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Rest in Peace, Bobby Blue Bland.

After the Old Timer’s Day festivities today, Ivan Nova returned from the DL and pitched a good game. According to Chad Jennings:

“Their guy really settled in,” [Joe] Maddon said. “I don’t understand why this guy struggles. I have never seen him bad. I don’t know — one of the best pitchers in the world as far as I’m concerned. He gets that hook over and he’s really tough on left-handers.”

Score was tied 1-1 in the seventh and there were two men out when Nova hit a batter (Desmond Jennings, elbow) and then another (Ben Zobrist, foot) and by the time the inning was over, three pitchers later, the Rays had a 2-run lead on the count of James Loney’s RBI single against Boone Logan.

A shame for sure but something had to give and after scoring a run in the first, the Yanks were blanked for the rest of the afternoon.

Final Score: Rays 3, Yanks 1.

So they settle for a split of the four-game series. Not stellar and not a disaster, pretty much like the Yankee season so far.

Old Timer’s Day at the Stadium this afternoon and then the Yanks go for the series win for the Rays.

Never mind the heat:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Jose Souto]

“Interior with Book,” By Richard Diebenkorn (1959)

David Adams has walked twice in his major league career and both came in yesterday’s game. The critical one came in the 7th inning. The Yanks were down 5-3 because Wil Myers hit a grand slam off C.C. Sabathia (and threw his bat a little too eagerly after he hit it, especially considering that Brett Gardner got a glove on it and the ball just skipped over the wall).

So the Yanks load the bases with one out, Jayson Nix and Adams due up. They’d had the same scenario a few innings earlier and both Nix and Adams stuck out.

In the 7th, Nix whiffed again–95 mph heater that was off the plate. But Adams put together a tough at bat and he drew a walk driving home a run. I didn’t think he had a chance at getting a hit but getting a walk was as impressive. And then, for some luck, some magic, whatever you want to call it–divine inspiration–Vernon Wells pinch-hit and down 0-2 he hit a bases clearing double.

What.

It was enough. Sabathia pitched well other than the Myers home run, Zoilo had another good game, and David Robertson and Mariano put heads to bed late as the Yanks won, 7-5.

Satisfaction.

[Photo Credit: Kahlua Nights; AP]

It’s C.C. on a warm summer afternoon in the Bronx.

Brett Gardner CF
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Robinson Cano 2B
Travis Hafner DH
Lyle Overbay 1B
Zoilo Almonte RF
Jayson Nix SS
David Adams 3B
Chris Stewart C

Never mind the heat:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

“Hot Fun In The Summertime” Sly and the Family Stone

[Photo Via: Film is God]

Sometimes there’s a man…

The Yanks got some much-needed pop from an unlikely source. Zoilo Almonte got three hits, including a solo home run, David Phelps and the Yankee bullpen kept the Rays in check, and the Yanks won, 6-2.

Zoilo, King for a Night, Wells, whadda ya know?

[Photo Credit: NJ Star-Ledger]

Yanks are winning tonight, dammit.

Chad Jennings has today’s notes. 

Brett Gardner CF
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Robinson Cano 2B
Travis Hafner DH
Lyle Overbay 1B
Zoilo Almonte LF
Jayson Nix SS
David Adams 3B
Austin Romine C

Never mind the change in seasons:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Sophie Benjamin via Film is God]

Check out this tender story by David Davis over at SB Nation Lonform: “‘She is Gone’: The Search for the Gibson Home Run and for the Answers to a Family Tragedy”:

Some 25 years later, the Dodgers have yet to win another World Series. Heck, they’ve yet to return to the World Series.

On this day, as the afternoon sun bakes the dugout, I ask Gibson if he thinks about the home run when he returns to Dodger Stadium. He nods and peers down the right-field foul line. “I walk in here and always look up at where I hit the ball,” he said. “I kind of named it myself: seat 88 for 1988.”

Gibson has probably talked about this moment a thousand times, maybe more, but he seems in no hurry. “It’s very vivid to this day,” he continued. “I was in the locker room listening to Vin [Scully] on the TV saying, ‘Kirk Gibson will not be hitting tonight,’ and I just said, ‘My ass.’ I really had no business going up there to the plate. But, you know, it’s what I live for. I felt like my teammates wanted me to do it.”

I’ve arranged to interview Gibson because I’m trying to figure out what happened to the home run ball after it disappeared into the scrum in right field. Gibson himself never saw the ball again, and no fan came forward that evening, or the next day, claiming to have recovered it.

It is gone, permanently.

