World Series

This Column Originally Published at GetOutofMyBallpark.com

The year was 1995.  I was 12-years old.  And I fell in love for the first time.

Hard. 

And anybody who was living in Seattle in the time can tell you who I fell for, because 1995 is perhaps the fondest year remembered in the modern Seattle era. 

If you are a catcher prospect, please contact the New York Yankees today. Immediate position available. Looking for a regular catcher starting 2012. Maybe before.

This is an employment ad you will not find in The New York Times. The word is traveling around all Yankee Stadium.

Phil Hughes hasn't been his dominant self this postseason, as has been very well documented. So far, his line reads:

4.2 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, 6 K.

That works out to a .557 BABIP, but it's not like he's been giving up weakly hit balls. Thirty-five percent of the batted balls against him have been line drives. Usually, I wouldn't be worried over a few bad innings. I mean, it happens to everyone.

In the minutes preceding the Yankees' miraculous, positively 2001-esque, one-run rally in the ninth inning last night against the Phillies, my friends and I attempted to glean any positive developments from a disheartening evening.

The conversation went something like this:

Dan: Um, CC battled through without his best stuff.

Howie: Yeah, definitely. 

(Awkward silence)

Howie: Marte did his job.

Dan: Oh yeah.

(Extended pause of sorrow)

The boo birds are lying in wake. They are getting ready to let loose a tirade the likes of which have not been seen in a very long time in the Bronx. Last night there were rumblings, signs of things to come.

Despite the fact that Alex Rodriguez was hitting over .430 in the post season and hit clutch tying home runs late in games, here he was on baseball’s greatest stage with the opportunity to completely bury his past failures and finally be accepted as a true blue New York Yankee.

Not only does Cliff Lee compLEEte me, he pulled another compLEEte game out of his hat. His domination of the team with the best record in the majors, the most home runs, and the highest payroll was something out of a storybook.

Hey, they should act that out on Broadway.

Wait, they are.

Entering the 2009 postseason, only four pitchers in playoff history had recorded double-digit strikeouts while issuing zero walks.

Cliff Lee has now done it in back-to-back outings.

In Game Three of the NLCS, Lee navigated eight innings of shutout baseball while posting 10 strikeouts and zero walks against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Lee did it again on Wednesday night in Game One of the World Series, tossing a complete game six-hitter and recording 10 punch outs, with zero free passes, against the potent New York Yankees’ lineup.

Chase Utley hit two solo home runs and Cliff Lee pitched a complete game gem as the Phillies beat the Yankees 6-1 in Game One of the World Series. 
 
In what was billed as a pitchers' duel on a cold wet night in the Bronx, it was a lights-out Lee who came out on top over CC Sabathia to dampen the spirits of Murderers' Row. 
 
A dazzling Lee pitched nine innings of six-hit ball, striking out ten and walking none on 122 pitches. Lee pitched with confidence and swagger, seemingly unphased by the magnitude of the occasion. 
 

As it has been pitted, it's cheesecake vs cheesesteak. The City That Never Sleeps vs The City of Brotherly Love. Girardi vs Manuel. A-Rod vs Ryan Howard. CC Sabathia vs Cliff Lee.

It might be a moot point, but who wouldn't want to see the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees playing tonight?

I mean, you have one American League team in its 40th title series, winning 27 since 1923. The other team beat the up-start Tampa Bay Rays last year in the 2008 World Series, ending a 28-year drought.