Why the Yankees will win

Yes, folks, that headline is correct.

Joseph Farah is writing about sports today, sort of. …

I know. I know what you’re going to say: “Farah, there are just too darn many important things going on in the world for you to be writing about baseball.”

Too bad.

The World Series begins tomorrow, and I’m going to weigh in today with my prediction of victory for the New York Yankees.

This prediction is based on three key criteria:

• My vast knowledge of and insight into baseball;

• My appreciation for the synchronicity of sports and geo-political trends;

• My own lifelong commitment to a sports team that is much more than a sports team;

First of all, we live in an age of sports records. If you have seen the HBO movie “61*,” you have an appreciation of what Roger Maris’ record-breaking homerun year meant – in terms of personal sacrifice, perseverance, personal dignity.

This year, we saw Mark McGwire’s almost unbelievable homerun record shattered again by Barry Bonds’ milestone achievement of 73.

But neither Mark McGwire nor Barry Bonds will be playing in the World Series tomorrow. Instead, the New York Yankees will be there for the fifth time in six years – this year against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who make their first trip to the series.

The New York Yankees don’t have any players who hit 70 homeruns. They don’t have any who hit 60 or even 50. In fact, the Yankees don’t have a single player who hit even 40 homeruns this year.

The Yankees are, however, a real team, a formidable group of talented players who play together exceptionally well, who believe in one another and have one goal – winning the big games.

That’s not to say the Yankees don’t have stars. The team has one of the best pitching staffs ever. Roger Clemens, almost my age, was 20-3 in 2001. He’s followed in the rotation by one of the winningest pitchers in the major leagues over the last five years, Andy Pettitte, then tomorrow’s starter, Mike Mussina, and Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, who has become one of the best big-game pitchers since escaping Cuba in a raft a few years ago. But the best comes out of the bullpen in Mariano Rivera – the stone-faced stopper who just doesn’t lose games when they count.

Then there’s the quiet man, Bernie Williams. The centerfielder has all the statistics for comparisons with Mickey Mantle and Joe Dimaggio. No one, believe it or not, has hit more homeruns in postseason play than Bernie Williams – not Babe Ruth, not Lou Gehrig, not Mantle, not Reggie Jackson.

Derek Jeter is a 27-year-old shortstop who has never known anything but championships since he came to the major leagues as a Yankee. He simply does whatever it takes to win – getting the key hit, making the big play.

Tino Martinez, Paul O’Neill, Jorge Posada, David Justice, Alfonso Soriano – every day there’s a new hero on the Yankees. Someone new rises to the occasion to put them over the top. They just flat-out know how to win. They do not accept defeat. No matter how bleak it looks, you can never count them out.

The Yankees, thus, represent a great metaphor for America in this time of stress and trial. Better yet, they practically define New York City, the scene of the big attack Sept. 11. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani doesn’t pretend, as most mayors with multiple big-league franchises would, to love the Yankees and the Mets equally. He’s a Yankee fan. Period. End of story. He makes no apologies for it. Because the Yankees are New York.

And that’s why I predict – no, assure – victory for the Yankees in this series. Sorry, all you WorldNetDaily readers in Phoenix and the southwest. This is not your year.

The Yankees are going to win. They are going to win for New York. They are going to win for all of America.