Check out my take on the Yankees in the wake of the A.J. Burnett deal over at SI.com.

I’m wearing a “My web browser went to the Winter Meetings and all I got was this lousy t-shirt” … umm … t-shirt, and I bring you this news:

• BP.com’s (and new BBWAA member) Christina Kahrl analyzes the Sabathia signing:

Which brings us back to the simple fact that having Sabathia set for three seasons is a great bet, and an absolutely worthwhile risk to take on if you want to win in baseball’s best division, regardless of whether the deal’s segmented or not. Is it a gamble? Of course it is, but if the Yankees get seven years of good work, or even three or four of great work and some less so, it will have been worth it. With Wang lined up as an extremely different kind of rotation regular, and with the gaggle of young talent lined up behind them, they’ve got a good front end on a staff already operating with the benefit of better depth in the pen. If the bet was on Sabathia’s being a unique talent who might make all the difference over Mark Teixeira being a great first baseman over seven years (for the sake of argument), I’ll take the pitcher in this instance, acknowledging that finding a first baseman who can help you score runs is easier than the Yankees have made it for themselves in recent seasons.

• Staying with BP.com, here’s an interesting Q&A from a chat with BP’s John Perrotto:

Dante (NY): With the Yankees signing CC and most likely add Burnett or Sheets, is Phil Hughes still as untouchable as ever, even with their huge need for a young/solid catcher?

John Perrotto: They are willing to trade Phil Hughes, who other teams are starting to see as really nothing more than a No. 3 or No. 4 starter.

• Mark Feinsand of the News reports that the Yanks are still leaving the door open for Andy Pettitte, but that the door will be closing if they secure one or two more FA pitchers.  Also in the article is this little tidbit on a potential new revenue source for the team:

One of those may come in the press box at the new Yankee Stadium, where a source said the club is considering charging media members for wireless Internet access at every home game.

A Yankees official said the idea has been thrown around, although it is unclear whether it will happen or how much the team plans to charge if it decided to go ahead with the plan.

• Newsday’s Ken Davidoff wraps up his coverage of the Meetings with an analysis of the Yankee moves:

Yes, it was obnoxious that the Yankees had to bid against themselves and offer $61 million more than the next offer to convince Sabathia to come to New York. But look, if we had said a month ago that the Yankees would sign Sabathia to a three-year, $69-million deal, wouldn’t Bud Selig have said, “Where do I sign up?”

While this technically is a seven-year, $161-million deal, it’s spiritually three years for $69 million. Is there any doubt Sabathia will use that opt-out after 2011? In signing this deal, he has sent a telegram to the Giants: “You have three years to get your house in order for my arrival! See you then!”

Burnett, though? People love his stuff, which he displayed in fine form by leading the American League with 231 strikeouts this past season. But he just doesn’t take the mound enough, most industry people agree, to justify five years and $80 million.

“We know him better than anyone,” a Blue Jays official said Thursday on the condition of anonymity, “and we wouldn’t give him five years.”

• The Post’s Joel Sherman points out why the Yanks may be targeting certain pitchers over others this off-season:

If you want to know what is so alluring to the Yankees about Sabathia and Burnett, take a look at the strikeouts-per-nine-innings leaders in the majors: Burnett was third (9.39) and Sabathia was fifth (8.93).

Yankees starters have finished in the bottom half of the AL in strikeouts per nine innings each of the past three years, which has put more balls in play to expose a poor defense. But the Yankees also are thinking about more than just getting back to the playoffs with a swing-and-miss brigade. They believe power arms win in October, and they envision lining up Sabathia, Burnett, Joba Chamberlain a Joba Chamberlain nd maybe even Ben Sheets and blowing away playoff opponents.

That is why they agreed to pay a pitching record $161 million to secure Sabathia. And that is why they seem to favor Burnett over Derek Lowe, although Burnett is an annual injury risk and Lowe is one of the best bets for 30-plus starts and 12-plus wins around …

But their organizational philosophy has become, it is the job of the manager, pitching coach and training staff to get the talented players on the field. One Yankees official recently said, “Darrell Rasner is a great guy, but I can’t teach him to miss a bat.”

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Okay, so the Yankees have landed the big fish, with CC Sabathia agreeing to a seven-year deal worth roughly $161 million. Now what? The rumor mill has had them going hard after first Derek Lowe, then A.J. Burnett, with Ben Sheets and Andy Pettitte serving as backup options who could be had with shorter term contracts.

This prompts two questions: Exactly how much money to they have left to spend? and What about the offense?

With regards to the first, let’s do the math on the money coming off last year’s payroll and how much of that has already been spent:

all costs in millions of dollars; *estimated prorated portion of 2008 salary

In addition to the above, the Yankees have four arbitration eligible players. Three of whom had poor 2008 seasons and thus are unlikely to have much negative effect on the bottom line. Those three are Chien-Ming Wang, Brian Bruney, and Melky Cabrera. The last is Xavier Nady. The Yankees paid Nady roughly $1.12 million of his $3.35 million salary last year. Nady would cost the Yankees an extra $2.23 million even without getting a raise and is coming off a career year. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect his salary to exceed $5 million in 2009. To make things simple, I’ll just round down the Yankees net savings in the chart above to $40 million.

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What’s the over/under on the number of words dedicated to Sabathia today?  Anyway, here’s the news:

• Buster Olney of ESPN examines the concerns for C.C. Sabathia as he approaches this new challenge:

Sabathia will get the largest contract ever for a pitcher, Joel Sherman reports, and he is embracing the pressure of going into New York as a savior. That challenge eventually destroyed Chuck Knoblauch and confounded Roger Clemens for most of two seasons. It’s a challenge that still seems to gnaw at Alex Rodriguez.

… Sabathia’s personal puzzle will be to find a way to block out the external pressure and not allow it to compound the internal pressure that he already places on himself, and that pressure is as large as he is. He has been at his worst in the past when he has pushed himself too much — examples include after Bartolo Colon left the Indians and Sabathia wanted to become the ace, and perhaps at the outset of the 2008 season, as he began his free-agent year. The worst thing Sabathia can do is to try harder. But he will be remarkably accountable, owning up to his mistakes quickly and adjusting, and I’d bet that he’ll figure out the emotional puzzle and pitch effectively for the Yankees.

• BP.com’s Jay Jaffe has a thorough (and somewhat sobering) analysis of the Sabathia signing, which ends with this:

The Sabathia signing won’t put the Yankees over the top by itself, particularly given that it now makes Boston the favorite to sign Teixeira to upgrade a more potent offense than the Yanks can muster and that the young and already stocked Rays have frontline starter David Price and even more top prospects still on the way. Sabathia can’t be expected to match the dominance he showed in his Milwaukee stint because the American League, and the AL East in particular—statistically the toughest five-team division of the Wild Card Era—is a more difficult place to pitch; at the very least one can expect his strikeout rate to drop, since he’ll face designated hitters instead of pitchers. His Cleveland numbers are a better guide to his future performance than his Milwaukee ones.

