Sports Bard

…for the sports writer inside.

Vanderbilt University takes pride in its balanced view towards athletics. Winless in the SEC in 2009, the Commodores football team led the conference by placing 37 members on the SEC fall academic honor roll. Its athletes live among the general student population and take regular course loads.

But for just one week, this normally placid student body let its emotions for football and basketball take over.

On Wednesday, Rajaan Bennett, Vanderbilt’s top recruit for football, and by all accounts, a model citizen as well as the outstanding high school football player in Georgia, was shot and killed by the ex-boyfriend of his mother. Though not yet enrolled, Bennett had already ingratiated himself with the Vanderbilt community by his off the field charitable and community works.

Said Vandy coach Bobby Johnson, “We are devastated by news of Rajaan’s death. As we came to know him, we realized that he was a better person than he was an athlete. He was a leader, a young man who gained the respect of his entire community.”

Strong words for someone who had not yet donned the black and gold.

But there was little time to mourn. On Saturday, second-ranked Kentucky came to town to battle the Commodores for sole possession of first place in the SEC West. On paper, Kentucky appeared too strong, having already pasted the Commodores 85-72 January 30th in Lexington. But with due regard to Vanderbilt’s tenacity and the near-mystical powers of its home court, Memorial Gym, the game was a pick’em affair with the linesmaker.

Notwithstanding its limitations in football, where the budget and personnel requirements are vast, Vandy more than holds its own in the SEC in basketball. Its unique gym and rabid alumni fan base have created one of the great home court advantages. Over the last four years, Vandy is 26 and 4 at Memorial in SEC games, including wins over two no. 1 ranked teams, with three NCAA appearances, counting this year’s certain bid.

Memorial Gym was built in 1951. Instead of seats, there are benches. The individual seat assignments consist of about 24″ of bench. Don’t flex too far to either side or you’re likely to be called for a flagrant foul on your neighbor. Forget about armrests or places to store your drink. And more likely than not your sight line will be impeded by an overhanging deck.

But when you’re inside this arena, revisiting the 1950’s, feeling the momentum of the crowd, you don’t think twice about the amenities you’re missing. The cheerleaders and acrobats, sixty strong, look fresh out of Barnum and Bailey.
Following a rendition of the national anthem which made you want to enlist, the public address announcer requested a moment of silence for Bennett. The crowd complied, grudgingly, because it was ready to erupt.

Kentucky has three certain lottery picks among its starting five, including the best player in the country, freshman John Wall. Unemcumbered by gravity or speed limits, Wall can leap over you or dash around you. With a head of steam in the open court, there is no stopping him, even if opponents are back and waiting. Incredibly, he is almost as much of a presence on defense. He gets every loose ball, and routinely blocks jump shot attempts on the perimeter.

Despite his overriding talent, Wall’s first choice is to set up his teammates, which include Demarcus Cousins, a dominating low post center. Just a freshman, Cousins has been compared to Moses Malone. Most Kentucky half-court possessions begin with an entry pass by Wall to Cousins. All-American 6′10″ Junior Patrick Patterson is the third intimidating option.

Going in, Vanderbilt knew that it had to keep a man in front of Wall at all times and had to double team the post, where A.J. Ogilvy was no match for Cousins. Ogilvy, however, is active offensively and posed a threat to put the volatile Cousins in foul trouble.

The game started out according to form. Vandy went inside to Ogilvy for its first points, and Wall repeatedly fed Cousins in the post. Both centers quickly picked up a first foul. Kentucky coach John Calipari was the first to yank his centerpiece, replacing Cousins with backup center Daniel Orton on alternating possessions beginning two minutes into the game. The pattern continued as Cal, in his first game at Memorial Gym, tried desperately to preserve his asset. Commodore coach Kevin Stalling was equally protective of Ogilvy, replacing him several times throughout the contest with sub burlymen Steve Tchiengang and Festus Ezeli.

The defense on both sides was brutal. Jermaine Beal, Vanderbilt’s skilled senior point guard, glued himself to Wall and negated his penetration. He tirelessly ran around picks designed to free Wall. The rest of the Commodores played their men with similar ferocity. On the other end, the Wildcats were just as determined. They continually rebuffed Vandy efforts to get inside, Cousins and Patterson serving as human fly swatters to Vandy’s feeble attempts to reach the rim. Both teams were ice cold from the perimeter. The score at halftime - Kentucky 27, Vandy 25. This, from teams averaging 79 and 78 ppg, respectively.

