Let’s file this in the category of “taking nothing for granted.” Even with a sizeable lead over the Red Sox, I’m happy to see that the Yankees haven’t waited for Scranton’s Triple-A playoff season to end before bringing some reinforcements to New York. Francisco Cervelli, Ramiro Pena, Mark Melancon, Edwar Ramirez, Mike Dunn, and Jon Albaladejo represent the first wave of call-ups, giving Joe Girardi additional options for the final month of the regular season. As painful as it is for fans of the minor league affiliates to hear, the priorities and needs of the major league team should always come first. Given the frequent rest needed by Jorge Posada and the semi-ludicrous pitching limitations being placed on Joba Chamberlain, the Yankees can use some bolstering in the areas of pitching and catching depth.

Once Scranton’s postseason run is complete, the Yankees should then promote their two best everyday players at Triple-A: Austin “Ajax” Jackson and Shelley “Slam” Duncan. If nothing else, both players deserve to be rewarded for fine seasons in Triple-A; minor league players need to know that they will be promoted if they produce at lower levels. Jackson still has flaws in his game (including a surprising lack of power and too many strikeouts), but did well enough to be named the International League’s Rookie of the Year. Duncan has had nothing less than a terrific season for Scranton-Wilkes Barre, leading the league in home runs, RBIs, and slugging percentage. Hopefully, the Yankees will be able to put an early clinch on the AL East and give Duncan some at-bats in which to impress opposing scouts. He could help any one of a number of teams, including the Indians, A’s, Diamondbacks, and Pirates. Heck, he’d be a good fit for the cross-town Mets, who probably won’t be re-signing Carlos Delgado and desperately need an infusion of power and enthusiasm. If someone gives Duncan a chance, they might just get some Dave Kingman-type numbers in return, with slightly better defense and significantly better attitude…

In pioneering the oversized S100 helmet made by Rawlings, David Wright has started me thinking about the history of batting helmets. Former Yankee great Phil Rizzuto is generally acknowledged as the first major leaguer to wear a full batting helmet in a game. “The Scooter” made the move from cap to hard hat in 1951, one year before the Pirates outfitted all of their players with helmets and a full 20 years before helmets became mandatory throughout the major leagues. Rizzuto wasn’t just a great shortstop and a funny broadcaster; he was a smart guy who realized the value of protecting oneself in an era when most pitchers felt comfortable pitching high and tight.

As much of a pioneer as Rizzuto was, he was not the first professional ballplayer to don a helmet in a game. That honor belongs to another Hall of Fame shortstop—longtime Negro Leagues great Willie “El Diablo” Wells. After being beaned and knocked unconscious in a 1942 game, the Newark Eagles’ legend returned to action wearing a workman’s helmet, which he found at a New Jersey construction site. Deciding that the construction helmet would work at bat, Wells donned the hard hat in his next game. El Diablo might have looked a little odd, but who could have blamed him?

Speaking of Wright, his use of the S100 helmet has conjured images of two of Hollywood’s beloved characters: The Great Gazoo from “The Flintstones” and the laughable Dark Helmet from Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs. So whom do you think Wright more closely resembles? It’s a close call, but I’ll place my vote with Gazoo, as portrayed by the brilliant Harvey Korman. In the immortal words of Gazoo, “Goodbye dum-dums.”…

Finally, has anyone else noticed how much Alfredo Aceves looks like former Yankee Jim Leyritz? Every time I see Aceves take the mound, I have to remind myself that “The King” is no longer playing. I had similar flashbacks when Bobby Abreu played for the Yankees; he always reminded me of former Yankee outfielder Matty Alou, at least in terms of their facial resemblance. Then again, maybe I’ve just been looking at too many old Topps baseball cards.

Bruce Markusen writes “Cooperstown Confidential” for The Hardball Times.

1961 was a good year for the Yankees. However, they were not a great Yankee team, according to Steven Goldman.

Discuss.

Bring it back, come rewind.

Feels like old times a little bit, huh? We still don’t know what October will bring but these Yankees sure are built for the 162-game schedule.  They are absolutely wearing the league out, especially the bad teams. Chad Guadin started and didn’t make it out of the fourth, giving up three runs. Alfredo Aceves replaced him and allowed a couple of runs over a couple of innings, and then David Robertson, Brian Bruney and Damaso Marte each threw a scoreless inning. They got it done and so did the hitters.

