Game 22: Old Man River

After an up and down 9 game road trip, the Yankees find themselves back in the Bronx tonight to begin a six game homestand, starting with a three game set against the White Sox tonight.

The Pale Hose send reclamation project Freddy Garcia to the mound this evening. After having surgery on his labrum and rotator cuff back in June of 2007, Garcia pitched only 71 Major League innings over the next two years in stints with the Tigers and White Sox. In between those two, was signed to a minor league deal by the Mets but was released after just two starts. The White Sox swooped in after that with another minor league deal and he pitched 56 slightly better than average innings for them last year.

Six of those frames came against the Yankees at the Stadium at the end of August. Garcia pitched reasonably well and only gave up three runs but got tagged with the loss anyway.

Sox GM Kenny Williams shrewdly included a $1M option on Garcia's minor league deal so that the Sox control him at a reasonable price this year as well. Garcia has made two solid starts (both 7IP, 2R) and one pretty terrible one (3IP, 7R) and he will certainly have his work cut out for him tonight against a lefty-heavy line up in the Bronx.

The ageless Andy Pettitte ascends the mound for the Yanks. In four starts so far, Pettitte has pitched 28 innings and allowed just four runs, picking up three victories along the way. Andy has given up about 10 baserunners per nine innings and is still sporting equally unsustainable home run and strand rates (no homers and 87% runners left on base), but that's what I said last time he pitched and he's continued to defy the odds. Why not one more time? Let's hope he can keep rolling along against a fairly punchless White sox squad.

Rolling along, rolling along, rolling along,
Hm, old man river, that old man river,
He don't say nothing, but he must know something,
For old man river, he just keeps rolling along.

[Song notes: This is an old standard so there are plenty of options to choose from, but I went with soul legend Sam Cooke who grew up in ChiTown. I've been listening to a lot of Sam lately and you can expect to see him make several more appearances in these previews this season.]

-Lineups-

Yankees: Jorge Posada is still out with a contusion on his knee from the pitch that Jeremy Guthrie hit him with, but aside from him, everyone else is in action.

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

White Sox:

Alexei Ramirez SS

Gordan Beckham 2B

Andruw Jones Jayson Nix RF

Paul Konerko 1B

Alex Rios CF

Carlos Quentin DH

Mark Teahen 3B

Donny Lucy C

Juan Pierre CF

Another Brush With Celebrity

As I alluded to in yesterday's game preview, I've made a few trips to Seattle in the last six years or so. Since the Yanks are in the Emerald City this weekend and yesterday I posted about my meeting with Mickey Mantle, I suppose now's as a good a time as any to tell you about another encounter I had with a member of the 500 home run club. And this one I actually remember.

In April 2003, not yet a year out of college and just a few months into to my first "real" job, I went on my first business trip, accompanying the company owner and vice president to a conference at Seattle's Four Seasons Olympic Hotel (now the Fairmont Olympic).

As with every medical conference I attend, it covers at least one day of a weekend: convenient for physicians with patients to see and professional schedules to keep, inconvenient for a 22 year-old with friends to see and social schedules to keep.

As the conference adjourned for lunch on Saturday afternoon, I was invited by the owner and VP to join them for lunch. Since they signed the checks and knew how to eat and drink well, I jumped at the chance to tag along.

We went down to Shuckers, the oyster bar on the hotel's lower level, and one of Seattle's top seafood joints. It was early in the day, so the place wasn't very busy. The three of us were seated along the back wall, two tables away from a large corner booth.

As we perused the menus, a large group entered from the 4th Avenue entrance. They were seated at the corner booth, just a few feet from us. I glanced up from the menu, and noticed some familiar faces: Freddy Garcia, Einar Diaz, Carlos Guillen, Esteban Yan, maybe Francisco Cordero too. And tucked away in the corner of the booth, shielded from autograph seekers on all sides, was Alex Rodriguez.

The Rangers were in town for a weekend season, and the $250 million dollar man was taking some of his current and former teammates out for lunch apparently - at least I assume he picked up the tab.

We finished our lunch well before they did and had to return to our meetings. I did notice a few autograph and picture seekers managed to weasel their way towards A-Rod; I however was not one of them. Besides, I doubt A-Rod would have held me like The Mick did - it would have been a little weird at 22 years old rather than 22 weeks old. But I will be able to tell my grandkids that I had lunch with Alex Rodriguez - sort of.

Bolstered by his lunch, A-Rod knocked one out of Safeco that night before leaving after an HBP. Carlos Guillen went 3 for 5 with a pair of doubles and a pair of runs scored. Esteban Yan, it would seem, overdid it on the oysters though, surrending three hits, a walk, and two earned runs in two innings of mop-up work.