Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 29 — It was a truly wonderful night for a ballgame. And it was a great ballgame, from a Yankee fan standpoint, for exactly eight pitches. Then Roger’s ninth pitch was a fastball that Boone caught up with and deposited in the visiting bullpen — no, not in the screen that protects the walkway to Monument Park in front of the visitors’ bullpen, but into the bullpen beyond itself.

And the best that I can think to say about Davis’s follow-up two-run jack the next inning was that, although it cleared the porch in right with room to spare, it was easily 100 feet shorter in distance. (Unfortunately, this tack really doesn’t work, because Edgar’s bomb that put the M’s up 4-0 to start the sixth rivaled Boone’s in length.)

Let me share something about Edgar Martinez that I had never noticed before. I’ve been cringing at Edgar swinging a bat ever since 1995, and the results of many of his at bats against the Yanks have left me with a teeth-grinding problem we don’t have time to talk about just now.

So tonight, although taking a cab from the train (rather than the usual subway) still didn’t get me there in time to see the visitor batting practice, it did have me seated and ready to observe as the players of both teams begin to trickle out of their respective dugouts for their final warmups. Roger appeared first, of course, with both Posada and Flaherty (which is not the norm; perhaps the drive for 300 is attracting the two-catcher treatment). Jorge was able to warm slowly as Flaherty played some long toss with Roger.

Eric Almonte emerged early to do stretches beyond first base with a trainer, and then Soriano and Mondesi came out and ran. On the Seattle side Carlos Guillen was an early show and he had a nice reunion of sorts with Raul and Alfonso. Boone did some solitary running, and Winn and McLemore stretched in short left field. And then Edgar emerged, doing some short running and bending and stretching exercises. But there was one difference. Edgar is the only guy I have ever seen warm up with his batting gloves on. (I wonder if he sleeps with his bat?)

The Scoreboard continues to play the Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again after the lineups, and they played The Boys Are Back in Town as the Yanks were about to bat in the bottom of the first. And they’ve added another fan-involvement game to the long agenda they already have. As for the usual list, fans had no clue trying to spell Kamieniecki; it dawned on one and all slowly that the baby picture of a Yankee who is related to an NL manager was Nick Johnson; a young man from the lower sections answered the Yankee Trivia correctly (the answer was D; Ron Guidry holds the Yankee record for shutouts in a season, with nine in 1978); and roughly one-third of the crowd picked the right subway train (the 4) and the Yankee cap holding the ball (no. 3).

The new game is played between the first and second innings, and fans who were obviously asked at some time out by the bat in front of gate 4 have to prove that they “know the game,” only they don’t, as a Yankee player invariably gives the correct answer once the fans have missed three times (one, two, three strikes, yer out! ya know). One past question was, “What is a pickle?” and tonight all three gave food-based answers to the query, “What is a donut?” Then Derek Jeter was shown explaining it was the collar players slip onto a bat to make practice swings with extra weight so that when they go up to bat without it their lumber feels light in comparison.

But we were also treated with seeing Mr. Jeter in person too, as he was the Yankee who came out to thank a representative of Continental Airlines on Yankee Baggage Tag night. Eric Almonte managed two of our six hits (off Meche; Matsui singled off Hasegawa in the ninth) tonight so the absence of our All Star shortstop can’t be blamed for the lackluster game showing, but I assure you that Derek is needed for the before-the-game, in-front-of-the-Yankee-dugout toss. He and Tino used to put on a short and gradually long toss clinic, and Alfonso has done a reasonable job replacing Tino as Derek’s partner. But in No. 2’s absence, chaos reigns, as tonight we witnessed brief Johnson/Ventura, Soriano/Almonte and Mondesi/Matsui catches that mercifully ceased before anyone got hurt.

Meche was dynamite all night. I remember that he had done well in the past, and then that he had suffered injury problems, but 36 years ago today Aretha Franklin’s recording of Respect hit the charts, and let’s just say that Gil gets tonight’s Franklin award from this Yankee fan. But Roger was actually very good too, as in the first five he walked only one while whiffing eight and surrendering five hits. And with two right-handers dominating the proceedings we fans on the left field side of the tier benefitted mightily under a shower of foul balls off lefties’ bats. Before striking out in the first Jason lined one back and hard into Box 618 that a quick-reacting fan corraled by deflecting, and then snapping his own carom out of the air. And a gentleman seven seats to my right in Box 620 made a fine bare-handed grab of a liner courtesy of Ichiro before the Seattle right fielder lined softly to Almonte in the second.

And when Joe chose to replace Roger after six with a line of lefties it seemed the tier fans on the right field side would keep the ball rolling on good catches, so to speak, as a first row fan in a Tier Box seat in section 15 (all the odd number sections and boxes are down the first-base side; all the even on the left) scooped a ball in front of him in the seventh inning off Edgar’s bat right into his lap.

Another word or two on music before I wrap this slice of life rehash up, if I might. What band could we expect to have the global reach of no other? I think the answer was clear when we reported the playing of the Beatles’s Get Back (along with Elvis Costello’s Pump It Up) as Matsui came to bat last home stand. Tonight he was accompanied by Daytripper and then Get Back again. The only other tune I noticed: The Who’s Eminence Front for Robin Ventura in the fifth.

The Yankee fans were patient, and fully expected a comeback all night. The ugly runs off Hammond in the seventh that upped the Mariner lead to 6-0 had more than a few doubting that the coming reply would be enough, but a Yankee rally was a foregone conclusion. We were frustrated when a two-out walk to Posada in the second and one-out base hits by Almonte and Mondesi in the third and fifth came to naught and when Bernie’s bounce into a 4-6-3 after Jason’s bingle in the sixth left us with no score after seven.

And then the rally, and the at bat of the night, arrived. Meche had only thrown 78 pitches coming into the eighth (he managed single-digit counts of five, seven and nine pitches in three innings!), but we were ready to rumble when Almonte followed Raul’s line base hit to right with a 3-2 single to left of his own to lead off the eighth. The crescendo rose for Soriano and the quick 0-2 daunted us not a bit. He took a ball, fouled off two more, then took another ball. He fouled one softly to the side and then lined one back and off to the right side. The eager fans in the section five tier boxes groped for the carom eagerly — too eagerly. It bounced off the hands and/or body parts of no less than three fans, and then fell into the seats below.

The boos and murmurs that rose due to the ball falling from the cheap (OK, not as expensive) seats in the tier to the company boxes on the field level below seemed to divide us when we could least afford it. Alfonso soldiered on, fouling off three more balls in succession, but none were struck soundly. Nor was the fourth pitch, but it was hit plenty hard to score Raul from second, if only it hadn’t tracked directly into Boone’s glove. Raul was doubled off, and when Nick followed with a too-late single, our night was already over. But Alfonso got Meche over 100 pitches and Nick got him out of the game. It was small consolation, but almost the only one we would get.

The game went quickly, the loss not too hard to take. Matsui thankfully singled in the ninth to match the bunt single Ichiro had gotten in the ugly seventh. The stands and the area around the Stadium were engulfed with fans of Japanese extraction, and I saw at least three different camera crews filming fans for their reactions. I am a delirious baseball-addicted fan, and I was happy for them. What a night they had had! I was glad for Hideki that he had scratched that single. And I was glad for Sterling Hitchcock too, as he pitched an effective ninth. He was celebrating his 32nd birthday today and, although he has a long way to go and may never get there, his velocity is up. Perhaps it was enough to open the eyes of a scout or two. Or who knows? Maybe he even has a part to play in this 2003 Yankee season.

At least he had a better game than those fans in the section five tier boxes, huh?

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!