the following is from a ny post srticle this morning:

"Several Yankees have begun sporting mustaches as a sign of unity akin to playoff beards in the NHL. Jason Giambi was the ringleader - which seems the proper term since this is part of a spirited attempt to win a ring - and teammates such as Johnny Damon, Ron Villone and Jaret Wright all were mysteriously beginning to look like 1970s porn actors, as well.

But it appears as though this hair club for men is much like Fight Club. So the first rule of growing a mustache for the Yankees is, you do not talk about growing a mustache for the Yankees. Answers about how Burt Reynolds suddenly became the patron saint of the clubhouse were evasive and short."

No harm, no foul is right. Proctor, Farnswacker, and Rivera got another night off, which will hopefully yield dividends in October.

I wonder if Joe's backfired bullpen maneuver will go on his ledger as a "Torre Loss" over at NoMaas.org. They credit him with 3 losses this season.

Tough one for Villone, but I remember watching Beltre on the Dodgers when I lived in L.A. He's got pop. "Bat In The Beltre" was the headline I often conjured. Solid player.

Re: the "alarming fly ball tendencey exhibited by Karstens" (nice line, Cliff): were they wacking him to the track? mostly harmless lazy pop ups?

Perhaps the worst thing about this loss is that the audacious Mariner's fan who accosted our fellow Banterer, Murph during his visit to Seattle last week was right that his M's would give the Yanks a hard time. Pfft.

Farnsworth closed the day before, Proctor went six innings in the Sox series, and Dotel has apparently not earned Joe's trust yet. Last night would have been a nice spot for Dotel to start earning Torre's trust, especially, as you point out, that Villone was facing a right handed power hitter.
If Beltre had taken Dotel deep the loss would have been easier to stomach because the Yanks would have been going with power against power.
Oh well, big picture "no harm, no foul."
We'll get 'em tonight/tomorrow morning EST.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ont4.htm

Given what transpired over the weekend and the state the pen was in I think Mr. Torre has to be given a pass on last night. If he won with what he budgeted in terms of manpower great. If not, I don't think he was prepared to open a vein over it; nor should we be.

I got in late and didn't really get a good look at Karstens on the Seattle MLB broadcast (if you want to call it a MLB broadcast). I gather from Cliff's comments and the fly ball tendency that he was pitching a little up in the zone. Very bad for a ground ball pitcher. How was his velocity? Did he throw his split? Was he sitting at the advertised 88 – 92 range on his 4 seam? Did he have a change? Are there any reactions or impressions worth noting from anyone who didn't have to sit through that unwatchable Seattle feed?

I had the Seattle broadcast on XM, switched over to the Angels broadcast in between pitches. Another IBB for Ortiz in the 9th - I love it.

As for last night, Joe knows the state of his players better than us, no? He doesn't hesitate to overuse relievers and turn to his go-to guys, so I imagine he utilized sound judgement in not using Proctor, Farns, and Mo in the 9th last night. That he didn't go to Dotel is the bummer for me, but Octavio hasn't earned his trust yet.

I imagine if Dotel had blown the game, Joe would have been blamed for that too.

As for the non-idiotic thing, I meant exactly that, he didn't make himself look like an idiot. It was a good series other than when he put Bernie in the OF, I agree. But I just wish he didn't try and make sure we snapped Seattle's streak.

And why do WE have to snap Seattle's and Kansas City's streaks? Why couldn't some other teams have done that? And one more thing, why do Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre, two of the biggest busts in Free Agent history, completely and unjustly own the Yankees? It makes no sense, one is hitting .230 and the other .260, and yet, they combine to murder us. Things like this annoy me to no end.

2) Yes, Torre made a mistake that cost us one Loggy matchup. But with Melky and Cano making bad blunders, ARod and Jorge failing with the sacs loaded, Melky being picked off, and others poor judgement plays, I don't know how this is a Torre loss. His 'negative' impact was far lesser then the players failures. Myers and Wright were housemoney attempts to save the PB. Yes, Torre made a mistake, but the team lost the game, not Torre's one bad move.

Torre is often not cited for being an excellent manager by the media, as we all know how easy it is to mange and win with a 200 mil ballclub. Yet this year, almost every series has had a announcer compliment Torre, call it his best year, or put him in for manager of the year.

Where is the love for Torre?

Torre works for George under the assumption that he will go to the PS and win the WS, with every move magnified by the NY media. You want this job?

