The Yanks took last night off and enjoyed the finest fireworks Cleveland had to offer. 19-1 was the final. Gasp. Happy birthday, George.

Chacon and Wright have been brutal this year, but Joe Torre pines for another bat. At the midway point of the season, the Yanks are hanging-in, tied with the Blue Jays for second place in the AL East, four games behind the Red Sox. Let’s hope they can finish this week on a high note.

Former Yankee farmhand Jake Westbrook vs. Shawn Chacon tonight in George Steinbrenner’s home town. Course it’s George’s birthday today. The pitching match-up doesn’t favor the Yanks. Let’s hope Chacon muscles-up and has a good outing, while the bats bomb away.

I want fireworks, baby.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

There is something I’ve been meaning to share with you for a long time. When I was thirteen years old my parents had already been separated for a couple of years. My twin sister, younger brother and I lived with my mom during the week in a one-bedroom apartment in Croton, a suburb about an hour north of Manhattan. On the weekends, we visited my father in New York City. It was the fall of 1984. I was heavily into David Bowie and the Talking Heads, comic books and baseball and girls, not always in that order. “Ghostbusters” had come out that summer. My mom took a week-long vacation to visit her family in Belgium—my Ma is Belgian but she was actually raised in Zaire, in the Congo. That meant our father was going to come and stay with us in our mom’s apartment.

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After a rousing 16-run outburst against the Mets on Sunday night, the Yankee offense was ineffective again on Monday in Cleveland. Jason Giambi hooked a 3-2 breaking ball into the right field seats in the first inning against southpaw Jeremy Sowers for a two-run dinger and that was all the scoring the Yanks would do as they fell to the Tribe, 5-2. Generally speaking, if you haven’t heard of the pitcher before, chances are they’ve got a good shot at beating the Yanks. Chien-Ming Wang wasn’t his usual sharp self, but he wasn’t awful either. This was a night where he needed the bats to help him a little something and it just didn’t happen.

The third inning turned out to be pivotal. With one out, Johnny Damon doubled. Derek Jeter followed with a sharp single to center. The ball was hit so hard that Damon didn’t have a chance to score. Jeter promptly swiped second but Giambi went down on strikes. The Indians intentionally walked Alex Rodriguez and then Sowers struck out Bernie Williams to get out of trouble. It was a nice bit of pitching and Sowers showed that he has some poise. The Indians singled three straight times in the bottom of the inning, scoring a run in the process. But it was Victor Martinez’s double to left that hurt the most. Melky Cabrera looked overwhelmed attempting to field the ball–first he took a bad route to it, then misplayed the ball off the wall and lastly missed the cut-off man allowing the slow-footed Travis Hafner to score all the way from first base. Instead of keeping the go-ahead run from scoring–the Yanks trailed 3-2.

Things got worse for Cabrera who was robbed of base hits not once but twice by Aaron Boone. Really some fine work by Boone. Todd Hollandsworth made a couple of nice grabs in left field as well and his two-run homer sealed the win for Cleveland. The Bombers had a chance in the ninth. They got the tying run to the plate. With two men on and two out, Kevin Reese pinch-hit for Nick Green and faced Bob Wickman who fell behind 2-0. The next pitch, tailing away from the lefty was inexplicably called a strike. I am not lying to you when I say that it was possibly the worst strike call I can ever remember seeing. It wasn’t like it was close but Reese didn’t get the call. It was as if the home plate ump was on the take. It was an awful call. 2-1 is a lot different from 3-0, no? Reese grounded out to end the game and it is not like the Yanks can blame the loss on a bad call, but yo, in a critical spot it sure didn’t help matters any.

Yanks are still struggling offensively. Fortunately for the New Yorkers, the Red Sox ran into a buzzsaw named Kazmir as Boston’s lead remains four games.

Preseason playoff favorites, the Indians are now, one game shy of the season’s half-way point, 18 games out of first place in the AL Central, 15.5 games behind in the Wild Card race, and three games below .500. While simply matching their Pythagorean record would improve their record, and thus the above standings, by six games, the Indians, an organization overflowing with young talent, has decided to take a longer view of their future.

The result is that starter Jason Johnson, signed to a one-year deal this past winter but dragging the team down with a 5.96 ERA was released and top pitching prospect Jeremy Sowers was called up to fill his spot. Veteran first baseman Eduardo Perez, signed to platoon with Ben Broussard–and excellent strategy that resulted in a .303/.343/.636 line from Perez and, with Perez taking all of the at-bats against lefties, the 29-year-old Broussard’s best season–was flipped to Seattle for 20-year-old middle-infield prospect Asdrubal Cabrera, making room for perennial minor league masher and righty-hitting first baseman Ryan Garko on the Cleveland roster. Meanwhile, with both corner outfielders on the DL, the Tribe has called up Franklin Gutierrez, one of their top outfield prospects, and have been starting him in right field. The Indians have also returned veteran backup catcher Tim Laker to the minors in exchange for Kelly Shoppach, the 26-year-old catching prospect obtained from the Red Sox in the Coco Crisp deal. Shoppach has been receiving his fair share of starts behind the plate, while the Indians have been working star catcher Victor Martinez into their first-base picture in order to keep his bat in the line-up on “off” days.

