7 Days

I been good, I been good while I been waitin'
Maybe guilty of hesitatin', I just been holdin' on
Seven more days, all that'll be gone.

Seven days. Seven games. All tied up in the AL East. A half game behind the Native Americans, who finally lost a game.

It doesn't get more stomach churning than this.

But yesterday's fan serenade of Bernie Williams was, as Bernabe says, very cool.

At the plate, the important contributions were made by Gary Sheffield, who hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning, and Robinson Cano, who hit a two-run shot in the seventh, to help the Yankees in their come-from-behind 8-4 victory yesterday over the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.

("Bernie Williams!" the fans chanted. "Bernie Williams!")

On the mound, the star of the afternoon was pitcher Chien-Ming Wang, a rookie like Cano, who worked seven innings, only one of them bad, to improve to 8-4.

("Thank you, Bernie!" the fans chanted. "Thank you, Bernie!")

And on paper, the important numbers showed that the Yankees' victory - their 12th in their past 14 games - matched Boston's victory at Baltimore to keep the Yankees tied with the Red Sox for first place in the American League East with one week remaining in the regular season as the ancient rivals battle for the divisional pennant and the wild-card playoff berth.

("One more year!" the fans chanted to Williams. "One more year!")

[...]

Along with the chanting was a sign hung from the mezzanine directed at George Steinbrenner: "Boss: Bring Bernie Back." The fans cheered Williams's every move, and the cheering intensified before the bottom of the eighth inning, when the scoreboard showed a video of Williams highlights.

Alex Rodriguez, leading off, stayed out of the batters box long enough for teammates to coax Williams from the dugout for a wave to the fans. "He didn't want to go out and take a little bow," Manager Joe Torre said. "He looked at me to see if it was O.K. I gave him a little nod."

Over the previous 10 seasons, Williams had helped the Yankees make the playoffs every year, four of them ending in World Series championships. With 2,213 hits in a career of excellence and elegance, he is one behind DiMaggio, who is fourth in team history behind Lou Gehrig (2,721), Babe Ruth (2,518) and Mantle (2,415).

Discussing what might have been his last home-field appearance at the Stadium, Williams called it "very emotional" and "a far cry from when I came for the first time here in '91. Chanting my name the whole game. It was very cool; it was very cool."

And in the midst of all of that, who needs this sickness?