It
Happens Every Spring
Email:
Dan
McCourt
Website: Take Him
Downtown
WITH
THE DOUBLE LOSS Wednesday, March
10, the Yankees' 2004 Spring
Training losing streak reached
four games, and the record
slipped to 3-5. Their pitching
had already allowed victorious
opponents 13, eight, and 10 runs
in the losses, and even seven
tallies in one of the three
victories.
One outfielder
was out with an appendectomy,
another with ligament damage in
his hand. A starting pitcher had
yet to throw to live hitting due
to a tender groin, another had
been slowed by a bad back, and a
third's debut was delayed by a
death in his family. And for good
measure a reliever that missed
last season entirely was
progressing slowly, the starting
catcher had a tender shoulder,
and the backup had been out a
week with a minor twinge (and
more on that later).
With that
depressing litany of potential
fan complaints, I could be
lamenting the sorry state of the
team, the agonizing moments I
have been subjected to as Yankee
pitching was battered over the
previous seven days, and Yankee
bats had gone largely quiet. But
although I was saddened by the
fact that we would have to rush
to Tampa Airport for the flight
back north after catching a split
squad in Dunedin this day, I
bring you glad tidings from the
headquarters of Yankees South. As
one who has been joining the
Yankees for the first week
(specifically) of Spring Training
for years, I urge members of the
Yankee family to take the
sentiment contained in this
column's title to heart. March
baseball is a different animal.
The glorious weather is a
no-brainer, but the activity on
the field is an acquired
taste.
Dunedin is a
small community devoted to their
Blue Jays, an understandable
feeling when you realize that the
municipality is dominated by
relocated, retired, and
vacationing citizens from Canada
(all very proud of their Canadian
big-league team). The several
thousand seats were filled by an
overflow crowd this afternoon,
just as they were the previous
Sunday when we attended their
2004 opener against the Phillies.
With a game time temperature of
66 degrees under a cloudless blue
sky for this Yankee day on the
schedule, the teams played a
brisk contest that clocked in at
2:36.
The
best thing that can be said for
the Yankee offense on the day
from my perspective was that it
was the aspect of the game that
allowed the quick playing time
and my timely escape to the
airport.
Yankee starter
Kevin Brown had his sinker ball
going, as only two guys in his
three innings elevated the ball,
but he did give up hits in each
inning, allowing runs on a Gabe
Gross triple in the second and a
Greg Myers safety in the third.
Although the Jays stroked some
balls cleanly, he obviously was
keeping his ball down, and at
this stage of the spring, an
outing that results in 2 runs
allowed and 55 pitches thrown
puts the righty pretty much on
target.
The best thing
that can be said for the Yankee
offense on the day from my
perspective was that it was the
aspect of the game that allowed
the quick playing time and my
timely escape to the airport.
Despite a perplexing inability by
Toronto starter Pat Hentgen and
the prospect David Bush to throw
first-pitch strikes, they quieted
the Yankee bats through four
innings, by which time the score
had ballooned to 6-0, Jays.
Throwing two innings apiece,
Hentgen's only first-pitch
success came when he faced
catcher Joe Girardi as his last
of seven batters, and Bush found
the zone on first tosses only
twice in his seven tries.
But the Yanks did
make some noise. Cairo and Travis
Lee (starting in right field
again) lined out hard in the
first, Andy Phillips singled in
the second, Bubba Crosby hit the
first of three deep balls when he
lined to Gross at the right field
wall in the third, and Lee
(again) pinned young outfielder
Alexis Rios to the centerfield
wall in the fourth.
