Game 72: Hotel Arizona

In the world of Major League Baseball, particularly for a player of his skill level, Javier Vazquez is something of a transient. He's never made it to free agency but since he left the team he was drafted by and debuted with (which no longer exists), he's been traded five times between four different franchises - the Yankees, Diamondbacks, White Sox and Braves. His opponent tonight is perhaps the one of those clubs he is the least synonymous with.

Vazquez was of course dealt in the aftermath of the 2004 ALCS, along with Dioner Navarro and Brad Halsey to Arizona in exchange for Randy Johnson. Fresh off a horrific 51-111 season in '04, the D-Backs took a major step forward in 2005, improving by an incredible 26 wins and finishing second in the (albeit weak) National League West. There's only one way to go from a season in which you win less than one third of your games, but that's still pretty impressive considering they gave away 245 innings of 2.60 ERA starting pitching when the Big Unit headed to New York.

As was the case in New York the year prior, there were high hopes in Arizona for Vazquez. After all, even though he was already 40 at the time, they gave up a guy who won four straight Cy Youngs for them and had just finished second in the voting the year before. But just like with the Yankees, Vazquez's results were disappointing. Javy got the Opening Day start in front of the home crowd but allowed seven runs in 1.2 IP, en route to a football-like 16-6 loss to the Cubs. He followed that with another outing in Phoenix and surrendered six more runs and didn't pretty much nothing to endear himself to the fans.

Vazquez went on to throw 215 innings and made 33 starts that season but had an ERA just about league average and a record of 11-15. At the end of the year, he requested to be traded and was flipped to the White Sox for El Duque, future Yankee Luis Vizciano and current D-Back center fielder Chris Young.

Tonight's starter for Arizona is becoming a bit of a baseball vagabond himself. Dontrelle Willis is on his third team in four years, having been traded from Florida to Detroit, who extended him mid-season in 2008 for no apparent reason and are now literally paying the price for that after they flipped him to the Diamondbacks for Billy Bucker. This will likely be Willis' last year in the desert because his contract is up at the end of this season.

Vazquez's deal expires when the year ends as well and he will probably have to find yet another team too. Maybe these two pitchers will never have true baseball "homes", but feeling like they are perpetually on the road is something they'll just have to get used to.

Well I guess there's some direction maybe you can't see,
Even at the interview,
That's not something that I'm gonna get used to,
That's not something I'm gonna get used to,
Hello, can you hear?

Hello, that's all there is, that's all there is,
I guess all this history is just a mystery to me,
One more worried whisper right in my ear.

[Song Notes: I never really got into Wilco for whatever reason but last year, my friend who is a flight attendant told me that "wilco" is pilot's shorthand for "will comply" and that piqued my interest just enough to download some of their music. I listened to it and I am now an Aquarium Drunkard of sorts, you might say.

This isn't one of my favorite songs of theirs (this one that we used for Game 1 of the ALDS last year is), but these previews have always been more about what works for the storyline than our absolute favorite tunes, musically.]

-Lineups-

Yankees: As was the plan heading into the series, Cervelli returns behind the plate today and bats sixth. Nothing noteworthy other than that.

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Francisco Cervelli C
Curtis Granderson CF
Brett Gardner LF
Javier Vazquez RHP

Diamondbacks:

Kelly Johnson 2B
Stephen Drew SS
Justin Upton RF
Miguel Montero C
Chris Young CF
Adam LaRoche 1B
Mark Reynolds 3B

Gerardo Perra LF
Dontrelle Willis LHP

Game 65: Slow Train Coming

I'm not sure what's more mindboggling, the fact that Jamie Moyer is still pitching in the Major Leagues at age 47 or that, ever since they've been tracking with PitchFX, his fastball has been clocked at speeds roughly between A.J. Burnett's curveball and slider.

In a lot of ways, Moyer is the inverse of what Burnett used to be. When he was with the Marlins, Burnett used to throw hard for the sake of throwing hard and lighting up the radar gun, strike a lot of guys out but also walk a ton of them too. He was a young, tall, menacing presence on the mound for a team in Southern Florida. Meanwhile, Moyer was already well over a decade into his MLB career, an average-sized and easy-going type, pitching in the opposite corner of the country, left handed, throwing in the low 80's and just trying to hit his spots.

