A major Francis Bacon show has just opened at the MET. I can’t wait to see it. I remember seing a major Bacon retrospective at the Modern years ago and being blown away. I think his pictures are stunning and disturbing, sometimes scary and often beautiful. They are elegantly imagined nightmares. Something to peep if you can bear it.
Over at SI.com, Bill James and Joe Posnanski team-up for a column on the Big Unit, Randy Johnson:
Joe: That gets us to the larger point. Seems to me that Randy Johnson has in some ways been overshadowed in his own generation. It isn’t that people missed the point that the Unit has been a great pitcher — the guy has won five Cy Young Awards — it’s that I’m not sure people realize just HOW great he has been.
Why? It’s funny: I think it’s because while everyone will talk and talk about all the steroids and home runs during the Selig Era, and everyone will talk about how offense dominated the last 15 to 20 years, the truth is that the last 15 to 20 years have given us four of the best pitchers in the history of baseball.
And I just find that richly ironic: I don’t believe there has ever been an era in baseball history that gave us four pitchers as good as Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson. So while Johnson has been Nolan Ryan with control (the Unit’s 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings is the best ever), while he had a longer Koufax-like peak, while he’s about to win his 300th game, he’s still widely viewed as the fourth-best pitcher of his time.
Today’s news is powered by . . . The Gas Face . . .:
For now, Hughes is scheduled to pitch Monday at Texas. But if he is back in the minors instead, he will take lessons with him.
“Just be aggressive,” Hughes said. “Sometimes, because of the stage you’re on, you try to do too much or you’re afraid to make a mistake. That’s not the way I pitch. That’s not my plan going in. Really, there’s no difference at this level. You’ve still got to go off your strengths.”
For Hughes on Wednesday, that was a lively 94-mile-an-hour fastball he used to strike out Adam Jones and Nick Markakis in the first inning. Seven of his strikeouts came against those two hitters — both batting well over .300— or Aubrey Huff.
“He can be successful at this level with the stuff that he’s got,” Girardi said. “It’s attacking the strike zone and wiggling your way out of some innings like other pitchers are able to do.”
Togetherness was what Girardi made a point of in spring training when he arranged that surprise “Day at the Pool Parlor.” Say this for Girardi, he recognized what guys like Damon are only now willing to talk openly about: The Yankee clubhouse was a joyless place in the latter years of the Joe Torre regime. Part of it was the personnel – how could anyone find any fun being around Kevin Brown? – but a big part of it was the generation gap that existed between Torre and his players. Aside from his small coterie of veterans from the championship years, Torre kept his distance from his players and when each new high profile free agent came over from another organization, like Jason Giambi, Hideki Matsui or Damon, they were never able to blend in with the championship core as it gradually diminished. It was apparently the consummate “25 players, 25 taxi cabs” team.
“Rarely in the last three years I’ve been here would there be four-five guys hanging out playing video games in the hotel room,” Brian Bruney said. “Now, guys are having fun and they want to hang out together. The shaving cream, the music, people need to realize you can do those things and still win. You can’t win with just All-Stars all around. We’ve done that the past three years and we haven’t done anything.”
“The rules here are much more family oriented now,” said Damon,”and that’s why you have free agents wanting to come to New York instead of a low-key place.”
Funny, I thought it was the money. But there is no question that CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, for all the moolah it took to get them to come here, have had a major influence in changing both the personality of the team and the atmosphere in the clubhouse. Same with Nick Swisher, who was grateful to escape Ozzie Guillen’s dog house in Chicago and get traded to the Yankees.
I’ll admit it: I’ve seen his whole career and I don’t know what to make of Melky Cabrera. I see him on a roll like this, and I think he’s a legitimate major league outfielder. He homered on Wednesday and went 2 for 4, raising his average to .321 and helping the Yankees to their eighth victory in a row, 11-4 over Baltimore. And he’s a reliable defender.
But it’s weird. Do you know he’s gone 43 plate appearances since his last walk? That’s kind of startling, since he’s hitting in front of the third- or fourth-string catcher. But what does it really matter? The Yankees are winning and his on-base percentage is .374.
History says this won’t last. Remember, Cabrera was hot at the start of last season, too. Through the games of last May 4, Cabrera was batting .291 with six homers. . . .
“He’s a different player is the way I see it,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “He’s consistent from both sides of the plate, he’s having good at-bats all the time, he’s not trying to do too much, he’s hitting a lot of line drives, some of his line drives have gone out of the ballpark. He’s been aggressive. We’re very pleased with what we’re getting from him.”
Wang has thrown 13 scoreless innings over his previous two starts in the Minors, though the Yankees have been looking to see more consistency from his sinker. He showed flashes of regaining that command in a bullpen session on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.
“We want to see what we saw in the bullpen,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “We want to see him take that into the game. That will tell us a lot.”. . .
“We all know that he wants to be here, and we want him to,” Girardi said. “But he understood where we’re coming from. We want to see that stuff he had in the bullpen in the game.”
[My take: Will Chamberlain taking a liner off his knee last night change the plan for CMW?]
The Yanks got a scare last night when an Adam Jones line drive caught Joba Chamberlain on the outside of his right knee in the top of the first inning. Chamberlain picked up the ball and retired Jones at first base for the second out of the game, but was in obvious pain. He initially convinced his manager and trainer to leave him in the game, but after giving up singles to the next two batters and hobbling a bit on his way to back up third base after the latter, he was pulled.
Fortunately, X-rays on the knee were negative. Chamberlain was diagnosed with nothing more than a bruise and, while Joe Girardi labeled him day-to-day, Joba is confident that he’ll be able to make his next start on Tuesday.
Alfredo Aceves relieved Chamberlain, stranding both runners in the first. The Yankees then jumped all over Adam Eaton, scoring four runs in the bottom of the first on doubles by Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano (hitting second in place of an achy Johnny Damon), Mark Teixeira, and Melky Cabrera (who was then caught between second and third for the final out of the inning). After Aceves worked a scoreless second, the Yanks added two more on a two-run homer by Cano.
Aceves, who had pitched two scoreless innings on Wednesday night, pitched two more scoreless frames before yielding to Jonathan Albaladejo. Albaladejo gave up a solo homer to Brian Roberts on his very first pitch in the fifth inning, but Hideki Matsui got that run right back with a solo homer off Eaton in the bottom of the inning.
That made it 7-1 Yankees after five. The Orioles chipped away a bit, putting up two more runs on Albaladejo in the sixth and driving him from the game with a Nick Markakis solo homer in the seventh, but Jose Veras pitched out of a two-out jam of his own making in the eighth, and Mariano Rivera sealed the deal in the ninth, giving the Yankees a 7-4 win and extending their winning streak to nine games. Alfredo Aceves, who extended his scoreless streak to 9 1/3 innings, picked up his third, and most deserved, win of the current winning streak. Meanwhile, the Red Sox completed a sweep of the Blue Jays, putting the Yankees just 1.5 games out in the AL East with what is now the fourth-best record in the league.
As for Damon, he tweaked his neck leaping for Adam Jones’ homer on Wednesday night but isn’t expected to miss more than last night’s game. Meanwhile, Girardi did the right thing by pulling Joba last night. Even if all he had was a bruise, had Chamberlain altered his delivery to compensate for the pain in his knee, even unconsciously, he could have caused a more serious injury to his arm. As it was, the Yankees won the game anyway, and should now have a fully healthy Joba ready to take his next turn. Special bonus: the early exit saved him six innings or so toward his allotted regular season total.
Finally, the Yankees announced before the game that Chien-Ming Wang will start for Scranton today and Phil Hughes will make his next scheduled start in the majors on Monday. Said Girardi of Wang, “We just want him to have the stuff [in a game] that he had in the bullpen.” Remember, when Wang was struggling in early April, he would look good in the pen, then have nothing on the mound. Given Hughes’ continued improvement, this is very much the right decision, as well.
Why not more? Greed is good, haven’t you heard?
I’m starting to really love Joba as a pitcher. He was one thing as a set-up reliever, an overpowering guy–electric, exciting. But he’s far more complete as a starter; throws a change-up and a curve with confidence. He’s not as big or chunky or as plodding as Roger Clemens, but he’s still a power guy who is a bona fide pitcher. He’s walking too many guys but I like the progress he’s made. Each start is fun to watch. He’s thinking out there, and he’s got some courage.
Be interesting to see if he can keep building tonight in another go at the O’s.
Nine would be fine, sunshine.
Here’s an appealing bit of L.A. Noir fiction by our good pal John Schulian:
The first time I laid eyes on her, I’d just spent twelve hours waiting for an accountant who wasn’t the dognapper his ex-wife made him out to be. It was three in the morning and I was piling up some expenses at the counter of Norm’s, on La Cienega. Between bites of bacon and hard-fried eggs, I thought about all the other nights I’d wasted in a lonely car on a dreary street, waiting for bad news to show up. The memories would have ruined the romance of my life as a private eye if there’d been any romance left. Then she slid onto the stool next to mine the way hot fudge goes on ice cream.
