It's All Over (And You Only Half-Realize It)!!

A point-by-point rebuttal to the delusional ramblings of a Yankees fan:

While it's true that the Yankees will contend for the Wild Card with the Rays, the notion that they can "contend" with the Red Sox is like saying Elmo could contend with Wolverine. While Elmo's teaching kids how to love and hug and share or whatever, Wolverine's busy carving them up with his razor-sharp adamantium claws.

Hughes and Kennedy will be too busy running for City Council in Trenton to put on a uniform after labor day.

Papelbon not only eats Mo Rivera's lunch, he eats his breakfast, brunch, dinner, and that piece of pie he left in the fridge he was going to eat as a midnight snack. If Papelbon, armed only with a kilt, was to face off again Rivera, armed with his cut fastball, Jason Giambi's mustache, a bazooka, and a hive full of live bees, Papelbon would take him down faster than Mo could blame it on the rain.

Have a super all-star break!

It's Half Over (Already)!!

Yikes, we're at the half way point in the baseball season already. Time flies, I can't figure out how to slow it down anymore with the exception of work some days, which is not how I like spending 40+ hours of my time most weeks.

I just wanted to put a few thoughts/notes/whatevs down here on the season so far, which again as I will point out, I haven't followed as intensely this year.

• For one, the Yankees have a better record than they did last year at the break. But it's not all that good now that they have the Rays to contend with as well as the Red Sox. They're only 6 games out and had a good run a couple weeks back. The pitching is worrisome still, but Hughes and Kennedy will hopefully get straightened out for the stretch run.

• In other news, the NL Central made some bad ass trades. I was suprised Sabathia was traded to the Brewers. My bet is that he will end up somewhere else this offseason--the Yanks could be a contender if they get rid of Mussina and Pettitte reconsiders retirement. Plus with Giambi likely leaving, the $$ are flashing. The Red Sox will be in there too, probably the Mets, Phils, and Dodgers. The other player traded was Rich Harden, who has already been on the DL once this year. Yet the Cubs, even after the disasters called Prior and Wood, traded some of the farm for an arm that's only pitched one full season. If Harden can be Harden and stay healthy--great trade--otherwise I'm somewhat pessimistic on this one.

• All-Star game is on tonight and I'm actually going to watch this one--yes, only because it's at Yankee Stadium. I watched part of the HR derby last night (I usually don't watch any of these things) and it was one of the best I've seen. Josh Hamilton has an incredible swing, strength, and it again confirms that it's good he was able to play baseball again.

• Speaking of the game, what's up with Jonathan Papelbon. I got what he was saying, wanting to close and all, but he didn't say it very well. Almost a bit cocky--Rivera is the greatest closer of all-time Papelbon, you're just getting started still.

My goal this second half is to try and watch more games. I'm not only wasting my MLB TV subscription, but it's just weird not feeling in the loop. Have a good All-Star break people!

Scenes from the Yankees Front Office

HANK STEINBRENNER: What is this nonsense? Wang getting his foot hurt? The designated hitter rule was part of the Magna Carta in the 13th century - why are pitchers still hitting?

GENE MICHAEL: Good call, Boss!

GEORGE STEINBRENNER: I'm the boss!

GENE MICHAEL: Um... right, sorry, boss.

GEORGE STEINBRENNER: I like pudding!

HANK STEINBRENNER: Listen, Stick - the important thing is that we have Joba Chamberlain starting now, right? I mean, what's he done so far - won like, forty games, right?

GENE MICHAEL: Well, yeah, he's won a game...
HANK STEINBRENNER: And Hughes and Kennedy, they're tearing it up, right?

GENE MICHAEL: How about that new stadium, Boss?

GEORGE STEINBRENNER: I'm the boss!

GENE MICHAEL: Yeah... right.

GEORGE STEINBRENNER: My shoes taste like cupcakes!

JOE GIRARDI: Hey guys, remember what I did to those young Marlins pitchers in '06?

BRIAN CASHMAN: Yeah...?

JOE GIRARDI: Yeah. Uh... nevermind.

