“GIMME SOME MO” and "RISING GIANTS"
#938/#937
938. NEW YORK YANKEES VS DETROT TIGERS
AMERICAN LEAGUE DIVISION SERIES
GAME ONE
OCTOBER 3, 2006
YANKEE STADIUM
QUALITY OF PLAY—6.87
DRAMA—5.65
STAR POWER—7.54
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—7.85
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—7.04
LOCAL IMPACT—7.42
TOTAL: 42.37
“GIMME SOME MO”
By 2006, the New York Yankees had suffered through what was—for them—a brutal half-decade. They came up short in a pair of World Series, lost twice in the division series to Anaheim, and of course had blown their ancient psychological hold on their great rival from Boston. Still, the team was so exceptionally talented it was a foregone conclusion they would be in the postseason come October, fighting to regain their rightful place atop the baseball world.
The ’06 Yanks may not have been the best edition fielded in the Bronx, but they were plenty powerful, winning 97 games and cruising to the AL East crown by 10 games. As top seeds, they got to play the wild-card entry in the ALDS, Detroit. The Tigers were the feel-good story of the season. Under crusty, chain-smoking manager Jim Leyland, the team shrugged off a dozen straight losing seasons (they lost an astounding 119 games in 2003) to hold the AL Central lead right up until the season’s final day.
In fairness, they choked it away “spending much of September making like Greg Norman on the back nine at Augusta,” according to Ian O’Connor, then with the Central New Jersey Home News Tribune. In retrospect, the fact Minnesota—a team the Yankees never, ever lose to in the postseason—relegated the Motown Nine to the wild-card was bad news for Hip Hop City.
Leyland praised the Yankees’ modern “Murderers Row” lineup, one that featured nine current or former All-Stars, most notably shortstop and team captain Derek Jeter. “This is as deep a lineup as I’ve ever had,” crowed manager Joe Torre, who had guided New York to four titles since 1996. The offense would need to carry the squad, as the starting pitching was spotty and the ultimate weapon, closer Mariano Rivera, had a twitchy forearm strain that forced Torre to baby him. Mo didn’t pitch between September 1-20, and never in back to back games for the entirety of the month. The hope was the Yanks could club their way to an easy win in this series, and a further rested Rivera would be at full strength come the later, tougher rounds.
In Game One, held on an unseasonably warm (nearly 80 degrees at first pitch) and humid Tuesday night, October 3, 2006, all went (mostly) according to plan. New York bombarded Tigers starter Nate Robertson for five runs in the third inning. Bobby Abreu doubled in a pair, and Jason Giambi pulled a two-run homer to right to stake Chien-Ming Wang to an early big lead.
But the Tigers didn’t care much about Torre’s game script. They scored three in the fifth to keep nerves jangling in the Stadium. Fortunately for the 56,291 gathered in the Bronx (including Mayor Michael Bloomberg and future “President” Donald Trump) the top of the lineup was unstoppable. Jeter would go 5-5 in the game, and his sixth inning double put two men on for Abreu, who once again knocked in a pair with a hit. Jeter then capped his big night with a solo homer in the 8th inning.
That made it 8-4 New York, and one would imagine that would be enough to not have to use Rivera. But Torre felt otherwise. He decided to bring Mo into the game. “This is the playoffs—it’s no time to lay back,” Rivera said later. “If it’s one inning, that’s what it is. If it’s two innings, that’s what it is.” Perhaps Torre just wanted to hear “Enter Sandman.” Mo give up a bloop single to future Yankee (and Met) Curtis Granderson, but got a double play on the next pitch, and the Yanks went up 1-0 in the series.
Big time players showing up in big time games. The varsity toying with the freshman team. All was right with the world, and the Yankees were on the march toward another championship.
AFTERMATH
Well, that feeling lasted just for that lone Tuesday night. In Wednesday’s Game Two, Yankee killer (and new Met) Justin Verlander pitched Detroit to a narrow win. The Tigers then crushed New York in the two games played on Eight Mile, winning by a combined 14-3 score. It was Detroit’s first postseason series win since capturing the 1984 World Series. The Tigers have been kryptonite for the Yankees in 21st Century postseason play, winning all three times the teams have met. Detroit went on to sweep the A’s before falling in the Fall Classic to St. Louis in five games.
WHAT THEY SAID
“Derek Jeter is the captain of the varsity. The quarterback, the prom king, the guy who walks away with the girl. There’s a reason his current and former teammates talk about him the way the old timers talk about Joe D.”
—Ian O’Connor, Central New Jersey Home News Tribune
FURTHER READING:
The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter by Ian O’Connor
VIDEO:
937. NEW YORK GIANTS VS CLEVELAND BROWNS
DECEMBER 1, 1985
GIANTS STADIUM
QUALITY OF PLAY—8.68
DRAMA—7.61
STAR POWER—6.84
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—6.25
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—5.55
LOCAL IMPACT—7.45
TOTAL: 42.38
“RISING GIANTS”
The 1985 Giants were a team on an unmistakable rise. Coach Bill Parcells had remade the squad into a tough, big, defense-oriented heavyweight. Lawrence Taylor was in the prime of his Hall of Fame career, snapping Joe Theismann’s leg on a Monday night in New Jersey to prove it. Phil Simms was the rock-steady leader on offense. Kicking was the team’s main weakness, but by December even that seemed magically sorted. Ali-Haji-Sheikh was injured early on, and replacement Jess Atkinson wasn’t consistent enough. Atkinson was cut to give Eric Schubert a chance. The tiny kicker from nearby Wanaque, NJ, hit five field goals in his debut in November against Tampa, and became an insta-legend.
