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Baseball in the time of COVID. Go figure.

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

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Texted with a friend last night who has been watching some of the televised pre-season action and reports that he likes the game without fans. I have not watched a lick of anything yet. Still seems crazy that they are going to go through with this but there you have it. MLB baseball is upon us.

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They actually gonna go through with this cockamamie season?

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I don’t know about you guys but I just don’t see a season happening this year. And if it does, I am not sure how much of it I can stand—no fans in the ballparks, constant worry that the players will expose themselves to the novel coronavirus. Things have been so strange this year, why not just pack it in and hope to start fresh in the spring.

Much as I love watching baseball I can’t say I miss it. Things are just too weird to allow myself the escape of watching a ballgame. But that’s just me.

Hope you all are hanging in and doing as well as can be expected during this cockamamie moment in history.

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Ed Alstrom, Ladies and Gents. Tune in to to Ed on Facebook each day at noon. He is the gift that keeps giving.

There is no baseball but that is the least of our troubles these days.

As we wait out this public health crisis, sending hugs and love to you and yours.

AB

Man, you hold your breath each day and hope that another Yankee doesn’t get hurt. The big boppers, Stanton and Judge, muscular and impressive as they are, certainly aren’t durable.

We’re in March now, exhibition games are being played, and we’re gearing up for the start of the season. With the world gone topsy turvy—with no end in sight to the craziness in this election year—there is something comforting about the inevitability of Opening Day and the long season.

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Luis, TJ surgery. Oy and veh.

And yet … you could feel this one coming.

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Here’s what I wonder in all of this—Okay, maybe some of the Houston hitters will get plunked this season because they cheated. And of course MLB wants to make sure things don’t get out of control. But what about Houston’s pitchers? Doesn’t this hamstring them? I mean, soon as Verlander plunks someone, don’t you think the other teams will figure it’s on like Donkey Kong?

In the meantime, every day, another player is out there talking about this, ramping up the WWF-nature of this scandal.

I don’t know how you feel but I find MLB’s ineptitude reassuring. A few months ago I met the writer Fran Leibovitz at a book party. I chatted her up for a few minutes and standing close to her you could not avoid the fact that she smelled like cigarettes. My father was a smoker I recall the stilted air in his apartment when I was growing up, waking up to clouds of cigarette smoke. I hated the smell at the time, how stale it was, how it clung to your clothes.

There is nothing charming about the smell of cigarette smoke. And yet, I loved that Leibovitz smelled like butts. It was oddly calming—of course, she smelled like cigarettes, as it should be.

Baseball screwing the pooch is like that. Proof that all is well—or unwell—with the world.

A day late and a dollar short on this but, whadda ya say? Derek Jeter is a Hall of Famer!

It was so much fun watching him and rooting for him all those years, from precocious rookie—all the girls loved him!—to salty vet, he was the model Yankee of his generation, taking over where Don Mattingly and Willie Randolph left off. Sure, he was a little frosty in the second half of his career, but there was no doubt we were seeing the best shortstop in team history and that was just so much fun.

Watching him was fun because he was having so much fun—at least between the lines.

Jeter was voted in by all but one voter and naturally that’s caused a stir, but hell, that’s how we stay warm in the off-season, right? Mincing words over stupid stuff.

Nice to see Larry Walker get in, too. He always seemed like a no-doubt-about-it guy when he played. Great swing, serious hose, so damn good. But what’s up with that Sponge Bob T-shirt he was wearing when he got the call? Dag, jocks can be goofy, dude.

Don Larsen died yesterday. Sweeny Murti put up a post on Instagram, a shot of Larsen signing a photo for him. Larsen wrote: “Good Luck, Don Larsen.”

That says it all, doesn’t it? This guy had an incredibly good stroke of luck in his professional career and he knew it. We should all be so fortunate.

Dellin Betances, the kid from Brooklyn, signs with the Mets. I know he is a risk—big, tall guy and all—but he is a home town guy and he’s never played for anyone in the majors but the Yanks.

Maybe it is smart that the Yanks didn’t keep him, that I can’t say. I say that I will miss him. It stings imagining him having great success with the Mets. Still, hope things turn out well for him. He had a memorable run with the Yanks.

Hope you are all well. Sending best holiday wishes to you and your loved ones.

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The holidays are upon us. Lots doing in the Hot Stove so far this year, especially compared to last off-season.

What else you want the Yanks to get you for Christmas/Channukah?

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Yanks ink Cole to record contact. Hey, Now, the Big Spenders are Back.

So, to recap: Yanks now team to beat: Whirled Serious or Bust. Everyone hates the Yanks. The world is in order.

Happy holidays.

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You got to love the Yanks giving Ellsbury a hard time on the way out. After all, it was one of the worst deals in franchise history. Nobody to blame but themselves, of course, but whatever with Ellsbury, he’s a fink. And it’s funny, it’s not like this was a good gamble that went wrong. We all knew it was a turkey of a deal from the start.

Ah, well, good riddance.

Sorry that Greg Bird didn’t work out, though. I always wanted him to be the next thing. If not a star, then just a reliable, durable dude. It wasn’t to be and he’ll forever reside in the Yankee cutout bin right behind Nick Johnson.

In the meantime, it’s the first of the winter holidays. Eat, drink, and enjoy your friends and family.

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Tough way for our boys to go out this year but it was nice to see the Nats swipe the championship from the Astros.

Hot Stove is on. Chapman already back.

What else?

The Yanks got four runs off Justin Verlander in the first and that’s all they’d get but it was enough as our boys pushed the series back to Houston tonight for Game Six.

Win or go home. You know the drill.

Never mind the odds:

Let’s Go Yankees!

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Welp, our boys picked a hell of time to have one of their sloppiest games of the year. Now the missed chances in Game 2 and Game 3 hurt even more. C.C. Sabathia limped off the mound last night too hurt to pitch anymore, his career over. It was a long, somber moment. Even the Astros gave him a hand and it didn’t seem condescending. Then the Yanks kept making more errors and just looked terrible on a cold and windy night in the Bronx.

The good news is that they’ve got a game today. The bad news is that they’ve got to face Justin Verlander. But the good news is they’ve got a chance, they’ve been resilient all year and hopefully they can send this series back to Houston and make them sweat just a little bit.

So never mind the tears:

Let’s Go Yankees!

This is what we know. If the Yanks are gonna beat the best team in the league they are gonna have to win three games and tame Greinke, Verlander, and Cole. Easy to overlook Greinke but he’s no scrub.

Holy cow is it ever lousy weather in the Bronx. Cold, windy—not baseball weather, man.

Biggest game of the season for our boys.

We’ll be there root-root-rootin’ them on.

Never mind the windchill:

Let’s Go Yank-eese!

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Game Three. Brilliant sunny autumn afternoon in New York. Yanks and Luis Severino against the best pitcher in the league and those damn ’Stros.

Here’s hoping the Yanks come out on top.

Never mind the strikeouts:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

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