Bad times in Canada
-
- July
- 13
Well, here we are at the Conn Smythe International Airport in Toronto. The plane that is supposed to take us to Newark just left Newark. The 8 p.m. flight will now leave around 9:30 p.m. or so … or so we’re told.
From what it seems, the flight is mainly sportswriters and Yankees fans. Lots of beers being pounded by the generally happy group.
Jesus Montero was 1 for 2 in the Futures Game and Ramiro Pena 0 for 1 with a walk. Heard there was sparse crowd.
Lots of blogging from the assorted events tomorrow, so check back. Well, assuming I get out of Canada.
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on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 9:20 pm by Peter Abraham.
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Peter Abraham
Look foward to the blogging tomorrow. It should help put today behind us and look foward to a better second half.
At least it’s a happy crowd.
was there- crowd was real sparse, got to get down real close though (even the ushers didnt care). Montero is a BIG boy, real imposing at the plate with very nice balance. he took an outside pitch and slammed it to right for a single. also- before the game he was just sorta looking around- seemed to be taking it in. may have been his first time at the stadium.
I don’t care what happens over the next few weeks, there will not be any big splashes at the deadline.
All signs clearly indicate that Cashman is not going to pull the trigger.
And you know what? He shouldn’t.
This team is not just a player or two away from being legit WS contenders. They are several players away.
And you can’t sell players if other teams aren’t buying. At least they can get compensatory draft picks in return for letting these guys walk at the end of the season (Abreu, Farnsworth, and Moose). Let Giambi walk too.
BTW, for those still harping on Phil Hughes – you should take a good look at the rosters today in the Futures Game.
Eleven of the eighteen pitchers on both squads were older than Phil Hughes.
Give the kid a chance to do his thing before you guys give up on him. Some guy named Josh Beckett landed on the DL a whopping EIGHT times before he was traded to the Red Sox in 2006.
Yeah, very sparse crowd at the futures game.
I can’t tell you how badly I want ASG tickets right now, though or what I’d be willing to do to get them! I just need two!
repost from previous thread:
By the way, I know this is a long shot, but does anyone have a couple decent tickets for Saturday’s game? My mom is going to be visiting NY and I’d like to buy her a pair as a gift.
Please email at sftweeindieguy@yahoo.com if you do.
Otherwise I’ll be looking at craigslist, ebay, etc. Thanks.
I was at the Future’s game. A great time i was surprised how small the crowd was. montero looked good, pena not so much. i think pena was a replacement though. i recommend going in another year to anyone who is an autograph seeker i got 10 just by sneaking down.
Rebecca – if it’s any consolation, ill enjoy being there for you!
The Yankees did not look like a playoff team the past week.
i got mine as a partial seasons ticket holder- upper deck. i’m psyched.
im pissed i didnt get to see david price. henrey rodriguez outa the oakland system hit 99mph consistently, then maxed out and hit 100 on his last 3 pitches of the inning. guy is destined for elbow surgery with his delivery though, amazing stress on his elbow. World team totally outclassed USA.
jay: dude, I’m glad you get to go and all…but I can’t say it’s much of a consolation
Nick I just emailed you I have tickets
you couldn’t be more wrong by saying the yankees are several players away.if they had wang,damon,matsui they would be 3 games out,worse case.they need wang back soon and we’ll see what hughes can do 5 weeks or so.acevez and sanchez are making strides along with mcutchen.if they can just hang on till the boys come back.they need a right handed bat and should trade for one,kennedy,melky,tabata for texiera sounds good.they have nothing to lose by getting sexxon,he would cost league minimum.
Just sold my tickets for 8 grand. So you that want them better have cash.
No Tex. Everyone is upset about carrying guys into their 35 year old seasons and stuff because they cost so much and they suck.
NEWSFLASH Texiera will be that old in his contract and he isn’t worth the money. Basically, we are going to have to give him Giambi like money and he really isn’t going to make a difference.
Wow Pete. Very impressive blogging today. You kicked some serious butt.
Rebecca have you been on ebay and craigslist? They seem to be coming down in price. I figured that would happen. I sold mine a few weeks ago. Really don’t care to be there. With Murcer’s death and the death of the Yankees this weekend don’t care to be there even more.
On another topic does anyone think the Yankees don’t have enough fire in their bellies anymore? Four world series and 12 straight playoffs. Is it enough for some of them just to put on the pinstripes? Nobody has the answer but I do think about it.
