I ALMOST RUINED JIM ABBOTT'S NO HITTER!

“Hey Dad, it’s the fifth inning and he still hasn’t given up a….”  I said before I was stopped short.

“Are you crazy??? You’re going to jinx him!” my Dad shot back.

It was a month after my ninth birthday. What the heck did I know? You can jinx a pitcher throwing a no-hitter by talking about it? I didn’t know that on September 4, 1993, but I learned that day you absolutely do not talk about it!

At the time my Dad lived in West Haven, CT and we would take the trip down I-95 to I-87 to go to Yankee Stadium rather frequently. Back in those days, tickets, parking, a hot dog and soda didn’t cost a week’s pay.  As always, I was excited to go see the Yankees play. We would listen to WFAN 660 along the way. My Pops always listened to sports radio. He would call me a Goober because I would sing the jingle “Sports radio 66, THE FAN! W-F-A-N, New York!” You guys know what I’m talking about! Anyway...

We were heading to the game that day, without tickets, to see the Yankees take on the Cleveland Indians. It was an afternoon game and "the one-handed pitcher", Jim Abbott, was starting for the hometown Yanks. He was to face a tough lineup that included guys like  Kenny Lofton, Carlos Baerga, Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome and Sandy Alomar Jr.

To be honest, I never realized how stacked that lineup was. That makes that day that much more special.

The day was, as Abbott put it, “… a cloudy day. A day game, the kind of game I like to throw.”  If he liked cloudy day games, he proved it that day.

Yankee Stadium to me is like a grown man’s Cinderella’s Castle. It's magical. From the big NY behind the plate, to the organ, to the vendors yelling "Get your hot dogs here!" to the sticky ground from split soda and beer mixed with peanut shells.

We arrived at the Stadium and had to find some tickets. If my memory serves me right, we bought some tickets off a scalper outside the stadium and he told us we had great seats. Lower level on the third base line. He showed us a seating chart and that sealed the deal. Awesome. Good price, good seats, right?

It turns out we were alittle misled. We were actually out by the left field foul pole...welcome to the Bronx... right?

My Dad wasn't happy, but have no fear though; he was always the master at making his way to better seats! We ended up sitting behind the third base dugout in the lower level under the overhang. They ended up being almost perfect!  I remember being nervous because we were pretty close... I was afraid of a foul ball nailing us.  My Pops told me not to worry.

Early in the game, Paul O’Neill sliced a foul ball that just missed the protective net and screamed over our heads! But we were alright. No harm, no foul. But if I was nervous before, I was scared as hell right then!

I remember my childhood hero, Don Mattingly manning first base that afternoon. He went 1-3. Donnie Baseball was always my favorite. Still is to this day. I was the bat boy for a youth team my Dad coached when I was about four years old and I wanted to be number 23. My Dad and his friend thought it would be funny, since I was a little guy, to make me number 2/3. Still to this day, people from my hometown of Windsor, CT will occasionally remember me as the bat boy and call me ‘two-thirds”. I’m 30 years old and about once a year someone will bring it up. As goofy as it is, I still enjoy it.

In terms of specifics about the game, I don't remember all that much. Randy Velarde hit a home run and I remember looking at the scoreboard in the fifth and nearly ruining the no-hitter. I recall a great diving play at third base by Wade Boggs to rob the Indians of a hit. Most importantly, I definitely remember the final out.

The whole stadium was on our feet, screaming and cheering for that one final out, as we had done for the final three innings. It was a ground ball off the bat of Baerga, a curve ball down and away. Baerga slapped it to short where Velarde fielded it cleanly and flipped it over to Donnie for the final out. Mattingly then raised his hands in the air as the team rushed to the mound to congratulate Jim Abbott. As Scooter would say, “How do you like that?!”

My Pops and I at Yankee Stadium is always a great day. But the added benefit of seeing Mattingly, a Yankees win and an incredible pitching performance by a man who was born with one hand, well, it was even more incredible. Jim Abbott never made an excuse for why he couldn’t do it. He just went out and did it. It will forever be one of my greatest, special moments of my childhood.

