Good thing the Score Truck showed up last night what with a revitalized Francisco Liriano going for the Twins this afternoon.
Andy Pettitte returns for the Yanks. Looks like a beautiful day for it. The wife and I will be in the house.
[Photo Credit: Bags]
The Yankees haven’t played many see-saw games this year, but Friday night’s homestand-opening tilt against the Twins teetered back and forth repeatedly before the final blow was struck in the seventh.
A.J. Burnett struggled early on, working around a single and a walk in the first, then getting into a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the second after Jason Kubel singled, Delmon Young walked, and Alex Rodriguez flubbed an Alexi Casilla bunt. Feeling the pinch from home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez, Burnett walked Nick Punto on four pitches to force in the first run of the game, but then wrangled a Denard Span comebacker in his baggy jersey to start a 1-2-3 double play and struck out Orlando Hudson to strand all three remaining runners.
Burnett settled down from there, which allowed the Yankees to return serve against Twins starter Scott Baker in the fourth. Brett Gardner led off that frame with a no-doubter home run into the right field bleachers, his second roundtripper of the season. Mark Teixeira followed with a single, moved to second on a walk to Alex Rodriguez, and came around to score on a double by Robinson Cano. Baker, who bears a resemblance to actor Joseph Gordon Levitt, then struck out the weak underbelly of the Yankee order (Randy Winn, a mid-game replacement for Nick Swisher whose bicep tightened up again in his first at-bat though a subsequent MRI was negative and Swisher said he was fine, Marcus Thames, and Juan Miranda) to hold the score at 2-1.
The Twins tied things right back up in the top of the fifth when, with two outs, Joe Mauer connected for an opposite-field solo homer. The Yanks then got that run back in the bottom of the fifth when, again with two outs, when Gardner singled and Teixeira doubled him home. In what initially seemed like a big play, Rodriguez followed with a single to left, but third base coach Rob Thomson sent Teixeira home from second against the strong arm of Delmon Young, who threw Tex out by about 20 feet, ending the inning and keeping the Yankee lead at 3-2.
That score held until the seventh, when with Span on second via a single and a productive out, Joe Girardi hooked Burnett at exactly 100 pitches (just 51 of which were strikes) and brought in Damaso Marte to face the left-handed Mauer and Justin Morneau. Marte, who hadn’t pitched since the previous Saturday, entered without much command or much break on his slider and promptly gave up a game-tying opposite-field single to Mauer.
With the speedy Span sprinting home, Brett Gardner made an ill-advised and wild throw home allowing Mauer to go to second, but with first base open and Joba Chamberlain heating it up in the bullpen, Girardi opted not to walk Morneau, who has been among the hottest players in the league in the early going, and have Chamberlain pitch to the vastly inferior right-hander Michael Cuddyer. Instead, Marte threw his rusty slop at Morneau, and Morneau smacked a double, which with Mauer on second thanks to Gardner’s bad throw, plated the go-ahead run for Minnesota. Only then did Girardi hold up four fingers, instructing Marte to walk the righty and stay in to pitch to the lefty Kubel, who flew out to end the rally.
Between Thomson’s send of Teixeira, Gardner’s throw, and Girardi’s excessive faith in a rusty Marte, it looked like the Yankees were in the process of kicking away a close game, but in the bottom of the seventh, team sparkplug Francisco Cervelli led off by beating out an infield single to Orlando Hudson’s right and Derek Jeter followed by ricochetting a ball off Baker’s knee and into shallow right field for an unusual double. That bounced Baker at exactly 100 pitches (72 of which were strikes). Twins manager Ron Gardenhire called on lefty Brian Duensing, last year’s ALDS Game 1 starter, who got Gardner to fly out for the first out. Gardenhire then had Duensing intentionally walk Mark Teixeira to set up a force at every base and brought in groundballing ace setup man Matt Guerrier to face Alex Rodriguez.
The catch is that Rodriguez had three home runs in six prior at-bats against Guerrier. Rodriguez hit Guerrier’s first offering just foul over third base and grimaced at the loss of what he thought was a go-ahead double. Guerrier’s next pitch was a hanging sinker up in the zone and Rodriguez crushed it into the left-field box seats for a game-breaking grand slam.
The Yanks added an extra run in the eighth when Juan Miranda doubled and Francisco Cervelli shot a ball into the right-field corner that kicked past Cuddyer and allowed Cervelli to cruise into third with an RBI stand-up triple. Around that, Joba Chamberlain struck out the side in the eighth, and Mariano Rivera worked a 1-2-3 ninth, getting ahead 0-2 on every batter. Yankees win 8-4.
Nice way to kick off a homestand.
In each of the last two seasons, the American League Central was decided by one run in the 163rd game of the year. I don’t expect things will be quite so close this year. The Twins, who lost 1-0 to the White Sox in a one-game playoff in 2008 then beat the Tigers 6-5 in the 12th inning of Game 163 last year, are the clear class of the division, as much because of the backward steps taken by Chicago and Detroit (the Yankees’ just-completed series loss to the Tigers notwithstanding), as because of the slight improvements to the Minnesota squad.
In conjunction with their move into their new outdoor ballpark, Target Field, the Twins finally healed some of the wounds from the horribly-botched Johan Santana trade by ridding themselves of out-machine Carlos Gomez (who came over from the Mets in that deal and posted a .293 OBP in 963 plate appearances over the last two seasons) just in time for Santana’s supposed successor, lefty Francisco Liriano, to finally return to something resembling his his 2006 All-Star form three years after Tommy John surgery.
Liriano’s reemergence as the staff ace has been a key to Twins early success this year as the Twins have been the second stingiest team in the AL (albeit well behind the Rays and only slightly ahead of the Yankees[!]). While you’re still in a good mood from the mention of the Yankees right there I’ll add that another reason for that success has been Carl Pavano, who (brace yourself) leads the Twins in innings and K/BB (thanks to just seven walks in as many starts) and is second to Liriano with a 3.30 ERA.
The Twins also rival the Tigers for the junior circuit’s best bullpen. No Joe Nathan? No problem. Jon Rauch thrived as a closer for the Nationals in 2008 before being traded to Arizona, and he’s thriving in the role again for the Twins, posting a 1.93 ERA making like Pavano by posting a stellar K/BB largely due to a dearth of walks (just two in 13 appearances). That on top of typically fine work from Matt Guerrier and strong early showings from sophomore lefty Brian Duensing and veteran LOOGY Ron Mahay give the Twins an excellent end game.
At the plate, the Twins trail only the Yankees in all of baseball in on-base percentage with a team mark of .358. Credit defending AL MVP Joe Mauer (.413), major league OBP leader Justin Morneau (.486), center fielder Denard Span (.379), free agent second baseman Orlando Hudson (.369), and the man who eliminated the Twins with a solo homer in 2008 and has recently eliminated a struggling Jason Kubel from the lineup, 39-year-old Jim Thome (.384).
Unfortunately, despite finally going out and getting a qualified middle infield duo this winter, the Twins still have Nick Punto and Brendan Harris in the lineup. Harris because J.J. Hardy, the shortstop acquired from the Brewers for Gomez, was hit in the write with a pitch and is on the DL. Punto, because while they got Hudson and Hardy to fill the middle infield, they forgot to get a third baseman. Punto is now in his sixth (sixth!) season as a starter or replacement starter for the Twins. In that time, he has hit .250/.323/.328 yet the Twins still haven’t figured out that they win despite him, not because of him.
Nonetheless, with their pitchers keeping runs off the board and the bulk of their lineup keeping outs off the board, the Twins are on pace to post the second best record in franchise history and best since the original Senators went to the World Series in 1933. I don’t expect the Twins to keep up their 105-win pace (they haven’t faced the Yankees, Rays, or Rangers yet), but I do expect them to win the AL Central with ease.
Scott Baker starts tonight for the Twinks. The team’s best pitcher a year ago, he’s third in line this year despite little change in his own performance save some BABIP correction (from .277 to .311). In his last two starts, against the Tigers and Orioles, Baker has put up this line: 15 IP, 10 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 14 K. He faced the Yankees once last year and gave up five runs on eight singles, a double, and two walks in just three innings. He faces A.J. Burnett, who looks to get back on the ball after his failure at Fenway.
