Good morning, good afternoon or good evening to you my reader - whichever of those three applies to you at this particular time. Welcome to the next-to-last regular season edition of The Gospel According to "L". Remember, after the regular season is over - this little column will be posted only after each postseason round (hopefully three) and then sparingly during the offseason. Now this week we're going to review the seven games played, I'm going to talk about the MVP situation and I'm going to review HBO's little documentary about the 2001 World Series. Whenever you're ready - let's begin!

Let's begin with the four-game home stand against the Jays & Rays (not to be confused with Gay.) Thanks to the stupidity of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays organization, Monday was supposed to be an off day for the Yankees. However Bud Selig, the Yankee-hater, decided to start the three games against Toronto on Monday night and have the D-Rays come in on Thursday. That night the Bombers faced a young Venezuelan lefty named Gustavo Chacin - one of AA's best pitchers. I remember in some box scores I did for the Trenton Thunder report, when Chacin pitched for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Thunder barely were able to score any runs at all. Well the big-league Yankees couldn't do any better against him - in fact the last two runs charged against him were inherited runs given up by Miguel Batista. And Javier Vazquez didn't help either - he's been an enigma all season. He's great some nights, and other nights he's piss poor! His biggest weakness is when the sinker doesn't sink, let me put it this way - it travels so far that if you call the location where the ball landed - it will be charged at a long distance rate. The first batter of the game - another Minor Leaguer named Russ Adams led off the damn game with a homerun and the Jays scored six times against Vazquez, Felix Heredia and Paul Quantrill. This was the first rookie to win his debut against the Yankees since 1996! I actually thought Blake Stein pulled it off back in '99 when he was with Kansas City - but I guess I was wrong. The last guy to do it was Jason Dickson of the Angels, and he hasn't been heard from since 2000! The last left to do it was Vaughn Eshelman with Boston back in '95 - and he only lasted three seasons! Gustavo, lo siento por ti papa, pero esto no es buena seña (this is not a good sign.) Now we get to Tuesday - and Esteban Loaiza was picked to start this game - I figured right now anybody is better than Brad Halsey - hell I'd name Bubba Crosby as the starter over Halsey. But anyway, he did pitch pretty well. One thing I love is how Joe Torre takes him out with one out in the sixth and let's him get a standing ovation. You see, that's the type of manager Joe is - he wants his players to feel good about themselves - you never hear him rip them do you? He's sort of like the teacher, who if you get two F's and a D on three tests and then finally earn a B - he'll tell you good job, just so you can feel good and have peace of mind going into the next test. But anyway, he did give up only two runs on two hits, three walks and five strikeouts. After that it was over until Mariano nearly coughed it up again in the ninth, but he held on and got save number 50. The other big highlight was Jason Giambi taking Roy Halladay into the retired numbers section. Apparently he's getting his strength back - but honestly, he won't be 100% until April of 2005. Now we go to the finale - this one really ticked me off. I thought for sure the Yanks would win this one and reduce that magic number even further - but that wasn't going to happen now was it? El Duque is on the mound and you have a 3-0 lead, and you lose? Since when! Later on he said he was thinking about today's game; "no estaba pensando en las consecuencias" - he wasn't thinking about the consequences. Had they won they would have wrapped up a playoff spot - meaning they'd be playing past game number 162 no matter what. Well apparently neither was I because I wasn't aware - I was simply thinking of lowering the magic number. Once Vernon Wells hit that ball in the seventh - I thought to myself no freaking way! And it's amazing since when El Duque left it was 4-3 - then Felix Heredia comes in and makes sure the Jays get themselves an insurance run. Heredia's another enigma - he's either great or awful - but mostly awful, but that's what Brian Cashman gets for not being able to get a quality lefty for the bullpen. The worst part about this is that Yankees had the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh and couldn't get a run home, and Jorge Posada homered in the bottom of the eighth to make it 5-4! Had Heredia not given up that extra run it would have been tied up! So now the last-place Blue Jays come in and take two out of three, all this while the Red Sox have already won two of three against Baltimore - a team they had trouble with earlier in the season. Then came the Thursday make-up game. I did not get to watch it since I started a new job on Thursday - but from what I heard the D-Rays looked flat and tired; as if they did not want to be there. Trust me fellas, we didn't want you there either! But it's your own fault for 1) not being able to plan for hurricanes and 2) having a corrupt commissioner who will throw the rules away! Next week I'm going to discuss Selig more when I talk about Pete Rose. Also Jon Lieber pitched very well, and the Yankee offense treated Todd Ritchie like the minor leaguer he is. So at least a Yankee win, and also a Red Sox loss to Baltimore cuts down the magic number to six as the Bombers travel up to the 617 for three games.

