Staten Island, N.Y., June 22, 2007 — I picked a great day to get a baseball game fix with the Yankees away on an extended trip to parts (and parks) virtually unknown (and wouldn’t it have been nice had it stayed that way?). Friday night, I attended the fourth game of the 2007 Staten Island Yankees season. And although things both started and ended badly for the Baby Bombers, they showed plenty of life in between, and the ballpark experience couldn’t have been nicer.
Residents of New York City’s fifth borough can, and do, travel to the beautiful Ballpark at St. George any way they like, but for most fans traveling from elsewhere, the Staten Island Ferry is the conveyance of choice. Departing from downtown Manhattan’s Battery Park area, the huge boat took us on a 25-minute ride between Ellis and Governor’s Islands in the sun on the way there and returned us to the dazzle of Manhattan through a crisp breeze under a beautiful night sky. I was privileged to see these same views on a similar excursion on Septemer 6, 2001, another pleasant evening five days before a morning few of us will ever forget. Plus five years later, the view is breathtaking still.
That stiff wind and the gorgeous city skyline were twin aspects of the whole excursion. The tableau went from one with sunlight glowing on the city to the nighttime when Manhattan’s dazzling skyline was the origin of much of the glow. The ballpark uses a removable tarp for the batter’s eye in dead center, which they removed for a postgame fireworks show. I can’t think of another field where the removal of the batter’s eye is a sight worth cheering.
The fireworks were enjoyable, but they also clearly illustrated how strong was the left-to-right wind that affected the festivities all night. Rockets that soared straight up in center field dove precipitously toward right once they spent their beauteous light. This wind affected the game as well, and it was the visitors who finally took advantage of it at the game’s end.
Cal Ripken’s Aberdeen (Maryland) Ironbirds, a minor league representative of the Baltimore Orioles, were the competition, and things got off to a bumpy start for the Yanks when lefty Angel Reyes, destined for fine things in the minds of many, simply could not find the plate. Righthander and fellow prospect Zach McAllister suffered a similar fate in a loss to the Brooklyn Cyclones Thursday night, walking the first two guys. Sadly, Reyes copied him, and more. Angel walked six while getting just four outs before he was pulled with one down and the sacks filled in the second. Luckily, just three scored through two frames both because second baseman Justin Snyder made a fine play starting a double play in the first and because righty reliever Jeff Livek came in throwing strikes.
Reyes threw just 18 strikes among 50 pitches, and pegged only three first-pitch strikes to 10 Ironbirds hitters. Livek got the game through the fifth with the home team trailing 3-2 on just 45 more throws. Visiting bats did little against either guy; Reyes allowed a single up the middle in the second, and Aberdeen didn’t stroke another safety until two were out in the sixth inning.
The Yankees, on the other hand, were still in this tight contest because Aberdeen starter Aubrey Miller began the game on the wild side too. He loaded the bases around a strike out in the bottom of the first on two walks and a hit by pitch. Left fielder Andres Perez delivered the first hometown tally on a sac fly to right, and shortstop Luis Nunez crossed with the second run on a wild pitch.
Miller settled down and went four while suffering no more damage, and Staten Island plated the 3-3 equalizer in the home fifth when Nunez scampered across as reliever Andrew Schindling couldn’t corral right fielder Dave Williams’s high hopper over the mound. Nunez had reached on a force of Snyder, who was one of three Yankees hit by a pitch, and who would leave the game in favor of Chris Cararra. A walk and another wild pitch moved the Yankee shortstop to third, and he scored on the bouncer.
Because Schindling’s failure to retire Williams on the high hopper was ruled an error, the Yanks scored all three of their runs without benefit of a hit. They had five hits on the night, matching Aberdeen in that regard, with former Rutgers University standout Williams producing one. Speedy centerfielder D.J. Hollingsworth had two, first baseman Chris Raber had another, and DH Damon Sublett had the only Yankee extra base hit with a double in the seventh. It was after this hit had moved Nunez to third (on on another hit by pitch that seemed to have seriously hurt his wrist) that the Yanks had their only chance at a fourth run. With the middle infield back, Williams this time hit a two-hopper to third and Ironbird Franklin Gonzalez nailed Nunez at the plate with room to spare.