Come the season’s final furlong the team was 8-4, with all four losses in tight games, by a combined 11 points. They weren’t quite ready to compete for a title, and the Chicago Bears were obviously going to win the Super Bowl that season regardless. But big things were clearly headed to Exit 16W.
Their opponents on a typically dreary and blustery Sunday afternoon in the Meadowlands on December 1, 1985, were in a similar position. Marty Schottenheimer was in his first full season as Cleveland Browns head coach, having replaced Sam Rutigliano midway through the 1984 campaign. This team, a surprising 6-6 entering December, was at the forefront of a turbocharged rebuild that had Cleveland on the brink of the Super Bowl just one year later.
Indeed, this late season matchup has “what might have been” written all over it. In 1986 the Giants of course would defeat Denver to win Super Bowl XXI; the Broncos were there because of “The Drive,” the 98-yard march to force overtime in the final stages of the AFC title game held in Cleveland. A Giants-Browns matchup for the Lombardi Trophy wouldn’t necessarily have produced a different champ in ’86 but it would have eased some percentage of the psychic pain of losing football fans in Browns Town carry around with them.
New York opened as 5.5 point favorites, and a defensive struggle was expected. The crowd—66,482—was the smallest gathering of the season to watch the Giants, mainly due to the weather. The no-shows missed quite a cracking game of football, as the Brits say.
It didn’t appear that way at first. The Browns dominated the first twenty or so minutes, seizing a 21-7 lead and eliciting boos from the cold, disappointed crowd. Cleveland’s two-headed monster at tailback, Ernest Byner and Kevin Mack, scored a TD apiece, and a pick-six thrown by Simms put the Brownies up by 14. But the home team rallied. Joe Morris, the great Syracuse alum in the New York backfield, broke off a 58-yard touchdown run, his second of the game. Simms found Bobby Johnson for a score near halftime, and the Giants trailed just 21-20 (one of the PATs was missed).
The flurry continued into the second half. Another Morris touchdown run, a pair of Schubert field goals, and a couple of Browns turnovers resulted in a 33-21 lead for New York, a run of 26 straight points. Bernie Kosar, Cleveland’s ray of future hope at quarterback, had been pulled by then in favor of opening day starter and veteran Gary Danielson, who had a bum shoulder. Kosar, a cantankerous character even then, argued with Schottenheimer over the benching. “He told me Gary was going in, and I said, ‘I don’t see why.’ He said, ‘it’s my decision and I’m going with it,’” Kosar said later.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have played,” Danielson said after the game. “But I don’t think it was that foolish. The doctors said it was up to me, and I felt we needed that win.”
While the hometown kid stewed on the bench, Old Gary D led the Browns comeback. After converting a must-have fourth down in Giants territory, Danielson found Clarence Weathers for a 25-yard score to make it 33-28. After a punt, the Browns drove into New York territory again. With 3:50 left they once again faced fourth-and-short. Danielson tossed a short pass to Byner, who did the impossible—he ran right through a tackle attempt by the great Taylor and turned the play into a 26-yard gain.
Then Danielson’s shoulder popped out once more after taking a hit. Kosar returned to the fray and handed off to Byner, who scooted in from 9 yards out to give Cleveland the lead back, 35-33.
Simms and the Giants had a shot still—in modern parlance, the Browns had left too much time on the clock. A fumbled kickoff meant the drive started at their own ten, but Simms got them moving into field goal range. A pair of passes, a 17-yard scramble, and a roughing the passer penalty got them into Browns terrain. A sideline pass to Byron Williams ended with the Giants receiver tackled at the 18-yard line, but unbeknownst to Simms, Parcells, or most anyone at Giants Stadium, Williams was ruled inbounds, despite appearances to the contrary. Nearly thirty seconds elapsed before Simms called timeout.
“We were just standing around, and someone finally said, ‘Phil! Phil! The clock’s running!’” said Giants guard Billy Ard.
Still, New York was close enough for a game-winning field goal attempt. Schubert was on a hot streak, having made ten of his last eleven kicks. But a bounced snap resulted in a snafu’d kick, way low and left. No good. Browns win, 35-33. So much for the folk hero.
In a season defined by close defeats, New York had come up just short once more. “What’s the difference, how many points?” asked Gants linebacker Harry Carson. “A loss is a loss. They’re all hard to take.”
AFTERMATH
New York recovered to finish 10-6, tied for the NFC East crown but made a wildcard on tiebreakers. In the franchise’s first home playoff game since 1962, the G-Men suffocated San Francisco 17-3 (we will get to that game later in the NYC1000). The following Sunday they were shut out by the Bears in the infamous “Sean Landeta Game,” 21-0.
The Browns scraped to a 1-2 finish and an 8-8 record, but it was enough to win the AFC Central in a down year for the division. They were heavy underdogs in Miami, but a 66-yard run by Byner (the longest in Browns postseason history) gave them a 21-3 lead early in the second half. Alas, from there Dan Marino and the Fish dominated, scoring three unanswered touchdowns to win 24-21 and end Cleveland’s season.
WHAT THEY SAID
“Let’s be honest—if the guy had made the field goal, you know what we’d all be talking about.”
—Gary Danielson, Browns quarterback
FURTHER READING:
Martyball by Marty Schottenheimer and Jeffrey Flanagan
VIDEO: