Glory Days

[Green Jets & Ham]

NY TIMES

Leiter Proves to Be Just the Pitcher the Yanks Needed

By TYLER KEPNER

Al Leiter's buddy Bruce Springsteen sang about an aging pitcher whose Glory Days passed him by in the wink of a young girl's eye. These days, it seemed, that pitcher was Leiter.

At 39, he seemed to have lost it, all of a sudden, in a torturous half-season with the Florida Marlins. Leiter never believed it. "I had a difficult time accepting the fact that it was over and I wasn't good enough," he said.

The Yankees traded for Leiter because Florida had dumped him, and because they were desperate. All they wanted were five decent innings at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox. All they wanted was for Leiter to be better than Darrell May or Tim Redding, other spot starters who had failed.

What they got was Leiter channeling his former greatness in a vintage 5-3 victory that moved the Yankees into second place, a half-game behind Boston in the American League East. In a series that started with discouraging news about the pitching staff, the Yankees won three of four games.

"Coming into the second half, these are the guys we wanted," said Gary Sheffield, who blistered the ball all series and ripped a two-run homer Sunday. "We got them, and we played well when we needed to."

Leiter was every bit as sharp and as colorful as he was in his heyday with the Mets. Left-handers flailed at his slicing cutters. Right-handers stared at fastballs at the knees on the outside corner. Leiter even flipped curveballs to great effect.

For six and a third innings, he held the Red Sox to three hits and a run, walking three with eight strikeouts. In the high-intensity setting, Leiter was his high-energy self.

When he missed with a pitch, he would slap his thigh, grit his teeth, shake his head or kick the dirt. He darted off the mound on pop fouls, bounced on his toes as he stood on the rubber and made windmill motions with his arms when a hitter called time.

He focused on the target in his own madcap way. Against all logic, Leiter's next career - politics, broadcasting or coaching - could wait.

"I don't know what's going to happen in the remainder of this half, but my stuff was the same as it's been," said Leiter, who was nearly traded to the Yankees for Mike Stanton last Monday, before Stanton invoked his no-trade clause. "The difference was my focus and concentration and belief in my pitches, and maintaining a good, aggressive attitude."

The Yankees held on for Leiter in the ninth, overcoming a rocky outing by Tom Gordon and a wild throw by Robinson Cano on a double-play ball.

With two runs in, the bases loaded and no outs, Manager Joe Torre came to the mound to give Mariano Rivera a breather. Rivera promised everything would be all right, and like that, Alex Cora grounded to Alex Rodriguez for a 5-2-3 double play. Johnny Damon then grounded softly to second, ending the game.

"The guy's not human," Rodriguez said of Rivera. "When you talk about Mariano, you've got to talk about Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan."

Leiter called Rivera the best closer in the game, but he said that he did not quite feel like Rivera's teammate yet. Leiter had more former teammates among the Yankees' coaches than among the players.

Before he had taken off his dress pants on Sunday, Leiter was wrapped in a conversation with the bullpen coach, Neil Allen. Two other coaches, Don Mattingly and Luis Sojo, also played with Leiter.

"He looked like the old Al, the kid I remember playing with," Allen said. "Always upbeat, happy and easygoing. That's just what arrived today."

Other pitchers who had struggled as badly as Leiter this season - 3-7, 6.64 earned run average with the Marlins - might have quaked at the thought of the thunderous Red Sox lineup. Leiter, who has pitched three times in the final game of a World Series, was undaunted.

"He's one of those guys that when the stakes are high, he rises to the occasion," said Sheffield, a former teammate with Florida. "I've seen this before in the playoffs and World Series."

For all of his confidence, though, Leiter needed to show more command. His percentage of first-pitch strikes, 49.1 percent, had been the worst in the majors this season. But from the start Sunday, he pitched with precision.

"He was able to accomplish a lot of things with Strike 1," catcher Jorge Posada said.

Leiter's first pitch was his trademark cutter, and Damon took it for a strike. He would strike out, and so would David Ortiz, who missed a high fastball, just 88 miles an hour. Manny Ramirez lined out softly to end the inning.

Leiter said he knew the Red Sox would expect him to be wild, forcing him to throw strikes. When Leiter hit his spots and had good counts, the Red Sox mustered little besides ground outs and pop-ups.

"Tonight makes you wonder why the Marlins released him," Boston's Trot Nixon said.

The Yankees were not doing much better against Tim Wakefield, the knuckleballer who threw a complete game, allowing just five hits. But all were for extra bases, and all turned into runs. Hideki Matsui doubled in the second inning, and Posada followed with a homer down the right-field line. In the third, Cano doubled and scored on Sheffield's home run. Rodriguez homered in the eighth.

Leiter was gone by then. He retired nine in a row after Ortiz doubled in the third and before Ramirez dented the Green Monster with a single in the sixth. There were two outs then, and Leiter stayed in to strike out Kevin Millar with a cutter.

Leiter pumped his fist as he came off the mound and returned there to start the seventh. After Doug Mirabelli walked with one out, Torre immediately popped from the dugout.

Every infielder came to the mound to pat Leiter on the chest with their gloves. Leiter knew he was finished, but only for the night. His Glory Days continue.

[Blackout]

i still say theyre kinda jumping the gun here

[Green Jets & Ham]

"Tonight makes you wonder why the Marlins released him," Boston's Trot Nixon said.

