1.  Give me the whole bottle of pepto - this is too much to bear! As thrilling and dramatic as it is having the season come down to a three games series against the Sox, I'd rather see the Yankes sweep the Orioles and the Sox lose three or four in a row going into the weekend series. If not, I won't any fingernails left!

Win it for Bernie guys - we need to see him in Yankee Stadium again!

2.  All of the talking heads have just about written off the final series as a Boston win because they are playing at home and have a good record at home. But - ya know - we beat them pretty good at Fenway this year back in July in what was a pretty tense series and with our starting pitching in complete meltdown.

We're a better team than we were in July. I'm not sure I can say the same about Boston, although I haven't followed them closely enough to know.

Yeah - it will be tense and close - but Sheff almost knocked the Green Monster down back in July, and there's nothing to say he can't do it again. A-Rod's shot over the wall into the street of Wakefield was a grand sight for sore eyes, as was his shot off their "closer" Schilling.

Call me Mr. Optimist, but I feel good about our chances going into Fenway. With these two teams, I don't think there is much home field advantage. They slug it out to the finish no matter where they plan, and that is a hitter's ballpark for sure. Our guys can hit with anyone, and now our starting rotation is starting to look pretty darn sharp.

I feel good. But I still ain't gonna sleep easy this week. This is one heck of a thrill ride.

BP

3.  It just has to be interesting, doesn't it? Three straight years down to the wire . . .

At least this morning, it seems many in the MSM are giving the Yanks a slight edge before the last series as we have the easier opponent over the next 4 games. I wouldn't mind going into the last series with some kind of cushion - the bigger, the better!

I too think we can pull it out, regardless of what happens over these next four. The last thing I want to see, personally, is a three or four-way tie on Sunday night. There's been enough tension to last 10 seasons this year.

4.  A Fearless prediction:

The Yanks will take 3 of 4 from the O's (anything less is a "failure" and "collapse").

The Red Sox will SPLIT with the Jays (yes, you heard it here first, the Blue Jays will play the Red Sox VERY hard), and...

The Rays will give the Indians a hard time as well.

By Friday, the Yanks will be up by one game in the East and the Sox and Indians will be tied for the WC.

What happens next weekend is a toss-up, though my gut still tells me that with Wang, Unit and Mussina, we take 2 of 3 in Fenway.

I also have an odd feeling that the White Sox will take 2 of 3 from Cleveland, forcing the Red Sox and Indians to play a one-game playoff next Monday.

5.  I'll take the my chances with the Yanks no matter how tense it is. They have proved me wrong on more than a few occasions this season.

I agree w/ BP1 - we are better now than July!

This is what being a Yankee fan is all about. Go Yanks!

Torre please start Small instead of Wright

6.  It's like a game of chicken - who's going to misstep first! We just have to run the string from here on out and the Yanks have been playing like that now for about the last month and you can see that they know that every game matters.

By the way, when does that 1/2 game with Cleveland go away?

7.  Indians are off tonight. No more half games starting tomorrow.

8.  I also agree withb BP1...the Yanks are a MUCH better team now than they were in July. In fact, with the exception of maybe Wright, I am confident every time a Yankee starter take to the mound...evend Randy.

Could any of us have said that in July?

9.  mkanakos,

Can he really start Wright after that debacle on Saturday... Wright should be delegated to the Pen and used for long relief.

10.  Yeah, Our starting five Unit, Moose, Chacon, Wang, Small (and it damn well better be Small) are better than Boston's. The offenses are about even, and both pens are shaky except that we've got Mo. No rest this week.

11.  What bp1 said. It has not been this tense a pennant race since 1995 for Yankee fans--and it's both exhilirating and exhausting.

I admit it: Bernie's possible last home game brought a tear to my eye. The last game I saw him play in person was the two HR effort against the Royals a few weeks back. Bernie homered in three of the four best Yankee games I've ever attended (Game 5 of the 2000 WS; Game 4 of the 2001 ALCS and the Jeff Maier Game). I'm going to miss him a lot.

