I figure that a player who has been removed from the game (Wang) can't rreturn, and the batter order presumably stays the same. But what if some of the players currently in the game are sent down, of DL, or traded?

If a player who has keft the game is released and another player added to teh roster, is the new player allowed to play? For example, let's say that the Yankees had pinch hit for Phillips last night (with Cairo or who ever). Phillips is in the meanwhile sent to AAA and they pick up (God forbid) Hillenbrand. Can Hillenbrand be substituted into the game in July, or must the Yankees designate a player to 'replace' Phillips, who must take his place on the bench? This could get complicated with multiple roster moves, especialy if the ratio of position players/pitchers changes.

Do suspended games create loopholes where a team can in effect multiple substitute?

And it's a strange and ugly season.

I guess this would only have a tactical advantage if, by the time the game is resumed, there are more position players on the 25 man roster. In that case, using my previous example, Phillips would be out, Hillenbrand in, Phillips' roster slot replaced by Britton; another position player could be added to the roster (let's say Bruney is sent down), so in effect two batters became available for the price of one. (Though, of course, at the cost of one pitcher.)

Because there has to be "fair outs"--if a visiting team scores the go-ahead run in the top of the inning, the home team has to have at least one chance (one side batting) to tie it in the bottom of the inning. In the older days (a few years ago), this game would have reverted to the last full inning, and the Yankees would have lost. Now they pick up the game where it left off.

Now, if the Yankees went ahead in the seventh, the O's batted in the seventh and did not tie the game, then Yankees batted in the eigth and the rains came, the game would be declared a win for the Yankees (because the O's had fair outs in the bottom of the seventh).

Game tied after five innings, Yankees go ahead in the top of the sixth (or whatever), rain comes and game is called, score reverts to the fifth inning tie. So, the game was declared a tie and replayed at a later date.

I love this sort of stuff!

;-P

And now we have time to come up with a good joke for which 7 gets to be the punch line. More coffee.

Could the Orioles officially protest the ump's suspect decision-making?

On the roster, I don't think 2 can be right because the 'roster slots' aren't individuated. So, for instance, suppose a team dropped four players from its roster, three who had played in the suspended game and one who had not. What would determine which of the new players was eligible to play in the continuation?
I believe all new players would be eligible. As monkeypants says, it's unlikely to make a difference in this instance.

Seriously. These are bizarre times in Yankee land. I've been busy at work which has allowed me to avoid what I'm sure is major frustration for everyone who has been watching the games. I can't really understand what just happened to this team.

How many years did they extend him for??

Ouch

13 I'm not so sure those rule changes were put in place as far back as post-1978. I checked baseball-reference.com, and the Yankees did play in a 1-1 tie game on July 17, 1995 against the White Sox, though teh details were little different than I recall. teh game was tied after six, the Sox batted in the top of the seventh, the Yankees then began to bat in the bottom of the seventh: the first two batters reached base, then the game was called w/ runners on 1st and 2nd, no one out. The score reverted back to the last full inning (6th), and the game was declared a tie.

Now the rules (4.10.d) make this situation a suspended game, to be completed at a later date. So, presumably the rules for suspended games were updated after 1995.

Signs?

I am not sure about the roster stuff, but I know someone who would be. Paging Bob Timmermann . . . OK, I have left Bob a note at the Griddle.

The Yankees could acquire Chris Ray in a trade and then send him to the mound and have him cough up the lead for two teams in one game.

You can theoretically have the same winning and losing pitcher in a game in this situation.

Jayson Stark and the Elias guys would have a field day with THAT one ...

Abreu is one of the laziest outfielders I've seen in quite a while. When was the last time he crashed into a wall or dove for a ball? Aaron Rowand ought to take Abreu behind the woodshed for a while.

And in theory, the Yankees and Orioles could each trot out 25 new guys. However, the only players right now who can't play in the completion will be Wang and Vizcaino for the Yankees and Cabrera, Shuey, Parrish, and Mora for the Orioles.

And if neither the Yankees or Orioles change their bullpens around before July 27, I would be shocked.

Not sarcasm ... Abreu has long been regarded as lazy in the outfield. Its one of the reasons the Phillies dealt him last year.

I'm not suggesting he need to risk life and limb like Rowand does, but I've seen enough of Abreu in person and on TV to recognize lack of effort.

15 If you want to know what it has to do with Sun Ra, just ask Melvin Mora. He'll tell you it's just like nuclear war: a motherf*cker.

