Top 15 Craziest Games In Yankee History

Andy Hawkins, July 1, 1990

These are my choices for the Top 15 Craziest Games In Yankee History. I decided that I couldn't limit it to 10. As you can see, 2 of them fell on this day of the year, July 1. And it won't surprise anyone that 6 of the 15 are against the Boston Red Sox.

I am listing these in chronological order, rather than in order of craziness.

1. September 3, 1906, Hilltop Park, Manhattan: The Yankees, still known as the New York Highlanders, are in a 3-way battle for the American League Pennant, with the Chicago White Stockings (later the White Sox) and the Cleveland Naps (so named for their star and manager, Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, later to become the Indians).

The defending Pennant winners, the Philadelphia Athletics, are not yet out of the race, and are the opposition on this day. It is a doubleheader, and the Highlanders win the 1st game, 4-3, but not before shortstop Norman "Kid" Elberfeld is so angry at an umpire's decision that he chases him around the field. The home crowd of 20,000, basically all that could fit in the single-decked wooden firetrap at 165th & Broadway, where Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center would be built, boos him.

The 2nd game sees a pair of future Hall-of-Famers go at it, Jack Chesbro for New York and Rube Waddell for Philadelphia. The A's lead 3-1 going to the bottom of the 9th. The Yankees tie it up, and have the winning run on base.

But the A's allege baserunner interference on the part of Hall-of-Famer Willie Keeler. Their manager, Connie Mack, a former major league catcher -- and, at age 43, hardly the "Grand Old Man of Baseball" that he would become -- pulls his team off the field, and the umpires forfeit the game to the Highlanders.

2. October 1, 1932, Wrigley Field, Chicago: Game 3 of the World Series. There was bad blood between the Yankees and the Chicago Cubs, because the Cubs had acquired former Yankee shortstop Mark Koenig late in the season, he'd helped them win the Pennant, and had announced that, whatever their individual players' shares of the World Series money would be, he would get only half as much.

The Yankees, including Babe Ruth himself, publicly called the Cubs cheap, and there was some rough stuff in the 1st 2 games at Yankee Stadium. When Ruth and his wife Claire got off the train at Union Station in Chicago, Cub fans were waiting for them, throwing garbage at them, and spitting on them. Neither was naive: The Babe had been treated badly before, and Mrs. Ruth, under her maiden name of Claire Hodgson, was an actress and used to rough customers. But this was over the line.

The Yankees took a 4-1 lead, including home runs by Ruth and Lou Gehrig. But the Cubs tied it up in the bottom of the 4th. Ruth led off the top of the 5th, and the Cub fans were abusing him like crazy. In the Cubs dugout, the "bench jockeying" was nasty as well.

Ruth was no stranger to this. Because of his large, wide nose and big lips, there had been suggestions that he was part black. Research into his family history showed him to be almost completely German -- in fact, because his grandparents were born in Pennsylvania, before moving to Baltimore, they were "Pennsylvania Dutch" -- ethnically Amish, if practicing Catholics.

But that didn't stop people from indulging in rumors, and one of the names he was sometimes called was "(N-word) Lips." On one memorable occasion, which may be apocryphal, he heard this particular insult, walked over to the opposing dugout, and said, "Listen, you guys, call me 'bastard' or 'cocksucker,' or whatever you want, but lay off the personal stuff, would ya?"

Charlie Root was pitching for the Cubs, and he threw a called strike. The Babe didn't like the pitch, and the Cubs' bench jockeying got worse. A home movie -- sadly, silent, and with all the crowd noise, we probably wouldn't be able to hear what the players were saying anyway -- shows Ruth waving he hand at the Cub dugout, a classic "Ah, go on, ya bum" gesture.

Legend has it that there were only 3 pitches in this at-bat. In fact, Root's next 2 pitches were out of the strike zone, and called balls. His 4th pitch was called a strike. The home movie shows Ruth pointing directly at Root -- twice. His arm is not extended. Contrary to legend, he is not pointing at a spot beyond the outfield fence, as if to say, "I'm going to hit the next pitch there."

But he is sending a message. Cubs catcher Gabby Hartnett claimed Ruth said, "It only takes one." Another source said Ruth said, "You got one more, kid!" (To the Babe, who was terrible with names, if you were a young guy, you were "Kid"; if you were older, you were "Doc"; and if he didn't like you, or sometimes even if he did, you were "You son of a bitch!") Gehrig, in the on-deck circle, told a reporter that what Ruth yelled at Root was, "I'm gonna hit the next pitch right down your goddamned throat!"

So, yes, Babe Ruth called his shot.

Root threw him one more pitch. The Babe crushed it to dead center field. Longtime Cub observers said it was the longest home run ever hit in Wrigley Field to that point. The now-familiar center field scoreboard wouldn't go up until 1937, and no player has ever hit it with a home run. Had it been there in 1932, the Babe's blast might have hit it.

The crowd knew that the Babe had made his point, and, like the Russian fans turning from Drago to Balboa in Rocky IV, switched sides, and cheered him.

The next batter was Gehrig, and he also hit his 2nd home run of the game. The Yankees hung on to win, 7-5, and completed the sweep the next day.

3. September 3, 1939, Fenway Park, Boston: On the anniversary of the 1st game on this list, a similar deal. Another Sunday doubleheader. The Sox won the opener 12-11. In the nightcap, the Sox got 2 home runs from rookie Ted Williams, and 1 from their shortstop and manager, Joe Cronin. The Yankees got homers from Joe DiMaggio and Joe Gordon.

It was tied 5-5 after 7 innings. At the time, Massachusetts law had a 6:30 PM curfew for Sunday sporting events. In the top of the 8th, the Yankees take a 7-5 lead. Knowing that the curfew is coming up fast, they want to get the game in. So they start making dumb outs, including bad attempts to steal home plate. The Red Sox do what they can to prolong the game.

Finally, Cronin goes to the home plate umpire, Cal Hubbard -- also a lineman who will make the Pro Football, as well as the Baseball, Hall of Fame, the only man to be in both -- and says that the game should be forfeited to the Red Sox, because what the Yankees are doing is illegal. Except Hubbard knows that this isn't true. Ordinarily, making outs on purpose would be trying to lose on purpose, thus "fixing" the game, possibly for the benefit of gamblers. But, this time, they're doing it to try to win the game, so it's allowed.

The angry Red Sox fans start throwing garbage onto the field. Hubbard realizes that the field can't be cleared before 6:30, and orders the game forfeited to the Yankees. It didn't matter in the standings: While the Sox were in 2nd place, the Yankees were running away with the Pennant. Still, it was another wild chapter in baseball's nastiest rivalry.

4. October 3, 1947, Ebbets Field, Brooklyn: Game 4 of the World Series. Against the Brooklyn Dodgers, Bill Bevens has a no-hitter going into the 9th inning. No pitcher had ever thrown a no-hitter in a World Series game. But he'd been shaky: He'd walked 8 batters going into the 9th, so it wasn't going to be "a no-hit, no-run game." The Yankee lead was 2-1, not 2-0. So the game was already rather unusual.

Bruce Edwards leads off the bottom of the 9th, and flies to left. Two outs to go. But Bevens issues his 9th walk of the game, to Carl Furillo. Johnny "Spider" Jorgensen pops up to 1st. One out to go. The pitcher's spot in the order is up. The pitcher is Hugh Casey, he of the pitch that led to Mickey Owen's passed ball in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 4 of the 1941 World Series, between these same teams -- a game that was another contender for this list.

Dodger manager Burt Shotton sends Pete Reiser to the plate. A 3-time All-Star, a 2-time National League stolen base champion, and a former batting champion, injuries have left Reiser a shell of his former self. He had been playing on a badly injured ankle. But Shotton still has confidence in him.

Shotton also sends Al Gionfriddo in to pinch-run for Furillo, who, though a great right fielder with an arm that got him nicknamed "The Reading Rifle," was not fleet of foot. Gionfriddo does what Shotton expects of him, and steals 2nd base successfully. That leaves 1st base open. Two of baseball's "unwritten rules" have come into conflict here: You want to set up the force play at any base, but you don't want to put the winning run on base.

Yankee manager Bucky Harris, figuring Reiser's bad ankle makes him a baserunning liability, decides to walk him intentionally -- Bevens' 10th walk. Except Shotton is already a move ahead of Harris, and replaces him with speedy Eddie Miksis.

The next batter was supposed to be Eddie Stanky. Earlier in the year, Ewell Blackwell of the Cincinnati Reds had won 16 straight games. The 8th was a no-hitter. The 9th was against the Dodgers, and he was 2 outs away from matching his former Reds teammate Johnny Vander Meer with back-to-back no-hitters -- and against the same team Vander Meer completed his against in 1938, the Dodgers. But Stankey hit one up the middle, through Blackwell's legs, and the tall pitcher couldn't bend down in time to get it.

But Shotton plays another hunch, and replaces Stanky with Harry "Cookie" Lavagetto. A 4-time All-Star, Lavagetto was also nearing the end of the line. But he has enough left to smack a Bevens delivery to the opposite field, off the weirdly angled right field wall, and Tommy Henrich can't get to it in time. Henrich throws the ball back to the infield, but it is too late: Not only is the no-hitter gone, but Gionfriddo has scored the tying run, and Miksis has scored the winning run. Dodgers 3, Yankees 2. The Series is tied.

The Yankees won Game 5. The Dodgers won Game 6, with Gionfriddo making a spectacular catch off a drive by DiMaggio. The Yankees won Game 7, and Bevens was one of the pitchers they used. Neither Bevens, nor Gionfriddo, nor Lavagetto ever appeared in another major league game.

The Yankees had won. However, like 1948 (Game 1, Braves over Indians), 1975 (Game 6, Red Sox over Reds), and arguably 2001 (Games 4 and 5, Yankees over Diamondbacks), this World Series would be remembered most for a game won by the team that ultimately lost the Series.

