Bronx, N.Y., Nov. 28, 2001 — The hard two-hopper rocketed down the third base line, and the 12-year-old playing third made the only dive he could to stop it from rolling forever once it got to the long, low-grassed, unfenced outfield. Flagging the screamer deftly with his gloved left hand, he scurried to his knees and then his feet, rushed at setting himself, and let the throw fly…

Interrupted from a happy daydream on another eerily warm November afternoon by the jangling phone, I composed myself and answered a work-related question that didn’t present half the difficulty that that hard bouncer had. I was thinking about third base — and a happier, kinder time — after reading about Scotty Brosius’s feel-good decision not to eke several more millions out of his wonderfully successful baseball career, to hang up his spikes, and to spend the vitally important upcoming years with his wife and growing children.

But my midday reverie wasn’t totally consumed in appreciation of Scotty’s classy decision. I’m too proprietary a Yankee fan for that. I had just checked the mlb list of free agent third basemen (helpfully collected for me by position on mlb.com) and found the pickings to be mighty sparse. The only two that have any numbers at all, 2001 Mariner and Cardinal, respectively, David Bell and Craig Paquette, could be pictured interchangeably in a dictionary next to a definition of Professionally Competent. So milquetoast are the skills they would bring that, incredibly, over a full season they each amassed exactly 15 homers and 64 rbi!

The Yanks, it is well known, would like a caretaker third-bagger. Promising Drew Henson is expected to develop quickly in AAA Columbus in 2002, and it’s probably fair to say that the Yankees are hoping that the experience of having played before crowds of 100,000 (give or take) as quarterback for Michigan will help him in dealing with the pressure of being under one of the spotlights in the biggest stage in baseball. But the Supremes had it right with You Can’t Hurry Love, and the same might be said for the bunt play, guarding the line and developing a consistent and dangerous swing.

Of course, there was that quick smile that accompanied the offhand thought that crept into my head, “Maybe Scotty retired just to tell the Yanks, who were assuming (like the rest of us) that it would take a contract that would span several years to sign him, that he was open to a one-year gig!” In no particular order, I would love it, rather doubt the Yanks would, strongly doubt Scotty is thinking that, and would hate to hear all the acrimony New York radio, if not all the press, would raise about another athlete (supposedly) lying about loving his family and wanting to be with them, just to get a better contract. Talk about a short-lived smile!

Switch-hitting Enrique Wilson, light-hitting jack of all positions Clay Bellinger and (current) free agent Randy Velarde are currently in place, and they may represent the parachute the Yanks choose to use to hold the fort till Henson becomes less Muppet and more Matthews (Eddie). Other free agent options will have most fans thinking of guys they expect to see in (not far into the) future Old Timers Games, like Dave Magadan, Bill Spiers, Ed Sprague, John Valentin, Ken Caminiti, Vinny Castilla (played in the Mexican League less than a year ago), Tony Fernandez, and the aforementioned 40-year-old Mr. Velarde.

Of course, there is always that “other way” we can go. Forty years ago that throw sailed well over the first baseman’s head, as even the lumbering heavyset Jimmy Fredericks barreled around first and into scoring position. The throw took off that day, and many of those glorious days during the summers of my youth. But sit me in the sun now on a lazy early-fall afternoon, and I can see it sail straight and true — and smack the first baseman’s glove with a step and a half to spare (and not bounding past the bag as it did often enough for my brother to give these plays the same two-word title as this commentary).

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!