2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
On Sports
Chris Federici
Issue date: 10/16/07 Section: Sports
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There is no easy way to say it, so I will be blunt; the New York Yankees deserved to lose to the Cleveland Indians in the American League Division Series.
The Yankees were defeated by a young and resilient Indians team that played with much more heart and desire which eventually led to the Yankee's third consecutive first-round playoff defeat. So let's break down how Indians prevailed over the Yankees.
Game 1, which was played in Cleveland, was started by Johnny Damon sending the ball over the right field wall. It was one of the few highlights of the entire division series for New York.
After letting up the solo homerun from Damon, Cleveland's game one starter, C.C. Sabathia started to settle down. He went on to pitch five innings, letting up only three runs and striking out five. But without any doubt, post-season veteran Kenny Lofton single-handedly beat the Yankees in game one. Lofton went 3-4, drove in four runs, and had one stolen base off of Ross Ohlendorf. The Indians went on to win 12-3.
As far as Game 2 goes, it was enough to any baseball fan cringe in their seat no matter which team you were rooting for. In the seventh inning, with New York winning by a score of 1-0, rookie extraordinaire Joba Chamberlain was summoned from the bullpen. But as he took the mound in the eighth inning a plague of bugs infested Jacobs Field and was so bad that Yankee Athletic Trainers ran out of the dugout with a can of bug spray that was used by everyone on the field, including the umpires.
Chamberlain then walked Grady Sizemore, and with bugs crawling all over his neck and arms, tossed a wild pitch to Asdrubal Cabrera which sent Sizemore to second. A sacrifice fly and another wild pitch sent Sizemore home.
"They bugged me out, but you've got to deal with it," Chamberlain said in a post game interview. Cleveland went on to win the game in the bottom of the 11 inning off of a bases-loaded RBI single by Travis Hafner which drove in Kenny Lofton from third.
The Yankees were defeated by a young and resilient Indians team that played with much more heart and desire which eventually led to the Yankee's third consecutive first-round playoff defeat. So let's break down how Indians prevailed over the Yankees.
Game 1, which was played in Cleveland, was started by Johnny Damon sending the ball over the right field wall. It was one of the few highlights of the entire division series for New York.
After letting up the solo homerun from Damon, Cleveland's game one starter, C.C. Sabathia started to settle down. He went on to pitch five innings, letting up only three runs and striking out five. But without any doubt, post-season veteran Kenny Lofton single-handedly beat the Yankees in game one. Lofton went 3-4, drove in four runs, and had one stolen base off of Ross Ohlendorf. The Indians went on to win 12-3.
As far as Game 2 goes, it was enough to any baseball fan cringe in their seat no matter which team you were rooting for. In the seventh inning, with New York winning by a score of 1-0, rookie extraordinaire Joba Chamberlain was summoned from the bullpen. But as he took the mound in the eighth inning a plague of bugs infested Jacobs Field and was so bad that Yankee Athletic Trainers ran out of the dugout with a can of bug spray that was used by everyone on the field, including the umpires.
Chamberlain then walked Grady Sizemore, and with bugs crawling all over his neck and arms, tossed a wild pitch to Asdrubal Cabrera which sent Sizemore to second. A sacrifice fly and another wild pitch sent Sizemore home.
"They bugged me out, but you've got to deal with it," Chamberlain said in a post game interview. Cleveland went on to win the game in the bottom of the 11 inning off of a bases-loaded RBI single by Travis Hafner which drove in Kenny Lofton from third.
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