March 2, 2014, Dunedin, Fla. — Lefthander Vidal Nuno was on the mound as the Bombers took their modest two-game winning streak to Dunedin to play the Blue Jays Sunday afternoon, a carbon copy of Saturday, but just a few degrees warmer. And Nuno was pretty much what Yankee fans remembered from 2013: not a lot of straight pitches, lots of strikes, doesn’t throw too hard. Continue reading
Author Archives: Dan McCourt
Pitching Is Catching
Tampa, Fla., March 1, 2014 — Everything went off as advertised at George M. Steinbrenner Field on Saturday. The place was packed with Yankee fans, Phillie fans, fans of all stripes. The weather delivered a perfect day, dazzling sunshine with temps in the mid-70s. And the Big Three of the Yankee rotation stifled the visiting batters for six frames. Continue reading
Hooters Home Run
Lakewood, Fla., February 28, 2014 — Thirteen hours after leaving our hotel Friday, we returned having witnessed a very entertaining Yankees 7-4 over the Tigers and a true yawner at Champions Field in Disney, where visiting Houston posted a 7-5 win over the Braves. I’m embarrassed to say it was quite cool at the night game to anyone living in the Midwest or Northeast, and will tread lightly (with those poor souls in mind) describing the brilliantly prefect conditions at game 1 in Lakewood. Suffice it to say that it was sunny and 45 degrees warmer than in New York, 53 digits over the reading in Detroit, when reigning Cy Young winner Max Scherzer threw ball one to Jacoby Ellsbury. Continue reading
Crazy Eights
Tampa, Fla., February 27, 2014 — It was another “one bad inning” day in Tampa on Thursday, but a good time was had by all nonetheless. Wednesday forecasts guaranteed some rain, but we awoke to a cool, partly cloudy day where sun shone on George M. Steinbrenner Field for much of the day. The only rain was what the Pirates laid on the Yankees once free agent signee Robert Coello took the mound in the eighth. Continue reading
Chasing History
Bradenton, Fla., February 26, 2014 — The season of 2014 Yankee Spring games, at least the ones against major league opposition, got off to a good start on Wednesday with a game vs. the Pirates in Bradenton. That the team scored two runs in both the first and second innings signifies this, but it doesn’t really describe it. New leadoff man Jacoby Ellsbury reached base three straight times, and scored twice. And the offense at the catching position the Yanks are unveiling this year had a good debut, as lefty-hitting backstop Brian McCann hit the third pitch he saw for a sharp rbi single, tellingly a bit to the left of second base. Continue reading
A Long Complete Day
Bronx, N.Y., August 31, 2013 — Up at 7:30 on a Saturday to run a few errands because we needed to catch a train 90 minutes earlier than usual for a Saturday game, it was more with a sense of exhaustion than expectation that Sue and I sat in our Yankee Stadium seats at 11:30, awaiting Yankee personnel. Sue had received the call Friday: We were invited to be interviewed on the big screen as the ticket licensees of the game. Continue reading
Summer Breeze
August 14, 20113, Bronx, N.Y. — A friend who showed up in the top of the third inning of the Wednesday evening Angels/Yankees tilt in the Stadium looked up and said, “Look. Eight the hard way!” The gambling reference may be obscure, but there is no doubt the digits on the Scoreboard were pretty startling, side by side 4’s, with the Yanks up 8-0 in the third inning. Continue reading
Home Run Havoc
August 11, 2013, Bronx, N.Y. — There were a few contrasting threads running through today’s Yankees/Tigers game. On the one hand, Andy Pettitte allowed a first-inning run for a Yankee record eighth straight time, and failed to go five innings despite throwing 100 pitches. On the other, recent Cy Young recipient Justin Verlander, despite consistently pounding 95 mph heat, was reached for four runs in the same amount of innings against a Yankee team struggling to score. Continue reading
Three on Three
August 9, 2013, Bronx, N.Y. — There were several threads running leading up to Friday night’s Tigers/Yankees game in the Bronx. The Tigers had taken a stranglehold on the AL Central thanks to to a 12-game winning streak, while the Yanks had fallen to just one game over .500 coming off a depressing 2-6 road trip that crashed and burned in a heap thanks to a three-game sweep in Comiskey Park against the last-place White Sox. Nasty weather threatened to cancel or at least mess up matters, a shame for the home side, who had Ivan Nova scheduled, coming off some great outings. Continue reading
Not Begun to Play
Bronx, N.Y., July 6, 2013 — The Yankees leapfrogged the Orioles Saturday afternoon and retook second place, even if six full games back of Boston, with their second straight one-run win. They’ve won six of six, and have largely repaid the O’s for last weekend’s Camden Yards sweep. New York may sweep the Birds in response tomorrow, but as the season goes they don’t need to. They’ve dominated Baltimore in the Bronx. Continue reading