Yankee Stadium's Misfits of Row X

Eat $hit Mazeroski -

From Bill Madden's  NY Daily News article:

As word of the Yankees' trade for Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte from the Pirates filtered through the annual party thrown by Hall of Fame chairman Jane Clark on Friday night, no one was more stunned than Pirates Hall of Fame second baseman Bill Mazeroski, whose homer against the Yankees won the 1960 World Series.

"I can't believe it!" Mazeroski said. "We just traded two of our best players for four guys I never heard of. How could we do this?"

OK, settle down Beavis. First of all, admittedly I am glad that you. Bill Mazeroski,  are so upset you sonofabitch. afterall, as star character Cologero Anello said in the movie a Bronx Tale you "made Mickey Mantle cry" when you beat the Yankees with a home run in the 1960 World Series.  Furthermore,  the fact that you never heard of the players received by the Pirates in the trade just shows that you don't follow the game much beyond the Three Rivers area.  Mind you, Jeff Karstens, Ross Ohlendorf, Jose Tabata, and Dan McCutchen are not household Major League names, they at the least are reasonably well known prospects.

Ohlendorf is still projected as having a high ceiling, and Karstens has shown some encouraging flashes as well.  Take them out of the AL East and you may have some nice chips of your own. Tabata is also a very high celing prospect with great tools.  The Pirates aren't winning anything this year, but you may have effectively added to future starting pitchers, and a starting centerfielder.

Besides, was anybody else offering the Pirates the same or a better deal? Nah.

You want a real lopsided trade? How about when the Arizona Diamondbacks were trading Curt Schilling to the Boston Red Sox for Casey Fossum(currently MLB-MIA?) - after they refused to trade him to the Yankees unless they received both Alfonso Soriano and Nick Johnson in return? You wanna talk about conspiracy and collusion?

But again, it tickles me to hear how upset and seemingly outraged that you were, I mean what could be worse than feeling like you got "rooked and robbed" by the likes of Brian Cashman, eh?

Yankee Stadium Ghosts wanted the show to go on, and on, and on

"It seemed like the Stadium didn't want it to end," Derek Jeter said after the longest game in All Star History.

After four hours and 50 minutes the game ended in the 15th inning with a 4-3 AL win.

Bobby Murcer passes away, the world loses a great, great guy

Bobby Murcer passed away earlier today at the age of 62, a victim of brain cancer. He was a beloved Yankee player and broadcaster for many years.

Anyone who has listened to Bobby broadcast a game felt like they knew him, he just had that easygoing charm about him, a really likeable guy.

I had the good fortune of meeting Bobby back in 2002 in Cleveland at the Yankees hotel. I was with 6 other guys and we saw Bobby sitting in the lobby.  I said Hi to him and told him we were big fans of his and loved listening to him work the games. I joked with him that we weren't gonna bug him for 7 autographs, but asked if my group could just kind of huddle around him to take a quick picture. He laughed and said he wasn't "that important of a guy" and that he could "stand up with us to take the picture", then he talked to us for a few minutes about the team and how they were doing. 

He was just a really, genuine, nice guy. He didn't have an air about him at all. So today is a sad day for a lot of us. We lost a great guy who's television voice and warm personality spent so much time in our living rooms that he felt like a friend.

Hopefully he is already throwing back some good times with Mickey and Thurman up in Yankee heaven.

Abreu delivers first walk off hit as Yankees - Ponson, Pen strongarm Rays

Bobby Abreu earned himself a Gatorade bath when he doubled in Derek Jeter from first with the winning run in the tenth inning giving the Yankees a 2-1 win over division rival Tampa Bay.

Abreu was doused by his three amigos Cano, Cabrera and Molina as he happily trotted back towards the dugout to meet his animated and excited teammates.  A great finish to a very long, hot, well pitched day.  Abreu fouled off four fastballs from Ray reliever Grant Balfour until he got the right one and then he drove that one to the wall in right center breaking the game.

New York starter Sidney Ponson blanked Tampa Bay through five innings before he gave up a solo home run to Carlos Pena in the sixth. Ponson was visibly upset with himself after he lost the lead, hitting the side of his head as he left the field at the close of the frame.  Ponson had earlier worked himself out of a bases loaded jam in the second inning and is showing some very encouraging signs of being a contributor.

The Yankee bullpen was great with Farnsworth and Veras each throwing a scoreless frame and Rivera providing two scoreless innings to finish the game off.

The Yanks seem to be getting their act together. Girardi held a team meeting following a 7-0 loss to Boston on Thursday, keeping the clubhouse closed for more than 30 minutes after the final pitch to air out his frustration.

The Yankees reacted well bouncing back to split the series with the second-place Red Sox and then taking both games of a two-game set against the first-place Rays (55-35).

"I've been very happy with the way the club has played," Girardi said. "They've responded very well since the meeting. This is a good baseball club. We just needed to play better on a consistent basis."

