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Music and
Passion
Email:
Dan
McCourt
Website: Take Him
Downtown - Check out the
latest View From Box 622
I
FELT LIKE a school kid
hoping for snow when my eyes
opened Sunday morning, May 16,
except that Junior would be
pleading for precipitation, while
I was hoping for exactly the
opposite. And on this day in the
Bronx, I hit the mother lode!
After a sweltering week of
80-degree highs, long wet spells,
and booming thunderstorms, the
Saturday evening weatherman had
hedged his bets, calling for
"partly cloudy with periods of
showers." The Yankee Stadium sky
proved him oh so wrong.
A full house in
the Stadium saw the Yankees
squeak by the Seattle Mariners
2-1 in a classic pitcher's duel
in a rubber match, closing this
bizarre three-gamer with a
thrilling afternoon of baseball
on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon.
One had to feel for the
outfielders desperately scanning
the skies for errant fly balls,
as even my scorecard became
unreadable from time to time
under the shimmering, almost
cloudless sky.
And Mariner Joel
Pineiro and Yankee Kevin Brown
felt it too, both displaying
their "A" game in front of
50,000-plus. Despite a scratch
single by Ichiro Suzuki off
Miguel Cairo's glove to lead off
the game, Brown set down the
first six Mariners on 23 tosses,
while Pineiro came out smoking,
whiffing five in the first two
frames around a leadoff walk to
Gary Sheffield in the second.
Brown survived a leadoff Rich
Aurilia single over Derek Jeter
in the third when he popped
Spiezio up to short despite the
swinging bunt that Suzuki had
legged out with two down.
I was sure it was
fair right away, but I was alone
in that until 50,000 joined me in
a loud cheer once John's majestic
fly struck high off the screen
attached to the left field foul
pole.
You would have to
forgive backup catcher John
Flaherty if he was feeling a
little frustrated when that
Suzuki hopper rolled to a stop
and he had no play. Unable to get
untracked at the bat since he
took over for the injured Jorge
Posada the Wednesday before, he
had allowed a passed ball Friday
night, had not been throwing well
to second, and when he finally
smacked a leadoff double in the
bottom of the ninth in Saturday's
game, his teammates had been
unable to deliver him with the
game-winner.
The .129 batting
average flashed on the board as
he strode to the plate to lead
off the home third might have fit
right in with this team as it
struggled through mid-April, but
it stood out this day as the
Yankees (for the most part)
appeared to be finding their
collective swings. With five of
six outs recorded on strikeouts,
fans would be forgiven for
fearing a repeat as Flaherty
swung and missed badly on
Pineiro's first offering. He
fouled off another pitch on his
hands, but the young Seattle
righty appeared to try to hit him
in the same spot after falling to
a full count, and "Flash" went
into action, catching the high
pitch just in front of the plate.
I was sure it was fair right
away, but I was alone in that
until 50,000 joined me in a loud
cheer once John's majestic fly
struck high off the screen
attached to the left field foul
pole. 1-0 Yanks.
Cairo followed
that blast with a single up the
middle off a possibly shaken
Pineiro, but the Yanks could not
capitalize, as Lofton popped to
short and Derek Jeter bounced
into a 6-4-3 on a 1-0 pitch.
Derek had lifted one foul down
toward the right field corner
before taking Joel's fifth pitch
of his first-inning at bat for a
called strike three, but he made
his next three outs on four
thrown balls, following the dp
with a fly to center and a
bouncer to short. Early in the
season, a few of his patented
liners to right had been caught
for outs, and he has not been
able to stroke the ball that way
since. It was great seeing Jeets
snap his dreadful early-season
schneid on a first-pitch homer to
left center off Barry Zito back
on April 29, and he singled to
right off KC's Brian Anderson the
very next day. It is this fan's
humble opinion that until he
finds that outside stroke again
he will continue to
struggle.
Although John
Flaherty deserves no end of
credit for his third-inning blast
off a guy who was dealing, there
is no question that the Yankee
star of this tilt was Kevin
Brown, and he proved that when
things got tough. Edgar Martinez
had hurt the Yanks in Seattle, as
he always does, and he was walked
three times Saturday after
stroking two hits Friday. But
Brown handled him easily on two
grounders and two K's, and he got
Martinez on a 4-3 on the first
pitch of the visiting fourth.
