April 18, 2012 – In addition to the Five Minutes with Jalen Rose feature (which I wrote about on this blog a few weeks ago), there will also be a Five Minutes with Magic Johnson interview in the May Issue of Yankees Magazine.

I interviewed Johnson at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway, where the show Magic/Bird is currently running.

The play details how the once contentious rivalry between Johnson and Larry Bird ultimately turned into a life-long bond.

In the interview, Johnson told me that he believes the scene that depicts his visit to Indiana to film a Converse commercial with Bird is the most compelling part of the show.

“Larry’s mother greeted me with a hug and told me how much she admired me,” Johnson said. “That was a wonderful moment in my life, and the way it’s portrayed in the play is very special.

“When we broke for lunch from shooting the commercial, I started walking from Larry’s outdoor basketball court to the trailer,” Johnson continued. “I assumed I would be eating with the crew in the trailer, but Larry invited me to eat lunch with him at his house. That showed me that I was welcome in his home, and when I met his mother, I learned that they had great family values and a lot of love for each other. It really gave me the opportunity to learn about Larry Bird the man, not just Larry Bird the basketball player. Larry also got a chance to learn about Earvin Johnson the man, not just Magic Johnson the basketball player. Before long, we were laughing like two little boys, and that’s what turned a contentious rivalry into a friendship.”

While the opportunity to interview Magic Johnson was unforgettable in its own right, the setting made it even more memorable.

In 1920, Harry Frazee, who owned the Boston Red Sox for seven years, sold the rights to Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $100,000. A well-publicized myth in baseball lore states that Frazee made the sale in order to fund the play No, No Nanette, which was staged at the Longacre Theatre in 1925.

Whether the sale of Ruth was actually orchestrated so that Frazee could bring No, No Nanette to Broadway and whether that trade put an 86-year curse on the Yankees’ arch-rivals will continue to be debated for as long as baseball is played.

But regardless of whether those the sale of Ruth had anything to do with the funding of No, No Nanette, the two events will always be linked — making the Longacre Theatre a hidden baseball landmark.

–Alfred Santasiere III

April 2, 2012 — Over the last few months, I have been compiling quotes about Derek Jeter and about Mariano Rivera from members of the Baseball Hall of Fame for a spread in the 2012 New York Yankees Official Yearbook — which, by the way comes out on April 13.

The quote section will commemorate Jeter’s 3,000th hit and Rivera’s record-breaking 602nd save, milestones that were achieved in 2011.

Prior to today’s game, I spoke to Andre Dawson and Tony Perez, both of whom work for the Miami Marlins. The words of these Hall of Famers underscore the respect that the game’s greatest players have for Jeter and Rivera, and will be added to quotes from the likes of Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt, Goose Gossage, Pau Molitor and several others.

“I’m a huge fan of Derek,” Perez said. “He has the will to win every time he takes the field. He may not put up huge power numbers, but he has hit some big home runs over the years. Derek is a consistent hitter, a great fielder, and he drives in runs late in games. That is the sign of greatness.”

April 1, 2012 – While today’s game between the Miami Marlins and the New York Yankees is an exhibition contest, it is still the first contest between two major league teams at Marlins Park.

With one swing of the bat, Derek Jeter added another milestone to his legacy. Jeter’s latest hit will never be confused with any of his greatest moments, but at the same time, it can never be duplicated.

Jeter collected the first hit (by a big-league player) in the history of Marlins Park. The Yankees captain connected on the first pitch ever thrown in the Marlins new home and lined it to center field for a double.

The reaction to Jeter’s hit was positive. With a significant number of Yankees fans in the crowd, the cheers made it seem as if a Marlins player had actually collected the hit. Even the large contingent of Marlins supporters in the ballpark applauded the Yankees captain.

–Alfred Santasiere III

April 1, 2012 – My first memory of watching a live sporting event made a life-long impact on me. It was a magical day, which fueled my passion for sports more than any other single event I have witnessed in sports since.

That sporting event was a game between the Miami Dolphins and the Atlanta Falcons at the old Orange Bowl stadium in downtown Miami in 1986. I was seven years old, and even though my beloved Miami Dolphins came up short that afternoon, the experience of sitting next to my father and my grandfather and watching Dan Marino complete pass after pass through a rain storm with what seemed like an effortless release was unforgettable. Our seats were in the first row of the field level and on the 50-yard line — and in the old Orange Bowl, that location made it feel as if you were sitting on the bench with the Dolphins.

