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General Red Sox General Yankees History

Partying Like It’s 1996

Peter Abraham had a great post about the shared history of Derek Jeter and Tim Wakefield a couple of days ago.

They first met on July 15, 1996 at Fenway Park. Jeter, batting leadoff, doubled the first time he faced Wakefield. But Wakefield stuck around for five innings and got the win in an 8-6 Red Sox victory. Every other player who got in that game has retired.

The Red Sox lineup
Jeff Frye 2B 
John Valentin SS 
Mo Vaughn 1B 
Jose Canseco DH 
Tim Naehring 3B 
Reggie Jefferson LF 
Mike Stanley C 
Troy O'Leary RF 
Lee Tinsley CF 
Tim Wakefield RHP

The Yankees lineup
Derek Jeter SS 
Bernie Williams CF 
Paul O'Neill RF 
Darryl Strawberry DH 
Tino Martinez 1B 
Mariano Duncan 2B 
Jim Leyritz C 
Gerald Williams LF 
Andy Fox 3B 
Ramiro Mendoza RHP

[Then-]Yankees manager Joe Girardi pinch hit in that game.

It's a remarkable history. It seems quite likely, in fact, that no Yankee player has faced a Red Sox player as often as Wakefield and Jeter have — 130 times now, including the postseason. It requires one of the teams to have a hitter and the other to have a pitcher whose careers overlap for 15 years or more. That's incredibly rare. 

Wakefield's gotten the better of the matchups lately. Last night's fifth-inning double was the first hit Jeter recorded against Wakefield in 13 plate appearances, with one walk, dating back to the beginning of 2009.

17 replies on “Partying Like It’s 1996”

Wake needs 11 wins to become the Red Sox all-time leader in victories. He has 182, Clemens has 192. I so very badly want Wake to get this team record.
…
also, Ken Rosenthal today wrote that Cano said Wake should be in the Hall of Fame. We all know that’s a stretch, but it’s helluva compliment coming from Cano.
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Funny thing is, we’ve long thought of Wakefield as an old man (he’s almost three years younger than me and I don’t feel old). But, perception being what it is, I don’t think I’d ever thought I’d end up viewing Jeter and an old man, relatively speaking, of course. He certainly doesn’t look old. (Yaz definitely looked old.) That’s what’s weird to me – Jeter the old man.

I think I have mentioned that I saw Wake pitch for the Buffalo Bisons when I was in high school in the early 90’s. Craziness.
You are very old IBM. ;)

well, we are officially toast…can we start whining about injuries now and declare this a bridge year?…
DC, only if you lose your two most valuable hitters, too.

still not sold on this excessive injury whine. the yanks haven’t lost any major contributors on the offensive side. sure the bully is decimated, but that was bound to happen when you enter the season with a 2.5 man rotation.
you say hughes, i say matsuzaka.
you say soriano, i say jenks.
you say feliciano, i say okajima.
you say joba, i say hill.
not to mention lackey/pedroia/scutaro
seems like the natural course of season thus far. or maybe i missing something.

kinda forgot about chavez. but he was essentially a utility guy that the yanks took a flier on and panned out in a small sample. he wasn’t someone the yanks were banking on coming into the season.

you say hughes, i say matsuzaka.
you say soriano, i say jenks.
you say feliciano, i say okajima.
you say joba, i say hill.
not to mention lackey/pedroia/scutaro
None of these are even close. Hughes sucks (4 WAR over the last two seasons), but he’s been twice as valuable as Dice-K (2 WAR). Soriano is significantly better than Jenks. Feliciano, same deal. And the Joba to Hill is so ridiculous you should have your internet commenting privileges revoked.
Lackey and Scutaro are middling starters.
The only significant loss from the Sox is Pedroia and they make up for that with Ortiz significantly overperforming expectations.
Whatever, the Yankees are a mess and hopefully this is the last season of the Cashman Era. The guy is a joke.

i guess if you’re comparing these players in years past with other teams, but i was weighing their contributions to their teams so far this year. you know, the year they got hurt in.

well then technically, rod, the Twins losing Joe Mauer is no big deal since he hit like Miguel Cairo when he played. I should know because I have him and Nishioka and a bunch of other injured guys on my fantasy team.
That said, the Twins’s season is impressively brutal, very Mets-like.
I’m coming into NYC for a few weeks starting mid-June. It’s your job, rod, to tell me about the concerts I should go to while stateside. Don’t disappoint!

@ nick
upcomming shows…
decemberists & best coast @ prospect park in brooklyn 6/14
swervedriver @ irving plaza 6/16
beirut @ mccarren park 6/17
woods @ st. cecilia’s church 6/17
guided by voices & wavves @ mccarren park 6/18
glenn kotche (of wilco) @ skirball center 6/18
welcome home/safe travels. i would kill to go to that woods show on the 17th.

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