Monday, August 26, 2013

This week I am just going to enjoy watching the Yankees trying to make the stretch run something interesting. Soriano has been a joy to watch. Cano, now with some protection in the line-up, is once again looking like the best secondbaseman ever. The Captain - Derek Jeter - returns to the lineup tonight in Toronto where the Bombers play their 2013 patsies, the Blue Jays.

It's going to be 100 here in Minneapolis. A/C is pumping.

That's all I got. Go out and play.

B.

Monday, August 19, 2013

  A full two weeks later, and A-void is still dominating the pages of the newspaper and overloading the tweet-feed. If George M. Steinbrenner was still alive and in charge of the New York Yankees I do believe that, much in the words of CVB/Cracker front-man David Lowery, would have sent his "sorry ass back to Florida" and would have eaten the $100M "owed*" to the embattled ballplayer. (* I am more than a little galled to do the math, but I could live comfortably for FIVE years (I live cheaply) on what he "earns" in a day.

But, avoid did earn his money last night. From statements coming in before and during the series with the bosox up in fenway, there were assumptions that someone would throw at arod. The best bet was on Lackey, but maybe that was way too obvious. So it fell to Ryan Dempster -- who has never actually figured out a way to beat the Yankees -- to throw at arod. Threw the first pitch behind his knees, "missed" with two inside fastballs before plunking arod in the elbow on a 3-0 pitch.

Apparently, home-plate umpire Brian O'Nora (did I spell that right?) was the ONLY one in the ballpark who didn't think that dempster threw at arod intentionally. Girardi went apoplectic and got tossed from the game. The Yankee manager got to watch on TV as arod had the best revenge possible: a monster home-run (430 feet +) to dead-center. He got to stand and watch it. He got to jog around the bases, pumping his fist and firing curse-words at whomever he chose, for in that moment - and only in that moment - he was doing what he is being (over)paid to do: help drive the Yankee offense which has turned off the anemia of late. Arod mocked Big Papi's home-plate salute to the fans and to heaven.

Honestly though, I wish we had more moments like that and less of the insane lawyering up, the potshots between the player and the team brass. This whole season has been turned into a debacle by the likes of arod and braun ... at least Tejada's suspension fell by the wayside news-wise, but I am sick of all the stuff that doesn't happen on the field.

Oh, well- Twins host the Mets in a make-up game today: play ball! Neither of those ballclubs have anyone juicing I have to think, or they'r be playing better, right? Right?

Here's my new ROSE website: go check it out...

Thanks,
B.

Monday, August 5, 2013


“When I was a little boy, I wanted to be a baseball player and join a circus. With the Yankees I’ve accomplished both.”—Third baseman Graig Nettles, on playing for two-time World Series champion New York Yankees in the late 1970s, quoted in Kenneth McMillan,Tales From the Yankee Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Yankee Stories Ever Told (2001)

One of the more famously funny Yankee quips of my life-time and Nettles was hilarious and spot on... but now there's the circus that has mushroomed up around The Fall of the Player Once Respectfully Referred to as A-Rod and while it's served as distraction from the horrible (although could be worse) season the 2013 New York Yankees are suffering through with their faithful fans, myself very much included. 

But even losing series to sad-sack teams like the Padres is more entertaining than le Cirque d'A'Fraud that has become the back -- and front -- page story in the New York Daily News since... gosh, back when Billy Martin was punching marshmallow salesmen and threatening the same with his right-fielder, Reginald Martinez Jackson. 

So, while the other dirty dozen or so ballplayers are taking their lumps - and their suspensions - as of this morning A-Rod is the sole hold-out and the word is that he will be playing the hot corner for the Yankees tonight in Chicago versus the White Sox. The White Sox know all about lifetime bans (google/see: 1919 Chicago "Black Sox" scandal if you don't know of what I speak) and while Selig threatened A-Roid w/a lifetime ban as 'good for the game' although that does set the "ball-player" up for sympathy from people who buy his lies and don't want to see him separated from the $100M or so due to him from the Yanks.

It's been such a game of chicken -- although I really do get the distinct impression that MLB and Selig have the goods on A-Rod -- and now if Rodriguez does get to appeal his apparent 210-game suspension (the rest of 2013 and ALL of the 2014 season) who knows what shakes out? As a fan of the game and of the Yankees (both things that A-Rod claims as well, mind you) I would love to just see him gone and gone for good. At least Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens (who kinda/sorta came out in defense of his former teammate) are no longer the most hated guys in recent MLB history.

One of the claims that MLB has against A-Rod (a great Yankee teammate apparently if ever there was one) is that he got other players using PEDs and when you look at the list of current, or former Yankee teammates on the list, well, you get their point:

Initially confirmed by FoxSports.com, the players to have agreed to the suspensions without the right to appeal are:
[+] EnlargeNelson Cruz
Tom Pennington/Getty ImagesRangers All-Star outfielder Nelson Cruz is among 12 players who have reportedly agreed to 50-game suspensions for their roles in the Biogenesis case.


• Nelson CruzRangers outfielder
• Everth CabreraPadres shortstop
• Jhonny PeraltaTigers shortstop
• Antonio BastardoPhillies reliever
• Jordany ValdespinMets outfielder
• Francisco CervelliYankees catcher
• Jesus MonteroMariners catcher
• Cesar Puello, Mets outfield prospect
•  Sergio EscalonaHouston Astrospitching prospect
• Fernando Martinez, Yankees outfield prospect
• Fautino De Los Santos, free-agent pitcher
• Jordan Norberto, free-agent pitcher



Thanks for reading, now let's just PLAY BALL!
B.