Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 22, 2003 — I’ll never forget it. It was about 7:18 pm, March 31, 2003. We had both heard rumors of a new breakthrough on the way home, and then my partner’s father had called and asked how I felt about the new Cablevision/YES deal. Thankfully, we were eager to embrace the new era after being blacked out all last year, and we knew what station they had planned to use for YES once the first — failed — agreement had been announced. The sacred radio (with the sealed package of backup AAA batteries attached) from last year was tuned into WCBS, and channel 89 was on the TV, the mute button concealing the annoying buzz that accompanied the test pattern of a picture we saw, as Alfonso grounded Roy Halladay’s first pitch in the 2003 season to short.

The pattern held as Jeter doubled into the right field corner, but the screen blinked on the 1-1 pitch to Jason, and once he had bounced a fielder’s choice to short, our first look at the 2003 season popped into view, showing (eerily, as it turned out) Derek sliding into third base (two innings earlier than the injury). We had YES! We despised Mr. Dolan not even a little bit less, and our dismay with Mr. Hindery didn’t dissipate, but we accepted YES into our lives with enthusiasm. By the time Hideki had bounced the 14th pitch of the new Yankee season through the shortstop hole, the radio had been retired, and the YES coverage was accepted. Even two innings later, when Derek was reeling in pain from that horrible play, we were, if not “glad” that we had the TV feed, at least appreciative that we didn’t need to try to make sense of it from a radio description.

Three and a half weeks later, I make no apologies for trying to take an objective view of the YES coverage. I have basked in the glory of the extras, checking out specials on O’Neill, Matsui, The Babe, and Zim to start, and on the season-starting road trip, I enjoyed the calls of so many guys I already knew from radio and CBS TV coverage, including Michael Kay, Ken Singleton and the inestimable Jim Kaat. We try to attend as many home games as possible, and actually caught 7.5 of the 10 games on the last stand (Moose just pitched too quickly on April 5, and I got there in the fifth), and last Friday’s Metrodome tilt with Roger winning No. 296 was the best TV one from a coverage standpoint yet.

Well, not tonight. To start with, their technical problems had technical problems. We lost 90 percent of our sound every time we went to commercial, and although I am delighted it wasn’t the other way around, it shakes your confidence that the sound will be there at a critical moment. And then there was the disappearance of the little graphic in the upper left corner updating the viewer on the count and the outs. Michael Kay finally advised us that it was missing and that the reason for this was “technical problems.” It returned several times during the night, but it couldn’t be counted on to appear until the late innings.

Meanwhile, the Yanks were slowly continuing their winning ways, even if we uncharacteristically trailed by a run after two. All three analysts were right on in describing Weaver’s problems in the first two. Jeff deserved to be out of the first quickly until Zeile bobbled Salmon’s bouncer, and though no runs scored, the first-inning pitch count was a too high 22. The second inning troubles are all on Jeff himself (though if home plate ump Randazzo was using the same strike zone in the second as the enlarged one he introduced in the eighth, the rally probably never occurs) because it started off with a walk to Glaus. Fullmer’s single wasn’t hit hard, but the four-pitch walk to Molina is hard to figure. Kennedy hit his sac fly well and the game was tied, and it would be easy to call Eckstein’s dying quail that scored the lead run lucky, if only we hadn’t seen him do the same thing time and time again last year. Angels 2-1 after two, with both starters having already thrown 49 pitches.

The Yanks took the lead for good in the third, as Johnson led off with a walk off World Series stalwart Lackey, who didn’t trust his fastball, and couldn’t throw the curve for strikes. Bernie punished an 0-1 fastball into the right center gap for the tie, and Posada blasted a one-one pitch deep into right and about 10 feet fair. We were winning and then Weaver got through a 12-pitch third despite a leadoff Salmon single to right on a 3-1 pitch, because after a fly to center by Anderson, Alfonso made a great recovery on a poor low throw from Zeile (playing third for the resting Ventura; Joe must figure he can afford to even against a righty, after four days on the turf) and caught, wheeled and threw brilliantly for a 5-4-3.

Lackey had zoomed to 72 pitches after three, but his walk to Raul, his own error on Almonte’s bunt, and Alfonso’s great at bat reaching low and outside to swat the eighth pitch for a single ended the righty’s night. Then Schoenweiss came in and did what I like to call “a Murray” (for Yankee reliever Dale Murray from 1984). He gave up a walk, single and single to clear Lackey’s dirty work, and then whiffed two and escaped with no further damage (though he must have miscalculated as his walk scored too). But regardless who takes the blame in the box score and in the manager’s mind, we were rolling in Homer Dome fashion with a mid-innings 8-2 lead.

