Rattler Alumni Report: 2009 World Series Game Six

@Yankees 7, Phillies 3

Yankees:
Alex Rodriguez (Foxes, '94): 1-for-2, 2 RUNS, RBI, 2 BBs
Damaso Marte ('96): 0.2IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K

Phillies:
Raul Ibanez (Foxes, '94): 2-for-3

Final Stats for the Appleton Baseball Alumni:
Rodriguez: 5-for-20, HR, 6RBI
Ibanez: 7-for-23, HR, 4RBI
Marte: 4 games, 2.2IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 5K

Crown was a long time coming for A-Rod

Now that Alex Rodriguez has his first championship, Brian Cashman says A-Rod can just play to further his own legend.

“I think the rest of his career now he can just write history,” Cashman said after last night’s World Series championship. “He doesn’t have anything that he has to answer for anymore. He obviously has to produce, there’s no doubt about that. But he doesn’t have to be told he can’t do anything. He’s done everything now.

“And so now, he can sit back, and his work ethic and his play will take him just wherever it’ll take him.”

Rodriguez’s seasons had always ended too early. He never took home the championship. He never even came close with the Yankees. This postseason, however, ended far differently.

Just a reminder of where it started.

Rattler Alumni Report: 2009 World Series Game Five

@Phillies 8, Yankees 6

Yankees:
Alex Rodriguez (Foxes, '94): 2-for-4, RUN, 3RBI

Phillies:
Raul Ibanez (Foxes, '94): 2-for-4, RUN, 2RBI, HR

Come on, MLB, no video of that tape measure shot by Ibanez? I suppose the two homers by Utley deserves it, but the scoreless relief stints by Alfredo Aceves and Phil Hughes? Seriousl...oh, wait. Here it is. Under the headline, Coke struggles in relief. Folks, remember that MLB is not New York-centric. The Ibanez homer is about 50 seconds into the clip.

Ye Williams, he got most of that one.

Philly.com Photo Credit: Yong Kim / Staff photographer

I'll send you to the New York Post, because it's more fun to read them when the Yankees lose. Example:

From dream to nightmare

Subhead: A.J.'s big chance goes to hell

When it was over, the clubhouse boys were stuffing gear into bags rather than wrapping plastic over lockers. Instead of uncorking champagne, the Yankees were tossing socks and sanitary hose into big laundry bins. Bud Selig, with no presentation to make, walked briskly and bypassed the room altogether.

There was no music, no laughter, very little conversation, very little interaction at all. But over in the far corner of the room, one very penitent pitcher took all of this -- all of the quiet, all of the disappointment, all of the frustration -- and heaved it onto his shoulders like a thousand-pound knapsack.

"I let 25 guys down," A.J. Burnett said. "I let a whole city down."

It's up to you...New...York...Newwwwwww Yyyyyyooooooorrrrkkkkkk!

Game six is Wednesday night.

Rattler Alumni Report: 2009 World Series Game Four

Yankees 7 @Phillies 4

Yankees:
Alex Rodriguez (Foxes, '94): 1-for-4, RUN, 2B, RBI
Damaso Marte ('96): .1IP, 0H, 0R

Philadelphia:
Raul Ibanez (Foxes, 94): 0-for-4, 3K

A-Rod puts Yanks a win away

The Yankees are nine innings away from returning to a place Derek Jeter and others firmly believe a season is a failure if they don’t.

Tonight at Citizens Bank Park, a gem of a baseball stadium, the Yankees will attempt to win their 27th World Series title and first since 2000 against the defending champion Phillies.

Thanks to a gutsy effort by CC Sabathia on short rest and enough production from a lineup that produced two runs in the first and fifth innings and three in the ninth, the Yankees won Game 4, 7-4, last night in front of 46,145.

That's odd...the headline makes it seem as if A-Rod is the guy...But, the story doesn't mention him until....Paragraph...Let's see...copy 1...copy 2...copy 3...skip 4...skip 5...6!

Lidge then hit Teixeira with a pitch and gave up an RBI double to Alex Rodriguez that put the Yankees on top 5-4. Jorge Posada followed with a two-run single to left-center that provided Mariano Rivera with a three-run bulge to work the ninth. Rivera recorded his 39th postseason save by getting the final three outs.

Surely, someone can right this. Oh, I was getting worried. This fall, this team, is A-Rod's

It had to boil down to this, didn't it? That's always been Alex Rodriguez's rarest gift, the way the moment seeks him out, stalks him, finds him.

That hasn't always been a good thing, but those moments all seem another lifetime ago. In these playoffs, there is nobody better equipped to seize them.

And nobody the Yankees would rather see stepping to home plate.

"He's the reason why we're sitting here and in Philadelphia right now," Johnny Damon would say later, after everyone could start breathing again. "Without him, who knows where our road may have stopped? He's been huge."

Game Five is tonight.

