The New York Yankees are 17-14, so far, this season.

They are 11-2 in games started by CC Sabathia or Ivan Nova – and 6-12 in games started by anyone else.

Think they are happy that Andy Pettitte came back to pitch this year and makes his first appearance this Sunday?

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An interest take on the Phillies via MetsToday -

This Phillies team is very different from the one I remember from 2007-2011. If you are a loyal MetsToday reader you know I pay attention to body language. In the past, I saw Phillies players who had intensity from the first pitch of a game through the 27th out. On this evening, I saw faces that expressed resignation after falling behind — and indifference when they were ahead by three. It’s not something that can be measured; it can only be seen with the eyes and interpreted via years of experience watching athletes in competition. I’m not sure if it has something to do with the absences of Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, or if it’s a change in team culture, but I had no fear of these Phils coming back once the Mets went on top. Even the fiery Shane Victorino appeared to be going through the motions in his last at-bat, and Jimmy Rollins half-assed it down the line on his grounder to first base. Disappointing, as I do remember the days of Rollins tearing down the line as if it was the last time he ever would.

Overall, the Phillies look kind of like an aging AAA club, don’t they? Have to wonder how long they’re going to “tread water” waiting around for Utley and Howard to save them; it reminds me of the Mets in 2009, when they waited — and waited — for Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran (among others) to get healthy.

Bottom line, the Phillies miss having Werth, Utley and Howard – the versions of them from a few years back. Throw in Rollins too. And, the bad news is, those guys are not coming back…again, the versions that they were three years ago.

The Phillies starting rotation is still solid. But, they need some bats. And, I don’t know how they’re going to get them at this point.

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Via the AP –

Major League Baseball is poised to pick off the much-maligned move, the fake-to-third, throw-to-first ploy that often succeeds only in getting the whole ballpark to shout “Balk!”

“I think they should get rid of it,” Yankees reliever Boone Logan said. “Us lefties can’t do that. If we do, they call a balk.”

“Besides, how often does it work? Maybe once in never,” he said.

The Playing Rules Committee has approved a proposal to make it a balk, too, with MLB executives and umpires in agreement. The players’ union vetoed the plan for this season to discuss it further. MLB is allowed to implement the change after a one-year wait — no telling whether that would happen if players strongly object.

Under the new wording, a pitcher could not fake to third unless he first stepped off the rubber.

I would do the opposite. In fact, if I were in charge of baseball, my first two moves would be:

1. Make all “checked” swings count as strikes. “Checked swing” is an oxymoron. It’s either a swing or a take. You start to swing, and it’s a swing, in my book.

2. Eliminate the balk call. Pitchers have to throw to first on a pick-off. If not, it’s a balk. But, they don’t have to throw to another base on a pick-off and it’s allowed by the rules. The whole thing with the balk is that they don’t want to allow the pitcher to deceive the runner. I ask: Why not? Why not allow the pitcher to do this? Pitchers are allowed to try and deceive the batter with varying the speed and break on their pitchers. Why are runners treated differently than batters?

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Not smoking the objective pipe on the stand.

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Here’s the list of batters to do this since 1973 -

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Welcome to the club, Derek.

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An instant classic.

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No, it has nothing to do with the infamous Brian Cashman “Objective Pipe.” Via the Post –

After an offseason in which Mark Teixeira talked about getting into better shape to become a more productive player, he has been off to an unproductive start.

Perhaps now he’s figured out why.

The Yankees first baseman visited a chest specialist at Columbia Presbyterian yesterday and was diagnosed with “severely inflamed bronchial airways” that have impacted his breathing.

“I was getting no air,” Teixeira said before the Yankees’ 4-1 loss to the Rays last night in The Bronx in which he went 0-for-4 with a strikeout to drop his average to .217. “I’ve never gotten over the cough I’ve had all year.”

Teixeira has begun taken prednisone, a non-anabolic steroid that is supposed to open his airways.

“The doctor said I was 100 percent healthy except for the airways,” Teixeira said. “But anything could irritate it.”

Teixeira said he isn’t sure what kind of impact it has made on his season, but figures it has had some effect.

“It hasn’t helped,” Teixeira said. “But everyone is fighting through something.”

I guess they don’t have a juice to fix this problem?

