You Lose, Cause I Got the Ill Street Blues:

Here’s to one of the great days in Yankee Stadium history…

On yet another Fourth of July weekend with the Yankees facing the Red Sox, both teams are looking up at the Tampa Bay Rays, who may be end up being the craziest worst-to-first story in the Expansion Era. After today’s discouraging loss the Yankees are nine games behind the Rays.  Thursday night’s 7-0 debacle featured the following elements that rightly incurred the wrath of manager Joe Girardi:

• It marked the 28th time this season that the Yankees scored two runs or less.

• It was the third start Andy Pettitte made against a divisional opponent where he went five innings or less, gave up at least five runs and eight hits.

• LaTroy Hawkins tanked another mop-up appearance in what may or may not have been a showcase for a trade or release. One thing is sure is that his body language on the mound indicates that he does not want to be a Yankee, and a palpable sarcastic, "Oh, great, Hawkins," feeling permeates the stadium when he enters the game.

• It gave us the following sequence, buried near the bottom of GAK III’s writeup in the New York Post:

"It looked like we didn’t have a chance. After we got down it seemed like there was nothing there. We are not playing up to expectations and that’s not good. The Steinbrenners spent $200 million on us and we haven’t shown what we are made of." — Johnny Damon

The scary thing is that maybe this is what the Yankees are — a 45-41 collection of expensive parts incapable of an extended hot streak due to an inconsistent hitting and a rotation that stunningly includes Sidney Ponson.

"We have to get better. That’s the bottom line. Everyone has to get better and it starts with me. I’ll take responsibility for where we’re at. It’s my job and we have to get better." — Joe Girardi

* * *

I can’t even comprehend the A-Rod-Madonna / Cynthia Rodriguez-Lenny Kravitz love rhombus. The coverage is only going to intensify; it will only become a distraction if the Yankees continue to languish in mediocrity.

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To the main focus of today’s column: My top 5 Fourth of July (or close to the actual day) Yankee Stadium moments. I wanted to limit it to games that I’ve seen and/or have occurred in my lifetime. Obviously, the most powerful moment is Lou Gehrig’s speech in 1939. That may have been the most memorable moment in the Stadium’s history.

The point of lists, though, is to spawn comment, and perhaps fuel argument. I’m curious to see your responses and editions to this list:

1. 1983: Dave Righetti’s no-hitter against the Red Sox. The day was a lot like today: muggy, overcast, threat of rain, sun mixed in. I asked Bobby Murcer about this game, and the story he told me involved Phil Rizzuto leaving the broadcast booth in the seventh inning to beat the traffic over the George Washington Bridge, and listening to the events unfold on the radio, with Frank Messer’s call.

2. 2004: It was July 1, but the game will forever be known as the "Jeter Dives Into the Stands Game." For me, it ranks as the greatest regular season baseball game I’ve ever seen. It had everything – Brad Halsey standing tall against Pedro Martinez, lead changes, great defense by both teams, and Joe Torre exhausting his roster to the point that he lost the DH. The unlikely hero: John Flaherty. For me, the most memorable moments, aside from Manny Ramirez’s two home runs, Jeter’s dive, and Flaherty’s hit, were A-Rod’s play in the ninth inning that had everyone in the ballpark thinking they’d seen a triple play, and Nomar Garciaparra’s conspicuous absence.

3. 2003: The Red Sox pounded the Yankees, 10-3. This game was memorable to me, though because in my opinion, it put David Ortiz on the map as a dangrous hitter. He hit two mammoth home runs on the Fourth, one off David Wells and another off Jason Anderson that would have been out in any MLB stadium. He hit two more home runs in the following game — a 10-2 Red Sox rout — beginning his reputation as a Yankee killer.

