Tag: Kyle Higashioka

Nothing Like It

(This story originally appeared in the June 2021 edition of Yankees Magazine.)

For all the baseball games I’ve been to in my life, I can only count one no-hitter to my ledger. Fortunately, it was an extremely weird and memorable one, when the Astros used six pitchers to no-hit the Astros in 2003. I was sitting in the stands at the old Yankee Stadium that night, about 13 rows back, right behind the plate.

The night was amazing partly for how weird it was. My impression of a no-hitter had always been a dominant effort by a starter, one that had you humming in anticipation from about the fifth inning on. That night, it took a lot longer to realize what was happening, because Roy Oswalt had been knocked from the game in the second inning.

History is obviously kinder to the more singular no-nos. It’s easier to attach the feat to a single pitcher. But I’ve long wondered what type is worth to be on the losing end of? Would you rather just tip your cap to a pitcher who was rolling that night, acknowledging that everything he did was working? Or do you want to reckon with the reality that even no-name relievers were shutting you down on one particular night. I’m still not sure what the answer is.

Either way, on May 19, 2021, when Corey Kluber was starting in Texas, we had all but closed out our June issue. I had the cover story, about the Yankees up-to-that-point untouchable bullpen. For the July issue, I was thinking of writing about Corey Kluber, which was why I decided I wanted to watch that night’s story very closely, asking my wife to handle bedtimes and things like that so I could plant myself in front of the TV.

Arlington, TX: New York Yankees pitcher Corey Kluber delivers a pitch in the midst of throwing a no hitter, the first of his career during a game against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday, May 19, 2021. Photo by Ben Ludeman/Texas Rangers

By about the sixth inning, I was worried that we might have to fit some mention of the game into the June issue. By the ninth, I was worried we might have to scrap the cover. So it goes with no-hitters.

The next day, I wrote an entirely new cover story, about the Yankees’ first no-hitter in a couple of decades. Corey Kluber had a rocky, up-and-down year in pinstripes, with a few injuries and some incredible outings, but the no-hitter will live forever. As much of a hassle as it was to have to recreate our cover and write a story on the fly, I was incredibly grateful to get to write this one. It’s a story that I hope people will go back to when they think about great moments in Yankees history, and it’s nice to have had the chance to tell it.

https://www.mlb.com/news/yankees-magazine-corey-kluber-no-hitter

A Change is Gonna Come

(This story originally appeared in the June 2017 edition of Yankees Magazine.)

Spring Training is often a time when I go around fishing for stories. The clubhouses are filled with players, and there are fewer amenities off-limits to media, which means that the players are generally more accessible. And they’re usually in a good mood, so you can be a bit more playful in terms of what you’re looking for. Where I’ll head to a clubhouse during the regular season with a definite idea for what I need and who I want to speak to, I’ll often just seek to chat with anyone I see during spring training. You never know what can come up.

So this year, with Commissioner Rob Manfred showing a willingness to evaluate the game’s practices (see: the odd new intentional walk, which I’m still not used to), I felt like it would be cool to talk to basically every player on the team about the same subject: What would they change if they could do anything?

A couple of interesting things happened: One, the morning after my first day of question the guys on the team on the topic, The New York Times ran a big package on the same idea — what would baseball writers change? So that bummed me out a bit. But the more players I asked, the more interested I got in how different the answers were. Some guys were totally selfish and playful — make the strike zone bigger, a few pitchers said; let me get a strikeout with one strike. Other players were totally into the idea of developing the ideas beyond the superficial. For instance, Brett Gardner and I got into a back-and-forth about his idea of limited pickoff attempts. How could you do that practically in a way that wouldn’t just eventually give a runner a free base? It was an interesting chat.

There was one topic I wanted to pursue further that I wasn’t able to. I noticed, anecdotally, that almost all of the Latino players I spoke with weren’t at all willing to criticize the game. Not in any way. Their quotes were all “I’m so lucky, this game is so great.” I tried to push further — was it too simplistic to attribute that feeling to their culture? Was there some other connection that I was missing? In the end, I dropped it. No one wanted to help me get into their own psyches on the matter, and I didn’t want to go psychoanalyzing them. I wish I would have been able to.

Either way, there’s some stuff in here I really like. I think that the Chase Headley stuff was really intriguing — he is a great guy to talk to, in that he’s completely willing to break down his swing and his thinking on everything. And he was very frank on both sides of the argument he was making, even as I pointed out that he was contradicting himself. I think he didn’t care, and I kind of think that made it feel authentic.

Anyhow, I hope you’ll read and enjoy.