Over at SNY, Cliff and I remember George with Ted Berg:

I wrote an obituary on The Boss for Sports Illustrated.com:

George M. Steinbrenner III, the most visible, vilified and successful baseball owner of the free-agency era, died on Tuesday morning following a massive heart attack.

In his heyday he was known as many things — most notably, as a bad loser — but there is no denying that he made the Yankees into a winner. He was the shipbuilding magnate who bought the ball club for a relative pittance ($10 million in 1973) from CBS and restored the Yankee brand to its former glory. During his reign as owner, Steinbrenner’s Yankees won 11 American League pennants and seven world championships, more than any other team in that span. The franchise’s value soared into more than a billion as it became the staple product of its own cable network while still leading the big leagues in attendance year after year.

Along the way he exerted his will in an indomitable fashion, displaying legendary impatience and volatility. He bought out his 13 limited partners by the end of his first decade as owner, prompting John McMullen, who later owned the Houston Astros, to say, “Nothing is more limited than being a limited partner of George’s.” During his first 20 years with the Yankees, Steinbrenner hired and fired 21 managers, including Billy Martin five times. Before the 1982 season, Steinbrenner announced that manager Bob Lemon should feel secure in his job; Lemon was fired 14 games into the season. Two years later, Steinbrenner talked about his manager, Yogi Berra, before the season again and said “Yogi will be the manager the entire season, win or lose.” After 16 games, Berra was fired. He would not return to Yankee Stadium for 14 years.

…One former employee of the Yankees told Steinbrenner biographer Dick Schaap, “George Steinbrenner doesn’t want to be loved, and he doesn’t want to be hated, George Steinbrenner wants to be feared.”

“Sometimes,” Steinbrenner once told a reporter, “as much as I don’t want to — I have to inflict pain. But I also inflict some joy.”

There will never be another like him. It is somehow fitting that George died on the day of the All Star Game. The man always did have a nose for publicity, didn’t he?

Over at ESPN.com, the great Bill Nack gives his take.

George Steinbrenner has suffered a major heart attack and is in critical condition. He celebrated his 80th birthday less than ten days ago. Our thoughts are with his family.

Update: According to the Daily News, George Steinbrenner, the man who made the Yankees relevant again, who made them into a giant winner, and the most-hated team in America, is dead. Steinbrenner was often a distasteful man who treated his employees poorly and I spent much of my childhood cursing his existence. But he was also without question one of the most visable and important owners in American professional sports, a true icon. Odd as it is to say, he’ll be missed.

[Photobucket]

John Harper reports on the Nick Swisher Show at the All Star Game:

So none other than Derek Jeter organized an attempted prank by trying to convince Swisher he was supposed to wear his Yankee uniform to the interview session at the hotel ballroom Monday at which everyone wears street clothes.

“Jeet made it his mission to get him,” was the way Alex Rodriguez put it.

Jeter tried to hold back a grin when asked about his plan.

“We had him until this morning,” he said. “They blew it.”

Jeter wasn’t giving up the culprit, but other players said Swisher was spared only because clubhouse manager Robbie Cucuzza didn’t answer his phone Monday morning when the Yankee outfielder called looking for his uniform, and he began to get suspicious.

“If Robbie had answered his phone,” said CC Sabathia, “we had him. Swish asked me like four times, ‘You wearing your uniform?’ Jeet had everyone in on it. We had him going pretty good.”

Swisher didn’t make it out of the first round of the Home Run Derby last night but he wasn’t the worst in the competition either. Either way, the man is soaking it up like we knew he would.

[Photo Credit: Times Square Gossip]

Since the Ding Dong Derby is tonight, how about a good old-fashioned battle from an over-sized ’70s comic?

My friend Alex took me to Grand Sichuan last Friday night, his local Sichuan jernt of cherce. I liked it so much I took Emily the next day. Mostly, so I could have this dish, cucumber salad with scallion sauce, again:

The dressing, from what I could tell, consists of scallion puree, sesame oil, salt and sugar. Man, is it ever tasty. Worth the trip. So is the cumin beef dish (a most curious but delicious experience) and the pork soup dumplings.  

