I know there have been plenty of World Series that went to the final game. There may have even been some when I was a kid, but somehow the gravity of the situation never sunk in for me back then. I just expected them to win in 77 and 78 and they did. They didn't in 80 and 81 but somehow that was okay, too. I was in junior high then, in the drama club and running track after school and camping with the Girl Scouts, and too busy to follow every pitch.

I'm not any less busy now, but I do follow every pitch. When I can. Last night, I am afraid to admit I think the 15-2 blowout was my fault. I'm in Montreal for a writers conference, and my agent and some of her other clients went out to dinner. I think around the time of the first pitch we were just getting served, and when I finally got back to the hotel, turned on the tv, and found the game, it was 15-0. As soon as I started watching, the Yankees got four consecutive hits off Randy Johnson! Jeez, guys, I can't leave you alone for a minute! Come to think of it, the one game of the ALCS I missed was the 14-3 blowout game where the Mariners stomped all over El Duque. Am I superstitious? I think you have to be, to be a Yankees fan. Because if you don't believe in magic, how the heck do you explain two games in a row being down to the last out and down two runs, only to tie it with a two-run homer, and then win it in extra innings? Reggie Jackson even said it defies explanation. Aura? Mystique? When a friend of mine talked to me after the first of the two ninth inning comebacks, I explained by saying "Well, that's Yankee baseball." As if, yes, we just expect these kinds of miracles to happen.

If you look back over this dynastic run since 1996, there have been a lot of these miracle moments. The Leyritz home run game. Exploding for seven runs in an inning. Tino's grand slam and Chuck's home run. You know the ones I'm talking about. It's the team that comes up with those heroics, homers, incredible plays in the field, etc... that edges out the others, that is superior. So, in a way, yes, we expect something great to happen every night.

But this is the first time we've been pushed to a game seven. Think about those years where we cruised through the Texas Rangers. I think the word I'm trying to think of is "dominating." We dominated the Braves in 1999, swept them out in four games. There was not the same kind of pressure or anxiety level for either the players or the fans, as there is now.

But it is a game seven. Not an "elimination game." We played three of those in a row this year, in the Division Series against Oakland, and won them all. Oakland "dominated" for two games, and then... they didn't. Seattle never got their engine going, with Edgar Martinez limping, Guillen coughing, and Yankees scouting/pitching solving the problems of Ichiro and Boone. The Diamondbacks, though, they've been dominating the whole series. Scoring more runs, hitting better, pitching better except for poor Byung-Hyun Kim. And yet the Yankees have somehow managed to do it again, lose the first two while looking awful doing it, and then come back to win three in a row. Gee, it's too bad this isn't a short series after all...

So the reason I'm writing this now, early in the morning while waiting for my plane home, is because hindsight is always 20/20 in baseball, and I want to get my thoughts and feelings recorded before the game tonight. Because as soon as the game starts, everyone will revise their history to fit the emerging story. I'll write after the game, too, no matter what happens. But for the moment, I'm interested in this moment, when the pendulum is paused at the top of its swing, before potential energy become kinetic and unstoppable.

Game Seven. Since the Torre/Jeter run began, no team has pushed the Yankees all the way to a final game. When two teams go this far, win this much, and get this close, I almost feel like they both deserve the title. Yes, they both have titles, each is a league champion, but to have it go to 3-3 shows just how great both of these teams are. The Diamondbacks have shown they have something more than just two great pitchers and a bunch of role players. The Yankees have shown that even when every single player on the team is underperforming (except for Mariano Rivera) they can still find a way to beat you, and they're not giving up their crown until they are knocked off completely.

At this point, neither team has to prove anything. They've both shown they've got stuff, guts, magic, clutch performers, smarts, ability, fight, and never-say-die attitude. They've both given their fans an incredible run, tremendous moments of victory and excitement, and memories to last through a long winter and beyond. What neither team has yet, though, is that one last victory. One team will get it, while one team falls just barely short of going all the way. Game Seven. A photo finish. We turn-of-the-millennium Yankees fans haven't experienced this before.

It's an experience we should savor, win or lose. We are accustomed to being comfortable, to having a lead, to dropping a game here or there to the Mets, the Mariners, even the Red Sox over the past few Octobers, but it's never been down to the wire for us like this before.

I want them to win it. Of course I do! I want them to win it for Paulie, and for Scottie and Tino and Chuck and whoever else might not be back next year. And I want them to win it for Moose and Randy Velarde and Soriano and the guys who don't have a ring yet. And I want them to win it for the people of New York, the whole city that needs to continue the fight against depression and darkness while the fires still smolder downtown. I want them to win it for all the one-time Yankees fans who only jumped on the bandwagon this year for the sake of supporting New York, to show them what Yankee baseball is all about (though maybe they've already seen it, with the ninth inning comebacks of Games Four and Five...)

I won't say I'll be happy even if they lose. If they play well, hit well, pitch well, field well, and yet still get beaten, then I'll be happy. But this may sound weird: I'm not hoping for a blowout over Arizona like we had over Seattle in Game Five of the ALCS. I'm hoping for both teams to play their absolute best.

And I'm hoping we come out on top. Hmm, Schilling's arm might be tired, you know. We'll see in about twelve hours.