On March 13th, I listed two tickets for sale on the Yankees Ticket Exchange – hosted by Ticketmaster. These were for the game of April 16th against the D’backs. In order to try and sell them, I set the price as declining each day. Yet, in the two weeks they have been listed, no one has bought them.

I should add that these are great seats – in the Main Level, by first base, with one seat being an aisle seat and the other being the one next to it. In addition, they are undercover – which is great in case of rain.

Today, just for the fun of it, I looked at the interactive map on the Yankees Ticket Exchange to see how many other seats were for sale in my section. And, to my shock, I did not see my seats listed as an option. So, I quickly checked my account and confirmed that I still have them posted as being for sale. So, why are they not on the seating chart as being available? Who can possible find them as being for sale if they are not on the seating chart as marked for sale?

Of course, the Yankees Ticket Exchange is located at 7060 Hollywood Blvd in Los Angeles – and they are not available until 9 AM on the east coast. So, I have to wait to call them today. But, in the meantime, boy, am I pissed.

At this point, I can only assume they are hidden from the public, as being available, because the Yankees don’t want someone to see tickets as being available at less than face value because they were prefer to sell tickets directly as walk-ups.

Update, 9:15 AM: I spoke to Ticketmaster, who runs the Yankees Ticket Exchange site. They said that they cannot explain why my tickets have not been listed for sale over the last two weeks. They assume that maybe there was a pending sale of the tickets – although they cannot prove it – where someone’s credit card was being approved. And, during this process, the “bar codes were locked.” And, that’s why they are not showing. They’re going to look into it and get back to me.

Update, 9:30 AM: This was interesting. Seems I was looking at the Yankees interactive seating map for tickets for sale – and not the one for the Yankees Ticket Exchange. Ticketmaster called me back and gave me the URL for the Ticket Exchange. It’s www.ticketsnow.com/Yankees. But, when you go to the Yankees site, and look for tickets, you get this URL: http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/ticketing/singlegame.jsp?c_id=nyy&y=2013 – and, there’s no obvious link or mention of the Yankees Ticket Exchange. To find it, when you are on that page, you have to find the sidebar at the bottom right of the page with the header “Also In Tickets” and there, 13 links listed from the top, is a small link to the Yankees Ticket Exchange.

How someone would ever find that, is beyond me. Also, when you GOOGLE “Yankees Ticket Exchange” the first link to come up is yankees.mlb.com/TicketExchange which brings you back to the Yankees site where they are selling single game tickets at full price. So, in the end, instead of saying “Yankees Ticket Exchange Hiding Tickets For Sale?” the proper question to ask is “Yankees Hiding Yankees Ticket Exchange Site?”

Via Mark Feinsand –

Alex Rodriguez has been rehabbing his surgically repaired hip in New York and Miami throughout spring training, but is expected to join his teammates for the April 1 opener against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.

A-Rod has not started baseball activity after surgery in mid-January to repair a torn labrum and impingement in his left hip, working on a physical therapy program for the past two months.

“He’s doing everything he needs to be doing,” GM Brian Cashman said. “I’m not sure when his actual rehab-to-field-activity will take place. I don’t have that yet.”

A-Rod’s rehab will likely move to Tampa once he picks up a baseball, but Joe Girardi — who keeps in touch with A-Rod via text messaging — said he expects to see his third baseman in the Bronx on Opening Day.

“I’d like to see him,” Girardi said. “He says his rehab is going well. He feels pretty good. He’s doing more and more every week I talk to him.”

Ugh. Just what the team needs – with all the media around Opening Day, especially against the Red Sox, and A-Rod is going to turn it into a circus by finally coming out of his Biogenesis cave bunker. It should be a feeding frenzy. Of course, that’s right in the sweet spot for this narcissistic ass-clown, #13 in your Yankees program…

Via Ken Rosenthal -

The New York Yankees act like they’re in jail. They’re not.

They could sign free-agent right-hander Kyle Lohse and then trade either right-hander Ivan Nova or right-hander for the offense they so desperately need.

General manager Brian Cashman, however, wants no part of Lohse.

