CC and the Yanks look to make it eight straight tonight. Rain could be a factor. Let’s hope it doesn’t mess with a nice winning streak.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

What’s the rumpus?

Over at the Baseball Analysts, Rich Lederer has a great post on the 50th anniversary of Vin Scully’s Greatest Call Ever.

Just go already. And enjoy.

A young woman sat next to me on the subway this morning. I asked her how the death of Michael Jackson has hit her.

“Does it make you feel nostalgic?”

“I don’t have time to be nostalgic.”

This is morbid but Jackson’s death spells big TV ratings and special commerative issues of magazines like Time and People. What other icons would generate this kind of reaction? Madonna? Paul McCartney? Tom Hanks? I suppose part of it would have to be someone dying young, or in an untimely fashion.

Whadda ya hear, whadda ya say?

Good venue out in Brooklyn tonight:

Gelf’s Varsity Letters sports reading series returns on Thursday, July 2, at 7:30 p.m., with a night dedicated to baseball. At this free monthly event in DUMBO, Brooklyn, hosted by Gelf and Jan Larsen Art, Scott Price, Selena Roberts, and members of the New York Daily News sports investigative team will read from and talk about their work, and take questions. Price has the wrenching tale of the life and death of a minor-leaguer. Roberts will speak about her controversial biography of Alex Rodriguez. And the Daily News team will discuss its exposé of Roger Clemens and steroids in baseball.

After waiting nearly an hour to start Tuesday night’s game, then needing an eighth-inning rally to win it, the Yankees had it easy Wednesday night, winning a crisp, well-pitched game that was over before 9:30pm.

Andy Pettitte, who had just two quality starts in his first eight outings at the new Yankee Stadium, needed just 98 pitches to get through seven innings and walked just one man along the way. The Mariners managed just two runs against Pettitte, a leadoff double by Jose Lopez in the fourth that came around to score and a solo Yankee Stadium homer by Ken Griffey Jr. (number 621 on his career) into the box seats in right field.

The Yankees did all of their scoring with the longball, a solo shot to right by Johnny Damon in the third, a solo bomb by Melky Cabrera over the left-field foul pole in the fifth that held up upon review, and a two-run jack to dead center by Alex Rodriguez in the sixth that plated a leadoff single by Mark Teixeira to break the 2-2- tie.

Alfredo Aceves and Phil Coke combined for a 1-2-3 eighth, with Coke retiring lefties Ichiro Suzuki and Russell Branyan with ease, and that man again Mariano Rivera came on to get save 502 in the ninth on a trio of groundballs.

All that took just two hours and 17 minutes. Nice and easy and done. Yankees win their seventh straight, 4-2

Food for thought: Cabrera’s homer was his fourth of the season from the right side. It’s a tiny sample, but he was hitting .281/.359/.491 from his former weak side even before that bomb. It could be that a strict platoon between Cabrera and Brett Gardner is finally a viable option in center field.

The Yanks have won their last six games by a combined score of 45-19. Tonight they have a match-up of veteran lefties as Andy Pettitte takes on the Mariners’ Jarrod Washburn. The 34-year-old Washburn is having his best season as a Mariner and has turned in a quality start in ten of his 14 outings, including his last two against the dreggs of the NL West. The 37-year-old Pettitte has been all over the map, lasting just 3 2/3 innings his last time out in Atlanta after pitching a gem in Miami the turn before.

Joe Girardi drops Robinson Cano a spot against the lefty, puts Melky in center, and gives Alex Rodriguez a half-day off at DH with Cody Ransom drawing the start at third base. Eric Hinske is in the house and could pinch-hit for Ransom against a righty late in the game. Ramiro Peña is off to make his Triple-A debut for Scranton.

I first remember hearing rap records in the summer of 1983. I was 12 and went to summer camp at the YMCA on the upper west side. Buffalo Gals and Sucker MC’s. I also recall spending a lot of time hating Synchronicity, the hit record by the Police (though I did like their four previous records), and rolling my eyes at Thriller, the Michael Jackson album that just would not go away. On every bus trip we took, Thriller dominated.

