[Picture by Laurie Rollitt]

Take me out to the Polo Grounds.

Serious Eats offers a list of 10 Italian cookbooks. I’m glad they included one from Diane Seed.

Djano.

[Photo Credit: Bags ]

Another Yankee favorite by Summer Anne Burton.

One of the least reported aspects of Derek Jeter’s game is his sense of playfulness on the field.

Last night, Eduardo Nunez almost dropped a pop up in the ninth inning. The wind took the ball and Nunez for a ride but he eventually snagged the ball and made the out. Sure enough, there was Jeter with a big smile on his face. If Nunez had dropped the ball he wouldn’t have laughed–at least not until they were out of camera range. He is always tactful.

Still, Jeter never gets cheated on having fun, does he?

This is supposed to be fun, dammit.

The Yankees notched their first victory of the 2012 season at the expense of the Baltimore Orioles by a score of 6-2. Perhaps the opening sweep made me uneasy in anticipation of the first win, because this game was not the walk in the park the final score indicates.

Ivan Nova mixed in lots of hits, whiffs and double plays in just the right order to hold the O’s to two runs over seven innings. David Robertson picked up where he left off and had a scoreless but shaky eighth. Mariano got the final three outs but allowed another booming extra-base hit and the final out was a low screamer that almost cut Gardner off at the knees in left. Mo’s pitches were in the 88-90 mph range and mostly not that impressive.

After the two teams exchanged runs in the first, the Yankees grabbed the lead for good in the fourth. The Yankee offense generated pressure all night long, but untimely inning-ending, bases-loaded double plays by Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez in the sixth and eighth kept the score close.

Matt Weiters and Derek Jeter each had four hits. The only time either of them failed to reach base was when Derek Jeter got out on purpose in the sixth.

The unwashed masses might think the idea of getting out on purpose runs contrary to the goal of scoring as many runs as possible, but what they fail to realize is that the sacrifice is as much a gift to the gods as it is a gift to the other team. Pious managers and devoted players – nobody has to tell Derek Jeter to get out on purpose – offer up these gifts not so much to score runs or to win baseball games, but in deference to the mystic forces of playingtherightway. Amongst the observant, this is not a strategy but a mark by which they can declare themselves saved.

Back in the game where people were trying, each team was drilling the ball all over the park. The Orioles out hit the Yankees 13 to 11 but were terrible with runners on base. The difference was that Nova, Robertson and Rivera didn’t walk anybody and the O’s issued seven free passes. Two of them scored in the fourth inning rally and the Orioles never caught up.

Ivan Nova bagged the victory, and, though he wasn’t dominant or anything, he’s the latest example of why we shouldn’t give a flying fig about spring training stats. Are you healthy? Is your velocity at or near an expected level? Great, the rest is meaningless.

The middle of the order isn’t doing much thus far so hopefully they kick in gear and start up a winning streak. For now, here’s # 1, courtesy of a man called Nova.

New town, new team, new day.

Derek Jeter, SS
Nick Swisher, RF
Robinson Cano, 2B
Alex Rodriguez, DH
Mark Teixeira, 1B
Curtis Granderson, CF
Andruw Jones, LF
Rusell Martin, C
Eduardo Nunez, 3B
Ivan Nova, P

Get ’em, boys.

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Meanwhile, over in Japan…our pal Mr. Ok Tokyo Jazz’s kids get ready to watch the Yankee game on-line.

“They are just starting to understand ‘home run’ means Daddy is happy and that ‘Joe Girardi’ is a curse word in our home,” says Jazz.

I’m proud to host a week of Yankee illustrations by talented Summer Anne Burton. If you are not following her work, be sure to bookmark her site: Every Hall of Famer.

“Large Figurative Sculpture” By William King (date unknown)

Dig this gallery of old New York over at our favorite hang, How To Be a Retronaut.

More basic goodness from David Lebovitz.

