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More Baseball – Weather or Not…

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

Tonight’s Phillies/Rockies game has been postponed due to snow and record low temperatures in Denver, despite the Rockies’ home field being the only one in the major leagues with an underground heating system.

Tomorrow’s Yankees/Twins game will likely go on as planned, even though Minneapolis’ forecast for tomorrow night is 38 degrees and snow flurries, but that’s only because the Twins still play in the Metrodome (an absolutely awful, but still, indoor) place to play baseball. Next year, when the Twins move to Target Field, which has no roof (retractable or otherwise), this will be the kind of thing Twins fans might wake up to on game day:


(Photo is of an actual house in the Minneapolis suburbs, courtesy of a very cold friend of mine…)

Of course, their other option is to just stop playing baseball in September from now on… ;-)

Categories: Sports Talk | 1 Comment »

An Instant Yankee Classic – ALDS Game 2

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

Wow, what a game…

After watching Derek Jeter break Lou Gehrig’s all-time Yankee hits record back on September 11, 2009, I commented on how every time you go to Yankee Stadium, there’s a chance you’ll see something special. Well, October 9, 2009 was certainly no exception. This could be the greatest game I have ever seen, or ever will see, live. And the best part, by far, is that my kids were there to see it too.

The game had everything. Through five innings, it was a classic pitchers’ duel – the Twins had two hits and the Yankees had one. In the sixth, the Twins broke through with a run, but the Yankees immediately countered with a run of their own. In the eighth, both teams now into their bullpens, the Twins put together three hits and a walk and took a 3-1 lead.

The Yankees couldn’t respond immediately in the eight, and after a quiet ninth from Mariano Rivera, they came to bat with their backs against the wall. Mark Teixeira who, up until that point, hadn’t had a hit in either post-season game, singled into right field. Then Alex Rodriguez, who had struggled in the post-season in the recent past, but had driven in a couple of runs in Game 1, hit a monster homerun over the center-field fence to tie the game and send it into extra innings. The crowd went nuts.

In the tenth, the Twins put runners on first and third with two out, but Orlando Cabrera flied out to right to end the threat. The Yankees got a man on with one out, and pinch-ran the speedy Brett Gardner. He stole second base, and then went to third on an errant throw by the Twins’ closer, Joe Nathan. After an intentional walk made it first and third, Johnny Damon hit a screaming line drive to Cabrera, who turned an easy double-play on Gardner after he broke for home on contact. More tension, and still, more baseball.

In the eleventh, Joe Mauer led off the inning with a pop-up down the left field line that Melky Cabrera couldn’t get to. In the stadium, it was a minor disappointment and the game continued. Everywhere else, though, replays showed that the ball was obviously a fair ball, and Mauer should have been on second base. Despite the bad call, Mauer singled. And then the next two Twins did the same. Bases loaded, nobody out – eleventh inning of a playoff game. Sheesh! Then, the Yankees pulled off the impossible. A line drive to Teixeira. A ground ball to Teixeira that he throws home for the force out. And then a lazy fly ball to center-field, and the Twins had, incredibly, failed to score.

Which brought us to the bottom of the eleventh inning, still tied. That is, until Mark Teixeira brought the game to an end with line-drive homerun into the left-field seats. Absolute bedlam in the Bronx. High-fives and hugs all around. The (now traditional) pie in the face from AJ Burnett for Mark Teixeira and three choruses of New York, New York with Frank Sinatra – all before a single one of the 50,006 people left the stadium.


As I said, any trip to Yankee Stadium can lead to something special. This one was truly one for the ages.

[Note: Click on either of the above images to see a full slide-show of our fun time at the game, or click on the thumbnail in the “Featured Photos” section on the left]

Categories: Family Matters, New York, New York, Sports Talk | 2 Comments »

Teacher Abuses Student over Yankees/Red Sox Rivalry

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

I know the Yankees have been beating up on the Red Sox lately, which can often lead to some harsh words in both ballparks, but you’d think we could keep the fourth grade classrooms in upstate New York peaceful, no?