12.  Thanks BP1!

As long as they keep Wright out of there, I'll feel pretty confident as well.

The one thing we can't afford though is one of those unexpected meltdowns that have been much to common this year where the starter just falls completely apart early and the offense is eerily silent. The offense just really needs to unload it all and jump out to early and large leads and then hope that our middle relief can actually allow less runs than the starter rather than allowing twice as many!

That was pretty negative thinking huh - the Yankees are going to steamroll their way into the playoffs - period! Nothing better heading into the playoffs than to be clicking on all cylinders and playing our A game. Forget about being unrealistic and lets look for 18 in a row to win it in spectacular fashion!

13.  Let's also hope that, while Cleveland drops a game or two or three to the Rays, that the Chisox lose some to the Tigers.

We want those Tribe/Palehose games next week to count for something. If the Sox are resting starters and getting their rotation set for the playoffs one would have to make Cleveland the favorite for the wild card.

Which is fine by me if we win the div, knock on wood, but if not . . .

14.  Great comments by everyone so far. I'd have to say I agree with just about everything. Yesterday was a bit sad. It makes you realize how fast time flies when a guy like Bernie is at the end of the line.

Let's stay positive. Hope for a Yankee easy win and a Sox big loss.

Anyone see the 60 minutes special on Jeter and his family last night. Man, he is cool and confident (and classy). Nice to have him as the face of the Yankees.

15.  Yanks in NH,

I hear ya, but I simply can't imagine Wang, Chacon, Mussina or even Randy melting down at this point. They've all done everything that's expected from a starter -- that is, keep the team in the game!

And if one happens to melt down, we will need Leiter to step up BIG TIME for this team.

I'm also expecting BIG things from Arod and Shef this week! Can I hear a "hell yeah!"

16.  I just got an email from the Orioles ticket office letting me know that there are still tickets left for the Yankee series. Man, do I wish I had some discretionary income and about a week of extra vacation time.

17.  Hell FUCKEN Yeah!!! Big things from Jetes, ARod, Shef, Matsui, Burn baby Burn, Giambino, Bubba, Posada, Wang Chung, Moose, BIG UNIT, Mo, Torre, Mel, Girardi, Sojo, Gordon, Sturtze, Cha Cha Cha Con, Sierra and last but not least Tino.

18.  I'm officially done with the "Rays are a bad team and we deserve not to make the playoffs because of the way they b*tch slapped us" line of reasoning, in case this week doesn't go as well as we'd like.

Yeah, we lost several games to them we shouldn't have, but they have played everyone extremely tough after the All-Star break. Lost in the Tribe-Yanks-Sox drama the last few days was the fact that the Rays just clinched their first season-series win against the Angels, and they whacked Colon pretty damned good (especially our old friend Johnny Gomes).

I think the Rays can make things pretty tough for Cleveland, who have the toughest final week (albeit all games are at home). As far as the Red Sox, I like the way Toronto is putting their hearts into being spoilers, but the pitching matchups fall into line pretty nicely for the Red Sox (Schilling in particular gets a gift tonight by facing Bush).

We could do a lot worse than having to face the O's, and we only have to fear ourselves, and any last vestige of O's pride. I also feel pretty comfortable about the last series at Fenway, with my main concern the fact that Schilling and Wakefield seem to get into our batters' heads.

The irony of all this drama is that the division loser will likely end up getting the better path in the playoffs if they salvage the wild card -- the White Sox are everyone's preferred opponent.

19.  Joe in Boston, I saw the 60 minutes thing. I'm so smitten with that guy and his family and the way he goes about his business. I try really hard not to get attached to famous people and put them on pedastels because, they could turn out to be a serial killers or something, but it's really hard with Jetes. I have so much admiration for that guy. I was thinking about what it's going to be like to root for the Yankees after Jeter retires. I always feel good rooting for the team because of Jetes and Bernie; you want them to win because they both seem like such class acts.....it's gonna be weird when they are gone.

20.  Schteeve, I couldn't agree with you more. Jeter to me is why I feel so darn proud I root for the Yankees.

21.  Yanks must to win 3 of 4 in Baltimore. What worries me is that they've lost 8 straight and I just can't see that stretching to 12 in a row. They've got some pretty ok pitchers going this week--ones that have given the Yanks some trouble in the past--so it's not a total cakewalk. That said, they don't have the same punch that the Jays and the Devil Rays are playing with. In fact, I'd say that Toronto poses a tougher challenge for Boston. But no matter the match-ups, I still think it'd be nuts to expect either the Yanks or Sox to be up by 3 going into the weekend.

22.  Schteeve and Dimelo

You guys are right on the money. I often wish my 3 and 1 year old sons were older, so they could appreciate the class and effort that Jeter plays with. I am trying though ! The oldest knows who he is and proudly wears his jersey !

Plain and simple, Jeter plays the way a father would want (or teach) his kids to play

23.  In his ATM reports for today, Lee Sinins said:

"Red Sox P David Wells says he will probably need offseason knee injury."

I can't believe I'm advocating this, but - hit Cano second on Friday night, and have both him and Jeter bunt. Drive ol' Fatty Gout from the mound. Poetic justice for Game 5 of the '03 Series.

24.  Jeter has made it possible for me to understand the Joe DiMaggio phenomenon.

25.  Murray - from everything I've read though, DiMaggio was a dick - even to his kid. He wasn't as liked as Mantle, everyone loved Mantle. I don't think the same holds true for DiMaggio.

Shaun P., I'm kind of mean...I would rather a comebacker right to this knee cap. But that's just me.

26.  Let's not be mean. Just have Boomer be ineffective and give up lots of homers.

27.  Bunt, bunt, bunt - getting beat by the Boomer would really hurt. Let's get to their bullpen !

28.  will someone please explain to me why we didn't bunt Schilling's fat ass all over the infield in Game 6 of last year's ALCS? huh? someone?

29.  Dimelo- I've made a living (well, not really, I just love reading about him) studying DiMaggio, and yeah, he did have a temper in private. But he was quite Jeter-like on the field, with the media, and in public. The fans adored him. Mantle had a tough time filling his shoes.

They said another athlete like DiMaggio would never come, but he did. Jeter will always be my favorite athlete. I could write pages about how great he is, but I'll leave the long posts to Stormer ;)

30.  After what Boomer did in game 5 of the WS, I will never forgive him. Never. I can still see Contreras warming up and seeing the series slip away. The pain I felt was similar to getting hit with a comebacker, so if he feels the same pain...then....so be it.

I haven't read enough about DiMaggio, but I know if I was around during the 40's and 50's I would have been a Mantle guy rather than a DiMaggio guy.

Growing up in the eighties, watching the Yanks and rooting so hard for Mattingly I never thought I'd find another Yankee player to take his place and the image I had of him as kid. In Bernie, Jeter and Mariano I've had three that came at the same time and replaced Mattingly as my childhood hero. These are the best of times as a Yankee fan, it doesn't get any better than this. One thing about those three, they have yet to let me down. What saddens me most is that eventually all good things come to an end.

31.  The fact that Jeter has not gotten married yet tells me that he's very grounded. Although he parents made some reference to the fact that that may be changing soon.

32.  Dimelo-

I was a big Mattingly fan too, real big. For awhile there, he was the only reason to root for the Yanks. We've had a great run - hope it keeps going !

Load up the remote with new batteries everyone !

33.  I'm so sick of the bloody sock crap by some jokers who should have had their medical license revoked that I don't care if we hit a smash into his knee burst an artery and this time get some blood squirting on the field and send him home to revover. Now that I got that off my chest the fact is I don't have a clue who's gonna make the post-season. I mean we won 12/14 or whatever and we still are just staying alive with no certainty of anything. Cleveland has been unbelievable and Boston after stumbling has shown they're not giving anything away and like every other year the Yankees and Boston are basically evenly matched teams. On paper though their lack of a great closer seems to give us an edge but on the field Ortiz etc. seem to make up for it.

