Yanks get another crack at a “w” tonight. We will be watching and fretting until they turn this around…

…Which they will. Let’s hope they start tonight.

Never mind the wailing, Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Over at Baseball Think Factory, I caught an interesting little piece by Marc Craig regarding Keith Hernandez’s take on Mark Teixeira’s fielding. Dig it.

From Banterer PJ: “What happened to our friend Will Weiss? I really wish he stop by so the Yankees can start winning again.

No Will Weiss at Banter is unacceptable…”

PJ, you’re absolutely right. It’s unacceptable. As Cliff will tell you, a new daughter and the associated parental duties, plus a new job with some travel thrown in will deregulate the writing schedule and stretch the boundaries of acceptability. At least our fearless proprietor Alex is one of the most understanding people in the business and is unyielding in his support for all of us who contribute. I will say this: my daughter likes watching the Yankees (although there hasn’t been much to watch lately), and she let out a shriek of delight when I told her Jose Veras was designated for assignment.

On to the column…

Since I don’t have to ride a train to work anymore and I don’t own an iPod (gasp!), I have been listening to a lot of sports talk radio. In the mornings, it’s a flip between Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton on WFAN and Mike and Mike on ESPN, and in the afternoons it’s Mike Francesa and Michael Kay/New York Baseball Tonight. (I still haven’t decided if this is a good thing. Now that Matt Pinfield is back, I think I’m going back to music in the morning.)

In the last two weeks, we’ve been bombarded with stories about Jorge Posada’s management (or mismanagement, depending on your perspective), of the pitching staff; Joe Girardi’s management (or mismanagement, depending on your perspective), of well, everything; the defense that went a record 18 games without committing an error has committed at least one error in 14 of the last 19 games; and oh yes, there’s Derek Jeter’s inability to drive in runs in clutch situations. Of these stories, the Posada issue is not new and the Dead Horse Alert is strong in my ear; the defensive woes would not be a story if the team was winning, and Jeter’s malaise is not subject to just him. This is not to give Jeter a free pass, but when you score 15 runs in one game and then proceed to score 12 over the next seven, it doesn’t seem right to single out one player.

Jeter alone is not the reason the team has not won three in a row since May 27-30. A-Rod has one hit in his last 22 at-bats – a span of seven games – and hasn’t had a multi-hit game since going 5-for-5 at Texas on May 25. Mark Teixeira has driven in only four runs in the last 10 games. Plus, there’s the team’s Achilles’ heel: pitchers they’ve never faced before. Even in their championship heyday of the last 15 years, rookie/no-name pitchers look like All-Stars pitching against the Yankees (see Pete Caldera’s recap in the Bergen Record for more details). Most recently, it’s been Fernando Nieve, John Lannan, Craig Stammen, Josh Johnson and Tommy Hanson. Johnson and Hanson will be big-league studs, but to lose four of six to the Nationals and Marlins, teams the Yankees were supposed to beat up on to gain ground on the Red Sox, is a reflection of something deeper.

Which brings me to Girardi. If the manager sets the tone for the team, then his management of A-Rod and CC Sabathia could be leaving the team in a lurch. This from Bob Klapisch:

…There’s more to managing than simply bodysurfing a winning streak. Girardi looked crisp and in control when the Yankees were mauling the AL a month ago, launching all those crazy comebacks. But now they’re struggling — the Red Sox’ domination of the Bombers is nothing short of humiliating — and Girardi’s confidence has turned to a square-jawed form of desperation.

That’s why A-Rod played every day until he couldn’t bring his bat through the strike zone anymore — and, as he’s hinted, his hip is so stiff. It’s the reason why no one comes to Sabathia’s rescue in the seventh or eighth innings.

It’s because Girardi knows his managerial career will be over if he gets fired by the Yankees.

The decision to sit A-Rod due to fatigue came from above Girardi. Sabathia says he’ll pitch Friday, but Cashman is putting on the brakes. Girardi is in the background.

Esiason and Carton posit that Girardi is being made to be the fall guy for the team’s travails. If he is managing for his job, he should stand up for himself the same way he did in Florida. Esiason added that despite Girardi’s championship credentials, he doesn’t believe the players respect Girardi in the same way they did Joe Torre.

