Today’s news is powered by one hell of a prognostication:
- “Yes Virginia Tech, there is going to be a bowl game at the Stadium during Christmas week”:
On Wednesday, the Yankees announced a deal with the Big East and Big 12 conferences to host a bowl game at Yankee Stadium beginning in December 2010. Although the game does not have an official name yet, it’s already being colloquially referred to as the “Yankee Bowl.” The inaugural game, to be played sometime between Christmas and New Year’s Day in 2010, will pit the fourth-place finisher from the Big East against the No. 7 team from the Big 12.
- Hal praises Joe, to a point:
Yankees general partner Hal Steinbrenner offered Joe Girardi a vote of confidence on Wednesday, calling him “the man for the job,” but said the club is not ready to discuss an extension with the manager.
“Joe has had a tremendous year this year — we all know that,” Steinbrenner told reporters. “He’s got the best record in baseball. As far as I’m concerned, as far as the family is concerned, as far as the organization is concerned, he’s the man for the job.” . . .
. . . Steinbrenner declined to discuss what might happen if the Yankees fall short of their ultimate goal — winning the World Series — and said that a contract extension is not currently being discussed amongst ownership.
“I’m saying he’s the man for the job,” Steinbrenner said. “Let’s focus, keep our eye on the ball, so to speak. Focus on the playoffs. There will be plenty of drama.”
- Heaping helping of homers happened to halt:
The new Yankee Stadium has produced more homers than have ever been hit in the Bronx before and the most homers in the majors this year. But the home-run epidemic that gripped Yankeeland earlier this season has lessened, and the team does not believe the frequency of baseballs soaring into the seats has to be addressed.
Two Yankee officials said Tuesday that it’s unlikely there will be changes to the park’s dimensions or other moves made to inhibit homers. The number of home runs hit at the Stadium will be evaluated in the offseason, one of them said, but, the official added, “I don’t believe there will be any changes. It’s normal.”
Earlier this season, the Stadium was on pace to break the single-season record for home runs in one ballpark – 303 at mile-high Coors Field in 1999. Entering last night’s game, there had been 233 home runs at the new park with two home games remaining. “It’s kind of weird that it’s dropped off,” reliever Brian Bruney said. “That’s still a lot of home runs, though, and, obviously, we know right field is short.”
- Cashman earns his keep this season:
. . . now that the Yankees have clinched the American League East title and are headed back to the playoffs a year after their run of 14 consecutive post-season appearances ended, Cashman is at least getting plenty of credit in his own organization. “With the personalities of the guys we brought in here, the front office did a lot of homework in the offseason,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “I think the way last year ended left a bad taste in all our mouths, and Brian went out and did something about it.”
As usual, Cashman declined to take credit for the Yankees bouncing back to win the division this season after finishing third in the division behind the Rays and Red Sox in 2008. Cashman believes the credit should go to managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner for giving the allowing him to outbid the rival Red Sox and offer Teixeira $180 million after already investing $245.5 million in Sabathia and Burnett. “That was a huge approval by Hal,” Cashman told the Bergen Record‘s Ian O’Connor. “We’re not here without that piece, Teixeira, with a lot of others. I’m just thankful for the Steinbrenners because it’s their money in the middle of this.”
There was much speculation that Cashman would be fired last season when the Yankees were shut out of the postseason. However, he agreed to a three-year contract and said that he stayed with the Yankees because wanted to “change the story.” So has Cashman rewritten the story now that the Yankees are headed back to the postseason? “No,” he said. “We really need to run the table. We have a chance to do something special, and I just hope we’ll play our best baseball when it counts, in October.”
- Roberto Kelly turns 45 today. Kelly spent the first six years of his career as a speedy, base-stealing outfielder for the Yanks, before being peddled at the end of ’92 to the Reds for one Paul O’Neill.
[My take: Perhaps Gene Michael’s finest trade?]
- Jeff Reardon turns 54 today. Reardon finished what had been a stellar career as a closer with a brief, less-than-stellar stint with the Bombers in ’94 (8 games, 9 IP, 17 hits, 3 walks, 8.38 ERA).
- On this date in 1932, Babe Ruth supposedly calls his home run against Chicago Cubs pitcher Charlie Root in the fifth inning of Game Three of the World Series. Ruth and Lou Gehrig each hit two homers for the Yankees in their 7-5 win.
- On this date in 1961, Roger Maris hits his 61st home run of the season against Tracy Stallard of the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. The homer eclipses Babe Ruth’s 34-year-old single-season home run record. The Yankees win the game 1 – 0.
