Whoever defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result," -- and I've seen it attributed most often to Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin -- would have to conclude the following: sending Sean Avery back onto the ice Friday in Washington would be insane. The Rangers keep sending him out there, and they keep getting the same result: one stupid and OBVIOUS penalty after another. The Rangers survived thanks to Henrik Lundqvist.
Indeed, we all know the Rangers will go only as far as the King will take them, but even he needed luck tonight, as an Alex Ovechkin slapper rang off the iron during Avery's first stupid penalty of the third period. The Rangers are in their locker room right now, breathing a sigh of relief and smiling, deservedly, about their 3-games-to-1 lead over the higher-seeded Capitals.
But Sean Avery has done his damnedest to screw this up for his teammates. You can't tell me that no Ranger is looking at him across the locker room right now and seething, even wishing he weren't there right now.
I'm not saying Avery should be cut or released or traded or suspended. He helps this team. He always has. But he's running wild right now and needs to be reined in. John Tortorella should sit him in Game Five to send a message: your antics are killing us, we are winning in spite of you rather than because of you, and your teammates don't appreciate it.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
DirecTV
Effing DirecTV. They won't let me watch this game on MSG. I paid $160 for the NHL package so I could watch Rangers games this year. (Actually, my parents and sister bought it for me as a gift, but still.) I should be able to watch the game on any network that's showing it. Why am I stuck watching it on Versus with crappy Versus announcers? The announcers might be great, for all I know, but I want to hear Sam Rosen, my broadcasting idol.
I know the answer, of course: Versus has a national-TV deal and gets certain rights. If that's the case, why is MSG even allowed to show the game in New York? BECAUSE NEW YORKERS WANT THEIR OWN BROADCAST, THAT'S WHY! That goes for Washington fans, too. If I were a Caps fan, I'd want my hometown crew, not the Versus crew. Dammit. Glad I went through the top of the hour and actually saw the game get blacked out before I hit "pause" on the DVR to go finish cooking dinner. That's right, I'm cooking a steak over charcoal tonight. So I'll be watching on a delay for a little while. That's live enough for me, after three straight games of watching in the wee hours.
Beer, steak and playoff hockey. Right now I'm richer than Bill Gates.
I know the answer, of course: Versus has a national-TV deal and gets certain rights. If that's the case, why is MSG even allowed to show the game in New York? BECAUSE NEW YORKERS WANT THEIR OWN BROADCAST, THAT'S WHY! That goes for Washington fans, too. If I were a Caps fan, I'd want my hometown crew, not the Versus crew. Dammit. Glad I went through the top of the hour and actually saw the game get blacked out before I hit "pause" on the DVR to go finish cooking dinner. That's right, I'm cooking a steak over charcoal tonight. So I'll be watching on a delay for a little while. That's live enough for me, after three straight games of watching in the wee hours.
Beer, steak and playoff hockey. Right now I'm richer than Bill Gates.
The New Druce?
About a year ago I met a younger Ranger fan, about 20 or 21 years old. He was a die-hard fan, but, obviously, he doesn't remember 1990 for the same reason I can't remember 1975: we were 2 years old. He shared his stories of Ranger-inflicted pain. I asked if he knew who John Druce is. He didn't. "Ask your father," I said. "He knows."
All Ranger fans who were old enough to know what was going on remember John Druce. Druce was the undecorated, pedestrian Washington Capital who exploded for nine goals in five games, including a hat trick in Game Two, as the Patrick Division champion Rangers -- division champs for the first time in 48 years -- fell in five shocking games to an inferior (record-wise) team.
The Capitals entered this series as the clear, if not prohibitive, favorite to beat the seventh-seeded Rangers, so that part of the equation is not in play. Still, the Rangers became the favorite when they stole Game One. Since then, an undecorated, pedestrian Capital, goaltender Simeon Varlamov, has been the story. The Russian goalie has allowed one goal in two games. That one goal was enough to lose Game Two for his team, but that performance clearly marked him as worthy of another start over the once-impenetrable but now-shaky Jose Theodore. That second start came Monday at Madison Square Garden, where he and his suddenly improved defensive teammates shut New York out, 4-0.
