A Great Sports Day (or two)

First of all, through the generosity of Aaron Shapiro (and the fact that his dad couldn’t make the rain-out make up day) I got to go to the last opening day at the present Yankee Stadium. Aside from how great that is just by itself, it was the perfect game. Wang pitched 7 solid (though a bit shaky) innings. Melky Cabrera totally saved him with back to back amazing catches in center and followed that up with a home run. OK, it was the shortest possible home run in Yankee Stadium. It’s 314 to the right field foul pole. This ball went 314 and 6 inches. The Yankees came back to take a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 7th.

Then Joba Chamberlain shut down Toronto in the 8th, striking Frank Thomas out with a 97 mile an hour fastball. Jorge Posada, the catcher, was asked afterwards if he had called for 97 miles an hour on that pitch. He said, “no, 98”.

And then to start the 9th inning the strains of “Enter Sandman” began. Yankee Stadium erupted as it always does when that music starts. For those that don’t follow the Yankees, that music means that Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer of all time, is entering the game. When he threw his first pitch, you saw so many camera flashes lighting up. It looked like the first pitch of the game, not the first pitch of the ninth inning.

Of course Mariano had a 1-2-3 inning, the fans went nuts and they cranked Sinatra singing “New York, New York” as they always do when the Yankees win. It was a great night.

By the way, the new Yankee Stadium is going up fast across the street. Here’s a picture from my phone:

This great night was followed by two fantastic pieces of news. First Tom Crean is hired as the basketball coach at Indiana University. This is a great hire. Great coach, impeccable ethics (unlike their last coach). With NCAA sanctions on the way, getting a coach that good was a surprise, though Indiana is still one of the great basketball traditions.

Then, even better, Donnie Walsh is taking over the Knicks. I may be able to watch pro basketball again. He might even (dare I dream) fire Isiah Thomas as coach. It will take a while to fix, but there’s actually hope for the Knicks. Professional basketball may return to Madison Square Garden.

So all in all, a great couple of days…