(A meditation on Mariano Rivera, Cooperstown and a tenuous link with Bruce Springsteen)
It’s June of 2011 and we’re sitting in a diner in Cooperstown, New York, waiting for our orders to be served when “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” by Bruce Springsteen begins to play on the jukebox. Now this is a song I’ve listened to a thousand times but this afternoon, it seems so right and seems to capture exactly the spirit of our trip across New York State.
And now we turn our attention to the pitchers…………………….
And so having safely returned from New York, we turn our attention to what has been a very good month with the bat for the Yankees:
In the first quarter of 2011, 12 music albums that I have been involved in were released in different markets around the world. This has garnered a certain interest in my social circle at home but has not really made any other difference to my life, lifestyle or income.
When I arrived in New York City, the Yankees were second in the AL East and the first game I attended saw them losing, once more, to the Boston Red Sox – making them 1-8 to the Sox on the season.
So I’m walking through Greenwich village. Bleecker Street, once heart of the East Coast counter-culture. Once home to beatniks and hippies.
With the New York Yankees out of town on the road to Chicago, I decided to catch some minor league baseball in the gap and so we went to catch the opening day of class-A Staten Island Yankees’ season – a home game against the Brooklyn Cyclones of the Mets organisation.
In my last article I argued that Joe Girardi had shown the paucity of the Yankees bullpen and that it was now time for Brian Cashman to deliver if the Yankees were at all serious about catching Boston in the regular season.
(I’m posting this slightly out of sequence as the May baseball updates aren’t up on this site yet!)
Yesterday, Joe Girardi looked hesitant and under-managed the Yankees as they allowed Boston to sweep the series at the Stadium. Sabathia faded quickly in a game that he had largely dominated and Girardi allowed him to wilt and die and a small lead became a huge deficit. Girardi’s indecision showed all the traits that would have cost him his job in a different era under a different Steinbrenner.
Well, frankly, no.
As I’m catching up with posting reviews and articles, it occurred to me that the last two were about my first visit to Stratford-Upon-Avon since the new theatre opened.
twilightdawning 