There’s one man keeping Canadian baseball within the Axis of Fun.
One man putting seats in the stands.
Continue reading “Game 118 // Eighth Inning // Kevin Pillar Steals Home”
Tag: Yankees
Game 116 // First Inning // The Giancarlo Debut
First game, first inning.
The second pitch of his Yankee career.
Gone.
Continue reading “Game 116 // First Inning // The Giancarlo Debut”
Game 109 // Eighth Inning // The Aaron Hicks Game
BOTTOM OF THE EIGHTH: YANKEES 5 (0) – 3 RED SOX
It’s August. It’s Yankee Stadium. Boston vs. New York. It’s a soldout ballpark and a hell of a lot on the line.
The Red Sox have won eight straight. The Yankees slipping farther behind by the day, toward that crossroads that says: Accept your Wild Card fate!
Red Sox up 3-0. Four and a half games up in the A.L. East.
And, then, the beginnings of a rally. From the tip of Brett Gardner’s toe, center of Yankee Baseball Universe, for just a moment. Continue reading “Game 109 // Eighth Inning // The Aaron Hicks Game”
Game 75 // First Inning // A-Rod’s Last Dance
Sketch by Henry Gustavson
BOTTOM OF THE FIRST: YANKEES 1 (0) – 1 RAYS
One final night in the Yankee pinstripes.
His last game in the major-leagues.
Continue reading “Game 75 // First Inning // A-Rod’s Last Dance”
Game 61 // Ninth Inning // The Yankees Ballet
Sketch by Henry Gustavson
BOTTOM OF THE NINTH: YANKEES 5 – 4 INDIANS
There’s an occasional sense watching baseball, that what you’re seeing steps into another category altogether, into the absurd, the cartoonish—where sport falls behind spectacle, the score and standings go blurred out and silent, for a moment, and you’re left only with an image.
Prince Fielder belly-flopping onto the Fenway Park dirt, a beached fish some 20,000 leagues short of third base. Continue reading “Game 61 // Ninth Inning // The Yankees Ballet”
Game 58 // Ninth Inning // Yankee Didi Dandy
BOTTOM OF THE NINTH: YANKEES 9 (3) – 7 RANGERS
“Pain is inevitable,” said Haruki Murakami, the great Japanese novelist. “Suffering is optional.”
The Yankees are no longer the Yankees Yankees. Pour one out. The Red Sox are in first place. Gone are the days of the sure-thing AL East crown for New York, with all other comers fighting for a Wild Card spot. Gone are the days of Jeter, Rivera, Continue reading “Game 58 // Ninth Inning // Yankee Didi Dandy”
Game 47 // Seventh Inning // The Darwin Barney Game
BOTTOM OF THE SEVENTH: BLUE JAYS 4 (1) – 1 YANKEES
It’s yet another classic hit from the greatest of this baseball generation, leaping and bounding his way through the record books, into the hearts of fans, his face on every billboard across Canada—the one, the only… Darwin … Barney?
He’s (at best) the fourth best known Barney in recent history, behind Continue reading “Game 47 // Seventh Inning // The Darwin Barney Game”
Game 46 // Seventh Inning // Starlin Light, Starlin Bright
TOP OF THE SEVENTH: YANKEES 2 (0) – 1 RAYS
Jake Odorizzi is throwing a no-hitter. Six innings on the books. His last name appears to be Rougned Odor’s rap name. Drizzy. Weezy. Odorizzi.
The cowbells are at full clang inside the Trop, locked in tight battle with a strong New York contingent, chanting Continue reading “Game 46 // Seventh Inning // Starlin Light, Starlin Bright”
Game 24 // Fifth Inning, Boston // Rivalry, Renewed
TOP OF THE FIFTH: RED SOX 4 – (3) 6 YANKEES
Some time ago, something roared, or attacked, or boiled over into madness. It battled, it made miracles, it embodied good vs. evil and was in every way historic. It put New York behind navy pinstripes and Boston in red and white, with Stephen King and Billy Crystal awaiting either rapture or apocalypse, awaiting the final judgment between empire and curse. Mariano against Manny, Pedro against Jeter. Continue reading “Game 24 // Fifth Inning, Boston // Rivalry, Renewed”