Blog Archives

Picture by Cyrille Druart via This Isn’t Happiness. 

Hello, I must be going…

Music for Tu Monday.

[Photo Credit: Rebecca Reeve via Kateoplis]

First series win, check; first series sweep, check.

A 5-3 win yesterday afternoon in Tampa puts the Yanks at .500 as they head to Detroit for four games.

Yanks going for the sweep this afternoon in Tampa, trying to to reach .500.

Pineda’s on the mound.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Brett Gardner LF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Chase Headley 3B
Stephen Drew 2B
Garrett Jones RF
John Ryan Murphy C
Didi Gregorius SS

Never mind the blossoms:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Fresh.

A low-scoring game turning into a blow out thanks to a 7-run 7th inning, highlighted by Chris Young’s grand slam (and off a 3-2 pitch no less). Brian McCann had a big night, a good sign if there ever was one.

Masahiro Tanaka had his best start of the year and the Yanks won, 9-0.

[Photo Via: Street Art NYC]

New York in is in bloom at long last. Yesterday and today are the first ridiculously nice days of the year: warm, sunny, lots of energy, lots of color. I strolled through Central Park last night after work and saw a few ball games.

Tonight, Masahiro looks to give the Yankees their first series win of the year.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF

Brett Gardner LF

Alex Rodriguez DH

Mark Teixeira 1B

Brian McCann C

Chris Young RF

Chase Headley 3B

Stephen Drew SS

Gregorio Petit 2B

Never mind the pollen:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Alex Rodriguez had a good spring which seemed like a minor miracle to me. He’s 39, missed a full year, he’s had surgeries on both hips. I just didn’t think he’d be able to hack it, didn’t think he’d make the team out of spring training. But he carried good at bats into the season. Even when he wasn’t driving the ball he wasn’t chasing those tempting breaking balls out of the strike zone. Last night was his best game in a long time as he hit the ball on the nose three times for run-scoring plays.

Rodriguez hit a long home run in his first at bat, off a fastball, giving him three for the season (two of them real shots). Imagine being a has-been and hitting a ball that far? Dag.

Later, he hit another homer, this one a two-run job that tied the game. This one was more like a Mike Piazza home run, a line drive that was hit so hard it didn’t have a chance to curve foul. The pitch was a fastball, inside on the hands, but Rodriguez beat the ball to the spot. Now, I understand if he still has the power to crush a mistake but I did not anticipate him ever turning around a good fastball.

The game stayed tied until the 8th when Rodriguez came through again, this time laying off some good pitches and then smacking a line drive to center for a base hit that drove home Brett Gardner with the go-ahead (and winning) run.

The bullpen was back to its stellar self and the Yanks won, 5-4.

I got an email from a friend after the game. He said, “I don’t want to sound naive, but do really think he’d be stupid enough to take anything after last year. (I know he’d be arrogant enough, just not sure of the stupidity part).” Well, arrogance always trumps intelligence in my book, and of course it’s natural to be suspicious of Rodriguez. But that hasn’t spoiled my enjoyment and watching him locked-in has been one of the few pleasures of this young season for the Yanks. I don’t expect it’ll last. Hot streaks never do. And I seriously doubt that Rodriguez’s body will hold up. All the more reason to enjoy the moment–here and then…gone. 

[Photo Credit: Kim Klement/Rueters]

Yanks are in Tampa this weekend. Adam Warren goes tonight.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF

Chase Headley 3B

Carlos Beltran RF

Mark Teixeira 1B

Brian McCann C

Alex Rodriguez DH

Stephen Drew 2B

Chris Young LF

Didi Gregorius SS

Never mind the dome:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Sherif Elhage via MPD]

Friday Funski.

Picture by Tono Stano.

This goes out to our neo-BK chum, Dimelo.

Yeah, it’s Thursday. I know that. Still, Alexandra’s Lemon Ricotta Pancakes look awfully good.

Drawing by Barry Windsor Smith.

Over at Fairfeld Writer’s Blog, Alex McNab does a nice job of curating some cherce quotes from Richard Price:

“Part of the jam that I was in as a novelist [after his fourth novel, The Breaks], was that I kept going back to my autobiography for material. . . .Life is hard enough without it having to be perpetual material, too. I felt like a cannibal eating his own foot. Once I became a hired pen out there [in Hollywood], for the first time in my life I was forced to leave my own autobiography to research my characters’ lives, and I learned, with great gratification, that talent travels. If you have enough imagination and empathy, you can write about anybody. That was probably the only good thing, tangible good thing, that came to my writing through screenwriting; knowing that I could go anywhere and learn and bring it back home and turn it into art.”

Can you be angry at a team when you’ve got no expectations? The Yanks lost again last night. Had a 3-1 lead, and Eovaldi pitched pretty well but not long enough, and the bullpen blew it. The offense rallied but came up short.

Final Score: Orioles 7, Yanks 5.

I wish I could feel outrage, despair, something other than resignation. But there it is.

It was nice to see Alex Rodriguez’s home run. Man, that was a bomb. I don’t imagine he’ll stay healthy this year but pretty wild to watch a guy well past his prime do something like that.

Picture by Bags. 

My great uncle Georgie once came in the bathroom when my cousin Donny was taking a bath. George pointed at Donny and said, “You’re all wet!” He said in an accusing tone that made Donny cry. Donny was too young to realize it was meant as a joke.

What this has to do with tonight’s game I don’t know. Maybe I just like that story. Or maybe I just like this picture of Steve Martin from The Jerk.

Regardless, it’s Eovaldi, Take Deuce in Baltimore.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF

Chase Headley 3B

Carlos Beltran RF

Mark Teixeira 1B

Brian McCann C

Alex Rodriguez DH

Stephen Drew 2B

Chris Young LF

Didi Gregorius SS

Never mind the suds:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Head on over to Wax Poetics and dig Matt Rogers’ interview with the great Al Green:

[Photo Credit: Neal Square]

“Carnations” by Pierre Bonnard (1921)