These moves are at the most a couple of weeks old (Gutierrez for Casey Blake in right) and in some cases (Garko for Perez) happened just a couple days ago, so there’s little to say as of yet about how these players are panning out, though the Yankees will get a good look at one of the more compelling little Indians tonight when they face Sowers in what will be just his second major league start.

Sowers was drafted by the Indians out of Vanderbilt University in June 2004 and made his professional debut in 2005 working his way all the way from the single-A Caroline League to the triple-A International League in his first pro season. After a rough spring training with the big club this March, Sowers returned to triple-A, where he had made just one start the year before, and went 9-1 with a 1.39 ERA in 15 starts despite an unimpressive K:BB ratio of 1.86 that was due largely to a low strikeout rate. His major league debut came at home a week before Sunday against the Reds.

In that game, Sowers pitched well in four of his five innings, but was undone by a fourth inning in which a lead-off walk was plated by a Ken Griffey Jr. homer and an infield single also came around to score on a home run by Adam Dunn. The end result was an ugly 7.20 ERA and a 4-2 Indians’ loss, but one can hardly blame a rookie for giving up taters to Griffey and Dunn. Meanwhile, the walk was the only one he surrendered while throwing 61 percent of his pitches for strikes, striking out three Reds in his five innings of work.

The Yankees jumped all over Alay Soler on Sunday, but they could easily come down with a case of the URPs against the 23-year-old Sowers, who is a very highly touted prospect who gets by on guile, changing speeds and breaking pitches rather than heat and sheer physical ability.

Looking to keep pace with Sowers will be Chien-Ming Wang, who turned in a gem his last time out against the Braves, needing just 91 pitches through eight innings, while holding the Braves to two runs over that span. Wang has steadily improved as the season has worn on, posting a 4.80 ERA in April, a 4.28 ERA in May, a 3.19 overall ERA in June and a 2.39 ERA in his last five starts, each of which saw him pitch a minimum of seven innings.

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I caught some of “Melinda and Melinda,” a mediocre but not entirely unwatchable Woody Allen movie this morning. It came out a few years back. Will Ferrell is in it and isn’t especially effective because she’s just doing the Woody-Stand-In schtick. Since Woody won’t write wise-ass variations of his own comic persona virtually every actor who has ever played a protagonist in a Woody Allen movie ends up doing their immitation of Woody. Heck Mia Farrow was doing Woody towards the end of their run together. But anyhow, I got in the Woody frame of mind watching the movie.

Then, as I was going through some old papers, I found a xerox copy of something that my cousin Sammy wrote to her father in the late ’80s when she was an art history major at Brown. Sammy has always loved the Wood Man. She was the first person I ever watched “Annie Hall” with I think, and Sam used to watch “Purple Rose of Cairo” anytime she was sad and needed to cry. In many ways she’s right out of one of his movies–incredibly beautiful, very smart, and really funny. You know, Amanda Peet could be one of her friends. A goy physically but very New York even though she grew up in Boston. She loves being married into my father’s family because they’re Jewish, or as Sam likes to describe herself, Jew-“ish.”

My uncle Fred is a painter and he’s from the old school, meaning he’s got zero tolerance for the pretentions of art criticism. He went to Cooper Union in the mid-fifties and hung around the Cedar Bar when deKooing and Kline and abstract expressionaist painters were the bomb. And there was his daughter, knee-deep in eggheads up at Brown. So she sent the following to her old man and he had it tacked up in his studio for years. It amused me so much that I must have copied it at some point. I found it up at my mom’s house last year. Funny the things you keep.

At the top of the page in captial letters:

YOUR $20,000 PAY FOR ME TO LEARN PHRASES LIKE THESE:

Matisse: “to theatricalize the finish. To finish with unfinish–a pictorial symbol”
“the unneatness, that freshness that refuses to go unfresh”
“a certain one-ness”
“a tickled dimensionality”

Braque: “oscillating in its stress of adhesion of units on the surface of the painting”

Van Gogh: “certain motific elements”

Monet: “wonderful rumble of pictorial information to flat projectively plastic”

Picasso: “a repeating planometric chant”

Leger: “residual echo of modernity and its imaging embedded in its dissident views”

What I wouldn’t give for a large sock o’ horse manure.

Jaret Wright had virtually nothing on Sunday night and left before the end of the second inning, having already allowed four runs to score. Not wanting to be out-sucked, Alay Soler was torched for eight runs in the third inning as the Bombers got their Bomb back and unloaded on the Mets, 16-7. Ron Villone was effective in an emergency relief call and earned the win. And whatta ya hear, whatta ya say, Alex Rodriguez was the big man hitting a grand slam and a three-run dinger, but for the Mets fan sitting next to me in the upper deck last night, the game will go down as “the Nick Green” game. Green, making his first start at second base for the Yankees led off the third inning with a walk. He would come up again later in the inning and my pal leaned over and asked, “When is the last time a .077 hitter walked twice in one inning?” We’ll never know the answer because Green plasted a two-run homer to left center. My friend, though undoubtedly discouraged, couldn’t help but laugh. The next time Green came to the plate his average was up to .100.

