Daily Archives: September 16, 2009

It was too comfortable, the feeling the Yankees gave us a few weeks back, as they crushed, killed and destroyed everything in their path. They have sputtered back down to earth somewhat, baseball having a way of evening out and all, and so we are left feeling, well, less comfortable.

The offense was dormant for much of the evening tonight–shhh, baby’s sleeping–and the Yanks trailed 4-2 in the eighth inning. Nothing infuriating, nothing inspiring, just another sluggish game.

In the eighth, Alex Rodriguez singled with one out and then Godzilla Matsui yanked a breaking ball into the not-so-cheap cheap-shot seats and the game was tied.

Mariano Rivera worked around a lead-off base hit in the ninth to keep the score tied. Then Brett Gardner led off the bottom of the inning, worked the count full and fouled off what looked to be ball four. Swing at anything close, right? Well, he ripped the next pitch into center for a single, to hell with the base on balls. Derek Jeter fell behind 0-2, not looking to bunt, and then Gardner stole second on a slider that went for a ball. Jeter grounded out pushing Gardner to third.

With the infield drawn in, Franciso Cervelli singled hard through the left side, ran to first, rounded the bag and raced into the outfield as Melky Cabrera and Robinson Cano and the rest of the team chased him like a flock of geese headed south for the winter. On the double.

Final score: Yanks 5, Blue Jays 4.

AJ Burnett slammed Cervelli in the grill with a cream pie and if he could pitch half as well as he could celebrate, boy, the Yanks will be okay.

Yanks need a win not a brawl.

This is what I imagine Derek Jeter will look like if he lets himself go in his old age. Question is, who is Pesci? Francisco Cervelli?

Fritz Peterson once won twenty games for the Yankees but he’s best remembered for being a wife-swapper. He is more than both, of course. Peterson has just written a book and will be at the Yogi Museum in Jersey tomorrow night to talk about it.

According to a press release from the museum:

Former Yankee pitcher Fritz Peterson will be at the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center on Thursday, Sept. 17 from 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. for a discussion and signing of his new book, “Mickey Mantle Is Going To Heaven.”

The book covers Peterson’s rather interesting life on and off the field including what Sports Illustrated called “The Trade of the Century” when he and teammate Mike Kekich swapped wives after the 1972 season. He also discusses the quirks and foibles of his time, and interactions with the likes of Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Bobby Murcer, Thurman Munson and Jim Bouton.

Peterson, who joined the Yankees in 1966, one of the team’s worst seasons, would become an All-Star and 20-game winner. He also started for the Yankees in the last game ever played at the original Yankee Stadium, which was renovated after the final game of the 1973 season. And Peterson had the all-time lowest ERA (2.52) at Yankee Stadium with the legendary Whitey Ford second at 2.55.

The storm of publicity from Peterson’s wife-swapping, which he is most remembered for, ultimately damaged his career. Yet today he is active in charity work and is a prostate cancer survivor, and continues to seek salvation through his faith.

To orders personalized copies of Peterson’s book or for more info, call (973) 655-2378.

I know from swingers, Mr. Peterson, and you are no Gay Talese.

If you are Jersey, be sure to check this out. Should be fun.

Today’s news is powered by Levon Helm:

• Ticket prices for 2010:

. . . prices for more than 80 percent of the stadium will remain the same.

Some of the highest price seats will see reductions of up to 40 percent, including those in the Legends area and the Delta Sky 360 Suite. The first level of non-premium suites, which are one level up behind home plate, will be reduced from $325 to $250 or $235 per game per seat, depending on the location. . . .

The only increase will be seen by those who own tickets in a group of 1,700 seats that surround the Delta suite, which currently sell for $100 per game. Those prices will increase to $125 per game next year.

The much publicized $2,500 per game suite tickets, which were not part of the seats whose price was cut in half in April, will cost $1,500 in 2010.

[My take: I guess we should say . . . umm . . . “thanks”?]