Can a goalie be the new Druce? I say he can. It's not about the stats -- it's about a guy we never heard of vying to be the next villain at MSG; our own Bucky Bleeping Dent.
But I don't think it will happen. I think the Rangers will be smarter tonight and will have some surprises in store for the rookie. I don't know what that will be, but I expect the Rangers to bring their best effort of the season in this, their most important game of the season. Effort, in fact, has not been a problem in this series, even in the horrific Game Three. I think the Rangers will win this one, drop Game Four Friday in Washington, then come home and wrap it up in front of the home fans.
LET'S GO RANGERS!
All Ranger fans who were old enough to know what was going on remember John Druce. Druce was the undecorated, pedestrian Washington Capital who exploded for nine goals in five games, including a hat trick in Game Two, as the Patrick Division champion Rangers -- division champs for the first time in 48 years -- fell in five shocking games to an inferior (record-wise) team.
The Capitals entered this series as the clear, if not prohibitive, favorite to beat the seventh-seeded Rangers, so that part of the equation is not in play. Still, the Rangers became the favorite when they stole Game One. Since then, an undecorated, pedestrian Capital, goaltender Simeon Varlamov, has been the story. The Russian goalie has allowed one goal in two games. That one goal was enough to lose Game Two for his team, but that performance clearly marked him as worthy of another start over the once-impenetrable but now-shaky Jose Theodore. That second start came Monday at Madison Square Garden, where he and his suddenly improved defensive teammates shut New York out, 4-0.
Can a goalie be the new Druce? I say he can. It's not about the stats -- it's about a guy we never heard of vying to be the next villain at MSG; our own Bucky Bleeping Dent.
But I don't think it will happen. I think the Rangers will be smarter tonight and will have some surprises in store for the rookie. I don't know what that will be, but I expect the Rangers to bring their best effort of the season in this, their most important game of the season. Effort, in fact, has not been a problem in this series, even in the horrific Game Three. I think the Rangers will win this one, drop Game Four Friday in Washington, then come home and wrap it up in front of the home fans.
LET'S GO RANGERS!
Monday, April 20, 2009
Captain Midnight
That's me. Captain Midnight. Working in a restaurant and watching games in the wee hours of the morning on the DVR (the greatest invention in history -- better even than EZPass) has made it so. And through two games of the Rangers' first-round series against the Capitals, I have to say I'm pleased with the results. It would be immature of me to take nights off from work -- we need the money, and in this day and age, who doesn't? -- to watch first-round games. Hell, I didn't even have to work tonight, and was all set to enjoy Game Three, yet I jumped at the offer of a late-night shift. My friend Jen gets to go home and see her new boyfriend, and I get to work her shift, which should provide great lucre.
I'm able to do this with the Rangers all the time. I bought the NHL package, and nobody ever spoils the outcome because, sadly, nobody gives a damn about hockey. That upsets me to no end, but the bright side is I can insulate myself from
Rangers results and watch games as if live when I get home late at night. The missus is asleep, so I'm not blowing off quality time with her to watch sports. She's not a sports widow. Major husband points for me!
As an aside, Boston, naturally, has gone ga-ga for the Bruins this year -- all a team has to do here is have the best record in its sport or win a title, and the fans come out of the woodwork. Of course, they were there all along. Whatever. Anyway, all the people at my restaurant will be glued to the Bruins' Game Three in Montreal, but I don't think anyone will be watching the crawl to find out how the Rangers are doing, because they're very new at this hockey-watching thing -- nobody will be able to convince me otherwise, especially at my place, which is not a sports bar -- so I'll probably get home without any idea how my beloved Rangers have fared. I cannot wait!
And I love how the sports gods have rewarded my responsible fandom with two wins on the road. The Garden should be absolutely rocking tonight. And when I say the Garden, I'm not talking about the TD Banknorth "Gahden," the nice yet disturbingly antiseptic home of the Bruins and Celtics. There is only one Garden, and a Ranger game there is just awesome. I remember going to the first game of the 2007 Big East basketball tournament at MSG. My Syracuse Orangemen against the hated Huskies of evil uconn. That has become an absolutely wonderful rivalry. Two great programs, both of whom have enjoyed tremendous success in the last decade or so (the 2003 national championship for Syracuse, two titles for the Great Satan). I sat there at that game, rooted my ass off for Syracuse, soaked in the atmosphere at the game, and thought to myself, "Hey, this is nice, but this doesn't even come CLOSE to how electric this place was Monday night." Monday night? Monday night was a Rangers-Islanders game, a virtually meaningless, regular-season tilt. The place was on fire. I can only imagine what it will be like tonight, with the Rangers returning home like conquering heroes.