So if we don't make it I'll just say it was a great if unusual year and we almost overcame our early stumble and emergency horrendous pitcher of the day early on but we got nosed by a team like Boston or Cleveland who had the grit to not open the door enough for us to rush in. I won't be happy and I'd be scared to death the Boss is going totally fuck up the team up if we don't make the post-season. I like the future regardless as we now have Cano and Wang, Jason is shockingly good again despite being hopefully unjuiced and Brown and other unhelpful or destructive forces are gone. I think Wright will be great if they allow him to wear a suit of armor while he pitches.

34.  Schteeve, the fact that he hasn't gotten married tells me he's very smart. You know how much poon he's getting? A lot, a whole f'en lot. I wouldn't get married either. He's in the greatest city in the world, a good looking guy and he's able to get any girl he wants. Sounds like a pretty happy lifestyle to me. If he gets married, he'll lose his edge. He should wait....keep dating super models, actresses and singers and he'll be all set.

35.  Marc,
I love your killer instinct. I wouldn't mind seeing what you described:
"I don't care if we hit a smash into his knee burst an artery and this time get some blood squirting on the field and send him home to revover."

Great job....great job....this is make-or-break time and I got my game face on.

36.  OK, you guys need to hear from a Sox fan. (Actually, Brooklyn fan first, Yankee hater second, Sox fan third.)

First to answer Alex' question, "What could be better for Red Sox fans than to eliminate the Yankees at Fenway Park?" How about staring a four game sweep in the face before beating them four straight and dancing all over the Big Ballyard in the Bronx?

Let me go on record here that I don't want the Sox to win the wild card. The Indians should not be denied; while I want and expect the Sox to win the division, I'd rather see the Indians in October than the Sox as wild card.

The Yankees were half a game up on the Sox on July 18. The two teams have played dead even since that date. So much for the Yankees being a stronger team, compared to the Sox, now versus then.

I personally wouldn't be surprised to see the Sox run the table and not lose again until facing Cleveland. Mueller has lifted his average 20 points in the last few weeks, Trot Nixon, who hit like a nun after coming off the DL, has come to life, Manny, a notorious streak hitter, is absolutely clubbing the ball. And then, my friends, we have Senor October. What're you gonna do? Walk him four times a game a pitch to Manny?

The bullpen seems to be coming together at the right time, although I don't think Francona can be trusted with it. Papelbon has been fabulous as a set up, Myers is better than any lefty the Yankees have, um... that would be Embree, no? Timlin has been lights out, when starting innings. Are you listening, Tito? And, other than one pitch to Mora, Hansen has looked fabulous.

The incredibly streaky Mr. Wakefield has been the good Mr. Wakefield of late. Schilling has been fabulous two of his last three outings and claims he has found the flaw in his delivery. (His problem has been command, not velocity.) He had his good splitter last Tuesday. Arroyo has pitched well of late. And then there is the guttiest guy in baseball, Boomer Wells. If the painkillers work on the knee, he'll be just fine. And, if not, the boys will just have to beat up on young Wang.

And consider this, young Wang has made 16 major league starts. How many have been against teams with records above .500? The answer: 3. His ERA against teams with records over .500? 5.09. How many of these three teams hit like the Sox? 0. I think Wells may be allowed to give up a few runs Friday. He stands to get plenty of support.

37.  Wang's sinker as gotten better each time I've seen it. As long as he doesn't miss up too often he's basically untouchable.

Dimelo, I totally agree with you on the Jeter marriage thing. The man may be a genius. I really really hate getting all ga ga over people I don't know, but the guy should write abook on how to be succesfully famous.

