Dunedin, FL, March 4 — Anyone who has heard the complaint some Spring Training venues have levelled at the Yankees in the past, that they do not send representative teams on the road, would have been silenced just looking at the starting 10 penciled in to play the Blue Jays in Dunedin Tuesday afternoon: Hughes on the mound, with Damon, Jeter, Abreu, Rodriguez, Giambi, Posada, Duncan, and Cabrera. If that wasn’t enough, the sight of Yogi Berra telling Billy Connors that they had seen a no-hitter as they walked out after the rain-interrupted game was called should have done the trick.
The Yanks brought their “A” team, no doubt, with impressive results, particularly on the pitching side. Philip Hughes was dominant in retiring David Eckstein, Scott Rolen, and Reed Johnson on nine pitches in the bottom of the first. Once the Yanks gave him a 1-0 lead on a Shelley Duncan double and Melky Cabrera single leading off the second, “Phil Franchise” threw one pitch in the second before the steady rain kicked it up a notch, and suddenly morphed into a blustery storm, forcing the park staff to cover the field. Phil finished his work on an indoor mound, and Scott Patterson pitched to and retired three straight to end the second once the almost-one-hour delay had ended. It was just as well that Manager Joe Girardi took advantage of the break to free all his starters except Duncan from further work on the day, because Toronto would not only fail to even the score. Yankee pitching retired all 15 Blue Jays batters before the home plate ump called the game two batters into the sixth inning.
The Yanks scored two runs on seven hits, with two of those coming in the never-to-be-completed sixth inning. Just five of nine starters reached safely, so the game unquestionably was their 2008 offensive low point so far, not that there was any reason to notice. Melky had his fifth hit and third rbi (along with two runs scored) so far in a start very unlike the one he struggled to in 2007. Duncan played right field flawlessly, had two hits, an rbi, and a run scored. A look at Shelley’s numbers provide the very definition of a torrid beginning: six hits, three runs scored, and a team-leading eight rbi’s. In this special player’s case, that tells just half the story. A Yankee employee walking by during the delay with a pair of cleats let it slip that they were Shelley’s and that they were size 14. It was painfully clear that his heart is every bit as big as his feet when the game was about to resume. Signing autographs for kids down the third base line, he struggled with conflicting impulses to tear himself away. The clubs literally had to wait for Shelley to bound back out to right field.
As fine a game as Duncan played, however, two Yankee hurlers unquestionably had the best day. It seemed painful business as usual when Kei Igawa started the bottom of the third by immediately falling behind Russ Adams 3-0. But the groans turned to cheers when Kei threw his next 10 pitches for strikes. Adams went down swinging and a grounder and line out to center closed the frame. Then Igawa threw seven of nine pitches for strikes in the fourth, starting with a grounder and a fly out, then finishing with a flare by retiring Adam Lind swinging.
But with the weather continuing to worsen, the clueless among us in the crowd watched the skies and the scoreboard wondering if the Yanks would be able to get five full innings in to make this exhibition officially a complete game. Don’t waste your breath telling me that the results of these games mean nothing. For the Yankees, their opponents, and each individual player, you would be undeniably correct. But it is training time for the fans too, and fans measure progress in games won and lost. In the decade that began in March 1999 and ends this March, we’ve attended rougly a week each year, with our record going into this season 27-25-1. A good first week had us at 30-25-2, and we were anxious to add to it.
Southpaw Billy Traber came on for the fifth inning, with the Yanks’ (unofficial, of course) Perfect Game and our 31st win on the line. Morgan Ensberg, in for Jason Giambi at first, had doubled to lead off the top of the fourth, Jose Molina moved him to third with a roller to second, and Duncan singled in the run to double the New York lead to 2-0. Traber is battling several, Igawa among them, for the lefty-in-the-pen roll, and he faced three straight portsiders now. It took Billy 14 pitches, nine of them strikes, to whiff all three, the last two taking. It becomes even more impressive when combined with the strike out with which Igawa closed the fourth: four in a row to put a toppper on the team’s abbreviated claim at unofficial perfection.
It was an undeniably ugly day, for fans and players alike. But a game like this gives the paying customer some special opportunities they would not otherwise have. A far higher percentage of the kids who hung out through this one received autographs, some by today’s stars, and some by guys with less recognizable names — for now. I was able to tell Alberto Gonzalez while he was warming up that the Kissimmee official scorer on Monday had erred big time in charging him with an error on a bad bounce on which he made a spectacular grab, just because a throw most shortstops would never have had the opportunity to make sailed a bit. The nod and big smile were worth the price of admission, as was the nod Yogi gave me when I yelled to him how much I appreciated his baseball museum. And now I know that Shelley wears size 14 shoes! Heady stuff, that.
On the other hand, of course, the Yanks established this presence in Florida so they would have a place to hone their craft in decent weather. It is something teams have been endeavoring to do since the game began. In fact, it was on March 4, 1913, that the newly named team (“Highlanders” until then) became the first to train outside the U.S., when they practiced in Bermuda.
And now, let it be known that it was on March 4, 2008, that I and 5,509 other fans saw the Yanks throw a “Perfect Game.”
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!