The New York Yankees were off yesterday after sweeping the
Cleveland Indians at home over the weekend in the Bronx which gave us the
perfect opportunity to check in with the boys in Pinstripes. Who is doing the most
damage? Who can beat their chest the most like LeBron James after a
buzzer-beating one-handed floater in the NBA Playoffs after this post goes
live? And who should be worried with the impending returns of Brandon Drury and
Greg Bird off the disabled list? Keep reading to find out…
The Yankees Offense
At Bats:
Giancarlo Stanton – 132
Games:
Giancarlo Stanton &
Aaron Judge – 34 each
Hits:
Aaron Judge & Didi
Gregorius – 37 each
Doubles:
Miguel Andujar - 12
Home Runs:
Didi Gregorius - 10
RBI:
Didi Gregorius – 30
Batting Average:
Didi Gregorius - .311
The Yankees Pitching
Wins:
Luis Severino – 5
Losses:
Masahiro Tanaka &
Sonny Gray – 2 each
ERA:
Starters: CC Sabathia - 1.39 ERA
Bullpen: Aroldis Chapman - 1.80 ERA
Strikeouts:
Starters: Luis Severino –
52 K’s
Bullpen: Aroldis Chapman
– 30 K’s
Saves:
Aroldis Chapman – 7 saves
Shutouts:
Luis Severino – 1
While it is still early, and the sample sizes are still
pretty small it is easy to see who is carrying both the Yankees offense and the
pitching staff right now. Didi Gregorius has gotten off to a red-hot start
while Aaron Judge continues to be, well, Aaron Judge. Luis Severino is the ace
of the staff and Sonny Gray still hasn’t quite figured it out yeah. That’s all
well and great as long as the team keeps winning, so keep winning. Enjoy your
day and get ready to renew this rivalry tonight here in the Bronx.
There are a lot of things you can say about me but one thing
you will never be able to say about me is that I cannot admit when I am wrong.
Both in my blogging life and in my personal life I am always the one to admit
fault and take responsibility for it when I am wrong, and that is exactly what
I am going to be doing here. Why? Because a couple weeks ago I opined what the
Yankees should do when both Greg Bird and Brandon Drury return off the disabled
list. I suggested that the team should designate Neil Walker for assignment,
something I can still get behind, and I also stated that it made the most
baseball sense to send down Gleyber Torres for some additional work and
seasoning. Insert foot in mouth here please.
In the post I described how foolish it would be for the New
York Yankees to send down either Miguel Andujar or Tyler Austin when the
aforementioned duo returned from the disabled list because both had earned
their spots on the club respectively. At that point in the season Gleyber was
still freshly called up and had not yet hit the ground running, but what a
difference a week or two can make. Torres has not only found his stride at the
Major League level, but he is now beginning to show what has made him once a
top prospect in all of Major League Baseball.
Gleyber is showcasing not just an ability to defend, run the
base and hit the ball, but he is showing a true baseball knowledge at the plate
that may be well beyond his years. Gleyber is showing a maturity that no
21-year old should possess at the Major League level as well as an ability to
adjust not only at-bat by at-bat, but pitch-by-pitch. Gleyber is showing that
he no longer has anything left to prove down at the Minor League level, and he
is also proving that I was a fool for ever suggesting that he go down to make
room for either Bird or Drury.
Gleyber has proven that he is the real deal, and he has also
proven that I can be wrong every once in a while, (which I have proven more
times than I would like to admit). Gleyber is for real, and Gleyber is here to
stay. Robinson Cano who?
Good morning Yankees family and welcome back to baseball
tonight as the New York Yankees face off with the Boston Red Sox. I have to
think that the worst thing a red-hot team like the New York Yankees could do
while they are streaking is to take a day off, but with a team this deep, young
and talented the “norm” may very well be thrown out the window at this point.
Looking to keep the good times rolling for the Yankees is Luis Severino who
will toe the rubber against Drew Pomeranz for the Red Sox. Let’s get to it here
in the Bronx.
Severino heads into this start tonight with the Red Sox
fresh off the first complete game shutout of his career limiting the Houston
Astros to just five hits on Wednesday. Severino has made four starts since
seeing the Red Sox earlier this season and is sporting a 1.24 ERA with five
walks and 32 strikeouts in 29 innings of work during that span.
Pomeranz has made three starts for Boston since coming off
the disabled list and will make his fourth start since the DL trip tonight in
the Bronx. Pomeranz has a career 3-2 record inside Yankee Stadium with a 3.12
ERA, a trend that hopefully worsens tonight in the Bronx.
