![]() Turning around, it was Tony Gwynn, who had the same idea. I wandered out to center field and Monument Park, the area where the Yankees have plaques dedicated to their all-time greats, players like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Phil Rizzuto, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra and Roger Maris. I was ridiculously early, and after picking up my credentials, found myself alone in the dugout at Yankee Stadium. Why it’s memorable: It was workout day, the day before Game 1 of the 1998 World Series between the Padres and New York Yankees. The visitors’ unraveling would come, followed by Yankees brooms. With the score tied at 2-apiece when they met again in the fifth inning, when Wells attacked with an inside fastball, Gwynn knocked the daylights out of it. ![]() Wells won their second duel, getting Gwynn to ground out to first base. Observant as ever, Gwynn noticed his neat surgery’s effect on Wells.įrom there Gwynn became convinced Wells would try to beat him inside with a fastball, and generally shelve the outside curveball. Gwynn would credit his home run to his first at-bat of the night when he had etched his “5.5” signature onto the event.īatting as a Padres teammate ran toward second base, which drew shortstop Derek Jeter to the bag, Gwynn served a Wells curveball through the void to left field for a single. Take that! (Then Little T’s mom, Alicia, mortified at her son’s outburst, told him to have a seat.) Teenager Tony Gwynn Jr., hearing the crack and seeing the ball soar, rose up from his Yankee Stadium seat and hollered at Yankees fans who’d given him an earful. Yankee Stadium, full of some 56,000 Yankees fans, got as quiet as the lawn bowling match at Balboa Park. What happened is Gwynn rocked Wells, rocked the Yankees, and rocketed a fastball off the famed façade above right field, putting the Pads on top. He attributed part of this evolution to mid-1990s chats with Ted Williams, another lefty with San Diego roots and someone familiar with homering at Yankee Stadium. But in the late stages of his career, he had become more comfortable at turning on pitches. Gwynn’s mastery of opposite-field hitting was the foundation to his career success and the. The score was tied when Gwynn stepped in for the third time that night against David Wells, fellow lefty and fellow San Diegan. While the baseball world knew he was a wonderful hitter, he was near the end of his 20-year career, all if it spent in a “small market” outpost, and the only other time he’d gone to the World Series, 14 years earlier in 1984, neither he nor his team had made a lasting impression.ĭare we say it: If you haven’t done it in New York, have you really done anything? Gwynn hailed from San Diego, which to Yankees fans and some in the baseball media assembled, could’ve been Fiji. Joe Torre’s methodical club had won 114 games in the season, followed by seven victories against only two playoff defeats. This was no ordinary, excellent Yankees team, but the winningest of all Yankees teams. Three hours before first pitch, fully attired in his road grays and unable to sit still on the visiting dugout bench, Gwynn told one and all that getting back to a World Series was great in and of itself, but to be here, in Yankee Stadium, for Game 1, well, that was better than ice cream and birthdays and pine tar and Christmas morning all in one. Just one home run and his team lost the ballgame, so why does the Gwynn homer resonate two decades later, not only for the Padres and their fans but for - cue the James Earl Jones voiceover - baseball? Why it’s memorable: When revisiting the Tony Gywnn home run, it’s easy to get purple, to wax romantic, to remember it in soft focus. Cubs fail again.īest thing: At my 40th birthday party two years later, Bill gave me that nearly full bottle of Dewars. Next day, as the Chargers are beating the Pack, thousands of Cubs fans in Lambeau Field get more bad news. (A few weeks later Mark Whicker of the Orange County Register told me it was the loudest he’d ever heard a stadium.) Shortly afterward, broadcaster Don Drysdale congratulated The Garv and got one of my favorite quotes: “It was my pleasure,” and we went downstairs to the restaurant. We’d barely finished our cocktails when Garvey hit the home run. Zeke and I were Scotch drinkers then, so Bill ordered up a bottle of Dewars and poured us a few. ![]() Anyway, Chargers assistant publicist Bill Johnston invited Rick Smith, his boss, and Ed “Zeke” Zieralski (then covering the team for the Daily Californian) and me up to the room to watch the baseball game.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |