Monthly Archives: April 2003

MUSICAL INTERLUDE

I don’t know how many readers are familiar with the late rock’n’roller, Jeff Buckley, but my frined Nyla has been busy making a documentary on him for the past 3 years, and now has a website, promoting the film. I had never heard of Buckley before I heard his “Grace” album over Easter weekend in 1994. I wasn’t checking for Rock records at the time, but my uncle Herve had a copy of the album and was a big fan. My grandfather had died the week before Easter, and my mother flew my brother, sister and me to Brussels to attend his funeral (oh, my mom is a Frenchie—Belgain, that is). It was a sad affair, but I was happy to be there with my family. I stayed at Herve’s house and Jeff Buckley’s record served as theme music for the weekend. We must have heard it twenty times.

It is an incredibly emotional record, and since I experienced it during a heightened emotional time, the record has particular resonance for me. But though my circumstance was extraordinary, Buckley’s music seems to have had a potent impact on a lot of people (I know the album was far more succesful abroad than here in the States). Hence, Nyla’s documentary.

Check out the site at: www.amazinggracejeffbuckley.com.

WALK ON BY, AND WAKE ME UP WHEN IT’S OVER

The Yankees outlasted the Blue Jays 9-8 last night, in an agonizingly drawn-out game at the Stadium, which last four hours and eight minutes. Combined, the two teams featured 12 pitchers, who issued 20 base-on-balls. Looking for a cure for ansomnia? Here was the game for you.

Jose Contreras was credited with his first Major League win, but was far from impressive. Contreras looked swollen, instead of muscular. Maybe he’s taken to the Livan Hernandez diet. He pitched deliberately, and without much confidence, nibbling around the corners, throwing more breaking pitches than fastballs. I feel badly for the guy. He’s in an uncomfortable position. Joel Sherman suggests that perhaps he would be better suited pitching regularly in the minors. It could bolster his confidence, instead of settling for being a right-handed version of Sterling Hitchcock: Mop Up Man.

“Physically, I’m in perfect condition,” Contreras said after coming from the weightroom following the Yankees’ 10-9 triumph. “My arm feels great. I need my control. My control has always been my strength.”

Fortunately, the Yankees other international man of mystery, Hideki Matsui, continued his solid play, contributing a long, 3-run home run which put the Yankees ahead for good.

While the Blue Jays bullpen leaves much to be desired, they have an attractive young offensive team. (Incidentally, their pitching coach bears, Gil Patterson, bears an uncanny likeness to former Yankee pitcher, Jim Bouton, as Ken Singleton noted during the YES broadcast last night.) Carlos Tosca was profiled by Gordon Edes in Sunday’s Boston Globe, and there is much to like about the way is he running things in Toronto.

”It was about more than just wins and losses. We talked about preparation and playing the game the right way. We wanted other clubs to know we meant business for nine innings, whether we won or lost. And to their credit, this team basically reinvented itself.”

…”We have a mantra around here: Approach, results, response,” said Tosca. ”You can control your approach. You can’t control the results, but you can control your response. What we are looking for is mental toughness which knows how to react to results. We’re about getting it right. Instead of excuses being made, we are trying to hold ourselves accountable.”

…”Anything’s possible,” he said. ”The experience, you can’t rush, and we still have guys who are inexperienced. Depth-wise, we are stronger here and in Triple A, but we’re not in the same situation as other clubs. If we have a major injury, we can’t just go out and purchase a player.

The Blue Jays ace, Roy Halladay faces off against Mike Mussina tonight. Let’s hope they can pitch well enough to spare us from another evening of Base-on-Balls Bonanza.

IT’S GETTING DARK EARLY FOR THE METS

Armando Benitez blew his third save in a week, and Mike Stanton gave up a home run in extra innings as the Mets lost to the Expos for the third consectutive day in San Juan. The Mets have played 12 games (4-8), and have dropped 5 straight. Art Howe called the second team meeting in a week. Cause for alarm? Just ask the Mets. According to Adam Rubin in The Daily News:

Roberto Alomar: “It can’t got on any longer. If this goes longer, then we’re going to go nowhere.”

Al Leiter: “I think we’re being tested right now. Certainly we’re a lot better than what we’ve shown.”

