Bronx, N.Y., May 19, 2010 — Twenty-four hours ago I was writing about the Yanks and Red Sox having played yet another four-hour game, yet another battle in which one team won in its last at bat. Admittedly, yesterday’s outcome thrilled me a great deal more, but I think both sides would admit that Tuesday’s 7-6 Boston victory featured teams trading critical mistakes more than rising to the occasion to emerge victorious.

The visiting Red Sox do deserve credit for bunching their biggest hits right when the Yankee team made its most critical mistakes. Dustin Pedroia, J.D. Drew, and David Ortiz had very good at bats in the eighth, while Kevin Youkilis fought off a pitch and deposited it in no-man’s land in short right, all of this after Alex Rodriguez stumbled and made a poor throw on a Marco Scutaro ground ball to start the onslaught. And in the ninth, Jeremy Hermida made the Yanks pay for displaying an outfield defense that dared him to hit a ball the opposite way deep to left once Marcus Thames’s key error had given Boston’s offense a fourth out.

But given those tips of my Yankee fan cap, Tuesday night was a horrible night for a ballgame. I write these, of course, from the perspective of someone who thrills to the experience of live action at the game. I enjoy most road games and a few home ones from the comfort of my living room, and do know it has some advantages, and none more obvious than that you don’t have to sit through the dreadful conditions like the ones that delayed this game an hour, and the unpleasant ones that persisted through the 249 minutes of play. Baseball is an outdoor game, but at its essence it’s essentially a fair-weather avocation too. From the sandlot to the high school and college game, to minor league fields that spring up all over the country and the world, and to the 30 major league stadiums, fans thrill to play under a cloudless afternoon sky and prime-time evening battles where the heat of the day has given away to cool breezes, perhaps a waxing moon, and all the world seems to be “settin’ a spell” to catch a game.

Well forget that. Fans arrived at Yankee Stadium to a driving rain, biting winds and frigid temps Tuesday. Your ticket is a rain check, but only if the game isn’t played, forcing most to attend whether they think the game will go on or not. One of the few bonuses to grandstand seats in the Stadium is that they are the most covered. Well, there was no covering up from this unpleasantness. If it couldn’t soak you vertically, it enveloped you from all sides. No part was dry; nowhere on your body was warm. And the conditions had an almost immediate effect on the game once play began after about an hour delay. The Yanks pounced for two runs in the second inning because Boston shortstop Marco Scutaro booted a double play ball and second sacker Dustin Pedroia had to settle for a fielder’s choice on another grounder that had twin killing written all over it. The Yanks were seemingly unaffected by the mess, but their turn would come.

Both starting pitchers were driven to higher pitch counts than they would have liked, with Josh Beckett leaving with over 100 throws on a mysterious injury once Robbie Cano’s double upped the Yankee lead to 5-0 in the fifth. CC Sabathia, meanwhile, made more than 60 throws through three frames. Sabathia was superb, however, and it’s sad, really, that his exit at 112 pitches after seven innings would cost him the second victory he has earned and not gotten this month. It’s impossible to say all looked good in Yankee land at that point when the players and the fans were frozen and soaked, but they certainly had the better of the play. When CC left the Sox had one run on a Youkilis sixth inning homer and the Yanks still had five.

And although this one was clearly lost late by poor bullpen pitching and defense, it was lost earlier too by a team that continually failed to capitalize against a seemingly demoralized Red Sox bunch who kept handing them more opportunities. Much, but not all, of the offensive failure revolved around the strike out. Captain Derek Jeter whiffed with two in scoring position to close the second, then went down swinging again leading off what would become a two-run fifth that could have netted more. Francisco Cervelli would strike out with Rodriguez on second on a single and fielder’s choice with one down in the sixth. And with their lead lost in the eighth, Juan Miranda and Randy Winn went down swinging leading off, making the single and walk that followed once again just a fraction of a scoring rally.

It would be easy to pick on Randy Winn in that he struck out to end the game with the tying run 90 feet away. And unfortunately, he does deserve the attention because his offensive night’s work amounted to a walk, an rbi fielder’s choice on the ball on which Pedroia should have turned two, and three swinging strike outs. And then there was the home sixth where Red Sox reliever Manny Delcarmen couldn’t find the plate and walked the bases loaded, probably the most frustrating non-score of all, at least until the end. With the bases laoded and one down and the visiting righty’s inning climbing inexorably toward 34 pitches, Brett Gardner forced a runner at the plate and Mark Teixeira fouled weakly to third. It was Tex, too, who flied out with two on to close the eighth inning at 5-5.

Manager Joe Girardi doesn’t escape this rogues gallery either. Not only does he have to take the hit for the laughable (if it didn’t hurt) outfield configuraton with two outs in the eighth, he was a little tentative on offense in the bottom half. Never mind his sticking with an ineffective Joba Chamberkain while Boston tield the score in the eighth. He was criticized two days ago for taking him out half way through the eighth; it’s not the manager’s fault if the setup guy and closer don’t get the job done (though Mariano actually did, or would have had the Yanks not taken their turn to make a critical error, and Winn was playing a respectable depth in left field). But when Robbie Cano doubled in the bottom of the ninth and stood at second as the tying run with none down, Joe had Cervelli bunt him to third. By the book: Play for the tie at home. But once Thames walked and was replaced with the speedy Ramiro Pena at first, Girardi waited two pitches before sending him. Boston probably would not have thrown through giving Cano a chance to score, but they could have. But even if they let Pena snatch second, they would have had to abandon their dp defense and bring the infield in again with Pena and Cano on second and third. As it was Miranda grounded back to the box, but who’s to say the Boston closer throws the same pitch, or that the Yankee DH takes the same approach, with the infield in?

I have enjoyed some magical live moments watching this game live, some of them in the new Palace last year and this (and last night), many more across 161st Street in the onetime Baseball Cathedral. I have seen every postseason game since 1995, several in the seventies and early eighties, and every home opener and Old Timer’s Game since 1982 (when the opener was delayed five days to Easter Sunday due to a blizzard). I’ve witnessed two Perfect Games and a no-hitter (Gooden’s, not Righetti’s or Abbott’s). It’s brought a lot of joy, but a significant amount of frustration too.

May 18 would have been the 113th birthday of film director Frank Capra, who made a slew of slice-of-life comedies and dramas, none more famous than It’s a Wonderful Life. Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey has a lot of great experiences until bad news at the bank has him questioning whether or not the world would have been a better place had he never been born. Well, I’m not even close to questioning whether I would have had a more wonderful life had I not developed and followed this love of experiencing the live play of the game that is such a fixation. Wanting to be Mickey Mantle is what it got it started, thus (thankfully) the Yankee connection.

It’s just that I’m not hearing any bells or seeing any angels in the aftermath of this horrible night.

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!