Still, their level of performance was pretty similar. From 1999-2005, Burnett had an ERA+ of 111. Moyer? 110. They both struck out about twice as many as they walked, but Burnett was giving out four free passes per nine innings while Moyer was allowing just 2.2. Their WHIPs during that span were a very similar 1.284 and 1.258.

Before last Friday, Moyer and Burnett each had six wins and ERAs under 4.00 on the season. However, Moyer got absolutely hammered in Fenway, allowing nine runs in 1+ IP and raising his ERA a full run in the process.

Burnett hasn't exactly had a smooth go of it as of late, either. He's given up 13 runs in his past three starts against Cleveland, Toronto and Baltimore and hasn't turned in a so-called quality outing in over a month (the five shutout innings he threw in the rain-delayed affair against the Twins not withstading). After sporting an ERA under 2.00 through his first six starts, Burnett has tallied a 5.61 mark over his next seven, raising his overall tally to a much-higher-but-still-respectable 3.86. The lefty-heavy Phillies lineup - as anemic as it has been lately - isn't likely to provide much of a relief for A.J.

The same could be said for the Yankee hitters in relation to Moyer. The Bombers tagged Roy Halladay for three homers and six runs last night but are going to be seeing a wildly different look from the crafty lefty on the hill this evening. Look out boys, the slow (and slower) train is coming.

They say loose your inhibitions, follow your own ambitions
They talk about a life of brotherly love,

show me someone who knows how to live it,
There's slow, slow train coming up around the bend.

[Song Notes: Matt here with the song notes. "Slow Train Coming" is a Bob Dylan song, and was the title track to his controversial 1979 album of the same name. The album was Dylan's first release since announcing his conversion as a Born Again Christian, and most of the songs on the album have some element of spirituality to them. The above performance comes from the North Mississippi Allstars at the 2007 Newport Folk Festival.

As Jay detailed last year, it was at Newport where Dylan became embroiled in the first major controversy of his career, as he played his notorious first electric set at the 1965 Festival. The 2007 Festival was also distinctively un-folk, as the NMA set was sandwiched after the John Butler Trio, and before Gov't Mule and the Allman Brothers Band. Perhaps as a nod to the non-traditional line up that year, but certainly as a nod to Dylan, NMA wove a mini-Dylan set into their performance that day, playing Dylan's "Masters of War", "Oxford Town", and "Slow Train Coming"

I was at that show, and if I recall correctly, I was standing just to the right of the guy filming it (and no, I am not of the shirtless hippy dancers in the video). This was the second of seven NMA shows I saw in a ten day period that summer, and it was a very cool trip. Newport was great - right on the water, excellent views, a great line up. That was also the day Alex Rodriguez hit his 500th career HR.]

-Lineups-

Yankees: A-Rod comin', yo. After five games out of the lineup, A-Rod's groin or thigh or whatever injury has apparently healed up enough for him to return. He'll be eased back into action with an appearance at DH as Jorge Posada tries catching after being removed a bit early from Sunday's game. Kevin Russo is playing third base and hitting eighth but this is the closest the Yanks line up has been to Opening Day form in quite some time.

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson CF
Kevin Russo 3B
Brett Gardner LF

Phillies:

Victorino CF
Polanco 3B
Utley 2B
Howard 1B
Werth RF
Ibanez LF

Dobbs, DH
Schneider C
Valdez SS

What If George Steinbrenner Bought The Buccaneers?

One of the several big media stories Wednesday was that George Steinbrenner would be at Yankee Stadium for Game One of the World Series. Now 79 years old, The Boss's health has reportedly been in decline for some time. His public appearances have been few and far between, and the man who was once a daily quote machine for the New York tabloids now speaks only through rare and bland statements released through his public relations man. But without George and his dedication to expending every possible resource to win, it's unlikely there would be a new Yankee Stadium to visit, and equally unlikely there would be a World Series Game One to attend.

