Yankees have better record than Mets.

I am amazed that anybody noticed.

Thing is, the Mets are 2.5 up while the Yankees are 5 back (ignoring the wild card for the moment).

So the Mets are 7.5 games ahead of the Yankees, if you ask me.

It's easy to tell who watches the games.

"But in recent weeks, Joe Torre has worked Damon into the left-field rotation. This move has been nothing short of a disaster. Damon looks absolutely lost in left and struggles mightily in reading the ball off the bat."

I saw Damon get completely fooled by a line drive hit by Frank Thomas.

Other than that, Damon has played excellently in left field.

Most observers would agree that he is a better fielder than Matsui. Which sets the bar pretty low. But Damon's fielding is hardly a disaster.

The Court of Public Opinion.

"This is what happens when you are far more interested in protecting the guilty, as the Major League Baseball Players Association has done for years with drugs, than you are the innocent."

Generally speaking, the guilty need more protection than the innocent.


"Alex Rodriguez happens."

Is that how Alex Rodriguez happened? The story about the stork is just make believe?


" '(The union) has never looked to elevate the innocent,' one baseball manager said yesterday. 'And that's as big a reason as any why fans have so much trouble, even now, telling the innocent and the guilty apart.' "

I think it's quiet easy to tell the innocent from the guilty. Or at least have a fairly solid personal opinion. Which is all any of this is. Nobody is being tried in real court.

Not that steroid testing would make it any easier, unless a 100% Perfect Test existed. If Brady Anderson tested negative, I'm not going to believe it, anyway.


"You know the dumbed-down chorus now about how drugs don't matter and the steroid era is over."

Who says says drugs don't matter and the steroid era is over?

Who???

Largely due to Barry Bonds's pursuit of the career homerun record, it seems that I have been bombarded with hand-wringing stories about steroids every waking hour for the past two years.

"Tell Alex Rodriguez, who must have liked the back pages of the city's tabloids yesterday even less than Chipper Jones did, even if A-Rod's only crime so far is being the youngest to ever get to 500 home runs in the big leagues."

Biggest crime so far.

But the FBI has some shocking porpoise-smuggling allegations.


"It is something you have heard before about the Mitchell investigation. Rafael Palmeiro, a positive drug test, was there, Canseco was there. And A-Rod was there, but after Canseco. Innocent and guilty, all under the same great big tent."

Fair enough.

You know who else is guilty by association? Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn. They played with a guy who knew a guy.

It's all under one big tent. Innocent is the new guilty, right is the new wrong. Jose Canseco is the new Solomon, Mike Lupica is the new Themis.


"To this day the union talks about wanting to clean up the sport and then acts as a human shield between its players and Mitchell. These guys say they are protecting these players. How are they doing with A-Rod, as big a star as they have? How well are they protecting him?"

There is no need to protect ARod.

This is all court of public opinion and, in the court of public opinion, ARod is innocent.

At least when it comes to steroid use. He's guily of not being Derek Jeter. But the vox populi is sated when it comes to the size of his head.

Maybe they are fanboys of logic.

"It’s amusing that when I mention that A-Rod just may have done something wrong, the love-struck fanboys respond then go back to the basement to read more comic books."

Wow.

This guy just went after the people who comment on his blog.

This guy:




"My point is only this: A-Rod yelled at Howie Clark with the Yankees up by three runs in the ninth inning back on May 30. It was a needless thing to do."

It was one of the smartest baseball moves I've ever seen. The team was seven games under .500, if I remember correctly.

F. the Blue Jays.


"Whether it was right or wrong, it obviously angered Toronto. The result is that he’s missing a game and Clemens could get suspended. So was it worth it? I don’t see how."

Nice logic. As if Josh Towers is not to blame. As if ARod could have known the dufus at 3b would drop the ball and that he'd get hit with a pitch ten weeks later.

I don't even care if ARod misses one whole game. It was definitely worth it. Every run is important. With this bullpen, is any lead safe?

If nothing else, the Yankees rallied around their teammate and showed some rare emotion last night.

They were almost as excited as Peter Abraham when he gets a bottle of baby oil, a bacon double cheeseburger, and an early edition Wonder Woman comic.

Born thirty years too late.

This guy belongs on a team with Munson, Nettles, and Cliff Johnson:

"As further compensation for A-Rod's pain, Shelley Duncan took out shortstop John McDonald so hard that the glove went flying off his hand, but McDonald shook it off."

Let's play some hardball.

"Jesse Litsch's first pitch of the second inning went behind Alex Rodriguez's legs, an apparent message. The New York Yankees responded with some hard play -- and another win.

...


Rodriguez slid hard into shortstop John McDonald while trying to break up a double play in the fourth, swiping his left arm in anger, and Johnny Damon collided with Aaron Hill on a forceout in the fifth, appearing to clip the second baseman on the leg."

To be honest, if ARod had spent ten minutes admiring his 500th homerun while I was pitching, I'd probably have met him halfway between third base and home plate.

Here's a high five for you, pretty boy.

Myers not experienced enough.

Joe Torre on Kyle Farnsworth: " 'I think he just needs to have a couple of good outings. He's been around a while, and you see signs of stuff. His slider and his fastball are powerful pitches for him. He just needs to locate on a regular basis, and I think once he gets a couple of good outings under his belt, [he will be fine]. Maybe the road will help him.' "


Though it sounds like Torre could be talking about Mike Myers, I guess not:

"Veteran left-hander Mike Myers was told after the game that he will be designated for assignment.

A published report in the New York Daily News said that Myers was informed of the move by Torre and general manager Brian Cashman shortly before the team left for Toronto.

Myers, 38, was in the second year of a two-year, $2.4 million contract. He had a team-best 2.66 ERA in 55 appearances, but left-handers hit .312 against him."

It speaks.

"Congratulations to Barry Bonds as he ties Major League's Baseball's home run record. No matter what anyone thinks of the controversy surrounding this event, Mr. Bonds' achievement is noteworthy and remarkable.

As I said previously, out of respect for the tradition of the game, the magnitude of the record and the fact that all citizens in this country are innocent until proven guilty, either I or a representative of my office will attend the next few games and make every attempt to observe the breaking of the all-time home run record."

Autobiographical Sports Reporters.

Further blurring the line between subject and observer, Bob Klapisch totally called ARod's 500th homerun and Mike Lupica's son phones in a report of Bonds's 755th.

Amusingly enough, Junior's report of over-the-top mistreatment of Bonds basically contradicts every other firsthand account of the incident.

Which is oddly comforting.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Alex Rodriguez might not hit 800 homeruns.

Quite a brave stance taken by Larry Brooks.

He also displays an in-depth knowledge of the transitive property:

"Rodriguez hits third for the Yankees, and until he hits No. 500, he isn't going to be able to get to 757."

You know what else is odd?

I keep seeing 757 as the mark that ARod is going to shoot for.

As if Bonds is going to stop at 756. Bonds is going to hit two in one game and then end his baseball career mid-inning.

I think Vlad Guerrero just went 125 at-bats without a homerun.

I'm quite sure that Ian O'Connor will find a reason to vote for Guerrero ahead of ARod when it's time to determine the 2007 AL MVP.

I'm also wondering if any sportswriter will refer to Glavine's quest for win #300 as a "long national nightmare."

When I read something like the following, I just have zero idea what the guy is talking about:

"A-Rod is growing A-Fraid of the moment. He's turning this glorious march to 500 homers into an alarming stagger to who knows where.

Rodriguez went 0-for-4 in the 8-1 victory over the White Sox on Wednesday night, and he hasn't gotten a hit in his 21 at-bats since Homer No. 499, equaling the worst hitless streak of his career. If he doesn't become the youngest player to reach 500 by the end of the Yankees' homestand Sunday, Joe Torre said, 'We'll all be in straightjackets.'

Or at least A-Rod will be in one. Let's see Scott Boras negotiate his way out of that.

'I'll hit it sometime before the year ends,' A-Rod pledged.

Would he bet $252 million on that?"

Besides, them's highway miles.

"Joe Torre on Krazy Kyle: 'There’s a good arm there; he knows how to pitch. We just need to get him more comfortable. I still believe Farnsworth is going to be a contributor to this.'

Now before you light torches and gather pitchforks, understand that the manager can’t sit there and bury the guy."

I think we all understand that Torre is lying to the press at all times. It's part of his job.

I don't want to say Torre's lying to the press, but let's just say he's skewing the truth.

See what I just did? That's the way Torre talks. "I'm not saying ARod is a choking loser, but let's just say he's uncomfortable."

But what we don't understand is why the press reverentially refers to Torre as a stand-up guy.

You know this 1975 Volare will break down as soon as you drive it off the lot. But you're listening to EZ Joe, anyway.

It's like the Dust Bowl.

Even taking poetic license into account, referring to Bonds's chase of Aaron as a "long national nightmare" is a bit much.

As the commenters on the comment board point out, if you're so bored and disinterested with Bonds, then why do you constantly write about him?

Is this inning over yet?

White Sox second: Konerko singled to left. Pierzynski singled to center, Konerko to second. Dye doubled to center, Konerko scored, Pierzynski to third. Erstad infield single to first, Pierzynski scored, Dye to third. Uribe singled to center, Dye scored, Erstad to second. D.Richar flied out to center fielder Me.Cabrera. J.Owens safe on fielder's choice and fielding error by second baseman R.Cano, Erstad to third, Uribe to second, J.Owens to first. Cintron grounded into fielder's choice, pitcher Clemens to catcher Posada, Uribe to third, J.Owens to second, Cintron to first, Erstad out. Thome singled to left, Uribe scored, J.Owens scored, Cintron to second. Konerko doubled to left, Cintron scored, Thome to third. Pierzynski singled to center, Thome scored, Konerko scored. Dye doubled to right, Pierzynski to third.