Maybe that’s true. Some veterans are describing Girardi as “tight,” as Klapisch also notes in his column. We don’t know what is said in the clubhouse – and it should stay there – but the rash of flat efforts leave much to be desired. I don’t get the sense he’s inspiring confidence in his players. I’d love to hear him say something like, “We’re not overlooking any teams on the schedule. Sure, we’re at a slight disadvantage playing in National League parks, but our lineup should be able to hold up against any pitcher in any park.” Instead, we get the same monotone and the tired lines about how interleague play is a necessary evil and that it’s unfortunate the games count in the standings. Does that get you fired up as a fan? Me neither.

What’s left? Could the Yankees pull the trigger on Girardi mid-season? They haven’t made such a managerial change since Bucky Dent replaced Dallas Green after 121 games in 1989. Granted, this Yankee team isn’t nearly as lost in Mark Knopflerville (aka Dire Straits) as the ’89 squad, but if the team falls further south of Boston in the standings, it may seem that way to the powers that be.

The wheels on the Yankees bus … need air.

My wife has no heart, she doesn’t care. I roll my eyes and make guttural sounds of disappointment, slap my arm against the couch. I curse and curse some more.  They’re killin’ me, I say.

“I’m sorry, honey.”

The Nationals!?!

Straight, with no emotion, like Alice Kramden, she says, “Every year the Yankees lose a series to the worst team, every year it’s the same. It happens. They have hot streaks and slumps.”

But you don’t understand. The Nationals! Two games they should have won against Marlins. Shut out by the damn Braves.

“Well, it’s better than losing to the Red Sox.”

“No it isn’t! At least the Red Sox are good. And they’ve done nothing but lose to them either.”

She shrugs, looks at me, knowing I’m hopeless, and refuses to join in. She has no pity for me or the Yankees. She doesn’t care.

The Yankees played another lifeless game tonight. They had just four hits yet had their chances, leaving the bases loaded twice and stranding eleven in all. In other words, they didn’t do jack-boil-scratch as they lost 4-0 to the Braves in Atlanta. Rookie starter? On cue, the Yankees’ achilles’ heel. I know Tommy Hanson is a stud, but c’mon already.

Chien-Ming Wang wasn’t bad–he gave up three runs on three hits in the third (all three runs scored with two out), and Phil Hughes was terrific again in relief. But that didn’t matter much. Alex Rodriguez went 0-4, Jorge Posada struck out four times and Derek Jeter hit into his third double play in two games as Yankee fans were left with nothing but hard, angry feelings.

Yanks hit skid row, now five behind the Sox. My how it am ugly.

A good combination.

The first Hall of Fame Classic, played Sunday at Cooperstown’s Doubleday Field, gave me the opportunity to talk to former Yankee pitcher and broadcaster Jim Kaat. During our on-field conversation, I asked Kitty about his decision to return to the broadcast booth, his thoughts on the ’09 Yankees, his new marriage, and his continuing connection to the village of Cooperstown.

Markusen: Jim, first off, I know that I speak for a lot of Yankee fans who are glad that you’re back broadcasting, not on the YES Network [as before], but on the MLB Network. What went into your decision to come back after essentially retiring for three years?

Kaat: Well, my wife, who had been battling cancer for a couple of years, passed away last year. I retired because we wanted to get a little more time together. She was doing pretty well, but her cancer came back. She couldn’t survive that, so a lot of my friends and family said to me, maybe you ought to go back to work. So that’s what I did, starting this year just on a part-time basis. I just reached out to some people, and if they wanted me to do it, I said fine. So MLB hired me to do ten games, I did the World Baseball Classic, and I’ll do a little stuff for XM Radio. So that sort of motivated me to do it.

Markusen: Did it take a lot of convincing?

Kaat: Not a lot. There was a period of time there where I didn’t know if I wanted to do that [come back], but toward the end of the year in December, I thought, yeah, it might be a good idea for me to do that.

Markusen: Jim, do you still keep close tabs on the Yankees, a team that you followed so closely for so long? Do you still follow them on a regular basis?

Kaat: Oh, very much so. Two of the three games I’ve done so far have been the Yankees. I did the home opener, and I did the Yankee-Red Sox game on June 11. I keep up with all of the teams, and I’ll have another Yankee game—the Yankees and White Sox—at the end of July, so that gives me good reason to keep up with them. I have a Mets-Dodgers game coming up, too. I still follow the Yankees through the newspapers, the box scores, and of course, nowadays on television you can get about all the highlights you want.

