It’s another gorgeous day in New York. It’s a balmy 70 degrees and, though it’s hazier than the last two days, that haze might actually benefit the Yankees and Indians as they have a late afternoon start time as FOX’s game of the week.

With each team having taken one game thus far in this four-game set, today’s third game offers a compelling pitching matchup as both teams send their struggling sinkerballer to the mound in the hope of witnessing a breakthrough.

Fausto Carmona enters today’s game with a 9.00 ERA and a 1.80 WHIP after having lost his first two starts, both of which also came on the road. Carmona got 20 fly balls to just 14 grounders in those two games and has walked six against just five strikeouts, but at least he lasted five innings in both starts. Chien-Ming Wang enters today’s game with a whopping 28.93 ERA and 4.50 WHIP after throwing just 4 2/3 innings in his first two starts combined. Wang has a better groundball rate than Carmona thus far, though it’s still tilted the other way with 14 flies to 11 grounders, but he’s also walked six in less than half as many innings and struck out just one batter. In 2007, both of these pitchers won 19 games. Last year, both won just eight due to injury and poor performance.

So who’s going to turn it around today? Wang, who pitching coach Dave Eiland said has looked good in his side sessions but has thus far been unable to bring his good stuff to the game mound, has the advantage of pitching at home for the first time this season and is the first pitcher to make a second start at Yankee Stadium having started against the Cubs in the exhibition game on April 3. Of course, he didn’t pitch particularly well in that game either. Carmona faced the Yankees just once last year, surviving five walks in five innings by inducing 16 ground balls. The Indians won that game in the eighth on a three-run David Dellucci home run off Joba Chamberlain.

Johnny Damon gets a half-day off at DH today as Nick Swisher returns to right field and Melky Cabrera slides over to left. Slick-fielding Ramiro Peña gets the start at third base behind the groundballing Wang. Hideki Matsui, who has fluid in his knees, isn’t starting for the second day in a row.

Meanwhile, Juan Miranda, who was called up before yesterday’s game, has been optioned out for Anthony Claggett, the righty reliever acquired in the Sheffield trade who spent 2008 in Double-A and was dominant in spring training. I’m not sure why the Yankees didn’t just keep David Robertson after his two strong innings on Thursday (he was optioned down for Miranda and thus can’t return for ten days unless the Yankees suffer a pitching injury), but I am glad to see the relief reinforcements Triple-A  getting some early cups of coffee. Robertson and Claggett could prove to be important pieces as the season advances.

Like much of the nation, I first experienced the wonder of Mark “The Bird” Fidrych on a Monday night in June of 1976. Prior to that game, I had seen only snippets of Fidrych’s antics on local sportscasts and read tidbits about him in the New York newspapers. Beyond that, I didn’t know much about the rookie right-hander. There was no ESPN or MLB Network around to provide continuous highlights or in-depth analysis about what this strange-looking character was doing during his whirlwind tour of American League cities.

On June 28, ABC chose to broadcast the Tigers-Yankees matchup as its featured game on “Monday Night Baseball.” With the old Tiger Stadium providing the backdrop, Fidrych put on a show like few fans had ever seen. He “manicured” the mound by combing over the dirt with his hands, fixing cleat marks along the way. When one of his infielders made a great defensive play behind him, Fidrych applauded loudly, congratulating his teammate. After recording the third out of each inning, Fidrych didn’t walk off the mound, but ran as if he were in the midst of a 40-yard dash, usually engaging in a full sprint before coming to a sudden halt at the Tigers’ dugout. There was also an element of superstition in his running. On the way back to the dugout, he jumped over the chalk baselines so as to avoid stepping on the lines. The way this big, gangly right-hander acted, it was little wonder that they called him The Bird.

And, oh by the way, Fidrych talked to the baseball. He felt that by conversing with the ball he could better control the pitch and make it move in the way that he wanted. Fidrych felt every baseball possessed a kind of karma. Once a batter reached safely with a hit, Fidrych asked the umpire to throw out the ball and give him another. He felt the old ball still had hits in it and needed to mix with other baseballs so that it would “right itself.”

Prior to Fidrych’s arrival on the major league scene in 1976, pitchers usually showed little emotion on the mound. They restrained themselves from exhibiting much body language, instead approaching the job of pitching in a businesslike manner. Clearly, Fidrych had a different way of doing things. And the country loved every minute of it.

As a Yankee fan, I didn’t like the fact that Fidrych beat my team, 5-1, that night in Detroit. Granted, the Yankees didn’t field a vintage lineup that night. Thurman Munson and Lou Piniella sat out the game, Jim Mason played shortstop, and Reggie Jackson had not yet arrived. But as a baseball fan, I could appreciate Fidrych as a developing sensation. Fidrych had talent, too. He threw a 93-mile-per-hour fastball with great sinking action. Intentionally or not, he pitched to the strength of his defense. In 1976, the Tigers had a decent defensive infield, but their outfield defense was somewhere between adventurous and atrocious, with Alex Johnson in left, Ron LeFlore in center, and Rusty Staub in right field. In retrospect, some critics of Fidrych (like Bill James) have pointed to his inability to collect strikeouts, but I can’t remember a single person mentioning that in 1976. No one cared. All Fidrych did was collect outs—and fans—while entertaining the hell out of the entire nation.

