Derek and the Falling Dominoes

As someone who bleeds blue pinstripes, what happens to Derek Jeter at the end of this season has been lurking at the back of my mind, threatening to hurl my soul into an abyss of despair (that may be laying it on a little bit thick, but sports does that to a guy). But beyond The Captain's contact expiring, there's the fact the he's aging. The man's 36, playing shortstop. He's not having a great season, but we can ignore that for now. But on the whole, I (like a lot of fans) have pushed the whole thing to the back of my mind, because we really don't want to deal with it--mentally living in a van down by a river in Egypt with Chris Farley.

SI.com Joe Posnanski wrote a great column today, about a conversation he had with a Red Sox fan talking about the diminishing future of Jeter. Clearly, this member of Red Sox Nation has thought about it more than most of the Yankee Universe has--and who can blame him?

If you're of a mind, give it a read--this is what baseball writing should be about--historical context and precedent, good use of stats to describe past/present/future, and rational thinking about what lies ahead--sprinkled with a little humor and respect.

A Couple of Class Acts

Finally, after an unimaginably long drought (well, to Yankee fans) the New York Yankees have once again won the World Series. There's really nothing I can add to all the blogs/news stories about The Core Four and their "one for the thumb", CC, Mariano (how can he still be doing what he's doing?), Tex...so on and so on. But I had to say a couple of things about a couple of real class acts both on and off the field.

I was really torn last night between my desire to watch Game 6, especially if it turned out to be the last game, and my need to get some sleep before work. It would've been an easier choice if Pettitte hadn't been doing such a great job (and honestly, I think Pedro was doing pretty good, too. He'd have been doing great if he'd had his fastball). But it wasn't until Matsui hit that two-run single in the third that I felt confident enough in the Yankee's fate to drift off. One of the last things I remember hearing was Tim McCarver correcting Joe Buck's recap of the score "Yankees 4, Phillies 1" with "Matsui 4, Phillies 1." And if it hadn't been for Tex's RBI, it'd have ended up being Matusi 6, Phillies 1.

Godzilla's been a consistent, dependable player since he came to the States, and it's great to watch him get the recognition he deserves--especially after such a performance. The fact that this was very likely his last year with the team (man, I hope not--and have been hoping not all season), made the whole thing all the more bittersweet.


And then there's the NYPD's (and formerly Baltimore PD's) Det. John Munch Yankee Manager Joe Girardi (third Yankee to win a championship with the Yankees as both a player and a manager), who followed his team's win with dose of Good Samaritanship, stopping to help someone who'd had a car accident.

According to Lohud.com:

The crash happened at 2:25 a.m. today in the eastbound lanes along a long blind curve where the Cross County meets the Hutchinson River Parkway near the New Rochelle Road exit, police said.

Police were conducting a nearby sobriety checkpoint on the parkway. In fact, about 15 minutes earlier, Girardi had passed through the checkpoint.

Cristiano, who was working the checkpoint, congratulated him on his first win as a manager and waved him through. He hadn't been the only Yankee to pass by the checkpoint. Pitcher Andy Pettitte, who lives in Harrison, also passed through earlier.

"He came through with a smile," Cristiano said.

Cristiano, a self-described huge Yankees fan, said she hadn't expected to see either one of them again. But, then, a 911 call came through about a car accident a short distance away, and he cops suspended the checkpoint to respond to the crash. As she came upon the accident scene, in an area where the parkway's two lanes turn into three and cars speed by the curve that takes them to the Hutch, Cristiano spotted Girardi.

"He was jumping up and down, trying to flag me down," she said. "You don't expect him standing by a car accident, trying to help."

Cristiano said that, by the time she arrived, Henry was able to get out of the crashed vehicle and declined to be taken to the hospital.

Girardi, dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, then told them he "had to get going."

Cristiano and Henry both thanked him and watched as he ran across traffic again to reach his car.

"The driver didn't know it was him until after I told her," Cristiano said.

Happy Trails

The Yankees Universe--particularly the blog reading portion thereof--was rocked yesterday by the news that Peter Abraham, beat writer for the The Journal News has taken a position with the Boston Globe, and in two weeks will have to transition to covering some baseball team that apparently calls Boston home (I hear they have an affinity for garishly colored hosiery).

