The Curse of Donnie Baseball: Do You Now Believe?

Last night, a rainout postponed the start of an 2-game Interleague series between the Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Yankee Stadium II.  The result is a day-night doubleheader starting this afternoon.

These 2 teams have played each other many times, including in spring training (until the Dodgers' recent move from Grapefruit League Florida to Cactus League Arizona) and in 11 World Series -- 7 while the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn: 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955 and 1956, with the Dodgers winning in 1955 and the Yankees all the others.  Since moving to Los Angeles, the Dodgers have beaten the Yankees in World Series play in 1963 and 1981, and the Yankees have triumphed in 1977 and 1978.

Those 11 Series are easily the most-often-played World Series matchup.  The next-closest is the 5 between the Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals, although that hasn't happened since 1964, despite some close calls, including 1996, when the Cards were 1 win away from making it happen again.

The way Interleague play has worked out, the Yankees and Dodgers have played each other 6 times, all at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles: June 18-20, 2004, when the Dodgers took 2 out of 3; and June 25-27, 2010, when the Yankees returned the favor.  So the all-time regular-season matchup is 6-6.  If you count World Series play, then it's 18-16 in the Dodgers' favor.  If you count the Brooklyn version of the team, then it's 43-35 in the Yankees' favor.

Since 2011, when he succeeded the retiring Joe Torre, himself a Yankee Legend, the Dodgers' manager has been "Yankee Legend" Don Mattingly.

I put "Yankee Legend" in quotation marks because, to be a Yankee Legend, you have to have at least won a Pennant.  This allows Bobby Murcer and Dave Winfield to qualify.

Don Mattingly is not a Yankee Legend.  He is a curse.

The following is an update of a piece I've done before.

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I have often said that I don't believe in curses, jinxes and ghosts... except when it comes to sports. I did not invent the Curse of Donnie Baseball, I am merely the prophet who brings its dark word to the nonbelievers, whether they like it or not.

As far as I know, I am the first person ever to write about it publicly. I even created a Wikipedia entry for it. I put it up in 2005, but it's long since been taken down. I guess the Wikimedia guys didn't think there was enough evidence for it. But a few scraps of it survive, cited by others who think there might be such a Curse.

There is a Cult of St. Donald Arthur of Evansville. You can go to Yankee Stadium and spew forth the vilest of imprecations at Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, even at the imperfect saint that is Thurman Munson. But say that Don Mattingly is not all that Yankee Fans claim him to be, and you will be subjected to the kind of abuse that usually only occurs, in this country without the intensity of club soccer hatreds, between college football fans during Rivalry Week.

Yankee broadcaster Michael Kay is the high priest of this cult. On a number of occasions, he has said of Mattingly, “He might be the most beloved athlete in the history of New York sports.”

Kay is usually smart, but this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard a sportscaster say. Has he never heard of Babe Ruth? Lou Gehrig? Joe DiMaggio? Mickey Mantle? Yogi Berra? Bobby Murcer (who at least won a Pennant in Pinstripes)? Thurman Munson? Reggie Jackson? Derek Jeter? Bernie Williams? Paul O’Neill? Mariano Rivera?

And that’s just on the Yankees. What about Tom Seaver? Dwight Gooden? Jackie Robinson? Duke Snider? Gil Hodges? Willie Mays? Christy Mathewson? Mel Ott? Buck Ewing?

And that’s just from baseball. What about Frank Gifford? Lawrence Taylor? Joe Namath? Walt Frazier? Patrick Ewing? Frank Boucher? Eddie Giacomin? Rod Gilbert? Mike Bossy? Denis Potvin? Mark Messier (though it pains me to admit it)? Brian Leetch? Martin Brodeur?

Most Yankee Fans, inside or outside of the Cult of St. Donald Arthur, don’t know about the Curse.  Those who do know about it refuse to admit it exists, for it means that Don Mattingly, their idol while growing up in the Eighties and Nineties, is a gigantic jinx.

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Donald Arthur Mattingly, of Evansville, Indiana, now 52 years of age, was a very talented baseball player. From 1984 to 1989, he was arguably the best player in the game. Then a back injury struck. He decided to retire after the 1995 season – well, sort of: He announced he would take 1996 off, and then decide whether to resume playing; ultimately, he decided not to.

Between the ages of 23 and 28, he was wonderful; from 29 to 34, he was a hard-working, courageous player still capable of the occasional moment of greatness. At 35, he was done. That’s not a tragedy, but it is unfortunate.

He is respected around the game. A contemporary, Kirby Puckett, observed him taking extra batting practice, and gave him the nickname “Donnie Baseball.” It seemed to fit. He was Captain of the Yankees. And, by all accounts, he’s a good man.

Please understand something here: I do not seek to disparage the man’s character, nor deride his performance – when he was physically able to perform, that is.

But the record is clear: Don Mattingly is a loser, and any team that employs him is also a loser.

Facts can be interpreted any way you want, but their truths cannot be denied:

1981: The Yankees won the American League Pennant. This was their 4th Pennant, and 5th postseason berth, in the last 6 seasons.

1982: The Yankees called Mattingly up on September 6. He played his first game on September 8, a 10-5 win over the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium. Mattingly was a defensive replacement in left field and did not bat. The Yankees finished 6th, winning only 79 games. True, they were well out of the race well before this, so the fact of Mattingly’s September callup at age 21 near the end of a wasted season is hardly enough on which to base an indictment. But the evidence continues.

1983: Mattingly had his first season of being more than a look-see at the end. The Yankees finished 3rd. No shame in that, as the Baltimore Orioles ran away with the AL Eastern Division and won the World Series.

1984: Mattingly won the AL batting title with a .343 average, the highest for a Yankee in 27 years. Teammate Dave Winfield is right behind him at .340. Mattingly had also become a spectacularly-fielding first baseman. The Yankees finished 3rd, as the Detroit Tigers ran away with the Division and won the World Series. So far, no reason to suspect Mattingly of anything; after all, this was only his first full season with the team.

1985: Mattingly put together a season that earned him the AL Most Valuable Player award. The Yankees had their best season between 1981 and 1996, and their 97 wins was the most they would get between 1980 and 1998. But it wasn't enough, as the Toronto Blue Jays clinched against them on the next-to-last day of the regular season. Still no big deal: Plenty of players fall short in their first attempt at a real Pennant race.

1986: Mattingly set a Yankee record with 238 hits in a season. But the Yankees finished 2nd again, 5½ games behind the hated Boston Red Sox. Finishing 2nd to the Red Sox is never a good thing.  But the Yanks had a lot of pitching problems the last 2 seasons. One more good starter in either would have made a world of difference, and this would have been a very different blog entry. (The Curse of Dennis Eckersley? The Eck punishing the Dodgers for the Kirk Gibson walkoff, and that’s why they haven’t won a Pennant since 1988?)

1987: Mattingly had a streak of hitting home runs in 8 consecutive games, tying a major league record. He also hit 6 grand slams in the season, setting a new record. (Each of those records has since been tied, but not broken.) But the Yankees finished 4th, 9 games behind the Tigers. Can’t blame Mattingly for that: The Yankees had injuries, and particularly damaging were those to Willie Randolph and, to a lesser extent, Winfield.

1988: Another terrific year for Mattingly, but the Yankees finished 5th. Fifth! And it was the Red Sox winning the Division again! True, the Yankees were only 3½ games behind in a wild race that saw the first 4 teams (Boston, Detroit, Toronto and the Milwaukee Brewers) all within 2 games. But this was the 4th straight season in which the Yanks were close late, and didn’t win. That had never happened before: Usually, the Yankees would either win the Pennant (or, from 1976 onward, the Division), or finish well behind the leaders. Of the 31 seasons between their first Pennant in 1921 and 1984 in which the Yankees did not win the Pennant, the Yankees were still in the race in mid-September in only 7 of them. Now they had 4 straight close calls, and nothing to show for them. As Darth Vader would have said if he’d been a baseball fan, “I find your lack of postseason play disturbing.”

1989: Another very good year for Mattingly, but the Yankees collapsed. Hardly any pitching. Winfield missed the entire season with a back injury. Another injury forced Ron Guidry to retire without appearing once this season.

The most frustrating decade in team history is over. Can Mattingly be blamed? Surely not. All the evidence seen so far is merely circumstantial. Right? Right?

1990, 1991, 1992: The beginning of Mattingly’s Captaincy, and all awful years for the Yankees, including what remains their only last-place finish in the last 47 years. They can’t see contention with binoculars. And Mattingly’s injuries rendered him pretty much useless. A great career appears to have been going down in flames.

1993: As ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast, my friend!” The rebuilt Yankees put together a fine season, and were tied with the Toronto Blue Jays on September 8. But it all fell apart again, and they finished 7 games back. Not Mattingly’s fault? Sure doesn't look like it: He had his best season in 5 years, in terms of both personal statistics and team finish. Yet again, it seemed like the Yankees were one starting pitcher away. The bullpen needed some help, too. Mattingly was not the problem. Or, at least, he appeared not to be.

1994: This was the season it was all going to come together. At bat, Mattingly bat was partying like it’s 1985. Paul O’Neill was on his way to becoming the first Yankee since Mattingly that year to win the batting title. Bernie Williams was coming into his own. Even the pitching had improved. On August 11, not only were they in first place by 6½ games over the Orioles, but they had the best record in the AL. On August 12, the Major League Baseball Players Association went on strike. On September 15, with the strike still unresolved, Commissioner Bud Selig canceled the remainder of the regular season, and the postseason.

