"A New York Treasure" --Village Voice

Yankees 5, White Sox 4

It was a chilly, overcast Easter Sunday in New York. I was at my mom’s for the holiday, and when I turned the game on, the White Sox had just scored their third run of the first inning. It’s going to be another long day, I shrugged. But Mike Mussina settled down, allowing just one more run after the first, and he pitched well enough to finally earn his 200th career victory. He wasn’t brilliant, but yesterday’s performance was an improvement over his first two starts.

The Yankee offense showed some signs of life as Derek Jeter and Gary Sheffield each collected two hits, but the story of the day was rookie Bubba Crosby who made a pair of nice “Pete Reiser” catches at the wall in center (thank goodness for the padding, huh?), and hit a big three-run homer. The home run knocked off the facade of the upper deck in right field, and Crosby knew it was gone once it left the bat. He even held his right arm out, frozen for just a moment, after he swung, to style the homer properly.

A folk hero is born in the Bronx. Kenny Lofton has to deal with this? Good luck, Kenny. Crosby may find himself on the Columbus Express this summer, but he’s already got a following at the Stadium and in the press.

It was good to see Sheffield get a couple of hits. He doubled home the winning run. He also smacked a single to center that was hit so hard that the center fielder had to make a diving stop as if he were an infielder. Yikes.

The Red Sox won in extra innings yesterday on David Ortiz’s solo blast over the Green Monster. Curt Schilling made his Fenway Park debut as a Red Sox. Boston played several exciting games last week, picking up where the 2003 team left off.

The drama continues this coming weekend when the Yankees play four in Boston. I talk about the rivalry again this week over at The Hardball Times with Ben Jacobs, filling in for Larry Mahnken, who will return next week just in time for all the juicy stuff.

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"This ain't football. We do this every day."
--Earl Weaver