Daily Archives: July 26, 2008

Em and I went to the ABC outlet in the South Bronx today to get a carpet.  Em has been wanting to get a new rug for more than a minute.  So off we went.  Should have been a twenty-minute ride but it turned into an hour plus Bruckner Avenue, Robert Moses-Thanks-For-Nothing Organized Konfusion nightmare–bumber to bumber traffic jams, wrong turns, lunatic drivers, getting cockamamie directions on the cell phone, and a rash left turn that almost lead to an accident, followed by shock, anguish, tears.  One thing was for sure.  We weren’t leaving ABC without a carpet.

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While we all work to process the Xavier Nady trade (my analysis of the deal as initially reported here, my thoughts on the reconfigured deal in several comments starting here), the Yankees have a game to win. Joba did his part last night, time for Andy and the offense to step up this afternoon.

As for the reinforcements from Pittsburgh, I expect they won’t arrive until tomorrow at the earliest as everyone needs to take physicals to make the trade official, but with the bullpen largely rested, the Yankees won’t miss Marte (not that they really need him in the first place), and it’s probably best to let Nady take his first Yankee at-bats against the lefty Lester tomorrow rather than against Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball this afternoon.

According to Pete Abe, Dan McCutchen and Jeff Karstens, not Phil Coke and George Kontos, are going to the Pirates in the Nady-Marte deal.

Manny being Manny is cute until it’s not. It’s charming and refreshing when Boston’s future Hall of Fame left fielder is putting up Hall of Fame number. Doesn’t matter that he’s a pain in the ass for the Red Sox to deal with. When he’s hitting, high-fiving a fan, taking a leak inside the Green Monster, Manny is being colorful, fun. Ramirez has angered management, his teammates and even the fans at different points during his stay in Boston by not running out ground balls, coming up lame with dubious injuries, and acting like a spoiled child. He has also been the anchor–or co-anchor along with Ortiz–of their two World Championship teams. And when he’s doing his thing, he’s just a flake, irrepressible, lovable.

Ramirez has pushed the Sox to the brink in the past–they once placed him on waivers–but now, as Dan Shaughnessy suggests in the Boston Globe, the Sox may have finally had it with Manny being Manny:

Ramírez sealed his fate with the club yesterday afternoon. After longtime enabler Terry Francona filled out a lineup card with Manny batting fourth, the Sox made an announcement that Manny could not play in the biggest game of the season. Seems there were problems with his right knee. Manny was a late scratch.

It was extraordinary. In the past, management and the manager would do handstands to excuse Manny’s strange acts. No more. This time, the manager – apparently confident there’s nothing wrong with the slugger – put Manny’s name in the lineup, then sat and waited for Manny to pull himself out of the lineup. Manny complied. Never concerned with wins or losses, Manny told Brad Mills he was unable to play and took himself out of the batting order for the (thus far) biggest game of the season.

It was predictable. It was ridiculous. It was the last straw.

Former state treasurer Bob Crane happened by the EMC Club, pregame, and spoke for many fans when he said, “Manny’s got to go. Enough’s enough. Fans are finally sick of this guy.”

The possibility exists that Manny truly has a sore right knee. No one can get inside the head of an athlete and evaluate game-readiness. If Manny’s knee is killing him, there is no way for us to know, and we are wildly unfair to question his condition. I’m willing to take that chance. I don’t believe him.

Could this really be the end of Manny in Boston? Cue: organ cliff hanger music.

One thing for is for sure, this is one soap opera that has nothing to do with the Yankees. I figure Manny will return this weekend and get some big hits. Then again, he might not. I won’t be surprised either way. Which is what Manny Being Manny is all about. Anything goes.

I remember dancing a lot during my senior prom. As it was getting late, and everyone was either too tired or too drunk to continue, the band, dropped their pants, revealing Batman boxer shorts and started playing the theme to the old "Batman" TV show. My dorky friends and I were the only ones left dancing. We stayed up all night and then went to see the first matinee showing of Tim Burton’s Batman movie in the morning, its opening day. The movie, and Jack Nicholson’s performance in particular, was enough to satisfy us–it wasn’t a complete bomb–but it was still lacking. It didn’t fully deliver on the promise of the comic book, it wasn’t harsh enough, sinister enough, scary enough.

Well, the movie I wished for back then has now been made and it has been made well. The latest version is not only the ultimate Batman movie–pushing the violence and nihilism to the edge–it aims to be the ultimate comic book movie. The only thing is, I don’t know if it’s what I really want to see anymore. Leaving the new Batman movie, which is operatic, sweeping in its ambitions and length (at two-and-a-half hours, it is longer than any super hero movie should reasonably be, and yet it moves briskly), I was satisfied that a true Batman movie had finally been made. But I also felt a little bit dirty about it.

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There were a lot of questions heading into tonight’s Sox-Yanks game, literally the 2,000th time these teams have faced each other. Could Joba hold his own against Josh Beckett in a hostile environment? Could the Yankees continue their recent timely hitting? Would the real Kyle Farnsworth reemerge at the worst possible time? Would the Yankees make a big trade ahead of the deadline? Is there any way in hell the new X-Files movie will possibly be any good?

Answers: Yes, not really but things worked out anyway, yes, yes, and not according to Manohla Dargis. The Yankees beat the Red Sox, 1-0, in a tense, emotional pitcher’s duel; they also learned that team has acquired lefty reliever Damaso Marte and outfielder Xavier Nady from the Pirates in exchange for minor leaguers Jose Tabata, Ross Ohlendorf, Phil Coke, and some other AA dude you’ve probably never heard of. More on that later.

As for the game itself, Josh Beckett was very good, scattering nine hits and a walk through seven innings and allowing one run – and that on a dinky little Giambi shift-beater to the left side in the third inning. Beckett’s curveball was nearly untouchable, tight and well-spotted, and though the Yankees had plenty of hits, they only really threatened twice. But Joba Chamberlain was even better, in maybe his best (and certainly his biggest) start as a Yankee. He also went seven innings and struck out nine in an impressive shutout, and seemed to get stronger as he went along.

There was a great atmosphere at Fenway – in addition to all the usual Sox-Yanks hype, exacerbated by the suddenly tight race, the fans were thrilled to welcome back David Ortiz, who returned from a wrist injury tonight. He  didn’t look quite like himself just  yet, and the Yankees exploited his injury, pitching him in relentlessly to put pressure on the  wrist.

The game was marked by a series of lousy calls – on balls and strikes, and also a few very close plays on the bases – some of which went the Yanks’ way, others not. So everyone was already a little on edge by the seventh, which is when Kevin Youkilis – who’s accumulated quite a history with Chamberlain in just one year – stepped into the box. Chamberlain went 2-0 on the Greek God of Walks before his third pitch sailed way up and in, and barely missed Youklis’ helmet while the first baseman threw himself out of the way.

Youkilis, of course, brushed himself off and stepped back in the box in a totally businesslike–oh, wait, sorry, no. Youkilis threw a fit to the ump, not that I blame him, and the Sox gathered at the edge of their dugout as the atmosphere turned stormy and both benches were warned. Chamberlain went on to get the strikeout, and Youkilis stalked back to the dugout looking not entirely gruntled.

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