The Ballyard

Deck stacked in Yankees' favor

The question isn't new, but the Yankees' win over the Phillies in the just-concluded World Series again has thrown it into stark relief: is the MLB deck stacked in New York's favor?

Naysayers would accurately point out that eight different teams have taken baseball's ultimate prize in the 10 years we've been in the two-thousand-oughts (see table). But they would be missing the larger point, as only a handful of teams are repeat contenders: the Yankees (four times), and the Red Sox, Cardinals, and Phillies (twice each). The rest - representing fully half of the decade's 20 competitors - are one-time wonders.

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Damon steals victory for Yanks over Phils

Taking a page from the 2004 Red Sox postseason playbook, New York Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon stole a critical base (two, actually) last night that lifted his teammates to a 7-4 victory in last night's World Series Game Four against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Performing his best Dave Roberts impression, Damon rather conventionally swiped second base at a key moment in the game - two outs, top of the ninth, tie score - and then took third when he alertly noticed no one was covering the bag. This set the stage for what proved to be the game-winning hit by Alex Rodriguez, who's double drove Damon home.

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Yanks beat Phils, but Pedro wins New England

From supermarket checkout lines to online blog postings and ‘tweets,' New England was abuzz with excitement and irony last night as former hometown hero Pedro Martinez took the mound against the Yankees in Game Two of the 2009 World Series.

The backstories were well known, of course - ranging from Yankee-killer to "they're my daddy" - and for many, the classless way (in this reporter's humble opinion) Martinez left Boston made it hard to fully invest in the rooting interest. But once the game began, it was hard not to admire how he has made the adjustment from thrower to pitcher, and how well he fared against a potent New York lineup.

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6 World Series stories we can do without

The 2009 World Series hasn't even yet begun, and already there are stories surrounding this tilt between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies that this observer can just as well do without. Here are six that are especially bothersome:

1. This isn't a "rematch." The last time these two clubs met in the Fall Classic was in 1950 - meaning that the memories of that contest are old enough to possess AARP membership cards.
2. It's completely unimportant that the Yankees haven't been in the Series since 2003. In this, they're like nearly every other team in the majors! Just makes it that much more special to know that the Red Sox have won it twice in that same span ...
3. Speaking of which ... we know we just observed the fifth anniversary of the day in 2004 that the Red Sox won it all for the first time in 86 years. Can we focus instead on the fact that on that same date in 2009 the Series hadn't yet even begun? It's just plain ridiculous that the so-called "Summer Game" won't wrap up until early November.

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Angels channel Red Sox in falling to Yankees

The New York Yankees advanced to the World Series last night by defeating the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim) by a score of 5-3, and it was a game that Red Sox fans likely found oddly familiar.

Though the Gothamites have a lineup that is strong and deep, they didn't beat the Anaheimians senseless with long ball after long ball. And though they have a starting pitcher with a record number of post-season wins and a bullpen with one of the game's most promising young arms, they didn't stifle their opposing hitters.

Instead, the Yankees simply produced a couple more timely hits and created a few more timely outs than the Angels did, resulting in a game that never felt out of reach but wasn't quite winnable either.

In other words, it was like too many Red Sox games in 2009, wherein the team exhibited resilience, grittiness, and heart, but came up short when it mattered.

This Angels club deserves credit for overcoming early-season tragedy and posting the second-most wins in baseball, for busting their own quasi-curse in dispatching the Sox in the ALDS, and for forcing a Game 6 in the ALCS. But like the Red Sox, they are now destined for breakup, as a number of their cornerstone players (Bobby Abreu, Chone Figgins, Vladimir Guerrero, John Lackey) are ticketed for free agency, and not all of them will return.

Whether or not the Sox lose their share of high-profile players whose contracts either are up or are up for renewal (among them Rocco Baldelli, Jason Bay, Alex Gonzalez, Victor Martinez, Jason Varitek, Tim Wakefield), dare we imagine a versatile sparkplug like Figgins, an erstwhile ace like Lackey, and/or a veteran presence like Abreu in Boston garb in 2010? Strange if the parallels were to continue ...

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