Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
It was freaking cold in the Bronx on Sunday. The box score says it was 41 degrees, but it was overcast with a 20-mile-per-hour wind and snow flurries filled Yankee Stadium off and on throughout the game. Undeterred, Becky and I had the perfect plan.
A hearty meal at the Court Deli:
And lots and lots of layers:
To be perfectly honest, our plan worked about as well as the Yankees', which was based around getting a solid outing from Darrell Rasner. Rasner looked sharp in the first, and the Yankees jumped out to a 3-0 lead when Melky Cabrera and Derek Jeter singled, Bobby Abreu plated Melky with a sac fly and Alex Rodriguez launched his first pitch to the Armitron sign in right field to give him two home runs and six RBIs on his last two swings.
Already freezing, Becky turned to me and said, "So that's it, right? They won and we can go home?" If only.
Seven pitches into the top of the second, Rasner had given two of those runs back on a Jay Gibbons single and a rocket Kevin Millar homer to left. As it turns out, Rasner was developing a blister on the index finger of his pitching hand and was having trouble finishing his pitches. Meanwhile, Erik Bedard settled down and retired the next nine Yankees in order with the help of a great diving catch by Nick Markakis in right on a sinking liner by Jason Giambi.
The half inning before Markakis's catch, Rasner coughed up the lead on a one-out Millar double, a walk to Corey Patterson, and a three-run home run to the short porch in right by Paul Bako. Yes, you read that right, a walk to Corey Patterson and a three-run homer by Paul Bako. Ouch.
Between the score and the weather the stadium was oddly silent save for the sound of the whipping wind. I actually heard a couple of the home plate umpires' strike calls from the right field bleachers, and the fans' taunts were clearly audible from all corners. The most entertaining was by far the simples. While playing the field, Most of the Orioles were keeping their throwing hands warm by stuffing them into their back pockets where they had stored some hand warmers. Some of the fans in the right field box seats kept yelling at Markakis "Hand in my pocket!" "Got my hand in my po-cket!"
Classic.
In the fifth inning, the frame after the Bako homer, Rasner started off by allowing a single and a stolen base to Markakis, getting Tejada to fly out, and walking Aubrey Huff. That was enough for Joe Torre, who turned to his bullpen once again, calling on Sean Henn. Sticking to the script, the pen turned in 4 2/3 hitless innings, the highlight being Andy Pettitte using his throw day to lighten the load by pitching around a walk in the sixth.
The pen did manage to surrender a unearned run in the seventh after Robinson Cano lost a wind-blown pop up off the bat Miguel Tejada in the grey sky--shades of Alex Rodriguez's opening day gaffe, and perhaps a foreshadow of their imminent trip to the Metrodome. Tejada moved to third on a groundout and scored on a sac fly to center.
Bedard left the game after throwing 99 pitches over seven innings, striking out five and walking none. With Jamie Walker on in relief the Yankees mounted a rally. The cold had kept Johnny Damon's tender calves on the bench to start the game, but when Joe Torre sent Jorge Posada to the plate to pinch-hit for eight-place hitter and emergency left fielder Miguel Cairo with a man on second and two outs in the seventh, Damon went out to center field to replace ninth-place starting catcher Wil Nieves (pushing Melky to left). Damon had been left in the on-deck circle in the seventh and when he finally got to the plate to lead off the eighth, he battled Walker for ten pitches, fouling off six straight pitches before lacing a stand-up triple to center. Two pitches later, Damon scored on a groundout by Cabrera to pull the Yankees within two at 6-4.
After Jeter flew out for the second out, Bobby Abreu singled to bring Alex Rodriguez to the plate as the tying run. Sam Perlozzo then countered with righty submariner Chad Bradford. Rodriguez and Bradford battled over seven pitches while the winds picked up, creating a blinding flurry of snow flakes and hot dog wrappers.
Rodriguez worked a walk. Perlozzo then turned to lefty John Parrish, who proceeded to walk Jason Giambi on another seven pitches to load the bases for Josh Phelps. Phelps ran the count to 2-2 before flying out to center to end the threat.
Chris Ray pitched around a two-out Damon single in the ninth to nail down the 6-4 Orioles victory.
The Yankees now head out to the climate controlled Metrodome for three games with the Twins followed by three games in Oakland. That means they shouldn't have to worry about seeing something like this again this season:
Hopefully that means they'll have fewer muscle pulls to worry about as well. One could easily argue that the cold weather in the Bronx was to blame for the injuries to Damon and Matsui.
Speaking of Matsui, he's officially been placed on the 15-day DL, in part to keep him from trying to come back too soon and thus risking a longer layoff. Kevin Thompson will replace him on the roster, while Damon should return to his rightful place in center, pushing Melky to his old haunt in left for the next couple of weeks. (Don't ask about Bernie, he's busy.)
Finally, here's a progress report on the new stadium.
Here's the view from Opening Day.
Sick riff on that tune. Somebody should go to bat to that. I nominate Giambi or Phelps. Maybe Damon.
I'm not panicking, but certainly disappointed. This team has the same persona as last year's team. Vicious animals one moment, old and stale the next.
But how about ARod, huh.
When he's hot, it's purely a thing of beauty.
"left fielder Miguel Cairo" and "starting catcher Wil Nieves"
Plus, we have A-Rod. It's great, I actually can't wait for him to get up every time because I'm almost sure he'll get it done. He just looks so GOOD out there...
Excellent recap with photos. It's awesome. Thanks for suffering the cold for us so that we get to these beautiful scenes through your eyes.
I am more than willing to give the Yankees SPs benefit of the doubt that they aren't pitching well due to the weather. I mean, if we can't help shivering while walking in this cold, how can we expect them to pitch well? (Yes, I am aware pitchers from other teams don't seem to have the same problem...)
However, even with Wang back (by all means, no need to rush him back to this cold), he is just one more person. So what now? Clemens in May? Truth be told, I feel confident that the SP will be fine, I can almost see it now that the next round through the rotation...they all gonna be great. It's the extra workload for the relievers early in the season...We have all witnessed what they are capable of, but man, those were a lot of innings they had to eat up...how many games are left??
sorry...rant off//
I blame the cold!
The odds against Hughes making his first start in pinstripes prior to it being legal for him to have a beer took a nosedive this week.
Went to the game Saturday. Bought ticket on the Web from official spot--$60 plus handling for a field level box--15 D23 as far back as seats could go. So cold, I shivered through 7 innings. Bought a hat--$35--yearbook--$25--2 postcards--$5-- and a bottle of water--$4.50. Parking--$14.
Wore a heavy duty fleece, mid weight thermal, and wool socks. Not enough. Wind blew threw the stands. Ears and face numb.
Didn't drink a beer, soda, or eat a dog. Had trouble in the bathroom pulling zipper up and down. No hands or feeling in fingers.
NO smoking anymore. NO swearing. Agent of Yanks in seat in front of me. People getting up to go to the bathroom, buy one beer to a customer, and care for baby (couple had infant who cried the entire game).
Couldn't keep score. Unable to hold a pencil. Couldn't take pictures. Overhang obscured 1/3 of frame.
Couldn't sit past the end of seventh. Missed Giambi's and A-Rod's homers.
Not sure I go to a game again. Cannot afford it financially or physically. Not comfortable. Not fun.
In 1998 the Yankees started 2-3
In 1998 the Yankees started 2-3
(I'm just going to keep repeating that to myself.)
Let's see... a guy used to wait on line, buy extra tickets, stand outside the stadium, scalp them, and make $20 a ticket. That was highly illegal. Very, very bad. Now, professional organized scalpers buy all the seats online (bastards don't have to even wait in the cold), before they are available to the general public, and mark up tickets by $40 to $500 dollars. Who's idea was that? Who's the genius? Where can we go to personally thank him? Opening day tickets to Fenway (online, ala scalpers) started at like $200 each.
People say that player salaries have nothing to do with the HUGH cost of taking in a ballgame. $250 for me and my daughter to go to a game. And the Yankees are building more luxury suites. America's pastime is now a once-a-year special occasion for many of us.
I hate to see the game go corporate. Thank God for big screen, Hi-Def TV (which I can't afford yet either). With big screen TV and other cool technologies, I wonder if they will change the way games are prduced for TV. Multiply camera angles to choose from? GPS trackers on the balls and a camera to follow? Can I turn on Catcher-Cam whenever I like?
Fewer and fewer people will go to Live games, but watching on TV could be much better (climate controlled living rooms and free parking to start with). Maybe multiple mute buttons, specifically 'McCarver Mute' and 'Morgan Mute'? Maybe a better array of commentators, who can do the game from their homes (Mr. Kaat... are you available?)
There is even a newer super-duper Hi-Def thats truly amazing. Hopefully it will cost less then a Toyota soon.
Now all we really need is the Bronx Banter Video Conference Game Chatroom. See you guys there.
IS ANYONE ELSE HERE HORRIBLY CONFLICTED?
Great stuff, Cliff, and thanks for the bonus Bernie jam.
Game during commercials, which there are plenty of.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that there'll still be a solid 1.5+ innings of baseball left when '24' finishes tonight.
Confession...
When I fled Loooong Island in 1973 for the wilds of New Hampshire, I couldn't leave fast enough. I do love it up here, and I have my 20 acres. But with this site, not being part of the local Yankee community has me very homesick. And now Cliff rubs my nose in it by putting up pictures of the 'Boomer' plate. Oy!
They have pastrami up here, but they don't really 'get' pastrami up here. I would show you some pics, but then Cliff would have to post a warning label on the site.
Dr. Brown's Black Cherry... ahhhhhh... it's amazing the little things you miss. True story. We had a Dr. Brown up here in the local college town. You went to Dr. Brown complainling about 'tension and anxiety' and you left with a script for 25 Quaaludes. EVERYBODY's doctor was Dr. Brown. When he finally got busted, an entire town went through withdrawal at the same time.
French Toast? Anybody ever go to the Squire Restaurant/Deli in Great Neck? They started with a full load of white bread, then cut slices about 2" thick, cut off the crust, cut the 'slices' in half to make triangle wedges, and then DEEP Fried them. Crisply and sweet on the outside, golden yellow as soft as a cloud on the inside. I haven't ordered French Toast in a restaureant since '73.
And Matzo Ball Soup (sigh). God, I miss my mother (sniffle). But I gotta ask. Chicken NOODLE? Is this a Yuppie thing? Would Mom have approved? Aren't noodles for Koogle?
Matzo Ball Soup (sigh). Its amazing the little things you miss. Thank God from Cable TV and Bronx Banter.
(I won't even tell you about Pizza up here).
Except for that black cherry soda. When it comes to pastrami, I'm a Cel-Ray man.
This may just be a perception, but there seems to be a pattern to our offense. Sometimes we come hard out of the gate and score a bunch early. Sometimes we don't. But it seems to me, whatever the score, we always look flatter in the middle innings... as if we feel there is 'still time' and don't play with urgency. And then in the 8th and 9th, it seems we always put together some kind of rally. Not always enough to win, but we rarely go down without a fight.
It's almost like an NBA game. It's like our bats are 'saving themselves' for the end game.
Anybody else feel that way?
Slightly off topic rant alert:
I love post-first week of baseball articles that simultaneously tell you that the first week means nothing and that clearly such and such a team or player is either "back" or "in trouble" based on their first week. Take Heymen's article on SI.com (not to pick on an employer Alex) http://tinyurl.com/347zxk He's sold on Dice-K, tells us that he agrees with some unnamed Yankee that Igawa "sucks" and goes into all sorts of other reactions that "prove" or "show" things based on week 1 (Oliver Perez is somehow alreayd back to his 2004 form?).
I know its just writers trying to do their job or whatever, but at least try to maintain some consistancy or rationalism...ugh...
Uh....oh yeah - the game sucked yesterday, 'cept for A-Rod, in my opinion.
...I'm hungry now! ;-)
How come he slams all sorts of players for doing so badly - in a week - but when Ortiz strikes out 3 times, it's because the pitcher is so good?
If I understand Heyman correctly, he's saying that Manny Acta is 20 times worse than people thought Joe Girardi was, even though it turned out that he wasn't.
And finally, check out the first sentence in his Kazmir item. How does an experienced professional writer manage to produce a sentence that bad?
ny: 5.40
boston: 3.53
It's too early to get nervous about yankee pitching, but witih almost a 2 run difference the stats don't support your comments at all.
Yankees: 6.60 runs/game
Red Sox: 3.16 runs/game
All in all, I feel very lucky to have found the Banter few years back.
And, to be honest DVR makes the choice easier. Hate paying the cable company more mullah, but DVR is legit.
Bronx Banter had it a year ago (don't recall who started it.)
Score another one for the Banter.
http://digitalheadbutt.wordpress.com/2007/04/09/japan-is-going-to-implode-on-wednesday/
And as he says Japan is going to explode on on Wed. Then the next big event is against Godziller. His first day off the DL is the last game at Fenway?
Go baseball!
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