Exit ramp looming, Swish apologizes

Listen: We're going to miss the big lug. Maybe not in October. But the dugout shots, the post-games, the skyward gestures, the good will - it won't be the same. 

Yesterday, Nick Swisher apologized for booing the fans who booed the Yankees in our recent October boo-fest. In what ends with the whiff of a publicist statement, he told Mark Feinsand, of the Daily News Fifth Inning:

"It was a bad time and the end of the season was hard for all of us. If I offended anybody with what I said, I apologize. I didn’t mean it; Yankees fans are the greatest in the world. When you speak from the heart, sometimes it comes out wrong. Sometimes you’re human and that stuff gets to you, but I certainly didn’t want to offend anybody. There’s no better place to play than Yankee Stadium in front of that New York fan base. I love those fans as much today as I have since the day I got to New York. They’re the best in baseball.”

When I think of Swish, this is what I want to remember:

1. Getting a phone call on a Saturday afternoon last spring from Alphonso's wife, telling us to turn the channel because Swisher had just hit a grand slam, bringing the Yankees back from a 9-0 deficit at Fenway.

2. The hot streaks, when every ball hit fell in, and he was always raising his fingers to the sky.

3. The way he lumbered after balls in right field, but caught more than his share.

4. The smile, when things went our way.

The fans targeted Swish after his horrible botch in right field cost us game one. We never recovered. He later said fans were blaming him for Jeter's injury, which is 1) totally unfair and 2) By the quirks of fate, true: If Swish catches that ball, Detroit doesn't score, Jeet doesn't lunge, we're still out there, and who knows? Ahh, but he didn't catch it. And, awwww, he didn't need to apologize, either.