Sunday, July 22, 2007

Who IS this guy??


Posted by: Miss October

Shelley Duncan?! Who is this guy? After watching him hit his first home run yesterday, he follows it up with two more (so far at least) today.

Yankee fans rarely have the chance to root for rookies who have come up through the Yankee farm system and wonder if they will turn into a legitimate, everyday AL home run threat. As we all know too well, usually the front office prefers to go after high priced, veteran home run hitters to put some punch in the Yankee lineup.. from Reggie Jackson to Gary Sheffield... and tons in between.

I'm actually hard pressed to think of one Yankee 'home grown' who turned into a HR hitter with huge numbers every year. ....

It's refreshing to see Duncan get off to such a quick start.. although we must keep everything in perspective. We've been fooled before by hot rookie starts. Remember Kevin Maas, Shane Spencer.. among others?? In any case, it's at least nice to see some youth and excitement in the Yankee dugout... but it will take some more convincing to see if it's enough to put this Yankee team on the huge tear it needs...

Friday, July 20, 2007

How Can This Be?

by: Mr. November

Some people may ask how the Yanks could lose to the Devil Rays by a score of 14-4. This is an especially good question when you take into account a few things:

1) The Yanks had been playing some damn good baseball, up until yesterday at least.
2) If they have any hope of making the playoffs, the Yankees need to win games. In a row. With very few loses.
3) Tonight's opponent was the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, for the love of God.

I don't have the answer. If I did, I'd be the manger (and then I could sit on my ass, holding a bat, passively admitting that the 2007 version of the game of baseball is rapidly passing me by). But I will say this: the current Yankees team doesn't have that...thing. They don't seem to have what it takes to win when they simply have to win. They don't seem to care.

Finally, this team's attitude is matching the outward demeanor of its manager.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Black and White

by: Mr. November


After hearing and reading Gary Sheffield's recent comments about Joe Torre, I decided to do a little bit of research. Something just didn't seem quite right. Sheffield claimed that Torre treated black players differently than he did white players; he tended to call them out in meetings while talking to white players behind closed doors.

In a statement more about the lack of diversity in baseball than the policies of Torre, I started to wonder exactly how many black players played with the Yankees during the Sheffield years. In my mind, it simply didn't seem like too many. Sheffield played for the Yankees in 2004, 2005, and part of 2006. Go ahead, think about it - name some other black players during those years.

There were more than I thought. Here they are, with the number of games they played during the Sheffield era in parentheses: Gary Sheffield (347), Derek Jeter (467), Tom Gordon (159), Tony Womack (108), Tony Clark (106), Kenny Lofton (83), Shawn Chacon (31), Matt Lawton (21), Kevin Thompson (15), and Terrence Long (12), and Homer Bush (9) Whew. 11 black Yankees from 2004-2006, if you're a reasonable person and disagree with Sheffield and include Derek Jeter in that list.

I don't agree with anything Gary Sheffield said. I don't even believe he and Jeter were best friends when they were teammates. I am, however, taken aback by the numbers in the previous paragraphs. 120 players, if you consider 40 man rosters (but disregard repeats) and only 11 black players. That's not a Torre problem, that's a baseball problem.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Things that Make You go Hmmm....

It's always amusing to observe the different kinds and incarnations of Yankee gear worn by devoted fans while at Yankee Stadium..

You have Yankee gear in a variety of colors.. ranging from green Yankee hats to red Yankee hats to unbelievably girly pink Yankee hats (you will never catch ME wearing pink Yankee gear!).

Then you have the people who spend their hard-earned money on expensive "authentic" jerseys. What boggles my mind is the people who will purchase an "authentic" looking Yankee pinstriped Jersey with the name of a player printed on the back -- which automatically makes it "unauthentic."

The amusing sight this past Sunday was the "jersey" I spotted while waiting for the subway. It was an "authentic" Yankee jersey with the number 36 and the last name "Gordon" on the back.

I still can't decide which is more amusing -- the fact that someone actually paid money for a Tom Gordon jersey, or that the person still wears it.