Another tough pitching match-up for the Yanks tonight. Here’s hoping they win the series here and now. It’s all about Andy and the bats.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

“I’ll never forget this day, Sept. 7, 2007,” said Harlan Chamberlain. “I can’t put my thoughts into words.”

Maybe the reason I don’t love baseball movies is because I’ve never fallen for male weepies like Field of Dreams or Bang the Drum Slowly. It’s not that I don’t get mushy in certain movies, it’s just that baseball movies don’t do it for me. My father, on the other hand, loved them and I could see myself, if not loving them myself as I get older, then at least appreciating what my old man saw in them and enjoying that.

My dad, who died earlier this year, was a great blubberer. Episdoes of Law and Order could get him going. He was just a natural crier, and it was easily one of his most endearing qualities. You gotta love a softy, especially old hard guys like my dad.

I couldn’t help but think of the old man last night as Harlan Chamberlain watched his son Joba pitch in the big leagues for the first time. “I think he’s more excited than I am,” Joba said before the game. “I think he’s more excited than I’ve ever been in my entire life.”

Harlan bares a passing resemblance to my father–in the thickness of his face, in his glasses, mustache, and the couple of pens tucked into the breast pocket of his black dress shirt. My dad was a real Yankee-hater but he would have been touched by the scene captured by the YES cameras.

When Joba entered a 3-2 game in the bottom of the seventh, Harlan sat in his motorized wheelchair surrounded by family and friends. Harlan’s mouth turned downward and tears began to run down the side of his face. Then his chin and bottom lip began to tremble. He couldn’t stop it and it didn’t look as if he wanted to. Various relatives reached in to rub his shoulder. A young girl threw her arms around his thick neck his face completely moist now.

The long fly ball that ended the seventh put a scare into everyone, and Harlan’s reaction was priceless: His eyes bugged out as the rest of his face froze–no breathing. When the catch was made, Halan’s mouth, still turned downward, opened and he let out a yell, as he pumped his fist. Everyone around him patted him and cheered as Harlan shook his head with relief. Finally, he rolled his eyes and sighed as if to say…”Whew.” Really nice moment.

Joba pitched two scoreless innings. He wasn’t great but he didn’t give up a run. Then Mariano Rivera dominated the Royals in the ninth giving the Yankees a clutch, 3-2 win. Actually, it was a lucky win as much as anything else because the Yankees went 0-367 with runners on base. Check it out, it was ugly. But you can’t argue about aesthetics or luck when you are in a pennant race:

“We went to the bank a lot to win that game,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. “We had so many guys on base. We used Farns, used Joba, used Mo. We spent a lot to get that win. It was an enormous win for us.”
(Hartford Courant)

True. A couple of guys who can’t play much better are Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada, the two best everyday players on the team. Rodriguez drilled a solo homer in his first at-bat, his 49th of the year. Posada followed with a solo blast of his own two batters later. On the Rodriguez dinger, I thought there would be too much top-spin on the ball and that it would hit off the left field wall for a double. But it hit the top of the wall and skipped over for a homer. Rodriguez now has the record for dingers by a third baseman in a season (or he’s at least tied the mark if you want to include Harmon Killebrew’s 1969 season). He also had two singles. Bobby Abreu doubled home the winning run. The Yanks are three games ahead of the Tigers in the wildcard standings, four up on the Mariners.

Our pal Pete Abe says Harlan Chamberlain “is a piece of work”:

He said he was prepared for Billy Butler’s ball to go over the wall because he knows Joba is going to give up a run eventually. “Matter of time,” he said.

After we got done speaking to him, Joe Torre came out of the clubhouse. Seeing Joba’s dad, he walked over.

“How did my boy do for you, Joe?” the proud father asked as he shook the manager’s hand.

“Pretty damn good,” Torre said. “We’re going to keep him.”

Harlan is scheduled to travel to Yankee Stadium for the first time in his life in two weeks.

I felt as sure that the Yankees would win the last two games of the Seattle series, and they did just that, but with the memory of last weekend’s weak-ass showing against the Devil Rays still fresh, I’m on the fence about whether I think the Yankees will win this series against the Royals. It’s the start of a nine-game road trip, the Blue Jays and Red Sox looming. I’m actually feeling that they are going to lose two-of-three, and I’m not trying to be dramatic, either.

I don’t know much about the Royals but I do know that they’ve been competitive. They are throwing three pretty good pitchers at the Yanks this weekend, I know that much. It’s just that I’m not convinced the Yankees can bring their A-game to a so-so team on a regular basis.

Show us you are a playoff team. You know what I’m saying? C’mon already. I know we’re impatient, I know we’re demanding. Just win already and we’ll leave you alone.

With Cliff still away on vacay, I was fortunate enough to get acclaimed sports writer Joe Posnanski–whose wonderful blog, The Soul of Baseball, quickly became a must-read this season–to share his thoughts on the Royals with us. Enjoy.

The KC Royals

By Joe Posnanski.

Since May 12, the Royals have played exactly .500 baseball — they are 51-51. This probably doesn’t seem the kind of record that would prompt a ticker-tape parade, but hey it has been bad around here. The Royals are one win away from clinching a non-100 loss season. When you’ve lost 100 games four out of five years, you take your small victories when you can get them.

