Daily Archives: May 21, 2003

FIELD OF STRINGS

My good friend, mega-mix legend Steinski , forwarded me the following press release this morning:

New York Yankees centerfielder Bernie Williams has inked a deal with GRP for the release of “The Journey Within,” his recording debut. The CD is expected in stores on July 15. Williams, who plays guitar, composed seven of the album’s tracks, which are said to be in a contemporary and Latin jazz vein. Along with his own compositions are Williams’ interpretations of Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes” and Kansas’ “Dust in the Wind.”

Pianist David Benoit is featured on the first single “Just Because.” Other guests include Bela Fleck and Ruben Blades. A limited edition of the CD will feature original cover art of Williams depicted by famed artist LeRoy Neiman.

Williams will perform at Chicago’s House of Blues on July 13, coinciding with Major League Baseball’s All-Star Weekend.

Kansas? LeRoy Neiman? There is no accounting for taste I suppose. Still, I’m mildly curious to hear Sweet Pea’s debut recording when it drops this summer.

A REAL RIVALRY

While the passion of fans in Boston and New York keep the Sox-Yankess rivalry alive and well, two teams that actually don’t like each other a whole lot are the Twins and the A’s. In their first meeting since the playoffs, Tim Hudson and the A’s beat the Twins 4-1, and the benches cleared twice. What’s the beef? Well, it all starts with the Twinkies catcher, AJ Pierzynski, baseball’s answer to Bill Laimbeer.

According to Oakland outfielder Terrence Long:

“Pierzynski talks all the time. I don’t understand it. I know those guys. Torii Hunter, Jacque Jones and Cristian Guzman – I’m close to those guys, and I don’t understand how they can let that guy talk so much. Just go out and play the game. If talk can win a series, they would have won the next series. The Yankees don’t do it. If anybody can talk, it’d be them.”

..And by the end of Game 5, when Pierzynski hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning off closer Billy Koch, Koch and others criticized him for his brashness and comments on the play, apparently believing they were shown up.

“All I know is when he touched home plate last year, he looked (catcher) Greg Myers in the eye and said, ‘Boo-yah!’ ” A’s outfielder Eric Byrnes said. “It’s not right to do that to a 17-year major league veteran.”

True to form, AJ doesn’t know what the A’s are talking about. It’s refreshing to have a cocky wisenhiemer like Pierzynski around. Boy does he ever look the part. After losing last night, he has another chance to prove himself tonight, this time against Barry Zito. Bon chance, my brother.

TOP OF THE HEAP?

Although the Yankees are still a powerhouse in the American League, it’s safe to say that the 2003 version of the Bronx Bombers are not the same team that won World Championships 4 out of 5 years in the late 1990s. As Ed Cossette remarked yesterday:

Yeah, these are the Yankees, but, you know what? I’m not scared of them like I have been in the past.

In Peter Gammons’ latest notebook column, Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro said:

“When it’s time for us to win again,” said Shapiro, “I hope our club is patterned after the Angels and the Mariners. They are good, but most of all, they play the game right all the time.”

The Mariners and the Angels clearly patterned their teams after those great Yankee squads. What’s interesting is that the 2002-03 Yanks look more like the Indians of the ’90s or the original Gashouse Gorillas themselves, the Texas Rangers, than they do like their old selves or the Angels or M’s for that matter.

ON THE MANNY

There was another interesting bit in the Gammons column. This time about Washington Heights’ favorite son (who isn’t named Rod Carew), Manny Ramirez:

When the Rangers played in Boston, Herbert Perry told some of his young teammates this story about Manny Ramirez. “We signed together (Perry as the No. 2 pick, Manny No. 1 of then-Indians scouting director Mickey White),” Perry said. “And if you guys think Manny is a smart hitter now — and he may be the smartest in the game in terms of setting up pitchers — then you should know he was brilliant at 18. Sure, Manny comes across as carefree, but he is all business when it comes to the mental part of the game. We signed, and went to Cleveland. All the signed players are trying to jerk balls out. Not Manny. Head down. Swung through the ball. Line drives. We played a game. First at-bat, Manny set up the pitcher, got the slider he wanted and hit it out.”

Ramirez’s Boston teammates marvel at his ability to set up pitchers and recall situations against them. And if you want an example of how happy he is this season and how dedicated, go to the Sports Club/LA some morning when the Sox are in town and check out Manny and his wife in the yoga class. No kidding. Manny does yoga, has lunch, goes to Fenway, wanders out to the cage in center field and hits.

ON THE SHELF

Pedro Martinez isn’t the only player hurting these days. It looks as if Mike Piazza could possibly miss the remainder of the season. He will be out for at least a few months.

The Times reports:

Though Piazza looked better yesterday, the diagnosis of his injury was fairly grim. An examination by the Mets’ team doctor, Andrew Rokito, established that Piazza had severely strained his right groin and that a muscle there had partly torn away from the bone. The Mets said they could not specify how much time Piazza would miss. General Manager Steve Phillips said six weeks would be “the low end of it.” He and Piazza did not dismiss the possibility that the injury could keep Piazza out for the season.

