As we all know, 1979 marked the final season of Thurman Munson’s career as a Yankee—the end result of one of the game’s worst tragedies. A number of other Yankee also played their final games in pinstripes that summer, though for far less heartbreaking reasons. Dick Tidrow left in May, traded to the Cubs in an ill-fated deal for Ray Burris. Mickey Rivers left in August, traded to the Rangers for Oscar Gamble and prospects. After the season, longtime Yankee mainstay Roy White moved on, opting to continue his career by playing in the Japanese Leagues.

A future Hall of Famer also left the team that winter. Jim “Catfish” Hunter decided to call it quits, his right arm having buckled under the stress of so many innings and far too many sliders.

Like most great pitchers, the 33-year-old Hunter owned great inner pride. He had no interest in hanging on as a mop-up man wallowing in long relief. The refusal to accept life as a fringe pitcher probably came as no surprise to people who had followed Hunter since his early days with the Oakland A’s. Prior to the 1971 season, A’s owner Charlie Finley had angered the pitcher when he offered him a mere $5,000 raise, which Hunter considered inadequate after winning a career-high 18 games in 1970. Finley preferred emphasizing Hunter’s 14 losses and his extreme reliance on closer Jim “Mudcat” Grant, who had rescued eight of Catfish’s wins with late-inning relief work. (Yes, it was a different baseball world back then.) Hunter didn’t appreciate the suggestion that he had depended so heavily on Grant to enjoy a successful season. “Mudcat was a good relief pitcher last year,” Catfish told The Sporting News, “one of the best I’ve ever seen. But I didn’t like it when some sportswriters suggested that he get half my salary this year. He did his job and I did mine.” Without minimizing the efforts of one of his teammates, Hunter had provided a thoughtful defense of his own contributions to the team.

Yet, Hunter didn’t take himself too seriously. He enjoyed playing practical jokes, which served to loosen up a clubhouse that was sometimes sidetracked by tension and mistrust. He never really liked being the center of attention, which was exactly where he found himself in 1964, when a horde of scouts had initiated an all-out raid on his home in Hertford, North Carolina, and its population of 2,012 residents. Scouts considered the young Jim Hunter one of the best high school pitchers in the country. Finley, at the time the owner of the Kansas City A’s, succeeded in signing Hunter to his first professional contract. The following spring, the A’s wanted to send the 19-year-old Hunter to the minor leagues, but his surprising maturity convinced management that he should remain with Kansas City.

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Today’s news is powered by Blue Jays . . . and the Fab Four:

• Joe Sheehan wonders about Sunday night’s late game  pitching choices:

Joe Girardi committed himself to Phil Coke in the eighth inning despite having six right-handed relievers on his roster, meaning Coke would have to face four straight right-handed batters after Jacoby Ellsbury. With Philip Hughes apparently unavailable after pitching Friday and Saturday—but for just one out each day—Girardi reacted by making none of his other righties available. It mattered less in the important matchup—letting Coke face Victor Martinez, batting right-handed, would have been the play in any case—but had Coke retired Martinez, he would have been asked to get Kevin Youkilis and Jason Bay with the tying run on base, and that would have been a huge risk. It was yet another odd decision by a man for whom running a bullpen is a daily challenge.

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In his preview, Cliff mentioned that the Yanks are ripe for a letdown but he didn’t think it would happen. Then during the game, Yankee announcer Michael Kay, and his cohorts Al Leiter and Paul O’Neill, discussed at length why the Yankees would not have a letdown (sometimes I really think these guys get paid by the word).

So what happened? The Yanks went out and lost to the Jays 5-4, their winning streak halted at seven.

Sergio Mitre was not impressive, allowing five runs–though just three earned thanks to an error by Robinson Cano–in five innings. He did give up a long home run to Lyle Overbay and that was the difference. I wonder if he’ll get another chance to start a game for the Yankees.

The Yanks did not score after the fourth inning though they had several chances, collecting 11 hits in all but going 0-5 with runners in scoring position. In the top of the eighth, O’Neill said, “As good as the Yankees are playimg, something’s about to happen; the fans feel it, the opposing team feels it.” Jorge Posada fouled off fastballs and sliders from left-handed reliever Jesse Carlson. O’Neill said the pitcher didn’t have the stuff to get him out. Posada whiffed on the twelfth pitch of the at-bat (good slider, down and in). Carlson then got Cano and pinch-hitter Johnny Damon to ground out. The crowd was sitting on their hands and O’Neill was silent.

