Ladies, there’s a new fashion trend in leather accessories this fall for fending off unwanted advances. Wear a baseball glove and leave the thick laces normally tied at the wrist and the outside of the hand hanging loose. This seems to hypnotize pinstripers (powerful bankers or Yankee hitters) unable to believe they can’t get to first base with you.
Just ask the Phillies’ Cliff Lee, the artful Arkansan who addled the most powerful line-up in baseball in their own home-run derby park in the first game of the 2009 World Series. The untied straps of leather dangled at the wind-up, then they slapped like Indiana Jones’ whip when the ball came out in the bare hand, striking out 10, walking none and giving up not one earned run in a complete game 6-1 Phillies victory.
More impressive, Mr. Lee’s sangfroid makes him the leading candidate to become the next James Bond. “What’s the point of being nervous?” he said after the game.
The Smersh operatives known as the Bronx Bombers were dispatched with an array of pitches (one of which is called a spiked curveball) that rivaled all the gadgets with which Q equips 007. His nonchalant, hip-high catch of a pop fly and his behind-the back, matador-like snaring of a hot ground ball up the middle brought insouciant Bond-like smirks to Mr. Lee’s face. It was as if he were saying, “This game is too easy.”
Meanwhile, the pajama-clad CC Sabathia labored manfully for the empire, despite giving up two homers to fellow left-hander Chase Utley. We won’t even go into manager Joe Girardi’s pitching changes here. It was like Dr. Evil dispatching underlings with the touch of a button.
But the fun has only begun. Tonight, Pedro takes the mound for the visitors in the new Yankee Stadium, a house meant to revive the glories of Pharaohs past with new monarchs. Can the aging tomb raider steal a win?
In any event, James Bond has managed to keep the free world alive for another day.
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