In all, the move makes a splash in New York by putting most of the Yankees’ eggs into one very big basket and by compensating for the type of deal Cashman apparently wishes he’d done last winter. While it may pay off in the short term, it may prevent them from addressing other big needs, and could very well net them bigger headaches down the road.

• Also at BP.com, Joe Sheehan voices a similar concern on the signing and how it impacts the structure of the team:

Despite the perception around the Yankees that pitching was a problem last year, this contract gilds a reasonably attractive lily, making the rotation strong and decreasing the pressure on the bullpen due to Sabathia’s tendency to work deep into games. On the other hand, signing Sabathia puts $23 million a year in a place other than the offense, which was the team’s real problem in ’08 and projects to be something less than dominant in 2009. The Yankees needed a big bat more than they needed a big arm, and while the two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive for a team with the Yankees’ money, if signing Sabathia makes it even slightly less likely that the Yankees sign Mark Teixeria, it was probably the wrong move for them.

• Yahoo!Sports is reporting that the Sabathia contract has an opt-out clause after three years.  The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reports that Sabathia’s agent was pushing for an opt-out clause regardless of where C.C. signed.

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Powered by the great guitarwork of blues/jazzman Melvin Taylor, here’s the news:

• Late-breaking news …. (7:06 this morning): Joel Sherman of the Post is reporting the Sabathia has accepted the Yankees offer.  I’m sure we’ll see about the validity of this article throughout the day.
• I sprained my Ankiel tripping over this news: the Post’s Joel Sherman blogs that the Yanks have expressed some interest in the Cards’ Rick Ankiel, and mentions that the Cards like Ian Kennedy.
• Lifestyles of the rich and famous Yankees: Tyler Kepner of the Times writes of the diligence shown by C.C. Sabathia in asking all sort of “living in NYC” questions during his talks with the Yankees.  Sabathia (the person) impressed Brian Cashman:

“I walked out of there saying to myself, ‘That’s exactly the type of person I thought he was from afar,’ ” Cashman said. “Now I get a chance to meet him up close and get a sense of the person. He’s a quality guy. Whether he picks us or doesn’t pick us, I think he’s going through this process with genuine, sincere effort to make the best decision for himself and his family, simple as that.

“We’re not being played, we’re not being manipulated, we’re not being used. I just think that he’s making an informed decision.”

• Cashman goes to San Fran for the night (but it wasn’t for a Jeter/A-Rod type of sleepover): Newsday reports that Brian Cashman had a third meeting with Sabathia last evening in San Francisco:

The Yankees have renewed optimism about their chances of signing CC Sabathia after general manager Brian Cashman met with Sabathia for a third consecutive day. Last night’s meeting was a last-minute affair for which Cashman jetted to San Francisco for the evening, multiple sources told Newsday.

Earlier in the day, a Yankees official told Newsday “things are going in the right direction” with Sabathia. That became quite apparent once Cashman canceled his planned daily meeting with the New York media. Media relations director Jason Zillo explained in an e-mail: “Brian is off hotel property and unavailable for the rest of the evening. This was not scheduled and he/we apologize for the inconvenience.”

Cashman is believed to have gone alone to the San Francisco area, where Sabathia lives, as manager Joe Girardi was seen at the Bellagio later yesterday.

• Not Right Said Ned: MLB.com notes that Dodger GM Ned Colletti clarified what C.C. Sabathia supposedly said to him about wanting to pitch for L.A.:

Colletti clarified his chance meeting with Sabathia in the Bellagio Casino on Sunday night, on the eve of the four-day Winter Meetings, saying it wasn’t Sabathia who said he wanted to play for the Dodgers but that “he’s told us in other ways, not directly to me.”

• In that same article, its noted that the Dodgers consider Sabathia “special”:

Even more intriguing, Colletti revealed that Sabathia is the kind of pitcher for which the Dodgers might relax their unwritten rule limiting contracts for pitchers to three years, although the club hasn’t decided how far it might go for him.

“We’ve tried to stay short, three or less, but in special circumstances it might be more depending on the age, the health history, like that,” said Colletti. “He would be worth a consideration.”

• ESPN reports that the Giants also met with Sabathia Monday night, and would meet again after the Meetings.
• Lowe spark of high-payroll boys: MLB.com notes that the Yanks and Phils are now the two leading pursuers of Derek Lowe.

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Powered by the new Monty Python website, here’s the news:

• A C.C. (opt-out) Rider included?: MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy has some interesting news regarding the Brewers’ offer to Sabathia:

The Brewers may have upped their offer to free-agent ace CC Sabathia before a face-to-face meeting at the Bellagio, and team officials may be mulling another new twist: an opt-out clause midway through the deal.

The Chicago Tribune cited “sources” Monday indicating that the Brewers had already added a sixth year to their initial proposal, and that general manager Doug Melvin was “considering a willingness” to add a clause that would give Sabathia the opportunity to opt out after three seasons. In that scenario, Sabathia could be a free agent again in the 2011-12 offseason as a 31-year-old.

But that report was topped by SI.com, which reported that the opt-out clause could be presented after just two years, when Sabathia would be 30. SI.com was among the outlets reporting that the Brewers were only considering adding the sixth year, and had not yet done so formally.

• However, C.C. may have already made up his mind … or Ned Colletti may be playing games …. if ESPN.com is to be believed:

Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti told ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark on Monday that he ran into the free agent on Sunday night in a hotel lobby and the left-hander told him that he wants to be a Dodger.

• According to the MLB.com “Hot Stove Blog”, the Colletti has not even begun speaking to the Yankees about the availability of Robinson Cano.
• Jayson Stark and Jerry Crasnick are noting that the Yanks are making motions towards A.J. Burnett, possibly offering more money per year than other suitors but not the fifth year Burnett is seeking.  Nonetheless, it appears Burnett is leaning towards Atlanta.
• Joel Sherman of the Post writes that none other than Mr. October was brought into the Yanks’ meeting with C.C. Sabathia on Sunday.  A little star power never hurts, right?  Sherman also reports that Jorge Posada began his throwing program at the team’s minor league complex in Tampa.
• Yanks want to be short-Sheeted?: Mark Feinsand of the News reports that the Yankees plan to offer Ben Sheets a two-year, $26 million deal.
• According to ESPN’s Jayson Stark, Bobby Abreu (along with Raul Ibanez) is drawing interest from the Cubs.
• Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com reports that the Cardinals may be a new suitor for A.J. Burnett.

