There are several obstacles cluttering unfettered enjoyment of Derek Jeter’s quest for his 3000th hit. The only legitimate one is Derek’s poor statistical season thus far. But that’s easily cancelled out by the Yankees’ overall excellence. The rest are manufactured by either a burgeoning wave of critics feeling the need to diminish the player, question his contract and place in the batting order, or by a thundering chorus of fanboys and girls drooling over every dribbler. Count me with the latter I suppose, if I have to choose sides.

But screw all of that. Just because there is a lot of noise and nonsense surrounding the hit doesn’t mean we can’t find a way to relish the moment on our own terms. For me that means several hours on baseball-reference.com sifting through the leader boards. One of the things you hear about Jeter’s milestone is that it’s surprising that no other Yankee has ever accomplished the feat. And the first few times I heard that, I mindlessly agreed, “Yeah, where’s the Yanks’ 3000 hit guy?”

But upon further review, it’s not that common, or easy, for a franchise to be able to “claim” a 3000th hit. There are 27 players with 3000 hits. Only 14 of them have acquired hits one through 3000 for their original team. And if you want to ease the requirements on the claim to getting your 3000th hit on the same team for which you accumulated the most hits, we can add another five. In all, only 15 franchises can claim a 300oth hit for their ledgers in this way. And that includes franchises like the Giants and the Braves that moved around during their players’ quests (Mays and Aaron).

Four franchises are lucky enough to have two. The Cards (Musial and Brock), the Tigers (Kaline and Cobb), the Pirates (Wagner and Clemente) and Cleveland (Speaker and Lajoie). Only Detroit has two pure claims as both Cobb and Kaline went wire to wire in the Motor City. The Yankees of course did have three players eventually get 3000 hits, but none of Winfield, Henderson nor Boggs achieved the milestone while Yankees. At least Winfield got more hits in a New York uniform than in any others, but that’s not enough to stake any kind of claim.

And obviously, it’s not just that Yankee fans are whining about not getting a fair distribution of the 3000 club. We’re surprised they’ve had such great players, among the best ever, and even still don’t have a clear 3000th hit. But among those titans of the game, they’ve never had the right mixture of health, peace, and free-swinging needed to amass such a huge total.

When Jeter gets number 3000, he’ll be only the 15th player to get his first 3000 hits with the same club. The Yankees are used to draping themselves in banners and tripping over trophies, and yes this has eluded their clutches thus far, but it’s not as surprising as it might seem. It’s really special, and I didn’t appreciate it fully until now.

We can’t ignore the fact Jeter is in the middle of a down year, but does anybody else remember so much scrutiny over other recent fading stars and their victory laps? Craig Biggio hung around until he was 40 and had the worst year of his career. But he came up short, so he returned at 41, had an even more dreadful year before ringing the bell. Winfield was crumbling in the worst season of his career (up to that point) at 41 when he got the big hit. Cal Ripken enjoyed an outlier renaissance the year before his 3000th, but he was crap during and all around the milestone.

All I remember from any of these marches towards history was celebration and adulation. Jeter deserves the same – especially playing for a first place team.

So in that spirit, I tried to come up with a memory of one specific hit. With the help of baseball-reference, this could have been a week-long tumble into the inter-hole. But he’s at 2996 now, so time’s a-wasting.

I was away at college when Jeter became a Yankee. I had come back to the team in earnest in 1993 when they retired Reggie’s number. But I had left New York the following year, so when the Yankees approached the 1996 division crown, I was watching from afar. I knew Derek Jeter was a promising rookie and had hopes, like everybody else, that he’d stick around for a long time and prove to be a good player. But I had no sense of him yet.

College was down in Baltimore’s television market, and I tuned in when the Yanks squared off against the second-place Orioles on September 18th. The Orioles were three games back and this was the last chance they had to catch the Yankees for the division crown. The Orioles led 2-1 in the late innings. Derek Jeter led off the bottom of the eighth and I thought, I really want him to get a hit here, and he lined one to right. The Yanks did not score though.