(more…)

Joba Chamberlain’s second start of the season didn’t go quite as well as the first. He gave up a solo home run to the second batter he faced (Mark DeRosa), walked five men including two in the fourth inning leading to a second Cleveland run (on a Ben Francisco two-out RBI single), and coughed up three more runs in the fifth before being pulled with two outs in that inning. Chamberlain still managed to strike out four in his 4 2/3 innings, but he lacked control throughout, throwing fewer than half of his 93 pitches for strikes and mixing in a wild pitch in the top of the fifth.

The Yankee offense, meanwhile, drew six walks, but didn’t get a single hit with a runner on base in the entire game. Instead they took advantage of the jet stream heading out to right field in their new park and peppered the right-field stands with solo home runs. Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira went back-to-back off Tribe starter Anthony Reyes in the third to give the Yankees their first lead at their new ballpark. After Chamberlain allowed the Indians to tie the score in the top of the fourth, Melky Cabrera answered back with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning to make it 3-2 Yanks.

Chamberlain gave that lead right back as well, but the Yankee bullpen locked it down from there with Phil Coke, Jonathan Albaladejo, and the suddenly unhittable Brian Bruney combining to face the minimum over 3 2/3 scoreless innings. In the meantime, Robinson Cano brought the Yankees to within one with a solo shot of lefty Zach Jackson leading off the sixth, and Cleveland reliever Vinnie Chulk handed the Yankees the tying run in the seventh by walking Damon to start the inning, then throwing away a comebacker from Mark Teixeira for a two-base error that let Damon come all the way around to score.

After Bruney’s dominant eighth inning (11 pitches, 8 strikes, two Ks), pinch-hitter Hideki Matsui and Brett Gardner struck out against Jensen Lewis to start the bottom of the ninth, but Derek Jeter connected for a two-out solo shot (a Captain Solo, if you will) that proved to be the game winner as Mariano Rivera  pitched around a pair of singles and struck out DeRosa to earn his first save and seal the Yankees’ first win in the new stadium. Final score: 6-5 Yankees.

(more…)

The Yankees had a beautiful day for the opening of their new stadium yesterday. Unfortunately the game turned out to be their ugliest loss of the season thus far. Today the weather is even better (just as sunny, but warmer), and the Yanks hope their fortunes will respond in kind.

Joba Chamberlain makes his second start of the season. His first start, on Sunday in Kansas City, was a good one (6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K), but the bullpen (specifically Phil Coke) blew the game. The Indians counter with former Cardinals prospect, and fellow flat-brimmer, Anthony Reyes, who didn’t pitch as well against the Blue Jays on Sunday (6 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 2 K), but benefited from eight runs of support to earn the win.

Over parts of four seasons, Reyes posted a 5.38 ERA in 220 2/3 innings for the Cardinals, in part because of the 37 home runs he allowed. The Indians picked up Reyes at last year’s trading deadline for minor league righty reliever Luis Perdomo (last seen being claimed off waivers from the Padres by the Giants last week). The early returns on Reyes were excellent (five strong starts, a 1.83 ERA, and just two taters), but Reyes’s sixth start ended early due to elbow pain, an echo of the arm problems that plagued him at USC. Reyes butted heads with Dave Duncan in St. Louis because Duncan responded to his gopheritis by trying to get him to become a sinkerballer. Reyes got his way by getting out of Dodge, but he’s now 27 and has yet to have any sustained success in the majors (his five starts for the Tribe in September were undermined by a severe dip in his strikeout rate).

Reyes has never faced the Yankees before, though Nick Swisher did go 0-for-3 against him in an interleague game in 2007. This will be Chamberlain’s first start against the Indians, though he’s faced them seven times in relief, most famously in the “midge” game in the 2007 ALDS.

Today’s news is powered by “Instant Rimshot“.  Now you know where to go when you need a rimshot.  Here’s what is going on in Yankeeland:

• Will Carroll weighs in on Xavier Nady’s prognosis:

Several pitchers have come back from a redo of Tommy John surgery. The replaced ligament breaks, much in the same way, and for much the same reason, as it did in the first place. As far as I can tell, no position player has needed a redo, largely because few players put the same kind of repetitive stress on their arms that a pitcher does. Nady looks to be the first, a unique spot I’m sure he didn’t want to be in. He’s headed for at least one more opinion before surgery, but multiple sources report that he’s telling teammates that’s where he’s headed. He’ll be done for 2009, but there’s a small chance he could play late in the season, and no reason to think he won’t be 100 percent by 2010.

• PeteAbe has further updates on the health of Nady and Mark Teixeira.
• MLB.com offers a photo gallery from yesterday’s home opener.
• The Times has their own photo slideshow from the opener.
• Boss George was touched by the fans’ response to the mention of his name:

When George Steinbrenner was introduced before the first game at the new Yankee Stadium, he received a nice ovation. Steinbrenner, who was sitting in the owner’s box with his wife Joan, cried in response.

[My take: For all his bluster and heavy-handedness, could you imagine where the Yankees franchise might have ended up had he not taken over in the early ’70s?  A $1.5 billion dollar stadium?  Its own broadcast network?]

