Monday, June 18, 2012
Remembrance of Winning Streaks Past
As the Yankees congregated on the field following their tenth consecutive win last night, I had a moment that was pure Proust. Well, if television graphics and Proust could ever coexist. The graphic said that the Yankees had not won ten games straight since 2005. And it all came back, within that crevice of my memory where I see Robinson Cano throwing away a double play ball in Tropicana Field after getting called up, or Wayne Franklin pitching to Hank Blalock in the eighth inning.
Ten game winning streaks are certainly rare. It feels like a long time ago. I know my life was certainly different. Words such as ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ would have registered zero meaning for me, the way batting average does for sabermetricians. How quaint. And they played at the old Stadium, back then.
These days, whenever my mind happens upon the old Stadium, it’s hard not to compare experiences. Shifting tides, different vibes. I remember Jaret Wright getting waffled around the yard by the Texas Rangers on a cold April day. The upper deck empties out. Two gentlemen in front of me light up a doob, or at least what I think is a doob. At the new place certain guardrails seem untouchable, for reasons known only to the hologram Emperor who signs setup men to monster contracts and constructs moats for box seats occupied by nobody. Doobs aren’t a necessity. But neither is unfriendliness. It’s pretty, the new place. Just different.
Then again, change is never one-dimensional. There were certainly shadow aspects to the Yankees’ four million fan drawing theatrical era that closed the old stadium. We all may have herbed the old guard of journalism for invoking Greek tragedies while summarizing the travails of Alex Rodriguez, but the comparison was close to reality. Every game felt immensely important. The best player on the team was consistently jeered, but with venomous intensity, not even remotely comparable to the occasional catcalls of the present tense. Nothing seemed to be in proper perspective. It was a different time. Just different.
If this brief, circuslike era of Yankees baseball could be properly summarized within one season, the 2005 edition would be the right choice. They were buried, resurrected, abandoned and lauded again, all within two months. Newspapers had headlines like “Jason Lives” when embattled first baseman Jason Giambi hit home runs. Giambi was nearly sent to the minor leagues, before finishing as the second most valuable offensive player on a team boasting Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui, and Jorge Posada. Aaron Small went 10-0.
That club’s ten game winning streak, which ran from May 7th through the 17th, should be interesting to look back upon.
May 7th: Yankees defeat the A’s 5-0: Tony Womack is hitting second. Andy Phillips gets a turn at designated hitter. Hitting behind Phillips is intriguing rookie second baseman Robinson Cano, who rode a scintillating April in Triple A to the Major Leagues. Tony Womack is playing leftfield. Hideki Matsui is playing centerfield. With that kind of defense, the Yankees shouldn’t exactly be shocked to be 11-19. It’s a steaming pile of a won-loss record, and they have earned it, with terrible starting pitching, a shaky bullpen, and that aforementioned reprehensible defense. Tino Martinez homers in the second inning. Mussina only has three strikeouts, but he goes the distance.
May 8th: Yankees defeat the A’s 6-0: Kevin Brown throws seven shutout innings. Jason Giambi bats eighth, ahead of Cano. Alex Rodriguez hits his eleventh home run off Rich Harden in the fourth inning. Tino Martinez and Jorge Posada circle the bases consecutively against Kiko Calero in the eighth inning. The Yankees are building momentum. Watch out.
May 9th: Yankees defeat the Seattle Mariners 4-3: Randy Johnson delivers the ball directly to Mariano Rivera. Tino Martinez hits another home run. Raul Ibanez bats sixth and plays designated hitter for the Mariners. Tony Womack is hitting second, again. Mariano Rivera strikes out Greg Dobbs to end the game. After struggling mightily against the Red Sox to open the season, it appears Rivera may defy time for another season or two.
May 10th: Yankees defeat the Seattle Mariners 7-4: Tino Martinez homers again, connecting off Aaron Sele in the third inning. Yankees rookies Robinson Cano and Chien-Ming Wang lead the way. Cano has two hits. Wang wins his first Major League game, pitching into the eighth inning while allowing three runs. Mariano Rivera saves another game. Tony Womack bats second. Backup catcher John Flaherty has two hits. Bernie Williams, who had been previously phased out of the lineup, gets a start at designated hitter and chips in a knock.