It was just one of those nights. Mets catcher Paul LoDuca took exception to the way Alex Rodriguez reacted after hitting his grand slam and jawed at him some after Rodriguez crossed the plate. Lighten up, Francis. I think LoDuca was just sticking up for his pitcher, and that is fine. He was upset but I don’t think Rodriguez was trying to show the Mets up and his celebration was nothing that you don’t see all the time these days. LoDuca has got a good dose of the red ass in him anyhow, which is what you like to see in your catcher. But whatever hard feelings he had, they weren’t too serious as the Mets didn’t even brush Rodriguez off the plate in the next two at bats–a single and another homer. (LoDuca is one of six Mets to make the All-Star team, while four Yankees–Rodriguez, Jeter, Cano and Mariano made it.) For Rodriguez is was a huge game and he was showered with cheers, standing o’s, the whole sh-bang.

The game was delayed about an hour due to some light rain and the first four innings moved slowly despite the excitement. The place was definitely juiced but this was going to be a typical American League sluggfest. It felt like it was going to be a long night’s journey into day and sure enough I didn’t arrive back at my crib until just after 2:00. Still, after the Bombers scored their 16th run in the fifth inning, there was not much tension left. The crowd gradually thinned-out and the last part of the game moved briskly. For Yankee fans it was the kind of anti-climax to thoroughly enjoy.

The Yankees need to win tonight’s finale to win the current series and salvage a split of their season set with the Mets. In their way stands 26-year-old Cuban defector Alay Soler. The plump righthander started the year in A-ball where he dominated in six starts, earning an early May promotion to double-A Binghamton. There he was similarly convincing in three more turns, posting an aggregate minor league line of 49 2/3 IP, 29 H, 8 R, 0 HR, 12 BB, 55 K in nine starts.

By that point, the Mets had seen more than enough of Jose Lima and punted him, calling up Soler straight from double-A. Soler has since been infinitely less impressive in his seven major league starts. Much like his fellow countryman, Friday night’s starter Orlando Hernandez, Solar’s best start came in Arizona when he pitched a two-hit shutout. Still, Soler walked three and struck out just two in that game. In that sense, the start before that in which he struck out seven Dodgers in seven innings, walking just one and allowing just one run on a solo homer was more convincing. Most recently, Soler got roughed up by the Red Sox in Fenway for eight runs on ten hits and a pair of walks in just 4 1/3 innings.

The Yankees counter with Jaret Wright, whose last two starts have produced this line: 11 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 0 HR, 6 BB, 10 K. Most encouraging there is the increased strikeout rate as Jaret had struck out just 24 in his previous 53 2/3 innings of work. Wright lasted six full in his last outing and the Yankee pen is both rested and coming off a collection of solid outings as detailed at the end of my last post. Let’s just hope the Yankees don’t come down with the URPs (Unfamiliar Rookie Pitcheritis).

As was readily apparent when the Mets put men on second and third before Randy Johnson had even thrown five pitches, yesterday, the 16th anniversary of Andy Hawkins’ 4-0 no-hit loss, just wasn’t the Yankees’ day. David Wright doubled those two runners home to give the Mets an early 2-0 lead. The Yankees would tie it up in the third after Alex Rodriguez delivered a bases-loaded single for the first run, but the tying run scored on a double play off the bat of Jorge Posada and Andy Phillips flied out to strand Jason Giambi at third with the go-ahead run.

Johnson, who had looked so good in his last three games (20 1/3 IP, 13 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 22 K), gave the lead right back and then some, following the Yankees’ aborted rally with a four-pitch walk to Wright. A Julio Franco single and a walk to Chris Woodward of all people loaded the bases and a first-pitch single to left by Ramon Castro plated Wright and Franco as Melky Cabrera’s throw tailed slightly up the first base line. After Johnson battled Eli Marrero for his second strikeout of the inning (Randy needed 13 pitches total for the two Ks), Jose Reyes delivered the third single of the inning into left field to plate Woodward as Cabrera’s throw sailed far over the head of Jorge Posada and all the way to the backstop allowing Castro and Reyes to move to second and third. Paul Lo Duca then followed with yet another single to left as both Castro and Reyes scored. That made it 7-2 Mets and a Marrero homer off Johnson in the sixth pushed it to 8-2. The eight runs off Johnson were the most he’s allowed in a single start since 2003.

Meanwhile the Yankees were busy killing every rally they mustered against Mets starter Steve Trachsel. In the bottom of the first, yet another misguided hit-and-run attempt turned a no-outs, first-and-second situation for Jason Giambi into a two-outs, man on second situation for Rodriguez when Giambi took a 3-2 pitch low and away for strike three and, with no one standing in the right-handed batters box, Johnny Damon was thrown out by ten feet on his way to third. Rodriguez walked, but Posada flied out to end the inning. As I already mentioned, Posada’s double play cut short the game-tying third-inning rally. In the seventh it was Jeter who hit into a double play with men on first and second and no outs. Giambi followed by grounding out to strand the Miguel Cairo at third.