5. October 13, 1960, Forbes Field, Pittsburgh: Game 7 of the World Series. We are approaching the 60th Anniversary of this epic. The way it ended sometimes obscures how wild the game, and the entire Series, was. The Yankees won Game 2 16-3, Game 3 10-0, and Game 6 12-0. But the Pittsburgh Pirates won Game 1 6-4, Game 4 3-2, and Game 5 5-2. In other words, the games the Yankees won, the average score was Yankees 13, Pirates 1; the games the Pirates won, the average score was Pirates 4, Yankees 3.

But they all counted the same, setting up a Game 7 that is sometimes called the greatest game in baseball history.

The Pirates take a 2-0 lead in the 1st inning, on a home run by Rocky Nelson. They make it 4-0 in the 2nd. Bill "Moose" Skowron leads off the top of the 5th with a home run to make it 4-1. The Yankees take a 5-4 lead in the top of the 6th, highlighted by a Yogi Berra home run, and make it 7-4 in the top of the 8th.

Now comes the bottom of the 8th, which renders this game not just a seesaw affair, but a crazy one. Gino Cimoli leads off with a single. Bill Virdon hits a ground ball that hits a pebble in the infamously bad Forbes Field infield. Yankee shortstop Tony Kubek seems to be perfectly placed to field it and turn a double play, erasing Cimoli and Virdon. But, after hitting the pebble, the ball jumps up and hits Kubek in the throat. He does down, and Virdon reaches 1st safely. Yankee manager Casey Stengel has to send Joe DeMaestri in to play shortstop.

Dick Groat singles Cimoli home. Stengel makes a pitching change, replacing Bobby Shantz with Jim Coates. Bob Skinner bunts the runners over. Coates gets Nelson to fly to left, and, with Forbes having dimensions very similar to the pre-renovation original Yankee Stadium, Virdon has to stay on 3rd, Groat on 2nd. Roberto Clemente singles Virdon home. And then Hal Smith hits a home run to make it 9-7 Pirates.

But the Yankees have 1 more chance. Bobby Richardson leads off the top of the 9th with a single off Bob Friend. Dale Long, himself a former Pirate, also singles. Pirate manager Danny Murtaugh replaces Friend with Harvey Haddix. Roger Maris pops up for the 1st out. Mickey Mantle beats out a grounder to 2nd, and Richardson scores to make it 9-8. Long gets to 3rd. Gil McDougald is sent in to run for Long.

Yogi hits a sharp grounder to 1st. Nelson takes it and runs to 1st. Two out. No more force play. Mantle realizes that if he goes back to 1st, or if he runs to 2nd, it's a double play. Somehow, he quickly figures out what he can do: He fakes running toward 2nd, and Nelson begins the process of throwing to 2nd. This allows Mickey to dive back to 1st base safely. While this is happening, McDougald scores the tying run.

And Mickey is still on 1st, with the run that could win the World Series. But Skowron grounds to short, and Mickey ends up out at 2nd anyway. So it stays 9-9.

Stengel brings Ralph Terry in to pitch the bottom of the 9th. Bill Mazeroski leads off. If this at-bat had ended any other way, the 1st thing anyone would remember about Maz would be "best-fielding 2nd baseman of his generation, maybe of all time." Instead, he becomes the only man, to this day, after to win a World Series with a home run in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 7. Pirates 10, Yankees 9.

The Yankees had outscored the Pirates 55-27. But it's not the most runs, it's the most wins. Mantle later said not only that he cried on the entire flight back to New York, but also that, of the 12 World Series he played in, this was the only one in which he thought the team that played better didn't win.

6. October 2, 1978, Fenway Park: American League Eastern Division Playoff. Another one on the short list for the title of "Greatest Baseball Game Ever Played." With the possible exception of the 1951 Giant-Dodger Playoff that ended with the Bobby Thomson home run, no single game has been written about more than this one.

The story is familiar. The Yankees were defending World Champions, but fell into dissension and injuries, while the Red Sox were running away with the AL East. The Yankees changed managers and got healthy, the Sox developed their own injuries, and the Yankees completed a comeback from 14 games back with a 4-game sweep at Fenway. The race came down to the end, and both teams finished with 99 wins, requiring the Playoff.

The game is relatively calm for 6 innings, with the Sox ahead 2-0. But the Fenway wind, which aided a Carl Yastrzemski drive that became a home run down the right field line, shifted. In the top of the 7th, the Yankees get 2 runners on. Bucky Dent breaks his bat and fouls a ball off his foot. He gets a replacement bat and, despite being the least likely home run hitter in the starting lineup, hits one to make it 3-2.

Sox fans like to talk about how Dent's replacement bat was corked, but they have no credibility when talking about other teams cheating.

The Yankees make it 5-2 in the 8th, but the Sox make it 5-4 in their half. The bottom of the 9th begins benignly when Dwight Evans flies to left. But Rick Burleson works Goose Gossage for a walk.

Jerry Remy hits a fly to right field. Today, this would be an easy out for Lou Piniella. But, back then, Fenway didn't have that big press box and luxury seating section behind home plate, which blocks out the Sun. This time, the Sun was in Lou's eyes. He can't see.

Desperate, he sticks his arms out like a hockey goalie, hoping the ball hits one of them. At the last instant, he sees the ball land in front of him, and he leans to his left and snatches it. Burleson, representing the tying run, doesn't know whether he's going to catch it, so has to hold up, and can only advance to 2nd, not 3rd.

Jim Rice flies to right, advancing Burelson to 3rd. Yastrzemski, one of the great clutch hitters of all time, comes up, but the Goose gets him to pop up to 3rd. As a Boston newspaper headline put it, "Desinty 5, Red Sox 4." The Yankees went on to win the World Series.

7. July 24, 1983, Yankee Stadium I, Bronx: The Pine Tar Game. This is not a crazy game for the 1st 8 innings. The Kansas City Royals score a run in the top of the 2nd. Dave Winfield ties it in the bottom half with a home run. The Royals make it 2-1 in the 4th, and 3-1 in the 6th. But the Yankees make it 4-3 in the bottom of the 6th.

With 2 outs in the top of the 9th, U L Washington (that's how his name is written, no periods) singles, and George Brett takes the Goose deep, to make it 5-4 Royals. But manager Billy Martin comes out to talk to the umpires, and, this time, Billy is in full control. He points out that Brett has pine tar on his bat, surpassing the legal limit.

The umpires measure it, and he's called out, restoring the 4-3 Yankee lead and ending the game. Brett has a fit, and has to be held back by his teammates, but there's nothing he can do.

His team files an appeal. Despite being a former Yankee general manager (and the son of another), AL President Lee MacPhail does something no League President had ever done before, or has since: He overruled his umpires. Unofficially, we have since seen, many times, that the baseball establishment considers it okay to cheat if you do it against the Yankees. This may be the only time when it's actually been made official.

MacPhail rules that the game must be resumed, with 2 outs in the top of the 9th and the Royals leading 5-4. An open date for both teams is found, August 18, and the game is resumed. Although an angry George Steinbrenner decided to let anybody with a ticket to the original version of the game into Yankee Stadium free of charge, since Yankee Fans have been screwed over by this as much as their team has, only about 1,200 people take him up on the offer.

Billy, a master of spite, decides that the game is already a farce, so he decides to deepen the point. He puts pitcher Ron Guidry in center field, and 1st baseman Don Mattingly at 2nd base -- making Mattingly one of the very few lefthanded-fielding 2nd basemen ever.

He then appeals at each base, suggesting that the runners hadn't touched them, and should be called out on that basis. But the umpire has a notarized affidavit signed by all the umpires from the original game, stating that all bases had been touched.

Brett was not in the game, either, because his ejection from the game was allowed to stand. Which makes no sense: In a real court of law, any crime committed by someone in response to a false charge gets thrown out. At any rate, he did not even show up for the resumption, instead going on to Baltimore, the Royals' next stop.

George Frazier strikes Hal McRae out to end the top of the 9th. Dan Quisenberry pitches the bottom of the 9th for the Royals. He gets Mattingly to fly to center, Roy Smalley to fly to left, and Oscar Gamble to ground to 2nd.

The game did have meaning in the standings: The Yankees were only 2 games behind Toronto in the AL East on July 24, while the Royals were 1 game behind the Texas Rangers in the AL West. As it turned out, though, none of those 4 teams won their Division: The Baltimore Orioles won the East, and the White Sox won the West, with the Orioles winning the Pennant, and then beating the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.

8. August 29, 1986, Kingdome, Seattle: The Yankees are in another dogfight with the Red Sox for the AL East, and in another injury crisis. And the last thing they need is a Pacific Coast roadtrip. The Yankees always had trouble with the Kingdome, its awful artificial turf, its gray roof, and its lousy atmosphere.

They score 3 runs on the Seattle Mariners in the 1st inning, on a Mattingly homer, and a Rickey Henderson homer makes it 5-0 in the 2nd. But the normally reliable Guidry has an absolute meltdown in the bottom of the 2nd: Single, double, single, home run, groundout, single. Piniella is now the manager, and he replaces Guidry with Brian Fisher, who is no better: Single, single, walk, single, RBI groundout, single, flyout. Mariners 8, Yankees 5. After 2 innings.

Bob Shirley makes it worse in the 4th, 12-5 Seattle. Finally, the Yankees have had enough in the top of the 5th: Henderson leads off with another home run. Willie Randolph grounds out, but Mattingly and Dave Winfield work Mark Langston, normally a Yankee Killer, for a walk. Ron Kittle doubles Mattingly home. After a pitching change, Dan Pasqua singles home Winfield and Kittle. Wayne Tolleson reaches on an error. Claudell Washington grounds out, but Mike Easler reaches on another error, which scores Pasqua. 12-11 Seattle.

But Piniella has pinch-hit himself into a corner. Washington had batted for catcher Joel Skinner. Easler had pinch-hit for Mike Fischlin, who was already a backup shortstop. And Pasqua had pinch-hit for left fielder Gary Roenicke.

