Yankees in Six

The last time I made a public prediction for the World Series was in 1978 when as the sports editor of a daily newspaper in Ohio I wrote a column which correctly called the New York Yankees in six games over the Los Angeles Dodgers. I just had a feeling.

Thirty-one years later I am getting that same feeling. In fact, the only reason I am predicting the Yankees may take up to six games to dethrone the current World Champs is because the umpiring in the post season has become a crap shoot and virtually anything could happen with the men in blue.

While there are those who like to go position by position to see who has the edge, baseball is a team game and that never made much sense to me. It might be fun to point out that Pedro Feliz isn’t equipped to iron Alex Rodriquez’ uniform and would not even be permitted to manicure the field at Yankee Stadium, let alone play third base, but the poor fellow isn’t really matched up against the best player in baseball; he’ll be facing the best pitchers – C.C. Sabathia and Mariano Rivera. And that really is the essence of the World Series.

Pitching wins championships and the Yankees have better pitching. In fact, the Phillies bullpen is kind of like playing darts blindfolded – occasionally you are going to hit the board. As for the Phillies starting rotation, let’s get serious.

Cliff Lee is the same .500 lifetime pitcher against the Yankees (4-4 with 1 “no decision”) as he was this year in stints with Cleveland and Philadelphia (14-13). I wouldn’t exactly call him an “ace.”

Pedro Martinez once called the Yankees “my daddy” because they dominate him. He has pitched against the Yankees six times in the post season and won once. Yankee fans are praying that Charlie Manuel is stupid enough to start him in New York for game two where he will hear things from fans that Dick Cheney wouldn’t even permit to be said during the interrogation of suspected terrorists.

Nothing short of a time machine is going to fix Cole Hammels who will need a complete re-tooling in spring training. The Phillies messed up a good arm and head. Unfortunately for Phillies fans, it is the 2009 version with a more than 7.00 post season ERA that will take the mound. The Yankees will chew him up and spit him out.

And finally, the New York Yankees will win the World Series because there are three first-ballot, unanimous Hall of Famers playing for them (talk to me about Ryan Howard in a decade or so): Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Alex Rodriquez.

By the way, if some Philadelphia fans need a little solace after reading this, in that 1978 newspaper column the last line was: “Little can be expected from Bucky Dent.” Dent went on to win the World Series MVP, going 10 for 24 and knocking in seven. Oh well.