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Let’s Go Home, Holmes

Depending on the type of Philly fan you are, you’re feeling one of two ways after A.J. Burnett shut down the Phillies in a must-win game for the Yankees.

If you’re an optimist, you know the Phillies came to New York and accomplished exactly what they set out to do. They got the split. They wrestled away home-field advantage. And they are returning to the Bank, where they are 11-1 in the last two postseasons, with a chance to win the series.

If you’re a pessimist, you know the Phillies blew their best chance to put the Yankees away. And now, the entire series rests on the shoulders of the enigma that is Cole Hamels. If Cole goes out and throws a bomb, the Phillies could go from the driver’s seat to the curb in one game.

The thing is, you’re both right … and both wrong. The Yankees won a game they had to have. Burnett took advantage of a wide strike zone, hit spots all night with his breaking ball and was all but unhittable (when you throw 22 of 26 first-pitch strikes – many with curves – you're going to win).

It happens. The Phils weren’t going to sweep this Yankees team. New York won 103 for a reason.

That said, any Phillies fan who has watched this team all season has to feel queasy about the big spot Cole Hamels is now in. The 2008 World Series MVP has struggled for 12 months trying to recreate his postseason magic.

In fact, he’s labored so much that Charlie Manuel found it necessary to bump him for a 38-year old who spent his June and July in the Dominican.

Suddenly, Hamels finds himself as a No. 3 starter, but the Phils are counting on him to find Stella and get his groove back in a pivotal game that could determine who will wear the 2009 crown.

In Game 1, Cliff Lee was brilliant. Game 2 was supposed to be all about Pedro, but Burnett stole the show. Who will be the storyline of Game 3? Will it be Hamels? Will it be Pettitte? Will it be somebody cool that we don't even know about?

The Phillies have yet to lose back-to-back playoff games during this two-year run. Saturday is not the time to start a new trend.

Pedro on How to Be a Daddy

An interesting moment in Pedro’s postgame press conference. A reporter asked Martinez what it felt like walking off the field in the seventh, with Yankees fans giving him all the “Who’s Your Daddy?” business.

Everyone expected Pedro to recount how it felt to have 50,000 strong repeating a phrase he gave them five years ago. Or how circumstances might be different if he hadn’t given Hideki Matsui, his arch nemesis, a pitch to hit.

Pedro – as he always seems to do – took a different tact. Pedro decided the apex of Game 2 of the World Series was a good time to teach Yankees fans how to be a good parent.

“The fans remain the fans,” Pedro said. “… like I remember one guy sitting right in front of the front row with his daughter, sitting with his daughter, and his daughter in one arm, and a cup of beer in the other hand and saying all kinds of nasty stuff. I just told him, ‘Your daughter is right beside you. It's a little girl. It's a shame you're saying all these things.’

“I had to stop and tell him because I'm a father myself, and God, how can you be so dumb to do those kind of things in front of your child? What kind of example are you setting?”

I mean … really?

I guess as a human being, I kinda agree with Pedro. Screaming profanities in front of your daughter is something that should be confined to the privacy of your own home. It has no business in a public place where you spend five figures for a single seat. 

But as a Phils fan, I’d much rather Martinez be focused making good pitches to Matsui and Melky.

But Pedro doesn't do focus. He’s into tangents. And little people. (Damn. Now he has me doing it... tangents must be contagious.)

Can We Get it Right, Please!?!

When the NFL adopted instant replay, you heard a ton of detractors complaining that it was destined to slow down the pace of the game. Today, 99.999 percent of fans, players and coaches are just glad that the league does everything to get the call right (it’s true, I’ve seen the exit polls).

But Bud Selig still thinks replay isn’t right for MLB beyond HR calls. Baseball apparently doesn’t want to get the call right. It wants to get the call fast.

"Times change, but I'm still in favor of keeping the human element as a part of it, and I'm also very concerned about pace," Selig told reporters before the game.

By “human element,” Bud must mean blatantly awful calls. Blatantly awful calls are charming, aren’t they?

But Selig isn’t just worried about removing baseball’s charm. He’s also worried about pace (can’t you tell from these 6-hour playoff games).

I’ve brought this up before, but when the manager comes out and argues on every close play, how are we speeding up the game by not having replay?

Rather than wasting five minutes of everyone’s time watching the manager and umpire pointlessly argue a call, why not ban the manager from arguing, add a replay official upstairs and get every call right in two minutes?

I just saved us all three minutes. Spend it amongst your friends.

It’s not a slippery slope. It’s never going to invade ball and strike calls. It’s just about correcting obviously wrong calls on the field, like the two last night on baseball’s biggest stage.

Ryan Howard trapped that Johnny Damon line drive and Chase Utley beat out that eighth-inning "double-play" ball.