4. 1989: It was the 50th Anniversary of Lou Gehrig Day. The promotional giveaway was a 32-ounce plastic cup with a diagram of the stadium featuring some of the Stadium’s greatest moments. The Yankees faced the Tigers and won, 1-0. My greatest memories were watching Don Mattingly go 3-for-4, Luis Polonia getting picked off of first base in the first inning, and Jesse Barfield throwing a runner out from the right field corner.

5. 1998: A 4-3 victory over the Orioles that was the fifth victory in a 10-game run that spanned the All-Star break. There was bad blood from earlier in the season (the bench-clearing brawl that saw Darryl Strawberry pummel Armando Benitez following his plunking of Tino Martinez). Chad Curtis’s base hit in the sixth inning put the Yankees on top, and El Duque, making just the sixth start of his career, shut the O’s down.

Honorable mention: 2002: This game is memorable to me, not for anything that happened on the field — Raul Mondesi hit his first home run as a Yankee as part of a 7-1 victory that capped a three-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians — but for a goofy family bonding episode. I was editing that day’s game for YES Network.com, and during a break in the postgame while waiting for my writer to file, I was playing with my nephew — he was five months old at the time. In a moment while I held him over my head, he gave me a look as if to say, "Gotcha, Uncle Will," and he spit up onto my face. I closed my eyes and mouth just in time.

Next week: Yankee Panky is on vacation, trying not to get seduced by the Kaballah workings of a pop icon.

The Red Sox stepped all over the Yankees again today, 6-4.  This one featured a rain delay to sustain the misery for Yankee fans. Alex Rodriguez got to Josh Beckett in the first, lashing a two-run double into the left field corner, but grounded out as the go-ahead run with the bases loaded in the seventh.  He didn’t have much help around him either as the Yanks only got six hits. 

They couldn’t hold a 3-0 lead.  Kevin Youkilis tied it in the third when he hit a long fly ball to left field.  Johnny Damon tracked the ball and jumped up to catch it as he reached the wall.  The ball popped out of his glove and momentarily rested on top of wall.  Then, like one of those miracle putts that find a way to fall (Caddyshack), the ball dropped off the wall and landed next to Damon on the ground.  The tying run scored and Youkilis was on third with a triple.  Damon left the game.  Two innings later, Mike Lowell cranked a three-run jack, enough to do the Yankees in.  Even an umpire’s gift in the ninth didn’t help much.

I think the Yankees are upset, I think they are mad, just like the Sox were upset and mad after being swept by Tampa. It’s just that the Sox are a better overall team than the Yankees.  Ten years ago, the Yankees always seemed to take advantage of other teams’ mistakes.  Now, the Yankees are the other team.  And the Sox are the defending World Champs.   Boston has been a brilliant reaction to the most recent Yankee Dynasty–they built a sleeker, more efficient version of the Yankees.     

My cousins came over this afternoon.  We made these killer ribs in the oven from a Cook’s Illustrated recipe–Lapsang Souchong black tea is used for smoke.  They brought over a black-eyed peas salad and I made a cous cous salad.  It was all simply delicious.  So at least the food, and the company, was good.

The Yanks were thoroughly out-played last night. Today, they get Josh Beckett. Could be a long weekend.

Regardless, here is something to kick off the game in style.

Have a safe and Happy holiday, everyone and Let’s Go Yan-Kees!. 

I often felt like I was being jipped when I was a kid. Whatever I had, it never seemed to be enough. Didn’t have enough presents, stuff, didn’t get enough attention, not unless I was acting the fool. It’s part of the territory when you are a twin, I suppose. So I often was envious of the “things” that my friends had–a t-shirt, or a pair of sneakers, a book or a guitar. I remember my friend Matt Cantor being at Yankee Stadium twenty-five years ago when Rags threw his no-hitter against the Red Sox. Normally, it would have been just the kind of thing that had me green with envy. I don’t recall much about that day–I’m sure I watched the game, but I don’t have a clear memory of it. What I do remember is feeling happy that Matt got to see it in person. At that point, Yankee pleasures came in small doses, and this was surely an unexpected surprise–the great Wade Boggs stuck out to end the game no less. I was not jealous that I wasn’t the one at the game, I was just excited that someone I knew was there. Hey, if it wasn’t me, might as well have been Matt, who a die-hard Yankee fan.
Twenty-five years ago. Jeez. Think I’ll go change my diaper now and put in my teeth.

