are a big
town. Yes, we admit it — we can also be a brash, rude, and
arrogant town. "Normal" for us has been the Yankees in
the playoffs seven years in a row, winners of the World Series in
four of the last five and with the hopes of a fourth straight championship.
The 2000 Subway Series with the Yankees and the Mets? That was just
icing on the cake. You mean the world of baseball doesn't revolve
around the Big Apple?
On the other
hand, what the baseball gods giveth, the basketball gods taketh
away. "Normal" has also been the Knicks as chronic underachievers
for three decades and the favorite whipping boy of Greatest-Basketball-Star-of-All-Time
Michael Jordan for most of the '90s.
So, this Tuesday
New Yorkers had a special "double-header": In midtown
Manhattan, the Knicks "welcomed" Jordan, while the Yankees
played way uptown in the Bronx, trying to hold off a feisty Arizona
Diamondbacks team with the two best starting pitchers in baseball.
But, even by
New York standards, forget about "normal." MSG-goers were
frisked, given the electronic "wand" treatment, and made
to check their bags. Opening Night gifts included a small American
flag and an extra-large T-shirt with a red, white and blue basketball
on the front. A huge flag was unfurled on the court by Navy sailors.
Each member of the starting lineup was introduced alternately with
a member of the military or NYPD, FDNY or EMS worker. Not surprisingly,
the uniformed service members got a lot more cheers than any of
the Washington Wizards (and several of the Knicks, for that matter).
Harry Connick/Branford Marsalis performed a stirring "God Bless
America" (though it was introduced as "America the Beautiful").
The game? Well,
the Knicks won. Jordan certainly didn't perform like The Greatest
Player of All Time. Compared to his previous comeback appearance
at MSG (June '95), he was perfectly ordinary. That was Jordan's
famous "double-nickels" game. He scorched the Knickerbockers
for 55 points. But, actually, his Airness's Monday game was similar
to his first game back in 1995. He scored the same number of points
(19); his shooting percentage was similar (around 33 percent); assists
and rebounds were the same.
But, against
the backdrop of the earlier ceremony, the "Second Coming"
atmosphere was deflated. Perhaps, America has little time to continue
deifying celebrity now. With that mystique removed, one was left
with a rather bland game between two not-so-great teams.
As the Garden
crowd filed out, many looked up to the rafters to check the scoreboard.
The Yankees and Diamondbacks were still tied 1-1 at the end of five
innings.
The D'Backs,
leading two games to none at the time, posed a serious threat to
the Pinstripe Reign as the Curt Schilling/Randy Johnson duo had
held the Yankees to one run in the first two games of the Series.
POTUS's early
presence made for a security nightmare, forcing game attendees to
go through metal detectors, with some missing the first inning.
But, then again, Bush gets major kudos for showing up. It's also
something of a breath of fresh air to have a chief executive who
can actually pitch a ball to homeplate (a perfect strike no less!).
Hey, if Bush had been allowed to pitch for the Rangers when he owned
the team, they may have actually done better in the playoffs.
In the lower
mezzanine level of Penn Station (where Long Islanders take the train
home), there are a bunch of newsstands, shops, and eateries. Nestled
away in the middle is a small bar with two TV sets. The set closest
to the door had CNN on. Hardly anyone was paying attention. The
set to the back was tuned to the Yankee game. While much of the
Knicks crowd waited for their trains, they filtered in to check
out the Yankee game. It was still 1-1, top of the sixth. Clemens
was pitching gamely. The D'Backs pitcher, Brian Anderson, had still
managed to shut down the Yankees. That's hardly a major feat since
— despite what would happen in Tuesday and Wednesday's games
— the Yankees are not hitting.
But, the game
is almost secondary. In what has become a post-September 11 tradition,
"God Bless America" is sung during the seventh-inning
stretch. This is one of the great charms of baseball. No other sport
has an appointed time that allows for a convivial mini-break in
the action that brings in all the fans in quite the same way as
baseball's seventh-inning stretch. Half-time "shows" don't
count.
The new late-season
star of Yankee games is Police Officer Daniel Rodriguez, a former
vice cop whose powerful singing has caught the ear of Luciano Pavarotti.
Well, Tuesday night Rodriguez was joined by the 56,000-plus in Yankee
Stadium and the150 or so patrons crammed into the Penn Station bar.
This columnist couldn't remember when he had ever seen a bar join
in so spontaneously.
The Yankees
won Game 3 on Tuesday night. Ecstasy reigned in the bar. The Yankees
won Game 4 on Wednesday night/Thursday morning. The roars went through
the streets. In one sense, the peculiar normalcy of sports-worship
reigned throughout the city. Almost.
As much as
the Yankees are cheered for their talent and professionalism, they
are most appreciated these days for their ability to give New Yorkers
a sense of the heady days of the last few Octobers, which seemed
so innocent. Those days are gone now, replaced with uncertainty
and fear. But the Yankees will have none of it. On a platform which
means far less than it did in our celebrity-loving culture of just
a few months ago, the Yankees reflect a truly admirable trait —
never, ever, ever, give in.
|