Maybe it's out of habit.

I was at the Yankees game on Saturday, surrounded by many Yankee fans, and they were still talking about the Red Sox and checking the Red Sox scores on their blackberries.

The Red Sox scores are of interest to me because I'm a baseball fan.

I also have interest in the scores of the Dodgers, Giants, Blue Jays, Marlins, etc.

But nobody seemed too interested in the the Tigers, Mariners, and Indians.

The Yankees are not in competition with the Red Sox anymore. The Red Sox are going to win 100 games. The Yankees have been out of the AL East race since May. Eric Gagne didn't seal this deal. Kei Igawa and Mike Mussina and Bob Abreu already sealed the deal.


There was a monkey and a scientist placed some bananas on the other side of a wall. A small hole in the wall allowed the monkey to reach the bananas. The hole was small enough for a flat monkey hand to fit through. But, when the monkey hand clenched and grabbed the food, it could not fit through the hole.

So, there's the monkey, trapped by its own clenched fist, unable to free its hand and also unable to get the bananas. The monkey could only free itself by releasing its grip on the bananas and sliding its unclenched hand through the hole.

That banana is first place in the AL East, the Yankees are the monkey, and the scientist is me.

It's a metaphor, don't you see?

We are not getting first place, people.

Just let it go.

The World Will Never Know.

Yes, it's dumb to try to hit homeruns.

Yes, it's obvious that ARod is trying to hit a homerun and get the 500th over with.

I don't like 0-for-17s by any Yankee player at any time.

But the "heat" is not "on" when the team wins a game 16-3.

If anybody is still questioning ARod's ability to rise to the occasion, then they're ignoring 2007.


Please put down your coffee before you read this next sentence:

"If he can't hit now, how will he manage against Eric Gagne in the AL Championship Series?"

How will ARod do against the Boston Red Sox in the AL Championship Series?

Why?

Is ARod getting traded to the Tigers before the end of the season?

He knows from no-brainers.

I don't think I have to explain why the following people don't belong on Phil Pepe's list of Hall of Fame "no-brainers" -- but I will:

"BARRY BONDS -- He was in before the rumors." So was Mark Mcgwire.

"ICHIRO SUZUKI -- Needs to play only 3 more years to qualify." I'd vote for him, but Japan stats don't count.

"OMAR VIZQUEL -- 12 Gold Gloves, more hits than Ozzie Smith." Actually, Vizquel has 11 gold gloves, unless Pepe is assuming that Vizquel will win another this season. Jim Sundberg has 6 gold gloves. Bob Boone has 7. Mark Belanger has 8. Omar Vizquel is a .275 career hitter whose career high in RBIs is 72.

"No-brainer" means you don't have to think about it. It's unanimous. "No-brainer" is not supposed to mean "I made this list without using my brain."

... and I plan on having a talk with my shrink.

"If Kyle Farnsworth is still with the Yankees today, manager Joe Torre plans to have a talk with him."

Two words: Rick Tocchet.

Oddly enough, this seems to be a fairly common sentiment:

"All the cheating and indictments is starting to turn me off to these sports. If I want to enjoy some good, clean, all-American sports fun I may have to bring myself to do the unthinkable.... watch hockey."

Koby Clemens attends ballgame in Anaheim.

150 & 150.

The last player to score 150 runs and drive in 150 runs in the same season was Ted Williams in 1949.

There's more to this baseball season than Ruben Gotay.

"There is always a lot of high-priced talent in the room, though the price tag is never his price tag."

We all know by now that the Rangers still pay approximately $9 million of ARod's salary.

Which means the Yankees pay ARod approximately $17 million.

Pettitte, Jeter, Giambi all drain the budget more than ARod does. Abreu, Matsui, and Damon aren't far behind.


You know what I say?

I say ARod guns the ball to first and completes the double play. I say ARod manages a sac fly against Looper. I say Torre has six rings, at least, if ARod was on those teams.

Mike Lupica is a desperate man.

May as well try to convince you that the Sun is an overrated star:

"If they don't make it, here is the progression for A-Rod, such as it is, since the Yankees made the big trade for him:

2004: Lose in the ALCS to the Red Sox, blowing a 3-0 lead in the process, the most epic calamity in the history of the organization.

2005: Lose in the first round of the playoffs to the Angels.

2006: Lose in the first round of the playoffs to the Tigers.

2007: Out of playoffs.

Nobody is saying that it is all on A-Rod, because it's not, because we know how the Yankees have pitched in October for a long time. There is always a lot of high-priced talent in the room, though the price tag is never his price tag. But it is also fair to say if he had been MVP Alex in, say, Game 6 against the Red Sox in '04, if he had been MVP Alex against the Angels or the Tigers, he might have his World Series ring already."

Lupica won't mention the record of the Texas Rangers. Please remember that Lupica claimed at the time that the Rangers were better off without ARod than the Yankees were with ARod.

I also like when people ask, "What if the Yankees don't make the playoffs?" Well, if they don't, it damned sure ain't ARod's fault.

If they do make the playoffs?

ARod should take October off and collect double the playoff money.

I got 99 rbis ...

... but a b* ain't one.

That sounded funny when I thought of it. Not so much when I wrote it down.

It was either Jay-Z or Nena.

Those three homeruns must have been hit very far --

-- all the way from Scranton:

"And no, despite great stats, Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan isn't going to get his wish (as stated in yesterday's Scoop) to see son Shelley (who's averaged 24 homers the past four years) called up. Instead, the Yankees have talked about the A's' Dan Johnson and appear more focused on him than Shea Hillenbrand or Scott Hatteberg, who are available."

In times of peace, the warlike man attacks himself.

Mike Lupica often creates bizarre counter-arguments and then disproves them:

"By the way, it is worth repeating that the Yankees have no excuses the rest of the way."

Since day one, the Yankees have had no excuses. It doesn't matter if they did, anyway. Look at the standings to find out how good your team is.


"Not a single one, and please don't talk about Giambi, only saps expect Giambi to have injury-free seasons for the rest of his Yankee career, however long that career lasts."

Weird.

The only time I've heard anybody mention Giambi (Jason, I'm assuming, instead of Jeremy) over the past couple of months is to claim that the Yankees are better off without him.

"I wish everybody would please stop talking about Carlos Almanzar every time the Yankees have a problem with their bullpen."


"The Yankees have the team they were supposed to have, and have added the great season-saver, Roger Clemens.

They have the bullpen they were supposed to have, the closer they were supposed to have, they have all the position players on whom they should have been counting in place."

Well, yeah. The players are in place.

Except for the fact that a lot of these supposedly good players have been bad.

I don't think there are any excuses for that, nor have any been offered up.


"If they don't make the playoffs, then it is on this general manager, this manager, these players. It is on all of them."

Not Posada, Rivera, ARod, or Jeter.


"Guess what?

The Mets have had to overcome more adversity than the Yankees this season."

Well, the Mets are an underachieving $120 million team. That's what gets your batting coach fired. Just not quite as underachieving as the Yankees.

No excuses for the Mets, either.

Only saps expected Pedro and Alou to stay healthy for the lengths of their contracts, right?

It makes for an uncomfortable postgame interview with Kim Jones.

"Wil Nieves didn't know what to think when manager Joe Torre called him into his office after last night's game, but he certainly didn't expect to hear what Torre told him: the Yankees had traded for catcher Jose Molina, and he would be designated for assignment as soon as Molina arrived from the Los Angeles Angels."

Baseball-wise, it's obviously not a huge story, nor a surprise.

But it's still got to stink when Suzyn Waldman, Michael Kay, and the entire metropolitan New York listening audience know about your firing before you do.

He's bad.

That wasn't so tough.

It happened again.

Yankees 6, Blue Jays 4, top of the seventh inning. Scott Proctor pitching to Gregg Zaun with two outs and one on. Zaun walks.

Two on, two out, Yankees up by two.

Matt Stairs pinch hits for Royce Clayton.

Phillips visits the mound to stall. Posada visits the mound to stall. Myers is throwing like a crazy man in the bullpen trying to get warmed up.

Myers can not get warmed up in time, so, instead, Proctor pitches to Stairs.

Now, I know the Yankees won. In fact, Proctor struck out Stairs, luckily for Torre.

That's not the point. The point is, once again, Torre was caught sleeping.

I don't believe this kind of managerial inattention occurs with any other team. I don't recall this kind of managerial inattention occurring in previous seasons with Joe Torre. He's just mailing it in this season.

Seventy-two more games, Whitey.

A regular Knute Rockne.

This sounds like a leader ready to inspire his team to a second-half playoff run:

"Losing is tough enough, but having to explain it when a lot of times you can't explain it, that's tough. Then you throw in the issue of, 'Are you afraid of losing your job?' and all of that, you have to address it and I understand it, but it gets a little old. I'll never be sorry about that [coming back to manage in 2007], because I was enthusiastic coming in. Just because things don't fall into place the way you want, you can't say, 'I wish I didn't do it.' If I didn't do it, I never would have known. If I had sat home, I'd have always wondered if I could have made a difference one way or the other. When I think about winning four out of five World Series, how the hell did that happen? This game is very tough to be competitive all the time, and things like this happen. If it's my last year and this is the way it ends, it's not going to put a damper on my time here because so many good things have happened."

