Jack Morris, Drama & Pitching To The Scoreboad

At one point during Friday's game, Michael Kay trotted out a concept commonly uttered throughout baseball, "pitching to the scoreboard". He and Al Leiter went back and forth in praise of Jack Morris, the unofficial mascot of said scoreboard pitching, saying ridiculous things like "If Jack's Morris's ERA was higher, it was because he wanted it to be higher" and "if you scored two runs, he'd hold the other team to one".

I think most people who are statistically inclined instantly dismiss the concept of pitching to the scoreboard, but it's the type of idea that would be quite tedious and time consuming to disprove. Luckily, a couple of people informed Joe Posnanski that the topic was being thrown around on the Yankees broadcast and he took a crack at breaking it down:

To pitch to the score, you would need to have your team score the runs FIRST before you gave them up, right? I mean, if you give up seven runs, and your team scores three in the ninth to win, you didn’t pitch to the score did you? No, your team saved your butt. In order to pitch to the score, your team would have to score eight runs and then you would be thinking, “Well, la la la, I can give up some runs now.” Does this make any sense to anyone?

Joe takes a quick look at Morris' record in games in which his team scored one or two runs, and (surprise!) finds that he was 5-49 with one run of support and 12-37 with two runs. He contrasts this with Burt Blyleven, who has the reputation of not being nearly as adept at pitching to score despite a lower career ERA, and finds that Blyleven had far better records in both situations.

The reason I find this interesting has nothing to do with Jack Morris; I was 8 years old when he threw his last pitch. It's that one of the things that makes baseball endlessly interesting but seemingly no one wants to admit is that, despite your best efforts, you can't really control when you succeed and fail. The difference between a flyball and home run is often a few millimeters on the bat or a fraction of a second. Guys hit home runs on pitches out of the strikezone. It's not a perfect science.

If you look at WPA, which measures the leverage at the time of each at bat, you'll see that the leaders fluctuate every year. If there is such a thing as "being clutch", it certainly isn't an indelible part of someone's character or else the same people would be atop that list each season.

Like he so often does, Posnanski really nails this point:

There’s something about the long season of baseball that encourages players to believe in jinxes and superstitions and breaks evening out, something about the days turning to weeks turning to months that inspires this closely held belief that players don’t succeed because of talent or luck or even hard practice but because of character, because of a certain courage or gallantry or substance of the soul.

Part of this the collective ego-stroking you're likely to see in any elite fraternity. The fact that these guys have all risen to the top, passing hundreds of people at every level from tee ball on up makes them extremely special. It's easy to see why they feel this way. But the in the effort to find story lines, the media propogates these ideas and inner fortitude of the players is far overrepresented as a factor in success.

Sports are often described in terms of drama. A dramatic play, a thrilling climax, a heroic performance, a storybook season. However, watching sports is infinitely better than a fictional play or movie because they unscripted and unfettered. There's no need to infuse them with contrived plot twists and ascribe the players with heroic character traits. But don't try to tell that to Michael Kay and Al Leiter.

Minor League Round Up

We don't give as much attention as we should to the minor league system here. With today being a slow day for us and the minor league seasons winding down, here's a look at a few things going in the Yankees system:

• AAA Scranton won their semifinal playoff series against Gwinnett County (Braves) three games to one and will now face Durham (Rays) for the Governor's Cup. Despite having half their roster in the Bronx right now, Scranton is looking for their second consecutive International League title, as they beat Durham in the final last year. Top pitching prospect Zach McAllister made his AAA debut in Game 4 of the semis, and picked up the win in the clincher. The best of five championship series begins tomorrow.

• AA Trenton fell short in their push for a post-season berth, getting eliminated Labor Day weekend during the final series of the regular season. Trenton's elimination is somewhat functional for the organization though, allowing them to redistribute Trenton's roster to other levels, particularly AAA, where help is needed.