Mike Stanton: “This is gut-check time.”

Art Howe: “These are the guys that are going to to take us to where we want to go. It’s not like you have a ton of alternatives. This is our ballclub.”

When it’s “gut-check time” after two weeks, you can’t help but smell smoke. Think it’s going to be another long, hot summer out at Shea? I wouldn’t bet against it, man.

Here is a message my friend Joey La P left on my answering machine over the weekend. Joey is a die-hard Mets fan, with a hardcore Long Island accent:

“You know, I don’t care what you say about the stats on Benitez, he’s got to go. He already need a lot of therapy. Come on man, and fucking Cedeno? I don’t care how much money we’re paying that fat bastid, sit him on the goddamn bench and fucking platoon Shinjio and Timo; they are so much better than him. Man, I’m just a ball of frustration. It ain’t easy being a Met fan. I tell you, it ain’t easy.”

Meanwhile in the Bronx, the Yankees lost 2-1 to the D-Rays. Clemens wasn’t sharp, but he was efficient. According to Harold Reynolds of Baseball Tonight, J. Giambi started to swing the bat better over the weekend, though it didn’t result in a lot of hits. The Red Sox beat the O’s 2-0, the Giants beat the Dodgers in extra innings last night to improve to 11-1, and the Royals finally lost a game.

ROUGH HOME OPENER FOR PEDRO, SOX; METS CONTINUE TO STRUGGLE

Since I’m up here in Vermont this weekend, I haven’t been able to watch the Mets play the Expos in P.R. I did catch the highlights on ESPN last night and saw Vlad Guerrero uncork a couple of hilarious throws from right field, but the Mets looked awful, and it doesn’t look like I’ve missed much. Mike Piazza doesn’t have a homer or an RBI to his name yet this season, and Cliff Floyd left the game with an ankle injury.

In a game where Timo Perez and Rey Sanchez were also hurt, about the only good news for the Mets is that Roberto Alomar scored run No. 1,417 of his career, passing Roberto Clemente for the most by a Puerto Rican-born player in the majors.

I called my cousin Gabe in New York this morning and he told me that he’s going to have to take some time away from the Mets. That seems to be happening earlier and earlier each year. Yeeesh.

I was able to watch the Red Sox home opener against the Orioles. Pedro Martinez didn’t have command of either his fastball or his change-up, and he sufffered the worst outing of his career. In a bizzare turn of events, Mike Cubbage, Boston’s third base coach collapsed on the field in a diabetic seizure. While the new seating above the Green Monster looked great, there was not much to cheer about in Red Sox Nation last night.

According to Bob Hohler in The Boston Globe:

The stunned crowd hardly had processed the unfathomable – Martinez leaving to a cascade of boos after surrendering a career-high 10 runs over 4 1/3 innings – before third base coach Mike Cubbage collapsed in a diabetic seizure near the coach’s box. Cubbage, who had absorbed too much insulin, was taken from the field on a stretcher and treated intravenously with sugar before he was transported to the emergency room at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, awake and alert. He was held overnight for observation.

Not long before Cubbage was wheeled off the field, plate umpire Jerry Layne left the park on a stretcher after he took a pitch off his mask in the fourth inning.

Hard to imagine that Pedro getting jeered at home, but Boston, like New York, operates on the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately principal of sportsmanship.

Dan Shaughnessy, always ready to stir shit up, reports that Martinez wasn’t fazed by his reception:

”No, it doesn’t surprise me,” [Martinez] said calmly. ”I’m in Boston now and I know how people are. The first thing I heard when I got to the dugout was how much I got extended to [$17.5 million for 2004]. That’s not anything new. I heard that in ’98 when I was here for the first time . . . I just wanted to take a really close look at the person who said that and keep that in my mind.”

…”I deserved boos,” he said. ”I have to take it as a bad game. I didn’t do my job. I never felt in a groove the whole game . . . Physically, everything felt good . . . All the things that happened. It was just a weird day. Only here at Fenway.”

Pedro gettin rocked in the home opener is about as likely as Greg Maddux getting torched in his first three starts, or Randy Johnson and Curt Shilling being held without a win after their first three starts as well, the Royals jumping out to a 9-0 start (somewhere in Kansas City, Buck O’Neil is smiling).

Mike Piazza hit the nail on the head when he said:

“You’ve just got to suck it up,” a despondent Piazza said. “It’s just an unforgiving game.”

YANKS BEAT RAYS ON GODZILLA’S RBI SINGLE

The Yankees are off to their best start since 1988 (oh, what a year that was). After grounding into a double play with the bases loaded in the 7th inning, Hideki Matsui smacked a 1-out single through the left side with the bases juiced in the bottom of the 9th to win the game for the Bombers.

“I put the team in a bad spot,” said Matsui, who hit into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the seventh. “I was relieved to get that hit at the very end.”

…”I’m happy to come up in situations where there’s a lot of pressure to make something happen,” Matsui said through an interpreter. “Maybe if I didn’t get that hit I wouldn’t have come back alive. I might have been bombarded by the fans.”

…”We’re certainly giving him a lot of opportunities to be dramatic,” New York’s Todd Zeile said. “The true sign of a professional is that after the first time with the bases loaded when he tried to do too much and hit into a double play, he didn’t let the same mistake happen.”

I didn’t get to see the game, but how impressive is D-Rays rookie Rocco Baldelli? Rocco went 3-4 this afternoon, and extended his hitting streak to 11 games.

Here is what Rob Neyer wrote about Baldelli in his “Quick Hits” column:

It’s not hard to see what people see in Rocco Baldelli.

He can run. Baldelli gets out of the box as quickly as any right-handed hitter I’ve seen since Bo Jackson.

He can throw. In the 15th inning last night, Baldelli prevented what looked like a sure go-ahead run with a perfect throw to nail Trot Nixon at the plate.

And he looks like a ballplayer. He’s big and he’s strong and he’s got “the good face” (as old scouts like to say).

But can he field? Monday, he turned a line-drive single into something worse.

And can he hit? Tuesday, he collected three base hits … none of which left the infield.

As you might have heard, Baldelli played 23 games at the Triple-A level last summer and drew the grand total of zero walks, which suggests that he’s still got a few things to learn. And that’s OK, because he’s still just a baby of only 21 years.

So no, Rocco Baldelli isn’t Joe DiMaggio yet. But it should be fun watching him try to get there.

Peter Gammons added:

Red Sox coach Mike Cubbage got Devil Rays rookie Rocco Baldelli at 3.8 (seconds) from home plate to first base, the best mark in the league. There have been few right-handed batters over the years who could top that. In the last 30 years, Alex Johnson, Ron LeFlore and Bobby Valentine come to mind going down the line under 3.8. Scouts got Cincinnati’s Wily Mo Pena at 3.9 in spring training.

FRUITY NUM-NUM

I don’t want to make a federal case out of this, but it’s always seemed apparent to me that Roberto Alomar is gay—even before he came to the Mets. It’s an observation that is based completely on my own gut instinct, nothing more. I’m not bringing it up because I want to seem sensationalistic or because I have a moral judgement about it one way or the other. But when I read Rafael Hermoso’s article on Alomar’s mother in Friday’s New York Times, the amatuer psychologist in me just couldn’t resist bringing this up once again.

Robbie, the baby of the Alomar family, and is uncommonly close to his mother. Does that make him Gay? I suppose not, but it’s a good place to start. Witness:

“I had a bad season because you didn’t cook for me,” [Alomar’s mother,] Velasquez recalled him saying. She laughed and then stopped. “I know it hurt him last year that I wasn’t there for him,” she said. “He relaxes me, and I relax him. He’s single. Sandy is married and has someone to talk to.”

…Velasquez says she thinks her son was a bit lonely last season, living in a Long Island City apartment. His girlfriend then, the tennis player Mary Pierce, was traveling and treating a sports injury. He has since been linked romantically with the Puerto Rican singer Gisselle, and Velasquez said they were good friends.

…Alomar, the youngest of the three children, is private and guarded and discusses little of his personal life, but he spoke unabashedly of his mother in an interview at Shea on Sunday. Roberto and his mother call each other best friends and speak nearly every day.

“She’s the one reason I’m doing what I’m doing,” Alomar said. “People ask me about Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day is every day for me.”

…Velasquez has grown to love baseball, although it has kept her family separated. Sandy Jr. pursued motocross, surfing and tae kwon do. Roberto cared only about baseball. He stubbornly told his mother he could go to college after his playing career and shrugged off his parents’ warnings about the hard life of a player.

“I know when he’s sad,” Velasquez said. “I know when he’s happy, when something’s bothering him inside and we talk. I never tell him what to do, because he knows what to do. He asked for help. ‘Mami, I need your support.’ He’s always been like that since he was a child.”

I dont’ think Alomar has the kind of personality to be the first star ballplayer to come out of the closet. That’s fine. I sure don’t think any less of him cause I think he’s Queer either (actually it kind of makes me like him more, especially since I hear Rickey Riccardo’s voice every time I see him play). That kind of thing doesn’t matter much to me, and certainly not how I regard a specific player. The question of sexuality does however remain a huge bug-a-boo in professional sports. But I’m still surprised that Michael Piazza was the only member of the Amazins clubhouse last year who was targeted as “The Gay Met.” I felt like saying, “Am I crazy, or does Robbie have something on the entire New York media which is preventing them from breaking this story?”

Maybe it’s a story that isn’t ready to be broken yet. Perhaps the taboo of one’s sexual orientation is the last place sports writers care to venture. Still, part of me can’t help but wonder if there are just too many boys in a place like New York to keep Robbie’s focus completely on the field.

Maybe we should ask him mother.

HEY NOW

Joel Sherman had a column in Friday’s Post comparing the current Yankee team with the ’98 squad. Sherman is the most reliable voice at the Post, though I find him to be an unspectacular writer. He tends to conform to the shrill sensibilities of his paper (fair enough), and brings the Shakespeare line, “Me thinks thou dost protest too much,” to mind often, whether he’s writing a positive or negative piece. Curiously, Sherman comes across as an aimiable and more even-handed on his stints on television (he is a guest analyst on MSG from time to time).

It’s a bit premature to compare the 8-1 Yanks to the ’98 version, but that’s what Sherman gets paid for. Still, without getting ahead of ourselves, he does make some decent points:

Like a great horse in the starter’s gate, the Yanks seemed to sense the beginning of the race. You could feel it building in that last week of spring training. Their focus. Their effort. Their seriousness. They came out for the season hitting and pitching and defending, and they haven’t stopped yet.

There had always been a sense that Jeter and Rivera were the indispensable Yankees during the Torre era, too valuable to lose for an extended period. But the Yankees are more than surviving without them. It makes you start thinking 1998 thoughts about what this team could be if Jeter, Rivera and Karsay return over the next several weeks at full production.

“It would be too premature to compare to our 1998 team,” Cashman said. “That team went through a lot to become one of the elite teams of all time. This team is still in its infancy. It is not fair to compare any team to the 1998 team.”

…What those ’98 Yankees had was a ceaseless sense of purpose this version still must demonstrate.

…”I watch from the bench,” Todd Zeile said, “and I wonder what the scouting reports must look like for other teams.”

ALL’S WELLS THAT ENDS WELLS

David Wells pitched a 3-hit, complete game shutout on Thursday afternoon to give the Bombers their ninth consecutive victory over the Twins. Johan Santana pitched 4 innings of middle relief for Minnie and struck out 8 of the 12 batters he faced, living up to the advanced billing he recieved during the winter.

Wells, who loves pitching in cold, crappy weather was terrific, and displayed yet again why the Yankees have kept him around in spite of all his mishegoss: dude can pitch. However, Wells told Michael Kay on ESPN radio yesterday that he was close to quitting the team and leaving baseball this spring after his book controversy set Yankee camp on its ear.

According to Jack Curry in the Times:

“He offered to quit,” [GM Brian] Cashman said. “That was in the first discussion in Clearwater. It was his first reaction when we confronted him with him what might be in the book. He said, ‘Listen, I’ll just shut it down and quit.’ We told him he was being emotional and to relax and calm down.”

Torre said “wow” when told that Wells had disclosed his desire to quit and added: “He was emotional. He felt hurt that he was hurting people. I think that’s where he wanted to walk away because he felt he let people down and stuff like that. Again, it was an emotional thing and we told him it’s not time to make that decision.”

LONG GONE

The Hall of Fame canceled a screening of what many people consider the most satisfying baseball movie to date, “Bull Durham,” on the count of the leftist politics two of the films stars, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. I think Robbins is a talented actor on the screen, and an arrogant putz in real life, however, whether I agree with his opinons or not, I certainly agree with his right to express them. I’m not sure what the Hall was trying to accomplish here, but boy, have they generated reams of bad press over the incident, which is a wet dream for liberal editorialists.

For full and comprehensive coverage, look no further than Jay Jaffe’s Futility Infielder. I had the pleasure of spending some time with Jaffe last weekend, and I’m pleased to report he is as good a guy as he is a writer (plus, he bears an uncommon resemblance to Robin Ventura, which can’t be bad now can it?).

For some reason I wasn’t able to link the specific articles, but they are the last two he’s posted. So get going, Meat, and get yourself schooled.

YES, WE HAVE NO BRONX BANTER

I’m taking a few days off to be up north in Vermont with my girl Emily, who is recovering from her surgery slowly but surely at her folks place (it’s hard to believe the operation took place a month ago). Sorry that I didn’t mention that before I took off. My bad. Fortunately, they’ve got a computer up here, so let me take this time to catch up a bit…

YANKS WIN ON COOL NIGHT IN THE BRONX

The announced crowd at Yankee Stadium last night was 31,898, but it felt more like 1257. It reminded me of the Bombers recent past–93-97, before the throngs started jamming the Stadium, and attendence was thin. You had to be a brave soul to sit through last night’s game, though at 2 hours and 25 minutes, it was mercifully quick affair. I like it when the crowd is small enough to hear individual chants and hecklers. You could hear the bleacher creatures roll call in the top of the first, like they were sitting just under the broadcast booth.

In a brisk, well-played game, the Yankees beat the Twins 2-1, on the strength of two solo home runs (Jorge Posada and Raul Mondesi) and 8 strong innings from Mike Mussina. Kyle Lohse, Minnesota’s young right-hander, was efficient and effective for 7 innings, pitching quickly and staying ahead of the Yankee batters. He made a mistake to Posada—the first batter he had fallen behind all night, and got burned, as Jorgito popped a line drive into the right field seats. Two batters later, Mondesi yanked a pretty good slider into the left field stands for the go-ahead run. Mondesi, who looked foolish in his first at-bat, is holding his hands further away from his body, and lower than usual. He holds the bat straight-up in the air, and looks like a right-handed Reggie Jackson.

The most exciting play of the game came in the 4th inning. Soriano led off with an infield single to short, the Yankees first hit of the game. Torre put on the hit-and-run and Nick Johnson smacked a ball to the left side, which was snared by the Twins third baseman Corey Koskie. Koskie dove to his left to make the play. He threw to first to get Johnson, and then had to scramble back to third as Soriano charged passed second and into third. The throw from first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz was low and wide, and Koskie made another nice play, blocking the throw and saving a run. It is interesting to note that Sori slid into third feet first. Looks like someone’s paying attention.

Mike Mussina was almost as nasty as Lohse, he lasted longer, and pitched out of trouble when he needed to:

“A hundred and twenty pitches is a lot for me in July, let alone bad weather, but I had good stuff,” Mussina said. “It was cold, it’s not fun, but I grew up in this weather, have been playing in the Northeast as long as I’ve been playing.

“I think I’m throwing the ball pretty well. The stuff I went through at the beginning and the middle of last year, hopefully I got rid of and the way I threw at the end hopefully will carry over. To this point I think it has.”

For Twins coverage, be sure and stop by Aaron Gleeman’s blog, as well as John Bonnes’ Twins Geek.

SCRIPTED

Have the Yankees hired Robert Towne or William Goldman as Hideki Matsui’s interpreter? It sure sounded like that in Jack Curry’s column yesterday in the Times:

“When I hit the ball, I kind of figured it was going to be a homer,” Matsui said. “But, when I hit it, it didn’t feel like I had actually hit it on my own. It felt like there were other energies, other powers, that helped me.”

Matsui hasn’t been flashy, or spectacular, he’s been sound, and grounded instead. Both Robin Ventura and Don Zimmer had nothing but raves for Matsui in today’s Daily News. According to Ventura:

“The other night at the ‘Welcome Home Dinner,’ we’re standing there on the stage, and I look over at Matsui and he’s practicing his footwork. I learned when I was with (Tsuyoshi) Shinjo with the Mets that’s the way it is with the Japanese players. We were coming home late one night in spring training and there was Shinjo out in the parking lot practicing his swing! Same thing with Matsui, you’ll see him making practice throws or taking swings without a bat in hotel lobbies or whatever.”

…”I’ll be honest,” said the Yankees’ resident baseball lifer, Don Zimmer, “I didn’t know what to expect from this guy, other than he’d hit a lot of home runs in Japan. What’s most impressed me is that he seems to do everything right. He doesn’t have great speed, but he’s quick at getting out of the (batter’s) box and he knows how to run the bases. His arm is average or a little below, but he throws the ball accurately. If you ask me, the (cutoff) play he made in left field on Opening Day was more impressive than the grand slam.”

MEETING OF THE MINDS

David Pinto has a good interview with Red Sox consultant Bill James over at Baseball Musings. Needless to say, this is a sure shot. Don’t sleep.

Baseball Musings: How do you like working on the inside of baseball? What was the most unexpected thing for you?

Bill James: It’s been fun so far. The most unexpected thing is the Red Sox organization, the internal view of it. The guys I work with are mostly young, extremely sharp, very focused. But you walk around the offices. . .the office is very diverse, extremely competent. It is unusual to see an organization with so many quality people.

How am I supposed to hate the Sox when they become more competent and likable with each passing day? Oh, I’m sure I’ll find a way…

SLAM-SUI: GODZILLA’S BLAST LEADS BOMBERS TO WIN IN HOME OPENER

A six-game hitting streak to start the season was sure to make Godzilla Matsui’s debut in the Bronx a welcome one, but he exceeded expectations by hitting a grand-slam in the 5th inning of the Yankees 7-3 win over the Twins yesterday at a frigid Yankee Stadium (considering how ugly the weather was on Monday, it’s remarkable that the grounds crew had the field in playing condition). Nick Johnson, and Jason Giambi hit 1-out singles, and then Bernie Williams was intentionally walked to load the bases for Matsui, who hit a 3-2 pitch from Twins starter Joe Mays, into the right field bleachers.

According to Bill Madden in today’s Daily News:

“I only had two pitches out there,” Mays said, “a sinker and a changeup. I really wasn’t able to throw my breaking ball. I give Matsui credit. He laid off a couple of changeups down, and then when I had to come in with a pitch on 3-2, it was a changeup that was flat and he got it.”

…”With first base open and Bernie coming up, there’s no question I’m gonna walk him,” the Twins manager said. “JoeMays is a sinkerballer and we’re trying to get a double play there to get out of the inning.”

…”He’s a good hitter, and any time you face a team with a lineup that has (Raul) Mondesi batting eighth it’s a formidable task,” Gardenhire said. “But as long as we compete with ’em like we did today, I’m satisfied. We got a lot of good swings today, a lot of balls hit right at people, and even after the (Matsui slam) I never felt we were out of the game.”

Matsui looked perfectly at home sitting on the bench between veterans Todd Zeile and Robin Ventura. The humble Japanese star tipped his cap and gave a small wave to the crowd as he walked off the field at the end of the game. Godzilla, who looks like Shemp from “The 3 Stooges,” has a body like an ape. He could be a bouncer or a goon. He’s bigger than Yogi Berra, but has the same kind of goofy build. Matsui’s parents were at the Stadium yesterday, in what turned out to be a happy day for the Yankee fans who braved the 35 degree weather.

Andy Pettitte pitched well enough to earn the win, and Robin Ventura added a home run of his own. Alfonso Soriano was limited to just one hit, after collecting 2 or more in his first 6 games. Send him down, already.

HE’S A KEEPER

The Red Sox have picked up Pedro Martinez’s $17.5 million option for 2004, which ends a good deal of speculation regarding Prince P’s future in Boston. At least until November. Dan Shaughnessy reports that the new Red Sox owners are in the business of people-pleasing, and you’d be hard pressed to find a Red Sox fan who wasn’t thrilled and delighted to have Pedro back for at least one more season:

Historically, owner John Henry has been soft on players, eager to please. Lucchino has been a hard-liner. On paper, this is a risky business decision, but fans don’t care about that. It’s not their $17 million, and if Pedro is happy, the Nation is happy. And ultimately, ownership came to the same conclusion.

These are not Tom Yawkey’s Red Sox.

DAT QUIET GUY

Each and every baseball season has its share of satisfactions and disillusionment, its thrills and despair…The professional life, moreover, grinds and polishes the emotions to a fine, hard core—of athletic spirit. The professional player has more skill and needs no false hustle to do his job. A player who loves his craft and has the patient determination to do the best job he can creates a personal efficiency that is as much a pleasure to watch as it is a help in winning ball games. Running full speed with his mouth open does not always contribute to a player’s success. The professional stores up, treasures, that wining spirit, for there are many long days in the baseball year.

Jim Brosnan, from “The Long Season.” (1960)

I came along this passage recently, and one sentence particularly struck me as a fitting description of Bernie Williams: “A player who loves his craft and has the patient determination to do the best job he can creates a personal efficiency that is as much a pleasure to watch as it is a help in winning ball games.” Bernie does love his craft I think, even though I’ve always gotten the sense from him that there is something he does even better than playing baseball. Baseball is just how he happens to make a living. The game doesn’t seem natural for him, and that’s part of what has made his career rewarding to follow. He’s become a terrific player, though his baseball instincts have never been much to write home about, through his dedication to improvement, and an impressive work ethic.

I think Bernie is a musician by nature. Watching him do just about anything on the ballfield, from swinging a bat, to tracking a ball down, to hitting the cut-off man, is like watching a musician, let’s say a guitarist in this case, practicing his scales. Discipline is very important to Williams’ game. My cousin and I were talking about this over the weekend and he said, “Bernie always looks like he’s practicing. Which isn’t to say he isn’t trying hard, or competing.”

I agree. But there is a rhythm to his movements, a gracefulness, that has always been aesthetically pleasing, but I never lose sight of the fact that baseball looks like hard work for him. Watch Williams in an at-bat. Watch how he follows through on a pitch. He goes through the same routine no matter what the results are. The long-follow through, skipping back out of the box, with a comic gesture. I’m always aware of the game-within-the-game with Williams. There is always something going on upstairs with him, the wheels are always turning, even though Bernie usally appears placid and emotionless. If you watch him throughout an entire season, you can witness the small pleasures he seems to take when he makes a nifty slide into second. There is an extra flourish, almost like something out of a Buster Keaton movie, that distinguishes Bernie from his teammates. It is his stillness, I think. I also think Bernie likes running as much as anything else in baseball. Again, his intincts aren’t the greatest, but you can see that loves stretching those legs and turning it on (he was a track star as a kid).

It may not show up in the boxscore, but if you look closely enough, you too can share the enjoyment of Bernie’s private ballet.

Williams’ has achieved far more in his career than I ever expected he would when he came up in the early ’90s. It is great to hear that he hasn’t stopped busting his ass. Peter Gammons reports in his latest column:

“[The Yankees] are better than they were last year,” Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi said. “They’re so deep. And (Jason) Giambi and Bernie Williams seem to get better every year. It’s good for young teams like ours to play them because they are an example as to how to win.”

FRANK-LEE SPEAKING

Lee Sinns, the man behind the sabermetric encyclopedia, and the free daily ATM reports, is interviewed at length by the good people at NetShrine. Everything you always wanted to know about one of the internet’s baseball stars, and more.

THE KID IS ALRIGHT

Derek Jeter and the Yankees got the answers they were looking for from Dr. James Andrews, the noted orthopedic surgeon, yesterday. Andrews agreed with the diagnosis Yankee doctors gave Jeter last week: he will not need surgery. Jeter will likely need a minimum of six weeks of rehabilitation before he can return to the team. So let’s conservatively say that Jeter returns in at some point in June. That’s about as good as anyone could have expected.

According to the Times:

The Yankees said the treatment would begin immediately. “The risk is always there,” General Manager Brian Cashman said, referring to reinjuring the shoulder. “To what degree no one can really measure. I’m not confident this won’t happen again, because it can, but we’re very confident in the fact that he hasn’t done surgery now.”

Somewhat ominously, Cashman added, “If he dislocates it again, he’ll need surgery, no doubt about that.”

ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS

It was fun to watch Tampa Bay’s young rookies Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli play agains the Yanks this past weekend. Baldelli is a very tall kid, and has exceptional speed for a right-handed hitter. He actually looks a bit like a giant version of Chris “Maddog” Russo, the manic-New York-radio personality (the fact that his name is Rocco only makes the comparison more fitting). Baldelli looked good in the field, and at the plate, if you discount his four-strikeout performance vs. Rocket Clemens yesterday (he did come back with an RBI single in his 5th at-bat).

Way t’go, Rocco.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

Derek Jeter and now Junior Griffey. Damn. Last night on “Baseball Tonight,” Bobby Valentine warned that bad things happen in 3’s, and gave fair warning to the rest of players in the Majors. Griffey dislocated his right shoulder attempting to make a diving catch against the Cubs over the weekend, and is out for at least a few months. Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus has a linkable column for all of you who do not subscribe to the Premium package. See what you’ve been missing.

Carroll reports:

Griffey’s injury is much more reminiscent of Phil Nevin’s injury than Derek Jeter’s, both in mechanism and result. Reports from Cincinnati indicate that, like Nevin, Griffey is likely out for something in the order of months rather than weeks.

…Mechanism is a fancy way of saying how an injury occurred and what forces acted on someone’s anatomy in a way that caused damage. Some injuries have such clear, repeatable mechanisms that they become predictable; watch a football player collapse after a dead stop on turf and you can quickly say to everyone “oooh, ACL tear,” and be right nine times out of 10. For Griffey and Nevin, the shoulder was forced from the glenoid fossa (the shoulder socket) to the rear after force was applied to the arm due to dives and amplified by the weight of the body. For Jeter, his humerus (upper arm) was forced forward from the fossa by the weight of a foreign body (Ken Huckaby). While seemingly a small difference, it is the likely explanation of why Jeter has escaped with a much less serious injury.

Jeter is scheduled to recieve a second opinion on his status from Dr. James Andrews today. On Friday, Yankee doctors determined that Jeter would not need surgery and could return in 4-6 weeks. Carroll thinks that is overly optimistic but could see Jeter returning before the All-Star game.

MASHIN’

The Yankees bullpen blew a 5-3 lead on Saturday evening, which resulted in the Bombers first loss of the season, but the team regrouped yesterday and continued mashing just about everything in sight. Jeff Weaver wasn’t particularly sharp on Saturday night, but he pitched good enough to win. Yesterday, Roger Clemens earned career win #295.

Alfonso Soriano should officially have his named changed to Superfreak. The Yankees lead-off hitter has had two or more hits in the first six games of the year. On Saturday, the kid actually Cadillac’ed his way into a triple. If the fat bastard had been hustling out of the box it would have been an inside-the-park homer, easily.

Raul Mondesi has been as hot as Johnny Blaze. On Saturday the two outs he made were hit as hard as his two hits (a double and a spectacular triple). What’s been impressive is that Mondesi has been patient, taking a strike and working deep into the count. Mondesi was held hitless yesterday, until late in the game. He fouled a ball off of his foot and after hobbling around for a few moments, rocketed a double into the left field corner.

Hideki Matsui has been interesting to watch. Godzilla has a six game hitting streak to start the season, which should put him in good graces with the Opening Day crowd at the Stadium tomorrow (the Opener, originally scheduled for this afternoon was post-poned due to a freakin’ snow storm that is supposed to hit later today). He reminds me a bit of Wade Boggs at the plate. He is poised and patient, and though he has hit the ball on the nose several times, it looks as if he’s simply going with the pitch, trying to put it in play. He doesn’t look like a home run hitter. Matsui also made a couple of good plays in the field. He has played the ball well off the wall, and he makes a quick, accurate relay throw.

Bernie Williams and Nick Johnson are also swinging good sticks right now (Bernie made a say-hey, over-the-shoulder catch on Saturday night too). About the only Yankee who isn’t locked in is Jason Giambi, who continues to draw walks all the same, and oh by the way, does have 3 home runs.

We’ll see if the Yankees offense stays this hot when they return to the cold weather up north (they have played their first six games indoors).