Francisco Cervelli starts for Jorge Posada, who gets a routine day off after two days on, which might be a pattern going forward. Brett Gardner continues to bat second (though I’m waiting for the Yankees to swap him and Jeter in the order). The lineup behind Robinson Cano is Nick Swisher, back from biceps tightness, Marcus Thames, in left against a righty, Juan Miranda at DH, and Cervelli.
For Mr. Barra:
By Allen Barra
It’s a shame that Robin Evan Roberts couldn’t have picked a more fortunate day to die. His passing on May 6 Thursday was lost in the media swirl surrounding the arrest of former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor on rape charges and the speculation over whether Lebron James would be playing next season in Cleveland or New York. Before his memory fades entirely, a few things about his life and career should be remarked on.
Roberts pitched in relative obscurity for most of his 19 big league seasons, and his death at age 83 was relegated to the status of second-tier news. Now, after some reflection, we can put his career in perspective: he was baseball’s greatest pitcher since World War II and one of the most important men in baseball history.
He was also scandalously unappreciated. In 1960 the Associated Press conducted a survey of “164 Top-Flight Sportswriters” and “76 Nationally-Known Public Figures” to determine “The All-Star Team of the Past Decade.” Roberts didn’t make the team. He finished second to the Yankees’ Allie Reynolds. Allie had a fine career, but he was only great after coming to the Yankees in 1947. He won 131 games over the next eight seasons, and that was pitching for the New York Yankees, who won six World Series over that span.
Pitching in seven seasons from 1948-1954, Robin Roberts won 137 games, and that was while pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies, who won one National League pennant in that time. For most of those season, the Phillies were the worst team in their league, or at least would have been if it hadn’t been for Robin Roberts. From 1952-1954, Roberts won 74 games and lead his league in victories each year. (He also lead the league in 1955.)
Three decades after the AP’s poll, I talked to Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who had voted for Reynolds over Roberts, and asked him why. He told me that he had voted for Reynolds mainly because he had beat Roberts in Game Two of the 1950 World Series (2-1 in 10 innings on a Joe DiMaggio home run.)
In 1976 Roberts was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his fourth year of eligibility. Whitey Ford, practically his exact contemporary, retired a year after Roberts and was elected in 1974 in his second year of eligibility. Mr. Ford, an undeniably great pitcher, won 236 games in his career, 50 fewer than Roberts. Needless to say, Mr. Ford pitched for the Yankees.
Rich Ashburn, the only other Phillies player of note during the 1950s and later a popular sportscaster in Philadelphia, once asked me rhetorically, “With all due respect to Whitey, if he had pitched for the Phillies and Robin had pitched for the Yankees, who do you think would have made it to the Hall of Fame first?”
The Yankees, always the Yankees. After Roberts was passed over in the 1974 HOF voting, novelist James Michener wrote in the New York Times, “If he [Roberts] had pitched for the Yankees, he would have won 350 games.” I wrote pretty much the same thing in my 2004 book, Brushbacks and Knockdowns, except I projected 340, which would have made Roberts one of the seven winningest pitchers in baseball since 1901 and one of the four winningest since 1945.
But James Michener and I were both wrong. If Roberts had pitched for the Yankees, he would never have won that many games. For the best team in baseball, the Casey Stengel era Yankees had very few 20 game winners; Stengel seldom went with a regular rotation and often held his best pitchers out for important games. (There was also a rumor that the Yankees front office liked to limit the win totals of their starters so they could hold their salaries down.)
If, however, Roberts had pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers of his era, that would have been a different matter. “Robin Roberts on the mound,” says Roger Kahn, author of the definitive book on the Brooklyn Dodgers, The Boys of Summer, “Forget it. Backed by Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges? Put Robin Roberts on those Dodgers teams and they’d have been the New York Yankees.”
Not that Roberts had anything to be embarassed about. He won more than 20 games six times, including going 28-7 in 1952 for a Phillies team that played under .500 ball when he wasn’t on the mound. He lead the National League for five consecutive seasons in innings pitched and complete games. And, amazingly, he is only in the record book now for allowing the most home runs (505) of any pitcher and for having the lowest batting average (.167) of anyone with more than 1500 at-bats.
His greatest contribution to baseball, though, came off the field in 1966 when he helped recruit a former economist for the steelworkers union named Marvin Miller as executive director of the players union. “I don’t think any former ballplayer,” says Mr. Miller, “with the possible exception of Jackie Robinson, had the respect and gratitude of more players.”
In the end, Roberts had no regrets. He once told me, “I had a tremendous career, and I pitched for a whole decade in front of some great fans.” Surely he is the only player in baseball history to accuse the Phillies fans of the era of being great. “Let me tell you,” Mr. Ashburn said. “The Phillies fans in that time were the booingest bunch in the major leagues. But they never booed Robin Roberts.”
Allen Barra’s latest book, Rickwood Field: A Century in America’s Oldest Ballpark (Norton), will be published in June.
Ted Berg chats with Kid Gleeman:
In case you haven’t heard, salt is bad. Harumph. Still, Heinz is changing their ketchup recipe to include less salt.
Will that mean less flavor? We’ll find out this summer.
[Photo Credit: Bright Lights Dim Beauty of Chicago]
LeBron James had a poor series against the Celtics and a disappointing game last night as he turned the ball over nine times. The Cavs lost, their season is over. Think Alex Rodriguez is over-analyzed? What’s-Wrong-With-LeBron just bumped you out of the top spot, Papi.
James did record a triple double. Guy I know called it “hollow” this morning. How 19 rebounds are hollow I don’t know but James didn’t shoot the ball well and played tight (and he could well be injured).
Anyhow, the loss puts the LeBron-to-the-Knicks-Hype Machine at center stage round these parts. It might be a longshot, but it sure would be great to have a star like James playing in the Garden every night, wouldn’t it?
I have to admit that I was completely stumped as to what I should write about in this week’s edition of “Card Corner.” Having already exhausted the futility and frustration of the 1990 Yankees, I found myself searching for a new theme. Yet, nothing came to mind.
Then came a barrage of Reggie Jackson-related material in Tuesday’s editions of The Banter. Well, Reggie is always ripe for interesting discussion. I then remembered that I needed to correct an item from a “Card Corner” that appeared in this space back in December of 2007. I had written that Jackson, when he showed up to work for Oakland in the spring in 1972, had become the first major leaguer to sport a mustache since Wally Schang of the old Philadelphia Athletics in 1914.
Wrong. Dead wrong. It’s just not true that Jackson was the first man since Schang to go the mustachioed route. As friend and researcher Maxwell Kates has pointed out, Richie Allen (as he was called back then) actually wore a mustache with the St. Louis Cardinals during the 1970 season. (Felipe Alou might have also worn a mustache with the A’s in 1970, but that is less certain. Another possibility is Richie Scheinblum, who might have grown a mustache with the Cleveland Indians in 1969.) In fact, Allen’s 1971 Topps card, which was photographed after he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, shows a mustache in clear view. So Jackson did not set a new trend. He merely continued what Allen had done over the previous two seasons.
With that cleared up, Jackson is good fodder for conversation, especially when a new in-depth biography about his life has just hit the Internet bookshelves. I have not yet read Dayn Perry’s book, but I’m sure that he has touched upon the following subjects in far greater depth. In particular, the start of Jackson’s professional career, along with his overlooked years in Oakland, have always fascinated me. So let’s take a closer look.
By all rights, Jackson should have started his career in New York, but with the Mets, not the Yankees. In 1966, the Mets owned the No. 1 pick in the June amateur draft. They faced a choice of drafting Jackson, a young African-American outfielder out of Arizona State, or a left-handed, power-hitting catcher named Steve Chilcott. With Jackson destined to make the major leagues within two seasons, the Mets would have formulated one of the game’s best and most athletic outfields: smooth-swinging Cleon Jones, who would bat .340 during the miracle season of 1969; Gold Glover and power-hitting Tommie Agee in center; and the rifle-armed Jackson in right field. I can’t think of any outfield in that era that would have combined such speed, defensive range, and power, with the possible exception of the early 1970s Giants outfield that featured Willie Mays in center flanked by a young Ken Henderson (look up his early numbers) in left field and a budding Bobby Bonds in right field.