• Here’s your (partial) list of new Stadium “firsts”.
• Jim Caple of ESPN gives us a video tour of the Stadium.
• Jayson Stark’s “Useless Info” blog column has a quirky list of Yankee non-pitchers taking to the mound:

Swing and a swish: Nick Swisher headed for the old pitcher’s mound in Tampa Bay on Monday wearing a Yankees uniform — and actually struck out Gabe Kapler. . . .

Wade Boggs: Aug. 19, 1997: K’d Todd Greene.

Rick Cerone: July 19, 1987: Fanned an AL pitcher, Bobby Witt, who was actually pinch hitting in a 20-3 game.

Rocky Colavito: Aug. 25, 1968: Punched out Dick Tracewski — in the sixth inning, in a game in which Colavito wound up as the winning pitcher.

Gene Michael: Aug. 26, 1968: In the second game of back-to-back doubleheaders, Michael wound up pitching the last three innings, facing 16 hitters and whiffing three of them . .

(more…)

I haven’t written as much about my mother as I have about my father over the years but that isn’t because I love her any less. She’s been as vital a part of my life as he ever was. When my father was lost in booze, unable to take care of his family, my mother walked the walk, and made sure we were provided for. She’s tough, man. A lady, but no pushover. She’s got her flaws like anybody else but make no doubt about it, she was very much a heroine when I was growing up.

She recently celebrated a milestone birthday and it reminded me how lucky I am to be her son.

Mom was raised in Bukavu, a small city in the eastern part of the Congo.  Her father was a mechanic and ran a garage for the local Renault dealership.  She lived there from the time she was four until she was sixteen (1948-1960).  When the Congolese Independence arrived in ’60, mom returned to Belgium where she finished high school and then went to the university, majoring in public relations.  Like many colonists, she  yearned to return to Africa, to the wide open expanses and the big sky.  Belgium was too grey, too rainy, and too small to contain her.

In the summer of 1966, a year out of college, she made that trip back.  It was a great time and her life was changed forever by time it ended seven months later in February of ’67.  My aunt Anne, a year-and-a-half younger than my mom, and their friend Michelle went too, along with three boys, Jean-Pierre, Jean-Paul, and Freddie.  The group of them were all in their early twenties.  The idea was to make it all the way to Kenya, where an old friend of my mom’s family lived.  They arranged funding for their “mass media expedition,” got sponsorship from Total, a popular gas station chain, jeans from Levis, and took off in two old army jeeps, one that was formerly used to haul cannons in the second world war.  The jeep broke down constantly and much of the trip was spent in small villages waiting for weeks for spare parts to arrive. 

Mom and her pals drove east and south, across Europe, through Turkey and Greece.  They spent a night in jail in Saudi Arabia, suspected of being Israeli spies.  After months of roughing it, they made it to Ethopia.  My father was working as a unit production manager on an ABC, National Geographic documentary.  He and his crew met my mother, Anne and Michelle in the green room of a TV station in Addis Abiba.  The old man was so taken with my mother that he courted her for months, through letters and visits and the sheer will of his personality.  

The man had good taste, that’s for sure.  He was relentless and in time, he won her over.  They were married in October of ’67. 

Here are some shots from that trip.  Check it out.

(more…)

Does it seem bigger to you? The stadium? The field? The entire place? That’s the question I kept asking people on Opening Day at the new Yankee Stadium. And most people that I asked said yes, it does seem bigger. Less seats but more space.

When you get off the subway and cross the street from the old Stadium and stand under the new gold-lettered Yankee Stadium sign, it is impressive. And it is big, the Yankee Stadium store and the Hard Rock Café just under it on the corner. It seems appropriately big.

“It’s too big,” one of the clubhouse attendants told me and he leaned over the front rail of the visitor’s dugout two hours before the game. It was a fine spring day and he was talking about the inside of Yankee Stadium not the field, which he thinks actually looks smaller.

“It used to be cozy and we complained it was too small.” He smiled. “Now, it’s too big. The quickest way from clubhouse to clubhouse is here.” He pointed across the field to the Yankees dugout. “But it’s good for me. I could use the exercise.”

There were several times during a well-attended Opening Day when I found myself in a corridor or a stairwell completely alone. The interior space is expansive. The front offices are located in left field so that an assistant will think twice before walking down to the Yankee clubhouse, lest he forget anything and have to make the long trek back.

The whole structure is not only bigger it is more open too. There are concourses with standing room areas to stop and watch the game. There are plenty of shops and food stands. You can even get a nice pear. There isn’t much room for vertigo. The nose bleed seats still feel close to the field. And there is less room between home plate and the seats, by maybe ten, fifteen feet. Behind the plate, fans are certainly closer to the action.

Jorge Posada hit the first home run in the new jernt, over the netting in center field, right on top of Monument Park. That was about the only highlight for the Yankees who got rocked by the Indians, 10-2. CC Sabathia wasn’t bad at all but he labored, walking five and throwing 122 pitches in all. Still, he only allowed one run in five and two-thirds.   

Jose Veras and Damaso Marte gave it up in the seventh. Grady Sizemore’s grand slam was the game-breaker. Victor Martinez followed with a bomb into the left field bleachers. The Yankee fans booed and they booed loudly, baptizing the place in Bronx cheer. Poor Cody Ransom left nine runners on base. Nine.

