The Waiting

The scheduled off day today makes yesterday's loss a little bit tougher to swallow. The first game only seems important because it's the only one we have at the moment. Right now it's 100% of the season, after tomorrow, it will only be 50%, then 33%, 25% and so forth.

It's easy to read the symbolism into everything that went wrong yesterday and project it out towards the entire season.

The Yankees are fucked! Sabathia is a choker! Teix can't handle the pressure! Jeter can't get it done when it counts! Swisher over Nady! Send Phil Coke back to the minors!

The reality is that with each passing game, chances are, each of those things is going to be exposed for the small sample size, impulsive overreaction that it is. Unfortunately, right off the bat, we have to wait an entire extra day.

It's only about 47 1/2 hours from the end of yesterday's game until the beginning of tomorrow's, that's not what it feels like. It's as if you planned for months to go on vacation, and you finally get on the plane. But you take your seat, it's in the middle, you're sandwiched between two fat guys, the food sucks, the in-flight movie is Beverly Hills Chihuahua (don't fly Delta), and then you get stuck in a holding pattern over Aruba.

I think I speak for much of my generation when I say patience is not our strong suit. Maybe it's not just younger people, but those of us who live by RSS and Twitter feeds, and are beholden to the 24 hour news cycle. The internet has gotten so fast that it provides instant gratification with each click. We can fast forward on our DVRs and "Mark All As Read". All of that immediacy makes it difficult to see the forest through the trees.

The baseball season is a long haul, and we all know that. But after a long winter of pining for the MLB regular season, it's tough to forget about the only meaningful game we've seen in over 7 months. But a short time's a long time, when your mind just won't let it go. As Yankee fans, I think we are just anxious to put all of last season and the playoff failures of the preceding four behind us (2003 wasn't a failure).


At least Tom Petty understands:

The waiting is the hardest part,
Every day you see one more card,
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart,
The waiting is the hardest part.

It's Only One Game, Now Excuse Me While I Blow It Out Of Proportion

Hat Guy is at it again. Someone must have told him that FJM shut down their operation and he's taunting them into starting it back up again. I don't care if this is unoriginal. Ken Tremendous is rolling over in his digital grave right now, and I must do something about it. It would be a bigger sin to let this article sit there on NBC Sports without pointing out how factually incorrect and schizophrenic it is. Celizic is simultaneously telling everyone to relax because it's only one game, and totally, wildly, insanely overreacting to that game.

"Leash Just Got Shorter For Girardi, Yanks"

Yes... 1/162nd shorter. 0.0617% shorter.

It’s a good thing for the Yankees that you don’t draw broad conclusions from one game, because if you did, the conclusion would be expressed in two words: they stink.

It's a good thing the first part of that sentence doesn't say you can't do something, only to have the second half of the sentence do that exact thing.

Most of the time when a team loses, they are going to look like "they stink". If a team wins 90 games in a season, they are going to look good in probably 90 of them (most wins, but some close losses) and look bad in the other 72 (most of their losses and a few sloppy wins). No matter how good a team is, they aren't going to impress you in every game they appear in. That's baseball.

The offense rallied to cut the Baltimore lead to 6-5, but when Derek Jeter, who had three hits in the game, had a chance to tie it, he failed. And then when expensive free-agent acquisition Teixeira had a chance to put the team ahead, he, too, failed.

I can see knocking Teixeira for having a bad day at the plate after the Baltimore fans put the focus on him by booing him mercilessly, but Jeter? He went 3 for 5 and left one guy on-base. Reading this column, you would think that the first three hits counted towards Spring Training. A message from Mike Celizic to Derek Jeter: If you can't hit in the clutch, don't bother hitting at all.

You wouldn’t expect to find panic in the clubhouse after one loss with 161 left to play, and you didn’t. Girardi was calm. The players were calm. It’s a powerful team and they just need to play Yankee baseball.

So why are you writing this article again?

This is all good, but the fact remains that the Yankees didn’t just lose. They played a bad baseball game. That’s not supposed to on Opening Day.

YES IT IS!!!! This is exactly when it is supposed to happen. It's the first fucking day of the season. Everyone is still rusty. Teixeira is a notoriously slow starter. Sabathia had a 7.76 ERA in April last year.

