Major League Baseball

HISTORY IN THE MAKING - YANKEES-RANGERS IS ALL ABOUT NOW

Published Oct. 15, 2010 10:09 p.m. ET

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ARLINGTON, Texas -- This time, there will be very little history tugging at the Yankees, or at the opponent. Eighty-six years' worth of ghosts? Not this time. Intramural tensions from a tight division race? Nope. The Rays took that home with them. For this American League Championship Series, it all will be about the precious present.

Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia, a pair of bedazzling aces.

Josh Hamilton and Alex Rodriguez, two of the game's brightest talents.

Joe Girardi and Ron Washington, one postseason veteran and one newbie, one straight-arrow chalupa salesman and one man whose past personal demons add a breath of humanity to his team's improbable run.

The Yankees and the Rangers, one team with 48 postseason series victories, one with one. One with 27 world championships. One with none.

We aren't used to a series like this, an important Yankees series with virtually no important links of passion, emotion, anger or history.

But even though the Yankees and the Rangers have met in three past postseasons -- with the Yankees winning nine of those 10 games, the last nine in a row -- there isn't a lasting memory from any of it.

What does it tell you that the most remarkable moment in this relationship of these franchises was the result of a forfeit? That was Sept. 30, 1971. A week or so before, the owner of the Washington Senators, Bob Short, had announced that he was moving the team to suburban Dallas, meaning that for the first time in the history of the modern game, there would be no team representing the nation's capital.

And the nation's capital wasn't happy about it. On the last day of that 1971 season, at old RFK Stadium, the Senators were leading the Yankees, 7-5, and there were two outs in the top of the ninth inning. Joe Grzenda had just induced Bobby Murcer to ground out to first, and Horace Clark was stepping to the plate.

And it was then that the crowd of 14,460 decided that there would be no official end to the Senators' long and mostly forgettable history in DC.

They stormed the field. They wouldn't leave. They started cutting up swaths of grass, stealing bases. The Yankees' bat boy had his cap stolen. And that was that. The umpires ordered the players off the field, declared a forfeit, and baseball would disappear from Washington for 34 years.

That's it. Yes, there was a memorable near-Biblical thunderstorm during Game 3 of the '98 ALDS, a game the Yankees would win to wrap up the series before gathering in their clubhouse to offer a televised salute to Darryl Strawberry, who days earlier had been diagnosed with cancer.

In '99, with Strawberry back in the fold, they enjoyed a sweep again after a Game 3 win, this time with a champagne-free celebration honoring Strawberry's struggle with sobriety that was something of a distant cousin to the ginger-ale bath Hamilton's teammates provided him after beating the Rays Tuesday night.

These are snapshots, not sentiments, and so when the Yankees and the Rangers take the field for Game 1 they do so without the pull of the past. The only storylines that matter will be the ones created across the next 10 days:

Can Hamilton add another chapter to his beyond-belief tale, adding a playoff win over the Yankees to his epic home-run derby performance at the Old Stadium?

Can the Yankees continue to mow over teams that used to be known as the Washington Senators (they're now 12-2 against the Twins in the postseason to go with 9-1 over the Rangers)?

Can Texas get a split out of the first two games at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington? Because if it can, the Yankees have the unenviable task of then facing Lee in Game 3 and throwing Burnett in Game 4 ... or whatever audible they

have to call in order to avoid that.

The history that comes with the Red Sox is nice, the rivalry that comes with the Angels and the Rays is fun. But the Yankees and Rangers get to invent their own unique relationship now, starting in Game 1. It's something different. And ought to be fun.

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RANGER THAN FICTION

Some facts and figures about the Yankees' ALCS opponent:

* The Rangers have had six 100-loss seasons since their inception as the new Washington Senators in 1961. Only the Mets have lost 100 games as often. The Yankees have lost 100 games twice since 1901. The last time was 1912 (50-102).

* With the Rangers/ Senators finally winning a postseason series, every team in MLB has won at least one.

* Newly elected Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog was 200 games over .500 as a manager with the Angels, Royals and Cardinals. He was 47-91 in 138 games with the 1973 Rangers.

* The managers who led the three greatest first-season turnarounds in Rangers history all are familiar to New York fans. 1. Billy Martin (27 more wins in 1974); 2. Bobby Valentine (25 more wins in 1986); 3. Ted Williams (21 more wins in 1969).

- Mike Vaccaro

ALCS: Yankees vs. Rangers

Game 1 Tonight at Rangers 8:07 p.m.

Game 2 Tomorrow at Rangers 4:07 p.m.

Game 3 Monday at Yankees 8:07 p.m.

Game 4 Tuesday at Yankees 8:07 p.m.

Game 5* Wednesday at Yankees 4:07 p.m.

Game 6* Fri., Oct. 22 at Rangers 8:07 p.m.

Game 7* Sat., Oct. 23 at Rangers 8:07 p.m.

*-if necessary

TV: TBS Radio: WCBS (880 AM), ESPN (1050 AM)

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