Markusen: It’s been a very uneven year for the Yankees. A very poor April, a lot of injuries early, then they had that nine-game winning streak, and now they seem to be struggling a little bit. As you look at the team, what do you think has been the problem?

Kaat: Well, I still think, and I think that with any team, you really need to have quality guys in the seventh and eighth innings to set up whoever your closer is, in this case Mariano. And I always think that’s a determining factor. I mean, hitting comes and goes, guys will go into slumps. The Yankees have played well in the field, in the infield—I don’t know about their range—but they aren’t making any errors. But I’ve always liked teams, as Tampa Bay did last year and the Red Sox this year, that have good guys down in the pen at the end of the game. You know, when Bruney’s been healthy, Aceves has been in and out of the [late-inning] role, Coke, the lefty, has done pretty well, but they haven’t been able to find that solid seventh and eighth-inning guy.

Of course, Brian Cashman knows, and I always chide him about it, I think Chamberlain should be in the bullpen. I think he’d be a perfect eighth-inning guy, but that’s not my decision. But I think that [the bullpen] will determine how well they do.

Markusen: When you look at the intangibles and more subtle areas with this team, you sometimes hear criticism that they play a little too tense, maybe they don’t have a killer instinct, and they continue to struggle with runners in scoring position. Do you give a lot of merit to any of that?

Kaat: Well, the runners in scoring position I do, because the more years go by, the more we’re aware of how great the 1998 team was and the teams in that era, the team that had Tino Martinez and Paul O’Neill, Knoblauch, Jeter was a younger player, Bernie Williams, Girardi was still playing, guys that made contact, advanced runners, manufactured runs. And they had a great bullpen. I think their offense this year is the kind of explosive offense—they’re like a team of really DHs—they can crush mediocre pitching, but until they do those kinds of things against good pitching like the teams in the late nineties, that’s probably where they’re lacking.

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Every so often, when the mood strikes, my wife Emily likes me to feed her baseball trivia questions. We had a session on Sunday after the Yanks lost to the Marlins. My first question was, “What is ERA?” She got it right but did not agree with the number being divided by nine innings.

“What if it is the first game of the year and a pitcher only goes six innings, how can it go into nine?”

I calmly explained.

“What-ever.”

We moved on. And she got a good many of them right–or at least partially right. Her thinking made sense.  Who is known as Junior?  “Cal Ripken.”

What is a fielder’s choice? “That’s when the fielder gets to make the choice. See? I told you I was right.”

The infield fly-rule? “That’s when the infielder’s call off the outfielders and make the catch.”

And my favorite. What is a Baltimore Chop?

“That’s a kind of meat cut special in Baltimore.”

No, dear.

“That’s when they have everyone at Camden Yards come on the field during the seventh inning stretch and practice karate.”

I love my baseball wife.

George Price…one of my heroes and one of the best The New Yorker ever had.

According to ESPN, Don Fehr will step down as the head of the MLBPA. Fehr’s long, productive, and largely successful run has been marred by the union’s handling of the recent performance-enhancing drugs scandals. 

A fabulously bright man, Fehr was in charge during the union’s fattest days. He played a large roll in the baseball player’s union becoming the strongest in all of professional sports. The man has a lot of wins under his belt. In the end, however, the steroids issue must have swallowed him up. Fehr and company failed their consituency in not destroying those pesky tests from ’03, proving once again that arrogance trumps smarts every time. I don’t mean to be flip. Fehr deserves, and will surely receive, a more thorough evaluation in the coming days. He was a pivotal figure.

Bud Selig should jern Fehr out the front door, don’t you think?

Variety reports that Sony Pictures has pulled the plug on Steven Soderbergh’s adaptation of Moneyball (thanks to Rob Neyer for the link).

Even in the climate of heightened studio caution, the turnaround news on “Moneyball” is surprising given that the project had reached the equivalent of third base. It was just 96 hours before the participants were ready to take the field, following three months of prep and with camera tests completed and cast and budget in place.