I exited the Stadium from the bleachers onto River Avenue near 164th street. The subway runs overhead. Moving north, past the stadium is a VIP parking garage–the players park in the batcave, underneath the park. Across 164th street is Mullaly Park, which features ramps and jumps for skaters and bmx-bike, x-game kids. The kids are off from school this week and a gang of neighborhood daredevils and adrenaline junkies were riding around casually and without hesitation. Several of them were drinking cans of Red Bull. I wondered if any of them were baseball fans at all.

I took a left on 164th street and walked west. Three pretty girls with Red Bull backpack coolers strapped on their backs stood outside the entrance of Mullaly Park giving out drinks. The next block over is Jerome avenue. Across the street from the stadium is a wonderful old art deco building complex. Cars are double parked outside of the building, mostly limousines. Since the stadium is now one block further away from the Major Deegan, traffic will be worse. How will life change for people who live in the buildings across the street from the stadium? Could be a long summer.

It was chilly now. The fans may have been disappointed but they were still lively as they left the stadium. The day was bigger than the score. Some stopped to take more pictures; others, with an eye on rush hour, hurried to get home.

Cleveland Indians

2008 Record: 81-81 (.500)
2008 Pythagorean Record: 85-77 (.525)

Manager: Eric Wedge
General Manager: Mark Shapiro

Home Ballpark (multi-year Park Factors): Progressive Field (103/102)

Who’s Replaced Whom:

• Mark DeRosa replaces Casey Blake and some of Jamey Carroll (DL)
• Shin-Soo Choo and Travis Hafner inherit playing time from Franklin Gutierrez
• Victor Martinez reclaims playing time from Kelly Shoppach and Ryan Garko
• Trevor Crowe is filling in for David Dellucci (DL)
• Tony Graffanino is filling in for Jamey Carroll (DL)
• Anthony Reyes replaces Paul Byrd
• Carl Pavano replaces CC Sabathia, Jake Westbrook (DL), and Matt Ginter
• Aaron Laffey is filling in for Scott Lewis (DL) who replaces Jeremy Sowers (minors)
• Fausto Carmona and Lewis take over starts from Laffey
• Kerry Wood replaces Edward Mujica and Juan Rincon and takes over the save opportunities given to Jensen Lewis, Rafael Betancourt, Rafael Perez, Masa Kobayashi, and Joe Borowski
• Joe Smith and Vinnie Chulk replace Tom Mastny, Jorge Julio, Joe Borowski, and assorted others
• Vinnie Chulk is filling Josh Barfield’s roster spot; Barfield replaces Andy Marte

25-man Roster:

1B – Ryan Garko (R)
2B – Asdrubal Cabrera (S)
SS – Jhonny Peralta (R)
3B – Mark DeRosa (R)
C – Victor Martinez (S)
RF – Shin-Soo Choo (L)
CF – Grady Sizemore (L)
LF – Ben Francisco (R)
DH – Travis Hafner (L)

Bench:

R – Kelly Shoppach (C)
S – Trevor Crowe (OF)
R – Tony Graffanino (IF)

Rotation:

L – Cliff Lee
R – Anthony Reyes
R – Fausto Carmona
R – Carl Pavano
L – Aaron Laffey

Bullpen:

R – Kerry Wood
R – Rafael Betancourt
L – Rafael Perez
R – Jensen Lewis
R – Masahide Kobayashi
R – Joe Smith
R – Vinnie Chulk
L – Zach Jackson

15-day DL: LHP – Scott Lewis (elbow strain), OF – David Dellucci (strained calf), IF – Jamey Carroll (broken hand)
60-day DL: RHP – Jake Westbrook (TJ)

Typical Lineup:

L – Grady Sizemore (CF)
R – Mark DeRosa (3B)
S – Victor Martinez (C)
L – Travis Hafner (DH)
R – Jhonny Peralta (SS)
L – Shin-Soo Choo (RF)
R – Ryan Garko (1B)
R – Ben Francisco (LF)
S – Asdrubal Cabrera (2B)

Note: Trevor Crowe is sharing left field with Ben Francisco. Otherwise, the most common lineup variation sees Martinez shift to first with Kelly Shoppach taking his place behind the plate and Garko’s spot in the lineup.

(more…)

When I went to the Yankees’ workout day at the new Yankee Stadium back on April 2, a reporter from The Bronx Beat followed me around with a camera to capture my initial impressions of the new ballpark. The result is this piece, which also uses my photography of the park’s construction from the previous two seasons.

All of the still photographs in that piece are mine. Many of the photographs I took that day can be found in my photo essay on the new stadium. My other writing on the new ballpark can be found here, while my posts on the closing of the old Stadium can be found here.

And we’re off . . .

• Richard Sandomir of the Times has an interesting article on the history of the unique frieze atop Yankee Stadium:

. . . Marty Appel, the Yankees’ assistant public relations director in the early ’70s, said that Michael Burke, who ran the Yankees for CBS and served briefly under Steinbrenner, “got huffy” when he saw there was no frieze in the renovation plans but knew the new upper deck could not accommodate it. So it went into the outfield.