38.  All right, because we mostly seemed to have misunderstood the point, here's some elaboration:

DiMaggio (not the guy you read about in the Ben Cramer book who was mean to his own kid, rude to his wives, and jealously protective of his mythical status as an old man, but the young ballplayer who starred for the Yankees) was perceived in his own time as having certain winning qualities and was felt by many to be the finest player in the game. I never understood how anybody could have felt that way about a guy whose statistics paled in comparison with those of his contemporary, Ted Williams, and who seemed like such a bastard based on what we later learned about him. But contemporary accounts rank DiMaggio as the greater player.

There's no way that DiMaggio never made a mistake in the field. His fielding stats prove it. And yet, his teammates said it for years afterward. They depended on him to come through when it mattered, and he did so frequently. DiMaggio was charismatic, carrying about him an air of seriousness. It was a silent confidence. DiMaggio was "a winner." The Yankees were successful before he arrived, but the idea that the Yankees won every season was an invention of the DiMaggio Era. Ruth and Gehrig didn't win every year. Gehrig alone won nothing. The Yankees won four consecutive championships starting in DiMaggio's rookie year, and that's when they really started to put distance between themselves and their nearest competitors.

So what I'm saying, again, is that I get it now. It has been said of Jeter that he's lucky to have arrived at the moment when the Yankees became fabulously successful again. But the truth is that Jeter is a big part of the reason for that success. Jeter carries himself with dignity on and off the field. He plays the game with a baseball intelligence that surpasses his physical talents. He is a team player, and his teammates appear to know it. He has come through on memorable occasions.

There is something simply different about Jeter. Mattingly didn't have it, Reggie didn't have it, and Gehrig didn't have it. Rodriguez doesn't have it.

But DiMaggio did.

39.  Sorry, I just caught that "the guttiest man in baseball, David Wells" thing. BWAAAHAHA HA HAH HA. Gary Sheffield played the entire second halg last year with bursitis in his shoulder and Wells misses time because of gout? And bows out of a post season start because his famously poorly conditioned back freezes up on him. Boomer is a lot of things, the guttiest man in baseball is certainly not one of them.

Or course I'm assuming you meant "gutsiest." If you truly meant "guttiest" than you're right on the mark.

40.  38- Hell yeah. Beautifully stated.

41.  debris,

I don't think anyone was saying the Yankees have been a better team than Boston since July, just that they are better now than the July versions of themselves. Going into that Boston series (if memory serves), they didn't know who was going to pitch two of the games. They had just announced Wang's shoulder problems. Chacon hadn't been signed. Leiter was a rumour. Tim Redding made one of the starts, for gosh sakes, and that was the loss. The pitching staff was just in shambles. Really. I think we only had two starting pitchers going into the series. Three at most. (I should serve up a link to a Bronx Banter blog enter of the series intro, but I don't have the engery). Suffice to say, the Yankees were in real bad shape going into Fenway in July and still managed to win 3 out of 4.

This Yankee team is must different then that Yankee team. That's the only comparison I'm making.

Whether or not that translates into wins this weekend in Fenway is anyone's guess. The games can be 12-10 slugfests, or another 1-0 Johnson/Wakefield duel. Who the heck can tell at this point. I'm just not ready to roll over and give up, like so many "pundits" are doing in the newspapers and magazines. I like our pitching now. The defense has had flashes of, well, adequateness. And we're spreading the wealth as far as big hits and big moments. It ain't one person carrying the team. All bats are on deck and helping out.

It ain't over till it's over, and it's gonna be over soon.

I just like our chances. Nuff said.

BP

42.  Here's my end-of-year wish list:
Cano: Rookie of the Year
A-Rod: MVP
Giambi: Comeback Player
Yankees: get to ALCS (don't want to get too greedy and get the baseball gods against us)

p.s. Bernie: signs for 1+ years as 4th OF/DH/pinch hitter

43.  38 - Hell Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!

... and Debris ought to clean up his own Debris and not leave it lying around on this site because it smells. Go suck wind with all your loser Sox fans and join your team on the golf course next week!

Finally, go blog somewhere where they actually give a rats ass to what you think - oops, did I say think, I'm sorry, that would require a brain!