I've been reading Pete's blog almost daily since near the beginning (2006)--about once a day during the off-season (covering the Yankees gives him something to talk about throughout the year), and at least three times a day during the season. Like many, I will miss his thorough coverage, sense of humor, healthy dose of perspective (particularly when some fans are likely to start panicking), and appreciation for the game. Oh yeah, and frequency of posts!

Moving to the Globe is a heckuva step up for any writer and no one deserves it more, kudos Pete, and may you find only success (and a job with a major NY paper in the near future).

The Sandman's 500th (and his 1st)

Mo is not only the most feared closer in baseball, he's the most feared hitter in baseball, walking 33% of the time. Not since Babe Ruth have the Yankees been blessed with a player that dominates as both a pitcher and hitter. (from Respect Jeter's Gangster)

The expression on Jeter's face when K-Rod pitched to him at the beginning of his at-bat (2 on, 2 out, with Mariano Rivera waiting for his 3^rd career at-bat) was enough to make any Yankee fan laugh, but the laughter turned to gleeful hysterics he (eventually) was intentionally walked to bring up Mo for a quick third out. Why? 'Cuz one of the most feared closers working today enabled Mariano to work him to a full-count and then drew a walk, adding an insurance run to the Yankee totals, and giving Mo yet another statistic: 1 RBI (or, as Big League Stew noted, 2,296 behind Aaron). Not to overload this post with quotes, but...I laughed out loud (only funny because it's tuh-rue) at Craig Calcaterra's comment:

Francisco Rodriguez gave it up, which in some cosmic way illustrates the vast gulf between those two pitchers in my mind. How do you walk Mariano Rivera? Nerves is all I can think, and you can bet your ass that if the situation was reversed, Rivera would never have walked Rodriguez, because Rivera's body temperature runs at a constant 57 degrees.

Rivera (the other #42) then went on to do what he does best: sending batters to bed, earning his 500th save in the process.

His reaction? After hugging every teammate and coach, he had to go speak to the press. He was nothing but class, of course. "I don't play for the records, I play for the Yankees."

He's simply the best.

Think I Like Him Better When He was just A-Roid

what the--?

why would anyone in their right mind pose for this pic? Dude, you're the most vilified man in baseball (well, after Bonds and Selig), the poster-boy for what's wrong with the sport right now...and you do this? How's this help with the reputation for being "me-first"? Gah!

As Peter Abraham says:

(Seriously, does anybody get worse advice than this guy? Anybody? What do you figure would happen if a photographer asked Tiger Woods to kiss himself in a mirror? There would be a two-iron wrapped around his neck. Alex’s ability to continually do and say strange things is amazing. He’s the Cal Ripken of bad decisions.)

Programming Note: am scheduling this to post late so I don't crowd off the other stuff I've written today...

Recommended Reads

I don't know if anyone actually reads any of these posts/articles when I do one of these posts, but I like to think some one does. And it makes me feel like I'm providing a small service to my readers--particularly on days like today when I can't really come up with much, my brain's too busy mulling over the implications to that huge info-dump that the writers of Battlestar subjected us to and thinking about Whedon's destined-to-be-short-lived Dollhouse.*

Anyway, some of the more thought-provoking reads of the three-day weekend:

• from CNN, Bob Greene asks--and answers--a good question:

  But all the games, in all the seasons, in all the big-time sports leagues -- what is the real reason we keep on watching?
  
  You might think that we'd finally grow weary of caring, with headlines about Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds, with the sports pages often reading like the business pages (contract disputes and stadium bond-issue negotiations and salary arbitration), with police-blotter details sometimes pushing aside the box scores.
  
  Why do we watch?

• from The Outfit, Country Music: Why the music we love to hate should get more respect from storytellers, columnist Graham Verdon posits:

  Country music is clearly the ugly stepchild in the family of popular music. But the truth is, for those working to achieve mastery in the craft of storytelling, country songwriters are close cousins.

• Lastly, the good people over at Respect Jeter's Gangster, give the definitive (and chuckle-worthy) response to the burning question:Where Will Joba Find His Place?

* Yeah, that was a dare. Prove me wrong, FOX. Prove me wrong, America. Please.

Another Week Started

another weekend full of blogging I neglected to do.