One of my counselors, a teenage girl from uptown, was bemused when I told her that I didn’t like Michael. It was as if I told her that I didn’t like breathing. I was into the Kinks at the time. It wasn’t until years later that I came to appreciate that record and how great is sounds–that I allowed myself to enjoy it. Oddly enough, I’ve always had more affection for Off the Wall and some of the Jackson 5 stuff, which is far more infused with my early childhood memories.

I have not been swept up in public reaction to Jackson’s death but I have reflected on his career, and just how monumental a figure he was for my generation. His influence was massive and he was a terrific entertainer. I get a sense of mass relief in the outpouring of affection he’s received this week. It became almost impossible to adore him when he was still alive. Now that he’s gone, it is safe to embrace his music and, at least for the moment, avoid the strange reality that was his life.

Over at his wonderful blog, Soul Sides, writer/dj Oliver Wang has done a tremendous job since Jackson died last week. Head on over and scroll down for all of the posts. Here is one that contains a great M-J-5 mix and these words of wisdom:

Anyone who has every DJed any party, anywhere knows that when everything else fails, you can always put on some MJ and it’s like Insta-Party. As a fellow DJ wrote, “MJ has always been the most “guaranteed go-to” artist for DJs in the history of DJs.” True that.

The thing is…it’s so easy to get the party started with MJ, it’s like an unfair advantage over the audience. It’s so easy that I’ve usually avoided playing anything too obvious by MJ simply because…it’s too easy.

And I was thinking: who else comes close to having that kind of power? The only artist even in the conversation is Prince but even then, we’re talking about Purple Rain-era Prince mostly whereas with MJ, you can drop everything from “I Want You Back” (1970) to “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” (1979) to “Billie Jean” (1982) to “Smooth Criminal” (1987) and it’s on like Donkey Kong.

Some records are just sure-shots–Tell Me Something Good and Use Me come to mind–and Michael had more than his fair share, didn’t he?

In the latest issue of Playboy, Pat Jordan profiles Billy Mays, the famous TV pitchman who died just a few days ago. It’s a snapshot of a profile but a fun, quick read.

Mays is the most famous pitchman in the world. His pitches are seen on TV in 57 foreign countries and dubbed in Chinese, Japanese, French, Italian, German, whatever. The media call him ubiq-uitous, with his swept-back black hair and full black beard he touches up “by drinking only dark whiskey”—da-dum! You’ve seen him on TV, leaping out of the screen at three A.M., just before you doze off, snap- ping you awake with his screeching voice. “Hi, I’m Billy Mays, here for OxiClean!” or KaBOOM!, Mighty Putty, Hercules Hook, Awesome Auger, Zorbeez, whatever. Mays sells them all: gadgets that stick harder than any glue, dig up weeds, hold up a 50-pound gilt-framed mirror (assuming you have a 50-pound gilt-framed mirror)—so many gadgets you never thought you needed, never even thought existed until Mays went into his pitch. A 30-second pitch, never more than two minutes—a short con—screaming at you, “Watch this! I get so excited! I gotta tell you something! Buy it right now!” So you call the toll-free number, give a strange voice your credit-card information and then get a package in the mail, stare at its con tents—a gadget, a product—and wonder, Why did I buy this? But what the hell, it was only $19.95. It’s always $19.95. That’s Mays’s secret.

“It’s gotta be under $20,” Mays says. He shrugs. “I don’t know. That’s the magic number.” It also has to be an unknown item that can’t be purchased in a store, that can be seen and purchased only on TV and that appeals to a mass audience of do-it-yourselfers. Mays gets his satisfaction from sheer quantity. “I want to sell billions of things,” he says. And he has, which has made him rich (three Bentleys, million-dollar homes) and famous. There are websites devoted to either loving or hating Billy Mays. He shrugs again and says, “There’s a fine line between love and hate.” One website is dedicated to fans who want to have his baby, though most of those fans are gay men who like so-called hairy bears. They call him “one of the hottest bears on the market” and beg to be able to “boff that bear.” His haters refer to him as “an asinine piece of shit,” “a public nuisance” and an asshole. One fan says Billy Mays is his idol because he’s “so obnoxious that he’s cool” and can sell “dick to a dyke,” tap water from your own sink. A $5 bill for four easy payments of $19.95, plus shipping and handling.

