Daily Archives: October 14, 2008

The Rays beating Jon Lester last night has changed the look of the ALCS. I had figured Lester to give the Sox a 2-1 lead in the series with the Rays tying things up tonight in a favorable matchup between Tim Wakefield and Andy Sonnanstine. Now, if the Rays win tonight, they’re a game away from the World Series and the Sox will have to win two straight just to force a Game 7 and get Lester back to the hill. How quickly things can turn. My preview of tonight’s game is up on SI.com.

Bobby Meacham is just destined to be a hapless figure in Yankee history.

Those of us who remember all too well his misadventures as a player in the Eighties can’t be shocked by the news that Meacham has been fired as the Yankees’ third base coach. Pete Abe has the details–and also links to an item by Mark Feinsand reporting that pitching instructor Rich Monteleone was canned too.

Think Tino Martinez will become a coach? Or maybe perhaps this will mark the return of Lucky Luis Sojo?

By Tyler Kepner

[Editor’s Note: This piece was written and submitted before the end of the regular season…]

My seat in the press box is Row 1, Seat 1. I have sat there for seven seasons as the Yankees’ beat writer for the New York Times. The Star-Ledger is to my right, and the visiting television booth is to my left.

The color analyst sits on the right side of that booth, so I am separated from him by a glass panel. You can’t really talk unless you lean out the front of the box, but you can communicate by signals. Was that pitch a slider or a curve? A changeup or a splitter? You make the universal hand motions for the pitch, and you get your answer.

Most of the analysts wear a World Series ring, it seems. Bert Blyleven of the Twins wears his 1987 ring. (I’ve never seen his ’79 model, from the Pirates.) Rod Allen of the Tigers wears his 1984 ring, Rex Hudler of the Angels wears his 2002 ring, and so on.

When Ron Fairly worked for the Mariners, he wore a 1989 Giants N.L. champs ring, from his days in the booth in San Francisco. I always wondered what happened to the three rings he won as a player with the Dodgers.

The broadcasters have their quirks. Hudler always holds onto a baseball when he calls a game. He calls it his pacifier. Jerry Remy of the Red Sox does every game with a little stuffed “Wally The Green Monster” on the desk in front of him. Nobody keeps more meticulous notes than Blyleven.

Sometimes I’ll look up the broadcasters’ career stats on my laptop, careful to tilt the screen away, in case they catch a glance. I remember learning that Candy Maldonado (he wears a ’92 Blue Jays ring) pinch-hit in the ninth inning of the game that made me happier than any sporting event ever – the final game of the 1983 N.L.C.S., when the Phillies won the pennant. (I was 8. Candy struck out.)

I’ll miss stuff like that when the Yankees move. Maybe I’ll have the seat next to the visiting broadcasters again, but I doubt it. And I doubt I’ll walk down the ramps after night games, instead of taking the elevator.

The ramps from the loge level to the street remind me of how old the place really is – they’re impossibly cramped, with low ceilings, thick black bars on the sides, and what I assume to be the original structural bolts, painted over many times. It’s better to walk the ramps when it’s empty, I suppose, late at night.

I remember covering the Angels in 1998, when a chunk of steel fell into the loge level seats down the left field line before a game at the Stadium that April. You knew then that the place was doomed, but it has stood for one more decade.

Now it has finished with a string of seasons where four million people packed in. The fans should be proud of that. The fortunes of the team rise and fall, but to the end, Yankee Stadium never lost its appeal.

Tyler Kepner is the Yankee beat writer for The New York Times.

The Dodgers had the Phillies right where they wanted them, poised to even-up the series, and then, it happened: Victorino tied the game and the Lumber Jack, Hard-hitting Matt Stairs creamed a fastball deep into the night–I don’t know if has landed yet.

In the words to Bobby D, the Dodgers Bleeeeww it.

Sure, L.A. can come back. It has been done. But it’s not likely. I sure wouldn’t put any money on ’em.  Meanwhile, the Rays beat up Jon Lester, a major hurdle. They’ve still got a loooong way to go before they defeat the Sox.  But it’s a start.