But they have conquered nothing yet. They need a win tonight. Washington is way too talented a team to let back into this series. Simeon Varlamov played well the other night in his first playoff appearance. Of course, King Henrik was out of his mind again, and the Rangers played a far more disciplined game, but still only won 1-0. The Capitals could turn the tables tonight. Were the Caps to pull off two wins in New York, the Rangers would have lost everything they gained in two games in DC and will be dead men walking come Game Five. Even if the Rangers take a 3-1 lead back to DC, the Caps just have to win one at home, then steal one in New York, and again, Game Seven on the road does not bode well for the Rangers. This is the brilliance of the 2-2-1-1-1 format. You cannot overstate how much excitement this creates compared to the 2-3-2. (I'm not suggesting baseball abandon the 2-3-2 for the 2-2-1-1-1. It wouldn't work, logistically. I'm just sayin'.)
Man, I can't wait. Let's go Rangers!
OK, the Yankee portion of the blog -- this blog is supposed to be mostly Yankee talk, right? Right.
I will be recording almost all nationally televised Yankee games, as those will be the only ones I'll be able to see, other than games against Boston (coming up this weekend, by the way!). So I recorded yesterday's game on TBS, but was not sure when or if I'd be able to watch it, as it was the birthday of the Queen of the Embassy (she just told me she likes that name). But I just couldn't friggin' sleep last night. The cats didn't help, but I woke up at 4 and just wasn't tired. So I watched the game. Some very quick thoughts:
Was there nobody on the bench who could have pinch-run for Matsui in the seventh? I know it ended up making no differnce after Posada's home run, but still ... that was a bad bit of managing by Joltin' Joe Girardi-o. Who watched that game that did not know that A) Ransom was going to bunt, and B) whoever fielded the bunt was going to realize that the guy running from first to second is a near-35-year-old guy who missed most of last year with a knee injury and is at least two months away from playing the field because of pain in said knee? Matsui is the DH, for goodness sake. Put ANYONE in there to run for him. It's not as if that would have weakened our defense in the next inning. You're going for the win right there, and you can't worry about whether you'll lose Matsui's bat two or three innings down the line. All that did was give up an out to advance nobody. Bad baseball.
Posada's home run: I'm sure by now there have been volumes written on this in the tabloids and other Web sites, so I'll just leave it at this: instant replay will overturn a call once in a blue moon, but that's it. Fair or foul, or whether home runs hit on the right side of the yellow lines in centerfield in places like Fenway or AT&T parks, where that line separates "off the tall wall" (ball's in play) from "over the small wall, and then off the big wall behind it" (home run). But they'll never overturn something like what happened yesterday. There's way too much ambiguity -- unless you put a camera on the foul pole that points straight along the wall, you'll never know who reached over the wall and where the ball was. At least not often. The Jeffrey Maier ball would have been overturned. That was 13 years ago.
Carl Pavano sure brought it yesterday, eh? Good. Proves even more what a loser he is. The guy has the talent to pitch that way when he wants to prove something to his former team and the team's fans, who have every right to be furious at him for stealing money for four years. But he doesn't care enough to bring it 35 times a year -- or in some years, AT ALL. Congratulations, Tribe fans. He's all yours. Don't get your hopes up.
Oh, one last thing. Some of you may think I'm a sellout for not adjusting my work schedule to watch the Rangers in the playoffs. Look at it this way -- and this is exactly how I'm looking at it: The money I make tonight just may get put toward tickets to the aforementioned antiseptic Gahden -- where the Rangers, if they get by the Caps, likely will begin Round Two against the Bruins. Oh, and toward a standing-room ticket to Fenway for Friday's Yankee game. Please, Joe, no Chien-Ming Wang Friday night. PLEASE!