The Yankees finally got one back in the eighth when Rodriguez, who went 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs and a walk, led off the inning with a solo homer off the disgruntled Aaron Heilman, but that was all they’d get. 8-3 Mets.

Rookies T.J. Beam and Matt Smith mopped up admirably, Smith having now thrown ten scoreless innings to start his major league career. With that, every member of the Yankee bullpen save LOOGY Mike Myers, who has yet to appear in this series, has thrown a minimum of one scoreless inning in the past two days for a collective line of 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K. Myers, meanwhile, hasn’t allowed a run since surrendering a three-run home run to David Ortiz on May 1 and currently sports a 0.68 ERA.

Finally, I’ve just noticed that T.J. Beam’s full name is Theodore Lester Beam. Better hope he never plays on a team with David Jonathan “J.D.” Drew. These men are rebels. Together they could destroy our fragile initialing system altogether.

That is all.

It is going to be a scorcher out there today. Dude, with Steve Trachsel on the mound and McCarver and Buck on the mic, this could be a long one for everone invovled. One of the keys for the Yanks is keeping Reyes off base as they did last night. He reaches against Randy and things could get sticky. Alex Rodriguez went 0-4 last night. He just missed getting good wood on two pitches (in his second at bat, resulting in a fly ball to left, and in his final time up, resulting in a pop out in foul ground to the catcher) and heard the boo birds by the end of the night. Maybe he breaks out a can of whup ass today. In this kind of heat you’ve got to think this one will be a barn-burner. Like that crazy Matt Franco game years ago.

Hopefully, the Bombers can take another won and secure a series victory. Stay cool, y’hear.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

Mike Mussina felt a minor strain his right groin in the first inning last night but it didn’t effect his performance on the mound. Mussina was particularly sharp and through four innings did not allow a hit. But an expected thunderstorm delayed the game for just over an hour and it was enough time to knock Mussina out of the game. He later told the New York Times:

“It’s tough; those four innings went really well,” Mussina said. “But after all these years, I know it’s a lot safer to do it the way we did it, and a lot smarter to do it the way we did it.

“Trying to get one win versus maybe costing yourself a long period of time, it’s not worth it. With what we’re trying to accomplish, it could really be detrimental. We have enough injury problems as it is.”

Mussina plans to make his next start. El Duque returned after the showers and pitched admirably, just as I hoped and expected, changing speeds beautifully. His ten-pitch strike out of Johnny Damon in the fifth was terrific (got him looking on an inside fastball at the knees). Jason Giambi hit a towering solo home run in the first and Andy Phillips singled Williams home immediately after the rain delay. It was all the runs the Yankees would need. Ron Villone pitched two scoreless innings. Even more encouraging for the Yankees was the efficient relief work from Scott Procter, Kyle Farnsworth and Mariano Rivera. All told, the Mets reached base on a walk, an error and a lone single by Endy Chavez (who was picked off of first by Villone). The Yankees won 2-0, and gained a game on Boston who lost to the Marlins.

The Mets have the best record in the National League, 3.5 games better than the Cardinals, lead their division by 11 games over the Phillies, and are two games better than the crosstown Yankees. Of course the Metropolitans play in a weaker league and a far weaker division than the Bombers. Still, when these two teams faced off in Shea Stadium in late May, they played a trio of one-run games and the Mets took the series two games to one having outscored the Yankees by a single run. It was every bit as close as that sounds, with the first two games being decided in the victor’s final at-bat and the third ending with the tying run on base.

At the time, the Yankees were at their most banged up, with Jorge Posada and Kyle Farnsworth unable to participate thus reducing the available roster to 23 men. Since then both teams have jettisoned the dead weight from their rosters (though Robinson Cano’s injury has reinstated some to the Yankees’), the Yankees releasing Scott Erickson and designating Aaron Small for assignment, the Mets designating Jose Lima, trading Jeremi Gonzalez, Kaz Matsui and Jorge Julio, and, for good measure, releasing Bartolome Fortunato, the other pitcher obtained in the Kazmir trade who, like Victor Zambrano, had been placed on the 60-day DL following Tommy John surgery.

As a result, the Mets that the Yankees will face this weekend, despite their just-concluded sweep at the hands of the streaking Red Sox, are a better team than the one the Yankees saw in May. The Mets have the second best offense in the National League, led by old Yankee-killer Carlos Delgado, 23-year-old David Wright, who is one big postseason away from rivaling Derek Jeter as the city’s biggest sports star, Carlos Beltran, who is serving up crow to his doubters daily by having the best year of his career, and Jose Reyes, who’s finally drawing walks thus becoming a weapon rather than a liability in the lead-off spot. To that tremendous core, they’ve added Jose Valentin at second base, slugging .529 in place of Kaz Matsui’s .200/.235/.269 performance, pushing Xavier Nady’s .497 slugging all the way down to the seventh spot in the order.

