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Here’s another reason to be sore today if you are a Yankee fan. Um, the prices next year at the new Stadium…well, check this out from Soxfan over at YFSF. It ain’t pretty.

Portrait of the Blogger as a Young Boy with Baseball on the Brain:

Put me in coach…  

(more…)

I was upset to read the news about Doc Ellis over the weekend. Ellis is critically ill. He was a lively character as a player and a good, hard-ass pitcher. After battling addiction for years, he’s spent most of his post-baseball career as a counselor. I can only hope he receives the treatment he needs before it is too late.

In the meantime, here is a great story of just how tough he was in his prime. The following excerpt is from “In the Country of Baseball,” written by Donald Hall.

In spring training 1974, Dock Ellis, felt that his Pirates had begun to loss some aggressiveness.

“You are scared of Cincinnati. That’s what I told my teammates. Every time we play Cincinnati, the hitters are on their ass.”

In 1970, ’71, and ’72, he says, the rest of the league was afraid of the Pirates. “They say, ‘Here come the big bad Pirates. They’re going to kick our ass!’ Like they give up. That’s what our team was starting to do. Cincinatti will bullshit with us and kick our ass and laugh at us. They’re the only team that talk about us like a dog. Whenever we play that team, everybody socializes with them.” In the past the roles had been revered. “When they ran over to us, we knew they were afraid of us. When I saw our team doing it, right then I say, ‘We gunna get down. We gonna do the do. I’m going to hit these motherfuckers.'”

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"Come to bed, honey."

My wife’s voice was weak.  She was almost asleep.  I turned the TV off, picked up my cat and went to the bedroom.  I let out a big sigh and Em told me that she was sorry that the Yankees are causing me so much agita.  "Try and let it go, babe, it’s going to do you no good to stay upset about something you’ve got no control over.  You need your energy for the week." 

I’ve heard that line before and know it to be true.  This time, I didn’t fight it for too long and soon enough I was asleep.  It is more than slightly ridiculous to get furious over a ball club, right?

It was sunny and crisp this morning on my way to work.  I read the morning papers on the subway.  Johnny Damon said the game was "embarrassing."  I shoved the papers into my napsack and put on my headphones.  A young Spanish girl, all of six years old was sitting across from me, next to her mother.  The girls’ feet were three or four inches off the ground.  She wore pink sneakers, a power blue sweat suit and had a barette in her hair.  An i pod nano was in her little palm, little white plug headphones in her ears.  She had the most serious expression on her face and she mouthed the words to whatever she was listening to, nodding her head in an exaggerated motion.  I couldn’t help but laugh.  Not only because she was so intent, so committed to her schtick but because she reminded me of how preposterous I must look at times, snapping my neck to the beat, wearing my super-sized dorky headphones.  

Yeah, the Yankees are awful right now.  Let them be embarrassed by how poorly they are playing.  We don’t need to be embarrassed about anything.  Hey, we weren’t embarrassed to root for them when they were winning.  Doesn’t mean we have to be happy about what’s going on, but in the end, their performance doesn’t have much to do with us at all, does it?

Mostly Dead…

The Yankees have not been getting hits with men are in scoring position.  They have not been scoring many runs, one of the telling differences between last year’s early-season slump and this year’s version.  When their ace pitcher is not on his game–Chien-Ming Wang was knocked around to the tune of seven runs–there is no way for them to win, even with the umpires helping them out with a huge missed call, negating a three-run home run by Carlos Delgado (who singled in a run instead).  The game was actually close enough until the eighth when the Mets busted it open, but given the way the Yankee offense has been going it didn’t feel close at all.  On consecutive plays in the top of the eighth, Bobby Abreu made poor throws to the plate and a 5-2 lead quickly became 7-2.  Jose Reyes’ three-run shot into the right-centerfield bleachers sealed it.  Oliver Perez, the Mets’ inconsistent left-hander, allowed only three hits in 7. 2/3 innings, the only damage coming from a two run-homer by Hideki Matsui.

Final Score: Mets 11, Yanks 2.     