Thursday, a seemingly unrelated story broke. Tampa radio station WDAE reported that the Glazer family was putting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers up for sale, citing the family's reported two billion dollar debt as owners of the English Premier League's Manchester United as the cause for the Bucs hitting the market. The Glazers denied the report later Thursday afternoon.

The two stories falling on successive days made me think back to the mid-nineties, the last time the Bucs were up for sale. Original owner Hugh Culverhouse died August 26, 1994, and his estate decided to sell the team. Long the laughingstock of the league and playing in dilapidated Tampa Stadium, the franchise was ripe for relocation.

The Rams and Raiders were a year away from leaving Los Angeles, with the Raiders returning to Oakland and the Rams heading to St. Louis, which the Cardinals had vacated six years earlier. The Colts had moved to Indianapolis from Baltimore ten years earlier, and the Charm City was two years away from poaching the Browns from Cleveland to replace them. The Oilers were three years away from leaving Houston for Tennessee. In other words, plenty of cities were in the market for an NFL franchise.

As the bidders lined up for the Bucs, several potential ownership groups hung their hat on a promise to keep the team in Tampa. One such bidder was a Tampa resident with an extensive history as a sportsman in football, basketball, horse racing, the U.S. Olympic Committee, and baseball: George M. Steinbrenner III.

On January 17, 1995 the team was sold to Malcolm Glazer, another bidder who promised to keep the team in Tampa. Glazer's offer exceeded Steinbrenner's by about $12M and the sale included a provision for a $35M penalty if the franchise was moved within 10 years. Three years later the Bucs opened state-of-the-art Raymond James Stadium, less than a mile from the Yankees Spring Training complex and what is now George M. Steinbrenner Field. In his eighth season as owner, Glazer hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, a far cry from his team's current 0-7 state.

As the Yankees chase their seventh World Championship of the Steinbrenner Era, I can't help but wonder how the past 15 years of Yankee history would have unfolded had Steinbrenner bought the Bucs. At the time of the sale, baseball was embroiled in the worst labor dispute in its history. Steinbrenner was less than two years removed from returning from his second suspension at the hands of Major League Baseball, and since his return had taken a less active/disruptive role than he had in his heyday. He had owned the Yankees for more than twenty years at that point, and had often been criticized for running the franchise like a football team, likely stemming from his time as a graduate assistant at Ohio St and as an assistant coach at Purdue and then Northwestern in the 1950s.

At the time of the sale, the NFL had a bylaw prohibiting its owners from owning other sports franchises. Less than two years earlier, Wayne Huizenga, who already owned the Florida Marlins and the NHL's Florida Panthers, upped his minority share in the Miami Dolphins to a majority share. As a result of the NFL's bylaw, Huizenga was forced to place his Dolphins ownership stake into a trust until the league evaluated the situation. They eventually rescinded the bylaw, but not before Huizenga spent four years as an absentee owner.

No sooner did the NFL allow Huizenga to keep all three teams, the financial strain forced him to begin selling. His Marlins won the World Series seven months after the ruling came down, but he immediately gutted the team and the next year sold them to current Red Sox owner John Henry. Three years after that he divested himself of the Panthers as well.

We'll never know what would have happened had Steinbrenner bought the Buccaneers. But we do know that in light of the Huizenga situation he would have entered the purchase eyes wide open, knowing his ownership of the Yankees would have posed a problem to the NFL. Would Steinbrenner, a notorious control freak, have had the self-restraint to put his $180M investment in a trust for two years? Or would he have wanted to return to the sport that was his first love and play with his new toy right away? Steinbrenner had reduced his level of control with the Yankees and was already making threats about moving in his quest for a new stadium. Had he purchased the Bucs might he have put the Yankees up for sale? Or, if he kept them both would he have been forced to sell at some point, as Huizenga was? Would his sizeable investment in an NFL franchise have prevented the Yankees payroll from expanding year after year?

Thankfully we never had to discover the answers to those questions. In the fifteen years since Steinbrenner lost out to Glazer, the Steinbrenner Family has reaffirmed its commitment to the New York Yankees. They've captured seven pennants and four Championships, with a fifth just three wins away. They've built a brand new stadium in the Bronx and have invested close to two billion dollars in player payroll since then. Though George has faded to the background, his children have shown no signs of changing things. The organization appears to be in good shape for years to come.

