October 19, 2010 — If the Yankees can climb back into this game — get a few men on base and put some pressure on the Texas bullpen — Yankee Stadium will come alive. The two go hand-in-hand. If the Yankees can get going in either the eighth or ninth innings, there is no doubt the crowd will do its part. They always do.

October 19, 2010 — With the Yankees trailing, 2-1, Derek Jeter came through with game-tying RBI triple off the left-center field wall. 

October 19, 2010 — A.J. Burnett has a opportunity to do something tonight that most people don’t ever get the chance to do.

October 18, 2010
- Andy Pettitte got roughed up in the first inning, surrendering two runs on a
Josh Hamilton home run. But he’s been dominant since then.

Following
Hamilton’s homer, Pettitte has retired 17 out of 19 batters, while striking out five.

Pettitte has
been ahead of the count on nearly every batter, and he has not issued a
walk the entire game.

Pettitte’s
determination to rebound from a difficult start has been inspiring. Hopefully,
the Yankees hitters will give him a few runs to work with.

–Alfred
Santasiere III  

October 18, 2010
- The atmosphere at Yankee Stadium is intense tonight. Cliff Lee against Andy
Pettitte in an American League Championship Series that is tied at one game
apiece.

The crowd is
into every pitch.

There are so
many familiar sounds that I can hear from the press box. I’ve heard a lot of
cheering during the pre-game introductions and a loud roar when Tino Martinez
tossed the first pitch. I heard lots of boos when Cliff Lee struck out Marcus
Thames to end the second inning. And I can even hear the sound of a metal spatula
scraping cheese steaks from the grill at a stand behind the press box.

But there’s one
beautiful noise that is absent from tonight’s game — the sound of Freddy “Sez”
Schuman’s spoon banging up against his frying pan.

Freddy passed away
yesterday afternoon at the age of 85.

Freddy was
staple at Yankee Stadium since 1988. He didn’t miss many games, and he
encouraged fans to cheer with more hope and enthusiasm than they would have without him. He turned a few simple ideas – clanking a spoon against a frying
and painting a sign with a fresh inspirational message every day – into a place in Yankees tradition.

My father took
me to my first baseball game in the late ’80s, and Freddy was there that day. When he walked into our section, I
clanked the famous spoon against the frying pan, which had a four-leaf clover
on it.

Since that day,
I can’t remember many games that I’ve spent in the seats or the press box at Yankee Stadium (old or new) when I didn’t hear Freddy – or one of the many fans that he let
clank the frying pan – taking part in one of the great modern-day baseball
rituals.

That ritual is
gone now, but I won’t ever forget Freddy Sez.

–Alfred
Santasiere III

October 16, 2010 – Today’s game was an important one for the
Yankees, as I wrote on this blog earlier today. A win would have given the Yankees
a commanding 2-0 lead in the ALCS, and that would have helped alleviate some of
the pressure that Game 3 holds.

But the Yankees still took one out of two on the road, and
that puts them in an advantages place in this series. They have three home
games to look forward to in a ballpark where there is a decisive home-field
advantage.

The Yankees are built to win on the road in October, but no
team wins them all on the road. In that same breath, I don’t see Texas as a
team that will deal with the harshness of Yankee Stadium in October very well.
They are talented, but very inexperienced. Tropicana Field – where Texas took
two games in the ALDS – is a far cry from Yankee Stadium.

Cliff Lee will be a tough opponent in Game 3, and his
performance over the last two seasons have garnered a lot of attention. But
let’s remember, the Yankees are countering with Andy Pettitte  – the winningest postseason pitcher in
history, and a guy who has been lights out in the last two Octobers.

–Alfred Santasiere III

October 16, 2010 — Today has been been the Yankees’ day so far. 

October 16, 2010 — Phil Hughes pitched tossed seven shutout innings in the what was at the time, the biggest game of his life. 

October 15, 2010
- I guess the line “Everything’s bigger in Texas” includes comebacks. That’s
because the Yankees comeback tonight was the biggest of their season – and
certainly the most significant come-from-behind win since the 2009 World
Series.

As I wrote in my
last blog entry, Brett Gardner’s gritty – all heart – infield single got the eighth-inning
rally started. But I didn’t realize at the time that it was going to ignite one
of the great comebacks Yankees history. Yes, that’s what I said; tonight’s win
was one of the greatest comebacks in Yankees lore – and it marked only the
fifth time in history that a team came back from a four-run, eighth-inning
deficit to win the game.

The Yankees were
losing, 5-1, in the eighth inning (and 5-0 in the seventh inning), on the road
and while battling a starting pitching who had only given up four hits and two
walks over seven innings.

But after
Gardner’s “diving” single, Derek Jeter laced a double that brought the
leftfielder to the plate. Then came two clutch walks – by Nick Swisher and Mark
Teixeira – to load the bases for Mr. Clutch, Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod wasted no
time in collecting the biggest hit of the game. He scorched the first pitch he
saw past Rangers third baseman Michael Young. A-Rod’s single brought Jeter and
Swisher to the plate, and brought the Yankees to within one run of Texas.

The wild hit
parade, which brought six Rangers pitchers to the mound in the eighth inning, continued with Robinson Cano, who tied the game with a single. And
Marcus Thames followed with a single of his own, which gave the Yankees a 6-5
lead.

Kerry Wood and
Mariano Rivera each gave the Yankees a scoreless inning to close out a
monumental comeback – a comeback that could not have happened if every Yankees
player in the game contributed in a big way.

Think about it;
the Yankees received huge contributions from Gardner, Jeter, Swisher, Teixeira,
A-Rod, Cano, Thames, Posada and, of course, Joba Chamberlain, Dustin Moseley,
Kerry Wood and Mariano Rivera.

If the term, “team
win”ever applies, this was it. And now the Yankees are three wins away from the World Series.

–Alfred
Santasiere III