One thing I think we can all agree on is that Yanks/O's feels nothing like Yanks/BoSox.

Can Mike Lupica write an article about a baseball series without somehow linking the story to Theo Epstein? The world may never know:

"It is the Yankees and the Orioles now in the first round of the playoffs, and so the American League East season did not end on Wednesday night, it goes extra innings, the way it used to with the Red Sox back in 2003 and 2004, when the Yankees and Red Sox would play 19 times during the regular season and still not be done with each other, or have settled anything."

2004: Red Sox end the Curse of the Bambino by coming back from 3-0 deficit in ALCS.  Red Sox win the World Series for the first time since 1918.

2003: Aaron Boone.

1999: Pedro and Zimmer. Clemens and Manny. Perhaps the most intense baseball series I have ever witnessed.

1978: Bucky Dent.

These are some of the greatest moments in one of sports' greatest rivalries.


"Maybe that’s because of the Yankees’ record in the playoffs since their collapse against the Red Sox in ’04:

2005: Lose first round.

2006: Lose first round.

2007: Lose first round.

2008: Miss playoffs.

2009: Win World Series.

2010: Lose to Rangers in ALCS.

2011: Lose first round, finally losing Game 5 at home to the Tigers."

What's your point?


This is the Orioles' record in the playoffs since they leisurely drove home from the golf course and watched on TV as the Red Sox beat the Yankees in '04:

2005: Miss playoffs.

2006: Miss playoffs.

2007: Miss playoffs.

2008: Miss playoffs.

2009: Miss playoffs.

2010: Miss playoffs.

2011: Miss playoffs.


Not sure what any of this has to do with tonight's game.



"The Yankees thought they had put the Orioles away for good Wednesday night, when they beat the Pawtucket Red Sox as the Orioles were losing to the Rays."

Really?

The Yankees thought they had beaten the Orioles all the way back to 1993, before the Wild Card existed?

I am pretty sure the Yankees figured the Orioles had roughly a 50%-50% shot in Texas.


"Only they did not put them away. In the past, the Yankees couldn’t play the wild-card winner in the first round if that winner came out of the AL East."

I don't see what is the big difference here. So the Yankees would be playing Detroit instead of Baltimore and Lupica would be waxing poetic about Verlander, Leyland, and Cabrera.


"Once, in October of 1996, the Yankees really began their run as Torre's Yankees by beating the Orioles in the American League championship series. Now the Orioles are back, because a team that was 41 games under .500 when Showalter took over in 2010 has come all the way back."

"All the way back" is winning one playoff game. That's cool. I understand that this stuff is graded on a curve. I also understand that the Orioles players are probably excited to play in the playoffs, while the Yankee players will be yawning through the first round.


Funny you bring up 1996, though.

I was thinking the 2012 Yankees are the worst Yankee team to make the playoffs since 1996.

The good news is that the Yankees won the World Series in 1996 ... so who knows what will happen in 2012?


"It starts by trying to win three of five against the Yankees. Such a great fight in the AL East this season, such a great September. Like a stirring 12-round fight. No decision yet. Yankees and Orioles fight on. Start of the 13th round at Camden Yards tonight."


Thanks for the boxing metaphor. The 2012 ALDS between the Yankees and the Orioles is nothing like boxing and it's nothing like Yankees-Sox. You're 0-for-2 in your metaphors.


This preview of the 2012 ALDS taught me that Mike Lupica is rooting for the Orioles.  Lupica thinks the Yankees will lose.  Lupica always thinks the Yankees will lose.

The difference is, this is a year where most Yankee fans probably agree.

Most Yankee fans would cut off one of their fingers for a Mark Teixeira sac fly.