The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET inside Yankee Stadium
in the Bronx and can be seen on the YES Network locally, MLB Network nationally
and on NESN if you are living behind enemy lines. You can also follow along
with the game on MLB TV, with the MLB At-Bat app and by tuning into the Yankees
radio broadcast with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman on WFAN.
Enjoy the game, renew the rivalry, and go Yankees!!
Good morning everyone and welcome to a return to normalcy.
The moving is done and the unpacking, arranging and then re-arranging has
officially begun! Fun, fun, fun. I was a poet, and I didn’t even know it.
Anyway, I will stop blowing your minds with my amazing rhyming skills and I
will stick to what I know best, baseball and blogging.
The Yankees are still red hot, something that I hope also
becomes common place and normal for us fans, and they are doing it all against
the better teams of the league. There are no “they are just beating the teams
they are supposed to beat” argument here, this team is good, and this team is
for real. I am loving it.
And I love you. I love you more than I have ever loved
anyone or anything in this world. Stay you and thank you for being mine.
On this day in 2009 Alex Rodriguez made his season debut and wasted no time hitting a three run home run on the very first pitch he saw. The blast helps the Yankees beat the Orioles 4-0 and snap the Yankees five game losing streak.
Also on this day in 1961 the Yankees trade fire-baller Ryne Duren, relief pitcher Johnny James and outfielder Lee Thomas to the Angels for right hander Tex Clevenger and outfielder Bob Cerv. This would be the third time that Cerv would be a member of the Yankees. Duren would spend two seasons with the Angels and post an 8-21 record but would set an AL record for striking out seven consecutive batters with the team.
So you all may or may not remember, or you may be new to the blog so if so… welcome, but last year my son Evan won an annual award from his school for being the Most Improved Student. What you get for this besides the obvious learning ramifications is a free ticket and food at the Chattanooga Lookouts AT&T Field. Well Evan won again this year so we made our second trip to Chattanooga on Wednesday night to watch the Lookouts take on the Pensacola Blue Wahoos.
Last year Evan’s little brother, Hayden, was a little too young to attend the game but this time around he made the trip with us for his first baseball game. Boy did Hayden have a good time. The chants, the mascots, the game and of course the hot dogs and ice cream he was a huge fan of. Plus at Minor League games the kids can be kids and aren’t confined to a small, cramped seat surrounded by thousands of people. It was nice and the boys had a great time. Evan almost caught a foul ball too but he missed it by about 10 feet, maybe next time kid!
It really is a great time. They have lots of things to keep you entertained in-between innings and such and the atmosphere is just nice. I love it there. I loved seeing old Yankees in new places like Angelo Gumbs, Matt Tracy, Nik Turley, Eric Jagielo and others along with new faces that I had never seen before. Nick Gordon was the starting second baseman for the Lookouts and Paul Clemens started the game which was cool to see live.
It was just a really enjoyable experience and I fully recommend it for anyone who is in the neighborhood. Next time though it’s going to be with you. Hey you. I love you.
My
brother couldn’t use his tickets, so that was the only reason my wife Kathy and
I were there. Kathy wasn’t sure she wanted to go. She had just endured the
14-inning National League Championship Series nightmare at Shea Stadium ended
by Robin Ventura’s “grand slam single” amid pouring rain and vexatious sinuses
and didn’t want to put up with another freezing and rainy night at the
ballpark. But it was likely our only chance to see a real World Series game.
As
usual on both Yankee game night and Manhattan rush hour, the Lexington Avenue
northbound express was jammed, with a hat trick of Yuppies heading home to the
Upper East Side in chic power suits, working-class Latinos and blacks in jeans
and denim, and Yankee fans in pinstriped shirts and dark blue t-shirts with
that interlocking “NY.” It was a cheerier version of the “Last Train from
Barcelona.”
The
game was a critical moment for the visiting Atlanta Braves and the New York
Yankees alike. The Yankees had burned Atlanta in the first two games there, 4-1
and 7-3, and were now leading the World Series 2-0. The Yankees were fighting
to keep up with the endless and implacable demands of their history. Tonight’s
win would give them a commanding lead in the series. More importantly, it would
set a major league record of 10 consecutive World Series wins, a trail dating
back to 1996. It would also be their 100th World Series game win. As Kathy and
I navigated through the crowd outside Yankee Stadium to get the lanyards for
our tickets, I felt as if the ancient stadium and its ghosts seemed to be
staring down at the present team, arms folded in judgment.
Our
seats were in Yankee Stadium’s upper deck in right field, which made the
contestants appear like miniatures in the distance. We could not see the right
field outfield wall below us and would have to rely on replay screens to tell
us what was going on. Game time temperature was a tolerable 57 degrees but
began to fall in the October cold.