So rookie Juan Espino is sent behind the plate. Easler is left in the game to replace Roenicke. Tolleson is moved from 3rd base to shortstop. Pasqua is installed at 1st base. And, with the football mentality of "the best athlete," Piniella moves Mattingly to 3rd base. Mattingly is lefthanded, and because a lefty 3rd baseman would have to turn around to field a grounder and throw to 1st, there have been very few. But Lou guesses that Mattingly is his best remaining choice.

Sure enough, in the bottom of the 5th, Jim Presley hits a grounder right at Mattingly. Unfazed, he starts an inning-ending double play. In the 6th, Danny Tartabull and Ray Quinones hit grounders to 3rd, and Mattingly handles them. In the 8th, Phil Bradley and Presley both ground to 3rd, and Mattingly properly handles those.

Pasqua leads off the 7th with a game-tying home run. Winfield leads off the top of the 9th with a walk. Kittle flies out. Pasqua walks, sending Winfield to 2nd. Tolleson flies out. And Espino doubles to center, making it 13-12 Yankees, and putting Tim Stoddard in position to be the winning pitcher.

Bottom of the 9th. Dave Righetti on to close it out. Alvin Davis grounds to Mattingly, who fields his 6th chance at 3rd base without an error. I thought I remembered a Mariner bunting to test Mattingly, but none did. Bob Kearney flies to left. Quinones singles to center, and now, in the homer-happy Kingdome, the Mariners have the tying run on and the winning run on base. But the batter is Steve Yeager, once a catcher who played in 3 World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Yankees, but now playing out the string in Seattle. He flies to right, and it was over.

It was the 32nd of 46 saves Righetti would notch that year, a single-season MLB record that he didn't hold for long. But it was the wildest game of a weird season for the Yankees, who ended up finishing 2nd to the Red Sox. This time, unlike 1949 and 1978, they could not overcome their injuries and the Red Sox.

9. July 1, 1990, 30 years ago today, Comiskey Park, Chicago: Now, I come to the reason behind this post, because this might be the craziest one of all. Imagine pitching a no-hitter, and losing 4-0. Andy Hawkins doesn't have to imagine it: He did it.

This is the Yankees' last game at Comiskey, which was closing after 80 years as home of the White Sox. They were in the middle of their worst season of my lifetime, one in which they would finish last for the 1st time since 1966 -- the only other times in their history being 1908 and 1912. George Steinbrenner had just been suspended from operating the team. This allowed Gene Michael to begin the process of rebuilding.

One of the guys who is part of that was Jim Leyritz, a catcher who had made his major league debut the day before, in a Yankee win. He played out of position, at 3rd base, and hit 2 home runs. But today, manager Carl "Stump" Merrill starts Leyritz in left field, a position he has literally never played before, at any level.

Both Hawkins and White Sox starter Greg Hibbard get through the 1st 4 innings without allowing a baserunner. But in a foreshadowing of what was to come, Hawkins walks 2 batters in the 5th. He gets out of it, though, and pitches a perfect 6th. He walks a batter in the 7th, but still doesn't allow a hit. And now, we could talk about it.

Of course, you can't say the word "no-hitter" while one is in progress, because that jinxes it. It is "the other N-word." Of course, lots of people say it, and the achievement ends up being completed anyway. And, according to baseball historian John Thorn, for some reason, the words "perfect game" can be spoken aloud without jinxing the achievement.

The Yankees got 2 singles in the top of the 6th, 2 more in the top of the 7th, and a player reached on an error in the top of the 8th. But the game is still scoreless when the bottom of the 8th began. And now, it is getting later in the day, and the Sun is right over Comiskey's roof, making it tough for the outfielders to see, not unlike the conditions in the 9th inning at Fenway during the Bucky Dent Game.

Hawkins gets first Ron Karkovice, then Scott Fletcher, to pop up to 2nd base, and it looks like the inning will end benignly, and give the Yankees the chance to win the game in the top of the 9th. What follows is one of the most shocking baseball sequences I've ever seen on WPIX-Channel 11, and I still have the videotape in my basement.

The batter is Sammy Sosa, not yet the steroid-riddled slugger who would thrill people under false pretenses across town at Wrigley Field. He hits a sharp grounder to 3rd, and Mike Blowers can't handle it. He picks it up and throws to 1st. Sosa dives headfirst, and beats the throw. There is no immediate decision from the official scorer, but it is ruled an error.

Sosa steals 2nd. Ozzie Guillen, later to manage the Pale Hose to their 2005 World Championship, draws a walk. Lance Johnson also works Hawkins for a walk, and now the bases are loaded with nobody out in a tie game -- despite Hawkins still having a no-hitter.

The batter is Robin Ventura, who would eventually make his mark in postseason play for both New York teams. This time, he hits a lazy fly ball to left field. But the Sun is making the ball hard to see. And Leyritz has never played the position before. He can't see the ball, even with sunglasses. He gets right under it, but closes his glove too early, and the ball bounces off his fingers and rolls away. All 3 runners score, and Ventura ends up on 2nd base.

And Hawkins still has the no-hitter. But he's losing 3-0. In the visiting team TV broadcast booth, Phil Rizzuto is "Holy cow"ing away, and George Grande, better known as an announcer for the Cincinnati Reds, tells the Scooter, "There isn't a hole deep enough that you want to crawl into." "You," of course, meaning Leyritz.

The batter is Iván Calderón. He hits the ball to right field, where Jesse Barfield is one of the best fielders at the position. But the Sun bothers him, too, and the far more experienced outfielder makes the exact same mistake as the rookie Leyritz: He closes his mitt too early, and the ball hits it and rolls away. Ventura scores. It's 4-0 Chicago.

Rizzuto yells, "Holy cow, what's comin' off here?" Grande asks him if, in 50 seasons' involvement with the Yankees, he's ever seen anything like this before. He admits he hasn't. Finally, the inning ends when one of the heroes of the 1986 game in Seattle, Dan Pasqua, bats for the White Sox, and pops up to short.

I switch over to WOR-Channel 9, where the Mets are about to finish off the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. Their announcers bring up what's happening at Comiskey. Ralph Kiner mentions that only 1 other pitcher has ever pitched a complete game no-hitter and lost, and says, "I think it was Ken Johnson." Tim McCarver, playing for the St. Louis Cardinals and helping them win the World Series that year of 1964, confirms that it was the pitcher for the team then known as the Houston Colt .45's, becoming the Astros the next year: "It is Ken."

I switch back to Channel 11, and I see that the fight has gone out of the Yankees. Mattingly flies deep to center. Steve Balboni, a one-dimensional player (a slugger who struck out too much to justify it) who had no speed, reaches on an error, with some irony. Merrill sends Tolleson in to pinch-run for him. But Barfield, who certainly had power, doesn't help, grounding into a game-ending double play.

After the game, for WPIX, Hawkins is interviewed by, of all people, Tom Seaver. Now broadcasting for the Yankees, Seaver was "The Franchise" for the Mets, but pitched the only no-hitter of his career for the Reds. But even he, who has seen some remarkable things in his baseball life -- some good, some not -- finds this one, to borrow a Met adjective, amazing.

Hawkins is circumspect, accepting responsibility for walking batters and putting himself in position to lose, but knowing that now, he is a part of baseball history.

A year later, Major League Baseball convenes a committee to re-examine rules, and one of their decisions is that a game can only be defined as a "no-hitter" if the game is a complete game with no hits allowed. Not only does this mean that a player who pitches 9 no-hit innings, then loses the no-hitter in extra innings, no longer gets the credit for it, but Hawkins, who got credit for a complete game, lost credit for the no-hitter because he pitched "only" 8 innings. In other words, he got robbed.

The craziest game in the worst Yankee season of my lifetime -- and maybe the craziest game in any Yankee Fan's lifetime.

10. October 17, 1999, Fenway Park: Game 4 of the AL Championship Series is a similar story to that 1939 game at Fenway. This one was relatively quiet for 8 innings, after which the Yankees led 3-2. But Boston's bullpen and defense both collapsed. And 2nd base umpire Tim Tschida called Jose Offerman out when Chuck Knoblauch never touched him.

Sox fans were furious, and when the inning was capped by a home run by Ricky Ledee, making the score 9-2, the Fenway Faithful threw garbage onto the field. It took 12 minutes to get it all off. There was no threat of forfeiting the game to the Yankees, though.

There are few things that Yankee Fans and Red Sox fans can agree on. One is that Tschida was a lousy umpire. I saw him cost the Yankees a few games over the years, but never one as big as this. The Yankees clinched the next night, and Sox fans still believe the umpires screwed them. This is not true: The Sox made 10 errors in the 5 games. If New Englanders want to blame anyone for the Sox losing the Pennant to the Yankees, blame the Sox themselves.

11. October 16, 2003, Yankee Stadium I: Game 7 of the ALCS. Maybe I should make this a dual entry, with Game 3 of this series, at Fenway. Pedro Martinez, Karim Garcia, Roger Clemens, Manny Ramirez, Don Zimmer. I didn't think any postseason series, even Yankees vs. Red Sox, could top the 1999 ALCS for craziness, but by the end of Game 3, this one already had.

So the Yankees fall behind 4-0 to the cheating Red Scum in the 4th inning, Joe Torre gambles by taking Clemens out and replacing him with Mike Mussina, Jason Giambi hits 2 home runs to make it 4-2, and the David Ortiz, the big fat lying cheating bastard, takes David Wells deep to make it 5-2, and the Sox are 5 outs away in the bottom of the 8th.

And that's when Pedro gets tired. Derek Jeter doubles to right. Bernie Williams singles him home. Sox manager Grady Little goes out to talk to Pedro, but instead of bringing the lefthanded Alan Embree in to pitch to the lefthanded Hideki Matsui and the switch-hitting, but not as good from the right side, Jorge Posada, leaves the righthanded Pedro in. Matsui hits a ground-rule double to right, and Posada doubles to center. Tie game.

Mariano Rivera gives it all he has for 3 innings. Tim Wakefield throws Aaron Boone a knuckleball to lead off the bottom of the 11th, and the Yankees win the Pennant.

