Johnson is responsible for the two most devastating losses I've experienced as a Yankees fan. And before you "idiots" flatter yourselves even more by thinking every moment in Yankees history is tied to a New England team that's finished in second place seven times running, allow me to present to you this context:

• 1995 ALCS, Game 5: I caught the baseball bug right around the time Donald Arthur Mattingly first suited up for the Yankees. The Bombers won the World Series in 1977 and 1978, when I was 4 and 5 years old, respectively. They advanced to another World Series when I was 8, but I was too young to appreciate that team, led by the original A-Rod (Aurelio Rodriguez). The Greatest Living Ballplayer (Mattingly) would experience postseason baseball for the first time in 1995, and so would I.

Like all loyal Yankees fans, I can rattle off Pinstripers from the '80s and early '90s that make you cringe — Don Slaught, Wayne Tolleson, Bob Geren, Mike Blowers, Joel Skinner and, yes, the 1993 return of Stephen Charles Balboni (career average .229). I paid to see these men play, to carry on the tradition of the Yankees, a tradition that always seemed to tease me. Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle ... Pasqua?

I was there at Yankee Stadium for Games 1 and 2 against the Mariners. I was one of those who gave Mattingly the most thunderous pre-game ovation I have ever heard in any sport. Not for the lineup announcements; I mean the pre-game stretching. Ask anyone who was there; they'll never forget it. Anyway, the Bombers cracked six homers in two games — including one from Mattingly ("Hold on to the roof!") — the last of which was a game-winner by Jim Leyritz in the 15th inning of Game 2, which ended shortly before 2 a.m. in the rain. Bedlam.

Then it was on to Seattle, where The Devil himself started and won Game 3. With him out of our way, all we had to contend with were Ken Griffey, Jr. and Edgar Martinez, who hit like .950 combined for the series. The Yanks blew an early 5-0 lead in Game 4, losing 11-8, and so we went to a deciding fifth game. They held a 4-2 lead before the M's tied it at 4. In the top of the ninth inning, against Norm Charlton, Tony Fernandez led off with a leadoff double. Randy Velarde followed with a walk. (On another TV at the bar, a friend PK.com readers may know by his screen name, Anchorman, was cheering for Shannon Sharpe to get some yards for his fantasy football team. A true Mets fan.) First and second, nobody out and I could barely breathe. Who shall come out of the bullpen? The Devil! Boggs: Whiff. Bernie: pop-out. O'Neill: pop-out. Things stayed tied till the top of the 11th, when Randy Velarde scored pinch-runner Pat Kelly on a single. The M's followed with two in the bottom half to win a spectacular back-and-forth series, one that would be the most devastating sports loss I would encounter ... till six years later, when The Devil reared his ugly head yet again.

• 2001 World Series, Game 7: Only The Devil could write an unhappy ending to this script. After what New Yorkers had been through in September (imagine that to-be parade of red, white and blue inter-locking NY's), after the comeback from down 0-2 to the A's, after the back-to-back, two-out, ninth-inning, two-run homers off Byung-Hyun Kim (The Angel) that sent us back to Arizona up 3-2 and looking for a fourth straight World Series title. Since The Devil slayed us in 1995, we'd been perfect in four ALCS and four World Series. The thought of the Yankees losing in the World Series was unfathomable.

Johnson, who had the audacity to pitch a three-hit shutout in Game 2, got 11 runs of support in the first three innings of Game 6 (guess who won that one?). So it's Clemens vs. Schilling in Game 7, with The Devil completely out of the picture. The D-Backs let Schilling hit in the bottom of the seventh of a game tied 1-1. He strikes out and comes out for the eighth, when he promptly gives up a lead-off home run to Alfonso Soriano. See ya, Future Ketchup Sock. After an out, a single by Dave Justice, who had struck out nine times in 11 previous 2001 WS at-bats and about whom Bill Simmons wrote "set a record for most hits by a corpse." A fielder's choice followed and then ... god, no ... I see the horns, the mullet, the whole package. It's ... The Devil!

Johnson gets out of the inning and the next, after Mariano Rivera struck out three around a Steve Finley single. In the bottom the ninth, a lot of crap happened and the three-peat was history. I returned my girlfriend's call and left a message that sounded like it came from a man dying on the side of a road in Montana.

But let's let by-gones be by-gones. I don't know what uniform number he's got in mind (51 is Bernie, 15 was Munson's), but it will be nice to see The Devil on the mound for us instead of coming out of the bullpen for someone else on two-hours' rest for his eighth appearance in a single series.

Did you know? Johnson has a career ERA of 3.07 in 17 seasons. Kevin Brown has a career ERA of 3.20 in 18 seasons. Brown's ERA was 3.00 or less in seven of the last nine seasons, last year not being one, but 4.09 should get it done most of the time with the Yankees' lineup. I wouldn't mind giving him another shot in New York. Mike Mussina's career ERA (3.59) also compares favorably to Ketchup Sock's (3.32).

In other Yankees news Constantino Martinez will be back wearing No. 24 in an effort to clean up that mess we call The Yankees' First-Base Job, Starring the Guy Formerly Known as Jason Giambi. Super-fan Karen Bischer's mom says, "Ooh good. Now they get more good looking!", quite a testament to Martinez on a day they also appear to be welcoming Johnson, who's never been misidentified as Brad Pitt.

Earlier this year, Bronx Banter did a terrific interview with Buster Olney, author of The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty, about the roles certain 1996-2001 players assumed in the clubhouse. Olney was quite complimentary of Martinez as a guy whose presence was of great benefit to others. Unlike, say, Ted McGinley on a TV show.

The most interesting thing about Martinez, to me, is that he replaced the beloved Mattingly in New York and equally adorded Mark McGwire in St. Louis. He also replaced Travis Lee in Tampa Bay, who had like 10-15 fans, as well.

And the most interesting thing, to me, about The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty? The title references the Game 7 loss in the 2001 World Series, and yet the cover photo is of a dejected Mariano Rivera in a home uniform. The friggin' game was in Arizona. What, where there no cameras around?

Other Sports Links:

• Predicting Future Yankees Payrolls — ESPN.com, with a hint of seriousness, looks at which players the Yankees might add in the coming years. Alfonso Soriano in 2007? You know it. I've been saying since the day we traded him for A-Rod that he'll be back to play with Jeter and Rodriguez.

• A New Dynasty Awaits — Smart-ass Yankees hater Jim Caple on the sentiments Bombers fans must be feeling with the potential additions of Big Unit and Carols Beltran (less likely, but still probable). Some funny stuff in there from the writer whom I'd love to have a beer with someday (and leave duct-taped to the bar stool). Caple writes, "After all, when was the last time the Yankees were able to trade for or sign a superstar like this? I mean, not counting Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, Mike Mussina, Jason Giambi or Roger Clemens."

• Class as Usual From Pasqualoni — Coach P. addressed the media one day after being sacked as Syracuse football coach, and he proved why any parent would be glad to play for a guy like him. Those qualities count more, of course, in high school, where coaches aren't paid as well. In high-profile Division I programs, where salaries range from hundreds of thousands to a couple million dollars a year, character-building is never going to weigh as much as filling the building. Jim Boeheim, however, disagrees.

• Cheer Squad Fired for Stripping at Game — SportsByBrooks has the scoop, and better yet, the picture, about the minor league basketball Kansas City Knights' cheerleading squad, which got a rise out of the crowd by stripping down to bikini tops and thongs. (Thanks, Shumpy.)

• Scott Wright's 2005 NFL Mock Draft — Very in-depth first-round analysis. Best part: the word "motor" is used only twice.