Bronx, N.Y., May 26, 2005 — Yankee fans and all of baseball are surprised at his resurgence, I’m sure, but Kevin Brown evened his record at 4-4 in Thursday night’s 4-3 Yankee win, and the aging righty with the balky back turned in another quality start. He allowed the Tigers three runs on 10 hits over seven innings, but he didn’t walk anyone and he struck out four. Continue reading
So How Cold WAS It?
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? Continue reading
Ministry of Silly Baseball
Bronx, N.Y., May 11, 2005 — On April 29, the Yanks lost a game to the Blue Jays in Yankee Stadium in two hours and eight minutes. Two hours into today’s getaway afternoon tilt with the Mariners, the teams were tied at 9 runs apiece through just four innings. The Yankees leave town after the 13-9 win in a much-needed and impressive five-game winning streak, but Joe Torre won’t be using this one next time he wants to illustrate the way the game is supposed to be played. Continue reading
A Rey of Offense
Bronx, N.Y., May 9, 2005 — Although I’m as enamored of Tino Martinez as any Yankee fan, he surprised me with a new facet to his game Monday night. With the exception of one ugly moment Friday, he has been supplying stellar defense at first base for the Yankees all season. And he has been swinging a hot bat of late that has Manager Joe Torre moving him up from the eighth to the sixth spot in the batting order. He comes to the ballpark every day ready to play, but what I didn’t know is that he has a sense of history too. One day after grabbing the major league lead among active players in Mothers Day home runs, he punctuated that achievement by blasting yet another exactly 91 years after President Wilson first proclaimed the honor to moms everywhere. Continue reading
Sweetheart of a Game
Bronx, N.Y., May 8, 2005 — The initial weather report for Sunday in the Bronx called for the voluminous Saturday rains to taper off, with the day becoming a nice one around the time the opposing managers would be going to their bullpens. But Saturday had dawned with iffy skies, and while the day drifted toward the charming, Mike Mussina brought Yankee fans back from the brink with a masterful shutout win. OK. The skies were inclined to cut us a break. How about the Yankees? Moose gave the team a boost. Could enigma Kevin Brown follow it up? Continue reading
Impressive Numbers
Bronx, N.Y., April 29, 2005 — Just when the Yankee offense is stumbling around and in need of a positive outing, the expected pitching duel between Randy Johnson and Roy Halladay fully materialized in Yankee Stadium last night. The Jays were rolling after a sweep of Tampa at home, while the Yankees had scratched just one run in each game of back-to-back losses to Anaheim (sorry, that’s what I’m calling them) after a win behind Alex Rodriguez’s three-home run outburst. In both of the losses, the home-standing Bombers ran themselves out of an early score, and the offense fizzled. Continue reading
Who’s on First?
Bronx, N.Y., April 24, 2005 — The skies Sunday in the Bronx approximated the condition of the team. The sun shone brightly for part of the afternoon, and the Yankees cranked out an impressive 11-1 win over Texas. But overall the weather was cool with big clouds thrown in, and hometown innings of four, three, and three runs could not cancel out the pitching and hitting failings of the prior two days, or the unsettled state of the Yankee starting rotation. Continue reading
Imitating the Immortals
Bronx, N.Y., April 18, 2005 — The Yankees crawled back into New York for a Monday game against the Devil Rays, traveling north from a ballpark that has been a second home. But this most recent trip to Camden Yards resulted in three painful losses in what had become a four-game skid. Their owner had grumbled angrily in public, fans who had booed a sure Hall of Famer in the season’s third game were furious at the 4-8 record, and even Manager Joe Torre sounded embarrassed when discussing the quality of his team’s play. Continue reading
The Fundamental Things
Bronx, N.Y., April 5, 2005 — “Turn the page” was the slogan we were repeating among ourselves in the Tier behind home plate Sunday, and with the Unit’s successful debut that’s exactly what the Yankees did. Gazing slant-eyed into the gleaming sky at 12:30 Tuesday afternoon, however, the overwhelming impression one got was that this was the real Opening Day. While it’s true that New York fans were delighted when Randy Johnson beat the Sox Sunday night 9-2 in the season’s first game, you would have been hard pressed to find anyone who agreed that that felt like an opener in the cold and dark of the Bronx night. Continue reading
We’ll Always Have Tampa
Tampa, FL., March 31 — We witnessed the alpha and the omega, the yin and the yang, the long and the short of spring baseball, on this our last day under the hot Florida sky. After surviving a three-hours-plus, nine-inning tie in Clearwater under an 89-degree sun with high humidity, we weren’t sure what to expect when we arrived in Legends Field this evening for the second half of a two-city doubleheader. In the early game, the Blue Jays and the Phillies had battered each other and 10 pitchers for 18 runs, six home runs, and 24 hits. Not only were we getting weary, we had dulled the points on all of our pencils.