“It’s all about trust,” says Mays. “I stay true to the pitch. I’m not a salesman. A salesman sells a product; a pitchman sells himself. I make people believe they have to own it.” He smiles and says, “Life’s a pitch, then you buy.”

The noise I make the most often when watching the Yankees is “T’uccch.” It is a sound of disgust. Last night in the second inning, with men on first and second and nobody out, Hideki Matsui hit a soft ground ball to third. I was on the couch watching the game; the wife was in the kitchen.

“Uch, double play,” I said when I first saw the ground ball.  “No, single play, wait, error, dude, run scores…

Pause.

Deadpan voice from the kitchen: “Is that your final answer?”

M’ooooh, yer a good one.

Today’s news is powered by a classic from Tom Lehrer:

• As you likely know by now, the Yanks acquired Eric Hinske from the Pirates.  GM Brian Cashman offers this on the deal:

“He’s a pro,” said Cashman, who sent two minor leaguers to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Hinske. “He’s been through the trenches in the American League East. We just felt that he can come in and help us. Doesn’t mean he will. I think our bench is better because of it. Joe (Girardi) has more choices because of it. Hopefully we’ll benefit because of it. We might not, but that’s at least the method to the madness.”

Cashman and Girardi said that Xavier Nady’s (elbow) latest setback, which will likely sideline him for the season, prompted the move. Hinske will spell Alex Rodriguez at third base, Mark Teixeira at first base and provide depth in right and left fields, Cashman and Girardi said.

[My take: The Pirates are becoming the 2000's edition of the Kansas City A's . . . they're the Yanks favorite talent-feeder of late.]

• Joel Sherman lists eight reasons the Yanks acquired Hinske.
• Mr. Hinske could have been had on waivers two weeks ago.

[My take: But Cashman didn't know that Nady was gonna be down for the count at that point.]

• Mariano Rivera was almost traded away from the Bombers early on in his career:

Michael had his own ‘What if?’ moment a few years later, in 1995, when he considered trading Rivera to the Tigers for David Wells. At the time Rivera was still trying to make it as a starter, still throwing in the low 90s, and when Michael asked the Tigers what they would want in a deal for Wells, Rivera was one of the names they put on a list.

“I never said yes,” Michael said with a chuckle Monday. “And right about that time, Mariano’s velocity in the minors jumped to 95-96. I didn’t believe it when I saw our report, but I checked it out with scouts from other teams who were there, and it was true. At that point there was no way I was trading him.”

• When will A-Rod be rested?:

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Tuesday that Rodriguez will be given at least one day off and potentially more during the team’s 13-game stretch leading up to the All-Star break. It is likely Rodriguez will also be used as a designated hitter on occasion, as he continues to battle back from right hip surgery.

So even though it seems clear exactly how Rodriguez will be utilized, it may not be that simple. Girardi did not offer a roadmap outlining exactly when Rodriguez will receive this promised downtime, instead presenting several scenarios.

“I will probably give him a day off in Minnesota, for sure, and DH him a day during the week and maybe even DH him two days during this week,” Girardi said. The Yankees take on the Twins from July 7-9.

Beyond that, Girardi would not specify when the off-days will come. He suggested it is possible Rodriguez gets a day during the current homestand against the Mariners or Blue Jays, but also gave a scenario in which Rodriguez gets two days off in Minnesota on the synthetic-surface field, which is notoriously tough on the body.

Read more…

Neither Joba Chamberlain nor Brandon Morrow was particularly impressive Tuesday night, though neither got hit particularly hard either. Morrow gave up a pair of runs in the second, thanks in part to an error by replacement third baseman Chris Woodward, then allowed another run in the process of wiggling out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth. Chamberlain gave up a solo homer to light-hitting replacement shortstop Ronny Cedeño in the third, then in the fifth gave up a run to Ichiro Suzuki (who reached on an infield hit, stole second and third, and scored on a Russell Branyan single), and another when Jose Lopez (who replaced Branyan via fielder’s choice) stole second and scored on another single.

Morrow loaded the bases again in the fifth and was pulled with two outs having thrown 98 pitches. Chris Jakubauskas came on to get Hideki Matsui to ground out to end the threat. Joba was pulled with one out and a man on second after throwing 96 pitches through 5 1/3. Phil Coke came on to retire Ichiro and Branyan to strand the runner.

With both starters out, the game held at 3-3 until the bottom of the seventh. With Jakubauskas still on the hill, Johnny Damon led off by lacing a ground-rule double down the left field line, and Alex Rodriguez cashed him in with a no-doubter two-run jack into the 200 level in left field.

Phil Hughes had used just nine pitches in working a 1-2-3 seventh inning before the Rodriguez homer, but Joe Girardi, determined to restablish Brian Bruney as the eighth-inning guy, went to Bruney in the eighth to protect the two-run lead against the bottom of the Mariners’ weak-hitting order.

Here’s how that went: single, single, single (run scores), runners bunted up to second and third, intentional walk to Ichiro, sac fly (run scored game tied), groundout.

With the game tied 5-5 and Sean White on in place of Jakubauskas, Hideki Matsui, who had his family in the house, led off the bottom of the eighth with a double to the wall in the right-center-field gap. Nick Swisher then laid down a perfect bunt down the third base line and beat it out to put runners on the corners, and Melky Cabrera put the Yankees back out front with a double. Derek Jeter then cashed in both Swisher and Cabrera with a single, and Mariano Rivera got save number 501 with 11 pitches in the ninth. Yankees win, 8-5.

Mo also threw out the ceremonial first pitch in recognition of his 500th save on Sunday. He’s the baddest man alive, don’tcha know (and one cool customer).

Bruney, meanwhile, had the worst night of the 15 Yankees to get into the game, but came away with the win, again underlining the absurdity of that statistic.

Seattle Mariners

2009 Record: 39-36 (.520)
2009 Pythagorean Record: 36-39 (.480)

2008 Record: 61-101 (.377)
2008 Pythagorean Record: 67-95 (.414)

Manager: Don Wakamatsu
General Manager: Jack Zduriencik

Home Ballpark (Park Factors): Safeco Field (96/97)

Who’s Replacing Whom:

• Russell Branyan replaces Raul Ibañez
• Ken Griffey Jr. replaces Richie Sexson and Jose Vidro
• Franklin Gutierrez replaces Jeremy Reed and Willie Bloomquist
• Rob Johnson (minors) replaces Jeff Clement (minors)
• Chris Woodward is filling in for Adrian Beltre (DL)
• Ronny Cedeño is filling in for Yuniesky Betancourt (DL)
• Mike Sweeney replaces Bryan LaHair (minors)
• Josh Wilson replaces Miguel Cairo
• Mike Carp replaces Willie Bloomquist
• Ryan Langerhans replaces Brad Wilkerson and others
• Garrett Olson is filling in for Erik Bedard (DL)
• Jason Vargas is filling in for Carlos Silva (DL)
• Brandon Morrow is taking over the starts of Ryan Feierabend (DL) and R.A. Dickey
• David Aardsma replaces J.J. Putz
• Sean White replaces Sean Green
• Chris Jakubauskas replaces Rowland-Smith’s relief innings

25-man Roster:

1B – Russell Branyan (L)
2B – Jose Lopez (R)
SS – Ronny Cedeño (R)
3B – Chris Woodward (R)
C – Kenji Johjima (R)
RF – Ichiro Suzuki (L)
CF – Franklin Gutierrez (R)
LF – Wladimir Balentien (R)
DH – Ken Griffey Jr. (L)

Bench:

R – Mike Sweeney (1B)
R – Josh Wilson (IF)
L – Mike Carp (1B/OF)
L – Ryan Langerhans (OF)
R – Rob Johnson (C)

Rotation:

R – Felix Hernandez
L – Garrett Olson
R – Brandon Morrow
L – Jarrod Washburn
L – Jason Vargas

Bullpen:

R – David Aardsma
R – Mark Lowe
R – Miguel Batista
R – Sean White
R – Chris Jakubauskas
R – Roy Corcoran

