Game 89: Inspiration

When this evening's game gets under way, barring any inclement weather, it will be the first 7:00 ET start the Yankees have had since June 30th - everything since then has either been a day game, a late night west coast start or an off day. It will be the Bombers' first home game since the 4th of July, which was also George Steinbrenner's birthday. The atmosphere will no doubt be enhanced this evening as there are plans to honor the Boss as well as the Voice of God during ceremonies which are scheduled to begin at about 6:45.

As was the case when they left off last Sunday, CC Sabathia will be taking the hill for the Yankees. Getting the first start after the break lines the Big Fella up for the best shot at 20 wins among him Hughes and Pettitte, who both have 11 victories. Given that Sabathia is sitting with 12 and figures to get the most chances from here on out (15 or 16, perhaps), if he pitches well, that milestone should be well within his grasp.

CC will be squaring off against James Shields and the Rays, who are two games behind the Yankees in the standings, meaning that this series could potentially transfer the lead in the division. On the other hand, it might give the Yankees a chance to establish a little breathing room from themselves.

Even though this isn't technically the start of the second half - as it is so often referred to as - it does represent somewhat of a new beginning for the Yanks. They are now officially without the one person who is responsible for making them the team they are and the most recognizable voice associated with the franchise. Let's hope the Yanks can find some inspiration in the recent losses of Sheppard and Steinbrenner and start the rest of the season off on the right foot.

I barely knew the guy, but shit it hit me fairly quick,
We all forget how much life should be admired,
Sometimes we all forget how our music does inspire.

-Lineups-

Yankees: The Yanks have called up Juan Miranda to take Kevin Russo's place on the 25 man roster and he gets the start at DH tonight.

Jeter SS
Swisher RF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Cano 2B
Posada C
Granderson CF
Miranda DH
Gardner LF

Rays:

Upton CF
Crawford LF
Longoria 3B
Pena 1B
Zobrist 2B
Shoppach C
Aybar DH
Kapler RF
Bartlett SS

Game 84: G'z Iz G'z

Gio Gonzalez gets the ball for the A's as the Yankees go for the sweep. That is all.

'Cause bustaz is bustaz, and G's iz G's,
But ain't nobody fuckin' 'round wit' MCs like these.

-Lineups-

Maybe later?

Game 36: The Return

After Damaso Marte coughed up the lead with two outs in the top of the seventh last night, the Yankees got a massive boost from A-Rod's grand slam in the bottom half of the inning. The Bombers have their work cut out for them if they are going to carry any of that momentum over into today, as they'll be facing a resurgent Francisco Liriano.

If it seems like a long time ago that Liriano was tearing up the league and was tagged as the heir apparent to Johan Santana, well, that's because it was. Coming into August of 2006, Liriano had compiled a 12-3 record with a 2.16 ERA over 121 innings, striking out a robust 144. However, he was scratched from his start on August 1st with pain in his forearm and thus begun a downward spiral that culminated with Tommy John Surgery that November.

The Dominican left hander split the 2008 season between the Twins and their AAA affiliate in Rochester, logging 76 solid Major League innings and 118 very good ones in Triple-A. In 2009, he was added to the Twinkies' Big League roster out of Spring Training but the results were less than optimal. By the end of May his ERA was close to seven. Although he put together some better starts during the summer months, Liraino found himself primarily relegated to relief duty by the time September rolled around. He made the roster for the ALDS but pitched only two innings out of the bullpen.

This year, however, Liriano is showing flashes of the potential that everyone saw in him back in 2006. He threw three straight short shutouts against the Red Sox, Indians and Tigers, but has followed that with two more pedestrian efforts his last two times out. Still, he's carrying a 2.36 ERA and an even better 2.24 FIP through six starts and has yet to allow a home run. He's held lefties to an OPS (not a typo) of .333 and opponents on either side of the plate are slugging just .292 against him.

The Yankees got to Liriano for six runs in a start in Minnesota last July and two more in two innings during the ALDS, but it's apparent that they will be facing an entirely different pitcher this time around. He's throwing with more velocity and more movement and his results so far speak for themselves.

Andy Pettitte was actually off to a better start than Liriano is this season before he took a 10 day hiatus to allow some inflammation in his elbow to die down. Pettitte reportedly wasn't happy that his turn in the rotation was skipped, but the Yankees weren't about to take any chances with a 37 year old pitcher who has meant as much to the team as Pettitte has so far this year. If Andy really takes the skipping personally, will have a chance to show the world that he was fine all along.

