Bronx, N.Y., July 7, 2002 — I know how Derek Jeter felt today. OK. No, I don’t know how it feels to be talented, classy, good-looking, poised, or rich, but I still think I know how he felt. I felt it a little bit myself. Derek has had a good, not great, season so far, and in the last several days had seemed to be finding something with his batting stroke. With the mostly ceremonial All Star break coming up, the last thing he needed was another interruption to his day-in, day-out quest to be the perfect ballplayer.

That’s what I was thinking this afternoon in Box 603 before the game with the Blue Jays. A little off my game myself from undergoing (well, enjoying really) a four-day music festival in Upstate New York, I was hot, sleep-deprived and stressed by what I could scan from the three days of baseball headlines — how could I have missed all that? I remember sometime in the afternoon Saturday when I overheard a couple talking about that “Yankee trade,” and I smiled to myself that I was a fan of a team whose moves affect so many so strongly that people are talking about it for days afterward. And having just missed my first Old Timers Game for the last 15 years or so, I knew to expect to hear a few good old stories about our beloved heroes of yesteryear. But…

OK. I was very saddened to hear of the passing of Teddy Ballgame. I never saw him play, but those that know say he could hit like nobody else. (George, get me a lefty like that in the Bronx!) And then I heard on the radio this morning that Weaver would be taking Roger’s turn. Whoa! During the lineup announcements, it was with a sense of relief, I can tell you, that I heard Sheppard call out Phelps, “Designated Hitter,” so I could stop wondering if that had been discontinued in my absence. I struggled to jot down the umpires, missed when the game-time temperature and humidity were posted (“hot,” I wrote in), and neglected to write in the time of the first pitch.

So I get a brand-new starter with a unique long-distance march from almost second base before starting an inning (he did that at least twice anyway). Vernon Wells seemed Soriano-like on his first pitch drive into the left center field gap (Rondell got a horrible jump, but it probably didn’t matter), but Jeff came back to retire Hinske on a lazy fly to left, and then found the only way he could to field Stewart’s soft hopper that would get Shannon safely to first base, short of throwing it away. (The official scorer had a tough time with it too, and it may be the first time I have seen the Scoreboard post a ruling and then overrule itself two times, a la Monty Hall’s “Let’s Make a Deal”:

Hit.
No. Error
“You know what? Let’s call it a hit.”

Many a great pitcher has been prone to the gopher ball, and survived it, because they always managed to do it with the bases empty (among them Satchel Paige, who merits a mention on this, which would have been his 96th birthday. It’s also the day the Cleveland Indians signed him in 1948.) Mr. Weaver has a little to learn in that respect, as he only threw two, but they represented the only two times the Jays had two guys on base. Carlos Delgado could hardly contain himself. His three-run bomb came on the first pitch.

The wierdest thing I noticed about Jeff’s first two innings is that he threw 28 pitches, surrendered three runs, three hard hits and a couple of hard liners, and got no foul balls among his 19 strikes (well, Vernon Wells nicked strike two on his three-pitch K in the second, but just barely). The outs became routine, and weak. Jeff was “bringing” it. And then Huckaby’s ball to short right was too soft to reach Raul, the non-hitting Lawrence got the only walk, and Wells did the three-run dance again. (Jeff needs Jeter poise.) Slightly better control too, he recorded only 14 out of 28 first-pitch strikes.

But it was great to see the Cathedral again. The grass is holding up well in the heat, and the humidity wasn’t near that of last Tuesday. They had the usual two-anthem pregame, with Eddie Layton playing “Oh Canada!” and then the Army Band version of the Star Spangled Banner was broadcast. Perhaps because of yesterday’s ceremony, there were major league baseball patches in foul territory on the first and third baselines (22 white stars, six red stripes, five white, with one becoming a ballplayer’s image). And the banners over right field included an American and a Canadian flag. Which reminds me to point out how right it looks to have the Yankee flag take its rightful spot in the far left-most corner of the left field facade, now that we have passed the Red Sox and held on to first place for a week.

The Scoreboard showed a Kid Rock/Boomer (who was actually up in the pen in the sixth!) video after the fourth inning. Notable in the world of caroming foul balls was one struck by Enrique Wilson (just before his 7th inning sac bunt) that flew into and out of Box 620 at the same speed. (Hope it wasn’t bone it hit.) And a fan in Row F of 619 deserves some credit for corralling Jeter’s first-inning foul. It bounced from his hands, then again, and then he made a two-row dive (thankfully into empty seats at the moment) to finally come up with it.

You had to respect the way the Yanks clawed back into the game twice too. We showed some quiet (some call it “little”) action in the third, and then gradually got louder as the day went by. The first seven hits were singles, but the doubles, triple and homer were loud and welcome. Mr. Jeter’s DH day at the plate started quietly too, as he grounded out to short, third, then second, though he did manage an rbi with the one to third, for our first rbi and quiet run of the day. I heard Derek’s whispering bat, and was happy. But we were both (Derek and I) happier when it roared in the sixth.

How does that feel, Derek?

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!