Daley, how much you buy them for?
Anything we get out of Wang for the rest of this season will be a bonus. We should definitely not count on him coming back a) at all and b) before September.
I asked my parents if I could buy tickets online but when I told them it would cost a few grand they said NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
bru, if the Yankees get Wang back at all this season it will be impressive.
Red Sox only won by a run today. They had a lot of RISP and only 2 runs. They haven’t been scoring much lately except for that one game.
The difference is that they got the starting pitching when they needed it.
mark, I don’t think the 4 titles from 1996-2000 have anything to do with it. There are only a handfull of players on the team that were part of those teams and I don’t think we’re getting any less effort from any of those players (say what you will about Jeter, I don’t think he’s dogging it).
1. Guiseppe – good point about the ages of pitchers at the Future Game.
2. Rebecca – Sorry, but there’s no way my wife and I are giving up our tix. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event, and you’ve got a lot more lifetime (hopefully for you) than I do.
i paid about a grand for two tickets, i could sell them for about 6 – 8 grand, but i wont. im going.
Anyone know where next year’s ASGame is being played?
Hmmmmm, make a five to seven million and watch the game at home or go to the game and spend 1000 to do so plus the extremely expensive food.
Then again, I dont have the option of going to the game. You know, at Wimbledon and other big events something like a hot dog cost upwards of 50 bucks. Talk about rip offs.
busch stadium is 2009
Mark, I think in Anaheim.
Joe and Jay: I hope you guys have an amazing time.
I wonder if the bleacher creatures are going to do a roll call for the AL team?
Rebecca, I am guessing they will for everyone except Rays and Red Sux
i dont really eat the food at the stadium aside from the occasional dog. the food at YS is pretty bad.
Oh, Busch Stadium. I don’t know why I remember hearing Anaheim.
Rebecca – you can only hope that bald vinny and his minions were able to get tickets.
angels host 2010
2009 St. Louis
2010 Anaheim.
Thanks. Maybe I’ll start saving now and go to St. Louis next year. Though I think I’d be happier in an AL stadium.
Drive to Buffalo and stay there for the night.
Just remember to set your watch back 15 years.
OK, I’ve settled down a bit after that nerve racking game today.
Looking at the wild card standings, the Yanks really are not in that bad of shape right now. Down 5.5 games and they are chasing TB, Minn, and Oakland. All 3 of them are very catchable. Of course it is all contingent on the Yanks offense waking up, which I do have my doubts about. But it’s not as dire as it feels really. Plus TB has many more road games the second half and they haven’t been good on the road.
They’ll have a good chance right out of the gate to make a dent in the WC standings after the break too with series against Oak and Minn at home.
I think we have to be realistic though and accept that we aren’t catching Boston this year. as much as it makes my stomach turn to say it, they are alot better team than we are.
Anyway, just trying to find some way to be optimsitic. If this team wants to make the playoffs, they still have a very good chance.
Does anybody have any suggestions for where to get an early dinner around the Stadium? I’m not really into the scene at Stan’s.
Joe: Why not try eating in Manhattan and taking the Subway over?
Or if you want to stay in the Bronx, hit up Arthur Ave.
Random aside: Hmm, Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser people as well as former owners of the Cards) got bought by InBev, a Belgian brewing company…2nd biggest in the world, apparently.
From what it seems, the flight is mainly sportswriters and Yankees fans. Lots of beers being pounded by the generally happy group.
Lots of beers is always good.
Rebecca – I live in Suffolk County on LI, which almost mandates driving to the Stadium. It is a royal pain to do the LIRR-and-subway trek. We tried it last Saturday when the Red Sox where in, and it was pretty bad. Two hours getting in, and over 2-1/2 hours getting back home, which is twice as long as my driving. Unfortunately, with parking being what it is, that means getting there early. Besides, I’m curious about the Grand Concourse.
“I wonder if the bleacher creatures are going to do a roll call for the AL team?”
I doubt too many of the actual bleacher creatures will be able to afford to go to the game
However, if they do a roll-call, I vote that they just do it for the Yankee players.
Nick in SF, your money would be better spent if you would buy the whiners on this board a pair. Even if they have to share that pair, it’s more than they have now.
Yanks are still in it, amazingly enough, and all they really need is to get players back, and have the players they have play like they can. No one has run away with anything and the Yanks are in a position to get guys back and make a run.