If George Steinbrenner were still alive… I just couldn’t resist starting this week’s column with a reference to the late “Boss.” Surely, he would not have been pleased by the Yankees’ season-opening performance in Tampa Bay. Three straight losses to start the season, lowlighted by poor pitching in the first two games and a nonexistent offense in the finale, would have been enough to ignite a Steinbrenner tantrum or two, at least in his prime years.

I won’t offer up any tantrums here. After all, it is only three games, and three games against one of the better teams in the American League. But then again, this series did not exactly produce a highlight reel of great moments in Joe Girardi’s managerial career. We’ve already heard plenty about his panic-stricken decision to intentionally walk the immortal Sean Rodriguez in the very first inning of game one, setting up Carlos Pena’s backbreaking grand slam. So there is no need to add charcoal to that fire.

Just as egregious was Girardi’s decision to start Eduardo Nunez in the second game while giving Derek Jeter a half-day off as the DH. Here we go with the issue of rest, yet again! It is beyond ridiculous that Jeter needed any kind of rest in the second game of the season. The counterargument that Jeter’s legs needed a break from the artificial turf of Tropicana Field doesn’t hold much water either, since most of the Rays’ infield is actually covered with dirt, like a traditional grass infield, and not the harder artificial surface. Whatever the rationale for the Jeter/Nunez move, the Yankees paid the price on Nunez’ first inning error, which led to two unearned runs against a shaky Hiroki Kuroda.

Later in the game, Girardi inexplicably allowed lefty specialist Clay Rapada to face the Rays’ best hitter, Evan Longoria, who responded with a ringing double that was nearly a home run. How could Girardi have allowed this matchup to take place? This is the same Rapada who allowed right-handed batters to hit .692 against him in 16 plate appearances last season!

In the third game, Girardi made another bad lineup decision. For some reason, he decided to play the defensively challenged Raul Ibanez in right field, a position that he has not played since 2005. Ibanez is bad enough in left field, but putting him in the unfamiliar territory of right field, and in a domed ballpark where it is often difficult to pick up the flight of the ball against the roof, is just begging for misadventure. Sure enough, Ibanez delivered with his first error of the season. If Nick Swisher absolutely needed a day off from right field–and to me it’s questionable that he needed a day off so early in the season–then Girardi should have played Andruw Jones in right field and simply foregone the platoon advantage.

Clearly, this was not a good weekend for Girardi, whose obsession with “rest” has become almost comical, and has overridden all other managerial tenets of common sense. I guess there’s little hope that Girardi will change this tendency; we can only hope that he starts to show a better feel for in-game managing, especially with regard to intentional walks and the decision to ever let Rapada face a right-handed batter the quality of Longoria.

Still, I’m not going to panic. Coming out of spring training, the Yankees were the consensus pick of the media to win the American League East. I believe they remain the favorites, even in a stacked division. CC Sabathia and Mariano Rivera will pitch better, Mark Teixeira will start to hit (though he still needs to stop the pull-the-ball tendencies), and the depth of the pitching staff will win out.

But check back with me again if the Yankees lose two out of three to the Orioles…

***

Prior to the tempest in Tampa Bay, the Yankees generated some controversy on the final day of spring training when they made room for newly acquired backup catcher Chris Stewart by demoting Francisco Cervelli to their Scranton/Wilkes Barre, affiliate, also known by its alternate nickname, the Empire State Yankees.

More than a few Yankee fans were outraged by the decision, but you can put me in the opposite camp on this issue. Despite his reputation as a superior defender, Cervelli has actually become a major liability behind the plate. He makes far too many errors, a total of 19 over the last two seasons combined. Even more alarmingly, he has thrown out a scant 14 per cent of opposing base stealers in each of the last two seasons. That’s such a paltry number that it’s reminiscent of the throwing troubles of Johnny Blanchard and Cliff Johnson, two former Yankee backup receivers of decades gone by.

