Another New York Comeback
Never surrender.

Mr. George is an editorial writer for the New York Post.
November 1, 2001 4:40 p.m.

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.