Couple of nifty birthday’s today, including Satchmo’s even though he was born on Aug 4th:

How about our very own Boss George Von Steingrabber:

It’s easy not to think about the Boss these days.  He isn’t brought up much.  His sons are running the family business now.  But he turns 78 today and has always been very proud of being a Patriot, a Yankee Doodle Dandy.  Here’s wishing the old guy a happy birthday.  Yeah, he just might be one of these after all:

Jon Lester walked the first two Yankees he faced last night and, after a Bobby Abreu fielders choice, the Yankees had runners at the corners with one out and the heart of the order up in the first inning. Lester then struck out Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi to strand both runners. Lester didn’t walk another batter in the game and allowed just a pair of singles over the next six innings. By the time the Yankees picked up their third hit, they were trailing 7-0 in the eighth.

A two-out ground-rule double by Melky Cabrera in the eighth gave the Yankees just their second runner in scoring position of the night. Cabrera was stranded on second when Johnny Damon struck out. Derek Jeter, who made a costly error in the first inning, singled to start the ninth, but was promptly erased by a double play off Abreu’s bat. One pitch later, Rodriguez flew out to give Lester a five-hit shutout. Lester needed just 105 pitches to complete the game, 71 percent of which were strikes.

Immediately after the game, Joe Girardi held a 30-minute closed-door team meeting. Johnny Damon and Andy Pettitte, who described his performance as “terrible,” called the loss “embarassing.” Girardi wouldn’t divulge any of the details of his meeting, but was clearly fed up in his post-game press conference.

As for Pettitte, he was Bad Andy last night. More from the man himself: “I couldn’t throw anything where I wanted to. Couldn’t throw my fastball to either side of the plate. Couldn’t throw my offspeed stuff for strikes. It was just an absolute horrible game.”

It wasn’t quite that bad. Pettitte only walked three men, and only one of those three scored. He was also hurt by his defense in the first inning when, with one out and two on, he got Manny Ramirez to hit a double play ball that would have ended the inning without a run scoring, only to have Derek Jeter’s pivot throw sail toward the Yankee dugout, plating one runner and putting Ramirez in position to score on Mike Lowell’s subsequent single. The two-RBI double that doubled the Sox’s lead in the second inning was a well-placed flare over first base by Jacoby Ellsbury. Still, there’s no real way to shine up six runs (five earned) in 4 2/3 innings. LaTroy Hawkins added another run in his lone inning of work to make the final 7-0 Red Sox.

If there were any positives to come out of last night’s game for the Yankees they rested in a quartet of individual performances. Dan Giese retired all seven Sox he faced in relief of Pettitte, striking out three of them, including J.D. Drew and Manny Ramirez to end his stint. David Robertson pitched a 1-2-3 ninth and didn’t allow a ball out of the infield. Robinson Cano continued his recent resurgence with a 2-for-3 night, his two singles representing 40 percent of the Yankees’ hits off Lester. Cano is hitting .393 since being omitted from the starting lineup against the Astros on June 14. Finally, Melky Cabrera, who entered the game on an 0-for-18 skid, also went 2 for 3 against Lester. Both of Melky’s hits were hard shots pulled down the left field line. One hit the retaining wall before it turns parallel to the foul line and kicked right to left fielder Jacoby Ellsbury who held Cabrera to a single. The second skipped over the parallel portion of the wall for a ground-rule double. Melky got the day off on Wednesday. Here’s hoping that brief respite starts him off on a kick similar to that of his comrade Cano.

