A-Rod to receive Munson Award
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- January
- 17
Alex Rodriguez and David Wright were named as additional winners of the Thurman Munson Award.
They will join Melky Cabrera of the Yankees, former Astros star Craig Biggio, Knicks guards Jamal Crawford and gold medal skater Kristy Yamaguchi at the 28th annual awards dinner on Feb. 5 at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan.
The dinner is a fundraiser for the AHRC New York City Foundation. Call (212) 249-6188 for information.
——————
On Wednesday, I blogged about a rookie orientation program that the Red Sox run for their players and wondered why the Yankees didn’t do the same sort of thing.
I learned a little more about the program today. The players stayed with host families in the area for a few days. The program included a meeting with Terry Francona, a media-relations seminar from Peter Gammons (who else?) and a motivational talk from UConn basketball coach Jim Calhoun.
The idea is to get the top prospects familiar with Boston and the expectations before they get called up. The Red Sox modeled their program after one Cleveland developed.
Again, why don’t the Yankees do this? I know from talking to young players that New York can be overwhelming when they first get called up. The Yankees would be wise to develop their own winter program.
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Peter Abraham
They should. It makes a lot of sense, but maybe they don’t want the kids introduced to all of the nightlife opportunities. Who knows.
The Giambino should run the rookie orientation program, he would show the kids the stuff they really care about
A phew Phil phacts phor phanatic phans oph phantastic baseball:
1) Cashman said B4 the season, Hughes would NOT see the bigs in 2007
2) due to injuries, multiple slumps and that fact that we were all but out of the PS by the ASB, Hughes was brought up in an act of desparation (along with signing the multi-million dollar abscessed butt).
3) After 6 innings of no-hit ball, he strained a hammy, a bad injury for a power pitcher, as hammy injuries linger even after they are ‘healed’.
4) During rehabing his hammy, he sprained his ankle.
5) When finally ‘ready’ to pitch, he was thrown into the hardest fight for the PS the Yankees have had in over a decade.
He finished the season with a:
4.46 ERA — just slightly better then league average
1.28 WHIP – Beckett (1.23), Sabathia (1.27)
.698 OPS — everyone he faced basically hit him like Tony Womack.
So….. Mr. I Miss Bernie asks: What if his ERA is over SIX in 2008?
My guess is IMB will actuall post a Link, a Stat or even a Fact before Sir Phillip Hughes Esq. posts an ERA over 6!
Agreed?
P.S. The last we saw of Phil was trying to save a Post season elimination game. His line:
5.2 IPS / 3 H / 1 ER / 0 BB / 6 K
Rodriguez gets the Munson Award, huh? Just like Rodriguez to hog the spotlight again. Next, he’ll be trying to make the Yankees “his team”.
Congratulations to alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera and the rest of the winners on a great award named after a great player and team leader. Diane Munson should be officially named “The First Lady Of The New York Yankees”. She’s a fine lady, that I had a chance to meet a long time ago, along with Kay and Bobby Murcer.
maybe cashman can do it now that he has no G.M.
duties.
I just went over to the website for AHRC. I am the parent of two children with developmental disabilities, each to a different extent (one is autistic). Just by reading the information contained on the website, I can say that this is an amazing foundation. It is ironic, too, because one of the things this foundation does is to help people set up trusts and guardianships for developmentally disabled children, and I just had a meeting with my younger daughter’s court-appointed attorney to get our petition for guardianship approved. We’re fortunate because my husband and I have been able to do these things for our children without outside assistance, but I cannot imagine how people who are not in our position and do not have the resources to do so are able to navigate these emotional and confusing waters. I applaud Diana Munson on her choice of charity and it is nice to know that Thurman’s name is associated with such a worthwhile cause. (I only wish I had the $1600 do go to the dinner with my husband!)
The most fearful thing I have in my life is not knowing what the future holds for my children. Organizations like this one help to alleviate some of the fear. (My husband and I both say that our goal in life is to stay healthy and live to 100, because we have to be here for the girls.) I never allow myself to think too far beyond the present, because it is literally emotionally paralyzing.
Onto a happier topic, or at least a less serious one, I think it would be a great idea for the Yankees to give their top-tier prospects, at the least, an orientation into life in New York!
“and a motivational talk from UConn basketball coach Jim Calhoun.” Oh my!
