OK, looking at the schedule in March, was anyone thinking this was gong to be a crucial series?

For real.

[1] Michael Kay just said what you said.
Not a good feeling, I know.

Lousy start.

can the DH hit for the catcher?

NICE.

Love those easy-peasy DPs.

That's better.

[3] Should I be flattered or concerned?

Always a pleasure to see the backward K early.

Okay, boys, let's swing the lumber!

About two feet shy, Rob.

[8] Oh, well, probably just a coincidence, but if it happens regularly, I would definitely be concerned.

[11] I'll break out my tin foil hat, just in case.

Hmmmmmmm.
What's up, Hiroki?

Ugh, doubleplus ungood.

Hey, this kind of sucks.

Just checked in, see Nix at DH (!)...batting 9th (!!). Concluding that Girardi is no longer managing in a serious manner, I think I'll pass on tonight's game.

didn't this no-name already urp us a little while back?

we should destroy him this time...

[16] yeah.

rays with the early leads over the jays...

[16] Whereas you would have filled the DH slot with...???

oh great, this unknown is throwing a fucking PERFECT game at us, a third of the way through.

brilliant!

[19] ron blomberg.

Let's see, Mattingly & Maris are two.

fuck it. just put hank aaron at dh.

why not?

[21] You'll have to pry him away from the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox.
[22] I missed the trivia question -- what is it?

i must admit, i'm a big stan musial fan.

i'd love to see him at dh. and if he slumps in the playoffs, you can always bat him 8th...

ok, 2nd time thru the lineup.

time for the captain to do his thing. break up the no-no, steal a base, score a run...

[24] Yankee MVPs since 1950 not in the Hall.

[24] trivia question:

what diehard yankees fan, who doubles as an unknown percussionist, is about to release his 2nd solo cd?

[27] hmmm, that's very different from my trivia question...

how many are there? well, shit, jeter should've an mvp (or two...)

I knew it. I knew he'd get the first hit.

there's my captain!

now steal 2nd. he's 3 away from 350 in his career, which has absolutely NO bearing on anything.

[30] of course, you did. you read [26]! : )

[29] There are 4. Not counting active players.

jays tied the rays.

[33] hmmm, so a-rod's out...

[27] Wow. I guess restricted to Hall-eligible.
Hmmmmm. Munson?

Elston Howard, of course.

Thurman & Elston Howard the other two.

rickey's enshrined and won in oaktown...

[27] Munson is one.

dammit swish.

was it looking?

[38] absolutely!

[28] Hey, cool!

I mean, I have a guess, but it's probably wrong...

Elston Howard won an MVP. Is he in the HOF?

[40] godDAMN you are slow.

I am starting to intensely dislike this team. And I can't even watch thanks to fucking Angelos, who convinced mlb that DC is in his crappy market.

Motherfuck.

[43] not in the hall. but i believe the yanks retired his #.

[45] easy, jj!

good to see you : )

[44] YEAH BUT I DIDN'T LOOK IT UP!!!!

[42] yeah man! i'm excited.

doing the artwork in a coupla weeks. hope to have physical copies by Nov. will take some to NY with me for Turkey Day.

prior to the release, i'm going to be sharing the Todd Drew tribute piece ("Shadow Games"), with a select few from the Banter. if i don't go the route of 'undisclosed recipients', i'll make sure to BCC you, for privacy purposes. is the email addy from your prior paypal (thanks again!) still kosher?

3 solo homers in the ...ays game.

J-team has 2 of them.

How many here think we will NOT be in 1st places in 2 weeks?

Anything good on TV tonight?

fuck.

[51] I have faith. Yes it's irrational, but September call ups are tomorrow.

[19] Ibanez, because I would be playing Dickerson in the OF, because I would have DLed Teixera or sent down a useless reliever for a couple of days to get another position player on the bench.

[51] 2 weeks? we might not be solely in first place in 2 days.

[49] Yes, good address!
[55] Okay, but that's not Girardi. That's Cashman.

Sigh.

Oy.

that fucking sucked.

[57] Yeah, I know. It's all sort of blurring together.

By the way, it's now pretty clear that Billy Beane is the best GM in baseball, and that there's nobody else close (in case that wasn't clear before).

How the fuck did he do this? The team is playing .700 since the AS Break. With nobodies.

strikeout machines.

both "m. gonzalez" and grandy...

