Blog Archives

Yanks have been flat for a few days. Enough with that. Time to win a ball game.

Let’s Go Score Truck!

[Picture by Bags]

That cool, refreshing drink.

From the cool blog, Former Chef.

There’s a new book about ol’ Bob out.

Over at SI.com, Cliff takes a look at the leading candidates for fancy awards. Here’s his take on the AL CY Young race (doesn’t include last night’s numbers):

1) CC Sabathia, LHP, Yankees (1)

Season stats: 19-5, 3.02 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 7.3 K/9, 2.54 K/BB, 2 CG

Sabathia continued his march to the Cy Young with eight-innings of one-hit ball against the A’s on Thursday. That earned him his sixth-straight win, tying his career-high of 19. Over his last 18 starts, he is 16-2 with a 2.40 ERA. If he can get his ERA below 3.00, King Felix doesn’t stand a chance.

2) Felix Hernandez, RHP, Mariners (2)

Season stats: 11-10, 2.30 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 8.6 K/9, 3.48 K/BB, 5 CG, 209 K

Cover up the win-loss records of the top two men on this list and see if you can make an argument for Sabathia over Hernandez. Go ahead, dig deeper into the stats. There’s no doubt that Hernandez has been the best pitcher in the American League this season, but though he finally got his record over .500 with eight strong innings against the Indians on Sunday (including nine strikeouts against juts one walk), I find it difficult to believe that enough of the voters will look past his eight-win deficit to Sabathia to give the award to Hernandez.

Murray Chass doesn’t dig sabermetrics, Chapter 346, The Foreman Affair.

[Photo Credit: Market Watch]

CC looks to tame Buck’s killer B’s and win number twenty.

After a two-game losing streak, we’ll be rootin’ extra hard.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees. Make us a memory.

[Picture by Bags]

Check out Keith Olbermann’s Buck Showalter story:

On Sunday, August 22nd, 1993, the New York Yankees were tied for first place in the American League East with the Toronto Blue Jays. As I watched in horrified astonishment from the press box, they were 4-hit by Chris Haney, a soon-to-be journeyman pitcher who would end an eminently frustrating career with an ERA of 5.07. The Yanks, now in second place and flying out to Chicago hours later that afternoon for a critical series, were in big trouble and had a lot to worry about. Or so I would’ve thought as I ventured into the clubhouse to commiserate with my friend Danny Tartabull.

There to my shock I found the usual crowd of reporters but – 10 or 15 minutes after the game had ended – not a single player. Worse yet, though nothing was said, several of the reporters seemed to be staring at me. That’s when Yankee factotum Arthur Richman took me aside: “The manager would like to see you.” I asked Arthur if I had been sent to the Yankees’ farm club in Columbus. “Matter of fact, you have,” he deadpanned. Inside there was second-year boss Buck Showalter, affable and cordial and welcoming. After a few pleasantries he began his soliloquy: “I asked you in here, because when I saw you on the field before the game I was frankly worried for your safety. Some of them truly do not like your style on SportsCenter and I thought someone was going to take a swing at you. These guys claim to ignore the media but every day our newspaper recycling bin is full. Actually, the players refused to come into the clubhouse until you leave. Me, I don’t care, I have a tough skin, you’re a bright fella and you know your baseball and you make me laugh. But I thought Boggs or especially O’Neill might take a swing at you.” Having startled me with this announcement, Showalter asked a question. “Far be it for me to tell you how to do your job, but how much of that job is dependent on access to the players?” I told him that conveniently the answer was none. He was silent for awhile. I told him it was all academic because I would be leaving SportsCenter soon to join our new ESPN2 product. Showalter smiled. “Well, we have a flight to catch but it’s been a pleasure. Sorry I had to be the bearer of such bad tidings about how the players feel about you but I really thought you needed to know.” I left the Stadium quickly, wondering not just about the oversensitivity of the Yankees, but more importantly why they would be worried more about me than about getting shut out by Chris Flipping Haney.

Good looking to Eric Nusbaum for hipping his readers to Reeves Wiedeman’s coverage of the US Open for the New Yorker. Wiedeman is doing a wonderful job blogging the tournament. Dig…

From Mario Batali and his partner, Joe Bastianich, comes Eataly, a huge-new Italian Market down on 23rd street. It opened last week. My aunt and uncle went down on Friday. She sent me this e-mail after they arrived: “It looks good, maybe, but you’ve never seen so many people in your life; worse than Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Judgment reserved. Off to eat somewhere else.”

Teacher’s Pet.

Anyone who watches movies knows that high school can be hell, especially on the teachers. Ask Michelle Pfieffer or Jim Belushi. One high school melodrama that I remember from my childhood is a Nick Nolte-Ralph Macchio movie called Teachers. It wasn’t very good but it featured Laura Dern who I had a crush on for years—loved all that pent up neurosis. It also co-starred Joebeth Williams who I also had a more private crush on at the time. She was never at the top of my list, she wasn’t like Pfieffer, my major 80’s crush, but she always turned me on. In the Big Chill, in this one. Anything she did.

Loved it when she flared her nostrils and got all righteous.

Welcome back, y’all.

If you are into following the Yankees’ minor leaguers, peep what Greg Fertel is doing over at Pending Pinstripes. Mike Axisa also does a good job over at River Ave, and now Stephani Bee is adding to the conversation over at PB.

Diggum.

And he’s bringing his upstart Boids with him. Time to start a new winning streak…

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

I love this day in New York. It is so still, so calm (you can even find a parking space!). But not for long, just a few precious hours more. Tomorrow, everyone will be back to work, kids will cram the subways again. But for now, neighborhoods are sleepy. From my apartment I can hear the subway in the distance, softly chugging along. There, the sound of a stray bird. And that’s it. Silence. Happiness.

At least that’s how these two see it. Our cats in the Bronx, waiting for the boids to show up.

The Yanks gun for the sweep today as well as their ninth win in a row. Phil Hughes will toe the rubber for the Bombers. Let’s hope he can put away hitters when he’s ahead of them and have a strong outing. Alex Rodriguez returns, Robinson Cano sits.

Fresh direct from the Lo-Hud Yankees oven, here’s the line-up:

Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Marcus Thames DH
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson CF
Greg Golson RF
Ramiro Pena 2B

Dudes, it is drop dead gorgeous in New York. Hope you all are enjoying it.

Let’s go Yan-Kees.

What a nice morning for Yankee fans. In New York, the sun is shinning but the humidity is gone, replaced by a cool breeze. A quick look at the standings is enough to make you smile–the Yanks hold a 2.5 game lead over the Rays in the AL East, and a seemingly insurmountable 10 game cushion over the Red Sox, who dropped two games (each by the score of 3-1) to the White Sox yesterday at Fenway Park.

Andy Pettitte threw three innings of a simulated game yesterday, an exercise where Alex Rodriguez got in his hacks, and there was nothing negative to report. The only Yankee who is out of sorts may be Javier Vazquez, and while I can appreciate his frustration, he hasn’t exactly earned anyone’s confidence lately. Does Girardi have too quick of a hook?

What do you think?

Back from the bullpen, Javier Vazquez gets the nod this afternoon on a bright and sunny day in New York. I’m taking the wife to the ballgame where we’ll be root-root-rooting for the home team.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Here’s a little more cheese for you…

Manny Ramirez is in Boston this weekend as a member of the visiting Chicago White Sox. Here is a clip from a chat he had with reporters, via NESN:

Pete Abraham has the article in the Globe.