Keyboard Quarterbacks

By Mark La Monica

Making plans to watch Tuesday night's Game 1 of the Yankees-Tigers ALDS was as nostalgic as it was easy.

I just dialed up Jitsu friend Colskore, found out what he was doing and invited myself along.

"If they win, you gotta watch all the games with us then," he said.

"Clearly," I responded.

Wow. I forgot how silly we fans get when the playoffs start. It's been since the Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS -- yes, the Aaron Boone game -- since I was legitimately excited for a Yankee playoff game. The World Series that year was so anti-climactic, and in the years since, I've worked all the nights the Yankees played, so I haven't really watched a game in a long time.

But in that brief moment in the office, I flashed back to the late 1990s when the Yankees began their run. How, during the 1996 World Series, Consultant friend Jay, myself and our other college roommates watched Game 3 with the TV on mute and Vin Scully calling the game on the radio. Anything to change the luck after dropping the first two games at home to Atlanta. The Yankees won that game, so we did the same thing the rest of the series, all Yankee wins. Hey, if Wade Boggs can eat chicken before every game, we can listen to the radio?

Or, how my clothing combination of a Don Mattingly T-shirt and an unnumbered Yankee road jersey went 19-4 during the 1997-2000 postseasons.

Or, how I used to shave on the last day of the baseball season and then not shave again until the Yankees were out of the playoffs.

Or, how Lawyer friend Steve decided to drink a beer an inning during a 1999 World Series game. He made it through seven strong innings but collapsed in the eighth.

Ah, the glory days. Now I'm just happy to not fall asleep before the game ends.

What are your fan rituals for the Yankees and Mets in the postseason?