The More Satisfying Yankee Loss to the Indians

Last night's insect-plagued loss by the New York Yankees to the Cleveland Indians gave me time to reflect on how I prefer my Yankee losses.

Like most fans, I enjoy a crisp solid victory in a well played game. Such was the case on Thursday when the Indians solidly smacked the Bronx Bombers 12-3 with timely hitting and good pitching.

Friday's game, an Indian 2-1 victory in eleven innings was less than a boastful triumph, though both Andy Pettite of the Yankees and Carmona turned in excellent performances.

From the standpoint of fond memories, this was less than stellar. The Indians stranded 14 runners. It seemed that almost every inning they left a runner in scoring position with less than two outs. And of course the two runs they did score were something out of the play book from the 1959 Chicago White Sox.

The tying run was a product of Grady Sizemore walking and eventually scoring on a wild pitch.

The only offense that could be called graceful and impressive by either team was the Indians demonstrating that the bunting is no longer a lost art.

The Indians scrambled to score the winning run in the 11th on the only solid offensive display after the insects descended, a solid hit by Travis Hafner.

From the vantage point of a Yankee fan, I imagine that the first loss was understandable. Their team was outplayed. The second loss was unbearable. They wasted a solid pitching performance by Pettite; the Indian's runs were the product of silly misadventures, and the insects undoubtedly contributed to the undoing of relief pitcher Joba Chamberlain.

As a baseball fan I enjoyed game one more. As a Yankee hater I preferred game two. It must be the slow torture, the tantalizing grasp of victory, only to be infested by midges, a relative of the mosquito. No matter how their fans agonized over the two different ways to lose a ball game, I enjoyed both.