Bronx, N.Y., September 30, 2004 — In so many ways it was an old-fashioned party in the Bronx Thursday night, as the Bombers clinched the AL East Division title for the seventh straight year, in the process guaranteeing themselves home field advantage throughout the coming playoffs. Unexpected sprinkles had dampened spirits early in the day, but although the announced humidity at game time was 100%, no rain fell on a cool night in New York.

In fact, as the teams fought a tight battle, if anything the ambiance bubbled toward three figures, even if the game-time temperature was 60 degrees, with variable winds at six miles per hour. Even though the Twins clinched their division some time ago and the Yanks were one victory away, there was plenty at stake in this game for both teams. In fact, the eventual Minnesota loss places them in a flat-footed tie with both Anaheim and Oakland in the West. With a quirky ballpark like the “Baggie-Dome,” the home field advantage in the ALDS is certainly something Minnesota considered worth fighting for.

So Ron Gardenhire and the Twins put their best foot forward, even if the Twins manager did stick with his pregame plan and removed Brad Radke after five, as he had done with Johan Santana the day before. But this time Minnesota’s number two starter left a tie game, having surrendered six hits to only four (after five) off Yankee starter Javy Vazquez. Once the Twins gave Brad an early 2-0 cushion, he gave it back in the fourth on a walk to Matsui and consecutive singles to Williams, Posada, and Olerud. The 82 tosses it took Radke to negotiate his innings were 12 more than Javy threw in the same amount of frames.

And to this observer, if there was any great news from this game, aside from the final score and the resulting party the 48,454 enjoyed at the end, it was a fine performance by Yankee starter Vazquez. He has been an enigma for much of the season’s second half, suffering from inconsistency that hit its nadir on August 31 when he was removed in the third inning of an embarrassing 22-0 humiliation at the hands of the Indians. And the most optimistic of reviewers could not judge tonight’s performance a smash, with the young righty being removed on the losing side of a 4-3 score in the seventh. But the first tally on his record followed a ground single past third on which A-Rod was wrong-footed, and the fourth scored on a double that barely caught chalk down the left field line.

Vazquez’s 95-pitch ball/strike breakdown was a better than good 28/67, and he threw eight of nine first-pitch strikes the first two times through the Twins’ order. Fifteen of the strikes were courtesy of Andy Fletcher’s generous strike zone; on another 15 Minnesota lumber struck air in a futile attempt to find a baseball (six of those coming during four strike outs, all swinging). Although the former Expo was sparingly booed when he allowed each run by a fanbase concerned about a playoff rotation, the outing was heartening, with the final first-pitch strike tally coming in at 22 of 28, with only one walk to go with seven hits.

He allowed the Twins a third run in the sixth on a Morneau dinger to the short porch in right. And once Olerud blasted lefty specialist J.C. Romero’s fourth pitch of the home sixth to forge another tie, Javy allowed his only walk leading off the seventh, and it cost him a win. Light-hitting catcher Blanco’s barely fair double down the line gave the Twins another lead at 4-3, and newly effective lefty Felix Heredia was brought in to get Jacque Jones to close that frame. But the Yanks were far from done.

Matsui strode to the plate in the bottom of the seventh having compiled a walk, a run scored, and an 0-for-2 line on the day because center fielder Torii Hunter robbed him on a soft liner to short center in the fifth (the kind of play a younger Bernie Williams used to make, but which the diving-averse Kenny Lofton never counted among his skills). But in the seventh, Hideki took ball one, and then drilled a shot to right center for the instant tie. It was also the Yanks’ 240th 2004 home run, tying the club record total from the magical 1961 season that featured the Maris and Mantle assaullt on Babe Ruth’s 60-home run record. (Surprise surprise. It was September 30 in 1927 when the Bambino delivered that historic blast.)

The Yanks still had a game to win, and a title to clinch, even if that Matsui shot got Vazquez off the hook. But although he was saved from a loss, Javy did a more than creditable job. And when reviewing his performance, we can’t forget the two singleton home runs, a genuine bugaboo of his. But how telling it is that Vazquez surrendered them on this, the 78th birthday of Hall of Fame hurler Robin Roberts. A hard-throwing righthander who earned 286 victories while throwing 14 of his 19 years with a more often than not mediocre Phillies ballclub, Roberts built his reputation as a guy who gave up more homers than most, but almost none with people on base. Through all his struggles, Vazquez continues to throw strikes, to challenge hitters, to “bring it,” a display of continuing self confidence that bodes well for his future.

So that’s 286 career victories for Roberts, with Vazquez throwing on a 60-degree night with winds of 6 miles an hour. What’s more, it was on this day in 1956 that Roberts gave up his (at the time) record 46th home run of that season. Now with a tie score, rising Yankee pitching star Tanyon Sturtze pitched the eighth. In a similar circumstance in Wednesday’s double dip, he struck out two and retired the side on nine pitches. He got one less strike out this time and threw three more pitches to do it, but why quibble when the result was the same, and the game was tied through eight? Gardenhire, too, found one glowing star in his pen, as righty Juan Rincon relieved when Williams and Posada reached after Matsui’s home run. All Rincon did was to retire six straight, five on strike outs. But Torre countered with no. 36, Tom Gordon, who walked one but escaped further damage by whiffing Lew Ford to end the visiting ninth.

Before I said that the Yanks had thrown an “old-fashioned” party, but not everything in the Bronx is old. The gorgeous old ballpark sparkles inside its classic facade, but bells and whistles adorn not only the DiamondVision board in right center, but the auxiliary boards down either line. Before the game the Yankees honored six surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen, the heroic black squadron who fought so valiantly in World War II. As the vets were cheered, all the boards flashed exciting and clever graphics devoted to their exploits. Last week they flashed lyrics and pictures as Mariano Rivera took the mound and Enter Sandman blared from the speakers. Each day there is something new.

The staccato, four-beat “Let’s Go Yankees” cheer we have heard and joined in for much of the Torre years used to rise spontaneously from different sections of the overflow crowd. Now, more often than not that roar comes just when the Scoreboard prompts it. And even the overflow crowd is improved, as the Yankees set a new season attendance record of 3,775, 292. With a couple of September breaks from the weather, 4,000,000 is within their grasp. The crowd bellowed “MVP! MVP!” much of the night for Gary Sheffield, a great player who until this season had not even played in the American League for over a decade. And the left fielder who forged the seventh-inning tie with his homer, and who keyed both wins the day before with fence-clearing power, hadn’t even played the game in this country before last season.

So the crowd was especially excited when these two new stars to the Yankee pantheon batted one-two in the bottom of the ninth. The noise grew deafening as Sheffield worked Rincon to 3-2, but he struck out. Southpaw Aaron Fultz, brought on to face lefty Matsui, fell to 3-2 also, and then he walked the former Japanese MVP. So who blows out the candles at the anniversary parties? The person who has been around the longest. Bernie Williams has almost always shown more power hitting righthanded. He took a ball from southpaw Fultz. Then he drilled the next pitch over the retired numbers in left, a place where his number 51 is sure to someday take its place. 6-4. “Bern, Baby. Bern!” The party was on.

Marc Bolan, front man for the classic rock band T-Rex, turned 57 this day. It makes me feel a little old, but not as old as did the passing of legendary rock DJ Scott Muni, who succumbed at 74 to complications from a stroke just the other day. We’ll miss you, Scott. He loved his music. He loved to party. Even though Thursday’s Yankee victory represents just one of several mountains this team needs to climb, Scott and Marc could both tell us how to react to this happy day:

Bang a Gong!

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!