Boswell:

NEW YORK

The rain poured on the outfield grass but Andy Pettitte kept throwing, harder and harder, until he was almost at game velocity. Even though his start in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series had been postponed just an hour before, even though he will now pitch that game on Sunday night, he had work to do, ritual to render, a kind of resolute Yankee-ness to honor.

As the rain turned to a deluge, with no other players from either the Yanks or Angels anywhere in sight in this new blue pinstripe shrine, Pettitte ran alone, back and forth, from the right field foul line to center field, over and over.

On Sunday night, Pettitte may pitch the Yankees back to the World Series for the 40th time. Along with him on that trip will be three other classic veteran Yankees -- shortstop Derek Jeter, closer Mariano Rivera and catcher Jorge Posada, all of them teammates on four New York world champions from 1996 to 2000 . All of them, each having another superior postseason, are dedicated to a last roundup (with $423 million in new trail hands along for the ride).

Let Pettitte, throwing and running alone in a long empty stadium in a steady storm, stand for all four of them. Hatless, in a blue Yankees T-shirt and pinstripe pants, drenched long ago but oblivious the 37-year-old left-hander continues a 90-season Yankee tradition of lifelong commitment to the endless boring regimen of greatness. The Yankees as an organization are rich and never play on a level field. But the individual Yankees who comprise the best of those teams are indeed a magnificent breed apart -- in their own minds, to be sure, and, perhaps, to a degree, in reality, too.

"The four of them all exemplify what the best Yankees are supposed to be -- classy, tough, gentlemen, winners, team first," said "senior adviser" Reggie Jackson, standing in the locker room. "If things don't go well, you sit down and be quiet."

"Oh, just like you used to?" I said.

Reggie laughed. "Those four guys set the example for everybody else," Jackson said. "I can sum up what they have in two words -- relentless carriage. They have a posture that they never lose no matter what's happening. If there is no path, they cut their own and make a way for you. The circumstances of the [particular] game don't dictate to them. They define the game.

"To have a great team, you need two or three giants who have it."

Might the Phillies have a few sure men with relentless carriage.

"Yes," Jackson said. "Ryan Howard has the physical presence and the talent to match it."