It’s not that one loss is a big deal, but I got the sense that, riding the weekend high, the announcers assumed the Yanks would come back and win simply because they are the better team and should win. Well, the Toronto bullpen was excellent. And winning is hard. O’Neill of all people knows this But he’s not a fan.

Hey, sometimes it’s easier to be frustrated with the dopey announcers than it is with the team.

Oh, and the Red Sox won and shaved a game off the Yankees’ lead. Bummer.

Normally, coming off a crucial, possibly season-defining series win like the Yankees’ just-completed four-game sweep of the Red Sox, I’d be worried about the team suffering a let-down. The pieces are in place for a stumble. Their current seven-game winning streak seems likely to end soon. Fifth-starter Sergio Mitre will take the hill tonight against the Blue Jays and rookie Marc Rzepczynsky, who pitched well against the Yankees last week. Jerry Hairston Jr. and Jose Molina round out tonight’s lineup with Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui (via a DHing Jorge Posada) on the bench. Wednesday’s game brings Ricky Romero, who is one of two Blue Jay starters to have beaten the Yankees this year (do I even have to tell you who the other is?). Despite all that, I don’t see this year’s Yankees falling victim to a let-down.

The Yanks current seven-game winning streak is their fourth of that length or longer this season (they had three all of last year). They enter this series 7-2 against the Blue Jays on the season, including a two-game sweep last week as part of their current winning streak in which they beat Roy Halladay. Halladay won’t pitch in this series (Scott Richmond will pitch the middle game), and there was no off-day or plane trip today to interrupt the Yankees’ momentum.

There’s also the Blue Jays, who despite still having a positive run-differential on the season, have gone 26-43 (.377) since peaking at 27-14 on May 18. Since July 1, they’re 12-19 (.375), and most of that came before they traded their cleanup hitter.

The Blue Jays arrive in the Bronx tonight with the same 25-man roster they had last week in Toronto. Chad Gaudin and a rested Alfredo Aceves lurk in the Yankee bullpen to work long relief that could turn into a start when Mitre’s turn next comes around. Mitre’s struggles thus far can be summed up by his opponents’ .423 average on balls in play.

Rzepczynsky against Mitre and the Yanks last week: 6 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 7 K. Nick Swisher homered off Zep in that game, tying it at 3-3 in the seventh. The Jays’ bullpen caved, and Aceves got the win. Swisher moves up to the two-hole tonight with Damon sitting. Hairston bats seventh followed by Melky and Molina.

Carl Crawford is having a terrific season but over at SI.com, Jonah Keri suggests that it would not be a shock if the Rays trade him come this off-season.

Thanks to Pete Abe.

Hey there hi there ho there . . . I’m baaaaaack!

Today’s news is powered by the one and only Roy Orbison:

• Mr. October buys some portions of the old Stadium:

Jackson has purchased the letters that spelled “YANKEE STADIUM” on the upper ring of the old ballpark and the concrete from the blacked out part of center field, where his third Game 6 World Series homer in 1977 landed.

“I might build a Stadium at home [Carmel], light it up and make it with 100-foot fences so that when I am 75 I can hit a home run at Yankee Stadium,” Jackson said.

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It didn’t rain on Sunday but it got progressively hotter as day turned into night. And a whole lot more humid.

The Red Sox, in desperate need of  a win, had their second-best pitcher on the mound–Ace 1B–in Jon Lester. The Yanks countered with Andy Pettitte, who has been throwing the ball well of late. Pettitte wasn’t dynamite early, but he escaped trouble in the first five innings, giving up five hits and a couple of walks (93 pitches), and then retired the Sox 1-2-3 (striking out Kevin Youkilis and Jason Bay) in the sixth, extending Boston’s scoreless inning streak to 30 innings. He set them down in order again in the seventh on just seven pitches.

Lester was sharper and more efficient, busting the right-handed hitters in on the hands with the fastball and mixing in his breaking stuff nicely. Through the first six, he struck out seven, five-looking, painting the outisde black with the heater. Derek Jeter reached second in the first inning, and Mark Teixeira made it to third in the fourth, but the Yanks could not bring them home. After Teixiera’s base hit, Lester retired the next nine batters.