As we all know, the dream outfield of Jones-Agee-Jackson never materialized at Shea Stadium. Instead of taking Jackson, the Mets chose Chilcott, who would play seven minor league seasons but never play a single game in the major leagues. Rumors have always swirled that the Mets opted not to take Jackson because he liked to date white women. I tend to believe the rumors, especially given the presence of George Weiss as Mets general manager. Weiss was the same man who had decided to integrate the Yankees at a snail’s pace during the 1950s.
The perception of Jackson’s talent has also been a source of controversy, though for less incendiary reasons. I’ve long contended that the portrayal of Jackson as a one-dimensional slugger is overly simplistic–along with being just plain wrong. As a member of the A’s, Reggie was a well-rounded four-tool talent. In addition to the established power, Reggie could steal bases, range far in right field, and heave cannon shots toward the infield. With the A’s, Jackson had enough athleticism to make more than token appearances in center field. From 1967 to 1974, Jackson played 172 games in center field for the A‘s, including 92 appearances for the 1972 world champions. He wasn’t a particularly good center fielder–he was probably a bit below average, let‘s call it a ‘3‘ on a Strat-O-Matic card–but he was often the best available candidate for managers Dick Williams and Alvin Dark.
By the time that Reggie joined the Yankees in 1977, the idea of playing him in center field was unthinkable; I suspect that in addition to becoming too muscle bound, he had problems with his vision and depth perception that made outfielding a major chore. But for the first seven to eight seasons of his career, Jackson was a true triple threat as a power hitter, capable defender, and proficient base stealer.
And he was pretty good at growing a mustache, thought not exactly the trendsetter that I had originally portrayed him to be. Somehow, I think Reggie will get over it.
Bruce Markusen will present a program on baseball cards at the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture June 2-4.
Despite an overnight deluge, the Yankees and Tigers got the finale of their four-game set in on Thursday afternoon, though the Yankees probably wish they hadn’t. Not only did they lose, but because Tuesday night’s rain-out forced Phil Hughes and Javy Vazquez to both pitch on Wednesday, the Yankees will have to choose between Sergio Mitre or a minor league call-up (such as Ivan Nova, who finished Thursday’s game for CC Sabathia) to pitch against the Twins on Sunday because both Hughes and Javy would be on short rest that day. Had Thursday been rained out, everyone could have been pushed back a day, erasing the need for another spot start, but there were no raindrops to hide the Yankees’ teardrops on Thursday, just a hard wind blowing in that kept a hanging curve from Justin Verlander that Juan Miranda tattooed with a man on in the top of the second from even reaching the warning track in straight-away center.
Despite giving up all six runs in the 6-0 final score, CC Sabathia actually pitched pretty well and even seemed to be out-pitching Justin Verlander in the early going, despite giving up an early lead. The Yankees didn’t get a lot of hits against Verlander (just four on the day), but they worked him over for four walks and got his pitch count up early. He ultimately worked 6 2/3 innings, but struck out just four men and needed 119 pitches to get that far. Sabathia, by comparison, walked no one and needed just 54 pitches to get through the first five innings despite giving up three runs along the way.
The first Tiger tally came in the bottom of the second, when left-handed rookie slugger Brennan Boesch doubled over Brett Gardner’s head in center and, with two outs, Gerald Laird drove him in by accident on a check swing bloop that dropped in to shallow right field for a single. Then in the fourth, Sabathia floated a 2-1 sinker up in the zone and right over the plate for Miguel Cabrera, who launched it the other way for a solo homer. Boesch followed by yanking a 1-2 hanging curve down the right field line for another solo shot to make it 3-0.