The Mets also have the second stingiest pitching staff in the NL, trailing only the Petco-assisted Padres. Tom Glavine, experiencing a Mussina-like resurgence, and Pedro Martinez give them a pair of Hall-of-Fame aces in the front of their rotation, both of which the Yankees will be fortunate to miss this weekend. Meanwhile the Mets bullpen has been the best in baseball, posting a staggering 3.19 ERA with only frustrated starter Aaron Heilman currently sporting an ERA above 2.80. Yes, even Darren Oliver has pitched well this year, posting a 1.02 WHIP and a 2.45 ERA as the long man in the pen.

Incidentally, I find Heilman’s to be an interesting case. Originally ticketed to be the fifth starter, he was passed over for the job by Willie Randolph in favor of rookie Brian Bannister despite a 1.59 spring ERA. As the primary set-up man in the bullpen He posted a 1.42 ERA through May 22, during which span he was twice passed over for openings in the rotation when injuries to Bannister and Victor Zambrano lead to the desperation employment of Jeremi Gonzalez and Jose Lima because Randolph claimed that Heilman had become too valuable in his role to move out of the pen. The Mets finally came to their senses, releasing Lima on May 20, but instead of relenting and moving Heilman to the rotation, where he’d both be most valuable and most happy, they reached down to double-A to promote Alay Soler. Since then, Heilman has posted an 8.66 ERA.

Tonight the Yankees send Mike Mussina, who won a tense duel against Dontrelle Willis his last time out, to the mound to face old Yankee warhorse Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez. El Duque, who last (and first) faced the Yankees as a member of the eventual World Champion White Sox last year was traded to Arizona this winter in a package for another ex-Yankee Javier Vazquez only to return to New York just days after the last meeting between these two teams in exchange for misbegotten Kris Benson trade booty Jorge Julio. Since then he’s made six starts for the Metropolitans, the best being a three-hit complete game against his ex-teammates in Phoenix and the worst being his last, when he was sent packing after surrendering six runs while getting just five outs in Toronto. Sounds about right from the fiery Cuban with the Milk Dud head. His starts are like a box of chocolates. Indeed, his style is much the same, hitters never know what they’re gonna get, how hard, or from what angle. With Moose working his Bugs Bunny change and Duque always a threat to lob in an eephus, tonight’s match-up should be a lot of fun to watch, no matter who comes out on top.

Meanwhile, for the first time since the ’80s, the Mets are threatening the Yankees’ grip on the back pages (remember, the Yanks were repeat Champions entering the 2000 World Series while the Mets were considered serial chokers). These three games could go along way toward reestablishing order should the Yankees prevail in a convincing manner. On the other hand, if the Mets take the series, clinching just their second season series victory over the Yankees in the now ten-year history of interleague play (the other coming in 2004), los nuevos Mets just might wind up painting the town orange and blue all over again.

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I saw a big, bald-headed Spanish guy wearing a maroon throwback Mike Schmidt jersey (with a 1979 barnstorming tour in Japan on the sleeve) today on the 1 train. The guy looked to be in his mid-to-late thirties. I didn’t really catch him until we were about to both exit the train. He was with two other kids, both in their early twenties I’d guess, maybe younger. I caught the dude’s eye as we went through the turnstiles. I complimented on him on the jersey and one of the kids says to the dude, “That’s the second guy on that’s said something to you since we got on the train.”

I told them that I had Schmidt on the brain lately thinking about the kind of treatment Alex Rodriguez is getting from a lot of Yankee fans this year. But before I could finish getting the words Alex Rodriguez out of my mouth, one of the younger kids skipped ahead of me as we walked down the steps of the 231st street station and said definitively, “A Rod sucks.”

I think Rodriguez is a great player of course. Got a piece on him over at SI.com today, just in time for the subway serious. I enjoy rooting for Rodriguez because his at-bats, particularly at home, really seem to matter. Just like they do for all of the superduper stars. Though he has not come through as often as Yankee fans would like he has had many great moments in his two-plus years with the team. As Ben Kabak points out today, Rodriguez particularly struggles when the Bombers are behind, so when Yankee fans are amped for a rally, that is when Rodriguez is faltering, magnifying his failures in the process.

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Have you ever heard the term “passing?” Until recently, I had not. The way I heard it used, “passing” refers to a situation where you decide not to address something that might offend you. For instance, you are in a conversation with some people–at work let’s say–and somebody says something bigoted. It bothers you but you choose, for whatever reason, not to confront it. You change the subject or ignore it altogether. That’s called passing.

Most of us encounter these kinds of situations all the time. Two days ago at the ball game, I found myself unable to “pass.” I was watching the Yankee game with my cousin and two guys I played high school ball with–one of whom is a good friend. The two jocks started talking about women and baseball and the gist of the discussion was, “Let’s make fun of women because they don’t have a clue when it comes to sports.” I just knew where the conversation was going and it instantly made me uncomfortable, not only because my girlfriend is a devoted fan but because sitting in front of us was a woman who is more knowledgable about the game than most men could ever hope to be.

