Monthly Archives: September 2013

As in Anybody But Boston. That’s the playoff motto round here where we hate cause we love and we love to hate.

Tonight gives the Rays in Texas.

Let’s Go Base-ball!

[Photo Credit: Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images North America via It’s a Long Season]

Word.

[Photo Credit: Seth Smoot via MPD]

Marcella, our hero. 

“Sketch for Ulysses” by Henri Matisse.

The best way to spend lunch. Dip over to the Museum of Modern Art and look at my favorite Matisse picture.

Specially tailored for Bronx Banter, dig this awesomeness from our man Craig Robinson:

Jumpa talks about writing and her new novel, The Lowland.

[Photo Credit: Scott Gries]

Eh, it came out in ’85, and that’s how many wins the Yankees end the 2013 with. So, I’m not clever, I know, I know.

It wasn’t easy today, hell, the game went to the 14th inning tied 1-1. But then the Yanks scored four runs and won, 5-1.

A rough season for our boys but in some ways an admirable one. They showed fight and perhaps the blame should be laid on the front office and not on efforts of the players or their manager. We also got say goodbye to our man Mariano who went out on top. How many great players get to say that?

I know some fans dig the off-season almost as much as the games and this winter will bring lots of change so the Hot Stove should be entertaining.

This is the 11th season of following the Yankees here at the Banter. Man, this year has been as fun as ever, at least for me. I don’t concentrate as much on the Yanks or baseball as I once did but in this space they still get plenty of burn and I’m grateful for all of the regulars–and semi-regulars–who drop by, whether you are part of the commenters or not. Thanks for continuing to make this a pleasure.

And, as always, I ain’t going anywhere. The shop will be open for the playoffs and beyond.

This ain’t football, y’all, we do this every day.

Love ya,

AB

The Yanks go for win 85 today in a meaningless game in Houston. How’s this for a B Squad?

Eduardo Nunez 3B
J.R. Murphy C
Curtis Granderson CF
Vernon Wells LF
Mark Reynolds 1B
Travis Hafner DH
David Adams 2B
Brendan Ryan SS
Zoilo Almonte RF

Chad Jennings has some good pre-game notes.

Meanwhile, the Rays scored 6 runs in the first inning; the Indians and Twins start at 2 and an hour later the Rangers host the Angels. Those are the games that mean something.

Plus football, sunshine, food and other assorted Sunday distractions.

Let’s Go Base-ball!

[Photo Credit: Czlowiek Kamera via MPD]

Derek Jeter’s season has been over for a long time–it was over before it got started really. Mariano Rivera is not pitching this weekend. Alex Rodriguez isn’t playing either, he’s getting ready for his case against MLB which is sure to grab headlines and spoil some of our playoff fun. The Yanks are playing out the string against the worst team in baseball. But last night, Andy Pettitte pitched his final game in the big leagues. He had a 2-1 lead after 8 and it was good to see him go back out in the 9th. After getting two fly ball outs he gave up a single on a 1-2 pitch and Joe Girardi came out to talk with him.

Don’t yank him, Joe, don’t. Girardi left it up to Pettitte who wanted to stay in the game. He got a ground ball to Cano who threw to first to end the game and Pettitte’s career, on a high note.

Final Score: Yanks 2, Astros 1.

It didn’t have any of the ceremony of Rivera’s long goodbye but there was plenty of symmetry to it–in Houston before his former team, in his home town. Chad Jennings has the happy recap here and here.

Perhaps it’s the last smile we’ll have this year as Yankee fans. But it was a good one.

[Photo Via: The Minimalisto]

He’s been a great Yankee.

Curtis Granderson CF
Eduardo Nunez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Alfonso Soriano LF
Lyle Overbay 1B
Zoilo Almonte RF
Ichiro Suzuki DH
Brendan Ryan SS
Chris Stewart C

Never mind tomorrow: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Hey, the Yanks won last night. A spring training game in late September. Man, these kinds of games are unfamiliar, huh?

Open thread for an afternoon of interesting games–Rays and Indians are tied for the wildcard with the Rangers just one back.

