Daily Archives: June 11, 2009

My uncle once told me a story about a great uncle who was famous for teasing and talking to children as if they were adults. My uncle was three or four and he was in the bathtub one evening and the great uncle happened to be there, I don’t remember why. The older man shook is finger at the boy and said, “You’re All Wet!” And my uncle started to cry.

The Yankees are all wet and we’re doing a lot of crying right about now. They lost again to the Red Sox and are seemingly finding new and painful ways to do it. This time it was 4-3, a real kick in the groin. The Yanks held a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the eighth–Alex Rodriguez’s two-run double broke up a 1-1 tie moments earlier–when CC Sabathia ran out of gas (a shame, as he pitched a terrific game). The Sox scratched together three runs in a heavy rain and the Yanks were lucky it was just three. But with Jonathan Paplebon closing, the one-run lead was more than enough. Mark Teixeira lined out hard to end it.

This one was painful but not entirely surprising. It is so bad right now that it’s almost comic, especially  with the Yanks playing well against the rest of the league. The Sox own them right now and that’s all there is to it. The Yanks aren’t helping themselves either. Nick Swisher made an bad fielding error last night and had a couple of inexcusable base runner mistakes tonight.

We’ll see how long this holds up. (Are the likes of Brad Penny going to come up onions  is against them indefinetly?) David Ortiz can’t hit anymore but he handles the Yankees? I never felt confident about the Yankees beating the Sox over and again in the late Nineties because I thought the law of averages had to catch up eventually. Sure enough, they did. Well, this isn’t going to hold up either. It just won’t. The Sox are good but they aren’t that much better than the Bombers.

The Yanks will have their moment against the Sox once again. But they are going to have to wait for a minute before they get the chance; they don’t play again until August. Meanwhile, they’ll lick their wounds and return to the Bronx to face the Mets, who lost two painful games to the Phillies the past couple of nights.

This one smarts, but they get to start fresh tomorrow. The pain doesn’t have to last long. Thank goodness they do this everyday.

CC on the hill, the big fella, the stopper…

Yanks play tonight, Yanks win tonight.

Say word. ‘Nuff said.

Okay, here’s a tough scene but a vivid and compelling one. It involves baseball, and more specifically, the Yankees.

From The French Connection Part II (which is as grimey as they come). Our hero Popeye Doyle, the Ugly American himself, goes to Marseilles. Bad Guys catch him, tie him down and get him addicted to dope. Eventually, they leave him in the guter. With the help of a French detective he dries out.

This is Hackman at his best:

The best way to deal with the Yankees getting knocked around by the Red Sox?

Eat well.

My friend Alex was a baseball blogger for a minute–that’s how we met. He’s long since retired but we’ve remained friends. We’re food nerds.  Alex pent a year in Thailand when he got out of college and knows more about Asian cuisine than anyone I’ve ever met. He’s curious and driven and is open about sharing his knowledge.

We’ve cooked together for years now–at his place or up at my crib in the Bronx. We work well together in the kitchen. Fluid. When it’s his place, I’m the sous chef and he puts me to work, and vice versa when we’re at my spot.

Last night, I stopped by Alex’s new apartment in downtown Manhattan. He belongs to a farmer’s collective and picks up fruits and vegetables once-a-week. Last night we had young broccoli rabe–still bitter but tender and almost delicate–arugula, mixed lettuces, radishes and spring garlic, to work with.

I was put in charge of the salad. I don’t much care for radishes but want to like them so I keep trying to prepare them in different ways. These were long like fingerling potatoes. I sliced three, thinly, added 1/4 of a large red onion (also sliced thin), sprinkled some salt and a little bit of sugar on them, added a teaspoon of cider vinegar, and let it pickle for twenty minutes.

I threw in a handful of the arugula, a bunch of mixed greens, and drained the radishes. Then I dressed the salad with a couple of teaspoons of olive oil, a teaspoon of red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt. 

Meanwhile, Alex prepared the main course, which was served over white rice. The recipe is listed below. Here are the flicks.

Hazy grizzle.

Garlic and onions.

The beef, onions and rabe.

Cooked down.

 Plate it Up.

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Today’s news is powered by … a flight attendant with a beat!

• Sutcliffe leaves a big tip:

Hours before they were to do battle with the Red Sox Tuesday night, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez were involved in different type of confrontation, this one inside the Yankees’ clubhouse.

Upset with an accusation made by ESPN’s Rick Sutcliffe two weeks ago, the two players approached the former Cy Young winner to discuss the situation.

Sutcliffe said on the air that A-Rod had been feeding Teixeira verbal signs from the on-deck circle, giving his teammate a heads-up on the catcher’s location before the pitch was delivered. Teixeira and A-Rod pulled Sutcliffe aside when they saw him in the clubhouse last night, expressing their displeasure with his charges.

“Me, Alex and him talked about it,” Teixeira told the Daily News, confirming that the conversation took place. “No doubt it’s disappointing when someone makes an accusation like that. Whatever. I can’t control what they say.”

[My take: Has Rick been hitting the sauce again?  Doesn’t he have better things to do, like ogle Erin Andrews or something?  Sigh …]

• Ken Davidoff is NOT a fan of A.J. Burnett:

If you’re going to invest $82.5 million in a guy in part because he pitches well against the Red Sox – rather than, you know, his larger body of work – then what choice do we have but to crush him when said guy doesn’t deliver on his alleged skill set?

The blame must fall on the $82.5-million man Burnett, who has pitched horribly in his two starts against the Red Sox as a Yankee, last night’s worst than his first. . . .

In two starts against the Sawx this season, both at Fenway, Burnett is 0-1 with a 12.91 ERA.

That doesn’t quite live up to the career numbers versus Boston – 5-0 with a 2.56 ERA, in eight starts – that he brought to last winter’s negotiations.

• Johnny Damon is on a mission . . . :

Johnny Damon wants the Yankees to get back to the postseason for many reasons. One is to prove Joe Torre wrong.

Damon said Torre’s book, “The Yankee Years,” has “fired” him up to have a big season. The ex-Red Sox star went into last night’s Battle for First at Fenway batting .299 with 12 home runs, 34 RBIs and five stolen bases.

“It really did,” Damon, 35, told The Post, “because it was a private matter. This game is a team game. Me and Jason [Giambi] weren’t the reason we were losing. If [Torre] feels that way, then, oh well, but I’ll tell you one thing, me and Jason were the reason why we made the playoffs [in 2007]. We made that push. As soon as I got healthy, this team got going.”

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