Yesterday, I saw three obese ladies leaving the cafeteria in my office building.

I felt so sorry for them.

They were each at least 100 pounds overweight – probably much more. Just walking was an incredible effort for them. It was painful to watch.

Seeing them, I thought “If these women don’t do something for themselves soon, they’re going to be dead. Their health is severely comprised by all that extra weight they’re carrying. They’re killing themselves.”

And, I wished that there was something I could have done for them, on the spot, to help them turn this around. But, of course, I couldn’t do a thing. And, it was extremely frustrating.

Then, this morning, as I was driving to work, stopped at a traffic light, I noticed two Canadian Geese walking across the road – with their baby chicks following them – all in a line.

Now, I don’t mean to sound like a queen here; but, it really was the cutest thing I’ve seen in a while.

And, it was so sweet to see that I wished someone else was there with me to share the sight.

I like to think of myself as being a tough guy. Nonetheless, this was a very “feel good” event to witness. And, it was a one-eighty from the feeling I had yesterday when I saw those ladies.

Does anyone else do this? I can’t be the only one who looks here and there and takes note of what’s going on around them…and thinks about. So, what things have you seen in the last couple of days that caught your eye and made you think?

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That would be “Ray” and not “Bob.” Via Rich Freedman:

Ray Fosse knows pitchers.

A two-time All-Star and the first player drafted by Cleveland in the 1965, Fosse caught “Sudden” Sam McDowell, one of the hardest throwing lefties around. He also caught Dennis Eckersley’s no-hitter in 1977. And, later with the Oakland A’s, he caught Vida Blue.

Now in his 23rd season as radio and television analyst for the A’s, Fosse’s seen hundreds, if not thousands, of pitchers come and go.

And he’s seen CC Sabathia become one of baseball’s premier pitchers with 138 wins in 10 seasons. Sabathia puts his 2-0 record and back-to-back dominant efforts on the line in a 12:35 p.m. game today at the Oakland Coliseum.

“When he’s on, he’s unhittable,” Fosse said before Tuesday’s game.

With Sabathia, merely seeing the ball is challenging, Fosse said.

“He is as hard to pick up as anybody,” Fosse said. “Because of his size, the way he throws, you almost look at his slider like (Hall-of-Fame lefty) Steve Carlton’s.”

Sabathia “is so powerful,” Fosse added, “I don’t think they should use a pitch count on him. He is so strong and so durable.”

Fosse praised Sabathia for taking the challenge of playing in New York rather than remaining in Cleveland or his second team in Milwaukee “where there would be no pressure and he’d still make a lot of money. The fact he’s proven he’s big enough to say ‘Jump on my shoulders and I’ll carry you.’ He’s their ace and he handles pressure well.”

From Sabathia’s rookie year until today, “you’ve seen the development of these great, quality pitches. He’s put it all together,” Fosse said. “To me, it’s confidence in his abilities.”

I don’t disagree with anything that’s said here. Yet, I just wish Sabathia wasn’t so fat. Is that wrong of me?

I can’t help but think that extra weight is going to catch up with him at some point…and maybe lead to a knee injury…or something like that. But, then again, maybe this is just me worrying too much?

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So, where does Phil Hughes’ effort last night rank in terms of starts by a Yankees pitcher, age 24 or younger, in the Steinbrenner Era? See the list below:

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“Top 7″ ain’t too shabby. Then again, Sterling Hitchcock once threw a beauty on May 21, 1995 too.

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Here are the winners – in bold:

Babe Ruth 61.1%
Lou Gehrig 38.9%

Mickey Mantle 53.7%
Joe DiMaggio 46.3%

The Mantle-DiMaggio vote was a close one!

So, now, for the championship, it will be The Babe vs. The Mick. Look for that survey to be posted soon.

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Let me be the first to say it here now…

Phil Hughes was amazing in this game!

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Which player has batted 9th most often for the Yankees since the Steinbrenner Family has owned the team? Here are the leaders in this stat through yesterday:

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Looks like Bucky Dent has held this “record” since 1980. I wonder if anyone will ever pass him?

And, dig Lou Piniella on this list – but note that most of his work “here” was as a pinch-hitter. Ditto Posada. Here are the Steinbrenner Era Yankees leaders for batting 9th in the line-up as a pinch-hitter…

(more…)

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This round is about to close soon…so, if you don’t have your votes in yet, here’s your chance:

Greatest/Favorite Yankees Tournament – Final Four

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This one’s been brewing for about 10 weeks now…via FOX News –

New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez and actress Cameron Diaz had a series of secret dates following their flirtation at a Super Bowl party in February, the New York Post reported Wednesday.

The couple secretly saw each other in Florida while A-Rod was at spring training, according to U.S. tabloid magazine Life & Style.

“A-Rod’s with Cameron. They’ve been keeping it quiet, but they’re totally together,” a source told the weekly.

I’ll say this for Alex…he’s not shy about swimming in pools that have been seen their fair share of pool parties, that’s for sure. Madonna, Hudson, Diaz…there’s a whole heap of tunnel traffic there.

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Via Mark Feinsand –

As word leaked Tuesday that a big-league player was about to be suspended for PED use, rumors began to swirl around the Internet that Mark Teixeira might be the guilty party.

Reds pitcher Edinson Volquez turned out to be the player suspended for 50 games, and while Teixeira hadn’t heard the rumors that he would be suspended, he laughed it off when informed of the erroneous Web reports.

“It goes with the territory. It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time,” Teixeira said. “No one bothers to mention that I was one of the most outspoken people on the executive board to get stronger testing in place. If I worry about those kind of things, I’ve got an uphill battle.”

Didn’t see this rumor yesterday. But, I would bet that Nubia Teixeira is more likely to get caught using PEDs than Mark Teixeira…he just doesn’t seem to be that stupid.

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I hate West Coast games because it makes waking up in the morning — already a major pain in the butt — even harder.  That being said, I wanted to watch as much of the ballgame as possible, if only to see how Javy Vazquez would bounce back from two poor starts to open the year.

The results were…well, they were an improvement.  Vazquez managed to reduce his ERA from 9.82 to 8.27 and picked up the all-important, confidence-boosting “W.”  Beyond that, Javy still allowed too many baserunners (9 in 5.1 IP), didn’t have a lot of zip on his fastball (avg. velocity 88.92 mph) and still didn’t completely command the strikezone with his secondary stuff.  One area of clear improvement, however, was the fact that Vazquez managed to get 12 swinging strikes; he had only gotten 9 and 7 swinging strikes in his first two starts, respectively.

In watching the game, I once again noticed Vazquez battling himself mechanically when throwing his secondary pitches, dropping his arm angle and throwing almost across his body.  Interestingly, however, whereas Vazquez’s pitches were sailing away from righties against the Angels last Wednesday, last night all of his command issues seemed to be away from lefties.  If nothing else, that tells me that he needs to calibrate his mechanics to somewhere in between the two in order to pound the strikezone.

As for the rest of the game…

The Good:

• A-Rod walked three times and, when he actually got something to hit, crushed a ball to left-center that traveled 452 feet;
• Joba Chamberlain cleaned up Boone Logan’s mess with an efficient 18-pitch effort in retiring four A’s batters.  He had a better fastball than he did on Sunday afternoon, sitting 94 and topping out at 96.  Of course, he only threw FB/SL but, hey, the A’s lineup was biting so why mix it up…; and
• Nick Swisher broke out of an 0-for-16 slump with a two-run single in the first inning which gave Vazquez the cushion he needed to pitch through the first part of the game.

The Bad:

• Bummer for The Captain as his 11-game hit streak was snapped with an 0-for-5.  Here’s something weird about Jeet: despite a .345/.368/.545 batting line to start the year, Jeter’s only worked one walk (to six strikeouts) and hasn’t registered a hit or a walk in the first inning of any game this year;
• Nick Johnson continues to lead the league in walks (16) but is now in a 1-for-16 slump.  His AVG and SLG over that stretch are both a horrendous .063; and
• We still haven’t seen Sergio Mitre since April 9th.  I’m hardly his biggest fan but I don’t see how the team can rely on him (if they ever have to) when he hasn’t pitched in nearly two weeks.  Once again, I’m forced to ask: if you can’t have him pitch the final three outs of a game which is a non-save situation, what’s he doing on your ballclub?

 Once again, however, a win is a win and the Yanks are now in first place, 0.5 games ahead of the idle Rays.  10-3, man, that doesn’t suck!

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When I saw this headline over at Yankees.com…

…well, I just want to say that I called it back on March 15th, 2008.

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Since the Yankees are playing the A’s this evening, I thought it would be fun to look back at a select game from the past – when New York also visited Oakland.

Which game? How about Catfish Hunter’s first game back in Oakland after leaving the team to join the Yankees? The date was May 10, 1975 – just about 35 years ago.

The Yankees won that contest, 3-0. Catfish Hunter went all the way for the Yanks and Ken Holtzman went all the way for the A’s. New York plated single runs in the 2nd, 4th and 8th innings – using small ball to produce those scores.

But, here’s the kicker: The time of the game was 1:37. Yes, it was a 97-minute 9 inning baseball game.

Joe West would have loved that one.

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Via B-R.com – here are the Yankees W-L marks after their first twenty games of the season for every year prior to 2010:

Year	W-L	WP	Final W/L
2003	17-3	.850	101-61
1928	15-5	.750	101-53
1939	15-5	.750	106-45
1949	15-5	.750	97-57
1958	15-5	.750	92-62
1976	15-5	.750	97-62
1998	15-5	.750	114-48
1924	14-6	.700	89-63
1932	14-6	.700	107-47
1934	14-6	.700	94-60
1936	14-6	.700	102-51
1944	14-6	.700	83-71
1946	14-6	.700	87-67
1951	14-6	.700	98-56
1956	14-6	.700	97-57
1986	14-6	.700	90-72
1987	14-6	.700	89-73
1988	14-6	.700	85-76
1999	14-6	.700	98-64
1961	13-6	.684	109-53
1908	13-7	.650	51-103
1922	13-7	.650	94-60
1923	13-7	.650	98-54
1926	13-7	.650	91-63
1929	13-7	.650	88-66
1933	13-7	.650	91-59
1938	13-7	.650	99-53
1942	13-7	.650	103-51
1943	13-7	.650	98-56
1945	13-7	.650	81-71
1948	13-7	.650	94-60
1950	13-7	.650	98-56
1953	13-7	.650	99-52
1962	13-7	.650	96-66
1964	13-7	.650	99-63
1992	13-7	.650	76-86
1994	13-7	.650	70-43
2000	13-7	.650	87-74
1927	12-7	.632	110-44
1910	11-7	.611	88-63
1919	11-7	.611	80-59
1904	12-8	.600	92-59
1915	12-8	.600	69-83
1917	12-8	.600	71-82
1937	12-8	.600	102-52
1941	12-8	.600	101-53
1955	12-8	.600	96-58
1957	12-8	.600	98-56
1963	12-8	.600	104-57
1981	12-8	.600	59-48
2002	12-8	.600	103-58
1907	11-8	.579	70-78
1931	11-8	.579	94-59
1909	11-9	.550	74-77
1916	11-9	.550	80-74
1918	11-9	.550	60-63
1921	11-9	.550	98-55
1935	11-9	.550	89-60
1954	11-9	.550	103-51
1960	11-9	.550	97-57
1969	11-9	.550	80-81
1974	11-9	.550	89-73
1977	11-9	.550	100-62
1978	11-9	.550	100-63
1980	11-9	.550	103-59
1993	11-9	.550	88-74
1995	11-9	.550	79-65
1996	11-9	.550	92-70
2001	11-9	.550	95-65
2006	11-9	.550	97-65
1905	10-10	.500	71-78
1911	10-10	.500	76-76
1914	10-10	.500	70-84
1967	10-10	.500	72-90
1973	10-10	.500	80-82
1975	10-10	.500	83-77
1979	10-10	.500	89-71
2008	10-10	.500	89-73
2009	10-10	.500	103-59
1906	9-10	.474	90-61
1947	9-10	.474	97-57
1903	9-11	.450	72-62
1920	9-11	.450	95-59
1930	9-11	.450	86-68
1952	9-11	.450	95-59
1968	9-11	.450	83-79
1971	9-11	.450	82-80
1982	9-11	.450	79-83
1983	9-11	.450	91-71
1997	9-11	.450	96-66
2004	9-11	.450	101-61
2005	9-11	.450	95-67
1959	8-12	.400	79-75
1965	8-12	.400	77-85
1970	8-12	.400	93-69
1984	8-12	.400	87-75
1985	8-12	.400	97-64
1989	8-12	.400	74-87
2007	8-12	.400	94-68
1925	7-12	.368	69-85
1972	7-13	.350	79-76
1990	7-13	.350	67-95
1991	7-13	.350	71-91
1912	6-14	.300	50-102
1940	6-14	.300	88-66
1913	4-16	.200	57-94
1966	4-16	.200	70-89

It will be interesting to see where 2010 lands on this list.

And, man, did the Yankees start out terrible in 1989, 1990 and 1991.

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Craig Calcaterra has the scoop.

Any guesses?

Update: It’s Edinson Volquez.

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Up for a little Yankees trivia with a prize at the end of the stick? O.K., then, read the following:

I was born in Boston, Massachusetts – and I played for both the Red Sox and Yankees in the same season. The number I wore while playing with the Yankees was worn by another player in New York just before me – and he also played for both the Yankees and Red Sox. In that player’s last major league game, another Yankees player hit a career milestone homerun. The player who hit that homerun once won an MVP award for another team. And, the year he won, a Yankees player finished third in the voting behind him.

The first person to name all of the following, correctly, in the comments section of this entry, will be the winner of a free copy of Cardboard Gods: An All-American Tale Told Through Baseball Cards:

1. Who was the aforementioned player born in Boston, Massachusetts?
2. Who was the player who wore the same number as the player in “Question 1″ (above) who also played for the Yankees and Red Sox?
3. What Yankees player hit a career milestone homerun in the last game for the player in “Question 2″ above?
4. What Yankees player finished two slots behind the player in “Question 3″ above in the MVP voting when he won it for a team other than the Yankees?

Good luck to all who decide to play this game! And, thanks the good folks at Seven Footer Press for making this possible.

Also, please note that I will not leave a comment in the comments section until a winner has been found in the contest. I will not be commenting on an interim basis to indicate whether someone is incorrect, partially correct, or not answering the questions in the required manner. And, please, only leave comments in this entry if you’re participating in the contest. Related, please do not attempt to interfere with “the game” by suggesting to someone that their answers are correct or not – even if your intentions are good. Thanks!

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He may not be with the club right now but that doesn’t mean he’s not a part of the family.  So, with that, here’s to wishing a happy 49th birthday to one of the Yankee greats, Donald Arthur Baseball!

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It was five years ago today that I launched WasWatching.com.

Five years is a long time. If the clock on adulthood starts when school ends and working full-time begins, then this blog has been around for 20% of my adult life.

How many hours have I spent working on WasWatching.com during that time? Personally, I would say that 4,000 hours would be a conservative estimate. And, I wonder how many people have ever spent 4,000 hours working on one single project over a five year period?

In any event, it’s been an interesting journey. If you’ve been along for the ride, I hope that you’ve enjoyed some or most of it. I do appreciate those who are the long-time and/or frequent readers of WasWatching.com. It’s been fun to be in your company, for sure.

I sincerely intend on doing this for another year – covering the 2010 season.

After that, who knows? My priorities have changed quite a bit since 2005. And, there are several other projects that I’ve always wanted to tackle. But, for now, I’m still interested in doing this for a bit more.

So, I guess that’s good news for fans of this blog and not so good news for those who don’t like it. But, it’s news, nonetheless, as the title of this entry suggests.

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Via Tribune News Services with a h/t to BBTF –

Baseball’s fashion police have raided Joe Maddon’s hood.

The Tampa Bay Rays manager has been told by Major League Baseball that he can no longer wear his favorite hoodie. Maddon likes to put on the pullover during cold days at the ballpark, but MLB said it’s not approved for use during games.

Baseball reissued a memo last Friday saying managers and coaches could only wear jerseys or outerwear OKed by MLB.

Maddon, whose Rays will host the White Sox on Tuesday, wore the pullover during the weekend at Fenway Park.

“The thing is we’ve been doing it for several years now and they’ve really cleaned them up,” he said Monday after the Rays completed a four-game sweep of the Red Sox with an 8-2 win.

“There was a time where they first did it, it was more of — the quality was less. The quality has been raised, it’s more of a shiny kind of material now that I know presents well. I’ve seen them on TV, it presents really well. I have no idea why this is happening. For me, it’s just a comfortable thing. I’ve always worn hoodies,” he said.

This is funny – as I recall MLB going after Terry Francona back in 2007 about wearing a pull-over and not a uniform top. And, I would swear that Francona was wearing a pull-over this year on Opening Day. (I might be wrong, but, I’d swear that I saw it.) What’s next? Will baseball go after Joe Girardi for wearing his warm up jacket during the game when it’s 90-degrees out?

Seriously, I love hoodies myself. But, I see the point here.

Baseball is the only sport that requires its coaches to wear uniforms – because it’s the only sport where the coaches do, or may, appear on the field of play during live action (in the coaches boxes). Yeah, I know…Francona and Maddon are not coaching bases. But, in the old days, sometimes, a manager would coach third too. And, the potential is always there for them to have to man a coaches box. Hence, the uniform requirement.

I wonder who was the first baseball manager to break the “wear the uniform” habit. Probably was someone who didn’t like the way he looked in the “uni” and wanted to blouse it up. Maybe Mike Hargrove? I’m not sure…just guessing.

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I just wanted to say that Oriolesville’s gain is Yankeeland’s loss. How’d the New York market ever let her go?

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This is so silly. But, I do admit that my kids, almost 6 and 8, love this wacky show.

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Via Bob Nightengale –

The Boston Red Sox keep trying to tell themselves it’s early, but their miseries have been so intense the first three weeks, history is ready to cold-cock them.

The Red Sox, swept at home Monday by the Tampa Bay Rays, are off to their worst start at Fenway Park since 1932. They are 1-6 at home and 4-9 overall. Already, they find themselves six games out of first place in the AL East, and 5 1/2 behind the defending World Series champion New York Yankees.

Only once in franchise history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, have they ever been five or more games behind in the month of April and earned a playoff berth — 2003, when they won the wild-card and reached the AL Championship Series.

“Our concern is playing better,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said in his post-game press conference. “You can look at it any way you want, early, late, middle, division [race]. We just need to play better baseball. We dug our own hole. So now we’ve got to dig ourselves out.”

Said Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia: “When you don’t show up to play, you’re going to get beat. It doesn’t matter if you play the Rays or …. Brookline High School.”

The Red Sox, losers of five consecutive games, have been so bad that they haven’t had a lead in 45 innings. They are hitless in their last 32 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Teams are running at will, successful in 23 of 24 stolen base attempts, with Tampa swiping 10 in the four-game series.

And, not a tweet from John Henry or a mass e-mail from Larry Lucchino, huh?

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The Yankees have gotten off to a great start this season. And, right now, it doesn’t appear that anything could go wrong for them in 2010. Further, already, some fans are comparing this current Yankees squad to the legendary 1998 Yankees team.

At the start of this season, I thought the Yankees would be a 95 win team – bare minimum and barring any major injuries to key personnel. At this junction, that estimate appears safe.

There’s enough offense to go around this year in Yankeeland – unless the feds decide to lock-up A-Rod; or, unless Posada or Swisher end up going MIA.

Perhaps the Yankees biggest concern now – in terms of potential issues – is their starting pitching.

I’m not worried about Sabathia or Pettitte. Those are two professional, durable, and trustworthy starters. I am somewhat concerned about Vazquez and Hughes. The former because of his head and the latter because of his limited track record as a big league starter. But, even if they both disappoint, we’re talking about your fourth and fifth starters here – and the Yankees have hit their way to 90+ wins in the recent past while carrying some pretty ugly pitchers in the back-end of their starting rotation.

The key to the Yankees starting pitcher success may just be A.J. Burnett.

Last season, the Pie Man took a regular turn, provided some innings, and sans one bad streak was very acceptable. (The ugly run was from July 17th through September 12th when A.J. made 12 starts, threw 75.6 innings and had an ERA of 5.11 during that time.)

With a solid Burnett, the Yankees will have three starters (along with Pettitte and Sabathia) to offset any issues with Vazquez and Hughes. But, if Burnett hits a prolonged bad streak, that could mean a rough run if Vazquez and Hughes are just so-so at the same time.

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If not for them, the Boston Red Sox would be something like 3-10 at the close of business today.

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Some stats on this via Baseball-Reference.com -

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Looks like the fans of the O’s and Mets are not liking what’s going on with their teams, eh?

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From 1973 to 2010, Yankees with most games where they had 1+ SB in the team’s first 12 games…minimum three such games…

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Check out Don Baylor there in 1983. In his prime, for a big man, he could run…

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Click here for more on what this is about.

And, click here to make your picks.

Have fun – pick your favorites or pick who you thought was a better Yankee. It’s your choice. And, feel free to use the comments section here to discuss and debate the match-ups and your picks.

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Sorry guys, didn’t get a chance to watch this one closely. I did get a chance to watch a few innings intermittently while I was at Croxley Ale House for brunch. Tex finally got in the HR column with his first big fly of the year, and Gardner got a couple of hits at the top of the order. Just as Nick Johnson continued to struggle at the plate, Jorge Posada continued to shine in the early going at the plate. You want to know what is really amazing? This team has an .OPS mark of .868 to the tune of an OPS+ of 139. That’s insane.

The real story here, though, was Andy Pettitte. He shut down the Rangers completely. Boy, he is looking good early, huh? Our top three starters have not missed a beat since Octoboer.

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Guess who I ran into today on 42nd Street in NYC…

(more…)

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While watching the early part of today’s game vs. the Rangers I noticed that Nick Johnson took fastballs for called strikes in his first two AB’s, had a hard time catching up to some mediocre fastballs in the middle of those AB’s and then struck out looking, again on fastballs.  In all, Johnson struck out three times on fastballs today.

It got me wondering about the percentage of fastballs that Johnson had seen thus far in the season.  Figuring that any hitter sandwiched between Jeter and Teixeira (and Rodriguez) would see a lot more fastballs and noticing both Johnson’s passive approach and slow bat through the team’s first 11 games, I was very curious to see if my hunch was correct.

Courtesy of the “pitch type” info on each player’s page on Fangraphs‘ website, below is a list of all the pitch types Yankee batters have faced (through yesterday’s game):

(XX = uncategorizable pitches; the biggest flaw with Pitch F/X data is always the potential for erroneous pitch categorization)

Of players with at least 40 PA’s, Nick Johnson does seem to see an extremely high percentage of fastballs.  He obviously has advanced pitch-recognition abilities in that he’s able to lay off breaking pitches that won’t be in the hitting zone but at what point does a hitter’s ability to lay off pitches begin to work against him?  If Johnson’s bat has indeed slowed down just a bit and he’s not willing to swing at fat pitches thrown for strike one, he’s really taking the bat out of his own hands.

Fortunately, Johnson hasn’t cost the team any games.  Having said that, his sole responsibility on this ball club is to provide offense as a designated hitter.  An AL-leading 14 walks is nice but no one will respect a hitter if pitchers keep on offering fastballs and Johnson doesn’t punish them…

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Here are the Yankees teams since 1952 to win 7 or more of their first 11 games of a season:

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So, to address the question of “The 2010 Yankees are 8-3, when was the last time New York got off to such a hot start?” the answer is: 2003. (Seven years ago.)

Here’s a list of all baseball teams since 1996 to win 8+ times in their first 11 games of the season:

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Note there are five teams to get off to an 8-3 start this season: Yankees, Rays, Giants, Phillies and Twins. And, last season, there were six teams to do this (or have a better record): Marlins, Jays, Cards, M’s, Padres and Dodgers.

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