Quit doing the Sunday crossword and read this:

• Katie Thomas of the NY Times has an article on the sad turn of events in the life of Jim Leyritz. Leyritz is awaiting trial in Florida on charges of manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol after a crash last December that killed 30-year-old Fredia Ann Veitch. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
• The Bombers most likely will not pick up Damaso Marte’s $6 million option, but that doesn’t mean his time in pinstripes is done, writes George King of the Post.
• Although OF Bobby Abreu is among the players who have filed for free agency, the New York Post reports the Yankees plan to offer him arbitration. Even if he doesn’t accept arbitration, this step will enable the team to collect two draft picks if Abreu signs elsewhere as a free agent.
• Jack Curry of the NY Times examines some of the “lesser” free agents available. He suggests that if the Yanks can’t land Sabathia, they should pursue Derek Lowe.
• T.R. Sullivan of MLB.COM points to Ian Kennedy as one of the pitchers the Rangers may target in trade talks. Texas has a surplus of catchers to deal from, as well as Hank Blalock.
• Another NY Post story details the re-hiring of the scout that spotted Derek Jeter. Bill Livesey was the team’s scouting director in 1992. On the morning of the 1992 draft, the Yankees were sitting with the sixth pick. They never thought Jeter would be there. Then: Phil Nevin went to the Astros; a couple of pitchers, Paul Shuey and B.J. Wallace, were taken by the Indians and Expos. The Orioles took outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds. Cincinnati grabbed Chad Mottola, and Jeter fell into their laps.
• Here’s a quirky Daily News article relating the history of Presidential elections/administrations to the fortunes of the Yankees. According to the article, with a Democratic commander-in-chief, the Yankees have won several more pennants (22 compared to 17) and nearly three times as many championships (19 to 7). The team has a losing World Series record when the GOP controls the Executive Branch, going 7-10 for a .412 clip. Under Democrats, the Yanks are 19-3 in the Fall Classic.
• Happy 27th birthday to the utilitarian Wilson Betemit and a happy 32nd to the “futilitarian” Sidney Ponson. A Yankee prospect drafted in the first round and later traded straight-up for Bob Sykes turns 50 today …. Willie McGee.
• On this date in 1964, CBS becomes the first corporate owner of a major league team, buying 80% of the Yankees. The price tag? $11,200,000.
• On this date in 1995, Joe Torre was named manager of the Bombers, replacing Buck Showalter.

After family and baseball, my greatest love is horror, which puts Halloween near the top of my favorite times of the year. Frankly, there isn’t much of a connection between baseball and All Hallows’ Eve, at least until we start exploring the creative world of nicknames. With that in mind, let’s present our All-Halloween baseball team:

First Base:

Richie “The Gravedigger” Hebner—Always a favorite of this columnist, Hebner earned his nickname for obvious reasons; he toiled as a gravedigger during the off-season, when players actually worked in the winter. Proud of his unusual winter occupation, Hebner once bragged to a reporter about his high level of skill in digging graves. “I’m good at this,” Hebner said matter of factly. “In ten years, no one’s ever dug themselves out of one of my graves yet.” Hebner was also a pretty good hitter, at first for the Pirates and then the Phillies before his career took a downward turn with the Mets.

Second base:

Julian “The Phantom” Javier—A slick fielding second baseman for some great Cardinals teams of the 1960s, Javier earned this moniker because of his ghostlike quickness in completing the double play. He was usually overshadowed by Hall of Fame contemporary Bill Mazeroski, but was nearly his equal when it came to turning two with quickness, precision, and flair. To younger fans, Javier is better known as the father of former major leaguer Stan Javier, a onetime Yankee who became a decent fourth outfielder type for the A’s and Giants.

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Jimmy Blain was playing on the 2 train last night. He kept bouncing a rubber ball off the facing bench and snatching it with his glove. The other riders waited for a mistake, but he was perfect from Park Place to 14th Street.

“What did you expect?” he shot. “I’m Mariano Rivera.”

Blain shifted around in the seat to show off his T-shirt. It was white with hand drawn pinstripes, an NY on the front and a 42 on the back. He tugged on his Yankees cap and explained:

“I always go to the Halloween parade as Mariano because I met him once.”

That caught people’s attention.

“You met Mariano Rivera?” someone asked.

“Yeah,” Blain answered. “Well, a bunch of us did. He was stuck in traffic after a game and we ran up to his car. He put down the window and signed stuff and talked to us and I shook his hand. I definitely shook his hand.”

“That’s not really meeting him,” someone shot. “Quit trying to trick us.”

“I did meet him,” Blain shot back.

He fired the ball off the seat.

“Of course I met him,” Blain said snatching the ball with his glove.

“I shook his hand.”

Here’s some stuff to chew on now that you’ve finished gorging yourself on candy corn:

• Daily News blogger Jesse Spector reports that even though Bobby Abreu filed for free agency, his first choice is to come back to the Yankees.
• SI.COM mentions that Double-A RHP Eric Hacker and Class-A LHP Wilkin De La Rosa had their contracts purchased by the club Friday.
• Joe Ricciuti, President of the Staten Island Yankees, has been named Executive of the Year by Ballpark Digest. They noted that during his tenure he’s increased attendance via mini-plans, promotions and restructured sponsorships. Staten Island’s season-ticket accounts jumped from 350 in 2006 to 1,731 in 2008, leading to an 83 percent attendance rise, a 21 percent increase in attendance revenue in 2007 and 40 percent attendance revenue increase in 2008.
• MLB.COM has an article on Brett Gardner’s fight for the starting CF job in 2009.
• Yahoo Sports notes that BetOnline.com already has odds posted for the 2009 World Series. The Yankees and Phillies are each listed at 6-1, behind the BoSox (3-1), Angels (5-1) and Cubs (5-1). The Rays are next at 10-1.
• On this date in 1978, Ron Guidry was named as the unanimous choice for the A.L. Cy Young award. Gator led the league in wins (25), winning percentage (.893), shutouts (9), and ERA (1.74, in a season in which the league ERA was 3.63). His WHIP was a nasty 0.946, and he gave up only 13 dingers in 273.7 innings. Fun little trivia …. his 3 losses came against starting pitchers with the first name of Mike (Flanagan, Caldwell, Willis).
• On this date in 2001, the first major league game ever started in the month of November ends up with D’backs closer Byung-Hyun Kim once again serving up a dramatic homer in the ninth, this time by Scott Brosius. Brosius ties the game with two out, and Alfonso Soriano knocks an RBI single in the 12th to give the Yankees a 3 – 2 victory and 3-2 Series lead over Arizona.
• Joe Torre got hired by the Dodgers exactly one year ago today.

Aside from the fact that most of the Series wasn’t particularly competitive, and that it involved teams I can muster only very tepid enthusiasm for or against, I had a problem getting into the Fall Classic this year simply because I’m deeply distracted – not just with work, or personal stuff, but with the *#&@ing election, with which I’ve been unhealthily obsessed for well over a year now.

Don’t get me wrong: if the Yankees or Mets had been in the Series, I would absolutely not have been so focused on silly stuff like a global economic crisis, and I would most likely have been checking baseball sites eight times a day instead of FiveThirtyEight.com (Baseball Prospectus writers: is there anything they can’t do?). As it is, it seems my baseball obsession has finally, temporarily, met its match.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to talk politics here; it seems no comment section is safe these days, and I myself completely lost my sense of humor on this topic weeks ago. But that’s why baseball’s more important to my mental health than ever. At a time when it sometimes seems like an innocuous remark about the weather can provoke partisan shrieking, it feels like one of the last safe havens.

In the office where I’m currently working, there’s an older man, who I’ll call Pete, a very friendly and affable guy, with whom I happen to disagree on virtually every conceivable political point. It was clear from my first day on the job a couple months back that, issues-wise, we were each more or less the other’s worst nightmare. There was, however, exactly one thing we had in common … campaign-finance reform! No, I’m kidding, you were right the first time: baseball.

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Fat Paulie – who works as a super at a building on Gerard Avenue – can never decide how he feels about Halloween.