• High A Tampa is tied 1-1 in the best of five Florida State League Finals against Charlotte. In a surprise move, Ian Kennedy was activated to pitch Game 1 of this series. He was due to throw a simulated game that day anyway, so apparently the organization decided to let him face live hitters instead. He went two scoreless innings, giving up a hit and recording a K. Next stop for him is the Arizona Fall League as he returns from his aneurysm.

• Low A Charleston did not qualify for the post-season.

• Short-season Staten Island is in the New York-Pennsylvania League finals. The best of three series against Mahoning Valley (Indians) begins tomorrow.

• The Rookie League Gulf Coast Yankees lost their one game semi-final against the Marlins.

Paging Doctor Goodwin

My buddy Frank spotted this rather amusing typo in the Post yesterday on our way down to the Giants game.

You guys remember Dwight Goodwin, don't you? I believe he used to play left field for the Yankings and the Vets.

And check out this guy who was sitting in front of us in section 306.

He spent 90% of the game standing up and gesturing wildly to the people behind him. I believe that by buying patterned shirt of your favorite NFL team, you thereby agree to attend every home game and act like a douchebag. Fun times though, as the Giants won by a final score of 23-17 even though they outplayed the Redskins by far more than that. Eli Manning looked sharp, completing 20 of his 29 passes to his new receiving crew. We also walked away with roughly 3 of the calendars and towels they were giving away at the door per person. The only bummer is that rookie wideout Hakeen Nicks is out for a couple of weeks with a sprained foot.

I'm still recovering from yesterday, so content may be a little fluffier than usual around these parts. Bear with me.

My Friday Night

Good morning Fackers. In the very first post I ever authored for Fack Youk, I recounted a brief meeting I had with Kevin Youkilis prior to attending the game in which Manny Ramirez hit his 500th career home run. That night, he became the twenty-fourth member of that exclusive club.

Witnessing that was the most historic event I attended in person since the very first game I ever went to: Phil Rizzuto Day at Yankee Stadium, where Tom Seaver won his 300th career game, becoming the seventeenth member of that exclusive club.

Friday night I was fortunate enough to be in the park for something that wasn't quite as historic as either of those two events, but was thoroughly more enjoyable, even if I did spend a large portion of last week making the argument that Derek Jeter setting the franchise hit record wasn't quite as big a deal as the media, particularly the YES network, was making it out to be.

If you read here with any degree of regularity, you know that both Jay and I like music a lot, and that we quite regularly weave it into what we do here. One of the things that I don't like about music is that there's a tendency amongst fans to overblow the importance of things. There's a certain breed of fan for whom every show they attend is the greatest show ever, or every new album released their favorite band is the best one yet. I think part of that is because music is a very subjective thing, but much of it is because people want to be part of something. If they trumpet up a certain performance as being historic then they become part of history.

Sports don't often fall prey to that sort of mindset. Sports are far more objective, there are winners and losers, people can tell the good from the bad pretty easily, and the historic milestones are pretty clearly defined.

Derek Jeter setting the career hit record for the game's most storied franchise is a big deal. Not as big a deal as when he reaches 3,000 hits or any hit milestones beyond that, not as big a deal as when Alex Rodriguez becomes the seventh member of the 600 home run club sometime next year, but it's a big deal.

What was most impressive to me Friday night was the crowd reaction. One of the things I mentioned last week was the possibility that the hit chase was being made into a bigger deal than it was to provide a platform for the fans to pay tribute to Derek Jeter. If that was the case, we certainly seized the opportunity to thank Jeter for all that he's done over the past fourteen seasons. Maybe we as fans just wanted to be part of history. The ovation, both in terms of intensity and duration, was something very impressive to experience in person, as was the genuine outpouring of congratulations from Jeter's teammates.