Another Asian mascara junkie, I thought at first. But I changed my mind after taking in the eyes, the arms, the mouth of her, the east, west, north and south of her.
Somewhere in the middle of the tour, she caught me staring. She didn’t bat an eye. Maybe she couldn’t.“I see you tonight?” she asked.
“Would you remember if you had?” I said.
She laughed self-consciously. I took it as a no. But at least we had the start of something resembling a conversation. That’s how I learned she was a dancer at the Jewel Box, just down the street. “Naked body,” she said. “You better come see my show.”
This week’s briefing begins with a note from WFAN’s Richard Neer. As I drove home from the golf course Sunday, Neer was entertaining a call from a Mets fan, who in typical Mets fan form – actually, he was calm – ranted about Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran and how the Mets’ core players don’t play smart, and they don’t play hard.
Neer poo-pooed the call, saying – and I paraphrase – that Mets fans are looking for things to get upset about while the team is in first place. Mets fans can’t exist unless there’s something to kvetch about. Well, those calls are even more heated now, since the team from Queens changed its logo from “METS” to “BEARS,” and replaced their names with the “Chico’s Bail Bonds” sponsorship patch.
It got me thinking, though, about the legitimacy of the recent Mariano Rivera arguments that have pervaded local and national Yankee telecasts. Are fans and media alike looking for a negative amidst the best positive streak the Yankees have had this season? Or is it valid that due to his age, Rivera 1) should not pitch more than one inning when called upon, and 2) should not pitch on consecutive days?
My answer to both questions is no. I’m actually surprised the Rivera argument is the focus, when he remains the most consistent pitcher on the Yankees’ staff. From a relief pitching standpoint, who is more reliable? Who has been able to consistently throw Strike One? Phil Coke has, sometimes. So has Alfredo Aceves. Jose Veras? Edwar “Leave off the ‘d’ for ‘Don’t you know I’m throwing a changeup with two strikes’ Ramirez? Brett “I gave up Mark McGwire’s 62nd home run in ’98 and now I’m a Yankee” Tomko? Not so much.
Yes, Joe Girardi has to be mindful of Rivera’s age and use him wisely. Take Monday night, for example. Rivera had logged three innings and thrown 44 pitches over the previous two games. He had not pitched three consecutive days all season and was given the night off. A wise move by Girardi, and with a big lead, his decision seemed validated. That was, of course, until the ninth inning, when the ESPN team of Chris Berman and Orel Hershiser strained as Coke struggled to a “save” to complete the series sweep of the Twins. Intermittently, ESPN cameras cut away to Rivera sitting in the bullpen with his jacket on, looking like he wanted to warm up and get in there if necessary. Poor Phil Coke. At least he didn’t have to endure Berman’s incessant references to “Coke Classic,” “New Coke,” and anything other beverage jokes he could come up with. And he did secure the victory, much to the chagrin of the headline writers of the Post and Daily News, who were probably salivating at the chance of plastering “PHIL CHOKE” on the back page.
Wednesday night, Michael Kay lamented Rivera’s eighth-inning entrance both during the game and in the post-game analysis. Kay’s main beef was that someone else should have pitched the ninth inning, especially after the Yankees blew the game open with six runs in the bottom of the eighth. Rivera threw four pitches in the eighth and needed 10 to get three outs in the ninth. He also yielded his fifth home run of the season.
Kay used those last two points to validate his argument, which upon reading over again, still seems weak, and here’s why: Recent history has shown that the guys who were available – Veras, Ramirez, Tomko, and Jonathan Albaladejo – could not be counted on to get three outs and hold an eight-run lead. Kim Jones didn’t ask why Rivera pitched the ninth on Wednesday, and if it was asked later on, Girardi’s answers will be column fodder for Thursday’s rags.
My opinion: Girardi made the right move. As I’ve written in this space before, and reviewed many times when Steven Goldman’s columns passed my edits, sometimes a save occurs in the eighth inning. This game against the Orioles was one of those times. Leaving him in to pitch the ninth: why not? Isn’t that partly why he’s getting paid upwards of $15 million? What about the possibility that Rivera asked to pitch the ninth? Having been his former catcher, isn’t it possible that Girardi believes that Rivera knows his body better than anyone and that maybe he left the decision to the future Hall of Famer?
Looking at Rivera’s profile, his 2009 workload is being carefully planned, primarily based on pitch count. Wednesday was only the third time all season River was asked to get more than three outs in an appearance – it just so happened that it was the second time in his last three games. And he was pitching on two days’ rest, so he was fresh. Rivera averaged 30 pitches in the two four-out or more appearances. He threw just 14 on Wednesday.