(more…)

With memories of my father, who passed away on this day 14 years ago … this update is for you dad:

• Bryan Hoch of MLB.com has a rundown of the top starting pitchers to be had,  including for each the teams interested, latest chatter, reasons they haven’t been signed yet, and chances of them being signed during the Meetings.
• George King of the Post offers a preview of the Yanks plans for the Winter Meetings.
• Over at the Times, Dan Rosenheck writes of the differing qualities of a save, and how K-Rod’s gaudy 62 save season was actually less impressive than Mariano Rivera’s:

A far better way to measure a reliever’s value is a statistic called Win Probability Added, which compares a team’s chances of winning a game before a pitcher takes the mound to the same figure once he departs. So the closer who protects the three-run lead in the ninth is credited with only 0.035 wins — the difference between the 96.5 percent likelihood of victory when he entered and the 100 percent when he left — while the setup man keeping a game tied in the eighth gets 0.113 wins, for increasing his team’s odds of victory from 36.5 percent to 47.8 percent.

Rodríguez’s 3.33 W.P.A. was only the fourth best among American League closers last year, trailing Mariano Rivera, Joakim Soria and Bobby Jenks. Many of his official saves were insignificant; on Aug. 12, he received one for recording a single out with a four-run lead and two runners on. And some of his blown saves were excruciating, like the walk, single and game-winning homer he surrendered to blow a two-run cushion on July 9.

• John Perrotto of BP.com offers a team-by-team preview for the Winter Meetings.  The Yankee section is pretty much as we expect it.
• Pete Toms at the Biz of Baseball surveys the changing landscape of televised coverage of baseball, especially in light of the launching of the MLB Network on New Year’s Day.  Here’s a reference to the thinking of teams like the Yanks that have their own RSN (Regional Sports Network):

Clubs also see themselves as better able to grow their brands locally when they control the local TV content.   Sports consultant Marc Ganis said of the Yankees’ RSN,  “YES has not only been a financial success, but also a critical success creating programming and implementing sponsorships that bring fans closer to their favorite team and players that likely never would have been done with a non-team-affiliated broadcaster,”

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Is it me, or has the three-week time frame since the Yankees extended the six-year, $140 million offer to CC Sabathia represented a Dead Zone? John Harper noted as much in today’s Daily News.

Perhaps the greatest hitch in the lack of offseason movement so far, as many local scribes have hinted, is Scott Boras, who not only represents Sabathia, but the three other major names in whom the Yankees are reportedly interested: Mark Teixeira, A.J. Burnett and Derek Lowe. Maybe it’s also because the local headlines have reflected a fascination with the Plaxico Burress PR disaster and the BCS College Football mess.

As we all know, New York, despite its fervor for the Giants, Jets, Rangers and the Knicks, is a baseball town. Keeping up with everything at this time of year is no small feat. I applaud our Diane Firstman for linking the hell out of the coverage, which can get messy.

Every year, I try to observe which reporter has the goods on the story — or stories — and gets the jump on his competition. Here’s how you know: When a reporter from a competing newspaper — and yes, they all read each other — credits you by name in a column, you’re on point.

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You can read it in the Sunday Papers … but start here:

• Tyler Kepner of the Times has an article on the arrival of Scott Boras at the Winter Meetings.  Here’s an excerpt:

Boras’s guiding principle is that it takes only one team to set the market, and he offered a hint of that theory when asked his opinion about the effects of the overall economy on baseball. “I think there are 30 economies in baseball,” Boras said, referring to the 30 major league teams, and adding later: “We know baseball had record revenues, and the profits that are in the barn for many owners are extraordinary. There are clubs that run their business appropriately, and we all know it’s good business to have good players.”

• Bill Madden previews the Yanks and Mets tasks at the Winter Meetings.  He includes a decidely different opinion on the issue of arbitration vis-a-vis Pettitte and Abreu:

As of yesterday, only eight of the 171 free agents had signed, and while the slow market figures to pick up somewhat in Vegas, other than the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels and, to a lesser degree, the Braves, the depressed economy appears to have most teams  disinclined to enter into expensive long-term contracts.

That is why Cashman wisely chose not to offer arbitration to Abreu or Jason Giambi, neither of whom is likely to get more in multi-year offers than they were making in one year with the Yankees.

• The News’s Anthony McCarron has the latest on Brian Cashman’s pursuit of C.C. Sabathia.
• SI’s Jon Heyman may have some unpleasant news for Cashman …. Sabathia is anticipating the Brewers upping their initial offer:

Brewers general manager Doug Melvin reportedly will meet with Sabathia’s agent Greg Genske at the winter meetings, and while reports have indicated that the confab will provide Melvin a chance to gauge Sabathia’s interest, more importantly, it is believed that the Brewers will either at that meeting or soon after signal a willingness to enhance their initial bid.

• McCarron also catches up with former Yankee star Ed Figueroa, who now owns two restaurants in Puerto Rico.
• The Post’s Kevin Kernan details the work Ian Kennedy has been doing this off-season to correct the flaws apparent in his 2008 performance:

The former USC star went home and worked with pitching guru Tom House, who has been the Trojans’ pitching coach the past two years.

“I got some tips and started applying those and it made the break of my curveball better and the command of it extremely better,” Kennedy said from Puerto Rico. “Now I know what I have to do. Before I was just throwing it to throw it and try to throw it for a strike and not have any idea.”

Essentially, Kennedy is holding onto the baseball longer, and that makes a difference in break and command. As a result, he can make in-game adjustments to get the results he needs.

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Powered by A Bit of Fry and Laurie (hat tip to Jon Weisman for the link), here’s the news:

• At BP.com, Jay Jaffe puts on his GM’s hat and tries to fix the Yankees.  Here’s some highlights:

Withdraw the offer to Sabathia, which has been on the table since November 14.
Sign Teixeira.
Swisher becomes the primary right fielder, in a platoon with Nady.
Short-term CF solution by swapping Hideki Matsui to the Giants for Randy Winn.
Wang and Chamberlain are rotation locks, Hughes or Kennedy will take the number five spot. Alfredo Aceves is my seventh starter behind whichever of those two is sixth, and that at least one spare is stretched out at Scranton. That leaves a need for two starters. For one spot, I sign Derek Lowe.  Having signed Lowe, I’ll go high-risk/high-reward for the other spot. I’m going to sign Ben Sheets to a two-year, $30 million deal with a vesting option for a third year.