15-day DL: 3B – Adrian Beltre (bone spurs in shoulder), SS – Yuniesky Betancourt (hamstring), LHP – Erik Bedard (shoulder inflammation), RHP – Shawn Kelley (oblique strain)

60-day DL: LF – Endy Chavez (ACL), RHP – Carlos Silva (labrum, rotator cuff), LHP Cesar Jimenez (shoulder and biceps tendonitis), LHP – Ryan Feierabend (TJ)

Typical Lineup:

L – Ichiro Suzuki (RF)
L – Russell Branyan (1B)
L – Ken Griffey Jr. (DH)
R – Jose Lopez (2B)
R – Franklin Gutierrez (CF)
R – Kenji Johjima (C)
R – Wladimir Balentein (LF)
R – Ronny Cedeño (SS)
R – Chris Woodward (3B)

Read more…

The Yankees acquired a left-handed bench bat today, picking up 2002 Rookie of the Year Eric Hinske from the Pirates for minor leaguers Casey Erickson and Eric Fryer. The move comes on the same day that Xavier Nady is visiting Dr. Lewis Yocum to determine if he does indeed need a second Tommy John surgery.

Hinske is a decent addition to the bench, but before we get to how he fits on the team, lets take a quick look at what the Yankees gave up to get him.

Eric Fryer was the catcher/outfielder obtained from the Brewers for lefty Chase Wright. A tenth-round pick out of Ohio State in 2007, the righty-hitting Fryer, now 23, was hitting .250/.333/.344 with 11 steals in 16 attempts for High-A Tampa, spending most of his time in left field. This is just his third professional season

Pitcher Casey Erickson is also right-handed, 23, and a former tenth-round pick (the Yankees’ in 2006). He’s bounced between starting and relieving in his brief professional career. Though he made a strong showing in short-season Staten Island’s rotation last year (2.76 ERA, 4.6 K/BB), he has pitched primarily in relief for Charleston of the Sally League this year. A groundballer in his first full-season in a full-season league at age 23, he’s nothing special, particularly in the Yankees’ pitching-rich organization.

That’s not much to lose, a pair of 23-year-old A-ballers with very little projection, one a mid-round draft pick and another the bounty for a player who had been designated for assignment. That’s certainly a price worth paying for an immediate upgrade to the major league team’s 25-man roster.

So, is Hinske an upgrade? An if so, how much of one? That partially depends on who he replaces on the roster, which we likely won’t know until just before game time tonight. Here’s my guess.

With Jose Molina set to return from his quad strain, the Yankees are likely on the verge of sending both Francisco Cervelli and Ramiro Peña down to Triple-A to get regular playing time. Cervelli and Peña are both 23, and neither has played a game at Triple-A. Cervelli may yet prove to be a viable starting catcher in the major leagues, but will need more development time to achieve that potential. Peña still seems more like a reserve infielder to me, but the Yankees will never find out if he could be more without letting him play every day at Triple-A.

As much of a revelation as Cervelli has been, he’s still only hitting a Molina-like .269/.290/.343 and has made just eight starts in the last month. Peña’s line is a near match at .267/.308/.349, and he’s started just five games in the last month. In Peña’s case, that line is simultaneously impressively and alarmingly close to his career minor league line of .258/.316/.319.

Replacing Peña, Hinske will be a clear upgrade at the plate. He arrives in New York hitting .255/.373/.368 on the season and is coming off  a season in which he hit 20 home runs for the AL Champion Rays. Hinske’s worst major league season came for the Red Sox in 2007, and even that .204/.317/.398 would be an upgrade on Peña, as would Hinske’s career line of .254/.337/.436. The one catch is that the left-handed Hinske flat-out cannot hit left-handed pitching (.221/.298/.363 career), though even that line rivals what Peña has done at the plate in the major leagues. The flip side of that split, of course, is that Hinske’s career line against right-handed pitching  is a solidly league-average .264/.347/.456.

The acquisition of Hinske is above all else a smart solution to the Yankees’ need to have an extra infielder on hand to back up Alex Rodriguez. Hinske isn’t a great defender, but he can play the four corners (third, first, left and right) well enough to spot start against right-handed pitching. Though he’s played just 21 games at third base over the last four seasons, only 11 of which have been starts, he hasn’t made an error in any of them.

