Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 29 — It was a truly wonderful night for a ballgame. And it was a great ballgame, from a Yankee fan standpoint, for exactly eight pitches. Then Roger’s ninth pitch was a fastball that Boone caught up with and deposited in the visiting bullpen — no, not in the screen that protects the walkway to Monument Park in front of the visitors’ bullpen, but into the bullpen beyond itself. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 28 — It would be easy to be lulled into thinking that the current Yankee juggernaut is just going to go through the motions for the next five months, and then kick it into gear in time for the playoffs. Despite a sloppy get-out-of-Texas loss yesterday, the Yanks had their second great road trip of the season, winning eight out of 10 from the two teams that played in last year’s ALCS and the team that has on its roster perhaps the major league’s best player. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 22, 2003 — I’ll never forget it. It was about 7:18 pm, March 31, 2003. We had both heard rumors of a new breakthrough on the way home, and then my partner’s father had called and asked how I felt about the new Cablevision/YES deal. Thankfully, we were eager to embrace the new era after being blacked out all last year, and we knew what station they had planned to use for YES once the first — failed — agreement had been announced. The sacred radio (with the sealed package of backup AAA batteries attached) from last year was tuned into WCBS, and channel 89 was on the TV, the mute button concealing the annoying buzz that accompanied the test pattern of a picture we saw, as Alfonso grounded Roy Halladay’s first pitch in the 2003 season to short. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 18, 2003 — Ken Singleton used a reference he cites often as Jason Giambi strode to the plate in the eighth inning. “There’s always one guy who doesn’t get invited to the party,” he joked to CBS TV boothmates Michael Kay and Jim Kaat. He was referring to the fact that Jason was the only Yankee position player to be hitless during the evening’s Yankee barrage, a fact that would remain true even when rarely used Chris Latham took over for Bernie in the seventh. Even he beat out an infield hit in the ninth. But I had been looking on the whole night as a party anyway, what I like to consider a birthday party, rightfully celebrated by Yankees and their fans, one and all. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 14, 2003 — Julie Christie, one of my favorite actresses, turned 62 today, and I swear I heard strains of “Somewhere My Love” (the theme song from David Lean’s epic film Doctor Zhivago) drifting toward the left field bleachers in the eighth inning after Juan Acevedo, our fifth (we used six) pitcher of the evening, hit Josh Phelps with his first pitch in the eighth. As a matter of fact everything was drifting toward left field in a stiff breeze on this night, except the almost full moon and the three Yankee homers. Even though one of the three did clear the left field fence, none of those shots was affected by the wind anymore than that moon was. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 13, 2003 — It must have happened sometime early in the third inning. The day was gorgeous and, if not warm, it was as close an approximation of it as I’ve experienced for a while. And it was fun greeting and glad-handing all the usual suspects from Sundays in Box 603, up and right behind home plate. True, we had seen some a short five days earlier for the Opener, but no one looked themselves bundled in all those layers on that frigid afternoon. This fact was born out strongly by the Newsday clipping Tony and Sheila brought with them, a strip featuring a big spread color photo of the 603 gang in their seats from that game, where Sue looks frozen and lost and the only argument that can be made that I am not asleep is that I am holding my pencil and appear to be writing in my program. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 12, 2003 — The Yankees and Devil Rays apparently felt that fans today deserved a special treat. I know I agreed with them, after paying the roundtrip train and subway fares last night only to be sent on my way by Mr. Sheppard’s announcement. And the game they played for us this afternoon was very entertaining, although not a perfect one, as there were five errors committed. The young studs Jeff Weaver and Joe Kennedy both pitched well, even if fate and the pen conspired to deny Jeff what should have been his first victory of 2003. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 10, 2003 — It was a nail-bitingly close game (though you would have risked forming icy tips on your fingers by engaging in such a practice) played by a team that seems to know how to bludgeon the opposition, but not necessarily how to just outscore them. Although it was a frigid night in the Bronx and a wet one, the light mist and drizzle that had threatened to make the evening unliveable subsided early, and as the evening cooled at an alarming pace, the air became drier too. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 8, 2003 — “Tell it like it is!” “If you want a job done right, do it yourself.” Time is money.” And the one particularly germaine to this column, “Keep your eye on the ball.” These are just a few of the cliches and platitudes that resonate here and you know that those who coined them were attempting to describe our American way of life. Hideki Matsui would be wise to study them if he wants to succeed here in this foreign country in which he has decided to ply his trade. Continue reading →