But this quest, I’m beginning to realize, is also personal. I had tickets to the very section where Gibson deposited his homer, but I didn’t attend the game. I can recall exactly where I was when he hit it out — which might explain why, 25 years later, I am trying to locate a ball that will never be found.

[Featured Image: Kate Joyce]

Holy Sweet Lord. Christina Tosi’s English Muffins and Pickled Strawberry Jam.

Via NPR, Alan Lomax’s massive archive goes on line.

Here ya go.

Holy Cow, this is great news.

Over at Wired, dig this on the art of the movie trailer.

Simple pleasures are the best.

“Still Life” by Giorgio Morandi (1943)

Over at WNYC here’s Stephen Nessen on the black surfing scene that’s taking over in the Rockaways:

Locals say [Brian] James was one of the first black surfers on the scene when he began catching waves here in 1997. And even though the shores are thousands of miles away from the once-exclusively white beaches of California, where the sport was popularized in the U.S., James said he faced racism here too.

“It was tough in the beginning,” he said. “Lot of racial epithets hurled out in water. Lot of arguing. But me personally, I let them know I wasn’t going for it. They got a problem we can settle it on the beach.”

Sauntering down the crowded beach on a recent Saturday with the top half of his wet suit hanging down, is another staple of the local surf scene: Louis Harris. The 41-year-old personal trainer from Long Island said it was James who inspired him to try surfing.

“I was like, ‘Wow, people surf out here.’ I then I saw BJ and I was like, ‘Wow black guy surfing?’” Harris said. “And they were all crowding around him like he was freaking Mick Jagger or something.”

But Harris said when he walks with a surfboard, he still gets chastised.

“It’s the black people that say ‘Black people don’t surf. Yo man, what you doing with a surf board man? Black people don’t surf.’ I’m like, ‘Dude, are you kidding?’ Harris said.

The Yanks lost cause they only scored three runs, Andy wasn’t great, and Joba and Boone served up a couple of homers as the Rays beat ’em but good, 8-3.

But the story of the night in sports was Game 7 of the NBA Finals (and so long David Stern). The Spurs were valiant and the game was close but Lebron James had his best shooting game of the series, Shane Battier finally showed up, and that was the difference. Heartbreak for Tim Duncan and the Spurs.

“Missing a layup to tie the game,” Duncan recalled. “Making a bad decision down the stretch. Just unable to stop Dwyane  and LeBron.  Game 7 is always going to haunt me.”

Back-to-back titles for the Heat.

[Photo Credit: Yahoo]

The Yanks host the Rays for a four-game series starting tonight in the Bronx.

Mr. Pettitte goes against the slick young lefty Matt Moore.

Brett Gardner CF
Jayson Nix 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Travis Hafner DH
Vernon Wells LF
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Lyle Overbay 1B
Chris Stewart C
Reid Brignac SS

Meanwhile, the Spurs and Heat play Game 7 of the NBA Finals in Miami. I say the Spurs win by at least 10.

Never mind “the narrative”:

Let’s Go Yank-ees! (And Spurs.)

[Photo Credit: Harlem Blog; Getty Images]

Also, rest in peace Chet Flippo. Man, yesterday was a tough day.

Here’s a piece that Flippo wrote on Waylon Jennings for Texas Monthly back in 1975:

Jack C—-, the federal agent stationed at Gate 56 of the Dallas airport, signaled to his partner when he saw the pair coming, The signal meant “search” and that signal was followed by an announcement to the 23 passengers waiting for Texas International Airlines flight 925 to Austin: “TI 925 will be delayed momentarily due to transient passengers.”

Those transient passengers, the suspicious pair, carried no luggage, had paid cash for their tickets, and were similarly attired: rumpled leather suits, scuffed boots, and hair a little longer than is allowed in the VIP lounge just down the corridor.

Cowboy singer Waylon Jennings and the writer with him slowed down their loping run for the plane as Agent Jack stepped in front of them: “Please step this way… gentlemen.” Jennings carried no identification and Agent Jack was summoning his superior when a light bulb went on above his head: “Aren’t you . . . you’re Waylon Jennings , ainchoo? I thought you was an entertainer. Hell, yes, I see you over at Panther Hall. I go over to Panther and get drunk and raise heil ever wunst in a wile. Go right on through, gentlemen.”

Jennings laughed about it all the way to Austin.

So the Yanks need help at third base but they’ve got Alex Rodriguez on the mend. Yet when this latest scandal heats up again it’s Rodriguez’s ass, right?

Alas, Poor A Rod.

Not Without Salt gives Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar.