So like two weekends ago I wrote out a post longhand over the weekend with every intention of typing it up and posting it at work that week. Then Jon Lester went and threw a no-hitter, and all my clever bits of insight (including a "Scenes from the Yankees Front Office") seemed a trifle shallow. It's all worth resurrecting at some point, but currently the notebook that contains this post and I are about 1,000 miles apart, so now is not that time.
(On a personal note, I lost luggage somewhere between Charleston and Providence - Reagan Airport is the best guess of where it landed. Keep an eye out, Teddy - my Spice Girls T-shirt is at stake)
I just learned that Ortiz is going on the DL, which means that Man-Ram will probably DH, with an outfield of Ellsbury, Crisp, and Drew. I am very thankful that Coco Crisp was not traded for the sake of trading him, even though I was definitely in that camp this offseason - he wants to start, teams need center fielders, he could bring back value, let's go ahead and trade him!
As for the title of this post, about fifteen minutes ago I walked in on a Fox Sports story about the Lakers-Celtics NBA championship. The graphic that was used to introduce the story was "Rivalry Redux".
KA-CHING!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Lots of Things, So Little Time
I haven't posted in a while, needless to say my job has been misery of late, but I won't get into that right now. So the Yanks are hovering around .500, the Red Sox are in 2nd place, but more impressively the Rays are in first place. I thought I'd catch up on stuff that happened in May and then look forward to a week of work before taking a vacation.
Team and Player Celebrations
Delluci homers and puts the Tribe up over the Yanks off Joba Chamberlain. The next day Joba strikes out Delluci and pumps his fist. Delluci is offended and then Don Larson is, and now baseball's celebrations are out of hand. Short of rules that prohibit celebrating anything (as it is in the NFL of late), to me baseball's antics after a homerun or a strikeout are downright cliche these days.
Now Joba's not the first to do this pumping of fists after striking someone out. I recall Randy Johnson doing it frequently and he's going to the Hall of Fame, but no one's been on his case about it of late. This whole thing's relative to what other things go on in the game. Do I think players and teams are wrong for celebrating stuff and going over the top? Not really, mainly due to what our culture is these days.
The fact of the matter is, these things are almost expected today. Yes, baseball has a tradition of players not watching homeruns leave the yard from home plate or throwing your helmet off as you round third on a walk off homerun. Quite frankly, lots of things lose tradition and there will be more celebrations and so on. The only thing that can be done is if baseball fines players or bans them from certain types of behavior on the field.
Those Rays
Yes, the AL East is in bizarro fashion right now. SI has a great comic book-type cover depicting it. Since this blog is not about the Rays, I have to say it's great to see a young team with lots of talent just shocking everyone right now. The last fews years the team building concept went from Moneyball to replenishing your farm system. We've seen the Indians, Brewers, D'Backs, and now the Rays do this, and they've all done well one year or another the last five seasons or so.
This is a Yankee fan posting, but honestly it would be nice to see the Rays have a winning season and even make the playoffs. I'm not saying I wish the Sox or Yanks do not make it, but like tradition everyone figured the Rays would have another bad year (okay, not everyone, but anyone who did you had to think was going out on a limb). I believe they are the real deal, and even if they don't make the playoffs, they should have a winning record and be able to compete in the AL East the next few years.
Games I went to
My final notes here are that I'm really enjoying going to games this year, especially when--here it comes--I haven't been following this season as closely as I usually do. I went to a game in Petco and that is a nice field. Huge concorses, a nice green space in the OF, but food was a lot (more than Yankee stadium, yes, wait until the new Yankee stadium is open next year).
I was also at Yankee Stadium for my first game this year. I'm really going to miss that stadium and as the drunk fan in front of me said, "I don't know what the fuck is wrong with this stadium, it's a classic." I do have to agree, but this stadium is merely a sign of the times and Geore Steinbrenner's last addition to the organization.
Anyhow, I leave you with a video I took of Joba Chamberlain, who between innings I caught on video lip singing with Eminem. Check it out, May's review to come soon.
By the way, if anyone knows a Rays fan, an actual one, please let me know. That'd be a first for me to hear of.
Team and Player Celebrations
Delluci homers and puts the Tribe up over the Yanks off Joba Chamberlain. The next day Joba strikes out Delluci and pumps his fist. Delluci is offended and then Don Larson is, and now baseball's celebrations are out of hand. Short of rules that prohibit celebrating anything (as it is in the NFL of late), to me baseball's antics after a homerun or a strikeout are downright cliche these days.
Now Joba's not the first to do this pumping of fists after striking someone out. I recall Randy Johnson doing it frequently and he's going to the Hall of Fame, but no one's been on his case about it of late. This whole thing's relative to what other things go on in the game. Do I think players and teams are wrong for celebrating stuff and going over the top? Not really, mainly due to what our culture is these days.
The fact of the matter is, these things are almost expected today. Yes, baseball has a tradition of players not watching homeruns leave the yard from home plate or throwing your helmet off as you round third on a walk off homerun. Quite frankly, lots of things lose tradition and there will be more celebrations and so on. The only thing that can be done is if baseball fines players or bans them from certain types of behavior on the field.
Those Rays
Yes, the AL East is in bizarro fashion right now. SI has a great comic book-type cover depicting it. Since this blog is not about the Rays, I have to say it's great to see a young team with lots of talent just shocking everyone right now. The last fews years the team building concept went from Moneyball to replenishing your farm system. We've seen the Indians, Brewers, D'Backs, and now the Rays do this, and they've all done well one year or another the last five seasons or so.
This is a Yankee fan posting, but honestly it would be nice to see the Rays have a winning season and even make the playoffs. I'm not saying I wish the Sox or Yanks do not make it, but like tradition everyone figured the Rays would have another bad year (okay, not everyone, but anyone who did you had to think was going out on a limb). I believe they are the real deal, and even if they don't make the playoffs, they should have a winning record and be able to compete in the AL East the next few years.
Games I went to
My final notes here are that I'm really enjoying going to games this year, especially when--here it comes--I haven't been following this season as closely as I usually do. I went to a game in Petco and that is a nice field. Huge concorses, a nice green space in the OF, but food was a lot (more than Yankee stadium, yes, wait until the new Yankee stadium is open next year).
I was also at Yankee Stadium for my first game this year. I'm really going to miss that stadium and as the drunk fan in front of me said, "I don't know what the fuck is wrong with this stadium, it's a classic." I do have to agree, but this stadium is merely a sign of the times and Geore Steinbrenner's last addition to the organization.
Anyhow, I leave you with a video I took of Joba Chamberlain, who between innings I caught on video lip singing with Eminem. Check it out, May's review to come soon.
By the way, if anyone knows a Rays fan, an actual one, please let me know. That'd be a first for me to hear of.
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