Today's game feature returns of different types. Liriano has seemingly returned to his earlier form while Pettitte is back from a much shorter time in exile. As such we are treated to a matchup of two of the best left handers in the American League so far this year and the gloves are coming off. I'll take the guy rocking the NY colors.

I run through obstacles, take off my shackles,
Proper backing with the bangers and the rhyme singers,
I run with dem and others, rock NY in colors.

[Song notes: Vintage DJ Premier track behind this Brand Nubian joint. Props to Lord Jamar for rocking the Yankee hat, even though the verse we are quoting belongs to Sadat X.]

-Lineups-

Yankees: Swisher is in the two hole while Francisco Cervelli gets behind the dish, allowing Jorge Posada to DH.

Jeter SS
Swisher RF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Cano 2B
Posada DH
Thames LF
Cervelli C
Brett Gardner CF

Twins:

Denard Span CF
Orlando Hudson 2B
Joe Mauer DH
Justin Morneau 1B
Michael Cuddyer RF
Delmon Young LF
Brendan Harris
Nick Punto 3B
Drew Butera C

Moment Of Truth

The first time I ever heard a Gang Starr song, it was from an unlikely source. I was watching a skate video called VG8 with my buddy Sampson and this dude Billy Prislin's segment was backed by "You Know My Steez". I had to look up the name of the video and who the skater was, but I'll never forget the imprint that song left on me.

It was one of those tracks that I fell in love with the first time I heard it. I didn't know much hip hop beyond what was on MTV and the radio at that point, but it was immediately apparent that what I was listening to was something different, deeper and more complex than what I thought rap music could be. Gang Starr was underground back then, and even though I probably didn't really understand what that meant, I liked the sound of it.

You Know My Steez is a typical DJ Premier track that has an bouncing, addictive beat punctuated by high tones that runs behind the verse. The chorus consists of mashup of a bunch of spoken parts from other songs (most notably Method Man saying the title, sampled from this tune) tied together with turntable scratching. Subliminally, I'm sure that caught my ear, but what initially stood out were the lyrics.

Guru rapped over the tracks with a steady flow and clever wordplay, dropping ear-grabbing lines without so much as raising his voice. He often referred to his own style as monotone - which was technically close to the truth - but his verses were never boring or droned on like the word tends to connote.

We were about 14 at the time and did what you did back then when you liked a song: went out and bought the CD it was on as soon as humanly possible. Obviously, the way we consumed music was a lot different back in 1998. If you heard a song you liked, you couldn't just bring up YouTube, listen to it again and click your way through the better part of the group's catalog. So there was a period of several days or possibly a week during which I couldn't get the song out of my head but couldn't yet buy the CD.

Maybe that waiting period made me enjoy it more than I would have if I discovered it now. It could just be the fact that we tend to cling to the music that we listened to during our adolescence. But I still think that Moment of Truth, with Premier's intricate tracks and Guru's melodic rhymes, raises a hip hop of a level of high art and is one of the finest albums the genre has to offer.

That original Moment of Truth CD is long gone. It was scratched beyond repair after a couple of years of heavy play and I bought a second copy. That one is gone too, misplaced sometime during college and that too was well-worn. I bought it off of iTunes after that, but maxed out the amount of computers I could link my purchases. I finally downloaded it again, hopefully for the last time.

Gang Starr had plenty of good material before that album and Guru and Premier have each produced a ton of it afterwards, but Moment of Truth is the one creation of theirs that boxed me right in the ears and changed the way I listened to music forever.

The reason for this post is that Guru, whose real name was Keith Elam, passed away yesterday after a battle with cancer (there's a more complete bio if you click the link). About a month ago, he was hospitalized after a heart attack, but made a full recovery and was released. I was hoping I wasn't going to have to write this post for a long time, but unfortunately he was fighting another battle that he couldn't quite conquer.

RIP Guru.

Actions have reactions, don't be quick to judge,
You may not know the hardships people don't speak of,
It's best to step back, and observe with couth,
For we all must meet our moment of truth.

Game 51: Patience

Sorry, G&R fans, tonight's song comes from a Cleveland-based hip hop group called the MuAmin Collective. I had never heard of them before vowing to find a song other than "Cleveland Rocks" for this post, but they've got a smooth jazzy style reminiscent of Mos Def, De La Soul, Reflection Eternal, Common, Blackalicious and some of GangStarr's early work, and it's right up my alley. 