This weekend was also Daddy-Daughter Date Night at the local rec center, which we didn't attend due to a few too many sick people at home. So, now I have to come up with something to do with her in 2 weeks to make up for that. Sadly, I have no idea what we can do...looking through newspapers, websites, etc...can find nothing for a dad and his Princess to do (found a couple of activities for the others, tho).

Still plugging through Torre's book--it's an easy, enjoyable read, and I feel like I could knock it off in one sitting--but I can't get myself to read more than 1/2-1 chapter at a time. Not sure why. Anyway, so far even with the players that have been shown in a critical light, there's a balanced, complimentary tone. No balance so far with the Saints: Cone, Rivera, Jeter, and O'Neil. Heck, so far even Boss Steinbrenner's looking pretty good.

Attack of the Spoilers

So, the instant I heard that Joe Torre had a book coming out about his time with the Yankees, I ordered it (even if he technically wrote nothing). Now I'm wondering if I wasted my money. The book comes out today, and it's already been making news thanks to a copy that a couple of NY journalists got their hands on a week or so early.

The leaked portion of the book couldn't be more than a few paragraphs, and yet hours of TV/radio time, gallons of ink, GB of internet traffic has been devoted to it. Now that the book is out, and we'll get more than an isolated comment about A-Rod or a description of Cashman's treatment of Torre toward the end. I can't imagine that we'll see less reporting.

Now, I'll try to avoid as much of that as I can, but it won't be enough. If I'm not careful, I'll end up reading/hearing the whole book before my copy arrives on Thursday, and I really won't have time to dig in to it until Saturday.

I understand our media culture is all about getting the story out before anyone else. But when it comes getting the details of a book--memoir or best-selling novel (how many leaks about the ending of Deathly Hallows were there?)--movie, TV series finale, etc. what's the rush? Can't we wait for the intended audience to get a crack at it before rushing to print? What's the benefit to spilling the details/ending/spoilers?

Internet fan sites and whatnot have the decency to warn readers about spoilers, so we can avoid them. Can't legitimate news groups (or reasonable facsimiles thereof) do the same?

just a little griping, I guess.

One More Quick Sports Note

There are a lot of athletes out there who are good at their job, but are simply jerks (see the last post for one potential nominee). For example, A-Rod is quite possibly the best player in the world, but between the way he treated his team last year, his wife, kids, charities, you name it...it's pretty clear the guy's a prick. Manny Ramirez is another prime example, as the Yankees Chick put it recently:

Manny Being Manny - "Manny being a difficult, ungrateful jackass" is a more appropriate catchphrase

Thankfully, there are some athletes who in addition to being stellar players seem to be genuinely nice guys. Joba Chamberlin seems to be one of those guys--a dynamite pitcher, a model son, and an all-around good guy. Which makes it all the worse to see him on the Disabled List. Loved watching him come out of nowhere last year, was excited to see him move out of the 'pen this year, laughed myself silly over the controversy over his fist-pumps...and now this? Blargh. The kid deserves better. Get better soon, Joba.

Jobamania Gets Hit with a Dose of Reality

Joba Chamberlin, the great hope of the Yankees (for the next 15 years), got his first start tonight. Didn't see it televised, but caught the second inning on MLB's Gameday. Ouch. Over 2.1 innings he threw 62 pitches (38 in the first inning!)/32 strikes, 4 walks, 3 K's, 1 balk (!), 1 hit, 2 runs, ERA of 2.43.

I knew the kid was going to have rough times ahead of him...was just hoping it wouldn't be his first inning. I fully trust he's going to bounce back after this, and won't turn this chance into another fiasco like Kennedy and Hughes made of April (still have trust in those guys, too...not sure why).

Meanwhile, Kyle Farnsworth is well on his way to make sure that Yankee fans everywhere miss Joba in every 8th inning for the rest of the season.

Is Roger Clemens serious about retirement?

Yes, Baseball is a Game of Failure, but Come On

Yeah, I've been awfully silent about the Yankees lately, 'cuz what can you say about these guys? "Rock bottom" seems to be the theme this week from the Manager's mouth, blogs, news stories, and now Hank Steinbrenner. There's a few other words that might stick finer point on it than that, but I try to keep from working blue (even when it comes to these pinstripes).