The Yankees were not the only team hurt by this: The Chicago White Sox had probably their best team in 75 years, the Cleveland Indians were in their first Pennant race in 35 years, the Texas Rangers were in first place that late in the season for the first time in their 23-year history, the Montreal Expos had the best record in baseball and a shot at their first full-season postseason berth in their 36-year history, and the Colorado Rockies, in only their second season of play, were just a game and a half behind the Dodgers for the National League West and a game behind the Houston Astros for the Wild Card. A lot of teams got screwed.

But there was a growing sense among Yankee Fans that this was Mattingly’s best chance, and that he might not get another one this good. Ever.

1995: A hard season for the Yankees. The Red Sox won the Division solidly. Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s Iron Man streak record. Mickey Mantle’s final illness and death hung over the team like a dark cloud. Being asked to broadcast a game rather than go to Mickey’s funeral led Phil Rizzuto to retire – as it turned out, an agreement was reached and he did one more season in ’96. And the Yankees had more injuries, including Mattingly’s bad back flaring up again. But they managed to win the Wild Card, and, in the Division Series against the Seattle Mariners, Mattingly’s first-ever postseason series in 14 years of trying, he batted .417 and hit 2 home runs, including one in Game 2 that sent the crowd at the original Yankee Stadium into an absolute frenzy. But when the Series went out to Seattle, the Mariners rode their own big crowds to come from 2 games to 0 back and win 3 straight and the series.

Mariner fans still like to brag about this series, partly because it inspired people to go to the polls next month and vote for the bond issue that funded the building of the hideous Kingdome’s replacement, the much-more baseball-friendly Safeco Field; but partly because they beat the Yankees. They cling to 1995 the way rednecks cling to their guns and their religion (in that order). Mariner fans do not like to be reminded that the Yankees have since beaten them, not once, but twice, in 2000 and 2001, and in the League Championship Series, not just the Division Series.

“I have a hard time feeling bad about it,” Mattingly said after the epic October 8, 1995 contest, the last in which he would ever play. A lot of Yankee Fans, however, still take this loss hard. It ensured that Don Mattingly would never play in a World Series. (And, in retrospect, it is hard to miss the parallel between Mattingly's "hard time feeling bad about it" resembles what Tom Glavine said after he bollixed up the Mets' chances in their 2007 regular season finale: "I'm not devastated.")

1996: Playing their first season without Mattingly since 1981, the last season in which they won the Pennant, the Yankees win the Pennant again, and the World Series. If it wasn’t for the ’95 ALDS, in which Mariner first baseman Tino Martinez hit well and reliever Jeff Nelson pitched well, the Yankees wouldn’t have sent third baseman Russ Davis and pitcher Sterling Hitchcock to the Mariners for Tino and Nellie. And if the Yankees had won that series, they probably still would have lost to the powerful Cleveland Indians in the ALCS. And it’s likely that manager Buck Showalter, who has never won a Pennant anywhere he’s managed (except in the minors), would have been kept. Joe Torre would never have managed the Yankees.

Put all that together, and do you think the Yankees would have won the World Series in 1996, ’98, ’99 and 2000? Isn’t 4 World Series wins and 6 Pennants without Donnie Baseball better than one World Series appearance with him?

As Brian Kenny used to say on the ESPN Classic show The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame... , Have I begun to change your mind yet? Are you now beginning to believe that larger forces are at work? Do you now see that Mattingly’s presence did not help the Yankees win, and in fact hurt them?

No? You still ain't buyin' it? Okay, fine. Read on:

1997: On September 1, the Yankees retired Mattingly's uniform Number 23, and dedicated a Plaque in his honor to rest in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. After the dedication ceremony, the Yankees lost an Interleague game to the Montreal Expos, the team many of us suspected they would have played in the 1994 World Series if that Series had happened. The Yanks went on to finish 2nd to the Orioles, and it remained the last season in which the Yankees did not win at least the Division title until 2007.

1998: The Yankees begin a run of 5 Pennants in 6 seasons, ending with the Aaron Boone homer in the 2003 ALCS and the subsequent World Series defeat to the Florida Marlins. Through all of this, Mattingly was back home at his farm outside his home town of Evansville, Indiana, and had no active role with any baseball team, and appeared at Yankee Stadium once a season, on Old-Timers’ Day. Mattingly in uniform, no; October glory, yes.

2004: Mattingly decides to get back into baseball, and is hired as the Yankees’ hitting instructor. The Yankees get within 3 outs of completing an ALCS sweep of the Red Sox for the Pennant. You know how this part of the story ends: The Sox “reverse the curse,” the one involving Babe Ruth, and complete the greatest comeback in the history of baseball.

Can we blame Mattingly for this? Maybe, because the Yankee lineup seemed to lose a lot of steam after the 19-8 blowout in Game 3; after that, they barely hit at all. Five runs would have won Game 4, Game 5, or Game 6; instead, they got 4, 4 and 2, respectively. Game 7 was a blowout, more a pitching issue than a hitting one. But if Mattingly was such a good choice to be a hitting instructor, then he should have been able to give somebody the advice they needed to get that 5th run home in Game 4, 5 or 6.

Can we blame steroids? We know David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Bronson Arroyo were steroid users: The first two got caught (though it wasn’t revealed until July 30, 2009), and the last confessed. Many of us also suspect Curt Schilling, Jason Varitek, Trot Nixon, Mark Bellhorn, Bill Mueller and Kevin Millar of using them. This would seem to invalidate my Curse of Donnie Baseball theory, since it suggests that the Yankees would have won the Pennant without it, even with Mattingly in uniform. But the fact remains that the Yankees had Mattingly in uniform, and did not win the Pennant. So, even knowing what we know now, we have to accept the fact that the Yankees did not win.

2005: The Yankees win the Division, but lose the Division Series to the Anaheim Angels. And while the pitching wasn’t very good, they also didn’t hit much.

2006: The Yankees win the Division in a landslide, but lose the Division Series to the Detroit Tigers. And while the pitching wasn’t very good, they also didn’t hit much.

2007: The Yankees don’t win the Division, the Red Sox do. The Yanks do manage to gain the Wild Card, but, again, their hitting in the Division Series against the Indians is pathetic. And, remember, their hitting instructor is Don Mattingly.

Afterward, Joe Torre was offered a weak new contract to manage, and resigned. He was hired to manage the Dodgers, and offered to take Mattingly with him, and Mattingly accepted.

I was afraid that Mattingly would get the Yankee job, and continue the Curse.  And he would never, ever be fired, no matter how badly he did.  After all, George Steinbrenner nearly went down in history as the man who fired Yogi Berra.  Hank and Hal Steinbrenner would not have wanted to go down in history as the men who fired Don Mattingly.  There are some popularity contests that you just can't win.  Instead, Joe Girardi was hired; and, while he's driven me crazy sometimes, he has done much better as a manager than Mattingly.

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There you have it. Between 1921 (their first Pennant) and 1981, and again from 1996 to 2003, a total of 69 seasons, the Yankees won 39 American League Pennants, or 56 percent of the available Pennants. In the 16 seasons in which Mattingly has been in a Yankee uniform (1982 to 1995 and 2004 to 2007), the Yankees have never won.

Even after the ’96 World Series, the pattern did not escape my notice. And when in 2004, their first season with Mattingly in uniform since 1995, they blew the Pennant so spectacularly, I began to start telling people that Mattingly was a jinx, that there is a Curse of Donnie Baseball. In the ensuing 3 seasons, it only got worse.

That's what happened when Mattingly was in a Yankee uniform. And what has happened to the Dodgers with Mattingly in uniform?

In 2008, they won the NL West, and swept the Chicago Cubs in 3 straight to win the NLDS, but got embarrassed by the Phillies in the NLCS. The Dodgers blew 6th-inning lead in Game 1 and an 8th-inning lead in Game 4. Rafael Furcal, with a 1.012 OPS in the regular season, dropped to .687 in the NLCS. Andre Ethier dropped from .885 to .534, future Yankee Russell Martin from .781 to .436, Blake DeWitt from .728 to .364 (a hopeless 1-for-13), and the veteran, near-Hall-of-Famer Jeff Kent from .745 to .000 – he went 0-for-8. Former Red Sox teammates Manny Ramirez and Nomar Garciaparra stepped their OPSs up, as did Matt Kemp and Juan Pierre. But the Dodgers had too many key guys stop hitting.

Credit the Phillies’ pitching for stopping the Dodgers? Their WHIP for the series was 1.545, but with a WHIP that high, they should have had a much higher ERA than 3.89. The Dodgers had their chances, and they blew it. This was almost as bad as the 1977 and ’78 NLCS were for the Phils, losing to the Dodgers in shocking, disgraceful moments. Now, just as they had done by benefiting from a September choke instead of perpetrating one, the Phils had turned the tables on the L.A. Bums.  So now, Mattingly had put a cloud over a second franchise.

In 2009, the Dodgers won the NL West and the NLDS again, setting up another NLCS against the Phillies.  The Phils trailed the Dodgers 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th in Game 4 at Citizens Bank Park. But a walk, a hit batsman, and Jimmy Rollins’ double up the gap won the game for the Fightin’ Phils, 5-4. The next night, the Phils won their 7th Pennant, and their first-ever back-to-back Pennants.

How could the Dodgers have blown this? They were one out away from evening the series at 2 apiece and going back to L.A. for Game 5. How? How? How?!?