The exciting part about the Royals recent solid play is that they are doing it with kids. The Royals one moment of promise in the last 15 or so years happened in 2003 when they got off to the amazing 16-3 start and were in first place most of the season. But they did that mostly with veterans — Mike Sweeney, Raul Ibanez, Carlos Beltran, Brian Anderson, Jose Lima (!), Curt Leskanic, etc. — and any clear-eyed observer would have known that it could not last. Of course, the Royals had been so bad for so long that many of us DID think it would last, then Ibanez signed elsewhere, Beltran was traded, Sweeney got hurt, the others got old, and the Royals lost 210 games the next two seasons.

This time around, at least, it’s the kids sparking the resurgence. It begins with rookie starter Brian Bannister, who came over from the Mets in the Ambiorix Burgos deal. I am so rarely right about anything, but, man, I nailed that deal. I heard from all my New York friends when Burgos showed up at spring training throwing 100 mph, looking great. I said: “Just wait.” Burgos, as predicted, couldn’t throw strikes, couldn’t get anybody out and blew out his arm. Have fun with that guy.

Meanwhile, Bannister has been terrific — to me, he’s the American League rookie of the year right now. You could argue for Dustin Pedroia, I suppose, but at this point I still like Bannister. For so long people were ready to hand the award to Dice-K. Look at their numbers now:

Bannister: 12-7, 3.16 ERA, 151 ERA+, league is hitting .242 against him.
Matsuzaka: 14-11, 4.11 ERA, 111 ERA+, league is hitting .246 against him.

So it starts with Bannister. He will throw this weekend. Then, you throw in rookie closer Joakim Soria, who has been electric all year — the league is hitting .192 against him. Yankees fans will, I think, see similarities between him and Mariano. I’m not comparing the two at all, obviously. I’m saying that Soria obviously idolizes Rivera because he has patterned his setup and delivery after the guy. At times, if you look away from the screen and look back quickly, they look identical. Try it! It’s fun!

Then there are the two rookie hitters — Alex Gordon and Billy Butler. Gordon started off the season horribly — on June 6 he was hitting .173. Since then he’s hitting right at .300 with some power, and it’s clear watching him play that he pattered HIS game after George Brett.

Billy Butler is just a stud. No other way to say it. He’s 21 years old, his power isn’t in place yet, he has no position, but the guy can flat hit. If you took his stats from this year over a full season, you would come up with a .300 average, 40 or so doubles, 12 homers, between 90 and 100 RBIs — and this guy has no idea what he’s doing yet. A scout called me and said he’s the best young right handed hitter he’s seen since Manny Ramirez.

That’s four rookies, all contributing (five if you include shortstop Tony Pena, who really can’t hit and never walks but probably makes more good defensive plays than any other shortstop in the league). There are some other good signs too. Zack Greinke, after a couple of lost years, is back in the rotation and he has not given up a run in this stretch as a starter. Gil Meche, who was everybody’s favorite whipping boy when the Royals gave him $55 million over five years, has been solid (his 7-12 record doesn’t show it; his 3.85 ERA does). Mark Teahen has had an up-and-down year, but he’s a good player who can beat you a few different ways. Joey Gathright’s average had dropped a bit, but he’s beginning to figure out how to use his amazing speed. Longtime Royals icon Mike Sweeney is back with the team and has been hitting the ball hard again.

Point is there are signs of hope in Kansas City. It’s worth noting, however, that these signs of hope did not prevent the Yankees from destroying the Royals in the Bronx.

Ian Kennedy is on the mound tonight, making his second-career start. Gil Meche, winless in his last eight starts, goes for the Royals. Yanks have their work cut out as Meche is due for a turn in luck, but they are still supposed to win these games, yes?

Right. Exactly.

Would be great to see Rodriguez hit his 50th in KC.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Hey, it’s Neidermeyer!

I have to confess I didn’t come up with this original thought; a baseball card dealer who was appraising my collection made the observation that this memorable Topps card (No. 670) made Ken Holtzman look like the sadistic character in Animal House, the 1978 cult film classic. The "real" Doug Niedermeyer, the evil ROTC leader, was played by talented character actor Mark Metcalf, who achieved lesser fame as "The Maestro" on two Seinfeld episodes and also played the father in the introduction to the video for Twisted Sister’s "We’re Not Going To Take It."

Holtzman’s 1972 Topps card, which was his first with the A’s, featured Oakland’s airbrushed green and gold colors over the cap and jersey of the Chicago Cubs. During the winter, the Cubs had traded the left-hander to the Bay, but Topps apparently did not have any updated photographs of Holtzman wearing an A’s uniform at the time of the card’s release. For Holtzman, the offseason trade turned out to the best of all possible career moves. The Cubs’ decision to trade him for outfielder Rick Monday freed Holtzman from the clutches of Chicago’s anti-Semitic manager, Leo Durocher; placed him in the pitcher-friendly environs of the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum; and allowed him to join a team on the verge of winning three consecutive World Championships. Holtzman certainly played a large role in Oakland’s championship run; as the No. 3 starter behind Jim "Catfish" Hunter and Vida Blue, Holtzman won a combined 59 games during his first three seasons in the Bay Area.

Of all the factors affecting Holtzman in Chicago, his relationship with Durocher seemed like the most detrimental. Though a serviceable pitcher with the Cubs, Holtzman sometimes struggled under the brutal management style of Durocher, whose antiquated way of dealing with players undermined the thoughtful left-hander’s performance. According to at least one writer, Durocher repeatedly made anti-Semitic slurs toward Holtzman, even calling him a "kike." Such bigotry didn’t completely end for Holtzman after his trade from Chicago; Billy Martin reportedly expressed anti-Semitic views toward Holtzman when both toiled for the Yankees in 1976 and ’77.