Land Shark Stadium

The stadium the Marlins call home certainly isn't the first facility to host a baseball team named after a shitty beer. But it's probably the most embarrassing to the game.

To start, with a total of 244 reviews on Beer Advocate, Land Shark has received a D+. For an alcoholic beverage to receive a barely passing grade with that large of a sample size is remarkably terrible. I've had exactly one Land Shark in my drinking career and hope to keep it that way. You should probably stick to your margaritas, Jimmy Buffett.

Secondly, "Land Shark" may be the worst possible name for a building that two teams with actual marine animals for mascots call home. Land shark is a bit of an oxymoron, you see? Listen, I love sharks as much as the next guy. Once upon a time in South Africa, I payed a healthy sum to don a wetsuit and stare a Great White in the face through the bars of a cage. It was incredible. I read the The Devil's Teeth and thoroughly enjoyed it. I love Shark Week. I get the fascination with sharks, but not the impulse to pretend they exist on dry land (although this classic SNL skit is quite hilarious).

Land Shark | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

Lastly, and most obviously, watching a baseball game played in Miami makes one played at Tropicana Field feel like an authentic baseball experience. Fact: No football stadium has ever made a good home for a baseball team. When they set up the Carrier Dome for a basketball game and pack it with 30,000+ fans, looking towards the opposite endzone makes it feel desolate. Likewise, when the Yankees come to town and exceed the team's average attendance by 250%, it still feels empty and depressing on TV. Further accentuating the problem is the fact that the upper deck seats are bright orange which makes every empty chair all the more noticeable.

Now it appears the Marlins are getting their own publicly-financed Stadium in 2012, complete with a swimming pool and other gimmicky bullshit. Good luck with that. As the Nationals have shown most recently, a new park doesn't necessarily translate to sellout crowds and a diehard fan base. The one and only thing that it does promise to accomplish is locking a franchise into a city that is destined never to truly appreciate it.

Another Series Lost

Last year on Father's Day, Yankees ace Chien-Ming Wang suffered a lis franc injury in an interleague game against the Houston Astros. He was lost for the season, and in some ways he is still lost. This year on Father's Day, CC Sabathia struggled through his first inning of work. Two batters into the second inning, Sabathia was removed with tightness in his left bicep. At present, it doesn't appear to be serious and CC says he'll make his next scheduled start on Frday. However, with the Yankees in a two week skid, the last thing they need is an injury to their best starting pitcher. Sabathia's early exit is at least cause for some concern.

The Yankees needed to get six and two thirds innings out of their bullpen today, and did so with mixed results. Easing the pain a bit is that everyone will get a day of rest with tomorrow's off day. But with Wang scheduled to start on Tuesday, the Yankee bullpen may need to be on early stand by again.

Alfredo Aceves relieved Sabathia, and Alf continued his impressive 2009 campaign, turning in 2.2 IP of one hit ball, with 2 Ks. He was relieved by Brett Tomko, who offered no relief at all. Entering the game with a two run lead, Tomko gave up a two out home run in both of his innings pitch, In the fifth, Hanley Ramirez launched a long two run shot to left to tie the game. Then in the sixth, Cody Ross blasted an ever deeper shot to left to give the Fish a lead they wouldn't relinquish.

Phil Coke and David Robertson combined to pitch the seventh. Coke retired the leadoff batter, then gave up a base hit as the top of the order came around. D-Rob came in and promptly recorded the second out. Following a walk to Hanley Ramirez, the Marlins struck for two out runs in the third consecutive inning. Robertson hung a 1-2 curveball that Jorge Cantu laced for base hit to leftfield. A great throw from Melky Cabrera could have ended the inning at the plate. Instead he uncorked a bad one that tailed far enough up the third base line that it eluded both Jorge Posada and David Robertson, allowing the sixth and final Marlin run to score. It would prove to be decisive.

On the offensive side, the Yankees had another listless afternoon. They plated three runs in the third with a two out rally, to take an early 3-1 lead. Derek Jeter beat an infield single that was followed by a Nick Swisher walk. Mark Teixeira drove Jeter in with a double, then A-Rod broke his 0 for 16 slump by driving both Swish and Teix in.

