There are reasons to be a Red Sox fan, and they have nothing to do with who plays on the team. It has to do with Boston as a city; it has to do with rivalry. For there is perhaps no city in America that gets energized about anything more than Boston gets when the New York Yankees come to town. I suspect Manhattan hardly knows that the Red Sox are visiting the Bronx when they play at Yankee Stadium, but even Paul Revere sits up in his Tremont Street grave when the Bronx Bombers arrive in Kenmore Square. Boston just lights up when the game's greatest rivalry occurs in Fenway.
Since the rivalry between the Sox and Yankees is not only interesting but historic, I cannot help but report the already legendary story that began less than 24 hours ago. Baseball insiders will know that the Red Sox have in its pitching rotation major league baseball's only starting "knuckleball" pitcher, Tim Wakefield (for those novices to the game, a knuckleball is a pitch where the ball does not spin during its flight toward homeplate). The knuckleball, when conditions are right, is notoriously nervous in its flight even though it is pitched at relatively slow speeds; it is both hard to hit and hard to catch.
For the past couple of seasons, Tim Wakefield has successfully pitched to one catcher, Red Sox backup Doug Mirabelli, who, for some reason, could catch the knuckler better than Sox' captain Jason Varitek. Anyway, before this season started, the Sox traded Mirabelli to the San Diego Padres, leaving many Sox fans wondering whether the team was committed to its beloved Wakey.
In just four games, I believe, Mirabelli's replacement had already permitted ten passed balls; Mirabelli only had six all last season. Alas, things were not going well. So ....
Yesterday, as the Yankees were about to show up in Beantown for the first game of the season against Boston, with ex-Sox-hero-cum-traitor Johnny Damon's first return to Fenway since his off-season defection to the Yankees; and with Wakefield the starting pitcher for the great showdown, the Sox made an amazing call: they called the Padres, and asked if they could trade back for Mirabelli. The answer was a rather quick yes. And according to Mirabelli himself, the Sox called him in the early morning California hours, told him to get on the earliest flight possible; that they then sent him a private jet, and that the pilots flew "a thousand miles an hour" (his words) to get him to Boston on time for the game.
And here's the coolest. Mirabelli's plane landed at Logan Airport a 6:48 p.m. He said the plane zipped down the runway and then slid sideways (he exaggerates) as the pilots braked near a Massachusetts State Police motorcade. Mirabelli jumped off the plane, leapt into an SUV police cruiser, and was rushed, with sirens blaring and lights flashing, to Fenway Park, all the while changing into his Sox uniform (waiting for him in the cruiser). He arrived (this is miraculous) at the ballfield at 7:00 (game time is usually 7:05, I believe, but last night was 7:13). He claimed that the police drove 100 miles per hour to get him to Fenway in 12 minutes. He only had time for a few warm-up throws, and no time to greet his teammates, before taking the field.
He had no passed balls all night. And the Red Sox won, 7-3. Johnny Damon went 0-4.
When the State Police are committed to helping a backup catcher make it to Fenway Park in time for the national anthem, you know that you have a city whose priorities, mixed up as they may be, are not only wonderfully exciting, they are simply unrivaled. In fact, rumor has it that the driver of the cruiser was Governor Mitt Romney, with Senator John Kerry riding shotgun.
(PS. When I saw Mirabelli on the field last night on TV, I called an old friend who lives in San Diego, a rabid Padres fan. Amazingly, I was the one to inform him that Mirabelli had been traded from his team. He responded with incredulity and––perhaps I only wish for this––jealousy: He knows––again––that San Diego surely ain't no Boston.)
Peace.
©Bill Gnade 2006/Contratimes - All Rights Reserved.
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