44.  BP,

It certainly ain't over til its over. The BP simulations have the Sox winning the division in about 57% of the results. My sense is that's probably about right, given the home field scheduling.

We don't know about Wells knee, you don't know how bad Giambi's back is. Before his relief appearance this past weekend, Small got beat up in three consecutive starts, his magic dust supply apparently having run out. Matt Clement is the most inconsistent pitcher in the history of baseball.

The big things favoring the Sox, in addition to the schedule:

1. Manny is on fire.
2. The MVP, Senor October.
3. Orlando Hudson won't be tormenting us over the next four days.

45.  Just a couple points:
So far this year, Toronto is 9-5 against Boston this year.
Of the four pitchers going against the BoSox in the series starting tonight, the only one who's gotten clobbered has been Bush. However, most of those innings have been in Toronto. Fenway is a completely different arena...and the Sox are a completely different team when they are at home. Chacin has faced them a couple times with a good outing in Toronto and a crappy one in Fenwway (hopefully, he learned something).
Nevertheless, I think that Toronto has a good chance of taking two in this series. I don't know which two but I really believe they have a shot and hopefully Lilly can come through again dominate the Sox again this year. He's done it twice this year, if I remember correctly.

That being said, that stuff will take care of itself - the Yanks just have to do their part - we play today, we win today, das it.

46.  You seem to be mistaken because the MVP plays on the Yankees and his name is A-Rod. You see, being the MVP requires one to be more than just a one dimensional hitter!

47.  hey debris (garbage?),

You are really pushing this 'Senor October' stuff...
You think if you repeat it on a Yankee blog enough, it'll stick?
Given that Reggie's middle name is Martinez, I say he gets both Mr. AND Senor October.

Cheers,
Senor Knuckles

48.  Also, I keep hearing the Yankee brass getting a lot of flak for not drafting Hansen. These people apparently know very little about how the Yankees drafted.
For those of you all that don't keep track of the minors; so far, the yanks have had a very good draft and they didn't use their first rounder on an reliever...and somehow they still ended up with J. Brent Cox and Joshua Schmidt (both proven college closers who are Hansen's age and have put up similar numbers - the Yanks just don't bring these guys up the year they draft them).

Schmidt: http://tinyurl.com/b4lnr
Cox: http://tinyurl.com/bmk5x

Thanks - I'll get off my soapbox and stop ranting now. That being said, let's go Yankees.

49.  Holy shit- did I just hear someone claim that DAVID ORTIZ replaced Reggie as Mr. October? Wow. The things people will say after one good postseason. Jeter holds the record for most postseason hits, and is clearly the best October player of his generation, and no one dubs him Mr. October. Get real.

50.  I don't have great confidence with us playing 7 on the road and the Sox playing 7 in the Fens. Also, if it comes down to which manager makes the better moves this week, I think Francona has shown he's at least the equal of Joe Torre. Finally, Ortiz scares me. I do not want to see him at the plate in any clutch situation. Everyone take your heart medication this week.

51.  Bob B,

Judging by the venom spewed Torre's way on this board, I'd probably agree that Francoma is Torre's equal. Are you suggesting that the division will be decided by which manager makes the fewest bonehead moves?

52.  // the Yanks just don't bring these guys up the year they draft them //

True, but the Yanks actually still have a closer...if Mo took an early exit (a la Foulke), who knows?

// Jeter holds the record for most postseason hits //

This is an odd record to hold: I would expect him to hold that record considering he's played in the postseason almost every year of his career. I think BA/OBP/SLG are more useful/interesting postseason stats (of which Jeter's are excellent).

53.  Sox and Jays just called off for tonight. Sounds like rain is lightening up considerably in Baltimore... Here's comes the 1/2 game again!

54.  Looks like an 8:25pm EST start tonight... Let's go Yanks!

55.  "Get that fucker outta here"...

Clearly heard on YES broadcast as a TV camera appeared to try to get close to the umpires as they gathered around the plate while pre-game warms ups were getting started.