By John Klima
Staff Writer

Journey back to the days when the only Reggie trapped in the zoo was Jackson, an agitator with the No. 44 on his back, instead of an alligator who avoided capture some 44 times.

The year was 1978 and the Yankees were in bad shape. The Red Sox had a future Hall of Fame catcher, six starters under 30, and a 14 ½ game lead on July 17th.

The Yankees were built on age, around Jackson’s bat and his ego, with second baseman Willie Randolph the only regular position player under 35. To this day, Randolph, the Mets manager, uses the gruff grittiness of that team to guide his perspective. “I had two World Series rings by the time I was 24,” Randolph will often remind reporters when his team is losing. “I know how to win.”

His Yankees of 1978 did have the best left-hander of the decade, who was having the best year of his career. They were also seemingly in a hole deeper than Ron Guidry and closer Goose Gossage could pitch them out of. Their present situation is not as daunting, yet is still difficult.

Like our good friend Reggie the alligator, the iconic reptile of Los Angeles who escaped from the zoo again this week before the animal police hauled back into the joint, the Yankees wonder if this season will repeat 1978. Will they be able to catch the Red Sox again?

Their performance since the All-Star break suggests that anything is possible. They had just the kind of lousy first-half to facilitate such wanderlust. The Yankees trailed the Red Sox by 10 games at the midseason snooze this year.

In that fateful 1978 season, the Red Sox whittled away in a summer that concluded with a draw. In a one-game playoff, Bucky Dent hit the home run that Bostonians will forever curse. Not even the joy of 2004 will take away the hatred of the Yankees.

In this summer of 2007, the Yankees and the Red Sox are again offering the opportunity for one of baseball’s most beloved repeats: a Boston collapse followed by a Yankees coronation. Can it happen this year?

There are 38 games remaining for the Yankees and the Red Sox. The Yankees have done their part to turn what was a runaway into a respectable pennant race. Their 24-10 record since the break is the best in baseball. But what’s significant is not only that the Yankees made it a close, but the method by which they have done it. This alone will probably prove to be more significant than the final standings. They have begun to change themselves without their traditional means.

There were no money-swinging moves. Drama was resolved when Alex Rodriguez hit his 500th home run on the way to another MVP season, but not when GM Brian Cashman reportedly said this week that the Yankees would not be interested in paying Rodriguez the $36 million per season agent Scott Boras believes he can get his filet-mignon ticket. The Yankees are suddenly crying cheap.

Joe Torre deflected comments from Gary Sheffield more than once. Jason Giambi reportedly said what everyone thought anyhow, and rather than Giambi getting thrown under the bus, he darn near got a handshake and a hot dog from Bud Selig.

Amid the usual strife, the Yankees have been the best team in baseball since the break, racking up league leading numbers in every major offensive category. The Yankees seized the opportunity against inferior competition, winning eight-of-ten series meetings, feasting on Tampa Bay and Kansas City, but also winning two series against Toronto. The Yankees announced their second-half surge is for real last week when they completed a sweep against the Indians, knocking Cleveland off its slim lead in the AL Central.

While the Yankees have surged, Boston has stayed competitive with resilient numbers, if not resounding ones. The Red Sox entered the weekend series against the Angels with a 5 ½ game lead over the Yankees. Boston, 19-14 since the All-Star break, is 5-4-1 in its ten series.

The Yankees series against the Tigers this weekend begins a crucial grind through the end of August. The Yankees host the Tigers, then visit the Angels and Tigers before returning home to face the Red Sox. They must face Seattle and Boston for three games each in September and Toronto and Baltimore for six games. While the Yankees have played well against Toronto, Baltimore is 4-2 against them in the second-half.

The Red Sox have the advantage of playing Tampa Bay six times in September and will finish the last week of the season at home against Oakland and Minnesota. The only downside is they do not play in their own division, which would be helpful if they should suddenly need to make up games within it.

Even if the Yankees do not catch the Red Sox and must settle for the Wild Card, it’s hard not to call that an unqualified success in New York. It’s unlikely that the media, the owner and the fans would see it that way, but the fact remains that the Yankees are proceeding down a very un-Yankee-like path, which is to say, winning while in the process of rebuilding.

The Yankees began the weekend trailing the Mariners in the always fluid Wild Card standings, which are certain to change every day until the last day of the season.

For the first time in decades, the Yankees are testing young pitching in a pennant chase, which has gone contrary to its George Steinbrenner-oriented dicta. But the boss is aging. While he remains a figurehead leader in the Tampa side of the front office, the sign that the Yankees are joining the 21st century of player development indicates that Cashman’s baseball operations side is gaining the upper hand over the business men.

The Yankees are at an odd juncture between youth and age. Mike Mussina won his 100th game as a Yankee and 247th overall last Saturday against Cleveland. Roger Clemens, the most expensive gauze bandage in the history of baseball, has 352 victories. Between them, Mussina and Clemens have more combined victories than any pair of teammates since Phil Niekro and Steve Carlton strutted in from the Paleolithic era to pitch for the Indians in July of 1987.

In the victory against the Indians last Friday, 21-year-old right-handed saving grave pitcher Phil Hughes (21 years, 48 days) and fellow rookie reliever Joba Chamberlain (21 years, 322 days) became the youngest tandem of Yankee pitchers to appear in a game since 1965.

Another sign that the young pitching is coming quickly can be found in the fact that the Yankee pitching staff leads baseball in strikeouts after the All-Star break.

Right-hander Chien-Ming Wang gets hit (a 4.09 ERA) but wins games (13-6) while left-hander Andy Pettit (9-7, 3.93) hangs in there. Torre won his 2,040th career game Monday against Baltimore, tying him with former Dodger manager Walter Alston for 8th place on the all-time list.

So instead of Reggie, we have Rodriguez. Torre, who runs his team like a librarian and has probably lost count of the times he’s almost been run out of town, checks his Rolex to see if this different blend of youth and age not seen in the Bronx in a decade will click in time to allow the Yankees to capture the Red Sox. Not that it will be easy. The Sox, like Reggie, can still bite.