A stunning day for fans of New York baseball, as the mighty Yankees bowed their heads and left the field in Detroit while the Mets, led by two ex-Dodgers, Paul LoDuca and Shawn Green, celebrated on the oldest field in the National League aside from Wrigley Field.

With ex-Dodger greats in attendance, including Duke Snider and Sandy Koufax, the current stars of the team could not get themselves together to defeat a team that had lost two out of three of its top starters to injury.  Instead, they exiled their only left handed relief specialist who had inappropriately cut his hand in a bar in New York last week and were swept away by the best team in the NL. 

Blown away is more like it but the fickle fans of LA expect such failures from this flawed franchise.  As thoughtful as new GM Ned Coletti has been when he fashioned this team from scratch in the offseason, making mid season adjustments with the import of Julio Lugo and Greg Maddux, he still could not quite come to grips with the immediacy of their failure.  Three and out, a tough pill to swallow, but with the streaky nature of this team (1-13 out of the chute right after the All Star break only to go 17-1 in their next 18 games), the starting nine picked a bad time to go on yet another losing streak.  Having ended the season with seven straight wins in a hard fought Wild Card/Western Division race, entering the post season with three straight losses adds further tarnish to the Tinsel Town nine.

Inevitable questions arise at the end of a season that ends like this.  Will Nomar, with his penchant for injury but still the Comeback Player of the Year in the NL, come back?  What will they do with Joe Beimel, their lefty reliever who found himself unwelcome in the dugout for what was their final game, his teammates unwilling to forgive him for an indefensible indiscretion, carousing in the NY bars until 2:30am and ending up with a severe cut on his pitching hand.

The Mets are now the toast of the town, or at least the toast of Met fans as allegiances in this city are rarely if ever shared.  If the

Padres advance, an uphill battle, they will face a better pitching staff than they have faced since they last played the Padres in August.  With their own pitching questions, the burden will be on these Mets hitters to continue what they have been doing all season, hitting, running and scoring runs. Much will depend on Jose Reyes resuming his tear through the NL, as he hit only .167 in these three games.  But with others like LoDuca (.455), Green (.333) , Carlos Delgado (.429) and David Wright (.333) playing well, they may be able to overcome the virtual absence of their spark plug, arguably one of the most exciting players in all of baseball.

Much larger questions loom on the horizon of the NY Yankees.  Aleady the Daily News tabloid has announced that Joe Torre will be ‘fired’ in favor of ‘Sweet Lou’ Piniella.  If Joe was on the field, not making plays and failing at the plate, then I can imagine retribution aimed in his direction, but as a possible manager of the year candidate in the AL, it is inappropriate that he should be used as a scapegoat for their ‘failure’ this year. 

After all, 97 regular season wins and a division title, sweeping aside the Red Sox in August as if they were a minor league team are not noteworthy accomplishments.  It is laudable that Derek Jeter consistently states that the only gauge of success for their season is a championship, but management must assume a more

circumspect view and judge the team for its real flaws and not blame Joe Torre or even Alex Rodriguez.  Old pitching is their downfall, and it is doubtful that soon to be 44 year old Randy Johnson will ever put on the Yankee pinstripes again, and it is possible even 38 year old Mike Mussina may have seen his final days in NY.  Pitching and defense win and lose games, not the manager.  The manager is only as good as his players on the field, and with all stars at every position, Joe Torre mixed and match his way through an injury plagued season to win 97 games.  With everyone healthy for the playoffs, he could only sit and watch as  his hitters did not hit, his pitchers did not pitch and the team lost.

But for fans of the sport, no matter for which team one might have been rooting, to see the celebration in Detroit, on the field, after the clubhouse party was very gratifying.  To see the players sharing the traditional champagne bath with their fans, to see the team carrying Jim Leyland off the field, all of this seemed genuine and only inspires the disinterested, casual fan to pull for this group of underdogs, this group of virtually unknown players led by a grizzled, old school manager who is able to connect with the modern player. 

And as a fan of the game, and in spite of living in the SF Bay area, it will be difficult not to root for this group of players, for this franchise that has not had a winning season since 1993 and has not appeared in the playoffs since 1987.  The A’s are a great story too, and it should be an extremely interesting ALCS starting Tuesday in Detroit.  With both the A’s and Tigers winning, it is a victory for the sport of baseball to see these two teams play for the AL pennant, steroid stories and Bud Selig be damned.