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When Josh Hamilton became the 16th major league player to hit four home runs in one game on May 8th against the Baltimore Orioles, he was wearing custom-designed Carbon Fiber® II Digital® Pro Franklin batting gloves – specially designed to protect the hamate bone in his wrist. They look like this (click on the image to enlarge it):

Batting gloves have come a long way. I remember when I used to play back in the late 70′s and early 80′s, I had to go to a golf pro shop to buy gloves to use for batting. That was the only place where you could get them. And, yes, I did the Thurman Munson thing of adjusting the glove on my left wrist when batting. Hey, I was young…

Today, as a Little League manager, I have to confess that the kids drive me nuts with their batting gloves. It seems like we’re always waiting for a kid to get his gloves on to hit, or for him to take them off when he reaches base, or for him to put them away before he heads to his position on the field. (We’re talking 8-year olds here.) More than once this season, I have yelled out to a kid “Com’on, stop fussing with the gloves. You don’t need batting gloves to hit. Hustle up!” And, they look at me like I am nuts.

I suppose, just like I had to do the Munson thing with my batting gloves back in the day, kids today see big leaguers today and feel like they need the gloves? And, when guys like Hamilton do what he did on Tuesday, wearing batting gloves, it’s easy to understand why they would feel that way.

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Justin Antweil shares the story on this milestone for Jeff Nettles.

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Via Boston.com -

Move over chicken and beer. Golf has been entered into the Red Sox mix.

According to a report by 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Hardy, Red Sox righthander Josh Beckett played golf in the area last Thursday afternoon, two days before he was scheduled to miss a start against the Orioles because of stiffness in his latissimus muscle.

The Sports Hub’s Michael Felger said the report had been confirmed when he opened the Felger and Mazz show today, but that Hardy did not reveal the name of the golf course to protect his sources. Clay Buchholz was reportedly golfing with Beckett on the off day for the Red Sox.

After Beckett’s 126-pitch effort last Sunday in Chicago, the Red Sox announced that Beckett’s next start would be skipped because the righthander admitted he had soreness in his lat muscle. He also admitted that the situation existed before his last start.

“I don’t know that I’m aware of it,” Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said of the golf report during his weekly appearance on WEEI’s Big Show today. “I’m aware of the story being out there… No, I haven’t gotten to Josh about that yet and I’m trying to sort out my feelings. Golf is as much a part of the pitching culture as a curve ball, I know that for sure.

Valentine stressed that Beckett wasn’t shut down with an injury after his last start.

“When we decided for Josh not to make his start, it wasn’t because he was injured,” Valentine said. “It was a precautionary situation because his his lat was a little tight,”

Valentine said he needed to get specifics before he could comment on the situation.

I’m starting to wonder if this was the last day in the Red Sox 21st century revival?

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Before the start of the season, most people expected the Mets to be something like 10-20 right now.  But, they’re sitting at 17-13 and they have the 5th best record in the National League. Are Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins working some magic in Queens?

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Here’s Teixeira’s BA/OBA/SLG line from June 16, 2011 through May 8, 2012: .237/.308/.434 (in 459 AB).

Call me crazy, but, I suspect the Yankees were looking for a little more production from him than that…

Maybe he should just give up switch-hitting and only bat right-handed?  Could it be any worse than what he’s doing now?

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Some in Boston are really down on Kevin Youkilis.

Wasn’t it just three years ago that he was a fav in Fenway?

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The Boston Red Sox’ Will Middlebrooks has joined Enos Slaughter as the only players in the live-ball era with an extra-base hit in each of his first five career games.

They’ve seen this before in RSN.

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Here, “stressful save” means getting a save where you pitch no more than one inning and allow at least 3 baserunners during the outing.   The leaders in this, since 1918 -

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What, no Don Stanhouse?

Of course, this does not take into account the ratio of total saves versus the stressful ones…

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Since 1918 -

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Welcome to the club, Josh.

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Interesting stuff. 

Ignore the passion and emotion and just look at the WAR?

Then again, you can drive 80 MPH in a Lamborghini Reventón or you can drive 80 MPH in a Dodge Omni. It’s the same rate of speed in both. But, one is so much more fun than the other.

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On May 7th 1973, Ralph Miller, the last living 19th century ballplayer, died in Cincinnati at 100 years of age. He was the first former major leaguer to become a Centenarian.

We have no idea on whether or not he had a painting of himself, as a Centenarian, hanging in his bedroom.

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Please allow me to put on my Yankees fan cap for a minute and discuss the state of the Bronx Bombers.

Some facts about the Yankees season so far:

• The Yankees were schooled by the Tampa Bay Rays during the first three games of the season.
• The only thing between the Yankees and last place at this moment is the struggling Boston Red Sox.
• The Yankees have lost 7 of their last 12 games.
• The Tampa Bay Rays now head into Yankee Stadium for a three game series.

How important is it for the Yankees to play well in these three games against the Rays?

Yes, it is only May 8th.  And, yes, it’s only three games against Tampa.  And, yes, there’s still a ton of baseball to be played after this series.

However, how damaging would it be to the Yankees heads if they get beaten by Tampa, again, this time in their home park?  And, how bad would it be for New York to come out of this series even closer to last place than they are now?