• As you probably know by now, Brian Cashman has met with Scott Boras regarding Mark Teixeira, and will talk to C.C. Sabathia this weekend as per Tyler Kepner at the Times).
• Think you have the Yankees’ next moves figured out?  Here’s some info from Buster Olney at ESPN:

They want to sign Sabathia, and if they cannot do that, then they intend to take the millions that would’ve been spent on the left-hander and chase after Teixeira, while bidding on Lowe. The Yankees also have had internal discussions about second baseman Orlando Hudson, whom they would sign, presumably, if they were to move closer to the long-considered swap of Robinson Cano to the Dodgers (or some other team). If the Yankees were to trade Cano to L.A., they almost certainly would insist upon an elite pitcher like Clayton Kershaw or Chad Billingsley in return, and in failing to get that, they’d lock in on outfielder Matt Kemp.

• Over at the News, Mark Feinsand has this quote regarding the Yankees’ concern over someone making Sabathia a better offer:

“He’s got one suitor besides us, and that’s Milwaukee,” said one Yankees official who dismissed San Francisco as a legitimate contender. “He’ll have to make a decision: Does he want to leave a lot of money on the table?”

• Feinsand also echoes the Times Kepner on Cashman’s meeting with Boras, but has the focus on a different Boras client:

… to discuss the 36-year-old righthander (Lowe). Cashman was not reachable for comment, but it is believed that no offer was made, though that could come later this week or during next week’s winter meetings in Las Vegas.  Cashman is also believed to have discussed other Boras clients, including Oliver Perez and Mark Teixeira, but Lowe was the focus.

• Pick-3: Over at LoHud, Pete Abe offers his readers a poll to choose which of Lowe, Sheets and Burnett the Yanks should sign.   There is also a “none of the above” choice.  (Sheets is leading at time of this post). Pete also has an interesting post on a study done by Sports Management grad students at Manhattanville College.  Here’s an excerpt:

The students charted the win shares and durability of frontline players and bench players and broke them down to hitters, starters and relievers. They then compared all 30 teams.

As you might expect, starting pitching is what separated the elite teams from the rest and there was a wide disparity. That was particularly the case with the Yankees. But what struck me was that the offensive production was in a pretty tight range. The frontline players of most teams played close to the mean.  In other words, starting pitching is what mattered, particularly the depth of starting pitching. The students, who are all fans of the Yankees, commented that Brian Cashman was doing the right thing by focusing on starting pitching.

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By Glenn Stout

It was a nothing game.

September 24, 1992. A Thursday night. The Yankees in fourth place and the Tigers in sixth, neither of them close to the Blue Jays, or, apparently, with any chance of ever getting close to the Blue Jays or anyone else atop the division for at least a few more years. A young Scott Kamienicki vs. an aging Frank Tanana, one-time hard thrower whose fastball had come and gone and left behind a pile of guts and guile.

We were down from Boston, my girlfriend and I. She’d recently moved back in with me after getting a grad degree from Columbia and living and working in Mount Vernon for a few years, and we had some business to take care of in the city.

It had already been a funny day. Taking a bus somewhere downtown I’d seen Liza Minelli poking around outside some antique bathroom fixture store. Down by City Hall I’d used of one of those high tech public bathrooms that had cost 50 cents and gave itself a shower afterwards, like something from the Jetsons. Then I saw Rudy Giuliani walking down the street.

We went to the game – a nice early fall night. Only about 12,000 people were in the Stadium, so we had pretty good seats, probably the best seats I’d ever had for a major league game anywhere at that point – the main boxes, not too high up, almost dead on a line with the left field foul line. We might have paid twelve dollars a ticket, which also would have been the most I’d ever spent on a baseball ticket at the time.

I saw Nicolas Cage. He had better seats, right behind the plate, but still 20 or 30 rows up.

There wasn’t a whole lot of care on display on the field that night. Mattingly played hard, as always, and cracked a couple of doubles, and this new kid in center field, Bernie Williams, had a good night. But almost everyone else one either team – Charlie Hayes, Rob Deer, Tartabull – was packing it in; you could tell.

Seventh inning. Yankees ahead 4-0. Tanana throwing changeups off changeups and the occasional big sloppy curve – nothing much over eighty miles an hour. The crowd was already starting to file out.

Leading off, Gerald Williams. Rookie. I remember liking Gerald more than Bernie at first. He moved like a ballplayer, while Bernie moved like an antelope still wet from birth.

Gerald Williams hadn’t done much so far – a fly out, a strikeout. But now Tanana, thirty-nine years old and in his nineteenth year of major league baseball, gave him a pitch.

Williams didn’t miss it. I’ll never forget the trajectory – almost straight down the line, a little hook to it like a golf shot, that one bright spot against the black going smaller…

And Gerald Williams watching it, and walking, slow toward first before, barely, breaking into a trot. His first major league home run.

I was watching him saunter toward first when I heard someone yelling, not just to get someone’s attention, but REALLY yelling, I mean angry “I’m gonna ruin your face” kind of mad.

It was Frank Tanana. Pissed. Chewing Williams’ ass out every step he took all around the bases for standing there and showing him up. And Williams did speed up – not much – just enough to let Tanana know he heard but at the same time not so much to let him think he had been intimidated. And Tanana kept yelling.

Baseball-Reference tells me that Pat Kelly followed with a walk and Bernie Williams, this time running like an adult antelope, tripled, knocking out Tanana, and the Yankees went on to win 10-1, but to be honest, I don’t really remember much else about the game.

But I’ve got a great excuse. You see, when I was down by City Hall earlier that day, my girlfriend and I had applied for a wedding license. We went back the next day and got married in a ceremony that took precisely 27 seconds.

Or about as long as it took Gerald Williams to run around the bases.

Glenn Stout is the series editor of the Best American Sports Writing and the author of many books, including Yankee Century.

We made it to another Friday, so powered by The Two Ronnies, here’s the news …

• And on the Sabathia, C.C. rested: Tyler Kepner of the Times has an analysis of the dance between the Yanks and Sabathia to this point.  Here’s an excerpt:

Sabathia is a different case entirely, and the reason he is stalling, to those who know him, is just as the (anonymous) general manager suspected: his first choice is not New York. Sabathia is from Vallejo, Calif., near the San Francisco Bay Area, and it is well known that his preference is to play for a team on the West Coast. But the money is elsewhere.

“It’s not that he doesn’t want to be a Yankee; that’s not it at all,” said a friend of Sabathia’s, who was granted anonymity because Sabathia had not authorized him to speak on his behalf. “It’s just the aspect of being out there, his family, that kind of stuff.”