If you were the Yankees manager, how would you handle Rivera? I would likely do the same thing Girardi’s doing. Oh, and under no circumstances, ever, would I have Tomko warming when I need to get one batter out in the ninth inning.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“When the misses are in the same spots (up and in to lefties and up and away to righties) and no adjustments are made, you have to wonder if anything’s going on between the ears.”
— Orel Hershiser, during Phil Coke’s ninth-inning struggles Monday
Until next week …
Hi there gang! I’m back, and thus … today’s news is powered by the return of someone a bit more (in)famous:
With veteran backstops Jorge Posada and Jose Molina both on the disabled list, the Yankees wanted to see (Frankie) Cervelli save runs behind the plate with his strong throwing arm. Whatever else he could provide would be wonderful, but not necessary.
The 23-year-old may be exceeding all expectations. He raised his average to .370 entering Wednesday’s play and his voice has become a trusted one on the bench. It’s becoming a reliable recipe: Cervelli calls the pitches he wants, and the Yankees’ starters succeed.
“I feel very lucky right now to be the everyday catcher with these guys,” Cervelli said. “They give me confidence and let me do the same things I was doing in the Minor Leagues. When I feel something and I want to call one pitch, they let me do that. That’s exciting for me.”. . .
“I like what I see just when you talk to him,” (Andy) Pettitte said. “The look in his eyes is very confident. If he’s confident in what he’s doing, no matter how much experience I have out there or any of these other guys, it helps you. It’s what you want to do. I’ll ask his advice. He’s really paying a lot of attention and doing a great job, that’s for sure.”
Yankees manager Joe Girardi, a former big league backstop himself, has raved about Cervelli’s abilities.
“This young man can catch, throw and block and do a lot of things, and offensively he’s been a big contributor for us,” Girardi said. “He’s played very, very well.”
The whipped cream pie to the face is not the only current fad among the Yankees. The shaved head is also becoming popular, particularly in the bullpen. The most recently shorn dome belongs to Phil Coke.
He showed up bald and proud of it on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. “I’ve shaved my head before, it’s not a big deal,” Coke said. “But nobody around here has seen me with a shaved head. It’s just hair. It grows back. It’s fun, man. We’re having a good time.” . . .
Until Tuesday, Coke had sandy blond hair of moderate length and full sideburns. His locker is next Brian Bruney’s, another reliever with a recently shaved head. The computer monitor in Bruney’s locker shows a skull and crossbones. . . .
When Reggie Jackson, the Hall of Fame slugger, strolled over, Coke hugged him and took off his cap to show his head. Jackson, wearing a beret, kept it on his clean scalp.
“So far, it’s me, Veras, Bruney and Alfredo Aceves,” Coke said of the bullpen baldies. Coke said Jonathan Albaladejo “is thinking about it; he’s on the fence now. He’s not sure.”
But Ocho sure sounds sweet, don’t it?
Phil Hughes announced his presence with authority last night, working a 1-2-3 first inning that concluded with strikeouts of Adam Jones and Nick Markakis, both swinging through fastballs. He then stranded two runners in the second and got out of a runners-on-the-corners, no-out jam in the third by striking out Jones and Markakis again, the latter in conjunction with Kevin Cash throwing out Brian Roberts stealing.
Meanwhile, the Yankees built a 5-0 lead against Jeremy Guthrie on a Johnny Damon walk and a Mark Teixeira double in the first, consecutive solo homers by Nick Swisher (his first at the new stadium), Robinson Cano, and Melky Cabrera leading off the second, and a pair of walks and an RBI single by Cano in the third.
Hughes gave two of those runs back in the fourth on a Melvin Mora single and a Ty Wigginton homer and another in the fifth on a solo shot by Jones, but while he didn’t cure his recent gopheritis, he did set a career high with nine strikeouts—eight of them swinging, most of them on fastballs, but three on curveballs—while walking just one.
Hughes threw 89 pitches through five innings and Joe Girardi decided to hand the 5-3 lead to Alfrede Aceves at that point. Ace pitched around a pair of singles for two scoreless frames and Phil Coke and Mariano Rivera combined for a scoreless eighth. Then the Yankees dropped a six-spot on Danys Baez and Jamie Walker, blowing the game open late just as they had the night before. Since he was warm and had thrown just three pitches in the eighth, Girardi left Rivera in to mop up in the ninth, which he did, but not before giving up a solo homer to dead center by rookie Nolan Reimold. Final score: 11-4 Yankees.
That’s eight straight wins by the Yanks, who are now just 2.5 games behind the Blue Jays (who lost another to the Red Sox) in the East.
Girardi said the team would likely make a decision on Wang (and thus Hughes) tomorrow, but the skipper was pleased with the progess Hughes has made in his last two starts, which at least bodes well for Hughes chances at a return engagement should he find himself starting for Scranton in five days.
Your turn, Joba . . .
I called in to “New York Baseball Today” this afternoon to talk about what should become of Phil Hughes upon Chien-Ming Wang’s return to the rotation, which could happen by Monday . . .
As I say at the top there, today’s start is very important for Hughes. Since dominating the Tigers in his first major league start this season (6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K), he’s gone 0-2 with an 11.81 ERA and in his last three. The narrative there is that Hughes, particularly in the opinion of his manager, was squeezed horribly by home plate umpire Jerry Meals in his second start (4 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 94 pitches against Boston), was unable to escape a second-inning jam in his third start (1 2/3 IP, 8 R, 0 K in Baltimore), but proved he could work out of jams in his fourth start (5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 4 BB, 2 K in a no-decision against the Twins). If Hughes can atone for that one truly awful start in his rematch against the Orioles tonight and build on his ability to work out of jams (or avoid them altogether), he’ll have gone a long way toward affirming his once-again strong standing in the eyes of the organization, regardless of the outcome of the game.
Hughes would also do well to invert his K/BB ratio from those last three games (4:10), and to keep the oposition in the park after allowing four homers in those three starts. Though I do like the idea of putting Hughes in the bullpen for the short term as a possible shadow for Wang, should the returning groundballer continue to struggle, as an occasional spot-starter for Joba Chamberlain, and simply to increase his exposure to major league hitting (and umpiring), Hughes would have to earn such a move by showing progress tonight. Otherwise, the seemingly inevitable option back to Triple-A will be as appropriate as it is obvoius.
Hughes also has the pressure of keeping the Yankees’ seven-game winning streak alive. I was watching something on Game 6 of the 1986 World Series recently (perhaps the MLB Network’s “Seasons” show on 1986). The show told of how every hitter that got to first base in the bottom of the tenth inning of that game told first-base coach Bill Robinson, “I wasn’t going to be the guy to make the last out of the World Series.” I feel as though the Yankee starters are doing something similar, each taking the mound thinking “I’m not going to be the guy who stops this winning-streak.”
Hughes will throw to Kevin Cash for the second straight start. Opposing starter Jeremy Guthrie has twice allowed three runs in six innings to the Yankees this year, doing so in a winning effort on Opening Day and a losing effort in Alex Rodriguez’s first game back from the DL, both starts coming against CC Sabathia.
Take that Danny Kaye.
Funk Doc:
Biz Mark:
A good combination.
Here’s a vintage free style from 1990. Biz and Red rhyming over Impeach the President. The recording is bump but the rhymes are tons-o-fun. This was before Redman’s first record dropped. His diss of the Knicks at the end of his first verse is one of my favorite punchlines of all-time. And I like the Knicks.
Too good to be true or too much to take? I think Larry David is funny but I can’t watch him for more than a few minutes at a time. His comedy is just too intense and makes me too uncomfortable. I was never a fan of Seinfeld–though I came to appreciate it, especially the actors, when it went to syndication–and Curb Your Enthusiasm is far too astringent for my blood. Woody, I’m a fan. At least I used to be. Of his early funny movies. I was infatuated by his work when I was growing up, his writing, his stand-up and his movies, right up until Hannah and Her Sisters. Still, I am amazed at his productivity since. Even if I’m not wild about the movies themselves, it is impressive that the man keeps making movies, year-in, year-out.
Larry David is the star of Woody’s latest. Scott Raab thinks it could be a match made in Hebrew Heaven.
Today would have been Bobby Murcer’s 63rd birthday.
We lost Bobby last July to a brain tumor, so I’d like to take this opportunity to remember a pretty good ballplayer, and an even better person.
Here’s some Banter coverage regarding his passing.
Bruce Markusen had a nice piece on him.
. . . and some more coverage (via YES).
We miss you Bobby!
My thanks to Alex for allowing me to post this . . . and “News of the Day” will be back tomorrow.
Forgive Gene Michael if he looks a little dazed in his 1969 Topps card. He’s shown as a member of the Yankees, even though he’s wearing the colors of the Pirates, a team that he hadn’t played for since 1966. Somehow Topps could not find a picture of Michael with either the Yankees or the Dodgers, the team that actually traded him to the Yankees.
