Yankees vs. TB 4/15 (Live Chat)

Hate the Rays?

So do we! Do you want to talk about it?

We are debuting a new live chat feature, so stop by around 4PM and see if it actually works.

[ Ed. note: Guess what...it didn't work too well, so please just leave comments on the game in the post below for now. In related news: Coming Soon to Fack Youk, Live Chatting!]

Game 9: Stop That Train

The rubber match in this series pits Andy vs. Andy, Pettitte vs. Sonnanstine, Veteran vs. (Somewhat) Young Gun, Lefty vs. Righty. You get the idea...

Pettitte was brilliant in his first performance (7IP, 1ER, 6K) while Sonnanstine was less so (4.2IP, 5ER, 8H).

It's also a classic getaway game, with the Yanks wrapping up the 9 game road trip with which they began their season. Sitting at 4-4 right now, in the middle of an upside down-looking division, this game determines whether they enter their new digs with a winning or losing record.

Also, if you are stranded at work, be sure to check out the [Update:] comment thread to fill up on some good natured John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman fun-poking, along with up-to-the-moment overreactions to whatever happens.

Yeah, this game brings another Marley song, but it's a live version of one you that you might not have heard. I promise not to use more than one per series.

So I got to say,
Stop that train, I'm leavin' (oh, baby now!)
Stop that train, I'm leavin' (don't care what you say!)
Stop that train, I'm leavin' (and I said)
It won't be too long, whether I'm right or wrong,
Said, it wont be too long, whether I'm right or wrong

[Update: Apparently, there is some sort of crazy power-related delay going on...]

Right On Time

Via MLBTR, The Post has quotes from Omar Minaya and Jeff Wilpon indicating that the Mets could expand their payroll:

GM Omar Minaya confirmed to The Post yesterday that he has permission from ownership to increase the payroll.

"We've been told that whatever we need to do to get to help us win, we're going to try to do it," Minaya said. "[The payroll is] not unlimited. But there is the ability to increase if we need areas that need to be addressed."

COO Jeff Wilpon also said yesterday, "Omar has the flexibility to do what he has to do to give us a winning team."

Now they are willing to take on salary? Where was all this cash when Derek Lowe and Adam Dunn were still available? Instead of signing players in the best free agent market in recent history, they are going to shed prospects to take on guys with overvalued contracts?

Orlando Hudson for $4M and give nothing up? Hell no! Part with minor league talent for the right to take on another team's terrible contract? Absolutely! Have fun with that.

Hate To Break It To You, But There Is No Santa Claus Either

[Jinx is Magic Hat's Scotch Ale]

As A.J. Burnett walked off the mound in the bottom of the fourth inning last night, John Sterling mentioned that he was carrying a no-hitter. I couldn't see the box score, and I cringed for a second, knowing that there are scores of people out there who actually think that mentioning a no-hitter or perfect game in progress "jinxes" it. Apparently Michael Kay said it on the YES broadcast as well.

Friends, we live in an age of science and reason. How, exactly, does what an announcer says into a microphone in a box 50 feet above the field impact what happens when a pitch crosses home plate? You think that's the only thing stopping a pitcher from throwing a no-no every time he takes the mound? Where do you draw the line? What if a fan in the stands mentions it? What about you at home? What if I type it? ZOMG JINX!!!1!one1!!exclamationpoint!!

No-hitters are extremely rare, there have only been 256 in the history of the MLB, or about two per year. You know what keeps them from happening? Probability. Why doesn't this apply for the cycle? There are just about as uncommon, and when a batter comes up to the plate with a 1B, 2B and a HR, you hear the announcer say "Just a triple short of the cycle" every single time and no one says a peep.

I think it's cool that the players leave the pitcher alone in the dugout. It's a great old-timey baseball tradition/superstition, and it could actually directly affect the pitcher. If a person says something odd to a pitcher that gets in his head, it might put him in the wrong frame of mind when he goes back out to the hill. I get that.

What I don't get are the morons who are going to call into the Michael Kay Show today and bitch about the fact that Kay mentioned it on the air. If John Sterling took calls during the pregame, he'd have to deal with these Druids too. Until Sterling mentioned it, I didn't know Burnett hadn't given up a hit yet. If he had never brought it up, who knows how many in the radio audience would not have realized what was taking place. It's called broadcasting. You are supposed to inform your audience of what is going on. It made the game a whole lot more interesting for the listeners.

If you are outraged that broadcasters mention no-hitters on the air, please go to Thesaurus.com and look at the antonyms for superstition:

Antonyms: fact, reality, truth