I caught myself and thought, “Aha, so this is a ‘passing’ sitation.” At first I didn’t know how I was going to respond. One instinct was to join them. I had an ideal story. Earlier in the day, my cousin Eric and I were playing stickball on 5th street between first and second avenues. We were pressed for time and only had about ten minutes left to play when a sexy young thing walked towards us. She had been watching us play for a few minutes when she approached me and said, “Can I play?” She was friendly and exceedingly cute. How do you say “no” to that? If I were single, I’d have turned into Charlie Lau and not only let her play with us but I’d teach her how to hit, anything, in the process. But not only am I not single, I don’t have wandering eyes like that and am not that tempted to flirt with hot young East Village women. So I told her that it was nice of her to ask but that we only had a few more minutes left and we wanted to finish our game. “But if you ever see us playing down here again, feel free to stop by and you can join us then.” I was as friendly as possible and it felt good not to compromise the moment Eric and I were sharing. She looked surprised–not quite comprehending how we could turn such an offer down–and quietly walked away.

Anyhow, I was pleased with how I handled the situation–tactfully but with conviction. Now, I could use this story as a way to join the “He Man Woman Hater’s Club” brewing behind me. Screw women, this is our sport, kind of a thing. I turned around to the guys and instead of directly confronting their chauvanism, or joining it, I started talking to them about Emily and how much of a baseball fan she’s become. I told them that sometimes Em will ask me what I think is a ridiculously stupid question but other times she’ll come up with something simple and logical that I just can’t answer. For instance, say the Yankees are at home and have a runner on first. If the opposing pitcher throws over to first more than once the crowd–any home crowd–will start to boo. One day Emily asked, “Why are they booing?” I stuttered and finally had to look at her and tell her I hadn’t the foggiest idea why. “Because…that’s just the way it is,” was the best I could come up with.

My friend Adam was amused by the story and told me I was so right. The conversation shifted and that was that. But it got me thinking about the different, often refreshing sensibilities women bring to a male-dominated world like baseball. Nancy Smith, the woman sitting in front of us, had an opportunity to meet several of the Yankees last summer and she told me that she had a pleasant ten minute conversation with Mariano Rivera. “He’s a very nice man,” she reported. What did they talk about? Where he lives when he’s up here, how much his kids love the winter and the snow. You know, regular stuff. Things that most guys would never think of talking about if they were to ever to meet a baseball player.

I’d be asking him all sorts of questions about baseball, about pitching. I’d never think to talk to him about such mundane things as the weather. The irony is Nancy probably put Rivera more at ease, and had a more intimate, natural conversation with him than I would have in the same situation. She might enjoy being around him as much as any male fan, but even if she was geeked about it, there was probably nothing urgent beneath the surface, no agenda. She didn’t “want” a piece of him, she just wanted to chat.

Nancy’s story reminded me of something Jane Gross, a former sports writer, once told Roger Angell (from the story “Sharing the Beat,” which can be found in Angell’s “Late Innings” collection):

“I think women reports have a lot of advantages [over male reporters], starting with the advantage of the players’ natural chivalry. We women are interested in different things from the men writers, so we ask different questions. When Bob McAdoo gets traded from the Knicks, my first thought is, How is his wife, Brenda, going to finish law school this year? And that may be what’s most on his mind.

Not better, not worse, just different. Sure, there are times when Emily asks a question that has my snotty-ass rolling my eyes. Other times, she’ll just floor me with her insights–whether simple or profound. I deliberately use my love of baseball as a way to relate to other men. But some of the greatest fans I know are women. And that’s a beautiful thing, bro.

The All-Star voting closes tonight at 11:59pm, so with the Yankees enjoying a day of rest after Alex Rodriguez’s big bang I thought I’d share my ballots.

American League

1B

With no designated hitter spot on the ballot due to the fact that the game is taking place in an NL park, this spot is mighty crowded. In fact, with Jason Giambi now a full-time DH due to the long awaited arrival of Andy Phillips, Paul Konerko is the only full-time first baseman worth looking at here (though I do have to give a shout to Kevin Youkilis, the Red Sox’ Andy Phillips).

Here are the key stats on Konerko, Giambi and the three top designated hitters, all of whom shift to first base in NL parks, along with the number of games they’ve played at first thus far this year (all stats prior to yesterday’s games).

Travis Hafner’s career line is .296/.399/.568. Last year he hit .305/.408/.595 with 42 doubles, 33 homers, 108 RBIs and a .345 EQA and finished fifth in the MVP voting. The year before he hit .311/.410/.583 with 41 doubles, 28 homers, 109 RBIs and a .335 EQA. Travis Hafner has never been selected to an All-Star team, even as a reserve. This has to end this year. David Ortiz is the vote leader, but he’s the least worthy of the five candidates above. What’s more, Hafner is David Ortiz. He’s a hulking, late-blooming lefty 1B-turned-DH who was tossed aside by his previous team. The primary differences between the two are that Ortiz has had the media exposure and postseason opportunities Hafner hasn’t and Hafner is a year younger than Ortiz and is thus Ortiz, in a rather startling parallel, has made Hafner’s improvements in production a year ahead of his Cleveland counterpart. At any rate, given the defensive shortcomings of his rivals and the relative insignificance of first base defense, Travis Hafner is my pick hands down.

