Blog Archives

Woody’s New York. 

So it’s the bottom of the 7th last night and Andy Pettitte has just thrown his 106th pitch, a breaking ball that Nate McLouth won’t chase. Then Andy’s got the ball back from Chris Stewart, glove over his face looking it at the sign, nodding. He’s in rhythm. There’s one out in the inning and it’s 2-2 on McLouth. Pettitte throws a couple of more breaking balls–one inside, another one low–nodding, in time, working. This is what he does. Might not be much longer, but this is a man at work.

McLouth doesn’t bite and draws the walk. That’s the end of Pettitte’s night. Just an inning before a double play got him out of trouble and Andy pumped his fist. He gave up a bunch of hits but kept the team in the game. A prol plying his trade.

Couple of innings later the Yanks had a two-run lead, thanks to a home run by Robinson Cano, a triple by Curtis Granderson and an infield single by Lyle Overbay. And so now here’s Mo, emptying the tank. The Yanks have been riding him hard and there’s something thrilling about watching the old guy respond. He got weak ground balls from the first two hitters, and gracefully ran to first base to cover the bag on both outs. Then, there’s this bastard McLouth again, down to his last strike again. Mo tries to backdoor him and throws the ball to the spot but McLouth guesses along with him, squares the pitch up and hits it over Brett Gardner’s head in center field.

Okay, so Mo gets ahead of Brian Roberts too. Down to the last strike. Throws a cutter high but right where Stewart wants it and Roberts is waiting, gets on top of it and drives the ball to right scoring McLouth. One run game. Manny “the Future is Now!” Machado, who could be Mo’s son is next. Mo does something we rarely see, he uses a slide step. Throws a cutter for a strike and then another one, lower, called a strike. An improbable strike, a groaner for Buck Showalter and the home team, and good fortune for the Yanks. Still with the slide step Mo throws a fastball, high and out of the zone. The kids chases it. It’s only 92 mph but he’s late.

And behind two old pros–with some help from the home runs by Cano, Alex Rodriguez and a long one by Granderson–the Yanks win, 5-4.

They’re just a game behind the Rays.

[Photo Credit: Patrick Semansky/AP]

With all the carrying on about Mariano and a lost season for Derek Jeter*, it’s easy to overlook Andy Pettitte who likely has just a handful of starts left in his fine career.

So let’s take notice of Ol’ Reliable tonight with some extra appreciation.

Brett Gardner CF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Alfonso Soriano LF
Curtis Granderson RF
Mark Reynolds 3B
Lyle Overbay 1B
Brendan Ryan SS
Chris Stewart C

* Here’s a tweet from Mark Feinsand:  Cashman said Jeter is being put on the DL which will “effectively end his season.”

Never mind those Birds;

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Bill Keane]

Alexandra gives us pasta with Marcella’s tomato sauce and hot Italian sausage. 

Tough night for Austin Romine who took a foul ball off the noggin late in the game. And we’re hoping Ivan Nova and Alex Rodriguez aren’t badly hurt too. Meanwhile, the  Yanks acquired the gifted fielder Brendan Ryan yesterday. Over at Sports on Earth Jack Moore thinks it’s the best available solution. 

“Western Skies Motel, Colorado,” By Ernst Haas (1978)

You can’t spend what you ain’t got.

I lived in Brooklyn from the fall of ’95 to the summer of 2000 and was in my Bronx apartment on the morning of September 11, 2001. But I still had a lot of friends in Brooklyn like my pal who was in his Carroll Gardens apartment. When the second plane hit he walked to his roof to see what was happening.

A few hours later the roof and the streets were covered in white like a ticker tape parade. Only it wasn’t ticker tape but paper from the twin towers that had blown across the East River.

This one that still gives me the chills all these years later.

Love and respect to everyone who lost someone that day.