Two of
the teams’ titans were facing off: The Braves’ Tommy Glavine, a future 300-game
winner and Hall of Famer, against the Yankees’ Andy Pettitte, a member of the
“Core Four,” whose Number 46 would ultimately be retired and honored in
Monument Park. Both were control pitchers, with superb location. Pettitte’s
signature was his peering down at the batter with the beak of his cap slightly
covering his eyes, to give an aura of menace.
I had
never really learned to appreciate Andy Pettitte. In 1998, he’d had a tough
year. In 1999, he’d had a dreadful first half. But he bore down in the second
half. Only when he left for a three-year sabbatical in Houston did I realize
his toughness. Andy’s later replacements – mediocrities like Javier Vazquez,
Kevin Brown, and Jon Lieber – never showed the essential ferocity the Yankees
needed in the post-season.
But
this chilly evening, it was the Andy Pettitte I did not appreciate, and as I
began filling in the batting orders on the immense World Series scorebook in my
hands, I feared that the Atlanta offense would finally show up and show the
Yankees up.
Before
the game, the usual ceremonies: Challenger the tame bald eagle flew in from the
visitors’ bullpen beyond left field to home plate, taking his time, in a very
neat parabolic arc to his handler at home plate. United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Annan, wearing an official World Series jacket, threw out the
first pitch, to display New York’s role as an international capital and
baseball as an international game. As a pitcher, he was a great diplomat.
Pettitte
went to work on leadoff hitter Gerald Williams, who lashed a single to right
field. He moved to third on a Bret Boone double. Chipper Jones, universally
loathed by New York baseball fans because he hit Met and Yankee pitching with
equal impunity, dribbled a ground ball to third baseman Scott Brosius. The
normally sure-gloved Brosius intended to throw home to nail Williams at the plate
but could not scoop up the ball on the first try. He had to settle for erasing
Jones at first, and the run scored. So far, Pettitte appeared to be hitting the
inside and outside corners with his tricky stuff with his usual effectiveness.
The
Yankees struck back at Glavine in the first inning when leadoff hitter Chuck
Knoblauch belted a double to right. He moved to third on a sharp Derek Jeter
line out to right and scored when Paul O’Neill smacked a line drive to right
that popped out of Brian Jordan’s glove for an error. A rally was building that
was ended seconds later when Bernie Williams hit another liner, this time
straight at first baseman Brian Hunter, who stepped on first base for the
inning’s final out.
The
score remained tied at 1-1 until the top of the third, but it was clear that
Pettitte did not have his best stuff, putting two runners on in the second
inning, and coughing up a wild pitch. Meanwhile, Glavine, who had missed
starting Game One with a stomach virus, was popping his way through the Yankee
lineup with pinpoint control on his sinking fastball. In my scorecard, I wrote,
“Pettitte is doing his Ron Darling imitation, being tentative…intimidated...
falling behind hitters.”
Pettitte
got into trouble in the third. Second Baseman Bret Boone greeted him with a
double to center and moved to third on a Chipper Jones grounder to short. Right
Fielder Brian Jordan singled Boone home. Center Fielder Andruw Jones singled
Jordan to second, bringing up DH Jose Hernandez, who bashed a double to left
field, scoring both runners. The Braves now led 4-1, with a runner on second
and one out. A line out and fly out ended the rally, but not before Braves fans
near us brandishing elaborate and illuminated Tomahawks did the “Tomahawk chop”
to support their team.
Matters
worsened in the top of the fourth, when Left Fielder Gerald Williams smacked a
one-out triple to center, and Bret Boone bashed another double, this one to
left, scoring Williams. The Braves now led 5-1, the Stadium was a lot quieter,
and I was feeling colder. With a win here and John Smoltz providing another one
tomorrow, the Braves could tie up the Series and go back to Atlanta, no DH, and
a crowd full of “Tomahawk choppers” out for Yankee blood.
After
Boone was caught stealing third, Chipper Jones singled to center, and Yankee
Manager Joe Torre shuffled out to the mound to remove the puzzled Pettitte,
summoning the reliable Jason Grimsley. Torre gave Grimsley his usual simple
brief for these situations: “Hold them here and get yourself a win.”[i] While Torre did
so, Derek Jeter and Chuck Knoblauch, trying to keep warm in the cold, told each
other the same thing.
They were
right. The tide began to turn in the bottom of the sixth. Left fielder Chad
Curtis led off against Glavine, who was still locating his pitches perfectly.