With CC pitching efficiently and Verlander’s pitch-count climbing, there was reason to be optimistic about the Yankee offense, which had scored fewer than three runs just twice all season, closing that gap, but in the sixth, CC fell apart, giving up singles to Johnny Damon and Magglio Ordoñez to start the inning, then floating another two-seamer to Cabrera, who crushed it into that wind for a double that plated both runners and ran the Tiger lead to 5-0. Sabathia rallied to strike out Boesch and got Brandon Inge to fly out to center without Cabrera advancing, but, with two outs, Laird, who entered the game hitting .157 and had just one prior multi-hit game this season, doubled home Cabrera to set the final score.
Rookie Ivan Nova pitched the final two innings, stranding a pair of two-out singles in the eighth and working a 1-2-3 ninth. He looked sharp in his major league debut, showing low-90s heat that touched 95 and a sharp curve as well as a changeup that split the difference. It will be interesting to see if the Yankees tap him for Sunday’s game over Mitre, who pitched well enough but wasn’t terribly impressive in Monday’s spot-start.
The loss sent the Yankees home with a 3-4 record on their two-stop road trip. That after winning a pair of blowouts in Fenway to start the trip. It also handed the Yankees just their second series loss of the season. Blame the offense, which after scoring as few as two runs just once prior to arriving in Detroit was shut out twice, once by a pitcher who entered the game with a 7.50 ERA (though, in fairness, Rick Porcello is closer to a shutout pitcher than a 7.50 ERA pitcher). Setting aside their six-run outburst against a pitcher who had just arrived from Triple-A in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s nightcap, the Yankees have scored just nine runs in the last five games. On Thursday, the lineup was missing Curtis Granderson, Nick Johnson, and Nick Swisher. Late in the game, Derek Jeter, whose single on Thursday was his only hit in those five games, was hit in the pinky by a Verlander pitch. Jeter stayed in the game and says he’s fine, of course, but those who remember his slump after being hit by a Daniel Cabrera pitch two years ago will likely be holding their breath until he gets hot again. Swisher is merely day-to-day with a biceps strain and should be in the lineup on Friday, but these mounting injuries are finally beginning to show up on the bottom line. The Yankees are home on Friday and need to get well quick as the AL Central leaders will be followed into town by the Red Sox and Rays.
This has been an odd series.
The Yankees arrived in Detroit on Ernie Harwell night with Sergio Mitre set to make a spot start for Andy Pettitte, who didn’t think he needed to be spotted for, then found out that the Tigers also had to use a replacement starter because Dontrelle Willis came down with the flu earlier that day. Mitre actually out-pitched the Tigers’ Brad Thomas, but because Jim Leyland took Thomas out after three innings and has one of the league’s best bullpens, and because A.J. Burnett burned the Yankees’ long-reliever on Sunday, Alfredo Aceves was out with a herniated disc (he’s since landed on the disabled list), and Javy Vazquez was set to pitch on Tuesday, potentially requiring long relief himself, Joe Girardi stuck with Mitre as long as he could (which turned out to be 4 1/3 innings), and the Yankees were unable to close the small deficit that resulted.
Then Tuesday got rained out, making all that bullpen-saving on Monday pointless. Then Vazquez pitched very well in the day half of Wednesday’s double-header, but New Jersey native Rick Porcello, who has been awful all year, combined with that bullpen to shut the Yankees out for the first time this season. Suddenly the Yankees had a three-game losing streak and had to scramble to split the series.
After the Tigers all gave each other mohawks during the down time between games, Phil Hughes dominated in the night-cap, handing a slim 2-0 lead to the Yankees end-game relievers, but with Mariano Rivera ready to pitch for the first time in nearly two weeks, the Yanks threw up a six-spot in the top of the ninth (Mo worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th anyway).
Mix in some end-of-the-roster transactions (hello Ivan Nova and Greg Golson, not so fast Jonathan Albaladejo, and now, finally, Juan Miranda, albeit at the expense of Kevin Russo), yet another minor injury (Nick Swisher left the late game on Wednesday with tightness in his left bicep and is day-to-day, Golson will start in his place today), and the chance of another rain out today, and this had been a very odd series.