Now that I’ve thoroughly confused you, I can tell you this without hesitation: Michael’s move to New York, which coincided with the start of the 1968 season, helped change his career for the better, more subtly in the short term and quite significantly over the long haul.
At one time traded for Maury Wills, Michael had fallen into disfavor with the Dodgers because of his lack of hitting. After the 1967 season, the Dodgers dealt him to the Yankees, where he would eventually replace Tom Tresh as the starting shortstop. Like many shortstops of the era, Michael couldn’t hit worth a damn, but he could field the position with a smooth alacrity that the Yankees hadn’t seen since the prime years of Tony Kubek.
It was during his Yankee years that Michael established a reputation as the master of the hidden ball trick. With the runner at second base thinking that the pitcher already had the ball, Michael would blithely move toward him and then place a tag on the unsuspecting victim before showing the ball to the umpire. It’s a play that major leaguers occasionally pull off in today’s game, but Michael did it with a stunning degree of frequency, at least five times that have been documented. Considering that the hidden ball trick relies on heavy doses of surprise and deception, it’s remarkable that Michael was able to execute it more than once or twice. He was that good at it.
The hidden ball trick epitomized Michael’s intelligence. He had little obvious talent, possessing no power, average speed, and an overall gawkiness that came with his rail-like frame of six feet, two inches, and a mere 180 pounds. Yet, he was surprisingly athletic, enough to have starred as a college basketball player at Kent State, where his lean look earned him the nickname of “Stick.” As a major league shortstop, he made up for his lack of footspeed and arm strength with good hands and quick feet, and by studying the tendencies of opposing hitters and baserunners. How good was Michael defensively? I’d call him a poor man’s Mark Belanger. Like Michael, Belanger was tall and thin, and overmatched at the plate. But Belanger was arguably the best defensive shortstop of his era, so it’s no insult to put Michael in a slightly lower class of fielders.
Michael served the Yankees well as their starting shortstop from 1969 to 1973, but age and injuries began to catch up with him in 1974. At the age of 36, Michael received his unconditional release. He eventually signed with the Tigers, where he played sparingly in 1975, before being returned to the unemployment line. In February of 1976, Stick signed with the dreaded Red Sox, but he could do no more than earn a minor league assignment. In May, the Red Sox released Michael, who never did appear in a game for Boston.
With his playing career over, Michael quickly embarked on his second life in baseball. George Steinbrenner, remembering him as one of the original Yankees from his first year as ownership, gave him a job as a coach. From there Stick became a front office executive and then a two-time Yankee manager, serving separate stints in 1981 and ’82. Like all Yankee managers of that era, Michael was fired. He left the organization to manage the Cubs, where he clashed with his new boss, Dallas Green.
After a brief respite from the reign of Steinbrenner, Michael eventually returned to the Bronx. In 1990, the Yankees, by now a struggling team and a near laughingstock, made one of the most important moves in franchise history. They hired Michael as general manager. I was working as a sports talk show host at the time; I remember being very critical of Michael, who seemed unwilling to pull the trigger on big trades. Well, Michael knew a lot more about constructing a ballclub than I did. He set out to rebuild the Yankees’ farm system, while resisting the temptation to trade what few prospects the organization had for quick-fix veterans.
Under Michael’s stewardship, the Yankees drafted or signed the following players: Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, and a fellow named Mariano Rivera. That’s probably enough of a testament to Michael, but let’s consider that he also signed Wade Boggs and Jimmy Key as free agents.
When Michael did decide to make a trade, he made a splash. In November of 1992, Michael executed one of the most pivotal moves for the franchise’s future. He sent Roberto Kelly, one of the team’s two young center fielders, to the Reds for Paul O’Neill. It was a controversial deal, to say the least. Kelly was two years younger than O’Neill, a good player certainly, but one who was already 30 and had appeared to reach his ceiling. Michael knew what he was doing. He realized that Kelly, who lacked patience at the plate and passion in the field, was not as good a player as Bernie Williams, the team’s other center fielder. He also sensed that the fiery O’Neill could blossom as a left-handed hitter at Yankee Stadium playing for Buck Showalter. Stick was right on both counts.
With those vital pieces in place—including a catcher, a shortstop, a right fielder, a starting pitcher, and a closer—Michael left a championship nucleus for Bob Watson and Brian Cashman when he stepped down as Yankee GM in 1995.
Dazed and rejected no more, Stick Michael proved himself to be a pretty smart guy.
Bruce Markusen can be reached at bmarkusen@stny.rr.com.
