Daily Archives: June 5, 2007

The Yanks need to sweep their way through the remainder of this week’s series in Chicago if they’re going to close the Wild Card gap on the punchless White Sox, who managed to punch their card six times last night.

As part of that effort, Tyler Clippard will make his fourth major league start tonight. After dominating the Mets in his debut and being pulled early after four poor, but not awful innings in his follow-up, Clippard lost the plate in his last start in Toronto, walking five and allowing a pair of home runs in five innings pitched. On the other hand, other than those two homers, which plated three runs, Clippard allowed just two other hits, both singles, and no other runs.

Taking the hill for the Chisox will be Mark Buehrle, who has been silencing the doubters who saw his poor 2006 season as a sign of his finally being found out rather than as the fluke it increasingly appears to have been. Buehrle’s last start was also in Toronto, an eight-inning complete game loss in which he allowed just two hits, walked none, and struck out six. The only problem was that both hits were solo homers and the White Sox were shut out by Roy Halladay and company. Buehrle did not face the Yankees when they were last in Chicago, but was cuffed around by them in their one meeting in 2006 (3 IP, 8 R). Buehrle did not face the Yankees at all in 2005 and was also cuffed around by the Bombers in 2004 (2 IP, 8 R) but just ten days prior to that he held them to two unearned runs on three hits in eight innings.

Matt DeSalvo, who failed to make it out of the second inning last night after he allowed more base unners than outs through 1 1/3, was optioned back to Scranton. According to the SWB Yankee Blog, spring training superstar Chris Basak has been called up to take his (and ultimately Doug Mientkiewicz’s) place. Basak, who can play all around the infield, was hitting .265/.321/.423 in triple-A and will be making his first appearance on a 25-man big league roster. He gets the call over Andy Phillips, who is hitting .312/.381/.485 and has moved back to second base. The Yankees will likely move someone to the 60-day DL to make room for Basak on the 40-man roster.

In addition, Kevin Thompson was optioned back to Scranton in favor of Sean Henn. So, really, Basak replaces Thompson, giving the Yankees two no-hit infielders who will never play and no reserve outfielder. That makes about as much sense as Chad Jennings donning a baseball mitt on his blog’s header. With just Basak, Cairo, and Nieves in reserve, the Yankees are in essense playing without a bench as all three are replacement-level or, in Nieves’ case, below. Then again, they do have a nine-man bullpen.

For his part, Henn had started three of his four games in triple-A and posted a 4.26 ERA, a 1.11 whip and struck out 11 in 12 2/3 innings. His best outing was his most recent: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K. Henn would likely be optioned back down to make room for Roger Clemens’s return on Saturday. Then again, if Henn doesn’t pitch in relief during the week, and Clemens’ groin remains fatigued, Henn could turn out to be the starter on Saturday.

From analysis of the Yankees’ consistently inconsistent play and the effect of Roger Clemens’ “fatigued groin” on the pitching staff, to the latest chapter in the life and times of Alex Rodriguez, this past week featured an explosion of Yankee news that won’t be forgotten any time soon.

Looking at everything that occurred, I decided it would be fruitless — and potentially a disservice to you, the readers and feedback generators — to isolate just one of these issues. So, I’m taking on as many as possible, as succinctly as I can.

GAME/TEAM NEWS
It was a typical week for the 2007 Yankees in terms of performance. They lost two of three in Toronto and won two of three in Boston. True to form, two victories were of the “squeaker” variety, due to cushy early leads being wasted. Wednesday in Toronto, Tyler Clippard nearly squandered a 5-0 first-inning lead, and Sunday, Andy Pettitte lost a 4-0 lead before an unlikely comeback against Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon. The deservedly maligned Yankee bullpen isn’t entirely to blame for the choke jobs, but unless someone can come in and stop the bleeding when a starter falters, winning games will remain an arduous process.

Two of the three losses were just ugly. The New York Post reported that corpses who emerged to watch the games at some of the sports bars in the New York area exclaimed, “Damn, we’ve got more life than that.” The seventh inning of Saturday’s loss at Fenway could be ranked with some of the worst in recent team annals. It was like the Yankees were reenacting Phase 1 of the Sports Movie formula – they were the ragtag bunch of guys bungling their way around the diamond. The only problem is, with a payroll exceeding $200 million and expectations loftier than that, there’s nothing loveable about a team putting forth that kind of effort.

