Bronx, N.Y., October 1, 2002 — Of course, you can’t use a line like that without crediting the originator, the one and only Yogi Berra. And Yogi joined us for the festivities in the Bronx tonight, as he threw out the game’s first pitch at 8:11 pm. And our former catcher and All Star wasn’t the only repeat among the pregame honorees. The festivities had begun with perhaps the seventh or eighth visit from the Brien McMahon Marching Band of Norwalk, Conn., in the last several years, as they began their act at 7:40. At 7:50 the Harlem Boys Choir, in their dark slacks and maroon blazers, assembled behind home plate.

Then when Bob Sheppard began announcing the bench help and non-starting players of the California Angels at 7:51, I realized they were serious about the 8:17 first pitch. The colors were presented by the United States Military Academy at West Point Color Guard, impressively dressed in white with the parade helmets that evoke Napoleon Bonaparte in my mind, properly called, I understand, a shako, or “Tar Bucket.” It’s cylindrical, more or less like the stovepipe part of a top hat, with a small visor but no brim, and a tassle extending up the front of the cylinder and jutting up above it.

The Choir’s fine rendition of our National Anthem followed, and the end of the song, at 8:06, coincided with another flight by bald eagle Challenger from the far outfield wall to the mound, which triggered a flyover of four Navy F18 Hornets, from roughly left center and crossing directly above home plate. Then Yogi did his stuff and the sound system blared out a different and more prophetic anthem: “We will, we will, rock you.”

And then the game began, and the way it tracked to somewhat expected patterns was almost creepy. We homered for a run in the first (and the next time an associate disparages the work of Derek Jeter, the tape of tonight’s game can be thrown on top of the mounting pile of evidence that proves he is one of the best ever). The Angels tied it in the third on a base hit, stolen base, throwing error and base hit. We hit a two-run homer (and I kid you not, Jason hit that one as my long, hard, and loud “C’mon Jason. Take Him Downtown!!!” had just escaped from my lips). The Angels then parlayed a walk, single, walk and double into two runs to tie.

And we were content to keep it that way. Once again straining the bounds of credulity, I have to report that when Rondell had a 1-0 count in the fifth, I bellowed, “Rondell. Hit it hard and to right.” He fouled a pitch first but suffice it to say I was impressed with his ability to follow directions when the next pitch cleared the right center field wall by perhaps 40-50 feet. But the Angels changed up on us as they quickly retied it on the first at bat of the sixth as Glaus, rather than starting a pesky little rally by singling, and perhaps taking third on a hit-and-run single, went yard with room to spare in left. And yes, I know. I was as surprised as anyone that Joe decided that Roger’s two-walk, two-hit, two-run, 37-pitch fifth merited another inning, particularly when Rondell had bestowed a go-ahead run on him anyway.

Ramiro finished the sixth and pitched around two singles in the seventh, as Jarrod Washburn seemed to steady himself, subduing us in the sixth and seventh with one hit (removed in a 3-5-3 — these Giambi overshift infield numbers are so wierd) on 16 harmless pitches. I know that Washburn surrendered three long balls, but as I heard pundit after pundit question why Scoscia used Schoenweiss and Donnelly when he did in the eighth, and never resorted to Percival, my only question was, why did he take Washburn out after 81 pitches? But then the Angels — and Troy Glaus — broke protocol again, as he homered to left again on the second pitch of the top of the eighth. Karsay relieved and looked strong, but we had closed the barn door after the horse had escaped, and went to the bottom of the eighth trailing in the game for the first time, 5-4.