The Yankees come off this embarrassing loss and have to face Josh Beckett in a Fourth of July day game. Didn’t take long for this series to sour, did it?

If there’s an odd feeling to this weekend’s four-game set between the Yankees and Red Sox in the Bronx, it’s because the last time these two teams met this late in the season without either one of them holding first place in the AL East was September 1997, when the Orioles won the division, the Yankees won the Wild Card, and the Red Sox finished 20 games out in fourth place. Entering tonight’s game, the second place Red Sox are 3.5 games behind the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays, with the Yankees another four games behind the Sox in third place.

The Yankees could pull into a second-pace tie with the Sox by sweeping this weekend’s series, but we all know that’s not going to happen. Instead the Yankees will hope to take three of the four games, which would pull them within two games of the Sox in the standings. The Sox have lost their last five games to the Astros and Rays, but four of those were one-run losses and the last was decided by a 3-1 score. Still, there’s a vulnerability there, much of which has to do with the Red Sox road performance this year.

In a season that has thus far seen abnormally poor performances by road teams in general, the Red Sox have been a primary offender, dominating opponents at Fenway with a .756 winning percentage, but struggling mightily outside of Boston, with a .413 winning percentage elsewhere. Their current 1-5 road trip and 0-6 record when visiting the Rays have a lot to do with that, but so does a pitching staff that has allowed 1.87 runs per game more on the road than at home.

Just looking at the four starters the Yankees are scheduled to face this weekend, Jon Lester, who goes tonight, has an ERA more than a two runs higher on the road than at home. Rookie Justin Masterson, who will face Mike Mussina on FOX on Saturday, adds nearly a run and a third to his ERA on the road, and Tim Wakefield, who will start against Joba Chamberlain in Sunday night’s capper, has an ERA more than 70 points higher on the road. In the bullpen, three of Jon Papelbon’s four blown saves this season and 10 of the 13 runs he’s allowed have come on the road, and Craig Hansen’s road ERA is nearly two and a half times his mark at Fenway.

Those losses are tempered somewhat by the fact that Josh Beckett, who starts tomorrow night, and releivers David Aardsma, Hideki Okajima, and Javier Lopez (ignore the ERA, look at his peripherals) have actually been better on the road than at home, but with the offense similarly shedding more than a run off it’s home average when wearing road grays, winning on the road has proven a struggle for the Red Sox this year.

The Sox have been to the Bronx once already this season, splitting a two-game set in mid-April. The Sox scored 16 runs in those two games, half of which came against Chien-Ming Wang in the game the Yankees won. The Boston win was largely due to a strong outing by road warrior Josh Beckett and Mike Mussina’s inability to retire Manny Ramirez (two at-bats, two homers, three runs).

The recipe for a series win would thus appear to be winning the three games not started by Beckett and having Mike Mussina pitch around Ramirez on Saturday. The trouble with the latter idea is that the man behind Ramirez, Mike Lowell, has a .579/.600/1.158 line in 20 career plate appearances against Mussina, which dwarfs Ramirez’s .280/.333/.630 career line in 108 PA against Mussina. Still, the key seems to be to beat Lester tonight with Andy Pettitte on the hill, win the Chamberlain/Wakefield matchup on Sunday, and hope to pull out one of the remaining two.

That doesn’t sound so tough. Pettitte has bee fantastic in his last four starts, posting this line: 4-0, 27 IP, 19 H, 2 HR, 7 BB, 23 K, 1.00 ERA, 0.96 WHIP. Lester gave up six runs in five innings against the Astros in his last start and hasn’t faced the Yankees since his rookie season of 2006, when he was lit up for seven runs in 3 2/3 innings. Then again, Lester will be fresh as he threw just 76 pitches in Houston and had a 1.63 ERA in his four starts prior to that (three of them came in Fenway, but the best came against the slugging Phillies on the road).