Not only is Torre living in the past, he's referring to the '07 season in the past tense.

I was actually wondering about Ruben Gotay.

I saw a headline about Ruben Gotay and I thought it may be a nice change of pace. These writers with all this access and they very seldom scratch below the surface.

So, what does Mike Lupica have to say about Ruben Gotay?

I'm all ears:

"Gotay is the New York baseball season that is, amazingly, not about Alex Rodriguez and where he will make his $30 million next season.

...

He is in the shadows of A-Rod, the way just about everybody who plays baseball in New York is these days. Gotay makes what he makes in salary at a time when everybody else talks about the salary records that A-Rod is supposed to break, either here or someplace else.

But A-Rod is not the whole baseball season, no matter how much speculation about where he chases his own dreams, usually ones covered by dollar signs, completely dominated by them, next year. Maybe he will decide he is happier here, if the money is right.

Ruben Gotay, who wasn't supposed to be anywhere near A-Rod, or Jeter, or Wright, or Reyes, is happy right where he is. Batting second, playing second, Shea Stadium, New York."

I have my own dream: Witnesssing a Yankee player hit 50 home runs and drive in 150 runs. I doubt if I will ever witness this. But ARod '07 has a shot.


As for the quixotic prose for a backup infielder who earns a mere $400k to play a kids' game: If Ruben Gotay could hit like ARod, Ruben Gotay would get paid like ARod.

That, I believe.

"You really have to let go of the final score because of a lot of times you can't control it. You can only control what you can control, and that's all based on effort," Torre added. "I have no trouble sleeping tonight, other than the final score."

Drink some warm milk.

Get a good night's sleep.

Wake up.

Eat an egg.

Take a nap.

Wake up.

Have some fiber.

Take a nap.

Wake up.

Exercise the brain with the daily word jumble in the newspaper.

Watch some Maury.

Take a nap.

Wake up.

Drive to the ballpark.

Take a nap.

Wake up.

Make a lineup.

Take a nap.

Wake up.

Game starts.

Take a nap.

Wake up.

Think of some good nicknames.

Talk to the press in the post game interview.

Drive home and get ready for another good night's sleep.

"Though the Yankees are underperforming so far this season, it's not A-Rod's fault."

Never say never.

First, read this from July 7th:

"Jose Reyes never stops moving. He makes everyone on the Mets better because of his daily energy, and is the poster person for what high energy players do for their teams."


Then, read this, referring to a July 6th game:

"Manager Willie Randolph pulled Jose Reyes from the 4-0 loss to the Astros after he failed to run out a slow ground ball down the third-base line for the last out of the top of the eighth inning."

Very entertaining interview.

Maybe Mike and the Mad Dog should calm down about the stupid song:

"Rick: Are you a Metallica fan?

Mariano Rivera: 'No.'

Follow up: Do you like the song? (Enter Sandman)?

Mariano Rivera: 'It’s all right. I didn’t even choose it. I don’t even know the lyrics to the song.' "

Don't lose the SI gig.

I don't recall if Heyman was a Yankee beat writer at Newsday. I also don't recall if he was known as a Torre lapdog. It's just hard to imagine any NY metro writer gaining clubhouse access after voicing an opinion such as this:

"AL Maury Wills Award (Worst Manager)

Joe Torre, Yankees. Let me get this right: Mariano Rivera can't come into tie games but he can come in when they're down 5-1? Calling Don Zimmer."

I'm going to dwell on this cup of green tea.

"The nature of the errors - it wasn't like they were sloppy," Torre said. "Guys made diving plays to stop balls. Sure, it cost you a ballgame, but it's certainly not something I'm going to dwell on for sure, because these guys played their tails off."

Paradigm shift.

This score is bad news for Yankee fans.

YES Network polls crack me up every time.

They're blooper polls:

Poll Question: What's the biggest reason behind the Yankees' slump?

Starting pitching
839 Votes (33%)

Bullpen
1708 Votes (67%)

Offense
0 Votes (0%)

He singlehandedly has more homeruns than the entire Yankee outfield.

"Asked directly if the Yankees' lineup 'misses' Gary Sheffield's bat, Torre paused and then retorted, 'Do we miss that? Don't take anything from this, Gary is certainly a good player, but we missed him a long time last year and did well without him. I don't think Sheff would've made a difference here.' "

Plus, all the Yankee first basemen and designated hitters, all put together.

1995 AD was a calendar year that occurred in history.

It was right between 1994 and 1996.

Peter Abraham seem to have conveniently forgotten about 1995, a year in which the Yankees made the playoffs for the first time since 1981.

He also seems to have conveniently forgotten that the Yankees were in first place in the strike-shortened season of 1994.

Winning percentages of .543, .619, and .549 in the years 1993 - 1995. Sounds like a team on the rise, doesn't it?:

"More than anyone else, Torre is responsible for turning a going-nowhere franchise back into the Yankees."

"More than anyone else," Torre is responsible for the Yankee good fortunes in the late '90s. Seriously, that's a downright foolish thing to say.

Mariano Duncan hit .340 in 1996 and deserves more praise than Joe Torre.


My list of the most responsible people:

1. Gene Michael.
2. George Steinbrenner.
3. Mariano Rivera.
4. Bernie Williams.
5. Derek Jeter.
6. Wade Boggs.

...

98. Graeme Lloyd.
99. Joe Torre.
100. Mike Aldrete.
101. Me.


"As each day passes, the Yankees look more and more like a bunch of guys content to cash their checks and move on to the next five-star hotel. The old "today we win" mentality has been replaced by individual agendas.

...

Blame Torre for that if you will. Many ungrateful fans have, harping on whom he chooses to pitch in the seventh inning instead of looking at the bigger picture of what he has accomplished. Torre gave the Yankees championships and class, two things sorely lacking before he showed up in 1996."

1. What does the bigger picture have to do with 2007? For a guy who completely forgot about 1994 and 1995, Abraham sure seems to live in the past.

2. "Blame Torre for the team's attitude if you will." I think the manager of the team is the perfect person to blame.

3. Buck Showalter is as classy as Joe Torre. Joe Girardi seems to be classy. As a bonus, both of them can probably name the starting pitcher on the opposing team.

Just stop talking about your baseball team.

Tell some more anecdotes about Leo Durocher or Bob Gibson. You're good at that.


Joe Torre recently uttered these words:

"Torre returned slumping Bobby Abreu to the No. 3 slot in the batting order, saying, 'I liked his at-bats' in Friday night's 2-1 victory, in which Abreu went 1-for-4. 'I'm more comfortable with him in that spot. This is where I want him to succeed.' "

Today, Robinson Cano is batting third and Bobby Abreu is batting seventh.


No, I don't know why Alex Rodriguez can not bat third. Or why Derek Jeter can not bat third.

No, I don't know why Robinson Cano would bat third, possibly the only worse choice than Abreu. At least Abreu has some patience at the plate and some speed on the basepaths.

No, I don't know why Torre insists of lefty-righty-lefty-right-lefty-righty.


Most of all, I don't know how Joe Torre maintains credibility when he continually says one thing and does another.

Torre is not angry at Cano, Proctor, or Farnsworth. Torre is angry that Pettitte and Posada took matters into their own hands.

Mission 27 in 2009.

"We could be talking fugettaboutit for the next year and 2009, too, when the Yankees move into their new stadium across the street. We're looking at a 1965-type overall decay here, reaching all the way down through the farm system where, thanks to 13 years of fruitless drafts, there is nothing coming in the near future to replenish the lineup."

One of the reasons it has been difficult for the Yankees to draft well is because they've always been drafting last.


"The entire outfield of Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu is clearly past its prime and in need of being replaced."

For one thing, I disagree that Matsui and Abreu are clearly past their prime. Damon may be irretrievably injured. Matsui and Abreu are slumping.

Besides, you want to replace them all? No sweat.

The 2009 Yankee starting outfield will be Kevin Thompson, Melky Cabrera, and Ichiro Suzuki.


"There is no first baseman."

No DH, either.

Even easier to replace than outfielders.


"Nobody wants to talk about the fact that Derek Jeter will be 35 when the Yankees are in the new ballpark in '09 ... "

"Nobody wants to talk about the fact that Derek Jeter will be 35 ... "

Nobody who? I'll bet I could wave a microphone in front of about 100 million American citizens and they would gladly talk about Jeter's age

Besides, Jeter is playing the best baseball in his career. Look around MLB, Bill Madden. Thirty-five is the new twenty-five.


" ... and the silence has been deafening regarding that opt-out clause in Alex Rodriguez's contract. Whereas a couple of months ago the Yankees could smugly say they would not allow themselves to be held hostage by A-Rod, now it may not even be their choice."

I don't even know what to say about this comment.

I hear about the opt-out every day.

The silence you hear is probably the accumulation of endless white noise.

I have a solution, which should be fairly obvious. Sign Prime ARod to an extension.
In 2009, possess the best left side of the infield in the history of baseball.


"Why, after all, would A-Rod want to stay here as a centerpiece of a team in patchwork decay when he could go to a genuine contender in Anaheim and (at least initially) find love?"

Money is why.


"But while good organizations are built around pitching, it takes time (and these days it seems at least one arm operation) before young pitchers start having an impact at the major league level. Top prospect Phil Hughes is a prime example. Good as he may be, the Yankees can't seem to get him on the mound this year. And right now, Joba Chamberlain, Alan Horne and Ian Kennedy are just guys putting up impressive numbers in Double-A - as did Tyler Clippard and Chase Wright in the lower minors last year."

