Over the summer, I had a chance to chat with former Yankee Ron Blomberg, who spent Hall of Fame Weekend here in Cooperstown. Talking to Ron is always a good experience. One of the most affable players I’ve ever met, he is full of positive vibes and ceaseless energy. He seems to have the same level of vigor as he did in his twenties, when he was trying to establish himself as the next great left-handed hitter in Yankee history.

At the time, Blomberg’s smooth right-field swing seemed perfectly tailored for the old Yankee Stadium. In particular, “Boomer” tormented right-handed pitchers, especially those who dared to throw him fastballs. During the 1973 season, he flirted with a .400 batting average in early summer before eventually tailing off. If only Blomberg had been able to avoid the knee problems that eventually shortened his career, he might have become the Jewish superstar that Yankee management had been anticipating since drafting him with the first overall pick in 1967.

While injuries and defensive foibles at first base prevented him from achieving such fame, he did gain special notoriety on Opening Day in 1973. That’s when he came to bat as the first designated hitter in major league history. Facing Luis Tiant of the Red Sox, Blomberg walked in his first plate appearance–and walked right into a permanent place in baseball reference books.

While his status as the game’s first DH has become common knowledge to most fans, it was Blomberg’s off-the-field ability that became well known to baseball insiders and members of the media. Boomer could eat enormously large quantities of food, above and beyond any other major league player of his era. Here’s one example. After one road game, Blomberg sat down and consumed ten steak sandwiches, assisted by a quart of lemonade. By the time that Blomberg made his first road trip into Boston, a local Beantown newspaper featured the delightful headline, “Close Up The Delicatessens, Blomberg’s In Town.”

Especially devoted to fast food, Blomberg regularly consumed four to five large hamburgers during visits to Burger King and did similar damage on sojourns to Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets. “We would go out and eat an entire bucket of KFC,” Blomberg once said proudly. A 3000-calorie meal was an ordinary accomplishment for the insatiable Blomberg. As part of one particularly memorable meal, Blomberg downed 28 (yes, 28!) hamburgers, establishing some sort of unofficial record.

With Blomberg’s reputation as a voracious eater established early in his career, Yankee left-hander Fritz Peterson (another summer visitor to Cooperstown) issued his teammate a challenge. He dared Blomberg to eat five exceedingly spicy jalapeno peppers at one time. Peterson himself feared eating even one of the zesty peppers; he considered the prospects of anyone eating five a downright impossibility. Confident that no one could pull off such a feat, Peterson offered Blomberg a small sum of money if he could successfully handle the fire-breathing snack. Peterson then watched in amazement as Blomberg consumed all five peppers within a matter of seconds. For his efforts, Blomberg won $10 from a disbelieving Peterson.

In spite of his eating habits, Blomberg maintained a trim physique throughout his major league career, with his weight rarely exceeding 185 pounds on a lean but powerful six-foot, one-inch frame. So how did Boomer do it? “We didn’t have personal trainers standing over us,” Blomberg said. “We had no rowing machines. We did construction in the off season. Put in sod. I ran the stairs at Columbia and Fordham University, since I was living in Riverdale at that time. I would run around the block with those ankle bracelets on.”

Blomberg liked to run by himself, but usually found company at the lunch and dinner tables. His list of fellow diners included voluminous eaters like Yankee teammate Walt “No Neck” Williams. Williams and two other Yankees regularly accompanied Blomberg on trips to well-known hamburger chains, where they gladly consumed hamburgers at the bargain basement prices of the early 1970s. “We had Burger King, when the burgers were 39 cents,” Blomberg explained. “We would have four of ‘em for under two bucks. Gene Michael, Jerry Kenney, No-Neck Williams—we would go out and eat together.”

While Blomberg, Kenney, and Michael were all relatively tall and lean—Michael was appropriately nicknamed “Stick”—Williams provided a contrasting view. At five feet, six inches and 190 pounds, Williams featured the physique of a fireplug. Known as a hustling pepper-pot player on the field, Williams treated the art of eating with as much gusto off the field. But he could not match Blomberg in terms of the sheer amount of food consumption.