Melky Cabrera returns to center field tonight. Brett Gardner is on the bench and could be a very valuable late-inning weapon in a close game. Wilson Betemit stays at first base against the lefty Lester with Jason Giambi at DH.

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May Farm Report

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre

The big news out of Scranton is that Shelley Duncan‘s season might be over due to a separated shoulder suffered after making the spectacular warning-track catch pictured here. Not that it matters any more, but Shelley hit a miserable .160/.328/.280 in June.

In other 40-man roster news, Ian Kennedy, who was activated from the DL and optioned to single-A Tampa last week, dominated for five innings in his lone Tampa start and is scheduled to start for Scranton tonight. First baseman Juan Miranda finally stayed healthy in June and hit .356/.371/.475 on the month, but if you look closely that’s almost all batting average. Miranda hit no homers and drew just two walks in June.

I still can’t figure out why the Yankees called up Justin Christian when Hideki Matsui went on the DL. Supposedly they picked the righty-hitting Christian over the lefty-hitting Brett Gardner because the team was scheduled to face several left-handed starting pitchers, but as Pete Abe pointed out to me on Monday, Gardner hit .318/.404/.518 against lefties in Scranton this year against Christian’s .286/.315/.531. Yes, Christian was having a monster June (.412/.448/.588), but Gardner was having the better overall season (.293 GPA to Christian’s .281) and, at age 24, still has the sort of prospect potential that the 28-year-old Christian lacks. At least Christian’s stay was brief. Christian could have some use as a pinch-runner/defensive replacement, but there’s no good reason to start him in the major leagues. That said, Christian was the only SWB Yankee to make the International League All-Star team.

Elsewhere in the Scranton outfield, Brigham Young product Matt Carson, who started the year in Trenton and just turned 27 on Tuesday, hit .351/.400/.568 in June.

On the mound, Alan Horne was unimpressive in June and is back on the DL with a tired arm, but Jeff Karstens had a great month (1.88 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 22 K, 4 BB, 1 HR in 24 IP) and another strong start last night. Of course, Karstens still has that scary fly-ball rate. He should compare notes with Jeff Marquez who finally got straightened out in June, posting a 2.92 GB/FB ratio, a 1.89 ERA, and a 0.95 WHIP. Then again, Marquez walked seven in 19 innings against just three strikeouts. Dan McCutchen was inconsistent in his first full month in triple-A, but posted a 3.38 K/BB, which is a good sign that he’ll settle down. Alfredo Aceves was promoted from Trenton, but landed on the DL with a groin injury before making his triple-A debut.

Veteran reliever Scott Strickland made just 13 appearances during the first two months of the season, but made 13 more in June and allowed just one run in 17 1/3 innings with a 0.69 WHIP and 18 Ks. Scott Patterson was solid after returning from his brief stint in the majors, but is now on the DL with pneumonia. J.B. Cox spent most of June on the DL with a sore shoulder, but is back in action now. Steven White has been dreadful since moving to the bullpen and finally and deservedly lost his place on the 40-man roster when the Yankees cleared room for Christian. Billy Traber‘s recent major league stint was utterly unmotivated by his minor league performance.

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I love almost everything about this movie.  It’s such a ton of fun.  One of the subway hostages in the movie was played by a woman whose daughter was my babysiter when I was mad young.  Also, years later, when I worked in the movie business, I got to know the wife of the sound guy.  She is a wonderful New Yorker, with stories for days and the accent and attitude to match.  She grew up in Little Italy, and her husband recorded wild sound for most of the movie’s audio.  In the final scene, when the subway screeches into a downtown station, the sound effects came from sliding the shower rings in their bathroom. 

