Daily Archives: November 12, 2008

The Source:

DJ Premier chopped this tune up twice. The first, is Gang Starr’s classic, “Ex Girl to the Next Girl”:

And here’s “Speak Ya Clout” (skip to the last part of this three-segment jam):

Yanks sign Marte.

Cliff’s analysis is forthcoming. In the meantime, swing, papi, swing:

By Luis Guzman

(as told to Alex Belth)

I grew up in Greenwich Village in the 60s on 10th and Hudson. I went to PS 41. Then when I was ten, we moved to the LES, to the Lower East Side. All my life I’ve been a Yankee fan, B. Mantle, Pepitone. I remember Horace Clarke, Kekich, Peterson, Hamilton, “the folly floater.” When I was between the ages of say 10 and 14 which would have been ’66 to 1970, I’d get together with my buddies in the Villiage, my man Wayne Teagarden, my boy Norman sometimes too, and we’d shine shoes outside of the bank of 7th avenue and Christopher Street. We’d shine shoes in the morning, make enough money, sneak on the train, get up to the Stadium, and sneak into the bleachers. We’d make $2-3 dollars which was pretty good back then. Sometimes we’d pay to get in, it depended. It was fifty, seventy-five cents. We’d fill up on hot dogs and soda and cracker jack, which was the thing at the time.

Back then, they had day games during the week. We used to go out Sunday for bat day and hat day and ball day and yadda-yadda day. It was great. I’d go to every Old Timers’ game, that was a big thing for me, and nothing was bigger than the day Mickey Mantle retired. We had seen Mickey play, he had hit a few home runs when I was there, that was big stuff man. But that day, his family was there, it was heavy.

Between 66-70 the Yankees weren’t doing too good. But we watched Mickey Mantle wind down his career, and you’d see other guys that would come in—Yaz with the Red Sox, Luis Aparicio with the Twins, Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew.

We didn’t know at the time but the old Stadium was…it was amazing. They had those beams that would come down and we’d wonder how anybody would be able to see if they had to sit behind one of them. But we were always in the bleachers, the right field bleachers, cause we used to like looking into the bullpen to see who is warming up. Remember when the bullpen was in the tunnel? We’d be talking to the pitchers.

Back then Yankee Stadium was a real relaxed, kicked-back kind of a place. They didn’t have guys coming onto the field between innings like now, it wasn’t this high–security place. It’s when it was a ballpark. Dude, we used to wait for the third out in the top or bottom of the ninth and after the third out we’d jump over the railing and run around all over the outfield. There would be fifty, one hundred kids running around. But that’s all we’d do was run around. We were respectful about it. We’d wait for the last out, you know, bro.

(more…)

Alexi the barber has been looking for me. He doesn’t use telephones or emails and the only instant message he’s ever delivered is a quick right hook. I got the word from a guy who was talking to another guy who got a haircut earlier this week.

“Alexi was asking about you,” I was told. “He ain’t mad, but he wants you to own your words.”

I didn’t need a haircut, but I stopped at the barbershop to settle the score.

“Where have you been?” Alexi asked. “Your guy Roy Jones got clobbered on Saturday.”

“He put up a good fight,” I countered. “And win or lose he’s still my guy.”

“You don’t know when to quit,” Alexi said. “Your Yankees didn’t make the playoffs and now Jones got beat. What have you got left?”

“I stand behind my team and my guys,” I snapped. “The Yankees are gonna win the World Series next year. Derek will win the batting title, A-Rod the MVP, Wang the Cy Young and Mariano will save at least 50 games. And Roy will bounce back in his next fight, too.”

“So you’re a stubborn one?” Alexi asked.

I nodded.

Alexi smiled and said:

“I like that.”

News you can use …

• At the Times, Tyler Kepner lets Brian Cashman give his impression of how the Yankees will be involved in this year’s free agent market.
• The economic downturn is indeed impacting sales of some of the pricier seats and suites at the new Stadium, as reported by USA Today.  Seven luxury boxes down the foul lines priced at $600,000 remain available for the 2009 season. The team still had seven available in August, too.   As of August, 3,500 of the 4,300 premium seats had been sold, including the $500-$2,500 per-game tickets near home plate in the first nine rows of 25 sections ringing home plate.
• Over at WasWatching, Steve Lombardi points to a Gotham Baseball article which quotes an unnamed Yankee exec suggesting that Jim Edmonds might be a nice CF stopgap until Austin Jackson takes over.  (Oy!)
• MLB.com reports that the Yankees and Cisco Systems held a news conference Tuesday to announce the technological enhancements fans will see in the new stadium.  They include:

1. Live game broadcast on HD video monitors displayed throughout the stadium, including concession areas, the Great Hall, the Yankees Museum and other in-stadium restaurant and bar locations.
2. Premium luxury suites will be outfitted with touch-screen Internet Protocol (IP) phones that will allow fans to order concessions and Yankees merchandise for delivery to the suite.
3. Going forward, the new stadium is equipped to support future fan use of mobile devices for ordering concessions from their seat, viewing instant replays or chatting in real time with friends inside and outside the stadium.

• At that same press conference, Hal Steinbrenner was asked what his primary concern was for this off-season:

“I would be remiss if I didn’t say starting pitching,” he said. “The injuries to (Joba) Chamberlain and (Chien-Ming) Wang certainly didn’t help us last year. We need to build the starting pitching.”

• Still within that conference, Hal denied that his and his brother’s goals were different from Brian Cashman’s philosophy of trimming payroll and developing talent from within.

“Brian is the head of baseball operations,” Steinbrenner said. “The goal, as far as I’m concerned, is balance. Young players built from within and veteran mentors.”

• According to the Boston Herald, Mariano Rivera and A-Rod will be appearing at David Ortiz’s charity golf event in the Dominican Republic next month.  The event helps fund medical care for critically ill children in that country and New England.  (Don’t worry, Mo won’t be swinging a golf club so soon after having had shoulder surgery)
• Happy 36th birthday to Homer Bush.  Homer’s claim to fame may just be that he was included in a trade that brought Roger Clemens to Gotham.  A happy 47th to Greg Gagne, drafted by the Yanks and soon included in a 1982 trade that brought back the immortal Roy Smalley.
• This isn’t a Yankee birthday, but gotta include it.  On this date in 1865, the one and only Archibald “Moonlight” Graham was born. 
• On this date 50 years ago, Bob Turley, who had 21 wins and 19 complete games, is named the Cy Young Award winner (only one award given back in those days).  Turley gathers five votes to four for 1957’s winner, Warren Spahn.
• One year ago today, Jorge Posada re-signed with the Yanks for $52.4 million over four years. This makes Posada the highest-paid catcher in MLB history, edging out Mike Piazza’s $13 million average from 1999-2005.