Some Yankees/Red Sox, With Pictures
I am told that the meeting Saturday night in which Joe Girardi “decided” to start Phil Hughes against the Red Sox Sunday night, was not limited to uniformed personnel and General Manager Brian Cashman. At least one other person was involved, couldn’t confirm who it was. The reversal proved invaluable as Hughes offered his cleanest outing in weeks and he may have staunched the Yankee bleeding for the moment.
The question remains what and who the Yankees can rely on in the post-season. Anything past CC Sabathia is a guess; it would seem it would be wise to try to give Hughes a rest until the playoffs begin, and pin second-starter hopes on him, and then see what Andy Pettitte and A.J. Burnett and even Ivan Nova might give you.
Lost in the Yankees’ walk-off (literally) victory; this was the Stadium farewell for Mike Lowell, drafted originally by New York so long ago that Buck Showalter was still the Yankee Manager (Round 20, 1995, they sent him to Oneonta of the NY-Penn League where he hit exactly one homer in 313 plate appearances). Lowell would get fifteen Yankee at bats in 1998 before going in a foolish trade to Florida for pitcher Ed Yarnall and two others.
One of my favorite memories of the game is an afternoon in Fort Myers in 2009 when I spent the first four innings of a Boston exhibition game on the bench between Lowell and Wakefield (at that point they had 29 years of big league experience between them). Of course we talked everything but baseball. Lowell remains one of the game’s classiest acts, and when I told him the game just wouldn’t be the same without him, he reassured us “I’ll be around.” He could succeed in anything from coaching, to ownership, to announcing.
Two other photos are offered. On the right, that’s a tv viewer of mine, the rookie Red Sox first baseman Lars Anderson. In the shot at the left is SNL’s Jason Sudeikis, further down the front row in seats belonging to Lorne Michaels. Having dropped enough names I’ll leave you with this most bizarre of stats: I got to see 16 Yankee games from the seats this season and the home team won fifteen of them.
See you Tuesday and Wednesday as Ken Burns premieres his PBS Baseball documentary follow-up, “The Tenth Inning.”
Baseball Nerd 
Thanks for the heads-up on “The Tenth Inning”. Got my DVR set. 🙂 Great game tonight, by the way. It was fun, watching it on TV, and getting Tweets from you and others who were watching also. It was almost like watching with a group of friends. I was home, but not scoring… I still laugh every time I think of that line. I hope you enjoyed the game and stayed dry (or at least warm). Great blog post – thanks!
Please go to all the home games for the Yanks during the playoffs Keith! Since they won 15 out of the 16 games you attended I’ll like their chances better if you’re there.
Can’t wait for Wednesday’s Ken Burns special. Saw him interviewed last week by Jerry Remy during a Sox game in Boston….he also threw out a pretty good ceremonial first pitch!
To be correct, Ken Burns was interviewed by both Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo during the Sox NESN broadcast last week. His passion for baseball is infectious, as is yours!
Keith, Please comment on your thoughts on the new Ken Burns documentary! Was their anything that he was incorrect about? (I remember you had a long list with the 1994 version. Is their a list of all the errors you spotted during the 1994 showing? (Last I checked, The Hall doesn’t have it.) Thanks.