Bronx, N.Y., October 2, 2003 — One of the many games and attractions the Scoreboard personnel at Yankee Stadium utilize to keep the paying customers entertained takes place between halves of the second inning, where they show fans who have been asked to spell a Yankee player’s name failing miserably. The bit wraps up with the player (or another player in the case of a retired favorite not in attendance) providing the correct spelling. In the last few days they have had a lot of fun with Luis Sojo, as finding fans who missed the “j” was obviously not a problem.

Andy Pettitte has a last name that fans often misspell too. A few years back I heard a tidbit from the Elias Sports Bureau that reported that he is one of only two major leaguers to have four “t”s in his last name. Former Tiger Mickey Tettleton shares this feature, but Mickey’s name, though long, isn’t a particularly tough one to spell. But Pettitte, with two pairs of double t’s, throws people for a loop. Petite, the French word for “small,” would be wrong perhaps, but surely one double t would do. Tonight, 56,500 (roughly) fans in Yankee Stadium and a national television audience discovered what I have: The extra “t” is for “tenacity.”

Andy had the faithful grumbling quickly when he fell behind the leadoff batter for the Twins, Shannon Stewart, 3-1, and then walked him on a full count. An unhappy Yankee fan throng that didn’t hesitate to boo their players the rest of the game didn’t groan at the masterful job turned in by Andy Pettitte during the remainder of the game. Fans grew nervous, it’s true, when he issued his second walk (to Doug Mientkiewicz) leading off the sixth, and his third (to the speedy Christian Guzman) with one out in the seventh, but they realized they were witnessing a superb athlete giving his all and then some.

Thankfully, the Yanks gave him a quick lead courtesy of three quick singles and a sac fly off a game Brad Radke, who was almost equal to Andy’s fine effort. Even this disturbed much of the throng, as settling for one run with bases loaded and no one out seemed to be just asking for trouble. But although Soriano’s leadoff single was smacked into left, both Jeter’s and Giambi’s safeties that followed were soft flares that barely evaded the infielders. Few were as thankful as they perhaps should have been when Bernie Williams delivered Alfonso on a sac fly to center. But they were grateful he had when Radke then whiffed Posada and Matsui in succession.

Many Yankee fans have been unhappy with the underperformance of some of this team’s stars, going back to last year’s ALDS loss, and particularly in the Tuesday debacle in this ALDS’s Game One. They were displeased with the way the team batted against Minnesota this night, that’s for sure. The Yanks have owned Radke if win/loss percentages are to be believed, and they certainly have had some good days against him, but they have struggled too. Brad was an eighth-round pick for the Twins in the 1991 draft, on a day when the Yanks were sadly wasting the no. one pick in the land on the young Brien Taylor, but Radke has had a solid big-league career. And in June of magical 1996, when ex-Yankee stars Paul O’Neill and Tino Martinez hit a double and homer with two outs in the seventh to beat him, the Minnesota righty had thrown perfect ball to the first 20 Yankee batters.

Radke was just as good tonight. After the early misstep, he retired nine in a row until Posada doubled. He shut the Yanks down through six, allowing only a single to Soriano and walks to Jeter and Matsui in the last two frames. He threw 20 of 27 first-pitch strikes in going through the order three times, and his 66 to 33 strikes-to-balls ratio was exactly two to one. He got his four strike outs only when he needed to (the two in the first, one with two on in the fifth and one after a walk in the sixth), but incredibly, perhaps, the way the Yankees were hitting the ball, the other outs were just as weak and unthreatening as if they were swinging and missing.

Andy Pettitte, on the other hand, was striking the Twins out, 11 of them, at least one in ever inning and two each in the first, third, fourth and fifth. He mixed his pitches well and kept his count remarkably low for all the K’s. He made one mistake, a home run to dead center by Torii Hunter in the fifth that tied up matters. His first-pitch strikes number of 17 of 29 didn’t match Radke’s, nor did the 40/30 strikes balls ratio. But that was because the long innings with no Yankee offense seemed to wear on him, as did the extra pitches he had to throw when the suspect Yankee defense reared its ugly head yet again. He was sharper the first two times through the order, during which he managed 12 of 18 first-pitch strikes. And 21 of the 40 pitches he threw off the plate on the night came in the sixth and seventh innings.

It was an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel, and the smallest of transgressions, seemingly, cost Radke, when he hit Nick Johnson leading off the seventh. From that point on the transformation of Yankee “bums” to heroes became a parade. Juan Rivera bunted him over on the first pitch. It was scary that he popped the bunt up, but his location was superb. And what can you say about the lightning wrists of Alfonso Soriano? He was three for four, and he turned both on Radke’s deceptive stuff and reliever Latrell Hawkins’s heat as no other Yankee did, particularly when he plated Johnson with the go-ahead run once the hard-throwing righty had replaced Radke after Rivera’s sac. Derek Jeter had a single and a walk and his hustle on his Baltimore chop back to Hawkins caused the big righty to rush his throw and set up the inning’s final two runs. The new favored whipping boy Giambi then followed with his second hit of the night and two rbi.

The accolades for Mariano Rivera and his six-out save go without saying. He was as masterful as the throng both hoped and expected he would be. And the excellence, the courage, the “tenacity” of Andy Pettitte were inspiring.

But there was another hero in this pivotal game, a guy you won’t see on SportsCenter, and whose picture won’t make any of the papers. Aaron Boone’s most obvious contribution on an 0-for-4 night came on the (it must be admitted) routine bouncer he grabbed off the bat of Luis Rivas to close the fifth inning. Once Andy had surrendered Hunter’s tater to tie the score, he calmed the nerves of the worried by immediately striking out Koskie and Pierzynski in succession, and coaxed a grounder to short from Guzman. But Jeter threw the ball away for an error, and Soriano followed by allowing a Shannon Stewart bouncer to go right through him, though it was scored a hit because Alfonso, trying to flag a hard hop without either getting in front of the ball or getting his glove down, never touched it. In light of the adventures that preceded it, Boone’s “routine” play to close the inning was anything but.

But that is not why I believe that Boone should share “third star” honors with Mariano (with Pettitte and Soriano winning the first two). This Yankee team has beaten guys who have pitched superbly against them many times before. The template is one they have established against Boston’s Pedro Martinez in particular. First you need a great start, which Pettitte provided. Then you need to get the star hurler out of the game, or wear him out and dampen his effectiveness anyway. Aaron struck out to end the sixth in the last at bat before Radke’s decisive hit-by-pitch against Johnson. Boone sandwiched six fouls and a ball between swinging for the first and then the last strike of the at bat. In the fourth he extended Radke to seven pitches before bouncing back to the box. Of the 99 pitches Radke threw, the ascending amounts he needed while facing each of Aaron’s teammates three times were: six apiece (by Soriano and Rivera), eight (Williams), 10 (Johnson), 12 each (Giambi, Posada, and Matsui) and 13 (Jeter).

It took Radke 19 pitches to retire Boone three times.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!