Yankee reliever Steve Karsay had season-ending surgery yesterday. According to the Daily News:

Dr. James Andrews discovered a tear in his rotator cuff.

“We’re not expecting him back this year,” Cashman said. “My understanding is we’ll have him next spring.”

After the horrible outing from Contreras last night, the Yankees should pull the trigger on a deal for a relief pitcher by the time the Sox reach the Stadium next week. Kelvim Escobar anybody?

Speaking of the world’s most famous sports doctor, Allen Barra had a good piece on Dr. Andrews in last Sunday’s Times that is worth checking out:

Slowly but surely, Andrews and his colleagues have changed the public’s perception of the value of sports medicine. Only a few years back, it was common for callers on radio talk shows to complain about spoiled, pampered athletes who were given expensive medical treatment not available to the fans who pay their salaries. Not true, Andrews said.

“What we’ve learned from treating Bo Jackson and Jack Nicklaus has already been applied to thousands of student-athletes and weekend athletes, and even secretaries and computer operators and others whose injuries aren’t sports related,” he said. “If not for the money available from big-time sports, we could be years behind where we are now in terms of progress.”

Neither Andrews nor any other sports physician will say it this way, but in a very real sense professional athletes have served as guinea pigs. So the next time Jeter makes a headfirst slide, think of it this way: He’s doing it for all of us.

As always, don’t forget to peep Ed Cossette’s take on the last night’s game over at Bambino’s Curse.

NO PEDRO? NO PROBLEM: SOX POUND YANKS

I received several e-mails just before last night’s game from giddy Yankee fans, when it was learned that Pedro Martinez would not start. (Martinez has a mild muscle strain in his lower back, and should be back next week.) Well, those who laugh first, laugh least not last, as the Sox rallied and smashed the Yanks 10-7. I kept expecting to hear Fred Willard show up and say, “Wha happen?”

It didn’t look good early on for the Home Nine, as emergency starter Bruce Chen served up a bomb to Alfonso Soriano on the first pitch of the game; fortunately, for Boston, Jeff Weaver couldn’t get his act together either. Even better for Boston, they blew the game open against Jose Contreras, the pitcher George snatched away from them last winter. Contreras got out of a jam in the sixth, only to get smacked around in the seventh. (Boston fans know better than to laugh too much at anything, especially this early in the year, and especially with their ace hurting again. That said, it was a sweet night for Sox fans.)

Weaver and Contreras walked seven batters, and they paid the price for it.

According to the Times:

After the game, Torre was still stressing the positive, praising Contreras for throwing confidently after seeming so tentative in April. It is a worthwhile strategy for a sensitive pitcher like Contreras, who admitted before the game that he put too much pressure on himself early on, partly because of his contract.

“I was very pleased,” Torre said. “I thought this was more of a plus than a minus, in the long run. I thought his command was much better than when he left. I thought his stuff was better, and he seemed to be more confident in letting the ball go.”

…”I faced Contreras once in spring training, and all he was throwing was off-speed pitches,” Ortiz said. “I saw him tonight throwing a lot of fastballs. I guess they’ve been working on that. I guess somebody told him that the big league club is different from whatever he played before. He’s got a good fastball; he’s got to use it.”

That was Contreras’s plan, and catcher Jorge Posada was pleased to see him execute it. “I thought he was more aggressive,” Posada said. “His stuff was better, and he came after hitters. It’s just a matter of time to put it all together.”

Ramiro Mendoza didn’t fair much better in his first appearence against his former team, allowing 4 consecutive singles to start the fifth inning, and giving up 3 runs. Jason Giambi came up with the bases loaded and just missed hitting a grand slam, skying out to right field instead. So it goes when you are slumping.

There was some minor drama in the first when big Manny was hit in the elbow with a Jeff Weaver pitch. Manny, who leans out over the plate as much as Jeter, Soriano, or any other modern slugger, glared at Weaver and had some challenging words for the Yankees string bean starter as well. God forbid his fat ass could be expected to duck out of the way of an inside pitch. Instead of putting his head down and jogging to first, it becomes a school yard stare-off. The funny part is by the time Manny reached second, he was calmly chatting it up with Soriano.

Jorge Posada lead off the next inning and Bruce Chen pulled a Shawn Estes and threw behind him, missing him all together (which considering the size of Jorgie’s rump is no small feat). The ump immediately warned both teams, and the inside pitch was effectively erased for the rest of the game. Joe Torre shook his head disapprovingly. Torre talked earlier this year about how modern players have no conception of game awareness when it comes to getting hit. Every time a slugger is plunked it is a personal affront, a diss. Jim Kaat, announcer for the YES network, could feel Torre’s pain.

While the Sox-Yankee rivalry is as heated as ever for us fans, these are not the Carlton Fisk-Bill Lee Sox vs. the Bronx Zoo Yanks. The ballplayers are all friends. Win or lose, they all belong to the same club. Does this make for a watered-down game? I don’t know. It just makes for a different game. Sometimes you just want to yell at these batters, ‘Get over yourself, and jog down to first tough guy.’ Either that, or go nuts and start a fight. But the posturing is tiresome and unbecoming, especially for a great player like Manny.