Bronx, N.Y., July 9, 2011 – OK. I’m the happiest person, and Yankee fan, on the planet about now, and I can’t stop smiling. But the 5-4 Yankee win over the Tampa Rays Saturday afternoon, and Derek Jeter’s part in it, has me in a bit of a bind. I’m my Irish father’s son, and we don’t just celebrate our great days – we exaggerate them. As sure as the six-foot sub I served my family three decades ago zoomed to an incredible 25 feet, there’s some embellishment coming. But how to manage it?

The day in the Bronx? How about azure skies, green grass, 90 degrees and gorgeous? “Not a cloud in the sky” is in my little bag of exaggeration tricks, but sorry, there weren’t any. The new Yankee Palace was beautiful, and was packed with baseball fans, nervous perhaps, but excited and knowledgeable, and anticipating a fabulous day.

But “Five hits?” you ask. “Surely there were a few topped dribblers down the line that the Yankee shortstop beat out.” Sorry, not so. He battled David Price, one of the league’s best, to a sharp eight-pitch single past short in the first, homered off him to tie the game at 1-1 in the third, culminating another eight-pitch battle, then doubled hard into the left field corner on the first pitch of the bottom of the fifth. The Yanks were down a run again, but Derek scored the equalizer three pitches later, and the Yanks retook the lead later that frame.

Yankee starter A.J. Burnett spent the afternoon dominating the Rays, then slipping a bit, only to come back and dominate. He struck out two Rays and got one on a ground ball in the first, second, third, and fourth innings. A.J.’s 51/38 strikes/balls ratio was pretty good, he threw 13 of 23 first-pitch strikes, whiffed seven of nine Rays batters swinging on 15 swings and misses, and didn’t allow his second walk until three batters before his ninth punch out. Burnett left in the sixth inning having allowed just three hits, but two of them cleared fences, one after a walk, so once he walked a third batter with two down in the sixth his day was done. Still, he left with a well-deserved lead and, if not for a rare struggle from David Roberstson, would have earned a win.

The Yanks did try to stretch their 4-3 lead, with two batters reaching safely in both the sixth and the seventh innings, but although included in this was a hard line single to right for Jeter’s fourth straight hit, they couldn’t push across an insurance run. Boone Logan and Corey Wade got the one-run lead to setup guy Roberston in the eighth, but ex-Yankee Johnny Damon and then Ben Zobrist foiled the Bombers with back-to-back base hits on 0-2 pitches; Damon tripled to deep center and Zobrist plated him with a single to right. So there it was, the prospect that this historic and exciting contest could emerge as a Yankee defeat. But although Zobrist stole second, D-Rob escaped the top of the eighth with no further damage, and the Yanks came to bat in the bottom of the eighth in a 4-4 tie.

A perfect time for me to embellish things with feats of derring-do, but again, the reality trumps me. Playing third for the slowed Alex Rodriguez whose banged up knee has us all concerned, Eduardo Nunez pulled reliever Joel Peralta’s second pitch of the frame down the line past third base for a double. Wasting no time, Brett Gardner bunted Nunez to third, and with the lead run standing at third with one down, the lineup turned to, well, the man of the hour, Jeter.

One-time Yankee Wade Boggs is the only guy to have stroked a home run for his 3,000th hit, or was until Jeter equaled him this day, five innings earlier. And the most recent member of the 3,000-hit club, Houston’s Craig Biggio, is the lone guy to have five hits in the game where he reached that round number. Surely, Jeter wouldn’t be able to equal both guys, groupng his already stroked 3,000th hit – a fence clearer – with a 5-for-5 day?

In My Dreams? You bet, only remember the description at the beginning: This day is perfect in spite of this Yankee fan, not because of me. Of course Derek stroked his fifth straight hit, a single up the middle past a drawn-in infield. Of course he plated the lead run. Of course, Mariano Rivera set the Rays down 1-2-3. Of course the Yanks won, 5-4.

Did the Yankee Captain literally fly out of the Stadium on his way home? Did major league baseball, realizing the enormity of what had taken place, suspend the season and anoint the Yankees 2011 champs? Did Derek raise his batting average 100 points?

Don’t ask me. I got nutthin’.

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!