What had to be mystifying to Yankee fans was watching Sabathia’s pitch count mount into mid-season levels without getting any relief. Even when it was obvious Sabathia had nothing left (How could he? He had nothing to begin with.), Girardi left him in the game as his pitch count climbed to 96.

Count me among the unmystified. 96 pitches is not "mid-season levels" for CC Sabathia, you hysterical moron. You know how many times he threw fewer than 96 pitches last year? Fucking TWO (April 11th & 16th), and he gave up nine earned runs in both of them.

Too much may be made of pitch counts in today’s game.

Sort of like what you are doing right now?

But when your ace pitcher is struggling in the season’s first game and it’s so cold he has to hold a heating pad to his stomach — Sabathia’s favorite organ — between innings, it seems senseless to let him throw that many pitches.

If Sabathia is like any other guy I know, his favorite organ is a little further South. And it's 96 pitches. I've never heard anyone complain about a starter throwing fewer than 100 pitches before. Senseless is letting him take the hill in the ninth inning when his pitch count was already 111 and the Brewers were up by 7 runs.

Sabathia is not in mid-season form. Why give him a mid-season pitch count? It just seems a risky thing to do in a game that the Yankees were already out of.

Except they weren't out of it, were they, Mike? Take a look at the box score. Yes, they were down 6 to 1, but if you hadn't rushed to your computer to start writing this retarded column, you might have noticed that they Yankees pulled to within one run in the 7th. You mentioned it above. Remember? It was when you were crushing Jeter and Teixeira for being unclutchiferous.

But it’s early; just one game and one questionable pitching decision by the manager.

Questionable if you wear a fedora and refuse to look up Sabathia's pitch counts on Baseball-Reference.com.

If the Yankees win on Wednesday and keep winning, it will all be forgotten. If they don’t, by the time the team opens their new park, there will be calls in the tabloids for Congressional investigations.

What sort of Congressional investigations they would be calling for? That doesn't even begin to make sense or be funny.

Somewhat ironic that he uses "tabloids" derisively here. This is the epitome of knee-jerk, tabloid "journalism", except it's not even well written enough to appear in the Post or Daily News.

Last year was a free one for Girardi and the Yanks. This year isn’t. It’s just one game and one loss, but the pressure is already on.

It's just one column which constantly contradicts itself, but Mike Celizic still has no idea what he's talking about. The pressure was on when they signed Sabathia, Burnett and Teixeira. It didn't come from losing the first game of the season.

-----

Keep them coming, Mike. I'll be here waiting.

Game One: Heating Pads, Crazy Eyes & Facial Expressions

The run total is not nearly as discouraging as the indivisible K/BB ratio. For what it's worth, the guy does seem to lose his control in what are perceived to be big games. He has 22 walks in 5 postseason games (4.4 per game), and in 254 regular season games has 523 (2.05 per). Back in December, I took a deeper look at this.

The real concern is what he was trying to treat with that heating pad in between innings. Although if it was serious, I doubt Girardi would have kept running him out there.

I was a little surprised by the thundering boos that rained down on Mark Teixeira. Okay, the guy is from the Baltimore area, but aside from taking the best available contract, did he really do that much to offend Orioles fans? The guy above has some real hate in his (crazy) eyes. I guess when your team trots out Jeremy Guthrie as their "ace", you have to look elsewhere for things to get worked up about.

Click on that picture to get a larger view. Every single person has a priceless expression on their face. It would more amusing if that wasn't the fatal blow that the O's dealt to the Yanks.

Not exactly how we drew it up.

Blackout

I probably should have looked into this before I told my sister I would split the freight on an MLB.tv package with her. I just figured it would be an easier way to do screen grabs and would allow me to watch the games if I was traveling this summer. I can still listen to John Sterling and Wailin' Suzyn on WCBS instead which, as always, is a treat.

Regardless, this is a pretty stupid policy. What if I am an Orioles fan who just wants to listen to my home announcers? The commercials on the TV station the feed comes from still show up through MLB.tv, yes? What if I desperately bored at work and want to watch my favorite team's first game of the season? Is there a way to disguise my location? Can I have my money back?