Playing for his fourth AL East team, Hinske is familiar with the pitchers in the league and the division and unlikely to suffer from a return to the harder league, where he spent his entire career prior to this year. The only real complaint I have about the move is that Hinske is left-handed. Yes, pairing the lefty-swinging Hinske with the right-handed Cody Ransom will allow Joe Girardi to play matchups at third base on Rodriguez’s weekly days off, but the only other exclusively right-handed hitters on the team are Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, leaving Hinske little value as a pinch-hitter when Ransom’s not in the game. A right-handed bench bat could be used to hit for Brett Gardner or Hideki Matsui against a tough lefty. I suppose Hinske could also hit for Molina after his return, but since such a move would require inserting Jorge Posada for defense, there’s no reason not to simply use Posada’s superior bat in those circumstances.

Nonetheless, Hinske is a valuable and versitile reserve. He’s also been on the last two American League pennant winners. Here’s hoping he extends that streak with the Yankees.

Quick now, how many current Yankees have nicknames? “A-Rod” for Alex Rodriguez and “Tex” for Mark Teixeira don’t count; those simply involve the shortening of last names for the sake of convenience. In terms of legitimate nicknames, Hideki Matsui has been known as “Godzilla” going back to his days in Japan. Chien-Ming Wang used to be called “Tiger” in the minor leagues, but the moniker has never caught on in the big leagues. Then there’s Alfredo Aceves, who is known as “Ace,” and Melky Cabrera, sometimes called the “Melkman,” but they’re not exactly the most creative of nicknames. And that’s about it.

The Yankees are pretty typical in this regard these days. Nicknaming has become a lost art in the contemporary game, partly for reasons of political correctness and partly because we’ve just become damn lazy. At one time, nicknames were a huge part of the game’s subculture, largely because of the influence of headline and beat writers at newspapers and local team broadcasters. The 1960s represented one of the golden eras for nicknames. It is in that decade that we find one of the most creative and fitting nicknames of all time, even if it did have to belong to a Red Sox first baseman.

By the summer of 1964, Dick Stuart had firmly established a reputation as one of the worst defensive players in the major leagues. Although he was the starting first baseman for the Sox, Stuart couldn’t do anything well with the glove. (That’s probably why Topps showed him with a bat in his 1964 card.) With hands of gypsum, dime-like range, and generally poor instincts, Stuart achieved the Triple Crown of fielding ineptitude. By most accounts, he was also indifferent to the defensive game, so he never motivated himself to improve. Now I never actually saw Stuart play, but I’ve heard so many stories of his lack of defensive prowess that some of them have to be true.

With such anecdotal and statistical evidence (he reached double figures in errors eight times), it’s safe to say that Stuart was historically bad when it came to the business of guarding first base. So it was quite appropriate that in 1964 one of his teammates fitted him with the nickname of “Dr. Strangeglove.” The creation of such a name relied heavily on Hollywood; the Peter Sellers black comedy, Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, had just been released in theaters on January 29. By placing the letter “g” between the “e” and the “l” in Strangelove, the unknown Red Sox teammate had devised a pithy play on words while tapping the popular culture of the day. The timing could not have been better, considering that Stuart had made 29 errors the previous season, a simply remarkable achievement for someone playing first base.

Stuart’s haphazard fielding had nothing to do with the movie’s plot, in which an insane general tries to initiate nuclear holocaust while politicians do their best—ineptly, I might add—to save the world. The supremely talented Sellers played three roles in the film, including the title role of “Dr. Strangelove,” an important scientist in Nazi Germany. Stuart was similarly schizophrenic to the versatile Sellers; as poor a fielder as Stuart was, he was often a feared slugger, once hitting a career-high 42 bombs for the Red Sox.

Not surprisingly, the creative moniker of Dr. Strangeglove took hold quickly and never let up, becoming almost mandatory whenever Stuart’s real name was uttered. When another 1964 film, Goldfinger, achieved a level of mass popularity, a few folks tried to attach the nickname “Stonefingers” to Stuart, but that label never really caught on.

