The Sunday Links
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on May 25, 2008 
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The Yankees beat the Mariners again as the offense stayed on a roll.
Joba Chamberlain took another step toward becoming a starter. This notebook also has updates on Chien-Ming Wang, Derek Jeter, Wilson Betemit and Hideki Matsui.
The Sunday Baseball Beat looks at how desperate Willie Randolph became in what may be his final hours as manager of the Mets. There’s also some thoughts on Joba, the Yankee Stadium countdown, Ryan Howard and the weekly top 10.
Sam Borden believes that baseball should take a pass on using replay. Sam’s a good friend and I generally agree with him. Not this time. I’m for replay, but only for home runs and determining fan interference. I think Sam is just trying to start trouble. Those damn columnists.
Mariners-Yanks today at 1:05 p.m. Check back later for the lineup.
————
There’s no way Kobe actually did this, right? Cool commercial, though.
No Replays. Ever! You win some, you lose some. Bad calls are part of the game.
Get some sleep Pete!
David Ortiz said that he wants to do the “call your shot” promotion in this year’s HR derby at Yankee satdium, (meaning that a fan will tell him where he has to hit the home run, right, left center, etc.) but the Yankees are unhappy about it because Babe Ruth did it in 1932 so the Yankees are going to talk to MLB officials about altering the plan. (NY Daily News).
Yesterday marked the first time in 52 years that both starters in a Yankee game were working on short rest (Mussina and Carlos Silva). the last time time it happened in the majors is 7 years ago. (according to Elias sports).
Jeter is 0-for-15 since being hit on the hand and has some throwing problems. (his 0-for-15 is his longest 0-for in 4 years).
At the moment Abreu leads the American League with a 500 batting average with runners in scoring position and 2 outs. (according to the Daily News).
In just 3 weeks Giambi raised his batting average from 160 to 234 and Cano from 155 to 232.
By the way I have a text messages group on Upoc.com named YankeesNews where you receive free Yankees News via text messages plus every night’s lineup. if you want send your cell number to abkYankees@yahoo.com and I’ll put you on that group. (it’s free and you can always quit).
Todays starter Jarrod Washburn is 6-2 with a 6.99 ERA for the season, his ERA over the the last 3 weeks is 11.93 and A-Rod is batting 311 with 6 HR’s in 45 at bats against him.
Mussina leads the Yankees with 7 wins and his 7-4 record leads the majors in decisions.
8 consecutive posts.
Wow, I’m impressed.
27/08
from the baseball beat this a.m.:
“Randolph may land a job as a coach somewhere, if his pride allows it. But the sad irony is that by throwing racism into the discussion, he has made it that much harder for those black managerial candidates who hoped to follow in his footsteps.”
wouldnt that mean that other owners would be applying randolph’s attitude to other black candidates?
i think they call that racism.
Wow…a lot of posts from 1 person.
Thanks Peter.
“They’re even pulling people out of the stands. During the Mets series last weekend, “the No. 1 Yankees fan from Rochester” pulled the lever. Turns out he’s a friend of Hal Steinbrenner.”
LOL
[quote]from the baseball beat this a.m.:
“Randolph may land a job as a coach somewhere, if his pride allows it. But the sad irony is that by throwing racism into the discussion, he has made it that much harder for those black managerial candidates who hoped to follow in his footsteps.â€
wouldnt that mean that other owners would be applying randolph’s attitude to other black candidates?
i think they call that racism.[/quote]
Yes, it’s called racism.
[quote]Jeter is 0-for-15 since being hit on the hand and has some throwing problems. (his 0-for-15 is his longest 0-for in 4 years).[/quote]
I’ve seen Jeter hit a couple of balls real hard that were caught. He was hit on his left hand which is his glove hand so that isn’t affecting his throwing.
Johnny Damom is a far superior leadoff hitter than Ichiro and his outfield arm even better.
from the Journal News”
“Joba Chamberlain is getting ready to be starting pitcher. But he is still pitching like a reliever.
The rookie right-hander threw 40 pitches against the Seattle Mariners yesterday – 37 of them either fastballs or sliders.”