Gardner again battles Papelbon - Yanks beat Sox in 10

The Yankees defeated Jonathan Papelbon in the bottom of the 10th inning on Brett Gardner RBI single up the middle.  Gardner battled and battled back from an 0-2 count, fouling off pitch after pitch until finally scratching one through the middle and into the outfield on the eighth pitch of the at bat sending the Yankees home with a 5-4 victory in what was the most exciting game of the season thus far.

"It's awesome -- it's something I'll remember for the rest of my life," said Gardner, his uniform still dirty and fresh from being pummeled by his teammates' hands. "It's definitely an unbelievable experience.

Naturally Papelbon, a noted coward, big mouth, and excuse maker, would comment something to the effect that it was a lucky hit, instead of just saying that he 'got beat'. Someone should've reminded Papelbon that merely two nights earlier after battling and fouling off pitches Gardner had worked a 2 out full count walk against him in the ninth. Gardner would later score on a single by Derek Jeter closing the gap to 6-5. The game ended on a rocket line drive out by Bobby Abreu hit directly at centerfielder Crisp. I wonder if Papelbon noted after the game that he felt as "LUCKY" that Abreu's friday night rocket went right at Crisp as he felt unlucky that Gardner's ball sunday night had eyes?

Either way, Sunday was a great day for a boost because earlier in the day the Yankees placed Johnny Damon on the disabled list,  something Damon had never been before. Hopefully he will be back in 15 days. 

In this, his first start against Boston,  Joba Chamberlain went 6 innings and allowed 3 runs, all of them coming in the fifth.  He would be relieved by David Robertson who gave up a run in the seventh. Kyle Farnsworth provided a scoreless eighth inning of relief.  

Before registering a scoreless tenth inning, Mariano had an interesting ninth. Sean Casey singled leading off and Brandon Moss pinch ran for him, and advanced to second on a Coco Crisp sacrafice bunt. Varitek was then sent up to pinch hit for Lugo, but Rivera induced a weak grounder back to the mound as his fastball splintered Varitek's bat. Manny Ramirez was up next, but he just stood there for three pitches not lifting the bat off his shoulders and striking out, stranding Lugo at third.

"I was kind of surprised -- yeah, definitely," Rivera said. "Yeah, I was kind of surprised he didn't take the bat off his shoulder. I don't know what he was thinking. That's Manny."

On an historical note Arod hit his 536th career home run in the second inning, tying Mickey Mantle for 13th on the all time list. 

It pays mentioning that Girardi was ejected in the sixth inning for arguing Red Sox knuckeleballer Tim Wakefield's strike zone with plate ump Laz Diaz. On the pitch immediately following Girardi's ejection Gardner singled to center and was knocked in by a Jeter single right after him.  After the Sox scored a run in the top of the seventh Cano would double in Arod and Posada after their singles tying the game at 4. Did it provide a spark, who knows, who cares, they won the game and took 2 of 3 in the series.

When Arod is facing Wagner Yankee fans feel disadvantaged, thats a bad scene, man

Mike Vaccaro's BIG HIT ELUDES RODRIGUEZ   in the NY POST should be boiler plated. By that I mean that he should use the intro and conclusion paragraphs for all the frequent times that they are the main subplot of the game.

ESPN's J.ack A.ss Adande is prejudice against Italians. He is rude and hurtful

If JA's last name were IMUS he would've been fired from ESPN. During a recent review of one of Italy's soccer games he felt compelled to add an Arthur Fonzarelli like "ayyyy" to the end of every related commentary on the Italian soccer team and their players.  I don't need some California clown insulting my heritage.

If Trey Wingo started making ZULU chants every time Hakeem Olajuwon missed a free throw he'd lose his job and be labeled as a modern day Adolf Hitler/Don Imus. That guy who looks like Bookman from the old Jimmie Walker sitcom GOOD TIMES would have organized a march.

For the record I think that what Imus said about the Rutgers women's team was stupid - but he didn't deserve to lose his job over it. If he did, then JA Adande deserves to lose his? If someone wants to enlighten me as to what the difference is I'd love to hear it.

Don't even think about throwing around the old "its different for african-american related prejudice because that kind of talk paints an image of them that keeps them out of jobs...promotions..etc" - to that I will ask what chance does an Italian have of becoming President of the United States with all the idiotic mafia accusations and assumptions? C'mon - tell me how its different?

Minaya's Los Mets largely a team of Dogs and Primadonnas

They don't run out grounders. They don't hustle around the bases.  They randomly try to get to third base at the wrong times.  They make half-efforts going after grounders on defense. 

Am I talking about the Phillies?

Nothing AMAZIN about this Mess - Mets fly Randolph cross country to fire him away from NY PRESS

Cashman now says that Twins insisted Wang be part of Kennedy, Cabrera Trade