Bronx, N.Y., August 26, 2005 — The hottest show in New York performed to raucous crowds and cascading applause yet again Friday night. But this was no song and dance revue with a few jokes. One hears the raves about Spamalot in 2005, and Avenue Q for a few years; it seems Chorus Line and Les Miz threatened to run forever. But the longest-running smash in New York has been appearing in the same house for 82 years, and in 2005 it will draw more fans than it has in any season before, since the House That Ruth Built was constructed and opened in the Bronx in 1923. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 25, 2005 — It didn’t hit me until I started filling in my Scorecard. Thursday afternoon in New York promised to be a beaut, and the number 4 Subway car I took to the Stadium had just two people in it, very unlike the 100-plus who had crammed in Tuesday evening. Sitting in the blinding but not overly hot sun (78 degrees at first pitch), I entered the lineups, and then the pitchers. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 23, 2005 — The introduction of Felix Escalona the hitter to the crowd at Yankee Stadium in 2005 could hardly have been more inauspicious. When asked to bunt over two hitters in a Monday start at short, he served a 1-0 soft lob right into the third baseman’s glove, a disappointing performance that apparently did not escape the eye of Toronto Manager John Gibbons. Escalona got better, bouncing hard into a 5-4-3 and then singling past short, but Gibbons’s mind had apparently been made up. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 22, 2005 — Yankee fans who had resigned themselves to a Jaret Wright-less season received quite a surprise last week when the oft-injured righty emerged from the obscurity of the Tampa minor-league complex to perform well on a major league field several miles away in St. Petersburg. With Mike Mussina and newly acquired Shawn Chacon performing to rave reviews of late, the arrival of Wright on the scene was just what the doctor ordered for a fanbase stressed about the uneven performances of titular ace Randy Johnson. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 14, 2005 — It was perhaps fitting that Sunday’s Yankee game ended at 5:55 in another homestand where the Bombers drew roughly 55,000 per game. Those in the crowd remaining when Tony Womack caught Texas catcher Rod Barajas’s fly to center to end the contest had been in the park roughly five hours as well. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 13, 2005 — I had to feel for the young woman seated with friends in the row in front of me tonight. She was attending her first live (so to speak) ballgame. The throngs that pack Yankee Stadium night after night have become quite a phenomenon, but if she returns after that game’s first three innings, it can be posited that these nightly gatherings have moved from the phenomenal to the miraculous. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 11, 2005 — The Yankees won just one of three classic matchups against the team with the best record in baseball to begin this week and a seven-game homestand. They were pitching duels all, and the White Sox escaped the Bronx with two wins despite scoring a paltry six runs in three days; the Yanks took just one, and scored only five times. Thursday night they looked to keep up the great pitching, play a good game, and treat another sellout crowd to crisply played, intense baseball. They failed more than they succeded, but they came away with a win. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 9, 2005 — In the midst of a long torturous summer where periods of hazy, hot, and humid weather have enveloped New York in waves as consistent as those pounding area beaches, the Yanks and White Sox played a dandy game on a delightful Tuesday night in the Bronx. The Yanks had used a big home run to edge the Chisox in Monday night’s game, and the visitors returned the favor with two fence clearers in a beautifully pitched game. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., July 31, 2005 — It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon in New York, with Anaheim and the Yanks closing a weekend series. I was in heaven because we were seeing crisp baseball as my young nephew reveled in his once-a-year trip to the Baseball Cathedral in the Bronx, and the Yanks had grabbed an early lead. Then Angels catcher Bengie Molina strode to the plate with two on and one down in the fifth inning and blasted a three-run bomb to left. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., July 28, 2005 — Although the word “hot” could be used for part of Thursday afternoon’s baseball battle in the Bronx, the weather and atmosphere could hardly have been more different from the series opener vs. the Minnesota Twins Tuesday night. The Yanks came away with a dominating Randy Johnson performance and a 4-0 victory two days ago. They cashed in their second win of the series 6-3 behind the surprisingly effective Aaron Small Thursday afternoon. Continue reading →