Rock Bottom...swept by the Mets (including one massacre) with the two best pitchers on the team; getting spanked by the O's, yeah, can't get much lower. Until now...I'm reading a bit on the official site and...Hank Steinbrenner's comments today seemed restrained and rational. What twisted world is this? (actually wish he'd come out yesterday and complained bitterly--particularly about Moose, that really seems to help the team win lately)

Let's go Rasner! (yes, I actually said that)

Been wanting to say something about the Yankees' 2008 season (which in many ways seems as long as the 2006 season already), but didn't know how to boil it down to something that wouldn't be so long as to bore everyone to tears. Should've known that it'd be summed up perfectly by Peter Abraham after last night's game:

When you consider everything that has happened to the Yankees (injuries, sickness, suspensions, Joba’s dad, the schedule, rain, cold, etc.) it’s impressive that they’re 14-13 and a game out of first.

Mark Feinsand's summary of the season is worth the time, as well.

Hughes and Kennedy are making it difficult for me to not regret them not being traded...but I am enjoying watching them grow up this year (be even better if I wasn't limited to whatever few games ESPN, TBS and FOX throw my way...ohhhh, to be able to watch all the games...)

Meanwhile, on the homefront, Samwise keeps getting better and better--two doubles and a single last night (and those doubles would've been triples if he didn't make Jason Giambi look like an Olympic sprinter)

Reversing the Curse

Well, so much for that jersey's curse! (still, why Ortiz? Why not Manny? He's more lethal to the Yankees...or Schilling?) The Yankees have buried something of greater karmic weight than any silly shirt....Bernie Williams.

Citing a need for physical and spiritual cleansing after a Boston Red Sox fan entombed a David Ortiz jersey in the floor of the new facility, the New York Yankees buried former centerfielder Bernie Williams under 4,650 pounds of concrete Wednesday in the foundation of the new Yankee Stadium for good luck.

According to team sources, the instant the 39-year-old Williams was completely submerged in the rapidly setting structural material, stopping his voice as his lungs and mouth filled with concrete, the sun broke through the clouds and shone on the yet-incomplete field. Yankees part-owner Hank Steinbrenner called the occurrence a sign indicating that the "Curse Of A Red Sox Fan's David Ortiz Jersey" had been reversed, and that God was once again on the Yankees' side.

"Any attempt to put a hex on the New York Yankees has been successfully averted," Steinbrenner told reporters while standing over the still-wet concrete slab beneath which, judging by the sluggish ripples and lopsided bubbles in the hardening agglomerate, Williams still struggled. "Not that this organization believes in curses. We're the Yankees. We believe the success of our team is based purely on our players and their on-field performance. And we act accordingly."

"However," Steinbrenner continued, "Bernie was on our last World Series team in 2000, so we figured burying him under our new home certainly couldn't hurt. Also, he was available, and his appearance fee was quite reasonable."

[snip]

"By giving Bernie this chance, we have once again proven why we are the classiest organization in all of sports," [Yankees President Randy] Levine added. "Lesser teams would have overreacted to this whole curse thing and buried Derek Jeter."

From The Onion, naturally...very, very funny stuff. Why can't I be this funny?

H/T Peter Abraham.

Talkin' Baseball

Not only was Monday Opening Day for MLB, it was the start of another season of Little League for the Offspring. Frodo's elected to not play this Spring--which is both sad and understandable (and hey...makes things a lot easier on his parents--we'd have had 3 kids in 3 different leagues and would've had to clone one of us to cover everything).

Samwise has his first game of the year tonight, the Princess has hers tomorrow (immediately following Sam's second game). Arnold desperately wants to play this year, and is counting down the days 'til next season. I'm very impressed with Sam's coach--not sure what kind of results he'll get out of the kid, but am sure he'll get good stuff out of the team as a whole (and vice versa). Not as impressed with Princess' coach--seems to put a great emphasis on quantity of practice over quality.

On the professional side, looks like Torre's getting off to a good start in LA. Beckett and Schilling started the season on the DL. The Girardi-era Yanks got off to a decent start in their opener--the Melk-man doing most of the splashy stuff, but the pitching was as good as it needed to be. Like Patrick over at Yanksblog said, "You're not going to beat the Yankees very often when the only pitchers you see are Chien-Ming Wang, Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera."