Chad
Curtis had a public reputation as a solid offensive and defensive outfielder.
Like a number of ballplayers, he was openly Christian, giving credit to God for
his successes in postgame interviews. However, he annoyed his less-devout
teammates by constantly trying to aggressively proselytize his narrow brand of
Christianity to them. He pressured team leaders Jeter and David Cone to convert
– both rebuffed him. Curtis threw out the dirty magazines players kept in the
toilets. When Yankee management asked Curtis to keep an eye on Chuck Knoblauch,
fearing that his partying habits were the cause of Chuck’s wild throws, Curtis
took the assignment to an extreme – he would pound on the second baseman’s
hotel room door to make sure he was there. When Curtis played for Cleveland, he
got into a punching match with imposing teammate and former MVP Kevin Mitchell
in the clubhouse, over Mitchell playing a rap song in the clubhouse. Mitchell
threw Curtis over a ping-pong table and Curtis suffered bruises that
necessitated a trip to the 15-day disabled list. When Curtis played in Texas,
he would shut off the “Jerry Springer Show” if it played on the clubhouse TV
before the game.[ii]
Perhaps
most annoying to the Yankee management was that on August 9 of that season, the
Yankees got into a fight with the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field, started by
the usual cause – warning hit batsmen after home runs. The two teams emptied
onto the field, but Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, then still friends, met up,
and pretended to hit each other, laughing and joking. Neither players were
aware that the portly, beloved, and fragile Yankee coach Don Zimmer had been
knocked to the ground and needed help getting on his feet.
Curtis
saw this odd behavior. When the fight ended 15 minutes later, and the Yankees
returned to the dugout, Curtis confronted Jeter, yelling, “You are a good
player, but you don’t know how to play the game.”
Jeter
told Curtis to “get out of my face” several times. The confrontation continued
in the postgame clubhouse, in full view of the media, when Curtis approached
Jeter, and the shortstop, aware of his image and the penalties that could
result for physical violence in such a situation, merely said, “Not now, not
now.”
Curtis
did not listen. With the Yankee beat writers looking on, he tried to explain to
Jeter why he was not playing the right way. He called his actions “a small
piece of mentoring” and believed he was helping the young players understand
the consequences of his on-field behavior.
Privately,
some Yankees agreed with Curtis, including coach Willie Randolph, a walking
paladin of Yankee tradition, but pitcher David Cone noted that if Jeter’s
behavior had been wrong, Curtis had no business chastising the shortstop in
public. Later Curtis apologized, but Jeter would not forget the insult.[iii] Nor would the
Yankees. Tired of Curtis’s irritating behavior, they were making plans to find
him a new home as quickly as possible.
Curtis’s
mere presence in this game was unusual. Yankee Manager Joe Torre had originally
planned to start Ricky Ledee in left field, noting that Curtis was 0-for-13,
lifetime, against Glavine.
Now the
Yankee season fell on this least-wanted member of the team on an increasingly
cold night. With two out in the fifth, he tore a home run into the right field
seats to make the game, 5-2. It was his first post-season home run. An unnerved
Glavine served up a single to catcher Joe Girardi, but a Knoblauch ground ball
back to the box ended the inning.
Jason
Grimsley had done an excellent job all year, posting a 7-2 record, with a 3.60
ERA, in 55 relief appearances. He had not pitched in either playoff series, as
the Yankees had pretty much steamrolled their opposition. Overlooked by the
fans, unsung by the media, he did another excellent job this evening, holding
the ferocious Braves for 2.1 innings, yielding only two hits. Only later would
we learn that his statistics and fine pitching that year were the result of HGH
anabolic steroids, and his name would come up in the famous Mitchell Report.
But as he gave way at the top of the seventh, he was a Yankee hero for the
night, even if he did not get any applause.
Jeff
Nelson, an imposing figure at six feet and eight inches, came on to start the
inning, and he stifled the Braves efficiently. 56,794 fans rose to their feet
between innings to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Kathy and I stretched legs
rendered immobile by seven innings of sitting.
Glavine
was still pitching in the bottom of the seventh with one out, when Tino
Martinez, the Yankee first baseman, came to bat. He had achieved the impossible
in his first season: he had successfully replaced Don Mattingly. Tino’s power
hitting, skilled glovework, and leadership made him a beloved figure in Yankee
Stadium. Now he showed the power ability again, smashing a pitch into the right
field second deck, to cut the Braves’ lead down to 5-3. Yankee fans jeered and
taunted the Braves’ fans, doing their own “Tomahawk Chop.”