All in all, Stonefingers is pretty good, but Dr. Strangeglove is just great. Is it the best nickname of all time? I’ll leave that up to you, the reader, to decide.

Got Flava?

There was a terrific little piece by Sam Sifton in the Times magazine last weekend on rice and beans, Boricua style:

A restaurant kitchen can be a kind of mother, too. This is particularly true in New York, where so many eat out so often. Indeed, for many of those born in New York — and there are more than 2.4 million of these natives in the state, according to census data run through the computers of Andrew A. Beveridge, a professor of sociology at Queens College — Puerto Rican rice and beans have little to do with blood relationships. Rice and beans are instead a shared and familiar experience, offered to all alongside dishes of roast pork or baked chicken (sweet beneath its crispy skin), dense and hearty mofongo, buttered toast, fried plantains and yuca.

Of course, rice and beans are served across Latin America, in different variations, with different beans, for different reasons. You will find superior platters of them in Brazil, in the Dominican Republic, across Mexico. The best of New York’s are literally Nuyorican, a word that arose to describe the Puerto Rican diaspora in New York, the almost 10 percent of the city that has its familial roots in the commonwealth but sees its children bloom on the concrete of the South Bronx, East Harlem, along Columbia Street in Brooklyn.

Nuyorican restaurant rice and beans are food for flame-haired detectives coming off the day shift and chalk-hued art kids jittery and lost amid the salsa beats, for tired high-school teachers, for back-office fellows off the clock. They are the taste of comic-opera hangovers, honest hunger, game-day excess, hard work. They are an authentic taste of a New York that real-estate developers and change can never diminish.

Here is the recipe. I’m all over this. Once again, I don’t know the scientific explanation but bacon makes it better.

In his short time here at the Banter, Todd Drew made an indelible impact on all of us. Amid Alex’s range, Cliff’s statistical acumen, Bruce’s historical perspective, Emma’s sense of humor and the combination of media coverage from Diane and me, Todd, through his storytelling, demonstrated his love for baseball and this community by portraying the human side of Yankee fans.

From the tee shirts and hats and other assorted team paraphernalia worn by the transients, I noticed a number of Yankee fans on the 1, 2 and 3 trains when I was in New York City Monday. I haven’t been in the city much since changing jobs, so I was actually looking forward to the long subway ride to Columbia and then up to Manhattan College for a couple of workshops I was doing with clients at both institutions. As the train bounded out from underground between the Columbia campus at 116th Street and 125th Street and back down again quickly, and then into the light once more as the route exited Washington Heights and entered Inwood, I found myself thinking about Todd and his daily posts, many of which featured an interview with a Yankee fan on a subway and thought, “Todd was pretty brave to write from this perspective every day.”

The people he met every day on his way to work, or en route to the Stadium shaped his writing. Todd subscribed to a basic tenet of feature writing: everyone has a story to tell. He understood that we were all connected, sometimes in a similar way to how the subway lines connect people in the Big City. These strangers’ stories were his stories, and he was kind enough to share them.

Me? I’m not inclined to strike up a conversation with a stranger on a train and glean stories from there. I’m more of a situational observer. I view the panoramic and drill down based on the information I process.

On my way back downtown, I sat silently reading the Tom Verducci / Joe Torre tome, “The Yankee Years,” occasionally looking up to people-watch, mostly keeping to myself. As is usually the case when I travel by train, I get very tense and hope that either of the following situations does not occur: 1) a person sitting 5-10 feet from me is playing their iPod so that I can hear it through their headphones (after all, it’s not called an “everybodyPod), or 2) someone or a group of people in my car behaves obnoxiously, compelling me to get up and move to another car.

Today was different, though. Maybe it was because I’m not in the city every day anymore. I hadn’t taken the time to really notice the people, the surroundings, or wonder what was going on in their little insular planets before. Maybe it was because I was venturing to places that I hadn’t been on the 1 line and I wanted to learn something that I could eventually use in a conversation.