The Yankees managed only one more hit until the ninth. Once again, the action came with two outs. Jorge Posada singled on a liner to rightfield, then moved to third on a seeing-eye single from Melky Cabrera. Brett Gardner then drove a triple deep to right center, cutting the deficit to a single run. Johnny Damon pinch hit for Robertson and worked a walk to put the go-ahead run on base, but Derek Jeter grounded the first pitch he saw to shortstop to end the game.

It was a frustrating loss, which has become a theme over the last two weeks. I'm not about to lose my head over a rough stretch in June. But, I hope the team isn't falling back into the funk they were in for much of the early part of the season. Things happen; sometimes a team will drop a series to a team it should beat. But, losing back-to-back series to the Nats and Marlins is not good. Here's hoping the off day tomorrow will give the team a chance to recharge their batteries and start fresh against the Braves on Tuesday.

Game 69: Your Dad Did

Happy Father's Day. Perhaps more than any other sport, baseball is a game passed down from fathers to sons and shared by them thereafter. Today, the Yankees will post a lineup that features two second generation big leaguers: Robinson Cano, son of Jose Cano, and Nick Swisher, son of Steve Swisher. Jorge Posada is the son a Big League scout, and in the dugout, bench coach Tony Pena, is the father of Big Leaguer Tony Pena Jr. But whether they have a Major League pedigree or not, virtually every man in uniform today owes at least some part of their baseball career to their father's guidance.

I imagine that most of you, like me, learned the game from your father, became interested in the game thanks to your father, and had your father bring you to your first game. I'm very grateful that my dad did these things and more for me. I'm also very lucky that I still have the opportunity to go to a game with my dad, to watch a game with him, or to just talk baseball with him. I know not everyone is fortunate enough to have those luxuries. So to my dad, your dad, and dads everywhere, thanks for all you've done for us and Happy Father's Day to you all.

Big Daddy Sabathia will take the mound today, and I'm sure the Yanks are glad to have their ace on the hill as they try to avoid dropping a second straight series to an inferior team. He'll face another 6'7" hurler, Chris Volstad. Volstad has been knocked around in each of his last two starts; the Yanks hope to make it three in row for him today. A-Rod will return to the lineup today after not starting the first two games of the series.

As they do every year, Major League Baseball will partner with the Prostate Cancer Foundation today in an effort to raise awareness about the disease. As I've mentioned in the past, the company that employs me is dedicated to cancer care, particularly the treatment of prostate cancer. One in six men will be diagnosed with the disease in his lifetime. It's the most commonly diagnosed cancer amongst American males, with close to 200,000 new cases per year, and it's the second leading cause of cancer deaths amongst American males. The good news is that it's a highly treatable disease, particularly if caught early. So dads, make sure you get screened anually. The test isn't the most pleasant thing in the world, but it beats the alternative. We want to have you around for many more years of talking baseball.

The older I get, the more people tell me how much I look like my dad, how much I sound like my dad, how I have the same mannerisms as my dad. If I end up turning into my father, I think I'd be doing alright for myself; he's set a great example for me. I'd be proud to do as my dad did. Once again, Happy Father's Day.



Acting like a kid,
Just like your dad did
And you're a chip off the old block
Why does it come as such a shock
That every road up which you rock
Your dad already did

Yanks Drop Opportunity To Win

My favorite type of game to watch is a good pitchers duel. The game moves quickly, both pitchers are usually dealing, and you might even get a few defensive highlights.

Coming out on the losing end of a pitchers duel isn't quite as entertaining. And the difference for the Yankees last night wasn't a defensive highlight, but rather a lowlight on a blown routine flyball.

A.J. Burnett pitched extremely well: 6.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K. He surrendered a solo HR to Dan Uggla in the second, then rebounded by recording 8 of his next 10 outs via Ks, including all three outs in both the third and fourth innings. His second run, an unearned run, came in the sixth, as Johnny Damon lost a Jorge Cantu flyball in the lights, allowing Hanley Ramirez to score from first. It's the second dropped flyball from Damon in less than two weeks and I can't help but wonder if he's still having trouble with his eyes.

