Archive for May, 2009

“Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.”   The phrase applies to any sport where a player without the ball tries to prevent the player with the ball from scoring.  It’s cliche, boring, overused, and unequivocally true.  An NFL team hasn’t won the Super Bowl without a good defense since the “Greatest Show on Turf” St. Louis Rams beat the Tennessee Titans, and the score to that game was 23-16.  No offense first NBA team has won the championship since the Bad Boy Pistons starting busting heads at the end of the 80s. In baseball, the axiom changes slightly to “good [...]

If I ever write for an editor, one of my contract demands will be to write my own headlines.  I get my love of bad puns from my father, who got his love of bad jokes from his father, who still takes nine minutes to tell a three sentence Reader’s Digest joke.  So I like this headline.  It works on a lot of levels.  The Yankees have a decision to make about Wang.  They don’t want to make the wrong decision (get it?!?!?!).  I could also see The Wang Decision being made into a decent suspense thriller starring a miscast [...]

Alex Rodriguez came into the game with 10 hits and 7 home runs.  Today he worked on his average. A-Rod went 5-5 with two doubles and drove in four to lead the Yankees to a 11-1 drubbing of the previously surging Texas Rangers.  We all knew it was a matter of time before A-Rod starting hitting for average.  Steroids or no steroids, he is too talented a hitter to be kept down for long, and today’s outburst is a good sign that the A-Rod we all know and love is back. More importantly, Phil Hughes looked dominant, throwing 8 effortless [...]

The Yankees got 8 strong innings from a starter, amassed 13 hits, including another clutch 9th inning RBI single by Melky Cabrera…and lost? The Yanks dropped the rubber match to the Phillies 4-3 in 11 innings today, thanks largely to Philadelphia catcher Carlos Ruiz.  Ruiz doubled off of Brett Tomko and drove home pinch hitter Chase Utley with 2 outs in the top of the 11th.  The Yankees just couldn’t get Ruiz out this series.  The catcher collected six hits in eight at bats in the two Yankee loses.  It would make it easier if Howard or Utley or Ibanez [...]

Hey Yanks Go Yard faithful, CC and Hamels take the hill today in a battle of the aces, and That Balls Outta Here, FanSided’s Phillies blog, is hosting a live chat during the game.  If you want to talk some Yankee trash, gloat about yesterday’s walkoff, or just listen to Philly fans complain about their team, head over to That Balls Outta Here.   The Yanks Go Yard staff will be there too, to make sure everything stays fair and balanced.  After the game, Yanks Go Yard will have a game and series recap. Let’s go CC!

Is there anything better in life than winning? Life, in the Darwinian sense, is one giant genetic competition, so it should come as no surprise that this fundamental need to win consumes our entire existence.  Most of our lives are spent trying to win at something, although it doesn’t always manifest itself as a sport, or even a physical, biological struggle.  We compete to get good grades in high school so we can compete at a good college so we can compete for a good job so we can compete for more money so we can compete with the asshole [...]

I wanted to respond to a comment left by jeterian2: You take the games against the Sox away and this team is actually legit. They are also getting Wang back which sounds like a disaster until you look at what he has been doing on rehab. Absolutely dealing while facing some major league hitters down in Triple AAA. He is even mixing in an increase in K’s which would be huge. To me that means he has got that slider back working to keep hitters honest on his heavy sinker. Slide him (Pun intended) anywhere outside the top 2 in [...]

Phil Coke managed to make it it interesting, but the offense came through tonight and the Yankees pulled out the victory, 7-6.  This is good news, since the Yankees have actually scored les runs since A-Rod has returned.  It’s the starting pitching that is carrying the Yanks on this 6 game winning streak, so on a night when Pettitte didn’t have his best stuff (6 IP, 4 ER), it was nice to see the bats pick up the slack. More banter coming tomorrow!

The Yankees 1st baseman is heating up now that A-Rod is allowing Teixeira to see some fastballs.  Tex would have gotten his swing back without the return of Rodriguez, but it sure doesn’t hurt that the $300 million man is back. 7-4 Yanks bottom 7.

R.A. Dickey came in to relieve Glen Perkins.  Dickey is a knucleballer who’s name sounds like he should have played in the 1890s, and he needs to either grow a handlebar mustache or manufacture high end turtleneck tops immediately. This is to say nothing of the many, many, many ways you can reinterpret his name.  Did R.A.’s parents bestow him with this nickname of oh-so-much potential, or was it a group of juvenile teammates somewhere along the way.  My money is on the teammates, anywhere from tee ball to AAA- ballplayers don’t mature at the same rate as the rest [...]