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I realize that the last thing regular Bronx Banter readers probably need is another Alex Rodriguez article, but there are two that I wanted to share with you. The first, by Eric Neel, is up on ESPN today. Neel explores what I’ve been talking about all year–how Rodriguez’s vulnerabilites actually make him approachable. Rodriguez, Neel writes:

…Comes off as this odd blend of superstar talent and confidence, packaged with common-guy uncertainty and instability. He’s someone we have to think about. What makes him tick? How’s he holding up? Is being in the fishbowl getting to him? Someone we have to engage on a kind of basic human level.

“It’s complicated with A-Rod,” says Steven Goldman, author of the Pinstriped Bible at YesNetwork.com. “It’s about us, too — writers, fans, whomever — about how we respond to him. Can we accept him; can we empathize with the possibility that he has weaknesses just like any of us? Or do we reject him? Do we make fun of him and distance ourselves from him? It’s like an after-school special almost.”

Everyone says, “It’s hard to have sympathy for a guy making $252 million.” We struggle to see ourselves in someone so wealthy and so talent-rich. The guy is so good, and at such a young age, that we literally have no analogs for him in our experience. We don’t relate. He strikes us as robotic, as impossibly skilled. We can’t sympathize. But empathy is a different impulse.

Empathy means stepping outside ourselves and our conventions. We don’t really know what kind of stress A-Rod feels, but empathy would have us wonder. Empathy would have us thinking about how “sensitive” might be the flip side of “passionate.” Empathy also could mean imagining how opening up to the media, or being vulnerable to the people, wouldn’t be the easiest thing in the world for a guy who has been under the microscope since he was a teenage kid growing up in Miami without a father. It would mean being emotionally entangled, responsible even.

Most of us reject that prospect. We run from it. We prefer the simple, familiar mechanics of winners and losers, heroes and villains, guys who have it and guys who don’t. We say it’s all about the rings. We say, as if we have no weaknesses ourselves, as if we’ve never shrunk from anything in our personal or professional lives, “suck it up” and “be a man.” We demonize, then exile the “weak” guy. We treat him as if his sensitivities were contagious, as if he had cooties.

Bruce Weber, writing in the New York Times several weeks ago, echoes this line of thinking:

The sports talk shows relentlessly parsed Rodriguez’s personality. What the heck is wrong with the guy? It must be in his mind, right? One television analyst (baseball analyst, that is), said Rodriguez was already a lost cause in New York, that it would be better both for him and the Yankees if he were traded to another city, where his delicate psyche could repair itself in an atmosphere unpoisoned by the home fans’ disappointment. The former mayor of New York Rudolph W. Giuliani was moved to give an interview, counseling New Yorkers not to boo A-Rod because, he said, positive reinforcement is clearly what the man needs, and besides, it’s in the best interest of the Yankees.

Through it all, the lack of sympathy has been remarkable. People aren’t exactly angry at the guy, but they seem to feel his troubles serve him right — certainly not the general reaction to those in the throes of a breakdown.

His critics fixate on his failures: it was rare you heard that the same week he made the five errors, he also became the youngest man in the history of baseball to reach 450 home runs. Besides, hitting is more of a reactive enterprise than throwing; when a pitch is thrown you’ve got only a fraction of a second to swing the bat, and that’s not enough time for a mental lapse. (Another bit of Berra wisdom: “You can’t hit and think at the same time.”) The point is that A-Rod’s problems are not so easy to explain away with a definable diagnosis, as a mental tic that leaves him helpless, a condition you can look at and say, Huh, poor guy, it must be tough to live with something like that. Rather, he seems to be someone with a life, an attitude, a personality, demands, responsibilities, priorities and uncertainties, operating in an arena where success is far from a certainty. Someone, well, normal.

He turned 31 on Thursday; maybe it’s a midlife crisis. In any case, unlike, say, Knoblauch, whose fits of poor throwing seemed alien, like an exotic disease he somehow unluckily caught, A-Rod is anything but strange. Maybe we’re so caught up in his angst because we have met the All-Star and he is us.