Holtzman thrived pitching for Dick Williams and Alvin Dark during his Oakland says, but he and Martin did not mesh well in New York. While the actual existence and level of Martin’s anti-Semitism remains debatable, there is no debate over the fact that the manager buried the veteran left-hander. After the Yankees acquired Holtzman from the Orioles as part of a ten-man blockbuster in the middle of the 1976 season, he struggled in pinstripes to the tune of a 4.14 ERA, the highest since his Chicago days. Martin lost confidence in Holtzman quickly. In 1977, Martin called on Holtzman only 18 times, and only seven times as a starter. Martin refused to use him down the stretch in critical games. Despite being only 31 years old and only two seasons removed from status as an elite American League left-hander, Martin had about as much confidence in Holtzman as he did in Ken Clay. Or about as much as Yankee fans today have in Kyle Farnsworth.

Now it may not have been Martin working alone. According to some Yankee observers, George Steinbrenner was just as upset by Holtzman’s spotty performance in New York. Disappointed in his 1976 mid-season acquisition, Steinbrenner wanted to trade Holtzman, but there was the little matter of a "no-trade" clause. Holtzman refused to waive the no-trade, drawing the further wrath of The Boss. That decision, coupled with Holtzman’s status as the Yankees’ player rep, may have sent Steinbrenner to the stove. According to some, Steinbrenner ordered Martin to keep Holtzman chained to the bullpen. In contrast to requests to bat Reggie Jackson clean up, Martin was only too willing to acquiesce to Steinbrenner on the matter of burying Holtzman.

Essentially, Martin and Steinbrenner treated Holtzman as "worthless and weak," to borrow Neidermeyer’s favorite catch phrase in addressing his pathetic Animal House recruits. Unfortunately, Holtzman never recovered from the mistreatment. In June of 1978, the Yankees traded him to the Cubs for Ron Davis (now that was a good deal), but the left-hander didn’t come close to resembling his former Chicago self. By the end of the 1979 season, Holtzman was out of baseball, done at the age of 33.

Of course, it’s certainly possible that Holtzman’s early pitching demise resulted from a heavy workload. From 1968 to 1976, Holtzman pitched at least 215 innings per season, with the exception of one. And some of his innings pitched totals were astounding: 266, 287, and 297. I’m not doubting those numbers were a factor in his career decline, but I have to believe that Martin’s handling of Holtzman played a role, too. That kind of emotional damage—whether it’s inflicted by Niedermeyer or the bigots of the world—can be just as destructive as pitch counts and workloads in bringing a career to a premature halt.

Bruce Markusen writes "Cooperstown Confidential" for MLB.com and has authored eight books on baseball, including the upcoming release, Out of Left Field. He can be reached at bmark@telenet.net.

Where does Alex Rodriguez’s season rank amongst the greatest single seasons ever by a Yankee hitter? Well, according to OPS+, if the season ended today, he’d rank #25. Rodriguez currently sports an OPS+ of 183 (he had an OPS+ of 167 in his last MVP season, 2005). If he drops to 180, he’ll be in 30th place. Nothing but a bunch of guys name Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle and DiMaggio ahead of him on the list. But check out Bobby Murcer’s 1971 season, and Paulio O’s strike-shortened 1994 season, making to top 30.

(more…)

Joba Chamberlian’s father, Harlan, will be travelling from his home in Lincoln, Nebraska to Kansas City this weekend to see his son. According to the New York Post:

Harlan always believed in his son but even he is surprised by Joba’s meteoric rise in the Yankee bullpen. “It’s more astonishing than anything,” he said. “It’s beyond my wildest imagination. And as a father, I just want to reach out to my son and touch him.

“I just want to hold him for a few minutes. I’m more anxious to see my son right now than anything else. If he pitches, that’s frosting on the cake.”

Harlan has lived with polio since he was nine-years old.

A short piece today to stir the pot.

Before I get into the media coverage, a couple of quick observations:

• I’ve always wondered this from a strategic perspective: Why relegate a lockdown pitcher like Joba Chamberlain – or anyone, for that matter — into a role where his greatest use is preserving a lead? If in the late innings, a manager is looking to keep his team within striking distance or prevent the margin from increasing, why plug in a guy who hasn’t proven he can get outs, even in mop-up duty? Joe Torre has done this habitually over the years, and aside from overuse of select arms, it’s a major reason he is so widely criticized for his bullpen management. The Yankees might have been able to position themselves for a rally on Sunday if Torre used Chamberlain into the ninth inning instead of Edwar Ramirez, whose demeanor is reminiscent of Glass Joe from Mike Tyson’s “Punch Out” and whose fastballs enjoy the wonders of air travel. There’s no guarantee Chamberlain would have tossed a scoreless ninth inning, but I like his odds better than Ramirez’s. Granted, a bad pitch by Andy Pettitte in the 7^th, followed by the offense leaving runners in scoring position in the bottom half put the Yankees in that position, but a slight adjustment in bullpen management may have salvaged that series. At least it wouldn’t have rendered the bottom of the ninth moot.
  
  
  
  
• It’s a relief to see the media focus on Alex Rodriguez restricted to baseball. If the Yankees do in fact reach the playoffs, he will be the most important bat in the lineup. As a baseball fan, I’d love to see him continue his barrage into the postseason. The look on Derek Jeter’s face following A-Rod’s upper-deck shot Tuesday night reflected many people’s reactions to what the third baseman is accomplishing. If he’s not a unanimous MVP choice, allowing the BBWAA to determine that award should be reconsidered. I’d say this even if I didn’t live in New York and see 160 + Yankee games per season.

