Click here to see the video.
For what it’s worth, that was a great zinger that John Henry gave Larry Lucchino regarding talking about the Yankees…
Here’s the video via SNY.tv:
Actually, Derek, it means that 1,100 either beat the test or were using something that they were not testing for…
Thanks to Austin Trunick of Warner Brothers Entertainment Group for sharing a preview of a MAD Magazine collectibles advertisement (which appears in the issue on sale next month).
Click on the thumbnail below to enlarge the image:
Back in the early 1970′s, I used to read MAD Magazine all the time. (That probably explains a lot.) Seeing this item brought back a lot of cool memories. Thanks Austin.
To watch SNY.tv’s New York Baseball Today, which features a rotating panel of experts, click play below:
Jorge Posada left Alex Rodriguez’ press conference yesterday about halfway through it. Reportedly, the Yankees have shared that they were unsure as to why Posada left when he did walk out.
I’ve yet to see any more reported about this in the news. Anyone else find this odd?
Update, 2/18/09, 3:30 PM EST: Via PeteAbe –
Jorge Posada had something to do with his kids yesterday, that’s why he left the press conference.
OK, time to exhale…
Yesterday, Brian Cashman had this to say about Alex Rodriguez:
“I don’t think Alex is very good at communicating, to be quite honest … If anyone has been in that clubhouse and seen Alex trying to talk to the successes and failures in the baseball arena, he’s not very good at it. So I do think that there’s a degree of difficulty for him going into this circumstance.”
Maybe Alex is not good at this because he doesn’t do it all that often? After all, if repetition is the mother of skill, maybe lack of repetition is the mother of poor skills?
From what we’ve heard from Yankees beat-writers in the past, A-Rod is pretty much inaccessible to the media. They say that he’s never in the clubhouse – and he usually chooses to hang out in the weight room or player’s lounge (where the media is not permitted). Further, they say that when Alex is in the clubhouse, he usually has his iPod ear-plugs in…which in the code of baseball clubhouse etiquette means “Do not disturb!”
Actually, in the Torre/Verducci book, it was disclosed that Rodriguez would often walk around the clubhouse with his ear-plugs in – even though his iPod was off (just as a measure to shut everyone out).
So, this all leads to today’s wild thought: Given everything that’s gone down recently, should A-Rod now make himself more accessible to the media in order to, perhaps, make some repairs to his image? After all, he’s got to live/work in this town for the next nine years. Can he really hope to continue to hide from the press, like he his now, for the next near-decade?
Feel free to use this post as a place for you to comment on anything Yankees-related (or within reach of tagging the bag of being Yankees-related on a decent slide) today. It could be a casual conversation offering, or, something you saw in the news, or something very detailed that you want to share that’s within the territory of Yankeeland.
Or, comment on something that someone else has posted here in the comments…
Have fun. Play nice. And, remember, keep it Yankees-focused.
Is it just me, or, does “A-Rod Presser” just seem like two words that go together so easily? Anywho, I just had a chance to watch the entire press conference down in Tampa today and here are my thoughts.
As far as A-Rod’s opening comments, where he read off the script…well…that sure seemed insincere. And, that 37-second pause at the end, when he thanked his teammates…yikes…I haven’t seen acting that bad since…how’s this for irony: Take your pick, either Madonna as Breathless Mahoney in Dick Tracy or Madonna as Amber in Swept Away. Hang a Golden Raspberry on that puppy for Alex, for sure.
Now, in the Q&A session, I thought A-Rod did a little better. But, he did not directly answer some questions. And, I’m sure the Study Of Face Recognition people are going to have a field day with some of his answers today. On the bright side, major props to Bruce Beck, Hannah Storm, Anthony McCarron, Jack Curry, Joel Sherman, Bob Klapisch and George King for asking some of the questions that fans wanted to see asked.
For one thing, A-Rod beat the “young, stupid, naive” excuse drum hard and heavy this afternoon. Say, when Rodriguez was in Texas, didn’t he consult with owner Tom Hicks on personnel moves and also have some say with his manager in terms of line-up construction? (I’m pretty sure on the former and think the latter went on until Buck Showalter came along.) That doesn’t sound like tasks that would be associated with someone who was “young, stupid, naive” – does it?