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A lot was made in the last national election of the Democrats’ ultimately successful pursuit of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. In a way, what the Yankees are in pursuit of tonight is similar. Having taken the first three games of this weekend’s series against the Red Sox, the Yanks are 5 1/2 games up in the AL East, but they have more to play for tonight than just a spirit-crushing sweep of their rivals. The Yanks and Sox have just six more head-to-head games left this season. If the Yankees win tonight, they’ll be up 6 1/2 games in the division, meaning if they simply match the Red Sox against third-party opponents, the Sox could sweep those last six head-to-head games and still finish behind the Yanks in the division.

Of course, they have to win tonight first. The Sunday night ESPN game brings a battle of lefties on the opposite ends of their careers. Twenty-five-year-old Jon Lester goes for the Sox. He’s 3-0 with a 3.43 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, and 10.3 K/9 in six career starts against the Yankees and has two quality starts against them already this year (13 IP, 13 H, 5 R, 2 HR, 5 BB, 17 K). In his last dozen starts, Lester is 6-2 with a 2.12 ERA and a 10.7 K/9. The Sox are 9-3 in those games.

Pettitte, 37, has a 2.36 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, and 9.8 K/9 and 4.14 K/BB in his four starts since the All-Star break. His one start against Boston this year came on April 26 and saw the Yankees loose 4-1 with the Sox scoring three runs in the fifth off Pettitte, all by runners who reached base on walks, and one on Jacoby Ellsbury’s straight steal of home.

Sounds like a great way to wrap up what’s been a typically compelling showdown between these two teams.

It is overcast and breezy in the Bronx today. Rain is the the forecast. It’s the kind of day that makes me nostalgic for the summers I spent with my mother’s family in Belgium as a kid.

Good day for a cup of tea.

Yanks and Sox don’t go until tonight, so hopefully, the rain will be done by then.

In the meantime, check out this article in today’s New York Times magazine by Ron Berler about young pitchers and arm injuries. My question is this: Do young pitchers–high school, college, minor leagues–have TJ surgery on purpose? Do they take the risk hoping that they can add 5 mph on their fastball? I wonder.

Things are looking up. Like A.J. Burnett last night, C.C. Sabathia could hardly have been better this evening – good thing too after what the bullpen just went through – and the Yankees beat the Red Sox 5-0, though most of the game was much closer. New York has taken the first three games of the series, and now have a 5.5-game lead in the AL East. Feels like old times.

Sabathia pitched 7.2 shutout innings, allowed just two walks and two hits, and struck out nine. In fact he took a perfect game into the fifth inning, and a no-hitter into the sixth, and the way he was throwing I wouldn’t have been stunned to see him pull it off. Sox starter Clay Buchholz was pretty good himself, giving up two runs in six innings, but with Sabathia rolling and the Red Sox hitters collectively slumping, that was two runs too much.

New York scored their first run in the third, when Mark Teixeira singled home Melky Cabrera. They scored one more in the sixth, when Robinson Cano scored on a Jose Molina sac fly, and another in the seventh when Nick Swisher walked with the bases loaded, though they then left the bases loaded. Finally, in the eighth, Derek Jeter hit a real New Stadium Special about 314.5 feet to right field for a two-run homer, which meant Dave Robertson could close out the game instead of Rivera (though not without enough drama to get Mo warming up). According to Joe Buck during today’s game, the Yankees are 45-1 when leading after six innings – more impressive than I would have guessed.

There was a little drama in the seventh inning when Ramon Ramirez threw one uncomfortably up and in to Mark Teixeira, then hit A-Rod in the elbow. He was immediately ejected and that was the end of it, at least for today; afterwards Joe Girardi, while careful with his words, seemed to think it was payback for Pedroia getting hit the other night. I’m sure some fans will be ticked off because the Yankees didn’t retaliate, but that seems like the right move to me – they’re cruising now, so why risk firing up the Red Sox and getting someone on either team hurt? I say a 6.5-game division lead would be the best revenge.

Tim McCarver WTF? Quote of the Game: “There’s a difference between playing with fire, and playing with fire in your eyes.”