Silly Dodger fans, did they not know of the Curse of Donnie Baseball?

2010: The Dodgers missed the postseason, and Torre retired as a manager.  Mattingly was named manager.

2011: The Dodgers won only 82 games, barely a winning season.  This can't all be put on Mattingly, as the team's ownership situation was a mess, as owner Frank McCourt was going through a divorce and stripped the Dodgers' assets to fund his legal defense.  But Earvin "Magic" Johnson, already an L.A. sports legend for what he did with the Lakers, and a man who may actually have achieved more in business since leaving the court, bought the team, and did what every sports team owner should do, but most don't: Decided to spend whatever it takes to win.  Whether Magic will ultimately succeed, I don't know; but at least he's trying, whereas other team owners with his resources don't increase the payroll, don't go after the best players, and don't try to hang onto the good ones they already have.

2012: The Ddogers won 86 games, and were in the race for one of the NL's Wild Card spots the whole way.  Should they have done better? Yes.  Would they have done better with a manager other than Mattingly? Maybe.  But it was just the first full year of Magicball.  Maybe they still needed time...

2013 thus far: The Dodgers come into today's doubleheader 29-39, well under .500, and are 11 1/2 games out of first place in the NL West.  They are also 11 1/2 games out of the NL's 2nd Wild Card spot.  And rumors are running rampant that Mattingly could be fired as manager, because he's not getting the job done.

So there's another team beset by this Curse.

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Ladies and Gentlemen, Children of All Ages, read ye now the indictment:

There is a Curse of Donnie Baseball. No Major League Baseball team that has had Don Mattingly in uniform, in any capacity, has ever won a Pennant, and none ever will.

One season can be written off as, “Hey, that’s baseball, these things happen.” Maybe even several seasons, as factors like injuries, bad trades, problems between players and management cause teams that could win to not do so.

We now have 24 seasons of evidence for this Curse.  Nearly a quarter of a century.

Am I wrong? Am I exaggerating? Do you need further testimony? Okay, here goes.  On October 26, 1997, while Mattingly was being considered for the managerial vacancy after Torre left, Robert A. George wrote this in the New York Post: 

Don Mattingly would be the absolute worst choice to be Yankees manager. I'm glad that Brian Cashman appears to be wavering on this. Do I base my views on any sort of great baseball knowledge? Not really -- though the fact that he has NO experience as a manager should be a factor. 

No, my objection goes to a point I made once before: Mattingly IS the "curse" of the Yankees. He is the best player the Yankees have ever had WHO NEVER WON ANYTHING. I made this point in one of my earliest RT posts. Time has proven my point even more: The Yankees haven't gotten out of the first round of the playoffs since Mattingly returned to the team as a coach. 

And, circumstantial evidence suggests that this is not just a coincidence. Aside from starting pitching problems, what differentiates the Yankees of the last four seasons ('04-'07) from their dynastic brethren of '96-'03? The answer is patient clutch pitching. Failure to get that clutch two-strike, two-out hit has doomed the Yankees in recent years. Who was the hitting coach in three of those four years. Yep, Mr. Donnie Baseball -- the man who came up to the major leagues just when the Yankees concluded a four World Series/two championships-in-six-year-run. The team wouldn't make it back to the Fall Classic until the year after Mattingly's last year. 

He returned in '04. The rest is history.

In a game where superstition accounts for quite a lot, Don Mattingly is the black cat, the broken mirror and the crack in the sidewalk all rolled into one.

Okay, it's the Post.  But it is one of the New York Tri-State Area's major papers, behind the Times and the Daily News, but with a readership well ahead of Newsday, the Star-Ledger and the other Jersey papers, the Journal News and any other Hudson Valley paper, and the New Haven Register and any other Connecticut paper.

So someone from a major paper also takes it seriously.

You’ve heard my case. The prosecution rests. The defense may call whichever witnesses it chooses. I reserve the right to cross-examine them.

Do you now believe?

Call it a Curse. Call him Donnie Regular Season Baseball. He will never win a Pennant. Ever.

Ever.

As the late, great Phillies center fielder and broadcaster Richie Ashburn would say, "Bet your house on it, Harry."

How To Be a Yankee Fan In Chicago -- 2013 Edition

Because of the way the Interleague schedule was (mis)arranged, the Mets will be going to Chicago to face the White Sox before the Yankees do: Next week, while the Yankees don't arrive until August 5.

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler,
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.

And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.

And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,

Bareheaded, shoveling, wrecking, planning, building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
And under his ribs the heart of the people, laughing!

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
-- Carl Sandburg, 1916.

Sandburg knew. He was right then. He is still right now. And this legendary poem "Chicago" fits the White Sox much more than it does the Cubs.

“If I was a colonel in some horrible war,” said Jean Shepherd, the legendary writer and radio show host, native of Hammond, Indiana, and hard-core White Sox fan, “and I needed volunteers for a suicide mission to take an enemy pillbox, I’d call out, ‘Any of you White Sox fans? Follow me!’ And those White Sox fans would follow me, and we’d take that pillbox! Because White Sox fans are special. Fifty years without a Pennant? A hundred years? Doesn't matter. We're loyal.”

Shepherd said that in the 1987 documentary Chicago White Sox: A Visual History. It was an elaboration of something he'd said before: ”If I was going to storm a pillbox, going to sheer, utter, certain death, and the colonel said, ‘Shepherd, pick six guys,’ I’d pick White Sox fans, because they have known death every day of their lives, and it holds no terror for them.”

White Sox fans hate the Cubs, and especially Cub fans, a lot more than Cub fans hate the White Sox and their fans. To a Cub fan, a White Sox fan is a greasy, dirty, uncouth hood who likes heavy metal and marijuana -- an image probably ingrained due to the South Side's gritty reputation and Disco Demolition Night in 1979. To a White Sox fan, a Cub fan is a prissy, effete intellectual who is willing to accept losing so long as he has his ivy and his beer -- and, occasionally, his marijuana. In other words, newspaper columnist and conservative TV news pundit George Will, who actually is a Cub fan... except for the substance abuse part.

Jean Shepherd has been dead for a few years, but I'll bet he didn't like George Will. Will is still alive, and I'll bet he was never a Jean Shepherd fan, either.  Too much imagination.

Disclaimer: While I have been to Chicago, and I have seen games at Wrigley Field, and I saw a game at the old Comiskey Park, I have not yet been to a game at the new Comiskey Park, now named U.S. Cellular Field. But much of this information is taken from the White Sox' website, and is believed to be accurate.

Before You Go.  It's a little soon to predict the weather for next week, but Chicago in late June is usually hot in the daytime and humid at night.  And in early August, when the Yankees go out there, it'll probably be even hotter.  So ignore all the stories you’ve heard about Chicago being cold: You’re going to New Comiskey to see the Mets or Yankees play the White Sox, not to Soldier Field to see the Giants or Jets play the Bears.  Pack accordingly, and be sure to check the websites of the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times for their forecasts at your trip gets closer.

Getting There. Chicago is 789 land miles from New York. Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to fly out there.

Unlike some other Midwestern cities, this is a good idea if you can afford it. If you buy tickets online today, next week's Mets visit would be $818 round-trip on American Airlines, but for the Yankees' August trip, you can get round-trip fare for just $383.  Nearly every flight from the New York Tri-State Area’s airports to Chicago’s is nonstop, so it’ll be 3 hours, tarmac to tarmac, and about 2 hours going back.

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Blue Line train can get you from O’Hare International Airport, at the northwestern edge of the city, to the downtown elevated (or “L”) tracks that run in “The Loop” (the borders of which are Randolph, Wells, Van Buren and Wabash Streets) in 45 minutes.  That's also roughly the time that the Orange Line can get you from Midway Airport to the Loop.

By bus, Greyhound’s run between the 2 cities is relatively easy, but long, about 18 hours, and is $235 round-trip. The station is at 630 W. Harrison Street. (If you’ve seen one of my favorite movies, Midnight Run, which came out in 1988, this is a new station, not the one seen in that film.) The closest CTA stop is Clinton on the Blue Line, around the corner.  Keep in mind that, while this station is at the edge of downtown, it is, literally, out of the Loop.  In fact, it's across the south branch of the Chicago River from downtown

By train? Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited (formerly known as the Twentieth Century Limited when the old New York Central Railroad ran it from Grand Central Terminal to Chicago's LaSalle Street Station) leaves New York's Penn Station at 3:40 every afternoon, and arrives at Union Station at 225 South Canal Street in Chicago at 9:45 every morning. It’s $281 round-trip.  The closest CTA stop is Quincy/Wells, in the Loop, but that’s 6 blocks away – counting the Chicago River as a block; Union Station is also not in the Loop.

If you do decide to walk from Union Station to the Loop, don’t look up at the big black thing you pass. That’s the Sears Tower -- excuse me, the Willis Tower.  (Willis is a London-based insurance broker, definitely far less known in the U.S. than Sears, which has long since moved its headquarters out of the Tower and into Chicago's suburbs.) If there’s one thing being in New York should have taught you, it’s this: “Don’t look up at the tall buildings, or you’ll look like a tourist.” But since you’ve come all this way, it makes sense to get a hotel, so take a cab from Union Station or Greyhound to the hotel – unless you’re flying in, in which case you can take the CTA train to within a block of a good hotel.