“The design was in place by the time George bought the team,” Appel said.

As if to atone for past sins, the Yankees have recreated the look of the original frieze in their $1.5 billion stadium that is meant to evoke the ’23 design. The first was made of copper — although the Osborn blueprint calls it Toncan metal, which suggests a copper-iron alloy — but the new one is steel coated with zinc to protect it from rusting and two layers of white paint. . . .

The new version looks very much like the old one, although its details are less intricately drawn than Osborn’s original. It is made of 38 connected panels, all 11 feet deep, 12 feet high and most of them 40 feet long. With the columns between each panel, the frieze weighs 315 tons.

• Mr. Sandomir also pens an article on how the protective netting in back of the plate may interfere with your TV viewing pleasure:

The problem at the new Yankee Stadium is that for all the team’s rigid devotion to recreating the old ballpark’s dimensions, it reduced by 20 feet the distance from home plate to the backstop, to 52 feet 4 inches. . . . By pushing the seating outward, it caused the protective netting to be taller and wider than it was at the old stadium.

(But) the Yankee Stadium angle is the most nettlesome one, which may force YES (or ESPN or Fox) to minimize their use of the camera position, no matter how important.

During the exhibition game at the stadium against the Cubs on April 4, the supporting wires and netting formed a fishnet shroud over the camera shot. It’s not as bad a view as the one spectators will get from the bleacher seats flanking the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar and bleacher cafe, but it is nonetheless a jolting shift from the unimpeded shot in the old stadium.

• The Times’ Joe LaPointe profiles Yogi Berra, and his clout at the park:

On his visits to the old Yankee Stadium last season, Yogi Berra brought along a little jar to collect peculiar souvenirs.

“I’ve got the dirt,” Berra said of his soil samples from the basepaths and the pitching mound. But he is still seeking a larger prize. “I told them I’d like to have the home plate,” Berra said. “They said, ‘Well, maybe.’ ”

Berra will throw out the ceremonial first pitch Thursday afternoon to open the new Yankee Stadium. Randy Levine, the team president, was asked if Berra could have one of the old plates, behind which he worked so well for so long.

“Absolutely,” Levine said Wednesday. “We try and accommodate Yogi. Whatever Yogi wants, we try and give to Yogi. This is the first I’m hearing about it. But we’ll do everything we can. Yogi’s so important to the Yankees.”

• Tyler Kepner has all the minutiae on the Opening Day events at the stadium:

The team also announced that Kelly Clarkson will sing the national anthem, a selection that should be popular with Derek Jeter, a confessed “American Idol” addict. Pre-game ceremonies will begin at 12:10 p.m. with the West Point Marching Band performing John Philip Sousa’s “Washington Post March” and “Stars and Stripes Forever”. Those choices are meaningful: before the original Yankee Stadium’s opener on April 18, 1923, Sousa performed on field with the Seventh Regiment Band.

The home plate and pitching rubber to be used Thursday is the same set that closed out the old Yankee Stadium last September. When the game is over, the plate and the rubber will be moved to the Yankees Museum, located in the ballpark.

(more…)

The Yankees are only team in the majors not to have played a home game this season and enter their home opener this afternoon coming off the longest season-opening road trip in team history. Here are some quick impressions from that just-complete trip:

Record: 5-4
Record in Series: 2-1
Runs scored per game: 5.67 (7th best in MLB)
Runs allowed per game: 5.22 (8th worst in MLB)
Runs allowed per game minus Monday’s blowout: 4.00

AL East Standings:

TOR –
BAL .5
NYY 1.5
TBR 2.5
BOS 3.5

• The Yankees were without Alex Rodriguez. Mark Teixeira missed three games due to a wrist injury. Hideki Matsui and Cody Ransom went a combined 6-for-49 (.122) with five walks. Yet the Yankees scored four or more runs in every game and averaged 5 2/3 runs per game on the trip.
• A great deal of the credit for that goes to Nick Swisher, who drove in or scored 18 of the Yankees’ 51 runs (35 percent) on the trip.
• The trip ended with the news that Xavier Nady will likely miss most or all of the season with a tear in his right elbow, but Nady was hitting a very Nady-like .286/.310/.429 and will be replaced in right field by Swisher. That’s an upgrade. Swisher will surely cool off, but he should have been the starting right fielder over Nady anyway. Where the Yankees will miss Nady is on the bench, as Matsui and Johnny Damon will need days off. Nady might be a very ordinary hitter, he’s still more productive than Melky Cabrera.
• In the comeback department, Matsui and Chien-Ming Wang have been awful, but Robinson Cano has been terrific, hitting .382/.447/.618 with four unintentional walks, and Jorge Posada has looked good both at the plate, driving in nine runs (second on the team to Swisher’s 11) with five of his seven hits going for extra bases, and behind the plate.
• Despite the solid offensive attack, the Yankees come home just a game over .500 at 5-4. Three of those losses were directly attributable to poor staring pitching performances (by CC Sabathia on Opening Day and by Chien-Ming Wang in both of his starts).
• Sabathia was not only better, but dominant in his second start. A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte both pitched well twice, and Joba Chamberlain turned in a solid outing in his only start thus far. That leaves only Wang as an issue in the rotation. Dave Eiland is on the case and working hard to get Wang back on track.
• Since the duds by Sabathia and Wang to open the season, the Yankees have gone 5-2. After dropping the opening series in Baltimore, they won their next two series, most significantly taking two of three from the Rays at the Trop.
• In their five wins, the Yankees have allowed just nine runs, or 1.8 per victory.

