原文在此~

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unlikely Hero
(Written by Mike Vaccaro from New York Post)

June 5, 2005 -- MINNEAPOLIS — The responsibility had al ready passed through the fingertips of the big-ticket Yankees, the ones who make up the bulk of this $203 million roster.

At least once the past six games, every one of them had the opportunity to step forward and do something about this appalling losing streak.

None of them did.

They left it to the kid making minimum wage.

If things had shaken out for these Yankees precisely the way their blueprint had been designed, then you would never have heard the name "Chien-Ming Wang" until late next month, when his name would have drifted under the radar in whatever trade talks the Yankees figure to be engaged in.

Only a funny thing has happened. In a season that's already felt like three different seasons, Chien-Ming Wang has emerged as the Yankees' most reliable starting pitcher.

And while manager Joe Torre wearily acknowledged that Wang will be the most likely chit the Astros demand if and when they officially dangle Roger Clemens — "I'm sure it's true," he said — Torre sounds like a man who will lie down in front of whatever van tries to drive Wang away from him.

And it's hard to blame him.

"The kid," Torre said last night, "has been super. There's no other way to describe it. He pitches with poise and with a calm that we really needed right now."

Wang didn't figure in the decision, mostly because of the one bad pitch he threw last night, a hanging change-up that Jacque Jones made disappear in the fourth, digging a 3-0 hole the Yankees spent the rest of the night climbing out of. But he pitched plenty well enough to win.

And because of that, the Yankees did eventually get around to winning, 4-3, in on Ruben Sierra's 10th-inning sacrifice fly.

Because of that, the Yankees are on the verge of putting this latest crisis of a crisis-infested season behind them. And afterward, Wang — seven innings, five hits, three runs — displayed the dispassionate perspective of a 10-year veteran.

"Every game is an important game," he said. "The only thing I was thinking was that I can't lose the game."

It would be nice if the featured members of the Yankees rotation would've done likewise the past few days. Wang is the one who was sacrificed during the losing streak so that Randy Johnson could stay on his regular turn.

That ought to be the last time Torre and Mel Stottlemyre do that, at least until
Johnson displays the kind of fortitude Wang showed last night.

And it really ought to make the Yankees think hard before sacrificing Wang in the name of fattening their payroll even further with the ever-tempting specter of Clemens looming in the weeks ahead.

Does anyone expect Wang to remain what he's been thus far since his call-up from Columbus? Put it this way: he'd better not be. If we're saying the same things on Sept. 5 that we're saying on June 5 — namely, that Wang is the one starting pitcher that doesn't force Yankees fans to bite their nails to the quick every day — then it will mean the Yankees season has gone from worrisome to calamitous.

The questions about Wang's future — and his present — have already begun to fly, and not merely from the Taiwanese press contingent. It's a fair question: When do the Yankees honor their eyes over their financial investments? When does performance begin to matter more than preferred status?

"I don't know what we'll do," Torre said, probed about Wang's place in the Yankee firmament. "I think that's something w
e'll have to discuss the more time goes on."

But for now, Wang is a mainstay, the answer to everything the Yankees have sought across the first two months. In a season of consistent inconsistency, Chien-Ming Wang has given them a steady hand and a steadier effort. He's already earned a spot in the rotation. Now it's time for Torre to honor that spot.

If his big-ticket guns don't like it, they can try pitching as well as the minimum-wage kid for a change.