Federer’s breakdown just before Nadal received the ’09 Australian Open winner’s trophy was the most obvious sign of the shift, but there had been earlier indications. Asked the day before the final whether he relished another shot at his archrival, Federer said, “Honestly, I preferred the days when I didn’t have a rival.” Nadal had exhausted himself in a five-hour, 14-minute semifinal the day before, but as soon as the final began, Federer seemed out of sorts. Worse, unlike Nadal when he was No. 2, Federer didn’t commit himself to attacking his rival, to shaking him out of his comfort zone. Twice Federer ran around his backhand and staggered Nadal with forehand winners, but he never did that again. “Twice in 4½ hours?” Wilander asks. “Why not show Nadal something different?”
The answer lies in the regal language always used to describe Federer. Born to rule, he has never been interested in fighting for power; that’s why in his current exile he looks less like Napoleon plotting on Elba than like the puzzled Czar Nicholas II waiting for the world to right itself and restore his throne.
This attitude perplexes even Federer’s staunchest admirers. Former players, coaches, peers: They all accept that his talent is, as Wilander says, “crazy,” but his passive response to Nadal goes against what they’ve been taught a superstar does when he’s down. Muhammad Ali came up with rope-a-dope, an aging Michael Jordan perfected the fadeaway jumper: The great ones adjust, sending a signal not only to their rivals but also to all the newly emboldened. It’s no shock that following Nadal’s trail, No. 3 Andy Murray has won six of his last seven matches against Federer, and No. 4 Novak Djokovic has won three of their last five. “What makes me scratch my head,” Courier says, “is how Roger doesn’t shift.”
The remedy most often prescribed for Federer’s ailing game is hiring a coach such as Darren Cahill, who once counseled Agassi. Federer toyed with the idea in the off-season, but that he didn’t follow up seemed further proof that he’s not hearing alarm bells. Others suggest that he serve-and-volley more, or play more doubles to replicate the Olympic preparation that helped him win the gold medal in doubles in Beijing and the U.S. Open singles title last September. But if Federer insists on staying back and winning rallies from the baseline, the consensus is that he must shorten points to save energy for the decisive third and fifth sets he has lately been losing: He has to hit more low, short slices to throw off Nadal’s rhythm, and he must put more bite on his flatter strokes.
Federer did that in the Australian Open final, but only when desperate; the instant he felt he had gained the momentum, he went back to the game on which he built his empire—and that Nadal solved long ago. “Roger still feels he’s just better [than Nadal],” Courier says. “And, frankly, he’s not.”
I like Nadal but I root for Federer. It will be fascinating to see if he can recover and get those three more grand slams to set the all-time mark. What once seemed inevitable is very much in question now. Can you remember a champion, seemingly still in his prime, get taken out like this? Bjorg, maybe. But he just walked away from the game. I wonder if Federer has it in him to get back on top? It would be a dream if he could ever win the French. This is could become a great rivalry if Federer finds a way to respond.
CC Sabathia pitched another fine game and the Yankees scored seven runs in the seventh inning to win their seventh game in a row.
Final score: Yanks 9, Orioles 1.
It was a close game again until just after Kate Smith sung God Bless America.* Sabathia allowed a first-inning run but Alex Rodriguez crushed a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning to give the Yanks the lead for good. With a man on, Rodriguez quickly fell behind Brad Bergesen 0-2. He fouled off a couple of tough pitches, laid off a couple of breaking balls out-of-the-zone and worked the count full. Then a back-door fastball that darted across the plate but too high was struck for the homer.
It made that sound, that true, uncompromising sound of a ball being hit on the sweet spot. The kind of that makes you weak in the knees, the kind you dreamed about as a kid, the sound that makes you sit up like a dog bolting awake by a noise just outside the front door. (They never get the sound right in the movies, have you ever noticed that?)
Rodriguez took his textbook-fluid swing–the ball came to the bat as if drawn by a magnet, and then shot off deep into the night. Rodriguez just missed two more homers later in the game. Missed ’em by that much. But he didn’t miss the first one and it was a thing of beauty.
So was Sabathia, who nursed the one-run lead through seven. The Orioles didn’t stand a chance, collecting three hits and a walk against Poppa Large, who struck out seven and lowered his ERA to 3.43. The big man was brilliant. Bergesen, who also pitched well, getting a boat load of ground balls early on, left the game with a couple of runners on and one out in the bottom of the seventh. Chris Ray relieved him and got torched. Derek Jeter got the big hit, a three-run double with the bases loaded and Mark Teixeira hit his 11th of the season, a shot into the second deck in right field, to put the cherry on top of what turned out to be a laugher.