[Photo Credit: Serious Eats]

…and a few laffs too…

Woody Allen Week

The quirky, complex Woody Allen has had, amongst his many dimensions and vocations,  a 40-year career as a movie writer, director and actor.   With about 60 movies to his credit in one way or another, it might surprise folks to read that he considers Zelig (1983) one of his six favorites.

Zelig was remarkable for its time, a feature-length, theatrical  “mockumentary”.  Prior to Zelig, Allen’s own 1969 release “Take the Money and Run” and Albert Brooks’ 1979 film “Real Life” were probably the most recognizable mockumentaries (even before that term was coined by Rob Reiner for his “This Is Spinal Tap“).  Spinal Tap may have been the more mainstream, commercially-popular example of the genre upon its initial release in 1984. However, Zelig placed its subject in a historical context, and the subject’s actions had an impact on world affairs.  This weighty undertaking was then combined with the standard mockumentary “inside joke” humor, fanciful examples of whimsy, and an actual love story, and encompassed all of that within a technical expertise that predated the digital film-making techniques available beginning in the early ’90s.  Its a heady endeavor for a movie that clocks in at a mere 79 minutes.

Set primarily in the 1920s and ’30s, Zelig tells the fictional story of one Leonard Zelig, a seemingly ordinary man who is discovered to have the unique ability to take on the physical characteristics of those around him.  While the premise might seem too thin or flimsy for a feature-length movie (Forrest Gump, anyone?), Allen presents and portrays Zelig as a damaged soul, who seemingly finds acceptance through his “chameleon” nature, albeit with severe (and severely funny) consequences.

Vincent Canby noted this satisfyingly broad palette in his review:

Yet ”Zelig” is not only pricelessly funny, it’s also, on occasion, very moving. It works simultaneously as social history, as a love story, as an examination of several different kinds of film narrative, as satire and as parody.

Co-star Mia Farrow is brilliantly understated in her role as Dr. Eudora Fletcher, a psychiatrist who wants to help Zelig with this strange disorder. She futilely attempts to hypnotize him, and here the film has some of its most riotously dry and funny scenes, with her and Zelig arguing over whether Zelig himself is a doctor.  Allen’s trademark stand-up intonations, timing and vocal patterns imbue the scenes with pure joy.  (4:00 mark onward).

Eventually, she succeeds in hypnotizing him, and through this discovers that he yearns for approval so strongly he physically changes to fit in with those around him. Fletcher’s devotion to finding a cure for Zelig eventually pays off, but not without complications; now Zelig develops a personality which is violently intolerant of other people’s opinions.

I mentioned that this is in fact a love story, as Dr. Fletcher does fall for the lonely, misunderstood, unloved Zelig. While real-life stories of doctors having relationships with their patients may incur scorn, here the storytelling is subtle enough, and the suspension of “reality” legitimate enough, that this “taboo” is overlooked.  Fletcher’s fierce determination to cure Zelig is set against her unfulfilling romance with a man much higher on the social scale.  But something in Zelig, and something about Zelig, beguiles and enchants her to the point of choosing him.

Meanwhile, because of the media coverage of the case, both patient and doctor become part of the popular culture of their time.   Here the technical wizardry and cinematography really come to fore, as Allen’s character seamlessly interacts with the political and socialite stars of the day, from Fanny Brice to Adolf Hitler.

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By Ed Alstrom

Thanks to you Banterites who responded so nicely to my post! I read all of you every day, and have the utmost respect for all of you. Hell, even the jazz talk is right on point.

I wanted to give you one more Shep nugget to chew on. I mentioned in the post a handwritten poem he had showed me (on his own Yankee stationery), that he had penned after an infamous incident. He showed it to me on the sly, and his real fear about it getting around was that it would ‘get him fired’, so seeing as that’s not an issue now, I’ll take the liberty of issuing this as a ‘Banter Exclusive’.

I don’t think it will get him fired, or me in any trouble (I hope not, anyway), and you all deserve to hear it, Plus, it’s brilliant, concise, and pretty damn funny:

“O, Kevin Brown let his team down
When he fractured his hand on the wall.
Better instead he had fractured his head,
Then it wouldn’t have mattered at all!”

I, too, wish there could be a book of these published. He said he had ‘hundreds’ of them!

Editor’s Note: Bill Madden has a tribute to Sheppard today that includes another poem…Don’t miss it.

