Copyright 2003 Daily News, L.P.  
Daily News (New York)
October 17, 2003, Friday SPORTS FINAL EDITION
SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 88 BLEACHER CREATURE

LENGTH: 559 words

HEADLINE: CREATURES KNOW DRILL

BYLINE: BY FILIP BONDY

BODY:
The Creatures did everything they could last night. Everything, this time, to beat the Red Sox in Game 7.

Donald Simpson, Section 39 millionaire, had foolishly skipped a couple of important pregame rituals recently. He omitted none of them last night. On his way to the Stadium, he stopped by the vendor near the prison, hugged him, gave the guy some firewater for comfort later in the night. That's what Donald always did, years ago, when the Yankees were sailing to championships.

Then Donald walked past Bald Vinny's T-shirt stand on River Ave., as he always does, except that Vinny wasn't there anymore. It seems Vinny's stand didn't quite measure up to the city's strict legal standards, despite what Vinny had believed. There's a lot of paperwork involved, a lot of nonsense. Donald walked the same route, anyway, right past Stan's Bar where the stand used to be.

Donald was talking about how he is searching for a girlfriend to share his pinstriped life, when he ran into Tom Brown, aka Sheriff Tom. Tom, the most quotable of Creatures, has missed a lot of playoff games this season, because he is now married to a Section 39er, Dana, and the Creature Couple has an eight-month-old daughter, Emma.

Emma came to one game. "She likes the big fat guys in the bleachers," Tom said, showing baby pictures. "They make her laugh. She thinks they're funny." But Emma doesn't go to night games yet, and so Tom has to pick his spots. He was 3-0 at these games before last night, and Tom knew this was a big spot to pick.

Game 7 would be right up there, he hoped, with the other great moments in the right-field bleachers. "I've lived it all," Tom said. "What haven't we seen?" He started listing his highlights:

Wells' perfect game . . . Gooden's no-hitter . . . The first World Series title . . . The war against the Orioles . . . Whipping the Mutts . . . Rattling Arizona's relievers . . .

So many great moments of ultimate success and sheer intimidation. So many more than Red Sox fans could ever know.

"We collect 'em," Tom said. "They're dying for 'em. For them, this is their World Series."

"Look," Tom warned. "It's a Game 7. Anything can happen. But either way, we'll have somebody to root for in the playoffs."

He meant that the Creatures would always root for the Yankees, and against the Red Sox - unless the Mets are playing the Red Sox. That nightmare only happened once, thank goodness, in 1986. The Creatures were mere babes back then, still searching for their voices.

That would never happen again. The Mets are about as far from a World Series as they are from the Yankees' winning tradition. They're announcing yet another general manager, while the good teams are still playing baseball.

Tom decided, also, it was a good thing the Cubs lost to the Marlins.

"You want the lovable losers to keep on losing forever," he said. And they will. They never go all the way, ever.

The Creatures filed into the Stadium, onto their hard-plastic, beloved bleacher benches. Bad Mouth Larry was telling the Red Sox fans, sarcastically again, they should hold their heads up because their franchise ought to be proud of how it so often finished second to the Yankees.

The Creatures were ready for Game 7. They were together among friends - to cheer, to heckle, to represent a franchise with 26 World Championships in the bank.



LOAD-DATE: October 17, 2003