Hello. This is John Sterling, the voice of the New York Yankees. Welcome to a special Memorial Day edition of Yankeeography. In today’s weblog-only exclusive episode, we’ll look back on the turbulent and tempestuous career of the man the New York press calls the American Idle, an All-Star pitcher and World Series champion whose impact on the field has been dwarfed by his presence in the trainer’s room. I’m speaking, of course, of the crafty competitor Carl Anthony Pavano.

Pavano began his professional career in 1994, when he was drafted in the 13th round by the Boston Red Sox. A tall right-handed hurler from nearby Southington High School in Southington, CT, Pavano was seen by the Red Sox as a homegrown blue-chip prospect destined to do great things on Yawkey Way. His performance in Boston’s farm system did not disappoint – at the tender age of 20, Pavano was dominating the Midwest League, winning 16 games with a sparking 2.63 ERA and an impressive 6 complete games, including 2 shut-outs.

By 1998, Pavano was a coveted pitcher throughout the major leagues, and the Red Sox capitalized on this demand, using Pavano as the crown jewel in a trade with the beleagured Montreal Expos to acquire dreaded Yankee nemesis Pedro Martinez. The Expos hoped that Pavano would be the keystone to their pitching staff, an ace to helm a rotation that would feature promising youngsters such as former Yankee Javier Vazquez, former Yankee farmhand Tony Armas Jr., and former Red Sock Dustin Hermanson.

North of the border, however, Pavano found himself lost in the unforgiving Canadian wilderness. Those years spent under the auspicious concrete shroud of Olympic Stadium were ones that Pavano would probably like to forget. These were times of attrition, punctuated by infrequent success and frequent injury.

In his five years with Montreal, Pavano never pitched more than 135 innings, and won no more than 8 games a year during his half-decade in Canada. In 2002, Montreal finally gave up the ghost, packaging the once-magnificent Pavano in a multi-player deal that sent him to the hapless Florida Marlins. But, unbeknownst to most of baseball, these Marlins would be helpless no longer.

When Carl Pavano found himself in teal pinstripes, it was as a piece of a trade that saw the Expos acquire coveted Marlin slugger Cliff Floyd. Most pundits believed that this trade signaled another white flag of surrender for the Florida Marlins, a young expansion franchise that went from the toast of the town to burnt toast in just a few short years. Continually aware of their bottom line, the Floyd trade shed a $6 million albatross from the team’s ledger, and Florida ended the 2002 season 4 games under the break-even mark of 81-81. They entered the 2003 season with a modicum of hope, however – they had a bevy of young stud pitchers in their rotation, an alluring mix of power and speed in their homegrown line-up, and a superstar in Ivan Rodriguez, signed to a one-year, $10 million contract. They also had Carl Pavano, a workhorse in the making.

Amongst a cadre of heat merchants such as A.J. Burnett, Brad Penny, Josh Beckett, and phenom Dontrelle Willis, it was the presumptuously fragile Carl Pavano anchoring this pitching staff. He lead the Marlins in innings pitched, games started, intentional base-on-balls, hits allowed, runs allowed, and batters faced. His performance was reminiscent of the gutty stewardship that Yankee fans saw in Andy Pettite and Chien-Ming Wang. And just as Andy Pettite did so many times for the Bronx Bombers, Pavano lead the Marlins to victory in the World Series. Ironically, this victory came against his future team, the New York Yankees.

Despite the pressure that comes with competing against a 26-time World Champion, these young upstart Marlins showed no signs of defeat. In Game 4 of the Series, it was Pavano’s turn to take control of the spotlight, holding the vaunted Yankee line-up to one run over eight spectacular innings, and outdueling future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens. This brilliant performance, coupled with an even more impressive 2004 campaign (18 wins, only 8 losses, a 3.00 ERA, and over 222 innings pitched) made it clear that Pavano’s destiny would find him coming to the City That Never Sleeps.

On December 20, 2004, the Yankees got their fans an early Christmas present. After a heated bidding war with the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees emerged victorious, signing the coveted Pavano to a four-year contract. After 2004’s heartbreaking defeat at the hands of Lady Luck, the Yankees reloaded, acquiring Pavano, firey hurler Jaret Wright, and vaunted strikeout artist Randy Johnson to bolster a frail and fragile pitching rotation.

Unfortunately for the Yankees, Pavano’s tenure was over before it had a chance to begin. Pavano pitched like the ace of old in 2005, racking up quality starts in 7 of his first 10 appearances, including an impressive performance against the Red Sox at The Stadium on April 5th. But shoulder trouble hampered him once again, and he wasn’t the same after coming off of the Disabled List.

In 2006, Pavano’s luck took an even more sinister turn, with a freak injury to his buttocks, and an unfortunate car accident punctuating what turned out to be a lost season. While some members of the media, and some members of his own team, questioned his commitment to the Yankees, it was Pavano himself that kept his automobile accident secret, in the hopes that the Yankees wouldn’t discover that he was seriously hurt. Only the truest of sportsmen suffer though such indignities for the sake of his own well-being, and Carl Pavano is such a man.

Though his 2007 season, and his Yankee career, are now in the history books, Pavano had one last shining moment left in that golden arm of his. After an auspicious Opening Day emergency start, Pavano took the mound on April 9th against the pride of the AL Central, the Minnesota Twins. In front of 26,047 fans, and against former Baltimore Oriole ace Sir Sidney Ponson, Pavano spinned a gem, holding the Twins offense to only 2 runs in 7 innings of work. He limited AL batting champion Joe Mauer to one hit, and kept reigning AL MVP Justin Morneau out of the hit column. It was a dazzling display of craft and gamesmanship, giving the Yankees the opportunity to pull out an important 8-2 victory.

This final performance was a reminder, both to Yankee fans and to fans of the game of baseball, of the sort of player that Carl Pavano was, and will always seem to be. And during this Memorial Day weekend, when people all over the world remember those that sacrified their own lives for the good of our American way of life, let us remember this baseballplayer, this man, Carl Anthony Pavano. He is a proud, shameless man that transcended both the game he loved and the injuries he endured. And in just a short amount of time, Carl Pavano quickly became a Yankee that no one will soon forget, and a Yankee that no one will ever want to forget.

For Yankeeography, I’m John Sterling.