Ok that throwing the grass in the air stuff from Harold Reynolds was pretty useful.

Looks like the Rays have a score battleship.

Holy crow. Yanks were winning when I went to go do the dishes.

That was a quick turnaround.

So is Carla pavano going to Kenny Rogers us?

Jeter really expanded the zone in this AB.

WTF, they just gave up SEVEN runs in one inning?? Is this another part of the battle-losing-war-winning strategy that I don't yet understand? A bit of "rope-a-dope" to lull them into false confidence??

[106] The Yankees have been treating September like a month long Dunkirk.

[106] I know, what a shock. I thought I was reading the box score wrong.

please hit a 6-run grand-and-a-half slam here, tex!

Kay is an imbecile.

FUCK. First pitch? Nice approach.

One of the biggest things holding the Yankees back has been Tex inability to get a big hit.

Sounded good. Bollocks!

Damn. It was almost a mirror of the top of the frame, with the two-rally and two walks.

I am really growing tired of Teixeira and him swinging at the first pitch after every walk. It doesn't work for him!

When the epitaph of the Yankees season is written, I have a feeling these games they didn’t try to win are going to be a big part of the story.

nothing like a leadoff walk to precede the coming 2-run jomerun...

We haven't suffered enough? Now Javy?

Oh Jesus.

Eject him ump, that was clearly intentional. And suspend him for the rest of the year to send a message to the rest of baseball.

javy's in rare form.

i smell double digits...

Okay, this if kind of funny to watch.

[120] See? He's a headhunter!

I think it's all a ploy to get Brackman in the game...

Watching this team essentially quit on games really makes me uneasy...it feels like the Yankees have been hijacked.

that's gotta be some kinda record...

Wait a second, what? Did he just hit three straight batters?

I come in to see Javy channel his inner Dock Ellis...

On the bright side, Javy hasn't given up a homer yet

[124] william, you tend to overreact, no offense. But you're dead on. This has been the drizzling shits. I don't get it.

[125] I don't think it is a record.

Unbelievable.

[129] None taken.

This is a disastrous game. Most disappointing performance.

What's Melky Cabrera up to these days?

[125] I am pretty sure Dizzy Dean hit a bunch more in a row...on purpose.

[125] Actually, according to Baseball Almanac, three is the record for an inning, so it must be for consecutive batters as well.

How bad is it now?

Obviously, I've been as hard on Girardi as anyone these last few months. And he's still on my shit list for what he's done in games previous.

I was spared watching this steaming dump of a game (I'm wiped out and have been sleeping) - but I'm wondering if he doesn't have much blame tonight?

You have the lead with your ace on the mound - your ace completely shits the bed and is part of a freaking 7 spot? Girardi actually goes to one of the "premium(ish)" guys before the 7th, and that guy shits the bed, too?

Is this on Girardi, or is it how it looks from afar - completely on CC and Joba?

Is there something not in the box score here?

[134] About 250

His batting average, that is. His weight may be higher.

[135] I though Phil Neikro did too...

[133] I don't think I am alone but i HATE teams that don't go all out for the division..actually, I've come to think that the regular season banner is much more impressive than winning the WS..in the old days the "pennant" was such a big deal...the soccer leagues in Europe have it right: play one long season and the team at the top at the end is champs. Then have side tournaments for everyone to have some chance at hardware.

Or maybe I'm just turning into Murray Chass...

Looks like the internets picked up on my Dock Ellis reference :-p

[137] I can't blame Girardi for that train wreck of a 5th. I blame him for taking the foot off the gas to a degree where this game became a must win for division hopes, but that's neither here nor there I guess. I mean, maybe you pull CC earlier, but you can't win there.

Hey, Tokyo - how did Andy Phillips do with the Rakuten Eagles this year? Is he going to stay in Japan next year?

[140] Isn't he the dude on the Pirates that was stoned out of his mind and started hitting guys? LSD maybe?

[143] OK, I mixed things up- stoned on LSD when he threw a perfect game, and in another game he hit the first three batters of a game to prove some kind of point about his team not being tough enough.

Yay! More Javy!

[139] I am right with you. In fact, even if they win the World Series, I don't think the season is a complete success. It really bothers me that the Yankees are no longer run by the notion of winning for winning's sake.

[143] The story as I remember it was that Ellis thought that the Pirates "feared" the Reds. To make a point that the Reds weren't the big and bad club that they were made out to be Ellis decided to plunk every Red in the lineup. He was unsuccessful.

He did pitch a no hitter on LSD, IIRC he got the days screwed up, and thought he was off. So he dropped a couple hits of acid, and got the call that he was supposed to pitch that day.

[142] I believe he's under the Mendoza Line in limited action..but Rakuten in last place, not much PR this season..

[146] yeah, it's made the end of the season kind of boring now..i want pennant races!!

[142] Phillips did not do well at all; .198-2-12 (.296/.283). Darrell Rasner went 5-10, 4.54

[148] Thanks. Limited action because he sucked, or because he was injured?

I guess if he's struggling in Japan, he was never going to stick in the big leagues.

I'll be embarassed if the Yankees celebrate the Wild Card.

Hey just wanted to drop in for some quick naysaying before bed.

Here's my contribution: I don't see the Yanks making it to the World Series, much less winning it.

