Funny about the mustard packet, Alex. I must've been about 10 years old, when the same thing happened to me at Shea. I was with my dad, and my bro. Big dude in a tank top stomps his mustard to amuse his troops, and sullies my fine Puma Clydes. I felt so sorry for myself I almost cried, but they cleaned up nice.

On another note, what's up with Gerrit Cole? (sorry if this is already a dead horse and I just haven't been paying close enough attention while out of town) Not signing him would tend to make this year even more of a disaster (or some other word that is less strong than disaster, but still pretty bad).

Win for Cliff's mom!

Personally, I think that's nuts. You can always go to college later. A shot at the big leagues and the money that goes with it may not be available later.

The sucky offense vs. the sucky pitcher.

I just think he's making the wrong decision.

College will always be there. Heck, he could probably have gotten the Yankees to pay his tuition (as Yonder Alonso got the Reds to do).

When you have a talent like he has, though...you should use it.

I think this might end up being something he regrets all his life, if the opportunity is no longer there after college.

SLAPPY!!!!!!!!

And it appears that bad hitting beats bad pitching.

how about some outs.

I think Kay's a bad influence on him. Lately they've been blathering on about nonsense.

Al, stick to game, pleeeeease.

Imagine my surprise...

26 I also hate it when Kay refers to "Zaftig" pitches

And I actually enjoy the silliness that goes on between them. I find it endearing.

Within limits, of course.

I missed the beginning of the conversation, but it sounded like Kay was just arguing that the time of the game shouldn't be an issue, that it's not like we're in a dental chair, we're at the ballpark, so what's the rush?

But Kay's the same guy who used to divide all games into "manageable" and "unmanageable" based on a three-hour threshold.

Has he changed his opinion or did I misunderstand his point just there?

it's funny, i didn't think alex's mention of this would spark comments, but i thought it was so cool that he referred to mom as "Ma" in his post. i dunno, made me feel at home.

meanwhile, my "Ma" left me a v-mail this morning, i need to call her back. todays offense has me in a good mood, so that's nice! : )

They were discussing OYF's instant replay.

my Ma's from brooklyn, i'm from queens. my whole fam is still in NY, either near JFK or LaGuardia...

45 this game is awesome, cult! : p

Didn't require speed.

If you look at the number of ground balls per balls hit (so, ABs minus Ks), Jeter has hit it on the ground 58.8% of the time this season.

If this rate holds, it would actually be fourth in his career, behind 1997 (59.9%), 2006 (59.9%) and 2005 (59.4%). His career rate is 53.4% but he has been above that each season since 2004.

Of course, as weeping points out everytime I post these numbers, we don't know how well those ground balls were hit. But, Jeter is not hitting the ball on the ground more than usual this season.

Your boy!

Wow, that was a quick, quick swing.

Nice job, kid.

I'll have to think about your point more, but I think that the condition you establish (in the quote above) pretty much undermines your point. The fact is that he IS striking out less, and his overall ground ball rate is high. So he appears to be replacing K's with ground balls, which includes presumably many more weakly hit grounders.

And so my original point stands: more balls in play, especially on the ground (including weak grounders), will yield a few more infield hits.

But still - welcome to the Yanks, Ransom!

JL, I hope you enjoyed yesterday's game after all. I went to friends' wedding reception (they got married down in the islands last month), and when I arrived, I turned the car and the radio off with the game in the top of the 8th. Imagine my surprise when I get in the car 2 hours later and the game is still on!

So it looks as though, when strikeouts are down for Jeter, he's equally likely to turn those extra balls in play into flyballs as grounders.

I will accept that more balls in play likely lead to more hits of any type, infield or otherwise.

moose will tie bob feller w/ 266 wins, with a victory today. i don't know that it'll happen, but i'd love to see moose join the exclusive 300 wins/3,000 strikeout club...

year games pa gb gb/pa gb/g
2004 154 721 260 0.361 1.688
2005 159 752 319 0.424 2.006
2006 154 715 312 0.436 2.026
2007 156 714 303 0.424 1.942
2008 115 519 235 0.453 2.043

So, Jeter's GB rate per PA is very high. His GB/Game rate is also the highest since 2004, but that only amounts to an extra GB every 20 games or so, more or less depending on the season being compared.

Ultimately you are more righter than I thought at first.

Anyway, great spreadsheets think alike :-)

Chocolate frosty milkshakes all around!

meanwhile, my "Ma" just called. i told her about today's thread. and, yeah, i answered the phone, "hi, ma"...

My dad called his mom Mom.

My mom called her mom both Ma and Mom.

Both of my paternal grandparents were from large Italian families, and I do not remember any of my dad's cousins calling their mothers anything other than "Ma". Ditto my dad. So I always thought it was an Italian thing, as opposed to a regional thing.

It's always bugged me that this question has become part of Jersey's culture, as if everything that matters relates to the turnpike!

my brother and i mostly call my dad, "Pop"

my great grandma on my mom's side, whom i never met, was called "Ma" by everyone - her kids, grandkids, great grandchildren, etc.