• First-degree Burnett: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Braves have offered A.J. Burnett a four-year deal (with some reports that there is a vesting fifth year).  The annual salary is reported to be around $15 million.
• Lowe and (the Yankees are looking in from the) outside: Boston Globe’s Tony Massarotti writes that Derek Lowe has received two offers, one being from the Phillies and the other NOT coming from either the BoSox or Bombers.  However, according to a “baseball source”:

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman will visit with Boras today, when he could make a formal offer for Lowe. Red Sox officials similarly could present an offer to Boras later this week, though it is highly questionable as to whether the Sox have any intention of getting into a bidding war for any high-priced pitcher.

• Where can one find a good Baldelli in the Bronx?: The Post’s Joel Sherman writes that the Yanks are one of at least six teams interested in FA Rocco Baldelli.  Sherman opines:

For the Yankees, Baldelli would provide some DH support for Hideki Matsui and perhaps a righty bat to play in left field on occasion to rest Johnny Damon.

• Over at MLB.com, Bryan Hoch sets the table for the Yankees at the upcoming Winter Meetings.  He has some notes on players that could or should be gone from the club by Spring Training, namely Cano, Cabrera, Kennedy, Igawa and either Matsui or Damon.
• Pettitte to the Dodgers update: Ken Davidoff of Newsday reports that Joe Torre and Pettitte have indeed spoken, but:

“I talked to Andy,” Torre said. “His agent had called the Dodgers to find out about interest, and that’s when I called him. I had talked to Andy much earlier, asking him to come to my (Safe at Home) Foundation dinner. He was always married to the Yankees, the excitement playing for the Yankees.

“I called him only because his agent called (Dodgers’ GM) Ned (Colletti). I certainly would’ve kicked myself (if I hadn’t called). He never said no to anything, but just from talking to him, I know the Yankees are his first choice. I wasn’t about to talk him out it, knowing Andy like I do.”

• A-Rod will suit up for the Dominican Republic team in the upcoming World Baseball Classic, as per Gordon Edes of Yahoo!Sports.

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By Bob Costas

(as told to Alex Belth)

To me Yankee Stadium means the original Yankee Stadium. I know the 1976-through-2008 version saw a lot of great moments and houses a lot of memories but since I’m from a generation prior to that, at least in terms of remembering baseball, my earliest memories are of the classic Yankee Stadium where Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, or for that matter, Bobby Murcer, played on exactly the same field with exactly the same dimensions as Ruth, Gehrig and DiMaggio. That’s what resonates most for me.

The first game I ever saw in person was the second to last day of the 1959 season. Saturday afternoon. It was one of those rare years in that era when the Yankees did not win the pennant. They finished third that year behind the White Sox and the Indians. I was seven-years-old. My father took me and my cousin.

My father was a huge baseball fan, very knowledgeable. His allegiances ran more towards the National League than the American. But there was that four season window, 1958-61, when the Yankees were the only team in New York. Most members of my family were either Giant fans or Dodger fans. But when I first became conscious of baseball the Yankees were the only New York team so they became my team. The Yankees televised a lot of games, even in that era. Mel Allen and Red Barber were in the booth along with the just-retired Phil Rizzuto. The games were on Channel 11 in black-and-white—I don’t think the Yankees started broadcasting in color until 1966.

Anyway, they were playing the Orioles that day. My cousin, who was older than me, was a Giants fan and loved Willie Mays just as much as I loved Mantle. Since the Giants weren’t involved he insisted on wearing an Orioles cap which infuriated me. I had a Yankee cap and we were seated in the lower left field stands. Not the bleachers but the lower left field stands, not far from the 402 sign that was just on the left field side of the bullpen.

There wasn’t that big of a crowd. My cousin and I had our gloves like kids always did and as the game moved along we moved down closer and closer because we were convinced that a home run or a ground rule double would soon land right in that area. And we weren’t just disappointed we were amazed that none did. The Yankees lost the game 7-2. I remember Johnny Blanchard hitting a home run. Mantle did not play which was an enormous letdown.

We didn’t keep score that day but we bought souvenirs. And I’ll be the one millionth person to testify to this but the thing you were struck by was the colors. Because your orientation to baseball, even if you were a very aware seven-year-old kid, was radio, black and white television and black-and-white pictures in the newspaper. And now you walk in and you’re struck by not just the color but how arresting the colors are. The orange of the warning track, how emerald green the grass was, how pure white the batter’s box and chalk lines and the bases were before the game started, the copper color of the façade. It was such an overwhelming place, the scale of it was enormous, and it was breathtaking, especially for a little kid.

Not to diminish the new Yankee Stadium, because many players and fans feel strongly about it and it had great features like Monument Park, but it wasn’t the old place. Not quite as awe-inspiring. The third baseball game I ever did on network Television was in 1980. I was 28-years-old. The Yankees were playing the Tigers on the last Saturday of the regular season. The Tigers were bad then, but they had beaten the Yankees the night before and that kept the Yankees’ clinching number at one. There were a bunch of other games—one involved the Dodgers and the other was the Phillies and Expos. These were supposed to be the featured games on NBC and the Yankee game was a back-up game in case of rain. And it did rain in Montreal and the game was delayed something like four hours. Eventually, the Phillies won that night, I think Schmidt hit a home run to clinch the division. So this combination of circumstances, a rain-out, the Yankees stalled at one, and suddenly this game went out to the whole country.

And I’m sure nobody outside of St. Louis had any idea who I was. I’m doing the game with Bobby Valentine. The Yankees win the game. Reggie hits a home run into the upper deck, his 41st and it ties Ben Ogilvie for the league lead. Gossage comes in and saves the game and they clinch the division. A memorable first time in the Yankee Stadium booth.

Subsequently, when I became part of the Game of Week team with Tony Kubek, we did many games at the Stadium. One happened to be Old Timers’ Day and Mickey Mantle came into the booth for a few innings. I tried to be as professional as I could, that is when I wasn’t pinching myself. Later, I did a number of playoff and World Series’ games there. But even with the pennant and World Series on the line I never heard the Stadium any louder than it was for Mickey Mantle Day in 1969. Mantle had retired prior to the ‘69 season and this was the final send-off day. They retired his uniform. The place was full which was remarkable because the capacity was huge back then and they didn’t sell out often. DiMaggio and Whitey Ford were part of the ceremony. Mickey’s remarks were simple, humble but in their own way eloquent and moving and there was a sustained 8-10 minute ovation. I don’t remember ever hearing a more appreciative reaction at a ballgame.

Bob Costas is the host of NBC’s Football Night in America and HBO’s Costas Now.