As fans of the Yankees, we get a bit a spoiled from time to time. The expectations are perpetually high, the goal each year is singular: win the World Series or the season is a failure. I'm not saying it right or wrong, but it's reality. And as we live and die with the team day in and day out for six plus months each year, it's easy to lose site of the forest while we're staring at any given tree.

Perhaps more than anything else then, Jeter's chase last week gave me cause to pause and reflect upon what we've all been fortunate enough to experience over the past fourteen years. It's not just the division titles, the pennants, or the World Series championships. In Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, and Andy Pettitte, we've been fortunate enough to watch the careers of a collection of Yankees the likes of which haven't been seen in generations. Jeter will go down as one the top six or eight players in the history of the franchise. Rivera is the greatest relief pitcher in history. Posada is a borderline Hall of Famer and the best Yankee catcher not named Berra or Dickey. Pettitte is now third on the team's career win list and is one of the top five or ten pitchers in franchise history.

We've been very fortunate to observe the wondeful careers of these four individuals. And I consider myself very fortunate to have seen Jeter break that record Friday night - and even more fortunate to have witnessed it without having to listen to Kay, Sterling, or Waldman put their own stamp on it. Thanks for the ticket Gripp.

CC, Melky, Matsui Spur Yanks To Win

Today's game was far closer than the 13-3 final score indicates, as the Yankees didn't blow things open until late, with an eight run eighth inning.

After taking 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI double from Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees fell behind 2-1 in the second, and then 3-1 in the fourth. CC Sabathia can really only be held accountable for two of the three runs, as Johnny Damon recorded the second out of the fourth inning, thought it was the third, and nearly tossed the ball into the stands, allowing Justin Turner to tag from second base and score.

The Yankees tied it up in the bottom of the fourth, using a two run single from Melky Cabrera to score Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano. They were threatening to plate more as A-Rod came up with the bases loaded and two outs. He took a 2-2 pitch just off the outside corner and was rung up by home plate umpire Marty Foster. A bad call, but not an egregiously bad like the call Foster made against Derek Jeter back in July.

It seemed like a dead issue until the Yankees came to bat again in the bottom of the fifth. Before Hideki Matsui could step to the plate, A-Rod was ejected, causing Joe Girardi to absolutely lose his mind and earning him an early shower as well. Girardi took his sweet time leaving the field, giving Foster more than a piece of his mind. When crew chief Wally Bell finally came to intervene, Giradi made brief contact with Bell, which could potentially earn him a suspension.

From there, Sabathia went on cruise control, allowing just two walks after Damon's mental error. The score remained tied into the sixth, when Matsui came up with one of his two big hits on the day, driving in Jeter and Damon to give the Yanks a 5-3 lead.

Sabathia exited after seven with another solid, if unspectacular start: seven innings, five hits, three earned, four walks, and just one strikeout. Phil Hughes worked around a leadoff single in the eighth and Mariano Rivera was getting ready in the pen as the Yanks came to take their hacks in the bottom of the inning. By the time the Yankees were done hitting, he wouldn't be needed.

As he did in the sixth, Matsui struck the big blow, blasting a three run homer to right to make it 8-3. Melky Cabrera added a two run double, and then the Yanks added three more on doubles from Brett Gardner and Mark Teixeira.

With a ten run lead, Brian Bruney came on to close it out, sandwiching two outs between two walks. Once again, his knack for free passes prevented him from finishing an inning, as Tony Pena called on Edwar Ramirez to close it out. The Yanks avoided the sweep; we'll be back tomorrow for the make up game against the Halos.

Game 144: You Won't See Me

The Yanks will look to salvage the final game of the season's final series against Baltimore. The final meeting between these two teams this year will be a rematch of the of their first meeting, back on Opening Day, as CC Sabathia goes against Jeremy Guthrie. Guthrie got the W and CC took the loss on Opening Day, then they reversed roles in a May 8th rematch as the Big Fella tossed a shutout.

