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February 02, 2007

An Old Friend Still Ticking

So, I'm watching Venezuela play the Dominican Republic in the first game of the 2007 Caribbean Series after my dinner this evening. And, in the end, the Dominican Republic wins the game - in the bottom of the 18th inning!

Guess who got a single in the bottom of the 18th to help set up the winning score for the Dominican Republic?

It was none other than Luis Polonia. Yes, 42-year old Luis Polonia is still plugging away out there - playing ball.

When most Yankees fans think of Polonia, they probably recall that he, back in 1989 (as a then 24-year old member of the Yankees), hooked up with an Annie in Milwaukee after a game - who later turned out to be 15-years old. Polonia got locked up for 60 days on that one - and the Yankees ended up trading him 8 months after the incident.

However, I wonder how many remember that Polonia (in what was his third tour of duty in New York) was a member of the last Yankees team to win a World Series ring (in 2000)?

Further, while many fans remember Paul O'Neill's big walk against Armando Benitez in the 9th inning of Game 1 of the 2000 World Series - which led to the Yankees tying the game in the 9th (and eventually winning it in the 12th) - how many fans remember that it was Luis Polonia who followed that O'Neill walk with a pinch-hit single (batting for Brosius) that pushed the eventual tying run to second base?

That single against Benitez on October 21, 2000 was the last hit that Polonia had in a big league uniform. Yet, today, 2,295 days later, he's still banging out big base hits late in big pro-baseball games.

Back on June 21, 1989, Polonia first joined the Yankees when he was traded by the Oakland Athletics (with Greg Cadaret and Eric Plunk) to the Yankees for Rickey Henderson.

It's pretty interesting that both Henderson and Polonia would go on to play ball into their 40's - and be willing to keep playing outside of the major leagues to do it.

Talk about diehards, indeed.

Posted by Steve Lombardi at February 2, 2007 10:17 PM

Comments

Holy crap! What a game. At first I didn't think it was THE Luis "she didn't look 15" Polonia. He was what, 0-for-6 before that hit? I like how the Mexican and Puerto Rican teams showed up in the dugouts during the extra innings. Their game didn't start until after 11pm P.R. time. Reminded me of my last high school softball game that went 21 innings. It was the county tournament so there were 2 other games that were supposed to be played after ours on the same field. At one point we had 4 teams hanging around waiting for us to finish.

Posted by: Jen [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 2, 2007 11:47 PM

Is Fernando still pitching? I know he pitched last year

Posted by: Raf [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 3, 2007 02:22 AM