Monthly Archives: July 2008

In the introduction to his short book, “What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?” (based on an Esquire magazine profile written more than twenty years ago), Richard Ben Cramer writes:

Reputation dies hard in the baseball nation, and in the larger industry of American iconography. Even at the close of the century, forty years after he’d left the field, there still attached to Ted a lingering whiff of bile from the days when he spat toward booing Fenway fans. And there were heartbroken hundreds who’d freshen that scent with their stories: how hew as rude to them when they tried ti interrupt him for an autography or a grip-and-grin photo. (The thousands who got their signatures or snapshots found that unremarkable.)

In the northeast corner of the nation, there were still thousands who blamed Ted for neverl hauling the Red Sox to World Series triumph. (Someone must bear the blame for decades of disappointment when their own rooting love was so piquant and pure.)…Around New York more thousands still resented Ted–and had to reduce him–for contesting with Joe DiMaggio for the title of the Greatest of the Golden Age. They insisted that Ted never won anything (and reviled him, in short for never being a Yankee).

Reading this, it struck me that it’s no surprise that Cramer’s next biography is about Alex Rodriguez. What do you expect to get from this forthcoming biography on Rodriguez? Even better, what do you hope to find in the book?

Well, yesterday was Hall of Fame Induction Day, and as a Brooklyn resident I’d just like to take the opportunity, on this touching and historic occasion, to say:

WALTER !@#&^?! O’MALLEY?! Are you !@*^$! kidding me?!?

What the hell is wrong with these people? What kind of organization inducts Walter O’Malley and not Buck O’Neil — or, for that matter, Bowie Kuhn and not Marvin Miller — and what do they take to help themselves sleep at night?

Kevin Kennedy and Mark Grace were blathering on in praise of this beady-eyed* backstabber on FOX yesterday, before the Sox game. “Oh, he was so influential,” they droned.

Sure he was. So was Arnold Rothstein. So were the rats who carried bubonic plague across Europe, but I don’t see anyone making any speeches or plaques for them.

…Okay, look, it’s possible I’m overreacting just slightly. I know all about the revisionist history that paints Robert Moses as the real villain of the Dodgers’ story, and I’m sure there’s at least a few shreds of truth to that. So I hope no L.A. Dodgers fans will take any offense. After all, it’s not your fault that your team was built on a pile of pilfered bones, blood, and tears. Enjoy Casey Blake!
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*When I say beady-eyed I’m not kidding. Look at him. And this is the presumably flattering photo they picked for PR purposes. Look deep into these eyes and tell me if you see any trace of genuine emotion or a human soul in there. You don’t, do you? They’re flat, like a doll’s eyes. I’m just saying.

Check out this very cool piece by Alex Eisenberg over at Baseball-Intellect.

A bunch of random thoughts as the Yankees begin another week with some ground to make up, There’s not much to add to Goose Gossage’s Hall of Fame entry. The stories SI Writer Emeritus William Nack tells on ESPN.com say everything.

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• I try my best to be cognizant of the back-page treatment of the two New York baseball teams during the season, imagining how I would set the news agenda if I was heading any of the local editorial units. I found it odd this week that while the Yankees were racking up victories and gaining ground on the Rays and Sox, the Mets dominated the headlines. The Yankees’ win streak did not go unnoticed, but by normal standards, it flew under the radar and was fairly ho-hum. Certainly, the beat writers and columnists covered the necessary details, including the notes and quotes on the six-player deal with the Pirates (Cliff Corcoran’s analysis in this space was spot-on), but from a broader headline-grabbing standpoint, this week was all about the Mets. In my opinion, that helped the Yankees.

Speaking of under the radar, this sentence from Kat O’Brien’s Sunday Notebook nearly slipped my eyes:

“Kei Igawa was outrighted from the 40-man roster after clearing waivers Friday.”

After Carl Pavano, is it safe to say that Kei Igawa is the most fiscally irresponsible signing in Yankees’ history?

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As expected, the Red Sox got the merry-go-round cranked up early against Sidney Ponson last night, scoring three in the first and bouncing the Yankee starter after four innings having scored in each of them. After the game Ponson admirably admitted that he “pitched like crap.”