For the season, Sabathia is 3-1 with a 2.63 ERA and 1.10 WHIP against the O's. He's been on a tear since early August, going 5-0 with a 1.75 ERA in seven starts, all of which have been Yankee victories. Over 51.1 innings, he's fanned 63, walked just 11, and allowed only 4 home runs. Opponents are OPSing an anemic .539 against him.

Guthrie is 1-3 against the Yankees this year, with a 4.68 ERA and 1.28 WHIP. In his last four starts Guthrie is 3-1, the only loss coming against the Yankees on August 31st. Over that stretch he's posted a 1.33 ERA, held opponents to a .587 OPS, and has 15:4 K:BB over 27 innings of work.

Johnny Damon returns to left field today as the Yankees run out the "A" line-up this afternoon, with Melky Cabrera getting the start in center.

The Yankees won't see the Orioles again until next year. As for today, the Yankees will likely have a near capacity crowd, but with Derek Jeter's chase of Lou Gehrig now complete, today's game being relatively meaningless, and today being the first Sunday of the NFL season, I would imagine that fewer people than usual will be seeing the game on YES. Thankfully, the Yanks game should be wrapping up by the time the Giants and Redskins kick off at 4:15, so for today at least the viewing conflicts should be minimized.

"One Bad Pitch"

That's what A.J. Burnett chalked his poor outing up to. The pitch he was referring to was a 1-2 fastball low but over the center of the plate to Brian Roberts in the second inning that ended up leaving the yard for a grand slam. The problem is that it wasn't just one pitch and this bad start fits in a little too well with his recent string of poor outings to dismiss so conveniently.

Burnett made another mistake on a fastball to the first batter of the 2nd inning, Nolan Reimold, who redirected it to left-center for a solo shot. That pulled the O's even with the run that Derek Jeter scored after singling in the bottom of the first. The bases didn't load themselves for Roberts either, Burnett did that via a walk and two singles. He let up another single to shortstop Robert Andino, surrendering the lead before Roberts even came to the plate.

The six runs that came across in the 2nd were more that enough for Brain Matusz, who kept the Yanks off balance, allowing only 4 hits and 2 walks in 7 innings of one run ball. He only struck out 3 and induced 6 ground balls to 12 flys, but he got the job done in 106 pitches.

Melky Cabrera and Jorge Posada each added an RBI in the ninth inning but the O's walked away with a 7-3 win.

At any rate, as of 7:15PM, the Yanks lead the Red Sox by 8 games and rain is still falling on Fenway Park, delaying the start of their game with the Rays with a double header already looming on Sunday. The Angels are creeping up in the race for homefield advantage though, as they trail the Yanks by only 3 in the loss column.

Game 143: Hey Ninteen

After a late night, things return to normal for the Yankees. Although he'll be setting a new record with every hit that he collects, hype and hoopla surrounding Derek Jeter's ascent up the Yankees all-time hit list will have subsided. The game today won't take on the added feel of importance that has been palpable since the beginning of the homestand, it's just going to feel like another September game against a team that doesn't have anything left to play for.

A.J. Burnett takes the ball today and looks to build upon his last outing. He went six innings and allowed one run against the Rays and with 99 pitches under his belt at the time, might have been asked to go a little deeper had the Yanks not been leading 11-1 at the time.

That outing sprung Burnett from a stretch of 7 starts that brought his ERA up from 3.53 to 4.29 and gave him his first win since July 27th. That span was Burnett's worst of the season, but it had been immediately preceded by his best. The Yankees don't desperately need the games, but it would be awfully reassuring to have Burnett pitching well heading into the postseason.

The only benefit of being out of the picture for so a long time for Orioles fans is that it has allowed them to get a look at some of their young talent. Today, the O's serve up the Yanks with the 10th pitcher to make a start against them this year, Brian Matusz. Drafted out of the University of San Diego with the 4th pick of the 2008 draft, the tall lefty started at high A-ball this year, striking out 75 in 66 innings with a 2.16 ERA and then made the jump to double-A. Despite a drop in his strikeout rate in AA, Matusz was even better in the Eastern league, posting an ERA of 1.55 and averaging 6 2/3 innings per start. The O's called him straight up to the Big Leagues in the beginning of August and he's made 7 starts to a 5.26 ERA since then.