Rattler Alumni Report: 2009 World Series Game Three

Yankees 8 @Phillies 5

Yankees:
Alex Rodriguez (Foxes, '94): 1-for-2, RUN, HR #1, 2RBI
Damaso Marte ('96): IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K

Phillies:
Raul Ibanez (Foxes, '94): 0-for-4, 2K

Upon further review, A-Rod comes through

Never forget that Alex Rodriguez loves being the cen taur of attention. The man knows what to do with the spotlight, and the camera.

Though A-Rod continues on his path of a mythical postseason, Phillies slugger Ryan Howard continues to be horsemeat.

If this keeps going along the same way, the World Series will be over in five games as Jimmy Rollins predicted. Only J-Roll will have had his money on the wrong horse. It's the Yankees, not the Phillies, who are on pace for a five-game victory after their 8-5 win last night at Citizens Bank Park to go up 2-1 in the Series.

And now that we all know what kind of paintings A-Rod loves to place over his bed -- the mythical centaur, half-man and half-horse -- don't lose sight of the fact that A-Rod has been a mythical performer this postseason.

His first World Series hit turned out to be a home run, a replay home run that smacked into a camera in right field.

"Well, it's only fitting, right?" Rodriguez said.

Rattler Alumni Report: 2009 World Series Game Two

@Yankees 3, Phillies 1

Yankees:
Alex Rodriguez (Foxes, '94): 0-for-4, 3K

Phillies:
Raul Ibanez (Foxes, '94): 2-for-4, RUN, 2 2Bs

A-Rod not bothered by 0-fers

When it's 12 or 15 or 20 at-bats, maybe then Alex Rodriguez will worry about it.

But not through two games. And not through eight at-bats.

After Alex Rodriguez's blistering ALDS and ALCS, the Yankees slugger has been not just cooled off but basically frozen through the first two games of the World Series.

A-Rod went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in Game 1, then went 0-for-4 with three more strikeouts last night in the Yankees' 3-1 Game 2 win over the Phillies.

He struck out just five times combined in the first two rounds.

"It's eight at-bats -- I'm not concerned at all," he said after last night stinker. "Guys picked me up today, we're 1-1. There's a lot of baseball left."

Ibanez back in field, still hitting

Charlie Manuel is in one of those grooves a manager finds as rarely as a completely contented roster. Nearly every move he makes plays out pretty much the way he envisioned it.

Take Raul Ibanez's adventures in the first two games of this World Series, which is now tied up at 1-1 following the Yankees' 3-1 Game 2 triumph last night.

In the Series opener Wednesday, the Phils' manager decided to make Ibanez his designated hitter, even though it was clear his regular leftfielder would have preferred his customary position. Ben Francisco, Manuel said, was more mobile.

Still, Ibanez got over his disappointment and validated Manuel's decision, his two-run, eighth-inning single the most significant hit in what would turn out to be a 6-1 Phillies win.

Last night, before Game 2, with a flu bug limiting his options, Manuel again pondered what to do with his leftfielder and his DH.

This time, with Greg Dobbs ailing, he called on Matt Stairs to DH against righthander A.J. Burnett. And he told Ibanez to find his glove and get back in left.

So, of course, Ibanez rediscovered his mobility, making a spectacular catch. He also doubled in his first and last at-bats and scored the Phils' first and only run on a single by - you guessed it - Stairs. It was the big swinger's first one-base hit since June 28.

Rattler Alumni Report: 2009 World Series Game One

Phillies 6 @Yankees 1

Yankees:
Alex Rodriguez (Foxes, '94): 0-for-4, 3K
Damaso Marte ('96): .2IP, 0H, 0R, K

Phillies:
Raul Ibanez (Foxes, '94): 1-for-4, 2 RBI

Phils' Ibanez shakes disappointment, delivers as DH

You are Raul Ibanez and you've waited your whole life for this moment.

The World Series.

In your hometown.

The Yankees in the other dugout.

And then you see that you're not playing the position you occupied all year, and suddenly the dream script doesn't look quite the same. Instead of left field, you are the designated hitter.

"You're still getting to play," Ibanez said later. "You're still getting your at-bats. You've got to help your team win no matter what you're doing."

Indeed, after struggling early in his role as designated hitter, Ibanez confirmed manager Charlie Manuel's decision and overcame his own disappointment by getting one of the game's biggest hits.

Lee dumps ice on A-Rod hot streak

Alex Rodriguez has been talking about how he’s trying to keep it simple, and he chuckled when asked about that last night.

“I did keep it simple today,” Rodriguez said after suffering through easily his worst postseason game this October. “[Cliff Lee] kept it even more simple.”

The scorching Rodriguez was extinguished last night, the Phillies’ superb left-hander harnessed A-Rod in the Yankees’ 6-1 World Series Game 1 loss. Rodriguez went 0-for-4 (his first hitless game this postseason) and struck out three times. That’s the first time in the playoffs this year that he’s fanned more than once in a game.