Ed Alstrom plays the organ on the weekends at Yankee Stadium.

[Drawing by Larry Roibal]

The Yanks gave the Mariners a whuppin’ today–smushed ’em 8-1–and finished the first half in style, winning another series. They’ve got the best record in baseball at 56-32, just two games ahead of the Rays, and five ahead of the Red Sox.

CC Sabathia was a horse once again and his record stands at 12-3, with a 3.09 ERA. Mark Teixeira drove the Score Truck with four hits, bringing his average to .254, Derek Jeter had a couple of RBI, and Marcus Thames hit a dinger. Yup, a most excellent way to go into the All-Star Break.

Sang it:

[Photo Credit: Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images]

Yanks end the first half of the season with ol’ CC on the hill.

Go, git ’em, boys.

World Cup Final this afternoon…

By Ed Alstrom

Like most of you, I just got the news of Mr. Sheppard’s passing. I didn’t know him for as long as some did, but over the course of only 5 years he had become a dear friend with whom I shared many indelible memories.

And that speaks volumes, I think. You’ll be hearing his praises sung by all for several days, but I too will affirm firsthand that for a man of his stature, who is so revered and so famous, to be as kind and friendly as he was to me from the very beginning is, well, almost beyond belief.

From the day I met him, when he calmed me down before my frantic first game as organist at the Stadium by extending a hand and a big grin and saying ‘Welcome to Yankee Stadium!’ (in the exact same tone of voice and volume he delivered it over the PA before every game!), to the last time I saw him when my wife Maxine and I visited he and Mary at their home on Long Island about 6 months ago, and we talked about seemingly everything but baseball for about three hours… he was quite simply one of the finest and most genuine human beings I’ve ever had the pleasure to come in contact with.

Think about this – why would you call an man routinely by the prefix “Mr.”? Unless it’s a total stranger, usually you are forced to do so because it’s someone who commands ‘respect’ only by intimidation, rank, or force (e.g., the contemptible CEO of the company you work for). Rarely these days do you address a man as “Mr.” all the time because you just flat-out love and respect him so much that it actually feels disrespectful to call him by his first name. And that’s Mr. Sheppard to me. Nobody at the Stadium ever told me I had to address him as ‘Mr. Sheppard’; that’s just what everyone did as a matter of course.

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The great Bob Sheppard passed away this morning. He was 99. It’s safe to say that he helped shape our memories in the Bronx as much as any player ever has.

He lead a wonderful life–my uncle Fred is 80 and had Sheppard as a drama teacher in high school out in Queens–and will be missed.

So, okay, the Yanks’ didn’t hit much last night. Felix Hernandez was tough again, though not as dominant as he’d been against the Yanks in New York (without Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada in the line-up, he wasn’t facing the team’s best). It eventually caught up to the Yanks when Joba Chamberlain coughed-up a slim, 1-0 lead in the eighth. Gave up a grand slam of all things as the Yanks fell, 4-1 to the Mariners. Shame because Javy Vazquez was terrific–he had a no-hitter through six.

According to Ben Shpigel in the Times:

“He’s a human being that’s giving everything he’s got out there, so I don’t get frustrated,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “I still believe in him. He hasn’t been the eighth-inning guy for a year and a half. Most of the times we’ve had the lead, he’s done a good job. Tonight, he struggled.”

Girardi is correct, in a sense: of the 31 times Chamberlain has entered with a lead, only four times has he departed with the score tied or the Yankees trailing. One other time, he left with the lead, but Mariano Rivera allowed three inherited runners to score. The larger problem plaguing Chamberlain and, by extension, the Yankees is his unreliability. After every implosion, he calls it a learning experience, but does not seem to be learning from it or to have an explanation.

“You’ve got to go out and pitch,” Chamberlain said. “That’s the art of pitching. You’re not always going to have your best stuff, you’re not always going to have your best command. That’s the journey we have as pitchers.”

Tough night. It might not be fair (since when does fairness have anything with being a fan?) but every time I think of Joba these days, this is what I hear:

[Photo Credit: AP Photo/John Froschauer]

The Yanks got served but good by Felix Hernandez not too long ago in New York. They’ve got to face the tough Seattle ace again tonight. Here’s hoping they give him a hard time. Nobody likes gettin’ played a piano twice in a row, even if the “King” is some kind of pitcher.