Today, I am watching the Yankees take on the Miami Marlins in the first major league game at Marlins Park, which is located where the Orange Bowl once stood.

Prior to the game, Alex Rodriguez, who grew up in Miami and is also a passionate Miami Dolphins fan, spoke about his memories of the Orange Bowl and about what today means to him.

“I grew up on these square blocks and took the bus to the Orange Bowl to watch the Miami Hurricanes and Dan Marino and the Dolphins,” Rodriguez said. “The Monday night game in which the Dolphins beat the undefeated Chicago Bears is my favorite childhood memory. The Orange Bowl was a magical place to watch football games, and having the chance to see Dan Marino play there was a big treat.

“This is a very special day,” Rodriguez continued. “I never imagined that there would be such a beautiful baseball stadium here. To be able to play in the first game in this ballpark is wonderful. My family will be at the game, and it will be emotional.”

It’s easy for me to relate to Rodriguez.

I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to cover the first major league game at Marlins Park because it’s a historical day in Miami. And, as I look out at downtown Miami from my seat in the press box, the memories of being at the Orange Bowl as a kid are flooding back.

–Alfred Santasiere III

April 1, 2012 – On March 29, I took a scenic drive through Connecticut to meet up with former NBA star Jalen Rose for lunch, and to interview him for a “Five Minutes with…” feature that will be published in the May issue of Yankees Magazine.

I met Rose at Cava, an Italian restaurant nestled in the rural town of Southington, which is a few miles from the ESPN Plaza in Bristol. Rose, who is a basketball analyst for ESPN, spends about 10 days a month in Bristol.

Over lunch, Rose and I discussed Derek Jeter, who the former Indiana Pacer played against in an AAU basketball game while the two were in high school.

“I don’t want to be too braggadocios,” Rose said while drinking a cup of tea. “But we beat Derek’s team by about 60 points. We won an AAU National Championship that season, and we were the best team in the state of Michigan for several years. Howard Eisley, who played in the NBA for more than a decade, was also on that team.

“Derek was a good shooter and a very cerebral basketball player,” Rose continued. “He has always been a great athlete.”

Rose, who has gotten to know Jeter since the two became professional athletes, also discussed the esteemed career of the Yankees captain with me.

“When I talk to members of the media, fans and fellow professional athletes about Derek, they all say the same things about him: He embodies class and professionalism, and he is the ultimate champion on the grandest stage. I feel the same way about Derek.

“The New York Yankees are the most storied franchise in professional sports, and Derek has been the rock for that team for 16 years,” Rose continued. “He has won five championships, and he has more than 3,000 hits to his name. Who gets their 3,000th hit on a home run? Only a guy like Derek could do that.”

Rose also shed light on the level of pride that fellow Michigan residents take in the fact that Jeter’s formative years were spent in the Wolverine state.

“Derek is from Kalamazoo, which is a blue-collar town,” Rose said. “Michigan is an industrial state, and we take pride in our own. We take pride in rolling up our sleeves and working hard, and Derek embodies that. When he dove into the stands and got bloodied up in that game in 2004, that showed the kind of character he has. Michigan is nothing but proud of Derek Jeter.”

Of course, we also talked about the University of Michigan’s Fab Five team from the early ’90s, which Rose played a major role on and which became a cultural phenomenon.

“When we played on the road, it wasn’t uncommon for there to be as many fans rooting for us as for the team whose campus we were on,” Rose said about the group of five freshman who led the Wolverines to the 1992 NCAA championship game and who made it back to the championship game in the 1993 NCAA Tournament. “People asked us for autographs in hotels, and when we played in Europe, we got a standing ovation every time we took the court.”

Rose, who is as kind and gracious as any interview subject I’ve sat down with, also shared his thoughts on the legacy of the Fab Five.

“As interested as people were in our play on the court, there was even more intrigue in the cultural impact we had on the game,” Rose said. “When I watch sporting events today, I realize that athletes have become living billboards. That really started with us. When we took the court wearing black socks and baggy shorts, business people became aware that the apparel athletes wear is marketable.

“Additionally, so many athletes, including Allen Iverson and Kevin Garnett, have told me that we influenced them and inspired them,” Rose continued. “That is something I take a great deal of pride in, and that feeling will never die.”

In addition to his work with ESPN, Rose also served as the executive producer of the recently released documentary, titled Fab Five. If you have are a fan of sports, have an interest in popular culture or simply want to learn about a compelling group of young men, I strongly suggest this documentary. I’ve seen watched it three times, and I plan to take it in on several more occasions.