Points were just as hard to come by in the second half. Ahead 49-45 with the ball inside five minutes, Vandy was poised to achieve a break-through, but four stalled possessions later, they trailed by four points with less than two minutes to go. Beal and Andre Walker made successive lay ups to tie it; but Wall scooped up a loose ball and laid it in, and his two foul shots stretched the lead to four with 19 ticks on the clock.

It is likely that the crowds at Kansas, Louisville, Duke or Kentucky are just as vocal as the Vanderbilt contingent, but within these crowded confines, in the midst of a Commodore run, the sound resonates, and the floor trembles. That is what happened when freshman John Jenkins’ 3-ball, over Wall brought the Commodores within one with .12 to go. After Kentucky freshman Bledsoe missed two fouls, Beal brought the ball up for the Commodores, down one, with a chance to win it.

John Wall stifles John Jenkins’ game-winning attempt

Wall, as usual, stepped up. When Beal’s rush to the hoop was interrupted, Beal dished to Jenkins beyond the stripe.
The freshman was open, but he faked, giving Wall time to close. Wall stuffed Jenkins’ attempt, ripped the ball away, and was fouled. Wall made one of two, but Calipari stupidly called a timeout when Vandy had none left, and the Commodores had one last ditch effort to tie with 2.5 seconds on the clock.

When Vandy sub Darnell McLendon launched a 3/4 court spiral to the leaping Ogivly, Wlldcat fans flashed back to 1992 when Christian Laettner made a similar catch en route to his famous game-winning shot against Kentucky in the round of 8. But Ogilvy is not Laettner, and his 14-foot floater clanked off the rim at the buzzer.

In defeat, Vandy had played its gutsiest game of the season, holding Goliath to a virtual standstill. Kentucky had demonstrated a defensive resolve and toughness for which it had not received credit.

In the aftermath of this epic battle, coaches and players and others sought consolation. Calipari, probably the only opposing coach in America with a winning record at Memorial, knew that he had dodged a bullet: “I thought Vandy’s game plan was perfect. They played physical, they held the ball on offense, controlled John Wall on defense, and played zone which made us attempt contested three-pointers. But bottom line is we shot 35.8% from the field, 18.8% on 3’s, and 56% from the foul line, and still won.”

Jeffery Taylor, who was the only Commodore in double figures with 17 points, collapsed on the floor after the game in frustration. “I’m disappointed because we had a chance to beat a really good team. I wanted to get it done for our fans and our student body. It hurts.”

In the rafters of the old hall, the ghosts and goblins who haunt the place gathered for a conference. ” We let one get away,” said their leader. “Yeah, but we’ll get them next time,” said another.

The Super Bowl is over. But for me the football season ended a couple of weeks ago.

It ended on a sultry night in New Orleans when an aging and gimpy Bret Favre threw across his body one last time into enemy hands. Those hands, belonging to Tracy Porter, also brought us to the end of yesterday’s Super Bowl, when the Saint defensive back grabbed hold of an errant toss from Peyton Manning and ran it back 74 yards for the clinching touchdown.

Sure, yesterday’s Super Bowl was exciting, and competitive, and was decided in the fourth quarter after a pitching duel between two of the best throwers the league has ever seen.

But after the interminable build-up, the Game itself had little juice. I can’t stand the two week delay. The Super Bowl hoopla annoys me. And I will be grateful if I never again read a human interest story about an NFL player doing community work, or view a commercial with men walking around in their underwear.

(Editor’s note: The Bard’s ennui was evidently not shared by the public at large. Yesterday’s Super Bowl was witnessed by more viewers than any television show in history.)

Two years ago, when the Giants were in it, I felt differently. But unless you were a Saint or Colts fan, did you really feel any intensity in advance of yesterday’s encounter? I know my mind was elsewhere.

It was in Verizon Center, where in the past week, the Georgetown Hoyas have defeated Duke, lost to lowly South Florida, and then on Saturday, before more than 10,000 who defied a record snowfall, torched the number two team in the land, Villanova, 103-90.

It was in College Park, where the unpredictability and reversals of fortune which have characterized this 2009-2010 college basketball season were no better typified than by Maryland’s trouncing of North Carolina, 92-71. Not only was this the worst loss of Roy Williams’ coaching career at UNC, but the outcome left the Terps at 6-2 in conference and the Tarheels at, gulp, 2-6.