STORIES OF THE WEEK

1. The Life and Times of Alex Rodriguez
2. The Life and Times of Roger Clemens and His Groin
3. The Milagro Beanball War
4. Hal Be Sure

Let’s address these one at a time. First, A-Rod. Where to begin? Since when are photos of a professional athlete carousing with exotic dancers and gossipy stories of alleged adultery by said professional athlete a big deal? The idea of athletes acting on a morally higher plain because they should be role models is a fallacy — or is it phallusy? It’s not news. We as fans have made it clear that we care more about his popping up with the tying run on third and one out in the top of the 7^th at Fenway than we do about his popping up at the Brass Rail or the Hustler Club at the top of the morning.

But even for A-Rod, the insanity reached new heights. Bill Madden smartly questioned A-Rod’s reasons for allowing himself to be seen, and wondered why the Yankees would want to burden themselves with all the agita and b.s. that would likely come with signing him to an extension. The New York Sun’s Tim Marchman turned around and killed Madden for sounding like he was above gossip, which was an interesting rebuttal. People I talked to following his Little League move in Wednesday’s victory passed it off as no big deal, but my gut reaction was, “What a bush-league play. What is he, 12?” That the New York Times joined the party in highlighting Rodriguez’s questionable base-running indiscretions, should tell you something. Sports business columnist Richard Sandomir compared A-Rod’s actions to those of Lindsay Lohan, sans rehab.

Blue Jays shortstop John McDonald saying that A-Rod’s move was a reason he’ll never be a “real Yankee” brought that sentiment back after an eight-month hiatus. Steve Goldman has denounced the “real Yankee” argument, writing on umpteen occasions in the Pinstriped Bible and the Pinstriped Blog that once a player joins the big club and puts on the uniform, he’s a “real Yankee.” As much as I respect my former YES colleague, I’m inclined to disagree with him on this point. There’s a behavioral line that denotes “real Yankees” and everyone else. Would Mattingly have shouted behind Howie Clark to prevent him from catching the pop-up? Would Jeter? Would O’Neill, Posada, Murcer or Munson? No. There’s a difference between hard-nosed baseball and being a jackass.

I was disappointed that Bob Lorenz didn’t do a better job of setting up Ken Singleton and John Flaherty for a similar comment. It was clear to me that neither broadcaster said what he felt in that brief moment of Wednesday’s postgame. To their credit, however, they didn’t defend A-Rod.

In the New York Sun, Goldman suggests it’s time for the Yankees to decide whether to keep A-Rod to win now, or turning his bargaining-chip status into a potential goldmine of prospects.

To me, the most embarrassing element of “A-Rod 24/7” from a media standpoint was the result of Anthony McCarron’s story on Joe Torre rethinking A-Rod’s “Ha” call in Toronto. The headline “Torre Tells A-Rod: SHUT UP!” was not only misleading, it was inaccurate, hurtful and a discredit to a good writer in McCarron. McCarron was the News’s Yankee beat writer for several years before Sam Borden took over in 2005, and Mark Feinsand this year. The headline writer and night editor could have easily recognized or remembered that fact and kept it in mind before OKing the headline. A manager not as media savvy as Torre might have blamed McCarron and threatened never to talk to him again in a professional setting. Torre was going to boycott the media altogether on Saturday because of the flap, but he faced the horde and blasted the News’s irresponsible journalistic act. (And yes, even though the Daily News is a tabloid, there’s still journalistic integrity involved.) 

I’ve been on both sides of this, having worked more than 1,000 games over the four major sports both in my 6 ½ years working editorial. It’s embarrassing to be responsible for your organization getting called out by anyone, let alone a consistent source. I’ve written misleading headlines on the homepage and rewrote misleading headlines in my colleague’s pieces when editing them. My colleagues have erred in the same manner. More often than not, it’s a misinterpretation of the content, rather than a deliberate attempt to be hurtful. In this case, the Daily News, in trying to steal some thunder from the Post breaking the Stray-Rod A-Dultery, gave the impression of an intentional twisting of Torre’s quotes and got carried away in providing a salacious headline to sell papers.

Regarding the process, beat writers do not title their stories; a paper’s headline writers do. The backpage headline is usually decided by the lead night editor. At YES, we did things differently. We titled our own stories, whether we were reporting on-site or providing feature content. We also had to be extra careful, due to the ever-present possibility that someone in the organization would see what was posted, for fear of reprimand by the Yankees.