As Mr Abraham can testify, while coach Calhoun’s credentials are impeccable (2 NCAA Championships, numerous Sweet 16 or better, Big East Championships, etc.) his diction can be a little hard to follow. Once he starts rolling it’s darn near impossible to understand more than 50% of the words, and those are usually ones such as “Get your F&*(% A$$ is gear and F%&* make a shot”! I can imagine some kid from the south or midwest where they talk r e a l s l o w trying to keep up with the Jimmy C’s mile a minute cadence of “waytowinisbybeatingyouropponenttothedefensivepositionandneverreliquinshinganinch! notaninch!” I should be fun…
Boston’s MLB and Milb organization is centered around Boston. The Yankees are centered around Tampa. Yankee prospects have the best year-round facilities in organized baseball in the Yankee complex down there. They do all those things – seminars on the media, meeting with Yankee greats, talks about what it makes to “be a Yankee”, etc, down in Tampa. Boston just makes it a media event.
SAHM, hope all goes well in your children’s and ya’lls lives. That’s heavy load with one…two has to be really an ordeal on the bad days. My stepdaughter has an autistic daughter and it’s a day to day thing. It’s really a treat when she accomplishes something, though. She a smart and pretty little kid, but, those that don’t know her, just watching her drives them crazy. Anyway…it’s really a tough go on younger parents, but, like any large city, there’s some good organizations here in Savannah, GA.
classic that Gammons does the seminar on the press….
Peter’s idea is a good one..
GB7 –
Thanks for the moral support. 18 years ago, autism was not nearly as known as it is these days, and in fact, my daughter’s doctor went out of her way to say it was NOT autism. Since then they have broadened the definition of autism, and my younger daughter fits under that umbrella. Perhaps we may have approached things a bit differently in her earlier years, but not a whole lot. Our approach was to have as normal a family life as humanly possible. On a lighter note, we could get away with some of her immature behaviors because for a very long time she was well undersized for her age. As you are likely aware, children with autism or in that spectrum do not look much different from their peers, and this can pose some interesting situations.
My whole outlook on life has changed. I might add I am especially lucky that my husband and I have remained united through this. I hear many couples don’t survive the stress.
The Yanks do it their own way at the end of the season when they call guys up in September. They’ve been doing it for years. Aside from the usual September call-ups, they bring guys up to give them exposure to life in the bigs.
The bigger question is how big a set Peter Gammons has to be involved in something like this and still try to portray himself as an objective journalist.
Will somebody please explain exactly why Bud Selig was given a 3-year contract extension through 2012 ????
good pt. EJ
Again, why don’t the Yankees do this? I know from talking to young players that New York can be overwhelming when they first get called up. —————————-
Beacuse by the time any Yankee prospect was ready to get called up, they were traded to another team. So getting them used to the big apple was pointless.
EJ, Mr G
Good points, both of you.
EJ, the only thing I could say to that, is that most of the Yankees fans do not live in Tampa, and so, it would be nice to have something here rather than in Tampa.
Mr G,
I think it’s great that the Yankees invite a couple of prospects to sit on the bench in September, but it is just a couple (in addition to the September call-ups who will play, I understand). But I think it could be a really terrific thing to do a little bit more, a little bit like the autograph opportunity that the Red Sox offer. Its great PR, it goes a long way towards really showing how much you prize your minor league system, and appreciate the fans’ interest in it.
SAHM: Best of luck
Nick: Selig is an owner. Selig is an idiot. Thus, owners are idiots.
Or something like that.
Thanks, Rebecca.
“The Yankees third baseman has been named as a sixth award recipient for this year’s Thurman Munson Awards dinner, acknowledging excellence in competition and philanthropic work within the community. ”
but this can’t be true, selena roberts told me A-Rod was a cheapskate because he only donated a few million dollars…
hmmm –
Tou-chay!
This is just an observation, but Thurman would have kicked A-Rod’s rear out of the clubhouse. Perhaps no one would have known why, including us, but he would have.
In regards to this post: Sounds like babying to me.
As poster mentioned, the referenced Boston program includes a facet in which they’re hopelessly superior to the Yankees—media involvement.
Who is selena roberts?
Thought I just read Bud Selig got hair extensions! Is this true????????????????/
Selena Roberts was the former NYT and current SI columnist who called A-Rod a slumlord and said he doesn’t give any money to charity.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080117&content_id=2349731&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
they will not get the playing time they deserve. The Dodgers fans will also have to deal with about 6 Yankees references a day. Poor guys.