If you decide to drive, it’s far enough that it will help to get someone to go with you and split the duties, and to trade off driving and sleeping. The directions are rather simple, down to (quite literally) the last mile. You'll need to get into New Jersey, and take Interstate 80 West. You'll be on I-80 for the vast majority of the trip, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. In Ohio, in the western suburbs of Cleveland, I-80 will merge with Interstate 90. From this point onward, you won’t need to think about I-80 until you head home; I-90 is now the key.

If you were going directly to U.S. Cellular Field (not a good idea, as you should go to your hotel first), you’d take Exit 55A for 35th Street, merge onto LaSalle Street, and turn left on 35th Street. The ballpark is bounded by 35th Street (3rd base), Shields Avenue/Bill Veeck Drive and the Amtrak/Metra tracks (1st base), 37th Street (right field) and Wentworth Avenue (left field).

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Pennsylvania, 4 hours in Ohio, 2 hours and 30 minutes in Indiana, and half an hour in Illinois before you reach the exit for your hotel. That’s 13 hours and 45 minutes. Counting rest stops, preferably halfway through Pennsylvania and just after you enter both Ohio and Indiana, and accounting for traffic in both New York and Chicago, it should be no more than 18 hours, which would save you time on both Greyhound and Amtrak, if not flying.

Tickets. In spite of the White Sox normally being the better team on the field, the Cubs have had the better attendance. This season, the Cubs are averaging 32,104 for home games, the White Sox just 21,919, even though the Sox are doing a little better than the Cubs at the moment.  (The Sox are 9 games under .500, the Cubs 12 games under.)

In fact, the Cubs have had a higher attendance than the White Sox every season from 1994 onward, even though the Sox were then in a very good period and have actually won a Pennant and a World Series since: Even in their title season of 2005, the Sox trailed the Cubs in per-game attendance, 24,437 to 39,138. The Sox’ record is 36,511 in 2007, and the Cubs had 39,040 the same year.

I think the Cub/Sox divide -- that is, the Sox fans hate the Cubs and their fans more than the Cub fans hate the Sox and their fans -- is partly due to the Cub-Cardinal rivalry. Cub fans have someone they hate more than they hate the White Sox. The move of the Milwaukee Brewers, considerably closer to Chicago than St. Louis is, to the National League has killed the Sox-Brewers rivalry, which was never all that strong, but neither has it made Cub fans hate the Brewers all that much. In contrast, Brewers fans have grown to hate Cub fans, mainly because they were probably already sick of hearing about Cub fans, Wrigley Field and Harry Caray on "Superstation" WGN.  (This may also be spillover from Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers, although it's been a while since Chicago Bulls vs. Milwaukee Bucks, or even DePaul vs. Marquette, has meant much.)

Hopefully, the White Sox' 2005-present resurgence, under (now former) manager Ozzie Guillen and general manager Kenny Williams will help them build rivalries with AL Central opponents Detroit, Cleveland and Minnesota, and they can have better attendance as a result of both the winning and the rivalries.

But, for now, getting tickets for a White Sox game shouldn't be difficult: Essentially, you can probably get any seat you can afford. Lower Boxes will cost $92, Lower Reserved $66, Upper Boxes $34, Upper Reserved $30, and Bleachers $44.

Going In.  Chicago's long-ago nickname of "the Second City" is no longer true, as its population has dropped, and Los Angeles' has risen, to the point where L.A. has passed it, and Chicago is now the 3rd-largest city in America.  But at 2.7 million within the city limits, and 8.7 million in the metropolitan area, it's still a huge city.  And its legendary crime problem is still there, so whatever precautions you take when you're in New York, take them in Chicago as well.

The city's street-address centerpoint is in the Loop, at State & Madison Streets.  Madison separates North from South, State separates East from West.  The street grid is laid out so that every 800 on the house numbers is roughly 1 mile.  As Wrigley is at 1060 West Addison Street, and on the 3600 block of North Sheffield Avenue, now you know it's a little more than a mile west of State, and 4 1/2 miles north of Madison.

To get to "The Cell" (or "The Phone Booth") from downtown, take the Chicago Transit Authority's Red Line L train to "Sox-35th." It’s about a 12-minute ride, making it twice as fast as from Midtown Manhattan to Yankee Stadium, 3 times as fast as from Midtown Manhattan to Citi Field.  A single ride is $2.25, cheaper than in New York.  A one-day Full Fare Pass is $10, a 3-day pass is $20.

The area around the park, part of the Bridgeport neighborhood of the South Side, isn't as bad as it was in the 1960s, '70s, '80s and early '90s. It was in 1973 that Jim Croce, in "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," called the South Side "the baddest part of town." But things have improved significantly. Nevertheless, take the L, and leave the car at the hotel -- not just because of the safety issue, but because it's just more convenient to train it.

You’ll be most likely to enter by the home plate gate at 35th & Shields. Unlike Wrigley Field, the park is not surrounded by bars, famous or otherwise. Unfortunately, McCuddy's Tavern, the legendary saloon that was on the site, across from Comiskey Park, did not, as was promised to its owners, get rebuilt across the street. Instead, the site of old Comiskey is just a parking lot for the new one.

Prior to a refit about 10 years ago, new Comiskey looked a lot like the 1976-2008 edition of Yankee Stadium, with two decks of blue seats wrapping from the left field pole around home plate to the right field pole, with a white wall bracketing the outfield bleachers. But complaints about the place being a "Mallpark" -- especially after Camden Yards in Baltimore opened just one year later, making the White Sox' new home almost instantly obsolete -- led to some changes, including new green seats, more bleacher seats, removing the top couple of rows in the upper deck and replacing them with a slightly overhanging roof, and better concession stands. It does look better -- if a bit less like the park where I (and many of you) grew up.

The ballpark faces southeast, away from downtown and the city’s skyscrapers; its predecessor had faced northeast, and the Sears Tower could be seen over the left field upper deck. The outfield distances are 330 feet to left, 335 to right, 375 to the power alleys and 400 to center -- much more of a hitters' park than old Comiskey was, but still not heavily favoring hitters. And the field is immaculate, as it usually was at old Comiskey, although that one was occasionally "tailored" for the home team. Capacity is officially 40,615.

Like its predecessor, U.S. Cellular Field has an "exploding scoreboard" that lights up, and shoots off fireworks, for a White Sox home run or a White Sox win. It's not a replica of either of the first two boards -- the original exploding scoreboard, at the old Comiskey, lasted from 1960 to 1982 and was replaced in time for the 1983 All-Star Game -- but it upholds the tradition. Legend has it that, upset by the "unprofessionalism" of the original 1960 board, Casey Stengel brought sparklers into the Yankee dugout, and when a Yankee homered, he had the sparklers lit, and the Yankees jumped up and down in the dugout in mock celebration.

Food. As one of America’s greatest food cities, in Big Ten Country where tailgate parties are practically a sacrament, you would expect the Chicago ballparks to have lots of good options. The Cubs are rather disappointing in this regard.

The White Sox? In fact, there may be no team with better food options than the Pale Hose. Hot dogs. Sausages. Sandwiches. Pizza. Ethnic varieties. Ice cream. And so much beer, you'll think you missed your exit and ended up in Milwaukee. Bill Veeck used to call the old Comiskey "the world's largest saloon," and the new park reflects this, even if it's not as dark and foreboding in the corridors. (The old one could have used better lighting, but, aside from that and being in poor condition when I visited, I loved it.)

There's no equivalent to Boog's Barbecue at Camden Yards, where a team legend actually tends to the stand.  But all over the park are stands, with hot dogs, bratwurst, Polish sausage and pizza, named for White Sox legends: Eddie Collins, Chico Carrasquel, Early Wynn, Nellie Fox, Jim Landis, Sherm Lollar, Al Lopez, Bill Melton, Dick Allen, Tony LaRussa, Ed Farmer, Ron Kittle, and, yes, Chicago native Greg Luzinski -- but if you want to see "the Bull" dishing out barbecue, you'll have to go to Philadelphia, where he made his baseball name.

The ChiSox also have funnel cake stands at Sections 108, 155 & 533, and, in honor of their 1983 Division Champions, "Winning Ugly is Sweet Ice Cream" at Section 145.

Team History Displays.  As I said, I have not been inside the new Sox park. But the Sox do have flags honoring their Pennants (1901, 1906, 1917, 1919, 1959 and 2005), and statues honoring some of their all-time greats: Founding owner Charlie Comiskey and the 1950s double-play combination of Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox, behind Section 100 on the right side of center field; 1950s legends, left fielder Orestes "Minnie" Minoso and pitcher Billy Pierce, and 1980s catcher (also Red Sox legend) Carlton Fisk, behind Section 164 on the left side of center field; 1980s outfielder Harold Baines, behind Section 105 in right field; and 1990s first baseman Frank "Big Hurt" Thomas, behind Section 160 in left field.

Outside Gate 4 is Champions Plaza, a display honoring the team's 2005 World Championship, featuring images (strictly speaking, not "statues") of 1st baseman Paul Konerko, the team's current legend, with 428 career home runs as I type this; 3rd baseman Joe Crede, who homered in Games 1 and 3; 2nd baseman Geoff Blum, whose 14th-inning homer won Game 3, tied for the longest game in World Series history; shortstop Juan Uribe, who fielded an Orlando Palmeiro grounder for the clinching out; and our old friend Orlando Hernandez (though I'm not sure why they chose El Duque, as his role in the 2005 postseason was not especially notable).  Why left fielder Scott Podsednik, whose Game 2 homer is the only World Series walkoff ever hit by a Chicago player, is not included, I don't know.  (Crede is now with the Minnesota Twins, Uribe is with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Podsednik is currently a free agent, and El Duque has retired.  So has Blum, who later played for the team his homer beat, the Houston Astros, and now broadcasts for them.)

The team's retired numbers are depicted on the outfield fence: Number 2, Fox; 3, Baines; 4, 1930s-40s shortstop Luke Appling; 9, Minoso; 11, Aparicio; 16, 1920s-30s pitcher Ted Lyons; 19, Pierce; 35, Thomas; and 72, Fisk.

There is a Chicago White Sox Hall of Fame located somewhere in the park, and "Shoeless Joe" Jackson, the most famous of the "Eight Men Out" who supposedly threw the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds, is honored there, as is Bill Veeck, who owned the White Sox twice: 1959-61, selling them because he was sick, and misdiagnosed and thought he was dying; and again 1975-81, selling them because he couldn't keep up with the rising costs: "It's not the high price of talent that bothers me, it's the high price of mediocrity."

I can't find a full list of members, but, aside from those already mentioned, the following players were White Sox in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York: 1900s shortstop George Davis, 1900s pitcher Ed Walsh, 1910s-20s 2nd baseman Eddie Collins (better known for his time with the Philadelphia Athletics), 1910s-20s catcher Ray Schalk, 1920s outfielder Harry Hooper (better known for his time with the Boston Red Sox), 1920s pitcher Red Faber, 1960s pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm (better known for his time with  other teams), and, while we're talking about someone better known for playing with another team, 1972-76 pitcher Rich "Goose" Gossage.

Stuff. Chicago Sports Depot stores are located on the first level of the park, behind home plate and at each outfield corner.  The usual items that can be found at a souvenir store can be found there.

Chicago is a great literary city, and while the Cubs have been seen as the more romantic team, there have been a lot of good books about the White Sox:

* Who's On 3rd? The Chicago White Sox Story, Richard Lindberg's tale that takes them from their 1901 founding up to the 1984 season.

* When Chicago Ruled Baseball: The Cubs-White Sox World Series of 1906, a 100th Anniversary tribute by Bernard A. Weisberger -- even in a Series where they beat the Cubs, the Sox don't get top billing!

* Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series, the definitive book on the greatest of all baseball scandals, by Eliot Asinof, which was made into the great 1988 film, with director John Sayles playing legendary sportswriter Ring Lardner, the late Chicago icon Studs Terkel as Ring's colleague Hugh Fullerton, D.B. Sweeney as Shoeless Joe, and Chicago native John Cusack as the greatest victim of the scandal, 3rd baseman Buck Weaver.

* Minnie and the Mick: The Go-Go White Sox Challenge the Fabled Yankee Dynasty, 1951 to 1964, Bob Vanderberg's tale of growing up in Chicago in the Eisenhower and Kennedy years, with the irony of Minnie Minoso being away from the Sox for their one Pennant from 1919 to 2005, before returning.  (Minoso returned by 1964, when the Yanks beat the Sox out for the Pennant by one game.)

* Go-Go to Glory: The 1959 Chicago White Sox, a 50th Anniversary tribute by Bill Nowlin.

* South Side Hitmen: The Story of the 1977 Chicago White Sox, by Dan Helpingstine and Leo Bauby, about the first White Sox team I can remember and one that, for a brief time, made the Pale Hose cooler than the Cubbies.

* Stealing First in a Two-team Town: The White Sox from Comiskey to Reinsdorf, the aforementioned Richard Lindberg updating the story through the Sox' 1993 Division title.

* Sox and the City: A Fan's Love Affair with the White Sox from the Heartbreak of '67 to the Wizards of Oz, by Chicago Sun-Times film critic Richard Roeper.

Available DVDs include White Sox Memories: The Greatest Moments in Chicago White Sox History, and the official 2005 World Series highlight film package. This is the only World Series the South Siders have won since official WS highlight films have been made.

During the Game. White Sox fans can get a bit rough, and they do like to drink. However, if you don't antagonize them, they will probably give you no worse than a bit of verbal.

The White Sox have a mascot, a big furry yellow thing called Southpaw, a reference to the team playing on the South Side. Their 1980s mascots, Ribbie and Rhubarb, are long gone.

The White Sox have a theme song, "Go-Go White Sox," which is what their 1959 Pennant winners were called, and it's a pretty rousing number, certainly with better lyrics than either "Here Come the Yankees" or "Meet the Mets." The White Sox, led by organist Nancy Faust (who retired after the 2010 season), were the first team to use the 1969 Steam chart-topper "Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" to serenade a pitcher getting knocked out of the game. And if they win, they will play, appropriate for the South Side, the blues standard "Sweet Home Chicago."

After the Game. The neighborhood should be safe after a day game, but after a night game, with all that extra time to drink, it can get a little dodgy. But, as I said, leave them alone, and they'll probably leave you alone.

If you want to be around other New Yorkers, I found listings of 4 Chicago bars where New York Giants fans gather: Red Ivy, just south of Wrigley at 3519 N. Clark Street at Eddy Street; The Bad Dog Tavern, 4535 N. Lincoln Avenue at Wilson Avenue (Brown Line to Western); Racine Plumbing Bar and Grill, 2642 N. Lincoln Avenue at Kenmore; and Trinity, at 2721 N. Halsted Street at Diversey Parkway (Brown or Purple Line to Diversey for either Racine or Trinity).

And I found these 2 which show Jets games: Rebel Bar & Grill, also just south of Wrigley at 3462 N. Clark at Cornelia Avenue; and Butch McGuire's, 20 W. Division Street at Dearborn Street (Red Line to Clark/Division).

Sidelights. Chicago is one of the best sports cities, not just in America, but on the planet. Check out the following – but do it in daylight, as the city’s reputation for crime, while significantly reduced from its 1980s peak, is still there. For my thoughts on Wrigley Field, check out my post on the subject.

* Site of old Comiskey Park. The longtime home of the White Sox, 1910 to 1990, was at 324 W. 35th Street at Shields Avenue (a.k.a. Bill Veeck Drive), and is now a parking lot, with its infield painted in. This was the home field of Big Ed Walsh (the pitcher supposedly helped design it to be a pitchers’ park), Eddie Collins, Shoeless Joe Jackson and the rest of the “Black Sox,” Luke Appling, the great double-play combination of Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox of the ’59 “Go-Go White Sox,” Dick Allen, the 1977 “South Side Hit Men” of Richie Zisk and Oscar Gamble, and the 1983 Division Champions of Carlton Fisk, Ron Kittle, LaMarr Hoyt and Harold Baines.

The old Comiskey was also where future Yankee stars Russell “Bucky” Dent and Rich “Goose” Gossage began their careers, and where, in the last game the Yankees ever played there, Andy Hawkins pitched a no-hitter – and lost, thanks to his own walks and 3 errors in the 8th inning. The NFL’s Chicago Cardinals played there from 1922 to 1959, and the franchise, now the Arizona Cardinals, won what remains their only NFL Championship Game (they didn’t call ‘em Super Bowls back then) there in 1947. And in 1979, during what was supposed to be intermission between games of a White Sox vs. Tigers doubleheader, was Disco Demolition Night. Today, it’s called a fiasco, but the sentiment was right: Disco really did suck. But the biggest music event there was the Beatles' concert on August 20, 1965.

* Wrigley Field.  Built in 1914 for the Federal League's Chicago Whales, the Cubs moved in for the 1916 season, and have stayed ever since.  Eight World Championships have been won here -- all by the NFL's Bears, between 1921 and 1963.  The Giants lost NFL Championship Games to the Bears there in 1933, 1941 and 1963.  1060 West Addison Street at Clark Street.  Red Line to Addison.

* Previous Chicago ballparks. The Cubs previously played at these parks:

State Street Grounds, also called 23rd Street Grounds, 1874-77, winning the NL’s first Pennant in 1876, 23rd, State, and Federal Streets & Cermak Road (formerly 22nd Street), Red Line to Cermak-Chinatown.

Lakefront Park, also called Union Base-Ball Grounds and White-Stocking Park (the Cubs used the name “Chicago White Stockings” until 1900, and the AL entry then took the name), 1878-84, winning the 1880, ’81 and ’82 Pennants, Michigan Avenue & Randolph Street in the northwest corner of what’s now Millennium Park, with (appropriately) Wrigley Square built on the precise site.  Randolph/Wabash or Madison/Wabash stops on the Loop.

West Side Park I, 1885-91, winning the 1885 and ’86 Pennants, at Congress, Loomis, Harrison & Throop Streets, now part of the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Blue Line to Racine.

South Side Park, 1891-93, just east of where the Comiskey Parks were built.

West Side Park II, 1893-1915, winning the 1906 and 1910 Pennants and the 1907 and 1908 World Series, the only World Series the Cubs have ever won, at Taylor, Wood and Polk Streets and Wolcott Avenue, now the site of a medical campus that includes the Cook County Hospital, the basis for the TV show ER, Pink Line to Polk.  (Yes, the CTA has a Pink Line.)

Prior to the original Comiskey Park, the White Sox played at a different building called South Side Park, at 39th Street (now Pershing Road), 38th Street, & Wentworth and Princeton Avenues, a few blocks south of the Comiskey Parks.

