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No 'mo,' please Who has the momentum now? Who really cares?
Updated: Monday October 22, 2001 8:53 AM
NEW YORK -- Don't believe the momentum thing. Never, ever buy into the momentum thing. It is the most overblown concept in baseball, a tale that's lain bare with one swing of a bat or a single, well-pitched game. Momentum is fickle. Momentum is two-faced. Momentum is that friend of yours who can never make up his mind. Worse than that, momentum is some sleazy cheat of a partner, sleeping with you one day and jumping into the sack with the other guys the next. If you think you have momentum, you probably don't. If you think you want momentum, you probably don't. Take the one good swing. Take the well-pitched game. But never, ever trust momentum. It'll leave you stuck in some hotel room a long way from home, lonely and looking stupid. "Every single game is not to set up another game," says Yankees old-timer Paul O'Neill, who spouts sports clichés more than most but has this concept of momentum down. "Believe me. Nothing's accomplished 'til we win four games." The New York Yankees are one win away from a fourth consecutive trip to the World Series, which puts them on some kind of a roll. But after getting smacked down 14-3 on Saturday and watching Bret Boone's homer fly out of a windy Yankee Stadium on Sunday, giving Boone's Seattle Mariners a 1-0 lead with six outs to go, the Yanks didn't look like they were much on a roll.
Old "Mo," as bad sportscasters everywhere know it, was swinging the Mariners' way. Worst thing that could've happened to them. One good swing later, Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams tied the score with a homer of his own, a wind-blown bloop over the famed Yankee Stadium short porch in right. Then, with a runner on in the bottom of the ninth and one out, Yankees rookie Alfonso Soriano took another good swing, slamming a homer off Seattle closer Kazuhiro Sasaki to win the game, 3-1. New York is now up 3-1 in this first-to-four ALCS, with Game 5 scheduled for Monday night. Do the Yanks have the momentum now? For their sakes, they'd better hope not. For sure, playing well and building confidence and winning a lot of games is real. Sometimes, teams do that quite a bit. Players like to call it "getting on a run." But anyone who buys into this concept that a few wins, or even a lot of wins, gives a team some kind of unstoppable "momentum" is living a big lie. Just because a team wins a lot of games -- or a few -- doesn't mean they can't be beat. Or won't. The Oakland A's had "momentum" during the second half of the season and all the way through the first two games of the American League Division Series. Then a masterpiece of a game by the Yankees' Mike Mussina stopped them cold, and the next thing the A's know, they're bumped out of the postseason. One well-pitched game. The Mariners won 116 games during the season. You can't get much more momentum going than that. But they were stretched to five games in their division series win over the Cleveland Indians, and now they're down 3-1 to the Yankees in the ALCS. A couple of good swings. So now the Yankees, winners of four of the past five World Series, are one step away again. If they make it to the Series -- even if they go on to win their fourth consecutive title -- it won't be because they're on a roll. It won't be because "momentum" is on their side. It will be because of guys like Mariano Rivera, who slammed the door on the Mariners on Sunday. It will be because of big swings from Soriano and Williams and the defense of Derek Jeter and the starting pitching of Mussina and Game 5 starter Andy Pettitte. It will be because of a well-pitched game, or a well-struck hit. And the Yankees' way of keeping the other guys from doing the same. Momentum is a tease. A one-night stand. It's for losers. Never, ever trust it. John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer. Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.
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