As good Burnett was, Josh Johnson was better: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K. The Yankees couldn't touch him early on, as he put down 11 in a row at one point, and 19 of the first 22 he faced. The Yankees finally pushed a run across in the seventh, using an RBI single from Nick Swisher to plate Jorge Posada.

With Johnson out of the game in the eighth, the Yankees threatened again. Hideki Matsui laced a pinch hit, leadoff single. Brett Gardner pinch ran and stole second. A-Rod pinch hit and worked a walk, putting two on with no one out. Derek Jeter was the next batter, and after showing bunt for a few pitches, grounded into his second doubleplay of the night. With the tying run on third, a Johnny Damon strikeout ended the inning.

The Yankees put the tying run on again in the ninth, this time with a Mark Teixeira leadoff single. But Jorge Posada popped to short and Robinson Cano grounded into the Yankees third doubleplay of the night to end the game.

A loss is never fun, but sometimes a team is just going to run into great pitching. The Yankees did last night, and they failed to capitalize on the few opportunities they had. There are a few positives to take out of the game: Burnett turned in a second straight outstanding start. Jorge Posada threw out both would-be base stealers, and worked extremely well with Burnett. Burnett was certain to give credit to Posada, both as he left the mound in the seventh and in his post-game comments. Phil Coke and Phil Hughes continued their stellar pitching out of the bullpen, combining for 1.2 IP of perfect relief, including 3 Ks.

In the end though, it was still a loss. The Yankees will need to take the rubber game today to avoid a second straight series loss to a sub-.500 team.

Game 68: Scene of the Crime

Did you know that Joe Girardi once managed the Florida Marlins? No kidding. The media hasn't played that angle up at all entering this series. All joking aside, Girardi's somewhat tumultous one year tenure with the Marlins has been well documented. No one knows the exact the specifics of what went wrong, but the basics are that the strong-headed Girardi and butt-in-ski owner Jeffrey Loria did not get along, NL Manager of the Year award be damned.

Today, the Yankees will face Josh Johnson, one of the four rookie pitchers that made up Girardi's starting rotation in 2006. Girardi came under fire for his handling of Johnson, running the then 22 year-old rookie back to the mound after a lengthy mid-game rain delay. Johnson would encounter elbow difficulties in 2007, eventually undergoing Tommy John surgery in August of that year. Johnson made an unusually fast recovery, returning to the mound in just eleven months. Thus far in 2009, Johnson has been one of the top starters in the NL: 6-1 with 2.76 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 7.6 K/9, and a 3.6 K/BB.

When interviewing for the Yankee job following the 2007 season, Girardi assuredly had to address the Johnson situation, as the Yankees were undoubtedly concerned about young starters Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes, and Ian Kennedy. While all three have suffered injuries under Girardi's watch, it wouldn't be fair to say that Girardi's handling of those three had any bearing on their injuries.

Where crticism is due however is in Girardi's handling of a still-rehabbing Alex Rodriguez. Until last night, A-Rod had started all 38 games since his return from hip surgery, 35 of those starts coming at 3B. He received the late innings off in blowouts only, completing all but 10 of those games and only twice exiting before the 8th inning. A-Rod will get his second consecutive day off today, suffering from both fatigue and an extended slump.

A.J. Burnett will take the mound for the Yankees. After facing the Mets in his last start, the franchise that originally drafted him, today he will face the Marlins, the team with which he made his Major League debut and spent the first seven seasons of his career. Burnett got out of Florida just before Girardi arrived, so his lengthy injury history, which caused him to miss the 2003 World Series against the Yankees, cannot be pinned on Girardi.

Johnson, Girardi, and Burnett all return to the scene of the crime today as the Yankees try to keep yesterday's momentum going. Here are The Stooges; you may want to turn the volume down if you have the kiddies around.

Can't come back,
A second time,
Gotta get away from the scene of the crime,
Scene of the crime.

Back on Track

The Yankees got back on track last night, momentarily at least. When you get RBI doubles from Angel Berroa and Andy Pettitte it's hard not to win.

