The ALCS

Chris Chambliss, 1976

We know the history of the New York Yankees is dazzling. Twenty-seven rings and forty American League Championships to go with nineteen American League East Division titles.

The American League Championship began tonight, with the Yankees facing off with their modern rival, the Houston Astros.

There was no such thing as the ALCS prior to 1969. If you were the team that won the most games in the American League you were the champion. With division play beginning in 1969, the League Championship became necessary.

I've seen each ALCS the Bombers have played in.

1976 -- the foundation of my dislike of the Kansas City Royals (and George Brett). It was a back and forth battle, culminating in a legendary Game 5. The Royals led 2-0 in the first and the Yankees tied it up in the bottom of the innings. The Royals made it 3-2 in the second and the Yankees took the lead in the bottom half. New York grabbed an eventual 6-3 lead before Brett hit a three-run shot to tie it in the 8th. But Chris Chambliss sent the Yankees to the World Series for the first time since 1964 on Mark Littell's first pitch in the bottom of the ninth. Yankee Stadium -- reopened after renovations -- exploded.

1977 -- It was 1976, part two. It again took five games, but this time, Royals Stadium in Kansas City was the site. Game 5 featured a brawl between Graig Nettles and George Brett (him again). The Yankees got the last laugh, scoring three in the ninth to move onto the World Series.

1978 -- It took four this time (it was a best-of-five in those days), with Game 3 being key. Brett (ugh) hit three home runs but Thurman Munson hit a two-run bomb into the bullpen to get the win. Nettles and Roy White homered the next night again propel the Yankees to the World Series.

1980 -- The Royals finally got even in grand style. Brett put the cherry on the sundae in Game 3 with a three-run shot off of Goose Gossage. Third-base coach Mike Ferraro earned the grief of George Steinbrenner by waving Willie Randolph home and having him thrown out in a one-run game. Mount Steinbrenner went nuts. Manager Dick Howser -- who guided the Yankees to 103 wins -- was fired. Howser would win a series in Kansas City, of all places, in 1985.

1981 -- Billy Martin went up against his beloved team as manager of the Oakland A's, but he didn't get a win. A largely forgettable ALCS that got Bobby Murcer to his one and only World Series. Apparently, the wave debuted in this series, and I curse it to this day.

By the time they returned to the ALCS, it was a four out of seven affair.

1996 -- It had been a while. Fifteen years after the last trip to the World Series, the Bombers got a little help from Jeffrey Maier, who pulled Derek Jeter's fly ball in Game 1 over the fence. A few innings later, Bernie Williams went "boom." The Yankees would win in six, and the wait was over.

1998 -- Despite 114 regular-season wins, the Yankees had to prove they could get by the Cleveland Indians, who "wahooed" past the Yankees in a five-game ALDS the year before. I was at Game 1 and it went quite well before Chuck Knoblauch lost his brain in Game 2. The Yankees were down two games to one when Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez won Game 4 and David Wells tipped his cap mockingly to Jacobs Field in Game 5. The Yankees wrapped it up in six games.

1999 -- The first showdown with the Red Sox in the postseason. Bernie Williams hit a 10th inning homerun off Rod Beck and it was on. Roger Clemens got destroyed at Fenway Park in Game 3, and it was over in five. The team from Boston apparently got revenge eventually.

2000 -- "Get your tokens ready," Michael Kay would say as David Justice sent Yankee Stadium into bedlam in Game 6. Clemens pitched a one-hitter and struck out 15 in Game 4.

2001 -- The Mariners won 116 regular-season games to tie the record. The Yankees scoffed and won in five. I almost felt sorry for Mariners' manager (and former Yankee, of course) Lou Piniella.

2003 -- Arguably the best-ever ALCS. Seven crazy games, including the nastiness of Game 3, when Pedro Martinez threw Don Zimmer to the field. That was the appetizer for the main course of Game 7 and Aaron Boone. Jorge Posada's bloop off Pedro Martinez to tie the game is one of my favorite moments.

2004 --  Didn't happen.

2009 -- Reconstructed after a five-year hiatus, the Bombers needed six to vanquish the Angels.

2010 -- The Yankees couldn't solve the Texas Rangers, losing in six. Once dominant in the ALCS, New York had now lost three appearances in a row, and it wouldn't get any better.

2012 -- The Detroit Tigers mostly embarrassed the Yankees, sweeping them away in four.

2017 -- Another five-year hiatus from the ALCS ended as a slightly-surprising Yankees team, led by rookie Aaron Judge, took the Houston Astros to seven games, with the home team winning each game.

2019 -- Well, here we are.

The Yankees are leading 1-0 in the fourth inning of Game 1 as