Bronx, N.Y., May 24, 2005 — Would you believe the grounds crew brought out snow shovels to treat the mound in the middle of the fourth? Or that fans were so cold they were letting foul balls bounce around them without moving a finger to snatch them?

No? Good call, but take it from a guy who has earned several free tickets for sitting through rough days in Yankee Stadium: This one was painfully frigid and damp. After just teasing the crowd with a few pre-game drops, the rain became persistent early. And although it never reached the level of what you would call driving rain, anything not covered in some matter of foul-weather gear was drenched by the time Alex Rodriguez repeated his second-inning heroics with a second-pitch two-run blast to right center in the fourth. The game had just passed the hour mark then. And by the end of a two-inning 10-run barrage that that blast ignited, the rain slowed and almost stopped. That was when we realized that the drier it got, the colder it got.

Of course then we had all that offense to keep us warm, and another fine outing from righthander Mike Mussina limited the stretches when Yankees weren’t bashing balls all over the park to manageable interludes. Moose sprinkled three singles with five strike outs through four on just 49 tosses, and only 11 of those were off the plate. He would go seven while throwing 94 pitches, and the 69/25 strikes/balls ratio was unusually good. He was getting weak fouls with his fastball, and managed to blow a few by people as well; mixing in his slow and slower breaking stuff, he had the undermanned Tigers batters swinging and missing nine times. He managed 20 of 27 first-pitch strikes, and the knuckle curve he used to get Carlos Guillen weakly flailing at strike three for the second out of the fourth was truly a thing of beauty.

With the six K’s and six singles with no walks (just three three-ball counts, none before the fifth!), it was almost a shame he spun such a beaut on a night the Yanks broke out their long-ball bats. Eight of their hits went for extra bases, six of them home runs, led by two apiece by major league leader Alex Rodriguez and by Jorge Posada.

But it all started with A-Rod. Detroit southpaw Wilfredo Ledezma retired the Yanks on nine pitches in the first, then had a seven-pitch battle with Hideki Matsui before the Yankee center fielder flied weakly to left to start the home second. Wilfredo fell behind Alex 2-1, and the Yankee third baseman drilled the next pitch to the left of the 385 sign in right center. Alex appears to be that rare righty who really shines in Yankee Stadium because his power stroke drives balls to the more forgiving right center field. The game stayed 1-0 until Alex cleared the fence in the same area with Gary Sheffield on in the fourth. Posada had swung very late in striking out after homer number one; on a second try he easily cleared the fence in left on the first pitch for back-to-back jacks. Jason Giambi (2-for-4 and robbed of a hit by first baseman Carlos Pena in the second) followed with a single, Bernie Williams doubled him to third, and Rondell White showed why the Yanks couldn’t afford his arm in left on Robinson Cano’s sac fly to short left for run number four in the inning, for a 5-0 lead.

The Yanks paused while Mussina turned in a one-two-three top of the fifth, and then began the assault anew. Tony Womack reached on Detroit’s second of two infield errors, and Sheffield homered to left, closer to the foul pole than I’d like, but clearly fair. Righty Matt Ginter replaced Ledezma and pitched around Alex for a walk after a Matsui double, and Posada made him pay with a low liner over the porch in right for three more. The fans were in denial about how cold and wet they were as the rally continued. Giambi and Williams singles put runners at the corners with no one out and five in. When Chris Spurling replaced Ginter, no one cheered out loud, but I think a few were actually delighted when he escaped the trap on two pitches, allowing one more tally via two grounders to second for three outs.

The game became a mini-drama then, with righthander Franklin German obviously drilling Alex Rodriguez on purpose in the seventh. The game got almost as ugly as the weather when Paul Quantrill, in for Moose to start the eighth, threw his first pitch to Julian Smith behind the backup shortstop. Home plate ump Fairchild, who is new to me, warned Paul and both benches to no avail. The price for German’s act had not been yet been paid, and when Quantrill hit Smith with pitch number two, both dugouts emptied briefly. But once the Yankee righty and both managers were tossed, the freezing crowd was able to sit and bide their time watching a reliever warm up from the beginning, rather than the eight pitches they’re usually given on the mound.

Buddy Groom threw 27, and he should have thrown some more because ex-Yankee prospect Marcus Thames blasted a three-run home run to deepest straight center on a full count. We rued the loss of the shutout, but Robinson Cano’s first major league home run to right on the first pitch of the inning’s bottom half restored the offensive rush, and Groom retired the Tigers to close the game in 2:54, though it felt quite a bit longer.

How cold was it? The Scoreboard listed the gametime temp as 48 degrees with high humidity and 19 mile per hour winds, but heck, that was before it got wet. Truthfully, no one became more familiar with this cold than Alex Rodriguez. German’s fast ball seemed to find flesh, which may have prevented a broken bone, but the bruise must be deep and the blow must have been painful. But other outward signs pointed to how unpleasant things got, including the Yankee offer of a free September ticket to all who braved the elements this night.

But further evidence is the fact that the out-of-town scoreboards became “frozen” early during this game too. The newer video ones abutting the auxiliary scoreboards along the loge down each line became stuck first, and they stayed that way. Cleveland’s game remained in the fourth inning all night, Tampa’s in the second, and the Texas tilt the second as well. Even weirder, the old out-of town scoreboard in the left field corner also malfunctioned, but not until later. Thus, the Boston game in Toronto, which froze in the fourth down the lines, gave a continuous seventh-inning score out in left. And AL East leader Baltimore’s tilt with Seattle was frozen in inning two down the lines and in the third in the corner. Happily, the Boston score became unfrozen just in time for fans to see their 9-6 loss in the bottom of the ninth.

So that was how it was watching Tuesday’s 12-3 win in the Ballpark. I imagine those watching on TV and listening on radio got as much joy from all the big homers as we did. Moose’s mastery probably was not lost even on those who were only checking the score online. But I like being there with the team and rooting them on in these games. Why would I rather sit in freezing rain to watch on nights like this in person, and put up with crowded, smelly mass transit to get there and then home?

Um, I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!