—

Side note: I was at the Stadium for last night’s ridiculous 15-inning epic. I’ve never seen such a wrung-out crowd; by the thirteenth or so everyone was punch drunk and could barely muster the energy to boo Kevin Youkilis. It was both awesome and agonizing since, for a number of reasons, I really needed to get home on the early side last night. The best laid plans.

I kept saying: Okay, if they don’t score this inning I’m leaving. Hmmm. Okay, if they don’t score this inning… but of course I couldn’t do it. How would I ever have lived with myself? I think I got A-Rod’s homer out of the park by sheer force of will, and by the time I staggered off the subway in Brooklyn it was almost 2:30 in the morning, but I have no regrets. That was my first real classic at the new Stadium (though the Yankees are now 3-0 when I’m there) and since we’re all stuck with the place, I’m glad I’m starting to build up some good memories there – because that’s what will eventually, years from now, make it feel like home.

How do you follow that up?

With a win, of course. If the Sox come back and win the next two games the weekend will be a drag for the Yanks. Mr. Sabathia has to take over today.

Nevermind the Fox broadcast,

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Friday night, the Yankees and Red Sox did something they’d never done before: open a game with 14 1/2 scoreless innings. Jacoby Ellsbury led off the game with a bloop hit of A.J. Burnett that fell between Melky Cabrera and Nick Swisher in shallow right center. The next Boston hit came with two outs in the top of the ninth inning when David Ortiz singled off Mariano Rivera. Burnett walked six men in between those two hits, and another man reached base on catchers interference, but none of those runners got past second base. The only Boston runner to get to third base in the entire 15-inning game was Ellsbury in the top of the first, who stole second and moved to third on a 4-6-3 double-play only to be stranded there.

The Yankees fared no better against Josh Beckett. Robinson Cano doubled to lead off the third and was followed by a Nick Swisher walk, but like the Sox in the top of the first, a double play and a groundout stranded Cano at third. In the fifth, the Yankees loaded the bases on singles by Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada and a two-out walk to Melky Cabrera, but Derek Jeter grounded to third on the first pitch he saw to end the threat. The only other baserunner off Beckett came on a leadoff Hideki Matsui single in the seventh, but he was erased when a one-out hit-and-run turned into a strike-em-out/throw-em-out double play.

Both bullpens came into play in the eighth. After Burnett walked Jacoby Ellsbury on four pitches, the last his 118th of the night, Joe Girardi brought in Phil Hughes to get the last out of the top of the eighth. With Beckett already at 115 pitches, Terry Francona went straight to his pen and Hideki Okajima in the bottom of the inning.

Hughes, Rivera, Alfredo Aceves, Brian Bruney, and Phil Coke combined to keep the Red Sox from scoring for 7 1/3 innings after Burnett left the game. Comined, they allowed just three singles and two walks while striking out eight. Aceves did the bulk of the work, striking out three in three scoreless innings and throwing 73 percent of his 37 pitches for strikes.

The Boston pen was nearly as good. Okajima, Daniel Bard, Ramon Ramirez, Jonathan Papelbon, Manny Delcarmen, and Takashi Saito combined for six scoreless innings allowing just one hit, but walking five against just four strikeouts. In the bottom of the 14th, Francona turned to the last man in his pen, 23-year-old Japanese rookie Junichi Tazawa, who thus made his major league debut. The Yankees sandwiched singles by Jorge Posada and Cano between a pair of hard outs, but Tazawa won an eight-pitch battle with Cabrera (which included a ball that was roughly an inch foul down the right-field line) to strikeout Melky swinging and push the game into the 15th.

After Coke’s ten-pitch top of the 15th, Tazawa returned to the mound and was greeted by another single, this one by Jeter. Johnny Damon failed to bunt Jeter over, fouling out to Victor Martinez on his second attempt, and Mark Teixeira struck out on four pitches. That brought Alex Rodriguez to the plate with two outs. Rodriguez had already come to the plate thrice in the game with two outs and a chance to end the game on one swing. The first time he reached on an infield single and stole second, but was stranded. The next time he struck out. The last he flied out to left. Facing Tazawa, Rodriguez took three pitches to get ahead 2-1 then broke his not-quite-career-long homerless streak by crushing the 2-1 pitch into the visiting bullpen, ending five and a half hours of scoreless baseball.

Welcome to the big leagues, kid. Yankees win, 2-0.

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Last night’s series opener was the most important game the Yankees have played all season. With the pitching match-up firmly in their favor, a loss, which would have pushed them to 0-9 against Boston on the season, could well have set the tone for the remainder of the series, opening up the possibility of yet another Red Sox sweep. With the win, however, they got of the schnide and reinforced their belief that they’re a different and better team than they were during those first eight games. And they didn’t just win, they crushed the Sox, 13-6.

The Red Sox are too good a team to let one lop-sided win get in their heads, but one could just as easily see a Yankee sweep today as one could see a Red Sox sweep yesterday. After all, the Yankees just keep rolling. Last night’s win extended their current winning streak to four games and also put first place out of reach for the Sox in this series (even if the Sox take the last three, they’ll leave town a half game behind the Yankees in the AL East).

The catch is A.J. Burnett, who has exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations thus far this year with one glaring exception: he’s been awful in his two starts against Boston. One of the selling points for Burnett over the winter was the fact that he’d dominated the Red Sox in four starts last year (2-0, 2.60 ERA). This year has been a different story. Staked to a 6-0 lead at Fenway Park on April 25, he coughed up eight runs. Then, on June 9, he failed to get out of the third inning, allowing five runs on five hits and five walks in just 2 2/3 innings. The Red Sox hit .382/.512/.765 against Burnett in those two starts, and though he followed the last with a string of eight quality starts (6-1, 1.68 ERA), he seems to have run out of magic just in time to rematch with Boston, having allowed seven runs in 4 2/3 innings to the White Sox in his last start.

Curiously, both of Burnett’s starts against Boston matched him up against his former Marlins’ teammate Josh Beckett, who is once again his mound opponent tonight. Beckett was equally awful on April 24, but pitched well in his two starts against the Yankees since, combining for this line: 12 IP, 11 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 13 K, 1 HR. Beckett had a rough April, but since then has gone 11-2 with a 2.28 ERA and a 4.39 K/BB over his last 16 starts.

The Yanks have their work cut out for them tonight, but thanks to last night’s win, a loss today would only mean the battle’s on, not that the battle’s over.

Ramiro Peña replaces Anthony Claggett on the Yankee roster while the Yankees run out their standard lineup. The Red Sox have designated Billy Traber and, get this, John Smoltz for assignment. They’ve been replaced by 23-year-old Japanese rookie right-hander Junichi Tazawa and former Yankee camper Chris Woodward, the latter claimed off waivers from the Mariners. Josh Reddick, who was recalled yesterday when Rocco Baldelli hit the DL, is in left tonight with Victor Martinez at first base, Kevin Youkilis at third, and Mike Lowell on the bench.

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The great Yankee mystery of the month finally came to an end this week. I must confess that I’m as clueless as everyone else as to why Cody Ransom occupied space on the 25-man roster for as long as he did before finally being thrown into the baseball limbo known as being “designated-for-assignment.” Ransom has never hit curve balls, now struggles to hit waist-high fastballs, and has shaky hands on the infield. So what else is there? Even the explanation that the Yankees simply wanted a second utility infielder (to go along with the newly acquired Jerry Hairston, Jr.) fell short of justifying Ransom’s presence on the roster. If the Yankee high command believed that another utility guy was required, Ransom should have given way to rookie Ramiro Pena, currently playing a jack-of-all-trades role at Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre. Pena is a better defender than Ransom, has a touch more speed, and now has the same level of versatility, considering that he’s been learning to play the outfield at Scranton. When a team is involved in a dogfight for a division title, every roster spot counts; it’s about time the Yankees either sent Ransom back to Triple-A or perhaps let him loose to try his wares with one of the weak sisters in the National League…

Speaking of Hairston, the reaction to his acquisition from Cincinnati has drawn a tepid reaction in these parts, but I’m slightly more enthusiastic. At the very least, he’s a major upgrade on Ransom, who had become the 2009 version of Mike Fischlin. Looking deeper, Hairston provides six-position versatility, can steal a base in the pinch, and has a modicum of power. He’s also highly regarded as one of the game’s most intelligent players, which is not so surprising considering his family’s baseball heritage. With grandfather Sam Hairston (a former Negro Leagues catcher and longtime coach and scout) and father Jerry, Sr. (a longtime backup outfielder and accomplished pinch-hitter with the White Sox), Hairston has received a good baseball education. And on a team that doesn’t always play the game smart (see Jorge Posada tagging a baserunner with an empty glove or failing to slide into home plate), that’s a nice attribute to have coming off the bench…

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I had a couple of guest posts over at Rob Neyer’s blog yesterday. One on baseball movies, the other on Yanks-Sox. I’m pleased to say I got ripped but good, especially on baseball movies. All you’ve got to do is pan Field of Dreams and you might as well burn the flag. So I’m a soulless so-and-so, I can live with that.

When does Neyer come back?

Actually feels oddly comforting getting trashed by a dude with the moniker, Pornstar7.

Yeah, baby.

John Hughes died yesterday. He was 59.  Hughes wrote and directed a string of wildly popular comedies in the Eighties. They were suburban (filmed outside of Chicago) and white-bred and an indelible part of my childhood.

Hughes’ movies always flattered kids by painting grown ups to be utter morons. There isn’t much point talking about if they were any good or not–we’ll all have different takes on that–but his movies made an impression. They gave us some good laughs–he had a gift for comic timing and for working with actors–and I can easily quote from most of them. They are in regular rotation on TV and I suppose we’ll be seeing The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Uncle Buck for the rest of our lives.  

Sixteen Candles and Weird Science are my favorites.

Update: No matter what you may think of Hughes’ movies, it looks like he was a mensch in real life.

Boxing metaphors are easy to come by when the Yanks play the Sox and I had boxing on the brain today for a couple of reasons: the writer Budd Schulberg died, and Muhammad Ali was honored before the game at Yankee Stadium.

My grandfather the head of public relations at the Anti-Defamantion League from 1946-71 (the year I was born), and helped prepare Schulberg’s statement before HUAC during the communist witch hunt after World War II–he also helped the actor John Garfield with his statement.

I remember seeing a worn copy of Schulberg’s The Disenchanted on my grandfather’s bookshelf; I think my aunt has his signed copy of Waterfront, the book that was the basis of On The Waterfront. Schulberg’s most enduring work is What Makes Sammy Run? a cynical novel about show biz.

Over at  The Sweet Science, George Kimball remembers Schulberg:

He straddled the worlds of literature and pugilism throughout his life, but unlike some of his more boastful contemporaries he was not a dilettante when it came to either. He sparred regularly with Mushy Callahan well beyond middle age. The night of the Frazier-Ali fight of the century Budd started to the arena in Muhammad Ali’s limousine, and then when the traffic got heavy, got out and walked to Madison Square Garden with Ali. A year before Jose Torres died, Budd and Betsy flew to Puerto Rico and spent several days with Jose and Ramona at their home in Ponce. Art Aragon was the best man at his wedding. And when push came to shove, he put on the gloves with both Ernest Hemingway and Norman Mailer and kicked both of their asses, though not, as some would now claim, on the same night.

And from an interview with Schulberg earlier this year in The Independent:

No writer has ever been closer to Muhammad Ali. Schulberg travelled in Ali’s car on the way to fights, sat in his dressing-room even after defeats, and was at the epicentre of some of the bizarre social situations the Louisville fighter liked to engineer. He was at the Hotel Concord in upstate New York when Ali was training for his third fight against Ken Norton. Schulberg was with his third wife, the actress Geraldine Brooks. “Ali,” Schulberg recalls, “asked Geraldine for an acting lesson. She improvised a scene in which he’d be provoked into anger.” After two unconvincing attempts, “She whispered in his ear, with utter conviction: ‘I hate to tell you this, but everybody here except you appears to know that your wife is having an affair with one of your sparring partners.’ I watched Ali’s eyes. Rage.”

Then, he recalls, Ali had another idea. “‘Let’s go to the middle of the hotel lobby. You turn on me and, in a loud voice, call me ‘nigger’.” Once in the foyer, crowded with Ali’s entourage, “Gerry dropped it on him. ‘You know what you are? You’re just a goddamn lying nigger.’ Schulberg recalls how Ali waited, restraining his advancing minders at the very last minute; a characteristic sense of timing that allowed his white guests, if only for a moment, to experience the emotions generated by the prospect of imminent lynching, yet live to tell the story.