Brian Bruney, just activated off the DL, pitched a scoreless inning and the Yanks gained a game in the east as the Red Sox beat the Blue Jays, 2-1 in Boston.
*Do you know I ran into two Yankee fans today who complained that while yes, the Yankees are winning lately, they are only winning by the slimmest of margins, so…as if winning the close ones don’t count as much. I’m dead serious.
The Yankees and Orioles split their first six head-to-head games this season, all of which were played in Baltimore, but the three Yankee losses were all directly attributable to poor starting pitching performances: CC Sabathia on Opening Day (4 1/3 IP, 6 R), Chien-Ming Wang the next day (3 2/3 IP, 7 R), and Phil Hughes two Saturdays ago (1 2/3 IP, 8 R). The Orioles scored just five runs against the Yankees in the other three games, while the Yankees have scored at least four runs in all six games and are averaging 5.83 R/G on the series.
That’s been par for the course for the O’s this year, as only the Nationals have allowed more runs per game than the O’s 5.92. That’s hardly come as a surprise. The first sentence of my season preview for the O’s back on April 6 attacked the quality of their starting rotation. Now, just shy of the quarterpole, the O’s starting rotation sports a 5.76 ERA, better than only that of the Phillies, who come to town on Friday.
The O’s are optimistic about the return of lefty Rich Hill from the disabled list, and his first start gave them reason to be, but the Yankees won’t see him this week. Nor will they face early-season staff ace Koji Uehara, who has held the Yanks to two runs over 11 innings thus far this season and sports a 4.34 ERA that’s nearly a run better than that of the O’s next best starter. Instead they’ll kick things off tonight against 23-year-old rookie Brad Bergesen, who has lasted six full innings just twice in five starts (and never more than six full) and has allowed at least three runs every time out, though he’s also not done worse than the five runs in four innings he allowed in his second major league start.
Bergesen and tomorrow’s starter, Jeremy Guthrie, who has two nearly identical quality starts against the Yankees this year, have been middling thus far, sporting .500 records and ERAs in the low 5.00s. Thursday’s starter, Adam Eaton, has been awful (2-4, 7.93 ERA). Things don’t look much better in the pen, though Danys Baez has made a nice return from Tommy John surgery and George Sherrill continues to cling to his closer job despite Dave Trembley announcing that the role would be shared.
At the plate, the O’s have lost one of their hottest hitters, DH/left fielder Luke Scott (.303/.384/.515) to the DL, and have been without their hottest, center fielder Adam Jones (.370/.426/.669), since Wednesday due to a tender hamstring.
Jones is expected to return to the lineup tonight, which is bad news for the Yankees, though CC Sabathia could help get him back off on the wrong foot. Sabathia avenged his Opening Day loss with a four-hit shutout of the O’s two turns ago. He then held the league-best Toronto offense to two runs over eight innings his last time out. After struggling with his control in three of his first four starts, Sabathia has walked just six men in his four (1.17 BB/9) and seems to have over come his one-bad-inning syndrome in his last two strong performances.
It’s easy to say that players like Sabathia and Mark Teixeira are starting to click with the Yankees riding a six-game winning streak, but those performances are part of why the Yankees are on a six-game winning streak to begin with. Tonight, CC looks to make it seven. I like his chances.
Hideki Matsui returns to the lineup today as the DH batting fifth, and Brian Bruney is supposed to be activated before game time. No word yet on which reliever is getting shipped out to make room for him, though I suspect Edwar Ramirez, who unlike Jose Veras has options left, could be on his way to Scranton.
My nephew turned five last week. For his birthday he watched Star Wars for the first time. (Star Wars was the first movie I remember seeing in the movie theater as a kid; it was released a few days before I turned six.) There was a Jedi training session in Inwood Park and then there was the screening. My nephew has been talking about the movie for weeks. He even had a favorite character–Chewy. But his friends were more interested in his toys so they didn’t actually watch much of the movie. The real screening took place the next day and I arrived minutes before the Death Star was blown to smithereens.
A few days earlier, I stopped by the electric circus known as Toys R Us in Times Square to pick up a present. I headed to the Star Wars area and was dismayed; I could hardly find anything that had to do with the original movie (though I did eventually find one box that contained small figurines of Obi Wan, Luke and the two droids). When I got home and told my wife Emily how shocked I was at the lack of toys from the original movie, she turned to me, and in her best Alice Kramden said, “Sweetheart, that movie came out over thirty years ago.”
I looked at her blankly. Blinked. Then I unpacked the toys, took out my teeth, changed my diaper and went to bed. It was four in the afternoon.