“I don’t think it would make any sense whatsoever,” Cashman said. “We have all of our pitching intact. Our problem is not our pitching. Pitching is our strength.”

The Yankees have six starters: Lefties CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte and righties Hiroki Kuroda, Phil Hughes, Nova and Phelps. A seventh possibility, righty Michael Pineda, is recovering well from shoulder surgery, Cashman said.

“Pitching is our strength.”

Every time I hear this, albeit from Cashman or a Yankees fan, I want to scream.

I like David Phelps. He’s young and a fine pitcher for the back-end of your rotation.

Hiroki Kuroda is usually good for a quality 30 starts and 200 innings. But, he will be 38-years old this season and nearing the end of his career. So, there’s some risk there. Also, for what it’s worth – and I know many don’t care about this type of stuff – for most of his career he’s been a hard luck pitcher. When that happens, over and over, there’s usually a reason for it.

CC Sabathia has thrown 1,399 innings over the last 6 seasons – an average of 233 IP per season – and is coming off elbow surgery. And, while he’s slimmer this spring, he’s still not a well conditioned player – in terms of carrying too much body fat. Sooner or later, and more likely sooner, his pitching arm is going to cry out “Uncle!”

Andy Pettitte, who is one of my all-time favorite baseball players (ever!) will be 41-years old this June. The last time he had more than 21 starts in a major league season was four years ago. The last time he won more than 14 games in a season was six years ago. So, why should we expect him to make 30 starts and win 15+ games this season at his age?

Last season, Ivan Nova faced 748 major league batters and they had a collective .511 Slugging Percentage against him. Forget what he’s doing in Spring Training. You can never trust Spring Training stats. When the bell rings, he won’t be fooling anyone – he didn’t last year.

Phil Hughes should make 30 starts, win 15+ games, and pitch close to 200 innings this year. He’s done that two of the last three years. Plus, he’s pitching for his free agency – so, there’s a carrot on the stick for him this year. But, he’s not a staff leader. He’s more a middle-to-the-back-end starting pitcher at this point in his career.

Don’t even get me started about the Dominican John Blutarsky, Michael Pineda.

“Pitching is our strength.”

Tell me that in August and September. When I see it then, I will believe it. Right now, it’s just a promise and a wish from Brian Cashman.

Amen Cork.

This concern that baseball teams have over the secondary ticket market is all about the teams trying to make money. They don’t care about the fans. Don’t be fooled by any attempts on their end to pitch this as some benefit for the fans.

If I sell my ticket in the secondary market for $1 after I paid the Yankees $85 for it, they don’t care that I am losing $84. But, what the teams do care about is that someone is buying my ticket because I am selling it for $1 – and that means, then, the person buying it is not forced to by an unsold ticket from them at $85.

That’s all this is…period.

Funny, teams used to be concerned with scalpers buying lots of tickets and then selling them for more than face value. They felt that someone was making money off them. So, they got all kinds of scalping laws out there to take care of it.

And, now, they have the reverse happening – people selling tickets for way under face value and the teams now feel that they are losing money as a result.

Teams better be careful. Before you know it, we’re going to have a situation where it’s unlawful and/or not mechanically possible to get a ticket for anything else than face value. And, when that happens, they’re going to be looking at a lot of empty seats because ticket prices – like in the case of the Yankees – are too high.

With the technology that’s out there today in terms of television broadcasts and sets to view it on, people will just elect to stay home, watch the game on their big screen, and avoid the cost and time of commuting to and from the ballpark. And, then you’re not buying any $9 beers or $7 garlic fries too.

The best solution here? Teams should sell tickets at prices that will prevent people from looking to buy them from someone else. If they did that, it would take all the power away from the secondary market.

But, what I suspect will happen is that teams will react differently – and simple go to variable ticket pricing, if they haven’t already, and then really jack up the prices of those “premium” games.

Why? Well, what’s happening now is that fans are buying some sort of season ticket package, keeping the “really good games” – either because they want them or they know they can sell them later at prices way above face value – and then selling off their crappy games – like a Tuesday night game in April against the Marlins – at crazy low prices, just to get “something” back on them.