The stars were out at the Stadium to see Ali and the Yanks: Bruce Willis, Paul Simon, Kate Hudson, and Hall of Famer, Eddie Murray. Ali was wearing a powder blue shirt and dark sunglasses; he slumped forward, a hulking man, surrounded by young, fit athletes and middle-aged executives. The moon was yellow and almost full. The stands were packed (49,005, the biggest crowd all year) as this was the most talked-about game to date in the new park.

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Okay, here we go. Let’s set the scene.

The Yankees and Red Sox have ten head-to-head games remaining this season. Four of them will be played at the new Yankee Stadium tonight through Sunday. The remaining six are split between the Bronx and Boston. Coming into this series, the Yankees hold a 2.5-game lead over Boston in the AL East while Boston holds a three-game lead over Texas and Tampa Bay in the Wild Card race. The Yankees have played one more game than the Red Sox and have two fewer losses.

Of course, the story of the season for both teams thus far has been that the Red Sox have won all eight previous head-to-head games between the two teams this season. Take away those eight games and here’s how the two have done against against the rest of the majors:

NYY 65-34 (.657) –
BOS 54-44 (.551) 9.5

Since their last meeting, a three-game Red Sox sweep at Fenway Park in early June, the Yankees have gone 31-16 (.660) while the Red Sox have gone 26-20 (.565).

Given the Yankees’ dominance of third-party competition, it’s tempting to contemplate all sorts of “if only” scenarios (“if only they had split those eight games with Boston . . . if only they’d just won two of them . . .”), but those eight games count, and they just might reveal something about the relative strengths of the two teams and whether or not we can expect a different result this weekend.

With that in mind, here’s a quick look back at the first eight games of the season series:

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Today’s column is written as a fan, not from a myopic, academic viewpoint of the media’s coverage of the team.

I’ve been traveling a bunch over the past couple of weeks, doing a lot of driving. Naturally, since radio stinks and I don’t feel like listening to the same CDs on a loop, I fall into the sports talk radio trap. All I wanted to do yesterday on my drive to Pennsylvania was get into some Yankees-Red Sox chatter and analysis, since Aug. 6 has been marked on the calendar since the two teams were tied atop the AL East at the All-Star break.

Instead, I got drivel from Craig Carton about how last night’s game was a “look-ahead” or trap game, that it was irrelevant in the grand scheme. This, we all know, is ridiculous, because the victory combined with the Sox’ loss gives a 2 1/2 game cushion heading into the weekend. On ESPN Radio, I got next to nothing on Yankees-Red Sox ALL DAY. It was so bad that for two hours during the afternoon drive, Don LaGreca and Ian O’Connor, who were pinch-hitting for Michael Kay, were discussing why Eli Manning is not a beloved quarterback in New York and comparing his numbers to Joe Namath. Yes, for two hours.

(I don’t know about you, but as a fan I can’t really get into football until the Yankees are done. Let the Met-Jet fans get excited about football season now. They’ve got nothing else to root for. At this point, I don’t care about Manning’s contract or where he ranks among other NFL quarterbacks or debating the merits of his contract. It’s all about Yankees-Red Sox, dammit. Where are the priorities?)

Thank you to WFAN’s Evan Roberts and Joe Benigno for getting me through a crawling jam on the Belt Parkway during afternoon rush hour. They didn’t spend a lot of time on Yankees-Sox, but Roberts made a point to mention that this weekend is all about CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett. One caller asked to compare the Yankees’ record during their starts to the Red Sox’ record when Josh Beckett and John Lester have started. The Sox have a four-game edge — 30-13 to 26-18. In terms of the pitchers’ records, Beckett and Lester are a combined 22-11, while Sabathia and Burnett are a combined 21-12, an even one-game difference.

Roberts, who I covered many games with and for whom I have a great deal of respect, opined that neither Sabathia nor Burnett have performed to the “ace” level at which they’re being paid to perform. I will grant that based on the aforementioned records that may be true. All but Beckett are considered to be having off-years. Roberts went on to say that Sabathia and Burnett haven’t been “lockdown guys;” that if you polled Yankee fans if they have confidence the Yankees will win when Sabathia or Burnett are pitching, they’d say no.

I disagree on both counts.

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