The biggest thing that came out of the Q&A, for me, was the excuse that Alex offered up to the question regarding why he didn’t mention the “cousin” thing during his interview with Peter Gammons. A-Rod said something along the lines of wanting to be “truthful” and not “factual” in that interview. Huh? There’s a difference? Well, maybe Rodriguez meant to say that he didn’t want to get into the details in the Gammons thing…
Staying on this for a minute more, A-Rod then said that he didn’t bring up the “cousin” thing during the Gammons interview because he didn’t remember it well and it wasn’t until later that it all started to come back to him. (Or, something like that.) Once again…huh? Let me get this straight: You tell the cousin to go to the Dominican Republic and to buy the drugs. (Alex confirmed this today.) And, then, as per Rodriguez this afternoon, for six-month periods, for three years in a row, you have the cousin inject you with a needle two to three times a month, in order to deploy these smuggled and illegal substances into your body, and you can’t remember that five years later? Really?
Com’on Alex. That’s a lie. If you want to tell me that you can’t remember what you had for lunch last Wednesday, I can buy that. If you want to tell me that you can’t remember the name of your first grade teacher, I won’t fight you on that either. But, I have to think that you would always remember having a family member and non-licensed person injecting you with black-market drugs, twelve times a year, for three years in a row, when it was just five years ago. How do you forget something like that?
In the end, for many Yankees fans – at least from what I’m hearing – none of this matters. They’re not interested in hearing any more about this and they’re quick to dismiss it as not being important today.
To me, this is interesting. Actually, I recently met someone who quickly disclosed to me that they are a raving fan of a recent former U.S. President. When talking about him, they went on and on about what a great leader he was, etc. From listening to them, it was clear that, even today, they would be willing to walk off a cliff, or walk through hell in a gasoline suit, for him.
After witnessing this full-court genuflecting gush for a bit, I was tempted to ask them: “Hey, wasn’t that the same guy who, while in office, inserted a stogie into the punani of a girl who was young enough to be his daughter?” But, I knew that would have been an exercise in futility – because this person would have come back with things like “It didn’t have anything to do with his leadership skills” and/or “That was a bum rap” and/or “It was a mistake and everyone makes mistakes.” (You could just tell that nothing was going to get in the way of their devotion to this former President.)
And, that’s where I believe a lot of Yankees fans are today – with respect to this A-Rod/PED issue. It was a mistake…he’s getting a bum rap (because the test results were not supposed to be released and/or he was not the only one doing it)…it doesn’t have anything to do with his skills (and production) now. As such, it doesn’t matter what happened today at the press conference – or what anyone thinks about it.
And, while I may not agree with this, I do respect the rights of those who want to feel that way. (Nonetheless, I also wonder if they would be feeling the same way if it was Curt Schilling and not Alex Rodriguez who was in this spot now.) Moving right along…
Perhaps the most important thing to come out of today was this statement from A-Rod: “The only thing I ask of this group today and the American people is to judge me from this day forward.”
Sure, why not? O.K., Alex, the clock starts…now. Good luck.
Here’s the video via SNY.tv:
Alex blames his mistake on being young and not having gone to college? Hey, did Derek Jeter go to college? How much older is Derek compared to Alex?
Here’s the video via SNY.tv:
Gee, we never heard from that cousin during the “YESterdays” episiode featuring Alex Rodriguez on the YES Newtork, did we ?
Today is Alex Rodriguez Day in Yankeeland. So, why wouldn’t today’s wild thought be an A-Rod thing?
This morning, I saw the tent and chair set-up, via ESPN, that’s been constructed in Tampa for Alex’s big press conference today. And, related, during my morning commute, I heard Mark Feinsand interviewed on X-M Radio talking about what the scene will be like there this afternoon during the conference. This all kick-started my day-dream engines, making me wish that I had a chance to attend the conference today, live, and maybe even being able to ask a question. Continuing with this, I thought, to myself, “If I could be there, and could only ask one question, what would I ask?”
Noodling this, I quickly dismissed the questions that most would probably want to know – about what he used, where he got it, who helped him with it, etc. Because, you know, he will not answer those types of questions – or will dance around them. (At least, I think that he would avoid those type of questions.)
In the end, the one question that I would love to ask A-Rod, today, if I could be at the presser and was allowed to ask just one question would be this:
In your opinion, given everything that’s happened around you in the last five years, do you feel that you’ve become a negative distraction to your team and/or an embarrassment to the Yankees organization?
I’m not sure how Alex would answer that one. I suppose that he would say “No” and then rationalize away on why he felt that way. Or, maybe he would say “Yes” and then apologize for it happening and promise that it will change in the future? I dunno…but, I would just love for someone to ask him that question, live, face-to-face, for the world to see, etc.
How about you? If you could ask Rodriguez just one question today, what would it be?
Feel free to use this post as a place for you to comment on anything Yankees-related (or within reach of tagging the bag of being Yankees-related on a decent slide) today. It could be a casual conversation offering, or, something you saw in the news, or something very detailed that you want to share that’s within the territory of Yankeeland.
Or, comment on something that someone else has posted here in the comments…
Have fun. Play nice. And, remember, keep it Yankees-focused.
It’s February 17th. One this date in baseball history, two great Yankees pitcher passed away.
You can’t talk about Yankees history without talking about Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez.
Via the Yomiuri Shimbun:
Kei Igawa looked fit and prepared for his third season in the United States as the former Hanshin Tigers’ lefty arrived Friday in Tampa, Fla., for the New York Yankees’ preseason camp.
“I struggled last year and even running in camp was hard because I couldn’t move well,” said a slimmer Igawa, who played for Triple-A team Scranton last season.
Igawa, who has 86 wins with 3.14 ERA, is 2-3 over two seasons for New York.
In the minors, however, the 29-year-old Ibaraki native was 14-6 with a 3.45 ERA last season.
“I actually managed to get some results last season,” said Igawa. “I want to really pitch the way I’m capable of the whole season.”
How funny would it be if Igawa lined-up up with Jeter, Mo, ‘Sado, Pettitte, Teixeira, Girardi and the others tomorrow at A-Rod’s press conference?
Along with Chad Moeller, who also played for the Yankees in 2008, Jose Molina is probably the worst hitting back-up catchers to play semi-regularly in the big leagues since 1973. However, Molina’s defensive ability (and the fact that he’s under contract for 2009) assure him a role as New York’s back-up catcher in 2009.
In any event, at the end of the day, Jose Molina is just another member of the Modern Day Bad Yankees Back-up Catcher Club along with Joel Skinner, Juan Espino, Mark Salas, Wil Nieves, Kelly Stinnett, John Flaherty, Chris Widger, Todd Greene, Chris Turner, Barry Foote, Johnny Oates and Fran Healy…
Mark Teixeira, today, talks about A-Rod, PEDs, and what really matters this season for the Yankees. The video via SNY.tv:
Via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Selig also defended his efforts to stop the use of performance-enhancing drugs as far back as 1999, the year after Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, two now-suspected steroid cheats, staged a seasonlong home run derby that helped pull baseball out of the tailspin it went into after the work stoppage of 1994.
“I’m not sure I would have done anything differently,” Selig said. “A lot of people say we should have done this or that, and I understand that. They ask me, ‘How could you not know?’ and I guess in the retrospect of history, that’s not an unfair question. But we learned and we’ve done something about it. When I look back at where we were in ‘98 and where we are today, I’m proud of the progress we’ve made.”
Selig said he pushed for a more stringent drug policy during the labor negotiations of 2002 but ultimately settled for a watered-down version out of fear that the players association would force another work stoppage.
“Starting in 1995, I tried to institute a steroid policy,” Selig said. “Needless to say, it was met with strong resistance. We were fought by the union every step of the way.”
As bodies expanded and home run totals ballooned in the late 1990s, Selig said he consulted with baseball men he knew and trusted, such as Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin (then a coach with the Milwaukee Brewers), Braves president John Schuerholz and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman to gauge the extent of the problem.