Nelson
disposed of the Braves handily in the top of the eighth, and Braves manager
Bobby Cox got his eighth-inning pitcher, Mike Remlinger, and his closer, John
Rocker, ready in the bullpen. Glavine had done his job – seven good innings.
But Glavine’s pitch count was low, and the cerebral Massachusetts native
pitcher assured Cox he felt fine. “He was throwing great,” Cox said later. “He
didn’t want to come out of the game. I asked him if he was tired and he said
no.”[iv]
Girardi
led off the inning and lined a single to left. Next up was Knoblauch, the
accused hard-partier himself, whose defensive abilities had collapsed after a
legendary mental blunder in the 1998 American League Championship Series, where
he had stood challenging an umpire’s call on a bunt attempt while the ball
rolled fair behind him and allowed a critical Cleveland run to score. The
spectacle of Knoblauch shouting at the ump, pointing at first base, chewing his
gum, while failing to reach for the ball and fire it home to easily nail
Enrique Wilson proved the failure of multi-tasking and seemed to have
devastated the second baseman.
Years
later, after his baseball career ended, Knoblauch would admit to using HGH
steroids, but point out that after doing so, he suffered the worst offensive
year of his career. And more shockingly (or perhaps less surprisingly because
of steroids), he would plead guilty to misdemeanor assault, trying to choke his
soon-to-be-ex-wife amidst their ugly divorce. He drew a year’s probation. For
these various incidents, the Minnesota Twins chose not to induct him into their
Hall of Fame, despite him winning Rookie of the Year for them in 1996.
But
this evening, Knoblauch faced Glavine, and ripped a powerful drive that sent
Jordan back to the wall. The ball jumped into Jordan’s glove and back out,
landing in the first row of seats on the first deck. I didn’t see the home
run…the ball disappeared below me. I had no idea Knoblauch had homered until I
saw first base umpire Derryl Cousins wiggle his arm for the home-run signal.
The game was tied, 5-5.
“I was
so happy, I wanted to lift him up and carry (Knoblauch),” Yankee center fielder
Bernie Williams said after the game. “But I realized we still had to win the
game.”[v]
Cox
would be bitter in his post-game analysis, remembering how a major factor in
his 1996 World Series loss to these same Yankees was caused by an umpire
preventing one of his outfielders from reaching a crucial pop fly. Now he saw
Knoblauch’s short home run in the same way. “We basically got beat with the
pop-up,” he said. “It was a Yankee home run. We got beat with a 315-foot home
run. You get a 315-fot fly ball and it’s an out in my book.”[vi]
Knoblauch’s
response was simple. If that was good luck, “We’ll take it every time.”[vii]
The
Stadium erupted. All 56,000-odd fans leaped to their feet, stomping and
cheering at the sheer unexpected drama. As Knoblauch ran around the bases, I
could feel the 76-year-old ballpark vibrate beneath me.
Kathy
was less impressed. “Don’t tell me we’re going to be stuck here for 16
innings,” she said.
I was
too busy cheering, but when I was done, I told her, “I hope not.”
That
was all for Glavine. He had done his best, but there was nothing left. Cox
shuffled out to the mound, took the ball, and summoned his closer, John Rocker,
to prevent any further damage.
The
very name “John Rocker” still sends veteran New York baseball fans into anger
and fury. 1999 was the Georgian’s rookie year, and it seemed appropriate that
he pitched for his Atlanta Braves. It also seemed appropriate that he had the
empathy and sensitivity of the generations of Georgians who had preceded him,
like Richard Russell and Eugene Talmadge. He had already irritated New York
with his generic arrogance and impressive pitching.
Now he
would do both in the eighth inning to end the damage, yielding a single to
Derek Jeter, followed by turning a Paul O’Neill bunt into a double play,
followed by a Bernie William fly ball to center.
Nonetheless,
the Yankees were feeling happy, Cone said later.[viii] They were
turning the game over to a young closing pitcher who still had his hair, and
had only just gained his signature entrance music, “Enter Sandman,” by
Metallica. The song was caused by a losing pitcher in the 1998 World Series,
Trevor Hoffmann. When he entered in San Diego, to the sound of “Hell’s Bells,”
Yankee Stadium Operations Director Kirk Randazzo was impressed by both the song
and the reaction among the normally laid-back Southern California fans.
He summoned five employees, not including
Rivera, who “auditioned” six possible selections and chose “Enter Sandman.”
Rivera played no part in the choice, preferring Christian music.
Now the
thumping and steady sound of “Enter Sandman” burst from the Yankee Stadium
speakers, and 54,000 fans leaped to their feet as Rivera jogged in the home
bullpen, head down, intent on his work. This was always my second-favorite
thing at Yankee Stadium. My first is always Old-Timer’s Day.