More encouraging than his batting though was Pettitte's pitching. Since his back locked up on him in Cleveland on May 29th, Pettitte had turned in three consecutive lackluster starts in which he seemed to battle himself constantly. Last night, Pettitte pitched smooth and easy. While Joe Girardi and trainer Steve Donahue did visit the mound early on, Pettitte showed no ill effects: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER ,0 BB, 7K and throwing 66 of his 108 pitches for strikes. Pettitte was followed by perfect innings from both Brian Bruney and Brett Tomko.

The offense also got it going after several listless performances. Every starter registered at least one hit, with the top four hitters in the order. Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon, Mark Teixeira, and Jorge Posada, all collecting two each. Melky Cabrera hit a rare righthanded home run, just the seventh of his career.

Starter Sean West lasted only 4 innings, giving up 5 ER on 10 H. He entered the game with too few K/9, too many BB/9 and unsustainably low BABIP against. The correction for which I thought he was due came to pass, and for once at least, the Yankees were able to touch up a previously unseen rookie starter. For one night everything seemed back the way it should be for the Yanks. They'll look to build on it tonight.

Game 67: Better Than

Andy Pettitte looks to right his 2009 season and end an embarassing two game losing streak when he takes the mound against the Fish tonight. The last time Pettitte faced the Marlins as a Yankee, he was the winning pitcher in Game 2 losing pitcher in the sixth and final game of the 2003 World Series.

He'll be opposed by Marlins rookie Sean West. The 6'8" southpaw has all of 30 Big League innings to his credit. I've looked at his numbers. On the surface they're good. Digging deeper suggests that he's due for a beating. It didn't happen with John Lannan Wednesday, and I'm not counting on it tonight. We know how this story usually seems to go.

I'm really hoping the comforts of home will help A-Rod out of his slump this weekend. Meanwhile, as of this writing, there's no word as to the availability of Brett Gardner tonight. With interleague shifting to NL parks over the next nine games, the Yankees will need their full complement of bench players. Gardner may not be the best option off the bench, but he's more appealing than Francisco Cervelli, Ramiro Pena, and Angel Berroa.

The Yanks are in a bit of a funk right now. Since shipping up to Boston last Tuesday, they've gone 3-6. They're a Luis Castillo error away from being 2-7 in that span. They've often looked listless during this stretch and have made more than their share of mental errors. They've lost to two unheralded starters in a row, and this weekend they're scheduled to face three more youngsters that they've never seen before.

They have six in a row against the Marlins and the Braves, two sub-.500 teams with noticeable warts. This would be a great time to erase the memory of the problems of the last two weeks. They've played poorly during that stretch, but they're better than that. Now's the time to prove it.

Because you can be better than that,
Don't let it get the better of you,
What can be better than now?
Life's not about what's better than.

Yet Another Reason Why Interleague Play Sucks

Tonight the Yankees kick off a nine game swing through National League parks, meaning their pitchers will have to bat. And run. Which, as we learned last year, could be a disastrous proposition.

Regardless of where you stand on whether the DH belongs in the game, it presents one of the biggest problems with interleague play. It isn't particularly fair to have NL clubs, whose rosters aren't constructed with a DH in mind, enter an AL park and play with a DH. And it certainly isn't fair to have an AL team enter an NL park and have their pitchers bat, when many of them haven't done so regularly since high school.

Yesterday, Mother Nature helped teach us another lesson as to why interleague play sucks. Sure, a rainout during the Subway Series leads to the novelty split stadium doubleheader. But in any other case, as detailed earlier, a rainout wreaks havoc. Because of the gimmickry of interleague play, teams only see each other once. So an interleague rainout can create serious problems and is thus avoided at all costs. That's why MLB forces fans to sit through five hour rain delays on days like yesterday. At least the Yankees had the good sense to reward yesterday's ticket holders with freebie tickets. All else being equal, there was no way the Yankees should have played yesterday. Of course, you could make the argument that given their performance, the Yankees really didn't play yesterday.

This was a lesson I learned the hard way three years ago. After forking over a small fortune to take my father and brothers to Old Timers' Day against the Marlins, we spent hours sitting in the rain. The tarp stayed on the field as the Old Timers were introduced. There was no Old Timers' game, which surely prevented a few broken hips.

