Daily Archives: October 3, 2003

Tonight’s pitching match up pits Greg Maddux against Mark Prior, and it has been receiving heaps of hype. And why not? Maddux is a Hall of Famer, and Prior is just about the best young pitcher since Tom Seaver. I’ve been asking heads around the office today who they think will be stronger, and to a man, they’ve all said Prior. Maddux’s reputation as a seven inning pitcher figures heavily in this line of thinking, but dag, can’t the man get any respect at all?

I agree that it’s easier to put your stock in a power pitcher than a soft-tosser when it comes to the post season. Still, I would love to see Maddux pitch a great game, win or lose. I also hope it does turn out to be a classic duel, but quite frankly, all the hype makes my skeptical.

Either way, all eyes will be on Wrigley Field tonight. For all the latest—at least from the Cubbies pernt of view, be sure and check in on Ruz’s Cub Reporter blog.

The Yanks play tomorrow afternoon at one. I’ll most likely be back with a post late tomorrow or sometime on Sunday.

Enjoy the Serious’.

There was a report in Newsday yesterday that Andy Pettitte is leaning towards leaving the Bronx at the end of the season, when he becomes a free agent:

Since last offseason, and continuing through this 2003 campaign, Andy Pettitte has told friends that he will leave the Yankees when he becomes a free agent this winter. In these conversations, he has expressed a desire to escape the Yankees’ increasingly chaotic atmosphere; he has lamented the departures of teammates such as Paul O’Neill and Scott Brosius, whom he considered good friends; and he has longed to be closer to his Deer Park, Texas, home, where his family resides.

Clemens, his best friend on the current team, intends to retire. Yankees pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, with whom Pettitte has developed a father-son relationship during the past eight years, could retire, or he could be fired. Torre also could be let go, if the Yankees fail to meet chaos-starter George Steinbrenner’s expectations this postseason.

Funny, but Pettitte had a lot of pressure to prove himself this year, and he did just that by winning 20 games and having a great second half. He pitched a great game last night. If there are a handful of teams fighting for his services in the off season what are the chances that the Yankees will over pay to keep in him pinstripes?

Derek Zumsteg of Baseball Prospectus wrote a touching—and fitting—tribute to Edgar Martinez a few days ago. If you missed it, I suggest that you give it a look, as it illustrates what a terrific player Edgar has been—even if you are prone to frown on the DH:

There are hints that Edgar might not retire: he wanted to hit .300, and he missed it by three hits. He wanted to retire to spend more time with his family, but his son told him he’d rather see his dad play. Edgar’s said he’ll talk to his wife, and it’ll be a while before he makes any decisions. He probably won’t even hold a press conference.

Some time this winter, one of the thousands of people who stood and applauded and would not sit down Sunday will walk by Safeco Field some cold, drizzly afternoon and hear a crack every couple of seconds, and curious, they’ll walk around the stadium for a glimpse inside to see Edgar, bundled up, pitching machine set on the mound with a huge bucket of baseballs, practicing his swing, roping balls down the left field line, double, double, double. And the fan’s going to watch for a minute, take out his cell phone, and start calling everyone in the city. And if it doesn’t happen, we’re still going to walk by and listen for it, and if there’s nothing, well, maybe he’ll be there the next day.

And if he doesn’t come back, at least we told him we loved him.

Every organization should be so lucky to have a trooper, and a champ like Edgar star on its team for the better part of 20 years.

Rich Lederer has been writing pointed and convincing player analysis’ for the better part of the summer, and he’s back with two more: one on the AL MVP, and the other, on Mr. Cub, Slammin’ Sammy Sosa.

Both pieces are winning as always.

Christian Ruzich, The Cub Reporter, who runs all.baseball.com has added Mike C of Mike’s Baseball Rants to the roster. Mike offers great baseball analysis and biting send-ups of the baseball media. He’s a top notch blogger, for sure. Welcome aboard, brother.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire attributes his cherce to pull Brad Radke out of last night’s game on the lengthy 7th inning “God Bless America” stretch at the Stadium:

“It’s ridiculous that my starting pitcher has to wait six, seven minutes before he pitches in the seventh, and their guy gets the normal break,” Gardenhire said. “What happens? He’s throwing great, and he goes out there and the first hitter . . . he plunks him right in the rear end.

“That’s the second time it’s happened to us here. We had a pitcher going great, and then he comes out after the extra-long break and he’s not the same.”