12. July 1, 2004, 16 years ago today, Yankee Stadium I: "The Curse of the Bambino," if it ever existed, has one last gasp in it. Unfortunately, it doesn't save that for the postseason. It saved it for this regular-season clash at the big ballyard in The Bronx.

The Yankees enter the top of the 6th with a 3-1 lead, aided by home runs off Pedro by Tony Clark and Posada. But the Sox tie it in the top of the 7th, including a home run by Manny. The Yankees strand men on 1st and 2nd in the 7th, and the bases loaded with 1 out in the 9th, sending the game to extra innings.

Mariano only pitches 2 innings this time, holding the Sox scoreless. The Yankees strand men on 2nd and 3rd in the 10th. The Sox get men on 2nd and 3rd in the top of the 12th, and Trot Nixon sends a ball foul toward left field. Derek Jeter races over, catches it, and seems to fly into the stands.

There had been occasions when people had called Jeter "Superman." This time, he actually seemed to fly. But he landed face-first onto a seat, and was bleeding. Maybe he wasn't Superman. Maybe he was Batman.

Miguel Cairo leads off the bottom of the 12th with a triple, and the Yankees ended up loading the bases with 1 out again, but couldn't get a run home. In the top of the 13th, Manny leads off the top of the 13th with another home run, and the Sox lead 4-3. Curtis Leskanic gets the 1st 2 outs in the bottom of the 13th, and it looks like this crazy game will end quietly.

It doesn't. Ruben Sierra singles up the middle. Cairo doubles him home to tie it. And John Flaherty hits a long fly ball into the left-field corner, and Cairo scores. Yankees 5, Red Sox 4, completing a sweep.

Flaherty has built his broadcasting career on this one hit. Then again, Fran Healy was a backup catcher who built a broadcasting career on less than that.

The Red Sox used all their nonpitchers, except for their alleged best player, Nomar Garciaparra. Soon, they traded him. And their World Championship * was on.

Were the games in the 2004 ALCS crazy? Yes. Would they have been less so had the Sox not cheated? Almost certainly.

13. May 16, 2006, Yankee Stadium I: Going into the bottom of the 2nd inning, it is Texas Rangers 9, Yankees 0. There is no hope. Well, according to Baseball-Reference.com, there was a 2 percent chance of the Yankees winning the game. As the meme goes, "So, you're saying, there's a chance."

The Yankees score a run in the bottom of the 2nd. But the Rangers score again in the top of the 3rd. 10-1 Texas. The Yankees score 2 in the bottom of the 3rd, then 2 more in the bottom of the 5th. Then they break it open in the bottom of the 6th, including a home run by Jeter, and took an 11-10 lead. In the space of 9 at-bats, 1 go-through of the lineup, their chance of winning go from 9 percent to 72 percent.

Apparently, the Rangers don't like that math. It didn't help that Torre does something he did far too often: Bring Scott Proctor in to pitch. The 1st 2 batters he faces are Kevin Mench, who draws a walk, and Brad Wilkerson, who hits a home run. 12-11 Texas.

But singles by Johnny Damon and Jeter, and a sacrifice fly by Posada, tie the game in the bottom of the 7th. The game is still tied going into the 9th, but Mariano blows it: Single, sac bunt, walk, double. 13-12 Texas.

Bottom of the 9th. Damon leads off with a single. But Jeter grounds back to the pitcher, and Alex Rodriguez flies out to center. Now, in spite of the tying run being at 2nd and the winning run at the plate, the Yankees' chances of winning are 15 percent. Jorge Posada goes all Han Solo: "Never tell me the odds!" Here's John Sterling's call:

Swung on, and hit in the air to deep right! The ball is high! It is far! It is gone! It is a bottom of the 9th, 2-out, 2-run walkoff home run for Posada! Jorgie juiced one! He hits a 2-run home run to elevate the Yankees from a 13-12 loss to a 14-13 win! Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeeee Yankees win!

14. June 12, 2009, Yankee Stadium II, Bronx: The new Stadium is only 2 months old, and already, it needs an exterminator. Vermin are in the house. Unwanted pests. Not just the New York Mets, but their disgusting fans.

Robinson Cano opens the scoring with a home run in the 2nd. The Mets take a 2-1 lead in the top of the 3rd. In the bottom of the 3rd, Mark Teixeira hits one out to tie it up. Former Yankee Gary Sheffield homers in the top of the 5th to make it 6-3 Mets. Jeter homers in the bottom of the 5th to make it 6-4. In the bottom of the 6th, Cano singles, Posada walks, and Matsui cranks one. 7-6 Yankees.

But the Mets tie it in the top of the 7th, and take an 8-7 lead in the top of the 8th. That lead holds into the bottom of the 9th. Francisco Rodriguez, a.k.a. K-Rod, who had driven the Yankees nuts while pitching for the team now known as the Los Angeles Angels, gets Brett Gardner to pop up. Jeter singles and steals 2nd, but Damon strikes out. Teixeira is intentionally walked to set up the force play at any base (except home plate).

The batter is A-Rod, and he pops up to short right field. The least clutch player in baseball history (or so it seems) has blown it again. He knows it. He slams his bat down. Met 2nd baseman Luis Castillo drifts back. Perhaps not the easiest of plays, but it's one that a major league infielder should be able to make.

Castillo doesn't make it. He drops the ball. Jeter, running on the 2-out pitch, scores easily. Teix, not a fast runner, was running all the way, and he scores. Yankees 9, Mets 8. This is probably more of an ignominious loss for Met fans than it is a great win for Yankee Fans, but, after the way they treated us in the 1980s, and talked trash during the 1999 and 2000 postseasons, they deserve it.

15. April 21, 2012, Fenway Park: Since the Yankees had been the opponent for the Back Bay ballyard's 1st game, the schedule was set up so that they would be the opponent for its official 100th Anniversary game. That had been the day before, and, unlike that April 20, 1912 game, the Yankees won.

This time, it looks like the Sox will get revenge. They score 2 in the 1st inning, 3 in the 2nd, 2 in the 3rd and 2 in the 5th, making it 9-0 Boston. As the top of the 6th opens, the Yankees have less than a 1 percent chance of winning.

They get a run in that inning. Then they roll a couple of 7s. With 1 out in the top of the 7th, they get single, single, walk, home run by Nick Swisher, double, reach on an error, home run by Teixeira. 7 runs, 6 hits, 1 walk, 1 error. Leading off the top of the 8th: Single, walk, double, intentional walk, unintentional walk, ground-rule double, intentional walk, double, double, single, stolen base, single. 7 runs, 6 hits, 4 walks, no errors.

Yankees 15, Red Sox 9. The lead is so big (How big is it?), even Boone Logan can't blow it. Logan gets the Sox out 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 8th. But Joe Girardi leaves the lefty in to face the lefty Ortiz to lead off the 9th, and Big Papi singles. That's enough for Girardi: He brings Cody Eppley in to finish he game, and he gets a double play and a strikeout to put it in the books.

My 3,000th Post: The Babe Points

This is my 3,000th post. How to properly celebrate?

Uncle Mike posts a picture of one of his nieces. This is Mackenzie, back in May, right before her 1st birthday. I call it "The Babe Points."

October 1 Baseball Memories

Getting closer. At least I'm in the right month now.

October 1, 1932: Did he or didn't he? He may not have pointed to center field in Game 3 of the World Series against the Chicago Cubs and said, "I'm gonna hit the ball THERE." But the film certainly shows him pointing at pitcher Charlie Root. It looks like he's sending SOME sort of message. On the next pitch, boom. Message received. So, by my definition, yeah, Babe Ruth called his shot.

The last living player from either team was Charlie Devens, Yankee pitcher 1932-34, died August 13, 2003, at age 93. The last to have actually played in the game was Frank Crosetti, Yankee shortstop 1932-48, and coach 1949-68, died February 11, 2002, at age 91.

Also on this day, Joe DiMaggio makes his professional debut. Like Mickey Mantle, who would succeed him as the Yankees' center fielder, it was as a shortstop. Also like Mantle, it doesn't last long. A few weeks short of his 18th birthday, DiMag has been put into the lineup for the last game of the season for his hometown club, the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. A year later, he will become the best pro ballplayer west of St. Louis. Maybe the best east of it, too.

*

October 1, 1866: A crowd of 30,000 people, believed to be the largest in baseball history to that point, watches a game between the host Athletics (no connection to the American League team founded in 1901) and the Atlantics of Brooklyn, considered the best team in the country at the time.
The A's score 2 runs in the 1st inning, but the crowd rushes the field, and the game is called when they won't get off.

October 1, 1903, 110 years ago: The 1st World Series game is played, at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. Deacon Phillippe of the Pittsburgh Pirates outpitches Cy Young of the Boston Pilgrims. Jimmy Sebring of the proto-Red Sox hits the 1st World Series home run, but the Pirates win, 7-3.

Northeastern University's Cabot Gym is now on the site, and a statue of Young stands at the approximate location of the pitcher's mound.

October 1, 1921: Ray Schalk of the Chicago White Sox does something no catcher had ever done before, nor has since: He makes a putout at every base at least once in a game. The White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-5.

October 1, 1924: Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis bans New York Giants outfielder Jimmy O'Connell from playing in the World Series, after O'Connell confesses that he tried to bribe Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Heinie Sand to "go easy" in the season-ending series between the teams.

O'Connell also implicates 3 future Hall-of-Famers on his own team: Frankie Frisch, George "Highpockets" Kelly and Ross Youngs. Landis finds no evidence against them, and they are cleared to play. O'Connell, just 23 and with only 2 years of major league play under his belt, never plays professional ball again, and dies in 1976.

October 1, 1933, 80 years ago: Babe Ruth pitches for the last time, in order to draw a big crowd in the finale of a season in which the Yankees did not win. It doesn't work, only 25,000 fans come out.

The Babe goes the distance against the Red Sox. He gives up 5 runs on 12 hits and 3 walks, with no strikeouts… But the Yankees win, 6-5. Ruth also hits his 34th home run of the season, the 686th of his career, and retires with a career record of 94-46.