I'm able to do this with the Rangers all the time. I bought the NHL package, and nobody ever spoils the outcome because, sadly, nobody gives a damn about hockey. That upsets me to no end, but the bright side is I can insulate myself from
Rangers results and watch games as if live when I get home late at night. The missus is asleep, so I'm not blowing off quality time with her to watch sports. She's not a sports widow. Major husband points for me!
As an aside, Boston, naturally, has gone ga-ga for the Bruins this year -- all a team has to do here is have the best record in its sport or win a title, and the fans come out of the woodwork. Of course, they were there all along. Whatever. Anyway, all the people at my restaurant will be glued to the Bruins' Game Three in Montreal, but I don't think anyone will be watching the crawl to find out how the Rangers are doing, because they're very new at this hockey-watching thing -- nobody will be able to convince me otherwise, especially at my place, which is not a sports bar -- so I'll probably get home without any idea how my beloved Rangers have fared. I cannot wait!
And I love how the sports gods have rewarded my responsible fandom with two wins on the road. The Garden should be absolutely rocking tonight. And when I say the Garden, I'm not talking about the TD Banknorth "Gahden," the nice yet disturbingly antiseptic home of the Bruins and Celtics. There is only one Garden, and a Ranger game there is just awesome. I remember going to the first game of the 2007 Big East basketball tournament at MSG. My Syracuse Orangemen against the hated Huskies of evil uconn. That has become an absolutely wonderful rivalry. Two great programs, both of whom have enjoyed tremendous success in the last decade or so (the 2003 national championship for Syracuse, two titles for the Great Satan). I sat there at that game, rooted my ass off for Syracuse, soaked in the atmosphere at the game, and thought to myself, "Hey, this is nice, but this doesn't even come CLOSE to how electric this place was Monday night." Monday night? Monday night was a Rangers-Islanders game, a virtually meaningless, regular-season tilt. The place was on fire. I can only imagine what it will be like tonight, with the Rangers returning home like conquering heroes.
But they have conquered nothing yet. They need a win tonight. Washington is way too talented a team to let back into this series. Simeon Varlamov played well the other night in his first playoff appearance. Of course, King Henrik was out of his mind again, and the Rangers played a far more disciplined game, but still only won 1-0. The Capitals could turn the tables tonight. Were the Caps to pull off two wins in New York, the Rangers would have lost everything they gained in two games in DC and will be dead men walking come Game Five. Even if the Rangers take a 3-1 lead back to DC, the Caps just have to win one at home, then steal one in New York, and again, Game Seven on the road does not bode well for the Rangers. This is the brilliance of the 2-2-1-1-1 format. You cannot overstate how much excitement this creates compared to the 2-3-2. (I'm not suggesting baseball abandon the 2-3-2 for the 2-2-1-1-1. It wouldn't work, logistically. I'm just sayin'.)
Man, I can't wait. Let's go Rangers!
OK, the Yankee portion of the blog -- this blog is supposed to be mostly Yankee talk, right? Right.
I will be recording almost all nationally televised Yankee games, as those will be the only ones I'll be able to see, other than games against Boston (coming up this weekend, by the way!). So I recorded yesterday's game on TBS, but was not sure when or if I'd be able to watch it, as it was the birthday of the Queen of the Embassy (she just told me she likes that name). But I just couldn't friggin' sleep last night. The cats didn't help, but I woke up at 4 and just wasn't tired. So I watched the game. Some very quick thoughts:
Was there nobody on the bench who could have pinch-run for Matsui in the seventh? I know it ended up making no differnce after Posada's home run, but still ... that was a bad bit of managing by Joltin' Joe Girardi-o. Who watched that game that did not know that A) Ransom was going to bunt, and B) whoever fielded the bunt was going to realize that the guy running from first to second is a near-35-year-old guy who missed most of last year with a knee injury and is at least two months away from playing the field because of pain in said knee? Matsui is the DH, for goodness sake. Put ANYONE in there to run for him. It's not as if that would have weakened our defense in the next inning. You're going for the win right there, and you can't worry about whether you'll lose Matsui's bat two or three innings down the line. All that did was give up an out to advance nobody. Bad baseball.