“I love the candy,” he admitted. “But I always eat too many of those little Snickers bars and get a gut ache. Then I swear not to make that mistake again.”

Fat Paulie made an even bigger mistake last year.

“I shoulda known better than to pour concrete on Halloween,” he said.

The sidewalk in front of his building was marked the next morning with: hand prints, initials, a “Joba Rules,” an “I love Derek Jeter,” and, of course, an “I (heart) Derek Jeter.”

“A little more concrete smoothed out most of that,” Fat Paulie said. “I left the Joba and Jeter stuff because I didn’t want the kids coming back and egging the windows.”

Fat Paulie knows the South Bronx.

“I started cleaning up and bagging trash at a building over on Jerome Avenue when I was a kid,” he explained. “They just called me Paulie back then, but that was a lot of Snickers bars ago.”

He patted his stomach and continued:

“I’m not pouring concrete this Halloween so the kids will probably paint something on the sidewalk. I’m betting on a big red heart with Derek Jeter in blue.

“That will be nice,” Fat Paulie went on. “Everyone knows how we feel about The Captain around here.”

Only 106 days till pitchers and catchers report!

Here is what’s going on:

• The Post’s George King and Bart Hubbuch state that several “industry sources” have the Yanks making a run at Manny Ramirez to fill the RF spot next season.
• Yankee free agent filers, day 1: Abreu, Moeller, Pudge and Ponson (as per MLB.COM).
• Take this trade rumor with a large grain of salt …. Ian Kennedy to the Rockies for Willy Taveras (from a site called bleacherreport.com, which doesn’t specify sources of the rumor)
• MLB.COM has an article on everyone’s favorite ambidextrous pitcher, Pat Venditte. Venditte earned a Minor League Baseball Yearly award for Best Class A Short-Season Reliever.
• Feel the desire to carve a Yankee pumpkin? Go here for the stencil.
• Yankee prospect Humberto Sanchez is the lead writer for an MLB.COM blog following the progress of the Baby Bombers in the Arizona Fall League.
• You may not be able to afford seats at the new stadium, but you can at least ogle the latest construction photos.
• Lots of Bomber Birthdays today. Happy 45th birthday to one the Yankees drafted and let get away, the “Crime Dog” … Fred McGriff, and to one the Yankees acquired and should have let get away sooner … Matt Nokes. Mike Gallego turns 48 today. The immortal Paul Zuvella (who went 10 for 82 over two seasons with the Bombers) turns 50. The always humorous Mick the Quick (aka Mickey Rivers) hits the big 6-0.
• On this date in 2001, a two-out, two-run home run by Tino Martinez in the bottom of the ninth ties Game 4 of the World Series, and Derek Jeter hits a home run in the bottom of the 10th, giving the Yanks a 3 – 2 victory over the D’backs.

My World Series coverage comes to an end today with one final piece for SI.com, in which I list five things I took away from the 2008 fall classic.

I was reading a baseball story on the 2 train last night.

It was something I’d printed out from SI.com. Jon Heyman had plenty of good information on: CC Sabathia, Matt Holliday, Brian Cashman and Ken Griffey Jr. But I stalled halfway through a sentence somewhere around 14th Street.

“Writers have marveled at the language of…”

I had to get to a dictionary and look up: erudite.

er●u●dite ‘er-ə-dīt, ‘er-yə- adj. – Characterized by great knowledge; learned or scholarly: an erudite professor; an erudite commentary.

I restarted from the beginning of Heyman’s sentence:

“Writers have marveled at the language of erudite Rays manager Joe Maddon, noting how he has used several multi-syllable college words correctly. His language does provide a nice contrast with Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, who hasn’t used many words correctly.”

I didn’t go to college. I guess that’s why I had to look up a multi-syllable word to understand that Heyman was taking a shot at me and a lot of other people, too.

He was clearly trying to embarrass Charlie Manuel, who is the manager of the World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Heyman can look that up today.

I don’t like being talked down to. I’m guessing that Manuel doesn’t like it either because I don’t know anyone who does.

But FOX baseball broadcasters keep doing it and so do some baseball writers.

“You don’t need a college degree to love this game.”

That’s written on a wall in the Bronx. You can look it up.

Warming up the Hot Stove to deal with the chilly weather …

• The Post’s George King reports that Mike Mussina’s decision on retirement will probably come shortly, as his agent will be meeting with him at the end of this week.
• King also reports that Arn Tellem, the agent for both Mussina and Jason Giambi, has mentioned that Giambi would like to be a Yankee in ’09, if the club wants him back.
• Newsday’s Ken Davidoff opines that the Yankees are more concerned with landing a top-flight pitcher than securing Mark Teixeira. Davidoff also reports on some AFL reviews of Yankee prospects.
• SI.COM has a pretty light-hearted interview with Derek Jeter. A few questions on how it feels to be out of the playoffs and other baseball issues. A lot of questions regarding his love life, his political affiliation and his preference in video games.
• NY Post blogger Tim Bontemps gives us an update on how some of our guys are doing in the Arizona Fall League. Juan Miranda is tied for second in doubles (six), tied for third in triples (two), is seventh in slugging percentage (.643) and is seventh in OPS (1.071).
• BP.COM has heard that the Brewers are leaning towards Ken Macha as their new manager, and that Willie Randolph will probably be heading to Colorado as a bench coach.
• Happy 26th birthday to reliever Jonathan Albaladejo. A happy 46th birthday to Danny Tartabull and a happy 67th birthday to Jim Ray Hart.
• On this date in 2001, President Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Game Three of the World Series. He was wearing a New York Fire Department windbreaker in honor of the heroes of the September 11th attacks.

Philadelphia fans had to figure something would go wrong Monday night, though I doubt even they could have anticipated the first suspended postseason game in major league history. The Phillies got within ten outs of their second world championship in Game 5, only to have the Rays tie the game with two outs in the top of the sixth and the umpires call for the tarp after the third out of that frame, after which it rained for 36 hours.

Prior to the 2007 season, Baseball adopted a rule stating that any tie game that is called after becoming official (five innings) would simply be suspended and resumed from the stopping point at a later date just as if it had experience any other extended rain delay. That is what the Rays and Phillies will do tonight, resuming Game 5 in the bottom of the sixth inning at 8:37pm. My preview of what I’m calling Game 5 1/2 is up on SI.com.

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Gordon Whiten – a 64-year-old janitor from the Bronx – always catches the 2 train at Jackson Avenue before 6:00 a.m. There’s usually enough room on the last car for him to stretch out, drink his coffee and read the newspaper.

This morning he hoisted his cup and made a toast:

“I know this is dangerous business, but old habits are hard to break.”

Whiten took a big swig and explained:

“If the cops catch me drinking coffee on the train I’m going down for sure. I’ve seen people get tickets for just holding an empty cup. But the coppers ain’t usually out this early so I’m gonna keep going.”

Whiten is headed downtown to the same job he’s had for 45 years.

“They call me a Maintenance Engineer nowadays,” he said, “but that’s just a fancy name. Being a janitor isn’t the greatest job, but having any job is pretty good.”

There was a time when he hoped for more.

“I wanted to be a ballplayer just like every kid does,” Whiten admitted. “I still think about it sometimes when I’m at Yankee Stadium or watching on television.”

He laughed to himself and then continued:

“It’s an old man’s dream now, but any kind of dream can be dangerous business.”

Whiten took another gulp of coffee and went back to his newspaper.

Happy Humpday … here now the news!

• MLB.COM’s Anthony DiComo has some big news from the mouth of Brian Cashman:

1. Chien-Ming Wang got a thumbs up from the doctors after a pain-free bullpen session Monday.
2. He wouldn’t comment on whether the Yanks would discipline Joba Chamberlain for his recent DUI incident.
3. He isn’t counting on Mussina returning for 2009, at least at this point.