Like Chris Tillman who the Yanks saw yesterday, Matusz's marginal numbers this season with the Big League club doesn't mean much. He's only 22 years only and this two month stint in the Majors serves to get him some big league experience before he most likely begins next year down in AAA. Both Tillman and Matsuz are scheduled to be shut down for the season after one or two more starts.

With 19 games left in the season, the Yanks magic number is down to 14 while the O's have already been eliminated from Wild Card contention. Hopefully the Yanks can chip away at the latter figure while the O's continue to slide on down.

Hey nineteen,
No we got nothing in common,
No we cant talk at all,
Please take me along,
When you slide on down.

"While The Storm Clouds Gather..."

When Ronan Tynan launched into the forgotten first verse of God Bless America, there couldn't have been more than 500 people left in the stands at Yankee Stadium. It wasn't even September 11th anymore.

Despite a rainy and raw September evening that led to an hour and twenty six minute rain delay, the stands were jammed when the game began. The fans got what they came to see in the third inning when Derek Jeter sliced one down the first base line, which looked like an instant replay of the hit he collected to tie Lou Gehirg atop the Yankees all time hit list. Like he did on Wednesday, he tipped his cap to the stands and pointed towards his parents, but this time he was also greeted by each of his teammates at first base.

At that point, the Yankees were leading 3-1 and Andy Pettitte looked to be on his way to his 5th straight victory. Andy worked escaped a bases loaded jam in the fifth inning with the Yanks still ahead 4-3 thanks in part to a spectcular defensive play in which he deflected a tapper from Nolan Reimold and made a twisting throw to complete the force at home.

The lead didn't last long as Damaso Marte was tagged for 4 runs in the 6th inning, sending a large chunk of the crowd towards the exits. The rain delay that started in the top of the 7th inning not only sent essentially all of the fans home but most of the Yankees regulars as well. When play resumed, the Yankees fielded a team that was more likely to have taken the field in Scranton at some point this season than in the Bronx.

The Yanks lost but no one really cared. The things that would have made this game forgettable under ordinary circumstances will make it more memorable in retrospect.

Game 142: Who'll Stop The Rain

[Update: The game is scheduled to start at 8:20]

As the Yankees return from a rare day off in the middle of a homestand, they start their final series against the Orioles this season. It's the first team in the division they will complete the requisite 18 games against which is appropriate since they opened the season at Camden Yards.

Despite dropping the first two against the O's, the Yanks have roundly dominated the season series, going 11-1 since. The last time the O's took a game from them was on May 9th, back when the Yankees were 14-16, A-Rod had just made his triumphant return, and Phil Hughes was still in the starting rotation. Since then, the Yanks have been on the good side of 3 three-game sweeps in a row and have won 10 straight dating back to the series before.

Andy Pettitte allowed four runs in six innings against the Blue Jays his last time out but didn't derail his streak of 4 consecutive wins. The Yankees have won in each of Pettitte's last 7 outings dating back to the beginning of August. Since the All-Star break, he has an ERA of 2.88, a record of 5-1 (Yanks are 8-2 when he's pitched), and has held opposing batters to an anemic line of .208/.267/.305. To give some perspective, that .573 OPS is notably lower than Zack Greinke's .612 over that same period.

Taking on Pettitte will be the ninth starting pitcher the O's have thrown at the Yankees this year, Chris Tillman. A part of the package sent from Seattle in return for Erik Bedard (which apparently is the gift that keeps on giving), Tillman is only 21 years old and was called up from AAA at the end of July. He threw 96 2/3 IP for the Norfolk Tides of the Eastern League this year, posting a 2.70 ERA and striking out 99 while walking only 26. Since he's been up in the Majors, Tillman as made 8 starts to a decent 4.66 ERA but has only struck out 17 while issuing 13 free passes in 35 1/3 IP leading to an ugly FIP of 6.23.

