BASEBALL AT IT'S BEST: DONNIE BASEBALL & A NO-HITTER

Don Mattingly was always one of my favorite Yankees. I marveled at his subtle greatness. His crouched batting stance and his amazing play at 1^st Base. I wanted to be a 1^st baseman because of Donnie Baseball. I was saddened that he never got a ring as a player and is still the greatest Yankee to never have played in a World Series. I also lamented about Donnie not getting the manager job. Nothing against Girardi but Donnie is a Yankee icon and he was mentored well by Joe Torre but no regrets. Joe got us our 27^th so life is good all around here in Yankeeland.
 

 As for Donnie Baseball these days, as we know he landed in Los Angeles with the Dodgers as bench coach for Joe Torre and eventually succeeding him as manager. I gotta tell you. It is really hard to see Donnie in Dodger Blue. I have never liked the Dodgers. They were my mom's favorite team dating back when they were still in Brooklyn. But, since her death in 03, my loathing of LA has subsided somewhat, but not altogether.

So, fast forward to last Friday night, June 8^th. Living in Seattle now, I cheer for the Mariners, (when they don’t play my Yanks of course) and I was really looking forward to seeing Donnie Baseball again for the first time since he left the Yankees. However, I had no idea it would be on a historic occasion.

I tried to get a good pic of Donnie, but unlike Bobby Valentine who is despised by his players, the Dodgers love Donnie and he is usually surrounded by coaches and players, and with everyone wearing blue sweatshirts, it was hard to make him out. The Dodgers have a great pitching staff but without Matt Kemp, their lineup is not that formidable.

The Mariners are not that great either but Kevin Millwood who started, has been on a resurgence this season. The game sped along without much action and when I glanced up at the scoreboard in the 4^th inning, I noticed that the Dodgers were hitless and then again in the 5^th and 6^th and I started getting a feeling that something special was gonna happen this night. I had never seen a no hitter in the hundreds of games I have been to in my life so far so I was getting excited. But, that changed when Millwood was pulled due to a groin injury, I thought, there goes the No-Hitter but was I wrong. 5 M’s relievers combined to preserve what Millwood started including Charlie Furbush, Stephen Pryor, Lucas Luetge, Brandon League and Tom Wilhelmsen. For an intense 1-0 Mariners win. This was the 10^th combined no-hitter in baseball history. And anchoring the Mariners that night was none other than former Yankee phenom, Jesus Montero.

I was very happy for Jesus to have played such a pivotal part in this historic moment. Looks like his catching isn’t so bad after all. Still, I’m not looking back on letting Jesus go, I keep looking forward. Everything happens for a reason I believe and it was Jesus’s time to not be with the Yankees any longer. Can’t dwell on it.

The bottom line, it was great to see Donnie Baseball again at a ballpark, it brought back many memories of seeing him many times in Yankee Stadium. But it made it even more special was getting to see him on such a historic night. 

--Thomas Brophy, BYB Guest Writer





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