We like our failures to be obvious–that is why it is easy to root for underdogs like Sal Fasano and Bubba Crosby. But when the guy who seemingly has everything–talent, money, good-looks, is also terribly vulnerable, it is a turn-off. Moreover, it brings out a viciousness in people that is almost palpable. What’s up with that?

The Yanks lost an extra-inning heartbreaker in Chicago last night 6-5, and had nobody but themselves to blame. Too many squandered scoring opportunities. Mo blows the save. The only silver lining is the Boston also lost. But that didn’t really make me feel much better. Tonight’s game can’t come soon enough, though you’ll forgive me if I’m not exactly bursting with confidence in the Big Unit right about now. More enthusiasm, less pessimissm to come…

As the Yanks prepare to take on the defending World Champs tonight in Chicago–the start of a tough three-week stretch–the local papers cover two of the Bomber’s newest players: Bobby Abreu and Craig Wilson. In addition, there are two stories on tonight’s starter Chien-Ming Wang: one in the Bergan Record, the other by our pal Pete Abraham in The Journal News. Don Amore reports that Hideki Matsui will be re-examined by doctor’s this Friday. And there is a good story on Yankee pitching prospect Phillip Hughes over at MLB.com.

Meanwhile, Mike Plugh takes an early look at the AL MVP race and compares Derek Jeter with David Ortiz.

Finally, tonight gives the return of second baseman Robinson Cano, who has been sidelined since June 25th with a hamstring pull. Welcome back, Robby, we missed ya.

The Yankees bounced-back from Saturday’s loss and beat the Orioles 6-1 on the strength of Jaret Wright’s performance and four solo home runs (Jeter, Johnny, Melky, and G’Bombee). Bobby Abreu went 3-4 with two stolen bases and the Yanks’ now lead Boston by two games in the American League East. It is a good way to enter perhaps the toughest challenge of the year: twenty-one games in twenty days. This stretch includes three games against the White Sox, seven against the Angels, and five v. the Red Sox. New York’s next off-day falls on August 28th, and then they play three against the Tigers followed by three v. the Twins.

The September schedule is far more favorable. The rest of the league must to put the Bombers down during the next three weeks, because if our guys make it through the rain (so to speak) in good shape, they will be tough, tough, tough.

Catchin’ Up

I was away for the weekend. Here’s some links for your face:

The New York Times has a profile of the Twin’s terrific young pitcher, Francisco Liriano today. My latest piece for SI is about pitching phenoms. Liriano and Justin Verlander each missed their last starts, which brings me to my biggest concern for the next two months: Will Chien-Ming Wang hold together? Last year, he threw 116 innings; he’s already up to 156 this season. Is this something to get crazy about, or am I just looking to be neurotic?

According to Joel Sherman in Sunday’s New York Post, the Yankees are seriously considering picking-up Gary Sheffield’s $13 million option only to trade him.

Bubba Crosby was designated for assignment on Friday night and was understandably upset. (“Well, F this F’in game.”) Relief pitcher, Jose Veras took Bubba’s place on the roster.

Bobby Abreu credits Yankee hitting coach Don Mattingly for his early success with the Yanks. One thing that I have noticed about Abreu, however, is that he’s exceedingly tentative going back on fly balls in right field. He may have a strong arm but he doesn’t look comfortable at all with the leather.

Here’s a good piece of news: Robinson Cano will be activated tomorrow and rejoin the team. Miguel Cairo will be placed on the DL, after pulling a hamstring over the weekend. I don’t figure we’ll see him again until September. Meanwhile, we just might catch of glimpse of the $40 million man, Carl Pavano, on the field before 2006 is all said and done.