Good. Wang, Hughes, a couple of free agents, and one more minor leaguer. We're set for 2009.


"Ironically, the Yankees don't even have a suitable replacement for Torre, unless you believe Don Mattingly, with no managing experience, is the man to preside over what surely is going to be a difficult next couple of rebuilding years."

What is ironic about that statement?

Besides, the next Yankee manager will be Joe Girardi -- ironically, starting Monday. Hiring Girardi is like rain on your wedding day, a green light when you're already late.

Torre's Last Game.

I know I've made the same prediction previously, but c'cmon ... one hit?

Getting shown up by the likes of Kyle Farnsworth?

Scott Proctor setting his clothes on fire?

Every team the Yankees play is slumping until they play the Yankees.

Posada and Torre used phrases such as "going through the motions" and "phoning it in," though Torre used his typical passive-aggressive reverso-speak: "I'm not saying the players were phoning it in" while the words were coming out of his mouth.

Insisting on batting Abreu third because batting Abreu third makes you "comfortable"?

If you want to be comfortable, grab a seat by the pool with a margarita. You've earned it, old man.

It's a good idea.

Pretend it wasn't Scott Boras's idea:

"He would open the weekend on a Friday night with a televised gala announcing the MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year awards, and have the five top candidates for each in attendance.

Hall of Fame voting would be announced Saturday, with the opener that night and Game 2 on Sunday night. After that, the Series would pick up the 2-3-2 format that's been used since 1925 (except for 1943 and 1945, when there were wartime travel restrictions). If the scheduled host club for the opener won the pennant, the Series could become a 3-4-2.

Cities would bid far in advance for the right to host the first two games, and baseball would solicit corporate money, trying to create an event similar to the Super Bowl, Final Four and BCS Championship. Figure on hotels with flowing hospitality suites, ballparks surrounded by champagne-and-caviar-filled tents and tarmacs cluttered with private jets."

It's only two more games:

"Nine games? It's too long," said New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter, the owner of four World Series rings.

It is only two more games.


"Obviously generating revenue is what this is all about anymore, which is sad, but again, you have to find ways to make it work," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

Yes, it's so sad that major league baseball generates so much revenue.

This criticism from a man who is paid $7 million to sit on a bench while his team fights for fourth place in the AL East.

Barry Bargain.

John Donovan's list of overpaid MLB players includes J.D. Drew with the following explanation:

"June (an .898 OPS) is going a lot better than May (.552 OPS), but Drew still has a lot of convincing to do to make that five-year, $70 million deal look savvy."

OPS.

You like OPS, do you?

I like it, too.

On-base percentage + slugging percentage.

You know who leads the NL in OPS? Barry Bonds. Who you just claimed is overpaid:

"His major contribution to this team, right now, is walking to first base. Opponents, even with Bonds striking out more than he has in years and hitting just three homers in his past 96 plate appearances, are still giving him the free pass. Why? Because no one else on this team can hit."

Barry Bonds has more walks than any player in the entire history of major league baseball ever.

His on-base percentage for the 2007 season is .504 and his career on-base percentage is .444.

He is also by far the biggest draw in San Francisco. Which matters quite a bit when determining whether the investment is worth it.

By the way, Bobby Abreu is paid as much money as Barry Bonds. Abreu's OPS is .704.

Parallel lines on a slow decline.

It is odd to me how bloggers sometimes seem to exist in a parallel universe when compared to the beat writers / mainstream media.

Every Yankee fan I know was flabbergasted as Mariano sat on his hands while Proctor walked in the winning run. I didn't see any of the regular beat writers question Torre's managerial wisdom (though, admittedly, I didn't search too long).

(Update: Lisa Kennelly was on the case.)

No question which team Jay Jaffe plays for:

"I don't like to lose perspective about one game -- I'm usually the one counseling friends and readers to crawl off the ledge -- but this one was emblematic. If Torre couldn't be bothered to use a rested Mariano Rivera in the face of a sudden-death bottom of the ninth to thwart a potential three-game losing streak and 1-6 slide, then this team, this season, maybe even this regime is beyond redemption. Torre inexplicably chose to pitch Scott Proctor in that situation, and despite a terrific play to snare a pop-up bunt, Proctor walked two men, including Ramon Hernandez to force the winning run home with the bases loaded. That came moments after a wild pitch/near-HBP which should have done the job one way or the other.

Not calling Rivera's number was an indefensible decision, even moreso because Torre's made the same mistake before. Absent a note from the doctor or a visibly detached limb, there's no reason Rivera shouldn't have been in the game -- he hadn't pitched since Friday, so Torre's explanation about the length of Mo's previous outing doesn't wash. The man's thrown 1.2 innings, 20 pitches, in the past nine days! If the team is disguising a Rivera injury, what's the point?"

My open letter to Brian Cashman.

As soon as Huff's ball cleared the left-field wall, I received an angry voicemail asking me to properly articulate the universal feelings of disgust in an open letter to Torre, Cashman, Steinbrenner, and everybody else who is responsible for this mess.

I'm not sure if I can do this.

Rather than an emotional ranting, how about a short-but-deadly ninja attack?:

"Dear Brian,

Randy Johnson and Gary Sheffield are currently playing for first-place teams.

Keep up the good work.

Your friend,
Darren"

I hope that "sates the vox populi."

I'm very happy that Mariano was saved for tonight's game.

At the very latest, Mariano should have been brought in when Proctor put two men on last night. The Yankees might have lost the game, anyway. But when Torre left Proctor in, he may as well as forfeited the game. Pull the team off the field if you're going to give up.

Tonight, Mariano is pitching in a meaningless eighth inning with his team down by four runs.

Kyle Who?

Jon Heyman seems to have a grasp on the inner workings of the Yankee clubhouse:

"Kyle Farnsworth, who's done almost nothing right except shame Roger Clemens into showing up when he isn't pitching, simply has to go."

When asked to comment on Kyle Farnsworth's influence on his behavior, Roger Clemens, winner of 349 games and 7 Cy Youngs, replied, "Who?"

Breaking News: Yankees Bad.

The Yankees are a game under .500 as the midpoint of the season nears.

The Yankees are in third place in the AL East, 11.5 games back of the Red Sox, and only 3 games up on the Devil Rays. I can't remember the last time the Yankees were closer to first place than they were to last place -- mid-April?

The Yankees are in sixth place in the AL Wild Card race, 6.5 games back of the Indians.

After yesterday's loss, Kay and Flaherty seemed shocked and befuddled that the Yankees followed up an 11-1 streak with a 1-5 slump. But that is exactly what .500 teams do.

Then I read the Daily News and the Post and they basically say the same thing.

Maybe they all figured the Yankees had "righted the ship" because they had a nice winning streak that supposedly put them "back in the race," though it never put them back in the race, at least not the AL East race.

Now imagine what is going to happen when Posada's batting average falls under .340 and Rodriguez's ninth-inning batting average slumps to a mere .500.

True Yankee.

Did everybody see Roger Clemens warming up in the bullpen yesterday? I hope everybody saw this. Because lots of people made a big deal about Clemens's contract clause.

By warming up in the bullpen yesterday, Roger Clemens singlehandedly saved civilization as we know it.

Anthony McCarron actually believes Clemens was getting prepared to pitch:

"Had Roger Clemens had more time to warm up, he would've pitched yesterday in relief in the Yankees' lengthy loss to the Giants.

Clemens headed to the bullpen while the Bombers were batting in the 13th inning and began to get loose. Joe Torre said Clemens' regular throw day in between starts is today, but the Rocket told Torre he was available yesterday, if needed.

But with two out and a runner at first and the pitcher's spot due up, Clemens would've had to get warm quickly and likely wouldn't have had enough time if potential pinch-hitter Chris Basak made the final out of the inning. 'The way the inning was going, I wasn't going to rush him to get ready,' Torre said. Scott Proctor, who hit for himself, struck out looking and remained in the game, ultimately giving up the game-winning hit.

Torre said he was holding out Mariano Rivera to pitch if the Yankees took the lead."

I thought the entire warmup was a ruse. Torre was trying to trick the Giants into thinking that Clemens was going to pitch and, therefore, Proctor was coming out for a pinch-hitter. The only reason you'd do this is so the Giants wouldn't intentionally walk Posada. Who ended up walking, anyway.

Right? Right???

I hope that thinking isn't too advanced for Torre because it's the only possible reason I could come up with.

I hope the entire warmup was a ruse.

If it wasn't a ruse, then Torre once again demonstrated an inability to look ahead two or three batters. Forget about two or three innings. Forget about two or three days.

The lineup is written on a big white sheet and taped to the dugout wall. Or you can get a laptop and go online and find your team's lineup. Or you can ask a coach. Or you can peek your head out of the dugout and ask one of the fans.

Torre: "Ten-your-old kid with the cotton candy: Who's up fourth this inning?"
Ten-year-old kid with the cotton candy: "Proctor, because of the double-switch."
Torre: "Double-what?"

Please tell me I'm right.

Please don't tell me that Clemens would have pitched in that game and Proctor would have been pinch hit for except for the fact that Clemens didn't have enough time to warm up.

What can it possibly mean to say that Clemens needed more time to warm up?

You can warm up anytime you want. You can warm up between innings. You don't even need a glove. You don't even need a catcher. Just grab a ball and throw it against the wall for about five minutes.

Torre seems to have been caught off guard by his own managerial moves.

In fact, the only manager that Torre can outsmart is himself.

Oh, there's enough blame and shame to go around.

