"A New York Treasure" --Village Voice

Monthly Archives: August 2015

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C’mere, Stay; C’mere, Stay

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Luis Severino has a plus fastball and at times last night he had a sharp-breaking slider and a decent change. He didn’t pitch deep into the game–and was done a disservice by Chase Headley who made another throwing error–but he made a good impression in his debut. The Yanks were stymied by Steven Wright–the other Steven Wright, though it is fitting that a guy with that name is a knuckle ball pitcher. And they had the tying and wining runs on base in the 9th when pinch-hitter Brian McCann flew out to center field to end the game. Near miss and bummer of a loss since the O’s and Jays both won.

Speaking of Steven Wright I once saw him in the lobby of the Brill Building. This was 25 years ago. He got out of the elevator, wearing an old Red Sox cap. I just looked at him and said, “The Red Sox?” And in that monotone voice he looked at me, deadpan, and said, “Well, I’m from Boston.”

Which made sense.

[Photo Credit: Anthony Gruppuso/USA TODAY Sports Images]

Step Up to Get Your Rep Up

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Tonight, the Yanks counter with a pitching prospect of their own. Luis Severino makes his big league debut.

No pressure.

And don’t forget to have fun.

Meanwhile, Brian McCann is gimpy and won’t play tonight. Also, good news: Garrett Jones is back. I like that Garrett Jones and was bummed to see him go. Think if these 2015 Yanks are gonna do something, he’s going to have a little cameo role.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Brett Gardner LF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Carlos Beltran RF
Chase Headley 3B
Stephen Drew 2B
Didi Gregorius SS
John Ryan Murphy C

Never mind the nagging injuries:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Painting by Roger Eliot Fry.

New York Minute

ansonia

Whenever I pass the Ansonia Hotel on Broadway I get to thinking about Babe Ruth or Saul Bellow–whose novella Seize the Day takes place in and around the Ansonia–or even Plato’s Retreat. What a history, right? And still, what I think about most, especially from this point of view is Matthau leaning out of the building in The Sunshine Boys, bellowing: “The Feeeenghah! The Feeeenghah!”

Morning Art

Cuno

“Cuno Amiet” by Sitzendes Mädchen (1915)

Boom Bap

Night Car

For a good while tonight there wasn’t much scoring and then…

…well, then, our boys took care of that, thank you very much.

In the end, it was a familiar story for the 2015 Red Sox, another beating.

The Yanks unloaded in the 7th, scoring 9 runs, more than enough to put the Sox away, 13-3.

All this after an odd bit of strategery from ol’ Joe G.

[Image Via: Tavis Coburn]

The New New Thing

Loft

Ackley’s hurt and so is Big Mike. Enough to be worrisome, of course.

It’s Tanaka Time as the Yanks return home to face the Red Sox. Henry Owens, one of their pitching prospects, makes his first start in the majors tonightski.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Chris Young LF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Brian McCann C
Carlos Beltran RF
Chase Headley 3B
Didi Gregorius SS
Brendan Ryan 2B

Never mind those chirpin’ birdies gainin’ on ya:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

New York Minute

bdannyrose

Nice chat with the Wood Man over at Vanity Fair:


Sam Fragoso: You’re more prolific than most people.

Woody Allen: But prolific is a thing that’s not a big deal. It’s not the quantity of the stuff you do; it’s the quality. A guy like James Joyce will do just a couple of things, but they resonate way beyond anything I’ve ever done or ever could dream of doing.

Would you say your quality, in spots, dipped because of the quantity?

It always [has]. When you start out to make a film, you have very big expectations and sometimes you come close. When I did Match Point, I felt I came very close. But you never get that thing that you want. You always set out to make Citizen Kane or to make The Bicycle Thief and it doesn’t happen. You can’t set out to make something great head-on; you just have to make films and hope you get lucky.

Have you considered scaling back, making a film every few years?