Prior to the Yankees’ “tough stretch,” which featured series against the Indians, Angels, Tigers, Red Sox and Mariners, the Yankees had whittled their AL East deficit to four games and were still looking up in the wild-card race. Reporters, talkies and announcers alike noted that the three-week interlude would likely determine the Yankees’ fate, and for all intents and purposes, it has.

The inconsistency of the Yankees’ play for the past three weeks, which has directly led to their fluctuating playoff position, has made for interesting reading and analysis. When the going was good, the distance between the Yankees and the Red Sox and the longshot possibility of a 10^th straight division title was mentioned in nearly every game story that followed a victory. Then the team tanked in Anaheim and Detroit and fell on its face against the Devil Rays in the same weekend a Red Sox rookie tossed a no-hitter, the division gap widened and the attention began to focus on the wild card.

In much of today’s newspaper coverage, the Red Sox barely garnered a mention, which is interesting. It’s as if the possibility of a comeback has been dismissed and a more realistic approach to the Yankees’ standing is being taken.

I don’t know about you, but I find this refreshing.

Until next week …

I guess the ankle is okay. Soup to nuts, Alex Rodriguez is your American League MVP. His performance Wednesday night is the kind that voters remember at the end of the season. In a big game against his old team, Rodriguez delivered the biggest hits. He ain’t no choke artist this year.

The Yankees were down 2-1 when Rodriguez led-off the seventh inning with a long home run against Jarrod Washburn. When he came to the plate again later in the inning it was thirty minutes later and the lead was up to 7-2. Now he hit another home run, a two-run line drive into the left field seats. That makes 48 homers, 134 RBI, and 127 runs scored.

The Mariners used six pitchers, the Yankees scored eight runs and the half-inning last just under forty minutes. Good ol’ American League baseball.
For a second straight night, the Bombers erupted late turning a close game into a blowout. Final: Yanks 10, M’s 2. Washburn was his usual stingy self against the Yanks, crafting six effective innings. Phillip Hughes had his best start since returning from injury. His fastball was lively, he was throwing his curve ball well, and challenged the hitters. Went right at them. His only mistake was a 2-0 fastball to Raul Ibanez in the third inning. The pitch caught too much of the plate and Ibanez stroked a line drive home run to right, giving the M’s a 2-0 lead.

A solo shot by Jose Molina in the bottom of the inning brought the Yanks to within one and Hughes worked out of trouble in the fourth. With a runner on third and one out, he got a strikeout and a ground ball. Then he worked a perfect fifth and sixth (with some help from Duncan who threw out Ibanez trying to stretch a single into a double to lead off the sixth).

The Mariners were hurt even more by luck. A botched play at second, allowing Molina to reach safely, and later, a routine ground ball that reached the outfield because second baseman Jose Lopez was out of position moving towards second on a hit-and-run play. Ichiro was robbed by two bad calls on the bases–one at second (phantom tag by Jeter), the other at first. The M’s were upset with home plate umpire Larry Vanover’s strike zone all night (with good reason, he was all over the place). Rick White got himself thrown out by Vanover he was so frustrated.

Joba Chamberlain pitched a one-two-three seventh and earned his first career victory. A necessary win for New York. An awful loss for Seattle. The Yankees now travel to Kansas City with a three-game lead over the Mariners. Most of all, it was another great night from Mr. Big Stuff (the team’s second best player Jorge Posada drew a key pinch-hit walk in the seventh), the best player in the league.

Last night won’t mean much if the Yanks don’t win again tonight. They need to win this game and they need to win this series. Being three games up on Seattle is a whole lot better than just a one-game lead. Then again the Mariners need to win this game badly too. I expect their best effort and Washburn has been tough on the Yankees in the past. But I also expect Hughes to throw a good game and I expect the Yankees to win. Could be wrong, of course. They could come out flat. Who knows what we’ll see. But they should win, right? Alex Rodriguez is in the starting line-up, he’ll DH. Jorge sits, so does Abreu. Betemit plays third, G’bombee plays first, and Shelley SlamDuncanstein is in right.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Here’s some Yankee notes for you…

Triple A pitching coach Dave Eiland has been working with Phil Hughes, who is due for a strong performance. Hughes goes tonight vs the Mariners. Expect to see Joba too.

The Rocket will have a cortisone shot today. According to Buster Olney:

Roger Clemens won’t make a decision about whether to retire, after 24 seasons, and we’ve seen him change his mind in the past. But what friends and associates are saying is that they believe this will be the final year for The Rocket, because at age 45, the grind of pitching is wearing on him differently, and his numbers reflect this: The batting average against him, of .271, is the highest since his first season, in 1984; the slugging percentage of .411 against him is the worst of his career, and his strikeout-per-nine innings ratio of 6.19 is the worst of his career.

I missed this a few days ago, but Jack Curry wrote a good story in the Times about Alex Rodriguez’s half brother, Victor.

Speaking of Rodriguez, x-rays were taken after the game last night on his right ankle. They came back negative. He might sit out tonight. But even if he’s not seriously hurt, I fear that his swing will be thrown out-of-whack. I hope I’m wrong, of course. Hope it’s just me being nervous.

That was some bomb he hit last night, huh?

Yo, I’m itching for Rodriguez to hit 50 dingers. I want him to set the single-season HR mark for third basemen and I just want to see a Yankee to hit 50. Right now, Rodriguez has an OPS+ of 179, which would place him in the top half-dozen great seasons ever by a third baseman.