Sure, George Steinbrenner is dead.  So, that takes off some of the heat.  But, the media is still out there.  Think they’re going to take it easy on the Yankees if they don’t play well against Tampa?  And, at some point, should Yankees fans start to get somewhat concerned too?

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The list since 1918 -

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Mr. Byrd made the list thanks to that wild game in Fenway yesterday.

By the way, everyone ready for that Buck Showalter vs. Don Mattingly showdown in the World Series this year?

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Here’s the Podcast that I did with Bernadette Pasley – which I mentioned yesterday.

My thanks to Bernadette for having me on her show! (And, yes, I use “um” when I speak as much as I use commas when I write…)

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Back in the late 70′s, I had an english teacher in high school who always had a question on every test that went like:

…in literature as well as in life, “something” is to “something” as “Something else” is to “blank.”

And, then we would have to fill in the blank, related to the reading assignment for that test period, and then write about it.

I wonder if that teacher, if they were still around today, would say:

…in politics as it is in baseball, the meaning of the word “is” to Bill Clinton is the same as the meaning of the word “sellout” to the Boston Red Sox…?

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Hart Seely, aka “el duque” of the blog “IT IS HIGH! IT IS FAR! IT IS…”, one of the forces behind the awesome collection “O Holy Cow!: The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto,” has written a new book: The Juju Rules: Or, How to Win Ballgames from Your Couch: A Memoir of a Fan Obsessed.

I’ve never met Hart. But, after reading his book, I would have to cast Larry David (Yankee fan, by the way*) to play the lead in this one – if asked to take the book and translate it to the screen. As Hart tells the story of his life as a Yankees fan with this new book, interwoven with his “manifesto that reveals the deep secrets of fan jinxes, hexes, and charms,” several times I pictured the story being played out like an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Seriously, it’s that quirky, funny and interesting.

Flat out, Hart Seely is a dude that must Yankees fans can resonate with – albeit seeing a bit of themselves in him, or, being reminded of someone they know who is (or was) a passionate fan of the team. And, you get that from reading “The Juju Rules” – throughout the entire book. That said, I highly recommend this book to all Yankees fans.

Further, back in 2005, when I first saw the movie “Fever Pitch,” I thought to myself “This is a film that a diehard fanatic of a team can appreciate as it depicts so many moments that we all share and emotions that we all have inside us – again, as fanatics of a particular team.” And, the same thing applies to “The Juju Rules.”

Anyone who was ever lived and died with the sundry good fortunes and tribulations of their favorite baseball team, and who has allowed their fanatic association to creep into their everyday life, will enjoy reading “The Juju Rules” – and seeing that there are others like them, out there.

Hart Seeley’s wit is keen and his story-telling delivery with this work is often hilarious. I was very happy to have read The Juju Rules: Or, How to Win Ballgames from Your Couch: A Memoir of a Fan Obsessed.

*You have to read the book to get this joke.

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This morning, I did a PodCast interview where I was asked about the Yankees. The topics included Phil Hughes’ woes and the lack of power this season from Cano and A-Rod. And, then, look what happened today. Oh, well,…

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If anyone knows of any places that buy/sell or consign used sports team-wear in the NJ/NY/CT area, please let me know. I have a friend with a huge collection of caps and other things that they may be looking to move.

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This clip is four years old, but, it is still inspiring:

This one special kid. He even has his own foundation. Awesome.

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One of my dogs, who will be 105 years old in a few weeks, bless her heart, got me up early this morning.  But, that was OK, I wanted to get up at 7 AM anyway since we had a Little League game today and I needed to be at the field early.  (About an hour after I was up, the league called off the game because of wet grounds.  Go figure.)

In any event, since I was up, I decided to watch a little Quick Pitch on the MLB Network – and then I starting clicking around.

And, when I landed on one of the Showtime channels, I saw that they were playing a Bud Greenspan documentary on the 2000 Olympics.  Specifically, they were featuring the USA baseball team.  It caught my eye because they were interviewing my old friend, Rico Bergman.

I was glued to the segment.  What a story and what a team!  It’s a shame that more is not said about what that cast of characters did Sydney.  They were awesome.

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Mariano Rivera, Drew Storen, Brian Wilson, Ryan Madson, Sergio Santos, Joakim Soria, Kyle Farnsworth, Andrew Bailey,…

Did I miss anyone?

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Maybe his name should have been Octavio Dotravel?

Seriously, the dude has now played for 13 different teams (which is a record) in a span of 14 seasons.

In the last 8 seasons, he has played for 11 different teams.   That’s one way to get to know a lot of different people.

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Joel Sherman had this tweet three days ago:

And, now, look what happened to Mo Rivera.

I guess Joel doesn’t know the power of the whammy?

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