Rivera’s
appearance was not initially impressive. Boone rapped his fourth hit of the
night, a single to right, to lead off the inning. Gambling on that one run, Cox
sent in Trot Nixon to run for him, and the speedy Nixon proceeded to embarrass
himself on the national stage by being caught stealing second. Rivera disposed
quickly of the next two hitters.
Rocker
matched Rivera’s excellence in the bottom of the ninth with three quick outs,
and Kathy became increasingly irritated at the possibility of enduring another
sea-serpent baseball game, and having to go home at 3 a.m. I hoped such would
not be the case.
Cox
thought the same in the 10th. We were now in the 50th extra-inning game in
World Series history. After Andruw Jones grounded out to second to open the
inning, Cox sent veteran Ozzie Guillen to bat for Hernandez. Rivera was unimpressed
and struck out Guillen. Ryan Klesko punch-hit and singled to right, and Greg
Myers batted for first baseman Brian Hunter, grounding out to Martinez.
Pinch-hitters
Klesko and Myers stayed in the game, at first base and behind the plate
respectively, and Cox, recognizing that he had got two innings out of Rocker,
and needed him tomorrow, summoned Mike Remlinger from the bullpen to face
leadoff hitter and unloved Yankee Chad Curtis.
Curtis’s
plan was small, he said later. To hit the ball up the middle, not do too much
with the pitch, and simply start the inning.
Curtis
fouled off the first pitch and stepped out. In the Yankee clubhouse, pitchers
Jeff Nelson and Jason Grimsley watched the game on television, Nelson’s arm in
an ice pack, Grimsley in the opposite corner.
Curtis
stepped back in to the batter’s box. Remlinger threw a changeup and hit the
ball deep to left field. I watched the ball fly toward the visitors’ bullpen in
left and lost it in the lights, crowd, and distance. However, I saw two things
at once – it was flying in the directly opposite direction that Challenger the
Eagle had taken from the visitors’ pen, but with greater speed. I also saw that
the ball was going to be a game-winning home run, although I couldn’t tell
where it would land.
Nelson
and Grimsley, who had the advantage of the TV view, could – as did the Yankees
in the dugout, and most of all, Curtis himself, watching the drive from the
plate. He flipped his bat and ran around the bases, expressionless. “I don’t
remember anything,”[ix] he said later,
when asked about the ritual trip around the bases to score the run and end the
game. The ball had landed in the visitors’ bullpen. To this day, I have no idea
what happened to it.
He
leaped into a sea of happy teammates at home plate to celebrate the Yankees’
6-5 victory. The Yankees were now one game away from sweeping the Atlanta
Braves and winning their 25th World Championship.
There
was more: it was Torre’s 11th consecutive World Series victory, which broke the
major league record set by his illustrious predecessor, another Joe, Irishman
McCarthy, who won 10 straight World Series games between 1937 and 1941.
Curtis’s game-winning shot was the 11th time a World Series game had ended on a
home run. The last one had been Joe Carter’s legendary 1993 World Championship
blast in 1993. The four Yankee home runs were the most in a World Series game
since the A’s bashed five at the expense of the San Francisco Giants in Game
Three of the 1989 World Series.
And
perhaps most importantly to me, as a man whose family had rooted for the
Yankees since 1912, and had seen all their history, this was the 100th World
Series game the team had won in its long and incredible history.
Beneath
me, the Stadium was vibrating again from cheers and stomping feet. Around me,
fans were roaring in delight, and ridiculing the Atlanta and its irritating
“Tomahawk Chop.” Down on the field, NBC reporter Jim Gray ambushed Curtis for
the usual post-game victory valediction.
Once
again, Curtis failed to rise to the moment. Before Game Two, in Atlanta, a
massive on-field ceremony had honored the “All-Century Team,” which included
controversial hit king Pete Rose. At the ceremony, Gray had asked Rose if this
was an appropriate moment for Rose to address his issues of gambling on
baseball. Rose had refused to answer the questions. Baseball players and fans
were appalled by Gray’s boorish behavior. The Yankee players privately voted to
snub Gray if he tried to interview them.
Facing
Gray and NBC’s cameras, Curtis snarled, “As a team, we kind of decided, because
of what happened with Pete (Rose), we’re not going to talk here on the field.”
With that, Curtis stalked off to accept interviews from other media outlets,
and Gray was left to awkwardly “throw it up” to the main booth.[x] The Yankees were
left to awkwardly explain Curtis’s questionable behavior.