But the best news
of the day (aside from the fact
that along with Donnie Baseball,
Mel Stottlemyre, Willie Randolph,
and Roy White, we had Luis Sojo
making his third base coaching
debut) was young lefty Sean Henn,
who took over in the sixth. Sean,
who has only been in 27 games
since signing for the 2001 season
due to a serious 2002 injury, and
who will turn 23 in a month,
raised the attention level around
Knology Field with the pop of his
fastball and the hard break of
his slider. He counted Eric
Hinske among his two strike out
victims (both swinging), and
popped two Jays up in a couple of
innings as well. The only blemish
followed an eight-pitch walk to
shortstop Chris Woodward in the
seventh, because Tony Clark, who
had relinquished first base to
Travis Lee and trotted out to
left field in the fifth, dropped
a fly ball to the warning
track.
Count, too, among
the ugly moments the resulting
double when third sacker Phillips
attempted a short hop on Greg
Myers's bouncer at the third-base
bag in the third, a Travis Lee
throw to second on one of three
missed double plays (Cairo and
Bush both bobbled balls that each
cost us two) in the eighth that
set up the last Jays' run, and
the second consecutive
disappointing performance from
young lefty prospect Alex Graman.
The Yanks survived the three runs
he allowed these same Jays in two
frames four days earlier on
Saturday in Legends Field, but
the four runs on a walk, double,
single, walk, and two singles
took this 2-0 contest and turned
it into a 6-0 spanking after
four. He did recover to throw a
one-two-three fifth on 10
pitches, but the damage was
done.
Tuesday, I sat
amid a flabbergasted Legends
Field crowd when Joe Torre still
had not gotten anyone up in the
bullpen after Gabe White allowed
the first seven batters of the
third inning not only to reach
safely, but to score.
Pulitzer
Prize-winning playwright
Tennessee Williams's classic
Sweet Bird of
Youth
opened in New York 45 years ago
this day. And that title holds
one of the keys to a successful
spring experience for a baseball
fan. It does no good (and makes
no sense) to grumble when your
team falls by an ugly number
because a young player (or an old
one) has a bad outing. Sean
Henn's two sparkling frames
showed unlimited promise, and
Bubba Crosby, still on the cusp
of being a prospect at 26, had a
big day. After being robbed in
the third, he tripled into the
right field corner in the fifth,
scoring the Yanks' first run on
Homer Bush's double. And in the
seventh he drove Joe Girardi in
with run number two on a ball
that to this writer, unfamiliar
as he is with the Knology Field
ground rules, was clearly a home
run, but was ruled only a
double.
On Tuesday, I sat
amid a flabbergasted Legends
Field crowd when Joe Torre still
had not gotten anyone up in the
bullpen after Gabe White allowed
the first seven batters of the
third inning not only to reach
safely, but to score. The
sentiment is understandable (I
want them to win when I plunk my
money down too), but that doesn't
make it sensible. If White can't
be allowed to work through a
problem, even if he is failing to
do so, in March, when can he? And
if we don't trot out both Alex
Graman and Sean Henn (along with
Sam Marsonek, whom we got with
Brandon Knight from Texas for
Chad Curtis four years ago, and
who finished today), how do we
learn that Henn (perhaps) can get
big-league hitters out?
And it's not just
about the young guys either.
Kenny Lofton, the new Yankee
centerfielder pressed into almost
full-time duty during Bernie
Williams' medical emergency,
hasn't been hitting the ball very
hard. But he took the first pitch
in all four at bats this day, and
has done so in 12 of the 15 plate
appearances I witnessed the last
seven days. Travis Lee singled in
four at bats, but drove the ball
to the wall two other times. And
although I was delighted with the
play of backup catcher John
Flaherty last year, he had better
be on the mend quickly, because
what Yankee fan in the fold at
least since 1996 won't be
delighted to hear that Joe
Girardi is looking ready to play?
We all know Joe will likely be a
broadcaster this season. By the
looks of his play, I'm not sure
anyone has told Joe.
Yes, the Yanks
were 3-5. And what's worse, in
six days, I was only 2-4. But
actor Ray Milland, who costarred
with the wonderful Paul Douglas
in a baseball classic years ago,
passed away on March 10, 18 years
ago. Ray and Paul could have told
you how to sum up a loss like
today's. They would have shrugged
and said,
It
Happens Every
Spring
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