Daily Archives: May 12, 2009

It didn’t really matter what A.J. Burnett did last night given how well Roy Halladay pitched. Halladay faced the minimum through 6 1/3 thanks to a questionable call by second-base umpire Chuck Meriwether who called Johnny Damon out trying to stretch a single into a double in the first inning. Fittingly, it was a Damon double that broke Halladay’s streak with one out in the seventh. After Mark Teixeira struck out, Alex Rodriguez delivered a two-out RBI single to plate Damon, but that was all the Yankees would get. Halladay erased a Melky Cabrera single in the eighth with a double play and stranded a lead-off Ramiro Peña double in the ninth. He threw 72 of 103 pitches for strikes, got 17 of his 27 outs on the ground, five more by strikeout, and two more on pop-ups, and picked up his first complete game of the year, pushing his record to 7-1. The game took just two hours and 22 minutes to play.

Fun stat: Since 2003, Halladay leads all major league pitchers in shutouts with 36. CC Sabathia is second with 26. Since 2006, however, Sabathia leads Halladay 22 to 21.

As for Burnett, he gave up three runs in the fourth after loading the bases on an Alex Rios double and two walks. Scott Rolen doubled down the left field line to plate two, and after Lyle Overbay struck out, Rod Barajas brought the third run home with a sac fly. Still, it seemed we were getting the pitching duel we had hoped for when Burnett held the Jays there and took the mound in the bottom of the eight trailing Halladay 3-1. Then Aaron Hill homered to make it 4-1 and Rios and Rolen teamed up again to plate a fifth run (via a walk, groundout, and RBI Rolen single) to bounce Burnett from the game and set the final score at 5-1.

A.J. was booed lustily throughout the game by the betrayed Blue Jays fans. Chants of “A.J. Sucks” echoed throughout the Rogers Centre (as did “Steroids” chants during Alex Rodriguez’s at-bats). One fan held up a sign that said “Roy > A.J.” Well, yeah. I think even he’d admit that.

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Toronto Blue Jays

2009 Record: 22-12 (.647)
2009 Pythagorean Record: 21-13 (.618)

2008 Record: 86-76 (.531)
2008 Pythagorean Record: 93-69 (.574)

Manager: Cito Gaston
General Manager: J.P. Ricciardi

Home Ballpark (multi-year Park Factors): Rogers Centre (99/98)

Who’s Replaced Whom:

• Aaron Hill (DL) reclaims his playing time from Joe Inglett (minors)
• Travis Snider replaces Shannon Stewart and Brad Wilkerson
• Adam Lind replaces Kevin Mench and Frank Thomas
• Kevin Millar replaces Matt Stairs
• Jose Bautista replaces David Eckstein
• Raul Chavez is filling in for Michael Barrett (DL), who replaces Gregg Zaun
• Brian Tallet is filling in for Ricky Romero (DL), who replaces A.J. Burnett
• Brett Cecil replaces David Purcey (minors) and Dustin McGowan (DL)
• Scott Richmond replaces Shaun Marcum (DL)
• Robert Ray is filling in for Jesse Litsch (DL)
• Bill Murphy replaces John Parrish
• Scott Downs is closing in place of B.J. Ryan (DL)

25-man Roster:

1B – Lyle Overbay (L)
2B – Aaron Hill (R)
SS – Marco Scutaro (R)
3B – Scott Rolen (R)
C – Rod Barajas (R)
RF – Alex Rios (R)
CF – Vernon Wells (R)
LF – Travis Snider (L)
DH – Adam Lind (L)

Bench:

R – Kevin Millar (1B)
R – John McDonald (IF)
R – Jose Bautista (UT)
R – Raul Chavez (C)

Rotation:

R – Roy Halladay
R – Scott Richmond
L – Brian Tallet
L – Brett Cecil
R – Robert Ray

Bullpen:

L – Scott Downs
R – Jason Frasor
L – Jesse Carlson
R – Shawn Camp
R – Brandon League
L – Bill Murphy
R – Brian Wolfe

15-day DL:

RHP – Dustin McGowan (labrum)
RHP – Shaun Marcum (TJ surgery)
RHP – Jesse Litsch (forearm tightness)
LHP – Ricky Romero (oblique)
LHP – B.J. Ryan (trapezius)
C – Michael Barrett (right shoulder tear)

Typical Lineup:

R – Marco Scutaro (SS)
R – Aaron Hill (2B)
R – Alex Rios (RF)
R – Vernon Wells (CF)
L – Adam Lind (DH)
R – Scott Rolen (3B)
L – Lyle Overbay (1B)
R – Rod Barajas (C)
L – Travis Snider (LF)

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My first job right out of college was as a production assistant on Ken Burns’ “Baseball” documentary.  The gig lasted about five months and when it was over I couldn’t find another paying job in the movie business so I spent most of the summer in central park watching softball. I pretended to look for work but really I hid out in the park instead.  I was a regular goldbricker, but was not alone.  I discovered a group of regulars who would hang around the great lawn and watch games all afternoon.  Fat guys with red bellies who would rotate around the fields to stay in the sun.  A skinny black dude, Smokey, used to sell Snapple, water, soda and beer.  I’d follow an animated umpire named Butch and watch all of his games.

