I Never Went to (Any) Yankee Stadium

Back on Lakewood Avenue in Schenectady, NY, one of the neighborhood dads took some of the kids to Yankee Stadium on a yearly basis, but it always seemed to be when my family was traveling during Dad's time off. I have to believe Yankee Stadium is "all that" in its 3rd incarnation, because let's face it, you SHOULD be able to get a real palace for a billion and large change. (Congrats in advance for what I expect will be a championship in the new stadium's first year.)

While only briefly mentioning that I'll stand by my prediction of a six game Series with Jeter or A-Rod as MVP (oh my, out on a limb with those guys!) I had a little flashback about karma last night watching several batters foul pitches off. There are a couple types of fouls: those that are grounded outside the lines, some that squib into the dirt around home, long drives that drift off, pop ups, and then those hissing ones that come when the batter undercuts a fastball. I only made it to one Charlotte Knights baseball game this summer, and karma wound up looking like the lattermost foul.

(Continue to Baseline Shorks)

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World Series Game 7, Guaranteed

This may be illogical, this may be naive, or this may just be a home town Phillies fan wishing his positive thinking helps his team fight back in the World Series...but I GUARANTEE a Game 7 will be played in the Bronx this Thursday.

Cliff Lee has pitched better than anyone over the last 3 months and tonight he takes the mound against an overrated A.J. Burnett. Yankee fans should be cheering for Lee to win any way so they can see their beloved bombers "win it all" (cough, cough...it won't happen) in the new Yankee Stadium on Wednesday against NYC's number one enemy, Pedro Martinez. That is the story book ending for Yankee fans ... but there is always a twist.

Pedro will win Game 6 in the Bronx on Wednesday, get the last laugh once again, and walk off the field into the sunset as a bigger legend than he already was.

(Continue to Philadelphia Sports Scene)

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The Empire Strikes Back

With Halloween two days away, it looked like Pedro Martinez would bewitch the bats in the Bronx but AJ Burnett was able to do just a little bit better, tricking Phillie hitters all night long.

Phillies went down 1-2-3 in the top of the first after A.J. Burnett threw a first pitch strike to each batter. Pedro started off by striking out Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon while Yankee fans obnoxiously chanted, "Who's your daddy."

Let me comment on that chant by the way...Pedro came up with it and it does not bother him so please be quite. Come up with something original. The Wolf Pack, Duck Pond, Howard's Homers, Coste Guards, Padilla Floatia, Cole Miners, Burrell's Girls, RAAAAUUULLL, and the Philly Phanatic are all original ideas New York Yankee fans cannot possibly conceive by themselves.

(Continue to Philadelphia Sports Scene)

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Yanks Haven't Won Anything Yet

This has been one terrific postseason run by the Yankees so far.

They took care of the Twins with ease, and defeated the Angels, the team they have had the most difficulty beating over the past 10 years, in six games.

The Bronx Bombers have been led by a resurgent Alex Rodriguez, who has quieted the critics who said he can’t do it in the clutch, along with the usual suspects, such as Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. There were questions about C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett and their lack of postseason credentials, but they have delivered as well.

All of which is great for Yankees fans. There is one other sobering thought, however, and that is this: the Yankees haven’t won any thing yet.

(Continue to New York Minute)

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It's Like 1950 All Over Again

Here's the deal, so that you never have to read me go through it again - from now on, whenever I write about this, I'll just link back to this page (the day of Game 1 of the 2009 World Series) so that you can refresh your memory if need be.

The 2009 baseball season is dead to me.

If the Mets aren't in the World Series, I start rooting for matchups that have never happened before. So the Angels would have been a great fit in the 2009 World Series - they have only been to the World Series once before, and they didn't play the Phillies.

The Yankees? They've been, many times...and they've already played the Phillies.

So this season, in my crazy, muddled mind, becomes a waste. (Not like I didn't see that coming after watching the Mets play in April and May.)

(Continue to 200 Miles From the Citi)

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Yankee Haters Raise Your Hands

Enough Already: The Yankees win the pennant again

Photo: Associated Press

It was the bottom of the eighth in Sunday night’s closeout game of the ALCS and the Yankees were tacking on some extra runs on the way to another World Series appearance.

With Mariano Rivera coming back out to shut down the Angels in the ninth and preserve the victory, I was coming to the realization that my dream would not come true – that the Angels would actually take Game 6 and I would be able to say, "The Yankees lose … The Yankees lose … Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Yankees lose." No such luck.

The great American pastime, the World Series, begins Wednesday night, and I’ll be watching every pitch like every year. And you guessed it, I’ll be rooting for the Phillies. Sorry.

(Continue to DMA 7-22 Sports)

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Yanks' First Series Without Scooter

The Yankees will play in a World Series for the first time since his passing. He has been gone a little more than two years now, but I can still hear his voice calling from the past, from some time in the late 1960s.

