Monthly Archives: September 2012

Meanwhile, back at the MET.

I got people coming out the woodwork calling, e-mailing, and texting me, busting my goddamn balls about the Yankees. Pat Jordan’s on the horn three times a day, cackling like the true sadist that he is.

Hank Waddles called last night too, but to commiserate. He likened watching the Yankees to having a fight with your spouse. One of those bad fights where you try to remember back to when you weren’t fighting and things were easy and happy but can’t. Like when you’ve got the flu and can’t recall being well.

The Wife says to me, “Are you going to be like this all month?”

I say, “Every time they lose.”

What am I going to do with you? That’s what she’s thinking and she’s right.

There is good news, though, and it is this: The Yankees are in first place today.

Every opening I came up with for tonight’s 5-2 loss to the Rays was depressing and cheap. The Yanks have played poorly, blown a big divisional lead and I was ticked. But I stopped myself and tried again. I remembered this isn’t the finish line.

If this collapse coincided with the end of the season, like it did for the Red Sox and Braves last year, then we could thrash and roll about all night. However, there are 27 games left and it’s now a flat-footed tie with Orioles. If they come up short in this sprint, we’ll have plenty of time to hash out why they weren’t good enough this year. In the meantime, maybe they’ll get mad, play well and win.

We don’t know if it will happen that way, and by the look of things, the chances aren’t that great. But it could and we should keep watching and hoping like the fans of the other, less pre-destined, teams.

I didn’t come to this outlook on my own. I woke up this morning to mouse clicks followed by a small voice repeating “Yes!” I figured my son was at the computer checking baseball scores, just down the hall from my room. The problem with that is I knew that the Pirates lost yesterday afternoon and I knew my son knew this, too. I pulled myself out of bed to see what he was celebrating. He sat there dangling his feet and grinning like he just heard about Cookie Crisp cereal. I pulled up over his shoulder and asked him what he was doing.

“Checking out the olden days,” he said. He had clicked all the way back to June. The Pirates won a lot of games in June, so he was thrilled. It didn’t seem pathetic either, like it is when I hole up with Baseball-Reference.com and swaddle myself in past glory each time the Yankees get bounced from the Postseason. I think he just wanted to see the whole picture of the season rather than dwell on their most recent disappointment.

The 2012 Yankee team has access to something better than this. There are some guys that could play better and some guys that could get healthy. If it all happens that way, I think they’re the best team over the last 27 games and I hope their records indicates that. If it doesn’t, well, my son wouldn’t mind if we joined him rooting for the Pirates.

As for the game I have only one thought. After the Yanks went down 3-2 in the third, they sent 21 batters to the plate for the rest of the game. Three over the minimum over the final six innings. I am sure some will credit the Rays pitcher Alex Cobb with grabbing the lead and not letting it go. And some will blame the Yanks hitters for tightening up and failing to execute when they fell behind. I don’t know which is correct, so I hope the Yanks load up on both lead-holding and come-backing for these last 27 games. Find out where the O’s and Rays are shopping.

It’s Fab Five Freddy Garcia and a whole lot of sweaty palms for Yankee fans tonight.

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Nick Swisher 1B
Robinson Cano DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Raul Ibanez LF
Jayson Nix 2B
Chris Dickerson RF
Chris Stewart C

They are still in first place, though.

Never mind the Pepto: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

We roll along this afternoon and will not mention the Yankees until absolutely necessary.

In the meantime, dig these paintings by Ana Teresa Fernandez.

I’ve made April Bloomfield’s Skirt Steak Salad twice recently and man, it’s a sure shot. I couldn’t find watercress so I used cilantro and mint instead. Here’s the recipe. And dig this demonstration.

Over at 70mm, please check out this piece on the shooting of Lawrence of Arabia by my dear friend Mike Fox.

The New York Times presents a history of New York in 50 Objects.

I don’t feel tardy.

Collage by Richard Diebenkorn

The first date I had with The Wife was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in January, 2002. Home field advantage I figured. Little did I know that painting and drawing don’t move her. So I took her on a tour and she smiled as I talked and talked. She was probably bored silly and finally she was hungry. Still, she was too polite to stop me and I was so nervous I kept talking.

As she tells it, “You talked until I was limp.”

She has not been back to the MET since. Until this past Saturday. This time we didn’t look at paintings or drawings but we went through the Japanese collection–The Wife loves the Japanese aesthetic. She wasn’t bored and we left before she was starving.

Progress.

A Heppy Ket.

Cloud City at the Roof Garden.

Summer’s Over. Back to work, back to school. Tense baseball games.

We should all have such problems.

[Photo Credit: SophieD]

It’s wasn’t a blow out, the Yankees did not embarrass themselves, but they still found themselves on the losing end of another ballgame at the Trop. The Rays had a few RBI bloops and bleeders that proved to be the difference as they beat the Yankees, 4-3. Alex Rodriguez managed a soft single but didn’t look strong in his first game back, Ichiro Suzuki continues to strikeout and has almost become an automatic out.

Robinson Cano, well let’s just say his lack of pep on certain plays–like the go-ahead single in the eighth–doesn’t not reflect well on him (though on second thought, there is an explanation…)

The Yanks hit the ball hard against James Shields but most of those hard hits were right at defenders. Shields deserves credit too, almost everything he threw was off the plate and he pitched deep into the game. It was a tough-minded performance.

Painful loss, but then again, every loss is painful at this time of year. The Orioles made it hurt but good as they won and now trail the Yanks by just one game.

Tomorrow, the Bombers turn their eyes to Fab Five Freddy Garcia.

Hang tight, they haven’t choked anything away yet, and strap in: this is going to be a wild month.

[Photo Credit: Tomorrow Started; Chris O’Meara/AP]

Or some such thing. What do I know from cards? All I know is that C.C. Sabathia goes against James Shields today and every day is a must-win for the Yanks–and the Rays for that matter. Game is in Tampa, where the Yanks are 2 for their last 10.

Alex is back.

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Alex Rodriguez DH
Eric Chavez 3B
Raul Ibanez LF
Russell Martin C
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Chris Dickerson CF

Never mind the shpilkes: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Picture Credit: Eduard Bezembinder]

How ’bout some Jimmy Smith to say goodbye to summer…

[Photo Credit: The Absolute Best Photography Posts]

Forget digestion, forget relaxation, forget peanuts, crackerjack and all that “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” good timey horseshit. The Yankees gave their fans all the agita we could handle and then some Sunday afternoon. It began with Phil Hughes, who couldn’t hold a humble 3-1 lead and was rounded off by no hitting, a lousy bullpen, and poor managing.

Hughes coughed up the lead in the sixth when Mark Reynolds–yeah, Tom Brunansky’s left ass cheek–hit his second home run of the day. The first one was a bomb. Second one was no cheapie either.

Jeter, Swisher, Cano, nobody hit on this homestand. Ibanez and Andruw Jones are automatic outs these days. Cano, in particular, looks like he takes at bats off. He shanked a throw in the eighth inning that underscores his lack of concentration.

This was an exasperating loss for the Yanks whose lead over the Orioles is down to two. They haven’t shit the bed yet, there is a long way to go, and plenty of time to stop playing like they were sponsored by Chico’s Bail Bonds, but right now…they stink.

Final Score: Orioles 8, Yanks 3.

[Photo Credit: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images]

Yanks lose today, their lead in the American League East shrinks to two and we’re back to bitching. They win, the lead is four and we can digest.

And so it goes in September.

Never mind the speech-making: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Inge Morath via It’s a Long Season]

A little Sunday morning funk fuh ya.

[Photo Via: Oxane]

About the best thing that can be said for the Yankees through the first six innings today is that they weren’t trailing by more than they were. Curtis Granderson left the game with an injured leg and was on his way to the hospital for an MRI with the score 3-1, the lone Yankee run coming on a solo homer by Robinson Cano.

Cano just missed another homer too in the sixth inning, too.

The Wife and I were in the car, driving across Sixth Avenue on Eighth Street, listening to John and Suzyn on the radio. Sterling gave it the ol “It is high, it is far…” only to report that the ball was caught. It took everything in me a) not to crash the car into a pedestrian or b) scream at the top of my lungs and frighten my Bride. If I’d been alone who knows? Instead, I calmly clicked the radio off and said, “That man is irresponsible.”

Cano was fantastic in the field, too, turning a wonderful double play and making a tough over-the-shoulder catch.

The reason the Yanks were fortunate is because David Phelps walked the world. But the O’s couldn’t take advantage. Then, in the seventh, the Yanks had an unlikely rally. With one out, Steve Pearce singled for his first hit as a Yankee. Russell Martin flew out and then Jason Nix fell behind 0-2. We were still in the car, now on the West Side Highway driving home, and with each ensuing pitch I called the strike out that never came. Instead, Nix walked. That brought up Eduardo Nunez–remember him?

Don’t hack at the first pitch, don’t hack at the first pitch.

So he hacked at the first pitch, a fastball and drove home Pearce. Then, a new pitcher, and Ichiro waled. Bases loaded for Jeter. We were home now but stayed in the car knowing we couldn’t miss what came next. So it’s 0-2 with the quickness but the Captain worked the count full and walked. Game tied. Fist bump with The Wife.

By the time we got upstairs and turned on the TV they were replaying SS J.J. Hardy’s error which allowed the go-ahead run to score. Go figure that, especially since Hardy is a good fielder. David Robertson pitched a clean eighth and Rafael Soriano mowed ’em down in the ninth and the Yanks won, 4-3.

Feels about as big a win as they’ve had all year.

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. We will take it.

Yanks aim not to suck and give us indigestion this afternoon when they host the O’s at the Stadium.

Never mind the Malox: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Picture by Thomas Brendan]