Daily Archives: December 12, 2004

Book Excerpt

From Yankees Century

By Glenn Stout and Richard A. Johnson

(For Part One, click here)

As the two teams embarked on the midnight train back to New York, their moods could not have been more different. Boston, having finally broken through on Chesbro, believed he was done for the year. They were confident they could beat whomever Griffith chose to pitch in either game on Monday. The Yankees, on the other hand, knew it would take a miracle to win both games.

Neither the Yankees nor their fans were deterred by the odds. The Giants refusal to play in a postseason series had cost them and the Yankees had picked up thousands of converts that victory could make permanent. Anticipation built during the off day. On Monday afternoon nearly thirty thousand zealots turned out at American League Park hoping to witness just such a miracle.

Jack Chesbro took the mound for the final time that season, and the fourth time in eight days. If it were true that he had nothing left, after 445 innings of pitching, it was equally true that he had nothing left to lose. He had told Griffith the previous day “I’ll trim ’em on Monday if it costs an arm.”

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Carl Pavano is this close to being a member of the New York Yankees. According to Tyler Kepner in the New York Times:

On Saturday morning, from his off-season home in the woods near Montreal, Pavano told his agent to negotiate a deal with the Yankees. The sides were closing in on a four-year contract for just under $40 million, pending a physical, and Manager Joe Torre made the difference. “His conversations with Joe Torre, who spoke with him again by phone in the last couple of days, really were impactful,” Pavano’s agent, Scott Shapiro, said. “Carl told me point-blank that he would go to war for the man. You can’t say anything bad about the decision of wanting to play for Joe Torre.”

Meanwhile, there was news that Jaret Wright had failed a portion of his physical, holding up his deal with the Yankees. But he took a second one yesterday and it seems as if he’ll be wearing pinstripes after all. The Yankees are still interested in adding Eric Milton, but Milton is currently asking for too much money. Hopefully, the Bombers will persue Matt Clement or even Odalis Perez instead of Milton.

Elsewhere, the Red Sox are close to inking free agent Edgar Renteria–a personal favorite, dag–while the A’s could move Tim Hudson–another favorite–by the end of the weekend. For more first-hand reports from the field, check out the latest from All-Baseball’s crack staff: Jon Weisman, Rich Lederer, Alex Ciepley, and Peter White.