At least Blanchard and “Heathcliff” could hit, and with enough power to make them game-changers in the late innings. Cervelli is a .260 hitter with no power; he has marginal offensive talents, and not nearly enough offensive potential to make up for his poor throwing and erratic decision-making.

In regards to Stewart, he’s reminiscent of Kevin Cash as a hitter, but at least he brings legitimate defensive chops to the position. He’s an excellent catcher with a strong arm, having thrown out nearly 40 per cent of basestealers in 2011. As long as the Yankees don’t ask him to play more than twice a week, he’ll be acceptable–at least until Austin Romine is able to return from his back problems. And perhaps in the interim, Cervelli can change his ways. At one time Cervelli was a good defensive catcher; it might not be too late for him to regain his fielding prowess playing every day at Triple-A…

***

Finally, I’m a little disappointed the Yankees received nothing for Justin Maxwell, other than the waiver price the Astros paid for in claiming him on Sunday. Maxwell’s value should have been at its apex after a great spring in which he impressed everyone with his game- breaking speed, versatile defensive ability, and live bat. I know that he’s 28 and not anyone’s idea of a top prospect, but he has the tools to be a very good fourth outfielder–and that should carry some value. It seems to me that the Yankees should have at least extracted a Grade-C prospect from the Astros or the Orioles, the two teams who expressed the most interest in Mad Max during the spring.

Maxwell couldn’t crack the Yankees’ bench, but he has enough talent to play regularly for the awful Astros. Houston is playing three unproven kids in its baby cradle outfield (J.D. Martinez, Jordan Schafer and Brian Bogusevic). Martinez is regarded as the Astros’ top prospect, but Schafer is a failed prospect out of the Braves’ system and Bogusevic is off to a slow start, so Maxwell figures to receive plenty of opportunity at Minute Maid Park.

Maxwell is a fun player to watch. I’ll be rooting for him to do well for the Astros, who could use all the help they can muster.

Bruce Markusen writes “Cooperstown Confidential” for The Hardball Times.

And I’m totally relaxed.

I liked this bit from Emilie Miller’s piece in the Times about growing up as the daughter of a famous baseball broadcaster:

To spend so much time in a space that fills night after night with tens of thousands of fans who love a team deeply, and to grow up surrounded by people who, at every pay level, love where they work, was beautiful. I still love sitting in the stands before the stadium opens; it feels like a cathedral, filled only with potential and the sound of flags whipping in the wind. Yet baseball is also the reason I will be forever fond of obnoxiously loud pop music and hot dogs.

When we did not go to the ballpark, Holly and I listened to games on the radio to help us sleep. During the off-season, my father would play cassettes of old games, which, he contends, acted like a sedative.

I never taped games but it sounds like a cherce idea. I used to listen to comedy albums as a sedative: Cosby, Carlin–especially “Occupation: Foole” and “Class Clown”–the 2000 Year Old Man albums, the Woody Allen double lp, “A Star is Bought” by Albert Brooks. They calmed me down and were good company.

[Photo Credit: Stable]

Phil Hughes pitched well. Jeremy Helickson pitched better–changed speeds beautifully and had control–to the tune of 3 hits over 8.2 innings. Nice way to celebrate his 25 birthday.

Rays 3, Yanks 0.

The Yankees hit the ball hard again but without any luck–right at fielders. Then bupkis the few times they had runners on base. Bum luck and it’s just one of those things, man. It won’t last.

Raul Ibanez made an error that led to a run, Hughes and Boone Logan gave up solo dingers. And that was that.

So, a lost weekend in Tampa to start the year. Drag.

At least the Knicks won an exciting game against the Bulls at the Garden. Forty-three for Melo, including two huge three pointers, one at the end of regulation, another near the end of overtime.

Yo, where’s the holiday candy at?

Happy Easter.

Yanks will win today, K? No matter what you think of Mr. Big Brain, K?