And, it’s possible that teams may raise the prices on the “hot ticket” to make up for their perceived losses at the ticket window or to try and make it hard for buyers to re-sell those tickets at a price where it makes it worth their while to eat the cost on the “crappy” games.

But, if teams start charging tremendously higher prices on those “premium” games, then fans won’t want them as much – because they cannot afford or sell them later (and recover their cost).

This will bring the same result as fixing the ticket resale price at face value. People will just stop buying tickets and there will be more empty seats at the ballpark.

There may be other possible scenarios out there. And, many of them may also lead to more empty seats at the ballpark. That’s why teams should be careful what they wish for with the secondary ticket market.

First, some perspective via ESPN -

The Yankees never led in the [ALCS], only the second time in their history that they’ve been beaten in that fashion (the other was in the 1963 World Series) and had some of their weaknesses exposed in October.

The Yankees were swept in a postseason series for the first time since the 1980 ALCS (against the Kansas City Royals), and swept in a best-of-7 for the first time since the 1976 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.

Lowest BA in Single Postseason
MLB History

	BA
2012 Yankees	.188
1965 Twins	.195
1956 Dodgers	.195
1974 Athletics	.198
1962 Yankees	.199
1920 Dodgers	.205
1921 Yankees	.207
>>minimum 7 games

The Yankees had played 36 straight postseason series without being swept. The Elias Sports Bureau notes that is the longest such streak in major-league history.

The Yankees .188 batting average in the 2012 postseason is the lowest in MLB postseason history by any team that played at least seven games.

They scored just 22 runs in nine games, for an average of 2.4 runs per game. That’s the fourth-fewest runs per game in a single postseason by any team that played at least seven games.

How ugly was the final game?

The 8-1 loss matched the team’s worst in any postseason elimination game. They lost 9-2 to the Dodgers in Game 6 of the 1981 World Series and they lost 10-3 to the Red Sox in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS.

The Yankees offense disappeared in the postseason. The combination of Alex Rodriguez, Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson, and Robinson Cano went a combined 14-for-125 with one home run.

Clearly, some – if not most – of this falls on the Yankees batters, themselves. They were the ones in the box with the stick in their hand.

But, should they be the only ones held accountable here? How about Yankees batting coach Kevin Long? Is he somewhat culpable as well for failure of his star players? Also, what about Yankees G.M. Brian Cashman? He’s the one who put together the starting position players for the Yankees? Should he not also be charged for assembling a team without the skill set to produce in the post-season?

What do you think?  And, what should be the course of action regarding those responsible for this epic failure?

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There’s so many stories here.

Ichiro will not be back with New York  in 2013.  And, Swisher is closing out his Yankees career with a turd…his typical post-season performance.

Cano?  He bats six-fifteen against scrubs to close out the season and then becomes a non-factor in the post-season.  What does that say about him?

A-Rod, hey, what can you say?  From this point forward, in Yankeeland, he’s Eric Soderholm, Toby Harrah, or Charlie Hayes. He’s your right-handed batting third baseman who should hit in the lower end of the line-up and be lifted when facing a tough righty pitcher. The sooner he gets that into his head, accepts it, and starts to carry himself as that type of player, the better for him and everyone else.

Lastly, Granderson. Well, I never was a fan. I always thought he had too many holes in his swing. And, I knew that the Tigers unloaded him for a reason. At this point, a smart G.M. would shop him this winter. Pitch him to the sabermetric-inclined front offices. Talk about the homeruns and the fact that he’s not tied up long-term, maybe even offer to throw in some money. Anything to get him off the team. But, the Yankees G.M. is Brian Cashman, the one who was suckered into trading multiple young, cheap, and useful players to get Granderson. So, expect Granderson to be a Yankee in 2013 too – and, get ready for that 200-strikeout season from him.

You can’t blame the lack of Yankees offense so far this ALDS on Jeter, Teixeira or Martin.  But, for sure, the rest of this team has been terrible.  And, it’s time for the Yankees to start dealing with that…

What’s the under/over line for the amount of homeruns that Phil Hughes is going to allow in tomorrow’s game?

And, he’s batting .216 over this period.

Isn’t it time to bench him?

And, if you think this is a fluke, guess again.

