The Beginning

The guys gathered around Juan Carlos’s coffee cart in the Bronx took some swings at a question this morning.

“Was that the beginning?” Javier from Walton Avenue asked. “Can yesterday’s game be the one that gets this team on the kind of roll we know they’re capable of?

“Their record is 10-10,” Javier continued. “Are they ready to start climbing the ladder?”

Everyone nodded.

“So what got it started?” Javier asked.

Everyone had something to offer.

“The back-to-back doubles by A-Rod and Matsui,” someone said.

“It was Damon’s two-run homer that stretched out the lead,” said another.

“The Captain,” someone else shot. “He put the game away with that three-RBI double in the ninth.”

They all considered those points before Javier moved to the mound.

“It really started with Andy Pettitte,” Javier said. “He held them down until those guys put up some runs. The starters need to do more of that. We are gonna win a whole bunch of games if they pitch up to their ability.”

The next beginning starts with Chien-Ming Wang.