Daily Archives: February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine’s Day y’all.

Here’s a tune to put you in the mood, one of my favorite Al Green joints.  I love the vibe on this record, it has such an intimate feel.  They got the particular texture by turning up the levels on all the instruments, including the vocals, and everyone played…softly.

Speaking of Al Green, here’s a terrific cover of “Love and Happiness” by Monty Alexander (this one is for all the heads out there, name those samples):

And this isn’t so much a love song, but I love coolin’ out to it all the same, from Joe Henderson’s “Page One” lp:

Finally, here’s a make-out standard:

In honor of Valentine’s Day, today’s news is powered by this video (don’t worry, there’s no sex :-)):

• Bryan Hoch of MLB.com reports on the Yanks’ first day or camp down in Florida, including this chuckle:

Noted extrovert Joba Chamberlain was already in midseason form, heading for the locker of the big man on campus and trying on CC Sabathia’s size 56 pinstriped jersey.

[My take: Brett Garder could use it for a tent.]

• Here’s a photo to make you happy … C-MW on the mound.
• Over at ESPN.com, Jayson Stark offers the results of a survey regarding best and worst off-season moves.  The Yankees figure prominently in the “best” categories.
• At BP.com, Kevin Goldstein is out with his annual listing of the “Top 100 Prospects”.   Jesus Montero is one of only two Yankees to make the list, at #38.  Austin Jackson (#46) is the other.
• Also at BP.com, Marc Normandin lists the top fantasy second basemen for ’09.  Robby Cano comes in at #14.
• The Yanks signed Brett Tomko to a minor league deal, writes Tyler Kepner.

[My take: Fun fact … his name anagrams to BOTTOM TREK, which sort of describes this signing.]

• In PeteAbe’s reporting of the Tomko signing, he includes this A-Rod news:

Meanwhile, in an incredible case of bad timing, the University of Miami named its baseball field after Alex Rodriguez this evening. A-Rod donated $3.9 million to refurbish the facility. He had planned to attend Miami before signing with Seattle out of high school.

The stadium is now called Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field. How a park can be at a field, I’m not quite sure. But for $3.9 million, it doesn’t really matter.

[My take: Any truth to the rumor that Alex is now claiming he didn’t know exactly what he was putting his money towards (a park or a field), and that he’s sorry and remorseful and ready to move on?]

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