History Could Prove Tough for Beginners

The New York Yankees have monuments of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio beyond their outfield wall. The Arizona Diamondbacks have

“Nothing,” Arizona pitcher Brian Anderson said. “Absolutely nothing. Don’t you have to be around for five years before you have any tradition?”

Perhaps, but the Diamondbacks could take a huge step toward tradition by defeating the three-time defending-champion Yankees in the 97th World Series, which begins tonight when New York right-hander Mike Mussina opposes right-hander Curt Schilling in Bank One Ballpark.

To understand how different these franchises are, consider: The last time the Yankees lost a postseason series, to the Cleveland Indians in 1997, the Diamondbacks had not even played a game yet.

Since losing the first two games of the 1996 World Series against Atlanta, the Yankees are 16-1 in World Series play, winning four of the last five titles. The Diamondbacks are in their fourth year of existence, and though they reached the World Series faster than any expansion team, you could fit their tradition in one finger of a batting glove.

“We can’t even come close to laying claim to the postseason experience they have,” Schilling said. “But when you use the words ‘mystique’ and ‘aura,’ those are dancers in a nightclub, not things we concern ourselves with on the field. It comes down to nine on nine for nine innings. Whoever plays mistake-free baseball is going to win.”

The Yankees are favorites because they have baseball’s deepest pitching rotation with Mussina, Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens and Orlando Hernandez, the best closer in Mariano Rivera, and a lineup loaded with players who have performed well in the clutch, such as Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams and Tino Martinez.

But the Diamondbacks believe their pair of aces can beat the Yankees’ full house. In Schilling and Game 2 starter Randy Johnson, Arizona has two dominant starters who combined for 43 wins and 665 strikeouts and who will start at least four games providing the series goes to Game 6.

Diamondback fans aren’t nearly as rabid as Yankee fans, whom Schilling described Friday as “the most passionate, obsessive, obnoxious, loyal, demeaning, vulgar, loving fans on the face of the earth,” but Bank One Ballpark could provide an advantage.

“There is a little intimidation factor with Schilling and Johnson pitching here,” said first baseman Mark Grace, one of nine Diamondbacks with a total of 130 years of big league experience who are playing in their first World Series. “And there will probably be a lot of bikini tops in the pool, so that could be a distraction.”

If the Diamondbacks win the series and end the Yankees’ most recent dynasty, they might consider erecting monuments of Schilling, Johnson and outfielder Luis Gonzalez, who hit .325 with 57 homers and 142 runs batted in, beyond their outfield wall. They are clearly the three best players in franchise history.

But when compared to the Yankees’ storied past, Arizona is barely into its prologue as a franchise. Asked who the Diamondbacks would enshrine if there was a Monument Park in the airplane hangar that is Bank One Ballpark, Anderson was stumped.

“I don’t know, maybe Brent Brede or Joel Adamson?” Anderson said of the outfielder and pitcher who were members of Arizona’s first team in 1998. “Or, we could put [42-year-old reliever] Mike Morgan out there as a living monument. We could just sit him in a chair and look at him.”