A&E recently released a six-dvd set The Boston Red Sox: The Greatest Games of Fenway Park.  The most interesting selection is September 30, 1967, the second-to-last day of one of the most thrilling pennant races of em all.  Yaz hit his 44th dinger of the year in this one.  The broadcast is dated, but in a fascinating way–there are zero graphics and no instant replays, making it something out of the stone age.  The announcers call the game like they were on the radio (funny, because today, radio broadcaster’s have the benefit of the televised replays).  I couldn’t hear any Stadium noise, sound effects or even music from the organ.  Of course, most of the players look smaller (a rookie Reggie Smith was lean and mean), but the big guys–Killebrew, Kaat (who started the game)–look strapping, no matter the era.  Funny thing about the game, Sparky Lyle warmed up briefly in the bullpen during the early innings.  I also learned that Jose Tartabull, Danny’s father, was on the Sox that year, and he was the guy who pinch-ran for Tony C after the young star was beaned in the face on August 18th. 

The set is worth picking up for this game alone.  One thing that struck me while watching, however, was how dull the game was as a televised sport.  Although the space on a ball field is flattened-out to an extent that is nothing short of dismaying these days with the use of the center field zoom lens, all the bells and whistles today make for a more satisfying experience, particularly on an HD set.  It’s no wonder that football surged ahead of baseball in the nation’s imagination during the late sixties.  The game was built for TV.  I assume that replays and even some graphics were used during post-season baseball in ’67 and I’m certain that the NFL was using replay by this time.  Funny, but when you watch the next game in the set, Game Six of the 1975 World Serious, it’s as if you’ve entered the Modern Age. 

Pete Abe had an interesting bit yesterday about Mariano Rivera’s numbers in save situations and non-save situations.

Last night, I got a note from my pal Rich Lederer…

“I noticed where Mo lost his third game of the year despite putting together an ERA less than 1.00. How unusual is that combination? Well, here is a list of all the pitchers who have lost more than one game while posting an ERA under 1.00.”

LOSSES            YEAR   L    ERA
1  Tim Keefe        1880    6   0.86
2  Ferdie Schupp      1916    3   0.90
T3  Chris Hammond      2002    2   0.95
T3  Jonathan Papelbon    2006    2   0.92
T3  Dennis Eckersley     1990    2   0.61

(Sorry.)

So you know how we were all wondering where the Yankees’ offense was? Well… this is so embarrassing… it turns out it was just buried in my sofa cushions this whole time! I found it yesterday afternoon, when I was looking for my keys.

Yes, it took a few days longer than they might have hoped, but the Yankees snapped out of their funk in a big way Wednesday night – and overcame a predictably lousy start by Sidney Ponson – with an 18-7 blowout of the Texas Rangers. That’s the most runs New York has scored all season, and every starter had at least one hit, but the key contributor, once again, was Jason Giambi and his Porn ‘Stache of Doom. It was 3-1 Rangers in the third inning when the Big G put the Yanks ahead with an upper tank grand slam; he came through again in the seventh with a two-run double that put the Yankees up 8-7 after Ponson, left in too long, ran out of luck and coughed up a 6-3 lead.

That seventh inning was decisive, a nine-run explosion made possible by Texas’s poor bullpen and exacerbated by Ron Washington’s curious management choices. While Edwar Ramirez had taken over for Ponson and pitched two shutdown innings, the unfortunate Warner Madrigal (not a typo) made his first-ever appearance for the Rangers in this tense one-run game and left, many batters later, with an ERA of 162.00.

Meanwhile, watching Ponson start a game, even when things are going relatively well, is like taking a time machine back to 1906 San Francisco and strolling around. You just can’t enjoy yourself because you know disaster is right around the corner. In fact, what I like about Ponson – perhaps the only thing I like about Ponson – is that he makes me look good; I can predict with absolute confidence that he will pitch poorly for the Yankees and in the long run I really don’t have to worry about him proving me wrong.

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Since stomping the Mets 9-0 in the second game of last Friday’s doubleheader, the Yankees have scored just seven runs in four games. Tonight they look to break the slump and avoid a sweep against Rangers rookie Luis Mendoza.