(more…)

When Mark Teixeira fielded the ground ball and hustled to first for the final out in the bottom of the ninth, manager Joe Girardi watched eagerly from the vistor’s dugout.  He was coiled.  But when the last out was made, Girardi and his coaches shook hands with enthusiasm.  Everyone was pumped up.

Yanks 4, Rays 3.   

They had every right to be pleased as the Yankees earned perhaps their most satisfying win so far this year.  Andy Pettitte staked the Rays to an early 2-0 lead but pitched a wonderful game, allowing three runs and working into the eighth inning.  Brian Bruney, who struck out the side last night on ten pitches, replaced Pettitte and whiffed the two batters he faced (Bruney got the win).  Robinson Cano hit a two-run dinger and Johnny Damon, who missed the two previous games, drove in the tying run in the top of the eighth. 

Then, in the ninth, Cody Ransom, who hasn’t hit a lick (and was benched again today in favor of Ramiro Pena), laced a one-out, pinch-hit liner into right center field.  Running hard out of the box, he hustled his way into a double (a good throw would have made it close, but it was off-line).  One out later, Derek Jeter singled to left, a ground ball that darted between the shortstop and third baseman.  Ransom charged home as Carl Crawford bobbled the ball momentarily allowing him to score easily.  The Yankees took advantage of two poor outfield throws, turning the tables on the Rays who ran without mercy on the Yankee outfielders last season.

Our great friend Mr. Rivera pitched the ninth: fly out to right, and two ground ball outs to first.  Zip, zip, zip.  The Bombers finish their nine-game road trip on a high note, and they will open the new Yankee Stadium tomorrow with a winning record of 5-4.

Hot Dog.

Andy Pettitte takes the hill this afternoon looking to send the Yankees home with a win. Pettitte was fantastic against the Royals on Friday (7 IP, 1 R, 6 K, just four baserunners). In his last start against the Rays, last July, he was even better (8 IP, 0 R, 5 K, four baserunners), though that came at home and his results in three previous starts against the Rays were more mixed.

Johnny Damon, who missed yesterday’s game due to the flu, returns to the lineup this afternoon, bumping Derek Jeter back into the leadoff spot and Brett Gardner down to the seven hole. Damon takes the place of the ailing Xavier Nady who is out indefinitely due to a tear in his right elbow (more specific news is still pending as Nady waits to see the team doctors). The rest of the lineup is the same as last night’s with Jorge Posada at DH and Ramiro Peña at third base.

That lineup will face 26-year-old righty Andy Sonnanstine, who had a rough outing against the Orioles last week (4 2/3 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 4 BB, 2 K) and last faced the Yankees a year and one day ago, also at the Trop, and was even worse (3 1/3 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 3 HR). Of the three Yankees who homered of him in that game, only Damon is in today’s lineup (Alex Rodriguez and Morgan Ensberg were the other two).

Everyone’s wearing number 42 today in recognition of Jackie Robinson day. Whereas wearing the number was elective in past years, this year it’s manditory for everyone.

Yanks and Rays play the rubber game of their three-game set this afternoon in Tampa. According to Pete Abe, Xavier Nady will need season-ending surgery. No official word yet and there probably won’t be for a minute…

So much for the outfield platoon. This is a tough break for the Yankees, no other way to look at it. 

Dag.

A few years ago, Allen Barra wrote an interesting piece about language for Baseball Prospectus:

George Carlin used to do a great routine in which he recounted how the term “shell shock” in World War I evolved to “combat fatigue” in World War II, and, finally, by Vietnam, to “post-traumatic stress disorder.” What, Carlin wanted to know, was wrong with shell shock? It was a perfectly legitimate term–colorful, concise, and descriptive. It grabbed you on first hearing and told you exactly what it meant. That was the whole point. By the time we reached Vietnam the reality of shell shock had become obscured by the very term that was supposed to describe it. It had become something that the average person could no longer understand without an interpreter.

…Cal Ripken Jr. for instance. This weekend while watching the Yankees game, I saw a commercial for his baseball videos. One of them is labeled “Defense,” as in, “Learn to play defense the Cal Ripken way.” When Cal Ripken, Jr., broke into the major leagues, “defense” was called “fielding.” It meant not only catching the ball but throwing to the right base, knowing which bases to cover, backing up the play. They called it “fielding” because unlike other sports, only the defense for the team that had the ball was on the field while they were doing it. In other words, it described a situation peculiar to baseball. (And, by the way, when did players like Cal Ripken, Jr. go from playing the middle infield to playing “key defensive positions”?)

When, exactly, did fielding become defense? For that matter, when did hitting and baserunning get lumped together under the leaden term “offense”? Were “batting” and “hitting” and “baserunning” too quaint for an audience that also watched football and basketball? Did we somehow subconsciously decide that because football and basketball had offense and defense that baseball had to have them, too?

