Yankee Fans Suck.

In this particular space I keep my politics to myself but this both amused me and pissed me off.

The House of Representatives, obviously having nothing more important to do, took up a vote yesterday to congratulate the Yankees on their World Series win. The bill passed with 89% of the vote but that wasn't good enough for Pete King (R-NY) who said:

"Being from New York, I have always considered myself to be a winner. So it is very difficult for me to understand the 'begrudgery' and thought process of those who come from unimportant cities and states." (emphasis mine)

Seriously, guy? Thanks.

Small Pleasures.

Maybe it was because I started the game on mute and didn't hear a single word of drivel from the FOX guys but I wasn't particularly disturbed by yesterday's game. And after Matsuzaka loaded the bases with nobody out and the Yankees got nothing? Well, I was perfectly fine with them losing because that was beautiful.

But boyos, do you remember back at the beginning of the season when you played the Yankees like a badly tuned fiddle? Remember running roughshod over them? Stealing home? Grand slams from Senor *tilde implied* Varitek and taking back a six run lead? Maybe you should try to channel that mojo this afternoon.

And as a side note: Victor, I love the enthusiasm but please don't hurt yourself.

Be Better Tomorrow.

I'm having a tough time deciding which is worse: losing to the Yankees or losing to the Royals. Losing to the Royals (except for Greinke) is pathetic. It takes talent to lose to the Royals--they're not a good baseball team and they shouldn't win games. Losing to the Royals is completely your fault (except for Greinke), especially when you give the game away.

The Yankees, on the other hand, are supposed to win games. It's not embarrassing to lose to the Yankees. The only problem is that you then have to deal with Yankee fans. I hate Yankee fans (smug, useless, boring people) but that's not news. Losing to the Yankees is probably worse.

And so we go back to the show tune shtick because it worked in the past. And I really don't want to have to deal with Yankee fans again until October (and preferably not even then). Thank you.

Josh and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Game.

I know that in some circles Josh Beckett is somewhat of a sacred cow but that was bad. Really bad. Really, really bad. Five home runs? Two bad starts in a row?

Josh, kitten, if you were going to have such an awful game, couldn't you have had the decency to not do it during an ESPN game? When the Sox fail on NESN, Don sounds disappointed. When they fail on ESPN, Joe Morgan is positvely beside himself with joy. Blech.

How's That Curse I Cursed You With, Curse-ty?

I may have found the problem with tonight's game. It lay not with the pitching but rather with a pitcher and a broadcaster. And not the pitcher you're thinking of.

Before the game Jonathan Papelbon gave an interview in which he said:

(Re: the Yankees) "I think all of baseball is seeing how well their playing and hopefully we can stifle that while they're here."

and

(Re: Jerry Remy) "I'll tell you what: Remdawg's back. He might be that missing link.You know, he might get us on that roll that we need."

So there you have it. Blame it on Papelbon.

Bad Penny.

I said: Win it for Remy. Not: Completely forget how to pitch for Remy.

That was ugly. The last time that they played the Yankees they couldn't get a hit to save their lives and this time around they could hit but they couldn't pitch.

But you know what? I'm surprisingly okay tonight. It used to be that losses to the Yankees were soul-crushing, tortuous affairs that resulted in the rending of clothing, the throwing of things at the television, the pulling of hair, and hiding in a corner wishing that it would just be over. And other sorts of general distress. Tonight? Meh. Whatever. The chances of them winning the division were pretty slim to begin with. The focus should be on winning two out of every three and getting their ninety-six wins that that would result in.

Five.

Not to gloat or anything. Well, maybe just a little bit.

Nicely done, boys. Hitting (Pedroia went 3 for 6. Youkilis went 2 for 5. Jay Ray Bay went 4 for 6. And Ellsbury went 4 for 4), defense (Mike Lowell and Nick Green both turned some nice double plays), and not terrible pitching--What more could you ask for? A repeat performance tomorrow?

I find myself hoping that Toronto can just hang in there. Not only because I'd like to be proven right but also because the Yankees in third place would make me very happy.

Anything You Can Do.

How do you top a quality start from Wakefield and six innings of one-hit (which could have been an error) ball from Beckett? Since a no-hitter (which, let's face it, would have been epic) was out the window essentially from the get-go, Brad Penny decided to top that by throwing six scoreless innings of his own and trying to slip the baseball into Alex Rodriguez's back pocket. Did he do it on purpose? Probably, although Jim Rice says he didn't. It was a beautiful thing, though. Brad Penny wins (and Manny Del owes him dinner or something.)

An Octet.