Now we got the three games at Fenway Park. The magic number is down to six, and the Yankees really need to avoid a sweep just to give the Sox little to no chance to win the East. Well Friday night was fun - that is if you like your heart beating fast. The Yanks go up 2-0 in the third and then the Sox tie it up on one swing by Manny Ramirez in the bottom of the inning with two outs! Then in the fourth Trot Nixon, with one swing, puts the Sox ahead again. The Bombers tie it at three in the sixth, and then Flash Gordon comes in the seventh and, once again, one swing by that hippie bastard Johnny Damon makes it 4-3 Boston. See what happens when you don't locate your pitches well? That one swing trend continues with Hideki Matsui hitting one into the Sox bullpen in the eighth against Pedro to make it 5-4 Yankees. I'll tell you - going into the ninth, as I'm sure most of you felt the same way - I wasn't comfortable with a one-run lead. Hell, I figured we might need a ten-run lead. Well Matsui doubles to give'em one more run and make it 6-4. Then in comes Mariano and walks the leadoff hitter! God help us! But then a double play and a groundout, both back to Mo (as I remembered it, I could be wrong) ended the game, and my nervousness. This was a big one - especially with Tim Wakefield and Curt Schilling coming up. I heard Pedro actually said the Yankees are his "daddy." I was wondering what took him so long to figure that out? Ever since he lost the ability to throw 97 MPH, he's been vulnerable - at least against the Yankees. All right, now we come to Saturday night - and it looked almost the same as Friday night - seesaw. I kind of liked the way YES did the game - no commercials in the mid-portions of the innings - instead just some highlights of the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry. Javier Vazquez, once again, the homeruns killed him! If he gets Doug Mirabelli in the fourth, the inning is over. Instead - Mirabelli hits one over the high centerfield wall to tie the game up at three! Who knows, maybe the Bombers have a 5-3 lead going into the eighth instead of a tie game. Now let me first talk about the two runs the Yanks scored in the fifth - I know in most cases of a ground-rule double the runner on first has to stop at third - but in this case, the replay showed that even if the fan doesn't touch the ball, Bernie still scores. I don't know if it was Fieldin Culbreth or Jim Wolf who made the call, but it was the right call. But that didn't matter - what mattered was that the bullpen collapsed in the eighth and turned a close game into a rout! So now the Bombers have no chance at all to clinch at Fenway Park - for those of you who do not remember - they did clinch the 1998 division title at Fenway, but they led Boston by more than 20 games, so it wasn't a great big deal until the postseason. Well, now we come to Sunday - and this one I don't even want to remember. The game ended the minute David Ortiz hit the Green Monster this one was over - you're not going to get too many runs or hits off Curt Schilling. Kevin Brown looked flat as hell - his pitches were up in the zone, and you know what happens then. That's the problem with sinkerball pitchers - when the pitches don't sink they fly high! I spent most of Sunday watching the Giants beat up on the Cleveland Browns, and occasionally I would turn back to YES. To lose to the Red Sox in a pennant race is bad enough - but to get embarrassed like this? There was no excuse! Esteban Loaiza came in and he didn't exactly look like Drysdale out there. I didn't even get to see the beanball wars between Pedro Astacio and Brad Halsey. I did kind of enjoy when Kenny Lofton stepped on Doug Mientkiewicz's foot while touching first base - I think Ty Cobb would have been proud! Also Andy Phillips hit his first big league homerun in the eighth - this kid hit the game-winning homerun in the AAA All-Star Game for the International League at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, RI - home of the Red Sox AAA-affiliate. However the bottom line is this - they lost two of three when they could easily have won two of three. The magic number is still four with six left.

With all this in mind, I want to preview the final week of the regular season. The Bombers play the Minnesota Twins for three games and then head up to Toronto to finish the season. Meanwhile what are the Red Sox doing? They're playing in St. Pete and Baltimore! Now travel-wise the Yanks have the advantage, but the difficulty factor favors the Sox, as much as I hate to say it. The Red Sox play the two teams who are near the bottom in the East, while the Yanks play a team that's 1) headed to the postseason and 2) has the best lefty in the American League - Johan Santana. After that they do play the last-place Blue Jays, however remember what happened this past week! The Yanks need to take these games seriously; otherwise the Sox could sneak up and snatch away the division, leaving the Yanks as the road team in the AL portion of the playoffs. Do you really want to start the playoffs at the Metrodome, Network Associates Coliseum, or Ameriquest Field? Me neither! All right, let's move on to the two other topics for this week.

Right now I want to talk about the MVP situation and Gary Sheffield. Now Sheff has been named as a potential MVP - the same goes for Vladimir Guerrero, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. Now all four of these man are very much deserving of that award, don't get me wrong. At the time I am writing this Sheffield is hitting .293 with 36 homeruns and 119 RBI's. Vlad is hitting .327 with 33 HR's and 115 RBI's; Manny is hitting .310 with 42 HR's and 126 RBI's and his teammate Ortiz is hitting .297 with 40 dingers and 132 runs driven in. There are some cases here where they would not be MVP - you can say the Sox would still be a good team with either Manny or David Ortiz, or even both of them. Curt Schilling has been pitching very well, the bullpen has improved, and they have a great lineup from 1 to 9 anyway. The Angels also have a great lineup - those guys do not strike out and they put the ball in play! The Yankees have guys like A-Rod, Jeter, Matsui, and their bullpen has been good with Quantrill, Flash and Mariano - in fact Peter Gammons even said he thought Mariano could be MVP. These are all great arguments for a debate.

