Blog Archives

Mark Teixeira, who told reporters the other day that he plans to be “buried in pinstripes” does not want to start the season slowly, as he has done for the past two years. According to a piece by Ben Shpigel in the Times:

“To me,” the hitting coach Kevin Long said, “it’s taken him too long in the past to get going.”

…According to Long, Teixeira told him, “I’ve probably taken for granted my hitting is always going to be there.”

“I told K-Long, give me some tough love if you need to,” Teixeira said.

It says here that Teixeira will have a good start this time around. Fearless prediction, I know, but hoop, there it is.

[Photo Credit: NJ.com]

Still my favorite dunk contest…

The Great Hank Kingsley.

Hey, Now.

In the Times, Ben Shpigel profiles Manny Banuelos:

Most young pitchers, Newman said, have a good fastball but must develop a feel for the craft. With Banuelos, it was the opposite. Based on a recommendation from Lee Sigman, their scout in Mexico, the Yankees in March 2008 paid $450,000 to the Sultanes de Monterey for a package of four players highlighted by the former reliever Alfredo Aceves and Banuelos, whose command and savvy as a 17-year-old intrigued them more than his velocity.

That is what Greg Pavlick, his pitching coach last year at Class A Tampa, noticed about Banuelos when he saw him for the first time, in a rookie league game that summer in nearby Clearwater. Pavlick, a Mets coach during their championship season of 1986, worked with the 18-year-old Dwight Gooden and said Banuelos was one of a few young pitchers he has encountered who had a similar presence.

“Certain guys just stand out,” Pavlick said. “It’s like a hitter who has power. Fans pay to watch that. If you have a guy who can get on the mound and pitch like Manny, they’ll come watch him, too.”

I’m ready…

Let the professionals take you to school, won’t you?

Jay Jaffe on that recently retired force of nature Gary Sheffield.

Fresh direct from our man Mark Lamster’s Twitter feed this afternoon, a tourist shot of the Empire State Building from the 1940s:

It feels like spring today. Dig the moment, it’ll be brick again tomorrow.

[Picture by Bags]

Starting tonight, the Film Forum has a cool, week-long series: Pacino’s 70s.

I am always impressed when I see a blind person on the subway or walking down the street. Sometimes, I’ll close my eyes and pretend what it is like to be blind. But I don’t last long and it is just pretend. Still, I am filled with humility at that moment.

I don’t mean to suggest that blind people are saints. When I was in college there was an angry blind guy who walked around and always had a remark if someone accidentally bumped into him. “Oh, I’m sorry, that must be my fault, I guess I’m blind,” he’d say.

Navigating the streets and subways might become second nature for blind people, because getting around when you’re blind isn’t really a choice, it is a fact of life. This may seem daunting as hell for people who can see, but some blind people have never seen, it’s just the hand they were dealt.

I am still struck with admiration for them all the same.

Mariano Rivera reported to camp yesterday and spoke to the press. Chad Jennings has a thorough recap:

Mariano Rivera left home yesterday, doing what Andy Pettitte couldn’t bring himself to do this winter.

“It’s hard,” Rivera said. “One of my kids was, the little one was attached to my hip, crying. It’s hard. A lot of people don’t see that, that part of the game. You have to leave your family. Even though you’re going to see them, being detached from your family is hard.”

It seems Rivera never seriously considered retirement this offseason, but he admitted that leaving home “gets harder and harder,” and now that his oldest son is 17, Rivera realizes he’s “missed a lot of things.”

“Baseball is not everything,” Rivera said. “That’s what we do, yeah, but there’s still life after baseball. There will come a time when you have to make a decision, even though you still have the abilities to play. That comes within yourself. If you don’t feel it in your heart, you don’t feel it in yourself no more, it’s time to say goodbye because, why are you going to do it if you don’t have the desire to do it? That’s why I thank God for Andy, and I respect him because he just didn’t have the desire to do it no more.”

As always, it will be a pleasure to watch the man work.

From an old Forbes magazine post by our man Michael Popek:

And if you’ve never popped by Forgotten Bookmarks, get-to-steppin’.

I saw the elegant Picasso Guitars Show at the Modern today and it made me feel lighter, alive, and unbelievably happy.

Check out the site, and if you are in town, peep the show, it’s around through early June.

Bucatini All’Amatriciana last night at my aunt and uncle’s on the Upper West Side.

Simply the best.

What games do you play while riding the subway?

Here’s a few: What if the train stopped and this became like an episode of “Survivor”? Who would take charge? Who would be the Alphas, who would be the trouble makers, who would crack first?

Who would I bone, and in what order? There’s lots of variations of this game, of course, like “Which beautiful women are lousy in bed,” and “Which regular-looking girls are tigers?”

Who is carrying a concealed weapon?

I used to play, “Who could I beat up?” but I’ve given up on that one.

Another favorite is guessing what stop people will get off.

 Check out these spring training pictures by Michael G. Baron.

Check out this cool post from the always cool spot, Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York.

C.C. Sabathia reported to camp lighter; Joba Chamberlain is heavier. My favorite headline today comes from the Times of all places: Heftier Chamberlain Arrives with Thud at Yankees Camp:

Asked Wednesday morning for his impression of Chamberlain, General Manager Brian Cashman said: “He’s heavier. Let’s just leave it at that.”

Told that Chamberlain has said he packed on muscle, Cashman said: “He’s obviously heavier. That’s as much as I’ll say.”

…“You think about it as a manager, you think about what it says,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “As I said, Joba is going to be pretty much evaluated on how he pitches. That’s the bottom line. We’ve been very pleased in what we’ve seen so far.”

The Wall Street Journal asks: Is This the Fattest Yankee Team Ever?