Mendoza hasn’t allowed a run since April, but he also hasn’t made a major league start since April, when he posted a 9.31 ERA in three starts, all of them Ranger losses. Mendoza spent most of May on the DL due to inflammation in his pitching shoulder and has made three scoreless appearances out of the Texas bullpen since being recalled from his rehab assignment in mid-June. The 24-year-old Mendoza has made six starts in his brief major league career and never seen the sixth inning in any of them. He’s also never faced the Yankees.

Opposing Mendoza is former Ranger Sidney Ponson. The Yankees signed Ponson on the day I left for my recent vacation and I was still away when they called him up to pitch against the Mets, so I didn’t have an opportunity to register my disgust at the return of the player who very nearly made my list of my least favorite Yankees of the past 25 years based on his 16 1/3 innings as a Yankee in 2006.

Ponson had three quality starts in ten tries as a Ranger earlier this season, with all but two of his starts for Texas coming in May. When the Rangers released him for bad behavior that reportedly included making a scene at a hotel bar and fighting with manager Ron Washington, Ponson had a 105 ERA+, which marked the first time he’d been anything close to league average or above since 2003.

Ponson pitched six scoreless innings against the Mets in his Yankee debut this season, and could have another solid outing if facing the team that released him increases his focus tonight, but he is not a long-term solution. He is a stop-gap as the team waits for a variety of young pitchers to overcome injury, setbacks, and inexperience. That said, I’d rather have Dan Giese in the roation right now. Giese has had just two poor starts in 12 tries between triple-A and the majors this year. I’d also rather give Jeff Karstens, who is finally healthy and pitching well for Scranton (1.88 ERA in June, 3.67 K/BB on the season), or Jeff Marquez, who has rediscovered his ability to get ground balls and posted a 1.89 ERA in June for Scranton, or fast-moving Dan McCutchen (3.88 K/BB in Scranton) a shot to prove themselves in the rotation rather than have to endure watching the Fat Ponson Toad work his black magic. It pains me that we’re back in this spot two years later. Three-fifths of the Opening Day rotation may have hit the DL, but that’s still no excuse for employing Sidney Ponson.

Word of warning: in his last stint as a Yankee, Ponson pitched the Yankees to a win in his first start, allowing four runs in 6 2/3 innings. He was then lit up in his next outing (six runs in 2 1/3 innings) as he went on to post a 13.97 in his final four games of the season. The Yankees released him after those five appearances and he spent the rest of the season out of work. I repeat: Sidney Ponson is bad.

Melky Cabrera gets the night off tonight, so Brett Gardner will make his debut as the Yankee center fielder. He’s batting ninth. Jason Giambi will DH with Wilson Betemit, who is likely to be a permanent fixture in the lineup in Hideki Matsui’s absence unless Gardner starts getting on base and forces Johnny Damon to DH, at first base.

The news of Jules Tygiel’s passing has left me feeling blue.  Here’s something silly to bring a smile to your face.

I always wanted an older sybling as a kid.  That wss the best way to learn about cool music, or so it seemed to me.  My parents had a decent-sized record collection but my father did not like Rock n Roll.  He was always too grown for that.  My mom did, however,  she didn’t buy many albums, so the hardest-rockin records we owned were Simon and Garfunkel, Judy Collins and A Hard Day’s Night (and the only reason we had that was because Dad was friends with one of the actors in the movie).  Most of the vinyl in our house was comprised of original cast recordings–My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, The King and I, West Side Story, A Chorus Line.  My twin sister became an avid fan of the Musical Theater, while I…did not.

There were a handful of comedy records however (Tom Leherer, Peter Sellers, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner), none more enticing than this one, Bill Cosby’s third album, released in 1965.  First of all, there is cover, with a young Cosby, the most amiable-looking of guys.  Two, the title fascinated me.  I mean, when you are seven-years old there aren’t many deeper philosophical questions than the simple ones–"Yeah, why is there air anyway?"  (One of the other Cosby records we had, I Started Out as a Child, struck me as being very deep too.)  

