No Gastbusters to be found in Boston
The last few weeks, I had a bad feeling. Cito Gaston couldn't return to the field without something going wrong for Mike Mussina.
At first, it appeared Gaston's return would not allow Mike to win another game, ever. Mike broke his disaster streak last fall against the Jays, and Cito needed revenge. The run-support issues that plagued Mike's middle years were back, and two solid games went to waste.
This blog's local hero remained stuck on 10 wins for the season and 260 for his career. While we couldn't expect wins in every game, the timing was suspicious. The first of the two losses — complete with an odd error and an ordered walk — came the very day of Cito's rehiring.
It was notable, then, when the Yankees went to the edge but held onto Mike's victory Saturday. Strategic Failure chalked up the win. After a strange bout of lightheadedness forced Mike from the game, Mariano wasn't himself for most of the ninth. He hit two Red Sox batters and missed pitches by feet. You could feel Gaston's spirit messing with forces of nature. But we all learned something: If you hit Manny three times with the ball, you reverse the curse of Gaston.
Almost. One beast destroyed, we inevitably thought of what could go wrong next. And the All-Star Game became our Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Gaston the Gastonian took a new form, and the snub arrived within a day. It had to happen. Had Mussina taken the field at Yankee Stadium, the resident good ghosts would've been too strong for the absent Gaston. Without a presence at the coming game, like he had in '93, Cito made sure to get to Mike ahead of time.
One examined AL manager Terry Francona's explanation of the snub and understood the true forces at work. "Because of who he is and who he represents, we talked long and hard about what is right," said Francona, who curiously has "Tito" for a nickname and once worked in Canada. "Ultimately, what it came down to is, to do that, somebody would have been left off that is really deserving and that would have been difficult to do. So our decision was difficult because of again, who he is and the respect for the team he plays for. But to get that, we would have had to do something wrong."
The deranged ramblings of a man possessed? Absolutely.
Mike said he wasn't too disappointed. He said he'd head to the county fair. He said he didn't know if his kids were disappointed after they watched the selection show. Even the Boston Globe had a nice column.
A commenter at Strategic Failure linked to LoHud's audio of Mike's post-win presser, where the country fair came up. The mention was noted widely, but it seemed worth posting here in transcribed form.
"What's at the country fair that could be as fun as pitching at the All-Star Game?" "Well, shoot, they have demolition derbies, tractor pulls." "Do you have a pig entered or something?" "No, no animals. Sorry. Next year, maybe. Or the year after. But I don't have any animals, so …" we hope for next year, always next year.
August 2nd, 2008 at 10:06 AM
[...] got a hit but no win in his first start after cursed All-Star night. Mike Mussina singled to left in the seventh inning for his first hit in six years. The Yankees’ [...]