Bronx, N.Y., July 4, 2005 — I knew (or should have known) that the Yanks were in for a good day when Melvin Mora’s 0-2 tracer to right center with one out in the first caromed so high off the top of the fence that it could just have easily trickled or bounced over for a home run as take the bounce back it did. As it was, it was a double and spot starter Tanyon Sturtze did well in pitching around it. His Orioles counterpart Bruce Chen, on the other hand, did nothing well; two strike outs and a pickoff during the four outs he lasted hardly squared things on his line. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 26, 2005 — It’s been a hard day’s night, and a long homestand’s week. After starting a two-week stand in the Bronx with back-to-back three-game sweeps of the Pirates and the Cubs, the Yanks had to scramble to barely close the home stay on a high note. They evened their season series with the Mets with a come-from-behind, ninth-inning 5-4 win Sunday night, but not until they did their best to give the game to their crosstown rivals. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 20, 2005 — When my baseball (i.e., Yankee) fanness was in its infancy, my favorite joke involved the game, and made light of the Christian Bible as well. The premise was that baseball was not only mentioned in that tome’s New Testament but, borrowing from the first few words of the Gospel of the Apostle John (In the beginning…”), it had a prominent part: “In the big inning…” It always cracked me up. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 20, 2005 — Good evening Mr. Yankee Fan. Today we are confronted with a situation that would be difficult enough in itself, but its level of impossibility is maximized by a combination of mitigating factors. Your mission is to extend the six-game Yankee winning streak, and to keep the current home streak undefeated. The starting pitcher in this quest is this man, rookie lefthander Sean Henn. He will not be hit hard, but he will totally lose the plate in the second inning, seem to right himself briefly, only to lose it all over again. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 19, 2005 — The Yankees received another great start from Mike Mussina on an at-one-time gorgeous, then drifting-to-overcast Sunday afternoon in the Bronx. The crafty righty proved that he was a master as he dominated the gritty Cubs to the tune of just two runs over 6.3 in the Yankees’ 6-3 win, even though it was clear early that he did not have the control for which he is well known. But he mixed speeds well, and was effective with several pitches, although uncharacteristically inexact on his location with all of them. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 18, 2005 — The long-running Off-Broadway New York hit that survived the longest is the musical The Fantastiks, with a run of more than twenty years, but many blocks further from the Great White Way, a star who has been playing to rave reviews for almost 10 years brought 55,000 roaring fans to their feet in Saturday’s sixth inning in Yankee Stadium. Yankee shortstop and Captain Derek Jeter broke a 136-at-bat bases-loaded drought and and smashed his first career grand slam over the deep center field fence. He followed with a singleton shot to right to cap the 8-1 Yankee win, and a 2-0 lead in games over the visiting Chicago Cubs. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 16, 2005 — As one who confesses to being devoted to all things Yankee, I had a surprisingly negative reaction to a silly movie called “The Scout” that I saw a decade or so ago. Containing scenes filmed entirely in the House That Ruth Built, it tried to get the audience involved in a pitching prospect so dominant that he actually strikes out 27 opposing batters (for the Yankees in the Stadium!) in the minimum amount of 81 pitches. After seeing Randy Johnson operate on the Pirates Thursday night, perhaps I should give the film another chance. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 14, 2005 — Anyone entering a time warp almost 45 years ago who emerged during the Yankees/Pirates game in the Bronx Tuesday night would have felt right at home, as the 9-0 Bombers victory would have fit right in with the three drubbings New York handed Pittsburgh in the 1960 World Series (won by the Pirates in the other four games). After Bengals starter Kip Wells retired the first three Yanks in the first, they would not be set down in order again, they hit a home run, they scored in five different innings, and they notched at least one hit in every other frame. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 7, 2005 — I may be one of your luckier Yankee fans because I got to see some West Coast baseball last week. But if you’re thinking my good fortune derives from having missed the drudgery that has been Yankee baseball of late, take your your pain and frame it in the hometown radio feed from K.C. and Minnesota via XM radio and you’ll see that I dodged no such bullet. And although the 1970s’s It Never Rains in Southern California promise held true, there was more cloud than sun on the left coast while I was there, even if the hotel pool and hot spa were enjoyable nonetheless. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 27, 2005 — Boston knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who was performing as expected in totally flummoxing the Yankee lineup in the opening game of three in Yankee Stadium Friday night, reacted angrily to first-base ump Hunter Wendelstedt as Derek Jeter and he nearly collided during an attempted 3-6-1 on a force out off the Yankee shortstop’s grounder in the third inning. The frustration was surprising as the Boston righthander was breezing through the Yankee lineup until Boston grabbed a mid-game lead, but if controlling the Yankee bats was coming easy, directing his pitches wasn’t, and the difficulty worsened as the innings passed. Continue reading →