Blog Archives

“You know those junkyards along the highways in Jersey? Well, they have scrap heaps just like that for athletes..Athletes are cattle. They’re raised, fed, sold and killed…. Baseball moved me toward the front of the bus, and it let me ride there as long as I could run. And then it told me to get off at the back door.” –Larry Doby, Sports Illustrated

Earlier this year the Yankees were shopping for a DH. The rumored candidates included Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui and Vladimir Guerrero. Raul Ibanez got the job and the Yanks made the right pick. Damon and Matsui eventually signed minor league contracts and were cut well before the season ended. Guerrero, a possible Hall of Famer, didn’t even get a sniff from a big league team.

Now, none of these players faced the hardships confronted by earlier generations of ballplayers like Doby–they’ve all been paid millions of dollars for their efforts. But the truth remains, once you old and can no longer produce, you’re a piece of meat. Yesterday’s meat.

And so we come to Alex Rodriguez who has been publicly shamed by the Yankees over the past week. They’ve pinch hit for him and they’ve benched him. There was a New York Post story about him flirting with women during a game and yesterday rumors had it that the Yanks may try to dump him on the Miami Marlins this winter.

I think he’s done in New York. And I believe the Yankees are toying with him now in order to get him to agree to a trade this winter. One that will be costly for them but rid them of his presence. He is being punished for their mistake. When management signed him in 2007 it was before his PED case broke but they had to know he was using. Don’t get that twisted, they knew. And they made a terrific mistake signing that deal. Now they are punishing him for their mistake.

And since this is Alex Rodriguez they may figure it won’t reflect poorly on them. Maybe they believe other free agents still won’t think twice about coming to New York even if this is how they treat one of their big ticket players (and yeah, I don’t think it’s a leap to imagine someone in the front office planting that story in the Post). But right now, the way the Yankees have handled Rodriguez in this series smacks of a panic that’s been unlike them for the past few years. This isn’t about winning games. You can rationalize it all you want and yes, if Rodriguez was playing well this wouldn’t be an issue, but this is about running him out of town.

He’s a goner.

Tonight’s game will be played tomorrow afternoon.

Some brighter news, as I mentioned in the previous thread, The Banter was singled out in this week’s “Best of NYC” issue of The Village Voice:

Sportswriting, whether in print or online, has become awfully balkanized to name a single writer as above the rest. That said, Alex Belth is good both in his long free-association pieces on his website, Bronx Banter, and reviewing books for Sports Illustrated. But as a website host, he truly excels. Bronx Banter goes far beyond the Bronx and baseball with all kinds of terrific interviews (Pat Jordan, Pete Dexter, the late George Kimball) and a terrific array of great reprints from writers of the past like W.C. Heinz, Murray Kempton, Roger Kahn, etc. No one cares more about the history of New York sportswriting or does more to preserve it. In an age when past memories are fading without new ones coming along to replace them, Bronx Banter offers a wonderful mix of past and present with an eye on the future. It’s a New York treasure.

Happy to share this with all of you guys. Y’all keep the Banter fresh. I love doing this, man. We’re coming up on our 10th anniversary and I enjoy this joint as much now as I did when I started. Nah, scratch that, I like it even more.

Ya heard?

[Photo Via: Chillwalker]

Season on the line.

Ichiro Suzuki LF
Nick Swisher RF
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Raul Ibanez DH
Eric Chavez 3B
Russell Martin C
Brett Gardner CF
Eduardo Nunez SS

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

[Photo Credit: Thomas Prior]

Giants, Cards: NLCS Game 3.

We’ll have the lineup once it’s posted.

Go Baseball.

[Image by Matt Duffin]

From My Modern Met.

The Flora Dora Girls?

[Photo Credit: Luca Piantoni]

Food 52: How to peel an apple.

Here’s a Gothamist photo gallery of Grand Central Station way back when.

Is Ben Affleck the new Clint Eastwood? Over at Salon.com, Allen Barra gets into it.

