Come And Sit Down, I Made You Some Delicious Link Stew

After a stretch of 16 games during which the Yankees wen 13-3, we've come to another off night. As Matt pointed out this morning, summer is fading fast and the season is somehow already 3/4 over. But we've still got two and a half weeks 'til Labor Day and are sitting on the precipice of a series with the Red Sox that could leave the Yanks anywhere between 3.5 and 10.5 games up in the division with 38 to play.

The Sawx are in action tonight as Jon Lester faces Brett Cecil at the Rogers Centre, but unless you are within broadcast area of NESN or TSN, or subscribe to MLB.tv, you are out of luck.

If you are in the Hartford area and happen to like shitty music, you might run into some of the Yankees at the Creed concert at The Meadows Comcast Center New England Dodge Music Center The Meadows (once again).

If you elect to stay home, you can catch Mark Teixeira on the Late Night Show with David Letterman giving an outdoor batting demonstration. (h/t to PeteAbe on both of those)

A little while back we looked at Derek Jeter's defensive renaissance and surmised that of all the possible reasons he was a better fielder this year, his improved defensive positioning was likely the most important. Yesterday, Sweeny Murti of WFAN talked to first base coach Mick Kelleher and got some sound bytes concerning the adjustments he made to not only the Captain, but Cano as well. It's certainly worth a read/listen.

River Ave Blues points us to an E:60 segment on the Yankees' ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte (he has one glove that fits both hands, in case you were wondering). The Yanks drafted him in the 20th round of the '08 draft and he's yet to reach a level of minor league baseball he hasn't dominated. Even if it's just a Rudy-style moment, how great would it be if he got to the Big Leagues at some point?

David Robertson has the highest strikeout per 9 IP ratio of any reliever in the big leagues at 13.2. Marc Carig takes a look at how he's been pulling it off. I like Robertson, but he's been used almost exclusively in low leverage innings until recently, so we'll have to see if he's the next Edwar Ramirez, who saw his strikeout ratios fall as the league adjusted to him, or someone who can contribute in the long run.

Ken Davidoff talks with the man who invented UZR.

Football:

In light of the fact that one of the 10 trending topics on Twitter two days ago was "F-A-R-V-E", Joe Posnanski jokingly hypothesizes that perhaps Brett is really just on a quest to get people to spell his name right.

Plaxico Burress is going to jail for two years. I'm not sure if it's an "American tragedy", but it sucked to be a Giants fan when it happened. This is from the beginning of April, but it will do for now as well.

NYC:

As someone who used to live a block away from Central Park, I find this to be pretty sad. I'm not going to cry about it like the one lady in the article, though.

Here's an interactive graph of every homicide in the City by location since 2003. Over 6 years 3,488 doesn't really seem like that many, does it?

Other:

I'm not a MMA fan by any stretch, but I'm kind of fascinated by Fedor Emelianenko. At Slate, Tim Marchman talks about how his absence from the UFC might be the one thing that keeps the sport out of the big time. Money quote: "UFC may be to mixed martial arts what MLB is to baseball—but Albert Pujols doesn't play in Japan". If you've got some time on your hands, here's the first part of an interesting documentary on him. It'd be a lot better if Jay Glazer wasn't so annoying and the phrase "Baddest Man on the Planet" wasn't said 150 times, though.

Finally [Part II]

I had this thought walking around this morning, but it didn't make it into the previous two posts.

Maybe the reason I like seeing the Manhattan covered in snow so much is that it gives you the chance to catch The City That Never Sleeps quietly nodding off.

The snow cover dulls the sounds that typically reflect off hard surfaces like streets and branches and buildings, so it's literally quieter. Parking is suspended and lots of people from surrounding areas don't come into work. I still walked here, but I can tell by the amount of pedestrain traffic on Central Park West that most people opt for the subway. Today, the infamous line at Whole Foods in the Time Warner Center was non-existent.

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Completely random food-realted aside: This is too good not to mention. At Whole Foods today, they have Creole Shrimp Fritters for $7.99 a lb. I got 5 for $2.88. If you are in the area, get 'em while they're hot, because if you ordered them in a restaurant, they'd cost $10 at least.