Enjoy:

After Joba Chamberlain's last start in Texas, during which he was pulled in the fourth inning after giving up three runs, the predictable chorus of those who think Joba should be in the bullpen started chirping.

I don't think putting Joba in the 'pen is an indefensible position, not by a long shot. The Yanks are lucky to have in Chamberlain, a valuable weapon that could be deployed in one of two roles, neither of them are wrong. I just happen to think that one is less right.  

We saw Joba set the world on fire in 2007 as a set-up, consistently throwing 98mph with a disappearing slider. Those two pitches were good for 34 strikeouts in 24 innings and a 0.38 ERA. That's the lasting image of Joba Chamberlain people have as a reliever. 

If the Yankees could summon that Joba, even triple his ERA to 1.14 and assume that he could pitch about 60 innings a year, the B-Jobbers would have a leg to stand on. Unfortunately, that's not the Joba Chamberlain that is available to pitch for the Yankees this year. Present Joba still has minor shoulder problems that don't prevent him from pitching, but do make it difficult for him to warm up quickly and could lead to some of his first inning struggles. 

Brian Cashman, would you please summarize what I'm trying to say here?

If he's throwing 95 in the first inning, let people throw that argument out there," Cashman said. "We haven't seen that yet, so why would they think that's going to suddenly happen by going to the bullpen?

Thank you, sir.

Folks, Joba is a good starting pitcher. In 21 starts over the past two years, he carries a 3.25ERA, has fewer than one hit and more than one strikeout per inning. Injuries are a concern, of course, but we don't know enough to say whether pitching out of the bullpen would actually diminish that risk or not. Hang in there, this situation will play itself out. Don't overreact to every below average start. Have a little patience. 

Opposing the Jobinator tonight will be Jeremy Sowers. The lefty is making his third start of the year for the Indians. His other two were marked by ineffectiveness and had a ERA of 12 when he was sent back down to AAA. He was recalled on May 23rd and appeared against the Rays in the infamous 11-10 game on May 25th, where the Indians scored 7 in the 9th inning to win it. Sowers needed only 57 pitches to coast through 5 scoreless innings of mop-up duty after Fausto Carmona got KTFO, and collect a win in the process. 

Which Jeremy Sowers will show up tonight? Was his success in his last outing just a function of the game being out of hand? We'll find out soon enough. 

One other note: The Yankees are carrying a Major League record 17 game errorless streak into tonight's contest and Angel Berroa is playing third base. See where I'm going with this?

The Maritimes [Music] [Non-Sports]

Stumbling upon the above gentleman's music was a total fluke. I found it when was downloading an album by Tash I actually purchased when I was a junior in high school and used to listen to with my boy Calvin driving around after school in Albany. My BitTorrent site has what they call "Similar Artist Maps", which are incredibly useful for finding music similar to other stuff you like.

Here is Eric Clapton's:

Pretty logical, right? It connects him to his side projects like Derek and the Dominoes, Cream and Blind Faith, people he's collaborated with such as B.B. King and Derek Trucks, and also similar guitarists like Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Now take a look at Tash's:

Tash was a member of The [sic] (should be "Tha") Alkaholiks, and DJ Revolution did some of the tracks on their later albums. The fact that he is linked with Classified is either a small sample size glitch or a very clever joke.

Rico Smith a.k.a Catastrophe (Tash) is a black dude from the West Coast of the U.S. and Classified is a white dude from the East Coast of Canada. They couldn't be further apart geographically or stylistically. But I like them both, so maybe the site is just that good.

The thing that is really awesome about Classified's music is that it's blissfully unselfconscious. He raps about being from Nova Scotia and says "oot" and "aboot" in his rhymes. If for nothing other than the unintentional comedy of a Canadian rapper who actually sounds Canadian, give the song below a listen. He's opened for Ludacris, Busta Rhymes and The Game, so he's got some real skills as well.

He forced his way up through the ranks of the underground rap scene, doing all of his own recording and producing on his own dime before signing a deal with URBNET Records in 2004.

"The Maritimes" is a genuine and aboveboard tribute to his home territory, framed by an underlying track of bagpipes.

I'm from the East Coast of Canada, home of the bag pipe,
Known for the fiddle players, beer and our keg price,
Known for Alexander Keith's and the Donair,
Home of the Mooseheads, but I don't really go there,
We pay a buck for a litre of gas (and)
Smokes cost $10 a pack (damn)
We always mix our tobacco with weed,
It's just the way, we always done it, shit is natural to me...

Respect.