"Number one, you don't throw at a guy's head and number two, you don't call out the other team," Young said. "You go after a guy (Smith) that just came into the game and aim at his head? His wife is pregnant. The last thing you need is the birth of his child with his dad in a coma."
The bad blood between the clubs can be traced to last July 5, when former Tigers pitcher Esteban Yan was tossed after he threw a pitch over Rodriguez's head two pitches after a Gary Sheffield homer. The next night, Tanyon Sturtze hit Pudge Rodriguez with a pitch and was given no warning. Later in that same game, Ugueth Urbina was warned when he threw behind Sheffield.
Young says he sees a double standard when dealing with the Yankees.
"Esteban Yan got immediately ejected without a single warning," said Young, "even though Jon Lieber threw up and in on me and there was nothing said. You see where the protection lies. They're protected. They don't want anything happening to their big-ass investment over there." [daily news]
Labels: yanquis
"Dmitri, I think he wears his 'do-rag too tight," Quantrill said. "He takes out a man, our guy, in a spring-training game, then he makes some wonderful predictions from what I understand for his team - and he's the one who wants to speak out with his ideas of the world? I don't need to hear Dmitri." [newsday]
"It was a slippery ball, it was wet out there... Flash (John Flaherty) called for a heater and I just got it in a little too far. It was a rainy night and the ball slipped, I guess. Same as it did for whatever that kid's name was pitching when he hit Alex. Stuff happens." [daily news]
Can you believe this house? Two fully stocked bars and completely free alcohol! If David Wells lived here, he'd have 10 more perfect games! What's that? David Wells? He's a pitcher. Your boyfriend hates baseball? He must hate America, too.
I would trade Albert Pujols and Vladimir Guerrero for a date with you. Why are you laughing? That's a combined 70 home runs a year! [mcsweeney's]
"The Yankees have that guy (Tony) Womack (a second baseman) playing left field," Henderson said. "If I can't play that position at least as well as he can, I'll hang up the spikes right now."
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The Yankees would witness Tino Martinez marching up and down the bench on this sun-splashed, ball-bashing Wednesday at the Stadium, listening to him telling them, "Look around, there's no better place to play." He comes out of a championship yesterday, where it was about winning, about whatever it took for the greater good of the cause. Whatever Joe Torre has needed him to do, he's delivered.
That's old school on the Yankees. That's the expectation of a champion. When something's asked of you, something's done. Sometimes, you have to leave to come back again. Martinez can tell Jason Giambi all about that.
Giambi must have been listening in the Yankees' dugout Wednesday, but it's doubtful he heard Martinez. For Giambi, everything is about self-preservation and selfish interest. Strangely, the man that Giambi usurped three years ago is sparing him the greater scorn of the public, because Martinez keeps doing the job that George Steinbrenner paid Giambi to do. Martinez keeps hitting the home runs, keeps getting those curtain calls so often that Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada nicknamed him "C.C." [adrian wojaksjfdabfabfjaanowski]
Today, one of the most enduring and beloved figures in sports turns 80.
Berra plans to spend his birthday at home with his wife, Carmen, his children and 10 grandchildren. And he'll get a phone call from his childhood pal Joe Garagiola, the catcher-turned broadcaster, who says Yogi always returns the favor on his birthday each February.
"He'll call me and leave a message on my answering machine, singing, `Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, you're catching up to me, happy birthday to you. From Yogi Berra.' He tells me who it was, like I thought it was Pavarotti or Bocelli singing to me," Garagiola said. [hartford courant]
Jorge Posada tried to steal third base tonight and I damn near busted out. Jorge Posada runs like a little girl. Rickey Henderson is a poet on the basepaths. Rickey could have gotten to third base running backwards faster than that peanut-head.
The low rumbling coming out of the stands yesterday had nothing to do with boos, a familiar sound at the Stadium this season because of the Yankees' bungling start. Yankee fans, eager for something to cling to, were imploring Mike Mussina to finish a shutout.
Fans were yelling, "Mooooose," encouraging the pitcher and begging Joe Torre to leave him in, though his pitch count was soaring. Torre asked Mussina how he was feeling and the pitcher said, "Go on back (to the dugout)."
On his 131st pitch, Mussina retired Bobby Kielty on a fly ball, securing a four-hitter and the Yankees' 5-0 victory in front of 52,776. The Yankees finally had something to feel good about as they moved ahead of the Devil Rays and out of last place in the AL East.
...The performance was vintage Mussina. He started 26 of 32 hitters with strikes and breezed through most innings. He was also fiery and irascible on the mound - he was grousing about balls-and-strikes calls by plate umpire Wally Bell even as he was trying to close out the ninth. "C'mon, Wally, that was a strike," he complained during Eric Chavez's at-bat in the ninth. Later, Mussina said, "The strike zone got slender or short. I don't know where it went."
Still, Mussina persevered. He finished the eighth having thrown 109 pitches and told Torre that he felt strong enough for the ninth. He got two quick outs but walked Chavez after getting ahead 1-2. Scott Hatteberg followed with a single, but Mussina was not in danger of coming out when Torre jogged to the mound to check on him.
When Torre walks to the mound, it generally means the pitcher is coming out, but when he trots, the pitcher has a shot to stay in.
"I left it up to him," Torre said. "It was his (decision). He certainly had the right to the ball. He had that look in his eye that you weren't going to get him off the mound."
Mussina got Kielty and the Yankees got what they hope will be a tonic. It was for the fans.