So the Yanks are the winners of an abbreviated scrubway series–right now, they are worse than the Mets.  Their offense is worse, their record is worse, and, of course, they are in last place.  I wish I had something positive to say, but I don’t.  Okay, how about this?  At least we don’t have to watch this team play on Monday.  They’ve got the day off.  Alex Rodriguez is scheduled to rejoin the team on Tuesday night.  But even Rodriguez, the reigning AL MVP, won’t be enough to help save these pinestriped suckas all by himself.

It’s going to be a long season, boy.         

Scrubway Serious, Take Two:

It rained all day and deep into the night on Friday in New York and the weaterman said it was going to keep a coming today.  However, the sun is out and it is a warm morning in New York.  Overcast, yeah, but it seems as if the Mets and Yankees will be able to get a game in this afternoon without a hitch.  Turns out this’ll just be a brief encounter between the two teams as last night’s game will be made up as part of a two-stadium double header in late June.  So, today gives an appealing match-up of southpaws: Johan Santana vs. Andy Pettitte.  The Yankees, of course, are well familiar with Santana.  They know how tough he can be, and with Alex Rodriguez’s return still a few days away, the team is still at a disadvantage against lefties.  Pettitte has pitched poorly in three of his last four outings.  Time for him to come through with an improved performance.   

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

When I turned 30, my dear friend Alan made me a great mix cd, stacked with soul records from 1971, the year I was born.  "I Know You Got Soul," "Mr. Big Stuff," "Spanish Harlem,"  "Do the Funky Penguin,"  "A Natural Man," and one of my all-time favorite cuts, "Family Affair" are all featured.  (For my 40th, maybe he’ll make me a mix of the best rock n roll songs from that year. What would those records be?)  Here is the cover art for the cd, including a card Alan made of me with my old moniker Al Dente (the back cover of the cd, looks like the back of an old card, but instead of stats, you get the track listing; it includes the tidbit, "Alex loves records," taken from an old Alex Johnson card).  The picture of me was actually taken by Alan in Gravesend, Brooklyn in 1999.  I’m wearing a t-shirt that my boy Javier brought back from the Dominican for me, "Sammy’s 61," celebrating Sosa’s monster 1998 season.  The cup in my right hand is from Nathan’s on Coney Island.

Can you name all the cards–even the bits and pieces–in this collage?

Ian Kennedy was filled with big talk before his recent start in Triple A. Last night, he felt there was improvement in his return outing for the Yankees but the results were not splendid–five runs in five innings. The Yankee offense, dubbed “the Dead Bat Society” by N.Y. Post writer George King, mustered just two runs as the Rays won the game (5-2) and the series and sent the uninspired Bronx Bummers into last place. Scott Kazmir, fresh off a three-year extension, got the win.

Things aren’t much rosier in Queens as the Mets lost an agonizing 1-0 game yesterday afternoon (and three of four to the lowly Washington Nats). Mike Pelfry had a no hitter going into the seventh inning; Carlos Beltran got doubled off third base to end it in the ninth. After the game, outspoken closer Billy Wagner let rip in the direction of one Carlos Delgado. According to Adam Rubin in the Daily News:

“Someone tell me why the — you’re talking to the closer. I didn’t even play. They’re over there, not being interviewed.”

Wagner paused for dramatic effect. Then, in a scene reminiscent of last year’s Paul Lo Duca comments, minus the racial overtones, the closer sarcastically added: “I got it. They’re gone. —ing shocker.”

The forecast calls for steady rain today and then thunderstorms tomorrow. Maybe both teams could use an old-fashioned rainout. The way they’ve been been going recalls the title of Jimmy Breslin’s famous account of the ’62 Mets, Can’t Anybody Here Play this Game? Just goes to show, a collective $300+ million don’t buy what it used to.

IPK vs. Kaz.  Come on split.

Again, apropos of nothing, but man, he was pretty damn good, huh?

Okay, so the Yankee bats didn’t exactly light it up against James Shields. They scored two runs. But it was enough to beat the Rays as Mike Mussina delivered and the Bombers won, 2-1. Mussina pitched slow and slower last night and it was a thing of beauty to watch.