Williams looks to be a true hitter, and Sublett strokes line drives. He laced a deep liner to right in the third that may have cleared the outfielders had it been hit in the later innings as the force of the wind grew. But he also took a called third strike two different times. Patience at the plate may score him points with the scouts, but it wasn’t helpful in this particular game.
On defense, small-of-stature Snyder made some fine plays at second before he left the game, but the defensive star of the night was Yanks third baseman Brian Chavez. It was startling to see one-time Yank (Devil Rays and Padres, too, to name a few) Bubba Trammell playing left field for Aberdeen among all the kids. Chavez robbed him of a double with a full-body dive over the third-base bag and strong throw in the fifth. Then one inning later, Chavez went the other way with a dive into the hole and strong peg to nab Aberdeen second baseman Ryan Adams. Ironbirds shortstop Tyler Henson came up with a few defensive beauts as well, and a big hit too, as we will soon see.
From the mound, Livek did not throw as hard as the other three guys we saw, but he mowed down the visitors by hitting bats. It was smart baseball and good pitching, but that may not have impressed the several speedgun-wielding scouts behind home plate as much as the other three. Jim Conroy followed and got four outs throwing harder, and righty Phil Bartelski, the most impressive of the lot this night, finished up, even though he would take the loss.
Recovering from Tommy John surgery, Bartelski replaced Conroy after a one-out walk in the seventh. He struck out DH Joe Mahoney and catcher Brian Bent, respectively, to blunt potential rallies in the seventh and eighth, and then he did his best work in the ninth. Unfortunately it was one batter too late. Henson led off with an opposite field fly toward the right field corner, a well-struck windblown ball that landed 10 feet short of the warning track and just inside the line. Switch-hitting pinch hitter Robbie Widlansky grounded the next pitch past first baseman Raber and Aberdeen had scored a go-ahead run, 4-3 Ironbirds. With Widlanski on second after an errant throw from right, Bartelski proceeded to strike out three in succession, but the damage was done. Still, the hard-throwing righty is one to watch. While he threw 27 of 42 pitches for strikes to get the last eight outs, that he got the opposition to swing and miss 12 times in such a short span was pretty remarkable.
It was the last (of three) Ironbirds hurlers who impressed the most too, and it was a bittersweet moment for much of the crowd that Joey Esposito did so well for the visitors. It was obvious that this was not the first time many in the crowd had seen the former Nassau County (Long Island) star pitch. In to start the eighth, Raber greeted him with a single to left, and Hollingsworth dropped a nice bunt to move him up. But Esposito struck out Chavez and catcher James LaSala to blunt the threat, and he retired the side in order in the ninth, getting Sublett looking three times to close it out.
Though not filled to capacity, our crowd of 6,500 in the Ballpark at St. George was more than respectable, and not a bad change of pace after 50,000-plus day-in and day-out. The Ballpark staff kept things lively and entertaining from a short pregame promo right through the dazzling fireworks at the end. It’s a bit quirky that the hometeam dugout is on the third base side, but in this Millennium, quirky and ballpark are words that go well together.
When I saw the S.I. Yanks at a college field in 1999 before this park was built, the mascot was Scooter the Holy Cow. He continues in that job, though he now has two bovine companions in Red and Huck. A young student from PS 30 got the festivities started with the ceremonial first pitch, an impressive strike from atop the mound. We enjoyed between-innings fun the rest of the way. The only miscue of the night (aside from one error apiece between the two teams) was at the seventh inning stretch when instead of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” the loudspeaker started up with “YMCA.” But it was no matter. The lively staff and the pumped-up crowd pulled off a pretty impressive a cappella version that unfortunately failed to inspire the home team to rally for a victory.
The franchise is rightfully excited that they’ll be hosting a respectable group of Yankee Old Timers here on Sunday July 8, the day after that crowd has its annual get-together in the Bronx. I usually view and write game reports about what I see in Yankee Stadium from Tier Box 622, and name the column from that perspective. But watching a game on Friday night, I considered “View on 6/22″ for this one instead. But that reasoning was overruled by two factors, the first of which was a cover line in the free program the ballpark personnel gave out before the game.
The second factor is the fact that June 22 was not just the date of this game. It also happens to be 30 days short of the 60th birthday of Eagles drummer and singer Don Henley, who has scored with hits on his own as well. Thus, this one goes by the heading,
The Boys of Summer
STATEN ISLAND YANKEE BASEBALL!!!