- On this date in 1978, the Indians beat the Yankees 9 – 2, on the last day of the season, to force a one-game playoff between the Yankees and the Red Sox. Boston won their eighth straight, 5 – 0, over the Toronto Blue Jays.
[0] Kelly for O'Neill was huge. How about Jason Jarvis (minors), Mike Gordon (minors) and Marty Janzen for Cone in '95. Granted it was a July deadline salary dump trade and Coney was up for free agency in the fall, but still a tremendous pickup for nothing.
With '95 on the brain... on his radio show yesterday Kay was talking about the Seattle DS, and what a great book it would make. Guy named Chris Donnelly called in about a half hour later and said he wrote the book and its coming out this winter. As painful as that series was I'm looking forward to reading about it and how it altered the team's history.
here's the book:
http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/acatalog/Baseballs_Greatest_Series.html
“Yes Virginia Tech, there is going to be a bowl game at the Stadium during Christmas week”
Good one
[2] wow 336 pages on 5 games. I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for that.
The day that series opened, 10/3/95, was the day the Pope was at Giants Stadium and the OJ verdict came down. I was home sick with the upper respiratory infection from Hell. Strange days indeed.
Deadspin is running a story today on Mauer stealing signs from second base as if it was controversial. RAB picked up on it and also continued that theme.
It's a nice reminder that these esteemed sites w/ great writers and curious statiscal minds still have a lot to learn about how the game is acutally played. It puts some of the bullying in context, and also shows the player analysts can still serve a function that the sabr blogos can't.
[4] yeah strange days for sure - and looks like the 336 pages cover a lot more than just the 5 games which were ridiculously intense.
Here's the breakdown:
Chapter 1. Don-nie Base-ball
Chapter 2. Winless in Seattle
Chapter 3. Bronx Bummers
Chapter 4. Strike
Chapter 5. Baseball Returns
Chapter 6. Game 1: The Bronx, Baseball, and Beer Bottles
Chapter 7: Game 2. A Classic in the Bronx
Chapter 8: Game 3. Playoff Baseball in Seattle
Chapter 9: Game 4. Saint Edgar
Chapter 10: Game 5. Warriors, Heroes, and Heartbreak
Chapter 11. Deconstructing the Yankees
Chapter 12. Safeco Is Born
Chapter 13. Epilogue
[5] Cool. Now I know who you post under at RAB.
To quote RAB
"This is nothing new to the game of baseball and Mauer is far from a horrible person for it. Players have been stealing signs for over a hundred years, and Mauer’s team was behind in what was then the biggest game of their season. Laird and Verlander were aware of it (as you can see in the video), and did what they could to throw the pitch they wanted without giving away the signs. I’m sure Laird has stolen signs at some point in his career, so what’s the big deal?"
Oh SNAP! SO CONTROVERSIAL. It's a nice reminder that some people only read what they want to read when they have bias against certain people (bloggers).
[4] That's amazing. I remember exactly where I was when the OJ verdict came down, standing in the student lobby at my college. Though I watched final game of the series, I don't remember where I was. Must have blocked it our of the ol' memory bank. : /
[5] Couldn't agree more. Not only is it a non-story, but the conclusions really don't seem supported by the evidence either.
[0] "Yo Mike Blowers, I'm really happy for you and I'mma let you finish but Babe Ruth had the best baseball prediction of all-time" ;-)
[7] The fact that they raised the topic and ask if you think it is a “big deal” does show some naivety. Dismissing valid criticism as a bias against bloggers is absurd.
[8] I went out of my way to avoid watching anything that had to do with the OJ trial and happily can claim to be one of the most ignorant people on the subject. All I remember is the car chase, but that was because it interupted my viewing of the Knick/Bulls playoff series.
[10]
well done!!! :-)
[11] slight correction william - the car chase happened during rockets/knicks in the finals. believe it or not the knicks were actually in the finals back in the 90's :}
my mom and i were at my grandma's in dallas and *everyone* there was rooting for the rockets but my mom and i.
[8] i was in physics class
but the 95 alds bok may be interesting. i hope he explores very diffrent ground than sherman's book.
[11] In retrospect that was probably for the best, everyone in America became an expert on something that had no practical use whatsoever. I really didn't need to know as much as I did about Bruno Magli shoes and people like Faye Resnick.
But it was Knicks/Rockets, Game 5 at MSG...before the whole thing went to Hell. Thanks Riley.
[14]
One of John Starks shots STILL hasn't hit the rim ...