And this from Kevin Millar ...

"I don't know how the Marlins could release that guy. If that's the guy they released, I don't want to face who they still have."

You think UNCLE AL has caught Boston's attention? 8)

[Green Jets & Ham]

Great Column by my favorite baseball columnist ... smart baseball man {IMO}, and not because he gave Leiter a good write-up ... Klap is one baseball writer I have always respected for his knowledge and objectivety

GREAT READ

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Klap: Lefty makes GM look like a genius

Monday, July 18, 2005

By BOB KLAPISCH

SPORTS COLUMNIST

BOSTON - Al Leiter was doing his corporate best not to enjoy a last laugh on the universe of cynics, critics and non-believers. But if anyone was entitled to gloat, it was a 39-year-old National League castoff who stepped into the vortex of a Yankee pitching emergency and somehow overpowered the Red Sox for 61/3 innings.

So unlikely was Leiter's performance in the Bombers' 5-3 victory, and so effective was his left-for-dead cutter, the Sox themselves uttered their grudging respect, even as their first-place lead had shriveled to a half-game over the Yankees.

"You wonder why the Marlins ever let him go," Trot Nixon said of Leiter. "That was a great pickup for [the Yankees]. He had good stuff. He did a good job - got a lead and turned it over to the bullpen."

Cutter in, fastball away. The formula was never more complicated than that, starting with his three-pitch strikeout of Johnny Damon in the first inning. From that point it became 1997 again as Leiter stepped into a personal time tunnel.

Somehow, the pitcher who led the major leagues in walks since the 2004 All-Star break was getting ahead of the Sox, issuing first-pitch strikes to 14 of the 25 batters he faced. Leiter actually topped out at 91 mph, and his cutter was clocked at 86-88 mph, forcing the Sox' righties to respect the inside corner.

How? Why? Leiter clearly benefited from the element of surprise: Damon had only four career at-bats against him, David Ortiz had one, and Nixon had never faced Leiter at all.

Yet, Leiter said his advantage came from his thought process, or as he put it, "It was focus and concentration and believing in my pitches. I'd felt that way with the Marlins, but I never had the consistency."

Of course, there was no need for Leiter to actually say "Take that'' to Marlins manager Jack McKeon, who was responsible for jettisoning the veteran last week, or to Omar Minaya, who never wanted Leiter back at Shea in 2005. They would all find out sooner or later that Leiter's career was alive and well in pinstripes, even if it was for only one more start.

Or maybe this second life is really that - a resurrection. If Leiter's stuff is really this crisp, he'll stick around long after Kevin Brown and Carl Pavano return from the disabled list. After watching Tim Redding surrender to Fenway-generated pressure Friday night, Joe Torre's endorsement of Leiter couldn't have been any more poignant when he said, "The thing you know about Al is that he's not afraid out there."

Indeed, Leiter seemed utterly composed, chatting with reporters less than two hours before taking the mound the way David Cone used to. Such a practice is unheard of these days - Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez go as far as to stop talking a full 24 hours before starts - but Leiter is old school in so many ways.

Even the way he described his initial moments as a Yankee told you he sees life differently than most major-leaguers.

"I thought it was pretty cool after [striking out Damon], getting the ball back from A-Rod," Leiter said. "And being able to hear the chatter in the infield between A-Rod and [Derek] Jeter, definitely it was different for me. I haven't been here very long, but I could tell right away every pitch counts with this team."

That's pressure to some, anxiety to others, but Leiter made it his fuel. Every time he needed an important out, even in the first inning after walking Edgar Renteria, there was a tough, corner-strike that allowed the Yankees to believe they might actually survive this pitching crisis.

When Leiter blew away Ortiz with an 88 mph, up-and-in fastball, then ended the first inning by getting Manny Ramirez to pop out to Jeter... well, who would've believed it? And when Leiter beat Ramirez again in the third inning - this time after Ortiz plunked an opposite-field RBI double just inside the left field foul line - the audition was practically over. Leiter jammed Ramirez with an inside-corner fastball, getting an inning-ending pop-up to Tino Martinez.

By then, it was becoming obvious to the Yankees that the mother of all long shots had become a reality. General manager Brian Cashman's one-game gamble on Leiter had allowed the Yankees to take three-of-four from Boston, although not without a near ninth-inning collapse that snowballed with Robinson Cano's throwing error on what should've been a double-play grounder off Nixon's bat.

Still, the Yankees left Fenway with a reasonable hope of catching the Sox before the end of this road trip. Brown returns from the DL tonight in Texas and if Columbus call-up Aaron Small can last five innings against the Rangers on Wednesday, the Bombers will get a second look at Leiter on Friday in Anaheim.

Of course, the chess game between Cashman and counterpart Theo Epstein isn't close to being over. The industry is buzzing with rumors that the Sox will soon acquire A.J. Burnett from the Marlins, using him to replace Bronson Arroyo in the rotation. And Cashman is busy looking for a center fielder now that the Melky Cabrera experiment has officially ended in failure.

So critical are the final two weeks before the trading deadline, the race in the East will probably be decided by Cashman's and Epstein's phone calls. For one day, though, it was Cashman who prevailed, having guessed right on Leiter.

"Obviously, this was huge for us, just huge,'' Cashman said. "There's no way to measure the impact. You might've never believed it. Hey, that's baseball.''