Posada's home run: I'm sure by now there have been volumes written on this in the tabloids and other Web sites, so I'll just leave it at this: instant replay will overturn a call once in a blue moon, but that's it. Fair or foul, or whether home runs hit on the right side of the yellow lines in centerfield in places like Fenway or AT&T parks, where that line separates "off the tall wall" (ball's in play) from "over the small wall, and then off the big wall behind it" (home run). But they'll never overturn something like what happened yesterday. There's way too much ambiguity -- unless you put a camera on the foul pole that points straight along the wall, you'll never know who reached over the wall and where the ball was. At least not often. The Jeffrey Maier ball would have been overturned. That was 13 years ago.
Carl Pavano sure brought it yesterday, eh? Good. Proves even more what a loser he is. The guy has the talent to pitch that way when he wants to prove something to his former team and the team's fans, who have every right to be furious at him for stealing money for four years. But he doesn't care enough to bring it 35 times a year -- or in some years, AT ALL. Congratulations, Tribe fans. He's all yours. Don't get your hopes up.
Oh, one last thing. Some of you may think I'm a sellout for not adjusting my work schedule to watch the Rangers in the playoffs. Look at it this way -- and this is exactly how I'm looking at it: The money I make tonight just may get put toward tickets to the aforementioned antiseptic Gahden -- where the Rangers, if they get by the Caps, likely will begin Round Two against the Bruins. Oh, and toward a standing-room ticket to Fenway for Friday's Yankee game. Please, Joe, no Chien-Ming Wang Friday night. PLEASE!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Jinx?
The Yankees have been on national TV twice. Twice I have watched them. Twice they have gotten their butts kicked. I'm a little worried about watching Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
I'm not going to linger long on this disaster of a game, so just a few observations. Damaso Marte made a mistake throwing to third on Francisco's bunt, but I can live with that. He's trying to be aggressive and get the lead runner. What I cannot live with is Marte's lollipop throw to third. He might have gotten the out at third had he fired the ball over there, but he floated it, and Peralta beat it easily. Throw like a man.
It's been a pleasure hearing Bob Costas and Jim Kaat doing the game today. Costas is a legendary baseball broadcaster, and Kaat is a first-rate analyst. It was a privilege to have his insight on Yankee telecasts over the last 15 years or so. Harold Reynolds, however, is better off in the studio, and Hazel Mae is better off pretty much anywhere that's not behind a microphone. Could someone please tell her she doesn't have to refer to the pitcher's mound as the "bump" every time.
This will be the first season since I started watching baseball that I will not be able to watch the Yankees night in and night out. I'm not going to spendn $200 on the MLB package on DirecTV. I'm not saying it's an unfair price, but I just can't spare it right now. And I'm not about to watch the Red S*x every night, because that will just make me mad. Instead, I'm going to become a connoisseur of nationally televised games -- which will help me in my long-overdue return to the world of fantasy baseball. I also will follow the Yankees via newspaper accounts and box scores online. I believe this makes me a spiritual descendent of our baseball-loving forefathers, for whom the reading of newspaper box scores was enough to know what was going on around the sport.
So far, I'm enjoying this new paradigm. Then again, I don't fully immerse myself in baseball until after the Stanley Cup Finals, or certainly not until the Rangers are eliminated. Go ahead and snicker if you want. Those of you who do not appreciate the Stanley Cup playoffs have completely missed some of the best competition sports has to offer.
Speaking of the Rangers, that was surely an exciting win for them last night, but I'm not sure I should get used to it. The Rangers will score goals, because Washington's defense is slow-footed and Theodore is a shadow of his former self. Then again, maybe this 20-year-old Varlamov is the next rookie goalie to come out of nowhere and dominate. Tell me you can't see that happening.
But they can't allow another seven-power-play, Alex Ovechkin shooting gallery. Lundqvist was great last night, but to ask him to stand up to that kind of attack three more times is unrealistic for him or any other goalie.
The next one of these "the money you could be saving by switching to Geico" commercials to be even a little bit funny will be the first.
I guess I should be writing about the Stadium. But I'm not there. I'll hold off until I get my chance to check it out.
On to Game Two of the new Yankee Stadium. LET'S GO YANKEES!
