Daily Archives: April 6, 2010

The Yankees haven’t won an April series against the Red Sox since 2005 and haven’t won an April series in Fenway park since 2001. In the last three years (the two teams didn’t meet in April in 2006), the Yankees are 3-13 against the Red Sox in April. Over that same span, the Yankees are leading the overall series 28-26. The Yankees haven’t lost a season series to Boston since 2004, though the last two years the two teams split the series, going a combined 18-18.

My point is that I half expect the Yankees to split the remaining two games at Fenway (I won’t bother telling you what the other half of me expects with Jon Lester and John Lackey starting those two games for Boston), and while these three games count as much as three in September, I’m just not terribly upset about it.

A.J. Burnett goes for the Yankees tonight. One of of the selling points that got Burnett his big contract with the Yankees was the fact that he had survived for three years in the AL East and posted a 2.60 ERA in four starts against Boston in 2008. So, of course, in his first year as a Yankee, Burnett posted an 8.85 ERA in another four starts against the Red Sox. Burnett did have that one brilliant outing when he dueled with Josh Beckett and held the Sox to one hit over 7 2/3 shutout innings, but that came in the Bronx. His three starts at Fenway last year were all disasters as he allowed 22 runs in just 12 2/3 innings while walking as many as he struck out (ten). So Burnett comes into tonight’s start with something to prove, and I have to say, as is typically my reaction to A.J. Burnett, I’m not optimistic.

Opposing Burnett will be lefty Jon Lester, who frankly should have drawn the Opening Day start as he’s Boston’s best starter. Lester actually got beat up by the Yankees at Fenway the last time he faced them on September 25 of last year, but the other six starts he made against the Yankees in 2008 and 2009 were all quality starts, some of them downright dominating performances.

In more encouraging news, Phil Hughes was sharp in his simulated game in extended spring training yesterday and will join the team today in Boston. He’ll pitch another extended spring training game while the team is in Tampa playing the Rays this weekend. I’m looking forward to his return to the rotation a week from Thursday.

Tonight’s lineup against the lefty Lester finds Marcus Thames in left field and Curtis Granderson batting ninth behind Nick Swisher and Thames. As I’m sure Ken Singleton will say on tonight’s broadcast, there’s only one spot after ninth, and that’s “bench.” Just ask Brett Gardner, who also had a good showing on Sunday night and has a much better track record against left-handed pitching than Granderson.

Joe D, By Jason Kasper

Since we’re in battle mode and all, I figured I’d drop this classic diss record on you. From Sun Dullah, formerly King Sun, produced by Doo Wop, this record took aim at Tupac Shakur during the height of the East Coast-West Coast nonsense in the mid-’90s. Three verses, one better than the next, and a bumpin’ beat. I first remember hearing this on late night college radio–Stretch and Bob–and it still holds up as a banger:

I think Alex Witchel is a terrific writer. I’m not overly familiar with her work but Witchel’s profiles for the Times magazine are generally wonderful. Last fall, I was struck by a piece she did on the Irish novelist Colm Toibin, and this past weekend she wrote a lovely article on Norris Church Mailer.

Dig the lead:

It is 1975, and you are a 26-year-old high-school art teacher, the divorced mother of a 3-year-old boy, living in Russellville, Ark. You hear that a world-famous novelist is in town for one night, so you wangle an invitation to the party in his honor, hoping he’ll autograph your book. You find yourself smitten with this 52-year-old man — as he is with you — and at the end of the evening you go home together. After he leaves, you pour out your heart in a love poem and mail it to him. He mails it back — copy-edited, in red pencil. Do you:

a) Hop a plane to New York and strangle him with your bare hands?

b) Quit your job, move to New York with your son and become the guy’s sixth wife?

Reader, she married him. Not only that, she became stepmother to the seven children he fathered with his five other wives and had another son with him. Still with me? That makes nine children and Norman Mailer for a husband. As she has said herself: “Well, I bought a ticket to the circus. I don’t know why I was surprised to see elephants.”

It is not a long profile but it is written with compassion and an eye for the telling detail. Norris Church Mailer is a pretty nifty lady too.

Check, check it out.

Before I left New Mexico, I watched my sister-in-law make a simple red chili sauce. She put a selection of chiles in boiling water, covered them, turned off the heat and let them sit for close to an hour to reconstitute. Then, she removed the chiles from the water, cut-off the stems, and got rid of any seeds. She put the chiles in a blender, along with a little bit of onion and garlic–enough for flavor but not enough to overpower the chiles. Then salt, and a small amount of the water to help blend. Finally, she strained it, and man, it was lovely.

The first day back in New York is never easy. Things move too fast, the space is too tight, people’s attitudes too sharp. I was struggling to adjust this morning when I crossed Broadway in midtown and saw a small woman with a black felt riding helmet, large sunglasses, and a gold coat riding in a motorized scooter, a pole with a red flag at the top, mounted on the back. She was in the street and stopped at a traffic light. I told her that I liked her style.

“Morning,” she sang out.

That helped. Ah, now I’m back.

My mind is still stuck somewhere between here and New Mexico, though. Here’s the wife soaking in the sun. Man, love that wife o mine.

So the Red Sox went ahead and signed Josh Beckett to a four-year extension.

Meanwhile, the New York papers all cover the relationship between AJ Burnett and Jorge Posada this morning. Here’s Ben Shpigel’s take in the Times:

“For me, I think it took on a bigger picture because we’re in New York,” Girardi said of the bumpy ride Burnett and Posada experienced as battery mates. “It was an emotional time, and we’re fighting for the division and we’re nearing the playoffs. It seemed to take on — it became a big story. As far as them having a problem, I wasn’t concerned about that.”

Every chance they could, Posada and Burnett worked together this spring. After his March 11 start was rained out, Burnett was particularly grateful that Posada stayed late, past 9:30 p.m., to catch his simulated game. Burnett is polishing a changeup, and Posada guided him through his March 27 start against Detroit when he did not have a good curveball.

“I noticed he’s been a lot more confident and comfortable back there,” Burnett said of Posada. “Obviously, that makes me confident.”

Burnett goes against the formidable Jon Lester tonight in Boston.