Rodriguez has already scored 125 runs, his best mark as a Yankee (his career high is 141 in 1996). He has 28 doubles, one shy of his Yankee-best 29. The 46 dingers are just two shy of all-time record for third basemen, a mark Rodriguez already shares with Mike Schmidt and Adrian Beltre. Rodriguez has 131 RBI, his high in New York, and just nine shy of his career best (142 in 2002). Oh, and he’s also swiped 22 bases while getting caught just twice.

Jorge Posada has had a dream season, same for Magglio Ordonez, but right now, the AL MVP is Rodriguez’s to lose.

It was close for awhile. A Dave Winfield-like line drive home run by Jorge Posada and a Dave Kingman-like dinger by Alex Rodriguez–both solo shots–combined with fine pitching from Chien-Ming Wang to keep the Yankees ahead of the Mariners. Lots of ground balls, plenty of handy double plays from Wang tonight. Then, the Bombers blew the doors down and when the smoke cleared it was Yankees 12, Mariners 3. 20 hits for the home team. A typical Yankee win. Close game then the fireworks. The best image of the night was the look on Jeter’s face as Rodriguez returned to the dugout after his upper deck homer. Jeter squinted as if to say, “Are you kidding me?”

Onions.

The Tigers lost a close one to the White Sox, so the Yanks are two ahead of the M’s, three-and-a-half ahead of the Tigers. A Nice Tuesday.

(more…)

…on these New York Yankees. Look, I don’t care what the pitching match-up is tonight, it’s on each and every one of the Yankees to show-up and put forth a winning effort. If the Yanks don’t make the playoffs, they’ve got nobody to blame but themselves.

Get it in gear, fellas, we’ll be rooting you on.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

Mike Mussina via Pete Abe:

“We knew we were not going to play .700 ball from the middle of July until the end of the season. You have to be realistic.

“But we fought our way back, we’re leading the wild card now and we want to stay after it. The last four days we haven’t played very well. We’ve been flat it seems like. We’ve got to get our heads on right and play with some energy.”

Head on right? That’s a nice way of putting it.

Alex Rodriguez drove in the first run of the game yesterday. It was the bottom of the first inning, and the Yanks jumped out to a 1-0 lead on Rodriguez’s 130th RBI of the season. Rodriguez has now tied his 2005 RBI mark and is three dingers away from tying the record he shares (with Mike Schmidt and Adrian Beltre) for most homers in a season by a third baseman. The reason I mention all of this is because it was the only highlight of another misbegotten afternoon for this confounding Yankee team. Everything went downhill from there–double plays in the second and third inning spelled doom for the home team–as the Mariners finally ended their losing streak, beating up on the Yankees, 7-1. Roger Clemens didn’t have much and underwent an MRI on his elbow after the game. Uh-oh. Mike Mussina was better than he’s been (he was certainly throwing harder and with more confidence), but he wasn’t great either, allowing seven hits in just over three innings of work.

If Clemens can’t pitch, Mussina will likely take his turn.

Tonight, the Yankees need to wake up and play a good game.

I spent almost the entire day yesterday travelling from Vermont back down to the Bronx via Amtrak. The less said about the trip home the better. The same could be said for the Yankees unsightly performance this weekend against the Devil Rays. I got home last night and called a friend who was livid with the Yankees. Not only that but he simply does not believe they have any heart, any business being considered a post-season threat. “They have no killer instinct, they think they can just show up and be good enough. After beating the Sox they get ripped twice by mediocre pitchers on the Devil Rays? What is that?” I didn’t have an answer. “Joe Torre,” he continued, “has to be the worst manager in the game when it comes to pitching moves.” He proceeded to describe yesterday’s events, when Pettitte stayed in the game too long (why didn’t Joba Chamberlain start the seventh?), and by the time Torre made a move it was “four batters too late.” This reminded me of the comparison Met players used to make between Yogi Berra and Gil Hodges. In the third inning, the thinking went, Hodges was thinking about what to do in the sixth inning. In the sixth inning, Yogi was thinking about what he should have done in the third.

My friend believes that since 2001, Joe Torre’s teams have been seriously lacking, and a lot of it can be traced back to the skipper. “Just look at their combined playoff record after they were tied or had a lead in the playoffs.” I said, “Yeah, but look at the Mariners. They’ve lost nine straight. And look at the Tigers.” He wasn’t having it. Whether the Yankees make the playoffs or not, he doesn’t think they’ll make it out of the first round. So I bet him a dinner that when the Yankees make the playoffs they’ll win the first round.

Call it a sucker’s bet or blind faith, but what the heck?

Cliff is away on vacation, so there won’t be a Mariners Preview as per usual. I’m not even going to try and replicate what Cliff does so well. What I do know is that Seattle has lost nine in a row but they also have their ace, Felix Hernandez, going today. That isn’t a good sign for the Yanks, who’ll counter with Rocket Clemens. Something’s got to give. Will we see the same uninspired effort that we saw this past weekend, or something closer to what we saw last week against the Red Sox? If the Yankees have any killer instinct in them, they’ll win two of three here, even sweep. But if they lose this series–and I don’t think anyone would be surprised either way–the book will still be open on this team. Are they pretenders or contenders?

That is the $64,000 question.