Real quick hits on the other items on the “Stories of the Week” list:

• The word “desperate” is being uttered by Yankee players to describe the state of affairs, and where Roger Clemens fits into the mix. Between his fatigued, scar tissue-ridden groin and A-Rod’s exploits, two of the Yankees’ highest paid players have become a d— joke. While it’s clear the Yankees won’t consider making this move, Joel Sherman wonders if the Yankees would be better off exercising their injury-related opt-out clause in Clemens’ contract and investing in the future.

• Nothing would have come of the hit batsmen in Friday’s game had Scott Proctor not brushed Kevin Youkilis’s teeth with a fastball in the bottom of the ninth inning with the game well in hand. Here’s where ESPN still excels: on Saturday morning’s SportsCenter, a graphic displayed the number of hit batsmen in Yankees-Red Sox series (I believe it was since 2000 or 2002 — anyone who saw the graphic, please shoot a note below). Red Sox 43, Yankees 67. Of those 67 Yankees hit, Jeter has been plunked 11 times, while David Ortíz has been hit only once.

• Steinbrenner the Youngest is taking over the family business when the patriarch abdicates his rule, according to Bill Madden. (He had a good week, huh?) Madden reports that 38-year-old Hal Steinbrenner prefers to keep a low profile, detests the media and will stay in Tampa, traveling to New York a couple of times a month to evaluate the team. Madden intimated that Torre and Brian Cashman are safe for now, but if Hal maintains supervision of the team from Tampa upon ascending to principal ownership, it’s logical to think the Tampa management faction will return as the dominant voice in the organization.

 Waiting for Roger. Until next week …

Two car accidents devastated the baseball world during the latter days of April. And then we lost a little known but colorful figure from the early 1970s in May. Here are tributes to those baseball men who lost their lives over the past two months, along with a few additional passings from the month of March.

(Died on May 13 in Saluda, North Carolina; age 63; Lou Gehrig’s disease): A colorful character and a longtime minor leaguer, Hodge played one season in the major leagues. Appearing in 85 games as a utility infielder for the Cleveland Indians in 1971, Hodge hit .205 with one home run. After his playing days, Hodge became a minor league coach. He last worked in baseball in 2001, serving as a coach for Pawtucket, the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.

COMMENTARY: Limited in physical talents, Hodge struggled to build a niche in the major leagues. A native of small town North Carolina, Hodge played only one season, collecting 83 at-bats for the dismal 1971 Indians. On a team with little appeal, Hodge stood out as a rare baseball personality. He sounded so much like actor Jim Nabors, who played "Gomer Pyle" on the old Andy Griffith Show, that friends and acquaintances called him Gomer. After collecting four hits in his first four at-bats, three of them as a pinch-hitter, Hodge declared in his best Nabors voice: "Golly, fellas, I’m hitting 4.000!" And he didn’t mean it kiddingly.

(more…)

“We can’t make it a habit of falling behind and trying to score four or five runs off other team’s closers,” Jeter said. “But just because we lost doesn’t mean there was a letdown.”

…”This is the time we’re going to need to make a charge,” said Johnny Damon, who snapped an 0-for-15 slump with an infield single in the ninth. “Last night was huge for us. It just stinks right now. We know we’re going to play better in June.”
(Kepner, N.Y. Times)

So much for momentum. The Yankees were listless on Monday night in Chicago. Matt DeSalvo, who is not ready for prime time, didn’t make it out of the second inning–fielding mistakes by Alex Rodriguez, and especially, Josh Phelps–helped his early exist. Chicago’s Jon Garland was not sharp in the early innings but the Yankees didn’t do much about it. Garland settled down and his pitches got tougher as the game went on. Ron Villone gave up a two-run dinger to Jim Thome, and Chris Britton–who pitched well–served up a solo shot to Paul Konerko. By the time the Yankees staged a rally in the ninth inning, it was too late, and they lost, 6-4.

It was a game that had me grumbling to myself all evening. One step forward, one step back, that’s the way the Yankees roll this year. About the only good news came late, as the A’s beat the Red Sox in extra innings.

Hey, at least Tyler Clippard is on the hill tonight…more grumbling. Derek Jeter is banged-up and slumping a bit, Johnny Damon is 4-for-his-last-29, and Joe Torre would like to give Rodriguez a breather. Bobby Abreu, however, is starting to improve offensively and Robinson Cano is stinging the ball again.

Finally, on a sad note, ex-Yankee Clete Boyer died yesterday. Boyer was one of the great defensive third basemen of them all. He was overshadowed by Brooks Robinson, but for those who played with him, he was nothing short of great.