The ballgame was stil very much in doubt
(5-4 in the 6th, 7-4 in the 7th) when Joba pitched so it really wasn’t the time to test out extensively your change and curveball.
No way Kobe did that. That’s like the video of Michael Vick throwing the ball out of the stadium. Cool graphics but I don’t buy it!
i would guess that the idea of stretching him would be to first have him throw more pitches, then to add in the secondary pitches. so this was his first 3 inning outing, he threw fastballs and sliders. his next 3 inning stint, he’ll work on mixing in the others. lets face it, even as a starter he’s gonna rely mosly on his primary pitches. thats why they call the others secondary pitches
“Randolph may land a job as a coach somewhere, if his pride allows it. But the sad irony is that by throwing racism into the discussion, he has made it that much harder for those black managerial candidates who hoped to follow in his footsteps.”
I agree with ham fighter and crawdaddy; to deny the next qualified candidate the job because he is a black man and because of Randolph’s seemingly irrational outburst is definitional racism.
But before the Mets white owners write off Willie as “exposed” or paranoid, let’s recall that racism seared the consciousness of people of Randolph’s generation into believing that there will always be a racist agenda. Growing up in Brooklyn back in the day taught Willie some ugly lessons. Let’s not forget that this is the man and the experience the Mets hired as their skipper. To be more than momentarily upset with Willie now because in his present despair he found a voice for some earlier pain is wrong. Judge him on his work, not his memories.
Growing up in Brooklyn back in the day taught Joe Torre some ugly lessons too. Joe Torre was retained by the Yankees for 12 years in part because of his seemingly placid and unflappable personality. But that managerial style was caused in part by watching domestic violence at his home in Brooklyn as a child. Many fans hated Torre for being seemingly passive. But it seemed to work in the Yankee Universe headed by an abusive and aggressive owner. IMO that aggression and abuse plus Torre’s early experiences with abuse led Torre to revert to his childhood and his deeply rooted desire to be the peacemaker and creator of calm amidst chaos.
Maybe the difference is that for whatever reason Randolph has to date been unable to harness his emotions as well or profitably as Torre. Torre it must be recalled failed miserably in his first couple of skipper jobs. If Willie flunks out of the Mets job, let him move on and forget this one. Give him a clean slate and let him grow as a manager and as a person.
‘The rookie right-hander(Joba) threw 40 pitches against the Seattle Mariners yesterday – 37 of them either fastballs or sliders.â€
40 pitches in two innings ain’t gonna’ cut it. Unless he can throw a curve/change-up for a strike… he’s not going to last 6 innings.
Pete, 9 times out of 10 I agree with your opinion, and usually on that tenth time I at least respect it. This moralizing crusade of yours against drinking at games, however, has got to go. Three fans out of millions who have attended games so far this year have died in incidents that may or may not have involved alcohol, and you use that as a peg to suggest that “teams have to do a better job of regulating how much alcohol some fans consume”? Really? You mean besides charging $9 for a glass of Bud Light and shutting off alcohol sales in the seventh inning? Please.
A certain percentage of fans are going to act like morons whether there’s alcohol available or not. Day after day teams pack tens of thousands of fans together in an atmosphere that often gets crazy. Accidents are going to happen. It’s a fact of life. Baseball (and other sports) have already done more than enough to make it difficult for adults to go to a game and get a glow on while they’re enjoying it. They don’t need to make it harder still.
“But the sad irony is that by throwing racism into the discussion, he has made it that much harder for those black managerial candidates who hoped to follow in his footsteps.”
as i brewed my coffee, i looked forward to reading about the yankees 4 game winning streak, the red sox two game losing streak, and of joba transitioning into the rotation.
instead of going right to the comments ,i like to read what peter has to say first.it is his blog after all. so what do i find, but a long negative article about willie randolph?
i’m a little biased in favor of willie randolph because when visiting a close friend who was the #1 bp pitcher with the yankees during the showalter years, willie, who was the third base coach, walked from the yankee hotel to fenway park with us instead of taking a cab on a bright early summer day.
after assorted funny stories and especially one about about mickey rivers, his wife and his car and demolition derby in the yankee parking lot back in the day, we eventually arrived at fenway and willie said just act like a player and the next thing i knew wilie told me to sit on the yankee bench and say i was with him if anyone said anything.
