Girardi gets mad!

It was refreshing to watch a close game last night. A 2-to-1 game that ended in a walk-off RBI single by Cano. It was nice to see the Yanks work effectively, and good to see some stability out of Kennedy. Heck, it was even good to see Fartsworth not blow a game for a change. But perhaps the greatest show last night came from Girardi, just before he secured his 100th win as a manager (even though he had to watch it happen from the clubhouse).



As shown in the video (and my thanks to Greg Cohen for finding and posting it on his blog), Girardi got ejected in the bottom of the ninth after arguing (Billy Martin style, I might add) about a strikeout call on Giambi.

Now, I don't know if this was just a dog-and-pony-show by Girardi to motivate his team or not but it certainly worked. It is exactly what the Yankees needed right now. The players needed to see it and more importantly, the fans needed to see it. The bottom line in baseball is that it is just a game. It is entertainment... and the people paying for this entertainment need to be inspired just as much as the players. Good job, Joe!

The Yankees will begin a 3-game series against the struggling Mariners at the stadium tonight. Seattle is coming off a 3-game losing streak after being swept in Detroit and is currently holding an 18-and-30, last-place record.

Sometimes you get lucky...

No, I am not merely referring to the Yankees beating the Orioles last night by a score of 8-to-0. Hopefully this win was a sign of things to come, a mental turn-around of sorts. A display of what this team can really do that has nothing to do with chance. The good fortune that I am talking about has to do with Darrell Rasner. What a spectacular performance that we saw from him: 61 strikes thrown over 95 pitches, lasting 7 innings. Rasner gave up only one walk but returned 6 strike-outs for the club as he moved the ball across the plate in a timely fashion and with conviction. Michael Kay on the YES broadcast compared Rasner to an Aaron Small in 2005 who, although not a rookie at the time, seemingly came out of nowhere to pitch a 10-0 season for the Yanks. And then there was Shawn Chacon also in 2005 who surprised the club by coming in mid-season to provide 7 wins from 10 starts. Both Small and Chacon had something special going on in '05 and perhaps Rasner, with his now 3-0 record, will be that gift to New York in '08. You never know... sometimes you get lucky...

...and sometimes you don't. And of course I am referring to A-Rod's second home run of the night that was mistakenly ruled a double by the officiating crew. The line drive hit that ricocheted off the yellow-painted stairs behind the blue padded wall was clearly hit "out-of-the-park" and A-Rod knew it. Of course, without the benefit of instant replay, it was difficult to tell. This is now the third time this week (the second at Yankee Stadium) that major league baseball could have benefited from the use of a replay monitor by the officials. Let's hope that the commission uses this opportunity to reconsider their policy in these situations before a pennant or world series game is decided upon a bad call.

It was nice to see the Yankees take the infield after the game to shake hands and it brought a smile to my face to review the box score from last night. The team found hits up and down the lineup and were able to support the efforts of Rasner on the mound. Let's hope it wasn't just a lucky night.

The Yankees face Baltimore for the final game of their three game set tonight at 7:05 pm.

Who is to blame?

And I thought the Yankees' performance against the Mets on Sunday night was bad... last night's loss at the stadium to the Orioles with a final score of 12-to-2 was pathetically pitiful. Twelve Baltimore players crossed the plate last night and only 4 of them were earned runs. The YES announcers last night would lead you to believe that it was Jeter's error on the throw to 1st base in the 1st inning that started it all. Yeah, I don't think so. Moose clearly had nothing last night.

A-Rod returned last night and he was good for a two-run homer in the sixth inning but that was it. Like I have said before, A-Rod can not heal this team. Even if he were able to send balls into the stands every game, the Yanks are not going to survive this season on home runs alone. Among other things, the Yankees need to start playing small ball. They need to manufacture runs from the first at-bat. It isn't pretty and it isn't what the New York fans are paying to watch but the fans certainly aren't happy about these losses either.


In business, or more appropriately... in life; we like to assign blame to things that go wrong. It is actually a healthy thing to do. It creates responsibility and forces people to take ownership. The question I have been pondering is: Who is to blame for the the way the Yankees have been performing, or shall I say, not performing? The obvious answer is the position players on the field, but what kind of weight should the manager be carrying for these losses? If you are going to talk about how Girardi was voted "Manager of the Year" and if you are going to credit managers when you talk about winning seasons and world championships, then you can not just blame the players when the losses start rolling in either. Girardi is also responsible for these losses. Clearly, he needs to do something and so far, I haven't seen him do much. Kim Jones asked Joe in the post game interview if he was going to say anything to the team regarding last night's loss. He said no, explaining that they all ready know that something was wrong and that they need to correct it. Here is one of the problems as I see it. We seem to like to idolize the players, treat them like professionals, but we do not come down on them hard enough when they don't perform. I don't know about you but if I don't perform at my job, I am going to hear about it. I am going to be concerned about losing that job. This is the feeling that Girardi needs to instill in his players.

It is time for force...

It is bad enough that the game last night was aired by ESPN. Their coverage is so incredibly awful that it is almost painful to sit through. To have to watch the Yankees perform the way they did last night, losing 11-to-2 to the Mets, was more than even I could take. I admit it: I turned off the tube and went to bed in the eighth inning. To even imagine that the massacre would have been so much greater if the officials had actually not second-guessed the home run by Delgado is unspeakable. The Yankees performance last night was absolutely pathetic... and something needs to be done.

It is time for Hank to be "forceful". I, of course, am referring back to his recent comments about the team:

"This is going to get turned around," Steinbrenner said. "If it's not turned around this year, then it will be turned around next year, by force if we have too."

But my advice to Hank would be not to wait until next year. Something needs to be done now. I am getting a little tired of hearing about how our line-up is hurting. A-Rod and Posada are not going to fix what is broken here. I am not going to sit behind my computer monitor and pretend that I have the answers because I don't. Nor should I. That is not my job as a fan. But the Yankees better use this off day well. They better figure out what they need and get it. It needs to start at the top and it needs to happen today.

7 Train De-rails 4 Train in Subway Series Opener

There wasn't too much to get excited about during yesterday afternoon's 7-to-4 Yankee loss to the New York Mets. What started out as a good game with a 13 pitch, 3 strike-out first inning performance by Pettitte and a two-run lead by the bombers, quickly turned sour... probably at the moment when Damon was called out sliding into home on a Bobby Abreu double. That call at the plate seemed to be a turning point in momentum for the Yankees. Pettitte returned in the fourth to an incredible struggle that seemed to last forever resulting in 3 runs for the Mets.

As if that were't enough, Fartsworth came in during the 7th inning to give up 3 more runs (from 2 homeruns by Reyes and Wright). The Yankees tried to rally with a couple of home runs by Giambi and Abreu but with no one on base at the time, and little else happening with the Yankee offense, a recovery of the lead just wasn't in the cards.

I did almost have to opportunity to be on tv but that too didn't come to pass. Although I convinced the roving cameraman to pose for a quick snapshot with me, the lens passed up me and my buddies in section 627.

So the Yanks reach a season low of 3 games below .500 and Willy Randolf's job as manager becomes slightly more secure (if you believe all the hype by the media regarding the subway series pressures). Tomorrow night's match-up of Wang against Perez will last game of this abbreviated series because of Friday night's
rainout.

Here are the standings (as depressing as they may be) as of 5/18/08:

A Beneficial Rainout

I am not quite sure why the Yankees waited until 7:18pm and had fans trek to the stadium before calling last night's game against the Mets. It had been raining the entire day in New York and all the forecasts called for the rain to continue through the wee hours of the next day. I had several friends who showed up at the stadium last night only to turn around before even getting to the front of the beer line.

Despite its inconvenience to fans though, this rain out is clearly an advantage to the Yanks. Because the game will not be made up this weekend (mostly because of TV line-ups, believe it or not) and can not be played on Monday's off-day because the Mets already have a double-header scheduled for the following day, Friday night's makeup will likely occur next month sometime. This means that a match-up that otherwise would have been played without Posada and A-Rod, will likely include those sluggers later this season.

The other nicety that comes from this rainout is that Pettitte will now face Santana instead of Rasner. I do believe that Rasner can continue to prove himself as a quality starter for the club but, all things considered, I feel more comfortable with Andy Pettitte on the mound for this game. Better still, I will be at the game today!

I don't like Ian Kennedy

Actually, I never did. I listened to everyone say what a promising pitcher he was... how he had such great starts last year. I hear about all the wonderful things he does in triple-a. You know what? This kid is no better the Igawa. I have said it before and I will repeat it again: I don't give a rat's ass what this kid can do in the minor leagues. If he can't do it where it counts, get him off the mound. He had three lousy starts last year and took away one single win. Certainly nothing to base a career on. "I think I belong here and I want to work out my problems here," is what Kennedy had to say about yesterday's 5-to-2 loss to the Rays. You know what Ian... Yankee Stadium is not the place to work out your problems. And another thing: stop all your whining and excuses... you haven't earn the right to complain about anything yet. It is not going to be long before this kid starts getting booed whenever he takes the field. Yankee fans are not terribly supportive of players that can't perform.

Now that I have had my rant about pitching, this is normally where I would comment about hitting. Except, once again, there is not much to say... Damon and Giambi, nothing. Our two pinch-hitters, Matsui and Abreu... nothing. Appearently, Girardi likes to try to spark things up by bringing in substituting hitters. The only problem is that they haven't been generating any sparks. Even the hitters of the afternoon only came through with singles. 8 left on base... not a great way to try to win a ball game.

So, it is back to New York where the Bombers will face the Mets. One would believe that the way the Mets have been playing, perhaps this would be a good opportunity for the Yankees but I am not so sure anymore. I hope I am wrong.