Baseball is most pure when the calls on the base paths, boundaries and balls in play are correct.

It’s 2009. Let’s stop pretending it’s 1909.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye Like a Big Pizza Pie, That’s Amaro

This World Series is Ruben Amaro’s. The rest of us are just squirrels trying to get a nut. First, his prized July 31 deadline acquisition wins Game 1 single-handedly. Then in Game 2, his prized offseason acquisition makes a diving catch in left field on a ball Pat Burrell would still be running after (I use the word “running” in the loosest sense imaginable).

If Ben Francisco hits for the cycle in Game 3, we may have to coat Amaro in gold…

King Midas (that’s Ruben … come on guys, keep up) has seen his major moves make major contributions all postseason. The play by Ibanez that Burrell couldn't possibly have made was just the latest example.

That play preserved an early Phillies lead, took the life out of an already timid Yankee crowd and exemplified how the Phils have approached every game this year – play all 27 outs ... in both halves of the inning.

Prophetically, Jimmy Rollins spoke about what a difference Raul makes in the field, before the game.

“There were less balls falling in the outfield,” Rollins said when asked what kind of an impact Ibanez has had on the team. “So that meant teams were getting extra outs on balls that should have been outs. They were turned into outs this year. … But if anything, for me at least, on the left side, I got a little rest not having to go out there and catch as many fly balls.”

At the time, I jotted that quote down because I was shocked J-Roll would openly chastise Burrell like that (maybe Pat snubbed him at Blue Martini last year?). But now, after Ibanez made that diving catch on Cano, I’m starting to think Jimmy may have a little witchdoctor in him.

He called the Phillies the “team to beat” back in 2007. The Mets went on to epically collapse and the Phightins won the pennant. Then, Rollins said the 2008 Phillies would win 100 games. They racked up 104 on their way to the team’s first championship in 28 years. Last February, he told Playboy that it would be a Yankees-Phillies World Series in 2009. … Getting scared yet?

And now, just hours before Ibanez makes a diving play in left, Rollins raved about Raul as a defensive upgrade.

If the Phils win this thing in five, it may be time to hit him up for some lotto numbers.

You Want Me to Eat What?

The Yankees gave us a boxed dinner. It looked like this. Not bad ... But when Option B is this and this, it’s hard to get excited about a ham and cheese on a Kaiser.

Needless to say, I went with Option B.

So l live for six less years … if you’ve had a Lobel’s steak sandwich before, you know it’s well worth it.

I Am the Most Influential Writer to Ever to Do an iPhone Tour of Yankee Stadium

I got to the stadium early on Thursday, so I figured I’d give Phils fans a tour of this season-old ballpark. You can check out my iPhone tour here.

So here’s the thing, if you haven’t been here, you should do your best to make it up. It’s a very nice stadium with great sightlines from just about every section (one critique would be there seems to be quite a few obstructed view seats – the stadium has more Beam in it than Kidd Rock).

The problem – and I can’t figure out why no one has written about this yet – the ticket prices are insanely expensive.

Of course, insanely expensive is nothing new for the city of New York or the team that capitalism built. We’re talking about a city whose delis routinely charge customers just to sit down. In NYC, literally nothing comes for free.

But outpricing your core fan base does have consequences. The biggest one: You have virtually no home-field advantage. When you surround the playing field with four- and five-figure seats, the only ones filling them will be corporate suits and frilly Hollywood types. I don’t know about you, but neither of these groups comes to mind when I think avid baseball fan.

It would be easy to rip Yankees fans for the tame crowds and empty seats. Especially after the New York media took the low route with the City of Brotherly Love before this series started. But it wouldn’t be fair. The Yankees fans – the real Yankees fans – are as loyal and intimidating as any fan base in America. Yes, that includes you, Philly fans.

It’s just that the true Yankees fans are either pushed to the outskirts of the stadium where tickets are more affordable or they’re priced out of the stadium completely.

What’s that mean?

It means if you charge enough in NYC, you’ll probably get some fool to pay for anything. But you can’t get that fool to also cheer for your team... not like a true fan.

Yes, it got louder when Matsui’s ball eked over the right field fence. And there were plenty of “Hip Hip Jorge” chants after Posada’s RBI single. But the bottom bowl is filled with Manhattanites who wouldn’t know Robinson Cano from Robinson Crusoe.

And that makes this Yankee Stadium a whole lot easier to play in than the House That Ruth Built. Which is a nice thing for the 2009 Phillies to keep in their back pocket … just in case they find themselves back in the Bronx next week.

Your Feedback Are the Yankees back in this thing? How many games will the series last? Is Pedro the most influential man in your life? Sound off here.

Email me at russakoffrules@comcast.net; follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/russakoffrules.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Comcast.

Message Edited by Vito_Forlenza on 10-30-2009 09:24 AM