Someone asked me why I'm so obsessed with baseball when it's so "boring" compared to say football or basketball. Here's a snippet from Chabon's Summerland to give part of the explanation:

"I hate it that they even count errors," Ethan said..."What kind of game is that? No other sport do they do that, Dad. There's no other sport where they put the errors on the freaking scoreboard for everybody to look at. They don't even have errors in other sports. They have fouls. They have penalties. Those are things that players could get on purpose, you know. But in baseball they keep track of how many accidents you have."

[snip]
"Ethan," Mr. Feld said, shaking his head in sorrow.... "Errors . . . Well, they are a part of life, Ethan," he tried to explain. "Fouls and penalties, generally speaking, are not. That's why baseball is more like life than other games.

Opening Day

It's here, it's finally here! Spring is officially here (not that my hay fever hasn't been telling me that for a week), I'm not wasting part of my TV dollars paying for ESPN...life is good.

The Offspring are a little annoyed with me, Opening Day is typically a day off school, but I've been little to disorganized lately and we're behind...so they have at least half a day. I may spare them this afternoon.

Aaaand, Toronto at New York is rain-delayed. I said some not-fit-for-print things to my TV because instead of turning in 30 min late for Wang's start, I saw Kansas City at Detroit. I did retract those things when I finally noticed the bottom-of-the-screen scroll telling me that the game was delayed, so they were showing this "bonus coverage."

That mollified me a bit, but still...I don't care if Detroit's a favorite to win it all this year (and they do look good); on Opening Day, I want to see the Bronx Bombers. Rain had better clear soon...

Some interesting facts, via the best Yankee blog on the 'Net:

The Yankees are 61-43-1 on Opening Day, 28-10 at the Stadium. They are 16-11 in presidential election years. When the Yankees win at home on Opening Day, the GOP is 4-1 in the election. When the Yankees lose, the Democrats are 3-0.

Bring Back, Mo!

here's an online cause I can get behind:

I stand by what I said a couple of years ago, the man's the best, he needs to end his career with the best.

Me has been berry berry bad to Baseball

Back on June 6, it was noted that I hadn't been talking a lot about the Yankees lately. Now, I'm sure that Joel was trying to goad me at the time because the Yankees were falling apart--and if not for A-Rod, would've been mathematically eliminated from the rest of the season. That, believe it or not, wasn't the reason for a lack of baseball/Yankee posts. It was simply that I hadn't been watching any baseball then.

Actually, I haven't watched any baseball (save a couple of innings of the All-Star Game) since early May this year. Only keep up with a couple of Yankee blogs regularly (Pete Peter Abraham's Lohud Yankees blog is a 6-day a week read, ditto for Yanks Blog), barely have a clue about anything else going on in the League (did I hear something about a SF Giant hitting some home runs?)

But a good friend of mine realized he wasn't using his mlb.tv account while I'm at work. And the Yankees hosted the Red Sox today. Sooo....this is gonna be fun!

ahh....1-2-3 7-pitch first inning by Andy Pettite. What more do you want?

Update: (fixed spellings above--didn't want to verify them earlier 'cuz I'd probably accidentally get news on the game)
Now, that's the game to break a drought with! Pettitte rocked, Matsuzaka was good but not great (so, so glad the Yankees didn't overpay for him like some other team did), Jeter broke a slump, everyone looked solid, Damon was good in LF, finally got to see this Joba kid everyone's raving about--and now I can start raving about him (and, I know how to pronounce his name)--and the Yankees beat the Sox! Loved it!

Is that Yankee Stadium or Cape Canaveral?

I can't tell--but there's this Big Rocket there...

YAH-and might I add-HOOOOOOO!

yes, those are both tears of joy and tears on conviction...(didn't mean to open that email notice from yankees.com on the Lord's Day)

OPENING DAY!!

It's Opening Day. Which, really, really, really should be a National Holiday. No one works, banks closed, furniture stores closed and not allowed to have cheezy sales, schools closed (well, that's a good idea...period), networks required to show games all day, etc. Sadly, that's my little dreamworld.

But it is a Newton Holiday. We're celebrating big time today. Watching ESPN's Baseball Tonight and getting ready for Devil Rays @ Yankees here in a few minutes.

w00t!

Commentaries of the Day/Recent Days

Religious: Why John MacArthur Is Not "Reformed"
Sports: Yankees stopper's play a good sign
Social: Yesterday's Over the Hedge (fixed the link)
Political: (h/t: Shamgar)