The Yankee offense is relentless. Jorge Posada was the star tonight with four hits and four RBI. He hit his 20th home run and the Yanks now have seven players with 20 or more dingers. Alex Rodriguez had a couple of hits and a couple of RBI including a frozen rope solo shot in the ninth. Melky Cabrera also had two hits.

Yanks 10, Jays 5.

Ho Hum? Maybe. Happy? Why certainly.

Over at SI.com, our man Cliff takes a look at some key players down the stretch. The man for the Twins?

That Big Bum:

No, not that Bum, this one:

Amazingly and sadly, the Twins are looking for real help from Carl Pavano. Pavano has made as many starts this year as he did in all four years of his $39.95 million contract with the Yankees. He’s even had some encouraging runs along the way, particularly the eight starts from May 1 through June 5 in which he went 6-1 with a 3.00 ERA and a 4.0 K/BB. Things got a littly rocky after that, but he posted a 3.46 ERA and 3.5 K/BB in six August starts, five of them for the Minnesota. If the Twins are going to catch the Tigers by the tail, they’ll need Pavano to do as well or better in September.

Tyler Kepner has a nice piece in the Times today about Derek Jeter appreciating the moment:

“I was talking to my parents not too long ago, and they were telling me, ‘You’ve got to learn to enjoy some of these things as they’re happening — there’s nothing wrong with that,’ ” Jeter said. “So I’m sure it’s something that I’ll enjoy if it happens.”

…The torrid month has put him close to a record Jeter will cherish, if he takes his parents’ advice. Posada, his close friend, considered their wisdom and laughed.

“It doesn’t come twice, so he could take a step back and look,” Posada said. “That’s a good way to put it, but I don’t think he will.”

One day, we’ll see Jeter give it up and let a few tears drop off his cheek. May not be for a few years still but the Iceman will melt a ‘lil bit. You watch.

There is an old Yiddish routine between a man and woman that my dad and his sister used to do. That’s where my twin sister Sam and I learned to do it.

It goes like this:

“You Dancin?”

“You askin’?”

“I’m askin’ if you’re dancin’.”

“I’m dancin’ if you’re askin.'”

“So I’m askin.'”

“So I’m dancin.'”

I had dancing* on the brain tonight after watching Robinson Cano turn an elegant double play in the seventh inning. With a man on first and one out, Cano fielded a ground ball to his right, took a few steps to the bag and falling away, flipped the ball to first. Cano is one of the few players in the league that can “flip” a ball across the field with such ease and still put a good amount of mustered on the throw. It was a remarkably quick and agile play, over in an eye-blink, but smooth like butter.

And that wasn’t the only thing that was smooth on another smooth night for the Yankees. CC Sabathia was a load. Again. The Big Fella went seven innings and allowed one run on seven hits and a walk. He struck out nine. And Alex Rodriguez was more money than money, breaking up a 1-1 game in the seventh with a two run single, and then adding to a 3-2 lead with another two-run base hit in the ninth, giving him 75 RBI on the year. His first hit a few innings earlier was the 2,500 of his career. 

Rodriguez’s RBI in the ninth was just the start. The Yanks scored seven runs in all, good enough for a 10-2  win, and another series sweep. The Yanks have won ten straight against the Orioles. They are a big inning waiting to happen. Tonight, the Bombers had 17 hits in all, 4 by Johnny Damon, 2 each by Nick Swisher, Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera.

So what’s not to like?

*One of the all-time jips of my childhood came when my mother and grandmother took my sister  to see Bob Fosse’s “Dancin'” on Broadway in a theater while my father and grandfather rolled my brother and me a few blocks away  to Loew’s 83rd Street to see Elliott Gould and Bill Cosby in The Devil and Max Devlin.

I had my handful of disappointing movie theater experiences as a kid–Chariots of Fire, Swing Shift, Author! Author!, Carbon Copy–but that one took the cake. Like losing Fred McGriff in the Davey Collins dump for Dale Murray.

