Monthly Archives: April 2011

Check out this excerpt from Robert Weintraub’s new book, “The House that Ruth Built” over at Deadspin. And dig this piece by Weintraub on Alex Rodriguez and the Babe over at Slate.

So while I celebrated Passover with my family in a cramped Upper West Side apartment–loud, sweaty, funny–the Knicks were busy breaking their fans’ hearts with a 87-85 loss to the Celtics and the Yanks were engaged in a rainy affair with the Rangers at the Stadium. C.C. didn’t have his best outing but the Yanks kept him in the game. I got home in time to see him walk off the mound with a one-run lead in the seventh and settled down in time to see Joba cough it up.

But the Yanks went ahead in the bottom of the eighth when Eric “Caesar Salad” Chavez ripped an RBI single up the middle off Arthur “Fonzarelli” Rhodes–hey the game was on ESPN, excuse me if the spirit of Chris Berman has taken over, maybe I’m just jacked up on rugelach.

Mariano pitched the ninth and here is how that went.

Final Score: Yanks 6, Rangers 5.

Do we eat horseradish, sing songs and root for the home team? Cause my fam rolls a day early, that’s why.

Word to the Exodus and let’s go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Chow.com]

Today gives the NBA playoffs. Knicks-Celtics tonight. Yanks and Rangers play at 8.

Let’s go sports!

Just hangin’ round on a lazy Sunday…

How about a little soul, sister?

[Photo Credit: Imagens da Margem found via This Isn’t Happiness]

Ah, bliss…

Well well, Freddy Garcia. I was pleasantly surprised, that’s for sure. Garcia has absolutely nothing going for him in the way of velocity, and I think he threw as many changeups as fastballs, but that made his control and planning all the more impressive. Oney Guillen, apparently still a supporter from Garcia’s White Sox days, put things a bit more bluntly. Given that the Yankees put off allowing either Garcia or his catcher today, Gustavo Molina, to appear in a game for as long as they possibly could, things went rather well today and the Yankees won 5-2.

While Garcia kept the Rangers off the board through six, allowing just two hits and a walk in a fairly badass performance, the Yankees started off their scoring in the first inning with a two-run Mark Teixeira home run.Teixeira tacked on with a sac fly in the third, and it remained a 3-0 game until the 8th inning, at which point I noted that if the current score held, the Yankees would notch their first win of the season in which they scored less than 4 runs. At that point, Rafael Soriano labored through an awkward inning that ended with the score 3-2; and shortly thereafter  Robinson Cano jacked a two-run homer. So it wasn’t meant to be, not that the Yankees are complaining, I’m sure.

Mariano came in for the ninth so I don’t feel it’s necessary to elaborate on what happened there. How many of these Garcia-Nova-Colon games can the Yanks expect to win? i don’t know, but so far things have gone better than I’d expected.

It’s cold, gray and windy out there today. A soup is good food afternoon if there ever was one. Bundle up, settle in and let’s hope the Yanks give us reason to cheer.

Fab Five Freddy takes the hill.

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Here’s the record…

Fans like to call Ivan Nova “SuperNova” when things are going well. But keep in mind that, in fact, a nova is a cataclysmic nuclear explosion that triggers runaway nuclear fusion. To be fair, Nova’s start wasn’t all that bad, but I was reminded of that definition in the fifth inning tonight.

Given Phil Hughes’ trip to the DL, a solid start from Ivan Nova would have been nice and reassuring tonight. As it was, he did keep the Yankees more or less in the game, but it wasn’t pretty and it ended unfortunately. Nova pitched into the fifth inning and was charged with 5 runs on 4 hits and, more disconcerting, 5 walks (a career high). That’s no way to live, and the Yankees lost 5-3.

Nova’s trouble started in the second, with a double, a single, and a run-scoring groundout, and continued in the third, with an RBI Michael Young double. But despite the walks and general air of impending runs, the real trouble didn’t come until the fifth. It was a sad story, and it went like this:

• Mitch Moreland walks.

• Julio Borbon hit by pitch. Mitch Moreland to 2nd.

• Coaching visit to mound.

• With Ian Kinsler batting, wild pitch by Ivan Nova, Mitch Moreland to 3rd. Julio Borbon to 2nd.

• Ian Kinsler grounds out softly, shortstop Derek Jeter to first baseman Mark Teixeira. Mitch Moreland scores.

• Elvis Andrus walks.

• Michael Young singles on a ground ball to left fielder Andruw Jones. Julio Borbon scores. Elvis Andrus to 2nd.

That was, as you might imagine, that. Joe Girardi trotted out, retrieved Nova and beckoned David Robertson. If there was a silver lining to tonight’s game for the Yankees, it was that the bullpen was strong again, freezing the Rangers at 5 runs. David Robertson, Boone Logan (obligatory beard link), and then three quite impressive perfect innings from newest Yankee Lance Pendleton in his major league debut. That’s how you make a good first impression.

Rangers starter Matt Harrison doesn’t have a spectacular track record — it was one of those “this guy? You can’t hit this guy?” nights — but he’s off to a fine start this season, now 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA in 14 innings. He did give the Yankees a few fat pitches, but not too many, and displayed an irritating tendency to wipe out base runners with double plays (New York hit into six tonight).

