Bronx, N.Y., August 22, 2010 — Yankee fans and baseball enthusiasts looking to bask in the glow of Sunday’s 10-0 destruction of the Seattle Mariners in Yankee Stadium might be disappointed reading this report. As one of the Pinstriped persuasion who feels brought low by losses both big and small, and who agonizes over every pitch in a close game, I love a good old blowout as much as anyone. But if you’re looking at the Sunday contest through 10-0 glasses, you’re missing much of what transpired in the Yankee palace. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 21, 2010 — I felt the years melt away watching the Yanks bat against the Mariners down 2-0 in the first inning in Yankee Stadium Saturday afternoon. Derek Jeter’s bouncer up the middle deflected off southpaw Jason Vargas’s glove for an infield single and Nick Swisher flied deep to left. Mark Teixeira took a strike then fouled one off, falling behind quickly 0-2. Tex got a tiny piece of the next pitch, but didn’t miss by much, flicking it straight back. He lashed the next throw into the left field corner, to put two runners into scoring position. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 19, 2010 — In a game where the word “remarkable” could be used to describe both the Yankees’ nine-run sixth inning and a play Mark Teixeira made on Johnny Damon in foul territory down the first base line in the fourth, the pitching got off to a “remarkable” start as well. Cumulatively, of the first 10 batters in this game, eight faced an 0-2 count. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 17, 2010 — If you agree that during Tuesday night’s pivotal game in Yankee Stadium, CC Sabathia’s in-game stats over seven innings of nine strike outs, 114 pitches, and an era and of 2.86 were good, consider this: The era for the last 113 pitches was 1.43. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 6, 2010 — On a night where Derek Jeter not only passed Babe Ruth in his hits total, but drove in three key runs as well, two relative newcomers largely carried the Yanks to a 7-2 victory over the Red Sox in Yankee Stadium. First, emergency starter Dustin Moseley proved he could more than pitch with Boston ace Josh Beckett. Then Yankee-for-a-week Lance Berkman showed a little of the bat speed the Yanks hoped they were getting when they acquired him from Houston. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 7, 2010 — The altered hours baseball games are played in the name of national TV contribute some strange effects to the experience, something Yankees and Red Sox fans will know only too well when their four-game wraparound series in Yankee Stadium concludes with a rare 2 pm start Monday afternoon. Locals will find out how well mass transit handles thousands of bodies once Sunday night’s 8 pm tilt concludes at an hour when most weekend revelers have been home for hours, and in bed for some time as well. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 6, 2010 — “Kiss of Death,” I guess you could call it. But it was so hard to resist, just such a cool stat. The Yankee Stadium Scoreboard has been coming out with them repeatedly, like when they informed us in the bottom of the first when Derek Jeter singled past short that he had tied Babe Ruth for career base hits. No possible harm in that, I guess, unless he happens to never get a hit again (perish the thought — literally not possible). But even given that improbable scenario, how could we not celebrate yet another Captain milestone? Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 4, 2010 — It was a big day in the Bronx, as the Alex Rodriguez 600 home run watch came to a dramatic end, and the Yankees snapped a three-game losing streak with a 5-1 win over the Blue Jays. The Bombers rode A-Rod’s big blast to a tie both for the best record in baseball and first place in the AL East, with the latter being clearly the more coveted and difficult prize to attain. Probably more weird than the fact that the 600th home run came three years to the day after Alex’s 500th, the Yankees managed to finally win a game in which they took a lead with a two-run home run in the first inning, after failing to do so the last two days. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., August 2, 2010 — August 2 is a poignant day in Yankee history, but sadly, it a bumbling day too. Returning from their road trip at 4-3, the Yanks spent much of Monday evening commemorating the tragic passing of Thurman Munson 31 years ago. They had a lesser team, perhaps, then, but they responded to tragedy by playing well. No such luck this night. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., July 25, 2010 — For the third time in a just-concluded nine-game homestand in which the Yanks came out victorious six times, their win in Sunday’s game by a lopsided score was anything but a blowout until the latter innings. In a twist, a majority of the almost 48,000 in attendance attracted to the Bronx on a steamy afternoon in hopes of seeing Alex Rodriguez’s 600th career home run witnessed the game’s essence: a 5-3 Yankee win before the rains came. I’ll leave it to others to judge if the three quarters or so who didn’t wait out the 2.5-hour rain delay are lesser fans than those who stayed, or just less determined to witness baseball history. But this was a tougher and closer game than the 12-6 final over Kansas City would leave you to believe. Continue reading →