The former first round pick, who made his MLB debut without ever pitching in the minors, had his greatest day on the biggest stage in baseball. With the exception of the five walks Abbott allowed, he was nothing short of spectacular that Saturday afternoon in 1993.

It is a day, I’ll never forget it. Thank you Jim for that day. It was just plain awesome!


 
Dan Lucia
BYB Writer
Twitter: @DManLucia



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JOE GIRARDI VS. JOE TORRE

For the last 18 years, Yankee fans have been spoiled. The Yankees have been contending for playoff spots and World Series rings ever since 1996. In that time we have won the World Series 5 times, won the American League championship 7 times, won the division 13 times, and made the playoffs in every year except 2008. In this period of time, the Yankees have largely been managed under the leadership of two men – Joe Torre and Joe Girardi. Though they had different management styles, but they both had their challenges and they both had the will to win.

Both managers started out their respective tenures replacing well-respected and popular managers. Buck Showalter took the Yankees from the worst team in the American League to a playoff contender. After the 1995 collapse in the playoffs against the Seattle Mariners, the team was essentially overhauled and Showalter was abruptly replaced. “Clueless Joe”, as the New York Daily News labeled him, took over and proceeded to win 4 World Series titles in the next 5 years. Only once did he fail to reach 90 wins, and only twice did he fail to win the division. He took the team to the playoffs in every year of his time as manager.

Joe Girardi also replaced a popular manager – Joe Torre! For some time, there had been reports of disputes between the George Steinbrenner and Joe Torre. Following the 2007 season, Torre turned down what he thought was an insulting offer, and the Yankees brought in Joe Girardi. To make matters worse, in his first managerial season, the Yankees failed to reach the playoffs for the first time since baseball went on strike in 1994. Nevertheless, Joe recovered well. After some major acquisitions in the off season, the Yankees reached the World Series for his first managerial World Series ring in 2009.

Both had to make changes needed by the team. Joe Torre transformed the homer-happy Bronx Bombers into a team focused on baseball fundamentals – getting on base, stealing bases, sacrificing runners over. He popularized the role of the setup man – with future Hall-of-Famer Mariano Rivera owning the 7th and 8th innings and setting up closer John Wetteland. He had huge success with that approach, going 70-3 when leading after 6 innings, and was a model duplicated throughout baseball. Joe Girardi had to change the mood of the clubhouse, as it became a source of contention among some. Joe Torre had a strict no-loud-music policy, so when Nick Swisher came to Joe about it, the rule was suspended and Swisher clubhouse mayhem went into full swing.

Joe Torre had a great sense of loyalty to the players that helped him succeed. He inherited closer John Wetteland who had blown a game in the fateful Mariners division playoffs. Joe did not give up on him, and Wetteland had a great year in 1996 and a World Series MVP. After the 1997 postseason failure, many thought that Mariano Rivera might not be able to handle the pressure of postseason play. That is a joke now, but it was his first postseason as a closer and he blew a critical game by giving up a home run to Sandy Alomar, Jr. But Joe did not give up on him either. The result was Mariano Rivera’s Hall of Fame career and status as a Yankee legend.

Joe Girardi, on the other hand, has had much more success with the younger talent. In 2006 he won Manager of the Year by taking a very bad and very young Florida Marlins team and making them competitive (they made a respectable run at the wild card that year). It was primarily due to the development and mentoring of young talent, guiding them to handling major league play. That skill was premium when he joined the Yankees as manager, as he had to manage a changing of the guard. Aging legends like Jorge Posada had to be respectfully led into retirement while younger talent had to be phased in. The challenges remain today, as he has to handle the flurry of young talent coming up, substituting in for injured stars.