October 1, 1944: The St. Louis Browns clinch the American League Pennant. It is their first. They are the last of Major League Baseball's "Original 16" teams (a term not used back then) to do so. They will not win another until 1966, by which point they are the Baltimore Orioles.

There will not be another team winning their first Pennant until 1957, when the Milwaukee Braves do it – or, if you don't count moved teams, until 1969, when the Mets pull off their "Miracle."

*

October 1, 1949: Joe DiMaggio Day at Yankee Stadium. "I'd like to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee." The Yankees needed to win this game to make the next day, the last game of the season, the title decider. The Red Sox took a 4-0 lead, but the Yankees came back, and Johnny Lindell hit a home run in the 8th inning to give the Yankees the 5-4 win.

October 1, 1950: Dick Sisler hits a home run in the top of the 10th inning at Ebbets Field, and the Phillies beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 4-1, to clinch the National League Pennant. It is the only Pennant the Phils would win in a 75-year stretch from 1915 to 1980. This is the last major league game as a manager for Burt Shotton of the Dodgers.

Still alive from this game, 63 years later: For the Phillies, 2 reserves, Ralph "Putsy" Caballero, and Jackie Mayo, who was a defensive replacement for Sisler in the bottom of the 10th; for the Dodgers, Don Newcombe (who gave up Sisler's homer) and Tommy "Buckshot" Brown.  Stan Lopata, a backup catcher for the Phils who played in the game, died this past June 15.

Also today, the Philadelphia Athletics complete a massively disappointing 102-loss season by beating the Washington Senators, 5-3 at Shibe Park. It is the last game for manager Connie Mack: Approaching his 88th birthday, his sons Earle, Roy and Connie Jr. gang up on him and force him to finally retire as manager -- something he, as also the owner, did not want to do. Before the A's move to Kansas City, the Phillies, new owners of the ballpark, will rename it Connie Mack Stadium, and will erect a statue of him outside.

Shotton and Mack were the last managers to wear street clothes. Although no edict specifically mandates a skipper must wear a uniform, there is now a rule that states that a person not wearing a uniform, except medical personnel, isn't allowed on the field of play during a game.

*

October 1, 1961: Roger Maris makes it 61 in '61. He hit the record-breaking home run off Tracy Stallard.

Still alive from this game, 52 years later: For the Yankees, Yogi Berra, Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Hector Lopez, Jack Reed and Luis Arroyo. Whitey Ford, Bob Turley and Ralph Terry are still alive, but did not play in this game. Bob Hale, who pinch-hit and played 1st base in his last major league appearance, died last year. For the Red Sox: Stallard, Chuck Schilling (no relation to Curt), Frank Malzone (a Bronx native), Don Gile, Russ Nixon, and rookie left fielder Carl Yastrzemski.

Also on this day, after providing a venue for the Pacific Coast League's Los Angeles Angels from 1925 through 1957 and the major league expansion team with the same name this season, the West Coast version of Wrigley Field hosts its last professional baseball game. The Halos are defeated by the Tribe 8-5 in front of 9,868 fans. Wrigley West will be torn down in 5 years to make room for an eventual public playground and senior center.

*

October 1, 1964: The Red Sox beat the Indians, 4-2, in front of only 306 fans, the smallest in Fenway Park history.

October 1, 1967: A much happier day at Fenway. Carl Yastrzemski gets 4 hits, including a game-tying single in the bottom of the 6th, and cements the Triple Crown -- a feat that will not be achieved for another 45 years. Jim Lonborg pitches a complete game, and the Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-3, to eliminate the Twins from the American League race on the final day of a season with a rare 4-team race. The Chicago White Sox had been eliminated 2 days earlier.

But the Pennant is not yet clinched. If the Detroit Tigers can sweep a doubleheader with the California Angels, they would forge a tie with the Red Sox-Twins winner, and force a one-game Playoff the next day.

In those pre-Internet days, CBS managed to link up their Detroit station, WWJ, and their Boston station, WHDH (850, once again the Sox station but with call letters WEEI), so that people in the Boston area could listen the the nightcap in Detroit. The Angels won, and the Sox had their 1st Pennant in 21 years, only their 2nd in 49 years -- a Pennant whose theme song was the Broadway hit "The Impossible Dream."

*

October 1, 1970: Twenty years to the day after the greatest day in Phillies history thus far (and it would remain such for another 10 years), perhaps the darkest day in Phillies history takes place -- and this was in a win.

The Phils play the final game at Connie Mack Stadium, formerly Shibe Park, and the irony of playing the Montreal Expos, a team that only began in 1969, at a stadium the opened in 1909 is felt. The game goes to 10 innings, and Oscar Gamble singles home Tim McCarver with the winning run, as the Phils win, 2-1. Before McCarver can cross the plate, fans are already storming the field, and they tear the stadium apart.

The next year, Veterans Stadium opened, and a fire gutted what remained of the old park. It was finally torn down in 1976.

*

October 1, 1973, 40 years ago: Only 1,913 fans come out to Wrigley Field, under threat of rain with the Cubs far out of the race, to see a doubleheader that had to be made up due to earlier rain. The Mets beat the Cubs in the opener, 6-4, and win the National League East, their 2nd 1st-place finish.

The Division Title that no one seemed to want to win has been won with an 82-79 record -- still the worst 1st place finish ever in a season of at least 115 games. When the rain comes, the umpires call off the now completely meaningless 2nd game.

The Mets were 52-63 on August 14, but won 30 out of 44 down the stretch, including 18 of their last 22.

*

October 1, 1974: At the Astrodome, Mike Marshall establishes the major league mark for the most appearances by a pitcher when he throws two innings in the Dodgers' 8-5 victory over Houston.

With his 106 appearances, the right-handed reliever appears in 65 percent of the games that his team played this season. He goes 15-12, with a 2.42 ERA and 21 saves (actually 10 less than he had the year before), becomes the 1st reliever in either League to receive the Cy Young Award.

In 1979, pitching for the Minnesota Twins, Marshall would appear in 90 games, giving the record for most games pitched in a season in both Leagues.

*

October 1, 2004: Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners grounds a single up the middle, and collects his 258th hit of the season. The record had belonged to George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns since 1920 -- 84 years.

If there was anyone left who still doubted whether Ichiro was a bona fide Hall-of-Famer in the making (and I was a doubter), they now believe it.

October 1, 2006: After leading the AL Central by 10 games on August 7, the Detroit Tigers lose 31 of their last 50, including their last 5 in a row, the last being the blowing of a 6-0 lead over a terrible Kansas City Royals team to lose 10-8 in 12 innings. The Tigers thus blow the Division Title to the Minnesota Twins, one of the great choke jobs of recent times.

They do get the Wild Card, however, and shock the Yankees in the Division Series, while the Twins get surprised by the A's, and then the Tigers sweep the A's to win the Pennant anyway. Never has a team looked so bad down the stretch and still managed to reach the World Series -- not even the 1949 or 2000 Yankees.

The 2006 season is also the first one ever, except for the strike-shortened seasons of 1981, '94 and '95, in which there were no 20-game-winning pitchers in either League. Chien-Ming Wang of the Yankees and Johan Santana of the Twins each win 19, while no National League hurler wins more than 16 -- 6 of them win that many.

The Twins have another honor (that does them little good after their ALDS loss), as Twin Cities native Joe Mauer becomes the first catcher to win an AL batting title, and the first catcher to lead both leagues in batting average, with .347, ahead of NL batting champion Freddie Sanchez of the Pittsburgh Pirates with .344.

October 1, 2007: Needing a Playoff for the Playoffs, the Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres in the bottom of the 13th inning, 9-8.  Jamey Carroll hits a sacrifice fly, and Matt Holliday scores on a disputed play at the plate. The Padres have not reached the Playoffs since, and this play burns their fans up.

The Rockies close the regular season (and this game counts as such, as it's officially not a postseason game) winning 14 of their last 15.

October Begins

October 1, 1932, 80 years ago today: Did he or didn't he? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Ruth's_called_shot

The last living player from either team was Charlie Devens, Yankee pitcher 1932-34, died August 13, 2003, at age 93.  The last to have actually played in the game was Frank Crosetti, Yankee shortstop 1932-48, and coach 1949-68, died February 11, 2002, at age 91.

*

October 1, 1950: Dick Sisler hits a home run in the top of the 10th inning at Ebbets Field, and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 4-1, to clinch the National League Pennant. It is the only Pennant the Phils would win in a 75-year stretch from 1915 to 1980.

Still alive from this game, 62 years later: For the Phillies, 3 reserves, Stan Lopata, Ralph "Putsy" Caballero, and Jackie Mayo, who was a defensive replacement for Sisler in the bottom of the 10th; for the Dodgers, Don Newcombe (who gave up Sisler's homer) and Tommy "Buckshot" Brown.

*

October 1, 1961: Roger Maris makes it 61 in '61.  He hit the record-breaking home run off Tracy Stallard.

Still alive from this game, 51 years later: For the Yankees, Yogi Berra, Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Hector Lopez, Jack Reed, Bob Hale and Luis Arroyo.  Whitey Ford, Bob Turley and Ralph Terry and Luis Arroyo are still alive, but did not play in this game.  For the Red Sox: Stallard, Chuck Schilling (no relation to Curt), Frank Malzone (a Bronx native), Don Gile, Russ Nixon, and rookie left fielder Carl Yastrzemski.

My 1,000th Post: Top 10 Events That Defined This Era

On Wednesday, September 26, 2007, I began this blog, with a post titled "The Big Premiere." The 1st post wasn't long. Here it is, in its entirety:

I'm way behind the times. It's taken me this long to get a blog going. Anyway, here I am.

This blog will contain analysis intended to be serious, jokes intended to be funny, and maybe a surprise or two. As Ed Koch, former Mayor of New York (a man I won't normally quote, since I stopped liking him years ago) would say, "If you agree with me on nine out of twelve issues, that's good. If you agree with me on twleve out of twelve, there's something wrong." It would mean you're not thinking for yourself.

This blog is dedicated to the past, to my grandparents, George and Grace, who taught me to love the games, and that you don't have to be high-class to be classy; in fact, many who claim class have very little.

