There was one kid on my high school team who took baseball very seriously.  It almost hurt to see how much he cared.  Birdie was one of the two best players on the team and he desperately wanted to play professionally.  His father was a constant, critical presence, sitting in a lawn chair by himself up the first base line.  Brooding, silent.  When Birdie struck out, tears welled in his eyes.

He went to Vanderbilt and then transferred to a smaller school in Southern California so that he could play ball.  Birdie became a relief pitcher.  He was wild, a red ass.  He grew a beard, put on weight and his claim to fame was that one season he led his league in appearences and hit batsman.

Birdie is in his late Thirties now but he still pitches, still plays in the summer leagues.  He called me from Florida last night where he spent the past week vacationing with his wife and small son.  I told him that the Yankees won their first game and that AJ Burnett pitched okay. 

“You know I love that guy,” Birdie said.  “He’s just my kind of pitcher.  Great stuff, but horsesh** erratic.”

Burnett didn’t throw a gem but he pitched okay.  His fastball was in the 91-94 range, not 95+, but his breaking ball–what I’m guessing is a hard slider–was impressive and he featured it almost every time he got two strikes on a batter.  Burnett worked out of a bases loaded jam in the third, allowing just one run to score in the process, and he pumped his fist (something he did several times) when he struck out Aubrey Huff on a full count slider.

“That takes some guts,” Teixeira said of the pitch selection. “If he doesn’t get the right feel on the ball, that’s ball four and who knows what can happen. He threw a great pitch.”
(Mark Feinsand, N.Y. Daily News)

It’s funny how time works in baseball.  Mark Teixeira hit a home run on the second pitch he saw in the top of the fourth inning and quickly rounded the bases, tying the score at one (Luke Scott later hit a solo shot off Burnett to left center field in almost the same spot).  Three batters later, Nick Swisher was badly fooled on the first pitch, a change up in the dirt, and put forth a half-hearted swing.  He smiled and nodded his head and then looked at the next four pitches before swinging again and fouling off a 3-2 fastball.  In the meantime, the pitcher Alfredo Simon threw over to first to check on Robinson Cano a few times, and also met with his catcher.  The at-bat must have lasted a good five minutes.  It was almost boring as a spectator but it made me appreciate the level of focus and concentration that is required of the pitcher, batter, fielder and umpire on each at-bat during a game.   Swisher ended the showdown when he popped a fly ball just over the fence in right for a two-run homer that gave the Yanks the lead for good.

Swisher ended the day with three hits and five RBI, while Cano had three hits, a walk and scored four runs.  Cano has drawn three walks in three games.  Go figure that now. 

In the end, it was a blow-out, 11-2 win.   Burnett threw 98 pitches and was removed with one out in the sixth.  A quartet of Yankee relievers–Coke, Veras, Bruney and Rivera–kept the O’s scoreless the rest of the way and the Bombers secured their first “w” of the season.

Ramiro Pena singled in his first major league at bat in the ninth inning.  He was batting from the left side but is a switch hitter.  Before I got off the phone with Birdie he asked me if I could name any left-handed hitting shortstops.  Not switch hitters but strictly left-handed hitters.  For the life of me, I couldn’t.  

Little help?