It is absolutely gorgeous in New York today, cool and overcast.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

There were about 53,000 people at the Stadium today, and as far as I can tell they are the only 53,000 left in New York this weekend. Last night I went to a Smith Street bar with a few friends that’s normally packed to the gills on a Saturday night, and we had it pretty much to ourselves; there were no cabs around either, so we walked home over the pungent Gowanus Canal and didn’t encounter a soul. And there are parking spaces! Not that I have a car, but I appreciate it in a sort of abstract way. It’s like spotting a flock of rare exotic birds. I’ve read about these things in books, and I’ve been trying to walk very slowly and quietly down my street so as not to frighten them away.

Anyway, today’s mess was not the best game to catch live, although the weather was perfect — still, if I’m going to see the Yankees lose 8-2 to Tampa Bay, I don’t see why it should take them nearly four hours. It actually began as a fairly brisk pitchers’ duel between Andy Pettitte and Devil Rays starter Jason Hammel, but in the sixth inning it devolved into an excruciatingly slow morass and never recovered. I’m not going to lie: I stayed til the bitter end, but I did spend much of the last two innings helping a friend with the Sunday crossword puzzle. Nice day for it.

Anyway. Pettitte had worked well through the first five innings, aside from a solo shot to Dioner Navarro (whose sizzling second half has brought his average all the way up to… .208), and with an assist from Johnny Damon, who made a great throw in the fifth to nail a Tampa Bay runner at the plate. (Yeah, you heard me, a great throw. Johnny Damon. Believe it). But in the sixth Pettitte got into trouble, allowing a walk to Carl Crawford, a throwing error on a pickoff attempt and a stolen base, another walk to Carlos Pena, a sac fly by B.J. Upton, and two more singles. It was a minor miracle and an impressive accomplishment to get out of that mess with only one run scored.

Pettitte had thrown 101 pitches by then and so I was surprised, along with a number of quite vocal fans in my section (“Grady Little, Joe! Remember Grady Little!”), when he came out to start the seventh inning. It didn’t go so well: two singles, a strikeout, and on his 119th pitch a three-run home run to Pena, off a hanging curve (or a hanging something anyway), made it 5-1 Devil Rays. Torre admitted afterwards that he “may have pushed the envelope” in having Pettitte go out for the extra inning; Pettitte, as is his wont, blamed himself entirely.

Anyway, Edwar Ramirez came in and looked good while closing out the seventh, and while getting two strikeouts on his changeup in the eighth, but then suddenly awful as he quickly gave up two more home runs, which put the score at 8-2 and blew the game open for the Rays. In Ramirez’s defense, I will say that he came out to Van Morrison, and if he actually picked that out himself I personally vow never to boo him no matter how many poorly located fastballs he tosses out there.

It’s hard to tell from Row T of the left-field upper deck, but it looked like Hammel was pitching a pretty good game. At the very least he was throwing strikes. Still, the Yanks had their baserunners, and just couldn’t capitalize; and it’s not as though Tampa’s bullpen is known for its stinginess. The Yanks’ only two runs came in the fifth, when Andy Phillips, hit in the wrist by a pitch, scored on a Melky Cabrera single, and in the seventh when Bobby Abreu tripled home Johnny Damon. More bad news: the pitch that hit Phillips looked like it hurt like hell, and though he stayed in to run the bases, he was then taken out of the game and sent to a hospital for tests.

Fortunately Seattle lost again(!) so no other real damage was done, except to Andy Pettitte’s pretty ERA. Seattle is actually making me nervous, since even though rationally I realize that their having lost nine in a row does not make them any more likely to win tomorrow… it sure feels like they’re due, doesn’t it?

One bright spot for me personally was that I finally got to see Grant Balfour, who you may recall as one of my picks for Worst Pitcher Name Ever, live and in person. You think I’m kidding, but I was actually really psyched when I saw him warming up.

Also, I still haven’t gotten to see Joba Chamberlain pitch live, but I did get to see him loosen up in the bullpen, which is frankly hilarious. He did a series of sort pelvic thrusts (vaguely Elvis-ish), then something that looked a lot like the Chicken Dance, and after that a kind of high-leg-kicking grapevine sort of move, sideways down the upper bullpen area. I see why they don’t want to have him come in during an in-progress inning, because the whole thing took him forever, but it was beautiful; next time I’m going to remember my binoculars.

Anyway, then I took the subway back to Brooklyn and had a seat the whole way, because there is seriously no one left in this town. Happy Labor Day, people… uh, people? Hello? Can anybody hear me? Echo-echo-echo-echo…

We all know how well Andy Pettitte performs after a Yankee loss. Here’s hoping homeslice can hack it after a Yankee win. With an important series against a reeling Seattle team starting tomorrow (with Felix Hernandez on the hill), this am be a big ‘un to win.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

Alternate title: Ich Bein Ein Yankee
Title I was going to use if the Yankees lost: B.J. Upton on the Grassy Knoll

Strange, sloppy, entertaining game today, on a gorgeous sunny afternoon in New York. Which of course I spent mostly inside in my dark apartment, because: Ian Kennedy! In the end it was worth it, as Kennedy was largely excellent in a drama-filled game that wound up 9-6 in favor of the Yankees.

The Yankees’ newest starter is slim – and I keep seeing him described as “baby-faced,” but don’t you have to be older than 21 for that to be noteworthy? – and freckled; I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that Ian Patrick Kennedy may perhaps be of Irish descent. He also looked very nervous, though of course if he hadn’t you’d want to send Guidry out to check him for a pulse. He’s got a smooth delivery that is, as advertised, somewhat reminiscent of Mike Mussina’s.