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Picture by Bags]

The Yanks erupted for 11 runs in the 3rd inning of the July 3rd game against the Blue Jays.  What was distinctive about this particular outburst was that they failed to score in any other inning.  This got me wondering if there was any record for most runs scored in an inning with no other runs scored by that team in the game.  My record books didn’t have such an entry.  So, I had to crunch the Retrosheet gamelogs myself.

While Retrosheet is missing some linescores from the early history of the National Pastime, I can now say with some reasonable certainty that the Yankees have never scored as many as 11 runs in one inning with no other runs scored during a regulation 9-inning game.

The Yanks did score 11 runs in one inning, with no other runs scored during the regulation nine in a June 26, 1987, 10 inning affair against the Red Sox.  The Sox pummeled Tommy John for eight runs in 1.1 innings, and had a 9-0 lead (with Roger Clemens on the mound) in the bottom of the third, when the Yanks sent 15 men to the plate to take an 11-9 lead.  The Sox tied it up in the fourth, and the score remained that way until Wayne Tolleson singled home Mike Pagilarulo in the 10th for the game-winner off of Calvin Schiraldi.

The Yanks HAVE had 11 runs scored against them, with no other runs scored in regulation, and they still won the game.  On June 3rd, 1933, the Yanks took a 3-0 lead into the top of the 3rd against the Philadelphia A’s, when Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Cochrane and their buddies knocked out starter Don Brennan and then Danny MacFayden.  Fortunately, Walter “Jumbo” Brown came in and threw 6.1 innings of 12-K relief, long enough for the Bombers to tally one in the third and ten in the fifth, for a wild 17-11 victory.

[After original post addendum:  Banter reader calyankee pointed out that on July 2, 1943, the Cleveland Indians scored all 12 of their runs in the fourth inning of a 12-0 whitewash of the Bombers.]

The record for most runs in an inning with zero scored in the rest of the game appears to be 13.  The “lucky 13” occurred on April 13, 2003, when the Phillies sent 16 men to the plate in the top of the 4th against Ryan Dempster,  got only six hits, but also received six unintentional walks (including three with the bases juiced).  The Phils cruised to the 13-1 rout of the Cincinnati Reds.

It’s still warm n muggy in New York but thunderstorms are supposed to cool us off today. Yanks don’t play until late tonight but there are other games on this afternoon, a World Cup match, you know, things.

Hope everyone is having a good Saturday.

[Picture by AB]

On Thursday, the Yankees thought they were going to have to hit against Cliff Lee Friday night. Friday afternoon, they thought they’d be welcoming Lee as a new addition to their rotation. By the time Friday night’s game finally rolled around, neither of those things happened. Instead, Lee was on his way to Texas, and journeyman right-hander David Pauley was on the mound for the M’s.

Pauley did his best Lee impression for five innings, allowing only a Mark Teixeira solo homer in the first and setting down 13 Yankees in a row after Alex Rodriguez’s subsequent single. That streak was broken when Brett Gardner worked a walk to start the sixth and Jose Lopez booted a hard grounder from Derek Jeter to put men on first and second with none out.

That’s where Lee’s absence finally reared it’s head, as Pauley was hooked after just 82 pitches. Former Nationals closer Chad Cordero replaced him and threw gasoline on those little sparks. After Nick Swisher bunted the runners up, Mark Teixeira walked, Alex Rodriguez plated Gardner with a deep sac fly, Robinson Cano cleared the bases with a triple, Jorge Posada walked, and Curtis Granderson singled home Cano.

That made it 5-0 Yankees thanks to a strong outing from Phil Hughes, who said he and Dave Eiland had corrected his arm angle after his last start in which he allowed five runs and three home runs in six innings against the Blue Jays. Hughes protected that early 1-0 lead for five innings then coughed up a lone run in the bottom of the sixth once he had the room to do so. He then held the line there, going seven strong while striking out five and walking no one.

Mark Teixeira added a right-handed home run off Luke French in the ninth for good measure, and David Robertson and Chan Ho Park wrapped up the tidy 6-1 win, a small consolation prize for having lost Lee made all the more satisfying by a strong outing from the Yankee starter who had been struggling most of late as well as the knowledge that Jesus Montero remains a future Yankee.