Bronx, N.Y., May 16, 2004 — I felt like a school kid hoping for snow when my eyes opened Sunday morning, except that Junior would be pleading for precipitation, while I was hoping for exactly the opposite. And on this day in the Bronx, I hit the motherlode! After a sweltering week of 80-degree highs, long wet spells, and booming thunderstorms, the Saturday evening weatherman had hedged his bets, calling for “partly cloudy with periods of showers.” The Yankee Stadium sky proved him oh so wrong.
A full house in the Stadium saw the Yankees squeak by the Seattle Mariners 2-1 in a classic pitcher’s duel in a rubber match, closing this bizarre three-gamer with a thrilling afternoon of baseball on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon. One had to feel for the outfielders desperately scanning the skies for errant fly balls, as even my scorecard became unreadable from time to time under the shimmering, almost cloudless sky.
And Mariner Joel Pineiro and Yankee Kevin Brown felt it too, both displaying their “A” game in front of 50,000-plus. Despite a scratch single by Ichiro Suzuki off Miguel Cairo’s glove to lead off the game, Brown set down the first six Mariners on 23 tosses, while Pineiro came out smoking, whiffing five in the first two frames around a leadoff walk to Gary Sheffield in the second. Brown survived a leadoff Rich Aurilia single over Derek Jeter in the third when he popped Spiezio up to short despite the swinging bunt that Suzuki had legged out with two down.
You would have to forgive backup catcher John Flaherty if he was feeling a little frustrated when that Suzuki hopper rolled to a stop and he had no play. Unable to get untracked at the bat since he took over for the injured Jorge Posada Wednesday, he allowed a passed ball Friday night, has not been throwing well to second, and when he finally smacked a leadoff double in the bottom of the ninth in Saturday’s game, his teammates were unable to deliver him with the game-winner.
The .129 batting average flashed on the board as he strode to the plate to lead off the home third might have fit right in with this team as it struggled through mid-April, but it stood out today as the Yankees (for the most part) appear to be finding their collective swings. With five of six outs recorded on strikeouts, fans would be forgiven for fearing a repeat as Flaherty swung and missed badly on Pineiro’s first offering. He fouled off another pitch on his hands, but the young Seattle righty appeared to try to hit him in the same spot after falling to a full count, and “Flash” went into action, catching the high pitch just in front of the plate. I was sure it was fair right away, but I was alone in that until 50,000 joined me in a loud cheer once John’s majestic fly struck high off the screen attached to the left field foul pole. 1-0 Yanks.
Cairo followed that blast with a single up the middle off a possibly shaken Pineiro, but the Yanks could not capitalize, as Lofton popped to short and Derek Jeter bounced into a 6-4-3 on a 1-0 pitch. Derek had lifted one foul down toward the right field corner before taking Joel’s fifth pitch of his first-inning at bat for a called strike three, but he made his next three outs on four thrown balls, following the dp with a fly to center and a bouncer to short. Early in the season, a few of his patented liners to right were caught for outs, and he has not been able to stroke the ball that way since. It was great seeing Jeets snap his dreadful early-season schneid on a first-pitch homer to left center off Barry Zito back on April 29, and he singled to right off KC’s Brian Anderson the very next day. It is this fan’s humble opinion that until he finds that outside stroke again he will continue to struggle.
Although John Flaherty deserves no end of credit for his third-inning blast off a guy who was dealing, there is no question that the Yankee star of this tilt was Kevin Brown, and he proved that when things got tough. Edgar Martinez hurt the Yanks in Seattle, as he always does, and he was walked three times Saturday after stroking two hits Friday. But Brown handled him easily on two grounders and two K’s, and he got Martinez on a 4-3 on the first pitch of the visiting fourth. Twenty-five pitches later, he walked off the mound with his 1-0 lead intact after coaxing a popup and a weak bouncer to third once Seattle had loaded the sacks on two singles and a walk. As they used to say in football, he bent, but he didn’t break.
That was Kevin’s only walk, he threw 17 of 31 first pitches for strikes, and his 75/37, strikes/balls ratio was just what you’d want. He coaxed three popups to go with nine ground-ball outs, really more his game I think than the five K’s he managed, all swinging. The Mariners swung and hit the ball 40 times, but only eight for hits, and just one that hurt, which was Spiezio’s one-out homer to right in the eighth (although Ibanez backed Sheffield to the wall to catch his drive to the same spot in the second). Once the Yanks grabbed the lead, Brown didn’t waste a swinging strike, getting three third strikes on the five he buzzed past Seattle batters over his last five frames.
The ceremonial first pitch of this game was tossed out by Japanese Ambassador to the United States Ryozo Kato after the National Anthem chores were deftly handled by the New York Men’s Choir, a darksuit-clad band of Japanese businessmen. With both Hideki Matsui and Ichiro Suzuki in the starting lineups, we couldn’t help but wonder for which team most of the choir members were rooting. And although Suzuki notched two singles on the day while Matsui went hitless (the Yanks managed but five safeties on the day), Hideki’s six-pitch walk did move Bernie Williams, who had singled with two down in the fourth, into scoring position.
Tony Clark, subbing for the ailing Jason Giambi yet again, strode to the plate and did what he did in a similar situation Friday night, he singled in the winning run. Some in the stands were disappointed that the solid and savvy Matsui rounded second and headed for third on Clark’s single to left, but there was a good chance that Williams would have been out trying to score the deciding run at the plate had Aurilia not cut the throw and nailed Hideki at third.
And that was the game. The Yanks put together an A-Rod single and steal of second with a Sheffield walk in the sixth, but Randy Winn choked off that final Yankee chance on a fine running catch of Bernie Williams’s liner to center. Brown, meanwhile, retired 10 of 11 from the fifth into the eighth, retiring 41-year-old backup catcher Pat Borders and center fielder Winn after Aurilia’s one-out double in the seventh, just as he had when backed against the wall with the sacks full in the fourth.
Kevin’s day ended on a two-out Ibanez single to left in the eighth, and the reliable Tom Gordon whiffed Cabrera taking on a borderline outside pitch. No one left this 2-1 affair as Olerud reached Mariano Rivera for a single past Cairo on the first toss of the ninth. Aurilia sacrificed, and Hansen, pinch-hitting for Borders, bounced to first, Clark to Rivera, moving the tying run a mere 90 feet away. Randy Winn knuckled a grounder to Jeter on the next pitch, but Derek corralled the bounce and pegged him out.
Yankee Stadium is just overflowing with history, and on any given day fans can celebrate another great moment. On May 16, 1951, Mickey Mantle blasted the first home run he ever hit in the House that Ruth Built in an 11-3 thrashing of the Indians, although he had cleared a fence or two on the road before. He homered in the 3-0 shutout win over the A’s on this day in 1957 too, and then he and several of the “usual suspects” feted the birthdaying Billy Martin at New York’s Copacabana night club. It was an infamous episode in the city that is baseball’s biggest stage, and taunting fans, drinking ballplayers, an overturned table and a black eye or two later, and the night club retained its rep as,
- The hottest spot north of Havana
Music and Passion were always the fashion
at the Copa-, Copa-cabana.
As Mo raised his arm in victory and the strains of Frank Sinatra filled the Bronx sky on this May 16 of 2004, I thought that was a pertty good description of Yankee Stadium too.
Music and Passion, and Winning Baseball
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!