From August 1, 2009 through September 4, 2012, Granderson has come to the plate 2,049 times and struck out 500 times.  And, over that period, he’s batted .246 (in 485 games).

The dude has serious holes in his swing.  That’s why the Tigers traded him.  Why Brian Cashman ignored this, I dunno?

And, every other contending team in the A.L. East and wildcard chase are circling Great Whites…

Damn, watching these games against the Orioles and Rays is like watching a replay of Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS.

Dead, team, losing.

This team needs an enema – and a few hemorrhoidectomies too.   Actually, more than a few.

Where is Big Stein in his prime when you need him?

Seriously.

After their win on July 18th this season, the New York Yankees, on a run where they won 9 of 11 games, sat on top of the world in the American League standings:

In fact, at the close of business on July 18th, the Yankees had a big, fat, ten game lead in the A.L. East.

After opening the 2012 season where they only played .500 ball over their first 42 games (going 21-21), the Yankees were a juggernaut going 36-13 from May 22nd through July 18th.  And, then, since that time, New York has crapped their own bed.

Look at how the American League teams (who are currently still have a chance at a 2012 post-season berth) have done since July 19th of this season (to date, including yesterday’s games):

As you can see, the Yankees have played the worst baseball of these eight remaining contending teams.  And, they have now allowed the Baltimore Orioles to gain 8 games in the A.L. East standings since July 19th.

Further, the Yankees are now at risk of not making the post-season in 2012 – at all – if they choke up the lead in the A.L. East since there are more than two teams close to them in terms of their overall record.

To say that the Yankees have been a horror since July 18th this season may be an understatement.

Of course, they can turn this around by playing better over the next four weeks.  But, why should anyone in Yankeeland expect that now, based on what we have seen over the last 43 games?

Are you kidding me with this one?

• Leaving the bases loaded to end the 1st inning.
• The way the 2nd inning ended at the plate.
• Garcia imploding in the 5th inning.
• Joba in  the 6th inning.
• Logan in  the 7th inning.
• Lowe in  the 8th inning.

What more can I say?

Via Joel Sherman -

Russell Martin homered twice on June 10, finishing off a sweep of the Mets with a leadoff, game-ending blast in the ninth inning.

That was four weeks, one humongous slump and — perhaps — many, many, many millions of dollars ago for the looming free agent.

After that game, Martin actually proclaimed, “I am starting to feel dangerous at the plate.”

He said he believed he had mended a glitch that had made him susceptible to being jammed. The two homers against the Mets gave him five homers, 11 RBIs and 1.092 OPS in his last 17 games. His overall .216 average did not look impressive, but was his season high.

And then Martin began to hit like a pitcher — a particularly bad-hitting pitcher.

Friday night, as the Yankees generated 14 hits in a 10-8 victory over the Red Sox at Fenway Park, Martin again had none. His 0-for-3 extended his hitless streak to 30 at-bats — the longest by a Yankees since Derek Jeter and Jason Giambi both had 0-for-32 stretches in 2004. Overall, Martin is in a 4-for-57 slump.

His season average is down to .176 in 240 plate appearances. The worst average by a Yankee who came to the plate at least 450 times was the .193 of Jerry Kenney in 1970.

In other words, Martin is in danger of making history, and not the kind any player wants to make — especially in his walk year.

Martin turned down a Yankees overture in the offseason believed to be in the three-year, $24 million range and bet on himself.

Now he has the second half to better cash in on that bet. There is a dearth of quality catching available and teams will appreciate many things about Martin: 1) How athletic he is behind the plate. 2) His reputation for really putting in the prep time to work well with pitchers. 3) That he doesn’t turn 30 until February.

Nevertheless, it is going to be hard for Martin to even replicate the $24 million if he cannot get over the Mendoza Line, if he cannot rebound to hit for impact with more consistency in the second half of the season.

“I really don’t think about that,” Martin said of his free agency. “I really am trying to concentrate on winning as many games as possible.”

Still, Joe Girardi is concerned human nature being human nature, Martin will look up each at-bat, see his average on the scoreboard and overreact.

“I worry about him trying to make up for what happened in the first 81 games,” the Yankees manager said.

