Andy Pettitte just threw a four-inning simulated game, which made for a distinctly surreal sight. For one thing, every third batter was Andy Phillips, who needed to get some work in — having missed a week to be with his mother, who was severely injured in a car accident, but is slowly recovering, he says. He was two for nine in four “innings” (some had three outs others two or four; Pettitte just sat for around 10 minutes in between).
The fielders were mostly minor leaguers — one wearing Bernie’s old #51, which was jarring, and another in Joe Torre’s #6; guess they don’t honor retired numbers in the minor league system — but they also included Jeter and A-Rod. Pettitte said afterwards that when Jeter kidded him about having to field the fake game, he replied “I don’t wanna hear no complaints, Cap’s coming out here for me.” Sure enough, there was Don Mattingly playing (er, “playing”) first base. Now there’s something you don’t see every day. He looked pretty good on a low throw by Jeter, actually.
Here’s something else you don’t see every day: Reggie Jackson walking the edge of the field in a grey t-shirt and shorts, picking up stray balls. I guess the regular bat boys were busy?
I don’t think I can go to Fort Myers, unfortunately — my back totally locked up a couple of days ago, and six hours in the car is just not looking like a good idea. But I’ll watch the game on MLB.tv. Pavano clearly had a legit reason for missing his last start, but still, at this point, everybody needs to see something out of him; Cano, Cabrera, Giambi and Matsui are the only other regulars along for the ride.
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