Finally, better late than never, here is Christina Kahrl’s take on the Craig Wilson deal:

I really like the idea of getting Wilson–and getting him at this price, instead of waiting to let Chacon leave as a free agent–and thereby adding a right-handed power bat who can take over at first base and let Jason Giambi DH. Wilson helps balance out getting Bobby Abreu and eventually both Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano back. When that happens, we’re back to the days where not even getting down to the Yankees’ nine-hole hitter makes life any easier on a pitcher. I’ve already said I think the Yankees can win the division now, and this only makes that look even more likely.

Unfortunately, there is the one little problem, which was keeping the now-purposeless Andy Phillips instead of Guiel. You play in Yankee Stadium, and Matsui isn’t back yet–this is the team where you do want to have somebody on the bench who can park something in the right field porch. I admit, Guiel’s probably the first choice to go down once Matsui returns, but that hasn’t happened yet. Now that Wilson is here, what is Phillips for? Being a better first baseman than Giambi is no longer a unique skill on the roster, and that’s really the only position that Phillips can play, and he isn’t even any good at it. Hitting? Again, being good enough to pinch-hit for Miguel Cairo or Bubba Crosby, but maybe no Sal Fasano, is not a player you make a point of keeping. Guiel shouldn’t just be on this team now, he’s somebody you want on your playoff roster, certainly instead of Nick Green. Dumping him now on something like the principle of “last hired, first fired,” is just sloppy roster management. This stuff has cost the Yankees in postseasons past, so it’s a bit annoying if you think they’re supposed to have learned something from those years they dragged Enrique Wilson along with them as some sort of unlucky charm.

Her pal, Steven Goldman thinks this is one of the most successful deadline periods in Yankee history.

Lot’s to gab about. The floor is open…

Check out this clever, and entertaining Yankee family-tree that our pal Ben Kabak devised over at “Off the Facade.” While you are surfin’ around, be sure and peep what our Toastermate Mike Carminati has on Bobby Abreu. Great job, guys.

A thermometer on the field at Yankee Stadium read 120 degrees. Imagine how it felt to be a Blue Jay pitcher, with the Yankee offense grinding-out at-bat after at-bat? The Bombers put eight runs up on the board, led by Jason Giambi’s four RBI (dinger, double) and completed a one-sided, three-game sweep by beating Toronto 8-1. The Bombers are a game ahead of the Red Sox, who were finally unable to come back in the bottom of the ninth against the Tribe (though they made it close, as both Ortiz and Manny hit long fly ball outs).

Corey Lidle pitched reasonably well and was rewarded with treats after the game. In other Yankee news, Robinson Cano went 2-5 in minor league game last night, while Hideki Matsui’s progress hit a minor snag.

Sal Fasano will catch Corey Lidle’s Yankee debut this afternoon on what promises to be another scorcher in New York. Fasano tells Roger Rubin in The Daily News:

“I’ve caught in this kind of heat before and you know what to expect,” Fasano said. “You could lose five or six pounds of water during the game and you know that when it’s over you’ll be completely exhausted.

“I know what’s on the way. I’m gonna get the crap kicked out of me. And believe it or not, I’m looking forward to it.”

…”The most important thing isn’t hydration for me,” he said. “It’s really important that you get a good meal that sticks with you. Catching a game in intense heat burns a lot of calories, and if you don’t have it to burn, your body can revolt against you.”

…”It’s about being smart and managing the situation,” he said. “I’m coming inside into the air conditioning between innings because (today) is going to be the kind of day where you could down a bottle of water every five minutes.”

Hang in there, Sal, and everybody else behind the mask today.

The first time I remember seeing my father cry was twenty-seven years ago this morning, the day after Thurman Munson died in a plane crash. The New York Times arrived and I was with my old man on the porch of our house as he scanned the headlines and began to sob. It was a sticky summer morning and I was confused. My father was a die-hard Yankee-hater. Yet there he was, crying, almost reflexively. I asked him why he was so upset. After all, he didn’t even like the Yankees. He explained to me that when a person dies it is sad even if they did play for the Yankees. It was a real loss of innocence moment for me. Something was bigger than the game, bigger even than my father’s distaste for the Yankees–which I thought knew no bounds. I’ll never forget the image of my father–a strong man, far too distracted with his life to care about baseball much anymore–breaking down in front of me.