Johnny Damon is scheduled to take a breather tonight with Melky Cabrera taking his place in right field and Brett Gardner manning center. However, if someone doesn't stop the rain that's currently blanketing the NYC area, everyone might be getting the night off.

Long as I remember,
The rain been coming down,
Clouds of mystery falling,
Confusion on the ground.

Good men through the ages,
Trying to find a sun,
And I wonder, still I wonder,
Who'll stop the rain.

Friday Afternoon Link Party

It's Friday and I'm pressed for time, but here are a few links to explore before the preview for tonight's game goes up. You don't want to see how they were made:

Our pal Joe at RAB explores the tendency for people to criticize the effort baseball players seem to put forth, inspired by this post at the Yankee Universe.

Tim Marchman takes a pretty thorough look at how many hits Derek Jeter might end up with when it's all said and done. Craig Calcaterra reacts to the final two paragraphs of Marchman's article which implies that Jeter still has something left to prove and suggests he doesn't.

Big League Screw has a great piece on Alfredo Aceves that tracks his journey from Mexico to the Majors and declares him "The Most Interesting Man in the Bronx". Well worth the read.

"My feeling is you ought to be ashamed of yourself if you get physically tired of playing baseball because it shouldn't be that physically taxing" If this doesn't illustrate the difference between baseball and football, I fear nothing ever will.

There are a lot of ways to show how awesome the Yankees offense has been this year. Here is one. And here is another.

Be glad you didn't have to sit through "The worst hall of fame speech... ever".

The Yankees will be honoring those who lost their lives during the attacks of September 11th with a ceremony before the game tonight.

New Stadium Insider has the low down on the weather and how it might affect tonight's game.

Hardball & Pigskin: A Meandering Musing On My Two Favorite Sports

It's hard to believe that only about 1/8th of the baseball season remains, isn't it? We've spent over 5 months drilling down into the minutiae of the Yankees' season for about 700 posts, give or take. Previews, recaps, updates, analysis, extrapolations, musings, dissection and ponderance. I'm not a big NBA fan so during that stretch, my focus has been pretty squarely set on the Yankees and if not them, other teams in the MLB or baseball in general.

Well, since we had the first game of the NFL season last night, I start thinking more about the differences between the two on a general level. I skirted around it in the last post I put up yesterday but wanted to take a deeper look today, while the Yanks' season is still in suspended animation. It's a bit long and winding, but there's no turning back now.

I'm sure you know the George Carlin bit where he looks at the a some of the quirkiness of baseball in relation to other sports then discusses the differences in language between the two, which color baseball as pastoral game and football as a deadly war.

A while back, when he was riffing off Carlin, Joe Posnanski said, about the language of baseball:

Just about every word or phrase — can of corn, bang-bang play, dinger, tater, gopher ball, round-tripper, sinker, slider, — sounds like something a small child came up with long ago.

I think Pos hits on something here. Baseball is childlike in a way, because you have to accept failure as a part of it. You can have the most well-behaved children in the world, but despite your best efforts, they are still going to mess up sometimes and you could get mad at them every time, but that would make you kind of an asshole. Likewise, you can have a great baseball team and they are still going to lose, at the very least, about 30% of the time. You can get pissed, but that probably means you are a little unstable.

The moment of impact baseball ultimately boils down to is when a round ball traveling at 90 or so miles per hour collides with a rounded bat being swung at about about 65. It's an impact that takes place so fast and is altered by such minuscule increments that neither the batter or the pitcher could ever hope to control it precisely. Being great at baseball is like excelling at poker or golf; regardless of how good you are, you're still going to ground into double plays, get busted on the river or make bogeys. You have to defy the odds over the long term by making solid contact, putting your money in with the best hand or hitting fairways and greens.