It was 7-0 Bosox heading into the top of the fifth when the Yankees finally got something going against Jon Lester, who had pitched 13 straight scoreless innings against them to that point. Melky Cabrera, Jose Molina, and Johnny Damon all singled to start the inning. With the bases loaded Derek Jeter, who hit into a rally-killing double play with men on first and second and none out in the third, hit a dribbler up the third base line that stayed fair allowing everyone to move up safely. Bobby Abreu followed by drawing an RBI walk. That brought Alex Rodriguez to the plate with none out, the bases loaded, and a chance to get the Yankees back in a game they were now trailing 7-2. On an 1-0 pitch, Lester came inside to Rodriguez and Alex ripped a line drive right at Mike Lowell at third base for the first out, holding the runners. Xavier Nady, who has started his Yankee career by going 0 for 7 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch, followed by getting under a 2-0 pitch up in the zone and flying out to center (while the ball wasn’t deep, Johnny Damon likely could have tagged up and scored, only he didn’t). Robinson Cano also started off 2-0, but swung through ball three high and tapped back to Lester to strand all three runners.

And that was that. The Red Sox pitchers faced the minimum the rest of the way, as the one Yankee baserunner (a leadoff single by Rodriguez in the eighth off reliever Manny Delcarmen) was erased when Xavier Nady ground into a double play. Meanwhile, Dan Giese, who helpfully pitched the final four innings, allowed two more runs in the sixth to push the final score to 9-2.

So the Yankees eight-game winning streak is a thing of the past, but we all saw this loss coming. The Yankees did what they had to do in Boston, which was win the series. They’re now two games behind the Red Sox for the Wild Card and three behind the Rays in the East. Their task now is to avoid a let-down against the Orioles tonight. Hopefully coming back home to the Bronx and having Mike Mussina on the mound will help with that.

Here’s what I wrote about tonight’s pitching matchup in my series preview on Friday:

ESPN’s Sunday night game pits Sidney Ponson against Jon Lester. Lester is one of the great stories of this season, having rebounded from non-Hodgkins lymphoma to not only throw a no-hitter, but have a great season overall. Lester has a 3.20 ERA on the season, a 2.93 ERA at home, and needed just 105 pitches to shutout the Yankees on five hits and two walks while striking out eight in his only start against the Bombers this season. That said, he’s been inconsistent of late. Lester’s no-hitter came in the middle of a run of 11 starts from the end of April to late June in which the lefty posted a 2.13 ERA. Since then, however, he’s alternated dominant starts (including his shutout of the Yankees) with non-quality outings. If the pattern holds, he’s due for a stinker, but his dominance of the Yankees in their last meeting and overall success this season is the better indicator of what he’s likely to do Sunday night.

That means Ponson has his work cut out for him. Before his last start, I wrote that Ponson’s surprisingly successful season has been the result of a sharp increase in his groundball rate. The problem is that Fenway Park has a notoriously hard infield, which can cause trouble for groundball pitchers (Chien-Ming Wang’s career ERA at Fenway is 5.11, and in his complete-game two-hitter there this April, he got more outs in the air than on the ground). Ponson hasn’t faced the Red Sox this year, but historically, the Sox’s lineup owns him (David Ortiz: .444/.563/.722; Manny Ramirez: .404/.481/.511; Jason Varitek: .317/.364/.561; Kevin Youkilis: 4 for 9 with a double; J.D. Drew: 3 for 7 with a double; Dustin Pedroia: 3 for 3), the only exception being Mike Lowell, who is 0 for 7 with a walk against Ponson. Lester would have to implode completely for the Yankees to overcome what’s likely to happen to Ponson on Sunday night.

That means the Yankees hopes for a series win lie in the first two games . . .

Everything’s gone according to plan thus far. The Yankees got a dominant outing from Joba Chamberlain on Friday night and a quality start from Andy Pettitte buoyed by ten runs of support yesterday to take the first two games and thus the series, but with them having done that, pushing their second-half record to a perfect 9-0 and closing their deficit to the Red Sox in the Wild Card race to just one game . . . doesn’t it seem possible that they just mind find away to win tonight despite all of what I said above?