Funny, as I was listening to the game, I thought the umps were trying to give the Orioles a chance to get the last out, then they'd call it as a tie.

I have to agree that 'lazy' doesn't work here. Abreu was hustling for Millar's batted ball, but to catch it required a head-first dive and MLB OFers, esp. those getting paid to hit are trained?, encouraged?, not sure which to protect their bodies.

I know when I start the softball season each year, I have to train myself to dive to make plays, it doesn't come naturally.

That said, that was a situation where Abreu should have gone 'all-out', diving head first in an attempt to save the game.

Abreu is the anti-Jeter: He's not awful but looks so because of some plays.

25 I'm changing my mind on the Sheffield trade and william spelled it out last night. At the time, I thought it was good. But if they knew Humberto would need Tommy J, then it's a pretty dumb trade. Shef would have been the DH. Giambi would have been the 1B. That would have lasted one month, if that. And Shef would have dealt with no extension - if he wanted to earn his next contract, just like in 2003.

See, everyone thought Giambi was getting hurt because of playing 1B. Instead he was breaking down from pumping his body full of chemicals.

As for Damon - last year when no one else in baseball wanted to pay him $13mil/year - all of a suddden suitors were going to line up to do so AND give up prospects? And who was lining up to pay Giambi 42 million over 2007-08?

The real problem, it seems to me, is that the season goes on so long, with so few real off days (mostly they are used for long travel), and the players and owners (and networks) are gainst double-headers, that there is intense pressure to play games in pretty bad weather. Ideally they would call games quicker, before the weather turns so crappy that they are forced to stop it once they've entered tied/suspended game territory.

Oh well, no solution is perfect.

Sorry .... maybe the Paul O'Neill era in RF warped my mind :-)

Also, if he slid or dove (slud or dived? slided or dave?) and missed the ball--as he did--the ball rolls into the corner for a triple or worse. Maybe the best play at that point would have been to control the ball and limit the damage to a double.

At the time of the Giambi signing, we knew these years were going to show up. Same deal with Damon. But were very overpriced and well past their prime.

They should re-jigger the schedule to regularize it (all teams should play the same number of division games, inter-league games, and so forth) and this would give them an opportunity to knock a few games off the schedule.

Torre is in full panic mode and his tight mentality is rubbing off on the team.

His bullpen management is comical.

It's time to hold him accountable.

Valid point. I was thinking more about the last two weeks that which inning it was within the current game. With all the losing, it seemed to me the appropriate time to make the head-first dive, and I do believe he would have caught it.

It does seem that Abreu is VERY cautious around outfield walls.

64 Ah, but then we woulden been see'en Miggy Mantle starten in right fielden.

I'm starting to feel the same way about Shef.

But more, I'm just infuriated the team sucks this bad with 200 million spent and a GM who couldn't recognize the flaws in Decemeber in signing Cairo and Mfhdkj with nothing in the system behind them. And the guys that could help the bullpen now are low on the BFOG meter.

The sad fact is: Both Shef AND Bernie would be huge upgrades to this team.

So, who's this Sun Ra dude? And isn't that the best commentary on how bad things are in Yankeeland right now - there were as many posts discussing Sun Ra (and related topics) as there were discussing last night's game (maybe more, I didn't count).

I've been a Yankee fan since I was little, but I don't know who Sun Ra is! Am I missing out?

77 79 Don't forget the BUC situation!

How is it that we managed to end all discussion of a certain injury-prone "pitcher" of Italian ancestry who dates hot women and drives fast cars, but we can't end the Sheff and Unit trade talks? I find this very disturbing. At least with the other dude, we could have used it as a segway to talk about the cars or the women. Or great Italian food!

No such avenues are present with the old dudes.

76 Oh, yes. The pooch is screwed this season (poor little fellow). Problem was they could have solved their problems with a better navigation of the free agent market.

Instead Cash's thought process:
1) I can save over 30 million by dumping Wright, Shef, and Unit!
2) I've got 30 million - what about this Japanese lefty!
3) I can save money at 1B! We can carry a "defensive" 1B! We scored the most runs in the league last year!
4) I can save money on the bench! The bench doesn't play anyways! We scored the most runs in the league last year!
5) Look at that money I saved! I can sign THE Roger Clemens!
6) What the hell happened? We scored the most runs in the league last year!?

And that Italian? Notice how he's not playing until 2009? That's how it's easy to forget him. However when he signs with the Brewers for one year and 8 million and wins 18 games...

That's awesome, Bama. Maybe we could get Chyll to post the leaders on his blog.

Where is Chyll anyway?

Though couldn't I argue that Massachusetts is a part of the greater universe, and thus, post hoc ergo Proctor hoc, I am already a citizen of the greater universe?

Actually, are we talking about the same Sun Ra (aka Herman Poole Blount) that was from Birmingham, Alabama (by way of Saturn of course)?

From http://missioncreep.com/mw/sunra.html:
"I'm a spirit master," he said. "I've been to a zone where there is no air, no light, no sound, no life, no death, nothing. There's five billion people on this planet, all out of tune. I've got to raise their consciousness, tell them about the wonderful potential to bypass death."
He claimed that cars and rocket ships would one day run on music, presumably his music. He refused to reveal much about his past. "That's his-story," he'd say. "My story is a my-stery."

I hope that clears things up.

Wells actually doesn't score as well. He always had a big gut, but he didn't have the fat neck, fat arms, fat chest, fat everything that true guaponess requires. I swear, El Guapo had fat hair.

328 Yeah, tell me about it. Like A-Rod would ever be caught dead with her.

96 Many Sox fans still sport #34 "El Guapo" t-shirts in the Fenway stands (and around town). It always causes the bandwagon jumper Sox fans to ask if Big Papi has a second nickname they didn't know. =)

Ah, El Guapo. IIRC, he used to snack on the tomatoes grown in the Fenway bullpen. What a character. Sox fans always thought he lost his effectiveness when the Sox ask him to lose weight.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5LmG7wSN3sA

IIRC, Guapo was just voted the most popular reliever in Red Sox history or some such.

Nice.

Rashied Ali: How's Sunny?

John Gilmore: Sunny's out.

Rashied Ali: Sunny stays out!

In the subsequent gig, Sun Ra took an extended organ solo by himself on his Farfisa, using mostly his palms and forearms, so loud it was threatening to decimate the sound system. About halfway through it, two horn players came over and very slowly and reverentially tilted the keyboard on its stand so it was facing the audience. And Sunny kept right on blowing.

The gig ended with him leading the audience in singing his anthem:

"Come on let's take a journey - to Saturn...

Saturn is the planet of discipline -
Saturn is the great taskmaster

Come on let's take a journey - to Saturn...

Saturn takes 29-1/2 years to make a -
complete circle of the universe"

... and it was so catchy that I'm still singin' it 25 years later.
The Arkestra was quite possibly the best live act of all time.

Why is YES' selection of "classic" games so unimaginative? They're all from within the last five years or so.

Why don't they ever show interesting games, like from the 1970s and '80s?

Do they not own the rights to those games or something?

Such a waste of resources.

And I think all games with Mel Hall in them might be rejected too...

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA199007010.shtml

108 I'm pretty sure the Yanks own the rights to all the old MSG broadcasts, but I don't know if they own the rights to the old WPIX broadcasts. Then again, I seem to remember watching a rebroadcast of Rags' no-no on YES a few years ago. Paging media-master Will Weiss . . .

(Hey, that paging thing worked last time.)

109 You could always sign up for MiLB.tv, which is cheap and awesome (or so I'm told). 700 games for $30 is a pretty good deal IMHO.

You can also register for MiLB Gameday Audio, which I think is free and covers every game.

I remember going to a few when I was younger, but for obvious reasons I couldn't appreciate it as much as I would seeing it now...

3B Mike Blowers (booted a ground ball)
RF Jesse Barfield (dropped a popup, three runs score)
LF Jim Leyritz (dropped fly ball, one run scores)

True story: my sister had a crush on a record store clerk in San Francisco, and was looking for an excuse to call him back. She asked me for the name of an obscure album so that she could have him search for it. I gave her the names of two Rashaan Roland Kirk albums to stump the clerk with.

I kid. I kid.

125 roland kirk was great and that's an excellent story. ornette coleman was also fantastic but my favorite 'out' guy ever was the one and only Eric Dolphy. he was so unique and distinctive and i've never heard any instrumentalist be so individual in any genre. his fire/energy/passion/intention was unsurpassed. there's a great 9cd box set out on Prestige Records.

Clemens oughtta trade in his "Rocket Man" song for Sun Ra's "Rocket Number 9 Takes Off For The Planet Venus"!!!