Snakes on a plane

The Diamondbacks made their first trip back to Yankee stadium since the classic 2001 World Series to begin a three game series last night against the 2007 New York Yankees squad.
This time out there won't be any Luis Gonzales or Tony Womack.
There won't be any Scott Brosius or any Tino Martinez.
George Bush didn't throw out the first pitch and Curt Schilling was nowhere to be seen.
Clemens and Pettitte were back and had this series taken place in 2004, 2005, or 2006 --- that would not have been the case.
Moose and Pettitte will get to pitch in games two and three respectively --- but none of the starters from that 2001 team will be there to face them.
One interesting thing is that the Diamondbacks are actually doing well this season and this may be their best chance in the last 5 seasons to get back to a World Series as they entered the game last night either in first or tied for a share of first place in the National League West division.
Another interesting note is that while Randy Johnson is back in the desert --- he didn't make this road trip and will not pitch in this series.
It would have been interesting to see an Andy Pettitte versus the Big Unit match up in game three of this series.
To any Yankees fans who weren't following the team back in 2001 --- Randy Johnson and Andy Pettitte squared off in two of the seven games of the 2001 World Series (Game 2 and Game 6) and Randy Johnson won both of those two World Series games.
It wouldn't mean anything that significant in the history books if Andy could have beaten RJ in game three of this particular series, but for some reason it would have made me smile a little bit.
On the other hand, Randy Johnson seems to be pitching much better this season and his slider seems to have more bite on it now that it did in his two seasons in New York.
He wasn't ever really comfortable in New York and his pitching seemed to reflect that.
I wish that he could have pitched better in New York but it just didn't seem like something that was meant to be.
He didn't do poorly and sometimes I think that in retrospect a lot of fans look at what he did in a Yankees uniform as less than what it was.
He did win 34 games in two years as a Yankee and if he could have pitched better in the ALDS in 2005 and 2006 he might have been remembered as a great Yankee.
I mean if he'd won his games in those series and the team had went to the ALCS both years and he'd pitched well then --- he might still be here.
He pitched in 2 games in the 2005 ALDS and didn't win either of them and had an ERA of over 6.10.
Imagine for a minute that in game 3 of the 2005 ALDS that Randy hadn't given up 5 runs in less than 3 innings and instead pitched 6 scoreless innings and we ended up winning that game and the series?
How would Yankees fans have remembered him if he'd done that and then went on to pitch well against Chicago in the ALCS and then helped us defeat the Astros in the 2005 World Series?
Same thing in 2006 against the Tigers.
If Randy had matched Kenny Rogers pitch for pitch in a pitchers duel for the ages in game 3 and helped put the Yankees up 2 games to 1 and then helped us beat Oakland in the ALCS, I think Yankees fans would look at him differently.
He did win 17 games in 2005 and 17 games in 2006 for the Yankees but he never seemed to be consistently comfortable in games and never seemed like Randy Johnson.
Now that he seems to have gotten his sea legs under him again --- I'm not all that disappointed that we didn't face him because he is death on left handed hitters when he's dealing well and this season's Yankees team is a little disproportionately left handed.
Anyway, the game last night was a beauty as Chien Ming Wang pitched another gem and helped steer the Yankees to their 7th straight win as they beat the Arizona Diamondbacks by a score of 4-1.
Brandon Webb, last years Cy Young award winner in the National League, pitched well for the Diamondbacks and if not for a big three run home run by Bobby Abreu in the first inning of the game he could have either have left the game with a 1-0 lead in the 8th or at worst a 1-1 tie.
This was a neat pitchers duel and while I didn't hear anything from the announcers on MY9 about it --- it's got to be one of the only times I remember in a Yankees game where the 1st runner up for the previous years Cy Young award opposes the previous years Cy Young award winner from the opposite league.
That seemed to me to ensure some quality pitching from both sides and that's just what we got.
But Wang pitched another gem and aside from a solo homer by Tracy in the 4th --- he left the game in the 7th unscathed.
And while some people aren't really noticing it, Chien Ming Wang is quietly starting to put together a nice little season lately as he's won five out of last six games and has been very crisp.
He's actually seemed to be just as effective even when he doesn't have his best stuff.
After Wang finished his 7 innings on the mound the Yanks brought in their 8th inning reliever Kyle Farnsworth --- who went on to pitch a slightly shaky but scoreless 8th and then Mariano Rivera came in and pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 9th to lower his season ERA to under 4.00 and to notch his 8th save of the season.
This was a great win for the Yankees as both teams played good defense and both teams pitched well.
It was also a quickly played game as it only lasted a little over 2 and a half hours after a 59 minute rain delay.
This is the Yankees 7th win in a row and it also brings them back to .500 for the season.
If they can win this series and win the series with the Mets it will bring them over .500 and would make 5 series wins in a row for the resurging Yanks.
Things are starting to come together now and they are really starting to look like a ballclub again.