[57] Or I may simply have stuck with Montero at DH despite his disappointing sophomore season. I guess that one's on the GM, too.

i would not be opposed to ichiro hitting an earl weaver special right now.

just pretend it's fuckett on the mound!

I have the Rays-Jays on in the background. Jeremy Hellickson looks like he's 12 years old.

[47] They are sapping my will to live.

How bad is it now? I stopped doing game day as it was causing too much ageta.

this sucks.

[67] wow. that's some serious shit, man.

life is pretty cool. and the yankees are still in first place!

hiro's only at 85 pitches, but i smell some bullpen rouxlette on the horizon...

[66] I know, he does. I noticed that yesterday when they showed J-Hel in the dugout.

[69] They've been playing mediocre to shitty baseball for quite a long time at this point. It's been a slow death.

Hiro's translator is going to have to clean up "hey, where the fuck are those runs?"

[70] He's been efficient, but he needed to give up –1 runs tonight, and he couldn't pull it off.

[72] yes, they've essentially been a .500 ballclub since the A-S break. there's a month left to kick it into gear.

i'm sure we'll make the postseason. it's a crap-shoot from there...

hey. a new pitcher.

wahoo! rejoice! score truck!!!

[73] jamey abersold has made a career out of -1.

i'll guess your son is familiar...?

this would be a terrific time for jeter's 2nd career grand slam.

if anyone can hit one with the bases empty, it's the captain.

golden sombrero time...

[73] He'd need some help from Brett Gardner to pull that off.

[76] The Music Minus One guy? (I honestly didn't know there was one guy.)

wear it like a tiara, nick.

[73][77] These two comments really summarize the entire game, no?

[80] yeah, him!

there's lotsa music minus one books. he's the 'main' guy...

[74] I said two days ago that I thought they may well be out of playoff position within ten days. It may not take that long.

[73] Well put.

Seriously, rolling over like this in the first game of this big a series against pitchers who are not exactly world-beaters?

Come on.

[82] The week, in fact.

[82] and don't forget my "nostralarmis" comment of predicting swish's 4th k!

see [78]

[84] Can you believe the Rays are rolling over for the horrible Blue Jays, first two games of their series?? Damn, there are no good teams in baseball. All teams suck now. I'm pretty sure MLB as a whole is now playing sub-.500 ball.

well, if the oreo's shut us out this weekend and next, their run differential won't be so bad anymore! ; )

[87] well, every team except the Nats, who are going to bench their young star pitcher!

[89] (I really meant the AL only. The Reds are also awesome.)

[87] The Rays having two bad games (and let's wait on that) doesn't change what we all know - the Yanks have been playing bad baseball for a long time.

Would you describe tonight's performance as anything other than lifeless? Please let me know. As I said, I can't watch thanks to Peter Fucking Angelos.

[84] yes, i read your outbursts of positivity when i got home from work. inspiring!

[88] ack. i really hate it when the parentheses part of the emoticon goes to the next line. the preview is different than the final view. these are the things...

rouxlette!

see? this game is now somewhat fun.

And I mean really, look at the two choices in the title of this thread. Sure looks like they chose "Shaddap."

[91] And I'm asking likewise whether the Rays' performance tonight has been lifeless.

The Yankees haven't been good for a month. But baseball seasons are six months, not one month. We've played five. And so far, the Yankees are better than the competition.

Not today. But the Rays suck today too.

[91] well, other than hiro giving up 2 homers to 2 homerun hitters in a homerun park, i'd say he did rather well.

of course, those 2 homers loom large. even without them, we lose 1-0.

make that 2-0!

d-lowe! rouxlette! this game is awesome!

jj: please don't do anything drastic. beer is good...

[95] one more out until the rays suck. or...don't suck.

[92] I'm just frustrated. I'm not sure why, as I never expected anything out of this season to begin with. I guess it's because of what RIYank said in mocking me - none of the other teams *do* look unbeatable. The postseason will bring all sorts of ageta, and because of my lack of faith in the bullpen and multiple spots of the lineup, I suspect misery, but in a year like this, you would like to make it and give it a shot, no?

I've still got residual frustration with CC, too. They needed that freaking game, and I'm getting sick of him not coming up aces.

And that does it, the Rays fold, crushed under the boot of the pathetic AAA Blue Jays. What a disgrace.

rays suck!!!

well, not really. dude got thrown out at home. by ruben sierra, no less. kidding - someone named sierra. speaking of which, i think i'll start drinking on an empty stomach. seems appropriate...