If the rain holds off, we’ll be treated to the exciting pitching matchup of Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia, who finished third and fourth, respectively, in last year’s Cy Young voting and had a pair of compelling duels against one another last year (which, fittingly, they split).
Of course, even if they get it in, it’s a mid-week day game which most folks will miss while at work.
Odd series.
Every so often, you run into a kindred spirit, a guy you aren’t envious of, just proud to know. Todd Drew was like that, and so is Josh Wilker (pictured above on the left with his brother Ian). When I first read Josh’s work at Cardboard Gods, I was thrilled. He had a strong voice, wonderful sensitivity, an unassuming sense of humor, and the courage to dig deep, way below the surface. I’d want to belong to the kind of club that would have a misfit like that as a member. And I’m not alone. Josh’s long-awaited memoir, The Cardboard Gods: An All-American Tale Told Through Baseball Cards, has generated some great buzz and strong reviews. Josh hits the Big Apple tonight–he’ll be at the Nike Store in Soho from 7:30 to 9:30. He’s here through early next week and we’re happy to have him.
I got a chance to chat with Josh recently and here is our conversation. Enjoy.
Bronx Banter: Dude, first thing, what were your favorite kinds of packs to get when you were a kid? The single pack? Remember those triple packs that would be clear packaging with three little sets side-by-side?
Josh Wilker: I’m a single wax pack guy. The clear packaging ruined some essential part of the fun for me, since you could see the top and the bottom card in the stack. It was better that it was a total mystery.
BB: Bro, how deep does your nerdiness run? Do you carry a card around with you in your wallet?
JW: I don’t, but I usually have a card that I’m working up an essay on in the pocket of the nap sack that I lug to and from work. And a couple summers ago when I came to New York to–among other things–go to Shea Stadium for the last time, I made a point of carrying an Ed Kranepool in my pocket every day of the trip.
BB: Nice. Do you ever feel any attraction to modern baseball cards?
JW: I just wrote a piece for GQ.com, of all places, considering my unstudliness, on the 2010 Topps cards. I bought a couple packs for the piece, and got a charge out of it, and though the cards mostly left me cold for being too slick, I admired the high quality of them. The photos and the back of the card text is light years advanced beyond the rudimentary nature of the 1970s cards, which may be why the new cards leave me cold. There’s no homely humanity in them.
BB: Can you at all relate to the generation of kids who bought cards for what they might be worth one day, instead of being important for more personal reasons, or just cause they were the things to have, trade and flip?
JW: I can relate, I guess. I mean, when I was a kid, I fantasized that one day my Butch Hobson and Frank Tanana cards would be worth millions, so it’s not like the idea of the cards being “investments” was completely foreign to me. I was just too lazy to actually pursue that angle. I did feel like things were taking a wrong turn when I noticed, in the late 1980s, that the cards my younger cousin was collecting were going immediately into protective plastic. You have to be able to touch the cards, otherwise what’s the point?
BB: When you started the Cardboard Gods blog did you have it in your mind to write a book? Or did that develop later?
JW: My first intention was to play around and to keep writing and to maybe connect with some readers. I’d been working on a novel for several years previous to starting the blog, and I wasn’t able to sell it, and I was wary of signing on for another several years of solitary toil only to have the end product of the work end up at the bottom of a drawer. But I also thought it could be a book, too, from very early on. It was not unlike the first time I saw my future wife: a feeling like, “Hm, I think there might be something here.” I held off for quite awhile on trying to start shaping the material into a book, a tendency that has in the past had a way of crushing the life out things before they have a chance to grow. Instead I just tried to keep having fun and churning out material. After a while, I knew I had enough stuff for a book, if I could ever pull it all together into something coherent.
There was time to kill between doubleheader games yesterday, and half the Tigers’ roster – including the entire bullpen – killed it by giving themselves mohawks. A bored baseball clubhouse is a dangerous, dangerous place. We have only a small sample size to go on but, so far, advanced scientific analysis suggests the move may have backfired; in the nightcap, Phil “Phew” Hughes edged out Jeremy Bonderman in a tight duel, and a ninth-inning Yankee offensive renaissance gave New York a pleasant 8-0 win.