I didn’t even like musicals but that “Dancin'” poster was everywhere in Manhattan for a few years. As a kid, I thought it was so adult and provocative. I think of it side-by-side in my mind’s eye with the Oh! Calcutta! poster.

Another win? Why not. Wins is delicious.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

These days everything seems to be available on-line. And while places like the SI Vault are wonderful, there is still so much good writing–especially magazine and newspaper writing–that cannot be found with a google search.

Pat Jordan has been a freelance writer for more than forty years. The majority of his work is not about sports and not available on-line. So I’m going to feature some of Pat’s original work here from time-to-time. (The pieces are reprinted with permission from the author.)

First up is a story Pat did for Penthouse in 1999 about a woman bodyguard.

Dig it.

A Different Drummer
By Pat Jordan

She racks the slide of her Glock .40 Smith and Wesson semiautomatic pistol to chamber a round. She takes aim at a paper target, a silhouette of a human, 20 feet away. “This place is an absolute toilet,” she says.

The indoor gun range is a filthy concrete room reeking of burnt gun powder. Bullet casings litter the concrete floor. She aims at the heart of the silhouette and squeezes off a round. A loud, “Pop!” echoes off the walls. Then another, and another, spaced fifteen seconds apart.

“Guys fire in rapid succession,” she says, still aiming. “Women take their time and aim. We learn differently. We have to read the manual first to know everything before we shoot.”

She fires off 12 more evenly spaced rounds then peers over her yellow shooter’s glasses at the target. The holes are slightly to the left of the human target’s heart.

“I shot with this woman cop once,” she says. “She kept shooting across the lane into my target. I said, ‘Heh, what are you doing?’ She said, ‘Oh, I always shoot to the right, like when I killed that perp.'”

She ejects the pistol’s clip, thumb-loads 15 rounds, slaps in the clip, racks the slide, and takes aim again. She squeezes off five more evenly spaced rounds, all to the left of the heart. She says, “You’ll probably write that the broad can’t hit the broad side of a barn.”

She is 32, with white skin, pale blue-green eyes that look slightly startled, and long, wild, luxuriant, curly red hair like Julia Roberts. She stands 5-5, and weighs 130 pounds, but she appears to be a much bigger woman. She has broad shoulders and muscular legs. She is wearing black sneakers; black, spandex shorts; and an oversized, sleeveless t-shirt that exposes the tattoo on her left arm. “A Japanese fire dragon,” she says. “For strength, because my left side is my weak side.”

(more…)

The Daily News has a gallery listing their picks for the twenty-five best sports movies of all time. No Body and Soul or Fat City, no Long Gone, but it’s not the worst list you’ve ever seen.

This fall, Momofuku comes to midtown.

How can this be a bad thing?

Jorge Posada channeled the spirit of Bernie Williams tonight. He had to be reminded to take first base by the home plate umpire when he walked in his first at-bat. Next time up, he hit a two-run homer. Third time up, score tied at three in the fifth, Posada took a 3-1 pitch for a strike. Only he thought it was strike three and started walking back to the dugout. The ump called him back. Alex Rodriguez held up two fingers and grinned. Jeter’s smile couldn’t get any wider. Posada fouled a pitch off and then hit the next one over the wall in left for a homer.

Believe it. It wasn’t Bernie thinking he’d walked then hitting a grand slam, but it was close enough.*

Smooth move, Wormser, you meant to do that, right?

AJ Burnett labored in every inning but the fourth, but even when he gave the lead up it was hard not to believe the Yanks would win the game. They are playing like the Gashouse Gorillas. Rodriguez tied the score at 6 with a two-out RBI single in the sixth inning. In the seventh, Nick Swisher hit a two-run homer and Eric Hinske followed with a solo shot. Swisher has more homers (4) in Baltimore this season than he’s got at home (3). He’s got 23 all told. Cano also hit his 22nd.

Eleven pitchers in all. Mo finished it, recording his 34th straight save (1.78 ERA). 

Final Score: Yanks 9, O’s 6.

Yanks are rough, boy. Even with Burnett having a forgettable outing.  Red Sox ain’t losing much lately either.

* Jorge got a sorry reminder of his injured hand when he took a foul tip off the glove with one out in the eighth. “It was not a direct hit but it was a stinger,” said Ken Singleton on the YES broadcast.  He did not leave the game.

It was a gorgeous day in New York. A distinct autumn chill is in the air, the humidity is gone, the sun is out. Crisp, lovely. I can only imagine that it’s nice down in Baltimore too.

Yanks are rolling. Serving bad teams and good alike. AJ Burnett, Todd Drew’s Boy, is back on the hill. Let’s hope he’s in a good mood tonight.

Whadda ya say, Meat?

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

Fruit at a ball game?

That’s progress for you.

In defeating the Texas Rangers last week at the Stadium, Andy Pettitte reached a significant Yankee milestone: tying Hall of Famer Lefty Gomez on the franchise’s all-time wins list. There’s something odd about Pettitte and Gomez having identical totals of 189 wins in pinstripes. These two left-handers couldn’t be any different in terms of personality and persona. Pettitte, outside of his dalliance with HGH, has led a pretty straight-laced life in New York. Gomez was anything but straight-laced. In fact, he may have been the most offbeat Yankee of all-time.

As the southpaw pitching ace for the Yankees of the 1930s, Vernon “Lefty” Gomez stood in contrast to several of his reserved and businesslike teammates. Unlike Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig, the native Californian had an outgoing nature, with a priceless comic touch. Gomez even did the unthinkable in needling Joe D., who was usually spared from the normal clubhouse ribbing. Somewhat surprisingly, DiMaggio allowed Gomez to include him in the razzing, in part because he considered the eccentric left-hander to be genuinely funny.

Outside of baseball, the entertainment world took notice of Gomez’ personality. After the 1931 World Series, he was invited to join vaudeville for a three-week run. Unfortunately, his act didn’t pass muster, but Gomez didn’t allow failure to dampen his sense of humor. “I lasted three weeks,” Gomez told a reporter, “but the audiences didn’t.”

Throughout his career, Gomez produced a litany of classical quotations for both his teammates and the media. Gomez once proclaimed that he had come up with a new invention. “It’s a revolving bowl for tired goldfish.” Much like Mark “the Bird” Fidrych of a later generation, Gomez claimed that he often conversed with the baseball. “I talked to the ball a lot of times in my career,” Gomez contended. “‘I yelled, ‘Go foul, Go foul!’” And then there was his philosophy with regard to relief pitching. “A lot of things run through your head when you’re going in to relieve in a tight spot. One of them was, ‘Should I spike myself?’”

Tall and gangly, Gomez could be as clumsy as he was zany, especially when in the uncomfortable territory of the batter’s box. Always a poor hitter, Gomez at least tried to act the part of an accomplished slugger. During one at-bat, he adjusted his cap, tugged at his uniform, and then attempted to knock the mud from his spikes with his bat. Instead, he whacked his ankle with the bat, putting himself in the hospital for three days.

Gomez’ behavior could be as bizarre as his words. Pitching in the second game of the 1936 World Series, Gomez held up play because of his preoccupation in watching a plane fly overhead. Seething Yankee manager Joe McCarthy, who demanded professionalism from his players at all times, could only watch in stunned amazement from the dugout. When Gomez returned to the dugout after retiring the side, McCarthy berated his star pitcher. Gomez quickly defended himself. “Listen, Joe, I’ve never seen a pitcher lose a game by not throwing the ball.”

On at least one other occasion, Gomez felt that holding onto the ball was clearly the best strategy. Throughout his career, Gomez struggled in matchups against Hall of Fame slugger Jimmie Foxx. During one at-bat against Foxx, Gomez shook off every sign called by catcher Bill Dickey. Visiting the mound, Dickey asked Gomez what pitch he wanted to throw to Foxx. “Nothing,” Gomez said to his batterymate. “Let’s just stall around and maybe he’ll get mad and go away.” Gomez eventually did make a pitch to Foxx, who promptly swatted the Gomez offering over the outfield fence.

Unlike some star pitchers who act as prima donnas, Gomez displayed little ego. He liked to poke fun at himself, all part of his effort to pick up some laughs. He also understood his limitations—and when it was time to leave the game. Shortly after his retirement from pitching, Gomez applied for a job with the Wilson sporting goods company. The employment application included a space that asked why he had left his previous job. Gomez answered the question with brutal honesty. “I couldn’t get the side out.”

For most of his career, though, Gomez did well in getting the side out. His major league accomplishments, almost all of them coming with the Yankees, earned him election to the Hall of Fame in 1972. That honor will probably escape Andy Pettitte, but at the very least he’ll be able to say he matched Gomez in the win column.

Bruce Markusen writes “Cooperstown Confidential” for The Hardball Times.

The Yankees scored five runs in the seventh inning and beat the White Sox 8-3, completing the weekend sweep. Mark Teixeira had the big three-run shot. He flied out to the warning track in his first two at-bats, whiffed his next time up and then crushed a breaking ball in his fourth at bat. Jeter had two more hits. Jorge Posada was back and he had a couple of hits too. Johnny Damon hit his 24th homer of the year, tying his single season mark set in 2006.

Joba Chamberlain started, threw thirty-five pitches over three innings and was done. Part of the new and revised Joba Rules, which are nothing if not elastic. Alfredo Aceves threw three scoreless for the win. Well, Joba is a luxury-problem now cause the Yanks keep winning. He’s not over-worked and we’ve all got something to squawk about.

Hey, so long as they’re winning…

Joba Chamberlain doesn’t have to be Serge Mitre but the Yanks hope that he’ll have a strong outing. As frustrating as he can be at times, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching Joba start this year.

Yanks playing with house money. Sun is peaking out from the haze.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

The rain isn’t enough to stop the Yanks, never mind the White Sox. It was drizzled all afternoon at YS III in the Bronx as the Yanks bombed Jose Contreras and the White Sox, 10-0.  The castaway duo of Serge Mitre and Chaud Gaudin combined for the one-hit shutout as the Yanks provided tension-free entertainment.

The only glitch came when Mitre left the game after being hit by a line drive. According to Anthony McCarron in the Daily News:

X-rays taken at the Stadium were negative, but Mitre has a painful bruise that could jeopardize his next start.

“Geno (trainer Gene Monahan) knew it was going to be pretty sore pretty quickly,” Joe Girardi said in explaining the decision to yank Mitre. “The last thing we want him to do is hurt himself.

“There is some concern,” Girardi added. “He got hit pretty hard. We’ll see how he is and keep our fingers crossed.”

Derek Jeter had three more hits and has been hot for weeks. (If he finishes strong I can see him winning the MVP over Mauer whether he deserves it or not. Look at it like a lifetime achievement award, like Paul Newman winning best actor for Color of Money.) Robbie Cano, fresh off his badass walk-off homer on Friday, had three hits too. Hideki Matsui, Alex Rodriguez and Nick Swisher each had a couple.

The White Sox made three errors and The Bomb Squad Bombeth.

After the game, Chicago’s manager Jose Guillen was characterisitcally frank (Cowley, Chicago-Sun Times):

“I’m embarrassed,” Guillen said. “And everybody in that room should be embarrassed. If they’re not embarrassed, they got the wrong job or they’re stealing money from baseball. I feel like I’m stealing the money from [board chairman] Jerry [Reinsdorf]. And that’s a shame. When you got more errors than hits, you better look yourself in the mirror and start second-guessing yourself.

“But I’m second-guessing myself right now, making the wrong lineup every day. I second-guess myself bringing in the wrong guys to pitch. Second-guess myself like we work so hard to put this team together, all the way from spring training and when I look on the field.

“I was looking at the Little League game this morning, 11 to 13 [years old], and they were playing better than we did. It was more fun … this is not major-league baseball. Sorry.”

In the seventh inning, Johnny Damon fouled off a pitch and catcher A.J. Pierzynski scooped up a handful of dirt and tossed it at Damon. It was playful, a funny moment. Damon scooped up a handful and threw it back at Pierzynski. That was even funnier. Okay, it’s not Ray Knight decking Eric Davis but point taken. Don’t you playfully throw dirt at me, mister.

Yanks are awful tough right now. Especially against teams that play like ass.