Bronx, N.Y., May 27, 2002 — Mike Thurman has gotten all kinds of respect. (Mark Thurman gets it too. Mark Thurman, the Canadian children’s author, that is.) But Mike, the former starter for Montreal? Thinking that a 10-11 record with barely AAA quality Montreal would get him a job, Mike put himself on the line.
And you know what happened? Nobody with guaranteed money came calling. So Mike did the wise thing. If he was going to get no respect, he might as well get none with the best: the New York Yankees.
His nondescript career starting in Montreal did produce a few intriguing stats though. First he fits right in. As a pitcher with a career .031 ba, he won’t be lording it over any of the other hurlers come interleague (when pitchers hit in the NL park) time. And second, plying his talents now with a team that served as the stage for the career of the Bambino, for whom the Iron Horse, Joe D and the M&M boys played their ball, he partnered with Mark MacGwire in a bit of history. On the last day of the 1998 season, you see, Mike served up Mark’s 69th homer of the record-breaking 70-homer season.
It would be foolish to try to portray tonight as a pitching victory, what with the six-run explosion in the top of the first. The homers aside, all Yankee fans have to be happy that Rondell is snapping out of it, as it’s a 1-0 lead and a whole different ballgame (to coin a phrase) if White’s two-out, two-run single doesn’t extend the inning. And no one is going to be sorry for us that Nick the Stick is coming along slowly when he’s batting ninth and putting up those homer and rbi numbers. A great offensive night by Jason, Derek and Bernie complemented Rondell’s and Nick’s heroics.
But 6-0 in the first is a long way from a win, a fact we all learned happily but painfully in the deciding game of the 2000 ALDS, as Tino’s misplayed three-run double staked us to to that number, but it was quickly 7-5 after four. Mike started out a little shaky and struggled in surrendering two runs after three. That took 62 pitches out of his arm, but he settled in. Starting with the 5-4-3 dp from Konerko in the third, he threw nine out of 10 first-pitch strikes, and got through innings four through seven on 48 pitches. He finished up retiring 13 out of the last 14 White Sox he faced.
We read the papers. We know a few things. (Several things you may not have known, by the way. For instance, on this day in 1968, the to-be-contracted [or moved?] Montreal Expos, where all of Mike’s major league experience has occurred, [the Padres too] were awarded an mlb franchise. Also, the Big Hurt [who homered tonight] was born, Jeff Bagwell too.) But just reading the local sports pages, we all know Andy’s had another setback, that Wells is “iffy,” that el duque’s inscrutable, and Roger shortened his workout. Sterling pulled a Mr. Hyde in his hero/villain tour of American League cities tonight, so who’s to say that Mike doesn’t figure in our 2002 future plans? As foolish as the next fan, I looked to Toronto’s Roy Halladay to beat the Red Sox so we could either catch them or at worst not fall further back. What do I know?
But if Mike’s going to figure in our march-to-No. 27 plans, I don’t have much time. You see, I respected him so much before tonight’s game myself that I searched for Mark, not Mike, when checking him out in Google. And Mike is listed there, as Mark, as the 42nd listing. The first several refer to the much-ballyhooed Canadian children’s author Mark Thurman. But fully 10 or so of those Google references that came up before Mike’s baseball stats were about comely Uma Thurman. I’ve got to check them out before Mike/Mark moves up the list.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!