• ESPN reports that Willie Randolph denied a report stating he was interested in a coaching job with the Nats. Randolph is being considered for the managerial position in Milwaukee. (Thanks to Baseball Musings for the link)
• USA Today has a piece penned by Gary Thorne detailing the issue of tax-exempt bonds being used to finance new stadiums (Mets, Yanks, Nets). It is noted that teams are getting “interest-free loans” through the issuance of tax-exempt federal bonds for construction of the stadiums and allowing them to pay them back in place of taxes. However, as of Friday, the IRS revised their regulations to prevent future deals where tax-free bonds could be used in this manner to avoid taxes.
• Over at SI.COM, Jon Heyman has some tasty Yankee tidbits:

1. If you believe Jimmy Rollins (a good friend of C.C. Sabathia), the Yankees will end up the winner of the Sabathia Sweepstakes.
2. Matt Holliday intrigues the Yanks, but they are wary of his home/road splits.
3. One of the reasons Brian Cashman stayed with the Bombers was because Pat Gillick warned him to avoid the Mariners opening at all costs.

• Happy 33rd birthday to former Yankee (and Banter punchline) Karim Garcia. Also, a happy 49th b-day to the cannon-armed (and once traded for Banter fave Al Leiter) Jesse Barfield.

Mike Mussina hasn’t told the Yankees yet if he wants to play next year. At least, no one’s telling if he has. Baseball puts a moratorium on such announcements during the World Series (even if Scott Boras doesn’t comply), but rumor has it he’s leaning toward retirement. I, for one, would love to have Mussina come back for a variety of reasons stretching from his actual performance, to his influence on the Yankees’ young starters, to the likely brevity of his contract, to my own selfish need to hear some legitimately introspective and wickedly sarcastic postgame comments every five days.

Unfortunately, rumor has Mussina leaning in the other direction. Indeed, at the conclusion of Living on the Black, John Feinstein’s plodding account of Mike Mussina and Tom Glavine’s 2007 seasons, Mussina, speaking at the conclusion of his rough 2007 season, sounds convinced that 2008 would be his last year:

“I’m not going to be one of these players who announces his retirement five different times. But right now, I don’t see myself pitching after this year. I’m not going to be close enough to three hundred [wins], even if I have a good year, that I’m going to want to come back for at least two more years and, realistically, three more years.

“In 2006, I pitched about as well as I could have hoped to pitch, and I won fifteen games. If I win fifteen games a year–stay healthy, pitch well, all of that–for the next three years, I would still be five wins short of three hundred, and I’d be forty-two years old. What’s more, my older son will be a teenager by then, and my younger one is only a few years behind. I don’t want to come home just when they’re saying, ‘See ya, Dad.’

“I’ve had a good career. I’m lucky to be in a position that whenever I retire, I don’t have to do anything. I can pick and choose what I want to do or what I don’t want to do. If I have a great year, that might make it harder to walk away. But my plan right now is to walk away, and when the calls come the next spring from teams desperate for pitching, my answer–even if I’m tempted–will be no.”

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There is an empty building on Walton Avenue in the Bronx. Four families were living there just last week, but they’re gone now and no one is sure exactly where they went.

Some may be staying with relatives in Astoria and others might be with friends in Washington Heights. It’s said that a few are already on their way back to Mali in Western Africa.

One of the men stood on the sidewalk and cursed the building when the bank was closing in. His family and his brother’s family along with two others had put nearly 10 years into a down payment. They drove cabs and worked construction and delivered pizzas and on Saturday and Sunday mornings they waited along Third Avenue for a van to take them to work at a warehouse in Red Hook or a fruit farm Upstate.

They moved into their home four years ago and thought it was forever, but time ran out just like it has for so many other families. They left in the middle of the night and piled what they couldn’t carry – several boxes of books, four chairs, two tables, a lamp and an old mattress – at the curb.

Two boys from the neighborhood found a use for the mattress.

“You try to block the plate,” one of the boys yelled from up the street.

The other boy turned his hat backwards and crouched in front of the mattress. A collision was avoided when the catcher stepped aside and swiped a tag.

“Safe!” the runner shouted as he slid across the mattress.

“I tagged you,” the catcher shot.

No one was going to win this argument. And no family feels safe on Walton Avenue or anywhere else these days.

[Photo Via It’s a Long Season]

Game 5 of the Series may have been suspended, but news about the Yankees never sleeps. Here’s today’s line-up:

• Over at ESPN’s Page 2, writer Jeff Pearlman catches up with 1998 World Series MVP Scott Brosius, who is now a very contented baseball coach at his alma mater, Linfield College.
• New York Post blogger Tim Bontemps reports on Baseball America’s ranking of the top 20 prospects at each level/league of the minors, and where any future Mets and Yanks show up. Brett Gardner was the only local to crack the Triple-A level top 20, at number 19 in the International League.
• MLB.COM reports that the late Catfish Hunter was remembered at the annual Lou Gehrig Sports Award benefit in New York last night. Graig Nettles and Tommy John were in attendance to support the cause of ALS research. Chris Chambliss received an award, but was unable to attend due to an illness in the family.
• The NY Times has an article on a one-credit research seminar on the topic of Yankee Stadium, being offered at Rutgers University. Topics of research include the hero in American culture, the plusses and minuses of urban development, and the relationship between public finance and private enterprise.

til tomorrow …

The below is an “Outside the Lines” report explaining the emerging scandal over the new Yankee Stadium tax swindle, with a cameo from Friend of the Banter Neil deMause. It may seem petty for the federal government to be concerned with this given the state of our economy, but the Yankees are trying to swindle the government, and thus the tax payers, out of hundreds of millions of dollars. If any other corporation tried a stunt like that, I’d want the feds to investigate, so I’m glad they’re doing so here.

Man, Randy Levine is the ultimate sleaze, ain’t he?

The Tampa Bay Rays have been the story of the 2008 baseball season, but they’re about to get pushed off the front (and back) page. The Rays’ worst-to-first journey has been exciting, but the team has only been around since 1998, and Tampa Bay has already won a Super Bowl and a Stanley Cup this decade. Philadelphia, on the other hand, hasn’t won a professional team sports championship since the USFL’s Philadelphia Stars won that league’s title in 1984, and hasn’t won in one of the four major leagues (the NLF, NHL, NBA, or MLB) since the 76ers’ 1983 NBA championship. The Phillies themselves have won just once in their 125-year history, that coming more than a quarter century ago when Tug McGraw (pictured above), Mike Schmidt, and Steve Carlton led the Phils to their first-ever title in 1980. With Cole Hamels on the mound tonight, all of that is about to change. My Game 5 preview is up on SI.com.

With the help of the various scorecards and ticket stubs I’ve saved over the years, I’ve been able to list roughly 127 games that I’ve attended at Yankee Stadium over the last 20 years. From among all those games, no single memory stands out any more than any single memory stands out from the house I grew up in, or the schools I’ve attended. Yankee Stadium was not so much a landmark that I visited, but a setting for a part of my life. It’s where I grew up as a baseball fan. It’s where I learned to keep score. Where my fandom was forged, challenged, and rewarded. My memory of the Stadium is thus assembled from a large collection of moments. Moments which made up my life as a baseball fan over the last 20 years. What follows is an associative trip through those moments.

The first baseball game I ever went to wasn’t at Yankee Stadium, but at Philadelphia’s old multi-purpose concrete donut, Veteran’s Stadium. Though I knew the Yankees were my team, one I inherited from my grandfathers on both sides of my family, men who remembered Babe Ruth and everything since, I was only getting my feet wet as a baseball fan in the summer of 1986 in the wake of my parents’ separation. Prior to that, my fandom was devoted primarily to music and countless hours of MTV. The Chicago Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle” became something of a gateway drug to professional sports for me in late 1985, and Super Bowl XX was the first sporting event I watched from start to finish. That summer, the Mets were the hip young team that captured the attention of the tri-state area, and my dad took me on a bus trip organized by his office to see the Mets play the Phillies at the Vet. Despite the artificial turf and the fact that the Mets, who could have clinched the NL East that night, lost, I was hooked. Dad took me on another work trip to see the Mets at the Vet the following summer. By then I had sunk my teeth into the sport, collecting baseball cards, pouring over the statistics, and redirecting my attention to the team I had rightly inherited, the Yankees.

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