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© St. Petersburg Times, published October 30, 2001
NEW YORK -- Whether he pitches well remains to be seen, but there's a pretty good chance Arizona starter Brian Anderson is going to enjoy pitching tonight.
Anderson is a 29-year-old left-hander who is a little off-center.
How else to describe a player who once sleepwalked out of his Atlanta hotel room naked then went to the workout room for assistance wearing nothing but a newspaper? Or a guy who once burned has face when he touched an iron to his cheek to see if it was hot enough? Or a guy who was so captivated by Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne's decision to go for two points and the 1983 national championship at the end of the Orange Bowl game against Miami that he keeps a Cornhusker helmet in his locker?
Anderson's storyline for this season -- one in which he went 4-9 with a 5.20 ERA and was taken out of the rotation -- is nearly as entertaining.
He missed a week of spring training with a 104-degree fever. He sprained an ankle running the bases. He got hit on the left elbow by a throw. He cut the middle finger on his left hand trying to open a cologne bottle. He got hit on the left thumb by a line drive. After two regular-season starts he went on the DL with a strained back. Then he was slowed by a strained groin.
"On top of that," Anderson said, "plenty of ineffectiveness."
Despite all that -- or maybe because of it -- the D'backs think Anderson, who made three relief appearances for Cleveland in the 1997 Series, then was Arizona's top pick in the ensuing expansion draft, is the right man for tonight's assignment in hostile territory.
GROUNDING EXPERIENCE: A number of Arizona players and staff visited ground zero on Monday and had trouble putting into words what they saw and felt upon seeing the devastation first hand.
"I don't know if I am able to process the things that I saw today," manager Bob Brenly said. "It was almost -- it was surreal, obviously. It almost seemed like something from a bad movie set. It's hard to fathom that it's really real, but I think the thing I drew from it more than anything else was the tremendous enthusiasm and the attitude of the workers down there in that area. It's a mind-numbing experience, just to go visit there for an hour. I cannot imagine the people that go there every day."
Outfielder Luis Gonzalez said he wanted to personally thank the rescue workers for their efforts.
"A lot of people look to us as heroes, superstars, whatever you might want to call it," Gonzalez said, "but those people are what we consider heroes, to us and to many."
REGULAR REGULARS: With AL rules in effect and with a pitcher other than Randy Johnson on the mound, the Yankees are expected to go to their regular lineup tonight, with Tino Martinez at first, Paul O'Neill in rightfield and David Justice at DH. ... Brenly said Dave Delucci or Erubiel Durazo would DH against Clemens.
STILL THINKING: Brenly wouldn't -- and won't -- say whether he will pitch Curt Schilling on short rest in Game4 Wednesday, preferring to keep the Yankees guessing -- and worrying. "I can say that if we win Game 3 behind Brian Anderson, that Miguel Batista will start Game 4," he said. "If we should happen to lose Game 3, we'll take it under advisement and we'll let you know right before Game 4 starts."
RATINGS: The first two Series games averaged preliminary TV ratings worse than last year's, when the Fall Classic was the lowest-rated ever.
Sunday's game drew a 16.1 overnight rating (percentage of total TVs), the best for any Series game since 1999. That helped Fox overcome the 11.8 for Saturday's Game 1. The average of 14.0 is 4 percent lower than the first two games in 2000.
MISCELLANY: Gonzalez had a bruise on his wrist after being by a pitch Sunday but expects to play tonight. ... Of the 47 teams to be down 0-2 in the Series, 11 came back to win. Twenty-seven won Game 3. ... The Yankees have won their past seven Series games at Yankee Stadium.
-- MARC TOPKIN, TIMES WIRES