Bernie tied it in the ninth. Mariano held the O’s scoreless and Derek Jeter led off again in the tenth. I thought, I really want him to get a hit here, but that’s not fair to this rookie. He already came through in the eighth and this is a lot of pressure and all. But Jeter got the hit and scored the run. The Yanks won the game, the division and the series. As the ball squirted between short and third and into left field, I remember it occurring to me, “Maybe the Yanks have found something special here. Maybe this is a guy who is going to come up big when they need it most.”

He didn’t always come through, of course, but he did often enough to make it feel safe to hope for it. Derek Jeter has never been my favorite player. But between Jeter and Mariano, they make the Yankees seem like one epic roster that has stretched from 1995 to today. They are the Yankees of my young adulthood. They bridged the end of my schoolboy playing career to start of my family.

Three thousand is a lot of hits. I am glad I saw so many of them.

[Photo Credit: USA Today]

Lasting Derek Jeter Memories: Hit #2,722

(VOICEOVER)

“When he enters a room, there is always a recording of Bob Sheppard announcing his presence …”

“The Oxford English Dictionary apologized to him for neglecting to include the word ‘Jeterian'”

“He has brought such honor to his uniform number, when little kids have to go to the bathroom, their mothers say ‘do you have to do a number 3?'”

“He is . . . the most interesting shortstop the Yankees have had since Tony Fernandez.”

(CUT TO SHOT OF JETER SEATED AT TABLE SURROUNDED BY MINKA KELLY AND HER EQUALLY-ATTRACTIVE GAL PALS)

“I don’t often drink . . . but when I do, I never drive my new 2011 Ford Edge with the cool Panoramic Vista roof immediately afterwards.”

* * *

Once upon a time, in the days before free agency, “franchise players” were plentiful.  Most of the upper echelon teams had at least one such player.  Even some of the sad sack teams had their icon.

Here’s a list of the “2,000 or more games in career, all for one team” retired players club

Nowadays, the Braves’ Chipper Jones and the Yankees captain are two of the few active “iconic” players in baseball, easily identified by their career-long associations with their respective teams.

With career-long associations with one franchise comes the inevitable march up the team leaderboard for many counting stats, and hits is probably the “showcase” number.  Here are the current franchise leaders for each team (excusing the Yankees for a moment):

Given the Yankees history, its surprising to note that the Bombers have never had a 3,000 hit man.  Though Joltin’ Joe, The Mick and the Iron Horse all eclipsed 2,000 hits in a Yankee uni, Joe DiMaggio lost three prime years to the service and Mickey Mantle and Lou Gehrig saw their productivity diminished due to injury and illness respectively.

So when Derek Sanderson Jeter came upon the scene in 1995, no one could have foreseen that this polite, photogenic and disciplined shortstop would stand upon the precipice of Yankee history on the night of September 11, 2009.  Jeter’s inside-out, line drive to right-center machine of a swing had pumped out 2,721 hits to that point, knotting him with Gehrig.

Despite it being the eighth anniversary of the Taliban attacks that killed nearly 3,000 New Yorkers, and despite a rainshower that delayed the start of the game by nearly 90 minutes, there was electricity and anticipation in the new Stadium that night. A near-capacity crowd of 46,771 braved the elements to cheer on The Captain.

The Yanks faced Chris Tillman of the Orioles.  Tillman was making only his ninth career start in the Majors.  Leading off the bottom of the first, Jeter struck out swinging on a 1-2 pitch, but Alex Rodriguez hit a three-run homer later in the inning, and the Yanks still led 3-1 when Jeter stepped to the plate leading off the third.

He took the first two pitches for balls, then in truly “Jeterian” form, rapped a single between Orioles’ first baseman Luke Scott and the foul line, with Nick Markakis tracking the ball down as it made its way towards the right field corner. Jeter rounded first, clapped his hands and returned to the base.  He shook first base coach Mick Kelleher’s hand, handed him his shin guard, and then, the Yankees filed out of the dugout amidst a thunderous two-minute standing ovation and chants of “Jeter! Jeter!” from the crowd. Jeter’s father could be seen high-fiving anyone and everyone he could up in one of the Yankee suites. In the opposing dugout, the Orioles clapped in appreciation of the achievement.