I could not agree more about “fielding,” and ever since have made it a point to use that word instead of “defense.” This ain’t football, after all. Defense? I think it’s okay to use “defense” occasionally, especially when talking about “team defense,” otherwise I just don’t see anything wrong with “fielding.”

Which is not to say that I’m against new jargon. It’s just that in this case, I don’t see why the change was necessary.

And speaking of language, yo, pet peeve #1,637…adding “esque” or “ian” to the end of any person, place or thing. As in “Jeterian,” which Michael Kay whipped-out last night. Man, I think that is just pretentious beyond belief.

We need something to laugh about, something that can deliver some amusement. The first nine days of the new season have brought us too much tragedy, beginning with the senseless death of the Angels’ Nick Adenhart and continuing with Monday’s dual losses of Harry Kalas and Mark “The Bird” Fidrych. So this week’s “Card Corner” is just for fun, as we spin the time machine back to 1976, the year The Bird made baseball childlike and naïve.

A few years ago, Sports Collectors Digest held a contest to determine the funniest sports trading card of all-time. This 1976 Topps card, featuring Kurt Bevacqua, some scary-looking calipers, and one enormous piece of bubble gum, finished second in the periodical’s sweepstakes. (The first-place finisher borders on the X-rated, so I opted not to include that in this article; we need to keep it clean at The Banter.)

In baseball’s more innocent time, players took time to participate in the official Bubble Gum Blowing Championships of 1975. The championships were sponsored by the Bazooka Gum Company and overseen by “gum commissioner” Joe Garagiola, who was NBC’s lead play-by-play broadcaster at the time. Each major league team held an individual contest, with winners advancing to the championships. In fact, almost all of the then-24 major league teams submitted a representative, except for the Pirates and Tigers, whose players apparently had little skill in the field of bubble-blowing. (It’s hard to believe Fidrych didn’t qualify here.) Here’s a look at the complete list of participants, which included three Hall of Famers and a few cool nicknames:

(more…)

Let’s get right to it …

• Joel Sherman expresses some concern over Chien-Ming Wang:

Still, the Yanks had envisioned Wang returning from his 2008 foot injury to be what he was the previous two seasons, which was a 19-win innings eater. Instead, he has logged just a total of 4 2-3 innings in two starts and his 28.93 ERA is the worst in the majors for anyone who has made a start in 2009 not named (sorry Yankee fans) Carl Pavano.

Wang . . . is essentially weapon-less when he does not have the sink on his fastball. You could find plenty of statistical analysts who had projected long-term problems for Wang because righties who strike out as few batters as Wang do not typically have extended success.

Right now, the Yanks are saying that Wang’s delivery is messed up and that is preventing him from driving his sinker down in the strike zone. And when that sinker is up in the zone, Wang simply becomes glorified batting practice. But one apprehension with Wang has always been what happens as AL hitters become more familiar with Wang and don’t chase that sinker early in the count and simply wait and wait until Wang comes up in the zone.

[My take: Is that one of the reasons why the Yanks have not offered Wang a long-term deal?]

• Yanks pitching coach Dave Eiland speaks about Wang:

Up until Chien-Ming Wang’s first batter on Monday, the pitching coach Dave Eiland expected a good game. In two bullpen sessions, one last weekend and one before the game, Wang had corrected a flaw in his mechanics.

“Starting in Baltimore, his arm was late, he wasn’t on time, he wasn’t getting on top of the ball to throw the ball downhill and get his signature sink,” Eiland said. “He made the adjustment in his side work, he warmed up tremendously, and then in the game, he was back to where he was in Baltimore. He just didn’t take it out there with him.”

• PeteAbe didn’t have a problem with Nick Swisher enjoying himself on the mound Monday night:

. . . It was 15-5 and they asked a guy to pitch who hadn’t pitched since his freshman year of high school. . . . These things happen sometimes.

The best part was when he shook Jose Molina off, even through there were no signs. When he struck Gabe Kapler out, Swish rolled the ball into the dugout for a souvenir. Hilarious.

His best line was that this game is like an Etch-A-Sketch, you need to shake it and start over again.

• Pete also isn’t getting too worried about Wang:

Wang seemed stunned. He said the issue was where he released the ball, which was off to the side instead of over the top. A sinkerball pitcher wants to stand tall on the mound and throw the ball on a downward plane. Otherwise the ball floats over the strike zone and you see what happens.

Try and remember, Wang was 46-15, 3.74 from 2006-08. There are only a handful of starters who have been better. He’s also coming off a ninth-long stretch when he didn’t pitch in a regular-season game.

Have a little faith that the guy didn’t suddenly lose his ability. This stuff happens sometimes.

(more…)

Disregard that 7-2 final score; last night’s game at Tropicana Field was a tense pitchers’ duel that saw both teams execute late-game rallies, leaving the result in doubt until the ninth inning.

The Yankees got off to a good start by loading the bases against Matt Garza without recording an out in the top of the first. Singles by Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter and a walk to Mark Teixeira brought up the team’s hottest hitter in Nick Swisher. Swisher worked a seven-pitch full count, but Garza struck out Swisher on a nasty curveball. Jorge Posada got one run home with a sacrifice fly to deep left, but Robinson Cano hit a looping liner to strand the remaning runners.

