Today’s news is powered by Woody Woodpecker:
- Swisher is at home on the road:
While the rest of the Yankees seem to have fallen in love with hitting for power at the new Yankee Stadium, Swisher has gone in the completely opposite direction. He now owns 23 homers in his first season with the Bombers, 20 of which have come away from the Bronx.
“I’m just trying to prove to everybody that hitting home runs in Yankee Stadium is not that easy,” Swisher said, laughing.
- Did Dellin Betances really have a true TJ procedure?:
Betances’ procedure was an “overlay TJ,” a variant of the Tommy John procedure where the damaged ligament isn’t removed, but instead left in place and the ligament is buttressed by the new tendon. Originally, it was thought that this would reduce the issue with proprioception that many TJ surgeries involve for patients, but the procedure is seldom used currently.
- The Times analyzes the “true” price of post-season tickets.
- Fangraphs examines the Angels replacement for Teixeira, Kendry Morales.
- Eric Plunk turns 46 today. Plunk relieved in 117 games for the Yanks from ’89 to ’91. He had an interesting time shuttling between the A’s and Yanks during the early years of his career:
- June 8, 1981: Drafted by the New York Yankees in the 4th round of the 1981 amateur draft. Player signed June 15, 1981.
- December 5, 1984: Traded by the New York Yankees with Tim Birtsas, Jay Howell, Stan Javier and Jose Rijo to the Oakland Athletics for Bert Bradley, Rickey Henderson and cash.
- June 21, 1989: Traded by the Oakland Athletics with Greg Cadaret and Luis Polonia to the New York Yankees for Rickey Henderson.
- On this date in 1973, after 11 years at the helm (944-806, .539), Ralph Houk resigns as Yankee skipper.
- On this date in 2008, instant replay is used for the first time in a major league game. Alex Rodriguez homers to left off Troy Percival in the 9th as part of a 8-4 Yankee win. Brian Runge calls it a homer and has his call upheld upon review.
I’m off til Tuesday . . . have a good holiday!
I didn't know Tommy John surgery often produced loss of proprioception. That must be very weird. Although pitchers do tend to talk to their arms as if they were separate entities (doesn't Jim Bouton write about this?), so maybe they're used to it.
And of course, Houk would be the last guy to last 11 years as Yankee manager until Joe Torre came along . . .
For all the grief I remember over the second Rickey trade - that's all we got!? - Plunk actually had quite a good career as a middle reliever. Of course, when you trade one of the 20 best non-pitchers in the history of MLB, and the best player you get back is a middle reliever - that says something. Something bad.
...but the procedure is seldom used currently.
Does anyone know why?
[1] Yeah, that's odd. Must be a weird experience.
[3] No. My WAG is its a structural issue; maybe the tears are usually so harsh and complete that there's no point in leaving it there?
I tweeted Will Carroll to ask him if he knows - I'll let you know if he responds.
[5] Thanks.
That could have been the procedure that Mo had.
[6] Indeed it was. Will learned that from a tweet by Tyler Kepner from the other night. For some reason, I'm pretty sure I knew Rivera didn't have a "full" TJ before all that, but I'm not sure why. Wasn't there something in Joel Sherman's "Birth of a Dynasty" about it?
[2] Especially when you compare his Yankee season with his time with the A's and the 1989 playoffs. And then Polonia gets busted in Milwaukee...
I can understand the Yanks not wanting to make a commitment to Henderson after the way he played in 89, which was already a couple of seasons removed from the 1987 fiasco... And given the way things went from 90-93, he was better off in Oakland.
DId anyone catch this play? Man I HATE the Angels.
http://tinyurl.com/lrf8yj
[7] I don't know, but Marc Craig of NJ.com had a blog entry about it within the last month in which he interviewed Mo.
[9]
You don't think Cano and Jeter haven't done something like that ever? :-)
[11] Maybe practicing during one of Jeter's vaunted sleepovers, but not actually in a game. : D
[9] The Angels give me ágita. Pretty play, though.
[13] The Angels aren't getting past the RS, but if they somehow did, the Yankees would kick their butts.
OT, It's kind of funny that Sterling has one good HR call "Hinske with your best shot," which, of course, he didn't come up with himself. It was originated by someone on Pete Abe's blog, and Pete Abe offered it to Sterling.
[14] From your mouth....
I also followed the trajectory of Pete Abe's blogger's inspiration.You mean you don't like Whadda Ya Know, Cano?
[14] I was fine with "it is high, it is far, it is... gone! a HR for ________." The stuff he added later was & is pretty lame. I groan when I listen to a game on the radio and Teix hits a HR...
"Mark sends a Teix message to the seats," "You're on the Mark, Teixiera." Two lame calls for the price of one :)
[15] There are just so many things about Sterling and Waldman that I can't stand, but Raf is right. The Teix thing is pathetic.
Here's a recent breakdown of how many words per minute baseball announcers used last Friday.
http://tinyurl.com/n6c7bx
Two interesting tidbits:
Robbie Cano leads ALL America League players with 282.
In addition to being only 8 hits away from tying Lou Gehrig for most hits in franchise history, Derek Jeter is also 14 total bases and 1 run away from tying Joe D. for 4th place on each respective list.
[15] It's actually, "Robbie Cano...Dont'cha Know".
I actually like Sterling's HR taglines for each player, even the corny ones like :Tex Message" and :On the Mark, Teixeira". I am not ashamed to say that I enjoy Sterling's theatrics, but I do loathe the fact that he lets them get in the way of the action. The tagline take place after the play, so you don't really miss anything. "It is High, It is Far...", however, takes the place of actually describing the action on the field, so that actually bothers me.
[17] Agreed. I contend that it's all rather pathetic, but when you're driving and want to follow the Yankees, it's the only game in town. I've taken to calling the game with them in tandem. So cheesy, yet so familiar. Husband rolls his eyes.
And, this is true of the Yes folk as well. If I have to listen to them say one more time, "I had a conversation with so and so." Or "One day, so and so came up to me and said...." Or, "Before the game, I was talking to so and so.....' Suck ups.
[21] The worst of the worst is the faux HR call. At this point, I basically don't think it's a HR until the call stops and Waldman tells him whether or not it's a HR or an infield flyball.
[19] 282 what?
I am not ashamed to say that I enjoy Sterling’s theatrics
I did at one time, but it seems he is now a parody, a caricature of himself. It's like he doesn't even realize how pompous he is. If he were a cartoon character, he'd be PT Bridgeport.
Maybe after listening to him after all these years, he's kinda worn me down?
[22] Cano leads the AL in total bases with 282.
Thank you.