It wouldn’t help. It’s not that I feel, “Oh, if I had more time or more money, I could make this better.” It’s coming to terms with the shortcomings in one’s own gift and one’s own personality.

What are your major shortcomings?

I’m lazy and an imperfectionist. Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese will work on the details until midnight and sweat it out, whereas for me, come 6 o’clock, I want to go home, I want to have dinner, I want to watch the ballgame. Filmmaking is not [the] end-all be-all of my existence. Another shortcoming is that I don’t have the intellect or the depth or the natural gift. The greatness is not in me. When you see scenes in [Akira] Kurosawa films … you know he’s a madman on the set. There would be 100 horses and everything had to be perfect. He was crazy. I don’t have any of that.

Morning Art

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Painting by Jon Redmond

Taster’s Cherce

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Interesting…

Beat of the Day

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Groovin’.

[Photo Via: touchn2btouched]

BGS: Mel Brooks Says This is the Funniest Man in the World

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Really enjoyed reprinting Harry Stein’s 1976 Esquire profile of Harry Ritz. Dig in.

“As far as I’m concerned,” says Mel Brooks, “Harry Ritz was the funniest man ever. His craziness and his freedom were unmatched. There was no intellectualizing with him. You just hoped there were no pointy objects in the room when he was working ’cause you were down on the floor, spitting, out of control, laughing your brains out. Harry Ritz always put me away. Always.”

“This man gave comedy a whole new dimension,” says Sid Caesar. “Harry was the great innovator. His energy and his sensibility opened things up for all of us. He had to be the funniest man of his time.”

“Harry was the teacher,” says Jerry Lewis. “He had the extraordinary ability to deny himself dignity onstage. Harry taught us that the only thing that mattered was getting a laugh—whether you did it with a camel or with two rabbis humping a road map. Harry spawned us all. We all begged, borrowed and stole from him, every one of us. Without him, we wouldn’t be here.”

Almost to a man, comics adore Harry Ritz; they tirelessly tell stories about him, they dissect his style, they imitate his routines. If the world was made up of comedians, Harry Ritz would be the biggest star you ever saw.

But it isn’t, and he’s not. The recognition Harry did receive—as the top banana among the three Ritz Brothers—was relatively scant and short‑lived. During his heyday, in the late thirties and early ’40s, his particular brand of comedy was not thought of as art, and when it came time to list the immortals of that period, no one thought to include Harry’s name among them. Today, 33 years after the Ritz Brothers starred in their last feature film, it is very difficult to find anyone under the age of 40 who has even heard of them.

August and Everything After

Nova

The Score Truck has been rumbling through the streets recently, and the Yankee bats were out in force again on Sunday afternoon in Chicago, piling up twelve runs against the White Sox to wrap up another series win and a successful 6-4 road trip.

Jacoby Ellsbury got things started when he jumped on the second pitch of the game from Chicago’s Jeff Samardzija and drove it into the stands just to the left of dead center field. Samardzija seemed to settle down as he retired nine of the next eleven Yankee hitters after that, but then the fourth inning happened.

It all started innocently enough. After striking out Mark Teixeira for the first out of the inning, Samardzija fooled Brian McCann enough to induce a weak pop up to the left side. McCann slammed his bat down in disgust, but the ball was headed towards the Bermuda Triangle between left field, center field, and shortstop, and it fell into the grass for a single. Carlos Beltrán followed with a four-pitch walk, and then Chase Headley singled to load the bases with one out.

Stepping up to the plate was Didi Gregorius. If they had an award for Comeback Player of the Year within the year, Gregorius would win it in a landslide. After hitting .206 in April, Gregorius hit a robust .317 in July to bring his overall average up to a more-than-respectable .260. He’d end up hitting .438 on this ten-game road trip, and it’s gotten to the point where I actually expect him to come through in important situations. So I wasn’t surprised at all when he poked a single into left center to plate McCann and Beltrán (with a nifty slide) to give the Yanks a 3-0 lead.

