Archive for June, 2009

What’s up Yanks Go Yard faithful?  I have a lot to get to so I’m just going to dive into some news and notes: First, let me say that I am not superstitious and I don’t believe in things like fate and destiny, but it is an awful coincidence that we lost Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson within 48 hours of each other.  I was too young to see any of these legends in their prime, but I’ve been able to value them mostly through those fortunate enough to see them perform.  I’m not sure if they sell [...]

1. If George Steinbrenner were still alive, he would be handing out pink slips like Principal Vernon handed out Saturday detentions in “The Breakfast Club”.  Girardi is 0-8 against the Red Sox this year and his Yankees have dropped five of the last six to sub-.500 NL teams, and no one is calling for his head?  How times have changed. 2. A-Rod has similarly lucked out this season.  With all of the crap A-Rod shoveled on himself in the offseason (divorce, steroids, weird press conferences about steroids, 11th hour hip surgery), I was prepared for a backlash of epic proportions [...]

This is not how it was supposed to go.  The Yankees had a tough stretch of games against the Red Sox and Mets, but were rewarded with back to back series against bad NL teams.  The Nationals have a chance to set the all time futility record and the Marlins…well, the left side of the Yankees infield makes more money than the entire Florida roster.  These six games were supposed to yield at least four easy wins.  Instead, the Yankees lost four of six, and face an ever-growing deficit (four games) in the American League East. Folks, the Red Sox [...]

You know that guy in your group that has a little too much frat boy in him for his own good?  He gets too loud when he’s drunk, can’t censor himself in public, and always has an off color maxim to live by, like “if there’s grass on the field, play ball” or “if you can’t get a ten, bang five twos”.  He was right about that last one. At least when it comes to sports.  Baseball has its own tens and twos; the Red Sox and Dodgers are your hotties, the Nats and the Pirates are your notties (yeah, [...]

Here are my reactions to Sammy Sosa’s testing positive for performance enhancing drugs: No shit. You couldn’t tell that by looking at him? He already got caught corking his bat… I’m surprised it took this long to come out. Next you’ll tell me Mark McGwire took steroids! How about you just list players who didn’t take steroids. Notice how none of my responses included the following: Whaaaaaaaaaaat? Liar! Slammin’ Sammy is clean, he just said he was clean! Maybe McGwire, but not Sosa! He didn’t know what he was taking, he can’t speak English. All this phony indignation needs to [...]

Good commentary on Donte Stallworth’s “sentence” in his DUI manslaughter case. Six ACC underclassmen stay in the NBA draft. Red Wing fan tries to cheer himself up. Shaq chokes out Chuck Liddell. Paneech plays “what if” with the Pittsburg Pirates. Big CC takes the hill against the lowly Nationals tonight After a brutal six game stretch against the Red Sox and Mets, the Yankees get a break while the Nationals are in town.  The Nats are on pace for 119 losses, which is impressive in its own right.  Tonight CC Sabathia takes the mound against Shairon Martis, who is 5-1 [...]

It was an eventful six days for the New York Yankees in what amounted to baseball’s version of Rivalry Week.  New York went up to Boston and lost all three, each defeat more heartbreaking than the last.  The Yanks came back home to face their cross-town rivals and won a game they shouldn’t have, thanks to Louis Castillo and his Glove of Steel.  They dropped a winnable game to a guy who hadn’t won in three years, and then took out their collective frustrations on Santana, handing the should-have-been-a-Yankee the worst loss of his career.  I would have covered it [...]

Chien-Ming Wang is in the record books!  Hooray! Wang now has the all time highest ERA after five starts: 14.34.  14.34 doesn’t have the same ring as 56 or 61*, but it’s a record nonetheless.  It’s really incredible what Wang has managed to accomplish in 2009.  He’s left his five starts trailing by a combined 27-3.  Wow!  14.34…just say that aloud a couple of times.  The best part?  Wang lowered his ERA last night, down from 14.46.  So he’s moving in the right direction! It looked like Wang actually had good stuff Wednesday as his sinker was consistently hitting 95 [...]

So, last night the Yankees got shut out for the first time this season.  By the Red Sox. Beckett only allowed an infield single and struck out 8 over six innings.  He threw a lot of pitches but was dominant.  The Yankees looked lost.  If they took pitches, Beckett threw strikes.  If they hacked early, it was at junk out of the zone or filth on the black.  Beckett was two steps ahead the whole game. Then there was A.J.  I don’t even know what to say.  He stunk.  He had no command.  When he tried to throw strikes, he [...]

The Yankees are 0-5 against the Red Sox this season, and tonight New York goes to Boston looking for some payback.  Yankees-Red Sox has always been a feud filled with venom and hatred, but only recently has it become a true rivalry.  Now that the Red Sox are a legitimate threat to Yankee dominance, as opposed to a feisty nail waiting to be hammered into place (1919-2003), each series between the two takes on the atmosphere of a playoff game.  Even the weather will feel like October, as the forecast is calling for a rainy week in the 50’s. That [...]