Today’s news is powered by P.J. Harvey:
- Another ex-Yankee in trouble with the law:
Former major leaguer Chuck Knoblauch was charged with assaulting his common-law wife.
A judge set Knoblauch’s bond at $10,000 after he appeared in court Tuesday. According to a criminal complaint, Knoblauch’s wife told police he hit her in the face and choked her at their Houston home Friday.
- Pete Abraham’s replacement at LoHud has been named:
I’m thrilled to announce that The Journal News has hired Chad Jennings of the Times-Tribune in Scranton and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees Blog to cover the Yankees. Chad starts on Oct. 7.
Chad covered the Triple-A Yankees with distinction and his blog was a must-read for Yankee fans who wanted to be up to date on the organization’s prospects. Chad has a knack for blogging and is a fine writer and reporter.
[My take: Thank you Pete for all your hard work and wonderful coverage!]
- A college football bowl game will be held in the new Stadium:
New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and the commissioners of the Big East and Big 12 will announce at a news conference Wednesday the formation of the Yankee Bowl, to be held at the new Yankee Stadium beginning with the 2010-11 postseason, according to sources with knowledge of the event.
The game, which will seek NCAA certification next spring, would reportedly pit the Big East’s fourth-place team against the Big 12’s No. 7 selection. Organizers plan to hold the first edition between Dec. 29, 2010 and Jan. 2, 2011.
- The Yanks honor their own:
(Derek) Jeter was given home plate and first base, both encased, from the night he surpassed Gehrig. The captain also received the two seats he crashed into while making his famous diving catch against Boston in 2004, and a sign he cherished from the old Yankee Stadium.
The sign, which hung in the narrow runway that led from the clubhouse to the New York dugout, featured a quote from Joe DiMaggio that read: “I want to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee.”
Rivera was given the bullpen bench from the old Yankee Stadium and the Citi Field pitching rubber from the night he earned save No. 500 against the New York Mets across town.
- You can now order “The Best American Sports Writing 2009“, featuring the “Banter” piece written by the late Todd Drew. (I found a copy in Barnes & Noble yesterday)
Poll time!
[poll id=”39″]
- Rusty Torres turns 61 today. Torres was a part-time OF for the ’73 squad, before getting dealt to Cleveland as part of the deal for Graig Nettles.
- On this date in 1934, Babe Ruth is hitless in his last game in a Yankee uniform.
- On this date in 1970, Fritz Peterson wins his 20th, defeating the Red Sox, 4 – 3. Billy Conigliaro and Luis Alvarado, with his first ML homer, go deep for Boston.
[My take: No truth to the rumor that Peterson swapped the victory for the 20th win of Mike Cuellar.]
- On this date in 1984, Don Mattingly goes 4-for-5 in the Yankees season-ending 4 – 2 win over the Tigers to edge teammate Dave Winfield, .343 to .340. Winfield goes 1-for-4.
I just saw this morning that Chad Jennings was hired to replace Pete. What a GREAT hire! I'm psyched.
another great clip, Diane. You've been randomly shufflling through my music lately.
Speaking of random, the Yankee Bowl sounds like a cool idea but how'd they come up with the #4 Big East team vs the #7 Big 12 team? Oddly precise cherce of teams. I'm a casual college football fan, and not at all hip to NCAA Bowl mechanisms, but couldn't the Yankees request a game with a little more juice than a #4 vs a #7? Couldn't the Yankees just pick two different teams to play each year rather than have it dictated by the standings in two divisions?
damn.. stumped again by the poll question. when it doubt, gotta go Mo, right?
[2] I really don't think they would have the pull to request a better matchup, the committees behind games like the Rose Bowl are absolutely cut-throat.
It's gonna be something like Louisville vs. Texas Tech in the Bronx in the middle of December...yeah, thats gonna do well.
[2] obviously they couldn;t pick two teams that are going to bigger, more established Bowls, but wouldnt there be enough compelling "bubble" teams to choose from?
[3] yeah I don't think a college bowl game works at Yankee Stadium. The only northern cities that do bowls are usually cities with domes. Not that it wouldn't be cool to see a bowl game in the snow for once.
[5]
But think about the cheerleaders!!! Their exposed legs .... (oh, the horror!)
[3] a matchup like Louisville Texas Tech wouldnt matter much to us locals, or casual football fans but I imagine the fans of those teams would come here in droves, and if tickets were priced reasonably casual fans would turn out as well.
[5] A snow Bowl in the Bronx would add to the appeal, no?
[6} cold cheerleaders?! Who's NOT up for that?!
[6] I think about the exposed legs of cheerleaders as well...
[7] Right...the bowl game isn't meant to appeal to the local market, which isn't much into college football anyway. The chance to visit NYC during the holidays and attend a game at Yankee Stadium might be very alluring to the fans of the teams mentioned. Personally, I think I would definitely attend the first one, if only to see the ballpark in the winter as a means of tiding me over until the Spring.
As much as I love college football and the Yankees, I'm not a big fan of this bowl game. I guess it might grow on me and I'll probably watch, but the Stadium doesn't seem to be suited for football. Plus, with the potential weather issues mentioned earlier and a pairing of mediocre teams it could be a bust (I would hate to see anything associated with the Yankees to end up that way). One thing they might help the game is if they played it close enough to New Year's Eve to allow the travelling fans to participate in the Times Square activities....maybe Dick Clark could toss the coin before the game. ;-)
[5] [7] I'm all for snow during a bowl game - and especially [7] [8] cheerleaders showing their professionalism and braving the cold with their exposed legs. Bring on the Yankee bowl!
Would YES broadcast it?
[0] Wait a minute - didn't Jeter already get (by which I mean, pilfer) the DiMaggio quote sign? Or was this just making it official?
[11] I imagine the YES crew would cover it, but the NCAA would want a national network to broadcast it.
[9-10] good point about NY tourists around the holidays. Shouldnt be too hard to lure thousands of them to a football game at the new Stadium.
and yeah, Bama, Dick Clark would be a draw -- but they might attract a bigger crowd if the Yankees promised to toss Ryan Seacrest before the game. Oh, please, let it be heads! (joking of course. No actual Seacrests were injured by the writing of this lame post)
To me the Yankee Bowl game is a good idea. Hey, you take a shot, if it's a success, there'll be more, if not it'll be forgotten about. I'm still a bit disappointed that they couldn't get the NHL Winter Classic when they were across the street.
[12] duh. if a national network broadcasts the bowl, that network's camera and announcers would cover the game as well, wouldn't it, fool?
[14]
Would the MVP of the game get pied?
Just a few questions, if you will?
Where is Fritz Peterson today. Wiki only a little helpful. Says he was a card dealer. How about Kekich, the wives and the kids? And the dogs!
Does Fritz still hold the Yankee record for lowest ERA?
[15] No doubt that would violate some arcane, ridiculous NCAA rule, and the poor guy would lose his eligibility.
[12] Good call on the Seacrest toss...
The could also toss Kathy Griffin, but after her Times Square performance from a couple years ago...they might not be able to tell which end was tails... ;-)
[15] & [17] Maybe they could hit the winning coach in the face with a pie instead of dumping the Gatorade on him (that tradition has run its course, IMO).
[20]
Or perhaps a Gatorade-flavored/colored pie?
[20] or maybe a yellow snow pie? ;-)
I ran into Fritz Peterson at a local Chicken Delight when I was a kid. His pregnant wife (the slut who later became impregnated by Kekich... J/K about the slut part) was in the car. He signed a napkin for me, left, and then came back in because he had forgotten his chicken.
Fritz happens to have a new book out ...
http://tinyurl.com/yacm33d
He was doing a signing at one of the shops in front of the old stadium a couple of weeks ago. I didn't recognize him. :-)
[21]
there goes my breakfast
SportsCenter says Eric Wedge has been fired at last. Seems silly to me that they didn't let him finish the year out.
[25] How do you link to a tweet?
[25] Oops - Wedge will finish out the season as manager. Still, why announce it now? Is Eric Wedge bobblehead night scheduled for tomorrow?
Looking at the schedule, maybe its because today are their last two home games?
[26] If you right click on the "3 minutes ago" (or whatever time it is), you can copy the url of the particular tweet, and then drop it into html tags here.
[0] btw, great musical choice! Love PJ Harvey!
Testing with Heyman
[28] Thanks.
I friend of mine dragged me to a PJ Harvey concert in '92 or '93. I had never heard any of her work at that point, but I had read some glowing reviews of her stuff. So what the hell, right?
It was "Sheela Na Gig" that instantly made me a fan. I went out the next day and purchased "Dry". Then everything else she recorded as soon as she released them. Easily one of my favorite artists, that Polly Jean.
[30] You're welcome!
interesting poll results thus far. I'm one of 3 who gave the Yankee MVP to Mo. My 2nd choice would have been CC. Jeter and Tex are running away with it.
My thinking is, which guy could the Yanks least afford to lose at this point? That's yer MVP.
The correct answer is really all of the above.
here's a link to a sabermetric article on one Phil Hughes - The 8th Inning Guy
http://tinyurl.com/ydoah7o
Check this s**t out!
http://ballhype.com/video/mike-blowers-prediction-seattle-mariners-the-call-of/
[35] "It's like... Nate Silver!"
[34] thanks for the link, a dense, but valuable read. key takeaway for me was pitch divergence.