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Two tears in the bucket, then you say fukit
Don't look where you fall, but where you slipped.
When your dreams turn to dust, vacuum.
If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You have another chance.
Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain

I was lucky; not near a TV, or a computer, and with a car full of people, could not listen to the game on the radio. I have nothing to say about this game, but after reading the paper, and seeing the high and lowlights, my sympathies to those who saw it...and think about the people who were at the stadium!

It's a game, shit happens...today is a shirtsleeves hot, dry stunner of a day. Go Yankees!

Yeah I missed most of the game. Last I saw it was 1-0 Yanks.

For me, an extended period of poor performance makes CC's apparent weight gain loom large. That's not t say it necessarily has anything to do with it, but with sub-optimal performance, I think it's fair to ask is the player doing everything he can to maximize his effectiveness? It may be that as he gets older his size will work against him more and more.

Didn't have access to the game yesterday but was watching the tennis with my kid and noticed the ticker read: NYY 10 CLE 4.

I did a double take before letting out a "Yes!!"

Imagine my surprise to check back around 5:30 and see 13-11.

Imagine my surprise turning to blind rage.

Imagine my blind rage resolving itself into a feeling of resigned surrender.

Dear Lord, to all of you who actually witnessed that fiasco...?

Christ in heaven, one can only imagine.

"Joe Girardi actually admitted that [it was a terrible loss]: when you have a 10-5 lead, you should win the game."

Whoa, BOLD admission, Joe!

Oh, no, it's AJ?

*winces*: I have a bad feeling about this.

I'm watching YES. Did Paul O'Neill learn to tie his tie at the Ringling Brothers Clown School?

But, I love when Paulie is in the booth. He humanizes even Kay.

From LoHud:

Jorge Posada hit in the cage yesterday, and he hopes to hit on the field today. He hasn’t started running yet, but he remains optimistic that he’ll be back in the lineup by the time the Yankees go to Toronto on Friday.

“I hope before that,” he said.

That seems overly optimistic, but Posada said he’s been encouraged by how strong his foot has felt since the protective boot came off this week.

“It felt better without the boot than with the boot to tell you the truth,” he said.

Tooptimistic perhaps, but good news on the offensive side of the ledger ...

[7] he's great goofy fun.

Hmmm, that ball sure carried ... I feel the presence of the Score Truck.

Lord Charles!

Hey team.
Two cheers for AJ. Thank You For Not Sucking!

It appears rumors of Derek's demise were slightly exaggerated ...

[6] Hahhahahahah. Damn, I missed it.

Wow, this might just be uglier than the Pavano debacle:

The Tigers will owe Willis the remainder of his $12 million salary for this season, the final year of the three-year contract in which he never approached the consistency the club expected.

In the 24 games of his Tigers career (22 starts), Willis went 2-8 with a 6.86 ERA.

In only five of Willis’s 22 Tigers starts did he make a quality start: six innings or more, three earned runs or fewer…

When Willis arrived from Florida with Miguel Cabrera in the big trade after the ’07 season, he was one year from free agency. The Tigers, who at that time were spending a lot of money to keep pitchers from free agency, gave Willis a three-year, $29 million contract that off-season, before he threw a pitch for them, and even though he’d fallen off in his final two Florida seasons after his 22-win season in 2005.

Willis’ Tigers epitaph may well be “$29 million, two wins.

I'm liking this Not Sucking thing. Good call, AB.
Let's see if our bats can get on board.

The amazing thing is that such injuries don't happen more often.

I have to say, let's hope the Morales injury leads to teams dropping the hackneyed "let's all stand around home plate and jump up and down like clowns" walk-off bit ...

More pine tar, Juan ...

[16] Nope. Not yet.

[15] Well, at least Willis pitched...

[20] It's a 18 wheeler Score Truck today, it takes time to gas up ...

I only heard the end of the story. Who were they talking about with George calling a plastic surgeon back from Japan?

[15] At least they got Cabrera out of it.

[23] Yankee BP pitcher nailed by Wade Boggs back in the day

I caught a little bit of the game yesterday, til about 2:30 pm, during a break in the Aikido seminar over this weekend. Scary thing with Huff, saw the same thing happen to Rudy Lugo earlier this year with the Mudhens.

Now I'm tired & sore & off to a pool party.

See ya'll tomorrow.

Ugh.
I have stuff to do. The team does better without me anyway.

Please Return to Not Sucking!

[24] And the Tigers knew when to give up. The Yankees hung on to Pavano for no apparent reason and then let him audition for his next team at the end of his contract

Phew, nice play by Fuzzy Moeller to get to 1st base to rescue that play ...

How 'bout that Cano?

[28] They hung on to Pavano probably for the same reason they're hanging on to Igawa; because they can. They're paying them, they're not blocking anyone, may as well keep them. Given the state of pitching in MLB, I'm pretty sure Pavano would've gotten a contract somewhere.

Yankees do have that uncanny ability to get struggling pitchers back on track.

Jeter's numbers back to respectable. That makes me happy.

That is Justin Masterson pitching, right?

[34] Yep, which means he'll probably toss a 3 hit shutout

[35] "Yankees can't Bat Masterson" joke.

Nice catch, Swish.

Swisher forgets how many outs there are in the good way.

This has been a very rough month of May. At different times during the month, every facet of the team has struggled. Yankees better hope June is more like April.

His leg kick's too high.

Good job, Robbie.

Just hit it in the air now

Oh RIPPER, I love it when you're SLASHING ...

Gorgeous.

Shoulders. Strong shoulders.

C'mon Nick, he's throwing you a damn sinker, if it starts at your ankles, you can't hit it ...

This team is no damned good.