Before switching trains at 96th Street, a little girl was telling her father that she had fun and that she didn’t want to sit down because she was sweaty but “her bum wasn’t wet.” That killed me. One stop later, a family wasn’t prepared to get off the train, got to the doors about a second too late and the subway doors nearly scissored a mother’s baby carriage. A cursing match between the mother and the conductor ensued. While that was going on, another family entered the car and sat across from me: a mother, her son–who was probably about 7–and her daughter, probably age 4 or 5. Looking at the girl, it was like I was viewing my own daughter in five years. Similar shaped face, long, light brown hair, pink dress and sandals. And this girl was named Maddie, like mine. I immediately imagined riding a subway with my daughter, maybe on our way to the Museum of Natural History or some place like that, with her looking at the signs and asking questions as this other Maddie was doing with her mom.

The mother and her two children got off at 34th Street like I did, and from there we went our separate ways: them to the street, where a bus would take them one stop to the steps of their apartment building and me to the Long Island Rail Road concourse of Penn Station. A couple of glances were exchanged, but no words. I didn’t get to tell the mother about the similarities between her Maddie and mine. I don’t regret not saying anything, but it would have been nice to make conversation and see where it went. If he was in a similar position, Todd would have probably taken that leap and turned it into a 400-word piece.

The best feature writers immerse themselves in the environment and absorb the energy. Todd was able to do that and put you right there on the train with him. This one time, I wanted him on the train with me. I think he’d appreciate the ride.

Today’s news is powered by the trailer to the Scrabble documentary “Word Wars” (Yes, I know everyone in the trailer quite well. No, I don’t get any face time in the movie.):

Here’s a little Yankee trivia question to start the date: Paul Zuvella (mentioned later on in the column) is the last name alphabetically in the Yankees’ all-time player register.  Who is the first? (answer at bottom of column)

• The Post’s Joel Sherman is quite certain of the best player he’s ever seen:

. . . (Mariano) Rivera has played just barely more than 1,000 innings in his whole career. And I know he has played mainly one inning at a time. And I also know I am biased because I have seen pretty much every pitch of that career. I was, for example, in the park on May 17, 1996 when he recorded his first major league save and again Sunday night when he reached 500 as I write about in this column.

But I actually don’t consider seeing so much of Rivera’s work a bias as much as a privilege. I have loved watching someone so great at what he does so often. Rivera has everything you would want in the best player you have seen checklist: He is a genius as a player. He has been incredibly consistent at that genius. That genius extends into the postseason. He has been incredibly durable. He elevates the play of those around him.

[My take: In this era of steroids, videotape and maple bats, Rivera is a wonder.]

• The MLB.com Yankee beat writer opines on the roster upon Jose Molina’s return:

All indications are that the Yankees will not carry three catchers because of the way their roster is constructed right now, so it will probably mean that Cervelli will have to go down to Triple-A when Molina is ready to return.

There’s no shame in that. He’s 23 and, while he’s enjoyed some success in the big leagues, there is more development that can take place. He should head down and feel good about what he accomplished, but it wasn’t like he was going to steal the job. Molina is a legitimate big league backup catcher and the Yankees are paying him well to do that.

[My take: Much as many of us have baseball crushes on Frankie, its probably best for him to get regular ABs at the Triple-A level rather than ride the pine in NY.]

Read more…

Stealing home seems to be the hot throwback play this year. It happened twice yesterday, and Ted Keith has an article on the phenomenon over at SI.com, pegged to Jacoby Ellsbury’s swipe against Andy Pettitte earlier this season.

I have a complimentary piece up that lists the top-10 steals of home of all time, including one by Mr. October in October, and one by the Yankees against Boston 105 years before Ellsbury finally turned the tables.

Dig it.

Okay, let’s indulge in some fantasy. It’s an off-day, good time to play Walter Mitty.

If you could perform one single feat on a baseball field, what would it be? Would you hit a home run, steal home, leg out a triple, break-up a double-play, strike a hitter out (swinging or looking), nail a runner trying to score, or would you leap over the outfield fence to rob a hitter of a home run?

Which one of these?  Or perhaps you’ve got something else in mind.  Do tell.

Saturday in the Park.

Inwood, that is.

Farmer’s Market.

Cherries, n everything.

And baseball.

There’s always baseball in Inwood.

And everybody loves baseball, right?