It was an odd sight, as the Yanks (and Orioles) were all wearing red caps for the memory of “9/11”, but the night belonged to Yankee navy blue and white. Jeter would end up two for four on the night, leaving the game after a second rain delay. The Yanks would end up losing the game 10-4, but with a nine game lead in the division heading into play and only 20 games remaining, the loss was rendered especially insignificant. Derek Jeter had broken the 72-year-old hits record of Lou Gehrig, and the “new” Yankee Stadium had its first truly memorable moment.

Man, it’s hot out there.

I was in Los Angeles last week. Stayed in Hermosa Beach near the PCH. Driving everywhere was hard to get used to, but satisfying in a way. On one of those drives past a strip of indistinguishable donut and taco jernts, I spied CC Donuts. The kids were asleep in the back and otherwise unable to operate cameras, the wife was busy with something or another and I had a choice: whip out the phone and snap a pic while doing 45 in slightly dense traffic or let it go and deprive the Banter readers of the perfect picture for a CC shutdown start. I got that phone in my hands and started to look down away from the road, but then I thought better of it. I put the phone back down and watched the sign trickle past my peripheral vision. Meant to go back but never did.

So of course CC would be balls-out awesome in Cleveland tonight as he blitzed the Indians for seven shutout innings. His fastball was hard and always found uncomfortable locations. And his breaking stuff was filthy. David Cone mentioned in the booth that his sliders that were strikes started out looking like balls and the balls started out looking like strikes. It was a great observation, and it was all set up by the fear of the fastball. It made the hitters twitch early to protect against the heat and left them vulnerable for the slop. How vulnerable? Eleven whiffs, ten swinging. The Indians managed to get two runners on base three times, so CC responded by striking out the side in all three of those innings. That’s not shutting the door; that’s slamming it and breaking all their fingers.

The lineup went nuts tonight, making up for a two-game brown-out. Derek Jeter got two hits in his first two times at bat – a dribbler and a booming double. I became very excited because I am going to the game on Thursday and a big night tonight would make that game very interesting. Jeter got four more shots at making Thursday THE day, but came up empty. I figure he needs at least two more hits tomorrow to give me a chance in Hell.

Curtis Granderson continues his assault on my senses as he lined one homer and launched another and was pretty much running around the bases every time I looked up. He scored three times, the other Yankees scored six other times and strolled into the bottom of the ninth up 9-0. The Indians got a pair of garbage-time goals to make the final score 9-2.

CC Sabathia isn’t on the All Star team, and I guess I don’t really care and I know he wouldn’t pitch anyway. But if he’s not an All Star, what’s the point of the thing? Sure, maybe six other pitchers might have had slightly better starts to 2011, but ask the NL hitters if they’re happy or sad they don’t have to face him. I’d take Verlander, Beckett, Weaver, and CC and be pretty sure I got the best pitchers in the league. Oh well, maybe the Yankees can use his absence from the 2011 All Star team in their negotiations with him when he opts out of his contract. Maybe they can knock five bucks off the billions they’re going to pay him.

Yo, C.C., time to dead this two-game skid with the quickness. Bring the Thunder.

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada 1B
Brett Gardner LF
Francisco Cervelli C

Never mind Thomas Wolfe:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Ted Berg talks turkey with Peter Gammons:

The countdown to 3,000 hits resumed Monday night in Cleveland, and Derek Jeter went 0-for-4. What’s being branded as “DJ3K” is occurring now in greater earnest than it did before Jeter pulled up lame with a strained calf and landed on the disabled list on June 13. He’ll be the first Yankee to reach the milestone, and of all the great moments in his career, this may be the singular event that speaks to his consistency and longevity. He certainly didn’t “hang on” in an attempt to achieve this personal benchmark.

And he has handled the march to inevitability in a way that has stayed true to his professional mantra: as vanilla as possible.

The interesting thing about Jeter’s career is that as integral as he has been to the team’s success, in games when he’s reached personal milestones, the team lost. And in games where “Jeter was being Jeter,” giving maximum effort and playing his customary brand of instinctive baseball, and getting hurt in the process, they won.