I don’t get the Martin thing – at all. On any other contending big league team, if you had a 29-year old catcher in the walk year of his contract who was batting .176 in 240 plate appearances, he would be benched, demoted, or cut.

Why the Yankees continue to run Martin out there is beyond me…except for the fact that there’s no one in the organization to take his place that would be an upgrade. And, the General Manager has to be blamed for that fact. Then again, it was the Yankees G.M. who was comparing Martin to the late, great, Thurman Munson before the start of this season. Yikes.

And, let’s not forget that Martin hit .225 from May 2nd through the end of the season last year (in 391 PA). So, it’s not like you needed to be a genius to figure out that he has a hole in his bat.

If you’re the Cubs or Padres this year and you want to play a guy at catcher who bats like a bad-hitting pitcher, that’s fine. But, when you’re the Yankees, this is unacceptable.

On Saturday, I took my 10-year old daughter to Yankee Stadium.  The Yankees won.  The Mets lost.  It was a good game.

I live about 50 miles away from Yankee Stadium and the only practical way for me to get there is by car.

Heading to the game today, we left our house at 3:45 PM.  Yes, I know it was a 7:15 PM start for the game.  However, we wanted to get there early enough where we were not rushing – and we wanted to see the pre-game parachutes that were scheduled for 6:15 PM (per the Yankees – meanwhile, they really started at 6:30 PM).

My route to Yankee Stadium is pretty simple.  I take the Garden State Parkway to the Turnpike. And, then I take Route 46 into the “G.W.B.”  Once over the Bridge, I immediately get off and take local streets to the Stadium (and, I don’t mess with the Major Deegan or anything else). 

Going in today, as I said, we left at 3:45 PM and zipped into the Stadium.  At 5 PM, I was locking my car and we were heading into my fav Yankee Stadium deli to get sandwiches to bring into the game. That’s reasonable – an hour fifteen, door to door, for the 50 miles.

Coming home, it was a different story.

Of course, we waited until the final out of the game to leave our seats. And, after that, my daughter made a quick stop at the restroom before we left the Stadium. But, we were back at our car, in the parking garage, at 10:25 PM.

And, that’s where it got ugly. It took us one hour and five minutes to get from our spot in the garage to the George Washington Bridge. Yes, it took us 75 minutes to drive all the way in to the game. But, it took us 65 minutes, coming home, just to get away from the Stadium and out of the Bronx.

Once we got on the Bridge, because it was then 11:30 PM, we flew from there and I got home at 12:30 AM on Sunday morning. In total, coming home, door to door, it took two hours and five minutes to cover the 50 miles – and most of that drag was due to the mess in the Bronx, on the streets, after the game, around Yankee Stadium.

Now, I get it. This is not my first rodeo. I’ve been here before – big games against the Red Sox, post-season games, etc. – and, I know there’s heavy and slow traffic after the game…especially if it’s a big crowd and a close score. (And, for the record, there were over 48,000 there on Saturday and the final score was just 4-2.)

There have been times in the past where it’s taken me just as long, if not longer, than it did to get away from Yankee Stadium and out of the Bronx. However, just because it’s happened in the past, it doesn’t take the annoyance factor out of it happening again now. And, just because it’s been this way, it’s no excuse for the Yankees and cops, not to do a better job at keeping things flowing, as best as possible, when these big game crowds empty out of the Stadium.

Or, is that asking too much?

Isn’t it time for the Yankees to admit it was a huge mistake to take Cito Culver in the 2010 draft over players such as Bryce Brentz, Taijuan Walker, Nick Castellanos and Mike Olt?

Not smoking the objective pipe on the stand.

Steven Resnick: MLB Strikes Out By Not Televising The Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners Series

I have to a agree. Between the repeats on the MLB Network this AM and the crap on ESPN’s extra channels (outside of Mike & Mike), there’s no excuse not to have these games on TV.

If the games are THAT boring and unattractive to have on live TV in the States, then it makess no sense to have them played.

Yesterday, I wore my “Yankees” jacket for the first time in 2012.

Actually, it was the first time that I have worn it in a while.  How long?  Read on.

When I put on the jacket, I realized there was something in one of the pockets.  When I pulled it out, I realized that it was my ticket stubs from Game 5 of the 2011 ALDS between the Yankees and the Tigers.

Yes, the game that everyone in Yankeeland thought was a gimmie win – and the game where New York had:

• The bases loaded with one out in the 4th and could not score.
• The bases loaded with one out in the 7th and A-Rod struck out.

And, in the end, the Yankees lost, 3-2.

That was four months ago – the last time that I wore my Yankees jacket.

Like a lot of Yankees fans, I have put that game far away in my memory.  Now, I wonder, is that a mistake?

I love the MLB Network. 

Really, I know it has not been around all that long.  However, I don’t know what I would do, now, without it.

It’s my “go to” channel any time I turn on the T.V. and I do not have something specific in mind to watch…

But, gosh, they keep playing that New Era “Rivals Are…” commerical over and over and over….

It’s so annoying.  Is that the only advertiser that they have?

Anyone else watching how the Rangers went about their business in the 9th inning of Game 2 last night think “My goodness, why couldn’t the Yankees do this in Game 5 of the ALDS this year?!?”

And, if you did, who do you blame for it not happening? The Yankees players? Girardi? Both? Neither?

Here are Mark Teixeira’s post-season numbers, to date, as a member of the New York Yankees:

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Mr. Notober?

Via Jerry “I’m Not Dead!” Izenberg -

The Yankees’ current Triple-A franchise is anchored in the twin cities of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, an area in northeast Pennsylvania that has always supported baseball on some level. But the Yankees organization decided that PNC Field, the Triple-A team’s home park, is in desperate need of renovation. The job will take all of 2012.

And back in New York, management came up with a magnificent public relations idea. Newark had been the bellwether of all Yankee minor league teams dating as far back as when Jacob Ruppert was paying Babe Ruth’s salary across the river. Newark, through horrendous mismanagement, has seen its minor league team dissolve.

Newark has a ballpark. With that in mind, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman visited the city’s Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium, which does need work. He met with Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo. Together, they hammered out an agreement that could be done for the least money.

To understand the mechanics of what followed, you have to understand that Major League Baseball has a 90-year-old Supreme Court ruling giving it an antitrust exemption. The Boy Scouts of America have no such exemption. The NFL, NBA and NHL have no such blanket exemption. Chains of cloistered nuns or Trappist monasteries do not have an antitrust exemption.

Under baseball’s rules, the exclusivity of the Yankees and Mets territory is shared. The Yankees called the Mets and asked permission to put their Triple-A team in Newark for only a single year.

The Mets declined.

The Yankees tried again. They pointed out that it was only for a single year.

The Mets declined again.

The Yankees tried once more. They repeated that this was just for a single year. They said that if the Mets agreed for just that one season they would offer an evergreen matching proposal. In essence, they would give the Mets the same shot if they had a team with a minor league park in jeopardy, no matter how many eons into the future.

The Mets declined, saying their organization would only do something like that with mutual and immediate reciprocity as they did when the Yanks put a minor league team in Staten Island and allowed the Mets to do the same in Brooklyn.

But those were permanent moves. This was only for a year, the Yankees argued. They also offered a permanent waiver if a similar situation ever arose for the Mets. In addition, there was Yankee money involved in this final offer.

And once again, the Mets declined.

Today, DiVincenzo thanked the Yankees for their consideration and Brian Cashman, the Yankee GM, for his “professionalism.” But he could not hide his obvious disappointment:

“Unfortunately, the Mets exercised their territorial rights to block this temporary partnership and have prevented the chance for baseball fans to come to Newark and Essex County to watch players in minor league baseball’s highest classification on their way up to the major leagues. It would have rejuvenated interest in one of the highest levels of the sport in an important urban area.”

One of the concerns that influenced the Mets was their belief that a minor league team in Newark might have weaned potential Mets fans away from the affluent New Jersey suburbs.

Man, are the Mutts looking like big league arse-holes for making this call. And, if I’m the Yankees, I file this one away – but never forget it. And, the first time that they have the chance to screw the Mets in the future, the Yankees should call upon this memory and stick it to the Mets…right between the ears.

I waited on Yankees Weather tweets as long as I could today – but, then I had to make the call and head out to the Stadium.

I left my house at 4 PM – and, thanks to the rain and rush-hour traffic, I didn’t get up to the Stadium until a few minutes past six.  Yes, two hours, bumper to bumper, door to door. 

Once there, I parked – for forty bucks – with my pre-paid parking ticket.  And, then, my daughter and I grabbed some sandwiches from our favorite deli and went into the Stadium.  I’m guessing that we sat down around 6:40 PM, thereabouts.

Around 7:10 PM, I knew the game wasn’t going to start on time.  So, I asked my daughter if she wanted to go out to Monument Par…Kave.

She did – so, we went.  As we were coming back to our seats, we took a look at the Great Hall, from up above, and I saw people walking out of the Stadium.  And, then, I figured bad news was coming…

We went into the Yankees Museum and then I saw the announcement that the game was called.  I reached out to my wife, via the cell, and she said that the Yankees just called our house with an automated message – saying that the game was rained out.  Duh.

So, back to the car, where I just pissed away $40 on parking, and time to head home.  We left the garage around 7:45 PM and I got home around 9:15 PM.

My daughter had fun – enjoyed her sandwich, liked the Monument Park and the museum.  And, she likes the fact that now she can see another game…maybe Sunday…or next year.

But, boy, do I feel like a sucker.  I should have stayed home, never left, saved the gas and tolls – and the time in traffic! – and got a credit for the parking – and I still would have been able to get my rain-check on a game that anyone with a half a brain would have called this afternoon, based on the forecast.

MLB sucks for allowing this to go until just past seven to pull the plug.  It’s just stupid and inconsiderate.  And, I’m a sucker for playing into it.

Tweet from Mark Teixeira today -

Gee, Mark, maybe if you get your batting average up to a respectable level, then the booing that’s about to start at home won’t happen too!

Is there a difference between starting a game at 11 PM…and having it end at 2 AM…and then playing another game 11 hours later, and, playing a traditional double-header on one day? I would have to think the former is just as taxing as the latter.

Why MLB made the Yankees play last night – and screw their fans – makes little sense, no?

And, I think we’ve seen enough.

Just like Mike Griffin, he’s fooled us long enough. We found out about him today. That should do it for him.

Cashman can take the objective pipe and stick it up his poop chute.

Burnett is a turd. And, he must be flushed.

I had a long trip home tonight after work.  So, after dinner, I hit the gym (to let off some steam).  After a nice workout, I got home around 9 PM.

Instead of picking up the game, I decided to watch Predators on HBO In Demand. (I had never seen it before tonight.)

The movie ended just after the final out of the Yankees game – just in time for me to catch the recap of what happened.

A Burnett melt-down in the sixth.  Mo taken yard in the ninth.  And, the Grandy Man getting “Jeff Nelson’ed” to end it with the winning run at the plate.

Granted, I only saw the “low-lights,” but, is it just me, or, is this possibly the worst Yankees game of the season to date?

How many wins did A.J. Burnett have in July of this year?

It’s the same amount as he had in June and August of last year.

And, it’s the same as the amount he had in August of 2009.

Zero.

Think about that.  This guy has pitched 16 months of regular season baseball for the Yankees to date, never  missing a turn.  And, in 25% of those months, he failed to win a single game.

Burnett is the 8th highest paid pitcher in baseball today.  He should be an ace at that salary.  But, he’s far from that.  What a joke.

Did anyone see Maicer Izturis’ RBI “single” in the 9th inning of Saturday’s game?

Is it just me, or, is that a ball that an average major league shortstop makes a play on – with little problem – to get the out? (Maybe it was just me, it was late when it happened…)

In any event, maybe it’s time for the Yankees to get a defensive caddy that they can trust – meaning not Eduardo “Death To Flying Things” Nunez – on the roster to sub for Derek Jeter in late and close games? There’s no need to have Luis Ayala, Hector Noesi and Lance Pendleton on the roster at the same time. They’re all garbage time fillers. You don’t need three of them. Do you?