Victory
soon followed. Roger Clemens, finally seeking both a World Series game victory
and a World Championship ring, earned both the following night for the Yankees,
and ran atop the Yankees dugout after the game, high-fiving and shaking hands
with happy fans. Darryl Strawberry broke down in tears at the victory parade in
the Canyon of Heroes.
Disorder
also followed. By December, the night’s hero, Chad Curtis, was traded to the
Texas Rangers for the forgettable pitchers Brandon Knight and Sam Marsonek. A
Yankee official explained the trade by saying, “Chad just couldn’t stay around
any longer because that act gets tired. Once he became comfortable here, he
became a preacher, and it ran its course.”[xi]
Curtis
soon annoyed his new team by being second among American League left fielders
in errors, with five, and telling Jewish teammate Gabe Kapler during stretching
that he would “burn in hell” if Kapler didn’t accept Jesus Christ as his “Lord
and Savior.”[xii] Next year,
Curtis hit a mere .252 and ended his baseball career.
He
began a new one as an athletic director and coach at Christian high schools in
Michigan, eventually at Lakewood High School, a public school. In 2012, he was
charged with six counts of criminally sexually touching four 15- and
16-year-old girls in his schools. Curtis resigned his position, stood trial in
2013, and was convicted.
Facing
Barry County Court Circuit Judge Amy McDowell with the same stone face and
tight crew-cut he wore as a Yankee (only a little grayer), Curtis spoke for an
hour at his sentencing. In his peroration, Curtis blamed the victims for his
plight, saying he had rebuffed their advances, called himself a servant of God and
hoped he could write a book with the victims about the case. Three of his
victims left the courtroom in disgust.
The
prosecutor, Julie Nakfoor Pratt, was astounded by Curtis’s statement at the
sentencing, calling it “the most selfish, self-serving, victim-blaming
statement I’ve heard in my career as a prosecutor. It speaks volumes about his
character, or lack thereof.” [xiii]
The
judge was also unimpressed. She sentenced Curtis to the top of the range, seven
to 15 years in prison. Curtis’s earliest release date is 2020. Meanwhile, his
victims filed suit against him. Three settled and one case went to trial,
winning the victim $1.8 million from Curtis.
Kapler
had a comment, too: “I’m floored that I misjudged the character of a man so
horribly. Perhaps I was blinded with the mantle of righteous moral authority he
always tried to wear and never looked deeper.”[xiv]
Sic transit Gloria mundi.
On the
opposing team, John Rocker also faced disaster. In December, he would grant an
interview to Sports Illustrated writer Jeff Pearlman, denouncing New York, the
Number 7 train, and all of its manifold riders, by ethnicity, sexual
preference, and family organization, comparing Queens neighborhoods to Beirut.
Being ignorant, Rocker was unaware that the No. 7 train had that year been
designated one of America’s “National Millennium Trails,” along with 15 other
iconic routes, including those taken by Lewis and Clark, the Underground
Railroad, the Iditarod, and routes created to honor the Civil War, the American
Revolution, and even the Hatfield-McCoy feud. The five miles of the No. 7 train
are known as the “International Express” for the line’s role in redistributing
vast numbers of immigrants to America in general and New York in particular after
it was built, a role it plays to this day.
Rocker’s
interview had the usual impact. New York was enraged, the Commissioner’s Office
was furious, Rocker’s teammates were shocked, and the press questioned his
sanity. Rocker drew a suspension, was required to apologize to his teammates,
and spouted self-serving apologies, claiming he had merely intended to respond
to the abuse New York fans gave him.
In
2000, Rocker grandly announced that he would take the No. 7 train to Shea
Stadium when the Braves came into town. The New York Police Department talked
him out of it. The security measures at Shea were immense, but, oddly, most of
the booing went to former Met Bobby Bonilla, now an Atlanta Brave. Rocker had merely disrespected New York. Bonilla had spent
the final innings of the critical final game of the 1999 NLCS playing cards in
the Met clubhouse with equally lethargic teammate Rickey Henderson. Bonilla had
disrespected his team, his city (and birthplace), and the entire game of
baseball. New Yorkers had no use for all three violations of the code. Perhaps
more annoyingly to Met fans, Bonilla’s contract called for deferred payments on
unique scale – every July 1, from 2011 to 2035, Bonilla is paid $1.19 million,
for his ability to breathe. Compared to that, Rocker was small beer.
Oddly enough, the deal was negotiated by Bonilla’s wife, his
high school sweetheart. In 2009, the pair divorced, and now Madiglia “Millie”
Bonilla pockets most of the $1.19 million in that settlement. There’s irony –
and more reason for New Yorkers to dislike a Bronx native.
