The new-look Yankees look mighty good having taken their first two-games from fading playoff rival Toronto by a combined score of 12-3. But it’s important to note that the reason they won those games was less the 12 runs on offense than the mere three runs allowed by their pitchers, and that the one pitcher acquired at the deadline has yet to make his Yankee debut. The new Yankee hurler will instead debut today in a get-away matinee on what is already a brutally hot day in the Bronx.

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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.

Bobby Abreu and Chris Wilson make their Yankee debuts tonight as the Yanks begin a three-game series at home against the third-place Blue Jays. Since taking two of three from the Yankees in Toronto a little over a week ago, the Jays have gone 2-5 on a West Coast swing against the Mariners and A’s, dropping their post-Hillenbrand record to 4-6. The Blue Jays did not make a deadline deal, but they did get Alexis Rios back in the line-up this past Friday only to go 1-2 against the A’s over the weekend.

As far as the starting pitchers go, tonight’s game is a rematch of the opening game of that last series, which the Blue Jays won 7-3 behind a strong performance by A.J. Burnett (7 1/3 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 HR, 1 BB, 6 K), while beating up on Jaret Wright (2 2/3 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 2 BB, 2 K). Burnett followed that outing by getting rocked by the M’s for six runs (five earned) on ten hits over four innings in his next turn. Wright, meanwhile, gve up four runs (three earned) on five hits and a walk in Texas in his last outing.

Myself, I can’t wait to see the new Yankees decked out in their home pinstripes, regardless of the outcome, this is a banner night for Yankee fans.

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Sunday’s acquisition of Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle for Matt Smith and three non-prospects filled the Yankees’ two primary needs in one move for minimal cost. In fact, the move was such masterstroke that yesterday’s follow-up trade of Shawn Chacon for the Pirates’ Craig Wilson almost seemed like showing off.

To begin with, not only had Chacon been removed from the rotation after a disaster start in Cleveland on July 4, but with the acquisition of Lidle on Sunday, he had become a burden, a player occupying a spot on the 25-man roster who had no role to play and was unable to contribute to a winning effort when given an opportunity.

In exchange for this player, the Yankees obtained Wilson, a right handed first-baseman and outfielder with both patience and power at the plate who also has experience behind it. A career .268/.360/.486 hitter, Wilson is exactly the hitter I had hoped Andy Phillips would be at the plate given a proper opportunity. Unfortunately, Phillips hasn’t quite lived up to expectations, hitting just .239/.272/.401 in 235 plate appearances. Enter Wilson, who is just four months Phillips’ senior and has put up those numbers over 2,133 career major league plate appearances.

Yup, the Yankees have a new starting first baseman, or at least a player who can start every day and bounce between first, DH and the corner outfielders per the needs of the regulars in those other positions. If there’s any down side to Wilson it’s that he’s a subpar defensive first baseman, but according to Baseball Prospectus’s Rate stats, Andy Phillips has been just as bad this year despite what has looked to the naked eye like some excellent play around the first base bag. Of course, both are significantly better than Giambi (the exact numbers are a 93 Rate for Wilson and Phillips and an 83 Rate for Giambi). My theory on Phillips’ figure is that he just might be the defensive equivalent of Derek Jeter at first base, a solid player who makes some spectacular-looking plays within a deceptively small range.

So, Wilson holds the line on defense and greatly increases the Yankees production on offense. Not a bad trick. The result is a line-up that could look like this upon the return of Robinson Cano:

L – Johnny Damon (CF)
R – Derek Jeter (SS)
L – Bobby Abreu (RF)
R – Alex Rodriguez (3B)
L – Jason Giambi (DH)
S – Jorge Posada (C)
R – Craig Wilson (1B)
L – Robinson Cano (2B)
S – Melky Cabrera (LF)

And that’s without getting Matsui or Sheffield back.

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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.

By now you’ve probably heard the news. After months of rumors, the Yankees finally traded for Bobby Abreu yesterday afternoon. Not only that, but they get to have their cake and eat it to as the deal also brought them back-of-the-rotation starter Cory Lidle, satisfying the team’s need for both another big bat and a viable fifth starter. And all it cost them was a quartet of expendable minor leaguers. More on the identities of those four at the end of this post, but first let’s take a look at the two players the Yankees have acquired.

Bob Kelly Abreu is exactly a month and a half older than Derek Jeter and arrives in New York with a career hitting line of .301/.412/.507. Here’s a complete list of active players who have hit at least .300/.400/.500 on their careers (minimum 1200 plate appearances, or three full seasons) along with their current ages:

Barry Bonds (42)*
Frank Thomas (38)
Chipper Jones (34)
Manny Ramirez (34)
Todd Helton (32)**
Bobby Abreu (32)
Lance Berkman (30)
Albert Pujols (26)

*Bonds’ career average just dipped to .299, but he deserves inclusion anyway
**Helton is more than six months older than Abreu

The Yankees have just acquired the third-youngest established .300/.400/.500 hitter in baseball.

That said, the key to appreciating Bobby Abreu’s talent is understanding that, despite his company above, he is not a home run hitter. To wit, here are the career home run totals for the four youngest players on the above list (career plate appearances per home run in parentheses)

Helton – 282 (20.6 PA/HR)
Abreu – 198 (30.9)
Berkman – 208 (20.3)
Pujols – 234 (16.3)

Rather, Abreu’s greatest strength is his ability to get on base. Only five players with a minimum of 1200 plate appearances reached base more often than Abreu over the last three seasons (2003-2005). Of those five (Bonds, Helton, Pujols, Berkman and J.D. Drew), only Albert Pujols currently has a higher on-base percentage than Abreu, who ranks fifth in the majors with a .427 mark. Notice that Jason Giambi’s name didn’t pop up anywhere in there? Bobby Abreu is a bigger on base threat than the man whose bones repel baseballs out of the strike zone.

