Bronx, N.Y., April 19, 2009 — We shouldn’t be surprised that the new Yankee Stadium outfield wall was involved in a 2009 home-run call review so early in its first stand, in its fourth game. The new Palace has been experiencing firsts since it opened with home runs smacking both foul poles in an exhibition against the Cubs. That one worked well for the home team, even if it was meaningless, but the many scoring records surpassed, tied, or threatened Saturday afternoon weren’t nearly as welcome. The bunches of home runs have been a mixed bag, good at first, but again, not on Saturday. Not Sunday either, to start with.

But there was nothing mixed about the outcome of the first review in the new Stadium. Jorge Posada had not only apparently hit a go-ahead two-run pinch-hit seventh-inning home run, first-base ump Greg Estabrook was giving a vigorous home run call. Jorge saw that as he turned at first while Melky Cabrera, pinch-running at second after a Nick Swisher double, obviously wasn’t so sure. Which brought about yet another first: the sight of our lumbering but beloved catcher running up the back of a much faster runner, from two bases back no less. With six outs left and Brian Bruney and Mariano Rivera waiting once Melky and Jorge crossed like the first two finishers in a race, it seemed a game decider on the one hand, but no one wants to contemplate what a reversal of the call would have meant to the battered Yankees and their fans.

Not that virtually everyone in the park didn’t. There wasn’t much choice with all the time the umpires conferred before they made a call. Cleveland Manager Eric Wedge argued that, well, I’m, not sure what he argued. It was possible from his (and my) perch that it was fan interference, or that it wasn’t but that the ball bounced onto the field without hitting anything on the other side of the fence. Or it could have been, as most supposed, that it had come in contact with fans’ gloves above (not on the outfield side of) the wall, the original call that rightly would make it a home run. Oddly, the umps conferred for a while on the infield grass, and then decided to check the video and have a review. A reversal could have put Cabrera and Posada at third and second, respectively, with one down, a situation that would certainly not have guaranteed that the winning — or even the tying — run would have scored. Eight and a half minutes after the ball was struck, the umps emerged, seemed to be in the process of sending the two Yankee runners back, then called it a home run.

Coming off the 22-4 blistering loss the day before, ex-Yankee Carl Pavano befuddled the Yankees, and angered many of their fans, for six innings, leaving with a 3-1 lead. Worse still, he was outpitching A.J. Burnett, who had given the Yanks two well-pitched games, good for two wins. Burnett was on the hook for the loss in this one, but he didn’t pitch badly. Once again, a starter’s command was compromised, as when A.J. walked the bases losded in the seventh, it gave him seven free passes on the day. He allowed just three hits, but two were home runs, one right after his second walk, in the fourth inning. Further, he struck out only two, his 60/51 strikes/balls ratio didn’t approach his former work, and he managed just 15 of 28 first-pitch strikes.

That late-inning wildness forced Joe Girardi to make a bullpen call, a critical one two outs before the eighth inning that has become Bruney’s perch. It turned out that Jonathan Albaladejo, who had allowed a grand slam to his first batter after being brought in once before with the bases loaded, was the perfect call. The tall righty retired Mark DeRosa and Victor Martinez on ground balls, the former a slow roller on which third baseman Cody Rasner made a fine charging catch and throw for a force at the plate. Given the difficulty solving their ex-teammate, the Yanks played a good game really, and Ransom had also dived into the hole and thrown Ryan Garko out in the second. Robbie Cano made a clean snatch of a Shin-Soo Choo shot up the middle in the sixth that he turned into a 4-6-3, and Mark Teixeira shone with a dive and catch on an unassisted putout of Martinez in the third.

The Yankee offense, though absent early, was a collaborative effort, with nine of the 11 who partook getting one hit apiece. Johnny Damon was 0-for-3 with a hit by pitch, and Cabrera never came to bat, while both catchers hit safely. Once Jorge’s huge home run lifted the pall of yesterday’s embarrassment and the early offensive struggles Sunday (Pavano actually was perfect until Derek Jeter doubled to right center with one down in the fourth), the Yankees tacked on three more once early-season hero Nick Swisher doubled with two down in the eighth. Nick had been Pavano’s only strike out victim, but that was for three times, the last leaving the bases loaded in the sixth with the home team down 3-1. Two walks followed Swish’s two-base hit, and when Ransom broke his bat while lofting a high fly to the left field corner, left fielder Choo pulled up as he approached the line. The ball bounced fair and high for a bases-clearing double. It may have seemed a lucky bounce, but it meant the Yanks had come through with scoring base hits with runners in scoring position in three different innings.

That was a marked improvement on their play in their new home Stadium. Perhaps the Yankees can use this victory to propel themselves going forward. They were beaten badly three times in the last seven days, but it is about winning games, not piling on runs; their record over that span was 4-3. Also of note is another new ballpark first, on their first Sunday. Catcher Kelly Shoppach came oh so close to reaching the upper deck with a ball that remained there when his fourth-inning foul off Burnett caromed off the rail in front of section 317 past first base, but Ransom ended the four-game quest when the foul he stroked before his three-run double in the eighth was caught by fans in the second row of section 320. We should have known that something special was about to come to pass.

This day was made possible by something that occurred exactly 90 years ago, by the way, as it was on April 19, 1919 that New York Governor Al Smith signed into law a bill legalizing playing professional baseball in New York on Sundays. I know how thousands of Sunday season ticket holders would respond to that:

Hip, Hip, Jorge!

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!