World Series

If any other city had a team as talented as this year's Yankees, it would consider them a blessing. In New York, it's just a comeback. Or as one local headline put it Monday morning after the team advanced to the World Series: "Yankees BACK where they belong" Tonight, as pinstriped players walk for the 40th time in almost a century onto a field in the Bronx for the ultimate baseball competition, New York will be bathed in...

If the World Series at all resembles the first two rounds of the baseball playoffs, an umpire will make a bad call, a call so bad that instant replay will reveal the error for all of America to see, in living color, in high definition, and within seconds. The manager will charge onto the field to argue. The umpire will defend his call. The game will go on. The error will not be corrected. With a limited replay system and supporting facilities already in use, Commissioner Bud Selig could authorize a broader use of instant replay by the time the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies play Game 1 of the World Series tonight at Yankee Stadium.

We couldn't help ourselves. We thought Alex Rodriguez was lying again. He had lied about not using steroids, until he got caught. He summoned the media to apologize, and we were fine with that. He also trotted out Don Hooton before the television cameras, and then we rolled our eyes. Rodriguez had promised to tell his story to kids, to speak out about his shame, to share how he would learn from his mistake rather than hide from it. Hooton travels the country, delivering an anti-steroid message forged by grief.

The first time they met was seven years ago. Cliff Lee was a September call-up with a cocksure attitude, and his new teammate was immediately impressed. "He was the Cliff that he is now. He went out and pounded both sides of the plate, attacking, real aggressive in the strike zone," CC Sabathia said. "He goes right after you." Lee lost his major league debut that day for Cleveland, despite pitching well against Minnesota. The two pitchers soon struck up a friendship, however, and it's still going strong.

Starters This could be real interesting. The Yankees' CC Sabathia and Phillies' Cliff Lee, former Cleveland teammates, have been dominating. They've combined to make six starts in the postseason, never yielding more than one earned run. They could face each other in Games 1, 4 and 7, if it is necessary. A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte, working behind Sabathia, appear vulnerable but have five quality starts in their six in the playoffs. The Phillies will look to exploit Burnett's wildness.

Teammates and coaches see one side of Pedro Martinez . But the fans see another. "I did some background on what he's like in a clubhouse and how he's perceived in the public, and it is vastly different from how he's perceived in the clubhouse," Philadelphia Phillies General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr . said. "This guy is absolutely fantastic in the clubhouse." New York Yankees left fielder Johnny Damon spent three years playing with Martinez in Boston, and he has tons of good memories.

Wednesday night marked the beginning of a 40th World Series for the New York Yankees, but the first played at the sprawling, sparkling new ballpark in the Bronx, next door to where it seems the Fall Classic was born and raised. But ghosts of glory past stayed behind, even though Yogi Berra waddled out to deliver the ceremonial first pitch for Game 1 at new Yankee Stadium. The christening was a disaster as Cliff Lee out-dueled CC Sabathia and the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies broke home-field advantage with a 6-1 victory.

Good thing the New York Yankees won, or this could have been the defining image of the Game 2 of the World Series: The Yankees' pulling their team off the field while the umpires discuss whether they messed up again. Fortunately for Bud Selig, the defining image was this: When a ball would have loaded the bases, when a hit could have tied the score, when a home run could have lost the game, Mariano Rivera came through again. Or, at least the way the Philadelphia Phillies saw it, the umpires messed up again.

With the World Series tied at a game apiece as it moves from New York to Philadelphia for Game 3 tonight, the Phillies are counting on a couple of factors to give them the home-field advantage. For starters, the loss of the designated hitter in the National League ballpark will cost the Yankees one of their big bats. And the vocal Philadelphia crowd has unnerved opponents before, helping the Phillies win 11 of their last 12 postseason games at home. "Our club is not necessarily built to come into this ballpark," Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said before his team's workout Friday at Citizens Bank Park.

Joe Perruccio knows a professional baseball player when he sees one. And he didn't see one the first time he saw Chase Utley. "He was a skinny little kid," Perruccio remembers of Utley, then a freshman at Long Beach Poly High. "He didn't have a lot of natural ability." Ken Munger, another coach at Long Beach Poly, didn't think Utley was a pro prospect either. Especially not in comparison with Poly teammate Milton Bradley, who everyone knew was a future big-league All-Star. "I could see that Milton was a sure major league ballplayer," Munger says.