Maybe I'll have reason to change that assessment by season's end.

Its always funny to hear Kay read the company line. For a while it

[149] Thanks. How about Aaron Guiel? Is he still with Yakult?

It isn't so much that you don't celebrate the WC, Kay, it's that some players feel that the team shouldn't "settle" for the WC when the division is there for the taking.

[153] For a while it was that Nick Johnson was a fabulous idea. Now its that playing for the wild card is perfectly fine.

[149] I think he was injured...pretty boring season here though, My Yakult Swallows barely at .500 so I lost interest..

[153].....

[154] Yes he is; http://bis.npb.or.jp/eng/players/93195114.html

Darrell Rasner; http://bis.npb.or.jp/eng/players/83185118.html

Andy Phillips: http://bis.npb.or.jp/eng/players/53555118.html

If the Yankees aren't going to try to win these games, they really need to give us better than Michael Kay.

[158] LOL. Good ol' Ralph Malph!

Thanks the link. I had been checking JapanBaseball.com, but their player pages have been down for awhile now.

Perhaps Joe doesn't remember what a total fucking disaster Joe was in the playoffs last year with two lefties out of the pen.

[163] *kay doesn't remember

I would imagine that playing baseball in Japan has to be a pretty cool experience. Games just have a different atmosphere out there.

[160] Wow, Andy Phillips hardly played at all. He only played half a season last year, because he in the US for the first half, and played even less this year. Do you know what kind of injury he had?

[165] I would love to attend a baseball game in Japan sometime.

[165][167] Bandbox ballparks (Jingu Stadium where Yakult play is AAA size, very cozy), drumming, trumpets and chanting from first to last pitch, beer girls with kegs on their backs everywhere, hot bowls of noodles available..and sac bunts in the first inning!! Great fun all around :)

[167] Me too! Ever since I read Whiting's "You Gotta Have Wa!"

[166] I don't know what kind of injury he had, but in NPB, there's a minor league system; that's where Phillips was playing.

[167] I went to a Baystars - Tigers game earlier this year (@ Yokohama), I had a great time. Tigers fans are really into it.

[170] Yokohama are pretty bad every season..love that old stardium though, right on the edge of Chinatown and the Kannai drinking-area. Every stadium should be in the center of town like that.

Tigers fans are wildest in Japan, very rowdy. I hear they like brawling with the Hiroshima Carp fans (who are known to be gangster-related..)

[171] Baseball hooligans?

Battlefield Baseball?

[168] I had the opportunity to see a pre-season game in 2009 between the Hanshin Tigers and Oryx Buffaloes. I experienced all you related including the launching of thousands of balloons during the break in the seventh inning. How long would the gathering of the balloons take without delaying the game? Not much more than the usual time our ads take up before play resumes. Out of centerfield came a small army of teens that gathered up the used balloons.

One perhaps disconcerting note is the net that extends down both sides of the foul line that keeps balls and bats from flying into the stands. It is better to sit higher so as not to have to watch the game through a net.

One final note - I liked the tribute displays to Ichiro and H. Matsui in the gift shop area.

I like the way the japanese play the game and present the game to the fans. Go if you can. BTW, there is no booing - wouldn't be polite.

[173] You wonder how they would take a game like tonight... stone silence? Or would booing be more interesting than before?

I can't stand it; half the team is coasting by permission of the manager and the other half is "disturbed" by it, but not riled up enough apparently to kick some ass. I want to give up and watch my Jets, but they've become complete assholes (when the owner becomes the good guy on the team, there is a real problem that no one wants to admit), then the Knicks have the opposite problem with a better team and an asshole owner.

How do I relieve my pent-up aggression and competitiveness here, draw the f@#$ out of some art?

[174] That's the recipe, get that comic done! :)　

Melo still an option..please, tell me he's coming to MSG???

I have a clip from the game I attended
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=554858875&v=app_2392950137#!/video/video.php?v=383497033875

dang, doesn't look like it'll show up

[175] I'll work on it, but I'm also producing some more short films, so it'll be a little while...

Carmelo wants to come, but I'm not sure how likely it'll be. I'm hearing Denver will practically sell him straight up for cash (@$65 mil) which I'm not sure is allowed, but if it were then he'd be destined for NY as long as they can dump Curry. But as I said before, Carmelo alone's not the answer, they need a legit center to anchor the post and allow Melo, Amar'e and company to do their thing. Shaq is OPP, Yao may never play again, Ilgaukus OPP, Camby OPP, Kwame Brown's a stiff, etc. etc. I don't consider anyone under 7ft a legit NBA center unless they're monsters like Zo was, and a lot of the 7-footers in the game now don't dominate in the post anymore (or never have).

Then there's the fact that Mike D'Antoni's the wrong guy to lead a team that was already soft on defense before he got there. If they had chosen Mark Jackson, they might still have lost a lot of games, but I'll bet a lot more heads would have been flown. Plus he might have been able to pull in some of the crew from his heyday and bring some of that old jail ball flavor back.

It all comes down to the owner being a real scumbag douche to the point you'd believe Al Davis could run the Knicks better than he can, and who wants to play for a douche like him (unless you hand over a cool $100 mil, far more than your worth, but hey he's a douche and doesn't know or care about that)? If LeBron did one thing right during that whole fiasco, it was to back away from the Knicks.