As for New York’s scoring, it started in the third, when Nick Swisher, Thursday night’s hero, singled home Curtis Granderson. Granderson, who is looking good these days, came through again in the 8th inning with a solo homer (off a lefty in case you were wondering), and in the ninth, Alex Rodriguez doubled and came home on an Eric Chavez pinch-hit single. Not a terrible night by any means, and not in fact a cataclysmic runaway nuclear explosion, just one of those games.

The Yankees could really use some length tomorrow from Freddy Garcia. In related news, I could really use a free trip to Barbados.

One very nice thing: MLB may not do all that it could on Jackie Robinson Day (as Jay Jaffe notes at BP today and has noted before), but many of the players spoke on the subject today with real feeling and eloquence, not just canned PR lines. It’s moving to see how much Robinson still means to the guys who play the game, and how much very real respect they have for him.

A photo gallery of New York in the ’70s from Animal New York.

Oh, yeah, and the Yanks take on the Texas Rangers. First time this season, first time since losing to the Rangers last October in the ALCS.

Cliff has the preview. We make the noise.

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Over at Hardball Talk, comes word that Kevin Millwood looks terrible and Adrian Gonzalez is a wealthy young man.

And Chad Jennings reports that Phil Hughes is headed for the DL with a dead arm.

[Picture found at This Isn’t Happiness]

[Pictures by Albert Levy]

In all the tributes over this past week to Sidney Lumet, many have cited Lumet’s strong track record of guiding his actors to exceptional, even iconic performances. While Al Pacino’s work in Lumet’s “Serpico” and “Dog Day Afternoon” may be the most famous examples of this, I don’t think any of Lumet’s lead actors was ever better than Paul Newman as a down and out alcoholic Boston lawyer in “The Verdict.”

“The Verdict’s” success is due to the remarkable collaboration between Lumet, Newman and David Mamet, who wrote the script. Mamet’s screenplay takes what could have been either a run of the mill redemption story or courtroom drama and finds those keen details that Lumet and his cast bring to life brilliantly. There are those little moments, like Frank Galvin (Newman) sipping his shot of whiskey off of the bar, too shaky to dare risk raising it to his lips that make the bigger ones, like his argument in chambers with a corrupt judge (Milo O’Shea), or his stunning summation really pay off.

Newman doesn’t just play a drunk; he captures a drunk’s self-loathing, his fear, his shame and ultimately, the slow rekindling of his pride and the attendant panic that it may be too late. The supporting cast around Newman, including Jack Warden, Charlotte Rampling, Edward Binns, and particularly the great James Mason performs at the same high level.

Looking at the summation speech, I was struck by Lumet’s quiet but incredibly effective technique. The scene is one, long interrupted take. The camera holds the wide shot for a full two minutes, only moving when Newman approaches the jury box. Then slowly, it moves in on Newman, as his speech draws us in deeper, as if we are the jurors. Lumet’s decision to use one long take allows Newman to build up slowly, to really let Mamet’s words create the true force of their meaning. He finishes, and slumps back into his seat. We can sense the physical and emotional exhaustion of both the character and the actor.

Lumet, Newman and Mamet were all nominated for Academy Awards for “The Verdict.” None of them won.

I’m not ready to become all jelly-legged about Phil Hughes, not based on a trio of starts. Hughes’ drop in velocity is not as unusual as some make it out to be. I remember just last year the articles that were written in the Bay Area expressing dismay over Madison Bumgarner’s springtime loss of velocity. By the end of the regular season, Bumgarner was not only a significant part of the Giants’ rotation, but he was the No. 4 starter in the postseason, pitching for a world championship team. During the regular season, Bumgarner pitched to the tune of a 3.00 ERA. And then he pitched even more effectively in the postseason, culminating in a scoreless eight-inning start against the Rangers in the World Series.

Assuming that Hughes is not hurt, I think his velocity will return. (It was a bit better on Thursday night against Baltimore.) A 24-year-old pitcher doesn’t usually lose his fastball unless there is something wrong with his elbow or his shoulder. But Hughes could be serving as a test case for what is a flawed organizational pitching philosophy. The Yankees are so overly protective of their minor league pitchers, employing the strictest of pitch counts and innings limits, that it makes me wonder if they are hindering their development.

It’s one thing to avoid giving young pitchers 220-inning workloads in the minor leagues; it’s quite another to bend to the other extreme and do damage in another way. If pitchers don’t throw enough, they can’t develop arm strength, and if they can’t develop arm strength, they won’t be able to throw as hard as they are capable. If pitchers can’t even give you 175 innings in the minor leagues (Hughes never went higher than 146 in a season), how can they be expected to give you anywhere close to 200 innings in the majors, where the competition is stiffer and the pressure is greater?

(more…)

The site is called Food Porn Daily.

Warning: You might never leave the house and yes, you might go blind.

Oscar Gamble lives on in Oakland.

Coco, you are sooo fine.

[Photo Credit: AP]

Roger Ebert on Buster. 

[Picture by Cecil Beaton]

Let’s make today a day of pictures starting with this shot I took of an ad for Madam Tussuads on the subway this morning.

I didn’t know DJ was a lefty.

From reader Paul Aquino…