Later that night, we watched the pre-game ceremonies on TV. The Yankees were playing the Orioles. I recall seeing Ken Singleton, lined-up with his teammates along the third base line, bowing his head. Reggie Jackson, Munson’s great rival, stood at his position in right field, crying. The yellow-tinted lights of the Yankee scoreboard displayed a photograph of Munson.

These memories flashed into my head last night just as the game was starting. I had forgotten that yesterday was the anniversary of Munson’s untimely death until Bob Sheppard called for a moment of silence.

I sat in the five-dollar seats with my friend Johnny Red Sox. They were in the lower tier but the reason they were five-dollar seats is probably because nobody knew where they were sitting. We must have shifted seats a good half-a-dozen times. And so did everyone else. It was comic. Regardless of our own personal discomfort, the Yankees performed well in front of more than 54,000 sweaty New Yorkers, beating the Blue Jays 7-2. Chien-Ming Wang was brilliant, throwing eight shutout innings, good for his fifth straight win. Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada and the new guys, Craig Wilson and Bobby Abreu all had strong offensive games.

Jeter collected two more hits including a homer and is now batting .355. Hey Now. It is still early, but Jeter has a chance to make a run at the AL MVP, along with David Ortiz and Joe Mauer. Rodriguez had three hits–and was robbed of a fourth on a gorgeous catch by Vernon Wells in the eighth–and two RBI. He led off the sixth with a rope to left field and tried to stretch it into a double. But Rodriguez was a dead duck and slid well short of the base. Toronto’s second baseman Aaron Hill recieved the throw from left field and then turned his body, placing his glove next to the bag, expecting Rodrgiuez to slide right into it. But Rodriguez was far enough away from the play to employ some quick thinking. He deftly pulled his left hand back, extended his right arm to the base and rolled over on his right side in the process. Safe.

“We were all laughing because we were all saying, ‘No! No! No!’ on his way to second base,” Derek Jeter said.

…”You can only be out by 30 feet to make that type of slide,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t know how I made it.”
(N.Y. Post)

It turned out to be a pivotal play in the game. Jorge Posada followed with 13th dinger of the year and the Yanks went on to score six in the inning–capped by Rodriguez’s two-run single. Bobby Abreu had a single and a double and Craig Wilson added two singles himself. Derek Jeter made a wonderful over-the-shoulder catch, robbing Frankie Catalanotto of a base hit, but it was Wang who was truly Mr. Cool for the Bombers, making short work of the Blue Jays’ line-up. Troy Glaus’ tee-shot, line-drive homer into the black seats off of Ron Villone in the ninth (two pitches after he’d be brushed back) was the lone offensive highlight for the Jays, who are now seven-and-a-half games out of first in the East, and seven-and-a-half games out of the AL Wildcard. The Red Sox remained tied for first as they came-from-behind for the second consecutive night against the Indians.

There is a reason why some of the great New York movies–“Dog Day Afternoon,” “Taxi Driver,” “Do the Right Thing,” are set smack in the middle of summer, when tensions run high, and patience runs thin. This is a great time of year for both drama and comedy.

I’ve seen plenty of both during the last week as a bondafide Heat Wave has hit the city. It’s dumb hot out there. Against my better judgement, I’m headed up to the Great Sweat Box in the Bronx tonight to see Chien-Ming Wang pitch against erstwhile Yankee, Ted Lilly. Figure the ball will be jumping. Will Wang be able to keep his sinker down in this kind of heat? Will the Jays offense flounder for a second straight night against New York? Will Bobby Abreu get his first hit as a Yankee? Will I lose 5 pounds sitting in the upper deck watching it all unfold?

These and other questions will be answered shortly…

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Bobby Abreu drew a key, nine-pitch walk in his second at bat as a Yankee last night. It loaded the bases, and after A.J. Burnett came back to strike out Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams sent three runners home with a double to the gap in left center field (Alex Rodriguez had doubled home the first New York run earlier in the inning). The Yanks had a 4-1 lead, would add another run, and go on to defeat the Blue Jays, 5-1. Coupled with a Red Sox loss, the Yanks are now tied for first in the AL East.

Abrue was hitless in three other at bats, but was recieved warmly in the Bronx, hustling out a ground ball in his first at bat, and making a routine play closer than should have been. Jaret Wright threw a season-high 103 pitches, which got him through five innings. Ron Villone, Scott Proctor and Kyle Farnsworth pitched well in relief.

Gary Sheffield, expected to go mental with the addition of Abreu, had nothing but good things to say to reporters yesterday. According to Brian Lewis in The New York Post:

“A championship is on the way and that’s what I’m looking forward to. I’m hurt; I can’t help this club. They’ve got to do what they got to do to help this club. I’m all for it,” Sheffield said. “If this helps I’m all for it.

“When I first got here, before Alex Rodriguez got here, I was willing to play third base. Thank God that didn’t happen, but I feel the same way about this. I can do anything on the field: outfield, third base, first base. As long as I can get that ring I’m all for it.”

Sheffield apparently has already ordered a first baseman’s glove and is prepared to fight for a job. He was an odd mix of humility and hubris, something he called the “mystique of me,” in Reggie-esque fashion.

“I love that people are in my face thinking this can’t be done. I’ll be laughing at the end: Watch me. You ask anybody on any team in the league would they want to be battling me over a position, they’ll lose every time,” said Sheffield, who’ll see Dr. Charles Melone next Tuesday, and was bemused that many predicted he would erupt at Abreu’s arrival.

“The first thing I did when I saw him was give him a hug. I wanted him to feel welcome. It’s funny how people can think for you and tell you what you’re going to do. Y’all think you know what I’m going to do, but you don’t. Nobody knows. That’s the mystique of me.”

It’s not quite on par with Reggie’s “magnitude of me,” line, but it’s pretty good. And though Sheffield’s mood has been known to turn suddenly and without warning, the Yankees (and their fans) must be breathing a sigh of relief to see him handling the Abreu deal in such good spirits.

The Yanks have sent Shawn Chacon to the Pirates for 1B/OF Craig Wilson. Good job, Cash. Very nice get. According to Peter Abraham, Aaron Guiel has been optioned, Corey Lidle will start Thursday and Bonzone will go to the pen. My guess is that Bubba Crosby will be next to go, as the Yankees like Andy Phillips’ ability to play second and third.

The Yankees rebounded on Sunday and defeated the D-Rays 4-2, on the strength of a solid performance from Mike Mussina and key hits by Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter (Hmmm, solo dingers in the upper deck: them bitches come in handy). Damon jerked two solo bombs into the upper deck in right field, one in the fifth, another in the seventh; Jeter added a two-run double. But the biggest news on an unbearably hot Sunday in July involves Bobby Abreu. Abreu and starting pitcher Corey Lidle are coming to New York. ESPN reported the deal early in the game and the Yankees made it official with two out in the bottom of the ninth and Mariano Rivera on the mound. According to John Heyman, the Yankees will send minor leaguers C.J. Henry (the Yankees’ number one pick in 2005, reliever Matt Smith, catcher Jesus Sanchez and right-hander Carlos Monasterios. The postgame show on YES reports that the Yanks will send a total of four minor leaguers to Philly, no names as of yet. Abreu is signed through 2007 and has an option for 2008, but the Yankees will not have to pick-up that option, a huge plus for New York.

I’ve long appreciated Abreu’s wide variety of skills, and though he has underachieved for the better part of the last calendar yet, and has a reputation in some quarters as something less than a gamer, I will be excited to see him in pinstripes. This is the guy that BP’s Rany Jazayerli pronounced as one the most underrated players in baseball at the begining of 2005. He’s not going to be asked to be the team’s best player. Perhaps he’ll fit right in. He is a better defensive right fielder than anything the Yanks have got. Offensively, he is exceedingly patient and a high-percentage base stealer to boot. I don’t have much of a gut feeling as to how he’ll do in New York–I could see him going David Justice or Raul Mondesi–but I’m looking forward to finding out. I suppose this spells the end for either Aaron Guiel or Bubba Crosby. It will surely impact the Yankee future of Gary Sheffield.

Over at ESPN, Keith Law opines:

Bobby Abreu may or may not have lost his power — I think it’s overblown, as he’s still on pace for 40-plus doubles and doesn’t look like he’s lost bat speed or raw strength — but he’s still one of the best offensive players in the game. He’s about to post his eighth straight 100-walk season and has the fifth-best OBP in the game. The Yankees have been running a Bernie Williams/Aaron Guiel platoon out in left, and while Guiel has hit a few homers since he came to the Bronx, he’s still a four-A player who has no place on a contending club’s roster. Even if Abreu’s home run total remains low, he’s worth two extra wins to the Yankees if he takes at-bats away from Bernie and Guiel, and more if his home-run power comes back.

Cory Lidle is a finesse right-hander with excellent control who will probably struggle to be a league-average starter in the American League at this point, but he is an enormous improvement over Sidney Ponson, Kris Wilson and Aaron Small — whom the Yanks have employed as fifth starters this year. Lidle’s best pitch is a splitter, but his fastball is a tick below average so he has to have good command to be effective and keep the ball out of the seats. Since the guys he’s replacing have been so bad, he’s still a one-to-two-win upgrade for the balance of the season, making this one of the biggest impact deals any club will make this month.

As for the game, Mike Mussina threw a lot of pitches early on, running into jams in the third and fourth innings. A throwing error by Jorge Posada got Mussina in trouble in the third, but he struck out Julio Lugo and Carl Crawford to escape cleanly. After giving up a one-out single to Travis Lee in the fourth, Mussina walked Jorge Cantu before giving up an RBI single to Johnny Gomes. Russell Branyon flew out to deep center field and then Mussina got the hot-hitting Tomas Perez (who had four doubles on Saturday) to wave at an 0-2 knuckle curve in the dirt. Posada scrambled for the ball as Perez started back to the Devil Ray’s dugout and Mussina walked off the mound. But the umpire called “foul tip.” A bum call for sure, one that got worse when Perez lined Mussina’s next offering into center field for a game-tying single.

That was the only real danger Mussina would face all afternoon as he retired ten of the next eleven hitters, striking out eight overall. Kyle Farnsworth struck out the side in the eighth and Mariano Rivera buzzed through the Rays in the ninth to lock down the Bombers’ 61st win of the year. Mike Mussina earned his 13th win, and is 6-1 following a Yankee loss.

There was not much that happened on the field on Saturday afternoon that the Yankees or their fans would like to remember. Although things started promisingly for the Bombers when Derek Jeter and Jason Giambi hit back-to-back solo home runs in the first inning, they quickly spun out of control as the Devil Rays pounded ’em but good, 19-6. Coupled with the Red Sox’s come-from-behind win over the Angels, the Yanks now trail Boston by a game-and-a-half in the AL East. Randy Johnson had nothing, Shawn Chacon had less than nothing. In all, it was a groaner through and through.

I was at the game with a bunch of my oldest friends. We sat in Row T in the Upper Tier, safe from the sun, but not exactly safe from the dopes. In the fourth inning a crew eight kids (in their early-to-mid-twenties) arrived. They were having a bachelor party. All of them were lean, and tightly muscled. They were all dressed in clean, tight-fitting t-shirts or sports shirts. They all had clean haircuts, and some of them wore sunglasses and they had attitude to spare. These dudes are the sort that think “Entourage” is about them, but they were actually much closer to being like “Bring Up Gotti” (In fact, one of the kid’s was a dead ringer for one of the Gotti boys). We guessed where they were from? Long Island, Jersey, Brooklyn, Staten Island? Long Island turned out to be the correct answer.