Baldwinsville teacher, a Red Sox fan, makes student turn Yankees T-shirt inside out

Van Buren, NY — Van Buren Elementary fourth-grader Nathan Johns thought his teacher was kidding Wednesday when he instructed him to go to the bathroom and turn his Yankees T-shirt inside out.

Nate complied, and said he was later told to wear it that way until dismissal. At lunch, Nate said the fifth-graders made fun of him because he wearing his shirt inside out.

Categories: Sports Talk | 2 Comments »

Easy Come, Easy Go…

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Kind of makes you understand how Michael Jackson felt when he held his kid over the railing, huh?

Kidding people! I’M KIDDING!!!

(Hat tip: Pam Konde) 

Categories: Sports Talk | 2 Comments »

Derek Jeter – All-Time Yankee Hit Leader

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

Been There. Seen That. Got the T-shirt.

No, seriously, I got the t-shirt. But more on that later.

First, I need to describe one of those Yankee Stadium moments. As I told a New York Post reporter earlier this week (who, by the way, never put it in an article…), every time you buy a ticket to a game in Yankee Stadium, there’s a chance that you’re going to see something magical. Over the years, I’ve seen milestones (including Derek Jeter’s 2,000th hit), special accomplishments (including A-Rod hitting three homeruns in a game) and other surprises (including Roger Clemmens’ announcement that he was returning to the Yankees). I’ve accidentally wound up at both Ron Guidry Day and Bob Sheppard Day. And that’s not to mention the special games I intentionally bought tickets for – Old Timers’ Day, playoff games, World Series games – you name it.

Last night was, literally, a perfect storm at Yankee Stadium. It was raining all day, to the point where I thought there was no way they were even going to play the game. As it turned out, they had a rain delay of roughly ninety minutes, which allowed the excited crowd to get, well…let’s call it “lubricated” before the game began. Then, there was an emotional tribute to the anniversary of 9/11/01, including the dedication of the USS New York, a ship that will be launched into military service in November, which contains 7.5 tons of steel recovered from the World Trade Center site. And then finally, the game began.

I’m told they were saying on television that the stadium had a playoff atmosphere that night. They were right. In the first inning, the rain was still falling pretty hard, and everyone was extremely pumped up. Derek Jeter came to bat in the bottom of the first and struck out, but everytime he swung the bat, ten thousand flashbulbs went off. And when he made contact (foul balls), the place collectively gasped.

The Yankees put a few hits together, so he led off the third inning as well. And that was when it happened. A line-drive single down the right field line, past the Orioles’ diving first baseman and into history.

The Yankees, having obviously discussed this ahead of time, poured out of the dugout and hugged him, one at a time. Not a single handshake in the bunch – all hugs. He is their teammate and their captain, and you could see the respect and admiration they all have for him personally. You could also tell that they recognized the enormity of what he had just accomplished. After all, Lou Gehrig held this record for more than seventy years, and given the way players jump between teams today, Jeter may well hold it forever.

I could go on and on, but it’s probably easier just to show you the video I shot of the whole thing:

Congratulations to Derek Jeter, the all-time Yankee hit leader. Glad I was there to see it happen!

Oh, yeah – about that T-shirt…

Minutes after he broke the record, the Yankees were running advertisements on the stadium scoreboard that T-shirts and pennants commemorating the event were now available in the Yankee Stadium stores. My friend and I laughed about it at first, but two innings later, decided to go check it out. I was going to buy a T-shirt for myself and a pennant for each of my kids, but when we got there, I found that they were almost out of extra-large T-shirts (they had plenty of small and 2XL shirts, but neither of those would fit me) and they were completely out of pennants. I picked up a couple of commemorative 8×10 photos of Jeter for the kids and set out to find the end of a very, very long line to pay for it all (it took a full inning to finally pay). During my search for the end of the line, I passed a guy who was holding at least fifty pennants, at which point I realized that the Yankees had not put any kind of “maximum – 5 items per person” limit on these items, so people were scooping them up for sale on eBay or whatever after the game. Shame on that guy and others like him, and shame on the Yankees for not taking the steps necessary to ensure everyone who wanted one of these items could get one.