I covered the game on May 26, 2006, against the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium when he got his 2,000th hit. He reached first base on an infield nubber that was misplayed. According to multiple newspaper reports, even Jeter’s mother thought it was an error. The decision can’t be called into question now. The Yankees lost the game. Afterward, he gave his typical “It’s a nice accomplishment, we lost, I don’t care about stats” speech. Ho-hum.

The Yankees also lost the game against the Baltimore Orioles when he broke Lou Gehrig’s team record for hits. At least No. 2,722 was a no-doubter. Same speech. Yawn.

The two moments I immediately think of when I’m asked about Derek Jeter occurred in games the Yankees won.

1) Opening Day 2003, in Toronto. The Ken Huckaby collision. It wasn’t a dirty play, it was incidental contact. With one out and the Blue Jays employing an extreme shift with Jason Giambi at the plate, Jeter, always a great base runner, tried to catch the Jays napping. The description of the play, from eNotes:

Giambi hit a soft grounder to the pitcher, Roy Halladay, who threw to first baseman Carlos Delgado for an out. Jeter, seeing Toronto out of position, rounded second and ran to third. Huckaby ran up the line to cover third and fielded Delgado’s throw. Jeter dived headfirst into the bag, while Huckaby attempted to catch the baseball and block Jeter from reaching third. In do so, Huckaby fell onto Jeter; his shin guard driving into his shoulder.

The Yankees won the game and proceeded to start 20-5. In all, they went 26-11 without him, and went 3-11 in their first 14 games upon his return.

2) July 1, 2004, at Yankee Stadium, against the Red Sox. Depending on your perspective, it’s the “game where Jeter broke his face” after going head over heels into the stands to catch a Trot Nixon pop-up in the top of the 12th inning. The Yankees won that game also. The image of Jeter walking off the field, clutching his lip and his face swollen, is one that endures. I covered that game, too. It’s the greatest regular season game I’ve ever seen. We’re not allowed to root in the press box, and in particular, the YES booth, where I was situated. Those of us in the booth may not have been rooting, but we did not suppress our emotions and baseball fandom in that moment.

So where does that leave us now? The Yankees went 14-4 without him and won seven of eight prior to Jeter’s return. They’ve built a lead over the Red Sox and are in the hunt for the best record in baseball with the Phillies. They’ve adjusted to life without Jeter and the distraction of the four-digit elephant in the dugout. Is the current leg of the pursuit and his place in the lineup more of a distraction than an asset? If so, it’ll be consistent with the way these moments have gone throughout Derek Jeter’s career.

[Photo Credit: N.Y. Daily News]

The Seeds of Discontent

By John Schulian 

George Solomon made sure I hit the ground running. I covered a couple of Redskins practices- it couldn’t have been much different than covering the Kremlin. Then I took off for Detroit to cover a three-game series with the Orioles, who were very much in the pennant race. And to write two features on them, too, even though I’d never covered a big league game before and they had never laid eyes on me. And I had to cover the Howard University-Wayne State football game, too. My football story was a stinker, but the baseball stuff I could do, partly because I had always followed the game and partly because the Orioles were so easy to get along with. All I remember from that weekend is typing, checking my watch, grabbing cabs, and drinking Vernor’s ginger ale when it was still strictly a Detroit delicacy. It was a trial by fire, and I knew I’d passed when George apologized for not being able to play my Monday feature on Jim Palmer on the front of the section.

It didn’t take George long to figure out that I wasn’t meant to be a beat reporter. It was like I had SHORT ATTENTION SPAN written in neon lights on my forehead. Besides, we had Len Shapiro as the first-string Redskins reporter, and he was terrific-–intrepid, fearless, tireless, all in the face of the paranoid monster that was George Allen. Lenny will tell you today that covering the Redskins, the prize beat in the Post sports department, took years off his life.

Shirley Povich

I filled in wherever George wanted me, the Redskins, a big NFL game, the NBA. But mostly I wrote features and series. One series was about black dominance in the NBA (to show you how long ago this was) and another was about the NFL psyche. I remember Shirley Povich, a lovely, classy gent whose sports column was an institution at the Post for half a century, coming up to me after part one of the NFL series ran and saying, “This is too good for a newspaper.” I was deeply gratified by the praise, but at the same time I was surprised that Shirley, who had been the Post’s sports editor when he was barely out of his teens, would say something like that. I’d read somewhere that Jimmy Cannon had said nothing was too good for a newspaper. He wasn’t in the same league with Shirley when it came to being gracious, but I think Cannon was right on the money about that one.