Talks about Torre not knowing what he’s doing with the Dodgers and I couldn’t help but think hahahahah they have to deal with a guy who doesn’t put in nearly as much thought as Girardi and I suddenly got really excited about Girardi. It also mentions the young players of the Dodgers and I thought poor, poor kids
Jennifer-
This will give you some insight into Selena Roberts who has it out for A Rod:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/sports/baseball/07roberts.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The only thing the NY media is interested in is trashing the players that they deem unworthy of them…sounds like a few fans on the sports boards.
Going back to the topic that Pete started…
Having something like those programs in Boston and Cleveland are one thing, in NYC it would be a horse of a different color. While Boston and Cleveland are decent sized cities, when compared to NY they are small town.
Imagine the prospects staying over at some fan’s place in NY. I can’t. I could see them doing meet and greets, but sleepovers? I can’t even begin to imagine how that would ever work out. It might cause the Yankees to lose some of the young kids.
Exactly why would Munson kick Rodriguez`out of the clubhouse, Alan? They’d both be there for the same reason…winning. Amazed at all of the people that seem to think Rodriguez causes all of the trouble and Torre never knew anything about baseball.
Host families may not work, but other aspects could. What about a subway navigation day? Assign a fan to help a prospect get from various points in and around the city to the stadium? Go to a pizzeria in each of the 5 boroughs, or do a meet and greet on the Staten Island Ferry. There’s so many different possibilities to exploit in NYC, and I’ve only stated some obvious things. Granted NYC is not a small town, but it’s neighborhoods are. There has to be one creative person in the NY Yankees employ who could come up with something if there was a desire on the part of the organization to do this.
Then again, the Yankees have always set themselves apart. They are not the typical MLB team. The Yankees always act like they’ve been there before – nothing “aw shucks” about the Yankees organization.
Doreen, I could see them doing something like you describe, a meet and greet on the SI ferries would be pretty cool. It would have to be set up for early in the AM to get the most out of it, but it would give 20 minutes for them to meet with fans while the ferry makes it run to Battery Park.
They could also set up something at the various museums, Central Park, Gramercy Square, Washington Square to meet with NYU students. The subways would be iffy though. Some of the lines and trains are not exactly where you want to go to “show off” your city.
I lived in SI and worked in NYC for quite a long time. Maybe that colors my view of things a bit.
I lived in SI, too, from birth to age 22. Then I became a Jersey Girl.
You’re probably right about the subways being a little too tricky, but only if it was random. What’s the park? Bryant Park could be a good spot, too.
Rachel, I read the article about Torre, and I don’t feel its quite as bad as you made it sound. Torre is going to see how the players do in ST, then start putting things together.
Also remember he had the new knee put in, which means he wasn’t getting around all that much. That is a tough operation and it takes a good deal of rehab to recover from.
Not saying that he doesn’t tend to play the vets over the young kids, but maybe with a fresh start he will be a little different with how he handles them. Its not like he is used to the club, so he doesn’t have the investment of years having certain players come up big for him.
I just wonder how the added strategy issues will affect him in the NL, seeing as how he had issues with not knowing how to use his bench and bullpen here, as well as being in a league he isn’t as familiar with… Will he revert back to his NL-managing ways when he wasn’t as successful?
Torre was a manager in the NL. Not a winning manager, but a manager.
I’m not a Torre basher, but he’s going to have to actually manage. It’s a really fractured clubhouse without a plug & play lineup.
Best of luck to him.
Actually, I wonder if he might do a better job since coming from the Yankees. I think he got complacent in his role, and in the NL he will need to be a little more hands on. Not knowing the players quite that well will also go a ways toward making him work at it a little more.
I think there were some problems with the staff that ended up coming back to Torre. Loved Guidry for instance, but I don’t think he was right as the pitching coach. Sometimes just a change of place makes for a difference in the way you manage things.
great ideas Doreen and Old Goat. I actually like the subway idea. Not a fan of the NYU kids idea though… those kids are overprivelaged enough
Torre had a losing record in the NL because his first team was some of the worst teams on record, the late ‘70s Mets. He took over a 4th place NL West team, the Braves that won the Division title his first year and finished 2nd the next. He took over a last place Cards team, finished in 4th and finished 2nd in his first full year. PZeople who say he never weon anything before coming to the Yanks don’t know what they’re talking about.