Later in his Yankee career, Blomberg came into contact with another legendary eater, a man better known for his larger-than-life Afro. Oscar Gamble, who joined the Yankees in 1976, routinely downed eggs, pancakes, and sausage for breakfast. Gamble also developed a special appreciation for the clubhouse spreads offered at various American League ballparks. His stadium lunches included ham sandwiches, hamburgers, ribs, soups, and a variety of cheeses.

After games, Gamble liked to sample local restaurants around the American League for their various dinner fares. He particularly enjoyed trips to Milwaukee, which featured soul food. Gamble loved collard greens, candied yams, and peach cobblers.

With men like Gamble and Williams providing an appropriate level of companionship and encouragement on the food line, Blomberg cemented his standing as a champion eater. That ability, along with a growing reputation, carried over after his retirement from the game. Not so surprisingly, Blomberg became the first major league player to have a sandwich named after him at the famed Stage Delicatessen in New York City. Known simply as the “Ron Blomberg,” the large triple-decker sandwich consists of a combination of corned beef, pastrami, and chopped liver with a Bermuda onion thrown in for good measure.

I could do without the chopped liver, but the rest of the sandwich sounds pretty good to me. Perhaps one day the “Ron Blomberg” will qualify for an episode of “Taster’s Cherce.”

Bruce Markusen likes to dine at Cooperstown area restaurants like Nicoletta’s and the Hawkeye Grill.

AJ Burnett, the Yankees’ lasted version of Nuke LaLoosh, must pitch well if the Yanks are going to repeat as Whirled Champs. The crazy part is, he’s capable of going on a run. He goes tonight in Baltimore. Mark Feinsand reports the latest from pitching coach Dave Eiland:

“I think his confidence and conviction in his pitches is a lot better,” Eiland said. “When he believes in every pitch he throws and trusts that good stuff he has, he’s successful. When he tries to throw a strike, that’s when he gets in trouble, because he backs off a bit. Just trust it and go get ’em.”

Burnett should have that confidence against the Orioles, having pitched to a 2.48 ERA while going 2-2 in four starts against Baltimore this season, including one of his best games of 2010, an eight-inning shutout performance at Camden Yards back on April 29.

“A.J. needs to see the glove and throw right through it,” Eiland said. “Believe in it. Think, ‘I’m better than you and this pitch is going to beat you.’ As long as A.J. is healthy, he has a chance to dominate somebody every time he walks out of that dugout.”

Pat Jordan loves to trash the Yankees because he knows I’m so easy to wind up. He could not care less about the fortunes of any team in any sport other than his beloved Miami Hurricanes (and since I could not care less about college football, giving it back to him is less than fun). So we talk about the Yankees and he gets his digs in.

Last night he goes, “Hey Al, what are you going to do when Carl Pavano goes 2-0 in the playoffs against you guys? Hey, didn’t Pavano once pitch for the Yankees?”

Roars with laughter. “What? He win like three games in five years? Hey, Al isn’t he going for his 17th win tonight?” More laughter.

I tell him that Pavano winning two games agains the Yankees in the playoffs is my worst nightmare. Not even losing to the Twins–how can you be hard-on against the Twins?–just Pavano, who bilked the Yankees out of $40 million and is now pitching well while sporting the worst mustache of the decade.

“Tell you what, Al,” Pat said. “I’ll clean and polish my Glock 9mm and load the clip with hollow point bullets so you can come down here put it in your mouth and pull the fuggin trigger after Pavano beats the Yankees.”

More roaring.

[Photo Credit: Nam Y. Huh/AP]

Over at PB, Steve Goldman writes that Joe Girardi is not to be confused with John McGraw (or even Billy Martin).

I’ll tell you what I see.  Sure, the Yankees dropped a tough game — and a tough series — to the Tampa Bay Rays, and will spend at least two days in second place, but things aren’t as bad as some people might have you believe.