Next up was Stephen Drew (don’t look now, but the average is almost up to .200), who naturally singled to load the bases again for the top of the order. An Ellsbury sacrifice fly to the wall in center field pushed the score to 4-0, but with two outs and runners on second and third, Brett Garnder’s at bat felt huge. Sure, the Yanks already had a four-run lead, but a base hit in this spot would bury the ChiSox, and Gardy provided just that as he shot a single to the second baseman’s right, throwing two more shovels of dirt on the Sox and bringing the score to 6-0.

Those six runs would have been enough, but the Bombers weren’t done. They’d add three more in the next inning on a Teixeira home run (his fifth in the last four games) and a two-run double from Drew, then three more in the seventh on a two-run triple from Drew and an RBI groundout from Ellsbury for an even dozen runs.

But as impressive as that offensive performance was, the story of the game was Ivan Nova. We know that this Yankee team will score runs (the OPS numbers of the top five hitters in the lineup look like this: 729, 824, 918, 958, 789), but with Michael Pineda recently landing on the DL, Masahiro Tanaka showing signs of regression, and CC Sabathia being CC Sabathia, suddenly we’re counting on an awful lot from Nova, Nathan Eovaldi, and a kid who still hasn’t thrown a pitch in the major leagues.

All Nova did on Sunday was dominate the White Sox hitters with a strong fastball, a confident breaking ball, and a diving sinker. The only hint of trouble he faced in the early going came in the third inning, and it wasn’t of his doing. After Adam Eaton singled with two outs, he stole second and advanced to third when McCann’s throw squirted into center field. The score was still only 1-0 at the time, so Eaton carried an important potential run with him, but Nova quickly extinguished the threat with a strikeout, one of seven he’d pile up on the afternoon.

Nova did yield a run in the sixth on a walk, a fielder’s choice, and a ground ball base hit, but he did so with a nine-run lead. He seemed a bit irritated, but he recovered nicely to strike out Avisail Garcia on three pitches (three swings and misses) to end the inning and put a cap on his six-inning performance. Final score: Yankees 12, White Sox 3.

So things are good in the Yankee Universe. They’ll bring their six-game division lead back to Yankee Stadium for three games against the hapless Red Sox, and they won’t have to travel out of the Eastern time zone until a potential playoff game in someplace like Houston, Kansas City, or Anaheim. Better still, only 24 of their remaining 58 games will be played on the road, and three of those road games are against the Mets at Citi Field. While teams all around the league have retooled and traded prospects for a shot at the brass ring, the Yankees just might be in better position than any of the other contenders as we head into August and September… and October.

It’s good to be Yankee, and it’s good to be a Yankee fan. Some things never change.

Stuck in the Middle With You

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A win today and the Yanks’ll go 6-4 on the road trip; lose, and they’re 5-5.

They look to get some length from Mr. Nova.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Brett Gardner LF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Brian McCann C
Carlos Beltran RF
Chase Headley 3B
Stephen Drew 2B
Didi Gregorius SS

Never mind the room service:

Let’s Go Yankees!

Picture by Bags

Well, That Really Hurts, M’am

stripes

And on Saturday night, the Yanks got their asses kicked in Chicago.

Up Jump The Boogie

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The Yanks are in for a fight these last two months of the season and I suppose that’s how it should be. Let’s see if they’ve got enough grit and good fortune to get their asses to the ALDS. Brian Cashman held on to his prized young talent as the trade deadline came and went.

Last night, our boys beat the bejesus out of the White Sox in Chicago by the tune of 13-6, thank you very much. Mark Teixeira hit a grand slam early and then one later. Alex was 2-2 with 3 walks and 4 runs scored. Brendan Ryan and Carlos Beltran had 3 hits, Chase Headley, John Ryan Murphy, and Chris Murphy Young (everyone wants to be a Murphy sometime in their lives) all had 2.

Next.

[Photo Via Aberrant Beauty]

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"This ain't football. We do this every day."
--Earl Weaver