And dedicated to the future, to my nieces Ashley and Rachel, and hopefully to any cousins they might have, and to their mother, whoever she turns out to be. She doesn't have to be a Yankee Fan, she just has to be able to put up with one. In other words, built like Cindy Crawford but rooting for the Mets or Red Sox, out; built like Rosie O'Donnell but rooting for the Yankees, worthy of consideration.

Anyway, someday, Ashley, Rachel, and the hoped-for child (or children) of my own will be able to read this blog. So I'd better make it good, because chances are, they'll be at least as smart as I am. At least.

And now, here I am, with the 1,000th post on this blog.

As far as I know, there's no Internet Hall of Fame, which means I don't have to donate my keyboard, as I would have to send the ball or my bat to the Cooperstown Hall if I'd just gotten my 3,000th hit.

*

Many things are as they were then, 4 1/2 years ago. But a few things are different.

For one thing, out of the 11 teams in the Tri-State Area -- counting MLS' Red Bulls and the WNBA's Liberty -- 8 are no longer playing in the same building: The Yankees and Mets built new ballparks, the Giants and Jets built a new stadium, the Devils built a new arena, the Red Bulls built a new stadium, the Nets are about to finish their new arena, and the Liberty are sharing the Prudential Center with the Devils (and for 2 years shared it with the Nets) because the biggest parts of the renovation of Madison Square Garden are during the summer, so as to disrupt the Knicks and Rangers as little as possible.

(If you're wondering why I'm not gloating about last night's Devils win over the Rangers at the Garden last night, it's because the occasion of this post demands something else.)

When I started writing this blog, the Yankees were a team of close but no cigar, with Alex Rodriguez still seen as a choke artist. The Mets were in the middle of the greatest collapse any Tri-State Area team ever has. The Giants looked like they would struggle to make the Playoffs, but ended up winning the Super Bowl. The Jets were defending AFC East Champions, but pretty much an afterthought, certainly not media darlings like they became under Rex Ryan.

The Knicks hadn't won a Playoff game since 2001, and that only ended last week. The Nets were a lame-duck franchise, and would remain so until a month ago. And I had only begun to embrace soccer, but not the Red Bulls. The Arsenal were still only a name to me, not a club I knew anything about, much less loved. In fact, if you'd mentioned the name of the man now at the center of attention there, I would have said, "Robin van Persie? What kind of a sissy name is that?" (Hint: He is many things, but a sissy is not one of them.)

*

Here are the 10 events, in chronological order, that have defined the era for me, sports-wise. (I've left out the East Brunswick High School football team's 2009 State Championship, because hardly anybody else reading this is an EBHS graduate and won't care.)

1. October 5, 2007, Jacobs Field, Cleveland, Ohio: The Bug Game. Maybe the Yankees still would have lost the 2007 American League Division Series to the Cleveland Indians if they had won Game 2 at Jacobs Field. (Sorry, Flo, I love your commercials, but I'm still not calling it "Progressive Field.")

But when Joba Chamberlain got covered by those "Lake Erie midges," really, that was the beginning of the end for him. He'd never blown a major league game yet, or gotten hurt. Although the Yankees won Game 3, they went out meekly in Game 4, and Joba's never been the same.

To paraphrase what a hockey writer once said about Eric Lindros: This wasn't the next Mo, and it wasn't the next Goose -- it wasn't even the first Joba.

2. October 27, 2007, Newark, New Jersey: The Opening of the Prudential Center. The Devils finally had a decent arena to play in. While the Meadowlands was host to 3 Stanley Cup Championships, 2 clinched on home ice, it had lots of problems. (Still does, but those are not the Devils' problems anymore. Nor the Nets', nor Seton Hall's.)

The Devils lost the opener, 4-1 to the Ottawa Senators, but of all the area's teams, none (except maybe the Red Bulls -- see below) have had such a jump in terms of venue quality.

3. Fall 2007, Yankee Stadium I, Bronx, New York: The Worst Yankee Off-Season. First came the Steinbrenner brothers, possibly acting on the orders of their invalid father George, lowballing Joe Torre. To say that Torre had to go is defensible; to have insulted his accomplishments like that is not.

Then came the A-Rod saga. I said let him go. Let him twist in the wind. See if anyone else wants to pay him what he wants. No one did. And still the Little Steins gave him a raise.

Finally, there was the Mitchell Report. George Mitchell, a former Senate Majority Leader and a member of the board of directors of the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees' most hated rivals, issued a report on steroid use in baseball. It pretty much said that several members of the 1996-2007 Yankees were guilty of steroid use and the team's accomplishments over that period should be cast into doubt; while letting the Sox off the hook.

Nowhere in that report was it mentioned that David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, the two biggest reasons that the Red Sox won the 2004 and 2007 World Series, had failed steroid tests. Suddenly, being a Yankee Fan was like being a person who still believed in O.J. Simpson's innocence: You were among the lowest of the low.

4. February 3, 2008, University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona: Super Bowl XLII. Boy, did the Tri-State Area need this. Even if you were a Jet fan, and predisposed to hate the Giants, you needed this -- especially since Jet fans have come to hate the Patriots almost as much as Yankee Fans hate the Red Sox.

The Patriots had been talking about going undefeated. The national media, in particular ESPN (or, should I say, "NESPN") was pretty much assuming it would happen. A book celebrating the undefeated season was ready to be shipped to bookstores that night.

There is an intersection near my house, where State Route 18 and U.S. Route 1 come together. It's not a "traffic circle," and never was (a lot of New Jersey's old traffic circles have since been replaced by "grade-separated interchanges"), but it's officially called Brunswick Circle. I like to call it Patriot Circle. Because it's 18 and 1.

5. Fall 2008, Nevada Smith's, New York, New York: Welcome to Football, Mate. Having seen, during the 2006 World Cup, that the actions of the fans was as much a part of the experience of soccer as the game itself, I decided it was about time to see if, no kidding around, they were on to something.

They were. After seeing a few games in the Euro 2008 tournament and preseason games leading up to England's 2008-09 Premier League season, I began to see the similarities between hockey and soccer: Soccer began to look like hockey on grass to me. And Nevada Smith's, the 3rd Avenue bar that was then home to most of the area's "supporters' clubs," was the place to be in the Western Hemisphere to see a major match on TV. Or even a minor one.

The London club Arsenal reminded me a lot of the Devils: Red shirts at home; an amazing new stadium; a superb, somewhat mad goalie (Jens Lehmann); a great defense with an offside trap (you may have seen it demonstrated, sort of, in the film The Full Monty); skilled passing and big goals.

There was an arch-rival in blue that spent a lot of money with little to show for it (Chelsea, standing in for the Rangers), and another nearby rival that had a long-ago past when they were great, but had been mostly pathetic since then (Tottenham, although in manner and style Tottenham fans are a lot closer to Flyer fans than Islander fans). And there have been 3 recent league championships (in Arsenal's case, 1998, 2002 and 2004).

But eventually, there were less appetizing similarities that began to kick in: Cheap ownership, the occasional defensive collapse (perhaps a failure of courage, known as "bottling it" or "having no bottle" in England), big-game failures, and frequent roster turnover.

There were differences, too: The Devils are celebrating their 30th Anniversary in 2012, while Arsenal just celebrated their 125th. For all their resemblances to Chelsea, Ranger fans are as filthy, as drunken, and occasionally even as violent as Tottenham fans. And while the Devils have changed head coaches 13 times since September 1996, Arsenal have had just one manager (combined field boss and GM) since then, Arsène Wenger.

As a result of watching English soccer, I have adopted its lexicon. Cheering on my team has become "Come on you Reds!" The enemy is "The Scum" (a term I also use for the Red Sox and my old high school's arch-rivals). A bad player on my own team is a "useless bastard." An evil person is a "cunt," and one that is merely annoying is a "twat." (Not to be confused with a "pussy.") And I've made up songs for individual players the way English "geezers" do. (A geezer isn't an old man, he's a hard man.)

Fans of other clubs call me a "gloryhunter" for choosing Arsenal. Some of these are fans of Manchester United and Chelsea -- themselves, gloryhunters. Some of them are Tottenham fans -- who can never be called gloryhunters, since their hunt always comes up empty. They also point out that Arsenal haven't won a trophy since the 2005 FA Cup, now 7 years past. You mugs can't have it both ways.

But have other Arsenal fans accepted me -- both those from England that I meet online, and those who took up the cause here? For the most part, yes. As Arsenal fan and author Nick Hornby said in Fever Pitch: "If you put in the hours, you're accepted, without question, into a new family. Except, in this family, you all care about the same people, and hope for the same things. What's childish about that?"

6. September 21, 2008: The Closing of the old Yankee Stadium. Aside from not mentioning Joe Torre in the accompanying videos, the pregame ceremonies couldn't have gone much better, although there were some people (including Torre) who were working elsewhere in baseball and couldn't make it. And, unlike the Mets, the Yankees closed their old stadium with a win.

But it still broke my heart to see it go.

7. May 16 to November 4, 2009, Yankee Stadium II, Bronx: Title 27. It began with a series against the Minnesota Twins in which the Yankees had 3 walkoff wins, and the birth of the "cream pie in the face during the postgame interview" celebration. It continued on July 30 with the revelation that Ortiz and Ramirez had flunked steroid tests. Shortly after that, the Yankees began a run of 8 out of 9 games beating the Red Sox.

It climaxed with the 1st Pennant of the A-Rod era, and ended with Game 6, in which Hideki Matsui had the game of his life (in what turned out to be, thus far, his last game as a Yankee) when he took Pedro the Punk Martinez deep. (Someday, I'm going to have to do a post of my 10 favorite home runs.)

As Hank Steinbrenner said, not that order was restored to the universe, but that the universe was restored to order.

8. Spring and Summer 2010, Harrison, New Jersey: The First Season of Red Bull Arena. What has become known as The Cathedral of American Soccer opened with a friendly against Santos, the Brazilian club that produced Pelé. It included a friendly with Italian giants Juventus, and the New York Football Challenge, featuring English clubs Tottenham and Manchester City and Portuguese club Sporting Clube de Portugal, a.k.a. "Sporting Lisbon" -- due to the large Portuguese community in the Newark-Harrison-Kearny area. And it moved along with the signing of Arsenal legend Thierry Henry.

Whereas the Red Bulls (previously the New York/New Jersey MetroStars) had been playing in front of 60,000 empty seats at Giants Stadium, now they were playing in a proper venue for their sport, and coming close to selling it out every game. And whereas they had been a losing team, now they were a Playoff team.

9. March 26, 2011, MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey: USA vs. Argentina. Every soccer fan should see his national side play at least once. This was my once, so far. It was also my 1st visit to what was then still called New Meadowlands Stadium.

Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain did not play for Argentina. But Lionel Messi, Javier Zanetti, Gabriel Milito, Javier Mascherano, Angel Di Maria and Ezequiel Lavezzi did. Incredibly, the U.S. defense held against all of them, even Messi, whose sensational dribbling allowed him to get off 5 shots, but no goals. Esteban Cambiasso, on the other hand, did score, and it was 1-0 Argentina at the half.

But Juan Agudelo, the Colombia-born forward of the Red Bulls, not yet 18 years old, tied the game in the second half. The game ended 1-1, and while the final score flattered us, we did play a sensational defensive game, led by New Jersey-born goalie Tim Howard.

There were 2 things I didn't like: There seemed to be as many fans rooting for Argentina as America -- not all of them Argentine, but all of them from Latin American countries, including Mexico -- and it was a cold night. $1.6 billion to build the new stadium, and they couldn't fix the biggest problem with the old one, the wind.

*

There was one more event, whose date I've already forgotten. It was sometime in August or September 2009, shortly after my nieces had their 2nd birthday. My mother and I were showing them how to play baseball in the backyard. At one point, I pointed to a spot beyond the fence, just like Babe Ruth supposedly did in the 1932 World Series. And when Mom/Nana soft-tossed to me, I hit the ball over the fence.

About 200 feet.

The girls were impressed. And they jumped up and down and went, "Yayyyy!"

Then again, they're impressed by a lot of things I do, which people above the age of 5 would not be impressed by.

Someday, they'll see me for what I really am: A flawed grownup. Just as my sister (their mother) and I came to see our parents.

But then, every so often, our parents fail to see us as grownups at all. And not just because I occasionally (okay, frequently) lose my head over the Yankees, or the Devils, or Arsenal, and my sister does over the Jets.

But sports makes men out of boys, and allows men to become boys again.

As Hornby says, "Perhaps it's something you can't understand, unless you belong."

There's Only One October, and It Is Pinstriped

Believe it or not, there was a time when the World Series began in September.

In both 1932 and 1955, it began on September 28.

September 28, 1955: Game 1 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers, but Jackie Robinson steals home plate. And after 54 years, Yogi Berra still says Jackie was out. Whitey Ford, who was pitching at the time, also says Jackie was out. In the last few years of his life, Phil Rizzuto said he had the best view of it from shortstop, and Jackie was safe. Not content with this answer, the Scooter's fellow Queens native Ford looked it up, and the Yankee shortstop that day was Jerry Coleman, not Rizzuto. Oh well.

September 28 sports-themed birthdays: 1930s heavyweight champ and Joe Louis nemesis Max Schmeling, Eight Men Out director John Sayles, Hall of Fame football receiver turned right-wing Congressman Steve Largent, Hall of Fame hockey goaltender Grant Fuhr, 2-time Devils and 1-time Red Wings Stanley Cup defenseman Brian Rafalski, Flyers goalie Ray Emery, Connecticut basketball star Emeka Okafor and Nationals 3rd baseman Ryan Zimmerman.

September 29, 1954: Game 1 of the World Series at the Polo Grounds. The Giants and Cleveland Indians are tied 2-2 in the top of the 8th, and have runners on first and second, when Vic Wertz hits a ball 460 feet (or so the legend says, it may have been more like 440, not that this makes a huge difference in how amazing the play was) to dead center field at the bathtub-shaped ballpark, and Willie Mays catches it over his shoulder, and throws back to the infield to keep Larry Doby from advancing only from 2nd to 3rd.

In the bottom of the 10th, James "Dusty" Rhodes pinch-hits, and hits the ball maybe 260 feet -- but it bounces off the hand of a fan in the upper deck and falls back onto the field. Home run. (No, it's not a "Jeffrey Maier" situation: The fan was in his seat, not reaching over. As short as the home run was, by the rules in place in that crazy ballpark, the homer was legit.) Giants 5, Indians 2.

The Giants go on to sweep the Series, defeating an Indians team that won 111 games, an American League record until 1998.

September 29 sports-themed birthdays: Actor, singer and Angels owner Gene Autry, Prime Minister of Italy and president of A.C. Milan Silvio Berlusconi, sportscaster Bryant Gumbel, Expos outfielder Warren Cromartie, British track Olympic Gold Medalist Sebastian Coe, Chicago Bulls star John Paxson, Hockey Hall-of-Famer Dave Andreychuk, Ukrainian soccer star (Dynamo Kiev, A.C. Milan and Chelsea) Andriy Shevchenko, Cleveland Indians outfielder Jake Westbrook and Oklahoma City Thunder prodigy Kevin Durant.

September 30 sports-themed birthdays: Chewing-gum magnate and Cubs owner William Wrigley Jr., Dodgers pitcher Johnny Podres, Dutch soccer legend Frank Rijkaard, Falcons running back Jamal "Dirty Bird" Anderson, lesser baseball brother Jeremy Giambi, Tigers slugger Carlos Guillen, tennis star Martina Hingis, American gymnast Dominque Moceanu, and football thug Adam "Pacman" Jones.

*

October 1, 1903: The 1st World Series game is played at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the host Boston Pilgrims, forerunners of the Red Sox, 7-3. Deacon Phillippe outpitches Cy Young, and Pirate right fielder Jimmy Sebring, a local boy from Liberty, Pennsylvania, hits the 1st-ever World Series home run. Sadly, Sebring will later contract Bright’s disease, a kidney disorder, which will kill him on December 22, 1909.

October 1, 1932: Game 3 of the World Series at Wrigley Field. It would not be for another 6 years that the familiar hand-operated scoreboard and ivy-covered outfield wall would go up. At the time, Wrigley was nothing special; it was the years of history and the meetings of other contemporary ballparks with the wrecking ball, every bit as much as the press releases of Philip K. Wrigley and the prose of Jack Brickhouse and Ernie Banks, that made it the beloved "Friendly Confines." After launching a few shots in batting practice, Babe Ruth says, "I'd play for half my salary if I could play in this dump all the time." Nobody doubted that it was a dump, or that a great slugger would love to play there.

The Cubs had Rogers Hornsby, Hack Wilson, Gabby Hartnett and Riggs Stephenson -- the 1st 3 are in the Hall of Fame and the 4th probably would be if his career hadn't been shortened by injuries.

In the top of the 5th, with the game tied 4-4 and Ruth and Lou Gehrig having both already homered, Cub pitcher Charlie Root gets a 2-2 count on the Babe. The Babe makes some sort of gesture -- even with a home movie of this game having been found, it's hard to tell exactly what he meant -- and then hits a tremendous blast to dead center field. It becomes known as Babe Ruth's Called Shot, and the Yankees win the game 13-5 and finish off the sweep the next day.

Did the Babe really call his shot? He gave contradictory answers over the rest of his life. It's almost certain he didn't point to the center-field stands and say something like, "I'm going to hit the ball there." But, equally certain, he pointed at pitcher Root and said something, sending some kind of message, and then made it stand up with that homer. So, by my defintion (obviously biased since I'm a Yankee Fan), he did call his shot.

October 1, 1945: Rod Carew is born. Member of the Hall of Fame and the 3,000 Hit Club. Number 29 retired by both the Minnesota Twins and the team known when he played for them as the California Angels. Although raised in New York, he was the 1st native of Panama elected to the Hall. Mariano Rivera will almost certainly be the 2nd. (I don't see him doing anything to disgrace the game and blow his near-certain chance, nor do I see any other Panamanian sneaking in ahead of him.)

October 1, 1949, 60 years ago today: The Yankees have led the American League race for most of the season, but have blown a 12-game lead over the Boston Red Sox. That's right, the Yankees choked to the Red Sox. As the schedulemaker would have it, the last two games of the season are at Yankee Stadium, the Yanks hosting the Sox. The Yanks have to win both to win the Pennant: If the Sox win either, they win, and go on to face either the Brooklyn Dodgers or the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

It is Joe DiMaggio Day: After a season that saw him miss the first two months with a heel injury, come back with a flourish of 4 home runs in 3 games against the Sox -- including his brother and fellow All-Star center fielder, Dom DiMaggio -- at Fenway Park, the Yankee Clipper has been sick the last few days, dealing with pneumonia. He looks thin and tired. A crowd of 69,551 turns out, more than turned out for Lou Gehrig Day in 1939, more than turned out for Babe Ruth Day in 1947, more than can fit in any current big-league ballpark -- even if the tarps are taken off the upper deck at the Marlins/Dolphins stadium in the Miami suburbs.

With broadcaster Mel Allen as master of ceremonies, Joe receives lots of gifts, and cash which goes to some charities he patronizes. He says, "I want to thank my fans, my friends, my manager Casey Stengel, my teammates, the gamest, fightingest bunch of guys that ever lived. And I want to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee."

About half a century later, that last line is later placed on a sign leading from the Yankee clubhouse to the dugout. Derek Jeter asked for that sign after the old Stadium closed, and, as the closest thing the Yankees have had to DiMaggio since, he got it.

In the game, Mel Parnell outduels Allie Reynolds, and the Sox jump out to a 4-0 lead. Joe Page comes in to relieve for the Yankees, and holds them to one hit over the last 6 2/3 innings. DiMaggio doubles to start a 4th-inning rally that makes it 4-2, and gains an infield hit to tie the game in the 5th. Left fielder Johnny Lindell hits a home run off Boston reliever Joe Dobson in the 8th, and Page finishes the job. Yankees 5, Red Sox 4. Tomorrow the Pennant will be decided between these 2 teams. A rivalry is being born.

