All it takes is a couple of taps on a keyboard, and here you are: inside Yankee Stadium on July 26, 1994. Phil Rizzuto and Bobby Murcer are welcoming you to the top of the eighth inning, Yankees trailing the Red Sox, 8-5. The WPIX cameras pick up a fan carrying a sign:
“KINGSTON, NY LOVES JOE AUSANIO”
“Look at this …” the Scooter says, not quite comprehending until someone in his ear alerts him. “… who is now pitching! All right, Joe’s done a fine job so far.”
It’s right there, one of the seminal moments of Joe Ausanio’s life, the first time he ever stood on the pitcher’s mound at Yankee Stadium, a journey that had taken just six years and seven cities and 320 minor league appearances and 456 innings for the likes of the Watertown Pirates and the Salem Buccaneers and the Harrisburg Senators.