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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > June > 22
Sunday, June 22, 2008
The nostalgia that is Yankee Stadium
As I sit here in the second row of the press box, Yankee Stadium is quiet and empty, the 54,234 from Sunday’s game scattered.
I have finished my work for the paper and I’m gazing out at old Yankee Stadium, the last time for me. I see the monuments behind the left field fence and the 17 retired numbers - pretty soon, some Yankee is going to have to wear uniform No. 108.
I remember sitting in this pressbox during the 1996 World Series and catching a foul ball hit by Derek Jeter - a genuine red-inked World Series baseball that remains on a shelf in my home office, which my wife, Nadine, calls, “Your shrine to yourself.”
Well, OK.
And now, as Frank Sinatra says, “The end is near,” for this venerable old place. The place drips of nostalgia and that’s what makes it special. Physically, it is a dump. Really. The clubhouses are small, the press box is small, the radio-TV booths are small.
For a guy like me, visually impaired, the place is a booby trap of jutting unmarked steps and concrete walls placed in strange locations.
Nevertheless, it is 10 times better than the dump in Flushing Meadows called Shea Stadium, also coming down after this season, and not even Sinatra would say about losing that place, “Regrets, I’ve had a few.”
Not me. Let me push the plunger.
But I’ll miss Yankee Stadium because it is baseball. Mention Yankee Stadium all over the world and heads nod. Mention Shea Stadium and you get, “Huh?” There is, indeed, a reason it is located in a place called Flushing.
Yankee Stadium is in the Bronx. Now there’s a masculine, aggressive name. The Bronx.
Anyway, the Reds are gone, having lost Sunday, 4-1. But they took took of three. Counting the two games they won here during the 1976 World Series, they won four of the last five they played here.
Not many teams can say that.
Had it not rained Sunday for an hour, they might have swept this series. Johnny Cueto held the Yankees to one run and four hits, walking none and striking out seven. But it rained after the top of the sixth and the Yankees had scored a run in the fifth to take a 1-0 lead.
With the delay, Cueto couldn’t come back and bullpenners Gary Majewski and Jeremy Affeldt gave up three more in the next inning and that was that.
Edwin Encarnacion left after the second inning with lower back spasms and manager Dusty Baker had to move just-activated Jeff Keppinger from short to third and put bewildered rookie Paul Janish at shortstop.
When Janish’s turn to bat arrived, Baker pinch-hit catcher Javier Valentin and he was out of infielders. So he moved Keppinger back to third and put Valentin at third base.
Now there’s a sight. Valentin should have worn his chest protector, just in case, but he could have played there naked because he didn’t get a ball in the one inning he was there.
Even though the Reds won two of three, they still aren’t hitting. Adam Dunn isn’t hitting and sat out Sunday until the ninth when he pinch-hit with two on. He represented the tying run, but Mariano Rivera struck him out.
Janish isn’t coming close to a hit. Jay Bruce is struggling as we all expected him to do. Not even he can live up to the multi-page spread Sports Illustrated did on him this week, practically putting him into the Hall of Fame. Bruce still has a few pit stops on his way to Cooperstown, but he’ll adjust.
On to Toronto. From the vista that is Yankee Stadium we move to the indoor monstrosity that once was SkyDome and is now called Rogers Centre - now does that sound like a hockey arena, or what?
It is one of the last vestiges of artificial turf - a place where ping pong baseball is played. Heck, it isn’t even baseball. It’s a gigantic pinball machine.
And now one last look around before I pack my gear and head for the subway station. See ya, Yankee Stadium. See ya in my dreams.
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TweetHonest Abe Keppinger returns
A roster move had to be made Sunday morning to make room for the activation of shortstop Jeff Keppinger.
There was a delay, backing up our pre-game meeting with manager Dusty Baker and backing up Marty Brennaman’s pre-game taped interview.
Finally, the announcement was made. Andy Phillips was designated for assignment.
“He was in Sunday chapel,” said general manager Walt Jocketty. “I didn’t want to go into the middle of chapel and pull him out to tell him he was designated.”
It was suggested that maybe Phillips was in chapel praying that Jocketty wouldn’t tap him on the shoulder, but when Keppinger walked into the clubhouse Sunday morning one could see the stricken and forlorn look on Phillips’ face.
Said Baker, “That would have been sacrilegious to pull him out of chapel. We don’t want that.”
Jocketty then began talking positively abut how much he liked Phillips and how much they’d like to get him back up quickly, but Phillips is out of options and has to pass through waivers.
“Don’t write too many good things about him because we don’t want anybody to claim him,” Jocketty said.
Activating Keppinger is a quick-fix emergency situation. He may not be quite ready, but with the loss Friday of Jolbert Cabrera and the offensive ineptitude of Paul Janish, Keppinger is needed.
“We would have preferred to keep him down there (rehabbing at Louisville) for a while longer, but I talked with (manager) Rick Sweet and (Director of Player Development) Terry Reynolds and they say he is ready,” said Baker.
“We’ll play him today, we have an off day Monday and he’ll get treatment, then he’ll play Tuesday. We need a real shortstop for that AstroTurf in Toronto.”
Keppinger is sporting a full beard that he began growing the day he fouled a ball off his kneecap and fractured it. He looks like a small economy-sized Abe Lincoln.
“I tried to find a beard trimmer yesterday but I couldn’t,” he said. “So it stays, for now. If I don’t get any hits today it is gone for sure. If I get some hits, well, it served me pretty well in Louisville.”
Adam Dunn, in the polite vernacular, was given the day off, replaced in left field by Norris Hopper. Don’t get too excited, though. Corey Patterson was in center - but at least Hopper was leading off.
Dunn, one of the world’s great self-deprecators, said, “Just a GSB, a good, solid benching.” And he added, “Seriously, who would you bench?”
Uh, Dunn is 6 for 54 (.111), but he has a lot of company in the slump department.
“It can’t hurt for me to sit right now,” he said. “I get into these little ruts that only I can get myself into. Hopefully, I’ll sit today and get it going in Toronto.”
Dunn said he hasn’t heard from Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi, who promised to call Dunn and apologize for Ricciardi’s critical harangue of Dunn on a radio show.
“No, he hasn’t called,” said Dunn. “It would be hard for him to get my number.” Told that GM Jocketty, who did talk to Ricciardi, could have given up the number, Dunn said. “That would not be nice of Walt.”
So maybe Dunn and Ricciardi will meet on the field Tuesday. Is Dunn going to give J.P. a big ol’ hug.
“Yeah,” said Dunn. “A bear hug.”
Ken Griffey Jr. walked into the visitor’s clubhouse and said, “Last time here when I walk out the door after today’s game.” The Yankees move across the street to a new Yankee Stadium after this season.
Said Griffey, “I suppose they’ll keep this place as a National Historical Landmark.”
When he was told that there were plans to tear down the old place and turn it into greenspace, a park, Griffey said, “Bet they don’t. It’ll be a historic landmark because, after all, Babe Ruth urinated in the grass.”
Daryl Thompson, who made his major-league debut with five scoreless innings Saturday after getting lost on the subway, walked into the clubhouse early Sunday and when asked if he took a cab this time or the team bus, he said, “Oh, no. I took the subway. I’m a veteran now. I know how to get around.”
Baker knows how to get around, too.
“Love these early games,” he said. “I was in bed by 10 last night. Went to Spanish Harlem and had some Cuban food and listened to merengue while I ate.”
I ate at Junior’s Delicatessan on 45th street. Don’t bother. Long wait, poor service (35 minutes between ordering and delivery), cold food. I knew I should have walked nine blocks to the Carnegie Deli - my favorite. Tonight. For sure.
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