Kennedy had an easy, six-pitch first inning, helped (as he would be later in the day) by the Devil Rays’ impatience, and (as he would not be later in the day) by a nice play on a hard-hit fly to left by Matsui. In the bottom of the inning Alex Rodriguez homered, scoring Bobby Abreu to give the Yanks a 2-0 lead, and it was beginning to look like a storybook game.

But Kennedy seriously struggled in the second inning, quickly giving up two singles; he seemed to be having trouble throwing his breaking stuff for strikes. Alex Rodriguez made matters worse, dropping Brendan Harris’ easy popup, which should have been the second out. John Wilson then doubled, clearing the bases and tying the game, and after a strikeout Kennedy walked Josh Paul. At this point Joe Torre lumbered out of the dugout and, in a classic psych-out of the kind rarely seen from him in recent years, asked the umpires to confiscate and check Akinora Iwamura’s — supposedly because its flat top led the Yanks to think it may have been sawed off, but really, I’d imagine, to buy his pitcher some recovery time. Iwamura, who has been using that style of bat all year with no complaints from the Yankees or anyone else, looked confused and somewhat rattled as his translator tried to explain the situation (how do you say “they’re just fucking with you” in Japanese?). In any case, Iwamura struck out to end the inning, and would do so twice more during his 0-for-4 afternoon. Kennedy labored again in the third, but got out of it without any damage, and that seemed to settle him down – because from there on out he pitched beautifully.

In the bottom of the third, with two on and Alex Rodriguez at the plate, Joe “Tit for Tat” Maddon asked the umps to check and confiscate his bat. Weak, Maddon; at least get them to check the pitcher for Vaseline or something – show a little imagination, you know? But A-Rod, to his credit, looked more amused than anything else, and proceeded to single to left with a brand-new bat. Matsui was walked to force in the go-ahead run – this might be a good time to point out that D-Rays starter Edwin Jackson was not pitching well today – and a Giambi groundout got another run home. The Yankees added three more in the fourth when Abreu was walked with the bases full  – as you might expect, that was Jackson’s last batter – and A-Rod doubled in Jose Molina and Derek Jeter.

Kennedy took it from there, more or less cruising through his last four innings, allowing just a solo home run to B.J. Upton in the sixth. He went seven innings, allowing three runs (only one earned) on five hits and two walks, with six strikeouts. In fact, he struck out the last batter he faced – Rays backup catcher Josh Paul, who looks like he’s watched the Thurman Munson Yankeeography a few too many times – on three called strikes. I don’t know what more you could ask from a 21-year-old rookie in his first-ever ML start, thrown into a pennant race after one season of pro ball. As he walked off he cracked his first smile of the day, was hugged by Ron Guidry, shook hands with Phil Hughes, and nearly had his arm broken by the ever-enthused Shelley Duncan. Shelley, no – not the pitching hand!

"One of his strengths is his demeanor," said Dave Eiland, the pitching coach for the Triple-A Scranton Yankees. "I guess you’ll never find out for sure until you put a kid in that situation. But all indications are that he’ll be able to handle it just fine.”

In the eighth, with the Yanks up 9-3,Wilson Betemit came in for A-Rod – who was rubbing and flexing his shoulder after stealing a base in the Xth, though afterwards he said he was fine – and Jeter was taken out for September call-up Alberto Gonzalez (didn’t take him long to find work! Sorry, couldn’t help myself), possibly because Jeter had been nailed in the back, somewhat suspiciously, by Rays reliever Juan Salas to lead off the sixth. Luis Vizcaino came on to pitch, but had nothing today, and in conjunction with some shaky Yankee defense in the outfield, he proceeded to make things interesting very quickly. Tamps lined one pitch after another into the outfield, until the score was 9-6, and Joe Torre decided – wisely, I thought – not to fuck around, bringing in Mariano Rivera to nail down the last out of the inning. Which he did, inducing a quick ground ball. And in the ninth, he struck out the side.

Meanwhile Seattle lost again – that’s some pretty harsh market correction going on over there – and so the Yankees now have a two-game lead in the Wild Card race. I’d like to say I saw this coming back in late May, but I’d be lying. Who knows what’ll happen in September – nothing would surprise me at this point – but regardless, let’s take a minute and appreciate a season in which the Yankees came back at least temporarily from the dead, and now have a roster that includes 12 home-grown players – Kennedy, Hughes, Wang, Pettitte, Rivera, Chamberlain, Jeter, Posada, Duncan, Cabrera, Cano  – most of whom are thriving.

Just when you think you know something, you get knocked on your ass and realize that you don’t no jack. So much for being the favorites. So much for the odds. The Yanks, coming off three big wins against the Red Sox, were served by the lowly Devil Rays on Friday night in the Bronx by the score of 9-1. Fortunately for New York, the Blue Jays also narrowly edged the Mariners, so the Yanks are still leading the wildcard. And up in Boston, the Orioles lousy bullpen somehow prevailed against a hard-charging Red Sox offense. Both the Red Sox and Mariners had the winning runs on base in the ninth, both hit into game-ending double plays.

Our beloved Bronx Bombers mustered just two hits (a double by Derek Jeter, an RBI single by Alex Rodriguez in the fourth inning) as Phillip Hughes delivered another disappointing performance. After the game, Hughes told The New York Times:

“It was a little bit of everything tonight,” Hughes said. “I had a lot of bad counts, some bad breaks and gave up some home runs. It’s something that I need to fight through. Even when you have a bad start you hope to keep your team in the game. Tonight, I couldn’t do that.”

