|
|
Look back at: Divisional Playoffs |
League Championship
|
|
Saturday, October 21
Five questions: Mets vs. Yankees
By Tim Kurkjian
ESPN The Magazine
This is not a history test. You will not be asked about the '56 World Series. You don't have to know who made the final out against Don Larsen. You don't have to know how far it is from Yankee Stadium to Shea, you don't have to know when the subway was built in New York and you don't have to know how many different players have played for the Mets and Yankees. You will know all of that before long.
Here are five questions about the present. And while this Mets-Yankees series is so intriguing, especially with its history, there are a lot more than five. But these are indeed the five questions of greatest interest.
|  | | Timo Perez has been a major sparkplug as he has scored at least one run in seven of the Mets' nine postseason games. |
1. Who is Timo Perez?
"We're still researching that," says a smiling Mets third baseman Robin Ventura.
The Mets would not be in the World Series -- they might not, in fact, have gotten past the Giants -- if Derek Bell had not been injured in Game 1 of the Division Series. Perez has become the leadoff man the Mets needed, he gives them energy and, on a slow team, is a threat to steal. He gives them defense, a terrific throwing arm and has hit in all eight postseason games he's played in.
You know his story. He was born in the Dominican Republic and signed to play in Japan at age 18 because he was poor and the Japanese paid more than the minor leagues in America did. After four years in Japan, he asked to become a free agent, which ticked off his team, the Hiroshima Carp, so they sent him to the minor leagues.
Mets assistant GM Omar Minaya, who had been scouting him for six years, then signed him for less than $100,000. Perez had never been in this country until March. He was sent to A-ball, tore it up, then was sent to Triple-A. When Triple-A manager John Gibbons was told that Perez was coming up, he said "Who?" Perez went on to blast his way through Triple-A and was then recalled by the Mets in September.
He is the smallest, most creative right fielder in the game. In this postseason, he has scored from first base on a single, has bunted for a hit on a 3-2 count, has hit the ground with his bat and still fouled off a pitch, and has hit another pitch as he was running to first base (he is not as creative as the Mets' postseason media guide might suggest. He is listed as an infielder/outfielder, which would imply that he either throws right-handed, which he doesn't, or that he might play first base, which he won't because he's at best, 5-foot-8).
Cynics say he's a one-month wonder, which he may be as a hitter, but he has attributes that you can't teach and that show up every day: speed, instincts and a quick, strong arm. Plus, he brings excitement, enthusiasm and fearlessness to the Mets. You can't teach those, either.
And yes, the month of October isn't over, yet.
2. Are the Mets intimidated by the Yankees' mystique?
Absolutely not. Perhaps the Padres were in the '98 Series. Maybe the Braves were after losing the first two games at home in last year's Series. But the Mets aren't afraid of anyone. That is their strength.
They lost a three-run lead in the ninth inning at Pac Bell Park in Game 2 of the Division Series. The place was rocking at that point, yet the Mets went out and won the game in the next inning. In Game 2 at St. Louis, the Mets lost two leads, one in the eighth inning, then won the game in the ninth.
They have not been rattled and they do not wilt when the pressure is on. They've played more memorable playoff games the last two years than any team in baseball. They like the pressure and they're getting used to those types of situations.
"I've never been on a team that finds a way to win better than this team," says Mets first baseman Todd Zeile, who has been on seven other teams.
Sometimes, they don't look good doing it. Rookie center fielder Jay Payton, for example, doesn't look smooth doing anything. He can look as bad as a hitter can look at times, but he always battles. He broke three bats while striking out in a killer 10-pitch at-bat against the Giants' Felix Rodriguez, who was throwing 100 mph at the time, but Payton fought him. Payton, not surprisingly, had the game-winning hit in the huge Game 2 of each playoff series.
But the Yankees' mystique has another element, another motivation, as if they needed one: revenge. Not at the Mets, but at all those people who questioned them during this season, especially during their horrendous stretch in September.
They're mad at everyone who said they were old and tired, everyone who dared say they couldn't do what they did in 1998 and '99. Truth is, this Yankee team isn't as good as those teams, especially with Ramiro Mendoza out for the season. But these Yankees are just as tough and just as committed as those teams. They'll tell you that a World Series championship will mean more this year than either of the last two seasons because of the doubters. And maybe they're right.
We'll repeat: Don't ever believe the Yankees are dead until you see Derek Jeter, Paul O'Neill and Mariano Rivera walking off the field as losers. Now they have extra incentive to assure that we don't see that.
