The Final Pregame

Coverage on the YES Network started at 6:00PM and will run until ESPN covers the game at 8:00PM. Yogi Berra, Derek Jeter and Joe Girardi had some classic pregame interviews over on Pete Abraham's blog, the same source for these lineups:

YANKEES (84-71)
18 Johnny Damon CF
2 Derek Jeter SS
53 Bobby Abreu RF
13 Alex Rodriguez 3B
25 Jason Giambi 1B
22 Xavier Nady LF
24 Robinson Cano 2B
55 Hideki Matsui DH
26 Jose Molina C
46 Andy Pettitte LHP

ORIOLES (67-86)
1 Brian Roberts 2B
21 Nick Markakis RF
6 Melvin Mora 3B
17 Aubrey Huff DH
55 Ramon Hernandez C
10 Adam Jones CF
15 Kevin Millar 1B
16 Jay Payton LF
2 Juan Castro SS
29 Chris Waters LHP

The New York Giants already avoided a trap game upset with an overtime victory today, so I'm feeling great. Clearly my Joba jersey transcends baseball in terms of success, much like Yankee Stadium itself. I'd be interested to know how New England fans who equally like baseball and football are feeling today. Happy because the magic number is down to 1, or sad Matt Cassel finally showed himself and the worst team in history last year beat the crap out of your team?