After a delay, the game finally started. After an inning plus of baseball, the tarp was called for again. An interminable delay ensued before the game was finally called. Because it was an interleague series, the game was rescheduled as the back end of a day-night doubleheader the following day.

I was one of 6,809 who showed up for the make-up game. Our seats were in the tier boxes along the rightfield line. With the Stadium being virtually empty, after the top of the first we chose to move directly behind the plate for a better view. As the second batter in the bottom of the first, Derek Jeter lined a foul ball exactly where we had just been sitting. There wasn't a soul within four sections of it, but from our new location we had no chance of getting to it before the other seventy-five people in the upper deck.

A couple innings later, the Yankees closed the upper deck, just as they did yesterday. We moved down to the main level. After choosing our new seats, I noticed that there were some cameras in the seats directly in front of us. While we were seated much closer than we had been, we still weren't close enough to be near any of the TV cameras.

After about a half inning, I realized we were seated behind the cast of YES' Ultimate Road Trip, the since-cancelled reality show that had a group of Yankee fans attend every game of the season. That season, one of the girls on the show was pretty cute, so I was satisfied with our new location.

A few innings later, Stadium staffers showed up to move the Road Trippers down to field boxes. I made some smart-ass remark about how we couldn't get upgraded since we didn't have a TV show. The cute one said something like "Oh, but we never get good seats". Yeah, but you get to go to every game for free; my heart really goes out to you.

That was about as exciting as it got that night. I managed to sneak into a couple shots when the episode aired. In the end, the Yankees and future G.M. tosser Shawn Chacon were shutout 5-0 by rookie pitcher Anibal Sanchez. The team played like they didn't care to be there. Sound familiar?

A.J. Burnett Miiiiight Be Kind Of A Dick

I went back through the RSN (the Blue Jays home network) broadcast of the game last night to get some more background as to what the announcer said about the enthusiasm of the crowd. I let it play out a little bit longer and they pulled a clip out from last July that I either missed when it happened or had completely forgotten about. 

On June 7th, 2008 starting against the Orioles at the Rogers Centre, Burnett gave up 8 runs in 4 1/3 IP and on his way back to the dugout, mockingly doffed his cap to the crowd. Classy. The score was 8-1 at the time and the loss Burnett dropped to 5-6 on the season. If it wasn't less than a year ago, it would be easy to chalk it up to immaturity but this was after he had already spent almost two and a half seasons with Halladay, who had supposedly made much him so much more of a professional. The guys on RSN cited it as a major reason he was getting booed last night.

He wasn't particularly well liked when he was there either, with some claiming that some of the many chunks of time he spent on the DL, he wasn't even injured:

Early in his first season as a Toronto Blue Jay, Burnett became a lightning rod for disappointment, opting to stay on the disabled list despite no physical evidence of injury. And he would stay there for long stretches of his first two years in a Jays uniform. 

I alluded to it last night, but here is the full quote that caused him to miss the his last start of the 2005 season with the Marlins, when he needed to pitch only one inning to reach the 210 mark, triggering a $50,000 bonus: 

We played scared. We managed scared. We coached scared. I'm sick of it, man. It's depressing around here. A 3-0 ballgame, I give up one run and leave guys on base, it's like they expect us to mess up. And when we do, they chew us out. There is no positive, nothing around here for anybody.

Burnett represents the most frustrating type of pitcher, the one with electric stuff but inconsistent performances. He'd throw a shut out one start and get tagged for 8ER the next. All this stuff reminds me how much hatred I put aside when Yankees committed $82.5M to him this offseason.

He sports a pricktastic sneer that makes appear constantly pissed off.  A.J. looks like he would have been the biggest asshole in your entire high school. Yes, it's a pretty superficial judgement to be making, but there isn't a whole lot more we have to go on as fans. A player's on-field demeanor makes up a tremendously large part of your perception of them, whether we like it or not. And it's not like he's done a whole lot in the "Performance" category to make up for that. Of course, if he's dominant his next time out, much of this will be forgotten.