Here’s another question: If on Opening Day I told you that, on the final weekend in July, Yankees would be on the verge of a three-game sweep at Fenway that would tie them with the Red Sox in the standings, and that the lineup they were running out in an attempt to win that game featured Xavier Nady, Richie Sexson, Jose Molina, and Sidney Ponson in place of Hideki Matsui, Jason Giambi, Jorge Posada, and either Chien-Ming Wang, Phil Hughes, or Ian Kennedy, (or anyone else, really), what would your reaction have been? Elation? Disgust? Confusion? Frustration? Shock? Concern?

The game’s being threatened by rain, but if it’s the storm that passed through New Jersey this afternoon, it won’t last too long. Given the ESPN start time and the team’s involved, any kind of delay at the start should push the end of the game well past midnight.

Congrats, Big Fella.

I don’t drink so I don’t go to bars. But I like the idea of the local bar, where you can go watch the game and yes, where everybody knows your name. In many ways, blogs like Bronx Banter are on-line bars, community meeting spots, where a host of like-minded people can get together to follow, in this case, the Yankees. We get all kinds here, and I know that I often learn more from the comments section than I would from reading a newspaper. Sure, every so often the conversation will digress, but more often than not, I’d say Banter commenters are funny, enlightening and a good group to hang with.

I mention this because it was one year ago exactly when one of our regulars, the irrepressible, and often infuriating, Jim Dean passed away. Jim literally died in the middle of a Yankee game, sitting on the couch, with his laptop open to Bronx Banter. He was with us when he went, something that I take as a great honor.

Chyll Will, another longtime regular, had a terrific post on Jim the other day, which I’m taking the liberty of posting in full:

Jim Dean was a friend of mine, and I say that knowing that I never met him in person and that the only contact we’ve ever had was through Banter. There was something about his abrasiveness, his bellicosity and sarcasm that added interesting colors to his research and commenting. If there was anyone who created a picture of himself and everything he said through his words, he was certainly one.

I liked teasing him. He often would blast away at us with fiery, if sometimes off-the-mark blather about this player’s statistics, that player’s effort, the bumbling of the Yankees front office or, seeming to feel particularly jaunting, he would debate one or many of us. Well, debate is not strong enough… battle.

JD battled long and hard on a point he believed in, whether it was right or wrong. Sometimes it seemed like he battled just for the principle of it. But among other things, it was his passion for the Yankees and his quick response with sabermetric research that won the admiration of even his detractors. I am not nearly as good with numbers as he was, but if anything he was among the few that inspired a notion for me to learn.

I don’t know in what regard he held me; perhaps he saw me as a trifle, or maybe he respected my sense of humor. I do know that we once engaged in a surprisingly straightforward “conversation” that led me us to understand more about each other, and perhaps more respect for each other. We didn’t agree a lot of times, but we did (eventually) respect each other.

My point is, it’s odd that one can develop a friendship with someone in an internet community, but as I’ve always said, Bronx Banter is like family. And JD was like a brother. A bad brother, sometimes, but family nonetheless.

Rest In Peace, Jim Dean.

Amen. Jim Dean is still with us in spirit. Wonder what he thinks of the Nady deal?

Em and I went to the ABC outlet in the South Bronx today to get a carpet.  Em has been wanting to get a new rug for more than a minute.  So off we went.  Should have been a twenty-minute ride but it turned into an hour plus Bruckner Avenue, Robert Moses-Thanks-For-Nothing Organized Konfusion nightmare–bumber to bumber traffic jams, wrong turns, lunatic drivers, getting cockamamie directions on the cell phone, and a rash left turn that almost lead to an accident, followed by shock, anguish, tears.  One thing was for sure.  We weren’t leaving ABC without a carpet.

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While we all work to process the Xavier Nady trade (my analysis of the deal as initially reported here, my thoughts on the reconfigured deal in several comments starting here), the Yankees have a game to win. Joba did his part last night, time for Andy and the offense to step up this afternoon.

