Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 12, 2003 — The Yankees and Devil Rays apparently felt that fans today deserved a special treat. I know I agreed with them, after paying the roundtrip train and subway fares last night only to be sent on my way by Mr. Sheppard’s announcement. And the game they played for us this afternoon was very entertaining, although not a perfect one, as there were five errors committed. The young studs Jeff Weaver and Joe Kennedy both pitched well, even if fate and the pen conspired to deny Jeff what should have been his first victory of 2003.

The sun shone brightly most of the day, and that’s front page news in this weather-beaten city. On the one hand, I unfortunately spent most of the day in the shade as only the left field tier boxes were bathed in sun all day, while my late-purchased ticket to get a Yankee calendar was well toward the right field foul pole, in Box 637. And the left field tier boxes not only got most of the sun, but the lion’s share of the foul balls too. Facing my own beloved Box 622 I counted two balls that landed in Box 618, two more in 620, one each in Boxes 622, 624 and 626, and a Carl Crawford foul in the fifth smacked the tier facade right between 624 and 626. (But on the other hand my seat location in right was to provide me with the second-biggest bonus of the day.) The scoreboard played Chicago singing “Saturday in the park” and then broke into “Won’t Get Fooled Again” as the home team took the field.

The Yanks started off well, getting two on in the first and Matsui fouled off three pitches before Brian Gorman called him out on a pitch that caught the outside corner. But we were back in business in the second, as we benefitted from the contributions of two guys who don’t get to play much. Trammell doubled and Zeile homered (right after I yelled “fat pitch coming” with the 3-1 count) and the two evenly split the rbi, as we broke out on top, 4-0. Meanwhile, Weaver was dominant, as he struck out five Rays the first time through the order, and Lee’s line double to right center in the second was the only mark against him through three.

But after young Rocco Baldelli (who went three for four on the day) led off the fourth with another double, this one into the right field corner on a 2-1 pitch, Jeff faced right fielder Aubrey Huff. Then the game turned. Jeff throws a little across his body, and his back was angled toward home plate as he followed through on the 2-1 pitch, and Huff smacked the delivery hard off his back. It had to hurt, and Jeff must be forgiven that he was so stunned by the shot that he reacted too slowly to get Huff at first (and kudos to Jason for flagging down his errant throw). Torre, his coaches and trainer Gene Monahan rushed out to the field and let Jeff take a minute to collect himself. He gamely made his case to stay in the game, and when he demonstrated that he could still deliver a few effectively to the plate, he was left in to pitch. I was glad for him on the one hand, but he clearly had lost the command with which he had started the game.

Lee followed with a run-scoring bloop single to left with Huff racing around to third and Grieve delivered him with a sac fly to center and the Rays had halved our four-run cushion. Joe Kennedy seemed to take something from his teammates’ rally, and he stiffened. He retired 11 of the next 15, got some double play help, and quieted the Yankee bats into the seventh.

The Rays, meanwhile, continued their assault on Weaver and the Yanks, converting three singles into a run in the fifth and eventually driving Jeff from the game on Baldelli’s two-out double in the seventh, a liner in front of Raul Mondesi on which he almost made a shoestring catch. Alfonso Soriano, who took a rare “0-fer,” deserves mention, as his fine hustle backing Raul up kept Rocco at second. But his heroics would go for naught. With three consecutive lefties coming up, Joe removed Jeff in favor of Chris Hammond, who continued to disappoint. He started Huff off with a called strike, but then surrendered a booming game-tying double, which Bernie gamely reached in dead center at the wall, but he couldn’t hold onto it.

Hammond settled down, got the third out and retired the Rays on 11 pitches in the eighth, as the Yanks tried to mount something against Lou Piniella’s pen. Kennedy had survived a second Bubba Trammell double with two outs in the sixth (Trammell was three for four and reached base four times), but he was removed after becoming flustered in the seventh, as the game got a little flaky. Damian Easley’s opportunity to win the third base job in Tampa is not going well if this game were to be used to judge, and he made the first of two errors trying to corral Soriano’s leadoff scorcher. Kennedy popped up Zeile but Giambi bounced a 3-1 pitch off Joe’s leg and beat it out.

Kennedy then appeared to think better of a first pitch to Bernie and tried to hold up but it escaped his grip and rolled toward the plate for a balk. For the second time in six days Bernie was given an intentional pass to load the bases with Matsui coming up. The crowd, of course, went crazy, which was a real treat from my seat. Earlier in the afternoon as I was getting settled into my row E aisle seat, eight little girls filed into the row in front of me. They were led by a woman and followed by a man, and these two may have parented one or more, but regardless they were all terrific and enthusiastic fans. The girls were probably eight and nine, and all their faces were painted with Yankee logos in blue and white and generously sprinkled with glitter. Three wore Yankee caps; four brought baseball gloves.

The father (or so I’ll call him) was an impressive hunter/gatherer sort, as he disappeared once they were settled and then reappeared with two cardboard carriers, impressively stacked, containing eight sodas and at least that many hot dogs, and he never spilled a drop. The girls kept up a steady stream of chatter the whole game and lent their voices to those cheering on the Yanks all day. They mounted their chairs for the YMCA in the fifth, and here, at what could be the game’s turning point in the seventh, they repeated that strategy. Piniella, who has mastered the achingly slow and deliberate visit to the mound, lifted Kennedy for fellow lefty Bobby Seay, and the fans roared louder and louder as the count went to 2-1. Alas, despite our best efforts, Hideki’s hard grounder went right to Marlon Anderson at second and we were thwarted with the tailor-made 4-6-3.

The scoreboard had supplied the stat pregame that Jorge Posada’s 40 doubles in 2002 were a club record for Yankee catchers, a pretty impressive fact on a team whose catchers have included Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra, Elston Howard and Thurman Munson. And our switch-hitting catcher, who had started the four-run uprising in the second with a hard single, pinned Carl Crawford deep to the left center field wall to start the eighth. Normality appeared to have returned as Lou brought Travis Harper in to face Mondesi, and Raul took a third strike for the second out. The Rays seemed out of the inning when Trammell hit a soft liner to short left. Crawford raced in with his glove at the ready, but then he must have lost it in the sun, and the ball caromed off his head all the way back past third base and toward the visiting dugout. Chris Latham pinch-ran at second, Joe sent Ventura out to hit for Almonte and Lou headed back to the mound. But Lou stuck with Harper and Robin flied harmlessly to right.

The birthdaying Antonio Osuna took over in the ninth and retired the side in order, and the Yanks were back in the bottom half with the top of the order. Easley booted Zeile’s hard one-out grounder and Jason, who seems on the verge of a big offensive bust-out, singled hard to right. The crowd rose to their feet as Bernie worked a five-pitch walk, and there we were with bases loaded with Godzilla coming up in a seventh inning deja vu. The fans were all over it and not to be denied a second time. The best moment of my day came as Hideki stroked a hard grounder through the shortstop hole on Harper’s 0-1 pitch.

The second best moment followed as the troop filed out in front of me and I was rewarded with 10 high fives.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!