"Was this 'campaigning' obnoxious and over the top? You bet. Over the top and hilarious."

You don't get out much.

"Predictably, Kay, the voice of Al Yankzeera, said the Yankees would never engage in such foolishness."

Because they wouldn't.

"Of course they wouldn't. Kay is a cog in the Yankees' marketing machine. He knows the Bombers attract an audience satisfied only with world championships. The Yankees sell history, tradition, monuments, and retired numbers.

As for the Mets, well, Mr.Met, some anonymous dude wearing a gigantic baseball head, is as big a Mets icon as Mr. Tom Seaver and Mr. Casey Stengel. The Mets have always sold fun."

Mr. Met is not fun.

Mr. Met is not as big a Mets icon as Tom Seaver.

No Mets fan in the history of the Mets went to Shea Stadium in the hopes of seeing Mr. Met.

Or even the thrilling apple in the top hat.


But you know the most shameful aspect of this whole shameful episode?

This supposed all star only has 20 runs batted in.

I thought it was a misprint.

He's also hitting .194 with RISP and two outs.

Kayakers in McCovey Cove ready for this matchup.

"Myers ready for Bonds

Lefty specialist Mike Myers knows he can expect to face Barry Bonds as many as three times this weekend. Torre even said as much.

Myers has faced Bonds 25 times in his 13-year career, and if the results aren't spectacular (.320 average, eight walks), they are better than many pitchers can claim against Bonds. The Giants slugger has just one homer off Myers."

8-for-25 with 8 walks.

.320 BA and a .485 OB%.

But only one homerun.

Actorspeak.

I can't imagine it's really that difficult to portray Yogi "MeeHee For YooHoo" Berra.

Joe Grifasi manages to make the experience sound somewhat bizarre and disgusting:

" 'As an actor playing Yogi, you have to remember there aren't too many moving parts,' he said. 'The ones that are there are important.' "

Embarrassing.

"Announcement after announcement reminded the crowd that Lo Duca was trailing the Dodgers' Russell Martin by nearly 124,000 votes. This, Mets fans were to learn throughout the evening, was unacceptable.

So the 'Elect Lo Duca' campaign went into overdrive. The announcements kept coming, sometimes two and three times an inning, with one exhorting fans to vote five times each."

Imagine what Wallace Matthews is going to say about Tom Glavine.

By the way, Clemens only gave up two runs. I think this is the type of performance every Yankee fan was expecting:

"This is not what the Yankees were buying when they 'lured' Clemens out of a retirement he never really wanted. They thought they were buying the Rocket, a once-every-five-days performer who could lead them out of the abyss they had fallen into. He couldn't be just good, he needed to be great, and not just most of the time, but every time out.

But he is no longer that pitcher, no longer that man. In his dotage, the Rocket has become the bottle rocket, capable of the occasional 90-plus fastball - he hit 92 once in the first inning - but mostly living in Mike Mussina territory, high-to-mid 80s and nothing, I mean nothing, over the inside half of the plate.

Can this possibly be the same man who reduced the Mets to jelly in the 2000 World Series, who sawed off Mike Piazza's bat and threw the barrel at him?

Friday night, Clemens was undone by the smallest, slimmest, sleekest Mets, by Jose Reyes and Carlos Gomez, a couple of kids who rang his doorbell and ran. Between them, Reyes and Gomez combined for five hits, four stolen bases and both runs. Gomez bunted twice for hits on Clemens, and not once was he brushed back, not once was he made to feel that he had offended the new sheriff.

Gomez humiliated Clemens, as did Reyes, who twice lined Clemens' only real out pitch, the splitter, for singles, and then rubbed salt in it by crashing a first-pitch hanging curve off the upper deck in right.

And on the bases, he and Gomez mugged Clemens. In the third inning alone, Gomez stole second, leading to Reyes' RBI single. Then, Reyes stole second and third, only to be stranded by the second of Carlos Delgado's four strikeouts. The only time either of them tasted dirt was on their headfirst slides."

Clemens was "humiliated"?

So, basically, Matthews was going to write an anti-Clemens article no matter how Clemens pitched.

Abreu is a patch on ARod's butt.

I know that ARod has hit better when Abreu has batted third. I also know, obviously, that every player in a lineup is helped by other players in the lineup. For instance, ARod's BA with RISP wouldn't matter too much if the Rs were never ISP.

But let's all get a grip.

Alex Rodriguez does not need Bobby Abreu.

Alex Rodriguez had two MVPs and 450 homeruns before he ever met Bobby Abreu.

The Yankees' best pitcher so far ...

... despite the results of the dubious YES Network poll.

Pettitte has been better than I expected him to be. Not that my expectations mean a damned thing.

But, again, why are the Yankees so freely allowed to disrespect the Houston Astros thusly?:

"I talked to Andy during the summer," Torre said after Pettitte went eight innings as the Yankees beat the Diamondbacks, 7-1, for their ninth win in a row. "I think the biggest part of it was it had become work for him. Not necessarily the physical part, but it just wasn't as much fun."

Pettitte played with the Astros for three seasons. He got three playoff races and one World Series. He was paid $30 million. He got to pick up his kids at the Deer Park Middle School and play for an owner who worships God more regularly than George Steinbrenner worships God.

How awful it must have been.

By the end of the day, I've got to review and email about 100 RTFs to the product manager. I will be paid less than $30 million.

Wanna switch?

I strike out too often.

I also lead the league the majors in homeruns, runs batted in, and runs scored.

I am batting .324 with RISP, .424 with RISP and two outs, and .571 with the bases loaded.

If I project my stats for the entire season, I am on pace for ... well ... it's a lot. I don't want to calculate the numbers. I'll use a metahpor instead.

Think of David Wright, the all star baseman for the Mets who, not too long ago, was often being compared favorably to me. Are you thinking of David Wright? Do you have a mental picture in your head?

Okay: Double that.

So get better relief pitchers.

Rather than dissect Wallace Matthews's idiocy point by point, just read the article with an understanding of the difference between coincidence and correlation.

The recent Yankee Championship teams were not built on small ball. Even if they were, they'd have been even better with ARod at 3b instead of Brosius, Boggs, and C. Hayes. Less flavaful without C. Hayes, but better.

Oddly, Wallace Matthews seems to think that ARod's $16M is the reason the Yankees have a poor bullpen:

"And surely for every Rodriguez, there are dozens of Mike Stantons and Jeff Nelsons and David Weatherses out there. What the Yankees need to do now is take the money they will save on A-Rod and go find them."

Dozens? Try hundreds.

The Yankees, by the way, have already "found them." Farnsworth, Gordon, Dotel, Osuna, Hammond, Acevedo, Benitez, Nelson II, and don't forget Mendoza II, whose one inning probably didn't justify the salary.

Middle men in the bullpen are plentiful and inexpensive for a reason: They're not reliable. If they were reliable, then they'd be closers or starters.


What is likely going to occur is that ARod will opt out (if it's not worth discussing, then why are we discussing it?) and go play for Anaheim and pad his stats against Scott Proctor and the rest of the Yankees' revamped bullpen.

I've got an even better strategy: Sign ARod and, at the same time, "find" better relief pitchers.

Voila! It's a win-win and I thought of it all by myself.

Computer glitch.

This YES Network poll can't be right.

Or maybe some geek from Taiwan is the YES Network webmaster:

Poll Question: With Roger Clemens on board, who is the Yankees' top starter?

Clemens
396 Votes (10%)

Chien-Ming Wang
3424 Votes (88%)

Andy Pettitte
0 Votes (0%)

Mike Mussina
71 Votes (2%)

Pedro Martinez not cost effective.

"They have been patient with him here, and so far so good and they aren't in first place without Perez, without Maine, without Sosa. Their combined salary is around $4 million. For the old Rocket, that's what, four starts?"

I divided $4 million by Pedro Martinez's starts and I got $infinity.

Then I added up the ages of Chien-Ming Wang, Philip Hughes, Tyler Clippard, Matt DeSalvo, Jeff Karstens, Darrell Rasner, and Chase Wright and I got Tom Glavine.

The Yankees may be too old and too expensive, but the Mets sure ain't young and cheap.

Thinking too hard.

The AL MVP is presently a three-man race. Let's say one through three is Vlad, Magglio, and ARod. Fourth place may be Posada. I haven't given it too much thought.

After Posada's HUGE first-inning RBI single vs. Pittsburgh this afternoon, Suzyn Waldman proclaimed the following (and I paraphrase):

"I don't know who on the Yankees has had more big hits than Jorge Posada."

Easy. Alex Rodriguez. Three walkoff* homeruns, actually.


"If Jorge is not the MVP of the Yankees, then I don't know who is."

Easy. Alex Rodriguez.


I think there are two general reasons ARod gets so much disrespect.

The first camp is people who simply don't like him. Looking for reason to minimize his value, they come up with "clutch" and "close and late" and then look for new reasons when he hits .500 with 6 HRs in the ninth inning.

But Waldman (and John Sterling, in complete agreement, by the way) thinks that her contrarian thinking is somehow insightful. It's not insightful at all. It's dopey.

Or maybe it's just the expectations are so high that ARod's accomplishments are boring.

Expect more of it as the summer progresses. In '05, I was supposed to believe the ARod's 48 HRs and 130 RBIs were less valuable than Shawn Chacon's 79 innings. Now it's Posada "handling the pitching staff" to one of the worst ERAs in the league.

But don't trust Waldman, Sterling, or Lupica, despite their authoritative tones. If you think you know more about baseball than they do, it's because you do.