April 24: 5-4, Winning Pitcher: Ramon Ramirez

April 25: 16-11, Winning Pitcher: Hideki Okajima

April 26: 4-1, Winning Pitcher: Justin Masterson

May 4: 6-4, Winning Pitcher: Jon Lester

May 5: 7-3, Winning Pitcher: Josh Beckett

June 9: 7-0, Winning Pitcher: Josh Beckett

June 10: 6-5, Winning Pitcher: Tim Wakefield

June 11: 4-3, Winning Pitcher: Takashi Saito.

Top That.

Alright Brad Penny, the gauntlet has been thrown. In the first game of the series, Beckett went six innings with only one hit. In the second, Wakefield allowed three runs over six innings. What have you got? And is the third time the charm for win 100?

Suiting Up.

I've mentioned before that I hate Yankee games but tonight's just keeps getting better. There will not be a parade of people going through NESN's broadcast booth chatting with Don Orsillo. Tonight playing the part of Jerry Remy will be Mr. Dennis Eckersley. I may have to hope that it doesn't get rained out.

A Most Improbable Win.

I don't know which win was the least likely -- a down by two, two-out, two-run home run off of Mariano Rivera, a recovery from a six run deficit against AJ Burnett, or a steal of home* and the continuation of a ten game winning steak (the odds of winning this game were 1 in 1024, assuming that each team had an equal likelihood of winning the game) -- but it doesn't get much better than that.

*My sister, who doesn't watch a lot of baseball, totally called it in the third inning. Ellsbury was on third and she turned to me and said: "He's really far off the base. Well, it's not like he's going anywhere."

Sit On It, Alex.

Just a couple of things before I shut my mouth:

1. Alex Rodriguez must think that we're all morons. Steroids weren't helping his performance but he continued to take them. Really? Of all the things you could have gone with, that's what you picked? Really? Well, he didn't even use them properly. Blindly sticking yourself with syringes is not a good idea; if you have no clue what your doing, you'll likely end up killing yourself. He was young and naive? He was twenty-five in 2001 and on his way to making millions of dollars. He could have fallen off terribly, Texas would still have had to pay him that ridiculous contract, and he could still have done a decent Scrooge McDuck impersonation. Why would you put that at risk?

2. Poor stupid, slow Andy Pettitte. (Who would've thought that I would ever say that?) I believed his hangdog expression last spring--I don't believe that by some miracle drug-testing is one hundred percent accurate and the two times he admitted to taking HGH last spring were the only two times he took it--he seemed genuinely sorry and like he really didn't know any better. Rodriguez didn't attend Andy Pettitte's press conference last spring. But for such a small fish to go through that--not that it wasn't any of his own doing--while a much bigger fish in Alex Rodriguez tacitly joins the ranks of his accusers must have been a slap in the face.

3. But "I made my bed and now I have to sit on it" is pretty damn funny.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm.

I know that all teams have idiotic, inarticulate fans. Fans who talk/type just to hear/see themselves talk/type. And I know that the folks who post on the MLB boards are only slightly above the people who bother with the Fox Sports boards. If it seems that the Yankees have more than their fair share of moronic fans, then well that might just be bias on my part. Generally, it's not an idiocy worth noting. Generally. But this (from the comment section of the John Smoltz article):

"Ha! Yanks shop at Macy's. Sawx shop at Wal-Mart."

is beyond perplexing.

Let's just start by ignoring the fact that Smoltz has never been a "Wal-Mart" pitcher. [Aside: I would say he's at least a Filene's pitcher.] Macy's is the highest-end store this person could think of? Really? Macy's? Really? If you stick to just department stores both Lord and Taylor and Nordstrom offer a better product than Macy's. Hell, within Federated you've got the chichi Bloomingdale's. It boggles. It really does.

The Way We Were.

Admittedly, I wasn't as excited about the MLB network as some people. I'd watched the preview with Haze and a very old looking Harold Reynolds but I kind of tucked it into the back of my mind as something to check out if there was nothing else on. It wasn't going to be appointment television.

Tonight, though, I watched the 2004 World Series highlights show. I hadn't seen those games since 2004 and in that time I must have romanticized them and glossed over their awfulness. I didn't remember them being that bad. Back then I'd driven home the sixty-ish miles from school each day to watch the series with my Dad. We'd watched the first three games together but my Dad bailed on game four in the second or third inning, too nervous to watch. I stuck it out but kept repeating to myself, mantra-like: "They don't have to win this game. The don't have to win this game." And the final out? I guess that was one of the times when time stands still. I distinctly remember sitting on the floor of the den and having the mantra change to: "Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God." followed by "He's going to throw the ball into the stands. This whole thing is going to come unraveled." It seemed too quick when I just saw it.

