700 wins in one season would be, like, a record.

While playing manager, GM, and spiritual advisor for the Yankees, Mike Mussina drops some fuzzy math:

"I think the expectations in New York -- playing for the Yankees, all of the media coverage -- the expectations are large. They're high. Randy, his name is synonymous with 15 strikeouts, 20 wins. When you put on pinstripes, you're expected to do that 35 times a year."

Football is different than baseball.

"Maybe A-Rod will finally have a playoff series - or even just one playoff game - like Peyton had last Sunday against the Patriots. Peyton is now halfway to changing his own place in football history, halfway because last Sunday won't mean anything in the long run if he can't beat the Bears next Sunday.

If he can do it, maybe A-Rod can."

Alex Rodriguez's has never played in a World Series.

Maybe that is what Lupica means.

But I don't think that is what Lupica means.

Last Sunday, in an important playoff game, Peyton Manning was 27-for-47 for 349 yards and one TD.

What is the baseball equivalent of this?

I don't know, excactly. I think it's a pointless comparison.

But I do know that ARod hit .409/.480/.773 against the Yankees in the 2000 ALCS. That's better than 27-for-47, 349.

I also know that ARod hit .421/.476/.737 against the Twins in the 2004 ALDS. That's better than 27-for-47, 349.

You're looking for a single game? How about this game? 4-for-5 with a double, a homerun, 2 rbis, and 2 runs scored. Trust me, that's better than 27-for-47, 349. It's like 37-for-47, 480, and 4 TDs.

I must be a genius. I found "just one playoff game" performance by Alex Rodriguez that's better than Peyton Manning's performance last Sunday. I could easily find several more

Or maybe I'm just proving why it's dumb to compare football to baseball.

After all, ARod doesn't pitch.

With sentimental pushes like that ...

Have you ever heard of the rule of three?

Basically, lists of three have a certain rhythm that is often appealing. For example, the rule of three is very noticeable in advertisements or joke telling.

It's the only explanation I can think of for Bernie Williams's inclusion in Johnette Howard's list:

"This Yankees nostalgia kick is way over the top. Granted, it's been years and a couple zillion dollars since the Yankees last won the World Series, but you know the sentimental push to bring back title-team stars Andy Pettitte, Bernie Williams and Roger Clemens has gone way too far when Jim Leyritz announces he wants to make a comeback, too."


This is the Yankees' so-called sentimental push for Bernie Williams, as described on the Yankee website:

"The Yankees have made it a point to tread delicately regarding Bernie Williams' future this winter.

But with Spring Training drawing closer and no contract offers yet from the club, Williams is accepting the idea that his 16-year career with the Yankees may be over.

...

He has been waiting for the Yankees to make him an offer, but told the newspaper that he understands it may not appear.


'Part of me says if they wanted me, they would have made an offer by now,' Williams told the Journal-News. 'When you play this game for a long time, you take things for granted and think it won't end. But the harsh reality of it is, it will.'"

J.V. shortstop gets his revenge.

All the grand jury testimony and leaks of confidential information and Congressional hearings. What does it really all boil down to? A frustrated athlete who got cut from the team:

"Kevin could have been a star," says Greg Suhr, the San Francisco deputy police chief and Ryan's childhood friend. "If he had used steroids or something like that, you're talking about another 25 pounds of muscle, more speed and a whole lot more recruiters. But he … played by the rules. You do the best with what you got. That's what he's always believed in.

"What he's doing now with BALCO, and Barry Bonds, and all of these guys who cheat, he's striking a blow for the good guys."

President Truman, what do you think of Lazzeri's range to his left?

I'm not sure if this is more embarrassing for the President or for the reporter.

Where's the love for Kevin Maas?

So, Cashman has won nothing on his own.

"In the 14 months since he wrestled power away from George Steinbrenner's cabal of advisors in Florida, Cashman has reformatted the Yankees into an organization determined to develop star players rather than pay a premium for them. Along with significant roster changes, Cashman has made a series of personnel moves within the baseball operations department, firing several longtime scouts and coaches and reassigning others."

