The Hit that Nobody Remembers
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by user Ezmw28
The New York Yankees are in trouble, dead and dying right on the spot, about to fade from the 2004 American League Playoffs.
Coming into the Series, they were cast villains, scourge of an unfair economic system.
Their adversaries were painted as scrappy underdogs, fighting a good and just battle against a glutton with twice its resources.
Roles reverse. The bad guys have been shoved backward, an aura of invincibility shattered and scattered among useless Ghosts in a suddenly serene Stadium.
Their Closer is on the mound, Joe Nathan, proof of Terry Ryan’s front office expertise. The Minnesota Twins almost have to achieve near complete perfection while making personnel decisions, a Small Market team, this label acquired through due diligence of a profit Hungry Owner.
Ryan is thrifty indeed, and when pitted against peer Brian Sabean, respected General Manager of Giants, he executes an impressive embezzlement of talent.
For a Catcher he was resigned to release, Ryan acquires prospects Boof Bonser and Francisco Liriano, the latter a future Ace, and also amazingly lands Joe Nathan, a dominant Set-Up Man coming off a lackluster initial playoff Baptism.
Nathan, whose stomach for the big game is questioned, is crowned as the Twins’ new Closer. In 2004, he transcends the role of mere stopper, emerging as Savior.
Now he fires bullets, in his third inning of work in Game 2 of the 2004 ALDS, his team three maddening outs away from a commanding lead in the Series. The Twins, the unheralded Twins, are tantalizingly close to a 2-0 advantage on the New York Yankees.
John Olerud feebly strikes out to lead off the frame. Miguel Cairo walks. Derek Jeter, refusing to lose, fouls off Nathan’s best, eventually earning his way on base, drawing four exhausting offerings out of the strike zone.
Nathan and the Twins still have the control, the momentum, needing only a double play to seal the Yankees’ fate. The walks are deserved, but still free passes, the Pinstripes haven’t centered a Nathan pitch since his arrival in the intense proceedings. The Twins already have their hero, their symbol of an impeccably run franchise. For the Yankees to have a chance, they’d need to counter with their own.
Alex Rodriguez is having a great game. A-Rod was bought to New York to transcend the spectacular, to weave his own haughty myth within the lengthy Bronx Bomber Lore.
Hijacking Rodriguez from under the sleeping eyes of Boston was a Coup De Grace for the Yankees during a dysfunctional Hot Stove Season, in which they lost three Starting Pitchers from a previously formidable rotation.
Acquiring the present and future King was enough to overshadow an entire off-season’s haphazard work, which wrought a creaking rotation and a thin bullpen.
Now in Game 2, just as in winter, Alex would have to rescue the Yankees from themselves.
It is the ultimate in pressurization, the entire fate of two distinctly different teams resting within the talent and fortitude of two men, separated by ninety unforgiving feet.
The Yanks need a hit. Won’t win without one. Nathan, his stubbornness overwhelming reason, attempts perfection instead of precision, gripping his slider far too tight before throwing it, furiously. The count is 2-2, the battle against Alex Rodriguez waged for minutes measuring as eternity.
The slider hangs.
Alex Rodriguez doesn’t fail, doesn’t flinch, he stands and delivers, just as he had done throughout 2004, an off year according stats, not presence. The ball flies against the black night, out of reach, bouncing on the left center field Warning Track, landing beyond the fence.
The tying run crosses the plate; the winning run will follow shortly thereafter, thanks to an incredibly smart base-running play by Derek Jeter on a supposedly harmless fly ball to right field. Jeter scores the winning run, once and always the Yankees’ pulsating heart.
Their backbone, at that moment in time, was Alex Rodriguez.
Date
Mon 06/12/06, 4:47 pm EST
