With an unprecedentedly large Spring Training roster, the Yankees have assigned 13 numbers to two different players, in each case, one pitcher and one position player. No. 96 at third base, Addison Maruszak, had an up-and-down day, but No. 96 on the mound, Vidal Nuno, is the gold star prospect so far.
David Phelps looked season-ready over three innings. In 39 pitches he struck out two while allowing a walk and a hit, but no runs.
Gardner confers with Rob Thomson after his three-run second-inning triple. Brett’s daredevil head-first slides into bases are a concern, particularly following on his injury-plagued 2012 season.
Hard to tell with his shaded right foot perhaps, but Ichiro Suzuki is wearing different-colored shoes. It may seem strange, but he seems to be playing a faster game than everyone else. I’m sure he has a reason.
Hermosillo, Mexico, February 7-8, 2013 — In September 1988, the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees “treated” me to the longest live ballgame I ever witnessed in person, a 5-4 Yankee walkoff that took a little more than six hours. Twenty-five years later, I got to see a similar contest, 18 innings again, and a full hour longer. Only this one was broadcast to me, attentively watching in my recliner, over my TV, and in Spanish.
It took a real marathon to settle the 2013 Caribbean Series. The heavily favored Dominican Republic team, fielding the most current or one-time major leaguers – Hanley Ramirez, Miguel Tejada, Fernando Tatis, Jordany Valdespin, Julio Lugo, Fernando Rodney, Tony Pena, Jr., Jhonny Nunez – would have already won the Championship in former years with its 5-1 record in the round robin games. But in 2013, a Championship game pitting the top two finishers was added. Continue reading
November 12, 2012, Port Chester, N.Y. – It was an inscrutable moment, this past Saturday, traveling by train, then subway, to New York’s Central Park for an event. The first 50-degree-plus day in a week that represented the second straight seven-day period the city and its environs remained recovering from the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and the first time many New Yorkers were emerging for any purpose that was more than survival-based. Why was everyone smiling at me? Continue reading
Bronx, N.Y., October 12, 2012 – What can you say after watching your team score in four of 25 innings over two days, and on the third day a guy whom you refuse to believe is the second coming of, well, name your all-time righty ace, has retired 12 of 12 through four? If you’re not feeling the panic that is gripping my fingers even now as I type this afterward, given the scene as set, you may not be a baseball fan, or, well, never mind. Continue reading
An ecstatic Yankee team does pretty much what the 50,000 delirious fans were doing in the 12th inning, only they had the night's hero to swarm.
Bronx, N.Y., October 2, 2012 – The only Yankee September 2012 call-up to have not yet seen action that month finally got into a game Tuesday night on October’s second day, as Francisco Cervelli crouched behind the plate to take Derek Lowe’s first pitch in the top of the 11th. In for defense once Russell Martin was pinch-run for in the eighth, and Eric Chavez had hit for Chris Stewart in the 10th, Cisco failed to corral a Lowe wild pitch in a tense 11th, but teamed with the veteran righty through two scoreless frames. Continue reading
Bronx, N.Y., October 1, 2012 – Even coming off a lively eight-run comeback in a 9-6 win in Toronto in their last road game of the year, fans could be forgiven for being nervous when the the Yankees took the Stadium field vs. the last place Red Sox Monday night with the division crown on the line. Running away with the AL East and the sport’s home run crown six weeks ago, their offense has become tentative and often ineffective, roughly coinciding with the loss of some key lineup stalwarts to injury. Continue reading