HAKANIN.Sports

Paul’s Note: The following article was posted on 10/9. For the original article in Traditional Chinese, click HERE.

Nobody thought that Chien-Ming Wang’s last game of the 2007 season would end like this, walking off the mount showered by boos.

Lasted only 1 inning, Wang gave up 5 hits and 4 earned runs, and the Yankees lost to the Indians 4:6, season is over. If The Boss George Steinbrenner keeps his words, this was also the farewell game for manager Joe Torre.

The sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium at first chose to “temperately” forget the tragic loss in Game One, still cheered for Wang at the beginning of the game when he was introduced; Reggie “Mr. October” Jackson’s ceremonial first pitch pumped up the crowd to continue the intensity from Game Three.

However, it only lasted a couple minutes.

The 3rd pitch of the game, a 95MPH fastball, unfortunately was right down the middle, and the Indians’ leadoff hitter Grady Sizemore sent it over the fence by center field.

By this time, there were some boos already from the fans, and after the Indians had 2 more hits in the first inning, whispers of “is it going to be like Game One again?” can be heard among the press.

It was worse.

After giving up 2 runs in the first inning, the 2nd inning was a disaster, first batter had a hit off a fastball in the middle; then a 97MPH fastball, still in the middle, turned into another hit; the 3rd batter, hit by pitcher.

Whether the ball actually hit the batter was no longer relevant, Chien-Ming Wang had to come out of the game before it was too late. It was not just a bad outing - it was historically bad. This is the 2nd shortest outing by a Yankee starter in the team’s postseason history. The last time a pitcher lasted only one inning in the playoffs was all the way back in 1953.

Joe Torre said after the game that Wang had the speed, but balls were high. Catcher Jorge Posada also stated that Wang was unable to keep the balls low in his past 2 starts.

It wasn’t just Chien-Ming Wang, the offense was having issues as well. They were getting hits, but lacked the key ones to score. Alex Rodriguez strikeout at clutch moments as usual, and the others followed suit, the Yankees simply could not put together a string of hits to score.

The only opportunity took place in the bottom half of the 6th inning, Robinson Cano started it off with a homer, and the Indians changed pitcher; At that time, the stadium began playing music from the movie “Rocky,” and former mayor Rudy Giuliani and World Series hero Tino Martinez showed up on the jumbotron, fans went wild with runners on 1st and 3rd.

Next batter was captain Derek Jeter, everyone on their feet cheering because Jeter would never let them down, right?

Double play.

It was Jeter’s 3rd time hitting into double plays in 2 days, the whole stadium went silent.

If it were for other people, the fans might get angry, boo them. But when Jeter hit into double players, it killed their moral, the thought of “it’s all over” became apparent.

Even though A-Rod hit a homerun in the 7th innings, many fans realized it may be a little too late and began to chant Torre’s name because they knew it was possibly his last game as the manager.

In the pressbox, former Yankee Paul O’Neil watched the game on TV. When Jeter flied out in the bottom of the 9th, their last chance, O’Neil shook his head, sighed and left; Bobby Abreu’s homerun and Posada’s near-homerun foul ball only created some more tension at the end of the game.

Just not enough to turn things around.

The Yankees’ 2007 season ended right here. Chien-Ming Wang said quietly, even quieter than usual, “it was heart breaking. We’ll start over next season.”

[the article was also featured on UDN, a Mandarin Chinese news site]

J-Train writes for the Word Journal, one of the bigger Mandarin news paper in North America, in NYC. He spends most of his time covering Asian athletes, with focus on Chien-Ming Wang and the New York Yankees. He recently became the first Taiwanese baseball writer to join the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). For more of his articles, you may go to The J-Train Blog (it’s in Traditional Chinese), or click HERE for my translated ones. For those English speaking fans, HAKANIN.com will continue to provide the translated version of his articles, so stay tuned!

Popularity: 46% [?]

If you liked this post, subscribe to HAKANIN's RSS feed.

Filed under: Chien-Ming Wang, Joseph Liao, MLB, New York Yankees, Sports, The J-Train Blog