When the Yanks are down to their last game then the final three outs of the season I always think, well at least they’ve got a shot, at least we can watch a few more pitches, a few more swings. It’s like when you are falling asleep and you hear things louder–everything is heightened. Well that’s the way I feel about the last three weeks of the season but in a less acute, anxious way. Every game is something to savor because soon enough it’ll be cold and all we’ll have is football and hot apple cider.

There will be no more Andy Pettitte, no more Mariano Rivera. We likely won’t see Curtis Granderson back, and who knows when we’ll see Alex Rodriguez again?

Okay, so the 2013 Yanks aren’t a great team. They could make the playoffs but nobody around here is holding their breath. Still, they’re play night and they keep us company.

Last night they made enough mistakes–an error by Eduardo Nunez, a bone-headed cutoff by Rodriguez–to lose. But then they knocked the crap out of the ball in the 8th inning–double for Rodriguez, who scored on a single by Cano (he was pulled from the game due to a tight hamstring but the injury isn’t reported to be serious), home run by Lil’ Sori (his second of the game), double by Granderson who scored on a double by Mark Reynolds. They went from trailing 4-3 to leading 7-4.

Mariano came on to get the final out in the 8th and put heads to bed–order restored!–in the 9th as the Yanks beat the Orioles, 7-5. If you can’t drink in every pitch from Rivera now, whether they are good or not, I feel for you.

And so for one night it was the Orioles who were left smarting while hope remained the thing with feathers for the Yankees. Course tonight could be different.

But that’s baseball, Suzyn…you can’t predict it.

It’s been getting late early for the Yanks for a long time now (g’head and check out the preliminary 2014 schedule if you’d like). They need to win almost every game in order to make the playoffs.

It’s Nova and you better you better you bet.

Brett Gardner CF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Alfonso Soriano LF
Curtis Granderson DH
Mark Reynolds 1B
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Eduardo Nunez SS
Chris Stewart C

Never mind stealing signs:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Thomas Prior]

Are the Yankees moving down your radio dial? Neil Best has the story for Newsday. 

[Photo Credit: adrien toubiana via Je Suis Perdu]

The Searchers Japanese poster, via Wandrlust.

Martin Amis on ET circa 1982:

Steven Spielberg’s films have grossed approximately $1,500 million. He is 34, and well on his way to becoming the most effective popular artist of all time… What’s he got? How do you do it? Can I have some?

‘Super-intensity’ is Spielberg’s word for what he comes up with on the screen. His films beam down on an emotion and then subject it to two hours of muscular titillation. In Jaws the emotion was terror; in Close Encounters it was wonder; in Raiders of the Lost Ark it was exhilaration; in Poltergeist it was anxiety; and now in ET – which looks set to outdo them all – it is love.

Towards the end of ET, barely able to support my own grief and bewilderment, I turned and looked down the aisle at my fellow sufferers: executive, black dude, Japanese businessman, punk, hippie, mother, teenager, child. Each face was a mask of tears. Staggering out, through a tundra of sodden hankies, I felt drained, pooped, squeezed dry; I felt as though I had lived out a year-long love affair – complete with desire and despair, passion and prostration – in the space of 120 minutes.

The fall and winter are coming. This one looks like one to try. 

Found over at Egotrip is this Fact post on beat tapes:

[Image Via: the Chicago Sun-Times]

[Picture by Louis Porter via MPD]

Salute.

[Photo Via: Eye Heart New York]

Okay, so we might not have much faith in the Yanks making the playoffs but they have a chance and that makes these games accordingly tense or watchable or something like that.

C.C. goes tonight. He’s the Ace and they need him to come through with a big performance.

Brett Gardner CF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Alfonso Soriano LF
Curtis Granderson DH
Eduardo Nunez SS
Lyle Overbay 1B
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Austin Romine C

Never mind the scoreboard-watching: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Robert Herman via This Isn’t Happiness]

Cool post of famous authors’ handwritten outlines over at Flavorwire. 

Serious East tells us all about fish sauce. 

[Photo Credit: Paul Hillier]