There were two key things that they had in common. One was the unfair criticism to which they have been subjected. It is part of the job for managers to take shots from the peanut gallery. We get that. However, the fickleness and the wild swings in the public opinion, in light of their successes, are baffling. If you believe the public commentary, Torre went from Clueless Joe, to superhero, to the guy who was asleep in the dugout.

Sure, he stuck with some guys for way too long, and his loyalty to his players went from being a strength to being a liability. But in the context of the greater body of work, and that body of work being a Hall-of-Fame managerial career, it’s a shame the way he went out. When other teams are planning on how to make the playoffs, and we’ve been planning on how far we can make it in the playoffs, it’s sad that he wasn’t treated with more respect.

Girardi, likewise, is under similar criticism. If you’ve read the comments on him, you’d think that he spent the last 6 years struggling to get over .500. Meanwhile, this will probably be only the second time in his managerial career that he failed to reach 95 wins. No manager is perfect, and some of his decisions are questionable. But in the larger body of work, which sometimes required him to field a team of players that were the best available due to injuries to key players, he has performed spectacularly.

Despite his successes, people insist on playing target practice with his “binder”. When did researching and understanding your opponents’ weaknesses become a bad thing? When did having statistics readily available to help with decision-making make you a bad manager? A manager places his infielders on a shift to get pull hitters out, and he’s a genius. Bring in a left-handed pitcher to face a left-handed hitter, and the manager is mixing and matching well. Teach a pitcher to throw first-pitch strikes, and you’re teaching good pitching fundamentals. All of these practices are based on known and respected statistics. But when Joe puts it on paper and consults it, then he doesn’t know how to manage. I don’t’ understand that way of thinking.

The other thing they had in common was winning. Whether it was/is their clubhouse interviews or roster changes, their words and actions oozed with a determination to win. You can argue about various aspects of someone’s playing or managing career. But winning is the one metric against which everyone is evaluated. It is hard to argue with stats. Joe Torre had a total managerial record of 1173–767 (.604) with four World Series titles in six tries and twelve trips to the postseason in twelve seasons. Joe Girardi, as of this writing, is 553-395 (.583), has a World Series ring, and is almost there with his fifth trip to the postseason in 6 seasons.

Despite all of the criticisms, Joe Torre and Joe Girardi have handled enormous pressures and were able to win. During their time, we have not had to think about whether or not our team can win, as fans of most other teams do. We think about how we’re going to get to the World Series, not if we’ll be over .500. Thanks to these two, we have been spoiled.

 
--Ike Dimitriadis, BYB Writer
Twitter: @KingAgamemnon
My blog is: Shots from Murderer's Row

 

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MARIANO RIVERA & ANDY PETTITTE: ONE MORE TIME

Spring Training is finally here and those of us who suffer from baseball withdrawal will finally get our baseball fix. As with every new season, I am excited to see what kind of team the Yankees will put on the field. I want to see the newly acquired Yankees wearing the pinstripes and either taking their swings or working their windup. It is a special time of year, filled with excitement. Every once in a while, we get to watch the sun set on the career of someone special. This is one of those years.

Watching living legends and heroes in the twilight of their careers is a privilege. For those that don't already know, Mariano Rivera holds the record for most career saves with 608 (the next closest active pitcher is Francisco Cordero with 329), the most postseason saves with 42 (the next closest is Brad Lidge with 18), the second lowest career postseason ERA with 0.70, and dozens of other regular-season and postseason records. However, when Mariano Rivera first came up, he was a starter who did not impress too many people. It did not help that he had surgery on his pitching elbow when he was in the minors a few years earlier. Joe Torre, manager at the start of the 1996 season, mentioned that he would not be too upset if the Yankees traded Rivera for some good talent. HE wrote that in his book Chasing the Dream.

Who would have thought that a pitcher who was that much of a liability would become the most reliable man in the Yankees bullpen for the next 17 years and counting. There were questions about whether or not he could handle the transition from setup man to closer in 1997. He responded with 43 saves. Questions came up about whether or not he had the mental fortitude to recover from giving up that Sandy Alomar Jr. home run.

