Bounce Back

Joba Chamberlain left Yankee Stadium with the same bounce in his step that he entered with several hours earlier. He will return with the same bounce today.

That’s the best thing he could do after surrendering an eighth-inning lead on David Dellucci’s three-run homer.

“There’s no pitcher that hasn’t gone through that process,” said Mariano Rivera after last night’s loss to Cleveland. “Everybody goes through it. The biggest thing is how you bounce back.”

Rivera smiled.

“Joba is going to be fine.”

Chamberlain doesn’t have to look for answers. He can get them from Rivera and Andy Pettitte and Chien-Ming Wang and Mike Mussina and LaTroy Hawkins.

“Now he knows what baseball will do to you,” Hawkins told Peter Abraham of the Journal News. “If he’s smart, he’ll never forget it. That right there is part of the job.”

And baseball – for all its promise of money and fame – is a hard job. The toughest men have to keep a bounce in their step to survive.

Chamberlain will bounce back to the ballpark in just a few hours.