Yankees 5, Blue Jays 4

Here's humor for you: The Blue Jays throw behind A-Rod.

Because? Of the brutal 1985 pennant race? 1987, which barely even counts? Consider the teams' side-by-side 30-year history, starting in 1977, the Jays' first year:

1977-1981: The Bronx Zoo era. Yankees: four division titles, three pennants, two rings. Jays: Stinkeroo.

1982-1983: Both teams stink. In one of these years (1983), the Yanks make an enfeebled pennant run. Otherwise, open a window.

1984: Detroit starts 35-5 and runs away with the division. Toronto: a respectable second. Yanks have the best second-half record in the league . . . thus setting up . . .

1985: An honest-to-goodness Blue Jays-Yankees pennant race. Behind the pitching of Ron Guidry (22-6), the relief work of Dave Righetti and the 1-2-3 hitting of Rickey Henderson, MVP Don Mattingly, and Dave Winfield, the Yankees storm back from a 9 1/2-game deficit, pull to within 1 1/2 games in September . . . and then lose the last three games of a four-game series at the Stadium to fall 4 1/2 back. (Gator--surprise, surprise, wins the opener.) Incredibly, the Yanks stay close and go up to Toronto 3 back with 3 to go. With the Yanks hoping for a sweep and a playoff, Gator wins the Friday opener. However, Toronto wins the next game to clinch. (Oddly, there was a measure of history in the statistically meaningless Sunday finale. With Blue Jay manager Jimy Williams resting his starters for the playoffs, Yankee pitcher Phil Niekro wins his 300th in a complete game--without, he claims, a single knuckleball . . . except maybe two in the ninth, to former Braves mate Sean Burroughs.)

And there you have it. The one season when the Jays and Yankees both mattered.

1986: The year of Clemens (24-4). The Red Sox win going away. Yankees second.

1987: Yanks fade in September (something about a Steinbrenner memo and Rickey's sore hammy); Blue Jays lose the last seven games of the year; lose the pennant to Detroit 1-0 on the last day of the year. (This game occurred--another historical footnote--the first Sunday of the NFL Scab Games; faced with the prospect of watching gym teachers and bar bouncers in NFL uniforms, the American Sporting Public thanks Toronto and Detroit).

1988: The Red Sox surge after Joe Morgan (no, not that one) is hired as manager, win 14 in a row in August, and blow past the Yankees and Tigers. Toronto: not so much.

1989-1993: Blue Jay pre-eminence. Four division titles, two pennants, two rings. Yankees stink. Donnie Baseball injures his back permanently and slides out of Hall-of-Fame consideration. Yanks make a feint as a flag chase in '93, but Donnie falls into a catatonic slump in September, sees his average drop from .319 to .288. The team follows.

1994: Yanks lead by 6 games as the strike begins . . . and the season ends.

1995-2006: Yankee dominance. 12 consecutive playoff appearances, 10 division titles, six pennants, four rings. Toronto: Nada, and rarely close.

The Yankees in the past decade has had its rivals: the Red Sox, Indians, Mariners, even the Angels. The Yankees are a rival to Toronto the way Notre Dame is a rival to Navy: all one way.

(Oh, by the way, it was nice to be tied for the Wild Card today, if only for a little while.)

On Rome today, Ken Rosenthal postulated that if the Yankees make the playoffs, and if A-Rod has a solid October (a big if and a bigger if), the Yankees will have to meet Boras's price, in part for YES ratings, in part for their new stadium (which, he admits, the Yankees will sell out every game anyway), and in part because, well, he's their best player.

Okay. 40-plus homers, a .310-ish batting average, ungodly RBI's . . . a solid October . . . and with everyone north, south, and east of San Francisco pulling for him to run down Barry . . . what? Thirty million?

Thirty-five?