At the end of 2000 the Yankees fielded a significantly weaker team than they had in years past. And although they were able to beat the New York Mets in the first subway series in decades, it was clear to the front office that significant changes needed to be made to remain competitive. Brian Cashman turned to two key free agents: (in 2002) Oakland Athletics first baseman, Jason Giambi; (in 2001) and unhappy Baltimore Orioles Ace, Mike Mussina.
Mike Mussina announced his retirement yesterday and I would like to spend a few moments of your time discussing his Yankees career, the Yankees franchise during the Bush period and America since 9/11.
It's hard to believe, but I remember the moment as if it were yesterday. I was an Army linguist stationed in Arizona. My wife, who was an avid baseball and Mike Mussina fan, and I settled into to watch the Yankees play the Red Sox at Fenway Park. It was a night game. The date was September 2nd, 2001.
It was a stunning game. Mussina was dominant. He was finishing Red Sox batters off with ease and through 8 2/3 innings had a perfect game. What's even more amazing about the game was that on the Red Sox side, David Cone, a former Yankee great during the dynasty years- was having a bit of a late career resurgance and had practically matched Mussina through the entire game.
For those that follow New York like I do, it was sort of a typical game for Mussina in 2001. Pitch brilliantly and get a no decision or a loss. It's funny to me in a way, that although Clemens had his remarkable 20 win without a defeat season- Mussina's 2001 performance stands out to me as the best Yankees pitching since Ron Guidry's remarkable 1978 season.
When Carl Everett lined a single after finding himself down 0-2 with 2 outs in the 9th, my wife was furious. She threw her glasses across the room, pounded her head with her fists. She was so flustered she began screaming that "baseball wanted to kill her" and asked the rhetorical question "why do I watch this stupid sport?"
It was sincere pain. It was very real for her. For my wife every five days during the baseball season was a chance to get queazy. She loved Mike Mussina in the way a little girl looks up to a teenage idol. She, now a lawyer, looked up to him for being a smart Stanford student who graduated early, a handsome (albeit pensive) man, and someone who exuded quiet confidence. He was atypical of the modern athlete. He carried qualities, perhaps, that most Americans didn't overtly admire.
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Politics:
Obviously, the two of us were sorely disappointed by the Bush v. Gore decision and the drama that unfolded in Florida. My wife would later study that case in law school and find it to be ridiculous and beyond the pale. Perhaps more senior scholars can explain why a state's rights fetishist like Scalia could have taken a state decision by the Florida supreme court and overruled it (believe me- he has had a hands off approach to similar matters when it did not suit his agenda AND anybody that asserts that conservative judges are not also activist and are not also interpreted the law have pulled the wool over your eyes. You can interpret the constitution by ignoring what it says as much as by reading into it).
Clearly, we had no taste for seeing George W. Bush. We had tried to ignore him the best that we could, but clearly nine days after Mike Mussina's near perfect game things changed.
9/11
Countless articles have been written about the subject, I care not a wit to repeat any of that. Most of us remember the entertainment blackout that hit the country after that. We were all in a stupor. I hear criticism of Bush now that at that moment, when he had the national attention that he should have used the opportunity to call us into service. Roosevelt did. Lincoln did. Bush chose to ask us to get back to the business of being American consumers. In a powerful symbol of this he threw out the first pitch at Yankee stadium to start the World Series. The date was October 30th.
IT was a powerful moment indeed. In what was perhaps the most tasteless World Series I had ever watched (imagine a crippled New York having to suffer through the song New York, New York played mockingly as the Diamondbacks celebrate their game seven defeat! Hate the Yankees all you want- the city needed to win that game).
The problems the Yankees faced over the course of the next seven years mirrored the problems our government faced. The wrong people in charge making bad decisions- overpaying for talent (in the case of the government- the balooning cost of defense was even more disastrous than the Yankees' bloated payrolls filled with worthless has been talent).
**
I asked my wife for a divorce at the beginning of this year. She being the kind person she is, granted it. We did not get to share Mike Mussina's 20 win season. It is a regret I feel deeply. But as history has shown us- change is inevitable. Had Obama not come along someone else would have. Bad sports teams and bad governments are reborn- so long as the paying customers demand it be that way.
Mike Mussina may or may not go into the Hall of Fame and George W. Bush may or may not go down as the worst president in US History. They both shared the field one October day.
I think back to 9/2/01. Before the world changed.