The old man didn’t bounce it. And that was more than good enough for the old man.
Giants coach Tom Coughlin was happy that the first pitch he threw at Saturday’s game between the White Sox and the Yankees struck leather in lieu of land.
“It wasn’t in the dirt,” Coughlin said, via Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com. “It was probably high and inside, but it was close enough. I might have gotten the call.”
Coughlin said he wasn’t nervous about doing it, but that he definitely didn’t want to fail to get the ball to its target.
“You figure, here come the New York Yankees and they’re waiting for this old guy to get out of the way with the first pitch, I think you always say, ‘God, I hope I don’t bounce it up there,’” Coughlin said.
Coughlin has been on the mound in 2008, at the old Yankees Stadium.
“When I did this before, [Derek] Jeter said to me, ‘You’re getting up on the mound right?’” Coughlin said. “I said, ‘Yeah, I’m getting up on the mound.’ And then one of the guys said, ‘Don’t bounce it.’
“I said that to John Wooden one time. I told him about what I was gonna do, and people saying you can’t bounce it. He said, ‘I did that one time. I did it with the Angels one time.’ I said, ‘How’d you do? ' He said, ‘I bounced it.’
“And then I said, ‘They wouldn’t have booed you.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, they booed me.’”
Southern Californians booing John Wooden? That’s even worse than folks in Philly booing Santa Claus.
The old man younger than both has now twice escaped the Bronx without that reaction.