* I count the one off Papelbon, even though it was on the road.

Danger! Danger!

Nancy Armour waits until June 6th to notice the hubbub surrounding Roger Clemens:

"I don't know about anybody else, but I'm tired of Clemens' act and wish he would go away."

You don't know about anybody else? Do you own a television, radio, or a computer? Do you have access to newspapers or any other information media?


"But at what price? By giving the right-hander a deal that essentially allows him to be a part-timer - an obscenely rich one, at that - the Yankees are setting a dangerous precedent."

"Danger," as in, professional ballplayers may start getting paid a lot of money and perhaps acquire an inflated sense of self-importance?

Or "danger," as in, The End of Days?

Is somebody going to die because of Roger Clemens's contract? Will children start running with scissors and forget to look left-right-left before crossing the street?


I think a baseball player has been overpaid. By the Yankees. I wish it was the first time.

The red pill.

Remember that scene in "The Matrix" where Keanu Reeves decides to take the red pill and learn the truth?

The truth is shocking and hurtful.

The truth shattered paradigms.

The truth is that the computers had beaten humans in a big war and that humans were being harvested for their electricity. The perceived world was just, I guess, the computer-generated Matrix, or something.

Point being, it's unsettling when the foundations of your belief systems are revealed to be lies.


I think Mike Lupica experienced a similar phenomenon when Alex Rodriguez hit a game-winning two-out ninth-inning homerun off Jonathan Papelbon.

Golly, that's swell.

"A night after Lowell took a pitch off his left wrist -- one of five hit batsman in the game -- he had three hits and four RBIs. He was also involved in a little basepath payback in the fourth when he slammed his right shoulder -- and a little bit of his elbow -- into Cano in an attempt to break up a double play.

Cano bounced the ball to first as he fell to the dirt, just getting Varitek at first.

'I never had a problem with him before,' Cano said. 'Today he threw his elbow.'

But Torre said it was a clean play."

If you want to throw a few pitches at Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez, you go right ahead.

If you want to hit a homerun off of Scott Proctor and stand in the batter's box for seven seconds, I'll pretend not to notice.

When you beat us in the playoffs, I'll stand on the top step of the dugout and cheer for you when you raise the pennant flag.

Surprise, surprise.

Refer to David Ortiz as "Big Papi" one more time, you traitor.


ARod ought to pull one of the "Bad News Bears" moments. Steinbrenner announces that one more loss will get Torre fired. ARod fields a ground ball with two outs in the ninth and holds it while the batter runs around the bases.

That's what you get for batting me eighth in the playoffs, you blameshifting punk.

The Yankees Need Eight More Like Him.

Bill Reynolds can do arithmetic.

He also has several ways of expressing the word, "over":

"Because this race is already over.

Finis.

Kaput.

Done.

Over."

I'm not a thesaurus salesman, but you just used "over" twice.


"Use any expression you want."

The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dog.

You can't have your cake and eat it, too.

I Like Ike.


"And I know stranger things have happened. And I know that it’s never over till it’s over, as Yogi used to say.

But this isn’t 1978.

This is now.

And this is over.

And the Yankees?

Welcome to the wild-card chase."

Every intelligent Yankee fan I know set their sights exclusively on the wild-card race about three weeks ago.

Personally, I was thinking third place as soon as Kenny Rogers mowed them down in Game Three of the '06 ALDS. That was before they traded away Unit and Sheffield.

No crying in baseball.

First, the Boston Dirt Dogs whine when a player slides hard into second base to break up a double play.

Now, this:

"The thing about the Yankees, one of the reasons they're so respected, is they do things right. Always have," manager John Gibbons said. "They've got a lot of pride and a lot of class. They play the game hard.

"That's not Yankee pride right there," he said. "That's not the way they play. I thought it was bush league."

Forget about pride, class, and respect. The thing about the Yankees is winning. If anybody respects a 22-29 team, they're fools.

Nice guys finish last and the spirits of Thurman Munson and Billy Martin were smiling when they saw that play. Only difference is, Munson was looking down and Martin was looking up.

Fielding practice?

"For the first time this season, the Yankees took a round of infield practice before last night's game"

Yes, I think it must be true.

Joe Torre reads my blog and takes my advice.

They hate you and won't listen to you.

"Sensing an attitude problem on his struggling team, Torre held a lengthy meeting before Monday night's game in Toronto. The session ran so long the Yankees were nearly a half-hour late taking the field for stretching and batting practice."

Speaking of which, when is the last time Robinson Cano had fielding practice?

He's a modern-day William Wallace.

"But I don't know what you do about it," Torre said. "You still have to go out there, prepare and play. It's not that now it's time to panic. Now, what do you do once you do that?"

Ooh, ooh, ooh!

I know what to do about it!

I know what to do about it!

Blowing the lid off the steroid scandal!

You know you're in trouble when Darryl Strawberry is your character witness:

"He was a good kid," Strawberry said. "He was just like any other kid doing his job ... very hard worker, real nice kid. He always did above and beyond for the players. He was a go-getter type guy. He did a lot of errands for me, Doc [Gooden], Coney [David Cone]. He did a lot of stuff for a lot of us. I don't know what happened later. But for us, he was good."

Red Marker.

Sitting in the bleachers last night with some good pals and one of the Bleacher Creatures attempted to make fun of Curt Schilling. Who was getting bombed, so the criticism was appropriate.

(The same genius repeatedly said "I told you so!" when Farnsworth pitched poorly. As if predicting a poor performance from "Farnsworthless" was some kind of bold, contrary stance.)

Anyway, guy calls Schilling "Red Marker," obviously referring to the bloody sock of the 2004 ALCS.

Which the Red Sox won.

By winning four games in a row against the Yankees after they fell behind three games to zero.

On their way to winning the World Series.

Which the Yankees haven't won since 2000.

E-8.

No offense intended for David Wright, but when a ball hits a player in the glove, is it not an error?

If that fly ball to centerfield had dropped back into the field of play, do you think it would have been ruled a double?

Okay, I admit it: Offense intended for David Wright.

The under/over is still July 15th.

But the under is getting all the action lately.

Joe Torre is the last person to realize that his team is mailing it in:

“I’ve been very proud of this ballclub, the fact they’re coming to play,” he said. “We’re just not firing on all burners right now. I really don’t have any issue with anything other than the final score.”

His predictable Torre-like reaction is almost impossible to believe at this point.

The Yankees are 10 games out of first place in the AL East and 1/2 game out of last place in the AL East.

The Yankee are in sixth place in the wild card race, 6 1/2 games out.

The Yankees have the 22nd best record in baseball.


Of course most of the blame lies with the players. Of course they should be self-motivated. But the manager of this team is paid $7 million and his tired shtick clearly isn't working anymore. It hasn't been working in years. What you saw in the 2006 ALCS should have been the final straw. This team may not turn it around with a new manager, but they're never going to turn it around with Torre as their manager

Of course you go!

A baseball player is about to hit career homerun #756 and the commissioner of baseball is downplaying it.

Yadier Molina? Seriously?

"Last October, after the Mets succumbed to the three-week wonder that was the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals, I engaged a gaggle of Mets fans in dialogue about the pecking order of New York baseball. The debate quickly got prickly, as Yankee devotees played the 'Yadier Molina? Seriously?' card and Mets boosters went the '$190 million can buy you Botswana, but not a World Series title' route."

Yes, indeed.

The famous prickly debate ender. The "Yadier Molina? Seriously?" card.

I'm guessing Yadier Molina is the Cardinal who hit the game-winning homerun against the Mets in Game Seven of the NLCS.

I'm also guessing that Larry Dobrow never actually met a person who ever played the "Yadier Molina? Seriously?" card.

Yankee fans were probably unconcerned with the Mets. Yankee fans were debating whether or not their manager should be re-hired.

If I remember correctly, I think that I argued that the Yankee manager should not be re-hired at that time.


There are no prickly debates regarding the Yankees vs. the Mets. Nobody cares.

All the people who show up at Shea to watch the Yankees but couldn't be bothered to watch the Brewers are pathetic excuses for fans. Same goes for their counterparts in the Bronx.

Even if the Yankees sweep the Mets, the Yankees will be a mere.500 and purt near 10 games out. The Mets will possibly still be in first place.

What I learned today.

The joy of rainouts and the accompanying Yankeeographies.

This time, it's Graig Nettles.

I learned two important things about Graig Nettles:

1. He is the third baseman who hit .248 who belongs in the Hall of Fame.
2. He got his RBIs in close games.

Getaway Day.

One run and seven hits.

Two hours and 35 minutes.

130 pitches thrown by the Mariners.

Mets Intern Writes Popular Baseball Column.

The Yankees are worth $1.2 billion and now draw 4 million every season to decrepit Yankee Stadium.

Bear this in mind as you read another of Mike Lupica's endless attempts to shove the Mets down your throat:

"This is not breaking news inside Shea Stadium, or even on the inside with the Mets. But the way they measure how they are doing each day is by checking the standings in the NL East, not whether they are on one of the back pages of the New York City tabloids, and not by checking their record against the one belonging to the darlings of the tabloids, the Yankees."

The Mets are better than the Yankees in 2007. This is not breaking news anywhere. The Yankees are the most underachieving team in baseball.

In fact, to say the Yankees are the second-best team in New York is an insult to the Brooklyn Cyclones.


"Boy, oh boy, the Yankees do win when it comes to big headlines. You can call that one the way Russ Hodges called Bobby Thompson's home run: The Yankees win the back page! The Yankees win the back page! The Yankees win the back page!"

