What a Difference a Day Makes
What a difference a day makes! It may be cliche, but here's the thing about cliches: they are true.
When it came to the World Series, what a difference a day made for the Yankees. It's not just because the Yankees lost Game 1 and won Game 2. No. Everything was different from the start. The atmosphere. The mood. The vibe. The weather. The pitchers. The whole experience.
Let's start with the opening concert: Jay-Z and Alicia Keys had been scheduled to perform Empire State of Mind before Game 1, but rescheduled for the next night allegedly due to weather concerns (as it turns out, Jay-Z was overscheduled).
I only saw the last minute of the show (I didn't get a ticket until 6:30, so I couldn't get to the Stadium as early as usual), but people were digging the music. Empire State of Mind has been Jeter's walk-up song, so it was an easy fit for this crowd. Were people going nuts? Of course not. But did it set a nice tone? Absolutely.
Next, the weather. Seriously. This cannot be emphasized enough. Game 1 was played in a raw, nasty swirling mist and rain. Sitting up in Section 414 with the gusting wind? It was cold and wet. I was pretty miserable and almost too cold to use my blackberry.Game 2? Played in perfect baseball conditions on a cool comfortable clear autumn night. Talk about a difference.
What about the game itself? Oh yes, there might have been a slight difference as well.Let's take the starting pitchers. The Phillies trotted out Pedro Martinez. Pedro Martinez in Game 2 of the World Series? At Yankee Stadium? How awesome is that? One last chance to chant "Who's Your Daddy?" This was just too good.
And Pedro pitched great, obviously feeding off the crowd. For every "Who's Your Daddy" chant, Pedro responded with a strikeout (maybe I'm exaggerating, but it sure seemed that way). But Teixeira and Matsui both took him deep (Matsui golfed a very good pitch) and the Yankees had their first lead of the series at 2-1. Manuel then kept him in one inning too long (Yankee Stadium deja vu much? Paging Grady Little) and Pedro took the loss.
AJ Burnett pitched for the Yankees.It's AJ's first year with the Yankees, and we love him for introducing pie as the team's newest (and very popular) tradition. But he's been inconsistent on the mound. Would it be "Good AJ" or "Bad AJ"? Good AJ can be very very good. Bad AJ? Well, there's a reason we call him "Bad AJ". So here we are in a must-win game for the Yankees and we didn't know which AJ would show up.
From pitch one to Jimmy STFU Rollins (a strike), it looked like we had Good AJ. And when you have Good AJ, you like your chances. Good AJ was dealing. 22 of 26 first pitch strikes. 9 strikeouts over 7 innings. 1 run. And of course because the Yankees had the lead, Mariano Rivera could come in for the 2 inning save. Talk about a difference maker - he's only the greatest closer of all time.
How about the crowd?
Look, the new Stadium will never be like the old Stadium. Period. End of story. So let's just get that out of the way. But was the crowd on Thursday night better than the crowd on Wednesday night? Definitely. Yankeeist wrote an excellent blog post on this very topic (inspired by an exchange he and I had on Twitter).
People were leaving in droves on Wednesday. It was cold. It was miserable. And the Yankees didn't stand a chance against Cliff Lee. Look, we were being owned, but come on. It's the World Series. Stay til the end (this is a major pet peeve of mine. I do not leave games early. And yes, I am originally from Los Angeles).
Some said that the Game 1 crowd was more corporate than Game 2. Maybe so, but that still doesn't explain it completely. The crowd for Game 2 stayed until the end (or at least that was my perception, there were reports that people were leaving in droves - I didn't see it).
Oh one more thing from my leaving early soapbox: why would you ever leave a game - much less a World Series game - when Mariano Rivera is coming in to pitch? This will be the subject of another post another time. Inconceivable.
Another note on the crowds. As Yankeeist already said, in Game 1 the Yankees were out of the game, being owned by Cliff Lee and cold. It's hard to cheer and be high energy when there's nothing to cheer for. Game 2 there was much more to cheer for, but the crowd didn't seem to understand some basic fundamentals, starting with standing on a 2 strike count.
After the Yankees took the lead on Matsui's home run in the bottom of the 6th, AJ looked strong to start the next inning and quickly got ahead of Ibanez 0-2. I immediately jumped to my feet and started clapping. Only a few others did the same thing, so I gestured wildly to my section and yelled "Stand up! 2 strikes!" A few others joined and then some more. And then boom, AJ struck Ibanez out. We sat back down again and then Burnett quickly had 2 strikes on Matt Stairs. On my feet again, I exhorted my sectionmates to join me. They did. And boom, another strikeout. High fives all around.
After the game one of my neighbors (an older man who came all the way from Virginia for the game) told me that the game turned around when I told everybody to stand up for every 2 strike count.
Another potential game-changer? A mid-game change our luck Tweet-up with Rebecca Glass of This Purist Wears Pinstripes that we believe caused the Teixeira home run. Who's to say that we didn't?
And finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the final score: Yankees 3, Phillies 1. While it wasn't the only difference the day made, it was certainly the most important.
For pictures and video of Games 1 and 2, check out my Flickr photostream.