I'm not going to linger long on this disaster of a game, so just a few observations. Damaso Marte made a mistake throwing to third on Francisco's bunt, but I can live with that. He's trying to be aggressive and get the lead runner. What I cannot live with is Marte's lollipop throw to third. He might have gotten the out at third had he fired the ball over there, but he floated it, and Peralta beat it easily. Throw like a man.
It's been a pleasure hearing Bob Costas and Jim Kaat doing the game today. Costas is a legendary baseball broadcaster, and Kaat is a first-rate analyst. It was a privilege to have his insight on Yankee telecasts over the last 15 years or so. Harold Reynolds, however, is better off in the studio, and Hazel Mae is better off pretty much anywhere that's not behind a microphone. Could someone please tell her she doesn't have to refer to the pitcher's mound as the "bump" every time.
This will be the first season since I started watching baseball that I will not be able to watch the Yankees night in and night out. I'm not going to spendn $200 on the MLB package on DirecTV. I'm not saying it's an unfair price, but I just can't spare it right now. And I'm not about to watch the Red S*x every night, because that will just make me mad. Instead, I'm going to become a connoisseur of nationally televised games -- which will help me in my long-overdue return to the world of fantasy baseball. I also will follow the Yankees via newspaper accounts and box scores online. I believe this makes me a spiritual descendent of our baseball-loving forefathers, for whom the reading of newspaper box scores was enough to know what was going on around the sport.
So far, I'm enjoying this new paradigm. Then again, I don't fully immerse myself in baseball until after the Stanley Cup Finals, or certainly not until the Rangers are eliminated. Go ahead and snicker if you want. Those of you who do not appreciate the Stanley Cup playoffs have completely missed some of the best competition sports has to offer.
Speaking of the Rangers, that was surely an exciting win for them last night, but I'm not sure I should get used to it. The Rangers will score goals, because Washington's defense is slow-footed and Theodore is a shadow of his former self. Then again, maybe this 20-year-old Varlamov is the next rookie goalie to come out of nowhere and dominate. Tell me you can't see that happening.
But they can't allow another seven-power-play, Alex Ovechkin shooting gallery. Lundqvist was great last night, but to ask him to stand up to that kind of attack three more times is unrealistic for him or any other goalie.
The next one of these "the money you could be saving by switching to Geico" commercials to be even a little bit funny will be the first.
I guess I should be writing about the Stadium. But I'm not there. I'll hold off until I get my chance to check it out.
On to Game Two of the new Yankee Stadium. LET'S GO YANKEES!
Bob Costas, Harold Reynolds and the great Jim Kaat, whom intelligent Yankee fans miss dearly on YES broadcasts, just finished a full inning of chat with Bud Selig, who is full of crap. Costas asked him a fair question: should the baseball record books include something that denotes the influence of steroids on some records. Selig did not dance around this issue, but he brought up a completely inappropriate comparison. He said that no such notation exists about records set in the ’80s, the “cocaine era.” I’ve heard this comparison before, and I’m getting very tired of it. Nobody has ever referred to a cokehead as a “cheater.” Nobody has ever confided to those close to him, “I don’t want to use cocaine, but I feel I have to or I can’t compete.” There is no relation. Selig is being totally dishonest and is playing baseball fans for fools by using this comparison. Luckily for him, many fans are fools.
The broadcasters, however, cannot tell Selig he is full of crap, because they’re working for his network. How ironic. I’m thrilled to be watching this game on the MLB Network instead of YES, thus avoiding the Yankee propaganda machine referred to by Bob Raissman as “Al Yankzeera.” But now I’m getting clubbed with Selig’s see-no-evil, hear-no-evil views on baseball. But I’ll take this trade. It was only one inning.
The broadcasters, however, cannot tell Selig he is full of crap, because they’re working for his network. How ironic. I’m thrilled to be watching this game on the MLB Network instead of YES, thus avoiding the Yankee propaganda machine referred to by Bob Raissman as “Al Yankzeera.” But now I’m getting clubbed with Selig’s see-no-evil, hear-no-evil views on baseball. But I’ll take this trade. It was only one inning.
Ugh
Derek Jeter has just walked to load the bases for Johnny Damon. Johnny Damon with the bases loaded. Brings back an awful memory. I'm just sayin'.