Hughes is probably due for a bad start one of these days – or at least a mediocre one – and for a little while I thought this might be it; he was getting good results, but laboring a bit, running up a high pitch count in the first few innings. Instead he got better as the game went on and ended up with another gem: 7 innings, 5 hits, no runs, 8 strikeouts, 1 measly little walk; he threw 71 of his 101 pitches for strikes. Phil Hughes is not messing around. Going by almost any statistical measurement (as well as by your lyin’ eyes) he’s been one of the best starters in either league this season – though of course he doesn’t have as many wins as MLB leader Tyler Clippard of the Nationals. You just can’t predict… oh, never mind.
Anyway, the Yankee hitters seemed to be nursing a hangover from their punchless day-game loss, but they did manage to eke out a couple of runs early on, which would have been enough by themselves – in the first inning, Alex Rodriguez singled in Brett Gardner, who was hitting second tonight (and ended up making that seem like a wise move with three hits, two runs scored, and RBI and the obligatory stolen base). And in the third, Bonderman walked Derek Jeter and lived to regret it when Jeter stole second and scored on a Mark Teixeira double.
But it wasn’t until the ninth that the Yankee batters really woke up, when old buddy Phil Coke stumbled and Alfredo Figaro couldn’t get the last two outs without considerable bloodshed. More than half an hour later, after a flurry of singles and walks, the game arrived at its misleading final destination of 8-0. It stayed that way in the bottom of the ninth, of course, because Mariano Rivera is back; and seeing him on the mound again (albeit in a very non-save situation) is deeply comforting in a primal sort of way. Mo’s in his bullpen, all’s right with the world, as the man said.
Notes:
-Jay-Z and Eminem’s visit to the booth in the 4th inning (to promote their planned stadium concerts in Detroit and New York this fall) was one of the most gloriously awkward only-in-America culture clashes I’ve seen in some time. I hope one day we get to watch Dallas Braden chat with Yo-Yo Ma. Or perhaps we can arrange a coffee klatch between Carl Everett and Philip Glass.
-Years ago an Eephus Pitch commenter pointed out that Jeremy Bonderman bears a distinct resemblance to Alice the Goon from Popeye. One day I may be able to watch him pitch without thinking about that, but today is not that day.
-It wouldn’t be an official game unless a Yankee strained something, so Nick Swisher is now day-to-day with sore biceps.
The Bronx Bomber Score Truck caught a flat somewhere between Saturday and Detroit. Yanks look to Phil Hughes to keep rolling this evening. Expect the bats to wake up too.
Welp, the Yanks got a good performance out of Javier Vazquez who gave up two runs on five hits and a couple of walks over seven innings. Only trouble, Rick Porcello was even better, throwing a good sinker, and shutting the Yanks out over seven. The Yanks had four hits for the game.
It was scoreless until the sixth, when the Tigers collected four singles (Jackson, Damon, Cabrera, Boesch) good enough for all the scoring they’d need.
The game moved briskly (two hours and fifteen minutes, wait, this was a Yankees game?) and the Yanks had a couple of chances early–Ramino Pena stranded runners to end the second and fourth; Alex Rodriguez was robbed of an RBI extra base hit in the third. But pitching was the thing, zip, zip.
At least Vazquez was good. One bad inning that’s all, and it was far from a disaster. Still, hard to pick-up a win when your team gets blanked. The Yanks have now dropped three-straight.
Game One, Final Score: Tigers 2, Yanks 0.
[Photo Credit: Leon Halip/Getty Images]
I’ll take Jav-full as Javier Vazquez looks to have a good outing today in the first of two against the Tigers.
Go git ’em, Hoss, and Let’s Go Yan-Kees!
Times Two…
The Big Bopper…
Alfredo Aceves is headed for the DL; prospect Juan Miranda is headed for the Motor City.
The first game is set to start shortly after 1:00 pm. Game Two is just after 7. Javy and then Hughes vs Porcello and Bonderman.
[Photo Credit: Kathy Willens/AP via River Ave. Blues]
Update: Looks like I linked too soon. Greg Golson is back up, not Miranda.