Then there’s what Abreu does once he’s on base. Only eight men have stolen more bases over the last three years than Abreu, and Alfonso Soriano, Jimmy Rollins, Jose Reyes, Johnny Damon and Tony Womack are not among them. Here are those eight and Abreu along with their stolen base totals and success rates:

Scott Podsednik – 172 (79%)
Juan Pierre – 167 (73%)
Carl Crawford – 160 (83%)
Chone Figgins – 109 (75%)
Ichiro Suzuki – 103 (79%)
Dave Roberts – 101 (78%)
Carlos Beltran – 100 (88%)
Rafael Furcal – 100 (85%)
Bobby Abreu – 93 (80%)

Get the picture? Despite his bulky appearance (Abreu reminds me of a left-handed version of Sammy Sosa or Jose Canseco when he’s at the plate) and his 2005 Home Run Derby crown, Bobby Abreu is actually more of a lead-off type. He gets on base at a staggering rate and is a prolific and successful base stealer once there (he’s 20 for 24 on the bases thus far this year, good for an 83 percent success rate). That he also happens to hit about 20 home runs every year is a compliment to those core abilities.

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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.

The complete game shutout. Last year, the Yankees got four of them, the first coming on May 7 when Mike Mussina shutout the A’s on a sunny Saturday in the Bronx. That kicked off a ten-game winning streak that pushed the 11-19 Yankees over .500 for the first time since the fifth game of the season. The last of those ten wins was the Yankees’ second complete game shutout, thrown by some guy named Carl Pavano in Seattle. Less than a month later, Moose tossed his second shutout, this one at home against the Pirates, kicking off a five-game winning streak that pushed the 30-32 Yankees back over .500 yet again. Finally, Aaron Small bookended things nicely by shutting out the A’s in Oakland on a sunny Saturday afternoon in September.

Last night, the Yankees received their first complete game shutout of the year as Chien-Ming Wang made short work of the Devil Rays by limiting them to just four base runners, two on singles, two on walks. Wang needed just 104 pitches to shut out the Rays in a game that lasted two hours and 33 minutes primarily because the Yankees put 17 men on base and scored six runs. Wang was perfect through four innings, faced just 30 batters, and recorded 18 of his 27 outs on ground balls. The only man to get past first base was Julio Lugo, who reached on an infield single with two outs in the sixth, stole second and moved to third on a wild pitch only to be stranded when Rocco Baldelli flew out to center.

As for the Yankees, they got on the board right away when a two-out Alex Rodriguez single plated a Johnny Damon lead-off double in the first. They added two more in the second. Andy Phillips led off with a single and was called safe at second when Julio Lugo bobbled and dropped the pivot on a double play ball off the bat of Melky Cabrera. Miguel Cairo then bunted both runners up and Derek Jeter drove them home with a single to right. Two more runs came in the fourth when Devil Rays’ starter Tim Corcoran (no relation) followed a Derek Jeter one-out double by walking Giambi, Rodriguez and Posada, the last two on nine pitches. Posada’s walk drove in the Yankees’ fourth run and drove Corcoran from the game. Chad Harville then came in and, after getting Bernie Williams to fly out to shallow left, walked in the Yankees fifth run by giving Andy Phillips a free pass on five pitches. Two innings later, Bernie homered off Harville to put the final score at 6-0

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Although it didn’t work out particularly well in Toronto, the Yankees have had some rather fortuitous timing since the All-Star break. First they faced a White Sox team that had a .648 winning percentage in the first half just as it hit its first serious skid of the year. The Yankees swept the Chisox at home to open the second half, and the Sox have since gone 2-7, pushing their skid to 3-12 dating back to their final series before the break.

Next the Yankees faced the Mariners at home without having to see Jamie Moyer or Felix Hernandez, taking two of three. They then traveled to Toronto on the even of the Shea Hillenbrand fiasco. The Jays took three of four that weekend, but have since lost three of four to put their post-Hillenbrand record at .500. Most recently, the Yankees stopped by Arlington, Texas to finish their season series with the Rangers with a three-game sweep. The last of those victories saw the Yankees score four runs in the eighth inning against Francisco Cordero, who just earlier today was sent to Milwaukee in the deal for Carlos Lee. Had that trade happened before the Yankees traveled to Texas, the sweep may not have.

Tonight the Yankees come back home to host a three-game weekend series against the Devil Rays. Good timing? Well, Scott Kazmir was supposed to start tomorrow, but has been skipped due to shoulder soreness. Alex’s boy, Yankee-killer Jonny Gomes, has a shoulder injury of his own that will require surgery this offseason. Though he’s tried to play through it, it isn’t working. Gomes is hitting just .121/.181/.258 in July and has been dropped to the bottom third of the order. Finally, Aubrey Huff, the other Devil Ray who always seemed to hurt the Yankees (in part because, like Gomes, he’s simply a good hitter), was dealt to Houston for a pair of minor leaguers two weeks ago.

Yeah, that’s good timing. Not that the Devil Rays have been a big threat to the Yankees thus far this season (the Yanks lead the season series 6-2), but every little bit helps.

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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.

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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.

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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.