Hopefully, the Yankees’ anemic offense will kick into gear and propel the team into the playoffs for the 14th consecutive season. Hopefully, the Bombers can bring one more World Series to the Bronx to close out their historic stadium. Hopefully last week’s All-Star Game won’t be the final great event at Yankee Stadium. But if it is, the old ballpark certainly went out with a bang, didn’t it?
I know the game was almost two weeks ago, but bear with me as I gush a bit. Things started out in spectacular fashion. I’m not usually all that crazy about pre-game festivities. I’m not one to get all weepy every time Major League Baseball trots out a few Hall of Famers to celebrate the history of the game. But there was something extra special about this year’s pre-game All-Star festivities that even had me a little choked up. With the game’s all-time greats sprinkled around the field at their respective positions, the current All-Star starters from both the American and National leagues came out to join them in a ceremony that could only be described as spine-tingling. Never before has the convergence of the old and the new been more poignantly presented than it was 10 days ago at baseball’s most historic venue. Yankee Stadium has been host to more of baseball’s magical moments than any other site and this event doesn’t take a back seat to any of them.
Think about it. Not only was it possibly the greatest collection of baseball talent ever assembled at one time and place, but many of those players were involved in one or more indelible Yankee Stadium moments. There was Yogi Berra, who won 10 titles in pinstripes. There was Reggie Jackson, who only won two, but almost single-handedly delivered the crown in 1977 when he homered three times in Game 6 of the World Series. There were current stars Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera – authors of many of their own Stadium memories – mingling with Yankee greats Goose Gossage and Whitey Ford. There was one of the Stadium’s great villains, George Brett, standing beside Alex Rodriguez at third base, smiling a lot more than he did on that unforgettable day 25 years ago when he sprinted out of the opponent’s dugout to politely tell umpire Tim McClelland that he should not have been called out for having too much pine tar on his bat. There was Wade Boggs – who rode a horse around the Stadium after winning a championship in 1996 – wearing a Yankees cap while the FOX screen graphic introduced him as a member of the Boston Red Sox. And there was even Hank Aaron, who is not associated with any moment in the ballpark’s history, except that he is a symbol of all that is good and right with the sport: just like the Stadium.
After such a stirring pre-game, the actual game, which is almost always a bore, had a lot to live up to. And somehow, it did just that. The 15-inning affair was the longest game in All-Star history and featured clutch play after clutch play by some of some of today’s best up-and-coming players. There was J.D. Drew’s big two-run home run to tie the game in the seventh off phenom Endison Volquez and Evan Longoria’s two-out double off Billy Wagner to tie the game again in the eighth. Mariano Rivera’s stirring entrance in the middle of the ninth inning. Aaron Cook’s high-wire act to get out of a bases-loaded, none out jam in the bottom of the 10th. Nate McLouth gunning out Tampa Bay Rays catcher Dioner Navarro at home plate to force the game into the 12th. Jeter on the top step of the dugout, handing out signed jerseys to fans throughout the extra frames. And finally, there was Terry Francona’s jubilant fist pump when Justin Morneau’s foot crossed home plate just ahead of the throw from Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Corey Hart. Phew! For once, the All Star Game wasn’t just a procession of personalities. It was a riveting, back-and-forth contest in which the players provided the best evidence yet that they are not just in this for the money.
Yankees fans also made their presence known when Jonathan Papelbon – who made the boneheaded P.R. move of intimating that he should close the game instead of the great Mariano – entered the game. They booed his entrance and chanted “O-ver-rated!” and “Ma-ri-an-o!” while he was on the mound. When he left the mound after blowing the save, the Stadium faithful booed him again. You’d think Jonathan would know better than to mess with their most revered (yes, even more than Jeter) player.
The only thing that marred the game a bit for Yankees fans was the conspicuous absence of Alex Rodriguez in the dugout after he was removed from the game in the fifth inning. You’d think Rodriguez – who often laments the way he is treated by the media and who is enduring yet another image crisis with the whole Madonna, Kabbalah fiasco – would know better by now. After saying earlier in the week that he wished he was as good with the media as the Yankees shortstop, A-Rod did his best to highlight the giant differences between the two. Yes, Rodriguez is a far superior player to Jeter, especially now when the Captain appears to have lost more than a step or two. But Jeter understood that this was his house and his fans and so even though it’s not uncommon for players to leave All-Star Games early, Derek made sure he was there to celebrate with his teammates when the A.L. finally won the game.
A-Rod’s blunder aside, it was a great night for baseball and also for New York. And although the American League’s victory may not mean the World Series will begin in the Bronx, at least Yankee Stadium got one last chance to shine in the national spotlight. Now it’s up to the 2008 Yankees to give the old ballpark a stay of execution.