Andy Pettitte's return to the Yankee Stadium rubber will have to wait until Thursday.
The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays were rained out today in New York. No makeup date has been announced. Joe Torre also reshuffled the rotation which means Mike Mussina, Kei Igawa and Darrell Rasner will follow Pettitte's start tomorrow. That also means Carl Pavano will take his show on the road against the Minnesota Twins on Monday.
Pettitte hasn't pitched for the Yankees since Game 6 of the 2003 World Series. The Yanks would have never reached the World Series that year without Pettitte. The Yankees dropped Game 1 of each playoff series (Twins, Red Sox and Marlins) only to have Pettitte draw them even after Game 2. I happened to be in attendance for Game 2 against the Florida Marlins. Pettitte was masterful and the Yankee faithful let him know -- they chanted his name as he walked off the mound in the 9th. I still don't know how the Yanks lost that series.
Anyway, April showers bring May flowers (or so they say) so Pettitte will have to wait another day to become reacquainted with Yankee Stadium. Some of us wish he never left.
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The Yanks lost that series for two reasons:
1. Mo had to pitch too much in the Sox series to get there, and he worked 2 innings in game 3.
2. Torre was left with no option but Weaver in game 4. Weaver has no spine, he came in and lost the game immediately. That game cost them the series, if Mo had been available who knows what would've happened. If Ted Lilly was still on the team instead of Weaver, who knows. As it happened, the series was locked up 2-2 and it went downhill from there.