I had a brief misunderstanding with one of them–who couldn’t have been more rude–when they first got there which set the tone for bad vibes. As fate would have it, we were sitting in an alcohol-free section. The kid who bought the tickets for the bachelor party did not realize this and you should have seen the look of disappointment on his face when he realized what he had done. Ah, sweet justice. The best moment came when the kid who looked like one of the Gotti’s–same super-gelled spikey haircut and all–pulled out a small ziplock bag. His friend next to him had no idea what it was–a bag of cocaine? Hardly. The bag was filled with babywipes. So Gotti pulls out a baby wipe and carefully dabs his forehead right underneath the hairline, presumably to keep the grease from his hair running onto his face. “These bitches come in handy,” he said, now sounding exactly like a scene from “Entourage.”

The Gavones left in the sixth, sick of watching the beating the Yanks were taking, and sick of no beer.

We sat through the whole thing, of course. When we were outside of the stadium, we heard a teenage boy talking loudly to a friend: “That was the…worst game..I have ever seen in…my…life…ever!”

It wasn’t that bad. But it makes today’s game important. Go Mikey Moose.

In other, perhaps more pressing news, both the Daily News and the New York Post report that the Yankees are a bit closer to landing Bobby Abreu.

Hey Now.

According to Buster Olney:

The Yankees want Bobby Abreu, and the Phillies keep calling the Yankees and asking for top prospects; the Yankees’ executives will not trade pitcher Philip Hughes. If the Phillies’ priority is to dump salary, it appears Philadelphia will have to lower its demands in order to give itself a chance to move Abreu’s contract — and even then, it wouldn’t be a sure thing. Abreu must approve any deal.

Even if the Yanks don’t make a splashy move, it’s hard to imagine that they won’t make at least one small deal. So, what do you think is gunna happen?

Every time I approach my barber’s shop on Smith Street in Brooklyn, I expect to be greeted by awful news. My barber is too old to work anymore, or worse, he’s dead. I lived in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn from 1994 through 2000. One day I was looking for a barber shop, and I ran across Efrain. He came to Brooklyn from Puerto Rico in 1955. His father was a barber and his three older brothers were barbers too. He cut my hair with such care and patience that I have been a loyal customer ever since. It’s worth the two-plus hour roundtrip commute to the Bronx. Efrain, a silver-haired man with kind eyes and soft, smooth hands, no longer owns his own shop—he had to give his up five years ago, a victim of Smith Street’s rapid gentrification. He’s past retirement age but still works six days a week.

Now Efrain has a chair up the block from his old place, in a barber shop run by Ray, a self-absorbed Puerto Rican man in his mid-fifties. Ray’s shop is no longer cluttered mess it had been for years, as Ray’s daughter and her boyfriend use the space one a week to give dancing lessons. Three chairs stand in the middle of the space, and both walls are covered with mirrors. Ray has a trim mustache and likes to pontificate authoritatively about boxing, salsa music and women. When he is not holding court, he is sullen and removed as he works. Rays’ son Macho, a plump man in his early thirties with a thick scar on his left forearm, cuts heads too, his chair situated between Ray’s and Efrain’s.

It was overcast and muggy last Saturday morning when I arrived. Macho was walking out as I was walking in. I said my hellos and Efrain motioned to me, tilting his head forward and looking over his glasses, a pair of scissors in his raised right hand. Only three heads waiting in front of me, not bad for Saturday. I stuck my nose into my book. Old Salsa music played over the stereo. I didn’t recognize the tunes, but they were familiar anyhow. This was the music I heard up and down Amsterdam Avenue when I was a kid: Ray Barretto, Willie Bobo, Willie Colon, and Mongo Santamaria. Not ten minutes later, I was pleased to discover Efrain calling me to his chair.

(more…)

Neil deMause has a column in the Villiage Voice about politics, the city of New York and the New York Yankees.

City documents newly uncovered by the Voice reveal that the New York Yankees billed city tax- payers hundreds of thousands of dollars for the salaries of team execs and high-powered consultants to lobby the city and state, thanks to the team’s sweetheart lease deal engineered by the Giuliani administration.

“You’ve created this weird circular situation where the city is, effectively, paying with taxpayer money to have itself lobbied for potentially more taxpayer money,” says Common Cause’s Megan Quattlebaum, one of several government watchdogs who were dumbfounded when the Voice told them last week about the deal. “Taxpayers would not be pleased at all to hear that the city is subsidizing someone to come back and hold their hand out to lobby for more.”

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Continue reading if you have the stomach for such things.

The Goon Show: Part II

When I was thirteen years old I met Mike Fox, my dad’s old pal from his days in show business. Three years later, I visited Mike in London during a summer trip to my grandparent’s home in Belgium. “Hope and Glory,” John Boorman’s autobiographical story about growing up in England during the Blitz had just been released. Mike was the camera operator on the film and was duly proud of his work on it. He took me to a cast and crew screening in London, one of the highlights of my vacation.

(more…)

Pete Abraham, the Yankee beat reporter for The Journal News, has an interesting, insider’s take on Yankee skipper Joe Torre today over at The Baseball Analysts. I was going to put up an excerpt but I couldn’t trim it down sufficiently…instead, just head on over to Rich and Bryan’s terrific site and check it out for yourself.

“I feel like we robbed the bank tonight – twice,” A-Rod said. “They may have played the better game but we won.”
(N.Y. Daily News)

Alex Rodriguez led off the top of the eighth inning last night with his team trailing 4-2. Jaret Wright had allowed all four runs and didn’t make it out of the sixth. Meanwhile, after scoring seven runs on just four hits on Tuesday night, the Yanks had collected nine hits in the first seven innings with just two runs to show for it (both runs scored on Andy Phillips’ first inning single, his first of three hits). Francisco Cordero faced Rodriguez now, and kept throwing fastballs away. The count went full and Cordero went away again, but not far enough, and Rodriguez stroked a line drive over the center field fence onto the grass to bring the Yankees closer. A nice early birthday gift for Rodriguez (2-5) who turns 31 today.

Bernie Williams followed with a walk and then Phillips dunked a single into left. Melky Cabrera was asked to bunt the runners over. He stabbed weakly at the first pitch and fouled it off. According to manager Joe Torre after the game, the bunt sign was then taken off. But Cabrera missed it and he lunged again, to no avail. To make matters worse, he attempted to bunt again on the very next pitch. He fouled off a couple of pitches and worked the count even and then slapped a double into the left-center field gap (the outfield had been playing in). Suddenly, the Yanks were ahead by a run, and Larry Bowa was pumping his fist and shouting at Cabrera. Sal Fasano, who reluctantly had roughly 20 inches of hair cut off before the game, bunted Cabrera to third. And Melky came home on a wild pitch from Cabrera.

Everything appeared to be in order. But Kyle Farnsworth could not get loose, bothered by a stiff back. Torre absolutely wanted to stay away from using the over-worked Scott Proctor, so rookie TJ Beam started the eighth. But he could not put away the Rangers’ lead off hitter, Gary Matthews, Jr, who drew a nine-pitch walk. Beam, a lanky right hander, then fell behind Ian Kinsler. Another base on balls was unacceptable so Beam’s 3-1 offering was right over the plate. Kinsler drove the ball to right center field. It skipped over the fence for a ground rule double. Torre, furious, walked to mound and summoned Proctor, then returned to the bench and simmered.

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Jaret Wright is on the hill tonight as the Yanks go for the sweep in Texas. Since you never know what you are going to get with Wright, it would behoove the Yankee offense to break open a can o whup ass against the Rangers’ rookie southpaw, John Rheinecker.

Love to see a big night from Alex Rodriguez. Giambi too, provided that he’s in the line-up. Giambi has slumped considerably in July with little to no fanfare. Hopefully, Damon will play and help get the ball a-rollin. And perhaps, a little bit of comic relief from Sal Fasano.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.