Bronx, N.Y., September 24, 2002 — I was going to title this column Tender Is the Night in honor of F. Scott Fitzgerald (of The Great Gatsby fame) because he would have been 106 Tuesday, and it was a truly pleasant evening, but that tale of mental illness, collapse, alcoholism, drug abuse, along with recovery but failure too, didn’t seem appropriate. The game time temp was 73 degrees, with 55 percent humidity and a gentle westerly breeze of five mph (if I understand how that is recorded correctly; the breeze was coming from the west). Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., September 23, 2002 — I always like to get to the game early, particularly when it’s going to be a big crowd, which was certainly not the case tonight. I was making my way up the escalators in the left field corner at around 6:25, just in time to catch the very tail end of Tampa Bay batting practice, though the paraphernalia, and the Devil Rays team, had left the field by the time I grabbed a dog and soda and went to my seat. El duque was running in the outfield, preparing to warm up, although strangely, Jorge had not joined him yet. I checked the out-of-town scoreboard — I like to see if there are any intriguing pitching matchups — but the meager three-game, out-of-town schedule couldn’t hold my interest. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., September 22, 2002 — It’s a distressing concept baseball fans talk about all the time. Games drag on, they become marathons, battles of attrition, where more often than not the first entity to cry “uncle” is not either team, but the people in the stands. Yankees/Orioles battles in 1996 and 1997 became legendary, as it seemed it was never a question of whether or not their games would blow past 3.5 hours, but how far. As a radio announcer, Michael Kay was obsessed with whether or not a game was “manageable,” shorthand for less than three hours long, a feature I’m sure he still tracks on TV (but I have Cablevision, so I don’t know). Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., September 21, 2002 — Not a bad game in Detroit, as clinchers go. It’s been a strange string of events since this team became a serious contender in ’94, the last game of which, though not a clincher really, was probably the strangest game of all. On August 11, 1994, all we managed to do was clinch that we would play baseball’s longest game on that last day of the season. We went to extra innings, fell behind, came back to tie, then fell, as Toronto Blue Jay third baseman Ed Sprague took Yank reliever Joe Ausanio out in the top of the 12th at the Stadium. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., September 20, 2002 — Baseball is a team game, but it is played by a bunch of individual players. Twenty-five-man teams compete all year, and although individual awards are much celebrated and can earn players huge salaries, in the end it is the team that wins, or doesn’t. But that ultimate team goal — winning a championship — can’t be achieved unless individual team members perform to the utmost of their abilities. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., September 15, 2002 — It was almost another one of those lost weekends in the Bronx, just when it was the thing you would have least expected. After establishing our claim to the East title against Boston, beating Detroit and wiping out Baltimore in a four-gamer, it seemed our march to the postseason — and to the American League’s best record — was almost assured. The starters went a week’s worth of innings without walking anyone, the pen successfully closed 10 of 10 without Mo, and the offense was doing a pendulum swing back and forth from overwhelming to just enough. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., September 12, 2002 — It was easy to be distracted in the Stadium Thursday night. The uncharacteristic winds that blew through on 9/11 were gone, but many of the American flags and much of the “God Bless America” fire remained. Fans were slow to arrive, so that even though the 33,000 who eventually showed made for a respectable crowd, we viewed the early innings in a vast spread of empty seats. A possible confrontation between the Yankees and an umpiring crew that has not been friendly, and who tossed two the night before, never came about, as a new crew arrived to officiate the fourth of four against the Orioles. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., September 10, 2002 — It is not the best time for this at work, but I just couldn’t help myself. I didn’t go out of my way looking for trouble either. I really did have tickets to the rained-out June 6 game against the Orioles that was to be played as the first game of today’s twin bill; I had tickets for the night game too. I was intrigued when I saw the two together on the rejiggered Yankee schedule. I don’t know when I last attended a double dip, but I would not pass up the opportunity Tuesday. I would have been there without the Paul O’Neill bobble head. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., September 8, 2002 — Another gorgeous day in the Bronx, and another nail-biter vs. a club with nothing to lose, the Detroit Tigers, who seem to be auditioning players at almost every position. And auditioning ballplayer no. one was the guy on the pitcher’s mound, Andy Van Hekken. A tall lanky lefty who became the first American League pitcher in 27 years to throw a shutout in his debut (he did it last week against the Indians), he only surrendered one earned run on six hits and a walk. He was decidedly a fly ball pitcher, as he didn’t get his second ground ball out until Coomer bounced to short in the fourth. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., September 7, 2002 — You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again. A Stitch in Time Saves Nine. Neither a Borrower Nor a Lender Be. None of these sayings is specifically attributed to the Pilgrims who helped colonize these United States. But each of these aphorisms could be applied to the philosophy and the Way of Life of these brave and hearty souls, who celebrated our first Thanksgiving. Continue reading →