Powered by Love Train – The Sound of Philadelphia, here’s the news:

• Pete Abe will be doing a live video chat event at LoHud today at 1pm.  Click here to access it.
• In case you have nothing to do for about three hours, you can read a 153-page PDF file with all the e-mails that went back and forth between the City and the Yanks regarding the City’s use of a luxury box (big props to PeteAbe for the link).
• Doing the Arbitration Tango: At BP.com, Joe Sheehan takes the Yanks to task for not offering arbitration to Abreu and Pettitte:

… to decline the services of above-average players or draft picks in the event of their departure is a stunning waste of resources. Bobby Abreu projects as a five- or six-win player, Pettitte a bit below that … those wins are valuable because they could be the difference between making the postseason and missing it.

… two days ago, the Yankees had assets in Abreu and Pettitte that could have been considered short-term investments with minimal risk and fairly certain benefit (were they to rejoin the club), or long-term investments with more risk and uncertain benefit, but higher upside (were they to become draft picks). Now, they have nothing. How a team with the cash reserves of the Yankees can make a choice like that is inexplicable …

• Oh Atlanta!: Mark Feinsand of the News reports that the Braves are readying a five-year offer to A.J. Burnett:

Burnett, considered the No.2 starter on the market, was expected to wait for Sabathia to make the first move. But with the Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays all apparently hesitant to give Burnett a fifth year, the 31-year-old might jump at Atlanta’s offer before Sabathia makes his decision.

• Feinsand also has a blog entry on why Sabathia isn’t a Yankee yet:

It’s very simple. Sabathia clearly doesn’t have the Yankees listed first on his list, preferring to pitch in the National League and/or in California. He’s waiting to see if the Angels, Dodgers or Giants will get involved before he does anything, but it doesn’t mean he’s decided he won’t wind up in pinstripes.

• Meanwhile, ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark echoes the possibility of Sabathia ending up a Giant:

He loves the Bay Area in particular. He even loves the Warriors — enough that he showed up at a Warriors game in person this week.

And no matter how much the Giants might want to prioritize offense this winter, if the most alluring free agent in the solar system keeps suggesting he wants to play for your team if you can make it worth his while, how can you not think about it? So the Giants keep thinking. And the Giants keep talking. Talking to Sabathia’s agent, Greg Genske. And talking among themselves to determine whether this is a road worth seriously driving.

• Over at MLB.com, Lyle Spencer notes that Angels GM Tony Reagins still places Teixeira at the top of his shopping list:

Regains said “there was nothing to” reports that had the Angels moving past Teixeira and focusing on starter CC Sabathia, adding that the club has “no concerns” about Teixeira’s left knee, which was subjected to arthroscopic surgery in 2007. A published report indicated the Angels were too concerned with the knee long-term to go past six years for Teixeira, triggering a move toward Sabathia.

• Jeter second (base) to none?: Rob Neyer at ESPN.com chimes in on Steven Goldman wondering whether Jeter could play second base at some point in the near future:

… which isn’t to suggest the Yankees should throw a billion dollars at Jeter next winter (or sooner). Because if they’re paying him a ton of money for five years, they’re going to feel like they have to play him regularly for five years, and in four or five years he will not be good enough to play every day. For the Yankees the money isn’t the issue; the issue is the games, the at-bats, the plate appearances. And as Goldman suggests, second base probably isn’t the answer. Even if he can actually play second base, whatever you gain in defense you’re likely to lose in positional scarcity.

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A Bronx Banter Interview

By Hank Waddles

I can pinpoint the exact date when I became a Dallas Cowboys fan. On January 15, 1978, I was a young boy living in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, but without any attachment to the Lions when my Aunt Hazel and Uncle Tommy came over to watch Super Bowl XII between the Cowboys and the Denver Broncos. Uncle Tommy had bet money on the Broncos, so each time the Cowboys scored his face would twist into a painful grimace. Since I was an eight-year-old smart aleck, I thought it was hilarious and soon found myself quite naturally rooting for the Cowboys and against my uncle. When Dallas scored its final points, putting the game out of reach for the Broncos, Uncle Tommy actually slid off the couch in disgust, making me laugh out loud until my mother shushed me. My uncle passed away only a few years later, so that night remains my strongest memory of him. I’ll never know how much money he lost that night, but I gained a team.

Perhaps because I took pleasure in my uncle’s pain, the Cowboys rewarded me with a string of painful losses: to the Steelers a year later in Supe XIII (thank you, Jackie Smith); to Montana and Clark; to Riggins and the Hogs. Soon enough they descended into mediocrity and irrelevance, until Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson came to the rescue and rebuilt the franchise.

Any football fan can tell you what happened next. Jerry and Jimmy turned the team upside down, traded Herschel Walker, drafted Aikman and Emmitt, and started winning Super Bowls. Author Jeff Pearlman starts with what we know and goes deeper, talking to everyone who had anything to do with the team during that era, ranging from the players and coaches to the reporters who covered them to the women who slept with them. The result is Boys Will Be Boys: The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty, a revealing and engaging look at one of the greatest teams in NFL history. Recently Jeff was kind enough to talk with me about the book. Enjoy.

BronxBanter
I’m guessing that this book was kind of a perfect storm – high profile football players that haven’t yet faded from the public consciousness, lots of Super Bowls, lots of sex, and lots of drugs. How long after you started this project did you realize you had hit a goldmine?

Jeff Pearlman
I would say I actually knew even before I started it. I’ll be totally honest with you – I haven’t even said this to anyone. I had a really, really, really good feeling about this book early on. Early on. This was basically my way of thinking. My first book about the ’86 Mets made the Times best seller list for six or seven weeks, and I didn’t expect it to. I had no expectations at all because I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, it was my first book, and it made it. My kind of way of thinking with this, the Cowboys were like the Mets on steroids. You’re talking about a team that’s probably the most popular sports franchise in the country, much more famous figures. With the Mets, yeah, you’re talking Gooden and Strawberry, but then Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter are big New York figures, but they’re not national guys. With the Cowboys – Aikman, Deion, Emmitt, Irvin, Switzer, Jerry, Jimmy… it was pretty bountiful.

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By Joe Posnanski

OK, look, I don’t really have a lasting Yankee Stadium memory. I mean, sure, I have them, but they’re no different than the 5,483,794 lasting Yankee Stadium memories that have been told the last six months or six years or six decades or however long this “Lasting Yankee Stadium Memory” series has been running.

So the only reason I’m even writing this is because Alex pretty much bullied me into it by noodging me about it three times a day, every day since before my second child was born. I just assumed he would forget about it at some point, assumed that even for him the expiration date on Yankee Stadium memories would pass, assumed that he would let me live in peace. No. This man, like Billy Martin, simply knows no peace. I am of the firm belief now that that the best way to find Osama Bin Laden is to have Alex Belth assign him a “Lasting Yankee Stadium Memories” essay.