Let’s take a look at Wednesday night’s game.  With Phil Hughes taking the mound in the deciding game of a three-game set, I can’t say that I clicked on the TV with an overwhelming sense of confidence.  Hughes hadn’t started a game in more than a week, and it’s been months since people were talking about him as a Cy Young candidate, but even with his recent struggles he still entered the night with a respectable sixteen wins.

For most of the night the Rays got the Phil Hughes from April, not August.  After the game he spoke about the importance of using all his pitches, and indeed only half of his 106 pitches were fastballs.  He mixed in curves, change-ups, and even a handful of cutters to keep the Rays in check as he retired the first twelve batters to start the game.

Trouble arose in the fifth, just about two seconds after I caught myself wondering how Joe Girardi might weigh an elevated pitch count versus a potential no-hitter.  The thought shattered as quickly as it crystallized when Evan Longoria ended the mini-drama with a single to center.  Two batters later a guy named Dan Johnson deposited a rope into the stands in right, giving the Rays a 2-1 lead.

That single Yankee run had come in the first inning, but it shoulda been woulda been coulda been so much more.  The suddenly-frisky Derek Jeter led off the inning with a single and stole second base as Curtis Granderson fanned for the first out.  After a Mark Teixeira single and an Alex Rodríguez walk loaded the bases, Robinson Canó started the Score Truck rolling with a single to left.  Rays starter James Shield was struggling, the vultures were circling, and it looked for all the world that the Yankees would get off to a good start… and then Lance Berkman bounced into a double play.

The Yankees would put runners on in every other inning save the fifth for the rest of the way, and Shields always looked on the verge of destruction, but somehow he wasn’t pulled until the seventh inning and the Yankees weren’t able to score again until he left.  Chad Qualls entered the game with one and out and the bases empty in that seventh inning and lined up against Jeter.  Jeter spun away from Qualls’s first pitch, but he wasn’t quite quick enough, as the pitch appeared to have ricocheted off his left hand.  I was on the phone with Alex at the time, and our conversation screeched to a halt as we both visualized a playoff run with Ramiro Peña playing shortstop.  As Jeter was tended to at the plate, we were treated to a replay of the hit by pitch — except there was no hit by pitch.  Just as Jeter had dropped his lead hand from the handle in order to spin away from contact, the ball had hit the bat and bounced harmlessly away.  The shrewd Captain somehow thought to instantly grimace and grab his arm, convincing home plate umpire Lance Barksdale that he had been hit.

As if all that weren’t good enough, the replay caught a moment that was pure Jeter.  As he was spinning and grimacing, eyes squeezed tight to shut out the pain, he opened one eye and peeked from beneath the brim of his helmet to notice that Barksdale was awarding him first base.  You know what they say about Jeter.  He’s got an edge.  (Grandpa Maddon, by the way, was too busy getting kicked out of the game to appreciate any of these theatrics.  As it turned out, the ball had dribbled into fair territory after striking the bat, and after instructing one of his players to field the ball and throw it to first, Maddon expected an out to be called.  He was disappointed and eventually removed from the game.  I’d have loved to have been down the tunnel with him to catch his reaction to what happened next.)  What happened next was that Granderson popped a home run to right, scoring Sir Derek Olivier and giving the Yanks a 3-2 lead and a view to a one-and-a-half-game lead in the division.  (When asked after the game where the pitch had gotten him, Jeter honestly replied, “In the bat.  But the umpire told me to go to first.  What am I supposed to do, say no?”  All that, and honest too?)

You’ll find the bottom of the seventh cross-listed under J for Johnson and K for karma.  Hughes was still cruising, having retired six of seven hitters since the Johnson home run in the fifth, before yielding a two-out single to Matt Joyce.  That Man Johnson came up again and caught a 2-1 fastball that drifted a bit and yanked it out to put his club in front for good.  Sure, the Yanks would mount a decent rally in the eighth, and even manage to get A-Rod up in the ninth as the potential go-ahead run, but Rafael Soriano took care of things nicely and the game was over.  Rays 4, Yankees 3.

