"Lack Back And Dream On A Rainy Day"

A little over four hours until the Derek Jeter digs into the batter's box down in Baltimore.

Not to fear though, Jimi Hendrix is here to hold you over until the action starts, and get you through this rainy Monday.

Hey man, take a look out the window and see what's happ'nin'
Hey man, it's rainin'
It's rainin' outside man
Aw, don't worry 'bout that
Everything's gonna be everything
We'll get into somethin' real nice you know
Sit back and groove on a rainy day
Yeah I see what you mean brother, lay back and groove.

Rainy day, rain all day
Ain't no use in gettin' uptight
Just let it groove its own way
Let it drain your worries away yeah
Lay back and groove on a rainy day hey
Lay back and dream on a rainy day.

Guitar Solo Sunday (04/05/09)

And now it's time for everyone's least favorite recurring feature! (trust me, I have the numbers to prove it)

I recorded this last week when I was upstate. The typical disclaimers apply, those being that I suck and the sound quality is terrible. My Fender amp has a delay effect built in, which is where the echo comes from. The delay fills in the background when you are playing solo and gives it sort of an eerie feel. Using too many effects is a cop out, in my opinion (/nods towards The Edge), but whatever works, right?

Too Soon?

Of course not...


Hahahahahahahahahahaha

Who But Big Willie Style....

Me, motherfucker, that's who!

Sorry Kenny, I forgot.

Anyway as chronicled below, we went to the Yanks game last night. Jay wrote a lot about it so I will fill everyone in on the luxury box story. So we are in the bleachers and Mere and myself go to get pretzels and beer when one of our friends calls and asks if we want to come to the W.B. Mason Box so obviously we said "fuck yes" as fast as possible.

Being the first game in the stadium no one really knew where anything was located, including the staff. But this gentile Mexican attendant named Willie (aka Mexican Willie, to me anyway) was like I will help you. So long story short we are all over the place asking everyone where the entrance to the boxes are, but no one gives us the right answer. After about 15 minutes of venturing Willie said he had to go and started walking the other way, so being 9 beers deep I yelled the following in the middle of the Grand concourse.

"Dammit Willie we started this journey together and I will be damned if we are not going to finish it together!"

He decided that I was right, we continued, and eventually found the right area. There is a set of glass doors with the H&R Block logo on them that you go through and then there is a hallway with all the box entrances. So after a little talking with security and Mexican Willie's help we got into the hallway and found Box 30.

Here are a few photos from the place, they are shitty quality because I broke my camera and all I had was my BlackBerry camera.

The empty seats right there were occupied by Tino Martinez, Paul O'Neil, David Cone, and Minka Kelly.

You can't tell but there is a granite counter that runs the length of all the boxes.

Terrible picture but you get the idea.
From the door of to the seats into the box.

On the remote chances that anyone gives a shit, the luxury boxes are way better than the ones in the old stadium (except if you have Freddy Sez in there stealing cheese, I shit you not and I have witnesses). They are much larger, the seats are actually outside, there is a full kitchen, leather couches, big TVs, free everything, and much better food selection. What I really liked was how all the boxes are connected on the outside because it gives you more of the feel of actually being with the real fans, you can kind of see what I am talking about in the first picture. I am very pleased and since I have been in a box for a total of 6 innings my entire life and will probably will never get in one again, these things are important to me.

On the way our Mere and I were walking to the glass doors and these two girls are pushing a desert tray down the hallway. So being 11 beers deep I say the following:

"WOW WOW WOW, lets slow it down here! Can we have one of these?"

There happened to be a Account Manager walking by and she said it was ok, so we enjoyed some chocolate tiramsui cake.

After that we walked down to the seats that Jay mention in the post below where Frank some how got to. The game was in the 9th at that point, but it was cool to get so close and snap some photos.

I would like to thank all the guys from W.B. Mason for their hospitaility, the lady that gave me the cake, Derek Jeter for being awesome, and last but not least Mexican Willie for helping me out in my true time of need, this city needs a hero like him.