In the 14 months since Cashman wrestled power away from George Steinbrenner's cabal of advisors in Florida, the Yankees have a .250 winning percentage in the playoffs.

I think this much-maligned cabal of advisors was winning Championship rings while Brian Cashman was a gofer for the Columbus Clippers.

Heck, I'll bet the much-maligned cabal of advisors could have picked up some bats and managed one lousy run against Kenny Rogers.

Stick to the stories about guys chasing after a ball on a field.

"To the end, people continue to try to protect a guy who doesn't deserve it, and act as if a leak about use of a banned substance is more significant than the drug use itself. Wonderful."

This may be a difficult concept for Mike Lupica to understand, but Barry Bonds deserves protection simply because he is a citizen of the United States.

The Bill of Rights is not a joke.

Mike Lupica, and a lot of other short-sighted folks, have no use for the Fourth Amendment. Not until maybe their teenage son is pulled over on a highway, 4:00 am, breath smells of alcohol. Maybe he took a few cough drops is all. Maybe the cop is a Mets fan who reads the name on the license and doesn't like what his pop said about Carlos Beltran.

Maybe Lupica doesn't care about confidential grand jury testimonies until he gets a subpoena.

Maybe Lupica doesn't care about the Fourth Amendment until a late-night knock on his door. Lupica talked to a confidential source who might have known something about something really important like steroid use and homerun records. Now the FBI wants to take a look-see at all of Lupica's computer files.


Guess what, everybody?

Barry Bonds took performance-enhancing substances of some kind, whether they were illegal, legal, or in a pseudo-legal grey area. Bonds is probably going to get off because he was careful enoguh to maintain plausible deniability. This is not fair. Hank Aaron's homerun record will be broken by a selfish cheat.

Get over it.

The Nero Congress is wasting its time trying to protect the records of their boyhood idols.

The prosecutors can't get Bonds within the rules, so they bend the rules. The ends justify the means. It's a far worse crime than cheating at baseball.


Baseball is a game.

The Bill of Rights is not a game.

Hall of Fame 2017.

I've got a Hall of Fame debate for you.

A player who has played for nine years and has already accumulated five all-star appearances, three gold gloves, and four silver slugger awards.

Never won an MVP, but came in the top ten three times.

.333 career batting average and a 162-game average of 33 homeruns and 113 runs batted in.

No postseason exploits to bolster his candidacy, but no off-field shenanigans to hamper his candidacy, either.

His "Most Similar" players at baseball-reference.com are Hank Greenberg and Vladimir Guerrero.

You think it's difficult to factor in the steroid era? Try factoring the steroid era at Coors Field.

Mad Libs.

Just replace "major league baseball" with "Pakistan" and "steroid use" with "find Osama bin Laden."

If you pretend, you may be able to sleep better tonight, with the knowledge that your elected representatives have their priorities in order.

Also, take comfort in the fact that this guy is dictating America's domestic policies.

Tim Brown runs out of baseball players.

"Then there's Ledee, kind and affable and easy to root for. He's too young to be old, too talented to be done, and yet wonders what's next, if anything."

By major league baseball standards, Ricky Ledee is old.

Untalented, too.

Perspective.

What was I expecting when I decided to read Tommy Lasorda's blog?

Tommy Lasorda reminisces about the "mixed emotions" he felt when he first learned about Bobby Kennedy's assassination:

"It was a night of mixed emotions. While I was happy for Big Don, I was sad and angry about the assassination."

"Big Don" referring to Don Drysdale, who was the starting pitcher for the Dodgers that evening. Two earned runs in 6 1/3 innings.

Willie Randolph Hangin' Tough.

"More than ever, Randolph believes he can take this team where it needs to be. He is going to continue to manage in the same aggressive style that has turned the Mets around during his two-year tenure.

He will attack. Randolph said if he were presented again with the same Game 7 circumstances, he would not bunt the runners over in that fateful ninth.

