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Bronx, N.Y., April 28, 2011 – The Yankees fell 5-3 to the visiting Toronto Blue Jays Friday night, largely due to an unfortunate confluence of events: Freddy Garcia took the mound for his first start this season without his pinpoint control, David Robertson had a rare tough outing in relief where he couldn’t throw where he wanted no matter the target, and the Yankee offense showed what happens all too often when they fall behind even if they put runners in scoring position. Continue reading The Word for Failure
Although I do sympathize with fans’ ire at long games, the Yanks have been having them with the Orioles for years, but particularly since the park at Camden Yards has been open. Taking advantage of a lull in my midweek work schedule in 1996, I traveled to Baltimore to see a two-game Yankees/Orioles set. The first became the longest nine-inning game in baseball history (to that point anyway), on April 30, 1996. The Orioles jumped all over poor Andy Pettitte for a 9-4 lead after two innings, but the Bombers fought back and tied it in the fifth, and won it 13-10, largely on the strength of a late Tino Martinez three-run home run. Jim Leyritz and Paul O’Neill homered too, and Paul’s was a mighty drive to right center that landed on a tile next to Boog’s Barbecue on Eutaw Street. The tile was marked to commemorate Paul’s homer’s landing point the next day (though no evidence remains except my eyewitness account, I believe). Last quirk: One of the Yankee innings was pitched by the soon-to-be-lost-to-surgery Scott Kamieniecki. He retired the side in order despite going 3-0 on all three batters. Continue reading April 30 in Yankee History
Bronx, N.Y., April 28, 2011 – The Yankees surprised many in their fanbase Thursday night, first by getting a game in after a day of driving rain, then by evaporating a four-day slump, and four-inning no-hitter, in an offensive explosion in the fifth inning. The six-run frame was not just cathartic for the team and its fans. Not only did it merit a Yankee history mention with a team four-batter cycle; it may have fixed a couple of starting outfielders as well. Continue reading Nick Comes Full Cir-cy-cle
On April 29, 1977, Ron Guidry, in his first start of the season, rode Thurman Munson’s three-run home run to a 3-0 shutout over the Mariners, with relief help from Sparky Lyle. Continue reading April 29 in Yankee History
 Was any White Sox batter looking to pick off a change up several innings in? With the movement of Colon's fast ball, it would have seemed pointless to throw a soft pitch. Bartolo Colon made his first pinstriped start in the Bronx Wednesday night, and his work electrified a crowd craving success off the disappointment of two dispiriting losses. Pounding mid-nineties heat from pitch one, the rotund vet dominated a White Sox team that has pitched the Yanks tough for three straight games. Continue reading Cano Clouts, Colon Captivates
Like a child viewing a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, major league baseball learned a little bit more about the secret weapon lurking in the Yankee bullpen on April 28, 1996. Mariano Rivera picked up the win while hurling the last three innings in a 6-3 defeat of the Twins, as Paul O’Neill both robbed Paul Molitor of a homer and then hit one of his own. Considering this game as a group with his two previous outings, Mo completed nine innings of no-hit ball. As the ‘96 season progressed, Rivera’s typical outing would shorten a bit to two innings of setup coupled with a one-inning John Wetteland save. That tandem was so devastating that the Yanks would play for a lead after six, and win almost all of them. The formula took them all the way to a World Series victory. Continue reading April 28 in Yankee History
 If Ivan Nova, shown here just before Tuesday's game, was pitching for his spot in the rotation, he certainly earned it. But alas, though he left with a lead, he did not get a win. – Well, the White Sox brought their nonwinning and nonhitting ways to the Bronx two days ago, to doubly unfortunate effect on the home team. The Yankees have managed seven hits through two games, scoring finally in Tuesday night’s game because two of the hits were home runs. And the gut-wrenching part of this second straight loss is, that should have been enough. Continue reading A Natural Disaster
April 27, 1947, was Babe Ruth Day in all major league parks. It’s ironic, and anticlimactic, that the Yanks were shut out, 1-0, on the day all of baseball honored the greatest power hitter there ever was. The Babe’s words to the 58,339 in attendance at Yankee Stadium were broadcast throughout the country and into every major league park. Let’s face it. The man is the greatest icon in modern American sport, and always will be. Continue reading April 27 in Yankee History
Bronx, N.Y., April 25, 2011 – I can’t help but wonder what column I would be writing now if the Yanks had done nothing more than returned from a short road trip and “entertained” their fans with a flat offense that barely threatened to score Monday night. Philip Humber, whose biggest notoriety in the sport preceding this one may have been that he was one of several unremarkable chips the Mets sent to Minnesota several years ago for Johan Santana, dominated Yankee bats with an assortment of effective pitches, and he did not allow a hit until Alex Rodriguez singled following a one-out Mark Teixeira walk in the seventh. Continue reading Heartbreak Home Game
April 26, 1961, was day one in a climb into the history books, as that was the day that Roger Maris hit his first of 61 homers, off Detroit’s Paul Foytack. Mickey Mantle added shots from each side of the plate (his eighth time accomplishing that feat); the second broke a 10-10 tie in the 10th inning of a 13-10 Yankee win. Continue reading April 26 in Yankee History
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