Steve Howe was a promising young reliever when he broke in with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1980. But although he had the presence and poise to become a star in the bigs, his even quicker spiral into the world of substance abuse tempered his quick success with the Dodgers. His most impressive statistic was his record-number of drug-related suspensions (seven).
Today marked the end for the colorful reliever. The former Yankee lefty who played for the Yankees from 1991-1996, lost his life in a car accident at the way too young age of 48. There was a moment of silence at Yankee Stadium before New York played Toronto on Friday night.
Back in the early 90s Howe was the perfect whipping boy at BTB as well as on the road in the American League, not to mention the ppress corps. In 1994 when the players went on strike Steve was selling tickets in Tampa at Spring Training (1995) to help him fulfill his sentence due to the drug charges. As part of his conviction he had to remain working to stay out of jail. They Yankees were behind Steve and let him work at the Ticket Office in Tampa.
Howe, who was a regular at the Yankee Fan Fest was 47-41 with 91 saves and a 3.03 ERA with the Dodgers, Minnesota, Texas as well as the Yankees. His final season in the majors was 1996, and the Yankees released him in June. Two days after the Yankees let him go, Howe was arrested at a Delta Airlines terminal at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport when a loaded .357 Magnum was detected inside his suitcase. He later pleaded guilty to gun possession and was placed on three years probation and given 150 hours of community service. Howe tried a comeback in 1997 with Sioux Falls of the independent Northern League. In August, he was critically injured in a motorcycle accident in Montana and charged with drunken driving. So one has to wonder of his condition when he had his accident.
Steve Howe may not have been the model Yankee, no not even by any stretch of the imagination. He did give it his all everyday and he did know what it meant to wear the pinstripes. The disease that took the not only the pinstripes but from the game from as well may have made a return visit and may have taken his life.
Unfortunately Howe will not be remembered for being a Yankee, not for being the hot shot reliever, not even for playing the game that he loved. Steve will be remembered for his seven "second chances". Sadly there are no second chances in life. RIP Steve. 1958-2006
I would like to send a wake up call to our Yankees to start playing like a team. You are swinging at too many first pitches, letting too many close pitches go by with a two strike count and just looking awkward at the plate. I know it is early and I am not panicing. I know we were 9-19 last season and came back from 14 games back in 78. This is 2006 my friends and the only destiny we have control of is our own. We can't make the Bostons, Torontos and baltimores lose unless we are playing them. Frankly we haven't been doing the best job of that. A good team wins one run games a bad team doesn't. So far we a re 0-4 in one run games.Are we going to come around? I have no doubt. My question is when??? We don't need this torture. Let's Go Yankees. And on a side note Let's Go Devils and Nets.
A magazine in Boston has released its list of the ugliest male celebrities. (No Asburry, Hideki Masui was not listed.) Randy Johnson took the #2 honors and Don Zimmer finished in the #29 spot. The Phoenix arts and entertainment alternative newsweekly ranked the "100 unsexiest unsexiest men in the world."
Just when it looked safe to go back in the water Mariano Rivera gave up the winning single with two outs in the ninth for a 6-5 Twins victory. After allowing runners to reach second and third with nobody out in the 9th, Mo proceeded to strike out the next two batters. The rest is history. We still aren't playing they way we should and Jaret Wright doesn't seem to be anything more than dead weight. Anyway we will see what happens next time out.
The 2006 Baseball Season officially takes off tonight as the Champion White Sox take on the Tribe at the New Comminsky or whatever they are calling it this week. In a game that was traditionally the Reds and Cubbies for years the two AL Central rivals open it all up in what really should be called Opening Night. Mark Burehrele makes his 5th Straight OD start against Cleveland's CC Sabathia.Tomorrow night in Oakland the Yankees send the Big Unit against the A's in the quest for #27.
as written by author and essayist Michael Aubrecht of the Pinstripe Press
No team in the history of Major League Baseball has ever dominated the postseason like the New York Yankees and their storied franchise currently leads all sports teams in championships-won. From Ruth and Gehrig - to Jeter and Rivera - the history of the "Bronx Bombers" in the Fall Classic continues to be written and rewritten again and again! The intent of this website is to provide fans with a concise, online reference guide featuring New York's World Series notables. I have also included several detailed studies into my own personal favorite Yankees World Series subjects, little known facts from Baseball-Almanac and key historical events that took place off the field. From purists and historians, to novices alike, this website has something for everyone!
The Last Nine Innings
By Charles Euchner
A Review By Phil Speranza
A baseball fan reads a book about baseball because he loves the game. The key word there is game. The cover itself will turn off the avid Yankee fan. The slogan "You'll Never watch a Baseball Game The Same Way." Broadcasts the fact that it more than just a baseball book. The author Charles Euchner has written six other books that deal with the business of baseball as far as the amenities go.
As far as the baseball purest goes the slogan itself tells you this book is more than the game. The photo brings back a bad memory to the Yankee fan all by itself. The photo is enough to keep the Yankee fan from buying the book. The photo depicts Luis Gonzalez's game winning hit with one out in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 2001 World Series. A game that had Yankees written all over it. From the travesty of the WTC bombings to a World Series where the Yankees should have been swept.
Mr. Euchner marks this hit and game as a turning point in the make up of todays game. It is at this point that he asks the question Is Baseball Better or Worse? He questions everything from psychology, movements, fitness, and their relationship with the "new" stats of the game. He blasts everything from the media to the free agent system and naturally jumps on the steroids bandwagon.
The author uses Game 7 of the 2001 World Series as the main focal point to rip into the game that we love. He takes shots at Paul O'Neill as well as teen idol Derek Jeter. O'Neill's base running choices that feeds fuel to a discussion about the theory and practice of base running; he takes a sharp grounder to Jeter in the second inning and make it gospel of his whole career and shoots down the use of fielding stats in general.
Euchner hits just about everything: there are treatments on the mechanics and physics of hitting and pitching, the intricacies of managing, and the globalization of the game, and quite a few other subjects. The author makes a simple game way to complicated and if one reads this book to learn about the game they would probably chose another sport to be a fan of. You didn't think that game seven had such an impact did you?
Mr. Euchner does a great job of detailing the events of each inning in with conversations he's had with the managers of each team, the players, and other people associated with the game of baseball. I probably would have enjoyed that more if my team won, but it was a great insight into what went wrong. He also uncovers trivial tidbits like conversations with Mariano Rivera where he reveals why he plans to devote himself to God after his playing days are over. Her brings forth the fact that Mariano's close friend and teammate; Enrique Wilson may be dead now if the Yankees had won that game. It seems Wilson had reservations on Flight 587 to the Dominican Republic; which crashed bearing no survivors upon take off. Once the Yankees fell to the D-backs Enrique changed his reservations to an earlier flight and the rest is history.
While it brings up a lot of trivial, although some useless facts the book is quite an interesting read but maybe not for the between the lines baseball fan as it brings up way too many bad memories for the Bronx Bomber fans.
