Bronx, N.Y., August 25, 2005 — It didn’t hit me until I started filling in my Scorecard. Thursday afternoon in New York promised to be a beaut, and the number 4 Subway car I took to the Stadium had just two people in it, very unlike the 100-plus who had crammed in Tuesday evening. Sitting in the blinding but not overly hot sun (78 degrees at first pitch), I entered the lineups, and then the pitchers.
Chacin vs. Chacon, lefty against righty, Blue Jay opposing Yankee. And they were both wearing number 39 on their backs. Chacon is three years older, both in age and in big-league baseball, but they share December as their birth month as well. And there’s one more thing. They both got off to great starts in Yankee Stadium. Chacon has pitched brilliantly here since he was acquired from Colorado for Double-A righthanders Eduardo Sierra and Ramon Ramirez just about one month ago. And Chacin shocked the Bombers in the House That Ruth Built by beating them here 6-3 in his major league debut 11 months ago.
But the similarity went away as the game began. Chacon relies on a mix of pitches and misdirection; he doesn’t blow hitters away but they don’t hit the ball hard either. With his in and out motion, he can miss too often, and his strikes-to-balls ratio is rarely ideal. He got a first-pitch strike on Blue Jays shortstop Russ Adams at 1:09, but fell to 3-1 before Posada pegged Adams out on a roller in front of the plate. Frank Catalonotto bounced to Felix Escalona, who gave Robinson Cano a day off at second, on a 3-1 pitch, and Shawn finished the top of the first on a Shea Hillenbrand fly to center after Vernon Wells had singled to left center.
And then came The Big. Chacin can throw harder, and there is a dramatic difference in speed between his fastball and his curve. But the Yanks jumped on both in the first, and they did it with both feet. Derek Jeter smacked a 1-0 pitch to the right of center for an early single, and Hideki Matsui instantly pushed him to second with a line one-base hit up the middle. Gary Sheffield actually took a strike before laying wood to ball, but he made it worth the wait when he crushed a high drive to left for an immediate 3-0 lead.
Last week I was lucky enough to make my first visit to the city on the Bayou, New Orleans, and found it lovely though a solid 20 degrees hotter. A highlight was a trip to the Voodoo Museum off Bourbon, with its skulls, incantations, voodoo dolls, and zombies. The creole natives love to dance, and the Kingston Trio classic song Zombie Jamboree pays tribute to just two of their many moves: “Back to back, and belly to belly, I don’t give a d___, cause I’m stone dead already!” Four pitches after Sheffield’s blast, I knew how the Louisiana natives felt, because that is when Alex Rodriguez “backed” and “bellied” Shef up by lofting a ball of similar height and distance, and the Yankees had a 4-0 lead on Chacin’s first nine pitches.
The Stadium rocked; the crowd roared; but after a visit from the dugout, the Toronto lefty stiffened. Center fielder Bernie Williams made a bid for a one-out single to right, but first baseman Hillenbrand, who had a good day in the field, smothered it, and Chacin got out of the first on 27 pitches despite a two-out walk to Jorge Posada. And the Stadium quieted, despite game attempts from a fun crowd, and Chacin held the Yanks right there for the next four frames. A Posada single/Tino Martinez walk leading off the home fourth looked dangerous once Escalona showed Monday’s bad bunt was a fluke with a beauty down third. But Jorge was nailed at the plate on a Jeter comebacker to the mound. The Yanks ran the play long enough to restore the runner-at-second-and-third configuration, but Matsui whiffed and the opportunity passed. The Matsui punch-out was Chacin’s fifth in three innings; he nailed Rodriguez, Giambi, and Williams on called third strikes in succession in the third.
All of which was significant because Toronto was using timely hits combined with Chacon’s wildness to climb back in the game. Third baseman Corey Koskie blasted a booming double to left center leading off the second. Escalona made a great stop on Greg Zaun’s bid for a single through the second base hole, but by the time Tino corralled his wild throw from his knees and secured the putout Koskie was at third. The Yanks chose to play back and Chacon kicked awkwardly at Reed Johnson’s slow roller; Koskie scored the first Blue Jay run as Jeter pegged Johnson out.
Although nobody hit the ball as hard as Koskie in the Toronto third it was worse, as Chacon’s control deserted him entirely. With one down, he walked Adams on five pitches and fell behind 3-0 to Catalanotto. He managed two called strikes but Frank singled to left. Shawn seemed out of the woods when he struck out Vernon Wells on three ugly swings, but then his 2-1 pitch to Hillenbrand hit him square and the bases were loaded. The righthander was struggling to throw a strike with his fastball or his curve, and four straight off the plate to the dangerous Koskie produced a second Toronto run. It was a sobering thought that the Jays were a single away from tying a game the Yanks had seemingly owned just two innings earlier, but the threat passed as Chacon got Zaun swinging on a 2-2 78-mph change of pace.
And the game Chacon would struggle on. His fourth-inning 1-0 hit-by-pitch to Reed Johnson was his second in the span of four batters, harking back to the August 25, 1921 15-1 Yankee loss to Cleveland in which Yankee hurler Harry Harper plunked a record-tying three in one inning. Luckily, Hinske bounced into a 4-6-3 before a Hudson single and an Adams fly to center. The fifth went by easily despite a lead-off walk to Catalanotto, with Matsui running to the wall to close the frame by snatching another Koskie drive to left. The sixth presented the Jays with their last best chance after a leadoff four-pitch walk to Zaun. Back-to-back singles by Hinske and Hudson after a strike out loaded ’em up with one down, and Tanyon Sturtze was throwing in earnest in the Yankee pen. But Adams took a third strike and Catalanotto lined to right. Few expected to see Chacon once it had taken his 108th pitch to put out this last fire.
Then came The Easy. Jorge Posada had a 3-for-3 day with a walk, and he drove a 1-1 Chacin offering into the left-field corner for a lead-off sixth inning double. The Yankee backstop held that spot as Martinez lined to center and Escalona popped to short, but the young Toronto lefty’s luck ran out when Yankee Captain Jeter came to the plate. Derek drove a 2-1 pitch to the deep gap in left center, and he cruised into third with a stand-up triple. Matsui jumped on the first pitch again, and his second single up the middle broke the game open, restoring the Yankee four-run lead at 6-2. Joe Torre actually sent Chacon out for the eighth, and after Gary Sheffield made a dazzling dive and catch on Hillenbrand, Shawn nailed Koskie swinging to close the inning and his day. The Yankee eighth started with Posada’s third hit, a single up the middle, but Hillenbrand doubled him up after snagging Tino’s liner on a sparkling full-body dive. Escalona got his third hit of the week when Reed Johnson couldn’t track his fly in the blinding left field sky, but Jeter bounced out. Tom Gordon and Mariano Rivera turned in back-to-back one-two-three innings and the game was over in 2:46.
Out for a great meal last Saturday night in New Orleans we came across young men on opposite sides of the street handing out flyers for a French Quarter restaurant. I avoided the guy with the red hat and shirt but couldn’t resist the youth with the Yankee cap and Jeter Tee. “I’ll take anything from a Yankee fan,” I said with a smile, to which he replied in an accent that had the air of authority to it: “They are Gawd’s team!”
It’s a good day to celebrate New Orleans (and Yankee baseball) by the way. Indians inhabited the Mississippi estuary until 1682, when the French explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, sailed down the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes region. And there on August 25, 1718, Sieur de Bienville founded the city we have all come to refer to as The Big Easy.
In 1718. There’s something about that date I used to like, I think. 1718. 1718? Hmmm.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!