HANK STEINBRENNER: What's up with this team, Cash? I mean, Robinson Cano? More like, Robinson... Can't... Play... No......... More.

GENE MICHAEL: Good one, Boss!

GEORGE STEINBRENNER: I'm the boss!

GENE MICHAEL: Erm...

GEORGE STEINBRENNER: I want Famous Ray's!

HANK STEINBRENNER: And Melky Cabrera - more like... Melky Crap-era!

GENE MICHAEL: Zing!

HANK STEINBRENNER: Where's Torre, anyway?

JOE GIRARDI: Uh... I'm the manager now.

HANK STEINBRENNER: And why isn't Joba Chamberlain a starter yet? He's like a combination of Cy Young, Albert Schweitzer, and Dirk Diggler!

JOE GIRARDI: Actually, we do have him starting...

BRIAN CASHMAN: Hey, lay off the new guy.

HANK STEINBRENNER: You're on thin ice, Cash. Remember when I told you that you should trade every player on the 40-man roster for Johan Santana and you didn't and then we ended up in third place? Yeah... you know what I'm talking about.

BRIAN CASHMAN: But-but-

HANK STEINBRENNER: Shuddup. I've got the solution here - a personal letter to the managing partner's office. It says here, "Put Rickey in, Rickey's ready to play."

Neglect

I fess up, I have been neglecting this blog and baseball overall this year. I have no excuses, only realities like meeting a big deadline at work the last month (it was met) and focusing more energies on a side music career. And now that it's July 1st and been summer, I'm looking at the calendar and half the season is over already--and I haven't been to Nationals Park still...

I'll also admit I haven't been keeping up with the Yankees as much, I know where they stand and see players going on the DL, but it's not something I'm remembering on a daily basis. I haven't watched many games either on my MLB TV.

Okay, but enough of my lameness, here are some notes on the Yanks and baseball all around I wanted to comment on:

Baseball Stuff

• What's with players pushing GMs and other baseball staff around. Shawn Chacon's case was the worst and I'm sure we will see him in an independent league soon if no one picks him up. I was suprised that Manny pushed the head of ticket distribution down the other day because they weren't going to get him enough tickets for some upcoming game.

• The All-Star game is coming up and there's probably going to be some new faces which is good. Also, since it's up at Yankee Stadium, I may have to watch this one.

• The Devil Rays are for real. I'm convinced they will be an above .500 team this year with a good shot at the Wild Card. This is something I admire because they've finally learned how to build a young talented team through the farm and not free agency.

• Willie Randolph getting fired with several other staff was an attempt at slapping the Mets awake. I don't know if it will work, hearing some of those guys talk leads me to think there's no real leadership in the clubhouse and I doubt Jerry Manuel is the guy to change that.

Yankees Stuff

• Well, they finally are having a good run despite the injuries. The offense is letting loose with the likes of Damon, Giambi, Abreu, Matsui and A-Rod all hitting over .300 the last two months and producing well. Joba's doing just fine as a starter, though it'd be nice to see him go deeper into games. I'm wondering if they'll make a move for Sabathia in a trade. If not now, they may go after him hard this offseason unless the Tribe locks him up quickly.

• Kei Igawa's made a couple appearances and they did not go well. $27 million to talk--water under the bridge for the team right?

• Mike Mussina has been unbelieveable. This not only saved him face (he was deemed for the bullpen before the season started), but it helping the Yanks out when the starting rotation is in shambles. I think this is making the Yanks reconsider signing him for another year or two.

• Farnsworth and Hawkins have settled down...somewhat.

Again, my apologies to our readers, I'll do better the second half and try to watch some games every once in a while.

Are they saying Boo or Drew?

On May 22nd, I was grousing to a buddy about J.D. Drew's paltry .402 SLG while following the game at work.

Then he hit a grand slam. (Lowell hit one that day, too)

Today, his SLG sits at .601 - he's finally looking like the $70 Million man.

He rocks almost as hard as Teddy's new songs.

Lawsuit!

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!

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.