“Whether it’s Joba throwing 96 or me throwing 86, they have to gear their approach to whatever speed is coming,” Mussina said. “Well, if I can make them gear from 68 up to 85 or 86, that’s a big spread. No matter how hard the top is, the spread is pretty large.

“And if I can throw changeups for strikes at 70 miles an hour, and dump curveballs in there for strikes at 70, and work in between — throw sinkers at 81-82, throw cutters at 81-82, throw fastballs at 85-86 — then that makes it hard on them, no matter what the speed is.

“I’m not going to strike out 10 guys a game, and I know that. But I can mess with them enough that they’re not going to get the swing that they want to get. And that’s all I’m trying to do.”
(Kepner, N.Y. Times)

The Yanks had some luck too when Gabe Gross lined into a double play to get Ross Olendorf out of trouble in the seventh. Gross hit the ball hard, but it was right at Jeter, who quickly flipped to Robinson Cano (four hits, Robinson Cano!) to double Cliff Floyd off second. Joba Chamberlian struck out the side in the eighth and Mariano Rivera was back to putting heads to bed in the ninth, notching his 11th save. Hey, a win is a win, right?

Especially with Hank itching to show that his bite backs up his bark. Here’s more from the Son of Steinbrenner, as reported by Bill Madden in the Daily News:

This is what the new “Hammerin’ Hank” had to say to me Wednesday when I reached him in Tampa with the greeting: “How ’bout those Rays!”:

“They’re a great story down here right now,” he said, “although it’s terrible that they’re only drawing only 16,000 a game. They’re playing a lot better than us, that’s for sure. I know we’re gonna come on at some point in this season, but right now, other than (Chien-Ming) Wang, (Mariano) Rivera, (Derek) Jeter, (Hideki) Matsui, (Johnny) Damon and (Mike) Mussina, after I got on him a little, we’re not doing jack (bleep).

“What bothers me is that these guys are all working for me and my brother and they’re all making more money than we are. That’s what makes me mad. But while I’m confident they’ll come around, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens this year. And if they don’t come around then changes will have to be made. I’ve just got to clean up the mistakes of the last five years and make us what we should be.”

Ah, so Hank gets the credit for Mussina’s recent performance. Same as it ever was.

During the middle of the game last night, I was on-line checking the scores…2-0, 2-1, 3-2, 1-1. Sure sign of a recession when you see lines like that in the Junior Circut. BP takes as look at why scoring in in the American League is down this season. Tom Verducci examines the issue as well, and Jake Luft wonders what ever happen to Travis Hafner.

“I feel like their energy is definitely more than ours.”
–Hideki Matsui
(Feinsand, N.Y. Daily News)

In the top of the fifth inning last night, YES broadcaster Ken Singleton said, “The Yankees look as if they are hitting under water.” It was an apt description and a nice way of puting it. Listless, ancient and awful are other words that come to mind. The Yanks didn’t score their first run until the ninth inning, when with one out, Hideki Matsui ripped a high fastball from Troy Percival for a solo home run. Derek Jeter, standing at the top of the dugout, immediately raised his arms and turned to Johnny Damon to slap five. Al Leiter, Singleton’s partner on the air, mentioned that Jeter must have called Godzilla’s blast. Jeter’s face is a deeply tanned and he smiled broadly.

It was to be the last good moment of the evening. Kyle Farnsworth got through the ninth and Mariano Rivera survived a lead-off single to Carl Crawford in the tenth, but Mo couldn’t get past a lead-off base hit by Cliff Floyd in the eleventh (this was New York’s first trip to extra innings this season). When Jonny Gomes entered the game to pinch run for Floyd, a sinking feeling overcame me. Sure enough, Gomes swiped second and then raced home on a base hit by Gabe Gross. Final: Rays 2, Yanks 1. All three hits against Rivera came from lefties. His location was off, but he can hardly be blamed–this was the first run he’s allowed all season. Neither can Chien-Ming Wang, who wasn’t brilliant, but damn good, giving up just one run over seven innings.

