Charlie Pierce lowers the boom:

One thing is certain. Paige Sultzbach and her teammates deserved a chance to play for the championship. They were the only undefeated team in their league, and they’d already beaten Our Lady of Sorrows twice this season. They’d worked hard enough, and played well enough, to be allowed to win their championship on the field, and not have it handed to them because somebody hiding in a chapel somewhere decided not to give them the satisfaction. For all the theological dust they’ve thrown up to cover their cowardly retreat, Our Lady of Sorrows plainly and simply didn’t want to lose to a girl.

This is an embarrassment to sport and to religion, the functional equivalent of bleeding statues and the face of Jesus on the side of the barn. This is the kind of thing of which Blessed John XXIII was trying to rid the Catholic Church when he called on the council to “throw open the windows” and release the stifling air of repression that had built up over the centuries. Our Lady of Sorrows doesn’t want to play baseball against Paige Sultzbach because it’s run by an organization that harbors an attitude toward women that differs very little from that of Bishop Williamson, its crackpot avatar. And, no, I don’t have to “respect” the stand they took, or the beliefs that prompted it, unless I’m also prepared to “respect” the anti-Semitism and conspiracy-mongering that are at the heart of the beliefs in question. I’m not required to be as classy as Paige Sultzbach, state champion.

[Photo Credit: Carlos Chavez/Arizona Republic]

And sometimes you miss the game. Which is what happened to me last night. I had dinner with my sister and my cousin downtown and didn’t check the score until we left the restaurant. Orioles 2-0.  Later, on the train ride home, I looked at Game Day on my phone again: Orioles 5-3. When I got home the score was tied and I got to see a few at bats before the wife took over the TV to watch Dancing with the Stars (Monday night honey, suck it). I saw Mark Teixeira homer to make it 7-5 Yanks on my computer and then listened to the final inning on the radio. In bed. A multimedia affair.

Shame I missed it because it sounded like an interesting game. And with a swell result:

Yanks 8, O’s 5.

Couple of  injuries–Ivan Nova and Raul Ibanez. Chad Jennings has the low down.

[Photo Credit: Dylan Kasson, Rob Carr/Getty Images]

The Yanks are in Baltimore for a two-game series against the first place Orioles.

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Nick Swisher RF
Raul Ibanez LF
Eric Chavez 3B
Russell Martin C

Nova on the hill.

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

[Photo Credit: LLBwwb]

They are shooting “42” at the legendary Rickwood Field.

Our pal Jeb Stewart sends these pictures.

I dig the inflatable crowd.

Photographs by Russell Lee

at Everyday I Show.

Over at ESPN/New York Matt Ehalt reports that Mark Teixeira will stay in the five-hole for now while Mike Mazzeo offers an alternative line-up.

[Photo Credit: Timmer82]

I inherited a couple of crates of comedy albums this weekend. Here’s some of the haul…

and even a couple of cassettes:

The wife and I went to the Stadium this afternoon to watch Andy Pettitte pitch. On our way in we stopped by the site of the old park.

Ol’ Andy wasn’t awful though he gave up a couple of two-run homers and a few more hard hit balls. He got ahead of hitters for the most part and there were a handful of broken bat-sounding outs, as well. During his delivery, looked like he was lifting his left elbow higher in the air than I recall seeing before, too:

It’s hard to imagine Kevin Millwood pitching a better game all year. His fastball was clocked in the low ’90s, fast enough to keep the Yankee hitters off-balance as he spotted a slider and a change-up for strikes. The Bombers had the bases loaded twice but Derek Jeter hit into a double play (one of two on the day) to end one threat and Mark Teixeira whiffed to end the other.

“What a buzzkill,” said the wife.

We ate hot dogs and roasted in the sun and enjoyed the view from some fine seats we lucked into. It was a dud of a game for the Yanks–Clay Rapada allowed a few more runs to score in the top of the ninth and Nick Swisher got thrown at third trying to stretch a double into a triple to lead off the bottom of the ninth–the icing on the gravy.

Final Score: Mariners 6, Yanks 2.

We didn’t have much to cheer about. Still, one the train ride home, sticky, fatigued, and in need of a shower, the wife turned to me and said, “So who is playing on the Game of the Week tonight?”

And she meant it.

[Picture of Andy: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images, via It’s a Long Season]

Old man Andy Pettitte returns…on Mudda’s Day.

Wishing a happy time of it for all the mother’s out there.