Relax, enjoy the day, and listen to this old jam.

“Sweet Virginia” (Live) – The Stones

[Photo Via: Film is God]

Hey, at least there’s still baseball to watch. So we’ll watch.

Never mind the meaninglessness of existence:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Via: This Isn’t Happiness]

Kurious Jorge with a J not a G. [Photo Via: evanescible]

Photograph by John Kingman.

Alexandra does breakfast.

Here’s part one of Tavis Smiley’s interview with Linda Ronstadt:

Ronstadt: Story is what’s most important. What’s your story.

Tavis: Ah, uh-huh.

Ronstadt: You’ve got to be able to make your story clear, and your story has to resonate with the public. If you don’t have a story –

Tavis: Your story or the story in your music? Your personal story or the story in your music?

Ronstadt: Yeah, your personal story. If you don’t have story to tell the public at large – you have to be able to sort of go listen, you’ve got to listen to this or I’m going to – you have to grab the public by the collar and go, “You’ve just got to listen to this, because I’m going to die if I don’t get to tell somebody this story.”

It’s just got to be bursting out of you. You can’t keep it in. It’s like ooh. Then the weird thing that turns on you is that once it gets to the listener’s ear, it should be about the listener’s story.

They really shouldn’t be thinking about my story. It’s just my job is to evoke, not to instruct.

[Photo Credit: Amy Sussman/Invision/AP]

For the Yankees, it was a nothing game. It was waiting to see Mariano Rivera who came in the game in the 8th inning, the Yanks trailing 4-0. But what we’ll remember came in the 9th. Mo had retired all four batters that he’d faced and here was Andy Pettitte and Derek Jeter walking to the mound in place of Joe Girardi. Big smiles. Pettitte signaled for a relief pitcher. When Rivera saw them coming he smiled too. Jeter said, “Time to go.”

Mo gave the ball to Pettitte, hugged him and that’s when he began to sob.

Jeter stood there grinning as if he was uncomfortable by the emotion.

For all of the manufactured sentiment this was the real thing. The next twenty minutes was Mo’s long goodbye. Walking off the field to an ovation, hugging his teammates, saluting the Rays, who clapped for him along with everyone else in the building. When the game was over,  Mo stayed in the dugout. He wasn’t alone because there were what looked to be a few dozen photographers feet away taking his picture. They were just doing their jobs, of course, but I couldn’t help but think they were missing the point. A close-up shot wasn’t the image there–a long shot of Rivera by himself in the dugout, that was the picture. A man alone in public, saying goodbye, privately but in front of everyone too. The photographers cleared a path when Mo walked to the mound for a final time, stood on the rubber, poked his foot into the earth and then bent down and took a handful of dirt before walking off and doing a final interview.

Bless him, Michael Kay tried to sound stately on the YES broadcast. And if he doesn’t have the chops to pull that off he deserves credit for being a minimalist for once.

It was a melancholy scene. The air was cool, October coming, but for just the second time in 19 years, there will be no playoffs in the Bronx. That’s Mo’s time. He has to settle for an outpouring of affection, genuine or processed, that few players ever enjoy. It is enough. He was, and is, our man and it’s hard to image that we’ll miss another player more.

[Photo Credit: Howard Simmons/ N.Y. Daily News; William Perlman/THE STAR-LEDGER via USA TODAY Sports; Elsa/Getty Images North America; Craig Robinson]

Tonight is the final home game of the season for the Yanks. Got to figure we’ll hear “Enter Sandman” for the last time–or at least until Mo comes back for Old Timer’s Day. Which begs the question–in the future, who will be announced last, Jeter or Mo? I think they’ll announce Jeter to get the big applause and then as the cherry on top, bring out Mo to his theme song.

Four more games. Let’s try to enjoy them for what they are–free baseball.

Ichiro Suzuki RF
Eduardo Nunez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Alfonso Soriano DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Lyle Overbay 1B
Zoilo Almonte LF
Brendan Ryan SS
J.R. Murphy C

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

[Photo Via: New York Magazine]

Slow jam.

[Photo Via: This Isn’t Happiness]