"I think the crowd's been looking for something to grab onto," Mussina said. "For one day, it was something to grab onto." [daily news]
Labels: yanquis
That's the price George Steinbrenner is paying for years of chasing older, expensive players. Everyone saw the crash coming - except The Boss. That was never more apparent than the last off-season, when Steinbrenner insisted on acquiring Randy Johnson, when his lieutenants begged him to take Carlos Beltran instead.
If ever there was a time for Steinbrenner to flood the market with his millions, it would've been for the free agent center fielder - precisely the player the Yankees needed in the post-Bernie Williams era. If history has taught us anything, it's that the Bombers need a switch-hitting center fielder to win championships, and Beltran would've ensured a smooth transition well into the new millennium.
Even more maddening was the revelation that Beltran would've given the Yankees a $10 million discount. All they had to do was call. Instead, Johnson's contract, worth $48 million with a two-year extension, broke the bank. One team insider said Steinbrenner finally reached his pain threshold when he realized the luxury tax would exceed $50 million.
Was Johnson really worth it? The point isn't open to debate within the Yankees' hierarchy. As the team source put it, "George had to have him. He wasn't going to budge. That's all he's been talking about for the last couple of years."
No wonder the Mets moved so frantically to sign Beltran in the hours after he turned down the Astros' offer of arbitration. GM Omar Minaya was convinced Steinbrenner would've eventually come to his senses, had Beltran been on the market for more than a day. So the Mets negotiated all night, making sure Beltran was theirs before The Boss woke up. [bob klapisch]
The Yankees plan to promote infielder Robinson Cano from Class AAA Columbus and use him at second base, with Tony Womack shifting to left field and Hideki Matsui to center. Bernie Williams has mild tendinitis in his right elbow, further weakening his arm in center field.
Cano, 22, has never played in the majors but has made a strong impression at Columbus. He is batting .333 with 4 home runs and a team-leading 24 runs batted in.
Now, if you read the article [about the sox marketing feminine gear] you'll find that a lot of women like it and a lot of women don't. I'm not going to tell anyone they can't wear pink, but I prefer not to. And this entry isn't meant to be a pink debate. It's about why they feel the need to do it. Of course it makes money. But wouldn't regular women's tank tops and player shirts that don't have chokey necks and are cut for people with hips make money too? I'd love it if they'd introduced these first and see how they sell compared to the other colored stuff.
This is the thing: I've done a lot of research lately about the marginalization of female sports fans and how they often have to prove themselves, unfairly, to male fans that they in it for more than butt-ogling. When I was in Florida, I was pretty much asked if I was a groupie. Because I'd have no other reason to attend spring training, right? I'm not going to get on my high horse, I promise I'm not, but it's not always easy to be a female sports fan. For every guy who thinks it makes you hot, there's one who is intimidated by it, another who won't take your opinion seriously, and another who can't get past treating you like a novelty. Sometimes you DO have more to prove.
But when it comes right down to it, it was my mother who taught me baseball and football and I didn't think it was weird at the time. (Sorry the Braves didn't stick.) Sports is supposed to unite us as fans, not divide among gender lines. There's a great quote in the article from a sports and marketing professor, Jacquelyn Cuneen: "I am not at all sure why teams believe they have to 'genderize' clothing. Fans buy items such as jerseys and T-shirts . . . to demonstrate they identify with the team, and the team is dressed in their signature colors and logos, not in tangerine and sea mist."
For young players impart two important qualities, especially to a roster as graying as the Yankees': 1) They bring energy, and 2) they subconsciously remind older players they are replaceable.
"It always helps to have youth," Mike Mussina said. "It motivates you a little bit. When you look around and see only guys your age, you fight to motivate yourself to be better. Younger guys do the job to say, 'Let's get going.' "
...Wang allowed two runs in seven innings. He threw first-pitch strikes to 18 of 29 Blue Jays, nicely locating a sneaky four-seam fastball. Fifteen of 21 outs were on the ground, thanks to his two-seamer. He had no strikeouts, walked two and never otherwise exceeded even a two-ball count.
He registered 20 outs in three pitches or fewer and allowed one hit in seven at-bats with men in scoring position, and that was a grounder that nicked off Alex Rodriguez's glove. But the most important number for the Yanks, perhaps, was 25, Wang's age. As opposed to, say, Tom Gordon, 37, who blew a win in Wang's major-league debut. Wang could be a Yankee rarity, a player who has his best games ahead of him.
Wang is a rarity, a homegrown pitcher who survived the franchise's youth-for-stars purge and managed to make a debut for the Yankees.
Wang (pronounced Wong) did well. He was perfect through three innings, had a shutout through four. In all, he pitched seven innings, allowing six hits and two runs in the Yankees' 4-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Andy Phillips, an infielder, was just as big a story. He was impressive once again, pinch-hitting for the fading, fading, fading Jason Giambi, and reaching base both times he batted.
Wang and Phillips are symbols of a larger story unfolding in the Bronx: baseball's most reviled team has hit a wall that cannot be skirted with money. This wall has to be run through. Often, the only ones willing to run through a wall are upstarts, and the Yankees don't have enough of them.
They have two. Andy Phillips and Chien Ming Wang. Phillips is fearless, Wang is oblivious .
...Jason Giambi is fading before our eyes while Andy Phillips grows in stature. Phillips replaced Giambi in the sixth inning yesterday and doubled. In the ninth inning, he didn't get a good bunt down, leading to a forceout at second, but Torre said he was impressed with Phillips's energy.
...Giambi has to sit, Phillips has to play and Wang has to stay. Youth is the only way the Yankees are going to get through this wall.
Labels: yanquis