some red sox security people eyed me until my bp friend introduce me to his old a ball manager, lou gorman. seeing gorman, the red sox gm, being friendly with me, the security stopped paying attention to me.
it was 3:30 in the afternoon for an espn game of the week. after a closed door team meeting , the yankees decided to deal with the red sox drilling a yankee in a previous game. the decision was to warm up steve howe just for one pitch to drill mo vaughn at some point during the game.
a blond reporter was a friend of my bp/bullpen catcher friend and when she realized i might know what was going to happen with the retaliation , she pestered me about about it in a good natured way. nice lady, someone names suzy.
i had given my friend a tee shirt that i had made up as a joke that said” location ,location ,location” with a small home plate on it because it was something he preached constantly. a yankee pitching coach came out wearing it, which was hilarious because he had a beer belly the size of a watermelon. i think it was billy connors. anyway whoever it was came over to me on the bench and said “great shirt”.
after hours of watching early bp and varous other baseball activties, gammons and the espn crew showed up in the yankee dugout. a strip of masking tape was put right next to my shoulder and i was told as long as i didn’t cross it, i was good. the best interview was mattingly sitting a foot on the other side of the tape telling on camera about why he could hit towards the green monster with ease.
earlier gammons had spent a long time chatting with yankee players informally and the discussion gravitated to wiffleball that the players had played as kid. mattingly explained that the way his yard was set up home runs were to left field. so as a kid he became very adept at going the opposite way. there was a very animated conversation about bushes ,hedges, trees,fences, etc as players remembered their childhood yards.
i decided i could stop hating gammons for calling billy martin, ‘billy and his brown shirts in one of his early globe sunday columns). he was clearly friendly with yankee players and they returned the friendliness.
the yankees took bp before the game and my friend threw it. i watched closely because that was part of the reason i was there. he wanted to show me how to do it because throwing bp was a good way to get a job with the yankees.
willie had come over at some point and asked if everything went ok. i said , it couldn’t have been better. the game was about to start when i left the dugout and went to a seat behind home plate that someone had given me.
the yankees won, but it was a one run game and they never did get to drill vaughn. that was my only disappointment of the day.
that’s my willie randolph story.
i like mine better than peter’s.
“40 pitches in two innings ain’t gonna’ cut it. Unless he can throw a curve/change-up for a strike… he’s not going to last 6 innings.”
Thanks. I’m sure Joba, who’s been a starting pitcher for years — throwing his FB, slider and curve all for strikes — doesn’t know that.
What’s more likely? That he can’t throw his breaking pitches for strikes any more, or that he’s just a little rusty? That he’ll average 20 pitches per inning, or he just was inefficient yesterday?
Toast:
Today was was the first time in my life that I mentioned drinking at a game in the newspaper. I’m not sure that’s a “moralizing crusade.”
Two of those three dead fans were drinking, police said. The person who punched the other guy to death apparently was, too.
Listen, I drink. I drink beer at games I attend as a fan. But I don’t get hammered and kill myself and I try and make sure my friends don’t, either.
I attend 150+ games a year in my job between spring training, regular season and playoffs. If you don’t think drinking at games is a problem, you don’t attend many games. There are a lot of people who are really drunk.
At the rate baeball is on, 10 people will die at games this season. That’s OK with you? That seems like a lot to me.
my problem with alcohol at games has less to do with people dying (tragic as they are) but rather its effect on other people’s enjoyment of the game. the profanity and boorish behavior we see every time we visit most major league ballparks. its not the kind of atmosphere you want to bring children into, people screaming obscenities at the top of their lungs for 3+ hours is an assault on a normal person’s enjoyment of the game .
yankee fans really need to look at themselves as a group and think about what the crowd’s behavior says to children, especially adolescents who will be making choices about thier own alcohol consumption in a few years.
another thing is what it says to the people who are coming from all over the country to visit new york and yankee stadium. i remember a few years ago watching a yankees-blue jays game and there was a family of 4 from toronto sitting directly behind us. they were very nice, it was thier first trip ever to new york and thier main reason for coming was to go to yankee stadium. unfortunatly, despite the fact that several of us had befriended them and had a nice discussion going about the game and new york places for them to visit, drunks behind us began hasseling them and later throwing things at them. before long, we were all doused with someone’s beer tossed from up behind us. they left after that, not waiting to see the end of an excellent extra innings win by thier jays. i was ashamed to be a new yorker.
what does that say about us, our stadium and our city and our country?