But when Pearlman materialized in the Braves’ clubhouse
later that 2000 season, the pitcher exploded and threatened the writer with
physical violence. That, combined with Rocker’s poor pitching, was enough for
Atlanta…they shipped him to Cleveland, and the once-bright star fizzled out
quickly. He did a sorry term with the minor-league Long Island Ducks, insulting
fans who insulted his mediocre pitching, and gave up the game for the
presumably more enjoyable life of writing for conspiracy theory websites.
All
that remained for the future, though. For that one brief moment, shining under
the immensely powerful lights of Yankee Stadium, Chad Curtis was the glittering
hero for the Yankees. The Yankees had set all kinds of victorious records. My
boys stood within inches of yet another World Series. Being a Yankee fan is
harder in some ways than rooting for other teams – you are required to meet
impossible standards and expectations, to maintain and uphold traditions of excellence
set nearly a century ago. You have to measure up to the achievements of players
long-dead, visible only on grainy black-and-white newsreel or harsh color
videotape, and failure to do so means that an entire nation jumps on you for
failing to do so.
The
flip side is that when your boys win, the rest of the country is angrier – you
are expected to win. With all that money, you should win. New Yorkers are seen
as arrogant, omnipotent, and endlessly successful. New York Yankee haters
forget that the Yankees still have to play and win their games under the same
rules as every other team, and New York-haters should try living here. New York
invented stress.
But it
didn’t change the equation for this night. Once again, as Shakespeare wrote,
“We sit on England’s royal throne, purchased with the blood of our enemies.”
And
perhaps most importantly, Kathy was relieved. The game was over. We would get
home at a reasonable hour.
And just like that it is Saturday afternoon game time here in
the Bronx as the New York Yankees and Yankee Stadium welcome the Cleveland
Indians to town. In the middle game of their three-game weekend set the Yankees
will send Sonny Gray to the mound while the Indians will counter with the ever-controversial
Trevor Bauer. The game will be played at 1:05 pm ET inside Yankee Stadium and
can be seen on the YES Network and MLB Network. You can also follow along with
the game on MLB TV, the MLB At-Bat app and by tuning into the Yankees radio
broadcast on WFAN with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman.
Follow us on Twitter, @GreedyStripes, and “Like” us on
Facebook, The Greedy Pinstripes, to keep up with us and the team all season
long. Enjoy the game, let’s hope Bauer’s spin rate sucks this afternoon, and go
Yankees!!
Greg Bird is rehabbing and could be back with the New York
Yankees soon after starting the 2018 season on the disabled list with an ankle
injury. What better time than now to take a look and walk a mile in the shoes
of the “Birdman of New York” and witness a Yankees day in the life with Mr.
Greg Bird. Enjoy!!
Good morning Yankees family and welcome to another beautiful
day in the Bronx, New York as the New York Yankees prepare to play host to the
Cleveland Indians in the middle game of a three-game weekend set between the
two. In the start this afternoon the Yankees are hoping for sunny skies as they
send right-hander Sonny Gray to the mound to oppose Trevor Bauer for the Indians.
Let’s get to it here in the Bronx.
Gray may have had his best start inside a Yankees uniform
last time out against the Houston Astros. Gray pitched six innings allowing
just two runs and four hits, albeit in a loss to the defending World Series
champions. Gray has pitched much better with Austin Romine as his catcher and
will likely see Romine behind the plate again this afternoon despite manager
Aaron Boone’s preseason stance that no Yankees pitchers would have personal
catchers.
Bauer shook up the league on Twitter recently hinting that
the Houston Astros are using illegal substances, i.e. pine tar, while pitching
which has led to their dominance over the past couple of years. The off the
field drama did not affect Bauer in his last start against the Texas Rangers
where the right-hander allowed just two runs with 11 strikeouts in 6.2 innings
in Cleveland. Bauer has had good success inside Yankee Stadium as well
throughout his career posting a 2.87 ERA with 14 strikeouts in 15.2 innings. Bauer
has also issued 14 walks inside the House that Steinbrenner Built as well,
which will not bode well for him this afternoon.
The game will be played at 1:05 pm ET inside Yankee Stadium
and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB Network. You can also follow along
with the game on MLB TV, the MLB At-Bat app and by tuning into the Yankees
radio broadcast on WFAN with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman.
Enjoy the game, and your Saturday, and go Yankees!!
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/sports/baseball/2018/05/06/yankees-gleyber-torres-nicks-mickey-mantle-record/torres_yankees.jpg)