As for the reinforcements from Pittsburgh, I expect they won’t arrive until tomorrow at the earliest as everyone needs to take physicals to make the trade official, but with the bullpen largely rested, the Yankees won’t miss Marte (not that they really need him in the first place), and it’s probably best to let Nady take his first Yankee at-bats against the lefty Lester tomorrow rather than against Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball this afternoon.

According to Pete Abe, Dan McCutchen and Jeff Karstens, not Phil Coke and George Kontos, are going to the Pirates in the Nady-Marte deal.

Manny being Manny is cute until it’s not. It’s charming and refreshing when Boston’s future Hall of Fame left fielder is putting up Hall of Fame number. Doesn’t matter that he’s a pain in the ass for the Red Sox to deal with. When he’s hitting, high-fiving a fan, taking a leak inside the Green Monster, Manny is being colorful, fun. Ramirez has angered management, his teammates and even the fans at different points during his stay in Boston by not running out ground balls, coming up lame with dubious injuries, and acting like a spoiled child. He has also been the anchor–or co-anchor along with Ortiz–of their two World Championship teams. And when he’s doing his thing, he’s just a flake, irrepressible, lovable.

Ramirez has pushed the Sox to the brink in the past–they once placed him on waivers–but now, as Dan Shaughnessy suggests in the Boston Globe, the Sox may have finally had it with Manny being Manny:

Ramírez sealed his fate with the club yesterday afternoon. After longtime enabler Terry Francona filled out a lineup card with Manny batting fourth, the Sox made an announcement that Manny could not play in the biggest game of the season. Seems there were problems with his right knee. Manny was a late scratch.

It was extraordinary. In the past, management and the manager would do handstands to excuse Manny’s strange acts. No more. This time, the manager – apparently confident there’s nothing wrong with the slugger – put Manny’s name in the lineup, then sat and waited for Manny to pull himself out of the lineup. Manny complied. Never concerned with wins or losses, Manny told Brad Mills he was unable to play and took himself out of the batting order for the (thus far) biggest game of the season.

It was predictable. It was ridiculous. It was the last straw.

Former state treasurer Bob Crane happened by the EMC Club, pregame, and spoke for many fans when he said, “Manny’s got to go. Enough’s enough. Fans are finally sick of this guy.”

The possibility exists that Manny truly has a sore right knee. No one can get inside the head of an athlete and evaluate game-readiness. If Manny’s knee is killing him, there is no way for us to know, and we are wildly unfair to question his condition. I’m willing to take that chance. I don’t believe him.

Could this really be the end of Manny in Boston? Cue: organ cliff hanger music.

One thing for is for sure, this is one soap opera that has nothing to do with the Yankees. I figure Manny will return this weekend and get some big hits. Then again, he might not. I won’t be surprised either way. Which is what Manny Being Manny is all about. Anything goes.

I remember dancing a lot during my senior prom. As it was getting late, and everyone was either too tired or too drunk to continue, the band, dropped their pants, revealing Batman boxer shorts and started playing the theme to the old "Batman" TV show. My dorky friends and I were the only ones left dancing. We stayed up all night and then went to see the first matinee showing of Tim Burton’s Batman movie in the morning, its opening day. The movie, and Jack Nicholson’s performance in particular, was enough to satisfy us–it wasn’t a complete bomb–but it was still lacking. It didn’t fully deliver on the promise of the comic book, it wasn’t harsh enough, sinister enough, scary enough.

Well, the movie I wished for back then has now been made and it has been made well. The latest version is not only the ultimate Batman movie–pushing the violence and nihilism to the edge–it aims to be the ultimate comic book movie. The only thing is, I don’t know if it’s what I really want to see anymore. Leaving the new Batman movie, which is operatic, sweeping in its ambitions and length (at two-and-a-half hours, it is longer than any super hero movie should reasonably be, and yet it moves briskly), I was satisfied that a true Batman movie had finally been made. But I also felt a little bit dirty about it.

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There were a lot of questions heading into tonight’s Sox-Yanks game, literally the 2,000th time these teams have faced each other. Could Joba hold his own against Josh Beckett in a hostile environment? Could the Yankees continue their recent timely hitting? Would the real Kyle Farnsworth reemerge at the worst possible time? Would the Yankees make a big trade ahead of the deadline? Is there any way in hell the new X-Files movie will possibly be any good?