40% of mlb players are of color which is the pool managers come from which ends up at 23% managers of color …
which ends up 10% gms of color which is decided by 3% of the owners who are of color.
so for an industry that has 40% players of color. the numbers get down to 3% people of color who are in charge.
randy, thanks for the willie story, nice to be reminded of what a decent guy he is and i’ve heard the same sort of thing from others who’ve been around him.
murphdog,
good points. i find myself rooting for the mets now, even though i hate him b/c id hate to see willie get fired now. i doubt he’ll ever get another chance if they dont pull it together under him.
sorry mean to say i find myself rooting for the mets even though i hate them….
them not him.
Randy- Great post about Randolph.
Congrats on a solid win streak. The bats are coming alive.
Does anyone know why Hernandez was pushed back a day to face the Sox tomorrow as I believe he was originaly slated to pitch today against the Yanks? Was it done to simply piss me off?
Off topic- My wife and I rented “Lars and the Real Girl” Friday eve. Brilliant movie. Enjoyed the heck out of it and would recommend.
Have a great Sunday.
-dennis
Pete did a classless hatchet job on Willie Randolph, He totally distorted what Randolph said.
I heard the interview Randolph did on Mike and the Mad Dog. Randolph said he thought the conversation w/the reporter was off-the-record; according to Willie, sometimes he would converse with the reporter in that way. However, Randolph said it was HIS fault, he should have clarified it w/the reporter.
It was in very plain English.
It was interesting that afterwards, when Francesca & Russo were discussing randolph’s comments, Francesca said he’s often had off-the-record conversations; usually the person he’s talking with will say something like “this is off the record, right.” this indicated to me that what Willie described is quite realistic
Willie neglected to do make the ‘off-the-record’ status clear, and acknowledged it. he never once blamed the reporter, Ian O’Connor. Rather, Willie just described it as a miscommunication for which he was responsible.
It’s reprehensible that Pete basically calls Randolph a serial liar and distorts what Randolph said. no class at all. ugh.
denis and ham fighter-
thanks. glad you like the story.
let’s hope willie’s team starts winning which is the only way he keeps his job. joe torre had his own crisis last year and he pulled through.
randolph didn’t get to where he was by not being able to face adversity.
i know i’ll be rooting for him.
Pete, in your article talking about the Yankee Stadium Countdown you incorrectly state that Zach Parise is a Devils defensemen. He was actually their leading scorer and is a forward.
randy: Moreover, aren’t the odds of being able to become an owner heavily determined by whether or not you’re friends with Selig?
Today was was the first time in my life that I mentioned drinking at a game in the newspaper. I’m not sure that’s a “moralizing crusade.â€
Not quite, Pete. A while back you had a post where you complained about fans getting up at games to go to the concession stand, and one of your rationales for said complaint was that a person shouldn’t need more than a beer or two at a game. I disagree. And while “crusade” was perhaps too strong a word choice, I guess my sense from reading you is that you expect sporting events to be a little more “Rated-G” than I think they ought to be. Really, to me, getting a buzz on is part of going to a baseball game. I think it’s disgusting that baseball has made it almost impossible for adults to go to a game and get their swerve on. I don’t appreciate that kind of self-righteous, parental nonsense. I don’t like knowing that George Steinbrenner, of all people, is treating me like a child.
And no, I don’t think 10 people dying during drunken accidents at sporting events attended by tens of millions is cause for alarm. I’m not being callous. Statistically, that’s a far better rate than a great many other activities we all regularly participate in.
blargh-
good point about selig’s influence. i hadn’t thought about that before, but of course he would have his own built in feelings on who would be an acceptable owner.
Pete have you seen Kobe jump over a speeding Aston Martin? That’s insane