Can you imagine?
He was called up from AA because back-up catcher Austin Romine got a season ending concussion.
The youngster starts last night's game because winning or losing meant nothing, and the Yankees want to watch him work at the major league level.
The Yankees know he isn't ready to hit major league pitching ( especially from a team competing for a wild card ), but this kind of experience is revealing and, if some positives emerge ( like throwing out a guy stealing second ), can be a confidence builder.
So Murphy, at age 22 ( the only young Yankee ) comes to the mound, as catchers always do, when Derek and Andy come out of the dugout to remove our greatest star, for the last time, at the stadium.
I believe the entire world was watching, cheering and crying.
If Murphy never makes it back to another major league game, he'll have been a part of one of the greatest, and most emotional, moments of Yankee history.
They say that baseball will do this for you. If you hang in there, one day your chance will come.
Murphy will never duplicate such a baseball moment. Not in Scranton and not in the Bronx.
Nor shall we life-long fans.
He has already realized his wildest childhood dream.
I just hope he doesn't know it yet.
Unfortunately for us, the fans, we do realize that our dream, our fairytale, has come to an end.
Everything does.
But it is a ride that only we have been able to take.
Breathtaking.
Posts
3 comments:
probably the most poignant thing you've ever wrote. Bravo Alphonso, apologies for busting your balls. We are all hurting now.
well said, Alphonso. I thank you for your unique perspective. You're right that only we Yankee fans got to take this extraordinary ride.
The emotions ran very high last night. you'd need to be made of stone not to have been touched when Andy and Jeet took Mo out of the game. No matter your feelings about Andy, Mo clearly loves him. That's enough for this fan.
I nearly lost it when Mo went back to the mound for a handful of dirt. What a beautiful, wonderful man. We Yankee fans have always been lucky (blessed, even). So many great players over the decades. But Mo, as a player and a man, is likely to have been the best. we'll never see the likes of him again.
Seriously, that was a piece of beautiful writing,
Post a Comment