Bronx, N.Y., September 30, 2009 — The Yankees and their fans continued the lovefest that originated in the Boston sweep over the weekend and continued through walkoff win number 15 from Tuesday on Wednesday night in the Bronx, even if the game result was a tad disappointing. With the AL East title and best record in baseball already assured, they hoped to continue the positive vibe, and a loss resulting in a 5-1 homestand stood no chance of dampening the spirits permeating the park.

Years ago, the last home game of the season (and I’m talking a two-digit number of years ago, so much so that it was the last home game, period, year after year, with no postseason) almost invariably fell on a Sunday, and it was referred to as Fan Appreciation Day. For about 10 years running, fans showing up would get a plastic coffee cup (too small to be called a mug, and no covered travel mug either) with a group picture of that year’s team embedded on the side. Wednesday was an appreciation to the fans as well, with more than 30 Yankee players and coaches thanking those of us present for all the support on the big board before the game. We understood why Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Andy Pettitte gave the first callouts. Jorge Posada belongs in that group, but he followed shortly, grouped with the other catchers. At the end of the tributes came Joe Girardi, he who suffered through a year at the helm last year that sadly harkened back to those no-postseason years. Joe looked happy, and waxed on about the many pie-in-the-face celebrations this team has enjoyed. But it has to be said: Joe looks like the job has taken a toll.

Kansas City hurlers Robinson Tejeda, Jamey Wright, and Ramon Colon dominated the hometeam lineup most of the night, but the magic of the Yankees’ new Palace has taken such a hold on the fanbase that the hearty souls who remained for the ninth inning not only rooted for yet another come-from-behind win against a good closer in Joakim Soria, they expected it. The Tuesday pregame celebrations that honored Melky Cabrera (for his cycle), Mo Rivera (save no. 500), and Captain Jeter (all-time Yankee hits record) led into a game where young Juan Miranda picked up the veteran mantle and produced a walkoff win. The hope and expectation in the bottom of the ninth was that Ramiro Pena, who hit his first big-league homer Monday, would follow Miranda in style.

Jeter slugged Tejeda’s fourth pitch deep to left center for a no-doubt-about-it homer leading off the bottom of the first, and he walked and singled before being replaced in the seventh. And Nick Swisher, who would stumble awkwardly in right field at a key point late in the game, knotted matters with a two-run jack in the fifth. If you’re counting that’s three hits, which accounts for more than half of the five the “Bombers” would stroke all night, although Freddy Guzman certainly deserved to be credited with a sixth in the ninth inning.

Much will be made, perhaps, of a very disappointing start from yet another youngster, as Joba Chamberlain, who subdued the Red Sox Friday on 86 pitches in six innings, needed more throws than that to get two outs in the fourth inning Wednesday, against a much lighter-hitting lineup. Joba wasn’t right from pitch one, he walked his second batter (the first of four), and the only ground-ball out he got was because left fielder Mitch Maier laid down a sac bunt in the fourth inning. Despite a surprisingly good 14 of 22 first-pitch strikes ratio, Chamberlain missed with too many pitches (39 of 92), and his fastball wasn’t only sporadically aimed, it rarely crackled in at over 92 mph. But Joba proved that Joe Girardi and the Yankee braintrust have not been all wrong about limiting his innings Friday, and he will get the ball in the postseason with a chance to prove it yet again.

The Royals scratched for single runs off Chamberlain in the first, the third, and the fourth. If there was a silver lining, Joba pounded swinging third-pitch strikes all three fames to limit the damage. With seven hits and four free passes the Royals could have been expected to produce more. Alfredo Aceves did his usual effective cleanup job following Chamberlain, though Brett Gardner had to run down a Alberto Callaspo drive to deep center to close the fourth. Once Swisher tied the game with his fifth-inning drive, KC catcher John Buck hit what would be the game-winning triple off Sergio Mitre in the seventh following a walk. Swisher went a long way to track this ball down in right center, but he turned the wrong way and fell down at the critical moment. Phil Hughes and Rivera finished up in dominating style, but the Yankee offense failed to plate the tying run.

Young Mr. Guzman pinch ran for Robbie Cano (who had just earned the second of his two walks–good job!) in the home seventh, but Freddy stumbled and got a bad jump on the stolen base try we all knew was coming, and Buck pegged him out. The Yanks went quietly in the eighth, and to start the ninth as well, but with two outs young backstop Franciso Cervelli lofted a single to short right. Guzman followed with a grounder up the middle. Perhaps I’m wrong and a good throw would have gotten him (don’t think so–should have been a hit and an error), but what can’t be denied is that Callaspo was pressured to rush said throw, and when it bounced into the Yankee dugout, the tying and winning runs were in scoring position, and Pena came to bat. His soft fly at 1-2 to short center produced brief hope, but it hung up and Josh Anderson made the catch for the 4-3 Royals win.

It comes as no surprise that the Yankee franchise has lots of history to celebrate in late September, but it’s not all happy. Yes, the team clinched their second American League pennant on September 30, 1922; the beloved Don Mattingly eked out a batting title against teammate Dave Winfield on this day in 1984; and Babe Ruth hit home run number 60, stunning the sports world for decades to come, on September 30, 1927. But the Babe went hitless in his last game in Pinstripes this day in 1934; and the Yanks assured themslves of 10th place (in a 10-team League!) with a loss on September 30, 1966. The back-to-back-to-back home runs Tim Raines, Jeter, and Paul O’Neill smashed in the sixth inning of the team’s opening ALDS victory against Cleveland on this day in 1997 is a highlight, yes, but a bittersweet one in light of the fact that the Indians recovered and beat the Yanks in that series.

But returning to the state of things in 2009 here on the precipice of the postseason, it must be said that manager Girardi “gets it,” not only in how to best prepare his team to play, but in how to respect them and at the same time give the fanbase their due as well. Joe bent over backwards to get as many players as possible into the September 21, 2008 win in old Yankee Stadium that was the last game ever played there. So too did he utilize his whole roster in the final 2009 regular-season home game in the new Yankee Palace this Wednesday. Following Chamberlain on the mound were Aceves, Jonathan Albaladejo, Damaso Marte, Mitre, Hughes, and Rivera. And subbing for his staring nine, all of whom began this game in the lineup, were Jerry Hairston, Jr., Gardner, Juan Miranda, Eric Hinske, Cervelli, Guzman, and Pena.

One-time alum of TV’s Brady Bunch family sitcom Barry Williams, who played oldest son Gregg on that long-running show, turns 55 today (which, yes, matches DH Hideki Matsui’s unifom number). With five siblings (including step-siblings), a Mom, a Dad, aunts, uncles, and the ubiquitous dog, that was a quite a bunch. But nothing compared to the 23 who played for the Yankees Wednesday night,

The Girardi Bunch

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!