Empyreal Environs

Game 46: May 23, 2007
Red Sox	3	L: Curt Schilling (4-2)	31-15, 1 game losing streak 12-3-2 series record
Yankees	8	W: Andy Pettitte (3-3)	21-24, 1 game winning streak 5-9-2 series record
Highlights: Kevin Youkilis extended his hit streak to 16 games in the second inning with his hard liner paralleling the left field line. He would be stranded there, however, a pervasive theme in series finale. Coco Crisp lofted his first four-bagger in the eighth off Kyle Farnsworth; it was of a towering height but short distance, plopping into the short porch in right.

Curt Schilling, although old, was not his old self. He didn’t walk any batters as he did in his previous outing, but he had little command. The veteran northpaw was so out of sorts he was not able to deliver the requisite payback for Alex Rodriguez’s cheap play on Tuesday evening. Furthermore, C.B. Bucknor’s variable strike zone didn’t help matters.

One of Bucknor’s listed hobbies is refinishing furniture. Prolonged exposure to stains and finishes may have addled his senses as there was no rhyme nor reason to judgments last night. In a 2003 survey of MLB players by Sports Illustrated, Bucknor was voted as the worst umpire. It seems like this survey went over like Manhattan Clam Chowder at Legal Seafoods as I have been unable to find any published accounts of annuals surveys since then. Bucknor’s performance was appalling enough to consider reviving the practice. Tom Verducci, please take note.

Even Andy Pettitte made long looks to home after questionable calls throughout his seven innings of work. The Red Sox bailed out both Bucknor and Pettitte by hacking aimlessly and early in the count in a few innings.

Blaming Bucknor is a convenient excuse shrouded a more nagging concern: Schilling has been shaky in his starts since May 12. It seems that he’s been adapting his approach to accommodate an age-related decline in power. Last night he may have been overcompensating for his wildness against Detroit, a start in which he walked four batters and seemed to revert to his feckless youth. Schilling could consult with Roger Clemens and drink from whatever fountain of youth his former mentor has discovered, but I think that what the Rocket has to offer may be contrary to all that Schilling attested to before Congress.

As Jason Giambi slogged along with his 0-4 night, insinuations that he is not long for this team swirled through the city. Word that he failed an amphetamines test within the last year surfaced and he had to meet with league lawyers regarding his recent comments about steroids.

The Yankee organization can’t be happy about the controversies surrounding their designated hitter, but they brought it upon themselves by pursuing him as a free agent despite the rumors. Now this blemish on their sparkling reputation mars the celebration of the embodiment of Yankeetude, Derek Jeter.

Jeter tied a Yankee immortal in the first inning with his RBI infield single. Jeter’s 2,214th hit equaled Joe DiMaggio for fifth place on the franchise’s list for hits leaders. By the end of the evening Jeter would surpass that mythic figure in the Yankee pantheon.

George Steinbrenner, wizened and overwrought, strains to rebuild that monument, stone by stone. He’s summoned past champions still able to play in a macabre séance of the pre-millennial teams. Their spirit may be willing but flesh goes the way of all flesh. To dust, to stone, then to dust again.

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
“Ozymandias,” Percy Bysshe Shelley