I was driving upstate listening to the Knicks game when I heard about the OJ chase.
But the thing I remember most about that day was (just before I left NY) seeing a couple of NY Rangers in the back seat of a cop car drivng up 1st Avenue (at 70th St) with the Stanley Cup. Their parade was earlier that day.
[15] 2 for 18!!! with Blackman on the bench!!
I can't...I gotta go put my head on my desk for a few minutes.
[13] Was it the finals already? During the day? That was toward the end of my basketball fandom, so maybe I am trying to block it all out.
[15] Ouch.
[16] the day is actually the basis for one of those ESPN 30 for 30 films that are coming out in a few months.
http://30for30.espn.com/film/june-17-1994.html
[18] it was a night game - i guess just with the time difference it wasn't dark in la yet
[7] I don't participate enough on these things to know if you should restrict the dialogue on a certain topic to one blog. So sorry if that is bad pool.
I also agree w/ you that I should have given RAB more credit for pointing out that it's "no big deal."
I still think it reveals Deadspin's ignorance about this phase of the game and I don't think it was worth a link from RAB - but I should have been much more diplomatic about it.
I have never understood why stealing signs was considered "wrong." The very fact that teams use signs shows that they are cognizant that the opposition wants o know what they are going to do, and so they have taken steps to obfuscate and deceive. One could even argue that the elaborate systems of signs that teams have developed--especially when runners are on base--assumes that the opposition is trying to steal them.
I shudder to think about what this season would be like if Teix had signed elsewhere. The lesson is, imo, that the Yankees should always ensure that they are in a position to sign top tier free agents who are under 30 that play a position of need.
[22] As long as they are stolen with ordinary sense modalities (as opposed to advanced technology), it's an acceptable form of gamesmanship.
OT: I wish Jose Reyes a full recovery from his serial hamstring issues.
I just want to go on record as saying cold weather college bowl games are miserable. I went to Wake vs. Navy in DC last year, it was butt cold, the teams were mediocre, and the stadium was half full.
If the Yankee Bowl had happened last year, it’d have been Rutgers-Kansas, and the only saving grace would be the Rutgers connection. It could easily be Mizzou-S. Florida and have attendance of about 25% of capacity.
I think that making a hole in the outfield wall, so that the home team can steal the signs of the opposing team, as was a legend (truth?) at the Polo Grounds is cheating.
Standing on 2nd base and stealing signs from the catcher is part of the game. Fair game.
[24][26] Well, yes...everyone agrees (I think) that creating a specific advantage for the home team (cameras or the like) is cheating because it gives one side an unfair advantage. beyond that, though, there is a long tradition in baseball of players getting angry even about "regular" sign stealing. Aren't there stories about guys like Gibson beaning batters because they dared to steal signs?
Anyway, it is the latter sort of sign stealing (the "fair type") that I have no problem with. Along these lines, I think that it's fine for guys on the bench to try to figure out what signals the base coaches are giving, or for the base coaches to try to peak in at the catcher, and so forth. I do not understand why some (many?) in the baseball world get worked up about this.
[27] I used to steal signs while I was hitting, but but only if I couldn't solve the guy. The key is to glance down at the right moment and not move your head too much. I got caught a few times, and HPB a few times in my next at bat. But, hey, free base.
Yes, I remember the chase well, I was delivering pizzas, and I checked into the bar to try to catch some of the game between deliveries. I was like WTF?
Knicks - Rockets, that series hurt. I thought that it was finally the Knicks' year, having defeated their nemesis (nemesi?) Chicago & Indiana in the playoffs.
[2] I look forward to it as well. I was able to make it to games 1 & 2 of the ALDS, and until Cone's perfect game, game 2 was the best game I have ever seen in person. Can't beat the atmosphere around the Stadium. I have game 5 on tape, and I pull it out every so often to watch it.
[11] They preempted "Animaiacs" for that crap of a trial.
I shudder to think about what this season would be like if Teix had signed elsewhere.
Depends on other moves that they would have made. Would they have kept Swisher @ 1b? Who would they have signed to play RF? or vice versa? As good as Teix has been, just as important is the bounceback seasons of Jeter, Cano & Cabrera. Having Posada around for a full season helps a lot as well; it keeps Molina on the bench as a backup, where he belongs.
"Cheating is baseball's oldest profession. No other game is so rich in skullduggery, so suited to it or so proud of it." - Thomas Boswell
[29] At least as important a consideration (which is what I was thinking) is would Teix have signed with Boston?
hey monkeypants - do you also visit the good morning gloucester blog?