Categories: Sports Talk | 3 Comments »

Inside Baseball

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

I’ve just returned from my first indoor baseball game – the Minnesota Twins played host to the Chicago White Sox in the soon-to-be football-only Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome here in Minneapolis. I realize domes have been around for a very long time, and that almost all of them are retractable nowadays, but since it was my first time, I feel the need to crack wise about it anyway.

And so, without further adieu, here is a list of the Top Ten things overheard today in the Metrodome during the Twins/White Sox game:

10. Good afternoon, sports fans, it’s a beautiful day for baseball here in Minneapolis, or at least that’s what I’m told by the folks who’ve been outside recently.

9. Tickets to the Twins game today? No thanks, it’s a beautiful day and we’re going to the zoo. Save the ballgame for when it’s cold & rainy.

8. Welcome to the ballpark. Before taking the field, please remove your shoes – we’ve just had the carpet cleaned.

7. Speaking of the carpet – you know how when you mow the outfield grass in a baseball stadium, you wind up with those horizontal stripes that reflect which way the mower was riding? Is it really necessary to put horizontal lines on AstroTurf? I mean who, exactly, do they think they’re fooling?

6. “Take me in to the ballgame, Take me in to the crowd…”

5. Ground ball to third base, the third baseman fields it . . . and calls for the five-ball in the corner pocket.

4. Only 12 more home games until the first game canceled due to severe weather…

3. Of all the available colors, why in the name of all that is holy would you make the roof the same color as a baseball?

2. Dome, Sweet Dome.

…and the number one thing overheard today in the Metrodome during the Twins/White Sox game:

1. We might not win it all this year, but wait ’till next year. Sky’s the limit!!

 

Categories: Sports Talk | 5 Comments »

Yankees Chasing Records: A-Rod and Jeter

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Rooting for the Yankees has always meant more than aiming at the current year’s World Series; the bigger picture has also included their place in baseball’s history. This era is no exception, with the principal players being Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. Here’s a quick analysis of where they stand with regard to home runs and hits, respectively:

Alex Rodriguez is chasing Barry Bonds’ lifetime home run record of 762 home runs. He currently stands in 9th place with 575, at the age of 34. Interestingly, if he ends this season with 30 home runs, and then hits 30 in each of the next six years (when he’ll be 40 years old), he will end the 2015 season with exactly 763 home runs. Given that A-Rod has averaged 42 home runs per year since 1996 (his first full year), I’d say 30 per year until he’s 40 is very doable. Of course, if he continues to average 42 per year, then he’d end the 2015 season with 847. If this year is any indication, though, that’s likely a stretch goal at best.

Derek Jeter’s story is not as encouraging. Pete Rose holds the all-time hits record with 4,256 hits. Derek, at the age of 35, currently sits in 59th place with 2,704 (NOTE: the hits category is much more dense than the home run category – Derek’s next 25 hits move him up seven slots). If Derek ends this season with 200 hits, and then averages 200 hits until he’s 40 (the 2014 season), he will end his career with 3,735 hits, putting him in fourth place all-time, just 36 hits behind #3 – Hank Aaron, and 521 hits behind Pete Rose. To reach Rose, he’d have to continue to average 200 hits until he was 43 years old (2017). Add to this the fact that Jeter’s averaged 194 hits per year since 1996 (also his first full year), so 200 per year is not a slam dunk like A-Rod’s 30 home runs per year seems to be (barring injury, of course). Not that fourth place on the all-time hits list is anything to sneeze at, of course, but #1 is looking pretty bleak right now.

Categories: Sports Talk | 4 Comments »

Michael Vick Dog Jersey – $39.99 on nflshop.com

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

There really isn’t too much more to say, is there…

Hat tip: Anthony Campisi
 

Categories: Sports Talk | 3 Comments »

Gotta Hand It to the Oakland Fans…

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

I’m a life-long Yankee fan, but when I see pure genius in another team’s fans, I’m a big enough person to give them their due. This awesome scene was caught on the YES network during a Yankees-A’s game in Oakland:

Well done, little girl…

Categories: Sports Talk | 4 Comments »

When Baseball Statistics Go Wrong…

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Last week’s Wall Street Journal had a great article entitled Baseball Research Veers Into Left Field. Among the so-called “conclusions:”