“They all told me none of them ever saw it in the clubhouses and that their players never spoke about it,” Selig said. “[Padres CEO] Sandy Alderson, as good a baseball man as you’ll find, was convinced it was the bat. Others were convinced it was the ball. So a lot of people didn’t know.”
Bud might as well have asked Cashman to identify some good pitching acquistions…because the quality of the answer given would have been the same.
Sweeny Murti, on SNY’s Geico SportsNite yesterday, reports from Spring Training. Here’s the clip:
Joba’s really calling CC “Big Slim”? Oh, my…
You’ve probably heard about the Brian Bruney and Harold Reynolds thing by now. If not, click here for more on that. Related, I just saw Bruney on MLB Network’s Hot Stove doing a video chat with Reynolds on the matter. Good for Brian. You have to admire someone who’s willing to go face-to-face with someone on T.V. over what they said about you – rather than to fight something out through newspaper quotes. For the record, neither Bruney or Reynolds seemed hostile today – and they did their best to joke through the whole thing.
More importantly, while we only saw Bruney from the shoulders up on the T.V. monitor, he looks like he lost even more weight – from what he lost last year. And, he was looking very clean-cut. Gotta think General Joe is lovin’ that…
Via Tyler Kepner last Saturday (with a hat tip to Rob Neyer) –
In the Yankees’ recent glory years, their rotation seemed to offer something close to an ace every game. Many came from elsewhere, like Jimmy Key (acquired in 1993), David Cone (1995), David Wells (1997), Orlando Hernández (1998), Roger Clemens (1999) and Mike Mussina (2001).
The track record since has been abysmal. Starting in 2002, the Yankees have traded for or signed Weaver, José Contreras, Kevin Brown, Javier Vázquez, Esteban Loaiza, Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright, Randy Johnson and Kei Igawa. Only Johnson won more than 16 games for the Yankees, and he is best known for crumbling in the playoffs.
“Some of it is that guys couldn’t handle New York,” Cashman said. “In some cases, you see that other organizations put them in a position to succeed maybe more than we did, in terms of figuring out their mechanics and their mind-set.
“Obviously, José Contreras wasn’t successful here, but he went to the White Sox and he became a world champion. Was it because they unlocked certain things in him? Because the talent was there; our scouts weren’t wrong.
“And our scouts weren’t wrong on Weaver, who led a National League team, the St. Louis Cardinals, to a world championship. They weren’t wrong about the assessment of these guys, so what happened here?”
All of the failures had impressive pedigrees. Igawa was a strikeout king in Japan. Contreras won a gold medal for the Cuban national team. Johnson, Pavano and Brown were former All-Stars who had anchored rotations for World Series winners.
But behind each acquisition were warning signs the Yankees ignored. Wright was coming off a 15-win season in the N.L. but was long removed from his American League success. Vázquez had never pitched in the A.L., as Sabathia and Burnett have done successfully.
Johnson was 41 when he came to the Yankees, and Brown was 39. Each had just finished an unexpected standout season that turned out to be a mirage. Sabathia, 28, and Burnett, 32, probably have not begun their decline.
…and our scouts weren’t wrong on Weaver, who led a National League team, the St. Louis Cardinals, to a world championship…
Did Cashman really say that? Really? Does he even know what Weaver’s stats were when he was in St. Louis?
The Yankees G.M. is thin-skinned and cluless if he believes that…
I’m about half-way through the Torre/Verducci book. (A review to follow once I’m done.)
In the book, Torre talks about how he wanted to keep Tino Martinez for one more year after the 2001 season – and use Tino to work in Nick Johnson for the future – rather than sign Jason Giambi.
Related, Torre said that his preference was to sign Johnny Damon when he became a free agent. But, instead, the Yankees went after Rondell White. Reading this, I wondered: How different would things have been on the Yankees/Red Sox front if the Yankees had made these moves which were Torre’s preference?
There would be no Giambi in Yankeeland to hit two homeruns off Pedro Martinez in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS. But, then again, there would be no Johnny Damon in Red Sox Nation to hit a grand-slam in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS.
Anywho, that’s today’s wild thought. What do you think would have happened?
Feel free to use this post as a place for you to comment on anything Yankees-related (or within reach of tagging the bag of being Yankees-related on a decent slide) today. It could be a casual conversation offering, or, something you saw in the news, or something very detailed that you want to share that’s within the territory of Yankeeland.