• If I could steal anything from Yankee Stadium, I think it would be one of those patriotic flag type things they hand during the playoffs and for important games. If you don't know what I mean simply turn on YES, they're hanging all along the perimeter. When I think big game at Yankee stadium, that's what I think of. I'm guessing Bobby Abreu would take and then throw away the warning track since something about it keeps him far, far, away.
• This will be the final game for Hideki Matsui this year, he's getting surgery soon and should be ready by Spring Training. I'm assuming this will hurt Johnny Damon's chances of not being traded in the offseason.
• You think Chris Waters is nervous? If he pitches poorly, he probably gets a loss. If he pitches well, he has about 50 million people pissed off at him. The Red Sox are going to clinch the wildcard, but let it be any other day of the year. The Yankees need to win this game.
• The Army-Notre Dame, "Win one for the Gipper" game keeps getting mentioned in all of these specials. I finally put the Airplane! reference together and that movie immediately just became even funnier.
• In all my memory surfing this morning, I completely left off the classic speeches given in this ballpark. Babe Ruth's speech two months before his death? His Funeral? The September 11th memorial? All three Pope visits? How about perhaps the most unforgettable moment, Lou Gehrig's speech? To this day, the words "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth" given the circumstances under which he said them are the most powerful words ever used in a speech for me. If I ever had to both cry on cue and become inspired at the same time, the only thing I'd be able to do is download and listen to that speech and I'm sure that barely compares to what it must have been like in person, despite the fact a lot of the crowd had no idea how serious Gehrig's disease was in the first place.
• Bernie Williams had his pregame interview, I'm still trying to listen to the clip.
• Mariano Rivera will be in the game at some point today. Joe Girardi says so. My guess is regardless of situation, he pitches the 9th inning. Do you pull Derek Jeter in the ninth to let him get a final ovation, or let him finish the game? I guess the dictation of what these guys have planned today will let us know.
• The more I reflect on this, the more I realize what a letdown tomorrow will be. If not for the Giants win, I'd be overly depressed for six hours at work. This is the last time our season will feel a playoff atmosphere.
• 230 saves for Rivera in this ballpark. That's obviously a record. Think of it this way, if Rivera had half of his saves here and averaged 40 saves per season, that would mean 20 of them per year were in Yankee Stadium. That's 11.5 seasons at that rate. Truly unbelievable.
• Good to see Bob Lorenz have such a role in this pregame stuff. I know he is always involved in the pregame, but that guy is a staple of the YES Network and he never gets appreciated. He's very much a member of the Yankees family in a third wheel kind of way. Though I'm sure Nets fans feel the same way.
• So far: David Wells, David Cone, Paul Oneill, Joe Girardi, Yogi Berra, Bernie Williams, and Ron Guidry, have all been sighted or spoken from a former player standpoint.
• So far: Regis Philbin, Eli Manning (who was at a Giambi walk-off game), Tony Danza, Chris Rock, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Bobby Flay (whom I hate), Rudy Giuliani, and Cal Ripken Jr. gave their stadium memories via video. Ken Singleton, of course, is also present.
• Scott Brosius has entered the ballpark. He's somehow less ugly. He did bring up a good point, in 1999 they actually got to celebrate on the field. They did not get to in 2000 or 1998.
• Derek Jeter is now giving his on-field interview. He seems a little thrown off today with all the extra hoop-lah going on.
• Brian Roberts: "I've never been to a World Series. Tonight is my World Series." Pretty cool words from an opposing player.
• Cool little nugget I'm not sure if I ever mentioned. One major bond between my family has been this stadium. I, as I wrote this morning, attended Dwight Gooden's no-hitter. When my parents were just married, they attended Reggie Jackson's three homerun game in the World Series clincher against the Dodgers. My Dad's Mom's brother (my great uncle) was at Roger Maris' 60th homerun game. It really is amazing all the history that has taken place here.
• Alex Rodriguez is on the field now. He says his 3 HR game against the Angels was his best moment in Yankee Stadium so far. Nobody wants to win more than him, I'm sure of it.
• No mention of the Beatles performing here in any of the non-Yankees references.
• It's a fine line between optimistically mentioning how nice the new ballpark will be and trying to force the issue. The announcers are very close to crossing that line right now. I think every Yankees fan knows 20 years from now nobody is going to care about this park shutting down, we'll all have embraced the new home by then, but today is not the day to try and shift our concentration. This is actually a mourning process for some people, so let them mourn.
• God, why are we such frontrunners? Look at all the non-loyal Yankees fans hiding in their caves, not being vocal about anything. It's truly terrible how nobody showed up today and how these tickets weren't absurdly expensive because of demand. Really, not one of these hundreds of fans have cited extremely knowledgeable points and memories about this team showing some true fandom. Yes, that was sarcasm.
• Bob Sheppard is now announcing via video. You can tell in his voice he isn't quite right, it's not the crisp clear voice we're all used to. The Voice of Yankee Stadium said he will see us next season in the new ballpark. Michael Kay and John Sterling are the MC's for this event.
• They just presented the original 1922 Yankees AL pennant. I'm so far unimpressed. Now the entire 1923 Yankees roster has been brought back from the dead to take the field. No wait, wait, those might be actors. Babe Ruth is holding a bat. He looks FREAKISHLY similar to the real one.
• Now they are bringing out actors to represent each era of greatness. Lou Gehrig, Lefty Gomez Red Ruffing, Bill Dickey, Joe McCarthy, Allie Reynolds, Casey Stengel and Joe Dimaggio were all represented. I personally understand the point of this, but I think it's corny to give ovations to actors. Now we're onto the real guys.
• So I think now they're doing an entire roster of Yankees greats, which clearly only the Yankees' franchise is capable of doing. So in that sense, this is awesome. Roy White and Dave Winfield and videos of Phil Rizzuto, Tony Kubek, Bucky Dent (why isn't he here in person?) and Derek Jeter played. Now the crowd has chanted, "Derek Jeter" for a minute or so. Michael Kay interrupted to introduce Rizzuto's wife, who is being accompanied by some guy wearing number 42. He might still be playing, he looks fairly young.
• Gene Michael has entered the playing field. He can still run, the camerawoman was struggling to keep up. Now they have entered the third base position.
• That Brosius homerun was probably my second favorite ever behind Boone's. A-Rod received about four seconds of video and was mildly boo'd. Nice job, there. Graig Nettles, wrong spelling of his name and all is actually in attendance, so he's on the field.
• Boggs' turn, his fake hair looks great!
• Brosius is finally getting his cheers. He's the one guy where I feel like none of us ever were ever able to send him off properly.
• The best part about all of this so far is that for 1,000 dollars less, I'm seeing the exact same thing on the exact same video screen. I'm assuming the real players are going to come in more of a full force shortly.
• Randy Maris is representing his Father, Roger. See, that's kind of cool. Good for him.
• It's funny to listen to all of the introductions for the players. They all "lead the Yankees" to some sort of ridiculous amounts of titles, division titles and assorted pennants. This is why the Yankees have to win the World Series in the next five years or so, so Derek can have five or six titles, it would be more impressive.
• Reggie Jackson has entered the field. Paul Oneill followed with the biggest ovation of anybody so far.
• After more videos, Billy Martin Jr. entered representing his Father. See, I support actors when they're actually related to the real people. Bobby Richardson, presumably the real one, is on the field now. They should put the old timers up against the actors in a game and see who wins.
• Welcome to your real family, Willie Randolph. It's good to see him back. That said, "No" to offering him the third base spot next year, but I'd like to see him return in some capacity.
• Randolph slid into second base, I don't know if I've ever sen a happier man for someone who lost his job so recently. The crowd is truly embracing him. Now I hope the Mets don't make the playoffs, but good for WIllie.
• Moose Skowron, better looking now that he's a geriatric, has been welcomed to the party. All the real Yankees are watching from the dugout like it's the last out of the World Series, that's pretty special to see. Chris Chambliss and his brilliant homering self is now on the field.
• Tino has taken the field. Hmm, a lefty bat? He looks in good shape. Giambi in his last week as a Yankee? Any interest? No? OK.
• We're onto catchers now, which means Yogi's ovation will probably explode what's left of this stadium.
• Yogi Berra and Willie Mays might be the most iconic living players, except Yogi is always smiling and Mays always looked pissed off. Eat your heart out Varitek, you'll never catch a no-hitter in a PLAYOFF game. Either way, yup, Yogi just stood at home plate and absorbed everything. A truly touching moment as the crowd chanted, "Yogi" repeatedly.
• Cheryl Howard, whom is very good looking, has come out to represent her Dad, Elston.
• Michael Munson, Thurmon's dad is on the field. He looked very uncomfortable and I'm pretty sure Yogi copped a feel.
• Joe Girardi is on the field again, but as an ex player. The crowd truly could have gone either way with this, but chose to give him an ovation. The team overachieved and looked dead way too many times this year, but very little of that can be held against the manager this season. Way too much happened on the field, off the field and with too much transitioning for this year to be an accurate reading on Joe's managing abilities in the Bronx.
• Pitchers are up now. It started with Whitey Ford and it should probably end with him. Ford is the best Yankees pitcher ever, end of story. He also probably has the best nickname ever.
• They didn't follow my advice and also honored: Don Larson, Catfish Hunter (Helen Hunter humorously was there instead), Goose Gossage, Ron Guidry, David Wells (who might be on crack with all his energy), and David Cone. Centerfield time.
• The hand prints on the wall have been a nice touch (no pun intended). It would seem they allowed the fans to use the warning track to make hand prints hours before the game. There are thousands of them.
• David Mantle, Mickey's son, is here to honor his Father. He looks EXACTLY like him. My guess is Bernie wins the ovation sweepstakes shortly.
• Bobby Murcer's family is present. It appears the son of Mantle is close friends with the family. I think I'm a little shaken up right now.
• Welcome back, Bernie. I never appreciated what kind of player he was until I just heard his resume. The stadium is going crazy, this has been the best moment of the night. He looks legitimately touched as the ovation has approached two or three minutes.
• Bob Sheppard is announcing the starting lineup. There was no other option. His 57 years of work probably gets put to sleep tonight.
• Now that the team is coming out, this concludes the pregame blogging, catch you all at game time.