My problems with the YES coverage this night weren’t really about glitches in the video and audio feed, but rather with the announcers, all of whom seemed to have brought their “C” game tonight. To start with they discussed whether Torre would send Nick Johnson (on base with a single) in the first with one out and Jason facing a 3-1 count for so long that by the time Murcer finally blurted out that he would not run him, the pitch had been made and we all (including Bobby) already knew that he was held.

And then there was the YES trivia question. It may have been a difficult one for anybody who wasn’t playing or covering baseball in the late 70s, but shame on Singleton for not knowing the obvious answer that Dave Kingman was the former Yank who hit homers for four different clubs in 1977. (It was actually a better trivia question 10 years ago when each league only had east and west divisions, because then the question was, “Who hit a homer for a team in all four divisions…?”) Then Murcer, when trying to laugh off his failure to get the answer right, made matters worse by joking that “I can’t even remember anything that happened in 199_, Uhh, oh, 2002.”

Then in the sixth when Bernie flied out to Anderson right on the left field line, Michael Kay, in advising us that the ump had ruled the out a fair ball, said “Just put a nine in your scorecard” and didn’t pick up on his error (that it was hit to position seven) for a minute or two. But a play in the fourth displayed the reason these broadcasts are so much better when the old pitcher Mr. Kaat is around. Almonte bounced a bunt right back to Lackey when trying to sacrifice Mondesi to second after a leadoff walk. When Lackey’s horrible bounced throw pulled Eckstein’s foot off the bag so both runners were safe, the official scorer ruled, correctly, “Fielder’s Choice, E1.” Then Singleton and Murcer, those two old members of the hitter’s union, both said it should have been a sacrifice, which is I think when Michael Kay has to call them on that (as Kaat would have). If the error is on the throw (“E1”), then it obviously is not a sacrifice, as a good throw makes it a force play.

But the real problem I had with the coverage happened in the bottom of the fourth, right after we had taken the 8-2 lead. All three guys couldn’t get past the fact that Weaver was throwing lots and lots of curve balls. It was a good point to make that the early walks had put him in a pitch-count bind but the quick third had helped, and what nobody was pointing out was that the Angels just weren’t hitting anything hard. Leading off the bottom of the fourth, Fullmer hit a soft grounder toward short that Zeile must have misjudged, because he flinched and then didn’t move as the ball rolled harmlessly into the hole where Almonte could stop it, but not in time to throw Brad out. Rookie outfielder Devanon lined to right and then Molina hit a 2-1 pitch off the end of the bat that landed fair in no man’s land in short right. After all three broadcasters initially agreed that Jeff was facing first and second when no ball had been hit well, they still got off on his pitch selection again anyway, even though we hadn’t seen weak at bats out of the Angels like this for more than six months.

After Kennedy lined to Bernie, Eckstein bounced a ball down the line that Zeile was all over — all over, that is, with everything but his glove. There is no guarantee that Todd could have thrown out Eckstein had he smothered a very catchable ball, but Jeff did not deserve the run on his ledger, nor had he earned the low marks they all gave him for the inning. I am not very familiar with Todd Zeile’s infield play, but tonight was not very comforting. He made the error in the first, and only Alfonso’s great play in the third saved him another, and got us a 5-4-3. And the story of the third inning was of one bloop that fell from luck and two that could have, and probably should have, been flagged by our third baseman.I’m not sure Zeile was mentioned once as all three guys continued to express concern with Weaver’s curve ball that the Angels hadn’t figured out all night.

There are other stories. We must all be concerned with the condition of bullpen stalwart Osuna, who looks to be headed to the DL after an eight-inning twinge. We are very thin in the pen, and I believe Mo won’t be rushed. Among the pluses, Giambi picked up two hits and three rbi going to left, Alfonso had another multi-hit game, Jorge hit his bomb in a tie game, and Nick scored three times. Our starters keep winning. The Yanks keep winning. And monkey or no, the Angels and their fans have deep doubts about their Yankee mastery now.

And YES will have better nights, I’m sure. I have given this one a name in my scorecard, the “Green Acres” game. The Chores, listening to Bobby when he gets a little too hokey (like describing how he uses the backward K marking to indicate a swinging, not a taking, strike out — just to be different, I guess?); The Stores, which I’ll have to frequent for more scorecards so I can track these guys and how they’re doing; Fresh Air, where the real games, like tonight and back home, are played; Times Square, roughly 50 or so blocks north of the Parade that will hopefully finish this 2003 odyssey to no. 27 off.

Eddie Albert, aka Oliver Wendell Douglas, would have been 95 today. So I’m giving the casual and amateurish broadcast, with the technical glitches Hooterville would have found charming, a pass. But the team will travel for half their games, and I will be at the mercy of YES. They’ll do better most of the time. And I’ll enjoy it. But when it comes to observing Yankee games, be assured of the following:

New York is where I’d rather see.
I get antsy with watching games on TV.
I just adore a Stadium view.
Yankees, I love you,
But give me River Avenue.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!