I had freedom at the Post and yet I didn’t. Nobody told me what to write, so I could continue trying to figure out what my voice was. That was one of the great things about the sports page in those days: it was a laboratory for writing. As time went on, there would be stylish writing throughout all of the country’s best newspapers, much of it inspired by the Post’s Style section, where there was great work done on society dames, movies, TV, books, and rock and roll. But the Post’s sports section was my new playground, and I was happy to be there.

I would have been even happier if George Solomon had let me turn one of my ideas into a story once in a while. But George didn’t do business that way. He bubbled over with his own ideas, many of them good ones but some clinkers too, and he had the energy level of a hyperactive two-year-old. As a result he didn’t expect you to ever be tired. I remember coming off one of his hellish road trips-–Columbus, Ohio to St. Louis to Milwaukee to Toronto to Cleveland in five hectic, work-filled winter days-–and the first thing he said to me was, “Come on in the office. We’ll talk about what you’re going to do next.” I told him that what I was going to do next was pick up my paycheck and go home and go to bed. And that’s what I did.

It wasn’t long before I realized that I was probably the only writer on the staff who questioned authority. Everybody else was too damned nice. I mean, the place was crawling with good guys -– Tom Boswell, Dave Brady, Ken Denlinger, Paul Attner, Angus Phillips, David DuPree, Gerry Strine, Mark Asher. But I never heard any of them raise their voices. And they had reason to, particularly after the copy desk got through making a hash of their prose. All they’d do, however, was whisper among themselves while they licked their wounds. I couldn’t make myself do that. I marched into George Solomon’s office one day and said, “I’ve had more stories fucked up here in five weeks than I had fucked up in five years in Baltimore.” And that was the God’s truth.

The wife tells me that one day she’d like to go see the fireworks on the Fourth of July. I say, “Sure, Dear,” and hope she doesn’t ask again until July 5th next year. When I think of going to watch the fireworks I think, “Who do I know that might have a good view?” Because the idea of sitting around for hours in a huge crowd, at the end of a hot, sticky day, well, that just ain’t my idea of fun, no matter how cool the light show is. It’s my New Yorker’s instinct to stay away from crowds at all costs.

Maybe I should just suck it up. Nah. I just need to find a spot, get an angle, work some magic.

After all, nothing like making the wife a heppy ket, is there?

Mariano Rivera is sore, according to the New York Post. Nothing that requires an MRI, understand, and Rivera is “not concerned,” but it’s something to be be aware of.

I’m still grumbling over Burnett’s performance in the seventh last night. Didn’t buy the papers on my way to work, just looked at them on-line now. C’mon, Meat, you’ve got to be better than that.

[Photo Credit: Mike Stobe, Getty Images]

Thanks in part to a generous strike zone tonight’s starting pitchers A.J. Burnett and Josh Tomlin cruised. They had something to do with it too, and both pitchers were in fine form. The Yanks didn’t get a hit until the seventh inning when Mark Teixeira singled. Robinson Cano followed with a base hit and then Nick Swisher drove them home with a double to the gap in left center.

A 2-0 lead seemed formidable the way Burnett was throwing but he found trouble in the bottom of the inning. He walked Grady Sizemore, who moved to second on a wild pitch but got two outs when Lonnie Chisenhall popped a ball in foul territory. Alex Rodriguez went back for it, Brett Gardner raced in. Neither of them caught it though somebody sure as hell should have made the play. So Chisenhall walked and Burnett fell apart. He gave up an RBI single to Shelley Duncan and then a three-run home run to Austin Kearns. Revenge of the ex-Yanks.

Burnett pitched good enough to lose.

An eighth inning solo homer by Curtis Granderson gave the Yanks hope but Cory Wade served up a two-run shot to Carlos Santana in the bottom of the inning and the fireworks were set to pop in Cleveland.

