Bronx, N.Y., June 29, 2003 — Nobody honors a fallen icon like Bob Sheppard, and he brought Yankee Stadium to a standstill at 7:57 tonight, as he informed us of the passing of actress Katharine Hepburn, with the loudspeaker intoning Ave Maria and the scoreboard carrying her name and lifespan, 1907-2003.

Hepburn is remembered fondly for many films, including the string of romantic comedies she made with Spencer Tracy. Worthy of mention, perhaps, is Pat and Mike (1952), the one most devoted to sports, which had Babe Didrickson Zaharias and former major league ballplayer Chuck Connors (TV’s The Rifleman) as two of a slew of sports stars that appeared as extras in the film.

The Yankee Stadium crowd gave old Kate a fine tribute. It was hard to believe they were the same crowd about 15 minutes and 16 pitches later, when Jeromy Burnitz turned around a first-pitch Jeff Weaver fastball and lined it into the right-center field seats for a 3-0 Mets lead. The reaction was quick, and volatile. While Jeromy was following Roger Cedeno (single) and Roberto Alomar (walk) around the bases, the Yankee Stadium crowd let loose with a storm of abuse that defied the senses, and it barely subsided during the ensuing three-pitch strike out of Ty Wigginton. It then rose again as Jeff made the torturous trip back to his dugout as the Mets took the field.

Fans returned to the business at hand as Al Leiter struggled to a 3-1 count on Soriano before his single to right to start the bottom of the first, but Jeter struck out, and Giambi and Mondesi (batting cleanup against the lefty!) went out meekly on two pitches apiece. And the boobirds were back when Jeff started the second by going 3-0 on Jason Phillips, and walked him after Jason fouled off two or three strikes. But Vance Wilson took a strike, then a ball, then bounced into a 5-4-3, and the game turned. The crowd wasn’t yet aware of it perhaps, but Jeff Weaver grabbed control of this game as Soriano’s throw nestled into first baseman Todd Zeile’s glove and rookie Jose Reyes followed by bouncing an 0-1 pitch meekly back to the box.

Leiter looked to be pretty sharp early, striking out Matsui before inducing Posada to bounce to Alomar in the second, but his two-out walk to Zeile was telling. Al coaxed five meek popups and six ground ball outs on the night, but his pitch count climbed dramatically with the walk an inning he averaged, achieved by issuing one free pass per frame, and two in the sixth to make up for the lack of one in the first. By the time he hit Soriano with a cutter diving at his feet with two outs in the fourth he had managed only five first-pitch strikes to 19 batters. He threw 30 pitches in the game’s biggest inning and had thrown 60 by the time he popped Zeile to second to finish the third.

That inning had begun innocently enough, with a four-pitch pop out by Wilson, but Leiter walked Soriano on four pitches, not an easy thing to do, and when center fielder Timo Perez failed to nail Alfonso at third on a bing-bang play after Jeter singled up the middle, it was one out with two men in scoring position, and the tying run at the plate. Al started Giambi out with a ball, got a swinging strike, and two balls. I urged Giambi to “look it over” for the next offering, but once it was 3-2 I half hoped for the walk. But when Jason was aggressive in fouling off pitch no. six, I thought I sensed something, and yelled with all I had, “C’mon, Jason, Take Him DOWNtown!!!” Jason swung, the bat cracked and the ball made a huge arc to a spot just to the left of dead center, a deep part of the park, but despite Timo Perez’s determined sprint to the wall there was little doubt. It cleared the wall with room to spare and we had a tie ballgame.

Mondesi went 0 for 4 this night and he contributed two of the pop outs and one of the grounders, but he lined the next pitch to right, which we were surprised to see right fielder Roger Cedeno make a fine play on. Matsui followed, and I was telling my brother how happy I was with his play when he lined a homer to right on 2-1. On the same count, Jorge Posada followed with a homer to left, and the night’s scoring was done, with two outs in the bottom of the third.

It had been my theory that a start in Tampa Bay would be perfect for Weaver, and Tuesday’s game was a big step. But my reasoning was way off, as I felt that Jeff would not be able to withstand a hostile crowd in the Bronx. But tonight he took a skeptical crowd, pushed them to hostile and then withstood all the negatives and made of the night a huge win, and not just on the scoreboard. At no point was Jeff shook up this night, and he even threw five of six first-pitch strikes during the ugly first. He retired 11 of 15 guys in the second through sixth innings on grounders, posting pitch counts of 12, 10, 10, 14 and 13.

But even though he would coax no more grounders during his last test in the seventh, it may have been his best frame of the night. He tried and missed the inside corner to DH Cliff Floyd three times leading off the inning, and got Floyd to foul off a pitch to fill the count. But then he caught too much of the plate, and the lefty didn’t miss, thumping a liner off the wall in dead center, and cruising into second with a leadoff double. Bete Noir (for this evening anyway) Burnitz followed, and Jeff got a call strike. I don’t know how Joe Torre felt when Jeff and Jeromy got to 3-2, but I would have settled for the walk, as I peered at the empty first base. Jeff felt otherwise, as he coaxed a foul and then a pop to Jeter on the at bat’s seventh pitch. He fooled Wigginton badly on a diving outside curve on 2-2, and only scared the crowd for a moment as Mondesi drifted back to haul in the long liner to right on the first pitch to Phillips.

The game was really over then, but neither the Mets nor their fans seemed to know it. The Yankees had threats every inning what with Leiter’s free passes, and they scratched a single against Franco in the seventh and a single and error off Weathers in the eighth, but Giambi’s three-run bomb was their last (and first) hit with runners in scoring position of the night. But the five-run third was plenty. Chris Hammond came on and Jeter almost retired Wilson on a good play on a grounder into the shortstop hole, but it was a single when Zeile couln’t scoop the throw. It gave Mets fans a flicker, but no more, as Hammond struck out Reyes, Cedeno and pinch hitter Raul Gonzalez on 10 pitches. When Mo mowed the Flushing team down in order in the ninth to the strains of Yankee fans yelling, “Sweep!” the Yanks had done just that, and in a manageable two hours and 45 minutes.

There was a short ceremony before the game tonight too, in honor of the about-to-commence Pan American Games. Emblematic of all the sports and athletic pursuits that take place in those games, a track star from the Dominican Republic named Ledesma carried a burning torch through left field to the area behind home plate and passed the torch onto fellow Dominican Alfonso Soriano during the pregame. So many sports were represented in the Bronx tonight, what with the baseball game, the golf and tennis that permeated the aforementioned film Pat and Mike, the honoring of the track and field stars of those multi-national games.

And there was one more game too, poker. When Joe sent young Weaver to the mound again tonight, struggling to harness his stuff, and in a losing streak that had reached four, and now with the added pressure of a great start by rookie Brandon Claussen the day before, nobody knew what we were going to get. Joe played the hand he was dealt and came up a winner. It is what I was thinking as the scoreboard flashed the night’s attendance in the eighth inning: 55,444. Two fives. Three Fours.

A Full House and a winning hand.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!