NEW YORK -- Tonight's game, the opener of the 105th World Series will be the first Derek Jeter has seen since Oct. 25, 2003.
Jorge Posada lined to short as Josh Beckett completed a five-hit shutout, the Florida Marlins blanking the New York Yankees 2-0 in Game 6 to clinch the Series.
An hour later, Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria was running the bases at the grand old cathedral.
"How many Series games have I seen since that night?" Jeter answered when asked at Yankee Stadium yesterday afternoon.
"Zero. Complete games? None."
Jeter said he has caught a few innings here and there and had seen highlights, but to sit down and watch first to last pitch, the answer was none.
"It's like when you're a little kid and you've been bad and your mother punishes you by telling you: 'You have stay inside,' " Jeter said. "You aren't going to stand by the window, look out and watch kids playing and having fun."
The Yanks have stayed inside, rich noses pressed against the October window pane to see drama and champagne celebrations since 2000, when they beat the cross-town New York Mets in five games.
Nine seasons since the Yanks won a Series.
Nine years in real time is like 66 in Steinbrenner years or 86 years in Curse of the Bambino, Red Sox years.
Imagine children born this decade haven't heard fathers tell stories about lifting them overhead to watch the Yanks' Series ticker-tape parade down the "Canyon of Heroes" near lower Broadway and the financial district.
Tonight will be the 133rd post-season game for Jeter, 35.
It will be the 106th for Posada, 37.
If they have a lead in the eighth or ninth, closer Mariano Rivera, a month away from turning 40, will make his 85th post-season appearance.
And in Game 3 Saturday in Philadelphia, lefty Andy Pettitte, 37, make his 39th post-season start.
As a franchise, the Phillies have played in 83 post-season games.
The Yanks' core four of Jeter, Posada, Rivera and Pettitte, promoted to the majors under the reign of former GM Gene Michael, total 359 post-season games going into the Series ... and four Series rings apiece.
And counting.
The old Yankee Stadium is where they won, with aura and mystique and holding opposing teams close until, as Jeter once told Aaron Boone, "sooner or later ghosts will come out."
Tonight, they will play at swanky new Yankee Stadium."We have a feel for this place, we didn't in April," Posada said. "But the way we won late in the season and the way we won in post-season, we have a home-field advantage here."
In Game 2, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel will start Pedro Martinez, who pitched so well against the Yanks as a member of the Boston Red Sox.
"Pedro is a not a guy you wanted to face, but you always looked forward to facing," Jeter said.
Yanks owner George Steinbrenner will be at tonight's game.
"Mr. Steinbrenner is the reason we're in this building," Pettitte said. "This was his dream to move across the street and win a World Series.
Said Jeter: "We want to win for George, but we want to win the Series for the town and for ourselves too. The Phillies are the best team in baseball, in my opinion. They're champs. If we want to be the champs, we gotta beat the best."
Jeter's counterpart, Jimmy Rollins, predicted on the Jay Leno Show: "Of course we're gonna win. If we're nice, we'll let it go six, but I'm thinking five, close it out at home."
What did Manuel think of Rollins' prediction?
"Ahhhh, arrrgh," was sort of the guttural noise coming from Manuel. "Well ... I hope it's a good one. I hope it comes true."
bob.elliott@sunmedia.ca
