Tampa, Florida					Thursday, September 09, 2010

One Swing of The Bat—From Outhouse to Penthouse
Friday, October 18, 2003
TAMPA—You could almost see the horns breaking through his black hair and scalp. He was surely well on his way to become the goat of the American League Championship Series his New York Yankees and tough, tough rival Boston Red Sox were battling to the zenith at Yankee Stadium Thursday midnight. Aaron Boone, nifty fielding Yankee third baseman who had been in a terrible batting slump with a timely hit or two could have seen to it this seventh game wasn’t even necessary. Had he batted in a few runs at given opportunities in earlier games of this best of seven series now tied at 3-3 and in sudden death, the Yankees would have already been readying for the World Series.\\ But, it hadn’t been that way. Boone, a 6-2, 200-pound member of a celebrated major league ballplayer producing family just hadn’t done much right. No one was more surprised at this lack of run production and flawless fielding than he and the Yankees. The Yanks bought him from Cincinnati July 31 this year for his bat and for his glove and for his family heritage and were paying him $3.75 million. Now, in truth, Boone did just fine, until this ACLS between the rivals, when he went cold. Manager Joe Torre of the Yankees held him out of the seventh game Thursday and replaced him with Enrique Wilson. Wilson promptly made an early inning throwing error to advance Boston to a 3-0 lead for Red Sox pitching star Pedro Martinez. His heavyweight championship game seesawed until Boston’s sluggers had the Red Sox safely in front 5-2, bottom of the eighth, star pitcher and the hungry Bosox five outs away from a spot, at last, in the World Series. But, Red Sox manager chose to leave his star starter, Martinez, in the game through a fitful eighth of hits by Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada to tie this drama at 5-5. Now, along the way, television cameras repeatedly showed Aaron Boone on the bench, fitful, helpless, remorseful, biting his lips surely the man on the way to being the Yankee goat of the lost ACLS. Then because of a pinch-hitting call to put heavy-footed Rueben Sierra on base, Yankee Manager Torre sent Boone to run for Sierra. He did. It did not produce a run but he was in the game to stay because Enrique Wilson had been pulled for the pinch-hitter. He was going home to third base. It was a mighty stroke of something. Boone fielded just dandy, and then there in the bottom of the 11th, with the score tied at 5-5 and tense as it could be, with Boston knuckleball pitcher, Tim Wakefield—he had beaten the Yankees twice in the series and was pitching scoreless in relief—Aaron Boone, an unlikely hero unless you believe in miracles, or fate, or curses, or he was the right man at the right time, went to the plate as the leadoff batter in the llth. Betting people would not figure he’d get a big	hit. A walk, maybe, though pitcher Wakefield’s control had been good. Hit the ball out for a game winning homerun? Check Las Vegas, odds got to be big as winning the Florida lottery. But, nonetheless, there he was at bat to start the eleventh inning in this dramatic moment. All who play the game, dream of such a moment—game tied, extra innings, you are at bat …… Well, Boone, goat-to-be was at bat, taking fast practice swings from the rightside of the plate. Wakefield delivered a slow knuckler that hardly turned over. “I knew I got it, when I hit it,’’ Boone said later. He knocked the baseball into the left field stands for the solo homer to win the game, and suddenly, he was a hero—alongside reliever Mariano Riviera, of course. The Boston pitcher did not even look at the ball’s flight. He knew it was gone. He walked straight off the field. The stands went nuts, of course, the residents of the Evil Empire that Boston management said the Yankees are. The minute of contact sent radio announcer Charley Steiner and TV announcer Joe Buck to high pitched shouting. They, too, knew it was gone into the New York night, someone said. Boone rounded the bases and was greeted at home by all Yankees, who had emptied on the field from the dugout. He was mobbed. Closing reliever Rivera, who said it was his night of nights in baseball, went to the mound and dropped down and wept into the clay. Coach Willie Randolph finally got him up and to the dugout. New York went nuts like it does not often do. Boston went blank and went home. losers again to the cursed Yankees. New York has 26 American League championships, Boston none, since the Red Sox of a long time ago sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees so he could build the house he did and in which the Red Sox suffered yet another indignity. The game seemed there for them to win, until the manager Grady Little of Boston chose not to take out his favored pitcher/starter, Pedro Martinez and he was roughed up to tie the score at 5-5 and set the circumstances for Aaron Boone to swap his growing horns for a halo with the game winning homer. “Doesn’t everyone in these stands want to be in this situation, then hit the game winning homer?’’ He asked. He could not believe it was happening, then did happen. “I mean, it’s crazy. It’s stupid. I was about to endure a tough four months.’’ Not now. They will be heavenly. Might get to do some credit card ads with Yankee owner George M. Steinbrenner, this newest Yankee hero. Help the Yanks beat the Miami Marlins in the World Series starting this weekend, and we’ll all start spreading the news of how close the penthouse is from the outhouse—one swing of the bat. ##
Back to Top