If the Mets trailed by one run instead of two, he would have bunted, but he did not want to give up the out. He had faith in Cliff Floyd and rolled the dice, and the bottom line is Beltran got to the plate with the bases loaded."

I'm glad Kevin Kernan is not my accountant.

The Yankees are an old team.

"You know who the core group of young Yankees is at the present time?

Cano and Chien-Ming Wang.

That's the whole list, despite all the giddiness about pitching prospects from the Tigers and Diamondbacks."

True, the Yankees are old. But they did get younger this offseason. Which is something I don't care about too much, but it's something Lupica obsesses about.

Besides, Cashman's strategy is to flood the minors with youngsters and hope one or two of them stick. For example, Philip Hughes should definitely be on the list of the core group of young Yankees.

I'm also not sure why Lupica seldom seems to notice how old the Mets are. Wright, Reyes, and a whole bunch of artifacts. The Moises Alou signing didn't exactly help matters, right?

But the funniest part is Lupica's solution to make the Yankees younger. Replace 33-year-old Doug Mintkayvitch with 30-year-old Andy Phillips:

"What, Andy Phillips couldn't play first base?"

Yes, if Andy Phillips played first base instead of Doug Mintkayvitch, the Yankees' average age would go down 0.12 years.

Fresh and Exciting!


I also just like the fact that Lupica thinks Phillips is young just because Phillips has limited time in the pros.

Phillips is young because I haven't seen him play much baseball on television.

The aging that has occurred offscreen doesn't count.

It's like a baby covering its eyes and thinking it is invisible.

You had me, then you lost me.

Tim Marchman on December 27, 2006:

"Don't Give Up on Johnson in Pinstripes Just Yet."


Tim Marchman on January 5, 2007:

"Trade of Big Unit Is a Step In The Right Direction."

For Marchman's sake, let's hope that consistency really is the hobgoblin of small minds.


"The less important reason is that, all else being equal, it's a good idea for the Yankees to offload a superfluous former All-Star who didn't really seem part of the team. Picking up random people like Johnson, Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Brown, Gary Sheffield, Carl Pavano, and so on isn't why the Yankees haven't won a World Series since 2000, as most players of this class have played wonderfully for them. But on the other hand, Yankee voraciousness has in the past few years been associated with a growing sense of distance between fans and the team, as well as the loss of a sense of team identity. As long as they're sound on the merits, trades that send these kinds of players elsewhere are to be encouraged."

The growing distance between fans and players was so strong that 4,258,067 people went to Yankee Stadium last year to watch the Yankees play baseball. Ornery Randy Johnson may not have drawn anybody to the Stadium, but he didn't repel anybody, either.


Fans like winning. Fans root for the uniform. Even Roger Clemens is now being re-imagined as a clubhouse guy, a big game pitcher, and a True Yankee.

Why?

Because he won a couple of rings with the Yankees.

When you favorite team wins a Championship, it triggers endorphins in your brain, and then you associate all the good feelings with the players you see on the television screen.


However, the 2007 Yankees are not a marketing campaign, they're a professional baseball team.
If these spoiled fans disliked Randy Johnson's 17 wins so much, they may soon realize they dislike Kei Igawa's 17 losses even more.

Peter Abraham's efficient 18-person starting rotation.

How will the Yankees replaced Randy Johson's 17 wins and 200+ innings?

Peter Abraham has the obvious answer:

"As for the 17 wins, they can get 17 wins from Pavano, Igawa, Pettitte, Proctor, the assorted kids and - who knows? - perhaps one Roger Clemens."

It's a good strategy.

Why keep one pitcher who can win 17 games when you can use 10 or 11 pitchers for the same thing?

Every team should probably replace all their expensive, productive players.

The Phillies could easily replace Ryan Howard's 58 homeruns. Just make one trade to the Cardinals and replace Howard with So Taguchi, Scott Spiezio, Ronnie Belliard, Shane Victorino, Chris Coste, David Bell, David Dellucci, and all the outfielders on their AAA team.