Fack Youk 2009 MLB Predictions

Ladies and Gentlemen, Happy Opening Day!

Below are the 2009 MLB Predictions from the Fack Youk team.


Brendan

AL East: Sox
AL Central: Tigers
AL West: Angels
Wild Card: Rays

ALDS: Sox over Tigers in 4
ALDS: Angels over Rays in 5
ALCS: Sox over Angels in 7

NL East: Mets
NL Central: Cubs
NL West: Dodgers
NL Wild Card: Reds

NLDS: Mets over Reds in 3
NLDS: Cubs over Dodgers in 5
NLCS: Mets over Cubs in 6

World Series: Sox over Mets in 6

AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera
AL Cy Young: Roy Halladay

NL MVP: David Wright
NL Cy Young: Yovanni Galladro


Jay

AL East: Yankees
AL Central: Indians
AL West: Angels
Wild Card: Red Sox

ALDS: Yankees over Indians in 5
ALDS: Angels over Red Sox in 4
ALCS: Yankees over Angels in 6


NL East: Mets
NL Central: Cubs
NL West: Dodgers
NL Wild Card: Braves

NLDS: Cubs over Mets in 5
NLDS: Braves over Dodgers in 5
NLCS: Cubs over Braves in 6

World Series: Yankees over Cubs in 6

AL MVP: Mark Teixeira
AL Cy Young: Roy Halladay

NL MVP: Hanley Ramirez
NL Cy Young: Santana


Joe

AL East: Sox
AL Central: Twins
AL West: Angels
Wild Card: Yankees

ALDS: Sox over Twins in 4
ALDS: Yankees over Angels in 5
ALCS: Yankees over Sox in 6


NL East: Mets
NL Central: Cardinals
NL West: Dodgers
NL Wild Card: Phillies

NLDS: Mets over Cardinals in 5
NLDS: Phillies over Dodgers in 5
NLCS: Phillies over Mets in 7

World Series: Yankees over Phillies in 6

AL MVP: Mark Teixeira
AL Cy Young: Jon Lester

NL MVP: Manny Ramirez
NL Cy Young: Brandon Webb

John

AL East: Yankees
AL Central: Tigers
AL West: Angels
Wild Card: Sox

ALDS: Yankees over Tigers in 4
ALDS: Sox over Angels in 5
ALCS: Yankees over Sox in 6

NL East: Braves
NL Central: Cardinals
NL West: Dodgers
NL Wild Card: Cubs

NLDS: Cards over Braves in 5
NLDS: Cubs over Dodgers in 5
NLCS: Cubs over Cards in 7

World Series: Yankees over Cubs in 4

AL MVP: Derek Jeter
AL Cy Young: Chien-Ming Wang

NL MVP: Albert Pujols
NL Cy Young: Johan Santana

Number of Red Sox to come out of the closet: 26


Matt

AL East: Yanks
AL Central: Twins
AL West: Angels
Wild Card: Sox

ALDS: Yanks over Twins in 5
ALDS: Sox over Angels in 5
ALCS: Yankees over Sox in 5

NL East: Mets
NL Central: Cubs
NL West: Diamondbacks
NL Wild Card: Phillies

NLDS: Mets over D'backs in 5
NLDS: Phillies over Cubs in 5
NLCS: Mets over Phillies in 7

World Series: Yankees over Mets in 6

AL MVP: Longoria
AL Cy Young: Sabathia

NL MVP: Manny
NL Cy Young: Santana


Will

AL East: Yankees
AL Central: Indians
AL West: Angels
Wild Card: Rays

ALDS: Yankees over Indians in 5
ALDS: Angels over Rays in 4

ALCS: Yankees over Angels in 6


NL East: Braves
NL Central: Cubs
NL West: Dodgers
NL Wild Card: Mets

NLDS: Cubs over Mets in 4
NLDS: Dodgers over Braves in 5
NLCS: Dodgers over Cubs in 6

World Series: Yankees over Dodgers in 5

AL MVP: Mark Teixeira (Homer Alert)
AL Cy Young: C.C. Sabathia (Homer Alert)

NL MVP: Ryan Howard
NL Cy Young: Johan Santana

"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.

-----

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...