Daily Archives: July 22, 2008

Yanks roll over Twins 8-2, win fifth straight. 

Rays lose.  New York just three-and-a-half games out of first place.

Say word.

Darrell Rasner pitched well on Tuesday night at the Stadium and Bobby Abreu got the big hit, a two-run homer in the sixth that put the Yanks ahead for good.  It was close early but the Bombers scored three in the sixth and four in the seventh to put it away.  Contributions from many but man, is Robinson Cano ever back or what?  The dude is in a flat-groove right now.  Speaking of which, let’s all feel good: 

 Gotta love the grooves…

Right, Ike?

Why not?

Joba Chamberlain popped up in a few Dunkin Donuts around town today.  It’d be fun to run into that kid on the street, don’t you think? 

For all of the things that have gone wrong this season, Mr. Joba sure ain’t one of ’em.

It’s free week over at Baseball Prospectus, where Will Carroll weighs in on Jorge Posada’s predicament:

Posada does not have a full-thickness tear (or rupture,) but according to sources there was significant damage in at least two of the four muscles, though there will be another set of images taken on Tuesday to gauge whether playing for the past few weeks has aggravated the issue. Most of the damage was focused in the subscapularis and was described as "moderate," a diagnosis that was agreed on by Andrews, David Altchek, and Yankees team physician Stuart Hershon. Posada is scheduled to see Dr. Altchek again after this imaging to make a determination about surgery. All indications are that that’s what will be necessary, but there’s still some question about whether he’ll have it now and be ready for next season, or wait until after the season and put part of 2009 in jeopardy.

There continues to be some question about how Posada’s situation has been managed. He appears to have tried to play through it, with Joe Girardi—the former Yankees backstop who started ahead of Posada earlier in his career—not ‘allowing’ Posada to play through pain. Yet Posada told the press that "it hurts to throw, and I can’t catch like this" on Monday. He can hit, but if his or the team’s insistence on catching has caused an exacerbation, it’s clear that this was mismanaged. For a team willing to sign Richie Sexson, playing Posada at first base or designated hitter should have been an option. If Posada elects to have surgery, he should be able to return, though the impact on his throwing will be seen well into 2009, raising these same questions again.

 Most of the Yankee fans I’ve heard from agree: time to go under the knife, Jorge.

Can a great player be underrated?  Perhaps.  They can at least be under-appreciated.  Such is the case with this guy, Frank Robinson:

As well as this guy, Stan the Man Musial.

Joe Pos has a great post on Musial this week.  Check it out.

I don’t get this one at all.

Update: From Pete Abe.

Jerome Holtzman passed away yesterday. He was 81 and had been ill for some time. Holtzman is best-known as the Hall of Fame’s first “official” historian and for his involvement with the "save" rule, but his lasting literary achievement is the oral history "No Cheering in the Press Box."  (If you don’t got it, get it.)  Here is John Schulian, remembering his old colleague:

I always called him Jerome.  I’m not sure why.  He answered just as readily to Jerry.  And then there were some young bucks who called him the Dean, as in the dean of the press box.  By any name, however, Jerome Holtzman was a classic — a first-rate reporter, an amiable companion on the road and a man who backed down to no one.  If I have the story straight, he came out of an orphanage on the west side of Chicago and was a marine in World War II, which is to say he was in the thick of it in the Pacific.  "One tough Jew," in the words of my old friend and fellow Holtzman fan David Israel.

 

Long before I met Jerome, I reviewed his brilliant book "No Cheering in the Press Box" for the Baltimore Sun.  Glowingly, I might add.  The next time whichever Chicago team he was covering came to town, he called to thank me personally.  I had a hunch then that he was aces.  My hunch was confirmed when I went to Chicago as a sports columnist, first at the soon-to-be-dead Daily News and then as Jerome’s colleague at the Sun-Times.  If I had a question about the game, Jerome answered it whether we were on the same side or not.  If I wanted to meet someone, Jerome took care of the introduction.  And trust me when I say Jerome knew everybody.

 

In the obituaries that will hail his passing, much will be made of the fact that he invented the save.  But I think it is far more impressive to think of the knowledge that he took to the grave, for this was a man who understood far more than hits, runs and errors.  He was a master of the business that baseball became, the finances and the labor struggles and all the scheming and backstabbing that went with them.  That, more than anything else, is what separated him from the pack.

 

He had a great library too, one with every book on baseball imaginable, and I felt like I’d joined a very special club the day he let me see it.  He even loaned me a couple of books — Eliot Asinof’s "Man on Spikes" was one — because that was the kind of guy he was.

 

He had a big heart, he liked a good cigar (or even, I suspect, a bad one), and he hummed when he wrote.  The tune was of his own making, and that was as it should have been.

 

Rest in Peace, Mr. Holtzman.