Above all, there was Cosby’s material, instantly accessible and appealing.  The man simply sounded funny.  He made my father laugh and that was a big deal.  At a time when my father was often sullen, his moods increasingly dark due to too much drink, listening to him laugh was a thrill.  It was exciting to see him happy, if only for a moment.  My father laughed from the gut–it was an almost violent reaction.  He laughed loudly and his face would turn red.  I remember being both charged-up by the force of his laughter and also frightened.  Mostly, I recall sharing something with him.  Being connected by laughter.  If he thought Cosby was funny, it was okay for me to laugh as well.  To this day, when I listen to this record, I can tell you where my dad laughed.

Here is one routine from the album.  Enjoy.  

As Bob Timmermann reported earlier today on The Griddle, historian Jules Tygiel died yesterday.  The cause was cancer.  He was only 59.  I got to know Tygiel a little bit over the past five years–he was helpful when I was researching a book about Curt Flood.  Later, he continued to be generous and forthcoming with whatever questions I lobbed his way.  I am so sad to hear of his passing. 

His most enduring work, Baseball’s Great Experiment, is seminal, academic in its approach, thorough, rich, exacting and an amazing reference book.  It belongs on the short list of great baseball histories. 

Voting for the All-Star Game ends at midnight tonight. Throwing out the reality of selection process, here are the 32-man American and National League rosters as I’d pick ’em:

American League

Starters:

1B – Kevin Youkilis, BOS
2B – Ian Kinsler, TEX
SS – Michael Young, TEX
3B – Alex Rodriguez, NYY
C – Joe Mauer, MIN
RF – Josh Hamilton, TEX
CF – Grady Sizemore, CLE
LF – J.D. Drew, BOS
DH – Milton Bradley, TEX
SP – Roy Halladay, TOR

I really wanted to give Jason Giambi the nod at first, base, but Youkilis holds a slight lead in VORP and is the far superior defender, so I just couldn’t do it. I also wanted to put Carlos Quentin in left field, as it would have given me an outfield with all three starters playing their regular positions, but with Drew leading Quentin in VORP and all three rate stats, I just couldn’t give Quentin the nod over a guy with a career 130 OPS+ based on three impressive months. Halladay gets the pitching nod over Cliff Lee because Lee strikes me as a fluke.

Bench:

1B – Jason Giambi, NYY
2B – Brian Roberts, BAL
3B – Mike Lowell, BOS
C – Jorge Posada, NYY
OF – Carlos Quentin, CHW
OF – Manny Ramirez, BOS
OF – Jermaine Dye, CHW
OF – Johnny Damon, NYY
UT – Carlos Guillen, DET

You might have noticed Derek Jeter is not on this team. He doesn’t deserve it. Really, there’s not a single AL shortstop who does deserve to play in this game. If I could get away with starting Guillen over Michael Young, I’d do it, but Guillen hasn’t played shorstop all year. Nonetheless, he’s my backup shortstop here, getting the nod due his value as a utility man and because I needed a Detroit Tiger on my squad and Guillen + Johnny Damon > Jeter + Magglio Ordoñez. Either Jhonny Peralta (the hitting pick) or Orlando Cabrera (the defense pick) would get the nod over Jeter if I was forced to pick a true shortstop as my backup. Posada is here despite his DL stint as there’s no other deserving catcher in the league. Practically, you’d like to have a third catcher, but I just couldn’t bear to put another AL backstop on my roster.

(more…)

From the Game Thread:

Millwood’s looking like Scott Feldman tonight…

…And the Yankee offense is looking like Marty Feldman.

Rangers 3, Yanks 2.  Mariano takes the loss.  This one hurts like a Molina cross-up to the cubes.

Joe G’s got some ‘splainin to do.  Yankee fans, please stay away from sharp objects.