Twenty-five pitches later, he
walked off the mound with his 1-0
lead intact after coaxing a pop
up and a weak bouncer to third
once Seattle had loaded the sacks
on two singles and a walk. As
they used to say in football, he
bent, but he didn't break.
That was Kevin's
only walk, he threw 17 of 31
first pitches for strikes, and
his 75/37, strikes/balls ratio
was just what you'd want. He
coaxed three pop ups to go with
nine ground-ball outs, really
more his game I think than the
five K's he managed, all
swinging. The Mariners swung and
hit the ball 40 times, but only
eight for hits, and just one that
hurt, which was Spiezio's one-out
homer to right in the eighth
(although Ibanez backed Sheffield
to the wall to catch his drive to
the same spot in the second).
Once the Yanks grabbed the lead,
Brown didn't waste a swinging
strike, getting three third
strikes on the five he buzzed
past Seattle batters over his
last five frames.
The ceremonial
first pitch of this game was
tossed out by Japanese Ambassador
to the United States Ryozo Kato
after the National Anthem chores
were deftly handled by the New
York Men's Choir, a darksuit-clad
band of Japanese businessmen.
With both Hideki Matsui and
Ichiro Suzuki in the starting
lineups, we couldn't help but
wonder for which team most of the
choir members were rooting. And
although Suzuki notched two
singles on the day while Matsui
went hitless (the Yanks managed
but five safeties on the day),
Hideki's six-pitch walk did move
Bernie Williams, who had singled
with two down in the fourth, into
scoring position.
Yankee Stadium is
just overflowing with history,
and on any given day fans can
celebrate another great
moment.
Tony Clark,
subbing for the ailing Jason
Giambi yet again, strode to the
plate and did what he did in a
similar situation Friday night,
he singled in the winning run.
Some in the stands were
disappointed that the solid and
savvy Matsui rounded second and
headed for third on Clark's
single to left, but there was a
good chance that Williams would
have been out trying to score the
deciding run at the plate had
Aurilia not cut the throw and
nailed Hideki at third.
And that was the
game. The Yanks put together an
A-Rod single and steal of second
with a Sheffield walk in the
sixth, but Randy Winn choked off
that final Yankee chance on a
fine running catch of Bernie
Williams's liner to center.
Brown, meanwhile, retired 10 of
11 from the fifth into the
eighth, retiring 41-year-old
backup catcher Pat Borders and
center fielder Winn after
Aurilia's one-out double in the
seventh, just as he had when
backed against the wall with the
sacks full in the fourth.
Kevin's day ended
on a two-out Ibanez single to
left in the eighth, and the
reliable Tom Gordon whiffed
Cabrera taking on a borderline
outside pitch. No one left this
2-1 affair as Olerud reached
Mariano Rivera for a single past
Cairo on the first toss of the
ninth. Aurilia sacrificed, and
Hansen, pinch-hitting for
Borders, bounced to first, Clark
to Rivera, moving the tying run a
mere 90 feet away. Randy Winn
knuckled a grounder to Jeter on
the next pitch, but Derek
corralled the bounce and pegged
him out.
Yankee Stadium is
just overflowing with history,
and on any given day fans can
celebrate another great moment.
On May 16, 1951, Mickey Mantle
blasted the first home run he
ever hit in the House that Ruth
Built in an 11-3 thrashing of the
Indians, although he had cleared
a fence or two on the road
before. He homered in the 3-0
shutout win over the A's on this
day in 1957 too, and then he and
several of the "usual suspects"
feted the birthdaying Billy
Martin at New York's Copacabana
night club. It was an infamous
episode in the city that is
baseball's biggest stage, and
taunting fans, drinking
ballplayers, an overturned table
and a black eye or two later, and
the night club retained its rep
as,
The
hottest spot north of
Havana
Music and Passion
were always the
fashion
at
the Copa-,
Copa-cabana.
As Mo raised his
arm in victory and the strains of
Frank Sinatra filled the Bronx
sky on this May 16 of 2004, I
thought that was a pertty good
description of Yankee Stadium
too.
Music and
Passion, and Winning
Baseball
YANKEE
BASEBALL!!!
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