Bleacher Creature Feature

#25: Snow-Globe Day

8 September 2002

Some notes from that 6-4 victory, which had some odd moments.

Terri noted, looking at my scorecard, that the Tigers are full of players who just had to be teased as kids: Hiram Bocachica (which can translate to "girl's mouth," though the literal translation is "small mouth"), Carmine Infante (quoth Terri: "Put him with Bocachica, it's a Spanish soap opera waiting to happen"), Damien Easley, Robert Fick, and Andy Van Hekken.

Speaking of Fick, he was the right fielder, and with a name like that, it was like shooting fish in a barrel for the Bleacher Creatures. Luckily, the crowd was sparse and the bleachers were not as packed as they might be and, it being a mostly meaningless September game against a dreadful team, the taunts were subdued. However, the Shouter did whip off, "Hey Robert! Go Fick yourself!"

There was a bizarre call in the fourth inning that looked much worse from the bleachers than it did when we saw the replay on Baseball Tonight. The Yankees almost got an inning-ending double play, but the umpire seemed to change his call. However, he must not have been forceful enough, since the Yankees started running off the field. It wound up not mattering in the grand scheme of things, but we were all pretty peeved in the stands at the time...

Roger Clemens totally unravelled at that point. He had already thrown one wild pitch in the inning, and he threw two more -- one of which led to the tying run -- though he recovered by the next inning. He didn't have his best stuff, but he was more than good enough to shut the Tigers down in every other inning.

The Yankees, meanwhile, were doing okay but not great. Andy Van Hekken, fresh off of shutting out the Indians, kept the Yankees fooled most of the time. They got wood on the ball, but not hard wood (with the notable exception of Jason Giambi, who creamed a 1-2 pitch into the bleachers; he also walked, smoked a liner right at Fick, and struck out, which is a definite improvement over his abysmal August).

However, the team was vintage Yankees in the eighth off of Oscar Henriquez. In fact, the mystery is why Henriquez stayed in for the whole inning (he threw 34 pitches, only 13 for strikes). Bernie Williams went to 3-1 before smoking a ball to right that Fick made a fine play on. Then Jorge Posada and Raul Mondesi walked. Pinch hitter Robin Ventura hit a fly ball to the right field corner that Fick caught, but Posada was able to advance to third, and when Fick threw the ball away in an ill-advised attempt to throw Posada out, Mondesi dashed to second.

Then Rondell White came up.

And I'm sitting there thinking, "Why the hell is the guy mired in the 8-for-eight-billion slump being allowed to hit with two runners in scoring position in a tie game and a right-handed pitcher on the mound?" Nick Johnson was sitting right there on the bench, with nothing better to do. Admittedly, if Joe Torre had brought Johnson in, he may well have been intentionally walked to get to Juan Rivera, but I'd still take that over Rondell the way he's been not hitting.

He worked the count to 3-0, and we're all shouting, "Leave the bat on your shoulder!" since Henriquez has had a love/hate relationship with the strike zone all inning, anyhow. But he fouled it back. I sighed.

Then he clubbed the next pitch over the left-field wall and the stadium exploded.

In retrospect, I can see what Torre was doing. If this wasn't a meaningless game in September against a dreadful team, yeah, Johnson (or John VanderWal) would be in there, but he probably figured that this was a chance for Rondell to break out of it, and if he didn't -- well, hell, it's a meaningless game in September against a dreadful team. Instead, he got the biggest hit he could get, all but won the game, and made everyone happy. So it was the right call.

Rivera had a good day, going 1-4, reaching on an error and scoring on Giambi's dinger, and making a spectacular play in left field to save a run and end the seventh inning. The Yankees sensibly called him up before the end of August so he'd be eligible for the postseason roster. I also suspect that he's going to be a prime candidate for the Yankees' 2003 outfield.

In fact, I kinda hope they're grooming him for center field. I'm the first to declare my love for Bernie, but he's not as fast as he used to be, his arm was never great and is getting worse, and it may be time to move him into a corner. And y'know, if Rivera blossoms into what they think he can blossom into, an outfield of Bernie (still one of the most dangerous hitters in the league) in left, an up-and-coming Rivera in center, and the good right arm of Mondesi in right wouldn't suck all that much. That leaves Rondell, Spencer, and Vander Wal as backups/bench players, which is a lot, but maybe one of them could be involved in a trade for a starting pitcher that isn't on the wrong side of 35....

NEXT: Loge Lizard Lamentations, Part Deux

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