It would be three years before he gave up another run in the postseason. It would be four years before failing to convert another postseason save. After the 2001 World Series, more questions came up about whether or not he would ever recover from that kind of a defeat. He went on to slowly build a Hall of Fame career as the Yankees closer, being the consistently reliable closer for the Yankees, and making us all unaware of what it's like to be nervous in the ninth inning. From 1997 when he first became a closer through 2011, he averaged just over 40 saves per season. That is unheard of. Then there was the news on May 3, 2012, that Mariano Rivera had a torn knee ligament. I admit that I was sure he was done. He was 42, and already amassed more than enough credentials for a Hall of Fame vote. Younger men would have great difficulty with the recovery. Now, in just a few days, he will prove me and everyone else wrong and he is going to take the field for Spring Training. He will join the Yankees as their closer for one more year.

Then there is Andy Pettitte. Pettitte has been a stalwart member of the Yankees starting rotation since 1996. After a new manager and significant turnover following the 1995 season, Andy Pettitte quickly became the ace of the staff in 1996. He was the man who the Yankees relied on to keep the team on a winning track, going 13-3 that season after a Yankees loss. In the legendary Game 5 of the 1996 World Series, he beat John Smoltz in a 1-0 win that would set up the Series win two nights later. He was in the Yankees starting rotation in every postseason after that through 2003. Many of us will remember the fans, knowing that he was going to be a free agent after 2003, chanting his name loudly during Game 6 of the 2003 World Series, letting him know how much he meant to us.

Nevertheless, our hearts broke on December 12, 2003 as he signed with the Houston Astros, citing his desire to be closer to his family. As much as it hurt us, you have to appreciate how much this shows what kind of a man he really is. On January 11, 2007, the Yankees re-introduced Andy Pettitte as a member of the team, having signed him to a one-year deal. In Game 6 of the 2009 World Series, he set the new record for playoff series-clinching wins with six. He also earned his fifth World Series ring in eight trips (seven with the Yankees, one with the Astros). He is the record holder for postseason career wins (19), career starts (44), and career innings pitched (276 2/3). However, most important to the fans, he was part of the Core 4 with Rivera, Derek Jeter, and Jorge Posada.

And now it's time for pitchers and catchers to report to camp and start their drills to get in shape for the new season. Fans will be gawking and getting autographs, the press will be watching and reporting, and some members of the next generation of Yankees will be joining Pettitte and Rivera in sprint drills and long toss sessions. Barring the unforeseen, this will be their final lap together - their victory lap so to speak. Sure, they will be on hand as special instructors at Spring Training in years to come, much as Jorge Posada will be this year. But this year is special. They may not have it on the scoreboard as they did in 2008 for the closing of the old Yankee Stadium, but there will be a countdown. With every appearance on the mound, with every game, with every start and every jog from the bullpen, we get closer to the last time we see them as active players wearing the Yankees pinstripes. Let's take it in, enjoy it, and celebrate what they have meant to this organization and to baseball. 

--Ike Dimitriadis, BYB Writer
Twitter: @KingAgamemnon

My blog is: Shots from Murderer's Row

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OH GEEZ, TERRY FRANCONA HAS A MANAGING GIG

It looks like Terry Francona is working officially in major league baseball again. Where? Well, not Boston.  The Clevland Indians have signed him on. According to Boston.com, "The 53-year-old will be formally introduced as Cleveland’s 42nd manager during a Monday news conference at Progressive Field.

'I’m really excited,' Francona said on the air as an ESPN analyst, his job for the past season. 'People who don’t know me may have thought I was looking for something different.'

The Indians chose Francona over Sandy Alomar Jr., who served as the club’s interim manager for the final six games after Manny Acta was fired on Sept. 27. Francona and Alomar, who spent the past three seasons as a coach in Cleveland, were the only candidates to interview for the Indians’ opening." Read it all HERE.

A guess a slots opened at ESPN and no doubt they'll bring back Bobby Valentine if they haven't already.

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