May 11th: Yankees defeat the Seattle Mariners 13-9: Pivotal offseason addition Carl Pavano is mashed, allowing ten hits and nine runs in four innings. Five of those runs are earned. Tino Martinez hits another home run, off Matt Thornton in the fourth inning. Thornton had relieved Jamie Moyer, who somehow pitched worse than Pavano, surrendering ten hits and six runs in two and a third innings. Moyer is running out of steam. Paul Quantrill receives the win, as he and Tanyon Sturtze combine for four shutout innings of relief hurling. Torre gives Cano a day off against Moyer, opting for Rey Sanchez. Jeff Nelson makes an appearance for Seattle. Tony Womack hit second. He has two hits.
May 13th: Yankees defeat the Oakland A’s 9-4: Rookie Robinson Cano hits doubles against Rich Harden and Juan Cruz. Tony Womack hits second. He triples. Mike Mussina is strong again, going seven innings and allowing two runs, striking out nine. Gary Sheffield hits a first inning home run. Mike Stanton makes a ninth inning appearance and does not make it through the frame. Paul Quantrill retires Marco Scutaro on a line drive to Jeter to end the game. The Yanks are rolling.
May 14th: The Yankees defeat the Oakland A’s 15-6: Joe Blanton is a promising young starter, but he is battered by the Yankees offense for nine runs in under four innings. Kevin Brown wins again, though unimpressively. Buddy Groom throws two innings for the Yankees. The Yankees form a conga line around the bases. Home runs for Alex Rodriguez, Jeter, Martinez, and Posada. Two hits for that sweet swinging freshman, Cano. Giambi bats eighth. He has one hit. Womack? He hit second.
May 15th: Yankees defeat the Oakland A’s 6-4: It’s a glorious day to be a first baseman for the New York Yankees. Tino Martinez continues resembling a candidate for Most Valuable Player, cranking two home runs off novice Oakland starter Danny Haren. With the score tied at four in the seventh inning, maligned first baseman Jason Giambi launches a double down the right-field line against nasty lefty specialist Ricardo Rincon. The clout gives the Yankees a two run lead. Randy Johnson wins his fourth game. Mariano Rivera has his sixth save. The Yankees are back! Woo-hoo!
May 16th: Yankees defeat the Seattle Mariners 6-3: Chien-Ming Wang continues showing promise. While nailing down his second win, he has four strikeouts and zero walks in six innings. Bernie Williams hits a grand slam off J.J. Putz in the seventh.
May 17th: Yankees defeat the Seattle Mariners 6-0: Ghosts of guitar riffs echo through Seattle evenings. Jason Giambi, three hits. Carl Pavano, complete game shutout. His high point in pinstripes. A train rattling down tracks in the distance. One hit for Robinson Cano. It’s beautiful out and anything is possible. Where did you go, Andy Phillips? Tony Womack hits second.
Comments
Great stuff, thanks. I don’t remember any of this - I was preparing to get married later that month - but now maybe I will.
Me neither. I was probably in an apoplectic state. And I think I was posting at Bronx Banter in those days. Thanks for the memories, MW.
That was just taking advantage of some really bad AL west team though… then again the A’s wasn’t terrible yet in 2005.
Yeah, I remember 2005 well. It was such a strange season. If you recall, Womack in left and Matsui in center was a direct order from Cashman to Torre that Cano WOULD be the regular second baseman, that Matsui WOULD be the regular center fielder and that Womack WOULD be the regular left fielder.
Bernie had some tendinitis that was making his poor defense even worse, so he went to the bench.
The Yankees then promptly lost the first four games they played with Cano as he went 2 for 24. Cano then went 13/22 as the Yankees began the winning streak.
What an awesome year. Shawn Chacon, people! Shawn fucking Chacon!
As an aside, just days after I was talking about how impressed I was with Yahoo! for giving runs scored and runs allowed in their standings, they gave their MLB page a HORRENDOUS makeover. It doesn’t even display all the games from that day on the front page! WTF?!
If you recall, Womack in left and Matsui in center was a direct order from Cashman to Torre that Cano WOULD be the regular second baseman, that Matsui WOULD be the regular center fielder and that Womack WOULD be the regular left fielder.
Not about to scour the internet to find evidence (if it exists), but I am 99% certain that Womack to left was an order from the Tampa “baseball people,” not Cashman.
Don’t recall this at all. Back then I was a next morning’s box score kind of Yankee fan. My overriding memory from that season is that I would check ESPN.com daily and remark to others how the White Sox would be exposed as pretenders any day now.
