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 Yankees-Indians Sports Illustrated baseball writer Mark Bechtel checks in from the American League Championship Series.
Posted: Thursday October 08, 1998 12:03 PM
Never in my life did I think I'd be able to make the following statement: One of the members of the Partridge Family is my pal. As I was standing around watching the Indians take BP before Game 2, I noticed Danny Bonaduce strolling around wearing a press pass. (He's a DJ at Big 105 in New York City.) He grabbed Indians manager Mike Hargrove for a quick interview, so I tried to get close enough to hear what they were talking about. Unfortunately, I couldn't make anything out, but I noticed Danny had a big grin on his face as he was walking away. Now, to my knowledge I've never met the man before, but Danny saw me and seemed convinced our paths had crossed somewhere before but we had never been formally introduced. So he, I and his sidekick Mike stood there and chatted for several minutes. Turns out the original child-star-cum-bad-boy knows very little about sports--Mike even had to tell him who Hargrove was ("Their equivalent of Joe Torre," was how he put it). What had Bonaduce smiling was the fact that Grover had complimented him after being asked: Who's more popular in Cleveland--Drew Carey or Tribe leftfielder Dave Justice? Hargrove laughed and told him it was a good question, which made Bonaduce's day. "I feel like a real sports reporter!" he beamed. (In case you're wondering, Hargrove said Carey was probably more popular.) You'll be happy to know that I managed to refrain from asking Danny any ribald questions about Susan Dey or making any dumb "Where's Reuben?" comments. Nice guy. Also seen during BP: Spike Lee, who was roaming the grounds with a home movie camera.
Only in the Bronx: We got stuck out in the auxiliary press box, which is located in the leftfield stands. It's kind of far away from the action in the field, but it gives us a good look at some of the less seemly action taking place in the seats. During Game 1, a dude in an Indians cap was actually given $30 for his hat, just so the Yankees fans in the area could desecrate it. He's lucky he wasn't in the bleachers, where the going rate for an Indians hat is a savage beating. The fans in left also really let Justice have it during Game 1. They repeatedly taunted him by chanting the name of his ex-wife, actress and megababe Halle Berry. Only most of them were screaming "Holly Berry," but I'm guessing Dave knew what they meant. Thank God for Chuck: Chuck Knoblauch committed one of the biggest blunders in recent postseason memory during the 12th inning of Game 2 when he stood around arguing with umpire John Shulock while the ball was in play. This allowed Enrique Wilson to score the game-winning run from first. Speaking objectively, I'm kind of glad Knoblauch made the faux pas. If he hadn't, I might still be sitting in the cold in leftfield waiting for Game 2 to end. Home plate umpire Ted Hendry had a strike zone that started four inches off the left edge of the plate and extended to the northern boundary of Westchester County. As a result, hitters couldn't wait for good pitches to hit, and what we got was a 4 1/2-hour game with 15 hits. Pitches practically in the dirt were called strikes--Hendry rang up Manny Ramirez on a pitch that almost hit him in the foot--but he steadfastly drew the line at pitches that didn't make it to the plate. With Hendry behind the dish, two of baseball's best-hitting teams fanned 21 times--eight swinging and a mind-boggling 13 looking.
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