No, the blame rests squarely on the offense. Even without Posada and Rodriguez, $200 million has to buy more than this. Hank Steinbrenner, talking to Kevin Kernan in the Post, agrees:

“The bottom line is that the team is not playing the way it is capable of playing,” Steinbrenner said. “These players are being paid a lot of money and they had better decide for themselves to earn that money.”

…He then paid the much-improved Rays a compliment, saying, the Yankees have “got to start playing the way the Rays are playing. (The Yankees) need to start treating it like when they were younger players and going after that big contract, like they’re in (Triple-A) and trying to make the majors. That’s the kind of attitude and fire the players have to have.

“There’s no question we need to turn it around and we have the talent to turn it around. We’ve got the team in place, and now they just have to go out and do it.

“This is going to get turned around,” Steinbrenner said. “If it’s not turned around this year, then it will be turned around next year, by force if we have too.”

According to Kevin Long, the hitting coach:

“Realistically, we should score about five runs a game if a guy’s not on his game,” Long said. “A guy like tonight, we could probably push across three runs with the stuff he had. Last night’s guy, we probably could have got more.

“You’ve got to figure they’re probably a run, a run and a half,” Long continued, referring to the run production lost without Rodriguez and Posada, “but we’ve talked about it. Each guy thinks we should be able to score five.”
(Kepner, N.Y. Times)

Pete Abraham collected some cherce quotes from the Yankee pitchers:

Chien-Ming Wang: “It’s tough pitching with no runs. It’s surprising because we have good hitters. I got my job done and kept the team close.”

Mariano Rivera: “We have to score some runs and we haven’t done that.”

Joba Chamberlain: “It’s tough right now. Every run against us looks huge.”

With Shields and Kazmir pitching the next two days for the Rays, it’s hard to imagine the Yankees leaving Florida with a split. Go figure that. The Rays, it should be noted, are now in first place, and last night marked a high-point in their history.

“You’re looking for growth moments?” said Rays manager Joe Maddon. “There’s one right in front of your face tonight.”
(The Tampa Tribune)

No kidding.

Sorry, I’m tardy. Chien-Ming has to man-up tonight for the Yanks and keep the Rays from getting out of hand with this up-and-coming-we’re-so-fresh business. Hopefully, the bats will follow suit.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

SI.com has a fun new scouting report feature. Here’s one on Greg Maddux.

The Yankees looked flatter than George Carlin’s ass last night in a 7-1 loss in Tampa Bay. The Rays–led by spark plug Jonny Gomes, who was seemingly everwhere, running, sliding, high-fiving, all with a cloud of dust around him–looked like the varsity squad, while the Yanks appeared sluggish and old.

“Always, beating the Evil Empire is awesome,” Jonny Gomes said. “They’ve been doing work on us for the last 10 years (a 115-58 advantage). … Anyone in the AL East, we’ll take our wins. But beating those guys is always a little more fun.”
(Marc Topkin, St. Pete Times)

The Rays, winners of five straight, were big, young and strong, not your average girls’ softball team. Matt Garza has some life on his pitches and he attacked the Yankee batters all night. According to Tyler Kepner in the Times:

“He came right after us,” Damon said. “Before we knew it, he was jamming us and making us pop out. That’s what happens when you’re late on the fastball, and it seemed like we were late all day. It just seemed like we couldn’t catch up to it.”

Damon referred to Tuesday’s opponent and said the Yankees could be in for another tough game: “I’m sure Edwin Jackson’s taking notes, saying, ‘These guys couldn’t get through tonight.’ And he has a harder fastball.”

The Yankees, on the other hand, were treated to another uninspired installment of “Bad Andy.” New York is back under .500, at 19-20. And Alex Rodriguez won’t be around for the subway serious this weekend.

At least Chien Ming Wang is pitching tonight.

I was having a conversation with a friend over the weekend about the future of the newspaper business. He suggested that the print version of The New York Times will not exist in ten years. I don’t know enough about the future to know if that is correct, but the way things are going it wouldn’t really surprise me. Everything is in flux.

