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The Phillies' Pedro Martinez, warming up in the bullpen prior to Game 6 Wednesday night here in Yankee Stadium as "Empire State of Mind" by JAY-Z and Alicia Keys blared into the Bronx night:
In New York, these streets will make you feel brand new.
Big lights will inspire you.
Considering he's 38 years old, it could have served as Pedro's theme song.
The same went for Yankees starter Andy Pettitte, who is 37.
"Two old goats," Martinez said with a smile on the eve of the game, "doing the best they can."
Only one showed his age this night.
Martinez, a three-time Cy Young winner, battled but was gone by the fifth inning. His undoing was Hideki Matsui, who rocked him with a two-run homer in the second and a two-run single in the third.
Sayonara, Cy Young.
Pettitte, peering over his glove and baffling the defending world champs with his assortment of off-speed pitches, carried a 7-1 lead into the sixth. And somewhere inside a Yankee Stadium that shook with the largest and loudest crowd of the year, Sinatra's "New York, New York" was being queued up.
Truth was, you could see this one coming.
Pitching dominated the first two games of this Fall Classic, but once it shifted to Citizens Bank Park, the Turnpike Series turned around. The sluggers shouldered their way onto center stage, and after combining for 11 runs in the first two games, the Yanks and Phils scored 38 in Games 3 through 5. Chase Utley tied Reggie Jackson with five homers in a single Series, and Mr. October took time before Game 6 to praise this year's Mr. November.
"He's old school," Jackson said. "He just wants to win."
Utley's hot bat, which had led to the Fightins' outslugging the Bombers in the "Thrilla in Phila" two nights before, had Charlie Manuel feeling buoyant before the game.
"We came to win," the Phils skipper said. "And you know what? Not only did we come to win today, we plan on playing (Thursday)."
It took just a New York minute for Manuel's plans to unravel.
Matsui, who crushed the ball in BP Wednesday night, followed an Alex Rodriguez walk by hooking a two-run homer into the right field seats in the second inning. The Bombers led early, but Pedro, rather than get rattled, responded by retiring the side.
The raucous chants of "Who's Your Daddy?" died in the chill air, and you recalled what Pettitte said of Pedro earlier.
"The best pitcher for a lot of years, the best I had ever seen," he said. "You see our velocities go down a little bit, but he knows how to pitch. His change-up that used to be 87, 88 (mph) is 75 now, but it's just as effective."
Pettitte got nicked for a run in the third, courtesy of Carlos Ruiz's triple and Jimmy Rollins' RBI fly out, but the Yanks responded with Matsui's two-run single.
The way Pettitte was pitching, 4-1 seemed almost insurmountable, even for the Phils' powerball offense. Pedro seemed to realize it, given his pregame comments.
"Knowing Andy and knowing the kind of pitcher he is," Martinez said, "it's going to be tough."
And it was. Pettitte left in the sixth to a standing ovation. He tipped his cap to chants of "An-dy Pett-itte!"
One old legend had outdueled another, and in the process, had put his team in position to win the World Series.
Start spreading the news, indeed.
