NEW YORK, N.Y., September 19, 2005 — Sure, it was another beautiful night in the Bronx, as the Yanks hosted the Orioles to start a seven-game homestand Monday, the last regular-season stand of the year. Yes, the Bombers have been hanging in tight in both the AL East and Wild Card races, and the just-concluded 5-1 road trip moved their record to a level over .500 closer to what they and their fans have become accustomed. And sure, the usual 50,000-plus flocked to Yankee Stadium to welcome them back, and to hopefully root them on to the 2005 postseason. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., September 11, 2005 — The Yankees and Red Sox spent the first two games of this crucial September series in the Bronx apparently trying to make the point that neither team is set up to coast in October. David Wells made mistakes in the zone Friday night and his fieldmates made four errors behind him in an 8-4 Yankee win. Then the Yankees followed three ineffective frames by August pickup Shawn Chacon by throwing away the game in a six-run fourth inning Saturday afternoon. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., September 9, 2005 — Just when the Tampa Bay Devil Rays had us shaking our heads wondering if this Yankee team can bring this season to a successful conclusion, the Bombers go out and hammer a top opponent in a big game. They did it behind the pitching of a journeyman starter who did not get a chance until such luminaries as Darrel May and Tim Redding had taken bows, and thanks to the offense of a catcher who has struggled mightily most of this year. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., September 5, 2005 — It was a 7:08 first pitch Wednesday night, and a 7:10 first “Boo!”, as Jaret Wright started a nightmare of an inning by walking Julio Lugo on five pitches. Three pitches later, Carl Crawford had bunted for a hit, Wright had thrown the ball down the right field line, and both Lugo and Crawford had scored on Jorge Cantu’s first-pitch single to right. Tack on four more throws, and you get a popup, a Jonny Gomes triple off the right field wall with Gary Sheffield injured, and a sac fly for a 4-0 deficit. But hey, the weather was great. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 28, 2005 — The Yankees looked to be in one of those battles of attrition Sunday afternoon that happen once a week or so, in the case of this team often coinciding with the turn of Al Leiter in the rotation. Al was extended to 23 pitches to retire the Royals in the first after a David DeJesus leadoff single, and the ugly inning was still to come. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 26, 2005 — The hottest show in New York performed to raucous crowds and cascading applause yet again Friday night. But this was no song and dance revue with a few jokes. One hears the raves about Spamalot in 2005, and Avenue Q for a few years; it seems Chorus Line and Les Miz threatened to run forever. But the longest-running smash in New York has been appearing in the same house for 82 years, and in 2005 it will draw more fans than it has in any season before, since the House That Ruth Built was constructed and opened in the Bronx in 1923. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 25, 2005 — It didn’t hit me until I started filling in my Scorecard. Thursday afternoon in New York promised to be a beaut, and the number 4 Subway car I took to the Stadium had just two people in it, very unlike the 100-plus who had crammed in Tuesday evening. Sitting in the blinding but not overly hot sun (78 degrees at first pitch), I entered the lineups, and then the pitchers. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 23, 2005 — The introduction of Felix Escalona the hitter to the crowd at Yankee Stadium in 2005 could hardly have been more inauspicious. When asked to bunt over two hitters in a Monday start at short, he served a 1-0 soft lob right into the third baseman’s glove, a disappointing performance that apparently did not escape the eye of Toronto Manager John Gibbons. Escalona got better, bouncing hard into a 5-4-3 and then singling past short, but Gibbons’s mind had apparently been made up. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 22, 2005 — Yankee fans who had resigned themselves to a Jaret Wright-less season received quite a surprise last week when the oft-injured righty emerged from the obscurity of the Tampa minor-league complex to perform well on a major league field several miles away in St. Petersburg. With Mike Mussina and newly acquired Shawn Chacon performing to rave reviews of late, the arrival of Wright on the scene was just what the doctor ordered for a fanbase stressed about the uneven performances of titular ace Randy Johnson. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 14, 2005 — It was perhaps fitting that Sunday’s Yankee game ended at 5:55 in another homestand where the Bombers drew roughly 55,000 per game. Those in the crowd remaining when Tony Womack caught Texas catcher Rod Barajas’s fly to center to end the contest had been in the park roughly five hours as well. Continue reading →