By Kevin Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

They are Babe Ruth's 714 career home runs and Lou Gehrig considering himself "the luckiest man on the face of this Earth."

They are Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak and Don Larson's perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

They are Roger Maris' 61 home runs in 1961 and Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, belting three home runs in the 1977 World Series.

They are Yogi-isms and Billy Martin, George Steinbrenner and his white turtlenecks.

They are the Yankees.

BIG APPLE VS. QUEEN CITY

A by-the-numbers look at the towns and their teams. (Adobe Acrobat PDF, 2.5 mb).

And the present-day collection of pinstriped stars from the Bronx - Derek Jeter, Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi, Alfonso Soriano, Mariano Rivera, Hideki Matsui, et al. - visits Cincinnati this week.

"It is exciting and it is great for our baseball fans," says Reds chief operating officer John Allen, who can still name every member of the 1961 Yankees. "On the other side of the coin, though, they're a very good baseball team."

Aside from spring exhibition games, the Yankees have not played the Reds since the Big Red Machine swept them in four games during the 1976 World Series.

The sold-out three-game series begins Tuesday at Great American Ball Park. It is the first time these two teams - with a combined 31 World Series championships - have played each other during the regular season.

The fact that the Reds sold out their series against the Yankees (Opening Day and Marty and Joe Bobblehead Day are the other sellouts) is far from a surprise.

New York drew an American League record 2.94 million fans on the road last season, and a club record 3.47-million more at home in 2002.

"Wherever we go there are Yankees fans," says New York relief pitcher Chris Hammond, who pitched for the Reds from 1990-1992. Every other team I've played with or against, you don't see that. They might have fans in the stands watching, but you don't hear them. With Yankees fans, they aren't scared to be heard."

Pride of the Yankees

For nine dreamy seasons that produced four World Series rings to go with the one he won with Cincinnati in 1990, Paul O'Neill was immersed in a century's worth of New York lore.

In the process, he also became part of the mystique that cloaks the 26-time World Champions.

"I had a press conference at Yankee Stadium right when I was traded over from Cincinnati in 1992," O'Neill says. "Even in the middle of winter, it was everything that is right about a baseball stadium."

O'Neill recalls pausing for a moment to look around the old ballpark in the Bronx.

"As soon as you walk down the tunnel to the field, there are pictures of Mickey Mantle walking down the tunnel," he says. "You look up into right field and you remember Reggie hitting his third home run in the World Series and Don Larson jumping off the field.

"It goes on and on and on. It's hard to explain. But so many people have so much pride because they were able to play for the Yankees."

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Saturday's game

Invaluable experience

Reds general manager Jim Bowden knows as well as anyone what it's like to work for Yankees.

In 1989, Bowden served as an assistant to the club's senior vice president for baseball operations.

"Every day that I would walk to a deli in the Bronx, I would walk through the outfield at Yankee Stadium and pass all those monuments and plaques in the outfield," he says. "When you're walking by Babe Ruth's or Mickey Mantle's plaque in Monument Park, it would just give me tingles.

"It's a tremendous ballpark with tremendous history and is home, obviously, to one of the most successful franchises in baseball history."

It also was where Bowden learned the ins and outs of a baseball operation run by George Steinbrenner, who bought the team for $10 million in 1973.

"I tell people I would have never become a general manager had I not spent one year with the New York Yankees," says Bowden, who joined the Reds front office the following year. "One year of the New York Yankees was equivalent to four years at Stanford and four years at Harvard."

From worst to first

During the sixth inning of the Yankees' final exhibition game this spring, veteran catcher John Flaherty learned his good fortune.

"It was down to the wire," Flaherty recalled Friday.

A member of the expansion Devil Rays from 1998-2002, Flaherty endured that franchise's many stumbles and its 64-98 average record during his tenure.

The Yankees' decision to keep Flaherty, who was born and raised in New York City, quelled any thought of retirement.

"I didn't have a favorite team growing up," Flaherty says. "My brother was more of a Mets fan, but we went to more Yankees games because the stadium was a lot closer than Shea (where the New York Mets play).

"But I don't have that, 'I followed this team my whole life mystique, wow this is unbelievable,' feeling."

It may not be unbelievable, but wearing the Yankees uniform is quite a change from the past few years.

"When I was playing against this team for so many years, they always walked out there and knew they had a pretty good chance to win," Flaherty says. "The thing I was impressed with right from the get-go is when this team wins a game, there's no celebration or anything like that. It's almost like you can't tell who's won or lost.

"It's almost an attitude like, 'that's what you're supposed to do.' And that's a nice feeling."

Bench buddies

At 72 years old, Cincinnati native and Western Hills High grad Don Zimmer is a decade older than his on-field boss.

Ten years is hardly a generation Side-by-side for the past eight seasons, the Yankee bench coach has bridged a generational gap and has become close friends with manager Joe Torre.

Together they have witnessed more than 600 wins and have won four World Series titles since 1996.

"I suggest things and he asks questions," says Zimmer, now in his 55th baseball season. "There's only one boss here and that's him.

"He's a great listener, but he's going to make the final decision."

So it came as no surprise that Zimmer defended Torre when Steinbrenner - whose club entered this season with the best overall record (2,628-2,097) of any team since 1973 - criticized Torre and hitting coach Rick Down for the Yankees' recent on-field struggles.

"We've had a great ride and become very close," Zimmer says. "We've had a lot of fun. There are going to be ups and downs in this game. We all go through it.

"Hopefully we get things turned around."

Adding his name

Roger Clemens spent his first 13 Major League seasons playing for the rival Red Sox.

Today, however, the six-time Cy Young Award winner will try for his 300th career victory.

And he'll do it wearing a Yankees uniform.

The 40-year-old Dayton, Ohio, native, whom the Yankees acquired in a 1999 trade, will have between 40 and 50 friends and family members present when he tries to become the 21st player ever to reach the milestone against the Tigers today at Comerica Park.

"I'm never satisfied," Clemens says. "I'm never going to get complacent with what I do until I know this is over."

When 300 is out of the way, Clemens will start focusing on his 4,000th-career strikeout.

Clemens has 3,985 entering today and ranks third all time behind Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton.

"Right now you can think about 300, but as soon as that passes, people are browbeating you to keep going," he says. "It doesn't matter how old you are or how many games you've won.

"We still have a larger goal here, and that's what I like. We don't care if there's a different hero every night in that clubhouse. I don't think too many guys in the clubhouse care about their stats as long as they win."

Coming Monday

A look back at the last time the teams played: the 1976 World Series.

---

E-mail kkelly@enquirer.com