Nick The Stick turns into Nick The Swish with runners on 3rd and less than 2 outs ... now 1 of 9

Joe Maddon has executed at least four successful squeeze plays so far this season. Joe Girardi, on the other hand, sits back and watches his struggling team press and dig themselves deeper into a funk. The biggest difference between the two teams right now is their managers.

[48] You wanted Girardi to squeeze with Swisher?

[48] Ooooh, Oooooh ... I call an Iron Cage Thunderdome Death Match between william and RIYank ... two Banterers enter, one Banterer leaves!

=)

Looking at our batting stats for the years is no fun, especially considering we were much better in April then May. ARod around .840 OPS, Jeter under .770, Teix under .710.

[49] Absolutely. Swisher has really struggled getting runners in from third (the whole team has for that matter), so having him lay one down would relieve pressure on him and the entire team. In games like this, sometimes you just need to get one run and then everything follows from there. A squeeze play sparked a big inning for the Rays yesterday. If Maddon was running this team, they'd have three or four more wins.

[49] I think it goes to the bigger picture that the entire offensive strategy for thus team is "everyone stand around and hope something happens.

Ya know, Kay, these conversations with Coffee Joe might take interesting turns if you bothered to do any research before hand.

Mitre vs RHB: .550 OPS against
Mitre vs LHB: .606 OPS against

Plus, Mitre's a sinkerballer and frankly, he wasn't missing his spots by much in the 3 balls he threw.

Not saying that Marte was the wrong decision, but standing there ignorant while Joe prattles on about what he "had to do" isn't of much use to anyone ...

This is a disgrace.

One trend this month has been when the Yankees have a tough loss, they don't show up the next game.

[52] Swisher has also been hitting well in May, and even when struggling has the ability to get on base.

[54] The explanation also ignores the fact that when Grudz came up the Yankees were up by four runs. If Girardi has so little foresight when it comes to managing the bullpen, the Yankees are going to have a long season.

What the fuck was that Brett?

[57] But he has struggled with runners on 3rd and less than out. Stats have context; a manager's job is to understand when his players need some help.

If Gardner is going to keep playing outfield like this, the Yankees really will need to make a trade.

[54] Yeah, but

Branyan vs RHP: .941 OPS against
Branyan vs LHP: .564 OPS against

[59] A bad read on a line drive ... eh.

[60] in Gardner's defense (no pun intended), it is a really tough sun field today in left, and is only his third game at left with Granderson's return.

[60] Looking @ B-R he's struggling over 7AB's... I think we need a bit more context.

[63] Defense? DEFENSE??? THERE IS NO DEFENSE!!! He should have immediately taken off his spikes and opened his throat while the Yankees bullpen ran over and clubbed him to death with fungo bats. This alone would atone for his shameful failure!

Alright ... big schneid breaking hit for Teix here!

Calling it!

The Yankees are saying "We'll show you get fat on hideously bad teams!"

or ... NOT.

Yankees need to get to a BBQ this afternoon?

Can Cano get three hits on one AB?

[65] yeah, it's only a game. but even Gritner makes $3K per game to play it

Miserable fucking team.

MK needs to learn to read OF'ers...

[64] You're not going to get a big sample in such a specific situation. You need to look beyond the stats and at the actual at bats. Swisher, and most on the team, have been pressing in that situation. A squeeze attempt has very little downside and a lot of upside (it isn't giving up an out to get a man in scoring position). The longer the Yankees stay scoreless, the more each hitter will press. At some point, a manager has to help his team out. Joe Girardi is helpless.

[61] Again, as I wrote, I'm not saying it was the wrong move, but there is a defensible position to stay with Mitre there. My overall point was that it would have been interesting to have someone present Girardi with a reasoned response rather than simply accepting "I HAD to bring in a LHP for the LHB and then the RHP for the RHB after that". There might have actually been a conversation after that about the "handedness absolutism (aka TLR syndrome)" that's the current state of managerial thought.

That might have actually told us something more than the simple relay of repetitive cliches that Kay actually gave us ...

[74] Plays are the enemy.

[71] Well played, I appreciate a good ZIG when they're expecting a ZAG!

No swing

Scoreless? They scored 19 runs against the Indians over the past 2 games. They're leading the league in Runs, BA, OBP, SLG & OPS

Well, there's something you don't see every game ...

[79] Forget it Raf, it's BanterTown ...

Mommas, don't let yer babies grow up to be catchers ...

[82] You're born to be a catcher, u can't learn or just want to be.

Ballgame.

Now THAT just sucked FUCKING balls.

[82] Quickest way to the show, especially if they bat lefty, IMO.

Mother.

Fucker.

[84] Well, technically, *that* was ballgame.

What a fucking 2 game sequence ...

This team infuriates me sometimes.

Another pathetic effort from this team.

Really, why should we have expected them to beat a miserable Cleveland Indians team?

This just sucks. AJ with a great performance today, and the wheels still come off. I don't think his delicate psyche can take this.

[89] Only sometimes?

[79] What they've done previously isn't as important as what is happening now. Yesterday's runs don't count today. The Yankees had a chance to change the tenor of the game. Instead, they are headed to another loss to an awful team.

Maybe you and Girardi are right and this team just needs to sit back and hope everyone starts doing their job. I've been watching a lot of Rays games and have seen Maddon emply strategy that has made a big difference. I'd much prefer that style of managing, at least until this team gets healthy.

[93] The organization and management infuriate me constantly, but the team itself is more good than bad

Okay now. Everyone stand around and wait for five or six hits in a row to tie it.

God, Burnett is so delicate mentally.

Tim Belcher got really old

Burnett runs too much on momentum. You can see his swagger when he's really dealing but he has virtually no capacity to deal with adversity, no matter how minor.

That's a double earlier in the game. Dammit.