Becoming Mr. October (9780385533126) by Jackson Reggie; Baker Kevin

Author:Jackson, Reggie; Baker, Kevin [Jackson, Reggie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-53312-6
Publisher: Random House Digital
Published: 2013-10-08T04:00:00+00:00

But no matter what anybody else said, I wasn’t starting. Billy made Cliff Johnson the designated hitter and put him in my number four spot, and he put Paul Blair out in right field.

Both fine players. But you know, Cliff Johnson had played fifty-six games for us that year. Paul Blair played eighty-three. Neither one of them had two hundred at-bats. Counting the playoffs, Cliff was something like 3–5 against Splittorff. Blair was 1–3. That was no kind of measure; that’s not enough at-bats to make a decision like this one.

That season, even with all the distractions, I had thirty-two homers, 110 ribbies, thirty-nine doubles. I was fifth in the league in homers, sixth in RBIs, third in slugging, tenth in on-base percentage, second in doubles. Anyway you sliced it, I was one of the premier hitters in the league, the premier hitter on the Yanks. It was crazy to play your biggest game of the year without your cleanup hitter being part of it.

It was an attempt to put me down, I felt. Billy had this opportunity, he had his reasons, and he wanted to show the world that he was in charge, that he could win the pennant without me.

The only good thing to be said about it all was that Fran did end up telling me I was benched for the game. Because he didn’t just come over and say, “You’re not starting.” He also said, “Make sure you don’t say anything negative. You’ve gotta be a team guy here. Watch what you do in the dugout. Whatever you do, make sure the camera doesn’t catch you emoting or doing anything they can tag a comment to. That camera will be on you. It will be looking for you to make some sort of scene or something. Just make sure you’re out there rooting for the team.”

Then he told me, “Stay ready. You never know, you could wind up winning the game for us. So make sure you stay in the game.”

It was great advice. I didn’t follow all of it. I didn’t really stay in the game. At times, I just thought about anything but the game. I was broken and couldn’t get past not playing.

I couldn’t be mad for three hours, so I just kind of checked out. I just sat there kind of emotionless. Somewhat removed. Thinking about why Martin would bench me. I was just thinking, “What are you doing? What are you trying to prove? You’re going to prove that you can manage me? Show people who you are?”

It was a crazy chance to take. If Billy had lost that game with me on the bench, he would’ve been fired immediately, or so I thought.

But I didn’t let any of those feelings show. I took Fran’s advice, made sure I looked like I was in the game all the way, for the TV cameras. Made sure it looked like I was leading the cheers.

When I went out to the dugout before the

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