Anyway, what kind of unique Yankee Stadium memory does Alex even think I have? Who am I, Robert Merrill? Hey, maybe my memory was the time that me and the other short-pants kids in the Bronx skipped school and slipped past the front guards at the stadium and caught the last of Larrupin’ Lou’s three homers, which just so happened to heal my sick little brother Tommy. Or maybe it was that day in ’78 when I was a kid sitting outside the stadium and Billy Martin first threatened to hit me in my fat face and then apologized (said he had confused me for “Steinbrenner or one of them”) and then invited me to sit by him and tell Reggie he was benched.

Or maybe, seven years old, and my dad takes me to Yankee Stadium. My first game. We go in through this long, dark tunnel underneath the stands. And I’m holding his hand, and we come out of the tunnel, into the light. It was huge. How green the grass was, the brown dirt, and that great green copper roof, remember? We had a black-and-white TV then, so this was the first I ever saw in color. I sat there the whole game next to my Dad. He taught me how to keep score. Mickey hit one out.

Yeah. Memories. Not my memories. But at this point does it even matter? Others have told all of my memories. Sure, I was there the night when Jeter hit the November homer and listened to the recording of Frank singing “These little town blues …” again and again and again. I was there when John Wetteland went to the mound – this had to be three or four hours after he had gotten Mark Lemke to pop out to clinch the Yankees first World Series in a generation. The stadium was almost empty, and Wetteland stepped on the mound, and he just looked around … it was like he wanted just one more look.

I was there to hear Bob Sheppard say “Yankee Way,” I was there to see DiMaggio’s two-hand wave, I was there to hear a real Bronx Cheer – and it is true that all others taste like grape juice to that fine wine. I was there to see Greg Maddux at his baffling best, there to see perhaps the second-greatest team in baseball history* destroy the Padres, there to see David Cone throw one of the guttiest games I’ve ever watched, there to see Albert Belle snap at some fans, there to catch a glimpse of Bruce Springsteen, there to see George Steinbrenner, there to see Spike Lee, there to see Rudy Giuliani, there to see Mariano Rivera close the door.

*I am writing a book about the 1975 Reds, so by law I must have the 1998 Yankees behind them, and the ’27 Yankees too, and also the ’61 Yankees.

And, yes the memory that Alex probably wanted, I stood in the rain in centerfield back in 1996, the day that Game 1 of the World Series was rained out. I stood out there where (more or less) DiMaggio stood, the Mick, Bobby, Mick the Quick, Bernie, Jerry Mumphrey. I looked around, took it all in, listened for the echoes, looked for the ghosts, all of that. There were a few policemen standing in the rain too, and I thought they were going to come get me, but they seemed to understand what I was doing.

In fact, as I trudged in I passed one of them. He said: “Getting your Lasting Yankee Stadium Memory for Belth, right?” New York police officers are wise.

Joe Posnanski is the author of The Soul of Baseball, columnist for the Kansas City Star, and superstar blogger for SI.com.

As our friend Will Carroll would say …. “powered by” the sounds of Guitar Shorty, here’s the latest news:

• Over at the Post, Joel Sherman will be keeping a careful eye on what Andy Pettitte does now that the Yanks decided not to offer him arbitration:

In his moment of need, when it was revealed Pettitte was both a liar and cheater, the Yankees stood by him last season. At that time, Pettitte was only too happy to say the Yankees were the only team he ever wanted to play for any more. He did not say he only wanted to play for the Yankees unless they offer him a paycut.The Yanks have indeed offered that cut. Pettitte made $16 million last year and, according to sources, he was offered $10 million to return in 2009. So far, Pettitte has rejected that bid while his camp has done nothing to dispel reports linking him to Joe Torre and the Dodgers.

• Over at LoHud, Pete Abe offers his non-ballot for the Hall (he doesn’t have the 10 years in the BBWAA needed to vote):

If I had a vote this year it would go to Blyleven, Henderson and Rice. … Rickey seems pretty obvious. People smarter than I have convinced me Blyleven belongs and I think Rice was the dominant hitter in the AL for a long enough period of time.

• Ken Rosenthal at FOXSports.com notes that the slumping economy even impacts the mighty Yankees, especially as shown in their not offering arbitration to Bobby Abreu.
• Bryan Hoch of MLB.com gives us a rundown of the Yankees Hot Stove activity leading up to next week’s Winter Meetings.
• At the News, Bill Egbert writes that with the demolition of the old stadium not starting till next April, a lot of neighborhood kids will be without a ballfield on which to play.
• While we are all cognizant of the declining health of George Steinbrenner, another team owner passed away Tuesday.  Ted Rogers, owner of the Blue Jays, died at age 75 (ESPN).
• Happy 48th birthday to Gene (not Jeff) Nelson.  Nelson pitched for the Bombers in his rookie season (1981), then was part of a package that brought the Yanks Shane Rawley.

By Charlie Sheen

(as told to Alex Belth)

I was born in New York but I’ve lived out here in L.A. since I was three. But I’ve always rooted for the Yankees. I also rooted for the Reds because my dad was a big Reds fan. Reggie was one of my childhood heroes and the reason I learned to hit left-handed. He took the world center stage in the Bronx. I was 12, 13 the perfect age. I remember the Reds sweeping the Yankees in ’76 when I was with my dad in the Philippines on Apocalypse.

But the first time I actually went to Yankee Stadium was in 1991. My dad was shooting in Pittsburgh and I flew in the nigh before he wrapped. He was a doing a movie-of-the-week or a mini-series. We decided to do a baseball pilgrimage. We went to game at the old Three Rivers that night. I think we saw both Bonds and Van Slyke go yard. After the game we got on the elevator to leave and Joe Morgan walks on. I happened to be wearing a Reds hat. And I had met him briefly at some point back in the day. He shook my hand and gave me a hug and I introduced him to my dad who was so impressed that I knew Joe Morgan.

The following morning we got out on the road and we took a road trip to Cooperstown to the Baseball Hall of Fame. We visited the Mecca. The next morning we drove to New York and went to a game that night at the Stadium. It was a trip because if I’m not mistaken they were playing Texas. Fifty-five has always been a recurring number for me and the first guy up was Brian Downing and he was wearing 55. You’d have to look it up if it was Downing but it was 55. I just remember thinking, “Wow, of course my first game and the first hitter would have to wear 55.”

We had a great time at that game. Pretty sure Mattingly hit a three-run bomb in the eighth to put it out of reach. When one of the security guys comes to us afterwards and says, “You guys want to see Monument Park?” Everybody’s gone and we got a private tour. Then we’re walking back across the field and I say to my dad, “Hey, let’s go to the dugout. Let’s see what this looks like from the players’ perspective.” So we’re sitting in the dugout and I look under the bench and there’s a ball wedged-up under one of the seat supports. So I pull it out and based on the tint of the ball—it had red clay on the stitches, it didn’t say ‘practice’ on it—I’m convinced that it was a used in a game. It was a foul ball that shot into the dugout and stayed there.