I'm back ... and so are the Yankees!
Hey, readers! It's been a while, and I'm sorry for my absence. I've been pretty busy, and going through a little crisis of faith. I'll tell you all about that sometime. But not today, because today is reserved for one thing and one thing only: the opening of the new Yankee Stadium!
Suffice it to say, it is killing me not to be there. I've got a pair of bleacher seats for a game in August, but there's no way I can make it until then. I'm going to do my damnedest to get down there in the next month or so. I'll even go myself. In fact, I think I'd prefer to go myself. The better to go and explore this baby and see everything I want to see.
I think I have a new favorite player: Nick Swisher. My good friend and mentor, Locker, who has forgotten more about baseball than I will ever know, trashed this acquisition all winter. I tried to tell him -- this is a good pickup. It's a fun guy who gets on base -- Swisher's named was mentioned frequently in "Moneyball" as an object of Billy Beane's statistical affection.
We are going to find out, however, a lot more than we expected to about Swisher. Xavier Nady is going to be out for a long time -- possibly the whole season. That makes Swisher the everyday right fielder. And he's going to go through those things that everyday players go through -- slumps. We know he's not going to keep up the pace he has set for the first nine games of the season, but when he hits his inevitable rough patches, will he be able to handle the scrutiny that only the New York media can inflict upon a player of whom not much was expected to begin with? It's not a fair test, but life isn't fair. Swisher is about to be a big key to how the Yankees fare in the AL East. Welcome to New York, buddy.
CC Sabathia just walked Grady Sizemore with one out. I give Sizemore two pitches before he runs on Posada. Maybe three, with a lefty on the mound. I was not the least bit alarmed after CC's awful start last Monday. Nor did I get all giddy after one great start over the weekend, because CC has a history of crappy Aprils. But I will say this: CC is now 3-0 on Mark DeRosa. He's been falling behind EVERYONE from the first batter of the game. Time to knock that off.
I was a little off. Sizemore ran on 3-1, but it was ball four, anyway. Get it together, CC.
There's a gift strike call for CC on Martinez. Gotta go. Not going to blog the whole game. You all have the excellent Peter Abraham for that. But I'll be back later to talk about the MLB Network's coverage. Let's just say, I don't watch much ESPN these days.
Suffice it to say, it is killing me not to be there. I've got a pair of bleacher seats for a game in August, but there's no way I can make it until then. I'm going to do my damnedest to get down there in the next month or so. I'll even go myself. In fact, I think I'd prefer to go myself. The better to go and explore this baby and see everything I want to see.
I think I have a new favorite player: Nick Swisher. My good friend and mentor, Locker, who has forgotten more about baseball than I will ever know, trashed this acquisition all winter. I tried to tell him -- this is a good pickup. It's a fun guy who gets on base -- Swisher's named was mentioned frequently in "Moneyball" as an object of Billy Beane's statistical affection.
We are going to find out, however, a lot more than we expected to about Swisher. Xavier Nady is going to be out for a long time -- possibly the whole season. That makes Swisher the everyday right fielder. And he's going to go through those things that everyday players go through -- slumps. We know he's not going to keep up the pace he has set for the first nine games of the season, but when he hits his inevitable rough patches, will he be able to handle the scrutiny that only the New York media can inflict upon a player of whom not much was expected to begin with? It's not a fair test, but life isn't fair. Swisher is about to be a big key to how the Yankees fare in the AL East. Welcome to New York, buddy.
CC Sabathia just walked Grady Sizemore with one out. I give Sizemore two pitches before he runs on Posada. Maybe three, with a lefty on the mound. I was not the least bit alarmed after CC's awful start last Monday. Nor did I get all giddy after one great start over the weekend, because CC has a history of crappy Aprils. But I will say this: CC is now 3-0 on Mark DeRosa. He's been falling behind EVERYONE from the first batter of the game. Time to knock that off.
I was a little off. Sizemore ran on 3-1, but it was ball four, anyway. Get it together, CC.
There's a gift strike call for CC on Martinez. Gotta go. Not going to blog the whole game. You all have the excellent Peter Abraham for that. But I'll be back later to talk about the MLB Network's coverage. Let's just say, I don't watch much ESPN these days.
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