NEW YORK, N.Y., Nov. 3, 2001 — It is the answer to the first effective joke (a riddle really) I can remember telling (What do you call three holes in the ground?), but I’m simpy utilizing it as a hook into the cliché I’ll use for our current dilemma: “We went to the well one too many times.”

The 9-1 spanking in Game One was approached somewhat differently. I believe I correctly characterized it as a Painless Loss, because that’s what it was. We all knew there was a good start in Moose, that the excess rest had hurt him, that Schilling pitched like a madman anyway, and losing it from the outset, rather than the way Arizona lost Games Four and Five, was relatively painless.

But since then some of my Yankee friends and I have been referring to the old “lulling ’em into a false sense of security” trick, beginning with their 2-0 lead in games, and continuing it through the eerily magical ninth-inning heroics on Wednesday and Thursday. Not reported until now, because I really took very little pride in it, was my comment to Sue after Chuck struck out for the second out in the ninth of Thursday’s tilt: “Well, now we’ve got ’em right where we want them!” (I guess Scotty heard me.)

There will be no more lulling them in this series, just as surely as there was nothing painless about tonight’s defeat in the Valley of the Sun. Back when I was 12 there was nothing painless really when we (The Yankees of my Little League, for whom else would I play?) lost that 20-1 three-inning suspended game to the Cubs, even though I smiled with inner pride that in my only appearance as a pitcher I had only surrendered six runs, while the other two guys allowed seven each. That was embarrassing, as was tonight, and I consider the surreal elements of a “bad arm” Schilling conspiracy and the rude behavior of the BOB’s Scoreboard crew playing “New York, New York” after the game totally off the screen. (Fan rudeness OK. We dish it out, and should take it, but there were no Phoenix taunts coming out of the Cathedral speakers). But never mind.

We play Sunday. We win Sunday (with apologies to Mariano Duncan). It’s as simple as that. We’re the World Champions. We have a legendary pitcher on full rest waiting in the wings. We have the best closer in baseball history, and have proven repeatedly that our veterans and our kids are all clutch performers. Our manager, bench coach and pitching coach are all about winning. There will be no “lulling” them. Roger will come right after them. And if you’re the type that just loves numbers, how about this? Roger threw 22 out of 27 first-pitch strikes on Tuesday. What was that second number again? 27, as in 27 World Championships.

One in the Sun!

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!