Or, comment on something that someone else has posted here in the comments…
Have fun. Play nice. And, remember, keep it Yankees-focused.
Via Bob Klapisch -
Alex Rodriguez will arrive Tuesday and is scheduled to hold a tell-all press conference about his life with steroids. And that, said one Yankee official, “is when the circus begins.”
But ever since Sports Illustrated broke the story of his cheating, Rodriguez has been following the advice of his crisis specialists, including agent Scott Boras, and not the Yankees. As a result, A-Rod’s employers were less than impressed with his interview with Peter Gammons, noting how vague many of his answers were.
“Honestly? It was a disaster,” said the official, who doesn’t know the half of it. A second wave of controversy will soon overwhelm the slugger, say the publishers of “A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez,” which was written by Selena Roberts, the SI reporter who uncovered the steroids story.
The book will go beyond Rodriguez’s use of syringes and chemicals. According to a press release from Harper Collins, Roberts has unearthed salacious details of the slugger’s private life that could embarrass him and further isolate him in the clubhouse.
And if the details of Roberts’ investigation become known, how will the Yankees react?
It’s one thing to say what A-Rod does off the field is his business, not ours. If Rodriguez barely funds his charitable organization with his own money, for instance, that’s his choice. So is leaving his wife and two children to date Madonna. It’s his business. But such behavior certainly makes it harder for fans to ever warm up to A-Rod. Wearing his jersey has never seemed less cool.
As for the Yankees, they’re left with the impending humiliation of writing A-Rod checks for home runs, milestones that are officially tainted. Not that A-Rod ever captivated the organization in his first four years — with the exception of Hank Steinbrenner, no one wanted him back after the 2007 season.
One person who’s spoken with Rodriguez says his handlers have settled on the following damage-control strategy: minimize the apologies, keep Tuesday’s Q and A relatively brief and make sure to not drop any more bombshells.
That means A-Rod has no intention of telling the world where and how he started using banned substances, and he certainly won’t admit to using HGH as a Yankee. After that, he’s on his own.
If Rodriguez thinks October in the Bronx has been rough, the coming weeks in Florida could be a miniature apocalypse.
I have to wonder what is in that book that will bring more plumage to the A-Rod tar and feather party. Could it be any worse than what was less than whispered behind Mike Piazza’s back? Could it be any worse than the stories of Rick Ankiel’s childhood? I mean…what haven’t we heard about a baseball player yet…that would be bad enough to embarrass him beyond the way that A-Rod has already been humiliated so far?
The only thing I can think of would be gambling…and not just playing the ponies, poker, and hitting the dog track…but something more along the Pete Rose lines. Now, there’s no evidence to suggest this happened – as far as I know. I’m just saying that it would be really bad for Alex if this came out in the book.
Really, other than having video evidence of A-Rod engaged in sexual congress with a goat, what possibly can be out there, yet unkown, which is going to bring more shame to the “House of A-Rod” at this moment?
I guess we have to wait for the book to find out…
The Toronto Globe and Mail checks in with A.J. Burnett -
Often uncooperative and standoffish with members of the media during his three seasons in a Toronto Blue Jays uniform, it is a warm and fuzzy [A.J.] Burnett who now presents himself in his first spring-training camp with his new team, the New York Yankees.
“It will feel a lot different when the games start, but it’s different, you know, putting on the pinstripes,” Burnett said when asked how it feels beginning a new segment of his roller-coaster career. “It’s a lot different. There are cameras everywhere.
“It’s like being a rock star or something like that.”
Burnett, 32, admits to feeling guilty that his injury woes hindered his success in Toronto, where he was restricted to 80 starts in his three seasons, compiling a record of 38-26.
He said he matured, both as a person and a pitcher last year, and he gives a lot of the credit to Jays pitching coach Brad Arnsberg and Roy Halladay, the workaholic Toronto ace whom Burnett refers to as “Anamoid.”
Burnett said it was Halladay who finally drilled it into his head that he didn’t have to rear back and throw as hard as he could every pitch, that he could also nibble the plate to get the outs.
In turn, this helped cut back on wear and tear on Burnett’s arm and kept him off the disabled list.
“That’s how I stayed healthy last year, I pitched,” Burnett said. “I learned how to pitch and I took care of my body in ways I never took care of it before just by watching the Anamoid.
“Roy has that affect, not just on me but so many guys in that clubhouse, just watching him go about his business. Baseball is his life, baseball is his career and that’s what he made me realize what I needed to do.”
Great to hear about how Arnsberg and Halladay helped Burnett turn a corner. Now, let’s just hope that Dave Eiland and CC Sabathia can keep Burnett from banging out a U-ie and returning to his cafone ways like stool off a shovel.
I’ve been thumbing through “The Hardball Times Season Preview 2009.” Good stuff.
For each big league team, the book covers what happened last year, players lost from last year’s team, players acquired, the team’s management, minor league system, what’s due to change for the team, reasons to be optimistic and pessimistic about the team, what’s left for the team to do, as well offering a most likely outcome for the team in 2009. In addition, “The Hardball Times Season Preview 2009” provides commentary and statistical projections for the batters and pitchers on each major league team.
Also, this book includes a projected standings for 2009 – based on 100 computer simulations of the 2009 season. (Good news for Yankees fans: “The Hardball Times Season Preview 2009” standings projection says that the Yanks will be the only team in baseball to win 100 games this season – just edging the Red Sox by 2 games to win the A.L. East.)
This book is billed as being “a sneak peek at every major league player and team for the upcoming season” and it clearly meets that goal.
Along with what I’ve mentioned here so far, “The Hardball Times Season Preview 2009” also contains projected fantasy (baseball) dollar values for players, an essay targeting which players are injury risks for 2009, and rookies to watch this season.
When you look at this total package, “The Hardball Times Season Preview 2009” serves as an excellent one-book-meets-all-needs source for fantasy baseball owners. However, it’s appeal is not limited to just the fantasy baseball crowd. Analytical baseballs fans, whether they play fantasy baseball or not, will enjoy reading “The Hardball Times Season Preview 2009” due to the nature of the projections that it provides on players and teams. (Along with each projection, this book provides a “Reliability” score which tells you how reliable the player’s projection is based on how much data the authors had to work with for that player. Cool beans.)
Based on it’s content, price ($19.95) and the enjoyment that it provides from reading it, I recommend picking up a copy of “The Hardball Times Season Preview 2009.”
It’s taken me five baseball seasons, but, I think I’ve finally come up with a “posting” pattern that’s going to work best for me, now, at this time of my life. Related, I thought that I would share it with you – since you’re a reader of WasWatching.com.
As you may have noticed, about four months ago, my “post” frequency here shifted more heavily towards nights and weekends. The main exception to this being the Water Cooler Talk items that started last October – appearing Monday through Friday mornings. Oh, and, yes, we have the random Wild Thoughts that I started doing last December – whenever they popped into my head.
Following this new “posting” trend, here’s what you can expect from WasWatching.com as we head towards the 2009 season.
1. The Water Cooler Talk series will continue. Since this is a chron-job item for me, meaning I set them up in advance to be published according to a scheduled date/time, that’s easy. As usual, expect them to appear around 7 am EST each day. Now, note that I said “each day.” Yes, I’m going to expand the series from being a weekday thing into being something that happens seven days a week. Why? Here’s the logic: Back during last September, we had a trial run here with “Game Threads.” I’m not going to pick that up this season – in the format we had last year. But, I’m going to set up the Water Cooler Talk entries so that they can serve as a place for you to comment on anything Yankees-related during that day – as well as serving as a place for you to comment on the game that day, if there is one, while the game is being played. It’s the two-birds with one stone thing, etc.
2. I will continue to “post” random Wild Thoughts during the day, on weekdays, as they enter my head, etc. They will probably appear around 12-noon EST. Basically, it will be contingent upon me having a thought that day and having time to squeeze it in to the ten minute break that I get each weekday for lunch.
3. If there’s any “Breaking News” during the day, on weekdays, I’ll try and get something “posted” on it ASAP – even if it’s just a link to the news, for you to be aware of it, or to comment on it, with the promise that my commentary/opinion will follow later that day.
4. Since the only time I have to really let loose with “stuff” on weekdays is between the hours of 8 pm EST and Midnight EST, that’s when you’ll see the more “meaty” things from me – Monday through Friday. (At night is when I will also be “posting” the various SNY.tv video clips that I’ve been sharing over the past year.) On the weekends, I can get to bigger stuff at different times. But, more times than not, it will be in the morning (here).
5. I’ve been on the fence a bit with what to do with my Game Commentary “posts.” I did them in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 for each game that was played. I was thinking about, this season, doing a weeky recap of the games, instead of a game-by-game thing. The force behind this being that I’m really pressed for time, balancing work and home, with blogging, and was trying to get myself some time back away from blogging. But, I truly feel that not having the Game Commentary “posted” after each game would take away from the reader experience here – as well as my ability to celebrate or vent (which is why I started doing this in the first place). So, I’m going to stick with the Game Commentary “posts” happening after each game. Expect to see those “posted” some time between right after the game is finished and somewhere around six hours after the game is finished.
That’s it. If you have any questions or comments on this programming schedule, please share them in the comments section below.
The Bergen Record:
Alex Rodriguez has called Sports Illustrated’s Selena Roberts to apologize for critical comments he made during an ESPN interview.
Roberts was co-author of the Feb. 7 article on SI’s Web site that reported he was on a list of 104 players who tested positive for steroids during baseball’s anonymous 2003 survey. Rodriguez told ESPN two days later that he had used banned substances from 2001-3 while playing for Texas.
“I know this lady from Sports Illustrated, Selena Roberts, is trying to throw things out there that in high school I tried steroids. I mean, that’s the biggest bunch of baloney I’ve ever heard in my life,” he told ESPN, adding that “this lady is coming out with all these allegations, all these lies.”
Roberts said today that Rodriguez called her last Wednesday. She didn’t want to comment on the call until Rodriguez holds a news conference after arriving at spring training Tuesday.
She is writing a book “A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez,” due for publication by HarperCollins on April 14.
For some reason, I suspect that Alex’s apology was about as sincere as when Howie Hamburger Dude said he was sorry:
Yesterday, we gave our kids, who are almost ages 5 and 7, Dungeons & Dragons – The Complete Animated Series on DVD. For a show that first ran way before they were born, from 1983 to 1985, it still grabbed their attention. Each time they finish an episode, they immedately say that they want to watch another one. Being a Prison Break junkie, I can appreciate them getting hooked by the escape/chase serial bug. It must be a human nature thing?
Sorta like being a diehard Yankees fan, huh? Once you get a taste, you’re hooked, and you just can’t get enough…
My rant yesterday about Randy Johnson has brought cause for me to think deeper about my disdain for certain former Yankees pitchers – and for the man who brought them into the organization. Related, I’m going to vent some more, today, on this topic. On your mark, get set, go…
Javier Vazquez: He was 26-years old and coming off four solid seasons of pitching for the Montreal Expos. So, the Yankees traded for him. As “The Royal Order of the Cashman Kool-Aid Brigade” likes to say “It seemed like the right move at the time.” Me? I wanted to see this move pay-off for the Yankees like the deal that the Red Sox made at the end of 1997, when Boston (via trade) acquired (then) 25-year old Pedro Martinez who, like Vazquez, was coming off four solid seasons of pitching for the Montreal Expos. But, that didn’t happen. Pedro went on to star, and then some, for Boston for the next seven years. Vazquez only lasted one season in New York.
Randy Johnson: In January 2005, the Yankees traded for the “Big Unit” – then already a future-Hall-of-Famer-lock – coming off a super season, albeit as a 40-year old. The Yankees starting pitching in 2004 was terrible. And, Johnson was supposed to be a big part of the solution to that problem. Plus, he was going to be the “Games-One-Four-Seven Horse” for New York in the post-season. The kind of pitcher who could carry a team on his back in October. Here, to me, this acquistion for New York was supposed to, according to the Cashman plan, work out as well for the Yankees as the November 2003 trade by the Boston Red Sox where they picked up (then) 37-year old Curt Schilling. But, that didn’t happen. While Schilling was a hero in Boston for four seasons, Johnson was done in New York after two years – and the Big Unit did not help the Yankees at all in October.
Kei Igawa: In December 2006, Brian Cashman spent $46 million to pick-up Igawa from Japan. This was in response to the Boston Red Sox out-bidding the Yankees, and others, that same month for Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. To date, Matsuzaka has made 61 starts for Boston whereas Igawa has made 13 for New York.
Jeff Weaver: In July of 2002, Brian Cashman swung a three-team in-season deal to pick up (then) 25-year old Weaver (from the Detroit Tigers). The Yankees logic at the time was that Weaver was a former hot prospect, who was still young, and someone who had gotten his feet wet at the big league level and was ready to go on a roll. I would imagine that the expectation here was that this trade would work out for the Yankees the way an in-season trade worked out for the Pittsburgh Pirates back in 1996 when they traded for (then) 23-year old Jason Schmidt from the Atlanta Braves. Schmidt pitched well for the Pirates – for about four and a half seasons – before they had to trade him because he was about to become a free agent. But, on the whole, Schmidt was a solid big league pitcher for 9 seasons following that 1996 trade. Weaver? He was out of New York by the end of 2003 and has spent the last 5 seasons bouncing around trying to be an effective pitcher (and failing, for the most part).
Carl Pavano: In December 2004, Brian Cashman spent $40 million to acquire the (then) 28-year old Pavano (as a free agent). And, well, we all know what the Yankees expectations were here…and how this deal worked out for New York, in the end.
Javier Vazquez, Randy Johnson, Kei Igawa, Jeff Weaver and Carl Pavano. All big plans by the Yankees G.M. Brian Cashman. And, all did not work out in New York as promised/expected. So, you have to excuse me, as a Yankees fan, if the mention of the names Vazquez, Johnson, Igawa, Weaver, Pavano and Cashman send me into a Niagara Falls routine…
Via Ken Davidoff today -
The Yankees have a number of capable people, on both the baseball-operations side and the business side, to make a 2009 world championship eminently possible. No longer is there an internal squabble for power between the New York office and the Tampa office, a rift that The Boss created and nurtured.
He sure made life difficult for everyone. Yet in virtual absentia, [George] Steinbrenner’s stature has only grown. It has become painfully apparent that for all of his flaws, he has left an immense void. One that is even more noticeable when the organization is under siege, like right now.
“Those are some big shoes to fill,” said Rich Gossage, here as a guest instructor. “There is only one George Steinbrenner, I can tell you that. The current regime, it’s going to take a while for the transition to happen.”
The Yankees finally acknowledged that transition after the ’07 season. It has been a challenge to succeed Steinbrenner, particularly for his family members here in Tampa.
New control person Hal Steinbrenner, a good man, often commutes to New York to confer with his lieutenants there. He just lacks his dad’s wingspan. When someone raises a complaint about the Tampa operation, Hal often responds, “Tell Felix.”
Felix Lopez, the husband of Steinbrenner’s daughter Jessica, has brought his unique brand of idiocy to the team. Whereas Yankees employees often loathed George Steinbrenner, they knew he had their backs. Lopez, on the other hand, is only loathed, for his mean-spiritedness and penny-pinching.
Poor Hank Steinbrenner, nicknamed “Tommy Boy” in honor of the 1995 film with the late Chris Farley, doesn’t have it in him to serve a serious role.
The result is an organization still searching for an identity. For a connection between upstairs and downstairs.
“I miss Steinbrenner. I miss him walking around,” Posada said. “I miss being able to talk to him about baseball, football. Anything.
“It was tough love. You knew that coming in. But you know what? He cared about everybody in here … You heard little stories about how he’d have them remove the whole carpet [in the clubhouse] because there was a little stain in the middle. Little things like that. He did anything to make us comfortable. He was good at it.”
Someday, it will be interesting, to compare the Yankees of “1973 through 2004″ against the Yankees of “2005 through 2036″ to see exactly how much Big Stein brought to the table. My guess is that such a study would back the notion that George had a huge impact on the Yankees success.