For a while it seemed that one run was all the Yankees would need as A.J. Burnett burned through the Rays order, issuing only a walk to Pat Burrell the first time through.

When Swisher led of the fourth, Garza sent a 1-1 fastball right at Nick’s noggin, likely retribution for Swisher’s jovial mound appearance (and souvenir strikeout ball) from the night before. Swisher ducked out of the way, took a close strike on the outside corner, then dumped Garza’s next pitch in the right-centerfield stands to make the Yankee lead 2-0.

Burnett, set the Rays down in order the second time through the Tampa lineup to bring a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Burnett wound up allowing just three hits in his eight innings of work, unfortunately, they all came in a row to start the seventh as Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria, and Carlos Peña singled to make it 2-1 and Burrell lifted a sac fly to right to tie the game at 2-2.

Undeterred, the Yankees took the lead right back in the eight. With Garza’s night having ended after seven frames, nine Ks, and 112 pitches, Joe Maddon brought in lefty J.P. Howell to face Brett Gardner, Derek Jeter, and Mark Teixeira, whose aching wrist is most bothersome when he hits right-handed. Gardner led off by lifting a fly-ball double over a drawn-in Crawford in left field. Jeter then singled to put runners on the corners, and the aching Teixeira, who had gone 0-for-2 with a walk from the left side, worked a full count, then lifted a sac fly to the warning track to plate Gardner with the go-ahead run.

After one last perfect inning from Burnett in the eight, the Yankees added some insurance against Dan Wheeler in the ninth. Robinson Cano led off with a first-pitch single. Melky Cabrera, who had entered as a defensive replacement for Xavier Nady in the eighth, hit a ground-ball single through the right side. Then, after Ramiro Peña, who started for Cody Ransom and went 0-for-3 with a walk) failed to get down a bunt and Jose Molina (0-for-4) struck out, Gardner bounced a ground-rule double off the warning track in straight-away center and Jeter completed the scoring with a three-run homer to right center. Brian Bruney the capped the night off by striking out the top three men in the Rays’ order on ten pitches, five of them, including all three pitches to Evan Longoria, swinging strikes.

Burnett did exactly what the Yankees needed him to do, and exactly what he set out to do, not only delivering a win, but eating up eight innings in the process. He needed just 103 pitches, struck out nine, and allowed just four baserunners (the Burrell walk and the three straight singles in the seventh).

The Yankees can now wrap up a winning road trip with a win behind Andy Pettitte this afternoon.

(more…)

A.J. Burnett’s first Yankee start saw him halt a two-game losing streak with 5 1/3 innings of two-run ball against the Orioles last Thursday. Today, the Yankees will ask Burnett not only to halt a two-game losing streak, but to go a little deeper into the game. Tonight is the seventh in a streak fifteen straight days on which the Yankees have a game.

Chien-Ming Wang’s disastrous start last night forced Joe Girardi to burn default long man Jonathan Albaladejo for 60 pitches over three innings last night as well as Edwar Ramirez for 51 pitches over two innings. Phil Coke threw 38 pitches last night after pitching the day before as well. That leaves Girardi with a four-man bullpen for tonight. Fortunately, the four available men are the top four in the pen: Mariano Rivera, Brian Bruney, Damaso Marte, and Jose Veras. Still, Girardi won’t be able to play matchups in the late-innings if Burnett doesn’t go deep into the game.

Much to my surprise, the Yankees have not optioned Albaladejo or Coke in exchange for a fresh bullpen arm. Last April 17, Albaladejo threw 48 pitches in a three-inning relief outing following an early Mike Mussina exit and was optioned out the next day for the fresh arm of Edwar Ramirez, who then pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings that night.

More to the point, the Yankees are 3-4 on the season and would like to return home with a winning record. That would require them to win tonight and tomorrow behind Burnett and Andy Pettitte.

Johnny Damon is out with the flu. Nick Swisher takes his place in left field as Mark Teixeira returns to the lineup against the righty-throwing Matt Garza. Brett Gardner moves to the leadoff spot, pushing Derek Jeter back down to number two. Swisher bats cleanup as Hideki Matsui gets the day off, Jorge Posada serves as DH after catching all but the final half inning of last night’s 3 1/2 hour disaster. Jose Molina is behind the plate just as he was for Burnett’s last start. Ramiro Peña starts at third in place of the struggling Cody Ransom, who is 2-for-24 with a pair of walks and eight strikeouts on the young season and had a miserable night in the field last night, due in part to the baseball-colored Tropicana Field roof.

The Rays run out the same lineup save for Ben Zobrist getting the start in left field. Matt Garza dominated the Red Sox in his last start, allowing just one run on four hits and three walks in seven full innings. The ALCS MVP pitched similarly against the Yankees last April, but had a tougher time with the Bombers in two September starts, posting this combined line in two Rays losses: 10 IP, 11 H, 9 R, 7 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, 2 HR. Xavier Nady hit one of the two home runs (Wilson Betemit hit the other).

It’s worth noting that the Yankees went 11-7 against the eventual pennant winning Rays last year.

One of my favorite Clash records:

And from Elvis: