Yankees Give the City a Boost

NEW YORK —  Sure, it’s only baseball. But don’t tell that to New Yorkers today.

Their Yankees ran past two West Coast teams with better records to make it to the World Series for the fourth consecutive year, and the symbolism was inescapable.

“You can’t keep us down for long,” said Tony Caridi, an electrical contractor from Queens. “That goes for both New York and the Yanks.”

But never had the city seemed more down than it’s been since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. So, too, was the city’s big athletic symbol, the Yankees.

They were facing elimination in their first playoff series, down two games against the Oakland Athletics. They looked old and lethargic, staggering in a season that baseball know-it-alls predicted would see the end of their dynasty. It was Rome before the fall.

“I really thought the boys were finished off against Oakland,” said Mike McAmally, a building superintendent in midtown.

“Yeah, it was over,” said Jose Ramirez, super of the adjacent building at 57th Street and 5th Avenue.

But in the third game against the A’s, there was an errant throw from the outfield as an Oakland runner was racing to score the tying run. Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter materialized out of nowhere, scooped up the ball and flipped it backhanded to home for the out. He saved the day, saved the series and, some might say, saved New York from the doldrums. The word comeback suddenly was on everyone’s lips.

And then Monday night, in a Yankee Stadium more emotional than anyone could remember, the New Yorkers buried the Seattle Mariners, 12-3, to win the American League pennant. The old concrete stadium shook as people stamped their feet and shouted. Most of the fans were so riveted by the game that they stood for most of it. But there also were moments when something more swept the crowd: They boomed out defiant chants of “USA! USA!” after the Star-Spangled Banner.

“We were focused on winning long before Sept. 11,” Yankee manager Joe Torre said. “But this victory will mean a lot to people who need to cheer about something.”

After the final out, Torre kissed his wife and then invited New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to join the Yankee celebration at the pitcher’s mound. Mayors are normally booed at baseball games. It’s a New York tradition. But not Monday night. The crowed cheered as Giuliani greeted the players.

Still, there wasn’t the usual pile-on at the mound. This victorious moment was exuberant but mature, as befits a dynasty.

At a news conference the morning after, Giuliani acknowledged how much the city really needed this one--not to mention what it meant to him, saying, “The only thing that has been able to divert me from thinking about the relief and recovery of the city is baseball. I tried reading books but can’t pay attention to them. I tried going to a movie but haven’t done that yet. I haven’t even watched ‘The Godfather’ in five weeks, which is the longest period I’ve gone without watching that movie.”

There’s nothing like winning baseball for a diversion, he said. “It puts new attention and focus on the city and it gets people here thinking about other things.”

He is on to something. There’s a phenomenon that sports psychologists call BIRG, or “basking in reflected glory.” Part of the New York experience is feeling on top of the world and being part of a winning tradition. The Yankee triumph feeds this and lets New Yorkers reconnect to glory days.

Caridi, 54, said he felt great Tuesday for the first time in weeks. He also wasn’t nervous about reading the New York tabloid newspapers. “Grand Slam” screamed the giant headline in the Daily News; “One More Time,” blared the Post.

“Instead of the war in Afghanistan, the rubble downtown and anthrax, the Yankees lightened up the front of the papers and my day,” said Caridi, a lifelong Yankee fan.

Wearing a blue T-shirt with the name of Yankee left fielder Chuck Knoblauch and his number 11 on the back over his white button-down shirt and tie, Marty Liff, an insurance agent, looked weary Tuesday. He had stayed up late watching the game, but he said with a laugh, “It’s a good tired. Not a depressed tired. Or an angry tired, the way I’ve been feeling.”

Liff said he hoped Americans nationwide who wouldn’t normally root for the Yankees could find it in themselves to back the New Yorkers in the World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“We deserve the goodwill,” Liff said. “We need it.”

As he walked across Central Park to work, Liff was busy making arrangements on his cell phone to watch the first game Saturday with friends.

“Whose place?” he asked a female co-worker. “Yours or mine?”

McAmally, who lives in the Bronx and has been collecting baseball cards since he was a kid--”I have one of the Babe!” he bragged--said he hoped to get tickets so he could take his 5-year-old son to at least one game. If not, he’ll watch it on television at home with the family.

“‘The only thing that would make me happier would have been if there was a subway series,” he said of a Yankees-Mets competition. His friend Ramirez shook his head at this.

“Come on, we’re New Yorkers,” McAmally said. “We want everything.”

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Times staff writer Josh Getlin contributed to this report.