It was in Cincinnati, where the most surprising team in the land, Syracuse, ranked number 9 pre-season in the Big East, stretched its record to 23-1 with a come from behind blow-out victory over the tough Bearcats, 71-54. The Orangemen returned less than 20 ppg from last year’s starting team, which surrendered three players to the pros.

It’s been on the road in the Big Ten, where number 5 Michigan State suffered consecutive conference losses after starting 9-0, and now faces its biggest game of the season vs. Purdue Wednesday possibly without its starting point guard, Kalin Lucas.

It’s been in Lexington, where Kentucky hopes to ride rookie John Wall to an NCAA championship.

And tonight, I’ll be drifting to Austin, Texas, where the Longhorns take the Big 12’s last best shot at inflicting Kansas with its first conference loss.

Many ardent sports fans will tell you that they can’t “get into” college basketball until the Super Bowl is over. Then, a couple of weeks before Selection Sunday, they begin to cram. They watch a bunch of games on ESPN or FSN, and they scan the rankings. They get really pumped for the conference tournaments. By Selection Sunday, they’re experts.

But if you’ve waited this long to get on board, you’ve missed about 75% of the regular season. The revealing early season non-conference games are a blur, and you’ve no feel for the ebb and flow of conference play, nor for the development of individual players over the course of the season.

You’ve missed the back story.

Hard core college basketball fans don’t wait until the Super Bowl to watch games. We’ve been following play since November. We’re not just interested in the year-end poll standings. We want to know how a team got there.

Were they improving at year’s end? …Do they have injured players back? …Do they feature improving freshmen?… Do they hit their foul shots?…… And most of all, do they play with character and poise at crunch time?

And after all the analysis, one is startled to find that there is no transitivity in college basketball. You would think that if Team A beats Team B, which owns a decisive victory over Team C, then Team A will beat Team C on its home court. Wrong. In the space of one Big East fortnight in January, Pitt beat Syracuse, which clubbed Georgetown, which beat Pitt decisively in Pittsburgh.

Because of the high turnover in rosters and the growth and maturation of young players, no other sport exhibits the potential for change in a team’s performance over the course of a season as does college basketball. Teams advance, or regress, weekly, or from game to game. Michigan State was last year’s example of a team coming together late. Davidson shined two years ago. This year, the breakout team may be Syracuse.. or Wisconsin..or Baylor.. or BYU.

But the good news is that you don’t have to be an expert to enjoy college hoops, where the fans are rabid and the players put out every night. In fact, the latecomers, les arrividistes, often do better in their brackets than do the self-proclaimed savants, such as this writer, who are inevitably victimized disproportionately by buzzer beaters, blown calls, unlikely comebacks, or just plain bad beats.

If that sounds like sour grapes, it is. But I must leave you now. Villanova tips off at West Virginia at 7:00, and I’ve got to do my research.

Normally the big newsmakers in sports do their work on the field, on the court, in the ring, or on the course. Now they do it in automobiles, in the locker room, in the bedroom, or with their mouths.

These days the sports news is not about athletic achievement; it’s about underachievement. It’s not about won-loss records; it’s about prison records. It’s not about winning titles…It’s about entitlement.

Don’t tell me about the exploits of Chris Johnson on his way to a 2000-yard rushing season. I want to hear about the sexploits of Tiger Woods.

Don’t tell me about the exquisite play of Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dewayne Wade and Kevin Durant. I want to hear about the gunplay of Wild Gil Arenas.

Don’t tell me about Nick Saban’s attempt to become the first coach to win an NCAA football title at two colleges. I want to hear about Mike Leach’s “imprisonment” of Craig James’ son or Urban Meyer’s meltdown.

And don’t tell me about the undefeated records of Kansas, Texas, Kentucky and Purdue when I can read about the arrests of four University of Tennessee basketball players for gun and drug possession, or USC’s self-imposed probation for recruiting violations.

Certainly the Internet and the consuming presence of the media have contributed to this onslaught of negativity. Arenas accelerated his downfall, and made certain his suspension, by his senseless tweets following the disclosure by the New York Post that he kept guns in his locker room. And once the lid popped off Tiger Woods’ bottle, the smutsters couldn’t wait to disseminate word of his conquests throughout cyber space.