The fans don't care about the back page.

The business owners care because it's free advertising.

But the Yankees are so much more popular than the Mets (2 to 1, I'd guess), and baseball is so big in the metro NYC area, that the Yankees are going to get covered endlessly no matter what.


"The Mets were a better baseball team last season than the Yankees and are a better team so far this season, even with a payroll that is $80 million smaller. The gap was even wider last year. The Mets were a more interesting team last season, got a better managing job out of their manager and got a much better job out of their general manager, whose solution to all pitching problems isn't throwing the equivalent of $28 million at Roger Clemens."

• Last season, the Yankees were better than the Mets. Both won 97 games and the Yankees played in a much more difficult league and much more difficult division.
• As for the payroll argument, please stop comparing the Mets to the Yankees. The Mets just lost 12-3 to the Brewers. The Brewers have a better record than the Mets despite spending $50 million less than the Mets. The Mets have the highest payroll in the NL and Lupica still insists that they're gritty underdogs.
• Randolph is better than Torre? Check.
• Minaya is better than Cashman? Eh. Minaya just throws money around, too. What is Minaya's solution to all his pitching problems? He lucked out with John Maine, bless his heart. Everybody other problem was solved by throwing money at it.
• One more thing: The "equivalent of $28 million" is $28 million. Which the Yankees are not spending on Roger Clemens.

"They did not get the back page with their third baseman talking about their shortstop. They did not do it Yankee style, which is often Paris Hilton style. The Mets did not do it because the manager was in trouble or with Clemens or Carl Pavano or the owner's son-in-law getting picked up by the cops or questions about the line of succession or by firing a trainer."

No, they get the back page by shaving their heads.

They get the back page when their catcher got a divorce.

They get the back page when their overrated third baseman finally hits a homerun.

You know, I watched the first four or five innings of Saturday's Mets game. The boxscore says 50,000 people were there. I saw a sea of empty orange seats on a Saturday afternoon, perfect weather, playoff preview.

The Yankees are not going away. The Yankees are getting a new Stadium, which will be sold out for ten years. The players will come and go, but the solid marketing campaigns will remain. An entire generation of new Yankee fans have seen Jeter play ss for ten years and have never seen their team miss the playoffs. They're not becoming Mets fans overnight because the Mets beat Jeff Suppan or even if the Mets win the World Series.

The best thing for the Mets and Lupica to do is stop comparing the Mets to the Yankees. The only people you're going to convert are a smattering of disloyal fans who don't know the difference between John Franco and Julio Franco.

Quality Time.

All of the Clemens Mercenary outrage seems a bit dated since he had the same contract perks with Houston.

In any case, I'm pretty sure the term "great mercenary" is meant as an insult:

"When the time comes for the folks in Cooperstown to detail the career of Roger Clemens on his Hall of Fame plaque, one can only hope they don't forget this tribute:

'One of the game's great mercenaries.' "

Actually, I don't think Clemens will be worth it. I think he will be a better-than-average mercenary, for sure, but not great. Also, if the Yankees miss the playoffs, Cashman will have to answer why he spent so much money on one player and why he took development time away from DeSalvo and Rasner.


"For that paltry sum, you certainly can't ask a player to hang around between starts, so the Yankees also gave Clemens permission to leave the team on days he's not scheduled to pitch. Manager Joe Torre supposedly ran that little item past veterans such as Derek Jeter, with no complaints."

We'll see how Clemens reacts. I'm guessing he'll show up every day. I don't really think it matters too much.

Javier Vazquez showed up every day. Tony Womack showed up every day. Juan Acevedo showed up every day. Alberto Castillo showed up every day. Luis Vizcaino shows up every day. Jeff Weaver showed up every day.

In fact, when the opponents heard that Jeff Weaver was pitching, they'd send a limousine and a police escort to make sure he got to the Stadium on time.

With great teammates like that, you don't need prostatitis.

One team takes it personally.

"With two on and one out in the second, the fast-working lefty struck out Robinson Cano on a slow curveball and Melky Cabrera on a fastball. Washburn slapped his glove and shouted to punctuate that escape.

...

And after Phelps reached second base after a fielder's choice in the fourth, Washburn got Cabrera to ground out. Washburn yelled and pumped his fist at that, too."

The similarities to last year's ALDS are disconcerting. When the opponent shows up to play, the Yankees simply don't know how to counter. If the Yankees play with emotion, they're instantly rebuked for their lack of professionalism and class.


If anybody else said what Joe Torre said, I'd dismiss it as a colloquialism:

"Torre said that the team's lack of deep at-bats in the contest was a concern. As Torre noted, every time he looked up from the bench, it seemed that Washburn had worked his way ahead in the count."

"I'm not sleeping, I'm strategizing."

All the naive writers live in one city.

"Roger Clemens is everything the Yankees don't need and everything they claim not to want."

Roger Clemens is a good pitcher and the Yankees need good pitching.


"On a team that thrived a decade ago on role players, timely hitting and controlled egos, he is a diva in a clubhouse already bulging with them."

You know who is a good example of a "role player"? Randy Velarde.

You know who Wallace Matthews just describes as "role players"? Try Bernie, Jeter, Tino, Posada, Knoblauch, O'Neill, Rivera, Pettitte, Key, Cone, Wells, El Duque, etc.

The $150 million teams filled with role players.

Oh, and don't forget "role player" Roger Clemens. The diva who earned two rings with the Yankees.

Does two rings in a row not qualify as "thriving"?


"Then came Clemens, and before long, Giambi and A-Rod and Mussina and Javier Vazquez and Randy Johnson and Bobby Abreu."

Then came Clemens, and before long, two more Championships.


"The nucleus had enough left in it to pull off two more titles but soon, the magic of the mid-1990s was gone, replaced by the decided stench of mercenaries in the clubhouse and apathy on the field."

Absolutely pathetic and disgraceful.

As if the Yankees won despite free agents and mercenaries.

The stench of mercenaries like David Cone, Wade Boggs, Charlie Hayes, Jimmy Key, Roger Clemens, Mike Stanton, Jeff Nelson, Joe Girardi, Tino Martinez, Chuck Knoblauch, Paul O'Neill, David Wells, and Scott Brosius?

Oh, and you'd better believe that True Yankees like Jeter are loyal to the Yankees because the Yankees pay them well. They're all mercenaries.

Without the stench of mercenaries, the Yankees wouldn't have any rings ... ever.


"Now, Clemens is back, and he is supposed to be some sort of throwback to the Yankees teams that brought a lot of fans back to the Stadium in 1996, when baseball in the Bronx became fun again."

Seriously? Wallace Matthews didn't have fun in 1995? Mattingly in the playoffs vs. Seattle? Didn't they hit three dingers in a row in a playoff game? The Pat Kelly homerun down the stretch in Toronto, I believe? Winning the last ten games just to win the wild card, or something like that?

When did baseball in the Bronx become not fun for Wallace Matthews? Then, it only became fun again when a bunch of mercenaries bought the World Series title in 1996?

I always enjoyed baseball in the Bronx. I enjoyed the Mel Hall Era. I enjoyed the Jack Clark Strikeout Watch. I enjoyed the Yankee Toyota car. I enjoyed Andy Hawkins losing a no-hitter. I enjoyed Joel Skinner occasionally hitting a ball into fair territory. I enjoyed Don Baylor getting hit by pitches and Steve Kemp mentally and physically disintegrate into the worst player in baseball history.

Why not have fun? It's baseball in the Bronx! It's always fun!

Maybe it's because I'm a fan of baseball.

Maybe Wallace Matthews just doesn't like baseball.

Maybe he should write newspaper columns about knitting instead.


"If Clemens really cared about any team other than Team Rocket, he would have reported to spring training in February, with everyone else rather than starting his spring on May 9. If he really gave a damn about any of the three teams interested in him, he would have let them know his intentions three months ago, so they could plan accordingly. If remaining close to home was really so important to him, he would have returned to the Astros, or at worst, gone to the Texas Rangers."

Wallace Matthews has the mind of an infant.

Yes, we know, we know. Roger Clemens is greedy and self-centered. Everybody knows it.

We also know if he really wanted a ring so badly, he'd go to the Red Sox or the Tigers or, heck, why not the Brewers?

When Clemens says "the Yankees know how to win," he's lying. Just look at the list of World Series winners at baseball-reference.com. The Four Rings are ancient history.

But what's bizarre is that Wallace Matthews actually seems to believe that Clemens surprised the Yankees. As if the Yankees didn't have time to plan accordingly. As if this wasn't decided before Pettitte signed and before Randy Johnson was traded. As if Pettitte and Jeter haven't been practicing their "surprise" face for six months.

No matter how much you hate Clemens and no matter how much you hate the Yankees, your brain can't possibly be that dysfunctional.

Somebody explain to the grown up that Santa Claus doesn't exist.

"THERE is some good that can emerge from the bluster and the ballyhoo of Roger Clemens' return to duty. From this point forward, on into forever, we can finally, officially dismiss the nonsensical notion that the Yankees exist on a separate plane from the rest of baseball, and the rest of sports."

Nonsensical notions are nonsensical notions. Not sure why the signing of Roger Clemens would render a notion any more or less nonsensical.


"Those pinstripes, which Yankees and Yankees fans alike have viewed as some kind of moral shield for decades?

They're just stripes now."

Moral shield?


"The Yankees have officially surrendered the right to act self-righteous and superior now. They're just like everyone else. When the pressure hits a certain level, they'll squander their stack like Tony Soprano on a gambling jag."

