Having had an easier-than-expected time with the Texas Rangers in the first round of the playoffs, the New York Yankees face a different challenge tonight when they open the best-of-seven American League Championship Series against the Cleveland Indians at Yankee Stadium.
If the Rangers had to convince themselves they actually had a chance against the Yankees, the Indians do not.
They defeated the Yankees in the first round of the 1997 playoffs. They have seven regulars and three starting pitchers with World Series experience, and they have played in the World Series more often this decade (twice) than the Yankees (once). And for Game 1, the Indians are giving the ball to right-hander Jaret Wright, who defeated the Yankees twice in the 1997 playoffs and twice more during the 1998 regular season.
Yankees Manager Joe Torre will start 18-game winner David Wells and go in Game 2 with 20-game winner David Cone, who was pounded for six runs and seven hits in three innings by the Indians in the 1997 playoffs.
So while the Indians may yet prove to be little more than a speed bump for the mighty Yankees, they bring enough talent and intangibles to perhaps make the series interesting.
"The first game will be a big one," Indians reliever Paul Shuey said. "Not so much if we lose, but if they do. They haven't lost yet. They haven't seen what it's like."
Perhaps history won't matter in a season when the Yankees have been the best team in baseball since the second week of April. They had their division wrapped up by Father's Day and spent the final few months of the season essentially preparing to play in October.
The Yankees swept the Rangers even with American League batting champion Bernie Williams going hitless. The Yankees did win seven of 11 from the Indians during the regular season.
Meanwhile, the Indians had a losing record after July 30, won more than three games in a row just once in the final three months and defeated the Boston Red Sox in the first round despite being outscored 20-18.
But the Indians would like the Yankees to remember 1997. With the Yankees four outs away from advancing to the ALCS, Indians catcher Sandy Alomar homered off reliever Mariano Rivera in Game 4 at Jacobs Field to force a Game 5, which the Indians won. Instead of going for a second straight World Series championship, the Yankees watched from home as the Indians lost to the Florida Marlins.
The Yankees are baseball's best team, but as General Manager Brian Cashman said: "Over the long run, the best team wins. But we're in the short run now."
Favorites don't always win. The team with the best regular season record hasn't won the World Series this decade. Ask the Indians, who had the best record in 1995 and 1996 and didn't win either year.
"We clearly had the best club in baseball in '95 and '96," General Manager John Hart said. "We clearly had the best talent. So we've been on both sides of this. We know how the Yankees feel. But we also know that this is a veteran club. We have good veteran players here who know how to win. This is still a very talented club that can hurt you a lot of ways. We've got to go to New York with the idea that New York is standing in our way to get to the World Series. And we've got to go in with the attitude that this year, the American League champions have got to go through Cleveland."
Cone is not the same pitcher who lost to the Indians a year ago. His right shoulder blew out that August, but he persuaded Torre to start him in Game 1 of the playoffs. He gave up five runs in the first inning and was done in the fourth.
Cone was in so much pain he didn't pitch again, eventually undergoing surgery. He rebounded spectacularly in 1998, but his shoulder problems figure into Torre's decision about when to start him. Since the surgery, Cone has lost some feeling in his fingers in cold weather, and Torre believes it will be a bit warmer in New York than Cleveland this week.
"We're a year removed from losing to them in the playoffs last year, but I think it's fresh in people's minds," Cone said. "If we had gotten by Cleveland, maybe we could have gotten to the World Series and we'd be thinking about three in a row. Maybe it's the reason we won 114 games and we're in the position we are in now. Maybe it was a slap in the face."
Still, it's hard to doubt the Yankees. Even with Williams and Tino Martinez going a combined 3 for 22 in the middle of the order and Chuck Knoblauch and Derek Jeter going 2 for 20 at the top, they still swept the Rangers.
They've confronted every other challenge this season, and if they fell to the Indians, it would be one of the most stunning upsets in recent baseball history.
"I don't know if too many teams match up with the Yankees," Indians outfielder David Justice said. "No one is more solid, top to bottom, than the Yankees. That's why they're the favorites. But the favorites don't always win." CAPTION: Kenny Lofton talks to reporters at Yankee Stadium. He's one of seven Indians regulars with World Series experience. ec