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“Alex has gone from town to town, and there’s been just resentment all over the league for him because of how much money he makes,” Manager Joe Torre said before the game. “And nobody ever feels that anybody’s worth this money. Like, you know, he went in there and held somebody hostage to get the money. Somebody made a choice to give it to him. And it’s just something that he has to live with.”
(N.Y. Times)

Yesterday started off so badly and well, just look how it ended. My girlfriend Emily would have some new-age Wayne Dyer words of wisdom for me, that’s for sure. I take that malarky with a grain of salf, but often, the essence of what a guy like Dyer is saying makes a good deal of sense, the power of intentions and all that.

I had to fight up all the positive vibes I had in me when I awoke at 5:30 in the morning to the pattering sounds of raindrops against our bedroom air conditioner. The weatherman has called for rain and thunderstorms for much of the last week. When they got Monday and Tuesday’s games in without a hitch, I figured Wednesday was the day that it’ll all fall apart. I had taken a vacation day to go to the Stadium with a high school friend and his wife. My pal had an extra seat so I invited my cousin Eric along. But early in the morning it was pouring outside my window in the Bronx and the skies were dark. I sulked like a little boy.

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It’s as close to sunny in downtown Manhattan as I’ve seen it in what feels like at least a week, so the Yanks and Braves should be taking the field in about a half an hour. Alex, in a blatant attempt to make our Wednesday workdays feel even longer, is at the game, which pits young Chien-Ming Wang against veteran John Smoltz, a pitching match-up I’d love to see. Alas, I’ll be watching it on Gameday with the rest of you working stiffs. Those in front of a TV or even a radio please help with details and descriptions.

Melky Cabrera, coming off a 3 for 4 day that saw him drive in both of the Yankees runs, one via his second career homer, is back up in the two spot. Bernie’s in right batting sixth, followed by Phillips, Cairo and, in the day game after night game, Stinnett.

Jaret Wright and Horacio Ramirez are pretty evenly matched, but go figure that their pairing would result in a pitchers duel. That’s exactly what happened last night, with the Braves clinging to a 1-0 lead after six frames, that run scoring in the second when Jeff Francoeur singled home Andrew Jones’ lead-off double.

Jaret Wright completed the sixth inning for the first time since June 2, equalling his longest outing of the year, allowing just three other hits, all singles, and two walks while striking out four. Ramirez, meanwhile, had held the Yankees scoreless on four hits and a walk through the end of the sixth despite striking out just one.

With Wright at 90 pitches and three lefties due up in the seventh, Joe Torre brought in Ron Villone, who promptly doubled the Braves lead by surrendering a lead-off home run to Adam LaRoche on his first pitch of the night. Villone then got the next three men to ground out and the Yankees finally broke through against Ramirez, getting LaRoche’s run back in bottom of the seventh on singles by Jorge Posada and Melky Cabrera.

Cabrera’s RBI single was proceeded by groundouts by Bernie Williams and Andy Phillips, which pushed Posada to second and third respectively. The contrast between Phillips’ and Cabrera’s at-bats was a telling look at the frustrating nature of baseball that so tortured Paul O’Neill during his 17 year career. The first pitch to Phillips was a fastball inside that Andy laced past Chipper Jones at third, but just foul. Phillips then swung through a slider inside to fall behind 0-2. He then fouled a fastball straight back to stay alive. Ramirez then tried to get him to chase a breaking pitch low and away, but Andy laid of that one and two more up and away out of the zone to run the count full. Ramirez finally came back inside where Phillips could really rip one and after fouling off Ramirez’s seventh pitch, Phillips laced another shot between Jones and the third base bag only to have Jones backhand the ball and fire to first for the out. Phillips’ at-bat was the hardest any Yankee had made Ramirez work all night, but despite getting the pitch he wanted and hitting it well, Phillips had nothing to show for it. Cabrera then came up and hacked at the first pitch he saw, a slider that looked headed for his front shin, producing a weak looping grounder that headed straight for Jones, only the ball took an odd last hop and Chipper booted it, conspiring with favorable official scoring to give Cabrera an RBI base hit. Such is baseball.

Villone came back out to start the eighth, but was again greeted by a hit, this time an Edgar Renteria single. After Chipper Jones lined out to left, Joe Torre brought in rookie T.J. Beam to face Andruw Jones. It was an impressive move on Torre’s part, trusting a rookie to face one of the league’s top hitters late in a one-run game (though I wonder if he would have done it up by one run rather than down by one run). The tall, lanky Beam rewarded Torre’s faith by striking out Jones on a sequence of hard, mid-90s heaters for the second out. Unfortunately, Beam forgot about Renteria on first and while Beam worked to the next batter, Brian McCann, Renteria practically waltzed over to second. Behind McCann 2-1, Beam intentionally walked the lefty to face righty Jeff Francoeur. Beam got ahead of the free-swinging Francoeur 1-2 only to have Francoeur pick the 1-2 pitch practically out of the dirt and loop it into shallow center for another RBI single. Mike Myers came in to get the lefty LaRoche for the final out.