I hear the sound of so many of my baseball summers over the crackling static coming through a transistor radio in the back yard on a lazy July or August afternoon that seemed to last forever. No cares; just a boy, a radio and a baseball game.

I began listening to Phil Rizzuto when I was eight years old and he became a huge part of my life for the next 30 years. But even Scooter couldn’t live forever, though I actually thought he might.

The voice finally was silenced on August 13, 2007, a few weeks shy of his 90th birthday and 11 years after he retired. His 40th and final season as a Yankees’ broadcaster in 1996 coincided with the rookie season of a fellow shortstop named Derek Jeter.

(Continue to Bob Birge's Irish Eyes Are Smiling)

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Anything But Yankees-Phillies

I was really looking forward to a Game 6 of the ALCS Saturday night - the night I could actually stay up to watch a game. Now I need to either set myself back entirely for the week by staying up late for a Sunday night game, or miss the late innings.

I really have a lot riding on the outcome, too. There are a few reasons I want the Angels to pull this series out, none of which have anything to do with rooting against the Yankees just because.

One thing is, I'd like to see the Angels win Game 6 so that there's a Game 7. That would be exciting. Secondly, it has been a long haul for the Angels this season. As I've mentioned before, they have the best story this post-season - no one would have blamed them if they had mailed their season in after the early-season Nick Adenhart tragedy. But they've come this far, it would be a shame if they fell short of the World Series.

Finally, though, I don't want it to be a Phillies-Yankees World Series. There are two reasons for this. One is that this is a repeat World Series, and I would feel like we wasted the year if there wasn't a new matchup in the World Series. Secondly, this is the baseball equivalent of the Super Bowl a couple of years ago when the Giants beat the Patriots.

(Continue to 200 Miles From the Citi)

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Give Cashman Credit, Too

There has been a lot of discussion about the personnel moves made by the Yankees over the past few years in their bid to get back to the World Series.

What a lot of commentators have missed is the one move the Yankees didn’t make.

Back in 2007, after the team parted ways with manager Joe Torre, there was also a lot of conjecture on the future of general manager Brian Cashman.

The team lost to the Cleveland Indians in the Divisional Series, and Cashman’s contract was done. More than a few teams were interested in having Cashman come work for them.

(Continue to New York Minute)

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Yankees Dump Irish Tenor

So this morning as I was shuffling about corralling the coffee pot, a few eggs and some sausage in hopes of putting together some sort of decent breakfast, I was mistreated to a small-minded talker on the radio drone on and on about the wrong that was administered to radio's biggest talker, Rush Limbaugh, and the poor man's failed attempt to gain ownership of the St. Louis Rams.

This little wizard of the airways implied that because there were NFL owners whose views allegedly bent farther to the right than Limbaugh's, what happened to poor Rush was simply some kind of awful double standard. In fairness, in recent days, I've either heard or read this misguided nonsense from other folks beside the little talker.

Ugh.

(Continue to The Grill Room)

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It's CC's Time to Grab Glory

The Bronx in October, baseball under the lights tonight. The Yankees had been here countless times over the decades. It was on these nights, in this month and in this part of New York City where Yankee legends are made.

Think Jeter and Williams. Mantle and Maris. Or the Babe and Gehrig. Does anybody believe Reggie Jackson would be revered today as "Mr. October" if he had played for the Cubs?

No Major Leaguer puts on those white Yankee pinstripes without expecting to win championships somewhere along the way.

(Continue to Justice Is Served)

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I Guess I Love L.A.

First of all, I want to take this opportunity to officially throw the 200 Miles From The Citi endorsement behind the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Not only are they my only hope for a non-wasted baseball year (read: no repeat matchup in the World Series), I really like them. Especially this year - they're my feel-good story. So go Angels!

That said, time for my predictions...it's kind of an L.A. story:

ALCS - Angels vs. Yankees

I don't have much solid evidence to back up my rooting for the Angels here...other than the fact that I'm still not 100% buying the Yankees this year.

If the Minnesota Twins could run the bases without looking like the New York Mets, they could have pushed the Yankees to four games...possibly even a fifth...but they just couldn't figure out New York this whole season.

The Angels, on the other hand, match up well against the Yankees.

(Continue to 200 Miles From the Citi)

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Yankees Will Need to Play Better

There were more than a few encouraging signs from the Yankees in their American League Division Series sweep of the Minnesota Twins.

Alex Rodriguez finally produced some October magic, Derek Jeter delivered a big home run and another brilliant defensive play, and Mariano Rivera performed like, well, Mariano Rivera. The team even got contributions from A.J. Burnett and Joba Chamberlain.

All of that is fine, but here’s one other point to consider: the Bronx Bombers must play better if they are going to beat the Angels in the American League Championship Series. The Yankees swept the Twins, but it also helped that the Twins made critical mistakes that helped the Yankees. It’s not so much that the Yankees won, but the Twins made miscues that practically gift-wrapped the series for New York.

Such as? Glad you asked.