So some will have you believe that the Yankees are limping out of town a beaten bunch.  Girardi is inept, the Rays are simply too good, the Red Sox are charging, and even the Minnesota Twins are in the hunt for the best overall record.  Everything, it seems, is falling apart.

Really?  As difficult as this series was, don’t forget that the Yankees played these games without Nick Swisher and Brett Gardner and used the second game — the only game they won — to give Ivan Nova his fifth career major league start.  Even so, the Yankees could easily have swept this series given a little luck.  The fact that the Rays could also have swept tells us not that the Rays are going in the opposite direction but that these are the two best teams in the game.

This glass is half full.  Relax and have a drink.

Step up (to get your rep up).

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Over on Baseball Prospectus.com, Kevin Goldstein runs down the seasons of top Yankee pitching prospects.  Some excerpted highlights:

Andrew Brackman: . . . key to his breakout was more consistent mechanics . . the 92-96 mph heat suddenly showed up every time out . . . breaking ball now a big power breaker that gives him a second plus pitch.

Dellin Bentances: 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds . . . stuff is even better (than 6′ 10″ Brackman), with 1-2 mph more on his fastball, an equally solid curveball and even better command.

Manny Banuelos: 19 . . .  at Double-A this year, had a 2.51 ERA, struck out 85 in 64 2/3 innings . . . his velocity went from the low 90s to consistently sitting at 92-95 mph, while his curveball became a more consistent offering with sharp break and his changeup remained the plus pitch it always has been.

That’s Mark Teixeira, who has been playing–and will continue to play–with a broken toe. Mark Feinsand has the details.

The Yanks have lost four straight, seven of their last eight. They’ve been back-and-forth with the Rays for first place all season, a steady give-and-take, a dance. Now, the Rays are up by a half-game. But unless something horrible happens (the Red Sox trail the Yanks by seven games for the wildcard), they are both making the playoffs.

Tonight gives Matt Garza against the kid Nova, in his biggest test yet. Should be fun. I see the Bombers scoring some runs–don’t know if they’ll haul in the Score Truck, but more than enough to win.

Time to get back to the business of being in business.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

What’s with Nick Swisher? The Yankee outfielder with have an MRI–his second in ten days–today. According to the Times:

“Short term, I’m worried about it because I don’t know how long it’s going to take,” Manager Joe Girardi said of Swisher. “But I don’t perceive it to be two weeks or anything like that.”

It has been almost two weeks since Swisher fouled a ball off his knee on Aug. 24 in Toronto, and after a period of slight improvement, he said Sunday in Texas that the pain had started affecting other parts of his body. It grew noticeably worse Wednesday, when he fell after taking a swing, and he ran with a limp his first two games against the Rangers. Swisher, receiving treatment before Monday’s game, was not available to comment.

Tonight’s pitching matchup proved equal to the hype: it was Sabathia vs. Price, and neither ace gave an inch. Both went eight innings and walked two; I guess Sabathia gets a bit of an edge for allowing 2 hits – as opposed to Price’s whopping 3 – and striking out 9 men, compared to Price’s 4. But basically, for most of the game, nobody was hitting anything. Sabathia changed speeds and spotted his pitches precisely; Price’s fastball blew away the Yankee hitters, who for the last week or so (if not, in many cases, a bit longer) have looked old and tired and tonight looked even more so, although to be fair, most people look that way when facing David Price.

So why, after the game, did Joe Girardi say of the two aces, “both of them were tremendous” in the same flat, soul-crushed tones one might normally use to say, “my girl ran off with my best friend and took my dog with her”? Well, the Yankee hitters didn’t do any better against the Rays’ relievers than they had against Price, and with the score tied 0-0 and the game heading into extra innings, Girardi inserted Chad “Abandon Hope” Gaudin and Sergio “Pushing Your Luck” Mitre to pitch the 10th and 11th innings, respectively. The many viewers who pessimistically assumed that Gaudin would lose the game, particularly after he loaded the bases, were proved wrong when instead it was Mitre who allowed the big game-winning homer — to Reid Brignac, the first batter he faced.

