Monthly Archives: May 2014

Right on queue. Masahiro Tanaka allowed a run in the first 3 innings (including 2 solo home runs) and the Yanks were down, 3-0. Then he pitched 4 scoreless and left after the 7th, having more than kept his team in the game, with a 4-3 lead. The Score Truck made a late appearance as the Yanks beat the Rays, 9-3.

That Tanaka, man, he’s impressive. Not because he’s been overpowering. He’s been fortunate. I mean, if the Yanks got shutdown yesterday he takes the loss. But he’s just been resilient and that’s so much fun to watch, ain’t it?

“He finds a way to make adjustments and hang around, in a sense,” manager Joe Girardi said. “… Understanding what he needs to do off the field to be successful is probably just as important as knowing what he needs to do on the field to be successful, because you bring it to the park with you every day, and if there’s frustration or other things going on in your life, it can affect how you perform on the field. But his embracing everything has been important.”

Another pleasant surprise has been Mark Teixeira who is starting to hit a little bit and with power.

[Photo Via: The Benjamins]

Andy Pettitte earned a reputation as a guy who could help end a losing streak. Let’s see what Masahiro Tanaka has in store for us–and the Rays–this afternoon on a gorgeous spring day in the BX.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Brett Gardner LF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Brian McCann C
Alfonso Soriano DH
Kelly Johnson 3B
Brian Roberts 2B
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Yangervis Solarte SS

(Oh, yeah and guess who’s back?)

Never mind last night:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Picture by Bags]

I feel asleep hoping for the best. The Yanks had a nice comeback to bring last night’s game to extra innings. I admit, I flipped back-and-forth between the game and the NBA playoffs (Damian Lillard!).

That nice comeback turned ended in frustration–the Score Truck be broke–as the Rays finally broke a 5-5 tie in the 14th inning and beat the Yankees, 10-5.

Lo Hud has the unhappy recap.

[Picture by Bags]

Except it says here that Mr. Price will pitch damn well against the Yanks after getting his ass handed to him by them a few weeks back in Tampa.

But hope is the thing in pinstripes so never mind the nonsense and:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Derek Jeter SS
Carlos Beltran RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alfonso Soriano LF
Brian McCann DH
Brian Roberts 2B
Yangervis Solarte 3B
John Ryan Murphy C

[Picture by Bags]

Don’t get it twisted.

[Photo Credit: sashadavidov]

Painting by Wayne Thiebaud (1961)

I went to high school with Greg Rodriguez. He was a couple of grades ahead of me. I remember sitting next to him in French class. He smelled like cigarettes and gasoline (he had a job at a local gas station). His finger nails were chewed down. Oh, and he had a mohawk. He was a political kid but also generous and kind, especially for an upper classman.

He died on September 11th. Here is his parents’ story. 

Food 52 crafts the perfect burger. 

There’s a good oral history on Hill Street Blues in the Times (the entire series is now available on DVD):

ED ZWICK (co-creator of “Thirtysomething”) I had known what other cop shows had been and always found them not very interesting. They tend to be more plodding, whether they were the “Kojak”s or the “Cannon”s. But I certainly knew the Sidney Lumet movies, or “The French Connection,” or the grittier police dramas. And suddenly we see this thing that was filmic in a particular way. But more important was to see a thing on television that had its own unique voice. And when I say voice, I don’t mean only the writing. The voice of the show suggested a unified vision, a worldview, and that was Bob Butler creating a doc feel. And it was Michael and Steven with a voice that was irreverent, scatological, tough and unsentimental. And the cast that was not archetypal in the way that TV casts had been before. People were flawed.

JOHN WELLS (show runner of “ER” and “The West Wing”) The stories were complicated and ongoing. There was no simple, easy answer. Oftentimes, the crime or injustice wasn’t solved. They spent a tremendous amount of time really taking you inside the politics of the workplace, so it was really about the workplace as much as it was about the victims. Before that, wonderful shows like “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” “Mannix” and “Ironside” were all about smart people figuring out how to help people in the hospital and make things better or how to solve a crime and make sure justice was given. And “Hill Street” felt very real. You felt as if you were watching the difficulties of actually policing in a modern urban environment.

ZWICK The typical closed-ended, one-hour dramatic format before then had been to introduce a problem and to sum it up tidily within that hour, and then to go the next hour, the next week, with no ramification of what had happened the week before. So there was an unreality to the storytelling. There was no sense that there was any kind of repercussion or continuing sense of drama. And that really anticipates so much of what cable drama has become now, where it’s all about that.

The Yankees took 2 of 3 from both the Red Sox and Angels and then lose 2 games to the Mariners. Last night, 4-2. Feels like a lost week.

Moving on.

Picture by Bags. 

So today isn’t just nicer than yesterday, it’s muggy, almost summer weather.

That’s spring for ya.

Ellsbury CF

Jeter SS

Beltran RF

Soriano DH

Teixeira 1B

McCann C

Solarte 3B

Gardner LF

Roberts 2B

Our man Hiroki’s on the hill and the Yanks sure do need a good start out of him.

Never mind nuthin’:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Walter Rosemblum]

Chasing Delicious gives Texas Veggie Hash.

You bet.

Never mind the accompanying video, I love this tune:

[Photo Credit: Hannah Queen]

“Flowered Table Top,” by Ralph Goings (1978)

[via Je Suis Perdu]

What Soul Train did. 

Al Feldstein: R.I.P.