Daily Archives: January 16, 2004

My man Cliff C profiles the Yankees’ new back-up first baseman, Tony Clark over at Cliff’s Big Red Blog. I didn’t realize how young Clark is, or how decent he has been during his career. If used correctly, he should turn out OK for the Bombers:

A Tony Clark/Kenny Lofton platoon (with Bernie shifting to center against lefties) would give the Yankees a tremendous boost. Take a look at those two lines again:

Tony Clark vs. lefty pitching: 2003 – .279/.355/.500 (.285 GPA); 2001 –
.321/.376/.557 (.308 GPA)

Kenny Lofton vs. righties: 2003 – .313/.373/.478 (.287 GPA); ’01-’03 – .281/.354/.442 (.270 GPA)

By way of comparison here are the GPAs for Derek Jeter and Alfonso Soriano over the past two seasons. Jeter: .289 & .273; Soriano: .283 & .286.

Basically, a Lofton/Clark platoon would give the Yankees another full-time offensive player on the level of a Jeter or Soriano. I just hope Joe Torre’s smart enough to make it happen.

The Marvelous Jew

Last weekend, ESPN Classic broadcast Game 7 of the 1965 World Serious. I was only able to catch the last couple of innings, but it was a treat to watch. (It’s amazing how low key the Dodgers celebration was after the final out in comparison to the modern pile-on, and assorted fireworks.) I don’t know why the network doesn’t show more games from the early days of T.V. through the 1970s. (I’m sorry, but I have a hard time considering any game that has been played in the past five years “classic.”) Football fans have been monumentally spoiled by NFL Films. You want to learn about Jim Brown or Sayers or the old Packer teams? It’s all there for you.

But baseball fans who were born after 1970 don’t have the same luxury. By all accounts the 1960s was an exciting era for the game, but I’ve rarely seen games from that period played on TV. (It’s one of the reasons why Roger Angell is so important to our generation; his reporting gives you a good sense of the sights and sounds of the time.) The same goes for the game in the ’70s. Hey, I’d like to watch McCovey, Bonds, Stargell and Dick Allen too. What about Sutter?

While I doubt that we’ll see a change in this sorry state of affairs anytime soon, we should be thankful for the morsels that we are given. Rich Lederer, who grew up watching those Dodger teams in the ’60s, caught the Dodgers-Twins game over the weekend, and has written a terrific appreciation of the Serious and Koufax’s performance in it. He also critiques the sabermetric evaluation of Koufax’s career. A good read on a cold day for sure.