There isn't that kind of failure rate built into football because there is far less probability involved. There's no precise moment of impact that change drastically in a matter of millimeters. Players are held accountable for almost everything that goes wrong. If a pass is intercepted, it's usually because the quarterback made a poor decision or a bad pass. If a running back gets dumped in the back field, it's because someone missed a blocking assignment or he hit the wrong hole. Sure, fingertip catches first downs are missed by inches or less, but it's clear that the Football Gods have far less of a hand in the outcome of the game than do the Baseball Gods.

The upshot is that football meets our expectations far more often than baseball. The best team in the NFL is almost never going to lose one game to the worst team, let alone two out of three. However, the Yankees did just that to the Nationals when they played them earlier this year. The probability aspect is what makes the 162 game schedule necessary in baseball and a season only 1/10th that long the norm for the NFL.

So between the length of the season and the level of randomness inherent in each of the sports, it's obvious why football follows a much more predictable narrative arc; the season is distilled into fewer games played with less deviation from expectations. And people love predictable storylines (h/t Joe P). You can make sense and draw conclusions out of individual football games, and have a better idea of where things are going as result. You can't even do that with any degree of reliability after watching an entire series in baseball.

The reason for this, I believe, is the fact that football teams compete against each other, but in baseball it's really a team's offense squaring off against one pitcher at a time, with a giant expectation of probability wedged in between.

I think those things start get down to why the NFL is much more popular than the MLB. Sure, it also helps that the time in between downs is perfectly conducive for replays to be shown and dissected. It doesn't hurt that the game is physical and eye catching. The advent of HDTV has certainly made football more enjoyable to watch at home.

But watching a football game is inherently more satisfying than watching a baseball game. I love both and obviously watch more than my fair share of baseball games, but like I said yesterday, I almost never watch a game from beginning to end that doesn't involve the Yanks.

The NFL schedule is easier to digest, to follow and to understand. You feel like you know more about the league as a whole from watching a single game. It's a lot easier to be a knowledgeable football fan that it is a baseball fan because your assumptions based on small sample sizes are true more often.

And this is kind of odd, because in football, you get the feeling that almost all of the people with the greatest knowledge of the game are those working in it. In baseball, you've got a ton of outside observers coming up with interesting theories and new ways to look at the game. The nuts and bolts of the in-depth strategy is really only know to the coaches and players in football, while in baseball, even the most advanced maneuvers are fairly transparent.

So in a way, baseball is simpler, because so much of the information available is right there for you. But at the same time the elements of random chance and probability that are so fundamental to the game ensure that there will always be an elusive blind spot in our understanding of the game; certain things that can't be figured out. And that makes it more complicated. And that's why it's more of an acquired taste than football.

It's not that baseball is better than football, or vice versa. But as we progress into the time of year which the two sports cohabitate, it's interesting to explore why each sport is enjoyable in it's own right. At least for me and the three other people who made it to the end of the post.

Rest And Rehab For Robertson

Good morning Fackers. We have some good news to start off this final day of the abbreviated work week. David Robertson's visit to Dr. James Andrews went about as well as it could have. A second MRI did not reveal any structural damage. Andrews recommeds 10 to 14 days of rest before starting a throwing program, which should have D-Rob throwing again some time next week if we count the downtime he's already accrued.

The minor league playoffs will be over by then, so Robertson will certainly work his way back on the Major League level. Robertson has been one the Yankees' top bullpen arms in recent weeks, so he will be given every opportunity to work his way back into form.

The construction of the post-season roster will be one of the main storylines as we head through the season's final three weeks. Robertson's recovery and return will be something to keep an eye during that time, as his performance will affect not only his post-season status, but that of the other relievers vying for spots. Rest assured we'll be taking a more detailed look at this in the coming weeks.