(Continue to New York Minute)

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A Team Effort Propels Yankees

It wasn’t just important that the Yankees defeated the Twins, 7-2, in Game 1 of the American League Division Series Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.

What was impressive is the way the won, because if this team is going to win its first World Series title since 2000, it will need to have contributions from every one.

Wednesday night, they did.

There were the usual suspects that delivered big in October for the Yankees. Derek Jeter had a home run, scored three runs, knocked in two more. Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless ninth. They did what they’re supposed to do in October.

(Continue to New York Minute)

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MLB Playoff Predictions

I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen this post-season. Perhaps you picked up on that when I predicted so surely that Minnesota would easily dispatch of the Tigers in the AL Central playoff. No such luck there. (Obviously, I got the team right, but not the route to victory.)

Ask me an hour ago who was the best team in the National League and I would have said hands-down Saint Louis. Then I had myself a look at the standings and realized the Cardinals finished with the worst record of all of the National League playoff teams. I don't know when that happened...I would have thought the Dodgers' recent slide easily put them ahead of only Colorado...but no. So now I'm not sure I even like the Cardinals.

In the American League I may be trying to convince myself the Yankees will lose, but I'm just not feeling as confident about the Yankees as everyone else is. Perhaps they run away with everything...but I feel like there are teams that can beat them.

So I have no idea going into this write-up who's going to win what. But I'll have it worked out in the next few paragraphs.

(Continue to 200 Miles From the Citi)

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Yankees Will Be Measured by October

The Yankees clinched a spot in Major League Baseball’s postseason tournament earlier this week, but that can only be the beginning for this proud franchise.

For the Yankees, and second-year manager Joe Girardi, it’s all about October. In New York, it is always a pass/fail grade. Despite being the first team to secure a spot in the playoffs, the Yankees’ final report card won’t be distributed until next month.
Going into the playoffs, there are a few reasons to be concerned.

First, the Yankees have to take care of business and secure the AL East division title. They can take a big step toward that direction this weekend with a three-game series against Boston, their closest pursuer in the division chase. After finally winning a series in Anaheim this week, the Yankees need to keep the momentum going and play well this weekend. Boston leads the season series, 9-6, after taking the first eight games against the Yankees this season. Boston enters this weekend 5 ½ games behind the Yankees.

(Continue to New York Minute)

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Posada Puts Teammates in Jeopardy

The Yankees have shown a fighting spirit this season, winning 47 games in come-from-behind fashion on their way to the best record in the Major Leagues.

But last night’s brawl against the Toronto Blue Jays was a lose-lose proposition for the Yankees, and it never should have occurred. It was a virtual Fight Night in the Bronx.

After two Blue Jays were plunked earlier in the game, Toronto reliever Jesse Carlson threw a pitch behind Jorge Posada while the Yankees catcher was batting in the eighth inning of Toronto’s 10-4 victory. Posada eventually got on base and came around to score. Upon crossing home plate, he threw a forearm to Carlson, who was backing up on the play. That touched the bench-clearing melee.

(Continue to New York Minute)

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Grouping Teams for Pennant Races

Every year we go through it, there are three groups of teams in September. The first group is those headed to the playoffs and those trying to reach the playoffs in the wild card race. The second group are teams with big payrolls and expectations trying to figure out what went wrong and the final group are teams hopelessly out of it and using the time to utilize a youth movement that they hope will someday get them in group one.

This is where I see them:

GROUP 1

Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers, Angels, Rangers, Twins (though they're trying to hold on for dear life), Phillies, Marlins and Braves (also holding on), Cardinals, Dodgers, Rockies, Giants.

(Continue to Grand Baseball Concourse)

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A Typical Jeter Performance

The Derek Jeter Show finally re-emerged in Wednesday’s 4-2 victory over Tampa Bay, and the great Yankee captain showed why he’s poised to step into history.

Jeter collected three hits in the victory to tie Lou Gehrig for most hits in a career by a Yankee with 2,721. The shortstop can surpass the Hall-of-Famer in Friday’s game against Baltimore.

The way Jeter went about getting the hits showed why he’s also bound for Cooperstown.

In the first inning, he dropped a bunt down toward the third base line and beat the throw. The hit snapped a 0-for-12 drought, his longest hitting slump of the season.

"That's why I bunted in the first inning. I needed to get one hit, right?" Jeter said.

(Continue to New York Minute)

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Are These Yankees Like the '98 Yankees?

The Yankees are playing very impressively and winning with the frequency that they won during other years. That is drawing various comparisons to the 1998 team with lines such as machine-like efficiency.

One similarity that seems obvious to me is playing with a fire. If you remember the 1997 team was stunned in the first round by the Indians after winning it all in 1996. The images of Paul O'Neill sliding at second are so vivid and that team had a bunch of gamers who were determined not to let it happen again.

It did not. The Yankees started 1-4 and finished 114-48. This team started 13-15 and was 38-32, so that's a difference.

(Continue to Grand Baseball Concourse)

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