Derek Jeter
Yankee Stadium
May 14, 2017
How many times do we need the reminder: “It ain’t over til it’s over?”
Apparently, we need it as often as we need to see it. And sometimes, we need to get it the hard way, with the co0kie of great expectations crumbling away in our hands as the bluebird of joyous victory flies away.
For the Houston Astros, it almost happened again last night.
To all of you who sometimes join me in a bad case of Superstition Mountain rub-a-dub-dub-magical-thinking elixir *, we apologize for beginning the premature celebration of the Astros’ “2-much” Derek Jeter Day “whack-em-back-with-the same-energy-flow-Jack” at Yankee Stadium last night. I could feel it coming throughout the pre-game “number two” retirement ceremony. Did you also feel the energy signs building in favor of an Astros spoiler-win on this very special Yankees night? Let’s go over the signs that struck home here. You may have picked up these and some other signals that we missed. Or maybe you just eased back, took a big sloshing slug of Superstition Mountain and let all this stuff kick in to your brain on its own.
Early Clues
- First of all, Jeter arrives in time for an around the field cart ride with his “2-sweet sister”, his “2-cute nephew (all dressed up as Jeter in a Yankee uniform and wearing the number “2” – and with his “2-beautiful” and “2-pregnant” bride/wife sitting strongly and quietly by his side. – How can you retire “# 2” when you’ve obviously been busy making a new version of yourself that is soon going to get here and grow up screaming “too” much in your ear, “C’mon, Daddy! Lets’ play catch! I want to be as “2-much” like you as I can be!”
- “Two” of Jeter’s former Yankee teammates, Carlos Beltran and Brian McCann, are now playing ball for tonight’s Yankee foes, the Houston Astros, and behind their “too much” congratulatory smiles, and Beltran’s actual participation in the pre-game “too fuzzy-wuzzy” part of the ceremony, the boys are there tonight to help their new team cause you to remember the actual game with “too” much of a lemon-twist to it.
- This is “2” much! The game starts – and the first “2” Astros hitters, George Springer and Josh Reddick, both homer! That’s a “2-0” Astros lead – on the game played just after the completion of the Jeter # 2 number retirement ceremony at Yankee Stadium on May 14, 2017. And it only took “2” batters and “2” home runs to get there. But that wasn’t enough show for the early game contra-luck flow for Jeter fans. Before the top of the first inning is done, Astros rookie Alex Bregman, who wears # 2 in peer aspirant honor of Jeter, blasts a Grand Slam home rum to left to make is 6-o, Astros – and the Yankees haven’t even batted yet. Bregman even points to the number “2” on his jersey as he floats back to the Astros dugout – floating on a smile, a moon beam, and the memory of a moment in his life that he probably shall remember forever above all others in his career. “2” bad for Jeter. Too wonderful for Bregman.
- By the time Jeter reaches the ESPN box to discuss his special day with the broadcast crew in the top of the 2nd, it’s still 6-0, but he gets there in time to see George Springer bash his “2nd” homer of the game in his “2nd” time up. He is reminded of Springer’s accomplishment by the ESPN crew. “That’s unfortunate to see,” says the disappointed, but always reasonably voiced man they called “The Captain.”
Biting the Bullet
Yesterday, the Yankees had a chance in the bottom of 9th to tie up the game in the bottom of the 9th, now trailing only by 10-7 with “2” outs and “2” men on base. All they needed was a 3-run homer to break the spell of a 2-dominated digital play game. Fortunately for the ‘Stros, we dodged the bullet. Pitcher Ken Giles got the last man out on a tapper back to the mound, and we all avoided an horrendous magical meltdown of moods in the Bayou City.
Thank you, baseball gods of mercy, for being way “2” kind to us Astros fans this time, but we will take all of that speed bump warning you allowed us – this time, at least – to get off with a “warning ticket” for being caught speeding with legitimate, but mildly arrogant great expectations expressed before our ball club quietly did what they needed to do to get the whole “2-BIG-W” stuffed in the bag with no chance of escape.
As fans, all we have to do next time is be patient, stay humble, and let our Astros play the game, one punch out – or fielded out – at a time – and watch this great team grow through the summer and into the fall. These guys are good. World Series good. It’s just too early in the season to know whom the club may have to replace due to some unexpected serious injury or production failure that we can’t even know about this early in the schedule.
- Footnote from asterisk in Paragraph 4, Line 1: The publisher, director, and principal writer of the The Pecan Park Eagle has not consumed any alcohol since his younger salad days, but when it comes to baseball, especially when it comes to his eternal hopes for the Houston Astros, he has been known to buy into an illusion every now then. That being said, he now contends that 2017 is for real and that this year’s club is the verisimilitude of what a building World Series contender appears to be by the middle of May.
____________________
Bill McCurdy
Publisher, Editor, Writer
The Pecan Park Eagle
The Pecan Park Eagle 
May 15, 2017 at 3:51 pm |
Appropriately a double-header!
May 15, 2017 at 4:15 pm |
As far as the Yankees and game number 2, it was just 2 bad.
May 15, 2017 at 5:03 pm |
I heard enough about Jeter yesterday to last a lifetime. Too bad ESPN couldn’t say anything about our amazin’ stros.
May 15, 2017 at 5:41 pm |
My understanding is during the press box interview with Jeter that Beltran’s double broke a doubles record held by Jeter which was not worthy of recognition. If you really want to barf out, try getting Astros coverage in Austin. The media bias to all things Dallas which has existed for decades is at an all time high. Local TV outlets report the Rangers scores but not the Astros. The Austin American Statesboy only recently added summaries of the Astros since they took their commanding lead in the AL West. We get Astros box scores for about 1 in 5 games. No real televised games (only Root which has a small area of the Central Texas market). Today it was about how hot the Strangers are and ignored the fact that they’ve done nothing to catch the Astros in games behind. And don’t even ask about the Cowboys vs the Texans’ coverage. All this when there are tens of thousands more ex-Houstonians in Central Texas than ex-Metroplexers.
May 15, 2017 at 8:36 pm |
When we moved to Austin in 1963, there was only one television station (excluding the UT channel), KTBC, which was owned by Lady Bird. KTBC determined what you watched from the three major networks at any given hour. You had no choice. It was quite a shock from living in Pearland where you could select from CBS, NBC, ABC, and KUHT in Houston. I missed watching the World Series for the first time that year.
May 16, 2017 at 11:04 am |
The # 2 is still flying high for the Astros a day later. The boys leave the Bronx for Miami. For the 2nd game in a row, the ‘Stros use a 2nd Grand Slam to defeat a 2nd team managed by a former Yankee. This time it’s manager Don Mattingly of the Miami Marlins. How 2-cool is that? 🙂