Magic

They are wrong. They are all wrong. The magic has not left the Stadium. The magic has not left the Yankees. The magic has never been stronger nor has the magic ever worked harder.

The Yankees led the Red Sox 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth of Game 4 with Mariano Rivera on the mound. The Red Sox looked dead, the playoff series appeared to be just about over, and the Yankees would be going to the World Series again.

But this Yankees team has great weaknesses. There is no left handed starting pitcher. The Yankees starters are Kevin Brown, who tries to beat up walls and whom the Yankees beat in the 1998 World Series, Javier Vazquez, who had no idea what happened when each of the thirty three home runs he allowed was hit, Jon Lieber, who hopes that when the ball is hit it can be fielded, and Mike Mussina, who always comes close but never close enough. Only El Duque Hernandez showed the effectiveness that was the mark of Yankees' starters during the four years that produced World Championships, and El Duque was coming off arm surgery

Not only don't the Yankees have any left handed starter, they have no effective lefty relief pitchers. Felix Heredia is the Yankees' left handed relief pitcher who can't pitch effectively against Tampa Bay. How would he do against Houston or St. Louis?

The outfielders can't throw out runners. Left fielder Hideki Matsui has an average arm at best, centerfielder Bernie Williams has one of the worst arms of any outfielder, and Gary Sheffield, the only one with a good arm, played with a damaged shoulder all season.

During the season, the Yankees beat the bad teams, usually falling behind but coming back sixty one times, often against bad bullpens, to win 101 games. During the season, against the bad teams, the Yankees' weaknesses were either hidden or overcome. This Yankees team was just good enough to lose and they did.

The Yankees had, to the utter amazement of almost all, beaten the favored Red Sox in the first three games of the playoffs. No one expected it. It would take great magic, a miracle, an unprecedented occurrence of major proportions to prevent the Yankees from going to the World Series.

The magic has not left the Stadium. The magic has not left the Yankees. The magic had to be stronger and had to work harder than ever before. It did.

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