Bronx, N.Y., August 11, 2002 — Yes, I know the Yankees were just away on their longest road trip of the season (14 days, with 15 days between games at the Stadium), but they’re off on the road again after a week here, and honestly, despite a huge win today that evened the homestand at 3-3, my question is, “What took you so long?”

After seeing a relative nobody whose first name sounds like Elvis shut us down (he pitched well today again in Tampa — Runelvys Hernandez — watch him!) on Tuesday, suffer through a seemingly eternal loss Friday night (which would have felt shorter had Robin come up with the big base hit), a dreary outing yesterday that felt oh so much longer, and a needed win today under a hot but beautiful sun, rooting for this team “eight days a week” is exactly what I feel like I have been doing. The words for a Yankee fan as weary as I am are borrowed from a Beatles song expressing an entirely different emotion, bu that is because August 11 is a very significant day in the Fab Four’s history. Movies one and two (“A Hard Days Night” and “Help!”) opened in New York on this day in 1964 and 1965 respectively. They started their last U.S. concert tour here in 1966, and two years later launched Apple (as in Big Apple?) Records, both on August 11 too.

It is a cliche that there is no “I” in Team (though some would argue that the letters forming “me” are there), but seriously, there is no Mike or Moose either. Staring at a weekend sweep at home at the hands of a potential (perhaps likely) playoff rival, the Yankees rose to the task today. And their veteran titular ace, Mike “Moose” Mussina, got off the mat too, not necessarily reclaiming that title, but finding something gutty, gritty, and hopefully instinctual, just when he needed it. Mike started leadoff hitter Mark Ellis in the first inning at 0-2, but then had to survive four two-strike fouls in a 10-pitch marathon before prevailing on a popup to short. DH Ray Durham chose from the same menu, fouling off two third strikes before swinging and missing, and although Miguel Tejada popped out on five pitches, it took 21 bullets out of Moose’s arm to get the game to the Yanks still 0-0.

Not the prettiest start, but good enough, because it really felt that we won today’s game, not because we scored last as the A’s did Friday, but because we scored first. Alfonso and Derek hit in the same inning for the first time this homestand to lead off, as the Yankee seemed to feel the weight of the 17 consecutive scoreless innings, and what it was doing to a pitching staff that was having its own problems. There was no surprise with Bernie’s rbi single (he has been a lifesaver), but the Chavez throwing error that moved Derek and Bernie up a base was huge. Yes, it prevented the shift that lines the defense up against Giambi, but his dart was right at a fielder anyway. Call us lucky if you will. I disagree. Hitting ground shots as hard and as consistently as Jason has, I would argue that the gods of baseball bouncers have been against us in that there haven’t been more bad bounces, and this two-run bullet almost took off Mark Ellis’s head on its way to right.

Oakland ace Mark Mulder recovered to strike out the next three guys on 12 pitches, but the 3-0 hole had been dug. Of course, filed under the heading of “Nothing is easy,” the hole was not deep enough. The hoped-for goose egg following our outburst was not to be. Seven pitches into Moose’s second, Eric Chavez had been struck out and ex-Yank (and ex-Brave, ex-Indian and sort of ex-Met) David Justice was down 0-2. But David recovered and doubled to left, and Dye knocked him in with a single. The crowd cringed when Long drove a hard liner just foul down the first-base line on the 1-0 pitch; a murmur of alarm and resignation followed when he took the 1-1 pitch 10-12 rows deep into Yankee Stadium’s right field upper deck. We were tied 3-3, and we were not happy. Spencer corraled Hatteberg’s long bomb on the warning track, but Ellis and Durham followed a walk to Hernandez with back-to-back singles. Only the presence of Shane’s strong arm in left kept Ramon on third, and the game tied, when Tejada closed the frame by flying meekly to left.

Mulder chose the more conventional path to pitching success today. Starting Spencer off with his fifth consecutive first-pitch strike, he finished him off on three pitches for his fourth strike out in a row. When Ellis needed to run in to catch Widger’s whisper-soft popup to second, we looked to be in trouble. Alfonso doubled hard to right center (two hits the other way in a row) and Derek, true pro that he is, walked on six pitches. Mulder’s teammate Tim Hudson only threw nine first-pitch strikes to 25 Yankees Friday night, but Mulder pounded the Yanks with 14 out of the first 18. The next two first-pitch strikes resulted in hard, run-scoring singles to left. Jason’s barely eluded Tejada because Miguel had just taken a step toward second. The eerily successful Giambi defensive strategy the A’s had adopted all weekend had turned against them as became only too clear when Miguel took the throw from left fielder Justice and fired it into the ground rather than tossing it to Mulder. We were back up by two, and we were there to stay.

But there was one more nail-biter to come, as Chavez and Dye singled off Moose around a Justice popup to lead off the third. Terrence Long, he of the three-run jack one inning earlier, came to the plate as the lead run. Although Moose characteristically gave catcher Hernandez his only walk of the day in the second, he was mixing up his pitches. He had thrown eight strikes and seven balls as first pitches before Terrence came to the plate (Terrence’s first ab was one of the balls), and rather than swinging like someone who had lined hard foul and homered on the last two pitches he had seen, Long swung meekly, bouncing right back to Moose for a 1-6-3.

I won’t say we were confident the rest of the way. Moose recorded a pair of scorelees 14-pitch innings before giving up run No. 4 on three singles in the sixth, but Shane and Alfonso answered them with singleton bombs. Karsay was OK at best, Mike got his only guy and Ramiro had the ground-ball pitch working. Mo looked strong in the ninth even if they scratched a run. The defensive gem of the game goes to Terrence Long on Widger’s third-inning deep drive, but Derek came up with a couple of beauts and Jason made a run-saving scoop in the seventh.

The “freaky fouls” in this game both struck the very top of the Tier facade and bounced meekly into lucky fans’ hands, one off Ramon Hernandez in the second in Box 607; the second came off Tejada’s bat in the fifth and landed in Box 603. And this day in baseball history should be titled “Hundreds.” Babe Ruth became the first ever member of the 500 home run club on August 11, 1929, and Warren Spahn notched his 300th victory today in 1961. Nine years later to the day Jim Bunning followed Cy Young as the second hurler to notch 100 victories in each league. A year later Harmon Killebrew hit No. 500 (and threw in No. 501 for good measure). Then in 1985, Dave Kingman went deep for the 400th time (as an A, by the way), and New York Mets catcher Gary Carter hit his 300th homer on August 11, 1988. Near misses include the Mets, the only triple-digit error team so far this year, with their 101st today, and of course Barry, who struck No. 600 only one day early (well, it was Saturday morning in the Bronx when he hit it anyway). And this just in: Mr. Wakefield won No. 100 in his career up the Eastern Seaboard in Fenway today.

And for future reference, in case we have a deja vu/deja vu ALDS matchup, I won’t say Karsay hit Tejada intentionally in the seventh, but it was the third consecutive pitch thrown roughly right at him that caught him. I wonder if it had anything to do with Miguel catching Widger’s throwing hand with his back swing while Chris was (succesfully) throwing Durham out stealing? The little boy (perhaps six or seven years old?) to my right asked what was wrong. When I explained, he said, “Well, if his hand is hurt too bad they might need another guy to be the catcher.”

“Yeah. Jorge Posada, I guess,” I replied. Then, feeling sudden inspiration, I added, “Maybe they’ll ask you to catch some day.”

The image of that smile is one that will be with me for a while, I assure you.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!