Answers: Yes, not really but things worked out anyway, yes, yes, and not according to Manohla Dargis. The Yankees beat the Red Sox, 1-0, in a tense, emotional pitcher’s duel; they also learned that team has acquired lefty reliever Damaso Marte and outfielder Xavier Nady from the Pirates in exchange for minor leaguers Jose Tabata, Ross Ohlendorf, Phil Coke, and some other AA dude you’ve probably never heard of. More on that later.

As for the game itself, Josh Beckett was very good, scattering nine hits and a walk through seven innings and allowing one run – and that on a dinky little Giambi shift-beater to the left side in the third inning. Beckett’s curveball was nearly untouchable, tight and well-spotted, and though the Yankees had plenty of hits, they only really threatened twice. But Joba Chamberlain was even better, in maybe his best (and certainly his biggest) start as a Yankee. He also went seven innings and struck out nine in an impressive shutout, and seemed to get stronger as he went along.

There was a great atmosphere at Fenway – in addition to all the usual Sox-Yanks hype, exacerbated by the suddenly tight race, the fans were thrilled to welcome back David Ortiz, who returned from a wrist injury tonight. He  didn’t look quite like himself just  yet, and the Yankees exploited his injury, pitching him in relentlessly to put pressure on the  wrist.

The game was marked by a series of lousy calls – on balls and strikes, and also a few very close plays on the bases – some of which went the Yanks’ way, others not. So everyone was already a little on edge by the seventh, which is when Kevin Youkilis – who’s accumulated quite a history with Chamberlain in just one year – stepped into the box. Chamberlain went 2-0 on the Greek God of Walks before his third pitch sailed way up and in, and barely missed Youklis’ helmet while the first baseman threw himself out of the way.

Youkilis, of course, brushed himself off and stepped back in the box in a totally businesslike–oh, wait, sorry, no. Youkilis threw a fit to the ump, not that I blame him, and the Sox gathered at the edge of their dugout as the atmosphere turned stormy and both benches were warned. Chamberlain went on to get the strikeout, and Youkilis stalked back to the dugout looking not entirely gruntled.

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Proof that Brian Cashman reads this blog:

Thursday I posted a rant that, among other things, said the Yankees shouldn’t waste their resources by trading for a relief pitcher and that they should stay away from Xavier Nady.

Friday, the Yankees traded four minor leaguers to the Pirates for lefty relief pitcher Damaso Marte and Xavier Nady.

Here’s the wacky part: I don’t hate the trade.

The thing is, the Yankees didn’t really give up anyone they couldn’t afford to lose. The four minor leaguers headed to Pittsburgh are pitchers Ross Ohlendorf, Phil Coke, and George Kontos, and outfielder Jose Tabata.

The names that jump out on that list are Ohlendorf’s and Tabata’s, so let’s dispose of the other two first. Coke is a lefty starter who has dominated in double-A over the last three months. That sounds like a lot to give up, but he just turned 26 and this is his first year above A-ball. What’s more, despite his success in the offense-suppressing environment in Trenton, there’s simply no room for him in Scranton, where the rotation consists of Ian Kennedy, Daniel McCutchen, Alfredo Aceves, Jeff Karstens and . . . well, Kei Igawa, but only because Alan Horne, Jeff Marquez, and Phil Hughes (who Brian Cashman recently said would be optioned after being officially activated from his current rehab assignment) are on the DL. George Kontos is three years younger than Coke, but he’s right-handed, hadn’t pitched as well in Trenton, and is similarly blocked by the organizational gridlock forming around the Scranton rotation. Besides, as young as the 23-year-old Kontos is, Hughes and Joba Chamberlain are younger, and Kennedy and Marquez are less than a year older, meaning the Yankees already have four right-handed starters his age ahead of him in the organization.

