The Yanks have the pitching match-ups in their favor this weekend, so why do I keep thinking that thick-necked Brad Penny will throw a good game tomorrow night? Maybe I’ve just got sore feelings left over from the 2003 World Serious. Or maybe I just like to worry. Man, so long as the Yankees don’t get swept, I’ll be straight.
As Tyler Kepner notes, the Yankees still have something to prove in Boston.
Something Wild is not only one of my favorite ’80s movies but one of my favorites, period. It’s Jonathan Demme at his peak, and the stars–Melanie Griffith, Jeff Daniels and Ray Liotta–have rarely been better.
Here’s Pauline Kael’s blurb from The New Yorker:
Jonathan Demme’s romantic screwball comedy isn’t just about a carefree kook (Melanie Griffith) and a pompous man from Wall Street (Jeff Daniels). The script–a first by E. Max Frye–is like the working out of a young man’s fantasy of the pleasures and punishments of shucking off middle-class behavior patterns. The movie is about getting high on anarchic, larcenous behavior and then being confronted with ruthless, sadistic criminality. This rough-edged comedy turns into a scary slapstick thriller. Demme weaves the stylization of rock videos into the fabric of the movie.
Starting with David Byrne and Celia Cruz singing Byrne’s “Loco De Amor” during the opening credits, and ending with a reprise of Chip Taylor’s “Wild Thing” by the reggae singer Sister Carol East, who appears on half of the screen while the final credits roll on the other half, there are almost 50 songs (or parts of songs), several of them performed onscreen by The Feelies. The score–it was put together by John Cale and Laurie Anderson–has a life of its own that gives the movie a buzzing vitality. This is a party movie with both a dark and a light side. With Ray Liotta as the dangerous, menacing Ray; Dana Preu as the kook’s gloriously bland mother; and Margaret Colin as bitchy Irene. Also with Jack Gilpin, Su Tissue, and Demme’s co-producer Kenneth Utt, and, tucked among the many performers, John Waters and John Sayles. Cinematography by Tak Fujimoto.
I love watching Derek Jeter play baseball but reading about him has become a chore. It’s exhausting: He’s the best hitting shortstop ever, he’s the worst fielding shortstop ever. He’s overrated. Nah, nah, says Joe Pos, this season Jeter might be underrated (as Diane noted earlier).
Jeter is many things to many people. Remember that bumper crop of shortstops he came up with the mid-late ’90s? Jeter is still at it, still productive. One thing is for sure: he’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer. And he’s ours.
Today’s news is powered by The Thin White (not Zach) Duke:
. . . I think that in many ways Derek Jeter this year has added a third title. He has, against all odds, become UNDERRATED. And that is a wicked turn. I think Jeter at 35 is having one of his greatest seasons. I think he’s playing defense better than he ever has, he’s getting on base and slugging like he did in his prime, and in my view he has been the Yankees most valuable player in 2009. And, for once, it’s funny, I don’t hear too many other people talking about it.
Now, let me be clear — there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the American League MVP this year is Minnesota’s Joe Mauer, and nobody else is even close, and I feel so strongly about this that I am doing daily updates about it on my blog. But the Twins are probably not going to make the playoffs, and there are many people who feel that the most valuable player must come from a playoff team. And if that’s the case then … well, I think at this moment Jeter might be my MVP, non-Mauer division.
Look: He’s hitting .330 through Tuesday and has a .394 on-base percentage — tied with A-Rod for best on the Yankees. He’s on pace for 218 hits, 109 runs, 21 homers. 27 stolen bases. He’s having a great offensive season, quite similar to the season last year’s MVP, Boston’s Dustin Pedroia, had.
And — this is weird — those advanced statistics that have so universally mocked his defense now show him to be, well, darned good defensively.
New York Yankees pitcher Ian Kennedy likely will pitch next month in the instructional league, his first game action since having surgery May 12 to remove an aneurysm from beneath his right biceps.
Kennedy said Wednesday it’s doubtful he will return for a minor league game this season. The right-hander is throwing fastballs and changeups during bullpen sessions and could be ready for a simulated game early next month.
Alex Rodriguez winced as he made his way down the first-base line on Tuesday, having been drilled on the left elbow for the second time in the Yankees’ past five games.
While Rodriguez certainly wouldn’t claim the repeated bruising is helping his performance at the plate, he also isn’t about to use it as an excuse. For the time being, Rodriguez is prepared to keep moving forward.
“I’m not really concerned,” Rodriguez said prior to Wednesday’s series finale with the A’s. “I’m probably just dealing with a little bit of a back [issue] and my elbow. It’s all part of it. I feel pretty good up there. I felt really good up there last night. I had five quality at-bats.”
I’m just trying to find the bridge. Has anybody seen the bridge?*
by Hank Waddles
Chad Gaudin made his debut start for the Yanks on Wednesday night and held the Athletics to no runs and a hit over four and a third innings, which sounds a lot better than it was. The problem was that he also walked five batters and hit another, which led to a series of uncomfortable innings and eventually cost him a shot at his first Yankee win. Gaudin’s stuff was good enough, as evidenced by his five strikeouts, but his demise came in the fifth inning when he followed a dubious Robby Canó error with his fifth walk, loading the bases and bringing Girardi out to ask for the ball. Gaudin left with a three nothing lead but two outs shy of the necessary five innings. Alfredo Aceves came in and induced Kurt Suzuki to bounce back to the mound for a snappy 1-2-3 double play, and the threat was over.
All three Yankee runs came courtesy of Mark Teixeira. He brought Jeter in with a ground ball to third in the first and then hit a monstrous two-run blast to left off A’s rookie Brett Anderson in the fourth. But as Cliff has been telling us, the Yankees’ true MVP candidate is Jeter. He picked up two more singles on the night, and has been raking at an insane .550 clip (22 for 40) over the past ten games. An interesting thing to watch in the Boston series will be whether or not he’ll pick up any free passes. The Captain hasn’t seen ball four since July 28th, a span of close to a hundred at bats.
But back to Aceves. After putting out Gaudin’s fire in the fourth, Ace struggled for the second straight outing. He gave up one run in the sixth on a Jake Cust homerun that floated over the wall in left center, then gave up three straight singles in the seventh for another as the A’s narrowed the margin to 3-2. From there it was about finding the bridge to Mariano, as Bob Lorenz is so fond of telling us. Phil Coke got the last out in the seventh, Phil Hughes took care of the eighth, and Rivera locked down his career-best 32nd straight save with just seven pitches in the ninth. Ball game.
With that the Yankees took the series, their ninth series win of ten since the all-star break, which isn’t bad. And if we go all the way back to that fateful night in Atlanta when Girardi got tossed and Cashman paid them a visit, the Bombers have won 38 of their last 51 games, good for a .745 winning percentage. Again, not bad.
Now all they need to do is keep the motor running as they head into Boston. Even though the objects in the mirror are larger than they appear, this is a team that’s picking up speed at just the right time.
* Eh, I’m not wild about that tuneski. How ’bout this instead?