*

October 1, 1950: The Philadelphia Phillies win their first National League Pennant in 35 years, on a 10th-inning home run by right fielder Dick Sisler, son of Hall-of-Famer George Sisler, into the left-field stands at Ebbets Field, beating the Brooklyn Dodgers. A Dodger win would have forced a Playoff for the Pennant.

The Dodgers almost scored the winning run in the bottom of the 9th, but left fielder Cal Abrams ran too wide an arc coming around 3rd base, and Phils center fielder Richie Ashburn threw him out at the plate. Abrams would be remembered as a Dodger goat. For one year and two days, until Ralph Branca threw an ill-advised fastball to Bobby Thomson.

This was the last National League Pennant won by an all-white team, and the Phillies would also go on to become the last NL team to integrate, with an infielder named John Kennedy in 1957.

October 1, 1953: Pete Falcone is born. Like Sandy Koufax, he was a lefthanded pitcher who graduated from Lafayette High School in Brooklyn. Unlike Koufax, he never did learn how to pitch properly at the major league level.

He pitched for the Mets from 1979 to 1982, and had this nasty habit of walking batters with the bases loaded. I remember watching a game on WOR-Channel 9 with my father, and seeing Falcone walk 2 batters with the bags juiced. From that point on, walking someone with ducks on the pond became "pulling a Falcone."

I thought of Falcone when Kenny Rogers ended the Mets' amazin' Playoff run of 1999 against the Atlanta Braves with a bases-loaded, Pennant-losing walk of Andruw Jones. I've barely thought of him since. Nevertheless, let the record show that on May 1, 1980, he tied a record by striking out the game's 1st 6 batters. But the Mets didn't hit for him, and he ended up losing to the Phillies, 2-1. That's a Mets game for you.

October 1, 1961: 61 in '61. Phil Rizzuto had the call on WPIX-Channel 11: "Hit deep to right, this could be it! Way back there! Holy cow, he did it! Sixty-one for Maris! And look at the fight for that ball out there! Holy cow, what a shot! Another standing ovation for Roger Maris, and they're still fighting for that ball out there, climbing over each other's backs. One of the greatest sights I've ever seen here at Yankee Stadium."

To this day, while Ken Griffey Jr. and Ryan Howard have both gotten to 58, no other Major League Baseball player has hit 61 home runs. Not honestly, anyway. The record still belongs to Roger Maris, and if Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds don't like me saying that, then the lying, cheating bastards can sue my Pinstriped ass. And then they'll have to say, under oath, that they didn't cheat.

October 1, 1973: John Thomson is born. No relation to Bobby Thomson, he pitched briefly for the Mets in 2002, but has been out of the game since 2007.

October 1, 1975: The Thrilla in Manila. For the 3rd time, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier fight. It is an epic. Frazier hits Ali so hard in the 10th round, Ali later describes it as the closest to death he's ever felt.

He survives it, and in the 13th, he knocks Frazier's mouthpiece out, sending it flying out of not just his mouth but all the way out of the ring. Another Ali flurry in the 14th, and, despite Smokin' Joe's protestations that he can go on and fight the 15th and final round, trainer Eddie Futch, sensing his man may be hurt worse than he's letting on, says, "The fight's over, Joe," and throws in the towel. Ali, victorious but exhausted, rises from his stool to claim the victory, and then collapses.

Both men should have retired after that fight. Neither did. Sometimes, a boxer's most dangerous opponent is himself.

October 1, 1981: Johnny Oduya is born. He has never played professional baseball, but he is one of my favorite players on my favorite hockey team, the New Jersey Devils. Not because he's a good player (although, sometimes, he is), but mainly because I like saying his name, pronounced like, "Oh, do ya?" He is half-Kenyan and half-Swedish, born in Sweden and a citizen of that nation.

I've often tried to figure out how a black man could come from Sweden, but then, Sweden's top soccer player is the former Inter Milan, now Barcelona, star Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He's half-Bosnian, half-Croatian, and his parents moved to Sweden after they married.

October 1, 1984: Walter Alston dies at age 73. Hall of Fame manager for the Dodgers, winning the World Series in Brooklyn in 1955 and in Los Angeles in 1959, 1963 and 1965, plus additional National League Pennants in 1956, 1966 and 1974. Number 24 retired.

*

October 1, 2007: A Playoff for the National League Wild Card is held at Coors Field in Denver, between the surging host Colorado Rockies and the collapsing San Diego Padres. One thing that is often forgotten about this game is that, early on, a Colorado drive hit a seat beyond the outfield fence, fair, and bounced back onto the field, but was called a double instead of a home run. If the correct call had been made then, the game would not have gone into extra innings, and the controversial call that ended the game would never have happened.

In the top of the 13th, Scott Hairston hit a home run to put the Padres up 8-6. But in the bottom of the inning, Kazuo Matsui led off with a double, followed by a double from Troy Tulowitzki to make it 8-7. Matt Holliday tripled Tulowitzki home to tie it. After an intentional walk, Jamey Carroll came to the plate, and flied out, but Holliday tagged up at third, and slid across the plate. Plate umpire Tim McClelland called him safe, and the Rockies had a 9-8 victory and their first appearance in the postseason proper in 12 years. Replays suggest that Holliday never touched the plate and should have been called out, but – keep in mind, this is Denver vs. San Diego, so I don’t have a dog in the fight – it’s always looked to me like he really was safe.

It is October. Let the fun begin.

The Uncle of Swat

Yesterday, Mom/Nana decided that it was time to tell the two-year-old twins, Ashley and Rachel, about baseball. Not to show them a tape of a game, or (God forbid at that age) to take them to a live game. Just to show them how it was played in the backyard.

We gave the girls little gloves. Ashley's was pink, Rachel's her favorite color, purple. (Oh boy. It's going to be quite some time before I tell her Uncle Mike doesn't like purple because of the East Brunswick-Old Bridge rivalry.) We gave them a little rubber bat with a small pink ball with a Yankee interlocking N-Y on it.

Nana and I tossed a ball back and forth, not a real ball but one with a cushioned cork center surrounded by a soft cover, a toy. After a while, then we showed them pitching and hitting. Mom/Nana batted first, using my old bat, with the plain wood handle and the black barrel with the Don Mattingly signature on the sweet spot.

(I got this bat while Mattingly was still, arguably, the best player in the game, long before I figured out there was a Curse of Donnie Baseball. We gave my first real wood bat, a Johnny Bench model, to the kid next door. He turned out to be a Met fan like his father, and he broke it the first time he used it. Served him right. Wonder if he knows who Johnny Bench was.)

I am not a pitcher. I tried to get the ball over the plate, but I was wild. Nana did manage to make contact, but it seemed like every time she did, I managed to make a great stop. Granted, we're talking about a woman in her early 60s, not a 25-year-old major leaguer or a 22-year-old minor leaguer, or even a 17-year-old high schooler. But I've never fielded better... and I'm knocking on the door of 40!

(Who knows, maybe those dimwits who still think Jose Reyes -- or even Rey Ordonez! -- was ever a better fielding shortstop than Derek Jeter can shut the hell up about him needing to move to another position, as he's fielding better at age 35.)

Then it was my turn to bat. Problem is, Nana didn't pitch any better. Most of her tosses, even the underhanded ones, ended up hitting me or nearly doing so. It wasn't especially hard, so it didn't exactly hurt. But the point was to show the girls what baseball looked like.

Finally, Nana got some balls over the plate, and I hit a few sharp grounders. Then she got me to swing and miss at a couple.

And then, well, I don't know what got into me. I said, "Girls, look!" And I pointed, like Babe Ruth in the 1932 World Series. Now, that game was played at Wrigley Field in Chicago, against the Cubs, and, at the time, Wrigley didn't have ivy -- that didn't come until 1937. But there is quite a bit of ivy around our house.

Of course, the girls didn't get the joke. Why would they, they're... how old, Rachel? "Two!" I don't think I knew who Babe Ruth was until I was about 6 or so.

There was a Peanuts cartoon where the gang is playing ball, and Lucy finds a glove, thinking it belonged to a kid named Willie Mays, because that's the name that was written in the glove. "I don't know any kids around here named Willie Mays, do you, Charlie Brown?" Ol' Chuck tells Lucy to look in her glove, because he's sure there's a name on it. And the fussbudget says, "Babe Ruth? We'll, I'll be. How do you suppose I got her glove?"

Poor Charlie Brown can't do anything but stand on the mound and roll his eyes, and I'll bet his stomach hurt. That poor kid, his stomach always hurt. How do you get an ulcer at age 8?

So the girls watched, and I pointed to a spot beyond the fence like Ruth supposedly did, and Nana threw one right in my wheelhouse. Yeah, right, like I have a wheelhouse. Well, I must've developed one, because I cranked this sucker. Literally over the fence. And into the ivy in the front yard.

How far? In retrospect, now that I've had over 24 hours to think about it, and am not presently in a position to impress two-year-old twin girls, who are easily impressed with what their crazy uncle does... probably less than the 325-foot "minimum" that MLB sets for foul-pole distances at new ballparks (and doesn't exactly enforce). Maybe significantly less. But...

Damn, that felt good. I even did the John Sterling call: "There it goes! That ball is high! It is far! It is gone! A home run!" I tried to think of a way to work the Babe Ruth theme into it, but I couldn't think of one, so I reworked the Posada call, "Jorgie juiced one" into "Mike mashed one!" Did the home run trot, and told the girls to come to the "plate" and jump up and down when I got there like real ballplayers.

For a few minutes, Ashley, Rachel and I were Yankees. For a few minutes, I was the Uncle of Swat.

I love baseball. And now the girls, who I also love, love it, too. A major item on my to-do list is crossed off.

Well, of course, I meant getting the girls to love baseball. What did you think I meant, hitting a home run? I've done that before.

In the 4th grade.