Yankees Halfway Home

ATLANTA —  Every World Series has its rallying cry, and so this battle of the mammoths found one Sunday, rising from the Turner Field bleachers like a voice from the gods.

“Beat the traffic, beat the traffic.”

This from New York Yankee fans, pointing at Atlanta Brave fans.

In the first inning.

While one can generally never trust Yankee fans beyond a good bodily fluid joke, their advice here was good.

Your foolish correspondent waited six more innings to depart his bleacher seat for the press box in Game 2, and was nearly trampled by the loyal fans fleeing the stadium for the safety of the darkened downtown streets.

It’s OK now if you want to do the same.

This World Series is over.

The Atlantans are as cooked as a waffle-house steak.

The New Yorkers are such a lock, you wonder if Pete Rose is betting on them.

Go ahead. Beat the traffic.

After a 7-2 win in Game 2, taking a two-games-to-none lead, the Yankees are looking every bit the team of the decade, not to mention the team of the century.

The Braves don’t even look like the team of the week.

At least the Boston Red Sox, for all their curses, would put up a Bronx fight.

You would think that the New York Mets, for all their turmoil, would have done the same here.

But so far, not the Braves, who have taken these 40-degree temperatures a little seriously, acting very much like the Buffalo Bills.

On Sunday, as in the opener, they were undisciplined at the plate, lackluster in the field, and unbelievable in the dugout.

Or maybe you would have benched two of your top postseason hitters and one of your top postseason hitters.

Out was Bret Boone, Walt Weiss and Eddie Perez.

In was Keith Lockhart, Ozzie Guillen and Greg Myers.

Bobby Cox was looking for any sort of left-handed hitter to face David Cone, and this is what he found.

“We said, ‘What the heck,’ ” said Brian Jordan.

How inspirational of them.

Guillen dropped a soft fly ball that cost them a run, he and Lockhart messed up a double play that cost them another run, and the three guys went a combined two for nine at the plate.

After two games, the Braves are batting .121. With 10 more strikeouts than hits. With as many errors as runs scored.

From such destruction has risen this observation from third base Ned Yost to Jordan, when he saw Jordan actually reach third base in the seventh inning Sunday.

“You’re the first one to come see me in two days,” he said.

And to think, the evening started with Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Cy Young and, best of all, Vin Scully.

They were part of the on-field ceremony surrounding baseball’s all-century team, an affair that would have been cut short if baseball officials knew that Kevin Millwood would take a century to get out of the first inning.

The highlight was, of course, the minute-long standing ovation given Rose on his first official return to an organized baseball arena since being suspended for life for gambling in 1989.

About Rose, a couple of observations:

1) Just because a guy has 4,256 hits doesn’t give him the right to color his hair the approximate shade of a pumpkin.

2) Before squawking about that national TV reporter who asked him tough questions about his gambling, think about whether you would want him to answer those same questions before coming to work for your favorite team.

OK, so the national TV guy was guilty of--surprise, surprise--showboating. But the basic equation remains.

Rose would be allowed back in baseball if he would just admit, apologize and made amends for what to reams of evidence show, and what he signed a suspension agreement to avoid facing.

That he bet on baseball.

Rose should be allowed in the Hall of Fame regardless. But again, with fingerprints all over betting slips involving the Cincinnati Reds, and no sign that Rose thinks this was wrong, would you want him managing your team?

Enough about all that.

Let’s get back to something really tawdry.

The loudest cheers during Sunday’s actual game came when Guillen actually caught a soft pop fly to end the seventh inning.

Said Guillen: “We haven’t had a good at-bat yet.”

Said Millwood: “You’re going to lose every game you pitch if you do the things I did tonight.”

There remains hope in history.

When these teams met in the 1996 World Series, the Braves won the first two games in Yankee Stadium, then the Yankees won the next four.

Said Lockhart: “You can look at that and try to draw on it.”

Said Guillen. “I don’t even care about that.”

Every World Series has its rallying cry.

This one needs a laugh track.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.