Talent, Purpose Make Yankees Hard to Beat

It is not only the New York Yankee aura, that mix of history and October invincibility, that challenges the Seattle Mariners, as it did the Oakland Athletics.

In this October it is difficult to know where the resolve and resiliency of the Yankees ends and the resolve and resiliency of the city they represent begins.

In this October they seem to be something of mirror images, the reflection of the Yankee proximity to the tragedy of Sept. 11 shown in their NYPD and NYFD caps and T-shirts, and maybe more.

Maybe, as they add to the aura and history, as they fight off elimination and eliminate the A’s, as they make it two wins in a row with a 3-2 victory over the Mariners Thursday night, they are also motivated and inspired by the events of the last five weeks.

How could they not be? Even in Boston, in dreaded Fenway Park, fans showed their compassion by serenading the hated Yankees with “New York, New York.”

“I definitely think they are playing with a purpose,” a Yankee executive named Reggie Jackson said. “They are a good team that’s playing great.”

Well, the Yankees weren’t so great Thursday night.

Mike Mussina struggled. Bernie Williams dropped a fly ball. The offense didn’t score over the final seven innings, producing only five hits.

Still, the Yankees won to go two up on the Mariners in this best-of-seven series for the American League pennant, and now the Mariners stagger into the heart of all that aura, all that sense of purpose, when they renew play Saturday in the emotional cauldron of Yankee Stadium.

Well, big deal said Mariner Manager Lou Piniella.

A steaming Sweet Lou hadn’t fielded a question in the postgame interview room Thursday night when he predicted the series would return to Safeco Field for Game 6 because he has confidence in his team and because it won five of six games in Yankee Stadium “and we’re going to go and do it again.”

All of that was just a warmup for his clubhouse office, where he went on to say the “Yankees are ready to get beat and somebody’s got to beat them,” as if to suggest it might as well be the Mariners “because I don’t see the Yankees dominating anyone and we could have won both of the games here.”

Could have, should have, would have. The Mariners averaged 5.7 runs in their 116-win stampede through the regular season but have scored only 20 runs in seven postseason games and are 7 for 34 with runners in scoring position, 0 for 10 in the two games with New York. Additionally, Bret Boone is 4 for 28 and John Olerud is 3 for 23 for the postseason, which means Piniella was hitting harder in his postgame vent than the middle of his order has been.

Clearly, Piniella was frustrated to get decent pitching and lose, 4-2 and 3-2. He was also upset that Yankee closer Mariano Rivera, who would go on to register his 22nd consecutive postseason save, was slow in coming from the bullpen in the eighth inning, and he certainly wanted to send a message to his slumping team that it’s not over.

There are opposing managers who might have been angered by Piniella’s prediction and boasts, but Joe Torre was understanding.

“It’s basically what I said to my club when we were down 0-2 in Oakland in a five-game series,” Torre said. “You play all year, have the kind of year they had, and it’s the confidence you show in your ballclub.

“I’m sure that’s the big part of why Lou feels the way he does.”

Torre may also suspect there’s more to it.

“It’s spooky,” he acknowledged in response to a question regarding the Yankee aura, “but I would like to believe we do get in other people’s head. Of course, if we get caught up in this whole business of mystique, I think everybody will run by us like we’re standing still. The big reason we continue to be successful is the fact that we continue to perform, and whatever other teams feel about us, if it works to our advantage, fine.”

Piniella is familiar with all of the Yankee intangibles.

He helped create them as a Yankee player and manager, and he acknowledged that the “winning and tradition” is something the Yankees do draw on, but “there is no real mystique to it ... they can be beaten, believe me.”

Maybe, but Piniella is also familiar with the environment in Yankee Stadium, the difficult task his team faces. Safeco Field may rock with Mariner Mojo, but Piniella said that Yankee Stadium is even louder.

“There are 8,000 more seats and a lot more bars in the neighborhood,” he said. “The people come in prepared.”

They also carry the wounds of Sept. 11, and the Yankees have felt the pain and pride. If that, indeed, has compounded the Oakland and Seattle challenge, Torre chose his words carefully.

“With what went on in the real world, as opposed to the baseball world,” he said, “I think the ‘NY’ on our caps symbolizes more than just baseball. But it’s very touchy for me to talk about this, only because [the team] is rallying for all the victims, their families, the rescue workers. And the reason I say it’s touchy is our club has been so motivated every year when we go to postseason, for me to say that this is the reason we’re doing this ... well, I don’t think that’s fair to say.

“These players have come up big in [the postseason] before. But for sure, every single one of them has been touched by the tragedy. And we did talk about it before the first game against Oakland, about a certain part of our heart--well, that’s what we’re doing it for. It’s more of a responsibility to try to make people feel good in New York, because there has been so much tragedy there.”

Only two more wins and the Yankees will have fulfilled the responsibility.