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Angel in the
Outfield
Email:
Dan
McCourt
Website: Take Him
Downtown
FANS
BEGAN STARING at the skies
long before Mike Mussina's 1:08
pm first pitch on April 11 in
Yankee Stadium. Although by the
manner of their dress it was
obvious that it was the weather
that was their concern, it wasn't
a bad place to be looking for the
game highlights either. Mussina,
roughed up in two 2004 losing
starts by the supposedly
light-hitting Tampa Devil Rays,
was facing a bunch of bangers
from the south side of Chicago,
and Mike had a score to
settle.
Moose had his
200th regular season win in his
grasp last September 24 in the
Windy City, riding to a 3-0 lead
on Jason Giambi and Bernie
Williams third-inning home runs.
He had held a Chisox team whose
season had headed south in the
preceding several weeks to two
hits on 73 pitches through five
innings when suddenly the roof
caved in. Carlos Lee, Frank
Thomas, and Magglio Ordonez
singled, doubled, singled on
Mike's first six offerings in the
sixth, and two batters and
another double later, Jose
Valentin blasted a three-run jack
to right.
It would be a
fabulous story if I could tell
you that Mike came back and blew
all those White Sox players away
in today's Easter Sunday contest
in the Bronx. But on second
thought, it's really a much
better story the way it actually
unfolded. Mike did get the win,
but he needed help. And where the
boost (make that "boosts") came
from is the best part of the
story.
Things started
well, as Mussina dispatched
second baseman Willie Harris on
three pitches for his first of
six strike outs on the day. But
when he delivered his 2-1 pitch
to old (non)friend Jose Valentin,
things took a turn. Mike managed
to knock down a hard hopper right
back at him, but Valentin reached
on as clear an infield single as
you're about to see, even if the
official scorer saw it as an
error on the pitcher. Ordonez,
with home runs the last two games
in the Bronx, singled sharply on
the following pitch, and next
Moose followed a disturbing
pattern he had showed in the
losses to the Devil Rays, fooling
Frank Thomas four times, but not
putting him away. Thomas singled
softly up the middle on the fifth
throw, plating Valentin, and then
Carlos Lee tripled off the right
field wall. Joe Crede's first of
two double-play grounders to
Yankee second sacker Enrique
Wilson following a walk to
Konerko ended the inning, but the
damage was done and the Yanks
were in a 3-0 hole.
It
was clear that Mussina was still
in this game, but if he wasn't
the pitcher who allowed the Sox
eight tallies in the sixth last
year, he wasn't the guy who
blanked them through five either.
With nobody on
the team hitting, that was reason
for concern in itself. The Yanks
barely managed to answer with a
tally at all when they got a gift
as Valentin booted Jeter's
leadoff grounder. Sheffield came
through with a sharp run-scoring
single to right after Williams
popped to second (the first of
two, and a dp grounder),
Rodriguez grounded to short and
Giambi walked. The Yanks failed
to penetrate the infield off
Chicago righty Dan Wright in the
second, and stranded Jeter after
a leadoff double to the
left-center gap in the third.
Mussina,
meanwhile, battled to regain his
equilibrium, striking out Rowand
to start the second and retiring
Olivo on his own eye-popping dive
after the young catcher tried to
bunt his way on. He pitched
around Harris's two-out double,
but appeared to be in huge
trouble when Ordonez began the
third by blasting a 1-2 liner to
the wall in right center. But
young centerfielder Bubba Crosby,
perhaps having earned the spot
start after homering in his first
2004 at bat Friday night, wheeled
and sprinted toward the wall on
what appeared to be an impossible
mission. Stretching full out, he
caught up with the tracer on the
track, hauled it in, and somehow
held it as he caromed hard off
the center field wall. It was
clear that Mussina was still in
this game, but if he wasn't the
pitcher who allowed the Sox eight
tallies in the sixth last year,
he wasn't the guy who blanked
them through five either. Back to
back bouncers to third got him
through that frame.
Seeing how
comatose the Yankee sticks have
been in this series, perhaps
Wright let up a little, as he
walked Sheffield and Posada
around a Matsui liner (he hit the
ball hard three tines this day,
with nothing to show for it) to
right. The Chisox righty
continued down a dangerous path
as he fell behind lefty swinger
Crosby, 2-0, and followed with a
low off-speed pitch. Bubba did
not allow his chance to pass,
flicking the bat quickly and
lifting the ball in a high
trajectory that ended when it
smacked against the facade of the
upper deck in right. The Yanks
had their third hit of the day,
and a 4-3 lead.
Moose had pitched
around a leadoff single and walk
in the top half of the fourth,
getting through the Sox order
twice on 68 tosses, but he would
need one more frame to qualify
for elusive win no. 200. But he
fell behind Valentin, 2-0,
leading off the fifth, and the
shortstop made him pay, lining a
game-tying homer over Sheffield
in right. Mike managed to whiff
bangers Ordonez and Lee, but in
between them Thomas drove one to
almost dead center. Again Crosby
sprinted back for all he was
worth, and this time when the
ball came down he was
waiting.