–Alfred Santasiere III

March 21, 2012 – On March 7, I conducted one of the most memorable interviews of my career.

A few hours before the Yankees took on the Philadelphia Phillies at Bright House Field in Clearwater, Florida I interviewed Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson and Mike Schmidt.

As I sat in the home dugout between Schmidt, who hit 548 career home runs and Jackson, who hit 563 home runs, I can honestly say that I took it all in.

The half-hour long interview brought out the best in both legends. While the mood was relaxed, the former players offered answers that were as luminous as their play once was.

At the start of the interview, I asked Jackson what made Schmidt one of the best players in history, and I asked Schmidt what made Jackson one of the all-time greats.

“The well roundedness of his game,” Jackson began. “When I think about players like George Brett, Brooks Robinson and Eddie Mathews, who had great careers, I still believe Mike is the best third baseman of all-time. Mike’s power, consistency and run production were second to none, and he always got big hits when it mattered the most. Mike won a championship, earned World Series MVP honors and led the league in home runs eight times.

“Mike and I came into the game together, and there were some high expectations on both of us,” Jackson continued. “We both lived up to those expectations, and we’ve been friends for a long time, which is pretty cool.”

“Reggie is the epitome of charisma and winning,” Schmidt added. “He always enjoyed the pressure of big games. One of the things I admired about him before we became friends was his ability to handle that pressure. There was something about Reggie in that he could always find the big hit when his team needed it. He was a winner from his days in Oakland through the years he spent with the Yankees, and it’s very special to have a such a great friendship with him now.”

A few minutes later, I asked Jackson to talk about Bob Sheppard, whose career as the Yankee Stadium public address announcer spanned more than 50 years, and who Mr. October once referred to as “The Voice of God.”

“Bob Sheppard had been at Yankee Stadium from the days of Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle through the Derek Jeter era,” Jackson said. “That is an incredible tenure, and one that will never be duplicated. When fans walked into Yankee Stadium and heard, ‘Ladies and Gentleman, Welcome to Yankee Stadium,’ they felt a reverence for the ballpark. When Bob announced my name, it gave me the chills, and it was an honor for every ballplayer to hear their name get announced by him.”

I then asked Schmidt to discuss another iconic baseball voice, Philadelphia’s Harry Kalas, who I am proud to have once met, when I was an intern in the Phillies ticket office in 2000.

“Harry began his career at around the same time I broke into the big leagues,” Schmidt said. “Harry called just about every game of my career. I owe a great deal to him because he was the middleman between our fan base and me. Harry always painted a positive picture of me, and he always said good things about me in between innings.

“Of course, he also gave me the nickname, Michael Jack, which people in Philadelphia still call me,” Schmidt continued. “It’s fun to live through Harry’s voice, memories and the pictures he painted of my career. Like Bob Sheppard, Harry is a baseball legend.”

As Schmidt was answering my final question, Jim Thome of the Phillies arrived in the dugout and greeted Jackson. That moment was somewhat surreal as I was now in the presence of three members of the 500 Home Run Club. Between Thome, who has 604 home runs to his name, and Jackson and Schmidt, the men who had converged on the far side of the third base dugout had hit a combined 1,715 home runs.

The entire Q&A feature with will be published in the October issue of Yankees Magazine.

–Alfred Santasiere III

March 21, 2012 – On March 1, I celebrated my 33^rd birthday over lunch with a guy who once wore No. 33 for the New York Yankees.

David Wells, who pitched a perfect game for the Yankees on May 17, 1998, spoke to me about his career in pinstripes at his favorite eatery in Florida.

Yankees team photographer James Petrozzello and I met Wells at Pete & Shorty’s Tavern in Clearwater for lunch and for the first part of a candid interview that will ultimately take us to San Diego in May.

The story I’m working on will detail Wells’ first and second tenures in pinstripes along with his current-day life, in which he is a Yankees spring training instructor, a baseball analyst for the TBS Network and a pitching coach for his alma mater, Point Loma High School in San Diego.

I found Pete & Shorty’s, which is famous for its delicious burgers, to be the perfect place to meet Wells at because of his history of dining there with a most-influential owner.

Following the trade in which Wells (along with Homer Bush and Graeme Lloyd) was sent to the Toronto Blue Jays for Roger Clemens, Wells met the late George Steinbrenner at Pete & Shorty’s on several occasions, as the two became friends.

