It is amazing that the Yanks benefited so long from the input of long-standing pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, who after years on the job attended spring training and offered guidance to Ron Guidry in 2006, and Yankee Vice President Gene “Stick” Michael. Those two vets collaborated on a 5-2 win over the Angels way back on July 27, 1970. Mel held on during a 2-2 tie that was finally broken by the Yanks in the 10th, and Stick helped get him there by pulling the Hidden Ball Trick on pinch runner Jarvis Tatum in the ninth. In one of the most moving ceremonies in the Stadium in years, Mel and Willie Randolph, who both wore No. 30, each received a Monument Park plaque on Old Timer’s Day, in July 2015. Continue reading →
July 26 was another big day for Johnny Blanchard in 1961, just one more guy on that team who had a magical year. It’s the year that indelibly glued the boy in me to the Yanks, but sometimes I think the man in me now would not only have enjoyed that season, but would have appreciated what he was seeing far more. When Blanchard homered in his first two at bats against the White Sox that day, it brought his tater total to four in a five-at-bat period over three days. The Yanks went yard four times in a 5-2 win, including a Mickey Mantle shot back-to-back behind Johnny’s in the first. Blanchard became the first player ever to hit more than 20 homers in a season of less than 250 at bats (21/243) that year. Continue reading →
The Yankees pulled off the first of two blockbuster deals that would alter the direction of their franchise in a positive direction on July 25, 2016, when they traded lefty closer Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs for righthander Adam Warren, shortstop Gleyber Torres, right fielder Billy McKinney, and outfielder Rashad Crawford. Continue reading →
The Yankees got the bizarro 2020 season off to a successful start on July 24, 2020, when they won a rain-shortened battle in Washington 4-1 behind a Giancarlo Stanton home run and an Aaron Judge rbi hit. Having missed so much of the season following the two weeks of pre-pandemic Spring Training we did attend, I started by scoring even road games on the TV from home, though shortly would switch to just the home-standing ones I generally keep track of on my scorecard. Continue reading →
After squeaking by the visiting Orioles in two straight one-run games, the Yanks had a rare laugher in a 9-3 win on July 23, 2015. Off and running with a four-run first inning keyed by a three-run Chase Headley homer off Ubaldo Jimenez, the Bombers got better than they needed from Masahiro Tanaka, who allowed just two hits through seven innings. But singleton shots by J.J. Hardy and Manny Machado finished the righty’s day and forged the final score. Jacoby Ellsbury had a homer among his three hits, scored twice, and drove in four runs. Continue reading →
Gerrit Cole was his usual 2023 self when he beat the visiting Royals 5-2 on July 22, 2023. With eleven strike outs over seven dominant innings, Cole was not threatened due to a home run and three rbi’s from Giancarlo Stanton, and a singleton shot from DJ LeMahieu. Continue reading →
I wish I had a good reason to offer why the July 21, 2014, game deserves to be atop that calendar day’s Yankee highlights, but there was nothing good about the bedlam that befell the Stadium and its environs when an apparent broken-down truck (they had the nerve to blame my long-time adopted state New Jersey for this!) resulted in tens of thousands of fans waiting just outside the turnstiles being barred entrance because the night’s giveaway — a Derek Jeter figurine — was not present and could not be handed out to entering ticket holders, as had been promised. The immense popularity of the soon-to-be-retired captain brought forth unprecedented numbers of early arrivals, further adding to the crush outside the gates. The Yankees eventually allowed the fans in, and then to line up inside the Stadium to get a figurine, or to accept a voucher, in about the fifth or sixth inning of the night’s game. Ironically, the game turned in the top of the sixth as young Shane Greene, who had allowed the visiting Rangers a run on three hits through five, surrendered two hits and a walk with two down in the sixth, and southpaw Matt Thornton saw to it that all three scored, resulting in a 4-2 loss to Texas. Jeter walked and scored and Jacoby Ellsbury homered for the two Yankee runs. Continue reading →
The Yankees made it a sweep over the visiting Reds on Sunday, July 20, 2014, but it wasn’t easy. Hiroki Kuroda outdueled Johnny Cueto 2-1 into the seventh on fifth-inning rbi singles from Derek Jeter and Jacoby Ellsbury, and also got lucky that a 1-3-4-1-6 pickoff started by reliever Dellin Betances of Scott Schumaker in the eighth preceded Todd Frazier‘s game-tying home run. Then a one-out Brian McCann single plated Ellsbury with the 3-2 game winner once closer Aroldis Chapman had wild-pitched the Yankee center fielder to second, and then again to third after Jacoby’s leadoff single in the bottom of the ninth. Continue reading →
The Yankees invited the Colorado Rockies to the Stadium on July 19, 2019, and walloped them 8-2, largely on DH Edwin Encarnacio‘s third-inning grand slam. J.A. Happ went five, and Aaron Judge added a two-run bomb in the three-run home sixth. Continue reading →
It’s hard to believe that the July 18 is more than double digit years removed already. We all know the almost spooky series of events that day, what with Don Larsen throwing out the first pitch to Yogi Berra, followed by David Cone‘s “Perfect” day against the Expos, in a 6-0 win. And he beat 2004 Yankee Javier Vazquez that day. Almost exactly 14 months after David Wells got his against the Twins on Beanie Baby Day, I’m here to tell you that, although Boomer’s was so startlingly fresh and new, from the standpoint of the diehard fan in the stands, Cone’s was better. There were perhaps 10,000 less people there, but they were all there because they loved Yogi and the Yanks on Yogi Berra Day in the Bronx, not for a free doll. And as we stood and screamed in the eighth inning of both games, no one did the Wave during Coney’s. Continue reading →
