Some people
might find the pomp and circumstance of Old Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium
annoying. I am not one of those people.
Despite the
already sweltering heat at 11am, I arrived bright and early for Sunday’s Old
Timers’ Day festivities because it’s one of my favorite days of the baseball
season, one I look forward to every year. I take pictures of every single
former New York Yankees player introduced and cheer wildly for all my old
favorites, including Tino Martinez and Bernie Williams, who got the loudest
ovations. I was kind of hoping Tino would hit one out again this year, but it
didn’t happen. Maybe because he wasn’t facing David Cone, who grooved him a
pitch in last year’s game and has no problem taking partial credit for that
homer.
The Clippers
beat up on the Bombers to a 6-2 score, but it was all in good fun. The game was
close heading into the last inning, but Sterling Hitchcock got slapped around a
little bit and this being an Old Timers’ Day, there was no relief in sight.
Some of my favorite moments: Mick the Quick still hustling, with Rivers nearly
beating out a grounder to short to start the game, Tino’s infield popup that
nobody bothered to try to catch, Homer Bush, ever the good sport, donning the
catcher’s gear and bumping into the home-plate umpire in futile pursuit of a
foul ball. I was also glad to see Bernie have a good day, driving a ball out to
Rickey Henderson in centerfield for a sacrifice fly and hitting a line drive for
his second ribbie in his next at-bat. I also got a kick out of seeing Tanyon
Sturtze come off the mound to catch a popup, something current pitchers are
reluctant to do, as part of a 1-2-3 inning and then head out to right field to
replace Paul O’Neill. 
The bonus of
the day was that one of my favorite current Yankees, Phil Hughes, pitched a
fantastic game. I was beginning to feel like I was Phil’s jinx after the 1st
inning when he gave up those two runs. He has gotten hammered in a couple of previous
starts I attended. After that rough first frame, I vowed that I would never
attend another one of his starts if he lost, just in case I was in fact his
jinx (yes, I can be ridiculously superstitious when it comes to baseball). But
luckily for me, I mean for Hughes, he took the bull by the horns and pitched an
outstanding game, surviving what must have been brutal on-the-field conditions
to throw shutout ball the rest of the way.
So my
favorite youngster pitched a hell of a game after my favorite old timers had
the time of their lives. It was a good day all around, despite the heat. But
after sweating through two baseball games this weekend, I may avoid the stadium
for a while, at least until this heat wave breaks.
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