• Joel Sherman is confused with by the hubbub over “The Joba Rules”.
• The preliminary schedule for 2010 has been released.  Here’s a review of what they have to look forward to.
• Andy Pettitte will skip his next start to rest a tired shoulder.
• Kevin Goldstein highlights the best Yankee minor league performances this season:

. . . Even though he began the year as the top prospect in the system, catcher Jesus Montero went from best prospect in the Yankee system to one of the best in all of baseball by batting .337/.389/.562 across two levels, and having no problems handling Double-A pitching as a teenager.

A 10^th-round pick last year who signed for nearly half a million, righty D.J. Mitchell cruised through the Sally League, posted a 2.87 ERA at High-A Tampa, and compiled a ground-ball ratio of nearly 3-to-1.

(more…)

The Yankees threw Sergio Mitre against Roy Halladay last night and the lost 10-4. No real shock there. The Yanks did well to take an early 2-0 lead on Halladay, touch him up for 11 hits, and bounce him after 112 pitches in six innings, his earliest exit in five starts against the Yankees this year, but it was of little use. Mitre gave up two home runs in both the third and fourth innings, including a pair of monster shots to rookie slugger Travis Snider, giving the Jays a 5-2 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

The real news came came in the eighth inning. With two outs, the bases empty, and the Jays up 8-2, Mark Melacon hit Aaron Hill in the lower back with the first pitch he threw to him. Hill was 0-for-4 prior to that plate appearance and was 0-for-2 against Melcanon entering the game. It seems unlikely that Melancon, who has been wild in the majors, walking 5.4 per 9 innings and hitting three other batters in his first 15 innings, intended to hit Hill. Still, Hill is an important hitter in the Jays lineup, so when Jorge Posada came to bat in the bottom of the inning, Jesse Carlson threw behind him.

Carlson’s pitch went what seemed like ten feet behind Posada, but Jorge was unwilling to shrug it off. Instead he backed out of the batter’s box, took a few steps toward the mound and told Carlson, “Don’t do that again.” The benches cleared to calm Posada down, and Posada ultimately worked a walk and came around to score on a Brett Gardner double (Gardner, by the way, went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI hits).

Carlson was drifting toward home plate to back it up as Posada crossed the dish and Jorge gave Jesse a solid brush with is left shoulder as he went by. Carlson spun around and fired some invective at Posada, who then returned to home plate and touched off a real benches-clearing brawl.

Posada, Carlson, Jays’ catcher Rod Barajas, home plate umpire Jim Joyce, and in-the-hole hitter Johnny Damon were in the initial scrum and soon joined by Joe Girardi, who failed to pull his 38-year-old catcher out of the fray and instead got sucked into the middle of the pack and emerged with a bit of a shiner on his left eye. As one might have expected, Shelley Duncan tore into the heart of the fracas like Michael Phelps going after olympic gold and ultimately had to be pulled off Barajas like Jeff Van Gundy on Alonzo Mourning’s leg as the melee petered out.

Carlson emerged with a nasty welt on his forehead, but he and Posada were the only ejections, and Carlson remained in the dugout, hiding behind his teammates and apparently continuing to plead his innocence. Meanwhile, third base umpire Derryl Cousins was hit in the knee by a full bottle of soda thrown by a fan in the stands determined to make the players look like dignified and civilized adults. Cousins wound up being the only “participant” to suffer an injury (as far as we know).

For proving unable to let his walk and run do the talking (or shoving) for him, Posada will surely incur a suspension. Otherwise it seems the Yankees got away lucky. To his immense credit, Joe Girardi held a closed-door meeting with his team afterwords, admonishing them for doing such a foolish and risky thing this close to a postseason berth.

The Yankees had hundreds of millions of dollars of players in the middle of that fight (Mark Teixeira tried to break things up but was quickly pulled out of the ruckus, on-deck-hitter Derek Jeter was right in the middle of things, and CC Sabathia was the man who finally pulled Posada out of the pack) just three weeks shy of the playoffs. The entire season could have gone the way of Bill Lee’s shoulder Tuesday night. The Yankees are damn lucky it didn’t.