Blog Archives

I started shopping for records at Fat Beats when they were in a tiny East Village hole, below street level. Mr. Sinister and Roc Raider were there, working or hanging out, I could never figure out which. A few years later, in the mid-90s, Fat Beats moved to a prime spot on Sixth Avenue just off Eighth Street. DJ Ei, Ill Bill and Eclipse were there, to name just a few. Percee P was always downstairs hawking mixtapes and showing off his skills.
 
I stopped buying records years ago now, though I still fall through places like Big City and A-1 to visit friends. Still, I’m sad, though hardly surprised, to see that Fat Beats is closing up shop in New York and L.A. When I worked in Hollywood for four months in 1996-97, I was a regular at Fat Beats in East L.A. Babu was there at the time, the whole Dialated Crew, guys like J-Rocc, too.

Certainly marks the end of an era.

Sniff.

The other day, we talked about our favorite NYC pet peeves. And I forgot one of my favorites, the one that makes me my father’s son, full of righteous indignation: film crews who block off the sidewalks. In particular, the cocksure P.A.’s, wearing shorts, and strapped down with walkie talkies who stand around like the own the jernt and aggresively usher pedestrain traffic to the other side of the street. These yo-yo’s have infuriated me for so long that I don’t give them the benefit of the doubt, just a hard look.

This morning, I got out of the subway in midtown and saw a couple of these dudes and I looked one of them up-and-down with a look of disgust on my face. He met my eyes, unsure of why I was giving him an attitude. I had to laugh at myself as I walked away. But I didn’t feel bad about giving him the molochio.

There were some hard feelings and ugliness in last night’s game. Pitchers throwing at hitters, umpires issuing warnings and then sitting on their hands.

According to John Lowe in the Detroit Free Press:

As usual, Leyland refused afterward to take reporters’ questions about an umpiring controversy. However, the Internet buzzed with something he told Cooper after the Cabrera plunking that was picked up on the FSD telecast: “They’re going to the playoffs. We’re not going anywhere. Somebody is going to get hurt.”

Johnny Damon was not happy about Brett Gardner’s hard (and late) takeout slide on Monday night. Brian Costello reports:

“If anyone over there thought it was a clean slide, then we have a different opinion on that,” said Damon, who spent four years as a Yankee. “It’s part of baseball. But I thought the slide was dirty, and I’m sure a lot of those guys would agree.”

Gardner would not say if he thought Bonderman intentionally hit him, and he was surprised to hear Damon criticized him.

“That’s his opinion,” Gardner told The Post. “He knows how I play. I think if he was over here in this clubhouse he probably would have given me a high-five for trying to break up the double play.”

Things could get hot today. Let’s hope nobody gets hoit.

Jeremy Bonderman vs Dustin Moseley and the ball should be flying around the big mallpark in the Bronx. Couple of days ago, my wife goes, “Who is that guy?” Doseley? Muttley?”

Here’s hoping the Yanks get the last laugh tonight.

Let’s go Yan-Kees.

The Little Street, By Johannes Vermeer (1657-58)

Japanese baseball card.

Hey, head on over to Life.com and dig these cool images from Babe Ruth Day (June 13, 1948).

Thanks to Baseball Think Factory for the link.

Sometimes, life is good.

Witness:

Over at Lo-Hud, Chad Jennings looks at who could replace Alex Rodriguez at third. Some of the options include:

Brandon Laird: One of the season’s breakout prospects, Laird jumped to Triple-A at the beginning of August. He was in big league camp this spring, and he needs to be added to the 40-man this winter to be protected him from the Rule 5.

Kevin Russo: Already on the 40-man. Left a good reputation in New York. Hitting .284 this month in Triple-A.

Eduardo Nunez: On the 40-man without good Triple-A numbers all year. He’s primarily a shortstop, but the Yankees have given him starts at third base to increase his versatility.

Jorge Vazquez: Has 13 home runs in 57 Triple-A games. He’s also walked just seven times and hasn’t played third base since July 5.

Greg Dobbs: Or any other major league third baseman who’s been designated for assignment. That includes guys like Craig Counsell, Edwin Encarnacion and Geoff Blum. Brian Cashman said he doesn’t expect to make a move – and in this case I believe him — but there are some options out there.

I visited my mom recently and was annoyed that her peeler was almost as old as me. (Let’s not even talk about the can opener.) A peeler is just one of those ordinary things that can last generations, even if they are dull and don’t work well anymore.

For about ten bucks you can change someone’s life. Pick up an Oxo Good Grip peeler.

It’s the small things, man…

There are some nice articles on Bobby Thomson today. Here’s an excerpt from on old Roger Angell piece:

I gestured urgently to my wife, just then passing from kitchen toward bedroom with a jar of Gerber’s in her hand. “You might not want to miss this,” I said, unable to lift my gaze from the screen. “It could just be—”

“Be right back,” she said, disappearing from the room.

Too late. Several other things now disappeared as well—in rough succession: the ball into the lower grandstand seats at the Polo Grounds, above the left-field wall; self-control (“They did it! They did it! My God, they did it!” I yelled, rushing distractedly from room to room, bumping into walls and dogs and relatives); Bobby Thomson, the batter (who had just written the meaty portion of the first sentence of his obituary, whenever that would be), into embraces of his teammates around home plate; the Dodgers (severally, slowly, slumpingly, across the littered outfield and up the steep stairway to their clubhouse); and—soon thereafter, it seems—all further memory of the day and the game and my own succeeding emotions and remarks and celebratory gestures and exclamations on this the greatest moment of my life as a deep-eyed, native-born Giants fan, fan of baseball, fan of fable, fan….

The four-run ninth-inning rally, capped by Bobby Thomson’s killing homer against the Dodgers’ Ralph Branca, not only won the 1951 National League pennant for the Giants (the two teams had finished the regular season in a tie, and split the first two games of their best-of-three playoff) but stands as the most vivid single moment, the grand exclamation point, in the history of the pastime. So we believed then—knew it, on the instant—and so I believe to this day, and it’s funny that I can remember nothing else about that afternoon.

From Alan Schwarz in the Times:

In the 71 years since the Yankees slugger Lou Gehrig declared himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth,” despite dying from a disease that would soon bear his name, he has stood as America’s leading icon of athletic valor struck down by random, inexplicable fate.

A peer-reviewed paper to be published Wednesday in a leading journal of neuropathology, however, suggests that the demise of athletes like Gehrig and soldiers given a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, might have been catalyzed by injuries only now becoming understood: concussions and other brain trauma.

Although the paper does not discuss Gehrig specifically, its authors in interviews acknowledged the clear implication: Lou Gehrig might not have had Lou Gehrig’s disease

[Photo Credit: N.Y. Daily News, Drawing by Larry Roibal]

Alex Rodriguez had an MRI yesterday. According to Mark Feinsand in the News:

A-Rod will likely miss at least the next few days after an MRI revealed a low-grade strain of his left calf, an injury that sidelined Jorge Posada for four games in early May.

“This is not as significant as Posada’s, as it was conveyed to me,” GM Brian Cashman said. “That probably means less time, though that doesn’t mean it will be less time. Could it be two days, three days, longer? We’ll have to see. It’s not a serious situation, though it’s obviously serious in that we won’t have him for a period of time.”

…A-Rod has never dealt with a calf injury before, so he had no way to judge how much progress he had made since leaving Monday’s game, but he seemed encouraged by the information given to him by team physician Dr. Chris Ahmad.

“I’m not concerned. I’m going to be fine,” Rodriguez said. “Right now, we have good news. We don’t want to prolong it or make it a more serious situation.”

The Yankees haven’t looked right for weeks but the past two games have been particularly unsightly. With Justin Verlander on the mound for the Tigers tonight it sure doesn’t feel good for the Bombers. Feels like the Yanks have more bad ball in them. Here’s the line-up, fresh from the Lo Hud Yankee Oven.

Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada C
Marcus Thames DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Ramiro Pena 3B

…On the other hand, CC is pitching and the Yanks are the defending World Champs.

So hope is the thing soars. Like her:

Go, git ’em boys. We’ll be rooting you on, bitchin and kveting all the way.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

[Picture by Bags]

Dig this earnest–if overly self-depricating, at times–piece by Tim Kurkijan on the death of the newspaper box score:

Now I read the box scores most days on ESPN.com on my computer. I’m not comfortable doing it but I have no other choice. I have saved time, as well as money on scotch tape and scissors. Since 9/11, I estimate having lost at least six pair of scissors because I forgot to remove them from my bag and the security men and women at airports thought I might hijack the plane using scissors as dull as NFL preseason games.

But I still read box scores with the same vigor and interest every day for there is so much to learn in box scores, almost everything you need is in box scores, especially with the expanded ones that tell you, in some cases, more than you wanted to know. Twice a year, I have lunch and talk baseball with George Will and Dr. Charles Krauthammer, who write and speak about important issues in the world, such as war and gay marriage. At one lunch, Krauthammer said, “I read the front page for 30 seconds every day, then I go straight to the box scores.” To which Will said, “Why do you waste the 30 seconds?”

If I didn’t pick up the News and the Post for my subway commute most every morning, I don’t know how often I’d see the box scores anymore, either. Oh, I see them, and so much more, online, of course. I prefer the box scores in the News to the Post, though, and still find that it’s my favorite part of reading the paper each day.

[Photo Credit: The Baseball Analysts]

Who put the coke back in cocaine?

R.I.P.

Who is the more valuable Yankee since 1996: Mariano Rivera or Derek Jeter?

Joe Posnanski asks the question over at SI.com.

[Drawing by Larry Roibal]

Direct from Jane’s Sweets and Baking Journal, peep the lemon yogurt mini bundt cakes…with limoncello glaze (well, duh):

Yanks are livin’ it right now, man:

When you have a few extra minutes, do yourself a favor and check out this excellent piece by Mike Ashmore, beat writer for the Trenton Thunder. It’s about the less-than-glamorous life of a minor league ball player:

The minimum annual salary in Major League Baseball currently sits at $400,000. Meanwhile, most players at the minor league level who haven’t reached minor league free agency are lucky to make $10,000 over the course of a season; a survey of players revealed that those in rookie ball make $1,250-1,300 a month while players in Triple-A, the highest level of the minors, can make roughly $1,000 more per month while under the contracted amount.

“I think the way things are today, most people look at professional athletes and assume they’re rolling in money,” said New York Yankees Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations, Mark Newman.

“And these guys are not.”

Most players in the minor leagues — some estimates have the number as high as 90 percent — will not play in the big leagues. For most, dreams of a career at the highest level are nothing more than that, just dreams.

[Drawing by Robert Weaver, 1962]