Great ballplayers fail 70% of the time. Can a great manager 'make an error' without name calling and having a team loss pinned on him?

We all know Torre makes mistakes and is weak in PB management. But NOBODY could have done what he had done over the last 10 years. Last year and this year could have been crash-and-burn. Torre is the glue that holds this team together.

As far as I am concerned, this years Yankee's MVP is co-shared by Torre and Cashman.

re: Villone, my guess is Joe was going with one of his hunches that Villone could grind it out, and get the job done in Seattle, where he has played before.

"On the fritz is rather mysterious in origin, being first used in 1902. It gained impetus during WWI when it was used to refer to anything German or that didn't work right. But the wartime derogatory reference is obviously not the origin, given the date of first use."

But I have a problem with a language expert who says "impetus" to mean "momentum." That's something John Sterling would say.

Seriously, I love Torre, and wouldn't want another manager.

New York did get some good injury news: Doctors cleared left fielder Hideki Matsui to hit off a tee for the first time since he broke his left wrist on May 11.

Torre said Matsui probably will be able to hit soft-tossed pitches into a screen "in a few days." Torre said "it's possible" Matsui could go on a rehabilitation assignment during the final week of the minor league regular season.

Triple-A Columbus' regular season ends Sept. 4. Class-A Tampa, often a favored rehabilitation place for the Yankees, end its season Sept. 3.

That's a kind of failure I'm willing to accept. If the Yanks fail to win their sixth straight eight more times this year, I'm totally cool with that.

I've said this before, I'll say it again. I've criticized Torre plenty over the years, and god kows he makes it easy enough to do. But the daily criticism of his in-game tactics - not so much here but at other sites - is often correct but misguided. It focuses on his small mistakes while completely obscuring his tremendous strengths.

This year, I think his strengths have made all the difference. Without Joe Torre, I don't think this team would be in first place. His most important contribution was that he never panicked. He lost two outfielders, he had no fifth starter, Johnson was looking bad, Mo and EDSP looked like his only reliable relievers, and then he lost his second baseman as well. Fans and media were starting to get a little overheated.

So what did Joe do? He made a plan and he stuck to it. He put together the best players he could scrounge up, sent them out and let them play. If something wasn't working, he gave it a few more chances; no one had to worry that he'd be benched for an oh-fer or two. And then if it still didn't work, he tweaked his plan, and then stuck to that.

And that's what Joe has been doing for 11 seasons, and that's why he's lasted.

When it came to in-game tactics, Billy Martin was a frickin' genius (and he'd be sure to let you know it). But can you imagine him managing this team? By mid-June he would have been twitching and snarling; then he'd start bad-mouthing his players, who would also be bad-mouthing him. He'd crack, and so would the team.

Joe can be incredibly frustrating, but I think he's also irreplaceable. Sure, he's had players to work with; Martin, Lemon, Martin, Howser, Michael, Lemon, Michael, King, Martin, Berra, Martin and Piniella. None of them was able to do what Joe has.

Dotel's is just back from a long TJ rehab. How was he feeling last night, did anyone here ask him? How did his stuff look yesterday? Anyone here bother to get out to the bull pen and look? Based on anyone here's conversation with Villone yesterday was he feeling stronger than the other guys?

This day in day out micro-critiquing of Mr. Torre's decisions gets tiresome very fast on this level.

If Billy Martin was managing the '06 Yanks he would have charged the field at least twice this season to tackle A-Rod following an error. Seriously. He would have made ESPN's treatment of Rodriguez look like "Yankeeography."

However, Sheffield (whom I know you are not fond of) probably would have killed Martin by May 1st.

http://www.deadspin.com/sports/baseball/hacking-bernie-196056.php

"I think it was Alex Belth, protesting the fact that Torre for some crazy reason, continues to run Bernie out in the late innings as a defensive replacement."

Wouldn't it be great to see the Yanks go 162 - 0 in the regular season, 11 - 0 in the playoffs and us have nothing to ever complain about?

If I ruled the world......none of my teams would ever lose either.

You know who I blame this loss on? I blame it on the mother f'er who didn't make us perfect.

Soriano got pulled after the Melky bunt and a lefty, Sherrill, came in to face Cano (it was Sherrill who picked off Melky while Damon was batting).

I guess I just don't get how people can question Joe on anything for last night. They just played 5 grueling games.

**they don't really exist, do they?

I think I've written about this here before, but I was on a tour of the Stadium with my dad the warm December day Pavano was introduced in his new uniform.

Even amid the excitment of being there, and seeing him, you knew he was being overpaid, but you also knew the Sox and Tigers had been after him, and you knew how desperately the Yanks needed pitching. This was about 6 weeks after the 2004 ALCS.

I was at Game 7 ALCS, way upper deck behind home plate, and was very happy to be back at the Stadium under different circumstances, the Yanks on the road to recovery and all that.

To say Pavano has not lived up to the bright promise of that warm December day the week before Christmas is an understatement.

But maybe it's because I have pictures of me and my dad in the outfield that day, and pictures of the Stadium with Pavano's smiling face up on the Jumbotron, I'm still rooting for him.

What an incredible exclamation point on the season it would be if Pavano could help the team down the stretch.

Sure beats the hell out of expressing passion by being mean and nasty about doesn't it?

http://ussmariner.com/2006/08/23/late-game-management/

Be that as it may, Snelling isn't exactly Jason Giambi, who you'd bring off the bench in a second in that situation -- and Villone is pretty effective against LHB.

I'd say the USS Mariner writer is nitpicking more than our resident Torre doubters, and should be satisfied with the win.

That said, a manager who is great is not perfect, and mistakes should not be written off as "hey, no one's perfect." Mistakes should be learned from, and I believe that a mistake was made last night in the ninth inning. No, I didn't watch the game, and no, I do not know who was available or not. But based on the patterns Torre has set up for this team, leaving in Villone in the ninth was a non-traditional move. I believe that you should put out the best pitcher possible in such a game-deciding situation. That pitcher is, unequivocably, Mariano Rivera. In the real world, that can't happen every night, so go to the next best guy. In my mind, Ron Villone in his second inning, versus a righty power hitter, is the fourth best option. I find that unacceptable, if the goal is to win today's game. If the goal is something else (resting as many people as possible, getting the game over as to not miss dinner reservations, etc), then perhaps I can be convinced.

I hope I've made my point more clearly than I did in 5. I wouldn't want anyone on the planet managing this team other than Joe Torre. But mistakes can be made, and lessons should be learned from those mistakes.

On a completly different note, to Ron Burgundy and others: did you notice that Adam Loewen shut down the red-hot Twins last night? Maybe that will serve as some post-hoc stress relief? Or maybe high ERA is not the best measure to determine whether a pitcher should be shelled by the Yanks...

"Damon's value transcends the field. Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera are incredibly positive thinkers, but Damon trumps even them because he is more extroverted and has a way of improving fraternity just by being in a room. The Red Sox miscalculated not only in thinking Crisp would be a younger, less expensive version of Damon, but in not fully appreciating the one-man goodwill tour that Damon is. He was at the center of the scraggly Idiot culture that emboldened the Red Sox to play so loose in ending The Curse against a Yankee team that, by stark contrast, was so corporate and tight.

Now, these Yanks are still pretty corporate, far from Idiots and always an ill-timed Steinbrenner sputter away from all the pressures of old. But, for now, they are the team sprouting the extra hair, playing less tense, and there is Damon right in the middle of the good vibrations on and off the field."

Now, I know the article is written by their Projo, Red Sox fan guy, and don't get me wrong, Papi-Ramirez really ARE one of the best 3-4 hitting combos ever, but first of all, how many GREAT 3-4 combos that actually lasted more than a a few seasons were there? And they are only in their 4th year together. The media is always so quick to declare althletes "the something of something." Ortiz is "the greatest clutch hitter EVER," Mo "the greatest reliever EVER," etc etc.

And yet again, it jsut proves the absolute idiotic nature of the Sox pleading poverty to try and trade Manny...

For the Red Sox management to let him go after all he did for that team, surely Damon had to be flawed in some serious way that was not apparent to the fans who worshipped him.

Was he hurt? Was he a total a-hole in the clubhouse?

No. No. He turned out to be exactly what he appears to be. A happy go lucky guy who hustles, and exhibits the talent and intangibles you'd expect from a $13 million dollar ballplayer.

Turns out the real "Idiots" were Damon's penny-pinching ex bosses. F 'em.

59 The "Soxaholix" are riffing about the magical skills of Bobby Abreu today, and he "himself" weighs in on the comments board.

But I'm never going to give up the right to criticize Joe. He can be so damn frustrating...His bullpen usage. His blatant favoritism. His tendency to value baseball skill less than Fire In the Belly. Along with that, his apparent disdain for bench players - especially backup catchers - who can actually play a little. His extreme reluctance to play anyone at all who isn't a Veteran Presence, preferably someone who's Been There (remember, he only gave Wang, Cano and Melky chances out of complete desperation). Even his steadiness, which I praised so highly, looks at other times like a maddening rigidity.

And so on. So don't think I was trying to criticize you for seeing Joe's flaws; I thought yours was a point well taken.

I guess I'm not supposed to get it.

Can you imagine if A-Rod went there?

The strip is pretty brutal toward the Sox actually, as it is written from a rabid fan's perspective.

Of course it's no place for thin-skinned Yanks fans.

From the viewpoint of a part-time cartoonist, however, I can't get past the same 2-3 talking heads comprising an entire strip. Makes me want to go read a few weeks worth of old "Bloom County" just to get that out of my system. ;-)

69 Think of it this way - anything that makes you want to go back and read Bloom County can't be all bad.

I think I understand Red Sox fans better from reading it, which isn't to say I appreciate them more. Bitter bunch, but they can have a sense of humor about their plight, which is admirable.

Even the Mets-wagon fans are getting in on the act... sad days in Beantown, indeed.

Ack!

Except Alex - he can't spell either. ;-)

All I can say is, it's about time someone else said it.

have impassioned speeches, and even poetry flowing from the mouths of character's who wear frozen expressions.

What's funnier is that most of the dialog takes place in an office setting while the character's are supposed to be working, like I'm supposed to be as I'm typing this.

Instead, the characters are cursing their brains out, or waxing poetic about their team.

Who says "irony" is dead?

64 I'm with you. I "get" the strip but I just don't find it particularly amusing or interesting. Reminds me too much of Doonesbury which is the cartoonification (to create a word) of painful.

80 Good point.

But what's true is that Sheffield has generally gotten a free ride since he's come to NY.

He says, "this is who I am, like it or not - I don't care" - and IMO that's exactly what we all want A-Rod to be.

He also played hurt through a season when he could barely lift his glove above his head.

I have no problem with Sheff, but Abreu's a more complete player.

Sheff for DH in '07, I say.

91 Don't take the blame for our butchering of the language, Bama, everybody knows it's A-Rod's fault.

http://www.soxaholix.com/tp/2004/03/30/index.html

Uses the same clip-art office worker phone conversation motif as David Reese's Get Your War On, which debuted in October 2001 (warning, bad language, not safe for right wingers):

http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/war.html

Reese's strip was a revelation in the wake of September 11, 2001 as his characters voiced the overwhelming combination of fear and outrage many of us felt. They were raging against an immediate future that was suddenly more unknown than at any other point since the end of the Cold War. The frozen images worked as they contrasted with the fevered emotions the characters were expressing, but also portrayed how fear, uncertainty and a lack of control had paralyzed them.

Soxaholix's use of the same device in and of itself adds to the humor of the strip as it winks at how Sox fans treat baseball as something as critically important as the safety of our nation and the future of the free world.

Or at least that's how I see it.

Throw in some retro hipster style points for the use of corny clip art in both cases and the occassional literary reference by Soxaholix (usually footnoted for those who don't recognize the source) which further romanitizes the tragedy and comedy of being a Sox fan and stir.

Not surprising that the curtain open/fade up on the Soxaholix was a shot at the "fucking Yankees." Heh.

The reason that A-Rod is scrutinized and criticized more for striking out with the game on the line, is that A-Rod makes more money than anyone else in baseball. That's why he's held to a different standard than Sheff.

Now, I obviously don't agree that A-Rod should be lambasted for striking out in a big situation, he's not perfect and nobody should expect him to be. But that's the way it is. On one hand you get to cash the biggest check in baseball, on the other hand you get skewered in the press every time you aren't Superman. I'd take the money and laugh all the way to the World Series if I were A-Rod. Not everyone likes me, so what? That's the attitude people want to see from A-Rod, and unfortunately that's not how he's wired, so that intensifies the scrutiny and the skewering.

Kids tease each other to get a reaction, right? Writers and fans give Alex shit because they know that in some way he'll react. Whereas Sheff would flip them off and go about his business of trying to rip a line drive through Larry Bowa's mid section.

But this isn't a Sheff v. A-Rod debate in the end. It's an A-Rod v. everyone else debate. Sheff doesn't need a blank check because Sheff has been as well behaved in NYY as he has anywhere else in his career.

As long as A-Rod is the highest paid player in the game the press and the casual fan will look at him through an entirely different lens than they use to view any other player, no matter what. And that's the dumb sad truth.

Sounds like the artist explaining away the fact that he can't draw a lick. ;-)

Thanks for the link.

I imagine even in the team's finest hour the Soxaholix took shots at the Yanks.

101 I prefer the strip from the verge of the victory:

http://www.soxaholix.com/tp/2004/10/27/index.html

But here's the one from right after:

http://www.soxaholix.com/tp/2004/10/28/index.html

Note the footnote in the latter strip.

Which son did what the father asked him to do?

Nothing personal. The guy gets my bile up. I don't deny his talent for a second - he hits the hardest line drives I've ever seen. But I don't like the guy, I don't respect him, I've never wanted him on my team and I can't wait until he's gone.

I was right, even in the team's finest hour they slapped at the Yanks.

Seriously, when the Yanks win a Series do you even think about the Red Sox for the following four months?

I understand Sox fans perceived the Yanks to be their oppressors, but someone should have reminded them in 2004 Boston made it to the Series a few times in those 86 years, and it wasn't the Yankees who stopped them from winning it all.

Funny stuff though.

If they win it all this year, I might finally commit to getting that Yankees 'window cling' on my car. :-D

"Ok, you tell me right now that you wouldn't trade A-rod straight up for David Wright???" (you can also insert Jeter for Reyes).

I swear it's pervasive. Was out for a few drinks after work a while back and was introduced to a friend of a friend who also happened to be a Mets fan. It took him less than 5 minutes to drop that gem on me. That's when I have to point out a few things:

1 - Fine, let's play your game: "Conversely, would you like to trade Floyd for Cabrera or Valentin/Matsui/Anderson/Woodward for Cano?"
2 - What is it exactly about David Wright's 3 years with the Mets that makes him better than A-rod either offensively or defensively?
3- What is it about David Wright's stats from ages 21-23 when compared to A-rod's stats for the same ages that makes someone think he'll trounce all of A-rod's numbers by the time he's finished playing?
4 - Why are you not interested in comparing Wright to Miguel Cabrera, the superior 3B that plays in your own division?
5 - You're a little late to this game. We've already played the 'my guy is better than your guy' game w/ the Red Sox (Nomar - Jeter).
6 - And why is it that in 30 years of being a Yankee fan I have never EVER considered a Yankee's ability in relation to his Mets "counterpart". Example: Dave Winfield sure is talented but I have to wonder... just how does he measure up against Ellis Valentine?

Ugh, my head...

2) His age and the likelihood of his improving and Rodriguez's declining.
3) Nothing, but the point isn't what Rodriguez has done, but what he's likely to do over the next several years compared to Wright
4) For the same reason Yankee fans never played this game with Rodriguez when he was in Seattle and instead focused on Nomar who was both on a rival team and set the bar lower.
6) You never got into an argument about Keith Hernandez vs. Don Mattingly, particularly when it came to their defense?

120 If we were talking about Damian Jackson I'd say he should be blackballed from the majors in order to preserve that total.

Either way, as it is my first time catching that fact, congrats!

The Cowboys cut Drew Henson today.

===
It is not a novel concept that in sports, as in life, that which does not kill you makes you stronger. I'm not suggesting that manager Joe Torre wasn't reeling a bit when his two slugging outfielders, Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui, went down with major injuries. But soon you could see a certain glee in Torre, a National Leaguer at heart, as he rejiggered the Yankee attack with steals, hit-and-run plays and other old reliables of offenses that don't revolve entirely around the home run. The aggressive approach on the bases seems to have yielded a more aggressive mindset generally. I have long been an admirer of Torre and, while Detroit's Jimmy Leyland, seems to have sewn up the manager of the year award, Torre would be equally worthy. This season may be his finest hour.
===

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14471572/site/newsweek/

Mets fans are making several points: (1) Wright is better now, (2) He will be better going forward given your explanation in #2 and (3) he will have the better career when it's all said and done. Therefore, I'd say it's completely fair to compare A-rod's #'s to Wright's through age 23 particularly if you're going to proclaim that Wright will be the better player. Long story short, the numbers (age 21-23 comparison) don't bare out any larger success for Wright. And thus, we have nothing more than a silly rivalry argument (in my mind). And for those that like predicting the future, I do recall some vehement Mets' fans touting the greatness of Rey Ordonez in relation to the 'over-rated' Derek Jeter.