We kept it. I had to leave New York the following morning. I was digging through my stuff at the hotel room and I couldn’t find the ball. I’m like, Great, dad kept it. Okay, it was his first game, he’s entitled. So I’m on the plane the next day and about halfway through the flight I’m going through my carry-on and there’s the ball in a little plastic bag. It said, “Hey Charlie, Thanks for taking me out to the ballgame.” There was such a cool, full-circle feeling about that trip. Then of course, finding the ball on the plane. I still have it of course.

The other memory is a little bizarre. Went to a game in ‘96, mid-season before they started making their move. Took a buddy of mine, David O’Neill. He’s a director and a writer and an old friend of mine. We were in a box but he had never been there so he said, “I’m going to go see what this place is like, I’m going to go walk around.”

Comes back with a foul ball that he has caught off the bat of Paul O’Neill. What are the odds? And, another example of him being about the fifth person I took to their first game that got a foul ball. I’ve been to what, a thousand games in my life. Never even touched one.

I bought out the left field bleachers in Anaheim in the mid-‘90s in a game against Detroit. I bought 2,600 seats in the left field pavilion and I sat out there with three friends. I was going to force the hand of the baseball Gods and that didn’t even work. Nothing. Four balls hit the wall that night. And the next night, I watched on television as like maybe four or five landed not just in the section but pretty much in my seat of the day before. It was one of those reminders that you can’t force the organic flow of the American Pastime.

Charlie Sheen is the star of the CBS comedy Two and a Half Men.

A Tuesday without “The Shield” …. sigh.  Here’s the news:

• As you probably know by now, the Yanks decided not to offer arbitration to any of the their free agents.  Pete Abe at LoHud has the lowdown from the mouth of Brian Cashman:

“The determination we made today was to make sure that we control what amount we’d be spending at least in the event that we’re fortunate enough to bring those players back. We did not want to put ourselves in a position of having that determined by a third party without knowing what that figure would be.”

• Joe Posnanski has an appreciation of Boss George at SI.com (you gotta go there if only to view the vintage SI cover of George on a horse).  Here’s an excerpt:

The story of King George is fascinating to me because, at the end of the day, the story goes wherever the narrator wants it to go. Do you want a hero? Do you want a scoundrel? Do you want a tyrant? Do you want a heart of gold? Steinbrenner is what you make him. He is the convicted felon who quietly gave millions to charity, the ruthless boss who made sure his childhood heroes and friends stayed on the payroll, the twice-suspended owner who drove the game into a new era, the sore loser who won a lot, the sore winner who lost plenty, the haunted son who longed for the respect of his father, the attention hound who could not tolerate losing the spotlight, the money-throwing blowhard who saved the New York Yankees and sent them into despair and saved them again (in part by staying out the way), the bully who demanded that his employees answer his every demand and the soft touch who would quietly pick up the phone and help some stranger he read about in the morning paper.

• Back over at LoHud, Pete Abe has some good news on the progress of Robinson Cano in the Dominican League.
• Rickey Henderson makes his first appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot this year, as reported by ESPN.  The Bombers are well-represented amongst the 23 names vying for entry.  Henderson joins Tommy John, Don Mattingly, David Cone, Tim Raines, Lee Smith and Jesse Orosco amongst one-time Yanks hoping for immortality.
• Is this surprising?: Sports Business Journal reports that the Bombers are the favorite out-of-market team (in terms of fan support outside their home city) in 2008.   They top the list of 122 franchises across the four major sports.
• Bob Kammeyer would have been 58 today.  “Kammy” had a non-descript brief trial with the Yanks in 1978, and then pitched in one infamous game in mid-September 1979.  In that game, he relieved to start the fourth inning, with the Yanks already trailing 4-0.  He allegedly took $100 from manager Billy Martin to intentionally hit Cleveland batter Cliff Johnson with a pitch.  His line for the appearance: eight batters faced, eight runs, seven hits (two homers), one HBP, all without retiring a batter.  That was it for his major league career.  He died from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 52.
• On this date in 1997, pitcher Steve Hamilton passed away, just two days after his 62nd birthday.

By Pat Jordan

I was 12 the first time I visited Yankee Stadium in 1953. I had been invited to appear on Mel Allen’s pre-game TV show because, as a Little League pitcher in Connecticut, I had pitched four consecutive no-hitters and struck out every batter I faced except two. I arrived in a tan suit, and tie, with my glove in a paper bag. I expected the Yankees to ask me to throw a few, and then sign me to a contract. But they didn’t. Mel Allen just talked to my parents, then asked me a question. I mumbled and answer and sulked. That’s all I remember about the Stadium on my first trip.

The next time I went to the stadium was in 1959, when I was 17, and trying to get the Yankees to give me a bonus. That trip, I remember clearly. The Yankee p.r. person ushered me and my older brother down to the team’s press room which, I was amazed to discover, had wood-paneling painted white with blue pinstripes.

Mel Allen was there, again, at a table. He mistook me for Rocky Colavitao, the Cleveland Indians slugging outfielder. Why not? We were both Italian. But he didn’t remember me from six years before. Then I was led to the Yankees’ clubhouse, where all my heroes were in various states of dress. I gawked at my idol, Whitey Ford, with his freckled red skin and blue eyes, and Yogi Berra, squat and homely, and Mickey Mantle, sitting in a whirlpool. I thought Mantle was ten feet tall as a kid but when he got out of the whirlpool I, at 6’1″, towered over him.

I dressed into a Yankee uniform, then went out to show my stuff to the Yankee scouts. When I stepped out of the dugout the vastness of the Stadium loomed up all around me. It was the biggest place I’d ever been in. Now that I was no longer a boy, I wasn’t interested in such things. The scouts sat behind the home plate screen while I warmed up on a mound behind home plate. Johnny Blanchard was catching me. When I finally cut loose with my first fastball Blanchard turned towards the scouts, said something, and tried to slip a sponge into his mitt, without me noticing it. But I did. After that, each succeeding fastball exploded in his mitt and around the Stadium like a canon’s roar. I will never forget it.

After I finished throwing, I went into the general manager’s office where the g.m and my brother bargained over my bonus, while I sat there silent at a big conference table. The Yankees offered me a $36,000 bonus and I was crushed. The Braves had offered me $50,000, but I desperately wanted to pitch for the Yankees in their Stadium which I had come to see, over the years, as my rightful baseball home.

But, alas, it was not to be.

Pat Jordan, the author of A False Spring and A Nice Tuesday, is a freelance writer.