But you can’t explain the proliferation of negative news solely by the Internet. The problem runs much deeper than that. You cannot blame the indiscretions, misdeeds and arrogance of Woods, Arenas, Tim Donaghy, Plaxico Burress, Mike Vick, Stephon Marbury, Dan Snyder, Tim Floyd (USC), and every gun-toting and girl friend-beating player in the NBA and NFL strictly on the fact that bad news travels fast.

The root cause of these men behaving badly may be beyond the scope of this column but it certainly has something to do with athletes of limited education, and less common sense, being thrust prematurely into positions of great wealth and power. And it may have a lot to do with players associations (and player agents) which are more concerned with expanding their share of the revenue pie than educating their members and clients on what to do and say.

Arenas, for one, should have been advised to shut up, or to express remorse, when his gun possession was revealed. Instead, he shot himself in the foot, no less than Burress did in that nightclub incident in November, 2008, by making flippant comments about his gun possession and dismissing it as “no big deal.”

Then, on Tuesday night during a timeout in Philadelphia, he laughingly arranged his fingers in a gun-shooting pose which was caught by the cameras. This worked for Clint Eastwood in “Gran Torino,” but Gil’s finger pointing sealed his fate with NBA commish David Stern who promptly suspended him “indefinitely.”

If the estimate of some NBA players that more than fifty percent of the league owns guns is even close to accurate, the NBA players association is doing a horrible job of counseling its members. Arenas is one of the few players without an agent, but someone from the players association should have stepped in immediately.

I see a concurrent deterioration in civility and common sense in major league front offices and in the athletic administrations of some of our great universities, which pursue top-level programs without regard to the rules of the recruiting game.

Is there a more despicable owner than Dan Snyder, who treats his fan base with contempt and his employees with disdain? Snyder has implemented draconian rules for parking, has banned critical signage from the game premises, and filed lawsuits against ticket holders who canceled their subscriptions.

Snyder undermined Jim Zorn’s authority by allowing head case superstars Portis and Haynesworth to communicate directly with him rather than through Zorn. Then he hung Zorn out to dry for three months, first by stripping him of his play-calling duties mid-season and then by interviewing assistant Jerry Grey for the head coaching job while he was still working for Zorn. Snyder’s hiring of Bruce Allen as head of operations may change things; but the first ten years of the Little General’s reign have been a professional and public relations disaster.

I also take issue with Bill Pollian, the revered head of operations for the Indianapolis Colts, who summarily deprived his team and its fan base of the chance for an undefeated season by yanking Peyton Manning and other regulars during the second half of their game with the Jets December 27th.

When one weighs the likelihood of Manning being injured (perfect field conditions, no Jets pass rush, Manning never hurt in twelve years) against the possibility of a perfect season and the importance to the fans and the league of preserving the integrity of the NFL regular season, the folly of Pollian’s decision becomes clear.

What of the USC athletic department, which has been embroiled in a three-year NCAA investigation of payments to Reggie Bush and a one-year investigation of the recruitment of OJ Mayo? Ex-coach Tim Floyd admitted making a $1,000.00 payment to a Mayo enabler, but it is suspected that Mayo or his conduit received tens of thousands more to secure the star’s attendance at USC for one year.

To stop the bleeding, USC last week announced that it would prohibit its team from post-season play this year. This high and mighty ploy drew criticism from announcer Jay Bilas, who suggested that long-time Trojan athletic director Mike Garrett be fired. I do not disagree.

And no discussion of NCAA excesses would be complete without mention of the State of Kentucky’s basketball programs. In the past year, Kentucky’s Billy Gillespie was bounced for public drunkenness and cavorting with coeds (as well as a mediocre record); Louisville’s Rick Pitino revealed that he had bedded (or more appropriately,”tabled”) the girl friend of his assistant in the back room of a restaurant; and new Kentucky coach John Calipari left Memphis with a trail of recruiting violations and a depleted roster.

When the rule-bending and unsavory practices are rampant at the top, is it any wonder that the star athlete perceives that he can operate without limitations on his behavior and in defiance of gun laws?

The gun culture among professional athletes threatens the NBA more than the NFL. Already reeling from the Donaghy revelations about corruption among referees and the big brawl in Detroit four years ago, the NBA suffers from a reputation for thuggery and is experiencing sharp declines in attendance and television ratings. Football players are in full uniform, but the tattooed arms and legs of many NBA players are open to view, which contributes to their unsavory image.

With NBA individual game prices among the highest in sports, the fan has a right to expect committed play and tough defense all the time. As any fan of the Wizards knows, tough defense is not the norm with the ‘Zards. Flip Saunders struck a welcome tone last week when he declared that the Wizards “couldn’t guard him..” Mike D’Antoni of the Knicks has also lashed out at his tardy players, often sitting them down.