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

[Photo Credit: Tatulie]

[Painting by Leah Giberson]

And some games are comfortable to sleep through. This was one of them. It was a hot spring day in New York and the crowd at Yankee Stadium was sedate. Late afternoon game. Phil Hughes had his best performance of the season. He gave up one run–a beautiful line drive homer by Mike Carp–and pitched into the eighth inning. He was relieved by Boone Logan after giving up an infield single and bloop base hit to left field. Hughes allowed six hits, walked a batter, struck out four, and was never in any real trouble.

Hector Noesi pitched well, too. Had one tough inning, the second, where the Yanks scored four runs, two coming on a home run to right field by Jayson Nix. Raul Ibanez hit a long homer to center field in the fourth and that was all the scoring the Yanks would need though Robinson Cano added an RBI single in the eighth. Derek Jeter added a couple more hits and is now tied with the great Tony Gwynn on the all-hit hits list. The old goat even stole a base.

Yup, there was little tension in this one until the top of the ninth when Carp hit a ball off the top of the wall in right with a runner on first. The umps reviewed the play and awarded Carp second base instead of giving him a homer and one run scored. Logan struck out the next two hitters to end it.

A soft breeze cooled things down as afternoon turned to evening. It was an ideal game to nap through, occasionally opening one-eye to see what was what, the announcers’ voices humming in the background. Only thing that was missing was a hammock. But we’ll take the win.

Final Score: Yanks 6, Mariners 2.

[Photo Credit: Paintings by Gerald Schlosser and Quint Buchholz]

Late Saturday afternoon game at the Stadium. It’s a beaut out there.

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

Chet:

[Photo Via: The Absolute Best Photography]

Jesus Montero returned to the Bronx tonight and greeted his former team with a solo home run. It was nice to see Montero, surely bittersweet for some of his biggest supporters, and cool to see him hurt the Yankees in a way that didn’t hurt too much.

Hiroki Kuroda got into trouble and worked out of trouble for seven innings. He was unspectacular but delivered a tough, veteran performance. Oh yeah, he out-pitched Felix Hernandez. The crushing blow was a three run homer from Raul Ibanez who has hit for power so far this season. Andruw Jones added a pinch-hit, two run homer as the Yanks beat the Mariners, 6-2.

P.S. Robbie Cano went 4-4 and is now batting .308; Alex Rodriguez had two hits and is hitting .297. The slow starters are starting to heat up.

[Photo Via:Elevated Encouragement, Zero, Frank Franklin II/AP]

Hiroki vs. Felix Hernandez.

Jeter SS
Granderson CF
Cano 2B
Rodriguez 3B
Teixeira 1B
Swisher RF
Ibanez LF
Chavez DH
Martin C

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

[Photo Credit: An English Girl in New York]

Over at Verb Plow, Glenn Stout has a thoughtful take on the Art vs. Science approach to appreciating baseball:

There is a war in baseball that rarely comes up on the field of play yet rages in the stands, the press box, in print and online 365 days a year.

On one side of this battle are those that consider baseball a science and believe that numbers tell us more about the game than any other approach. On the other side are those that consider the game an art and hold that baseball is an activity far too complicated and discreet to be contained in a series of calculations.

Neither side speaks much to the other, and when they do those discussions usually degenerate into a series of playground taunts between straw men, Science eschewing the Art crowd as ignorant louts and esthetes blind to logic, and Art denigrating the practitioners of Science as socially stunted denizens of their parent’s basements.

I delicately wandered into this battle a few weeks ago when, in responding to a Facebook discussion Charlie Pierce was involved in on the merits of Mike Cameron versus Dwight Evans I quipped that “Baseball is an art not a science.” Moments later the esteemed Joe Posnanski and a few others gently reprimanded me, one wagging his finger and writing “They don’t keep score at the ballet, Glenn.” Of course I realized the question was not as simple as either comment decreed, so rather than throw dirt bombs back and forth over the back fence I decided to step back, analyze the structure of the disagreement and try to determine if that tells us anything about the veracity of either approach.

[Photo Credit: Fecal Face]

Check out this story by Jessica Bennett on the New York Times morgue over at Storyboard.

[Photo Via: The Five]

The good folks at Deadspin have this excerpt from Frank Deford’s new memoir. It concerns Granny Rice.

Have at it.

Hooray for Hollywood! A Certain Cinema is the bomb.