…Aside from actors like Pitt and Demetri Martin, Soderbergh is using real ballplayers — such as former A’s Scott Hatteberg and David Justice — as actors, and he also has shot interviews with such ballplayers as Beane’s former Mets teammates Lenny Dykstra, Mookie Wilson and Darryl Strawberry. Those vignettes would be interspersed in the film.While Soderbergh is confident his take will work visually, Columbia brass had doubts on a film that costs north of $50 million. That is reasonable for a studio-funded pic that includes the discounted salary of a global star like Pitt, but baseball films traditionally don’t fare well on the global playing field.

This is a shame but not a surprise. Back in the summer of 2003, I interviewed Michael Lewis and we talked about how difficult it would be to make Moneyball into a movie:

Bronx Banter: Have you sold the movie rights to “Moneyball” yet?

Michael Lewis: I didn’t have much hope that anyone would buy them. Because I can’t really see how you could make it into a movie—a good movie, anyway. What happens is, if somebody bought it for the movies, you’d have to create some sort of female role. They would just have to. You just have to twist so much. Having seen “Liar’s Poker” get bought for a lot of money, and then completely mangled in the creation of the script, and eventually never getting made. If they can’t make that, I can’t imagine how they can make this. There have been, oddly enough, some feelers from people who say they want to buy the rights. A lot of things sell, that shouldn’t sell, accidentally. That might happen, but I’d be really surprised if it ever became a movie.

That did not go at all according to planned. Matter of fact, it was lousy as the Yanks continue their routine as the Castor Earl Kids.

The rain continued in New York this weekend–it’s been raining for weeks and is supposed to continue to rain this coming week too–but it was hot and sunny in Miami.  CC Sabathia left the game in the second inning with tightness in his left bicep and although the Yanks held a 3-1 lead their two-week funk continued as the Marlins rallied to win 6-5.

The on-line Merriam Webster dictionary defines “mediocre” as “of moderate or low quality, value, ability, or performance : ordinary, so-so.”  That just about sums up Brett Tomko who coughed up the lead by allowing home runs to Hanley Ramirez and Cody Ross.

I watched the Tomko outing unfold and cursed Joe Girardi for letting Tomko pitch. Jorge Cantu added a key RBI base hit in the seventh–a throwing error by Melky Cabrera allowed another run to score. Matt Linstrom struck out Rodriguez to start the ninth and got Robinson Cano to roll out to second. Then Jorge Posada and Cabrera singled. Brett Gardner followed with a line drive in the right center field gap, good for a triple. Two runs scored and the Yanks were just down by a run. Johnny Damon pinch hit and drew a walk but Derek Jeter grounded the first pitch he saw to Hanley Ramirez for the final out.

If not for a lucky bad play by Luis Castillo, this would have been the fourth consecutive series that the Yankees have dropped. As it stands, they still have two more series in National League parks, and they’ve just lost four of six to the Nats and Marlins. 

This is a team slump. Oh, and up here in New York it’s still raining. 

We never had supper growing up. We ate dinner. I always thought supper was earlier. All the Catholic kids I knew ate supper, at 4:00 in the afternoon. We didn’t eat until 8:00.

Anyhow, strange start time this afternoon, 5:00 p.m. That’s still tea time as far as I’m concerned. But it works out well for me, as I’m out this afternoon at a dance recital. Going to watch little kids dance to John Lennon songs. Doubt I’ll see the second grade interpretive variation of “Mother” (pity), but it should be fun all the same. Beauty part is I get home in time to catch the game.

Tough loss last night. I’m with Cliff–the Yanks should have won that game. Down a run and two shots at Florida’s bullpen…that’s a game the Yanks need to win.

CC brings the funk for the Yanks today. Have to imagine they’ll swing the bats and he’ll take care of the rest.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Okay, first of all, I know I’m late on this… but Land Shark Stadium? LAND SHARK STADIUM?! What, couldn’t they find a sponsor for Liger Stadium? Why not just call it Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus Stadium, or was that too dignified?

Anyway. The Yankees took an early lead against the Marlins tonight and won, 5-1, behind a strong seven-inning, three-hit, seven-strikeout start from Andy Pettitte. Whether that’s because he’s made some adjustments, because his back is feeling better, because he’s away from the New Yankee Bandbox, or just the joy of playing the National League, I couldn’t say. But I’ll take it.

Every Yankee starter had at least one hit, and all but Nick Swisher got one off of Marlins starter Sean West. Derek Jeter started things off on the right foot with a long double in the first, and Jorge Posada, batting cleanup tonight as A-Rod took a much-needed and possibly overdue break, singled him home. The next inning, Cano singled and Angel Berroa reminded everyone of his continued existence with a run-scoring double. It was Berroa’s first hit since April 28th, a statement which requires no editorializing from me. Andy Pettitte followed with an RBI double of his very own – and it was his first double since 2006, so I guess I can’t make a joke about him being better than Berroa, but just know that I really wanted to.  At this point a “Let’s Go Yankees” cheer broke out … poor Marlins fans, man. Pettitte chugged home on a Johnny Damon single and  it was 4-0, and Melky Cabrera’s third-inning home run finished off the New York scoring.

As for the Marlins, Pettitte’s only major misstep was a Cody Ross homer in the bottom of the third, and after he left the game, Brian Bruney and Brett Tomko (making me nervous with only a four-run lead) finished things off without incident.

Tune in tomorrow night, when A.J. Burnett takes on Josh Johnson, live from No Sense of Self Respect Stadium in Margaritaville, FLA.

It’s time to take the gloves off.

The Yankees should feel thoroughly humiliated after losing two of three games to the worst team in baseball. It is unfathomable that the Yankees could muster a mere seven runs in three games against the poorest pitching staff in the major leagues and arguably the worst bullpen that has ever been assembled in the history of the game.

If this atrocity of a series against the Nationals, who had a won a total of six road games prior to this week, had been an isolated development, I would have been willing to cast it aside as a blip on the screen. But it is not an isolated occurrence. When attached to a lackluster series against the Mets, another sweep at the hands of the Red Sox, an embarrassing 0-8 record against Boston, mediocre play against the Orioles, and another abominable April, it becomes a symptom of a larger disease.

So what exactly is wrong with the Yankees? Having followed them closely through their first 66 games, I’m not convinced that the real problem is a lack of talent. Oh sure, their bullpen and bench could use upgrading and the absence of overall depth remains a concern, but those are problems that can be fixed relatively quickly from within. I’m afraid that the Yankees’ malaise has roots in other areas, principally a low baseball IQ, a lack of toughness, and a general complacency that can happen when too many players have multi-year contracts and no fear of losing their status on the team. (more…)

Father’s Day is this weekend. Anyone looking for a last-minute gift should consider these new baseball books:

Miracle Ball by Brian Biegel. One man’s search for the shot heard ’round the world. This one is a keeper.

Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain, by Marty Appel. The definitive work on Thurman Munson.

Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend, by Larry Tye. The great Paige gets the big biography he deserves.

Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story, by Curt Smith.  Scully, the best of the great old time broadcasters.

And finally, while we are talking about the Dodgers, don’t sleep on our old pal Jon Weisman’s classic guide to all things Dodgers, 100 Things Dodger Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die.

Rain all day. Game isn’t called…yet. Hard to imagine they’ll get this one in.

I never went to a game with Todd Drew. But I can imagine what it would have been like–focused, alert, serious. Todd’s wife Marsha has filled me in on what the experience was like. They’ve been season ticket holders since 2003. In that time, Todd never missed a pitch. He went to the bathroom once before the game and once when it was over. And he kept score. Of course.

Last night I sat in Todd’s seat, a seat he will never see (for those who don’t know, Todd Drew was a contribuor at Bronx Banter who tragically died earlier this year; you can find a collection of his writing on the sidebar). It is located high above home plate, an ideal bird’s-eye view of the field. Fitting, I thought, for Todd to be presiding over the season like this. I could imagine Todd’s kind face, big in the sky like a Bill Gallo drawing.

Diane joined me and there was a good crowd around us. In the fourth inning, one of my dear friends, Johnny Red Sox, came up to me. He just happened to be sitting in the row ahead of us–what are the odds? In Todd’s seats, not so great.

Chien-Ming Wang and John Lannan were a contrast in styles. Wang was deliberate, soporific, while Lannan worked so quickly that he reminded me of the old Billy Crystal routine, where he mimicked ballplayers from the 1920s having a catch. Wang was up against it; if he could not handle the worst team in baseball surely he would not get another start. He wasn’t great but was certainly improved. Adam Dunn launched a solo home run against him in the third, and then Wang was done in by some misfortune in the fourth.

Ramiro Pena, playing for Derek Jeter, dropped a throw from Jorge Posada on a steal. Then, the first base umpire blew a call at first base. We could tell that he missed it from where we were sitting. The jumbotron did not show a replay, but moments later we heard waves of outrage from the areas in the park that did have access to a TV replay. As this was happening, a drunk kid caused a ruckus in the row behind us. Security was called and the dude left without an incident–just some disoriented, angry words. Before it was over, Nick Johnson hit a sinking line drive to left. Melky Cabrera raced in, dove, missed the ball and two runs scored.

Lannan threw strikes and got outs and the game zipped along. Robinson Cano hit a Yankee Stadium homer to break up Lannan’s no-hitter in the fifth, and in the ninth, Johnny Damon added a chippy of his own. With out one, Mark Teixeira singled to left. Brett Gardner replaced him as a pinch-runner and Alex Rodriguez, 0-3 to that point, came to the plate.

I hadn’t thought about Todd for most of the game but now he was present. Todd loved rooting for Rodriguez even more than I do, and I clapped more forcefully, hoping that Rodriguez would deliver. Mike MacDougal came in for Lannan and threw to first three times before Gardner stole second and then third. Rodriguez walked when he checked his swing on a full-count pitch.

First and third, Yanks down by a run, one out in the ninth. They were going to win. Robinson Cano fouled off the first two pitches he saw, took two balls, and then fouled off five or six more. He put good swings on the ball. The crowd was loud, only pausing to hold their breath as each pitch was delivered. I looked around our section at the friends we had made–clapping, rocking in their seats, clutching their hats, gasping at each foul ball–and realized that the meaning of Todd, and of the game, isn’t the outcome.

It is being there.

I felt humbled. Todd will never sit in his seats but he is there with us. The Yankees may not know it, but this is Todd’s season. (And there were plenty of moments to appreciate–two strong innings of relief from Phil Hughes and fine fielding plays by Rodriguez and Cano, and the customary brilliance of Teixeira.) I soaked in the last ten minutes of the game–that’s about how long the Rodriguez and Cano at bats took. My hands hurt from clapping and my heart raced. The excitement rattle through me and wished that I could bottle the sensation. I think it was Carlton Fisk who reflected that the 1978 playoff game between the Yankees and Red Sox should have been suspended when Yaz came to bat. It was a perfect moment, both teams were winners–baseball nirvana.

Last night was a June game pitting one of the best teams in baseball against the worst.  Of course I was disappointed when Cano hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end it, but I felt, for those precious moments in the ninth, in touch with why we watch every night, why were are moved, and crazed and driven, and why in the end, baseball matters.

Final Score: ‘Nats 3, Yanks 2.

Chien-Ming Wang again…

Dude, it’s got to start somewhere for our man. Baby steps, Money, baby steps. We’re behind you.

Diane and I will be sitting in Todd Drew’s seats tonight. We’ll raise a cup in his honor.

Damn, is that man ever missed around here or what?

Nearly 30 retired major leaguers will congregate at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown on Sunday for the first Hall of Fame Classic. The list of ex-Yankees who will participate includes Mike Pagliarulo, Kevin Maas, Phil Niekro, Jim Kaat, and Lee Smith. In the latest installment of “Card Corner,” we take a closer look at the man known as “Knucksie.”

Like fellow Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew, Brooks Robinson and Billy Williams, Phil Niekro exudes gentlemanly class. Frankly, Leo “The Lip” Durocher was wrong when he said, “Nice guys finish last.” Some guys, like Niekro, might have played for a lot of last-place teams, but 318 career wins and a permanent residence in Cooperstown hardly qualify as “finishing last.”

During my tenure as a full-time employee at the Hall of Fame, I had the privilege of engaging Phil Niekro in several casual conversations and a few formal interviews. Whether Phil was in front of a microphone or not, he always behaved the same way. He didn’t like talking about himself—I never heard him brag about anything—but preferred steering credit in other directions.

On a Saturday night in Cooperstown in 2006, I watched Niekro behave in his typically dignified fashion. Along with several other retired ballplayers, Niekro was taking part in a roundtable discussion about the game in the Hall of Fame’s Grandstand Theater. As he sat next to his beloved brother Joe, who would pass away unexpectedly only three weeks later, Phil expressed only words of fond praise for his two-time teammate with the Braves and Yankees. “To get to play with your best friend, that’s an experience,” Phil said that evening. “I wish all brothers would get a chance to have that experience.”

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