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Robinson Cano 2B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Nick Swisher DH
Raul Ibanez RF
Brett Gardner LF
Chris Stewart C

Phil Hughes gets the start.

Never mind the fretting: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Craig Robinson]

This here is how Yankee fans look (and presumably feel) after the first two games…

S’okay, they’s gunna win today.

There are two ways you can manage a game, I suppose. You can manage in a vacuum, simply making moves based on the game in front of you without considering the context of the standings or the number of games left in your season, or you can manage according to the calendar, knowing that games in April or May don’t carry the same importance as those in September or October.

Yankee manager Joe Girardi appears to have chosen the latter method, which is fine, except that he seems to be working from a calendar that says September instead of April. On Friday night he made one of the most curious managerial decisions of all time when he ordered his staff ace to issue an intentional walk in the first inning of a scoreless game (the first game), a move that produced a grand slam off the bat of Carlos Peña.

On Saturday night he confirmed his inability to read the calendar by choosing to give Derek Jeter a half-day off as DH. You know, because he must’ve been so exhausted after playing shortstop for one consecutive game without a single day off. How long did it take for that decision to bite Girardi in the ass? Not long.

Desmond Jennings, the first Tampa Bay hitter in the bottom of the first inning, grounded a ball out to shortstop where Eduardo Núñez was waiting. Núñez booted it, and Jennings reach base safely on the error. It could’ve been a meaningless play in a meaningless game in the first week of April, but it wasn’t. Hiroki Kuroda was on the mound for the Yanks, and he could’ve made the error forgettable by zipping through the next three hitters, but he didn’t. He took about ten minutes to strike out Carlos Peña, but Jennings stole second on strike three, then advanced to third on an Evan Longoria ground ball.

With two outs and a runner on third, Kuroda seemed to feel the moment a bit. He walked Matt Joyce and Ben Zobrist to load the bases, and for the second straight day a Yankee starter found himself facing a game-changing moment with two outs in the first inning. Just as Sabathia had the night before, Kuroda failed here. Scott laced a single up the middle, and the Rays had a 2-0 lead.

The Rays would add a run in the second on an RBI single from Peña, and another in the third courtesy of a large home run from Matt Joyce, and the Yanks were staring down a 4-0 deficit against lefty David Price. A tall order, to be sure, but after they scraped together two runs in the fourth on RBI singles from Andruw Jones and Eduardo Núñez, it looked like they might be able to make a game of it.

They wouldn’t.

By the time the game moved into the ninth inning, the Rays held a comfortable 8-2 lead. Curtis Granderson led off with a triple and came home on a sacrifice fly from pinch-hitter Raúl Ibáñez, but that was only important to those keeping score or playing fantasy baseball. When Russell Martin walked and pinch-hitter Eric Chávez singled, however, there was something close to hope. When Nick Swisher launched a no-doubter into the right field seats to cut the lead to 8-6, there was actual hope. When Robinson Canó followed that with a gritty seven-pitch walk to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Alex Rodríguez, there was possibility.

Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon had made one quirky defensive decision after another through the first two games, but finally he found himself in a position where there was only one move he could make. He brought in his closer, Fernando Rodney. As the stadium awoke to the drama and Michael Kay’s voice rose to a fever pitch, the Rodney-ARod confrontation lasted all of five seconds. A-Rod pounded a grounder just to the left of second base, the type of hit that rockets into center field against most American League defenses, but the Li’l Professor had his infield positioned perfectly, and second baseman Sean Rodríguez only had to take a couple steps to his left to field the ball easily and throw to first for the final out. Rays 8, Yankees 6.

Let’s get one thing straight here. It’s not time to panic. I mean, what are we, Red Sox fans? Even if the worst-case scenario plays out and the Yankees lose on Sunday to drop to 0-3, it will only serve to remind us of 1998, and that season worked out fine. Even so, it would be nice to get a win. No pressure, Mr. Hughes. No pressure at all.

[Photo Credit: Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images]