Well, according to Joe Girardi’s testy and dispirited post-game press conference, David Robertson and Joba Chamberlain weren’t available (though why Joba wasn’t, having not pitched since Friday, I don’t know), and Mo (possibly because he looked so dreadfully un-Mo-like in his last outing?) was only going to be used in a save situation. Still, that doesn’t necessarily explain why Kerry Wood was pulled after one quick and easy ninth inning, or why Boone Logan only faced one batter, or why Curtis Granderson bunted against a righty to bring up… Collin Curtis. Coming on the heels of a series of brutal Yankee losses, this latest fiasco dunked New York into second place and left Girardi open to plenty of criticism.

Of course, the Yankees haven’t been making Girardi’s job any easier lately – questionable managerial moves are prone to be noticed and leaped upon much more often when the team of the manager in question isn’t hitting worth a good goddamn. And I’m quite sure Girardi didn’t call for two of his team’s most boneheaded plays: Jorge Posada getting thrown out trying to steal second in the fifth inning and, far worse, Brett Gardner getting thrown out trying to steal THIRD with two outs in the tenth. After the game Gardner apologized to his teammates, and in postgame interviews he looked like he wished desperately for the ability to melt into a guilty puddle of shame on the locker room floor, but even he could not really explain what he’d been thinking.

I’m not somebody who feels strongly about winning the division rather than going in through the Wild Card; I just want playoffs. But if the Yankees don’t start playing better, on both sides of the ball, it’s pretty hard to imagine them lasting long in October no matter how they get there. So here’s hoping they rouse themselves from their slump soon, because a beautifully kickass performance like the one C.C. Sabathia gave us tonight should not go to waste. And also because Joe Girardi sounds like he’s maybe three more bad losses away from taking a fungo bat and going after the next reporter who asks him about his pitching choices.

AP Photo

CC Sabathia meets David Price tonight. First place is on the line. Man, this should be good.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

[Picture Credit: Craig Robinson, 2009. Drawn with the iPhone application Brushes.]

Jay Jaffe presents a reason to be cheerful, forget what happened down in Texas…

Cliff Lee allowed just two lousy hits and pitched into the 9th inning. Guess he’s back is okay, sombitch. The Rangers scrapped four runs off Dustin Moseley–who pitched admirably in defeat–as they beat the Yanks, 4-1 to complete the weekend sweep.

The Rays lost, however, so the Yanks are still in first place, by a half-a-game.

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Dude, I couldn’t stay awake last night, missed the end of the game. When I woke up and saw the box score, I was like this:

Now, since I didn’t actually stay up late for the second night in a row to see Mariano lose that Texas Horror Show, I’m trying to remain hopeful. Yeah, even though Cliff Lee pitches today for the Rangers. This is Lee’s first game back from the DL and he hasn’t been his usual dominant self since joining Texas. I could see him shutting the Yanks out for seven innings but I could also see the Yanks touching him up some too. Maybe Derek Jeter has a great game.

It’s all up to that Mystery Man Moseley:

C’mon, son, make like Aaron Small and shut-shut ’em down.

Never mind the hankies, Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

AJ Burnett, yet another of the  inconsistent Yankee starting pitchers making these last few weeks more ulcer-inducing than they would normally be, took the mound on a 92 degree, 42 percent humidity Saturday night in Arlington.

There was dead, damp air all around the stadium, with no wind to speak of.  The Rangers fans were given, and futily used, handheld “paddle” fans to deal with the heat.  All Burnett had was a rosin bag.  AJ used that bag so much in the first four innings, you would have sworn they registered at Tiffany’s.

As you could expect, Burnett’s command, never a strong suit of his, suffered from the sweaty environs.  He couldn’t place his breaking stuff consistently, but managed to pump his fastball by enough Ranger batters to keep himself in the game.

A leadoff walk to Elvis Andrus eventually led to a run when Vlad Guerrero laced a tailing fastball for a single to center.  The Yanks put a rally together against Tommy Hunter in the top of the second as Robinson Cano doubled down the right field line and Lance Berkman knocked a ribbie single to center. Curtis Granderson singled to put runners at 1st and 2nd.

Then the Yanks got a bit of a gift, as Ian Kinsler dropped what could have been an inning-ending DP ball, instead settling for a fielder’s choice force out.  Francisco Cervelli redeemed the gift certificate with a lined single to center, putting the Yanks up 2-1.

After Burnett recorded the first two outs in the third, he walked David Murphy, and then Guerrero pulled an 81 mph pitch to left for an RBI double to tie the game.

Both pitchers were vacillating between swinging strikeouts and walks through the first four and a half innings (Burnett 6K, 3BB; Hunter 8K, 3BB).  Then, a heavy rain appeared as Burnett started the fifth, and the tarp was called for as he had a 2-2 count on Michael Young.  When the rain delay finally ended 59 minutes later, Joe Girardi brought in Chad Gaudin.  So, Friday night’s reliever merry-go-round got an early start Saturday.

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Let’s start fresh, shall we?

Last night was a game to forget. Here’s hoping tonight will be different. Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

I don’t always hate umpire schtick. The emphatic punch-out is part of the style, intensity and enthusiasm of Major League Baseball and these guys are integral to the game’s personality. I also don’t expect them to get every call correct. If they’re hustling, in the right position, and trying to be consistent I don’t get worked up about it. But when a home plate umpire spends an entire game preening and posing, but can’t be bothered to pay attention to the strike zone, it ruffles the feathers. And in rare cases, when umpire buffoonery repeatedly alters the scoreboard, I’m steamed.

Tonight, in the second inning, home-plate-umpire Dale Scott took a run away from the Yanks and second-base ump Alfonso Marquez added one to the Rangers side of the ledger. With bases loaded, Brett Gardner took what should have been ball four to drive in the first run. The pitch was not close, being low and outside (looking at Gameday, and then watching the pitch again on TV reminds me to take Gameday’s location with a grain of salt) and Gardner was noticeably peeved. He swung through strike three to end the threat.

In the bottom of the inning, Kinsler reached on a check swing dribbler in front of Cano. He attempted to steal second later in the at-bat, but Cervelli got a great pitch to throw on and drilled a dart to Derek (his best throw in recent memory) for the easy out. Or so thought everyone other than Marquez. Kinsler pulled back his lead hand and lurched into second base as Jeter swiped the tag across his fingers, chest and face. After watching it several times in replay, there was no angle which definitively showed a tag or a non-tag, but I firmly believe that some part of Jeter’s glove touched some part of Kinsler. Marquez definitely did not have a good idea either way, but decided that even though the throw beat Kinsler by five feet, he would call him safe. The Rangers bunted Kinsler to third and scored him on a ground out.

Jeter was shocked. Cervelli was confused. Vazquez, I’m sure was frustrated. Girardi was pissed. After railing against Marquez he turned to Scott to argue the strike zone. That’s reason for ejection, but Scott gave him a long leash and Girardi decided not to push it any further. The bad umpiring changed a 1-0 lead into a 0-1 hole, but the Yankees got fired up for a few innings after that and ran CJ Wilson out of the game early. Arod hit a big two-run double and Thames and Cervelli followed with two-out run-scoring singles. At 4-1 the Yankees had a nice lead but it would have been much more comfortable at 5-0. Especially with Javy Vazquez on the mound.

Actually, Vazquez was fine. Not good exactly, but adequate. He had bad luck with defense, bloopers, and the bad call. He impressed most when in the most trouble. With bases loaded in the fourth, a jam of his own making, he induced a grounder down the first base line that I’m sure most of us thought was easy pudding for Teixeira. I don’t know if he got a bad first step or missed the ball off the bat or if it just skidded through faster than it appeared off the bat, but Teix was nowhere near it. Vazquez got mad.

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Clifford does like Clifford do.

Yanks-Rangers in a possible playoff preview (minus, you know, a couple of aces for the Yanks).

Should be funski.

Let’s go Yan-Kees.

Two all-pros: