Bronx, N.Y., June 14, 2011 – Where do you start describing a game where the offense pounds out 14 hits good for 12 runs? Do you highlight home runs from Nick Swisher, Robinson Cano, and Curtis Granderson, or perhaps Curtis’s back-to-back two-run hits with Mark Teixeira that turned a crack in the door against 7-0 Alexi Ogando into a blowout? Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 13, 2011 – Baseball in the Bronx. It was beautiful in Yankee Stadium Monday night. The sky was not cloudless, far from it, with a seemingly solid bank of white cloud, that turned to silver, then a deep vibrant purple, as the sky darkened beyond the stadium wall, to the East over the Bronx and south Yonkers. The pre-dusk sunlight dazzled as it glistened off the white facade just above the grandstand in deepest right and left field. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 11, 2011 – Coming off his worst start of the 2011 season and the news that, as expected, the Yankee rotation had taken a big hit with Bartolo Colon being added to the disabled list, Freddy Garcia took the mound vs. the Indians Sunday afternoon needing to provide a quality start. No nugget of baseball history was required, not a perfect game, or a no hitter. No minimum number of strike outs came to mind. He simply had to keep his team in the game until the Yankee bats could solve Tribe righty Josh Tomlin, off to a 7-3 start and one of the reasonss Cleveland has held first place in the AL Central for so long. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 11, 2011 – Despite succumbing to back-to-back strike outs starting Saturday’s contest in Yankee Stadium, the Indians seemed to not realize that early was their only chance in this game, at least until much later, due to unforeseen circumstances. Among the league leaders in strikes-to-balls thrown ratio, Yankee starter Bartolo Colon got off to what seemed a bad start, at least for him. With a pervasive mist covering the Bronx and a nasty, bone-chilling, unrelenting breeze blowing right from the first pitch, Bart uncharacteristically failed to a throw a first-pitch strike to any of the first seven Cleveland batters. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 10, 2011 – I’m as willing as the next guy to deride hideous marketing choices made over the years, such as naming running shoes after the demonic incubus, or an exploding car after a horse. But the Yankee employee who decided that Friday night was a good one to have the team honor their veteran ex-catcher and current DH Jorge Posada by giving out figurines in his likeness before the game “hit a home run,” so to speak, and it may have helped the team as well. After two forgettable months, Posada’s batting average had climbed to .199 before the game, and he singled his first three times up to raise it further. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 7, 2011 – Some of my oldest and dearest Yankee fan friends, a crowd whose makeup doesn’t change all that dramatically if I recast it without the word, “Yankee,” will be surprised to read this, but yes, count me in. Sign me up. I’m ready. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 25, 2011 – It was almost eerie how similarly Toronto lefty Jo-Jo Reyes and Freddy Garcia started their games in Yankee Stadium Wednesday afternoon. Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar pounced on Garcia’s not-too-fast fastball at 1:09, getting it by Andruw Jones in left center for a triple. And Derek Jeter doubled over Jose Bautista’s head on a 3-1 pitch to start the home first, crossing over to third with no one out on a wild pitch to Curtis Granderson. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 24, 2011 – The Yankees, CC Sabathia, and their fans got two for the price of one Tuesday night, a good night for it, as it was the warmest evening in New York in many a week. It was only Tuesday night, early in the week, but few fans despaired of the festivities despite the fact that Toronto seemingly took control of the game with a three-run fourth inning, and the Yankee offense responded with one ineffectual effort after another. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 22, 2011 – An offensive malaise in Yankee land punctuated by an extra-inning loss to Kansas City featuring just three runs on 12 hits two weeks ago, a home-standing sweep at the hands of the Red Sox last weekend, and the lethargic 2-1 loss to the Mets Friday night has come to a welcome end in the last two days. When Curtis Granderson homered with one out during Sunday’s first inning it closed an offensive chapter where each of the last eight Yankee batters who stroked hits scored. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 20, 2011 – My brother thought he had it right on this one. And looking at the results, you had to give him some credit. “I knew we were in trouble once they scored 13 runs last night,” he told me after the embarrassingly lifeless game the Yanks played to a 2-1 loss to the crosstown Mets in Yankee Stadium Friday night. And the misgivings were there before the game, not just once this was a final. Continue reading →