But
that is not all that happened in
the Bronx today. I am not alone,
I know, in the opinion that some
of the most entertaining baseball
movies ever made were some zany
screwball comedies made over 50
years ago.
It seemed the
Yanks would waste yet another
gift from Wright, as he retired
Rodriguez and Giambi after
hitting Bernie Williams with a
pitch leading off the home fifth,
but Bernie advanced to second on
Jason's bouncer into the teeth of
the overshift, and Sheffield
doubled hard to left center to
deliver the go-ahead run. Young
Chicago centerfielder Aaron
Rowand corraled Shef's blast
shortly before the wall, by the
way, just as he had Jeter's
third-inning double, both of them
excellent plays.
Mussina had a
lead, and Joe gave him the ball
for the sixth. Torre figures, I
suspect, that the Yankees'
chances dwindle without a strong
confident Moose anyway, and
showed that he had faith in him.
And despite a leadoff safety to
Konerko up the middle, Mike
coaxed a double play and struck
out Rowand. He whiffed young
Olivo leading off the seventh,
and Torre signaled for Gabe White
to face the two lefties at the
top of the order. It seemed the
Sox didn't notice. After Giambi
erased Harris on an attempted
drag bunt, Valentin drove a 1-2
pitch over a lunging Sheffield
attempt in right and made it all
the way to third as Shef went
down, even though Mr. Everywhere
Crosby ran all the way to right
to throw the ball in. Tom Gordon
relieved, again to no visible
effect on the White Sox swings.
Ordonez followed with yet another
long liner to right center, but
Bubba tracked it down despite
initially looking left and having
to circle back to his right to
grab the ball.
Jeter singled to
lead off the seventh, but was
erased on Bernie's 6-4-3 grounder
before Rodriguez lined a double
into the left-field corner. The
fans welcomed the sight of a few
hard-hit balls anyway. Gordon
retired the side in order in the
eighth, even though Thomas
stubbornly lined hard to center
yet again, and the fans went wild
as Mariano Rivera came out for
the save.
It was a pretty
good crowd when one considers
that on the one hand it was
Easter Sunday, and on the other
the prediction of all-day cold
rain had failed to appear. There
were groans aplenty in the first
frame, but the fans came back
strong once Bubba Crosby started
giving them something to cheer
about. One fan hung K's for Moose
off the Tier facade in section 11
down the right side, and a guy in
first row on the opposite side
provided a bit of comic relief on
a tense day, blocking Crosby's
0-2 foul back over the rail with
his body but managing to scoop it
with his hand before it fell to
the more expensive box seats
below.
And one more
note. The retired Yankee
organist, Eddie Layton, made his
fame while never missing a Yankee
home game in 37 years on the job.
If you haven't been in the
Stadium lately, be advised that
while the organ plays in the
background, fans and friends can
turn and greet one another,
sharing pleasantries and talking,
literally, about anything under
the sun. It is almost impossible
to do this when the canned music
is blasted through the huge
Stadium speakers. So it was with
a sigh of relief that we were
advised on Opening Day that the
organ music would continue with a
new guy by the name of Paul
Cartier. Perhaps the plan is to
mix it up, but before today's
game we were entertained by the
stylings of a new artist, named
Ed Alstrom. He provided a perhaps
mellower sound, but a pleasant
enough background for laughs and
conservation.
After having
fallen behind three runs early,
taking and then losing a lead,
and hanging on to another one-run
advantage through three tense,
taut innings, the crowd was ready
for a three-up/three-down Rivera
save. But it wasn't to be.
Mariano hit Joe Crede with his
second pitch, and allowed a
one-out single to pinch-hitter
Russ Gload after whiffing Timo
Perez, who hit for center fielder
Rowand. And although Mo came back
strong to strike Harris out on
four pitches, no one was eager to
see Valentin stride to the plate
with a bat in his hands. Had his
hopper off Moose in the first
been correctly scored a single,
he would be a double away from
hitting for the cycle. But Rivera
coaxed a weak grounder to second
on five pitches, the Yanks evened
their record at 4-4, and Moose
slayed his 200-win demon.
But that is not
all that happened in the Bronx
today. I am not alone, I know, in
the opinion that some of the most
entertaining baseball movies ever
made were some zany screwball
comedies made over 50 years ago.
Paul Douglas, who would have been
97 years old today, was a
featured player in the 1949 Ray
Milland classic It Happens Every
Spring,
and starred in a baseball flick
of his own two years later. Bubba
Crosby, the young phenom who
carried the Yankees to victory
this day, was one of the
inspirations behind a game report
I submitted from Tampa just over
one month ago. Down there, as
today, he could have been a
costar in Douglas's flick, the
original Angels in the
Outfield.
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