There was a nonworking trip to New York to watch baseball over the July 4 holiday in 2007. The Twins would be playing four games in Yankee Stadium.
There were two Reusse gents, and we wound up with very good seats (thanks, Sid). We were down low to the left of the Yankees dugout. The first two rows for a couple of games were occupied by Michael Bloomberg and what appeared to be family members.
Bloomberg was in his second term as New York City’s popular mayor. What made our seats a couple rows farther back even better is that Bloomberg is not very tall. Of course, he would be very tall if he was standing on his money, for the current estimated wealth of the former Hizzoner is $104 billion.
The lasting impression of that series was the immense size of Alex Rodriguez as he spent time directly in front of us in the on-deck circle. From the usual location from the press box high above, A-Rod was impressively muscular.
In that on-deck circle, in uniform, he was the precursor to Giancarlo Stanton, not quite Aaron Judge. He blocked out left field. For the mayor and his companions, he had to block out the subway trains that run behind the ballpark in the Bronx.
I long have been amazed by the naivete of myself and most of the baseball writing fraternity when it came to steroids. Many of us assembled for the drama of the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run chase in September 1998.
We looked at the mammoth frame of McGwire, a 6-foot-5 string bean when he broke in with the A’s, and the muscle threatening to explode from the skin of Sosa, once a “put the ball in play and run” outfielder, and said:
“It’s amazing what these dedicated players can do with their year-round workouts.”