This Just In: The New Yankee Stadium Is F_____g Sick

We've spent our fair share of time pointing out the flaws with the New Yankee Stadium, but actually having the chance to talk around it last night made me forget roughly 99% of them. I don't have time to find the words right now. I wanted to throw this post up real quick, because I've got things to do today so I don't even have time to tag or edit it.

Below, please find a collection of pictures and comments documenting the experience last night. Big Willie Style infiltrated the WB Mason Box somehow and Frank worked his way down to field level. We'll put some more posts up later, once I have a chance get BWS's pics off of his Blackberry and I have time to photoshop other people's heads onto our bodies.

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Big Willie Style took time to physically embrace the Stadium.


The Old and the New.
(personal favorite)


Right when you walk in Gate 6, there is a giant HDTV showing the game right on the wall. This was convenient, because at the time we were entering the place, the game was just about to start.

I don't care what you have heard about the screen out in centerfield, you will be amazed at how sick it is. I just nabbed that picture with my camera from our seats in Section 412, and look how it came out:


$36 worth of "fucking finally!!!". For some reason they don't unscrew the caps off of the plastic beer bottles. Why? I guess they are just daring people to shake one up and throw it at a Red Sox fan.

The bathrooms are nice, but two complaints. No dividers between the urinals (is this a thruway rest stop?) and no ledge to rest your beers on. Both of those would have been nice.

The concourses in the Grandstand are totally open-air. That will prevent them from smelling like salty garbage like they did in the Old Stadium.

The view from Section 412. It honestly wasn't that bad considering that our seats were probably in the worst 10% in the Stadium, location-wise.

The facade adds such a nice touch. I was actually happy we were up so high because I had the chance of getting it in a picture, if need be.

At one point, a cop climbed up on the roof for some reason. I asked him if he would take my camera with him and snap some pics, but amazingly he declined that offer.

Big Willie Style airplaning it through the extremely spacious ramps.


A view from the bleachers, with the rain coming down.

Unlike the Old joint, the bleachers have a better view of the game than most of the Upper Deck.


My food choice was the chicken tender platter (box). For $10.50, I got 2 1/2 chicken fingers and 19 fries. I have to say though, they were delicious. As good as chicken fingers get.

The condiment options were decidedly lacking, however. Can a man get some BBQ sauce or honey mustard up in this bitch?

I departed in the 7th, but Frank was kind enough to take my camera on his descent into the seats we could never, ever, ever afford.





Well done, Frank. You define wasted journalism.

Happy Trails, Plaxico Burress

It was only a matter of time.

"I am an optimist, and I believe most situations can be worked out," general manager Jerry Reese said in announcing the decision. "We hung in there as long as we could in hopes that there could be a resolution to this situation other than the decision we made today to release Plaxico.

"It wasn't to be, so now we have to move on. Like everybody else here, we want nothing but the best for Plaxico, and we are appreciative of the contributions he made to this franchise."

Amen, Jerry.

For the moment, I'm going to try to forget about the fact that this all could have been easily avoided if Plaxico wasn't a paranoid fuck-for-brains who thought carrying a gun in his sweatpants into a nightclub in Manhattan was a good idea.

Just remember the good times, friends:


After the NFC Champsionship in Green Bay:



And of course:

Backhanded Complient Of The Day

"When he comes up he is still Gary Sheffield, he is still a presence,"

~ A Mets Official, obviously talking about Gary Sheffield

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Yes, he is a "presence". And by presence, I assume he or she means "a ghostly apparition of the hitter he once was". This is pretty much the worst way to evaluate a guy who is 40 years old. "He's still Gary Sheffield!!!"

Riiiight... except that he isn't (the darkest numbers are the highest):

(I took out 2006 because he only appeared in 39 games)

That, my friends, is what you call a trend. Omar, do you need some help with Excel? I am available.

What would give you any indication that he is going to be better this year? Yes, he is going to the National League, but the dimensions of Citi Field do not project to favor right handed hitters. Especially 40 year old ones with rapidly declining bat speed.

For more reasons this is a terrible idea, please see here.

Have Fun With This, Mets Fans...

Joel Sherman says the Mets are close to signing Gary Sheffield:

"Unless something drastic happens, he is a Met," one of the sources said. "Someone would have to offer him a second year, and I just don't see that happening."

One person who has talked directly to Sheffield said the slugger prefers the Mets over the Phillies because he sees a greater potential for playing time, and wants the heavier workload as a way to showcase for the 2010 season. Sheffield is a free agent at the conclusion of this season.

I see no way this could become an issue. He thinks he should be playing over Daniel Murphy who had an .871 OPS in 151 PAs last year and Ryan Church who was at .887 when he went down on June 5th to a concussion. Sheff's OPS in 443 PAs last year? .725

Omar, do you really want to waste valuable plate appearances on this guy over two younger, better players? The Tigers just paid him $14M NOT to play this year. He is 40 years old. He's played 28 games in the outfield over the last two seasons (with negative defensive value). Church and Murphy both have considerable upside and it's not like you have the option of DH'ing the guy. He's already making assumptions about the amount of playing time he is going to get.

It's not too late...

YMCA Is Coming To The New Stadium? Why?

I was watching the updated version of "Cathedrals of the Game: Yankee Stadium" on MLBHD last night and caught this little tidbit from Lon Trost at the end:

(Sorry for the terrible quality)


In light of reading an article this morning entitled "Stadium Laden With Trost's Fingerprints", I would tend to take the man at his word. I'm not a fan of your fingerprints, Mr. Trost.

Obviously, the emphasis was on carrying over traditions from the Old Stadium, but this "tradition" started in 1996. The song had been out since 1978, it's not like it was an original idea. YMCA blared in every roller skating rink I was unfortunate enough to have attended an elementary school birthday party at.

If they had dumped that kitschy convention, no one would have missed it after the third homestand. It was a perfect place to part ways, but now we are stuck with it indefinitely. Is Cotton Eye Joey going to make the trip too? I say that sarcastically, but seriously, if it does, we may have to organize a boycott.

Just like the food options, this is an instance when tradition is a bad thing. Do you think anyone would miss Famous Famiglia Pizza if Ray's got the contract? The Yankees represent New York City, not just the Old Stadium. There should be burrito places, Gray's Papaya, deli's, burger joints, and Chinese take-out in along with pizza, sausages and Cracker Jacks.

There's a difference between tradition and nostalgia.

I guess everyone was going to find out tonight (or maybe not...), but that is still really disappointing.

Is Harold Reynolds Gonna Have To Hug A Bitch?

It seems like some sort of karmic justice that a community college named after a marine mammal whose population was decimated by sea faring vessels, would defeat a professional team named after marauders who raped and pillaged aboard them.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Virgil Vasquez gave up three runs in 4 2/3 innings, and Dave Davidson was charged with a blown save as a collection of the Pirates' top prospects lost to Manatee Community College, 6-4, at McKechnie Field in Bradenton.

I don't know what this says more about: The game of baseball in general or the Pirates as a franchise. Sure, the Pirates roster consisted of only Single and Double A players, but could you picture that headline with any other team's logo? My heart goes out to you, DJ Gallo.

Backhanded Compliment Of The Day

"The best in the game when it comes to a routine play. When it comes to a baseball he can get to the guy's going to be out."

~ Cleveland Indians manager Eric Wedge on Jhonny Peralta's defense at Shortstop

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What lofty praise... Is that why you were thinking of switching him to 3B?

