just a quick one

Six games. Six games? SIX GAMES?

Now is the time for all good New England columnists (I'm looking at you, Dan Shaugnessy) to scold everyone who wrote the Yankees off back in May. The fact that these columnists were the same people who were so eager to declare the Yankees D.O.A. a few months ago doesn't matter - what matters is being able to write doom and gloom stories about the Red Sox and the inevitability of another Yankee triumph.

I don't really have any interest in going there - there's still a lot of baseball to be played by both the Red Sox and Yankees before the end of the season. The Sox have the pitching to succeed in the postseason, which the Yankees don't, but the Yankees may very well mash their way into the postseason if they continue to put up Football scores.

So Barry Bonds broke Aaron's record, and everyone is all boo-hoo because Henry Aaron was such a class act, and Bonds is such a jerk, and isn't this the worst thing that has ever happened in the entirety of Western Civilization?

People were upset when Aaron passed Ruth, but that had more to do with racism. Today, people would probably celebrate it due to the fact that Aaron is a great guy, and Ruth was a boozing, womanizing boor.

I get a kick out of the fact that people are already counting down to A-Rod surpassing Bonds, which is acceptable because A-Rod is what the french call un jerk au naturale. Sure, he's been convicted of one cheap play (the Arroyo wrist slap) and indicted for another ("Mine!", "Ha!", whatever) and he's self-important, arrogant, alienates his teammates, and is ridiculously overpaid, BUT no one has ever accused him of juicing.

Now, that's what I call a hero!

It's curious that people care so much about liking the man who holds an important record. I mean, Nolan Ryan would drill his own grandmother in the skull if he thought she was crowding the plate, but no one says boo about his all-time strikeout record.

The guys who are 1-2 on the all-time hit list are a player banned from baseball due to gambling on his own team and a virulent racist who once pistol-whipped a man to death. Where's the outrage there?

A recent SI poll of active players showed that Tigers' first baseman Sean Casey is the nicest/best-liked player in baseball by an overwhelming margin. The solution to the ethical conundrum of who holds important records is simple: invalidate the statistics of every active, former, and future major league player who surpasses Casey in Hits, Runs, Doubles, Triples, Home Runs, RBIs, Walks, and Stolen Bases, making "The Mayor" the all-time leader in each category.

No one will have to quibble with someone they personally dislike holding a major record then, right?

Hindsight and Foresight: Yankees Review July 30th to August 16th

19-7. That's the Yankees record since the All-Star break which is best in the majors. The Red Sox lead has shrunk little by little but there are still 50 games or so left in the season. The good news is that with the Tigers and Mariners posting sub-.500 records since the All-Star break and now the Yankees are back in the Wild Card race. A month ago we were looking at a team below .500 that looked lost and ineffective. Now everyone's hitting and the pitching is much better than it was in April and May. Oh, and A-Rod hit his 500th homer so he can sleep a little better these days.


It's funny how baseball teams can suddenly get back into things as the Yankees have. It works the opposite way as well. But when players play up to or beyond their expectations and your schedule is easy, then you have a chance to play catch up--as is the Yankees situation right now.

This is likely my only post this week, maybe Doug will get back on here, but I don't see myself having free time with this conference for work and all. I got home at 10pm tonight which is early considering how some co-workers had all nighters recently.


Hindsight: July 30th to August 5th

A nice week for the Yankees offensively and pitching wise. And by week's end they were 10 games over .500, which is their best so far this year. Just about everyone on offense from A-Rod to Jeter to Matsui came through, but the most noteworthy player has been Robinson Cano. This happened last year as well after Cano came back from the DL with a hammy injury and tore it up in August and September--almost winning the batting title. It seems his struggles and Matsui's are behind them. Wang contines to be an undervalued major league pitcher and is now at 13-5. What's most amazing is that he has 13 quality starts this year, he's kept the team in some close ones.

Weekly Stats

W-L: 5-1

RS/RA: 53/32

Offensive Numbers (BA/OBP/SLG): .369/.436/.723

Pitching Line (ERA/Whip/K per 9/BAA/SLG): 4.06/1.37/7.49/.280/.435

Who's Hot: Robinson Cano has pulled out for the second year in a row the "I'll kick your ass in the second half" batting stick. .478/3 HR/9 RBI and a 1.643 OPS to boot. He's raised in BA from .274 to .309 in a matter of a few weeks.

Who's Not: Roger Clemens. Yes the one doing the new cell phone commercial with his wife and has the highest salary in baseball. We haven't talked about Clemens on here in a while, but he was aweful having the shortest outting since the 2000 playoffs. Cano should take some blame as he booted an inning ending double play but it is Roger's job to get us out of the inning.

My Yankee of the Week: Alex Rodriguez. He was trying to hit #500 for so long. Trying to hit homeruns in baseball it never a good thing--look how long it's take Barry Bonds to reach 755 (11 homeruns through May) and now has to hit 756 or how hard Alfonso Soriano tried to hit #40 in 2002 to get into the 40/40 club (Soriano didn't not succeed). Anyway, he's worthy of being the fasest to reach 500 and still worthy of a post on this blog (next week, I swear).

Foresight: August 6th to August 12th
Off to Toronto and Cleveland on the road. This will be the Yankees first trip back to Toronto since the "ha" or "mine" or whatever A-Rod yelled incident, so you have to wonder what will happen if anything. It's that time of year where you have to start looking at other teams' schedules especially indivisons where a race is tight or where the Wild Card race is tight. For the Yankees, Detroit, whom they play in a couple weeks at home, has been falling a la their 2006 style, but Seattle has been under .500 since the break as well. I've said it once and I'll say it again, the Yankees second half schedule helps them if they can only beat the teams that they need to win against. Finally they are doing that after the break, but need to keep it up.