Baltimore Orioles shortstop and Winterport native Mike Bordick predicted that the New York Yankees will win their fourth consecutive World Series and fifth in the last six years by beating the Arizona Diamondbacks in six games.

“The Yankees have so much postseason experience. They have so many guys who go through this year in and year out,” said Bordick. “They really know how to step it up in the postseason. Over the past couple of years, you would have thought the Yankees were done going into the postseason.

“But they turn it up a notch in the postseason,” added Bordick.

The former University of Maine star expects it to be an “exciting series.

“With those big arms [Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson], Arizona has a legitimate shot,” said Bordick. “And they have a lot of great veteran players like Matt Williams, Mark Grace, Jay Bell, Steve Finley and Luis Gonzalez. But the Yankees have been to the World Series four years in a row so you have to give them the advantage.”

Bordick is coming off a season in which he suffered a separated right shoulder after being upended turning a double play in June.

When his shoulder was examined, it was discovered that he had a small tear and bone spurs in the shoulder that required arthroscopic surgery on Aug. 12.

World-renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews performed the procedure.

“The tear and the bone spurs weren’t from the original injury. They had been there some time,” said Bordick, who wound up hitting .249 over 58 games with seven homers, 13 doubles, 30 RBIs and nine stolen bases.

It was the first time in six seasons he failed to appear in at least 151 games.

“I’ve been working out and rehabbing the shoulder. The shoulder strength is back to 100 percent. My throwing program begins the first of January,” said Bordick who expects to be ready to go in spring training.

“In fact, when the season ended, I was the only guy on the team who wanted spring training to start right away,” quipped Bordick.

He has one more year on his contract and hopes to have a productive 2002.

“After that, we’ll see what happens,” said the father of four who expects to return to Maine for the holidays.

Bordick is a career .261 hitter who had a career-best 20 homers and 80 RBIs in 2000 while playing for the Orioles and Mets.

Open tourney needs standards

The open tournament that has been implemented in several sports by the Maine Principals’ Association has merit.

It does take the pressure off coaches and enables them to play more people. It also gives the players something to look forward to and supplies an opportunity to teams who might accrue several early-season injuries. But there should be a compromise. There should be some kind of standard.

For example, soccer teams are allowed to play 14 games.

If you award two points for a win and one for a tie, teams should have to earn seven points to qualify. That would be at least three wins and a tie, two wins and three ties or a win and five draws.

You could reduce the number of points to six if they play only 12 regular season games or less.

Let’s make the regular season a little more meaningful. Winless teams or teams with one win shouldn’t qualify.

It will create classes with an uneven number of teams in the post-season but the MPA can rearrange the post-season schedule.

If seven teams qualify, the top seed should receive a bye. If six qualify, the top two teams could receive a bye.

Larry Mahoney’s column appears every Wednesday. He can be reached at 990-8231, 1-800-310-8600 or by email at lmahoney@bangordailynews.net