Well, turnabout is fair play. If they can play big ball, we seemed to say, we”ll mix in a little small. Once White and Rivera went down meekly to the pitches of reliever Ben Weber, and Alfonso was backed into an 0-2 corner, things turned. Alfonso battled and worked out a walk and Jeter did the same even after Jerry Crawford’s narrow strike zone seemed to expand a bit on Weber’s 3-1 pitch, as Derek had to be called back from his trot to first, only to then walk on the 3-2 pitch. When Jason strode to the plate to face newly warmed and inserted lefty Schoenweiss, much of the crowd was jubilant and obviously expecting a long ball that would not only tie things, but give us a lead. And yet again my call was on the money, as I eschewed such yells and went with the basic “C’mon Jason. Little hit, let’s go,” although I will admit that I thought he’d go with that late-season line drive lo left field trick he was using down the stretch. His liner glanced off Spezio’s glove and we had a tie game.

And then even when Bernie strode to the plate, though I wanted a homer in the worst way, I was thinking single, once again perhaps the other way. That was a little nerve-wracking, however, because Glaus was playing a fine third base, and he had robbed Bernie and turned the game in the first inning already, the best of many good plays he would make on the night. Sue, who is in the throes of an oppressive late-summer cold, felt no such compunction. “Hit it out, Bernie,” she coughed, trumping my three earlier calls in one fell swoop. And although Donnelly was throwing hard, there was reason for hope. Bernie failed to even approach getting around on Brendan’s first two strikes, fouling our way (in the Tier above the third-base dugout) twice. But though Bernie was late, the ball was flying off his bat, and the second vicious foul crashed into and deflected off a crowd of hands in Box 620 to our right, caroming back several rows and then forward again, surely impressing upon the skin of several people purple reminders of a great night in the Bronx, embedded into their skin. Then a third foul followed, and it went down the third base line, only 20-30 feet foul. Bernie was finding the range. And the next one he met squarely, for the three-run game-winner.

I spent some time before the game looking over some old ALDS Game One scorecards. There are some very good numbers sprinkled among the guys we have seen in this situation again and again. Paul, Tino and Scottie had some great games we won’t be seeing again. Posada went three for four with a double in last year’s first game, but we only scored three and lost to the A’s. Jeter went three for five in his first in ’96, three for four last year, and three for five in ’97 with a homer. Donnie Baseball had a two for four to go with Bernie’s three for five in ’95.

But the individual game performance that tracks the closest and truest to me is Bernie tonight and in 1999, against the Texas Rangers. We jumped on current Angel Aaron Sele that night, and Bernie earned the “GP” I add to any scoring that required the defender to make a “Good Play” on it in the first, that night on a fly to center fielder Tom Goodwin. Tuesday night, Troy Glaus grabbed a base hit ticketed for left field and turned it into a 5-4-3, a hands-down GP. And on his second at bat in 1999, Bernie stroked a run-of-the-mill grounder to first, as routine as his fly to center in this year’s sixth inning. Tuesday the unfortunate Bernie stroked a hard single in the fourth that went for naught as Jorge followed with a 6-4-3, so two dp’s denied Bernie shots from having a positive effect on our attack. But his eighth inning dinger could not have had a more positive effect.

In 1999’s fifth inning, he followed two-out singles by Derek and Paulie with a two-run double. And in the sixth, after Derek walked and Paulie reached on a hot smash E5 that could have been ruled an infield hit, Bernie took Venafro’s 0-1 pitch to a spot very close to the one he reached tonight. He even added a one-run single in the eighth.

But the Yanks have been supplying thrills like this for a century now, or so I read. It was October 1, 1932, that the Babe did the famous “point and homer” off the Cubs’ Charlie Root. And in 1977, they won their second consecutive AL East title on October 1. They would lose to Rick Waits and the Indians 9-2 365 days later to force the one-game “Bucky Dent” playoff game in Fenway. And October 1, 1961, was the day that poor Roger hit no. 61 to an entirely too unappreciative crowd and city.

So I guess I’m not surprised that I have been able to find some great games by guys still excelling for us today in the last seven years of ALDS contests. I look foward to revisiting similar games in the ALCS and World Series. Yogi knew what he was doing. It really is fun to say “Deja Vu All Over Again”!

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!