Kobe Bryant spoke with Alex Rodriguez the other day. According to Ramona Shelburne at ESPN:

“I just say to him, ‘You’re Alex Rodriguez. You’re A-Rod. You’re one of the best to ever do it,'” Bryant said. “I think sometimes he kind of forgets that and wants to try to do the right thing all the time. Which is the right team attitude to have. But other times you really have to put your head down and say, ‘Hell with it’ and just do your thing.

“Hopefully the next game they’ll kind of give him a chance, maybe put him back at third and let him respond to the pressure, which I think he’ll do.”

Although both are among the best to ever play their respective sports, Bryant and Rodriguez would seem to be very dissimilar.

“We’re different,” Bryant said. “But you’re talking about, ‘He’s one of the best to ever play.’ I think really the difference is, sometimes he forgets he’s the best….Where, I don’t.”

And here’s Doug Glanville in an insightful piece, also at ESPN:

In spring training of 2003, Alex’s locker was next to mine. We talked every day and I appreciated that he took the time to do that. I saw a super hard-working, talented player at that time. He was in the cage hitting curveballs, and he was one of the best shortstops to go with his amazing offensive capability. I also saw someone who tried hard to fit somewhere, to fit in, which for most mega-stars is unusual. They usually expect everyone to bend around them. He sought the statesman status of a Cal Ripken Jr. He worked to command an aura of baseball to emulate the most respected in the game but, probably frustratingly, he mostly found people unmoved.

It was hard to imagine someone so good being so worried at the same time, but I came to understand that he was a star with the same insecurities of a player fighting for that 25th roster spot. Knowing that in the end we were all renting time in the game, taking out a lease from the great history and future of the game.

Just as success leads to more success, lack of confidence in your performance breeds more lack of confidence, and if you do not find a way to turn it around quickly and regain the decision-maker’s faith in you, you could find yourself in a new role permanently. Or on a new team.

Keep in mind Alex Rodriguez is learning these lessons at the tail end of his career, in front of the world. Lessons that were usually reserved for the typical player, who would have long since learned them along the way. So many players break in this way, starting out as the pinch hitter, the emergency outfielder. Then without the coverage of a long-term deal, your struggles are rewarded with learning all the non-starting ways to be a team player — the fourth outfielder, the double-switch guy, the utility infielder — and without the contract coverage or the cheapness of being a young player, there is less incentive for a team to let you work out your kinks.

[Photograph by Hengki Koentjoro]

“Further” By Jenny Morgan (2010)

Here goes:

Brett Gardner LF
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Raul Ibanez DH
Russell Martin C
Eric Chavez 3B
Curtis Granderson CF
Eduardo Nunez SS

Last Chance Saloon tonight.

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

[Photo Credit: Steven Siegel]

Tasty-looking minestrone from Food 52.

“Lighthouse” by Matthias Werner

“Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea”–Louis

[Photo Credit: David Tribby]

Tonight…Justin Verlander aka Doom.

“It’s a fun challenge,” Mark Teixeira said. “People think we’re crazy to say that, but it is a fun challenge, because if you’re going to win a World Series, you got to beat the best, and he is the best right now. So we’re going to Detroit, their crowd’s going to be rocking, they’re going to be cheering for their own team, so we have an opportunity to do something special and win a few games out there.”

[Photo Credit: Damian Strohmeyer/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images]

Yeah, there’s life beyond the Yankees. I guess. So I’ve heard.

NLCS Game Two.

Have at it.

[Photo Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images North America via It’s a Long Season]

Out in New Mexico…

it’s harvest time for chilies.

I’ve never been out there at this time of year but the air is filled with that roasting smell.

Man, sounds heavenly, doesn’t it?

Seen, at the indoor market on Arthur Avenue this weekend.

Sticking with the Woody theme, watch this (oh, and to see the marquee for the old Regency Theater, never mind Tower Records, brings back fond memories):