After the Arenas suspension, one 20-year Wizard partial season ticket holder lamented: “ I spend $550.00/game and go to eleven games a year. I’ve spent over $100,000.00 following this team. I won’t renew next year.”

If Abe Pollin were alive today to witness the suspension of his star player for gun possession, the news would kill him.

As things stand now, he’ll be joined in that mortal state by Gilbert Arenas’ career.

On Wednesday afternoon, at a press conference at Madison Square Garden to commemorate the 75th anniversary of college basketball, a panel of sportswriters and local basketball insiders presented its list of the ten (10) greatest moments in the long history of college basketball at the Garden. That evening, freshman phenom John Wall of Kentucky, in the course of leading the Wildcats to an exciting triumph over UConn, made a strong case for an addendum to the list.

At the top of the panel’s selections was City College’s unique double triumphs in the NIT and NCAA in 1950. That feat, of course, was later scarred by the indictment of seven of their key players for point shaving in the 1951 college basketball scandal. Other memorable moments were Syracuse’s 6-0T thriller over Connecticut in the 2009 Big East tourney (2); Bill Bradley’s 41-point outburst in a losing effort against Cazzie Russell and no 1-ranked Michigan in the 1964 Holiday Festival tournament (3); and Oscar Robertson’s 57 point Garden debut for Cincinnati in January, 1958, when the Big O outscored the entire Seton Hall team (6).

Here’s the rest of the list.

#4 Gerry McNamara’s Big East Heroics, March 2006. McNamara, a four year starter at point guard, in the midst of a disappointing season, sparked no. 9 seed Syracuse to four victories and a Big East championship

#5 Walter Berry’s Buzzer Block, March 1986 . Trailing 70-69, with seconds to go in the Big East tournament championship, Syracuse’s Pearl Washington, the greatest penetrator in the game, drove hard to the basket . Walter “the Truth” Berry, not known for his defense, swooped across the lane to block the Pearl’s shot as the game ended.

#7 Legendary St. John’s Coach Joe Lapchick ends his career with an NIT Championship, March, 1965.

#8 St. John’s defeats Michigan, January, 1965. Having survived Princeton and Bradley in the semi-finals, No. 1 Michigan squandered a late 16-point lead in the Holiday Festival championship

#9 “The Sweater Game,” February, 1985 . With their teams ranked nos. 1 and 2 in the country, GU coach John Thompson mimicked Lou Carnesecca’s lucky red sweater by unveiling a T-shirt replica as the game started. More to the point, the Hoyas thumped St. John’s in the first of three late-season pummelings.

#10 Stanford snaps LIU’s 43-game winning streak, December, 1936. It’s hard to believe, but in the early days, LIU (Long Island University), NYU, and CCNY were among the best teams in the country. Brandishing the one-hand shots of Hank Luisetti and a frenetic pace, the Cardinal stunned the locals, who were accustomed to a walk-it-up pace and two-handed set shots.

It’s unclear whether Wall’s performance Wednesday will evoke such sacrosanct memories in the long term; but he certainly stunned the Garden crowd from start to finish. Early on, he staked the Wildcats to a 12-0 lead with two steals, an alley-oop assist, and a medium-range jumper. Then, he scored 12 of the last 15 Kentucky points, including a 3-point play late in the game through four defenders to secure the victory. Already, he’s being hailed by some overeager pundits as the best freshman point guard in history, a category which includes Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Chris Paul, and Derrick Rose.

In the tradition of classic point guards, Wall looks to pass first, but takes over at critical junctures. Already in his short career, he has registered four game-deciding plays (to ensure victories over Miami of Ohio, Stanford, UNC and UConn ); but against Indiana yesterday, he scored only 11 points while registering eight assists and seven rebounds, as he let his teammates do the scoring in a blowout victory.

Wall was the lynchpin of a talented recruiting class which John Calipari re-routed from Memphis to Kentucky when he took the Wildcat heading coaching job in May. Kentucky finished 22-14 (8-8) last year, and failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in eighteen years.

That may have been sufficient grounds by itself to can Cal’s predecessor, Billy Gillispie; but the ultra slick Gillispie openly cavorted with college coeds, was often seen drunk in public, and paid little obeisance to Kentucky boosters, who demanded his ouster. Notwithstanding Calipari’s spotty past, he represented a significant character upgrade over Gillispie, and he brought Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, and Eric Bledsoe with him.

This talented threesome joins power stud Patrick Patterson to give Kentucky its best team in a decade. Three starters from last season now come off the bench. In the past week, they’ve registered wins over UNC, UConn, and Indiana, three storied franchises. Now, undefeated at 10-0, and ranked 3rd in the country, they’ve got some breathing room until their January 2 meeting with state rival Louisville, which is in the midst of a down season. The Wildcats are likely to remain undefeated at least until their home date with Florida January 12th.

Kentucky’s resurgence is joined by a revival of the SEC as a whole. Limited to three teams in the 2009 NCAA’S, the conference is poised to place six or seven teams in this year’s Dance. Tennessee, one of the most athletic teams in the country, will contend with Kentucky for the lead in the SEC East. Also in the East, Florida, with an early win over Michigan State and a dynamite backcourt, should win 25 games; and Vanderbilt, though starting slowly, has the talent to finish better than .500 in-conference, normally a guaranty of selection.

The surprise team in the conference will be Mississippi State, which features the nation’s top shot-blocker, Jarvis Varnado, and five starters in double figures. The Bulldogs should win the West, followed by Mississippi.

The Big East is also off to a fast start. Georgetown, Villanova, West Virginia and Syracuse are among the ten undefeated teams in the country. UConn is still UConn. Pitt, Louisville, and Marquette have taken a step back, but former doormats Cincinnati, St. John’s, and Seton Hall are much improved.

If history is an indicator, come Big East tournament time, someone among this group is likely to manufacture a Madison Square Garden moment comparable to the highlight reel produced by John Wall on this famous hardwood just a few days ago.

In the City That Never Sleeps, at a time when baseball, football, basketball, and hockey intersect, what animates the five-borough residents most of all during these late October nights are thoughts of the New York Yankees. Whether it be A-Rod’s prodigious blasts, Derek Jeter’s guile, Mariano Rivera’s unhittable cutter, or nightmarish reminders of the collapse of 2004…….it’s the stuff that dreams are made of.

Late season heroics by the Yanks have been on hold for the past five years, but they have been on full display during the past two weeks.

During their three-game sweep of the Twins in the Divisional Playoffs A-Rod hit game-saving homers in games two and three; Jeter lured Twinkie Nick Spanos into a desperate surge ‘round third before calmly throwing him out; and Rivera, by performing to his usual excellence during a week when fellow closers Papelbon, Nathan, Franklin, and Street failed miserably, cemented his standing as the game’s greatest closer.

Against the Angels in the just-concluded ALCS, the Yanks won with pitching and defense and generally outsmarted their past tormentors in convincing 4-2 fashion. The victory was not without its trepidations, however. The Yankees capitalized on Sabathia’s pitching and Angel errors to sprint to a 2-0 lead, but when the Bomber bull pen blew game 5 after storming ahead 6-4 in the top of the seventh, Yank fans started running scared.

The main objects of the scorn were relievers Hughes and Chamberlain, who were hit hard throughout the series, and Manager Girardi, who was charged with felony over-managing.

In Game 3, he relieved David Robertson with two out, nobody on, in the top of the eleventh. Robertson’s substitute Alfredo Aceves promptly relinquished a hard single and a game-winning double. Then in game 5, Girardi pinch ran Freddy Guzman for A-Rod with the Yankees trailing by a run in the eighth. The skipper was also roasted for allowing shaky starter A.J. Burnett to start the seventh.

In the words of Mike Francesa, a “Tension Convention” set in. The Ghosts of 2004 evoked eerie fears of failure among the faithful. So scared were Yankee fans going into game 6 that the ball game drew a “forty share” tv rating to the “eight share” registered by the Giants-Arizona game being played across the river in the Meadowlands.

The fans respect for the Angels was well grounded. With their combination of pesky contact hitters, daring base stealers, tight defense, and brilliant relief pitching, the Angels had managed to defeat the Yankees in two divisional playoffs (2002 and 2005) and five consecutive season series. They were hard to grab hold of, these Angels. Just when you had them down, they’d string three or four base hits in a row to grab the lead.

This year’s Angels, however, did not bring with them their traditional set of demons. For one thing, their indomitable closer, Francisco Rodriguez, now toiled for the Mets. His successor, Brian Fuentes, served up a tying ninth inning homer to A-Rod on an 0-2 pitch which turned game 2.

The Angels never got their running game going because Yankee pitchers stifled Angel table setters Chone Figgins and Bobby Abreu into 7-48 hitting and one stolen base. To top things off, the Halos committed uncharacteristic base running mistakes and made eight errors in the field, including an unforgivable 3-pointer launched by Scott Kazmir over the first baseman’s head on a Yankee bunt in the 8th inning of game six.

The Phillies pose a more tangible set of obstacles. They’ve got power pitchers and a band of sluggers who will pose as much of a threat to the short Yankee Stadium right field porch as the Bombers themselves. They’re not particularly fast, and their manager Charlie Manuel is old school. One through six in the batting order, they’re as strong as anybody in the majors. They’re the defending World Series Champs and have won their last five post season series, going 18-4 in the process.

Position by position, the Phillies stack up reasonably well against the Yankees. Notwithstanding the Phils’ triumvirate of Rollins, Utley and Howard, consisting of two recent mvp’s and the most productive second baseman in baseball, the Yankees hold the edge in the infield. Cano and Teixeira provide far better defense than Utley and Howard; and Jeter and A-Rod destroy Philadelphia’s left side offensively. The guess here is that a Howard miscue at first will figure prominently in a Yankee rally. Posada at catcher outshines the Phils’ Ruiz.

The Phils hold the edge in the outfield. Victorino is brilliant in center field, Werth possesses a powerful throwing arm in right, and Ibanez is better in the field than either Damon or Matsui. At the plate, the Phils are also slightly better, particularly with Swisher slumping.

Which brings us to pitching, where the Phillies have been in a state of flux. Neither the Phils’ rotation nor its bullpen bears much resemblance to the stellar crew which marched through the Brewers, Dodgers, and Tampa Bay a year ago. The only holdover in the rotation is Cole Hamels, last year’s NLCS and World Series mvp, but this year’s question mark. In three post-season starts, his E.R.A is 6.75.

Phils anchor, Cliff Lee, acquired in mid-season from Cleveland, has been unhittable this post-season. Through 20 innings, he’s 3-0 with an unthinkable E.R.A of .74. But the lineups he faced against the Rockies and Dodgers did not contain names like Jeter, Rodriguez, Teixeira and Matsui. Familiar with the left-handed Lee from his days in the American League, this foursome is lifetime 31-83 against him with good power numbers. Lee was a teammate in Cleveland of Yankee powerhouse CC Sabathia; and like CC, he’s a former Cy Young winner, but he does not carry the same warranty.

Pedro Martinez is scheduled to start game two at the Stadium. Martinez was acquired by the Phils in mid-August, did not pitch against Colorado, but twirled seven masterful innings of two-hit ball in game 2 against the Dodgers, who had not faced him during the regular season. The Yanks know Pedro from his seasons with the Red Sox and inter-league play with the Mets. They are unlikely to be so fooled by his off-speed medley as were the free-swinging, youthful Dodgers.

The Yankee starter in game 2 will be A.J. Burnett. Unlike his mentally-steeled teammates, Burnett has a fragile psyche. With runners on base, in a tight situation, Burnett is as likely to throw one in the dirt as on the black. Unlike Andy Pettitte, who manages to wriggle out of situations, Burnett never met an inning he could not mutilate. Game 5 against the Angels is a case in point. After surrendering four runs in the first, he pitched five scoreless, only to melt-down in the critical seventh inning. Nevertheless, he has enough pure stuff to outlast Pedro who will be hard-pressed to enter the sixth against the patient Yankees.

The Phillies have more depth in their rotation than the Yanks, but starters four and five are of little benefit in a seven game series. At the three hole, Pettitte holds the edge over Hamels. Going into the playoffs, the perception was that the Yanks’ bullpen was much better than the Phils’. Following the disappointing performances of Hughes and Chamberlain, and decent efforts by the Phils’ middle against Colorado and L.A., that conclusion is uncertain; but the Yanks hold a clear and convincing advantage with their closer, Rivera, over Brad Lidge.

The Yanks are likely to start left-handers in at least four, and maybe five, of the seven games. This is bad news for Howard, on whom the Phillies are dependent for their run production. Against lefties this season, Howard hit .207 compared to .319 against right-handers. He can be pitched to.

These historic franchises last met in the Fall Classic in 1950, when the Yankees swept the Whiz Kids. The Phils should do better this time.

Yankees in five.