The Times is doing a good job with their baseball blog, Bats (their Diner’s Journal blog in the food section is tremendous). Sherman at the Post, Feinsand at the News and O’Brein at Newsday, Murti at the FAN, all have blogs to maintain along with their regular duties. Heck Pride of the Yankees has been around, and doing it well, forever. Blogging is part of the every day news cycle.

The fact that blogs as a medium have been co-opted by the mainstream press is not news. Nor is the fact that best Yankee information available anywhere now comes from a blog. But who would have thunk that the one-stop-shop for behind-the-scenes Yankee news would come from a Westchester paper and not one of Big Three? Pete Abraham will be scooped-up one day and be handsomely rewarded for his hard work. In the meantime, if his blog was the only access you had to the Yankees, you’d be well-informed. Pete’s site isn’t the end-all–other blogs, including this one and a host of others around the ‘net, have lots to add to the conversation–but he’s the starting point. It’s a sign of how things have already changed that the New York Times, Daily News and the Post are all getting their asses kicked by a paper from the ‘burbs.

This is good for us as fans because Pete has raised the bar, and now the rest of the papers have to keep up. That’s competition at its finest.

I caught most of the games at Shea this weekend. I actually went out there with Rich Lederer, his son Joe, and Repoz on Friday night. We sat around and watched it rain for an hour-and-a-half and then split when they announced no game would be played. Anyhow, it was nice to see Junior Griffey, who I don’t catch all that often, being an American League guy. Nate Silver had a fine piece on Junior for the Times yesterday. Check it out.

Also, thanks to Jon Weisman for pointing out Paul DePodesta’s new blog (with a clever name), It Might Be Dangerous…You Go First, which rightly celebrated Greg Maddux’s 350th career win. Man, I just hope Maddog can last through the end of next season as it would be tremendous to see him pass Warren Spahn (363) on the all-time wins list. As for the title of DePo’s blog, the first movie that comes to mind is “Young Frankenstein.” But it sounds like such a stock line, I’m sure it was in one the old Bob Hope movies or Warner Bros. cartoons. Hmmm.

I wasn’t impressed with Joba Chamberlain’s emotional outburst after striking out Dave Dellucci last week.  I realize that being demonstrative is just the way it is today, whether it is Chamberlain celebrating after a strike out or Manny Ramirez admiring a home run for fifteen minutes at the plate.   My problem with Chamerlain letting loose after he retired Dellucci was that it seemed to be all about Joba getting revenge for the home run Dellucci hit off him a few nights earlier.  In other words, it was selfish, and had nothing to do with the game situation.  To me, Chamberlain would have been more of a bad ass if he had just stalked off the mound after making Dellucci look helpless.  I think his antics undermined a beautiful sequence of pitches.  It isn’t a that big a deal, certainly not worth all the attention it has gotten on WFAN, but that is my take. 

According to Bob Klapisch, former Yankees Goose Gossage and Roy White weren’t impressed either:

Goose always has hated showboaters, past and especially present day, so when Dellucci told reporters he thought Chamberlain’s response was immature and "bush," Gossage didn’t hesitate to say, "I’m on Dellucci’s side.

"That’s just not the Yankee way, what Joba did. Let everyone else do that stuff, but not a Yankee," Gossage said by telephone on Saturday. "What I don’t understand is, the kid’s got the greatest mentor in the world in Mariano [Rivera]. He’s one of the leaders of the team, so you’d think it wouldn’t happen on that team.

"But there’s no one to pass the torch anymore, no one to teach the young kids how to act. The Mets did a lot of that [celebrating] last year, and look how it came back to haunt them."

…White, in particular, took issue with Melky Cabrera, who often does a full-spin, twirl high-five after a home run or Yankee victory.
“I saw that 360-thing he did with [Robinson] Cano at the end of one of the games and I was shocked. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” White said by telephone. “I’m sorry, that’s just too much. I’m guess I’m old school, but there’s a professional way to play baseball, there’s a Yankee tradition, back to [Joe] DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.
“You hit a home run, act like you’ve hit one before, not like it’s the first time in your life.”

On the other hand, Ed Valentine thinks all the talk about Yankee class is nonsense.