Yet somehow I didn't expect those games to still have the emotional impact that they did. But with the interviews of Curt, Pedro, Millar--I might even be able to hug Johnny Damon right now. Michael came home shortly after the program ended and I was still walking around with a big goofy smile on my face. Excerpt from ensuing conversation:

Michael: Hey! What are you so happy about?

Me: The Red Sox won the 2004 World Series.

Michael [looking confused]: OK?

The point? There is a point to this ramble. The program started with the ALCS which, even knowing the glorious outcome, was still gut-wrenching. If you're up to it (and who wouldn't want to watch a Yankee beat down, especially one that comes at the hands of the reviled Curt Schilling), game 6 of that ALCS will be shown for free at MLB.com/Live tomorrow at 11am.

Oh, Cashie.

I really wasn't necessarily for re-signing Kevin Cash but it seemed inevitable. Now, it appears, that that is no longer an option: Kevin Cash has signed a minor league contract with the Yankees.

Why would they want him? I'm not entirely sure. A tweak at the Red Sox, perhaps? (Ha! Now you have absolutely no catching options. Go ahead, make a rash deal and send some good pitchers to Texas.) Hoping that Kottaras or Brown wouldn't be able to catch Wake and that would necessitate a massive trade by the Red Sox to get him back? He's like adding another Molina with a little extra bit of power. It's a puzzle.

Contentment.

Is anyone really surprised that the Yankees got Mark Teixeira? Anyone?


If there was a team that was so out of touch with reality as to give him what he wanted, then the Yankees should have always been the prime suspects. One might wonder if there might be a backlash from the more casual fans. It seems to me that average people who are struggling to make ends meet might be less interested in patronizing a team that spends a quarter of a billion dollars and then attempts to pass the hat than they might be otherwise. Filling their shiny new stadium could become problematic.

Just: Mike Lowell? Please, please, please be healthy. And good. Be healthy and good.

An Indian Giver of Compliments.

I've never been a big fan of old Jetes. Perhaps it's that he means so much to so many Yankee fans. It might be the showy way he plays the game. Most likely it's the robotic way he seems to live his life. Gutless. Unoriginal. Always does the right thing. Never takes a chance. Never screws up. I strongly suspect that he's never had an original thought. Anyway, he was on MLB Home Plate on XM yesterday and had this to say about highly-original Dustin Pedroia:

"He's a great player. More importantly, he's a good person. He was fun to be around [at the All-Star Game]. The thing about Dustin that I like is every game he's playing all out. I mean, he's a player that you really enjoy to watch play. I mean, I really don't enjoy it because we see enough of him but you really appreciate the way he goes about playing the game everyday. He's a spark plug for the team. He deserved to win the MVP award and he's going to have a bright future. It might be all downhill for him now. He won a championship his first year, the MVP his second year, but I'm sure he's going to have a long and successful career."

I suppose, as it was spoken, that I can forgive the 'I mean's. [Aside: I still refuse to forgive Ms. Benjamin for her 'Ya'know's. That's why I'm listening to you, twit, because I don't know. And noone can make me forgive her.] But c'mon, say something. Have an opinion. "I like him-but I don't like him-but I do like him-he's a good player-it's all downhill from here-but he's still a good player." It's silly. I know Yankee fans are fickle but you're Derek Jeter, they aren't going to crucify you. I promise.

Turning Japanese.

The Red Sox have reportedly made an offer of $21 million over three years for the pitching services of Kenshin Kawakami. (Or not as it turns out.) According to his agent, he's a semi-hot commodity with twenty-eight teams having expressed interest in him. He's a little guy with nice strike out numbers but I don't really see the interest in him.

Meanwhile down in the Bronx, Brian Cashman didn't rest on his laurels after convincing C.C.'s wife to allow him to play in New York. Nope. He got right back to work: signing a league-average ex-Marlin (from the crop of chewed-up-and-spit-out pitchers they grew down there in the early 2000s) in the form of AJ Burnett to a five year, $82.5 million contract. Because the last pitcher of that ilk they dumped a bunch of money on worked out so very well for them.

Huh.

I never thought I'd say this but I'm kind of disappointed in the Yankees this season.

I still detest Yankee fans and wish nothing but bad things for the team. I take great pleasure in their failure. The New York media and fans eating their own fills me with joy. I hope that they fall to the Blue Jays over the weekend and are in fourth place on Monday.

But this loss? It felt more like a loss to Kansas City-shouldn't have happened but not at all something to be concerned about or upset over. I don't care that they lost a game to the Yankees. It's very weird.