Gardenhire has a point, but it also makes me wonder if Joe Torre will find something to bitch about in the Dome? Not that it is any kind of advantage for the home nine or anything.

Oh, yeah…

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the Yankees-Sox one-game playoff game. It is famously known as the “Bucky Dent” game, but it was much more than that, at least as far as the Yankees are concerned. Lou Pinella made two plays that were just as important to the Bomber’s victory, and oh, by the way, Reggie Jackson’s 8th inning solo bomb to straight-away center turned out to be the difference.

Blaming Dent is like blaming Buckner. It sounds great but doesn’t tell the whole story.

The Red Sox fell to the A’s (5-1) for the second time in 24 hours yesterday afternoon in Oakland and now face an uphill battle to make it past the first round. Barry Zito, last year’s Cy Young award winner, pitched seven effective innings, with a devastating curve ball that vexed Red Sox batters all day. Oakland scored all of its runs early off Tim Wakefield, aided by poor fielding from Manny Ramirez and Todd Walker.

But as bad as things may look for Sox Nation, the A’s have been in this position—up 2-0—before. Oakland hasn’t won anything yet, and the Red Sox have played well at home all year:

“They may be jumping off bridges,” Garciaparra said [of Sox Nation], “but I guarantee they’ll get out of the water and they’ll be out there supporting us on Saturday.”

Still, the Sox are going to have to ‘Cowboy Up’ with the quickness in order to get back in this serious. Just ask the rifleman, Kevin Millar:

“What’s left is we’re going back to Fenway Park, where we kill the baseball,” said Kevin Millar, the verbal leader of Papa Jack’s Band of hitters. “What’s left is we’re ready for our fans to be behind us. Sox Nation. We’re going back to our place, and I think it’s going to be a different atmosphere.”

Trot Nixon isn’t ready to pack it in just yet either:

“This loss today shows you how important the first game was,” added Nixon. “Now our backs are against the wall, but it seems like in the past when the Red Sox’ backs were against the wall, there’s been times they saddled up the horses and rode into battle.”

The Fens will be rocking tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if they go home to the all-too familiar silence of a New England winter, or if they send their team back to Oakland in wild style. Stranger things have happened.

About a month before September 11th, 2001, a new spanish restaurant opened on Broadway between 231rst and 232nd streets. It is one of at least a dozen joints in the city called Malecon, which I believe is a beach town in the Dominican. This particular Malecon was a cleaner and smarter version of the rice and beans place directly across the street—naturally the food wasn’t as good.

But no matter, it became my new stop for chicken, plantains and rice. Run by two brothers who love the Yankees—or J’ankees as it were—we spent a lot of time during that emotional 2001 post season talking baseball. But the day after the Diamondbacks tripped up the Bombers in Game 7, Javier, the good looking brother–well dressed, and heavily cologned—was devastated.

Of course, I had been up half the night myself, but come the next day, I tried to put a positive spin on it all. And I put all my hopes in one basket: the Yanks needed to go out and sign Jason Giambi. I pleaded with Javier to relax because the Bombers were going to get this slugger and we would be OK.

But he didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want to feel better. So I left him alone. During the following weeks, when I came through to get some grub, I kept up the Giambi talk. Pretty soon, everytime I walked through the door, Javier and the boys working the counter greeted me as Giambi.

Except it sounded more like, “G’om-Bee.” Then of course, Giambi signed with New York, and the nickname stuck. As time passed, the pronounciation became more exaggerated, more sing-songy. Each time I stepped foot into the Malecon, about eight guys greeted me with a chorus of “Gee-oh’mm-beee.” I felt like Norm from “Cheers.” I called each one of them “G’om-bee” in return to make all things equal. It reached the point where they didn’t remember what my real name is and vice versa. We were all “G’om-bee.”

I’ve pulled for Mr. Giambi hard, ever since he came to New York. In fact, I wrote him an eight-page, welcome-to-New York letter during his first spring training. It was the first fan letter I’ve ever written to a ballplayer. I can’t fully explain why I felt the need to connect with the big lug, but perhaps after losing key figures like O’Neill, Martinez and Brosius, I wanted to believe the Yanks would be in good hands.

I’m proud of the way Giambi has played through injuries this season, and hope that the whispers of his decline are premature. But as one AL scout told Ken Rosenthal this week:

“He’s starting to break down physically