A hard, unfortunate loss on George’s birthday.

Final Score: Indians 6, Yankees 3.

Nuts.

Mike Fox on “The Africa Project,” 1966

In the fall of 1984, my brother, sister and I met Mike Fox, one of my dad’s old friends. My sister and I were thirteen. A few months later, Mike and I started a correspondence that continues to this day. Here’s his first letter to me.

ll

Three-quarters of the Yankees’ infield have been voted to start the All-Star Game (Mark Teixeira will have to settle for finishing behind Adrian Gonzalez who is the best player in the American League). Curtis Granderson has also been voted as a starter. Russell Martin and Mariano Rivera are also in. Meanwhile, Ivan Nova has been sent down to the minors. Looks as if Phil Hughes is back and they want to keep Nova pitching regularly.

It is rainy in New York so the game might take a while. Here’s the line-up:

Brett Gardner LF
Curtis Ganderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Russell Martin C
Ramiro Pena SS
Freddy Garcia RHP

Never mind the hangover:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Yeah, that’s Reggie Noble on the front cover of the New York Times today.

Go. Figure.

[Photo Credit: Rich Schultz]

The wife and I went to Citifield yesterday and were fortunate enough to sit in some cushy seats where we thoroughly enjoyed watching the Yankees beat the Mets to the tune of 5-2.

Bartolo Colon didn’t skip a beat in his return from the D.L. He threw hard, in the mid-90s, and froze the Mets’ hitters with his two-seam fastball–he struck out six batters in the first four innings, five looking. Some of the juice went out of the building early one when Jose Reyes was removed because he tweaked his hamstring, a disheartening development for sure.

There was no score in the bottom of the fifth when Jason Bay worked the count full against Colon with one out. Bay hit a little squibber down the third base line and Colon didn’t bother sprinting for it. He smiled instead. No man, no sudden moves for me, Papi. Lucas Duda, a hulk of a man, singled softly to right, Josh Tole hit a hard line drive to left and the bases were loaded. When Colon fell behind 2-0 to the pitcher Dillion Gee, the Mets looked to be in business. But Colon worked the count even and then Gee hit a soft ground ball to Alex Rodriguez who stepped on third and threw to first to complete the double play.

And then things turned. Brett Gardner led off the top of the sixth and lined out to center field. Gee had matched Colon with six strikeouts through the first five innings, all swinging, and all but one swinging through a nifty change-up. But now, the third time through the order, the Yanks had him figured out. Curtis Granderson followed Gardner and hit a change up high over the wall in right center field. Mark Teixeira singled and then Alex Rodriguez had a good swing at a first pitch fastball, fouled it right back to the screen. He swung through a curve ball and I figured there was no way he was going to see another fastball. But he did and singled to right. Robinson Cano looked at a pitch for a ball and then hit a triple into the right field corner; he scored on a sacrifice fly by Nick Swisher.

That outburst proved to be enough. Eduardo Nunez doubled in his first two at bats, was robbed on a sensational catch by second baseman Justin Turner, and then hit a solo home run in the 9th. He made be a constant adventure in the field but it is nice to see Nunez hitting well. One thing I’ve noticed is that he can take some wild hacks in an at bat but then recover to square a ball up and hit it hard.

Cory Wade allowed a couple of hits but nothing more in two innings of work and the newly reacquired Serge Meatray pitched the ninth and gave up a couple of runs. Banter commenter, “The Hawk” put it best when he said “Ah, Mitre, making sure there’s no case of mistaken identity.”

Otherwise, it was a fine day for the Yankees who have now won seven straight.

It was a swell outing for the wife and me. We even stopped by Sripraphai for Thai food on the way home and when we finally returned to the Bronx we were tired but very heppy kets.

The Mets look to cool off the Yanks on a hot summer day in New York. The Bombers have won six straight will try to keep it rollin’ with Bartolo Colon back in action. The game is on Fox.