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The only wall hangings at the Lenny's location around the corner from our apartment (shown in the top picture) are pictures of NYC in the snow. I'm not sure if all their spots are similarly decorated, but it's really cool.

I wasn't down here for the 26.9" dumping in 2006, but I have been assured by Sampson and others that it was epic. Not everyone likes the snow as much as I do, and part of the allure for me was having to wait so damn long to really see it. I'm still holding out hope for one more shut-down-the-city style storm before I'm done with this place.

Damn, I'm going to miss you when that time comes, NYC.

Finally

[You can find Part II here]

This is the third winter I've been down in NYC and this is the first real snow storm I've had the pleasure of bearing witness to. Basically every time they've predicted any significant amount of snow, it turned into a wintry mix or missed us completely. I hate wintry mixes. I hate them so much that I think I also hate Christmas music compilations and the rapper Snow by association.

Although the possibility of getting a snow day has long since passed, I still get incredibly excited when we get a healthy ground cover. Far too often growing up, I would watch the weather before I went to bed, and hear Bob Kovachic talk about the slam dunk storm headed our way, only to wake up at 5AM so excited I couldn't sleep, look out, see nothing and cry myself back to sleep. It was soul crushing.

On the other hand, when we did get hit, Sampson and I would suit up and take to the streets. And by "the streets", I mean the 50 acres of common land shared by the residents of Riverview Landing, which borders on the Mohawk River. It is serenely beautiful even when it's not covered in 10 inches of snow. There are cliffs and waterfalls, a run-down pavilion, and paths connecting everything. It's basically fucking paradise to two kids with a couple of stolen cigarettes and a water bottle filled with about two fingers worth of six kinds of liquor (so we wouldn't take too much from one bottle).

Despite the fact that I don't have any boots or snow pants, today, I got up early and took a bunch of pictures in the park. Why? Because you only live once, Fackers.

I'd guess we got about 5 or 6 inches. It was windy, so the accumulation doesn't show up as much as you'd like it to, and my camera kind of sucks, but I still think they came out really well.

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I had to make these smaller because it would have taken me 9 years to upload them all. If you would like a full size one to use for a desktop background or something, email me. If your request meets my politeness requirements, I will send you a picture or two.

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On the way to the park. 75th street, I believe.

This dog was the only life form in Central Park more excited than I was.

The Dakota (and the tip of my glove)
Oops.

Strawberry Fields

You won't believe this, but I had a nice conversation with a girl who was walking her dog, standing right over the spot pictured below. Imagine that. For once, I didn't even throw up like Stan from South Park talking to Wendy Testaburger. If you are out there, you divine being, please identify yourself in the comments as "The Uncontrollably Hot Woman From The Park With The British(?) Accent". Your move.

Daniel Webster was feeling it.

Kind of cool with the statue in the background, no?

My camera doesn't do well with capturing colors, so you really had to be there for this one.

It's not Spring yet, brah.

In The Ramble. Same exact spot as the picture on that link, I believe.

View of the Buildings on Central Park South from the North end of the Pond.

Calling any part of Central Park "Forever Wild" is pretty laughable since it's all man-made and adjacent to one of the most densely populated places on planet Earth.

I have a bit of a San Remo fetish. You can see it from our terrace and almighty Jesus, it makes for some beautiful pictures. The one on the top of this post is of it too.

Looking down Central Park West.

Risked my life for this one. You're welcome.

Columbus Circle.

You know it's the real deal when they've got news crews out.

The snow almost makes our building not look like the shitshow it currently is due to the makeover. Apparently re-surfacing the building gives them the right to change the address. 3 Columbus Circle? We are a block away from the circle. It's 1775 Broadway, assholes. In light of this, I've decided to change our address to 2347 Central Park West.

Oh, you came to this blog to read about sports? Sorry. Maybe next time.

Snow Day

Not really, because I'm at work. Living within walking distance of your office has its downsides as well. You can't really use the subways as an excuse to show up late.

But it did "snow" and it is a "day", so I'm going with it. I'm working on a post with a bunch more pictures that I took in the park this morning, so check back later for that.

Ralph the Terrace Bear (next to the grill) assures you it will be good.