My favorite league was the Press League (This may be the same league that our man Cliff later played in when he was with Viking).  The games just had more juice than the Broadway League.  The New York Times had a wonderful second baseman at the time, an older woman who wore braces on both knees.  She was a fluid fielder, the kind of person you just wanted to talk baseball with.  The kind of person you’d be honored to have a catch with.

I thought about her a few days ago when I read this piece about the Press League in the City Section of the Sunday Times:

Each spring for at least three decades, starting in late April or early May, media softball with all its pranks and rivalries returns to the diamonds of Central Park. The undertaking involves dozens of players, largely in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

And this season, coming as it does on the heels of possibly the worst year in memory for the publishing industry, the idea of repairing from the office to the green of the park seems especially appealing.

Over the past year, caught between an ailing economy and the struggle of print publications in an increasingly digital age, one after another title has trimmed its sails, migrated to the Web or closed up shop entirely. The shock has been felt especially in New York, home to so many publications and to so many who read them or work for them. And the body count continues to rise, with the attendant impact on the softball season.

February brought the folding of Trader Monthly, a magazine for the financial community, whose team planned to play this year. On April 30, Condé Nast announced the closing of Portfolio, its glossy business monthly, laying off more than 80 people. It had planned to play the New Yorker on June 16.

The past 10 days have seen an immense range of stories leapfrog to the forefront of New York sports fans’ collective consciousness. In no particular order, with some analysis and commentary mixed in…

• The Yankees slashed prices for the primo seats, an altruistic move that still leaves many of us thinking, “You know, you have your own network, and it’s on my cable system. I’ll contribute to your bottom line that way and I won’t feel like I got stabbed in the wallet.”

• Alex Rodriguez did everything necessary in extended spring training and returned to the lineup Friday. He punctuated the return with a home run on the first pitch he saw, thus fulfilling his job as the media-anointed savior of the team’s season. He proceeded to go 1-for-10 with two strikeouts in the remainder of the series, and perhaps fearing aggravating the hip injury, didn’t hustle down the line to run out a ground ball, thus reclaiming his role as the team’s most prominent punching bag.

• The Yankees lost two straight to the Red Sox at home and have lost the first five meetings of the season. (Sound the alarms! Head for the hills! There’s no way the Yankees can win the division without beating the Red Sox! Except that they can, and they have. In 2004, the Yankees went 1-6 in their first seven games against the BoSox, ended up losing the season series 8-11 and still finished 101-61 to win the American League East by three games.)

• Joba Chamberlain 1: His mother was arrested for allegedly selling crystal meth to an undercover officer. Following Chamberlain’s own brushes with the law during the offseason, it stood to reason that the tabloids attacked this story like starving coyotes. It’s remarkable that he was able to pitch at all given the negative attention he received.

• Joba Chamberlain 2: Flash back to Aug. 13, 2007. Chamberlain struck out Orioles first baseman Aubrey Huff in a crucial late-inning at-bat to end the inning and in the heat of the moment pumped his fist in exultation. Yesterday, following a three-run home run in the first inning that gave the O’s a 3-1 lead, Huff mocked Chamberlain’s emotional outburst with his own fist pump, first while rounding first base, and again when crossing home plate. Apparently, Mr. Huff holds grudges. Thanks to the New York Daily News’s headline, “MOCKING BIRD” with a photo of the home-plate celebration, this story will have wings when Baltimore comes to the Bronx next week. Even better, as it currently stands, Chamberlain is due to start in the series finale on Thursday the 21st. Get ready for a rash of redux stories leading up to that game.

• Mariano Rivera surrendered back-to-back home runs for the first time in his career last Wednesday night, a clear signal that something is wrong. Maybe.

• The team as a whole. The Yankees are 15-16 through 31 games, and some rabid fans (the “Spoiled Set,” as Michael Kay likes to call them; the group of fans between ages 18-30 that only knows first-place finishes for the Yankees) are calling for Joe Girardi’s head. As in the above note on the Red Sox, some context is required. The Yankees’ records through 31 games this decade:

2000: 22-9 (finished 87-74, won AL East)
2001: 18-13 (finished 95-65, won AL East)
2002: 18-13 (finished 103-58, won AL East)
2003: 23-8 (finished 101-61, won AL East)
2004: 18-13 (finished 101-61, won AL East)
2005: 12-19 (finished 95-67, won AL East)
2006: 19-12 (finished 97-65, won AL East)
2007: 15-16 (finished 94-68, won AL Wild Card)
2008: 15-16 (finished 89-73, missed playoffs)
2009: 15-16 (finish TBD)

No one is going to make excuses for the team with the billion dollar stadium and the highest payroll, least of all your trusted scribes here at the Banter. Looking at the last three years — including 2009 — it should be noted that similar issues of injury, age, and woes throughout the pitching staff have befallen the Yankees.

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