does anyone remember back in the late nineties, was it el duque who was gonna be late to the game so he got out of his cab and ran to the stadium? i cant find it on the internet anywhere.
Not sure if this is what you're alluding to, but Andy Hawkins was starting on old timers day and was stuck in traffic on the Major Deegan when he heard the National Anthem start. He left his wife in the car and jogged to the stadium, only to remember the old timers game was starting, not the regulation game.
It was actually in the late 80's when it happened. The Yankee pitcher was Chuck Cary. Here's the link: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/16/sports/baseball-yankees-failed-by-relievers.html The game was going to start in only 15 minutes, and Chuck Cary, the starting pitcher, was suddenly stuck in traffic. So he did the only thing he could do: he jumped out of his car, turned the wheel over to his wife, Katherine, and began sprinting wildly toward Yankee Stadium. Cary was still on the Major Deegan Expressway when he broke into his mad dash, just where the Bronx Terminal Market exit begins. He ran past a line of cars, reached the entrance to the ball park in about 10 minutes and heard the singing of the national anthem. ''I thought to myself, oh God, I've missed it,'' Cary recalled later. ''But it was only the old-timers' game.'' That is how his day began. It ended with seven strong innings, but the Yankee bullpen, once the only good thing about a team full of shortcomings, failed. A 1-1 game in the eighth inning yesterday became a 7-1 Kansas City victory and prevented the Yankees from climbing two games over .500 for the seventh time this season. Like Cary's broken-field run down the expressway yesterday, the Yankees have been in a long and sometimes unfulfilling marathon through the summer. They are 45-45 now, and on a day when they needed some offense, they received none. Luis Aquino, the Kansas City starter, yielded a run in the third, then permitted the Yankees just one hit over the final six innings. ''We didn't do much with the bats today,'' said Dallas Green, the Yankee manager. ''There's not much else to say.'' Cary allowed two hits over seven innings in his first start for the Yankees since June 14. But Lee Guetterman, the team's most consistent reliever, gave up a three-run homer to Danny Tartabull in the eighth, then allowed two more hits and left. The Royals added another run off Dale Mohorcic and got their final two when George Brett clubbed a two-run homer in the ninth off Bobby Davidson, who had been called up earlier in the day and was making his major league debut. ''He held them to one run,'' Green said of Cary. ''You can't ask a guy to do more than that.'' Green called for relief help because Cary was wilted. The left-hander, who spent time on the disabled list because of back spasms, had thrown just eight and two-thirds innings since June 14, and those were in a rehabilitation program at Columbus. 'Last Thing I Wanted' Then again, he might have been tired because of his jog of about a mile through traffic. ''The last thing I wanted to do was be late for a game,'' he said, ''especially when I'm pitching in it.'' Cary was traveling with his wife and his attorney, Brad Peter, from his New Jersey hotel and said he left in plenty of time, although he believed the 1:50 P.M. game started at 1:05. But they spent 1 hour 20 minutes on the George Washington Bridge, then found themselves in more traffic on the expressway. ''I just got out of the car and started running,'' Cary said. ''I ran for about 10 or 15 minutes. By the time I got here, I was shaking like a leaf.'' When he arrived, he told the Yankee pitching coach, Billy Connors, that he would dress and be on the field in moments. Connors told him not to worry, there was still time. Cary said that after realizing he was not late, ''I just sat down and tried to calm down.'' ''If I had missed it,'' he added, ''it would have been the worst thing to happen in my whole career. All I had to do after that was pitch on national television.'' Shaky in First Inning Not surprisingly, his first inning was shaky. Willie Wilson hit a leadoff triple to center before Cary walked Kevin Seitzer and threw a wild pitch that allowed a run to score. But he was helped when Luis Polonia caught a fly ball by Tartabull in left and threw out Seitzer trying to advance to third. Cary set down the last two batters in the first inning and 14 of 15 until Wilson led off the sixth with a single. ''I never really had a good rhythm,'' the pitcher said afterward. ''I didn't have a good slider, so I just threw my fastball as hard as I could and let them hit it. I was pretty tired. The first couple of innings is what took it out of me, working so hard. I never cruised.'' Certainly not in the pregame traffic. And when it was over, he was asked what he would do to insure arriving on time for his next appointed turn. ''I'll sleep here if I have to,'' he said. EILAND SENT BACK The Yankees sent down Dave Eiland, 0-3 in his last five starts, and purchased the contract of Davidson, who was 3-0 with a 0.81 earned run average at Columbus. Davidson, 26 years old, is the seventh Yankee pitcher this season to spend time at Columbus.
thank you, this has been an unsolved topic in my house for awhile and no one ever actually took the effort to really look into it, we heard michael kay goin off on one of his anecdote tangents one time and mustve assumed he was talkin about el duque or something but it obviously was cary, thanks alot for clearing it up
