Bronx, N.Y., May 25, 2003 — Hit It Hard. Hit It Where They Ain’t. The Yankees finally got one half of the equation right today. If only they hadn’t trespassed against the third commandment — You Gotta Hit ’em When It Counts. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 19, 2003 — The solution was so simple, it was laughable. Here we were, losers of three series in a row. We had gone from a start of 18-3 to a span of games during which the record slipped to 9-13. Our starters, unbeatable a few short weeks ago, couldn’t buy a win. And the offense had gone completely south. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 17, 2003 — It seems impossible that it has been five years since I witnessed David Wells’ perfect game from the Tier boxes in the Bronx. And it was seven years ago this week that Doc Gooden no-hit the Mariners. Mid-May is a crazy time in a baseball season, too far in to ignore the implications, but oh so far from the season’s conclusion. Continue reading →

TRENTON, N.J., May 7, 2003 — I like to put many of my columns under the heading “The View from Box 622,” because it is from a seat in that Tier Box in Section 12 (on the third base side just before the beginning of the visitors’ dugout) that I see about 40 Yankee games a year. It can be very good foul-ball territory, particularly when effective righty pitching causes a slew of lefty batters in the Stadium, and I have gotten two foul balls in that box myself. It also has a great view of the Yankees in their dugout, of the first base line, and of the way that fans on the right-field side of the park choose to root for the team. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 4, 2003 — I was going to entitle this column “Cry If I Want To,” in honor of the sixties pop star Leslie Gore, born Friday in 1946, who informed all who were willing to listen (and in 1963 that was plenty of people) that, yes, it was her party, and yes, she could cry if she wanted to. Leslie had just lost that elusive dreamboat Johnny to the horrid Judy; I was red-faced in the aftermath of the Yanks’ first series loss of 2003. We just finished playing the best of the West in six games at home and now head west for the road versions starting Tuesday. Even though we did split the six games, we lost the most recent three-game set. We faced six front-line pitchers (and not even the best six) and only managed to match the six hits we got off the first starter Gil Meche, in seven innings on Tuesday, once in the next five games. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 1 — After the early rain today I was ready for a big night in the Bronx. The weather was warm if spotty, the Yankees are playing great ball, the incomparable Mr. Mussina was pitching and, as opposed to yesterday, I already had my Box 622 ticket and would not have to purchase another. The Yankees are hitting, they are catching the baseball and they are running the bases, and the pitching has been exceptional. And all this without the one and only Mariano Rivera, whom I had finally seen make his 2003 debut last night. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 30, 2003 — This game was over in less than a half hour and 59 pitches. The Yankees backed their starter, Andy Pettitte, into a corner on the game’s third pitch, when Bernie Williams failed to take charge on Ichiro’s popup to short center. The back-pedaling rookie shortstop Almonte would take the “E,” but it was Bernie’s ball and the fact that it ticked off Erick’s glove shouldn’t change that. The speedy Ichiro was off and running on Andy’s first pitch to Randy Winn, and there we were, coming off being shut out the night before, with the go-ahead run on third with nobody out. But nobody told Andy the situation was dire, and he simply delivered 13 strikes in the next 16 pitches, and strode off the mound with the scoreless tie intact and three strike outs on his ledger. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 29 — It was a truly wonderful night for a ballgame. And it was a great ballgame, from a Yankee fan standpoint, for exactly eight pitches. Then Roger’s ninth pitch was a fastball that Boone caught up with and deposited in the visiting bullpen — no, not in the screen that protects the walkway to Monument Park in front of the visitors’ bullpen, but into the bullpen beyond itself. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 28 — It would be easy to be lulled into thinking that the current Yankee juggernaut is just going to go through the motions for the next five months, and then kick it into gear in time for the playoffs. Despite a sloppy get-out-of-Texas loss yesterday, the Yanks had their second great road trip of the season, winning eight out of 10 from the two teams that played in last year’s ALCS and the team that has on its roster perhaps the major league’s best player. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 22, 2003 — I’ll never forget it. It was about 7:18 pm, March 31, 2003. We had both heard rumors of a new breakthrough on the way home, and then my partner’s father had called and asked how I felt about the new Cablevision/YES deal. Thankfully, we were eager to embrace the new era after being blacked out all last year, and we knew what station they had planned to use for YES once the first — failed — agreement had been announced. The sacred radio (with the sealed package of backup AAA batteries attached) from last year was tuned into WCBS, and channel 89 was on the TV, the mute button concealing the annoying buzz that accompanied the test pattern of a picture we saw, as Alfonso grounded Roy Halladay’s first pitch in the 2003 season to short. Continue reading →