Got ya , Jen. I had a feeling you meant something along those lines.

Guess I’m still tired, I hit post instead of preview. What I meant was the overall energy that’s usually at the Stadium hasn’t been there these past couple weeks. Yeah, there have been some great moments (Wang’s game among them), but the crowd reaction yesterday and the energy is something that had been missing this year. Every game I go to there’s a pervading “what’s going to go wrong today” kind of vibe. Yesterday was a nice deviation from that.

//Hard to believe the Stadium has been “lifeless” that much. Certainly not Saturday while Wang flirted with a perfecto.//i

I wasn’t there Saturday, so I couldn’t say I also wrote that comment at about 2:30 AM so it didn’t quite come out right.

~~~And please don’t give me this BS about Clemens mentoring Hughes. ~~~

Agreed. That’s sorta a slap to Pettitte and Mussina. If Hughes can’t learn from those two, he’s not going to learn anything from Clemens.

Well, I need to relearn the art of reading body language, because apparently where I saw a bunch of Yankees giddy as school girls, others were able to see resentment and bad vibes. Anyway, Rivera is a free agent and has already asked for an extension, he’s a phony, and Posada will be a free agent as well, we’ll see where he stands or if he couldn’t care less about the Yankees.

I would say it was a play driven by lack of knowledge and wanting to win. It was not a play driven out of being dirty or wanting to hurt someone.
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That’s what I’ve been trying to say. There are articles and stuff saying Phelps rammed into Johjima when a slide would have sufficed–but honestly, he saw a catcher crouching by home plate and did what he had to do to score. If he did have the ball and Phelps didn’t do what he had to do, he’d be ridiculed for that.

As for Clemens being a “phony who sold to the highest bidder,” I am not the biggest fan of when people refer to athletes as such. Is it not the job of ANY professional to take the job that will pay them the most and give them the highest benefits? If you’re a teacher–wouldn’t you go to a school where you’ve succeeded in the past, where you will have a good salary and where you’ll have good benefits? I realize we like to think that players have loyalty to a certain team, but I’m not sure this is true for the most part, unless you’ve got a Jeter or Posada who has never played for another team.

Hard to believe the Stadium has been “lifeless” that much. Certainly not Saturday while Wang flirted with a perfecto.

Not happy with Clemens, he’s a phony who sold to the highest bidder, he could care less about the Yankees. Didn’t anyone learn that when he ‘retired’? And as a Yankee player I would resent his special accomodations; the Orioles did with Ripken. Bad vibes, etc.

And please don’t give me this BS about Clemens mentoring Hughes.

Yeah, it was pretty exciting, I don’t care how contrived or hokey or whatever it was. Considering how lifeless that Stadium has been since opening day (save for a couple A-Rod walk-offs) it was a shot in the arm. Timing is everything and this came at the perfect time.

I too was at the game today and let me tell you something: the Clemens surprise was quite a thrill. Sure, it was over the top and talking heads like Francesa have already pronounced it “hokey” but the fans at the game loved it. It caught everyone completely by surprise. I don’t think we quite realized what was going on until Clemens’ finished talking and they flashed on the scoreboard: “Attention Yankee Fans: Roger Clemens is now a Yankee”. At that point the place went absolutely nuts and there was a palpable buzz for the rest of the game. I thought it was awesome.

$28 mill prorated is a lot of money, but there’s no way this is not a huge lift for the Yanks.

It’s obvious that this is a positive for the team. I’ve always loved Rocket’s personality. He’ll be great to have on this team. And even at 45, he’s still a great pitcher.

I suppose what I reacted to was not so much the man himself but the reaction he generated. The reaction was the same false sense of bravado after the Yanks signed Damon: “Oh, this is it, what a move, what a missing piece, what a way to hurt the Sox! — nothing can stop us now!”

I just find it funny that the Yankees are paying this guy seventeen million dollars and the general consensus is that he’ll be the fourth starter ahead of a rookie. It seems like everyone is aiming low with “he’ll give us a quality start every five days” statements. Rasner could give you a quality start every five days. Doesn’t mean the Yankees should give him seventeen million.

Well, the deal is done and it should be fascinating to watch.