Brett Gardner LF
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Russell Martin C
Eduardo Nunez SS
Bartolo Colon RHP

Don’t forget the sunscreen, never mind the announcers, and:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photography by Ondie]

Former Twins president Howard Fox died this week at the age of 90. Ordinarily, this might not be a major story for Yankee fans, but the name of Howard Fox should ring a bell for fans and followers of the late Billy Martin. During the 1966 season, when Martin was serving the Twins as a coach, he brawled with Fox, who was the team’s traveling secretary at the time. It might have marked the first time in history that a coach actually punched out his own team’s traveling secretary.

So what led to the fight between Fox and Martin? As the Twins were taking a charter flight to Washington, Martin became intoxicated and began using foul language. Fox took offense because his wife Yvonne was on the plane, well within earshot of Martin’s choice words. Fox, a no-nonsense type, was furious with Martin over his lack of delicacy.

After the Twins arrived at the hotel, Martin became one of the last members of the team’s party to receive his room key. Martin felt that Fox, who was also in the lobby, had intentionally delayed his room key. The two men started screaming at each other. Within a few minutes, fists began flying. Both combatants came away with bruises, but hotel witnesses gave Martin the win by decision.

The incident initiated a long feud between Martin and Fox, who never forgave Billy the Kid. In fact, Fox would play a role in firing Martin only three years later.

The fight with Fox marked only the first major tussle of Martin’s tenure in Minnesota. By 1969, Martin was the Twins’ manager; that August, he tangled with pitcher Dave Boswell in an alley behind a Detroit bar. (Imagine that, Billy in a bar.) The incident’s roots might have been planted at the ballpark, when Boswell refused Billy’s order to run 20 warm-up laps along with the rest of the Twins’ pitchers. Outside of the bar, Boswell began sparring with veteran Twins outfielder Bob Allison. Hearing about the fight, Martin ran outside, ostensibly to break up the altercation, with pitching coach Art Fowler joining him to offer moral support. Well, Billy’s notion of breaking up the fight involved hitting Boswell in the face with his fist. Again and again. Martin won by knockout, though it hardly seemed like a fair fight given the presence of both Fowler and Allison.

The pummeling left Boswell unconscious, and in need of 20 stitches. Yet, Boswell held no grudges. Many years later, when asked about Martin for a 1988 magazine article, Boswell said: “I love Billy.”

Fox did not. Spurred on by the embarrassment caused by the Boswell brawl, Fox convinced Twins owner Calvin Griffith to fire Martin after the Twins were swept by the Orioles in the first ever American League Championship Series. And thus began the long string of firings that involved Alfred Manuel “Billy” Martin.

***

Speaking of Martin, he once employed a seven-man rotation during the tumultuous 1988 season. Now there is talk of the Yankees adopting a six-man rotation once Bartolo Colon and Phil Hughes emerge from the disabled list. Colon, who is expected to start on Saturday against the Mets, will take the place of journeyman right-hander Brian Gordon. With regard to Hughes, who may come off the DL next week, there is no logical candidate to be sent out to Scranton/Wilkes Barre or to be demoted to the back of the bullpen. At the moment, A.J. Burnett, Freddy Garcia, and Ivan Nova are all pitching well.

It’s a pleasant problem to have, but the talk of a six-man rotation is silly. By going to a six-man rotation, the Yankees would be tinkering with the rhythm of their starters, all of whom are accustomed to five days rest. They would also be limiting the use of CC Sabathia, their best pitcher and one of the game’s few legitimate aces. Can the Yankees really afford to shrink the number of starts that Sabathia makes, particularly in a season when it looks like they will be in a dogfight with the Red Sox and the Rays? No. The more sensible approach would be to move either Nova or Garcia to the bullpen as a long reliever, with the ability to spot start of the situation mandates. And please, no more talk of keeping Nova or Garcia “stretched out.” Nova and Garcia have been fully prepared to start for half a season now; they’re capable of going to the bullpen for awhile and then returning to the rotation sometime in August or September.

***

Although I was never a big fan of Sergio Mitre during his first stint in pinstripes, I have no problem with his return to Yankeeland. Whenever you can acquire a pitcher who was putting up respectable numbers, as Mitre was doing in Milwaukee, without giving up anything more than money, it’s a good deal.