I'm still not sure what you're getting at.

The Yankees are not just like everyone else because the Yankees have more money to spend than everyone else. They've always squandered their stack like Tony Soprano on a gambling jab. As far back as Babe Ruth.

The self-righteousness and even the commitment to winning? That's a marketing campaign.


"Let it ride, and to hell with the Yankee Way."

What's the Yankee Way?

I always thought the Yankee Way was to utilize their financial advantages as best as they possibly could.

That's the Yankee Way.

That's how you win 26 World Championships.


"Gone are the days when the Yankees can even pretend their dirty socks don't smell the way everyone else's do. Gone are the days when they can harrumph and say they don't adjust to the times, the times - and the players - adjust to them. The moment they coaxed Clemens' signature onto the bottom of this perks-heavy contract, they did more than sell their soul.

They sold their collective history - and all the moral authority that allegedly went with it - down the Harlem River. Here's hoping ol' No. 22 will be worth it."

Wow. Have the Yankees ever harrumphed and said they don't adjust to the times? I know that Steinbrenner insists on clean-shaven beards. Other than that, I think the Yankees have made an effort to adjust to the times.

The Yankees sold their collective history, did they? I hope the wife beaters, alcoholics, junkies, greedy free agents, crybabies, spoiled brats, and cheaters who fill Monument Park can deal with it.

The Yankees can't sell their soul. The Yankees never had one. They're a professional baseball team.

Clemens is neither morally superior nor morally inferior to any of the other 749 mercenaries who play major league baseball. He's just better than most of them.

I take it all back.

I always thought Joe Torre gave interminable, boring, charmless postgame interviews.

Then, I saw Don Mattingly after last night's game, seemingly intimidated by the likes of Kim Jones and Sweeny Murti.

Sweeny probably grew up with posters of Mattingly on his wall. He's rooting for the guy to give a good answer. But Mattingly answered questions like he had just been caught in that beach house on "Dateline."

Duh Logic.

Thanks to my friend and legit Brewer fan Scuba for directing my attention to this monstrosity.

"In concept, the Ultimate Fantasy Draft is pretty simple: If you were starting a team from scratch, which players would you build around?"

In concept, it's pretty simple. In practice, it's pretty dopey.

Check out the top ten.

Alex Rodriguez is 10th and David Wright is 8th.

The 9th-best player on the Mets is the 8th-best player in baseball.


Yes, I know, I know. The argument is framed so it is rigged towards younger, cheaper players. It's not really asking who's the "best" player, per se, in 2007.

But, still: Wright should simply not be ahead of ARod on any list of good baseball players.


I'm quite perplexed by the lowered expectations for Wright. Last year at this time, he was supposedly an MVP candidate on a fast route to Cooperstown.

Now, the general sentiment seems to be that Met fans shouldn't worry because he will rebound and hit .295 with 25 homeruns and 90 rbis.

Gee, whiz. Even I think he'll do better than that throughout his career. Ty Wiggington could have done 90% of that for 1/10th the pricetag.

Why are you here?

"I'm here and I'm not going anywhere and I don't apologize for who I am," [Waldman] said. "I never said I was Vin Scully or Bob Costas. That's not why I'm here."

Bob Costas?

You voluntarily name two people who represent the pinnacle of baseball broadcasting and one of them is Bob Costas?


Am I the only person who isn't buying any of this shock and amazement?

Andy Pettitte didn't know? Nobody knew?

I guess it was a nice show for a Sunday afternoon. But I tend to agree with Lance Berkman's assessment:

"With this Rocket situation, there's two kinds of people: people that are not surprised and morons."

The concept of "both."

The Yankee pitching is bad. Their first baseman is also bad. Their first baseman should not be compared to their pitching staff. He should be compared to other first basemen:

"Reading your e-mail, I think back to Friday night when the Yankees put up 11 runs and 16 hits against the Mariners -- both season highs -- and still lost.

Did the Yankees lose because they didn't have enough offense, and thus Mientkiewicz should be singled out? I don't believe so. Competent pitching solves a lot of the Yankees' woes, but when a team is losing, suddenly you're looking for scapegoats and the guy hitting under .200 is the easiest target of all."

Yes, they lost because they didn't have enough offense. When the opponent scores 15, your offense has to score 16. Because you lose when you score less runs than your opponent.

Last Friday night is not a good example. Ball Thief was 1-for-2 with a walk and a run scored.

But, in general, the argument does not hold water. A bad player is a bad player. It does not matter if his teammates are good.

The Yankees have a pitching staff with Mussina, Wang, Pettitte, Proctor, Farnsworth, Myers, and Rivera. I never heard anybody say, "It doesn't matter if Kei Igawa's ERA is 75.00. They should have enough pitching without Kei Igawa."

Stop defending Ball Thief because the other players on his team are good.

He is a bad baseball player. It doesn't matter which team he is playing for. Bad baseball players make the team worse.

Lupica finally mentions Alex Rodriguez in a positive manner.

After negatively comparing ARod to Troy Glaus, David Wright, Mike Lowell, and dozens of other inferior players, Lupica can not directly praise ARod:

"Even when A-Rod was having the kind of all-time April he was having, you want to know something?

Reyes was still the best baseball show going."

You want to know something? You are wrong. We all saw it with our own eyes.

The best baseball show going was ARod.

ARod, by the way, still leads his league in homeruns, runs scored, and runs batted in. While batting .370. While playing dazzling defense.

ARod will go down in history as one of the top five baseball players of all time and you missed the whole thing, even though he played right under your nose.


But it's also a question nobody was asking. The appreciation of baseball in its totality expands beyond two morons in a bar arguing Mets vs. Yankees.

I remember Lupica and others pushing the left side of the infield thing. A renaissance of Willie, Mickey, and the Duke. I don't hear too much about it since the third baseman of the Mets is hitting under .250.

Every Yankees fan should be able to appreciate the talents of Jose Reyes. He is much better than I thought he'd be and his career arc seems to be on the rise.

(Of course, so did David Wright's six months ago. So did Edgardo Alfonzo's in 1999. So did Adrian Beltre's three years ago. So, I'll still take the guy who has done it for twelve seasons.)

Every Mets fan and every Red Sox fan should be able to appreciate the talents of Alex Rodriguez. Especially a Red Sox fan who's writing columns for the newspaper which covers the daily events of the city in which Alex Rodriguez plays baseball.


Plus, just when you think Mike Lupica couldn't possibly be more hypocritical, couldn't possibly be more of a Mets fan, Mr. Tough Guy New York Writer throws this pathetic bouquet of flowers to the Mets third baseman:

"Sports fans can boo anybody they want to in sports, booing is one of the last rights they have left.

And they sure do buy the right when they buy the ticket.

I just don't think that right should include David Wright."

So sad.

.248 with 2 homeruns and the grizzled New York newspaper man defends him.

Lupica leads the parade when ARod was gets booed, when Sheffield got hurt, when Randy Johnson was losing playoff games. Lupica said Clemens didn't deserve the Cy Young when Clemens was 20-3.

Fair enough. The Daily News is birdcage liner and nobody has to read it.

But you should be consistent if you want to be able to look at yourself in the mirror.

Instead of defending the Mets' awful third baseman, go get Bill Gallo to draw a cartoon of David Wright in his $10 million diapers.

Get ready for six more weeks of winter.

In the fourth inning of tonight's game, Alex Rodriguez was on second base with two outs. Robinson Cano struck out and the ball rolled away from the catcher. Cano ran to first base and Rodriguez scored all the way from second base.

Turns out, the ball hit Cano in the foot after he'd swung, so the play was over and Cano was out.

Joe Torre put down his green tea, pried himself off the bench, and emerged from the dugout to argue the play.

He scurried back into the dugout so quickly, that I'm pretty sure he saw his shadow.

One of these things is not like the other.

The life of Mariano Rivera must be odd because he is consistently disrespected every time his ERA rises above 0.00.

But at least I get a chance to see Joe Borowski and Mariano Rivera mentioned in the same breath:


"On the way down


Armando Benitez, Giants

Joe Borowski, Indians

Ryan Dempster, Cubs

Tom Gordon, Phillies

Trevor Hoffman, Padres

Jason Isringhausen, Cardinals

Todd Jones, Tigers

Brad Lidge, Astros

Mariano Rivera, Yankees

B.J. Ryan, Blue Jays

Bob Wickman, Braves"

The oddest entry on this list is B.J. Ryan.

Thirty-one years old, 74 saves in the past two seasons, and a 1.37 ERA last year.

Ryan gets hurt early in the 2007 season and, guess what? It's safe to say that his best days are behind him.

Gloggers are even more useless than bloggers.

Funny thing is, the premise is correct. Jose Reyes and other players with similar abilities should focus on on-base percentage instead of slugging percentage.

So, I guess this is a case of a wrong arguments leading to a correct conclusion:

" Marco Lockett

Set the table. Lead off base hit for Reyes. He is doing what a lead off man is suppose [sic] to. Instead of dreaming about the long ball set the table for the big boppers. Especially when your [sic] down by a few runs. Solo shots do no damage. Three run mashes demoralize the opposition."

Solo shots don't do as much damage as three run homeruns, but they still do some damage. One run's worth of damage, to be precise.

I am also confused by the clause, "Especially when you're down by a few runs."

If the Mets were down by one run, or if the game was tied, should Reyes then dream about the long ball?

Reyes did not even score. He was thrown out at home on the back end of a double steal. Where's your demoralizing three run homerun now? Would you take the harmless solo homerun instead?