Joe Torre told the Daily News:

“He shouldn’t be missing the zone like he’s been missing, so I think he was either trying to make too good a pitch or he needs to command his fastball a little bit better,” Joe Torre said. “It got to the point where he was getting behind in the count and he had to throw predictable pitches in predictable counts. That’s the pitcher’s dread, when you’re out there and you really lose the ability to do what you want.”

After the game, Rays stater, Andy Sonnanstine–who pitched a wonderful game–told the Tampa Bay Trib:

Honestly, that’s probably the best start of my life,” said Sonnanstine, whose parents were in town from Ohio to watch him pitch. “It’s something I’ll never forget.”

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The Boston Red Sox are the best team in baseball, and the Yankees just swept them in a series in which the Sox threw their three best starting pitchers. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are the worst team in baseball and the Yankees took six of eight from them after the All-Star break. This weekend the Yankees will once again miss not only Scott Kazmir, but James Shields as as well. Can you say extended winning streak?

The catch, of course, is that the Yankees will have Ian Kennedy making his major league debut on Saturday. Kennedy’s tremendously talented, but so is Phil Hughes, and he’s been experiencing some growing pains thus far this season despite the fact that, as a man in his third full professional season and with seven major league starts under his belt, he’s a veteran compared to first-year pro Kennedy. Hughes, who starts tonight, has just two quality starts in those seven major league outings and is coming off a pair of similarly frustrating outings in which he allowed just eight hits in 12 1/3 innings and struck out ten, but also allowed ten runs due to five walks in the first game and three homers in the latter.

Opposing Hughes will be Andrew Sonnanstine, who, as a fourth-year pro with 16 major league starts under his belt, is of similar vintage to Hughes (though, as a Kent State product, he’s three years older). Sonnanstine’s only career start against the Yankees was his first following the All-Star break. He allowed five runs on a walk and nine hits, including homers by Jorge Posada and Hideki Matsui, in 6 1/3 innings in that game and hasn’t been much better since, posting a 7.28 second-half ERA despite allowing just three more homers in his last eight starts and posting a solid 2.49 BB/9. The Yankees swept the Red Sox on the strength of their pitching. There’s no reason they can’t sweep the Devil Rays by preying on their pitching, just as they did the last time the Rays came to town and the Yankees scored 45 runs in the process of winning the final three games of that four-game set (the loser in game one, incidentally, was Mike Mussina).

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Baseball has lost some good people during the middle of the summer, including a pinstriped icon and a onetime Yankee from the late 1960s. With details of those deaths, along with some other baseball losses, here is the latest edition of Pastime Passings.

Phil Rizzuto: (Died on August 13 in West Orange, New Jersey; age 89; pneumonia and effects of Alzheimer’s disease): Considered one of the lynchpins to Yankee success throughout the 1940s and fifties, Rizzuto helped New York to seven World Series wins—in 1941, ’47, and ’49, and from 1950 to 1953. Regarded as a slick fielding shortstop and a top-flight bunter, the five-time All-Star provided both stability to the middle infield and to the top of the Yankee batting order. In 1950, Rizzuto batted .324 and drew 92 walks to earn American League MVP honors. After his playing days, "The Scooter" became a Yankee institution as a broadcaster. Anchoring WPIX, cable, and radio broadcasts for 40 years, the colorful and charismatic Rizzuto emerged as the centerpiece to television and radio coverage of the Yankees, replete with trademark catch phrases like "Huckleberry" and "Holy Cow!" In 1994, Rizzuto earned baseball’s ultimate honor—after being passed over 26 times—when he was finally elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Commentary: Phil Rizzuto broke almost all of the rules of broadcasting. He often failed to follow the play, botched home run calls, interspersed his broadcasts with "Happy Birthdays" and personal notes, and sometimes even failed to take note that a no-hitter was in progress. Yet, none of that mattered. "The Scooter" was so personable, so charming, so completely entertaining that most Yankee fans loved listening to him, regardless of whether the Yankees were winning, tied, or being blown out.

There were also times that Rizzuto could be say, shall we say, somewhat risqué on the air. For example, during the 1969 season, the Yankees made one of their first trips into Seattle’s Sicks Stadium to play the expansion Pilots. (Rizzuto, by the way, hated Sicks Stadium, in part because it required climbing a ladder to reach the broadcast booth.) While on the air, Rizzuto made mention of the fact that his Seattle hotel room had only rounded walls. "There will be no cornering of Cora tonight," Rizzuto exclaimed, referring to his longtime wife. Perhaps the Scooter thought no one was listening since it was so late on the East Coast.

Steve Lombardi of waswatching.com recalls another one of Rizzuto’s less than politically correct moments. Late in the 1975 season, Rizzuto was announcing a game on the radio with longtime broadcast partner Bill White. Noting that the fans at Yankee Stadium had started to cheer loudly, Rizzuto announced that Bobby Bonds was coming into the game as a pinch-hitter. White then corrected him, saying that the pinch-hitter was actually Rich Coggins, who like Bonds was African-American, but wore No. 26, as opposed to Bonds’ No. 25. Rizzuto then tried to defend his error. "Well, you know, they all look alike to me," said Rizzuto, drawing loud laughs from White, also an African American. Only someone as well liked as Rizzuto could get away with such a statement on live radio.

Because of The Scooter, Yankee broadcasts in the seventies and eighties transcended sports; they became a mix of situation comedy, talk show, and baseball. Thanks, Rizzuto.

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