Back-Page Barometer Postseason Edition #1 (10/5)

In which we track the Yankees' Postseason Exploits Through the All-Seeing Eye(s) of the New York Post and the New York Daily News.

GAME: Game 1 of the American League Division Series between the AL East Champion Yankees and the AL West Champion Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

RESULT: Yankees 4, Angels 2

SUMMARY (25 Words or Less): Mike Mussina pitched 5 2/3 shutout innings and Robinson Cano smoked a bases-loaded double as the Yankees take Game 1 in Anaheim.

HEADLINE EDGE? We have to go with the News on this one. Their headline is a play, obviously, on The Mouse That Roared, a satirical novel on nuclear annihilation that was later made into a movie starring Peter Sellers. In the movie, that "mouse" that does the "roaring" is the tiny country of Grand Fenwick, which declares war on the United States and eventually creates mass hysteria by stealing the most powerful bomb in the country.

The News is attempting to shift how we view the Yankees. The Yanks are on the road, in an underdog situation. They are the tiny country of Grand Fenwick. Their leader, at least in Game 1, was Mike "Moose" Mussina, analogous to the character of Tully Bascomb in the movie.

The Yankees aren't known as the "Bombers" for nothing. But did their win in Game 1 provoke the people of Anaheim to a mass hysteria fueled by Cold War-style nuclear paranoia? Probably not. The Yanks have already been beaten by the Angels in a Division Series, in 2002. The people of Anaheim know not to get too worked up. You can only get scared of Grand Fenwick once.

Regardless, we here at GPC always like it when the tabs go high concept, so the News was a no-brainer here.

If anyone disagrees, please let us know about it!