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The Yankees’ current six-game winning streak has been extremely fruitful. By sweeping the A’s and Twins, the Yanks have surged into second place in the Wild Card race and enter this weekend’s three-game series against the Red Sox just three games behind both the Sox and the Rays in the AL East. Another sweep would put them in a tie with Boston for second place in the east and the Wild Card lead. A 2-1 series loss, however, would put them four games behind Boston, as many as five games behind the Rays (who play the Royals this weekend), and could even drop them back behind the Twins (who play the Indians). It’s thus imperative that the Yankees at the very least take two of three this weekend. The question is: can they do it?

Let’s look at the pitching match-ups first. The Yankees have two of their best starters going in the first two games. Joba Chamberlain, who starts tonight, has a 2.41 ERA over his last seven starts, including a quality start against the Red Sox at the Stadium three weeks ago. Andy Pettitte has a 2.18 ERA over his last eight starts, but the one real dud in that stretch came at home against the Sox (4 2/3 IP, 6 R). Both have been better on the road than at home, but neither has pitched at Fenway this season.

Opposing Joba tonight will be Josh Beckett, who is one of the few Red Sox pitchers who has pitched worse at home than on the road. Beckett has a 4.82 ERA at Fenway this year and gave up five runs in five innings to the Twins in his last home start two turns ago. At the same time, he’s already turned in three quality starts against the Yanks this year, including one at Fenway in April, though he has allowed the maximum three runs in each of those starts for a 3.92 ERA against the Bombers.

Tim Wakefield, who faces Pettitte tomorrow afternoon on FOX, has a 3.04 ERA at Fenway and a 2.43 ERA over his last ten starts, including a quality start at the Stadium that left Chamberlain with yet another no-decision.

The finale, which will be ESPN’s Sunday night game, pits Sidney Ponson against Jon Lester. Lester is one of the great stories of this season, having rebounded from non-Hodgkins lymphoma to not only throw a no-hitter, but have a great season overall. Lester has a 3.20 ERA on the season, a 2.93 ERA at home, and needed just 105 pitches to shutout the Yankees on five hits and two walks while striking out eight in his only start against the Bombers this season. That said, he’s been inconsistent of late. Lester’s no-hitter came in the middle of a run of 11 starts from the end of April to late June in which the lefty posted a 2.13 ERA. Since then, however, he’s alternated dominant starts (including his shutout of the Yankees) with non-quality outings. If the pattern holds, he’s due for a stinker, but his dominance of the Yankees in their last meeting and overall success this season is the better indicator of what he’s likely to do Sunday night.

That means Ponson has his work cut out for him. Before his last start, I wrote that Ponson’s surprisingly successful season has been the result of a sharp increase in his groundball rate. The problem is that Fenway Park has a notoriously hard infield, which can cause trouble for groundball pitchers (Chien-Ming Wang’s career ERA at Fenway is 5.11, and in his complete-game two-hitter there this April, he got more outs in the air than on the ground). Ponson hasn’t faced the Red Sox this year, but historically, the Sox’s lineup own him (David Ortiz: .444/.563/.722; Manny Ramirez: .404/.481/.511; Jason Varitek: .317/.364/.561; Kevin Youkilis: 4 for 9 with a double; J.D. Drew: 3 for 7 with a double; Dustin Pedroia: 3 for 3), the only exception being Mike Lowell, who is 0 for 7 with a walk against Ponson. Lester would have to implode completely for the Yankees to overcome what’s likely to happen to Ponson on Sunday night.

That means the Yankees hopes for a series win lie in the first two games, both of which have the potential to be tightly-contested pitchers’ duels. The Yankees scored 25 runs in their three-game sweep of the Twins and are averaging 6.3 runs per game since the All-Star break, but the Twins helped out with some sloppy and absent-minded play in the field, and the Bomber bats struggled to solve Sean Gallagher and Justin Duchscherer in the A’s series, as the Yankees won both games by just one run thanks in large part to strong pitching performances from Chamberlain, Pettitte, and the bullpen. That pattern may have to repeat itself in order for the Yankees to win these first two games.