I loved the 2005 season, particularly for the WTF ending with the Yanktheees clinching on the second second to last day of the season at Fenway because of some weird math with Cleveland. Everyone at Fenway was stunned when the Yankees started celebrating after Damon bounced out to end the game. Very healing to watch the champagne fly at Fenway after 2004. then the Angels happened.
I was calling Tino Martinez Tino Bonds during that winning streak. It was ridiculous.
Why does every winning streak seem to be sandwiched by losses?
/-selective endpoints)
[10] Mathmatically speaking, you’d expect there’d be a tie at one end or the other of a streak. Baseball is so wierd. #soccerfan #ohwaitimeanhockeyfan
This makes me feel old, mostly. Had just moved out West and was entering my first full season away from the stadium and without the Yanks on TV. Then I discovered MLB.tv. Didn’t remember the Yanks had Mark Bellhorn AND the second go round with Rey Sanchez…
Player ‘B’ for Bean: .215/.301/.345
Pin, the comment is finally showing up on the New Yorker page.
Did you see it?
After the debacle of 2004, I was concerned that the franchise could enter some sort of death spiral in 2005, especially after Mariano got booed after blowing that early season save against the Sox. But the team scrapped its way to a division title, which in retrospect was important in keeping up morale as the franchise eventually transitioned into the Joe Girardi era.
[5] “they gave their MLB page a HORRENDOUS makeover. It doesn’t even display all the games from that day on the front page! WTF?!”
It’s hard to read, but the games thing is clearly a bug - in my beta firefox I can see the first, then I reload and see them all.
Been eating Madeleines myself. 1955 Whitey Ford pitched consecutive one hitters with a relief outing sandwiched in between. Top that R.A. and how I wish Cash had signed you.
2005 was when I really got into baseball, especially online. I remember following Hughes and Eric Duncan in the minors. I’m not sure if RLYW existed at the time, but I certainly wasn’t posting. Like Zack, this was my first season out of the North East, although being a poor college student I couldn’t afford mlb.tv (which might not have been a terrible thing given the state of the service through the first several years).
Hank Blalock, there’s a guy that had a ton of potential at a weak position who just cratered.
It existed at the old url:
http://replacementlevel.com/
[20] Holy crap, I did not realize that the archives went all the way back to 2003!
Also, I remember thinking Andy Phillips could be a decent MLB player. I am not a clever man.
[22]
See, I remember not thinking that.
Although I do remember being convinced for a while by some huckleberry that Alvaro Espinoza was an unusually good fielder.
I think Cliff Corcoran was sort of an Andy Phillips booster and I drank the Kool-Aid for a while too.
[23] I drank the kool-aid on the Yankees farm system pretty deeply. I still get a bit over enthusiastic about the truly high ceiling guys, but I tend towards pessimism now.
Betances makes me sad.
[25] In the spirit of RLYW’s past, I’d say Betances makes you a sad panda.
Went to opening day in’o5. Randy’s debut. Such promise! I wanted the yank’s to feast on Schilling but all we got was bloated Wells. Still pretty tasty though.
Some guy in the row behind us finished every partial beer he could reach on his way out.
[20] If I go back and start reading old posts there’s a real chance I’ll get stuck in some sort of temporal rift in the space/time continuum.
[26] Fair enough. Sad panda it is.
Also, I remember thinking Andy Phillips could be a decent MLB player. I am not a clever man.
I have a feeling I’ve made some defenses of Eduardo Nunez that I may regret reading ten years from now.
Free Colter Bean
For a nominal fee past posts that may bring shame can be dealt with.
I suppose I should start with my post about how the Yankees should sign Odalis Perez and Matt Clement.
[32] Ow.
Hehe, I rememeber the classic Perez/Clement post was a running joke during 2005 and 2006.
Not about to scour the internet to find evidence (if it exists), but I am 99% certain that Womack to left was an order from the Tampa “baseball people,” not Cashman.
Contemporary reports all said it was Cashman. I think it was his answer to Torre’s refusal to bench Bernie.
[35] Yeah, signing Womack was the Tampa people. That was one where Cashman was ordered to sign Womack. But calling up Cano and moving Womack to the outfield was Cashman.
Yeah, exactly. The Tampa people really loved Womack for some reason.
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