...So this place go dead or something?
“…So this place go dead or something?”
I’d take that as a “yes”
I think we are naturally constructed to be a second half with guys like cano and abreu who are historically much better in the second half than the first. at least, that’s the way it’s been the last two years.
I think we are below average at cf, rf, and 1b. I’d like to see Abreu and Giambi walk and have the yankees get some defensively capable replacements, although I’m not sure there are great options on the market. Filling out our rotation after Wang and Joba will be a question mark next year too. you hope some of the young guys develop but you can never really count on it.
“the 33rd time they will have scored two or fewer runs. That’s 35 percent of the games.”
I count 53 games (56% of games) where we failed to score 5 runs, i.e., did better than MLB average.
Hey Pete – Would Abreau + IPK + Hawkins be enough for Holliday?
Holliday just seems like the kind of gritty O’Neil type the Yanks really need. Abreau just looks half asleep out there in the field. He hits well often, throws well, but what a mess with the glove…
Granted the injuries are a huge factor, but 2 runs or less per game >35 times this year is just pathetic – they need a fresh bat in addition to Gardner, who I’m confident will do better and better…
Hey Pete – Would Abreau + IPK + Hawkins be enough for Holliday?
Uh, not on your life.
It would probably take Jackson and Hughes to start negotiations with Colorado and they would probably want other good prospects as well.
Cashman is not going to make a big splash at the deadline. All signs clearly show that.
Stop whining about injuries. The RS lost Ortiz for two months and still manage to win. And now that Lugo is on the DL I expect they’ll go on a tear.
Soemone mentioned getting Matt Holiday. Nice player, but it goes against the current team philosophy of not paying twice for a player (first in trade then in a long-term deal).
It’s pretty evident to me that this team is what it is for the rest of the year. I see them as neither buyers or sellers. I think they will hang close enough to the WC chase to justify the status quo and wait for the injured guys to get healthy.
Welcome back to the 1980’s; good but not great teams who can’t make the playoffs.
YR57, If we’re going back to the 80’s, who’s our Don Mattingly
All Boston players should be excluded if there is a roll call at the ASG. It would be hypocritical to honor Youkilis, Pedroia, or Papelbon. If anyhing, absolute quiet.
Obviously A-Rod is Mattingly. Not a World Series appearance between them. And Bellhorn was Boston’s long-awaited answer to Bucky Dent.
Nothing to do now but hope the Yankees bats wake up in the second half.
If the Mets can win 9 in a row, so can the Yankees.
I was on the same plane coming back from Toronto with Pete. He’s right once everyone got settled into the fact that for some strange reason planes weren’t flying in or out of any of the NY airports. Everyone well most was getting hammered and bs’ing waiting for the plane to arrive.
Yanks are still in it, amazingly enough, and all they really need is to get players back, and have the players they have play like they can. No one has run away with anything and the Yanks are in a position to get guys back and make a run.
And have the players they have play like they can.
That’s the reason I don’t get into the “kill Cashman” drama. Nobody anywhere could have predicted that we’d have an offense that would sleep walk through the first half of the season. Or that we’d have the injuries that we do. Getting Santana wouldn’t have meant a hill of beans in all of the games where we just about scored a run.
This team has played a lot of games where it looked like it just didn’t care. Where they were sloppy and looked lethargic. We are 5 games out in the loss column. Can you think of 5 games where we should have won but didn’t? Where we gave the games away? It isn’t that the Yankees didn’t have the talent to get the job done. If Girardi has called 4 team meetings already or is it 5 you know there are at least that many times he felt they were sleeping on the job. How many more games could he have had team meetings but you just don’t do that every time you really need to or all you do is have team meetings with this team?
This team is its own worst enemy. It isn’t that they aren’t built to win. They just don’t look like they care enough on any consistent basis.
I can’t remember the last time I felt less passion about a Yankee team.
What i dont understand is how this moron Cashman constantly stands by and does absolutely nothing to help this team. “well try to solve this from within”. I cant stand that morons “within” comments anymore. While other teams get better by adding pitching which the Yankees could use, go put a package of your OVERRATED prospects together for Holliday and do something to help this team instead of standing by waiting for these so called prospects. Steinbrenner, the first move you have to make after this year is gettting rid of this clueless wonder Cashman!!
i have to say, if i somehow won tickets to the all-star game, they’d be up for sale on craigslist instantly. i want no part of that crowd.