Speaking of Indians third basemen, what the fack ever happened to Andy Marte -- he of #9 prospect in all of baseball fame? Well, Marte has hit .211 in 513 Major League at-bats (56 OPS+), and was recently DFAed by the Indians. Nobody picked him up and he accepted an assignment to Cleveland's Triple AAA affiliate, the Columbus Clippers. Well, at least he has made Coco Crisp appear to be productive.

"A Night With Donald Fehr"

Last night, Simon On Sports was lucky enough to have Donald Fehr drop by his MBA Class. Fehr gave a talk for the first 45 minutes of the class and then opened the floor for questions the rest of the way. Reading through Simon's post, it seems as through Fehr let down his guard a touch and was willing to hint at his personal opinons on the Draft, and the differences between the MLBPA & NFLPA (among other things):

Someone asked [Fehr] about why the MLBPA has been more successful than the NFLPA. He at first gave a politically correct answer like "I don't think it's really fair to judge the decisions that were made when not in the room." Then he elaborated saying that the MLBPA was run by former Steel Worker Union Lead Marvin Miller, whereas the NFLPA was not. The easy to read chapters behind that are, there is no god damn way he ever would have agreed to the bullshit the NFL players are subjected to.

Fehr also elaborated on the differences between the revenue structure of the MLB and NFL and the reasons why a salary cap makes far more sense for the NFL. Check out the whole entry, as it is a unique account of a pretty high-profile guy in a pretty low-key situation.

The Fallacy Of The Predetermined Outcome

I'm a little late to the party on this one, but Lar at wezen-ball (fellow resident of Shysterville) asked one of the most loaded sports-related questions one can ponder on Tuesday: Have Two Baseball Games Ever Played Out Identically?

In other words, are there any two games in baseball history that, if I were to pick up the scorecards for each, they would be indistinguishable?

The difference between Lar and pretty much everyone else in the world is that he actually set out to crack this mystery. He created a Retrosheet database and methodically broke down the potential possibilities resulting from each plate appearance and quickly came to the conclusion that the odds would of two games playing out exactly the same would be astronomical.

If you think about the numbers involved, it's not surprising in the least: with at least a dozen possible standard outcomes available for each plate appearance (and another dozen or more possible, but highly unlikely outcomes), and with 60 or 70 or even 80 plate appearances per game, the odds become fantastic that two games would be identical.

Furthermore, if it were possible to have each plate appearance broken down by pitch, it would become even more impossible to find two identical games. Click through to see how similar the pairs of games he isolates actually were. You might be surprised.

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Take into account that it is wildly unlikely that any two baseball games have ever played out in exactly the same way, and remember that the next time some tries to apply hindsight to something that almost (or supposedly should have) occurred in a sporting event of any kind. "Oh man, if the ump had called that obvious strike, then Pettitte gets out of that inning, those two runs don't score, and the Yanks would have won." Those are the same people who think "everything happens for a reason" and that everyone has a soulmate.

The title of this post comes from something that Michael Kay likes to say during Yankee broadcasts. I've had some fun with Mr. Kay 'round here, but I must agree with him on this one. There is NO chance that the game would have played out the same way and to believe so is to subscribe to the fairy tales of Destiny and/or Fate.

Lar went back over the entire history of recorded MLB game data and couldn't find anything close to two identical scoresheets. That database consisted of 100,000 games. When people try to isolate one event and keep the rest of the game the same, they are saying that not only is the imaginary divergent outcome of the game is the same as another that occurred in baseball history (essentially impossible), they are saying that it is the same as the actual outcome of THAT game (essentially impossible multiplied by 100,000+).

This is the kind of stuff that makes life endlessly fascinating. Even in a sport like baseball where things are endlessly categorized and recorded, it is almost impossible (no, fuck it, it IS impossible) to have two games which are the same, even on a scorecard.

That's why I hate the concept of "everything happens for a reason". Ironically the people who say this are usually talking about things beyond human control, which are actually the exact things that don't happen for a reason. There is plenty of stuff in life that happens without any reasonable explaination at all, and the best we can do is try to make sense of it logically.