Daily Archives: February 21, 2003

JOHNSON IS YANKS FIRST CASUALTY

According to a report on CNN.SI.com, Yankee DH Nick Johnson has stopped taking batting practice due to the lingering effects from an wrist injury that occured last August. Though an MRI was negative, a discouraged Johnson has shut it down for the time being:

“It’s a concern because it’s something that’s lingered,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said Friday. “You don’t know how quickly he can recover from this. He’s shut down until we find out what the best course of action is.”

“I’m pretty concerned,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t feel too good.”

“It’s too bad,” Torre said. “This young kid has had some problems and really hasn’t had a chance to get on track. He has a great deal of potential. He’s a good kid and wants it badly.”

SO GIVE A SHOUT IF YOU KNOW WHAT I’M TALKIN ABOUT

You’ll excuse me if I’ve been slow in getting to all of the quality baseball blogs and websites out there, but this past week, I came across one of the best: Jay Jaffe’s Futility Infielder. It is neatly designed, and the writing is top-notch. I’ve linked Jay’s site with the other regulars on the left-hand column of Bronx Banter. You should make a point of getting there as often as possible. Just this week, Jaffe has excellent posts on Voros McCracken, a baseball writer, and sabermetrician, who was hired by the Red Sox (prior to Bill James, mind you), as well as a link to an long article on Steve Dalkowski, the fire-balling, party animal, who was the source for “Nuke” LaLoosh, Tim Robbins’ character in “Bull Durham.”

Don’t sleep.

SANDY TO DODGERS: NO FRUIT FOR YOU

According the the L.A. Times, Sandy Koufax has abruptly severed ties with the Los Angeles Dodgers because of a report in that appeared in the New York Post, which suggested that Sandy is a big, ol’ fag.

The Post is a subsidiary of News Corp. which also owns the Dodgers:

Koufax, a very private man who established a standard for pitching excellence in four of the most dominant seasons in the game’s history from 1963-66, recently informed the Dodgers he would no longer attend spring training here at Dodgertown, visit Dodger Stadium or participate in activities while they are owned by the media conglomerate…

Expressing his feelings to the Dodgers through [senior vice president, Derrick] Hall shortly after learning of the report, Koufax said “it does not make sense for me to promote any” of the companies controlled by News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, adding he would “feel foolish to be associated with or promote one entity if it helps another.” Hall said Koufax stressed, “I have no problems with the Dodgers or their current or previous management. It’s more so about [News Corp.].”

Contacted Thursday by The Times, Leavy, a former Washington Post reporter, said she assumed the item was about her book. She called it “thoroughly erroneous on all counts. [The item] was blatantly unfair, scandalous and contemptible. It was thoroughly without basis in so far as it had to do with Sandy or any relationship I had with him professionally. It’s not the kind of journalism I practice.”

Leavy said she had not spoken with Koufax since the item appeared, about his feelings toward the Post, News Corp. or the Dodgers.

“Sandy Koufax is as principled a human being as I have ever met in my life,” she said. “If this is a stand he is taking, I certainly understand why he might feel that way and I totally support it.”

…”It was irresponsible and inappropriate,” Hall said of the Post’s report. “It’s unfortunate that this happened, but we fully support and understand Sandy’s position on this. It’s terrible because he’s an important part of this organization and its rich history. And most importantly, Sandy has a lot of friends who are hurt by this.”

…Koufax has held a variety of minor league pitching positions with the Dodgers. He has been a fixture at spring training since his closest friend on the club, Dave Wallace, returned in 2000, tutoring pitchers during the exhibition season. Wallace, a senior vice president in baseball operations, also recently had dinner with the intensely private Koufax.

“The disappointment I feel can’t be expressed enough, and I feel saddest for the players who will miss the benefit of learning from Sandy, who has so much to offer,” he said. “To lose the knowledge of a guy of that stature … I really don’t want to say anything else about it.”

It sure is nice to see someone stick it to Murdoch. Once again, Koufax couldn’t be cast any better.

DOWN IN FRONT: YANKEE (FAN) GO HOME

My friend Greg G, is as loyal a Yankee fan as I know. He also represents everything baseball fans all over the country depise about Yankee fans. He’s loud, vulgar, and thoroughly obnoxious. G regularly drives me crazy during the course of the season, bragging about how the Yanks will win it all, and laughing when players on rival teams get hurt. Basically, he violates every superstition I hold dear.