Right now, I will tell you that Gary Sheffield, or any Yankee will win the MVP award. The sports writers do not want to see a Yankee as the MVP because of their prejudice! "What? That's not true you have no proof!" Let me give you a great example - 1999. Tino Martinez had a .995 fielding percentage and played 158 games at first base for the Yankees. Rafael Palmiero had a .996 fielding percentage, but how many games did he play at first base? Twenty-eight! He played only 28 games at first base - yet he won the Gold Glove! You know if he had played an entire season I could understand, but twenty-eight games! Tino had virtually the same percentage and played in 130 more games, yet Palmiero wins the Gold Glove? Tell me something is not suspect there! Sheffield, even if he stands out above the rest would probably still not win the MVP award. Now in 1985 Don Mattingly won it, and he was the last Yankee to win the MVP. But his big competition was Dave Winfield - and those two were great big helps to their team - hell they came very close to beating out the Blue Jays for the AL East. Can you imagine the 1985 ALCS with the Yankees and the Royals yet again? But like the cliché goes - we'll never know. Just remember my warning - if Sheff does not win the MVP, do not be disappointed. Consider this your foresight. All right, let's get this week wrapped up.

Now I want to review the HBO documentary called Nine Innings From Ground Zero. I didn't watch it until this week - and I thought it was well done and it had some good interviews. Some of it did make you cry - especially when you see the victims and their families. But what got me was how this "helped" the city "recuperate." Sure, I can understand, watching baseball or any other sport can be theraputic, but what did it really accomplish?

Of course, it was great to see the Yankees come from behind the beat Oakland in the division series, and it was even better to see them knock off Seattle in the ALCS - but after that, what joy was there? All right, you have games three, four and five - President Bush throws out the first pitch in game three and the Yanks win 2-1. In game four Tino Martinez ties the game at two with a homerun off Byung-Hyun Kim in the ninth, and then Derek Jeter homers to win it and tie the series at 2-2. Then in game five, the Yankees trail 3-1 going into the ninth - once again, two out, one man on and Scott Brosius at the plate. He homers to left, then Alfonso Soriano brings home Chuck Knoblauch to win game five and make it 3-2 Yankees. At the time it was great, I mean the Yankees needed one more win to do what the Chicago Bulls couldn't to - four-peat. They get hammered in game six, and then they lead 2-1 in game seven going into the ninth - and then Mariano picks the worst time to have a rare moment! The Yankees lose the World Series while the Arizona Diamondbacks, basically still an expansion team, celebrate and urinate on our party! Not that they didn't deserve to win, but this was not the year for it to happen! I'm sorry if you don't feel this way - but it was as if the Diamondbacks basically finished whatever job Osama Bin Laden could not accomplish! If I had been interviewed that is exactly what I would have said, and I would make no apologies! Hell, to this day I like to call Phoenix, Arizona's Major League Baseball franchise the Bin Laden Backs. And remember this - before 9/11 New York was just a place of evil to most Americans - some even wanted this town bombed off the face of the earth. Now that 3,000 people die - all of a sudden they love us, and some of you actually stood there and accepted that! You're just as evil as those phones are, I hate to say it but it's true! And that goes you too Rudy Giuliani! Before 2001 people hated this town because it is the world's financial capital and the backbone of the US economy! And you, like all the other saps accepted their so-called olive branch. There were people who deep down inside were cheering the fact that something bad happened to New York - and it wasn't just those in the Arab World!

But you know what - to know that the Bin Laden Backs are now baseball's worst team makes me feel great! You sold your souls to win in 2001, and now you're paying a hefty price! Bob Brenley's out of a job, and the only player left on that team from '01 is Randy Johnson. Oh baby I love it! I'll tell you this much though - if I had known back in 1998 or '99 that we'd be attacked so viciously and lose 3,000 people - I'd have said let's wait 'till 2001 to win a World Series. I would still never trade 2000 - that's one I'll cherish forever - especially celebrating at Shea - but 2001 was the one we really needed to really help this town heal! Since 9/11/01, no team with the prefix New York has won a title - the only team is the New Jersey Devils, but they're from New Jersey, not New York! My mother believes in a "9/11 curse" - kind of like the Bambino curse in Boston, the Red Dutton curse against the New York Rangers and the billy-goat curse against the Cubs. I don’t know if I buy that - but if it's true, I have no idea why we have been cursed after something so vile happened to us. Anyway, take care friends, see you next Sunday or Monday.