* United Center and site of Chicago Stadium. From 1929 to 1994, the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks played at Chicago Stadium, “the Madhouse on Madison,” at 1800 W. Madison Street at Wood Street. The NBA’s Bulls played there from 1967 to 1994. The United Center opened across the street at 1901 W. Madison at Honore Street. At the old Stadium, the Blackhawks won Stanley Cups in 1934, ’38 and ’61, and the Bulls won NBA Titles in 1991, ’92 and ’93. At the United Center, the Bulls won in 1996, ’97 and ’98 and the Blackhawks won the 2010 Cup -- and, as of this writing, are currently in the Stanley Cup Finals again.

The Democrats had their Convention at Chicago Stadium in 1932, ’40 and ’44, nominating Franklin D. Roosevelt each time; the Republicans also had their Convention there in ’32 and ’44. The Democrats held court (or rink) at the United Center in 1996, their first Convention in Chicago since the disaster of 1968. And Elvis Presley gave concerts at the Stadium on June 16 and 17, 1972 -- giving the last of these as burglars were breaking into the Watergate complex in Washington.

Blue Line to Illinois Medical District (which can also be used to access the site of West Side Park II and ER), or Green or Pink Line to Ashland-Lake.

* Soldier Field. Opened in 1924, and for years was best known as the site of the Chicago College All-Star Game (a team of graduating seniors playing the defending NFL Champions) from 1934 to 1976.  It was the site of the 1927 heavyweight title fight between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney, the famed “Long Count” fight, which may have had what remains the greatest attendance ever for a U.S. sporting event, with figures ranging from 104,000 to 130,000, depending on who you believe. It definitely was the site of the largest football crowd ever, 123,000 to see Notre Dame play USC a few weeks after the Long Count; in spite of various expansions, the universities of Michigan and Tennessee and Penn State still can’t top this. Games of the 1994 World Cup were also held at the old Soldier Field.

Amazingly, the Bears played at Wrigley from 1921 to 1970, with the occasional exception. The story I heard is that Bears founder-owner-coach George Halas was a good friend of both the Wrigley and Veeck families, and felt loyalty to them and that’s why he stayed at Wrigley despite having just 47,000 seats for football. But I heard another story that Halas was a Republican and didn’t like Chicago’s Democratic Mayor, Richard J. Daley (whose son Richard M. recently left office having broken his father’s record for longest-serving Mayor), and didn’t want to pay the city Parks Department a lot of rent. (Also, Halas was known to be cheap: Mike Ditka, who nonetheless loved his old boss, said, “Halas throws nickels around like manhole covers.”) The real reason the Bears moved to Soldier Field in 1971 was Monday Night Football: Halas wanted the revenue, and Wrigley didn’t have lights until 1988.

A 2002-03 renovation demolished all but the famed Greek-style columns that used to hang over the stadium, and are now visible only from the outside. It doesn’t look like “Soldier Field” anymore. Capacity is now roughly what it was in the last few years prior to the renovation, 61,500. And while the Bears won 8 Championships while playing at Wrigley (8 more titles than the Cubs have won there), they’ve only won one more at Soldier Field, the 1985 title capped by Super Bowl XX. The Monsters of the Midway have been tremendous underachievers since leaving Wrigley. 1410 S. Museum Campus Drive, at McFetridge and Lake Shore Drives, a bit of a walk from Roosevelt station on the Green, Orange and Red Lines.

* Site of Chicago Coliseum. There were 2 buildings with this name that you should know about. One hosted the 1896 Democratic National Convention, where William Jennings Bryan began the process of turning the Democratic Party from the conservative party it had been since before the Civil War into the modern liberal party it became, a struggle that went through the Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt years before it finally lived up to its promise under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. It was here that Bryan gave the speech for which he is most remembered, calling for the free coinage of silver rather than sticking solely to the gold standard: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." Now a part of Jackson Park, at 63rd Street & Stony Island Avenue. 63rd Street Metra (commuter rail) station.

The other was home to every Republican Convention from Theodore Roosevelt’s in 1904 to Warren Harding’s in 1920, including the 1912 Convention where TR split from the party after being maneuvered out of the nomination to return to office, and his subsequent Progressive Party Convention was also held there. It was also the original home of the Blackhawks, from 1926 to 1929 and briefly again in 1932. In 1935, roller derby was invented there. In 1961, an NBA expansion team, the Chicago Packers, played there, becoming the Zephyrs in 1962 and moving to become the Baltimore Bullets in 1963. The Coliseum hosted a few rock concerts before the Fire Department shut it down in 1971, and it was demolished in 1982. The Soka Gakkai USA Culture Center, a Buddhist institute, now occupies the site. East side of Wabash Avenue at 15th Street, with today’s Coliseum Park across the street. Appropriately enough, the nearest CTA stop is at Roosevelt Avenue, on the Red, Yellow and Green Lines.

* Site of International Amphitheatre. Home to the Bulls in their first season, 1966-67, and to the World Hockey Association’s Chicago Cougars from 1972 to 1975, this arena, built by the stockyards in 1934, was home to a lot of big pro wrestling cards. Elvis Presley sang here on March 28, 1957. The Beatles played here on September 5, 1964 and August 12, 1966.

But it was best known as a site for political conventions. Both parties met there in 1952, the Democrats in 1956, the Republicans in 1960, and, most infamously, the Democrats in 1968, with all the protests. The main protests for that convention were in Grant Park and a few blocks away on Michigan Avenue in front of the Conrad Hilton Hotel, one of the convention headquarters (now the Chicago Hilton & Towers. 720 S. Michigan), but the Amphitheatre itself, torn down in 1999, was at 4220 S. Halsted Street, where an Aramark plant now stands. Red Line to 47th Street. NOT to be visited after dark; indeed, unless you’re really interested in political history, I’d say, if you have to drop one item from this list, this is the one.

* Northwestern University. Chicago’s Big Ten school is just north of the city, in Evanston. Dyche Stadium/Ryan Field, and McGaw Hall/Welsh-Ryan Arena, are at 2705 Ashland Avenue between Central Street and Isabella Street.  (Purple Line to Central.) And while Northwestern’s athletic teams have traditionally been terrible, the school has a very important place in sports history: The first NCAA basketball tournament championship game was held there in 1939, at Patten Gymnasium, at 2145 Sheridan Road: Oregon defeated Ohio State.  The original Patten Gym was torn down a year later, and the school’s Technological Institute was built on the site. Sheridan Road, Noyes Street and Campus Drive. Purple Line to Noyes.

Welsh-Ryan, under the McGaw name, hosted the Final Four in 1956: Bill Russell and K.C. Jones, soon to be Boston Celtics stars, led the University of San Francisco past Iowa.  These are the only 2 Final Fours ever to be held in the Chicago area.

* National Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame.  Appropriately in Chicago's Little Italy, west of downtown, it includes a state uf Yankee legend Joe DiMaggio.  Other New York native or playing baseball players honored include Joe Torre, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Billy Martin, Vic Raschi, Tony Lazzeri, Dave Righetti, Frank Crosetti, Roy Campanella, Sal Maglie, Mike Piazza, Bobby Valentine, John Franco, Carl Furillo, Frank Viola, Jim Fregosi, Ralph Branca, Rocky Colavito, broadcaster Joe Garagiola, and the last active player to have been a Brooklyn Dodger, Bob Aspromonte, and his brother Ken Aspromonte.  1431 W. Taylor Street at Loomis Street.  Pink Line to Polk.

* Museums. Chicago’s got a bunch of good ones, as you would expect in a city of 3 million people. Their version of New York’s Museum of Natural History is the Field Museum, just north of Soldier Field. Adjacent is the Shedd Aquarium. On the other side of the Aquarium is their answer to the Hayden Planetarium, the Adler Planetarium. And they have a fantastic museum for which there is no real analogue in New York, though the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia is similar: The Museum of Science & Industry, at 57th Street & Cornell Drive, near the University of Chicago campus; 56th Street Metra station. The Art Institute of Chicago is their version of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at 111 S. Michigan Avenue, just off the Loop.

* Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. If you’re a fan of that movie, as I am (see my 25th Anniversary retrospective, from June 2011), not only will you have taken in Wrigley Field, but you’ll recognize the Art Institute as where Alan Ruck focused on Georges Seurat’s painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

Other sites visited by Ferris, Cameron and Sloane were the Sears Tower, then the tallest building in the world, 1,454 feet, 233 S. Wacker Drive (yes, the name is Wacker), Quincy/Wells station in the Loop; and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, 335 S. La Salle Street, LaSalle/Van Buren station in the Loop (also where Steve Martin & John Candy finally reached Chicago in Planes, Trains and Automobiles).  The von Steuben Day Parade goes down Lincoln Avenue every September, on or close to the anniversary of Baron von Steuben's birth, not in the spring as in the film.

While the Bueller house was in Long Beach, California, the Frye house is in Highland Park, north of the city.  Remember, it’s a private residence, and not open to the public, so I won’t provide the address, even though I know it. And the restaurant, Chez Quis, did not and does not exist.

Nor did, or does, Adam's Ribs, a barbecue joint made famous in a 1974 M*A*S*H episode of the same title.  Today, there are 18 restaurants in America named Adam's Ribs, including two on Long Island, on Park Boulevard in Massapequa Park and on the Montauk Highway in Babylon; and another on Cookstown-Wrightstown Road outside South Jersey's Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base. But only one is anywhere near Chicago, in Buffalo Grove in the northwestern suburbs.

Not far from that, in the western suburbs, is Wheaton, home town of football legend Red Grange and the comedic Belushi Brothers, John and Jim. John and Dan Aykroyd used Wrigley Field in The Blues Brothers, and Jim played an obsessive Cubs fan in Taking Care of Business. Their father, an Albanian immigrant, ran a restaurant called The Olympia Cafe, which became half the basis for John's Saturday Night Live sketch of the same name, better known as the Cheeseburger Sketch: "No hamburger! Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger... No fries, chips!... No Coke, Pepsi!"

Don Novello, an SNL writer who played Father Guido Sarducci, said the other half of the inspiration was the Billy Goat Tavern, originally operated by Greek immigrant William "Billy Goat" Sianis, originator of the supposed Billy Goat Curse on the Cubs, across Madison Street from Chicago Stadium, from 1937 until 1963. At that point, Sianis moved to the lower deck of the double-decked Michigan Avenue, since it was near the headquarters of the city's three daily newspapers, the Tribune, the Sun-Times, and the now-defunct Daily News. Mike Royko, who wrote columns for each of these papers, made it his haunt and frequently mentioned it in his columns.

Novello and Bill Murray, Chicagoans, were regulars at the Billy Goat, but John Belushi later said he'd never set foot in the place, so while the others may have drawn inspiration from it, his came from his father's restaurant.

Sam Sianis, nephew of the original Billy, still serves up a fantastic cheeseburger (he was there when I visited in 1999), he deviates from the sketch: No Pepsi, Coke. It's open for breakfast, and serves regular breakfast food. It looks foreboding, being underneath the elevated part of Michigan Avenue, and a sign out front (and on their website) says, "Enter at your own risk." But another sign says, "Butt in anytime." 430 N. Michigan Avenue, lower deck, across from the Tribune Tower. Red Line to Grand. The original location near Chicago Stadium has effectively been replaced, at 1535 W. Madison Street.

The Tribune Tower is a work of art in itself.  Its building, Tribune publisher "Colonel" Robert R. McCormick, had stones taken from various famous structures all over the world: The Palace of Westminster in London, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, the Grand Canyon.  (He must've paid a lot of people off.) These can be seen at near ground level, but the building itself is so grand that it doesn't need it.  The building is also the headquarters of the TV and radio station that McCormick named for his paper: WGN, "The World's Greatest Newspaper," a line that has long since disappeared from the paper's masthead.  435 N. Michigan Avenue.  Red Line to Grand.

The Wrigley Building is right across from it, at 400 N. Michigan.  The block of North Michigan they're on is renamed Jack Brickhouse Way, and Brickhouse's statue is on the grounds of the Tribune Tower.

You may notice some other film landmarks. The Chicago Board of Trade Building was used as the Wayne Tower in Christopher Nolan’s Batman films. And Chicago stood in for Metropolis in the Superman-themed TV series Lois & Clark, with the Wrigley Building and the Tribune Tower as standout landmarks.

TV shows set in Chicago include The Untouchables, about Eliot Ness and his Depression-era crimebusters; Good Times, set in the infamous, now-demolished Cabrini-Green housing project; the related sitcoms Perfect Strangers and Family Matters (Great shows? Well, of course, they were, don't be ridiculous!); Married... with Children, Fox's longest-running non-cartoon (though the Bundy family was pretty darn cartoonish); the 1990s hospital dramas ER and Chicago Hope; Boss, the current show with Kelsey Grammer as a corrupt Mayor; and The Bob Newhart Show, with Bob as psychiatrist Dr. Bob Hartley.

Nearly every one of these shows was actually filmed in Los Angeles, and the exterior shots were also mostly L.A. sites, so don't bother going to look for them.  However, a statue of Newhart is at the Navy Pier, near its amusement rides, between Grand Avenue & Illinois Street at the lake.

*

Every American should visit Chicago. And with the Sox having the smaller attendances, you'll have an easier time getting into U.S. Cellular Field than into Wrigley. Have fun -- but remember, be smart, and don't go out of your way to antagonize anyone.

It Don't Come Easy

In 1978, WPIX-Channel 11 released a highlight film of the season.  As the theme song for that season, in which the Yankees overcame a slew of injuries and a 14-game deficit to beat the Boston Red Sox for the American League Eastern Division title, the Kansas City Royals for the AL Pennant, and the Los Angeles Dodgers for the World Series, they chose Ringo Starr's first post-Beatles hit: "It Don't Come Easy." They made that the title of the film, too.

It wasn't easy for the Yankees in 1978.  Nor is it easy for them in 2013, another year full of injuries in which, for the moment, the hated Red Sox are in first place.

The Yankees began the last segment of their Pacific Coast roadtrip on Friday night in Anaheim, with the odd notion of, "Hey, Andy Pettitte is on the mound, and he's done so much for us, let's not give him enough run support." It was yet another "Yankee RISPfail": 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.  All they got was a 2-run single from David Adams in the 4th.  That put the Yankees up, 2-1.  But the Angels chipped away and won it, 5-2.

WP: C.J. Wilson (5-5).  SV: Ernesto Frieri (15).  LP: Pettitte (5-4).

Saturday's game was much the same story.  David Phelps didn't pitch great, but it should have been good enough to win.  But the Yankees got only 5 hits, again just 1-for-6 with RISP.  This time it was a Brett Gardner triple and  Jayson Nix single in the 3rd, giving them a 2-1 lead, but the Angels chipped away and won it, 6-2.

WP: Tommy Hanson (4-2).  No save.  LP: Phelps (4-4).

That's 5 losses in a row, 6 out of the last 9.  Not quite a "Borg roadtrip" (7 of 9), but bad enough.

So, on Sunday, the Yankees needed a win.  Very, very badly.

Fortunately, the Big Fella was on the mound.  Carsten Charles Sabathia.  But what if he got the job done, and the Yankees still didn't hit?

In the top of the 3rd, Chris Stewart led off with a walk.  Gardner singled him to 3rd.  Gardner stole 2nd.  Ichiro Suzuki struck out.  Robinson Cano flied out.  Oh no, here we go again...

Travis Hafner woke up: Home run to center field, his 11th of the season.  Vernon Wells woke up: Single to left.  Lyle Overbay woke up: Double to center, scoring Wells.  Nix singled home Overbay.  5-0 Yankees.

Wells added a sacrifice fly to score Cano in the 8th, for what seemed like the icing on the cake.  6-0 Yankees.  Little did we know how important that 6th run would be.

CC was dominant.  8 innings, 4 hits, 2 walks, no runs.  This was exactly the kind of game the Yankees needed.

Joe Girardi trusted CC to finish the game.  But he allowed a leadoff double to Mike Trout.  And he walked Albert Pujols.

Girardi consulted his Binder Full of Strategies, and decided that was enough for CC.  He brought in David Robertson, since this wasn't a save situation.

But Mark Trumbo hit a line drive that hit Robertson and went into right field.  Trout scored.  6-1.

After a check to see if Robertson was injured, it was determined that he was okay.  He must've been, because he struck out Howie Kendrick.  But then he walked J.B. Shuck.  Now the bases were loaded... and, suddenly, a grand slam would make it a one-run game.

Girardi didn't need his Binder: He brought in Mariano Rivera.

Mo got Erick Aybar to ground to 1st.  Exchanging 1 run for 1 out was no big deal, as it was now 6-2.  Men on 2nd and 3rd, but 2 out.  Not the way you want to end the game, but it could be worse.

It got worse.  Alberto Callaspo singled to right.  And now it was 6-4.

Callaspo went to 2nd on defensive indifference.  Brad Hawpe singled to left.  Men on 1st and 3rd.  Now the tying runs are on, and the winning run is at the plate.  Oh no...

Peter Bourjos singled to left.  Callaspo scored.  6-5.

Two out, but tying run on 2nd, winning run on 1st.  The next 2 batters are Mike Trout (who looks like he could become the best hitter of the 2010s) and Albert Pujols (who was the best hitter of the 2000s and I wouldn't put it past him to still come up with a big hit).

No, no, we can't blow a 6-0 lead in the 9th... not with CC, D-Rob and Mo on the mound... If we blow this, then we might as well pack in the season...

Mo walked Trout.  Bases loaded.

Mariano Rivera vs. Albert Pujols, with the tying and winning runs in scoring position and one out ot go.  It was like somebody's computer had drawn up an all-time All-Star Game, with Mo trying to close it down for the AL, and Pujols, still a St. Louis Cardinal, in position to win it for the National League.

The great Rivera threw the great Pujols 3 four-seam fastballs.  94 miles an hour, 94, 93.  Called strike 1, foul ball for strike 2, swing and a miss, strike 3.

Ballgame over, Yankees win, theeee Yankees win.  Whew.

WP: Sabathia (7-5).  SV: Rivera (24).  LP: Jered Weaver (1-3).

So, with 11 of the season's 26 weeks gone, in spite of all their troubles this season, the Yankees are 38-31, 3 games behind the Red Sox in the AL East, 2 in the loss column.  The Baltimore Orioles are a game and a half back, 1 in the loss column.  The Tampa Bay Rays are 5 (4) back, the Toronto Blue Jays 8 1/2 (7).

Today is a travel day for the Yankees, and tomorrow night, they come home and start a 2-game Interleague series with the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Then comes a 4-game series with the Rays, concluding on Sunday with Old-Timers' Day.  It comes a bit earlier than usual, and it's odd that it's on a Sunday.

Announced attendees:

* From the 1947-53 Dynasty: Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Bobby Brown, Jerry Coleman (the San Diego Padres have let their legendary broadcaster come home these last few years).