Here is a part of a letter I recieved from him the other day. Truthfully, I didn’t have the nerve to print the entire thing. If you are feeling queasy, you may just want to skip this and move along with your day:

Greetings from sunny L.A. I am a diehard Yankee fan, (who as luck would have it) moved to Los Angeles in 1993 only to miss most of my beloved Yankees recent renaissance. I visit the big A (now Edison Field), whenever the Yanks are in town. I even had the good fortune to see Don Mattingly’s first and last pinch hit homer to put the Yankees over the top of the Angels in the strike-shortened season of ’94. My brother’s friend, (also a transplanted New Yorker) went down to the fence behind the batting cage and exhorted Mattingly by shouting at him prior to his at bat, “I came all the way from NY Donnie, we need a big hit!” And Don Mattingly looked at him curiously and amusedly, and then Donnie Baseball delivered to the delight of the more than two-thirds of the crowd who turned Anaheim into the Bronx west for the day. Now I get the YES network and last year I watched no less than 145 games. (Much to the dismay of my good friend Al Belth from the Bronx, who is a stones throw from the stadium, and has cablevision holding him hostage.)

I always take solace when we Yankee fans took over Edison Field, and turn it into our personal NY playground, where we can rebut any of the in-bred Angels fan by asking them to show us their 26 World Series rings. Prior to last season the Angels would show nostalgia clips on the jumbotron of when they won the AL west in the 80’s. The best player that they could trot out was our beloved Reggie Jackson (who was past his prime by the time he showed up in La La land). The California Angels changed their name to the Anaheim Angels a few years back. Rightly recognizing that they could not in any way represent the California sports contingent since they were only drawing fans twice the size of the attendance of Expos games.

Now the Angels are the defending champs. I bet we see Angel fans coming out of the woodwork just like the Amazin’ Mets after ’86, when all of a sudden everyone decided that the Mets were where it was at. The Angels increased their payroll by 20 million to bring back the same nobody’s who knocked Goliath on his rump last October. The Angels always played the Yanks hard in Anaheim, mostly because they wanted to quiet all the Bronx brood who turned their sanitized park into a looney bin, and actually sounded like a sporting event was taking place not some boring kennel club dog show.

Now we’ll have to hear it from the Anaheim A-holes, who have been waiting since the team’s existence to be able to brag to anyone, and especially Yankee fans like me, that Team Disney finally got a ring. If David Eckstein, (who’s dwarfed by the bat boy, and has a second job as Tinkerbell at the crappiest place on earth), is holding up another trophy this October, I personally swear that I will eat Mo Vaughn.

Ah, Yankee class. You gotta love it.

POSADA’S SON HAS 3RD OPERATION

Yankee catcher, Jorge Posada has not been in camp this week. His 3-year old son, who was born with craniosynostosis, “a condition where the bones in a baby’s skull fuse before the child’s brain has stopped growing,” had his third major surgery yesterday. Posada is expected to arrive in Tampa shortly.

METS GIVE CLARK A CHANCE

Tony Clark, a former All-Star first baseman, who couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat last season, was signed by the Mets to a minor league deal, and hopes to make the team as Mo Vaughn’s back-up.

LOOKING GOOD, AND FEELING FINE IN METS CAMP

While there hasn’t been a dull moment in Tampa, the Mets are having a virtual Love-In at their training camp in Port. St. Lucie. Two days ago, owner Fred Wilpon inspired his troops with a all-in-together-now speech. John Harper reports that everything is coming up roses and daffodils for the Shea-Hey kids with new skipper Art Howe at the helm.

Wilpon’s high school pal, Sandy Koufax was in camp too, talking with Al Leiter. The Post reports that Tom Glavine’s professionalism has already made an impact on his teammates:

Glavine said the main ingredient to success is hard work.

“That’s all part of building up that winning tradition and respect that you want,” Glavine said. “You’re not going to get respect from people unless you earn it, and you earn it by carrying yourself the right way as an individual and a team.

“You go out there, you hustle, you do what you’re supposed to do, and when you win the game, well, you act like you meant to win the game.”

Gary Pettis, the Mets outfield coach, has his hands full with Brett Butler’s boy, Roger Cedeno, but remains hopeful:

“I’d like to see our guys a little more comfortable running after fly balls. I want to make sure we get enough work in so we run smooth so the ball doesn’t look like it’s bouncing. They have to run on their toes. The longer you run, you have to run on your toes and that’s the problem with a lot of outfielders. They don’t stay on their toes. They start out on their toes, but then they start pounding the ground and the ball appears to move on them because their head is going up and down.

“If you don’t work at it,” Pettis adds, “that’s one of the hardest things to pick up.”

THE DIPLOMAT

The venerated former captain of the Yankees, Don Mattingly, who is making his annual visit to Yankee camp as an instructor, commented on the George/Jeter business:

“It was part of [Yankee culture] 15, 20 years ago, it’s part of it today, and it will probably be part of it five or 10 years from now,” Mattingly said. “You grow up in it. It’s normal.

“I don’t have any advice for Derek other than ‘be himself.’ He’s handled himself great so far. He’s won championships, he’s a great player and he’s been a great guy for the team. There’s no reason to think that won’t keep happening.”

…”It’s easy for me to laugh, I’m back on a farm in Indiana.”

And that’s the truth: thhhpppt.