Bronx, N.Y., July 7, 2007 — The Bombers strung together six hits in the second inning Saturday afternoon, and seven over two frames. Unfortunately, they played the Clippers, not the Angels, and the hit total matched what the 2007 team amassed in 13 innings in the contest that followed. The Bombers beat the Clippers 4-0 in the 61st Yankee Stadium Old Timers Day game, and Anaheim bested the current team 2-1.
One year ago, the Stadium welcomed ex-stars from near and far, from yesterday and before that, in pregame ceremonies under rainy conditions that precluded a game at all. The regular game that followed lasted one-half inning with the Marlins up 1-0 when the crowd was sent home after a frustrating but touching day. On this Saturday, however, the old Stadium looked her best, despite the messy work site across 161st Street, and so did many of the heroes that draw tens of thousands to the hot city hours before game time this day each year.
Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the 1977 World Champs was the underlying theme, and 14 players from that team appeared. But the play day belonged to guys of more recent vintage, with first-time attendees Paul O’Neill (2), Scott Brosius and even Homer Bush reaching safely.
The conditions were perfect, in an idyllic setting, and fans roared with approval from the moment Paul Blair was the first player announced. Last to be introduced were widows Arlene Howard, Helen Hunter, and Diana Munson, each with a bouquet of flowers, along with the son of the 1977 manager, Billy Martin, Jr. Current coaches Ron Guidry and Don Mattingly received standing O’s, and a loud cheer greeted 1977 Series hero Reggie Jackson. Yogi Berra, a coach with the 1977 team, was greeted with customary glee and, though he did not appear, The Scooter Phil Rizzuto sent a note that was read aloud. On the somber side of the affair, several ex-members of the team were listed with major league baseball personalities who have passed in the last year, most notable among them Clete Boyer and Hank Bauer.
One half hour later the real game began, and it became obvious that the one Old Timer still plying his craft was in for a heck of a pitcher’s duel with the 16 years younger John Lackey. Roger Clemens was up to the task, and the two righthanders held the respective opposing lineups to one run apiece in eight tense frames that barely broke the two-hour mark. Hideki Matsui and Bobby Abreu second-inning doubles gave the Yanks the early lead. Miguel Cairo followed with a single and Abreu was rightly held at third, but had Joe Torre known how rare a hit with a man in scoring position would be, he would have sent him. Damon grounded to third and the Yanks would not have another runner at third for 11 innings.
The Angels answered right away when DH Garret Anderson doubled leading off the third. A Howie Kendrick grounder moved him to third, and when A-Rod couldn’t handle catcher Jeff Mathis’s hot shot cleanly with the infield in, Anderson crossed as Alex threw Mathis out. Clemens was superb, allowing singles in the second, fourth, fifth, and eighth and a sixth-inning walk. He struck out but three, but he kept his pitch count manageable in the sun and heat by coaxing 14 ground ball outs with his fastball and split-finger. He threw 57 of 98 pitches for strikes and pounced like a 22-year old on a Kendrick fifth-inning comebacker to start a 1-4-3 double play.
Lackey, meanwhile, was virtually automatic after the second. Effectively masking a killer high-70s curve and low-80s change among mid-90s heat, he struck out 11 Yankees in eight frames, walked none, and threw ball three just two times. He put the offense to sleep and it stayed that way. The Yankees left eight on while scoring one run in 13 innings, but just two from the fourth through the twelfth. Their only other regular-innings chance came when Jorge Posada doubled the other way to left leading off the seventh. Rather than swing away, current seventh-place hitter Abreu squared to bunt and home plate ump Derryl Cousins failed to make a call on the first pitch. He finally indicated a strike, ruling that Bobby offered at the pitch. It was a turning point. Torre took off the sacrifice, Abreu fouled a 1-1 pitch, then missed badly on a diving breaking pitch for the first out. Lackey dispatched Cano swinging on the same pitch, then picked Posada off second, and the Yanks were done, at least in regulation.
Replacing Clemens after eight, Mariano Rivera held Anaheim through the 10th, Kyle Farnsworth pitched around a single in the 11th, and Jose Vizcaino blanked the visitors in the 12th. But setup man Scott Shields did what he has routinely done to the Yanks since Anaheim bounced New York from the playoffs back in 2002, allowing a single and a walk through three frames. Then closer Francisco Rodriguez came out for the Yankee 12th. More wild than Shields, F-Rod would allow two walks over two, but he struck out three too, giving the Yanks 14 on the day.
Kendrick doubled off Vizcaino leading off the top of the 13th, and Jose Molina, in at catcher once Mathis was removed for a pinch hitter, failed in bunting him over. But he fought Vizcaino through six pitches, then grounded to first. Cairo stumbled in making the catch, then bobbled the ball, then erred again by firing it past Vizcaino at first, and the Angels had a lead. They were the second and third miscues of Cairo’s day, in at first because once the Yanks finally settled on Andy Phillips for the position, he hurt his neck.
Cairo did his best to make up, stroking his second single and running for his second stolen base once Cano grounded to third to start the bottom of the 13th. Miguel, who was also twice robbed of hits by Kendrick at second, moved to third with one down when F-Rod threw one quite high for what was called a passed ball on Molina. Damon walked, and Cabrera took a strike, then fouled one off. Rodriguez missed with high heat, but Melky flailed helplessly at an ensuing hard-breaking slider, the fifth Cabrera whiff of the day. Derek completed an 0-5 day by bouncing to short on the next pitch, and the Yanks had lost, 2-1.
Roger Clemens can now commiserate with ex-Astros teammate Andy Pettitte. That he did not get a win for his masterful day’s work apes the injustices heaped on Pettitte through almost three months of the 2007 season, where he continually failed to win while pitching superbly. Fifty-nine years ago this day, The Sporting News attacked Bill Veeck and the Indians for signing 42-year-old Satchell Paige, characterizing the signing of the veteran Negro Leagues star at that age as “demean[ing] the standards of baseball in the big circuits.” Paige responded by posting a 6-1 mark, and Clemens, a month removed from his 45th birthday, has proven he is a kindred spirit to the wily and talented Paige.
Unfortunately, coming off a day where his team scored 14 runs on 19 hits, Roger’s great work was sabotaged by the offensive failures of his teammates, at least for this one day. July 7, 2007, would have been the 100th birthday of the late science fiction writer Robert Heinlein, whose book Stranger in a Strange Land remains a popular classic of the genre.
Unfortunately, the Yankees treated offense like a strange land this day.
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!