The good news is that the Red Sox aren’t scoring. While the Yankees scored 25 runs in the Twins series alone, the Red Sox have scored just 22 runs since the All-Star break, an average of 3.67 per game. They opened the second half by getting swept in Anaheim with Beckett and Wakefield receiving two and three runs of support, respectively. They then swept the Mariners in Seattle, but averaged just 3.67 runs per game during regulation in that series, requiring extra innings to pull out the finale.

The bad news is that the Sox just activated David Ortiz off the disabled list, which could give their offense the jump-start it needs. Manny Ramirez, despite the affront of his flopping-fish routine in Anahiem, has hit .471/.609/.765 since the break, giving Ortiz the protection he’ll need to get back in the groove. Still, one wonders what lingering effects, if any, will Ortiz’s wrist injury have on his swing. The Yankees haven’t really had to sweat Ortiz yet this year. He’s was on the DL during their most recent series against the Red Sox, and when they faced him in April, he was slumping horribly. Ortiz went 1-for-17 against the Yankees in April, his only time on base coming via a single. At the end of that stretch, he was hitting .111/.222/.159 on the season. Starting the next day and leading up to his injury, however, he was back to his old tricks, hitting .313/.408/.626.

So the question is, will Ortiz come off the DL as hot as he was when he went on it, or will he have to fight through a repeat of those April doldrums in order to get back in the swing? The discouraging news is that Ortiz hit .313/.450/.875 with three home runs in his recent five-game rehab assignment. Less discouraging is the fact that nearly all of that, including all three home runs, came in Double-A.

It’s up to Joba to get Ortiz off on the wrong foot and the Yankees on the right foot tonight in what will be the biggest start of his admittedly very young career as a major league starting pitcher, and up to the Yankee bats to reward him for doing so by getting to Josh Beckett early. (Seriously, can we get this kid another win already?)

As for the Yankees chances of taking the series, the Red Sox have a 13-2 record in series at Fenway this year (including a 2-1 series win over the Yankees in April) and a staggering .766 winning percentage in home games. They’ve scored just 4.34 runs per game on the road, but 5.83 R/G at home, while the Yankees have scored just 4.33 runs per game on the road. That alone tilts the odds against the New York nine, but I think Chamberlain and Pettitte can get the job done. The only question is if the offense has built enough confidence and momentum to finish the job. I sure hope so.

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I’m going to see what all the fuss is about this afternoon.

Even after living here for a dozen years, it still amazes me that for three days each summer our small, sleepy town of 2,200 fulltime residents becomes the focal point of the baseball cosmos. Once again, Hall of Fame Weekend has arrived in Cooperstown, New York.

If all goes according to plan, the Hall of Fame will set a record this weekend when 54 living Hall of Famers gather in Cooperstown for the annual induction extravaganza. That number would narrowly eclipse last year’s mark of 53 Hall of Famers. Originally, the Hall was expecting 52 to attend, but Cal Ripken, Jr. and Ernie Banks made last-minute decisions to travel to Cooperstown. (By the way, there is actually a player in the local New York-Penn League named Ernie Banks!) The group of returnees also includes Tony Gwynn, who joined Ripken in forming that memorable Hall of Fame Class of 2007. A note of caution about the list of Hall of Famers: While the Hall likes to boast about the number of returning greats coming to town, there is little opportunity for most fans to enjoy quality "face time" with any of them, unless they plan on buying tickets to one of the many paid autograph sessions. Then again, you never know which former ballplayer you might run into during a late-night stop at The Pit, The Pratt, or The Bold Dragoon.

Of the Hall of Famers who are scheduled to arrive, there are seven former Yankees on the docket. They include Yogi Berra, Wade Boggs, Whitey Ford, Reggie Jackson, Phil Niekro, Gaylord Perry (who’s never remembered for his half-season in pinstripes) and Dave Winfield, who arrived in town on Tuesday night, sooner than anybody else. That list, of course, does not include this year’s inductee, Goose Gossage, who headlines a Class of 2008 that also features Dick Williams (who almost became a Yankee, if not for interference run by Charles O. Finley).

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Smiling Jack down at Dunder Mifflin pitched a very nice game last night. Chad Jennings, who has been doing a terrific job all season long, has the particulars.  And Ben K over at River Ave Blues gives his take as well.