On Christmas Eve of 2001, at which time Wells was a free agent, Steinbrenner threw a curveball to the pitcher.

“He offered me a three-year deal to come back to the Yankees,” Wells said. “It was hard for me to hold back my emotions. I wanted to pump my fist, because I was so excited. George was writing out the terms of the deal on paper napkins. Finally, someone brought us some paper. It was absolutely crazy to think that the deal came together in a conversation among two friends over burgers.

“When I left the restaurant that day, I was laughing because I couldn’t believe what had just transpired,” Wells continued. “I also shed a few tears of joy because I was going to be coming back to a place I loved.”

As our conversation continued, Wells spoke to me about what it meant to throw a perfect game in pinstripes — a game that Petrozzello and I were at many years before either of us worked for the Yankees.

“It gave me a legacy in New York and with the Yankees,” Wells said. “If I had thrown a perfect game anywhere else, it wouldn’t have had the same impact. Even today, when I walk through New York City, I hear ‘Hey Booma, great perfect game.”

I will post a second blog entry about this story, which will be published in the August issue of Yankees Magazine, following my upcoming trip to San Diego.

–Alfred Santasiere III

March 21, 2012 – In case you haven’t seen it yet, the Spring 2012 Issue of Yankees Magazine is out.

As I wrote on this blog a few months ago, the cover story details Derek Jeter’s return to his hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan for the ceremony in which his high school field was named after him.

I am especially proud to have had the opportunity to spend time with the Yankees captain where he learned to the play the game that has catapulted him to iconic status.

This issue also features a story by contributing writer Jack Curry about Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano’s mid-winter trip to Taiwan for an All-Star series and sightseeing tour, as well as managing editor Kristina M. Dodge’s story on the first 10 years of the YES Network.

There is also a story about the many Negro League games played at the old Yankee Stadium in the 1930s and 1940, and contributing writer Eric Enders brilliantly wrote that feature.

This issue of Yankees Magazine has added significance because it’s the first ever edition that is also available digitally.

You can place an order for individual copies of this groundbreaking issue or for a one-year digital subscription to Yankees Magazine through www.yankees.com/publications.

In addition to being able to purchase the print edition of Yankees Magazine through www.yankees.com/publications, you can also subscribe by calling (800) GO-YANKS.

–Alfred Santasiere III

March 4, 2012 — One of the feature stories I am working on this spring will detail a day in the life of Michael Pineda, the Yankees newest starting pitcher. The feature will be published in the April 2012 issue of Yankees Magazine and in the 2012 New York Yankees Official Yearbook.

Pineda is 23 years old, and he was traded to the Yankees for another budding star, catcher Jesus Montero.

In his first big-league season, Pineda made an impact on the baseball world, posting a 9-10 record with a 3.74 ERA. The 6-foot, 7-inch righthander, who struck out 173 batters in 171 innings for the Mariners last year, was selected to pitch in the All-Star Game.

At around 7:30 am on February 29, I met Pineda at the apartment complex he is living in during Spring Training. On the way to the ballpark, he spoke to me about now much his thoughts on pitching for the Yankees.

March 4, 2012 – A few short hours after the NBA All-Star Game came to a close, I was at George M. Steinbrenner Field for Media Day. As always, Yankees team photographer James Petrozzello captured beautifully lit portraits of virtually every Yankees player. Many of those photos will grace the covers and interiors of upcoming issues of Yankees Magazine this season.

Petrozzello photographed the players from the umpires’ locker room rather than from his customary spot in the dugout. The location change will give the magazine a slightly different look in 2012, and I am optimistic that it will be well received.

Another difference from media day in recent years is that the New York Yankees media relations department brought back a tradition that had not been carried out in at least a decade.

For the first time in years, players were given index cards with their names on them, so that the many photographers and editorial directors could easily identify each player on the 40-man roster, which includes several guys who have not yet played in the majors.

During Derek Jeter’s first spring training in the Yankees big-league camp, a few photographers asked the shortstop to hold up the index card, so that he could easily be identified.

Twenty years later, Jeter was again walking from photo station to photo station with an index card featuring his name and uniform number. This time around, we were the only publication to ask Jeter to pose with the card. Needless to say, our reason was not because we didn’t recognize one of the most famous faces in the world, but rather because it made for a unique photo, which will be published in the April Issue of Yankees Magazine.

–Alfred Santasiere III