Yankee Rising
It was an inning that defined a young season...an inning that changed everything.
Friday night, May 6th, 10th inning, tie game. Light-hitting Oakland first baseman Scott Hatteberg pulls a bases loaded ground ball down the line to Tino Martinez, the Yankees normally sure-handed first baseman. Tonight would be an exception though. Martinez boots the ball, scoops it up, and fires wide past Jorge Posada at home. In his haste, he had failed to even touch up at first base. Everyone is safe, two runs score on the play. The Yankees would make three errors in all in the fateful inning, eventually losing a game that dropped the team to 11-19, dead last in the American League East. It was the franchise's worst 30-game start in nearly 40 years.
The Yankees, it seemed, had officially hit rock bottom.
Their fans weren't far behind. I was one of the lucky ones, fortunate enough to be an active dollar drink night participant at Rogo's in Hoboken. I watched the gory climax, took a deep shot and followed that with an even deeper breath.
"This cannot continue," I said to myself.
"Common logic dictates a change," I continued.
"I'm hungry," I digressed.
Who could have predicted such a freefall? Following the humiliation that was the 2004 ALCS, the Yankees were supposed to be locked and re-loaded, keyed by the trade for Randy Johnson, a transaction that secured the coveted ace they had missed so dearly against the Red Sox. Things started off well enough -- Johnson beat the Sox in the season opener and the team followed that with a second win over their hated rivals. A sweep was in the air when Joe Torre summoned Mariano Rivera to close out the series finale. Rivera buckled however, and the Sox escaped the Stadium with a win.
Watching Rivera falter again, as he did so famously the previous October, seemed to knock the wind out of the team. They danced with .500 for the season's first week before the losing march began. They looked old, slow and lethargic, taking punch after punch without so much as a return. The culprits were everywhere: Bernie was overmatched, Wright was The Bust, Johnson was hurting, Gordon was shell-shocked, Pavano and Mussina were shaky and Rivera wasn’t dominant. Giambi? He would be turned away from my softball team at this point. Meanwhile George stewed in his owner's box as rumors began to swirl that Mel Stottlemyre would suddenly have a lot of free time on his hands. Torre fired back at the rumors and criticized Steinbrenner for even considering such a short-sighted move. The Bronx Zoo had returned.
The national media, meanwhile, reveled in the struggles of the "$200 Million Dollar Team." The vultures were out in full force as countless stories publicized the team’s woes from every possible angle. It seemed that every columnist had waited for this moment...the end of the Yankees. Nostalgia swarmed for the days of Barfield, Balboni and Stankiewicz, days when Don Mattingly sat on the bench with long hair and a bad back and Stump Merrill day-dreamed how many sandwiches a .500 season could buy him. These were grim times indeed.
But something happened on the way to 1990. The Yankees stopped losing. Completely. Following the Friday night debacle versus Oakland, Mike Mussina tossed a complete game shutout to stop the bleeding. Kevin Brown -- whose wall-punching fiasco and subsequent ALCS meltdown made him the antithesis of everything the '90s Yankees epitomized -- followed with seven shutout innings of his own in a second straight win. And so it began. Following another shutout win last night in Seattle, the team has incredibly and improbably won 10 consecutive games – their longest winning streak since 1998.
The national media begrudgingly turned their venom elsewhere, recognizing their moment in the sun had passed. The Yankees were back.
Where do they go from here? A win tonight against The Artist Formerly Known As Jamie Moyer would complete a sweep of their West Coast swing and send them steaming into Shea for a showdown with an old friend named Pedro. How's that for drama? Meanwhile, the continued surprising play of the Orioles and Blue Jays, as well as the steady start by the Sox, still has the Yanks looking up in their division. The team has plenty of work to do, but do you honestly doubt their chances? I didn't think so.
Yes, the Yankees are back. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
Friday night, May 6th, 10th inning, tie game. Light-hitting Oakland first baseman Scott Hatteberg pulls a bases loaded ground ball down the line to Tino Martinez, the Yankees normally sure-handed first baseman. Tonight would be an exception though. Martinez boots the ball, scoops it up, and fires wide past Jorge Posada at home. In his haste, he had failed to even touch up at first base. Everyone is safe, two runs score on the play. The Yankees would make three errors in all in the fateful inning, eventually losing a game that dropped the team to 11-19, dead last in the American League East. It was the franchise's worst 30-game start in nearly 40 years.
The Yankees, it seemed, had officially hit rock bottom.
Their fans weren't far behind. I was one of the lucky ones, fortunate enough to be an active dollar drink night participant at Rogo's in Hoboken. I watched the gory climax, took a deep shot and followed that with an even deeper breath.
"This cannot continue," I said to myself.
"Common logic dictates a change," I continued.
"I'm hungry," I digressed.
Who could have predicted such a freefall? Following the humiliation that was the 2004 ALCS, the Yankees were supposed to be locked and re-loaded, keyed by the trade for Randy Johnson, a transaction that secured the coveted ace they had missed so dearly against the Red Sox. Things started off well enough -- Johnson beat the Sox in the season opener and the team followed that with a second win over their hated rivals. A sweep was in the air when Joe Torre summoned Mariano Rivera to close out the series finale. Rivera buckled however, and the Sox escaped the Stadium with a win.
Watching Rivera falter again, as he did so famously the previous October, seemed to knock the wind out of the team. They danced with .500 for the season's first week before the losing march began. They looked old, slow and lethargic, taking punch after punch without so much as a return. The culprits were everywhere: Bernie was overmatched, Wright was The Bust, Johnson was hurting, Gordon was shell-shocked, Pavano and Mussina were shaky and Rivera wasn’t dominant. Giambi? He would be turned away from my softball team at this point. Meanwhile George stewed in his owner's box as rumors began to swirl that Mel Stottlemyre would suddenly have a lot of free time on his hands. Torre fired back at the rumors and criticized Steinbrenner for even considering such a short-sighted move. The Bronx Zoo had returned.
The national media, meanwhile, reveled in the struggles of the "$200 Million Dollar Team." The vultures were out in full force as countless stories publicized the team’s woes from every possible angle. It seemed that every columnist had waited for this moment...the end of the Yankees. Nostalgia swarmed for the days of Barfield, Balboni and Stankiewicz, days when Don Mattingly sat on the bench with long hair and a bad back and Stump Merrill day-dreamed how many sandwiches a .500 season could buy him. These were grim times indeed.
But something happened on the way to 1990. The Yankees stopped losing. Completely. Following the Friday night debacle versus Oakland, Mike Mussina tossed a complete game shutout to stop the bleeding. Kevin Brown -- whose wall-punching fiasco and subsequent ALCS meltdown made him the antithesis of everything the '90s Yankees epitomized -- followed with seven shutout innings of his own in a second straight win. And so it began. Following another shutout win last night in Seattle, the team has incredibly and improbably won 10 consecutive games – their longest winning streak since 1998.
The national media begrudgingly turned their venom elsewhere, recognizing their moment in the sun had passed. The Yankees were back.
Where do they go from here? A win tonight against The Artist Formerly Known As Jamie Moyer would complete a sweep of their West Coast swing and send them steaming into Shea for a showdown with an old friend named Pedro. How's that for drama? Meanwhile, the continued surprising play of the Orioles and Blue Jays, as well as the steady start by the Sox, still has the Yanks looking up in their division. The team has plenty of work to do, but do you honestly doubt their chances? I didn't think so.
Yes, the Yankees are back. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
posted by Dan Hanzus at 8:22 AM
4 comments