Pitching out of the Milwaukee bullpen, Mitre posted a 3.27 ERA and allowed 30 hits in only 33 innings. His strikeout-to-walk ratio (14 to 10) was unimpressive, but you can’t have everything when it comes to a 12th man on a pitching staff. Mitre is certainly better than Buddy Carlyle, the journeyman reliever who was designated for assignment to make room on both the 25 and 40-man rosters. Mitre has actually pitched decently in relief for the Yankees. The sinkerballer also has the ability to go three or four innings a time, an ability that escapes most of the Yankee relievers. As long as Joe Girardi keeps him out of the starting rotation, Mitre should be able to help in a small role.

As an added bonus, the Yankees now have both Mitre and Chris Dickerson, who was acquired from the Brewers in the original Mitre deal, without having surrendered any actual talent in exchange. In contrast, Milwaukee has only a small amount of money–and you can’t play money .

Bruce Markusen writes “Cooperstown Confidential” for The Hardball Times.

Before Jonathan Niese started to locate his curveball, a sharp, breaking hook that he can throw on the black, the Yanks scored three first inning runs. Then Niese composed himself and didn’t allow another run through six. Ivan Nova, on the other hand, couldn’t get his fastball down, and wasn’t getting the Mets to hit harmless ground balls.

Both teams got hits and had runners on base but the score was 3-1 by the time the starters were done. They had help from their fielders–Alex Rodriguez made a sensational play, fielding a ball to his right and then throwing Ruben Tejada out at first; Robinson Cano made a difficult short hop look easy as he turned a double play, Daniel Murphy fielded a hard line drive by Cano, Brett Gardner made a lovely running catch, and Mark Teixeira saved Rodriguez from throwing errors with slick scoops in the sixth and ninth.

The most exciting play of the game involved Jose Reyes who led off the seventh inning with his second base hit of the game. Justin Turner flew out to deep center field before Reyes had a chance to swipe second, but the shortstop tagged up and advanced to second anyway. Granderson’s throw came in on a bounce to Eduardo Nunez, the cut-off man. Nunez fumbled the ball and Reyes kept running. Nunez went after the ball, picked it up and threw it on a bounce to third. Everything happened so fast. The third base ump was caught in the outfield, running back to third, while the home plate ump rushed to the bag too. Rodriguez caught the ball and made a swipe tag at Reyes. The home plate ump, shielded by Rodriguez’s body signaled that Reyes was out. Then, as Rodriguez shook his fist, Reyes was yelling and soon Terry Collins was yelling too, and he said enough to get himself kicked out of the game.

David Robertson pitched a scoreless eighth, the Yanks tacked on a few insurance runs and Mariano Rivera, in a non-save situation, came in to get the final two outs in the ninth.

Final Score: Yanks 5, Mets 1.

A satisfying win. Nunez had four hits. The last one was off a high fastball and he hacked at it like a lumber jack chopping wood. It made that crisp, hard crack that is as true a sound as you ever want to hear in baseball, and it was good enough to drive in a run. Nunez is a work-in-progress in the field and I hold my breath on every ball that is hit his way, but he’s hanging in there and contributing.

[Photo Credit: Chris (archi3d) and Nick Laham, Getty Images]

I watched some of the Orioles-Cardinals game last night and saw our old pal Lance Berkman hit two long home runs, one righty, the other lefty. Man, they were both crushed. Made him dream “What If?” for a second. I know there wasn’t a place for him in the Bronx, and he would have cost more than Nick Swisher, who is also younger, so I’m not saying they should have kept him. But I’ve always enjoyed watching “The Big Puma” and wished he could have stayed around longer.

Regardless–or irregardless, as they like to say in the Bronx– I’m happy to see him playing so well.

When I finished reading “Blindsided: The Jerry Joseph Basketball Scandal” by Michael J. Mooney my first thought was how nice it will be to see the piece in the next edition of “The Best American Sports Writing.” The story features good reporting and is well-constructed. It is also written in the kind of clean, succinct prose that I love. Best of all, it took me somewhere unexpected, all without drawing attention to writing style. It is top-notch storytelling. I am a newcomer to Mooney’s work but he’s been around and is accomplished. Check out his website for more, and do yourself a favor: read this story.

[Photo Credit: AP]