Bronx, N.Y., June 5, 2008 — Hordes of New York fans smiled with glee, I’m sure, when they heard on their Thursday homeward commute that the Yanks had bested Toronto 9-8 in the Stadium while they toiled at work. And some of them, too, got the news that the home team was victorious on a Jason Giambi walkoff home run. But even if they were clued into the reliable reports that Jason delivered the bomb on an 0-2 pitch with two down and the Yanks one strike away from defeat, there was a lot about this game they’ll never know. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 4, 2008 — The 50,000-plus that filled Yankee Stadium Wednesday discovered the darnedest thing. The weather was cooler and damper than the night before, and the guy who took the mound is more rooted in the Yanks’ recent past than he is in their future. But these less than glowing developments notwithstanding, New York found out that the 2008 season did not end Tuesday night after all. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 3, 2008 — New York was abuzz all day Tuesday in anticipation of the first Yankee start of Joba Chamberlain, the passionate, young, hard chucker who has been hogging headlines in the back of the Yankee pen since last September. A debate has been raging whether his electric stuff could better serve the team every five days as a starter than it has in late relief. We all got our first look at start number one Tuesday. The fact that Toronto beat the Yanks 9-3 had very little to do, really, with how Joba performed. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 25, 2008 — It was hard not to feel confident when arriving at Yankee Stadium Sunday for the last game of the current homestand, an afternoon tilt against the Seattle Mariners. The Yanks were starting staff ace Chien-Ming Wang, the hard-throwing righty who upped his record against the Mariners in the last three-plus years to 7-0 with a 5-1 win 23 days before. Southpaw Jarrod Washburn, 2-6 with a 6-plus era this year, and a losing record against the Yankees, was to oppose him. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 24, 2008 — Any expert on labor law and how it affects the dead working overtime might want to get in touch with the Yankees following the team’s second straight drubbing of the Mariners Saturday afternoon. At 4:16 Jose Veras poured a breaking ball by Seattle third baseman Adrian Beltre, home plate ump Larry Vanover punched him out, and the Scoreboard trumpeted Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York. The players made for the dugout, and fans began filing out, paying no attention to the argument Beltre was making to Vanover. Ballplayers argue about called strikes all the time, don’t they? Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 23, 2008 — The Yankees made it three straight wins Friday night at the Stadium, and if that doesn’t sound unfamiliar enough to you, consider this. The weather was pleasant and dry with nary a cloud in the sky. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 22, 2008 — Four hours before game time Thursday night, hailstones peppered my house 20 miles north of Yankee Stadium, and I stared at the sky shaking my fist like Snoopy after the dastardly Red Baron had escaped his clutches one more time. The weather and the team’s play have both been gruesome in 2008, and it was after a full day of rain Tuesday that the Bombers were crushed 12-2 in a very ugly ballgame. Things improved Wednesday, but even then the rain started falling two minutes before first pitch, soaking all not covered before the team stormed to an 8-0 drubbing of Baltimore. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 20, 2008 — Anyone picking up Wednesday’s newspaper and seeing that the reeling, last-place Yankees were crushed by the middling Baltimore Orioles 12-2 in the Stadium Tuesday night might assume that starter Mike Mussina just didn’t have it. And they wouldn’t be all wrong. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 8, 2008 — Nature abhors a vacuum, or so I was told in science class a significant number of years ago. This thought popped up as I watched the Cleveland Indians not take batting practice about noon Thursday afternoon. The Stadium staff had it all set up for them, with green tarp stretched on the field around home plate, various screens propped up through the infield and outfield, and the big batting cage sitting empty as well. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 6, 2008 — Well, the baseball weather has finally arrived in New York, and the Yankees finally got a day off — at home — yesterday. All of which, sadly, made Tuesday night’s loss that much more disturbing. We’ve come to look on the young Joba Chamberlain as every bit as automatic as Mariano Rivera, and we got burned for that this night. Continue reading →