Again down two runs, the Yankees failed to do anything with a lead-off single by Derek Jeter in the bottom of the eighth when Jason Giambi was unable to beat out a squibber down the third base line, Alex Rodriguez struck out swinging on a slider down and in from Ramirez and Jorge Posada launched a pitch to deep left that settled into the glove of Ryan Langerhans for the third out.

Still, Joe Torre didn’t back off, going to Kyle Farnsworth in the ninth. Unfortunately, Farnsworth’s recent struggles continued. Pinch-hitter Marcus Giles lead off with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch. With one out, Wilson Betemit singled to left and third base coach Fredi Gonzalez sent Giles home. From deep in left field, Melky Cabrera fired a strike to Jorge Posada that had Giles beat easily, but Posada, likely anticipating Giles’ arrival, flinched, booting the ball and allowing Giles to score. Betemit moved to second on the play. Farnsworth then struck out Renteria on a full count, but his second pitch to Chipper Jones skipped past Posada for a passed ball that moved Betemit to third. That prompted a mound visit from Ron Guidry. As Farnsworth and Posada waited for Gator to arrive, Farnsworth turned his back on Posada and walked off the back of the mound. When Guidry arrived, Farnsworth returned to the mound and Posada stormed off toward home plate. After Guidry returned to the dugout, Jones doubled Betemit home and Joe Torre replaced Farnsworth with Matt Smith. Smith intentionally walked Andruw Jones, unintentionally walked Brian McCann, and struck out Francoeur to end the inning.

Down 5-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Melky Cabrera hit his second career home run with two outs, but that was all the Yankees could muster against newly appointed closer Jorge Sosa to fall 5-2 after beating the Braves by the same score the night before.

For what it’s worth, Cabrera’s homer was his first from the left side of the plate and was a convincing short-porch shot on a pitch down and in. Cabrera finished the night having gone three for four, driving in both of the Yankees’ runs and scoring one of them. Cabrera and Jorge Posada combined for five of the Yankees’ nine hits. On Monday night, Jason Giambi drove in all five of the Yankees’ runs, scoring two of them and he and Andy Phillips combined for five of the Yankees’ nine hits. For those inclined to read something into that, those similarities are fun, but meaningless.

This afternoon, the Yankees get their third exciting pitching match-up in four days with a hot Chien-Ming Wang taking on John Smoltz in the series’ rubber game. Weather permitting, of course.

After Moose v. D-Train on Sunday afternoon and Johnson vs. Hudson last night, Jaret Wright vs. Horacio Ramirez is going to be a heck of a let-down tonight. You all know about Wright. He has exceeded some very low expectations by simply being able to take the ball every five days and upped the ante by actually keeping the Yankees in the game in most of his starts, but his limitations, particularly when it comes to innings pitched and strikeouts, are glaring. Ramirez, meanwhile, is young and left handed, but otherwise unexceptional. He does a pretty good number on lefties and gets more than his share of ground balls, which is fortunate for the Braves as Ramirez’s peripherals are as unimpressive as Wright’s. The upside is that with Miguel Cairo forced into the line-up by Robinson Cano’s hamstring (Cano’s just been placed on the DL with Nick Green being recalled to back-up Miggy . . . gulp), Bernie still the go-to choice in right field, and Andy Phillips on another hot streak, an unimpressive lefty is just what the doctor ordered for the Yankees’ offense.

Randy Johnson struck out a season-high nine batters and did not allow a run over seven innings. Not so long ago, Yankee fans wondered if the real Big Unit would ever return. Well, he may never be the 38-year old version again, but clearly, he isn’t completely cooked either. The Atlanta Braves’ hitters didn’t help themselves much–jeez, what a bunch of hackers–but there is no denying that Johnson is pitching effectively once more. Jason Giambi hit a two-run homer in the first and a three-run dinger in the second and that was all the Yankees would need as they cruised to a 5-2 victory in the Bronx.

Tim Hudson was wild early and Giambi hit what looked like split finger fastballs for his home runs. Some friend. The Bombers’ offense didn’t do much else on Derek Jeter’s 32nd birthday (also Mike Myers’ 37th), but they’ll take the win. Scott Proctor allowed a two-run bomb to Chipper Jones in the ninth after pitching a scoreless eighth. That was the lowest part of the night for the Yankees, aside from Alex Rodriguez’s 12th error of the season which matches his 2005 season total. I was never sold on Rodriguez being a Gold Glover last year–though he was a fine defensive player–and he has regressed this season. He’s got a strong, true arm, but his lateral movement appears sluggish. I wonder what’s up with that? Anyhow, Mariano Rivera came in for the final two outs. He walked a batter and struck two men out looking, and that, as they say, was that.

It is not certain that Robinson Cano will be placed on the DL but my guess is that he likely won’t get much burn until after the All-Star break. Meanwhile, Octavio Dotel pitched yesterday. According to reports, he’s likely a month away from joining the big league club. Lastly, Aaron Small cleared waivers and has returned to Columbus.