I'm sad to see sweet lou retiring. But good for him at the same time. Or something like that.

Well, that was a bit more relaxing than the 1st yesterday.

[1] Nbc's site has a blurb about it, accompanied by a picture of Zambrano

yay! Jays-Sox rain delay = bonus Ms-Yankees coverage for me!

Good day...
Quiet here on the Banter,
Bases juiced, one out.
Score truck nyone?

1, 3) he says his mother is extremely sick, so he is retiring earlier than announced to go to Tampa to spend time with her.

Ouch. 2 weeks without ARod. Will we survive? (re: stay in 1st)

6) I shouldn't have gotten so excited...that was quite sub optimal.

[7] 10 and 0 without him this year, and i swear i read they averaged 8 rpg . Kind of a wonky stat

That's a GREAT story about Jason Phillips ...

7) well, the last time I checlked the calendar, it's still 2010.

I see Jeter has seen two pitches total today (granted, he had a hit on one of those two). I know there's a line of thinking that if a guy has just walked someone then he'll groove one on his next pitch, but it never really seems to work that way.

gotta hope CC and (hopefully) the score truck are big today; @ Toronto and Chicago will be kind of tough.

[11] Did you actually check the calendar? I got in a debate about that cliche with someone the other day. People always preface an irrefutable point with, "well the last time I checked..." but, of course, they didn't actually check....Sorry, just a pet peeve of mine.

Meh. They keep this up and Luke French will throw a 60 pitch complete game.

and you're welcome

Yeah, Baby!

14) well, that's the weird thing...the last time I checked the calendar was about three years ago, but it was still 2010. Go figure.

Swish!

He missed the tag!

YES is asleep! It took them 8 replays to catch it.

The PC RIchard whistle is the ultimate adding insult to injury...

20) even worse, or weirder, than missing the tag, he tagged him without the ball. The Ms announcers are saying that Jorge did a good job selling the play...I'm not entirely convinced Jorge did that on purpose. With Po, you never know.

Yay, official game.

Ichiro IS human.

Is it me or does Derek look a little gimpy?

Ichiro misplayed that...he didn't need to jump that high. I wonder if the wind knocked it down and fouled up Ichiro.

Tough error.

[23] That's the 2nd time Jorge has done that this year iirc.
I think he does it on purpose. ; )

I LOVE Robbie. He's fucking awesome.

Robbie!

Good Lord Robbie Cano can hit

Ummm .... no doubt!

yeah, walking tex to let cano hit off a left hander is an invitation for a grand slam. YEAH ROBBIE!

Joe Morgan says he might win a batting title some day

Robby Cano dontcha know!

Notice how Robbie gave it the ol A Rod stare of approval in the dugout?

bleacher shots aren't that easy in the new stadium .... that was smoked

[36] He definitely styled that one.

23) Also, the ump was shielded from being able to tell if he had the ball or not. Lucky play. Still, good throw by Nick, in spite of the short hop, and nice pick by Jorge.

My wife just asked me why you would walk the bases loaded to get to Cano. She's not a baseball fan, and apparently not a chessmaster. But you know, if she gets that it was a dubious strategy, why not MLB managers?

question: Has anyone checked on the homerun totals this year at the stadium compared to last year and the old stadium? It was such a big issue last year and I haven't heard a peep about Yankee Stadium "cheapie" homers this season.

I'll bet when ARod is back, he's batting 5th.
Jeter needs to be batting 10th.
It's also time for Gardner to be in CF and Grandy in LF. My guess is Gritner will play more games then Grandy.

42) so, if Jeter is battinf tenth, does that mean Cervelli and Peña (when they get their two starts a week) should bat eleventh and twelfth?

[1] Hmm, kinda interesting that Hendry made a point of saying that Trammell would not be the interim manager and was not a candidate. Is he greasing the wheels for Ryne (or Girardi) maybe?

Ok, time to run some errands.

41) i don't know about HR totals, but according to espn.com, NYS once again has the highest HR park factor in the league, by a long ways this year over #2 Coors Field.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/parkfactor/_/sort/HRFactor

"Operation Crossbow" is on AMC ... sounds like good rain delay theater

[40] I just did not get that move to load the bases for Robbie.

I was thinking, "I don't care what happens, that is just straight dumb."

Yes, Robbie struck out his first at bat, but he centered the ball very nicely when he hit into the double play. Crummy result, but it was hit hard, and meant that I didn't look at the two at bats and think, "gee, French has got him confused."

I'm usually very against Manny-style styling, but I think Cano was PISSED.

He's an easygoing dude, but I think he was like, "Do you SEE my numbers? How am I not past the point in my career where anyone would even think of walking someone to pitch to me?"

On the home run, he was like, "it's the life that you chose."

The Jorge thing - not that it's anything new - is a mess. He's had two reasonably high profile phantom tags - you have to think that umpires will be all over plays at the plate from here on in, and opposing teams will mention it before each game. Like I've always said about Jorge - they taught him how to hit from a very young age, and they taught him well, but over thirty years of watching the game, he has some of the worst baseball instincts of any player I've ever seen.

What his mind commands, Jorge does. And when it comes to baseball, that thing is usually a very, very stupid thing. Only Jorge. It's incredible. I hope it doesn't cost us in a big spot.