* From the 1955-64 Dynasty: Yogi, Whitey, Don Larsen, Bobby Richardson, Hector Lopez, Luis Arroyo, Al Downing, Joe Pepitone, Mel Stottlemyre,

* From the 1965-75 Dark Age: Horace Clarke, Gene Michael, Ron Blomberg.

* From the 1976-81 Dynasty: Reggie Jackson, Goose Gossage, Ron Guidry, Lou Piniella, Chris Chambliss, Willie Randolph, Bucky Dent, Mickey Rivers, Roy White, Mike Torrez, Brian Doyle, Oscar Gamble, Michael (then a coach), and trainer Gene Monahan.

* From the 1982-95 Dark Age: Rickey Henderson, Steve Balboni, Jesse Barfield, Brian Dorsett, Sterling Hitchcock, Scott Kamieniecki, Pat Kelly, Lee Mazzilli, manager Stump Merrill, Michael (then a coach) and Monahan.

* From the 1996-2003 Dynasty: Paul O'Neill, Bernie Williams, David Cone, David Wells, Joe Girardi, Jeff Nelson, Charlie Hayes, Graeme Lloyd, Brian Boehringer, Homer Bush, Todd Greene, Andy Phillips, Michael (then the "superscout"), Mazzilli (then a coach), Monahan, and, making his first Old-Timers' Day appearance, the one and only El Duque, Orlando Hernandez.

* From the 2004-08 Interregnum: John Flaherty.

* Yankee Widows: Arlene Howard, Kay Murcer, Diana Munson, Helen Hunter, Jill Martin.

Gates open at 10:00 AM, and ceremonies start at 11:00.  The regular game is set for a 2:05 PM first pitch.

Eighteen Innings. And What Did We Get?

The longest baseball game I've ever seen live was 15 innings.  Well, 18, if you count the Old-Timers' Game before it.  It was July 11, 1987, at the old Yankee Stadium.  Catfish Hunter, 41 years old, was painting the corners the way he used to.  Made sense, he'd had 8 years' rest.  It was the first time players I'd grown up watching played in an Old-Timers' Game, and that creeped me out.  Two of "my Yankees" were still playing, and in the regular game.  Willie Randolph didn't do much.  Ron Guidry struck out 14 batters, but couldn't finish the 7th inning.  The bullpen held off the Chicago White Sox as long as it could, but the Pale Hose scored 3 in the top of the 15th, and that was it: Yankees lose, 5-2.

The longest game I'd ever seen on TV was 19 innings, the Mets-Braves epic in Atlanta on July 4, 1985, the Rick Camp game.  I watched it on Channel 9, then WOR, with Ralph Kiner, Tim McCarver and Steve Zabriskie.  Little did I know that, doing the game for the Braves on WTBS, was John Sterling.  The Mets finally won it, 16-13.

The longest Yankee game I'd ever seen on TV was 17 innings, in the magical season of 1978.  Unfortunately, there was nothing magic about that one: It was at home, against the Boston Red Sox, and after 14 innings, the game was suspended due to the American League's curfew: No inning can start after 1:00 AM.  The game was resumed the next night, August 3, and Boston hit 4 singles off Ken Clay in the top of the 17th to win it, 7-5.  My man Reggie Jackson went 0-for-7.  So did Cliff Johnson, catching that night to give aching Thurman Munson some relief.  It didn't work: Thurm was the DH that day, and he went 1-for-7.  (He was still better off that day than he was exactly 1 year later.) Then the Sox took the night's regularly-scheduled game, too, 8-1, smacking Jim Beattie and Paul Lindblad and making a winner of Mike Torrez.  And seemingly ending that year's AL East race.  (Little did we know... )

Just a few days ago, the Mets lost to the Miami Marlins in 20 innings.

*

And then came yesterday's season finale in Oakland, with the Athletics already having taken the first 2 games against the Yankees.  It was a 12:30 PM Pacific Time start, meaning 3:30 Eastern Time.  No help for anyone there, although it looked like it was a beautiful day for a game.  (Which isn't all that common in Oakland: They got a lot of the drawbacks of living in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the weird weather, and few of the perks and little of the glamour.)

Yesterday the Yankees played 18 innings.  And what did we get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

As with last year's postseason against Baltimore and Detroit, we certainly can't blame the pitching.  Hiroki Kuroda started and allowed just 2 runs, 2 hits and 2 walks over 8 innings.  David Robertson was a little shaky in the 9th, but struck out the side.  Between them, Boone Logan and Shawn Kelley managed to not screw up the 10th.

Adam Warren had what would usually be considered a "quality start." Except it started in the 11th inning. He threw 85 pitches, and, as Paul Sullivan of Sully Baseball (a pretty keen observer so don't hold it against him that he's a Red Sox fan) pointed out, every single one of those 85 pitches could have ended the game in defeat for his team. None of them did.

Warren pitched the 11th, the 12th, the 13th and the 14th like nobody's business.  At which point, YES Network announcer Michael Kay said, "You want free baseball? You got it!"

No, I don't want free baseball! I want winning baseball! If I just wanted the game, I could've rooted for that other team!

Warren got into serious trouble in the 15th, and I thought, "It would be a damn shame if Girardi left him in too long, and he got tired, and he ended up the losing pitcher because of that." The A's had Brandon Moss on 2nd and Josh Reddick on 1st with 1 out.  The batter was Coco Crisp, who's hit the Yankees well for a long time.  And, sure enough, Crisp got a hit, a single to left.  "Well, that's it, game over," I thought.  Except Vernon Wells threw home, catcher Chris Stewart got the ball and blocked the plate, and Moss was out.  Then Warren found something deep within his character and struck out Adam Rosales to end the threat.

Then I began to wonder if Joe Girardi's Binders Full of Strategies had any contingencies for games that lasted longer than 15 innings, because he left Warren in for the 16th.  Warren got the first 2 outs, then allowed a single and a walk, before Nate Freiman hit a liner to right.  Ichiro Suzuki slipped, but caught the ball anyway.  I yelled out a profanity at Ichiro and added, "We don't need that kind of drama!"

Girardi took Warren off the hook, and sent Preston Claiborne out to pitch the 17th. Flyout, flyout, single, strikeout.

After all this good pitching, you'd think the Yankees would have given their pitchers the gratitude of scoring at least 3 runs.  Yeah, well, you would think, but you'd be wrong.

Brett Gardner led off the game with a double.  Jayson Nixon hit a line drive that A's shortstop Jed Lowrie caught.  Then Robinson Cano hit his 16th home run of the season, to make it 2-0 Yankees.

Over the next 17 2/3 innings, the Yankees sent 67 batters to the plate.  They got 8 hits and 7 walks.  Zero runs.

Let me spell that out: Sixty-seven batters, no runs.

The worst offenders:

* Travis Hafner, 0-for-8, including 3 strikeouts, and 7 men left on base.

* Vernon Wells, 0-for-8, including 3 strikeouts, and 3 men left on base, although he did make that great throw in the 15th to keep the game alive.

* Kevin Youkilis, 0-for-7, including 3 strikeouts, and 6 LOB.

* Mark Teixeira, 0-for-5, including 3 strikeouts, and 4 LOB, though he did draw 2 walks.

* Chris Stewart, 1-for-6, including a strikeout, and 2 LOB, though he did have that great plate-block in the 15th.

* And the 2nd spot in the order: Between them, Jayson Nix, Lyle Overbay and Reid Brignac were 1-for-8 with a strikeout and 5 LOB.

Essentially, this is the kind of game people were fearing they would repeatedly see, when they saw in spring training that we would, through injuries, be missing Alex Rodriguez and Curtis Granderson, and also Teix who could once again, once he came back, go into the traditional Yankee 1st baseman's role (which even predates Don Mattingly) of getting off to a slow start (he's now batting .163).

I began to wonder if I was going to get a text message from the Yankees:

"We're so sorry, Uncle Michael, but we haven't hit a bloody thing all day!"

In the bottom of the 18th, Claiborne got Derek Norris to ground out, but allowed a single to John Jaso.  In this case, the right thing to do would have been to give him at least one more batter, to see if he could get out of it.

But Girardi consulted his Binders Full of Strategies, and he brought in Mariano Rivera to relieve in the bottom of the 18th inning of a tie game. Andy Pettitte, scheduled to be tonight's starter in the opener of a series in Anaheim against the "Los Angeles" Angels, was sent out to the bullpen, just in case someone was needed to pitch a bottom of the 19th.  I remember saying, "I don't like this... " I saw someone on Twitter invoke the old Star Wars line: "I've got a bad feeling about this!"

Mo allowed a single to Seth Smith.  Jaso got to 3rd.  1st & 3rd, 1 out.  Girardi told Mo to intentionally walk Lowrie to load the bases and set up a double (or at least a force) play.

No use.  Freiman hit a weak liner to left, and Wells had no chance at it.  Ballgame.  A's 3, Yankees 2.

WP: Jesse Chavez (1-0).  LP: Claiborne (0-1), though he hardly deserved it.

It was a long day's journey into numbness.

Tonight, at 10:05 PM our time, the Yankees send Pettitte out to face the Angels.  Their pitcher is C.J. Wilson, whom you'll remember giving us trouble in the 2010 ALCS with the Texas Rangers.

At this point, I could live with it if the Yankees lost 9-8.  Or even 13-7.  (Sorry, Andy.) At this point, I could take a 13-7 loss a lot easier than I could take one that was 2-1.