3. When will Roger Clemens pitch, and will there be retaliation?
Clemens, it appears, is going to pitch Game 2 at Yankee Stadium. Maybe that's because he deserves such an early start after one of the greatest postseason performances in history in Game 4 of the ALCS -- a one-hit, 15 punchout effort that included a splitter that couldn't be touched.
"He was ridiculous," said Jeter. This came after Clemens got roasted for being beaten in Game 4 of the Division Series, another playoff disaster, prompting one Boston columnist to write that, for Clemens, the postseason "was one giant free throw, and he is Wilt Chamberlain."
Clemens might also be starting Game 2 so he doesn't get killed by starting Game 3 at Shea Stadium. Clemens, as everyone remembers, especially everyone on the Mets, hit Mike Piazza in the head with a pitch during an interleague game this year at Yankee Stadium. Piazza, who has historically hit Clemens hard, said Clemens beaned him on purpose, and has no respect for him. And yes, Clemens clearly threw at Piazza, though surely he didn't mean to hit him in the head. Clemens has thrown at guys his whole career -- ask Robby Alomar about the two times he had pitches thrown at his ear -- and he's a switch-hitter! But that intimidation is one reason why Clemens is one of the greatest pitchers in history. And, he will keep doing it.
Even if Clemens were to bat in this series, it's unlikely that the Mets would throw at him even though they're all still mad -- especially Piazza -- about what he did, and that the Mets were not able to retaliate directly. If this were a July rematch, they'd deck him immediately. But this is the World Series. They're not doing to drill a lousy hitter unless the game is out of hand. That shouldn't be the issue, anyway. Their revenge will be knocking him off the mound.
4. Which closer is better, Mariano Rivera or Armando Benitez?
OK, that's a stupid question. Rivera is better than any closer in history, at least at this time of year. There has never been a reliever who has ever been better than Rivera has been in the playoffs. When he gave up a run in the ninth inning of Game 6 of the ALCS, it ended a string of 34 scoreless innings in the postseason, the most ever.
And every one of the those innings was pressure-packed, against one of the best teams in the game. And few of them were the easy type: ninth inning, no one on, with a three-run lead. He gets tough saves, he pitches before the ninth, he comes in with runners in scoring position. The Giants' Robb Nen is a brilliant reliever with a slider that can't be hit, but when he gave up the crucial hit to Edgardo Alfonzo in Game 3 of the Division Series, it marked only the second time in two months (24 games) that Nen had entered a game with a runner on base. It was only the fourth time all season that he had entered the game before the ninth inning. Rivera, with all this rest, will be ready to pitch the eighth and ninth in Game 1. So, the Mets had better be ahead after the seventh inning because Rivera in October is the surest bet in baseball.
Benitez, meanwhile, is an overpowering closer with a 100-mph fastball, an above-average slider and even a little changeup. When he's right, no one hits him, either. But he hasn't been right in this postseason. He gave up the three-run homer to J.T. Snow in Game 2 of the Division Series -- that marked the only time this season that Benitez had been pulled from a game with a lead. He wasn't sharp in Game 4 of the NLCS when protecting a 10-6 lead in the ninth; he threw so poorly that manager Bobby Valentine was looking several batters ahead with the thought that he'd better have Turk Wendell ready should Mark McGwire come to the plate.
Benitez has allowed seven homers in the postseason -- no other reliever in history has allowed more than five. Included in the seven homers Benitez has allowed is the Jeffrey Maier job in '96, the series-turner by Cleveland's Marquis Grissom in the '97 ALCS and the series-winner in the decisive Game 6 to Tony Fernandez. Now, Benitez is much better and more mature and he is very good. But Rivera is the best.
5. What to do with Chuck Knoblauch?
This one seems easy: Knoblauch should be the DH at Yankee Stadium and he shouldn't start at Shea. He is a very good offensive player and a marvelous leadoff guy who makes the Yankees better in every way offensively, including putting Jeter where he belongs -- in the No. 2 spot. But he can't be trusted defensively at second base. His throwing problems are so bad and honestly, Knoblauch doesn't deserve our ridicule, but rather our pity.
Anyway, he hasn't played second base in this postseason. Luis Sojo has done a terrific job defensively at second base, and has come through with a bunch of big hits. With Knoblauch, Jose Canseco (who should be on the World Series roster as the Yankees are likely to drop one of their relievers) and Glenallen Hill coming off the bench in games at Shea, the Yankees will have an answer for one of the Mets' strengths: left-handed relievers Glendon Rusch, Dennis Cook and John Franco.
Still, Yankees manager Joe Torre, whose feel for players and situations is unmatched among today's managers, says he might start Knoblauch at second base at some point at Shea. That would certainly be a major risk on his part.
|
|
 | 
|