Of course, all the weirdness at the plate stems from him being chickenshit about blocking the plate. And I know he has his reasons, but I've never understood how you can be so confident in your identity as "the catcher" - which we all know is very important to Jorge - and still be afraid to block the plate.

I didn't think they'd get the game going, so I headed out for some fun in the rain. Got to hear the fifth inning in the car. I think IBBs are stupid even when most people here like them, so yeah, for me walking Teixeira was a real forehead-slapper.
Luke French: "This guy will destroy my limp fastball, so I'll start him with a slider, but I really can't get behind in the count with the bases loaded so it has to be a strike...... uh oh [half second later] Fuck."

I don't think it's any insult to Rob, though. Moron managers walked Teixeira to load the bases for A-Rod, too.

they're back ....

[50] Hey, look at that, so they are. I'm a little disappointed, I must say!
But, nice for Nuñez and Brett.

By the way, what do we call Nuñez? He needs a nickname.

[52]

No Pena, All Gainya?

(ok ... its a reach)

I think it's fair to say that Chris Seddon is in over his head.

[53] Oh, not bad, but I'd rather see him get a name 'in his own right', if you see what I mean. How about El Niño? Or El Nuño?

[55] or, El Newno. i can't place the ~ over the letter, 'coz i'm not that cool...

hip-hip!!!

Sado!

ooh, now i want double digits. (greedy, i know ...)

[59] This is a good game for your obsession with arbitrary statistics!

Oh, on my Mac I do option-n, which sticks in a tilde, and then the next character I hit goes under the tilde. I imagine it's something similar with a Windows computer, but you don't have 'option' keys. Maybe it's CONTROL?

guess it was too much to ask for ichiro! to go ofer four...

uh-oh, here's goes the shutout...

Ridiculous. All three singles were pitches at the shins!

Swish!

Brandon League???

Choose:
(i) The Mariners' bullpen is so good they can use Brandon League to mop up.
(ii) Daren Brown doesn't really know what he's doing.
(iii) Other

Ha, Figgy.

Someone told Rob it's August.
Also, can't complain about our 3basement today, huh?

[59] Your wish is the Yankees command.

double. digits.

YAY!!! : )

[68] "3rd basement" is sooo awesome. i always forget about it, so whenever it's brought up, it makes me to laughing!

league hadn't pitched since the 17th, so i guess he was "getting work." or getting worked...

[71] I just turned to the Braves/Cubs game.
But yeah, Peña and Nuñez do kind of make it particularly appropriate, huh?

[73] did you happen see soriano looking miserable in the field and the young shortstop botching the rundown? lou is glad to get out...

no reason for cox to send "everyday" venters out there in a 9-3 game...

[73] oh, your usage of "3rd basement" was absolutely brilliant! who invented that again? i think it was seamus...

Perhaps we can call our sub 3rd basemen .... Tildes?

[76] The Tildas, i like it! i always spelled it with an "a". i think that alternative spelling is accepted...

[76] OMG, the sub-basement!!!
Tildes works for me.

Damn, I can't remember who invented 3basement. Certainly could be Seamus. I should have bookmarked it.

Oh, and no, I didn't see the rundown. I really just flipped over a few minutes ago.

[77]

or perhaps ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilda_Swinton

Yes, let's make sure the shutout stays intact.

[78] it's now 13-3. cubs look like the bad news baby bears. it's pretty pathetic...

[80] i would very much like that!

Yay, 10-0 shutout. 30 games over .500.

10-zip! series win. very very nice. cc was nails.

god lord, the cubs look *horrible*. jeez....

[80] Okay!
A K would have been nice and made me feel a little better about Joba, but hey, it's hard to complain when the Yankees win 10-0.

[81] Aramis Ramirez isn't good, is he? That's not a good team.

Oh, also, it looks like rain has squandered a Buchholz start. Laptop wasn't dominant (he walked the leadoff batter in each of the first three innings), but he was doing the job. But if they do resume (Buchholz had got two outs in the third) there's no way he could return now.

rays up 1-nil against 'get the fuck off my fucking mound'...

[85] not really, but i've always liked him for some reason. and he has prodigious power. which was on display today... no, terrible team.

and Rami with a leadoff single!

concrete glove award winner Sori at the dish right now. and he ropes a double. break up the cubbies!

This would be a helluva comeback. One run in, ten to go.

Hey, X-man! I forgot he was on the Cubs.

Hey, thelarmis, I took two of my kids to see "Scott Pilgrim against the World" this weekend.
Hot drummer.

[92] 2 out of 3 kids?

i'm not familiar with scott pilgrim... sounds like you do lotsa fun stuff with your boyz! very very cool.

9-run game. yeah, nady not looking like d-lee at 1st base...

The Sox resume, and Buchholz is out there! After an hour of rain!

Liner to left, diving grab by Bill Hall.

multi homer games for both heyward and (all-star) infante.

11-run game...

royales-pale hose in extras for the 3rd game in a row. doesn't say much for the chi-sox...

Not the way for Lou to go out, best of luck to him & his mom (though it doesn't sound good).

[75] [78] ha, this conversation was a joy! I did come up with that though I wish I could claim it was intentional... Oh, and sub-basement! i like. :)

[49] That was a very funny, and I do not doubt accurate, summary of French's thought process on that pitch.