The LoHud Yankees Blog

January is traditionally a slow month for baseball news. So for the second year in a row, we will showcase other blogs with a series of pinch hitters.

Next up is Frank from Chasing 800.

Frank is 24, lives in the Bronx and holds down two jobs. During the season, he also works at Stan’s Sports World, right across the street from the Stadium. He has been blogging since July of 2007 and hopes to return to school in the fall.

Here is his post:

————

They say you don’t know what you got until it’s gone. Boy, are they right. The 2008 season saw a changing of the guard in the Bronx. Joe Torre was no longer leading the men in pinstripes, Joe Girardi was.

After 12 seasons as Yankees manager, Torre had worn out his welcome. We said goodbye to a man that brought pride, power and respect back to the pinstripes. He made Yankee Stadium the place to be again. He gave so many people so many memories. He gave us everything he had. There was that magical ’96 season. Or howo bout one of the most dominating teams ever in the ’98 team? Or in 2001 when he gave us strength after the Sept. 11 attacks? He was as much a face of the recovery in New York as anyone was. Torre also gave Aaron Boone an inspirational pep talk in 2003, right before his home run in Game 7 won the Yankees the A.L. pennant. That was the last great Yankee moment. For all those reasons and more, I thank Joe.

I thought I wanted change after the 2007 season. Making it to October was something of the norm around here since Torre took over. I expected nothing less. I admit, Joe spoiled me. He was a good manager and he was the right man for the job all along. He got those Yankee teams through the rough times, he got them through the good times, but most importantly, he got them to October.

It’s no coincidence that the year he left, the Yankees failed to make the playoffs and the team he went to go manage, the Dodgers, went to the LCS. After all this time of questioning his ability to manage, it was Joe that got the Yankees that far, not their open checkbook. The way he handled every situation was all in good taste and it was all in the best interest of the Yankees. Some of us just never knew it until now. He was a special guy, one we all grew to love.

Now that I see Torre in a different city and see how much he is loved out west, it makes me want him back in the Bronx. It doesn’t feel the same here without him. I grew up to be such a big Yankee fan because of him and what he did for the team and how he made the Yankees a proud organization again.

His pinstriped days are behind him now but that’s OK. Those memories will last a lifetime. He will always be a Yankee in my book. I hope that one day No. 6 will get retired right along with the other Yankee greats … that’s where he belongs.

————

Good post, Frank and good luck. Coming tomorrow: Matt from A Connecticut Yankee.

The Yankees moved into the new Stadium yesterday and for team employees, it was a unique event.

LoHud.com put together a video of the move. You can find it on this page. They had me narrate it. Let’s just say that as a TV guy, I make a heck of a blogger.

————

Unless there’s some major news, my plan is to chill today and tonight in terms of the blog.

Nick from San Francisco has posted hundreds of comments to this blogs since 2007, many of them late in the evening and many of them quite witty. Nick in fact lives in San Francisco but was born and raised in New York. He started attending games in the mid-70s and loved Thurman Munson.

Here’s his post:

————

Someone recently wrote: “Nick in SF, you’re so witty, so insightful, so full of Yankee knowledge, why don’t you write something for that LoHud blog thing?”

To which I replied: “Thanks, Mom! But can you just call me Nick?”

The Yankee fan experience on the West Coast is a little different from that in the northeast. While some of us get to feel the Ponsanity on TV, that’s no substitute for living and breathing a full season in New York. Sure, we get the ShamWow commercials, but we won’t be enjoying the Chris Britton Scranton Shuttle races on the new stadium’s plasma screens. Missing Kei Igawa Sunglasses Day was bad; missing Alex Rodriguez Cravat Night (first 15,000 metrosexuals only) and Hideki Matsui Etch-A-Sketch Day will be brutal.

While some east coasters dread the late start times when the Yanks go west, those are the games we wait for all season. For me that means a trip across the Bay to Oakland’s Tightwad Associates Coliseum, also known as Yankee Stadium West. I’ve seen the Yankees visit the Athletics more times than I can remember, from mid-season Dollar-Wednesday games to October showdowns.

Game 3 of the 2001 ALDS was one of the best; it was a tense, taut game even before Derek Jeter skipped across the infield and into our imaginations and Jeremy Giambi decided he’d rather lose on his feet than score on his rump.

A personal favorite was an August 4, 1998 doubleheader. The Yanks won the Ramiro Mendoza-pitched opener 10-4 with homers from Chuck Knoblauch and Darryl Strawberry. They trailed 5-1 heading into the 9th inning of the nightcap, a game started by Mike “Who?” Buddie, but loaded the bases before pinch-hitter Strawberry tied the game with one swing. The Yanks scored five more times that inning for a 10-5 victory. One ticket, two games, 20 Yankee runs, and a bonus appearance by Mo; it was true domination and the crowd was about as pro-Yankee as any I’ve seen west of the Hudson River.

One thing that all these games have in common is a much larger crowd than the A’s usually draw. This phenomenon is not unique to Oakland; boosted attendance at Yankee road games is crucial to many teams across baseball. Interleague play is nothing but a scheme to get the Yankees to visit NL parks (What, you thought it was due to decades of built-up AL fan curiosity about those fascinating Padres?). And yes, the Red Sox also draw well on the road, but that’s not because local fans care much about them one way or another; it’s because so many Boston natives have fled that Bay State cesspool for greener pastures. How do you like them apples?

In 2009, with a rebuilt roster stocked with familiar favorites, exciting new additions, and rising stars such as Joba Chamberlain and eventually Phil Hughes (also known as Generation Just Us Two) the Yankees will continue to be the greatest road show in sports. So shut up, whiners, and enjoy the gate.

———

Thanks, Nick and thanks for reading the blog. Coming tomorrow: Frank from Chasing 880.

Keeping in mind that everybody in baseball is flexible with the truth, Astros owner Drayton McLane said today that his team has little interest in Andy Pettitte.

“We’re pretty well set,” he told the Associated Press. “I don’t see us entering into the negotiations.”

Click here for a photo gallery from today’s move.

The great Frank Becerra Jr. took a bunch of photos.

So the Mets signed Freddy Garcia. Ben Sheets met with the Rangers. The Dodgers are apparently going to go with Randy Wolf.

Jon Garland apparently shot a man in Reno just to watch him die based on the lack of interest he has received.

So where does this leave Andy Pettitte?

Pettitte said about a dozen times last season how great his elbow felt and how much his sons were enjoying being around the park. Retirement was not on his mind. He once even told me how much more his family was enjoying living in Westchester this time around.

Pettitte has every right to go out and make his best deal. He doesn’t owe the Yankees anything beyond his best effort while under contract. Sure, you’d like to think he feels some remorse over the springing the HGH admission on them. But business is business.

But as days pass and other pitchers sign, where is Pettitte going to do better than the one-year deal the Yankees are offering? The flip side is the Yankees can’t do much better either, unless you want to roll the dice with Sheets and A.J. Burnett in the same rotation.

Brian Cashman has read the market well and there is little reason for the Yankees to budge. As for Pettitte, a $10 million deal in this market is hardly defeat. Guys like Bobby Abreu, Adam Dunn and Orlando Hudson will knock each other to get that.

That’s it for now from the Stadium. The move continues. Check the blog later for photos from an actual professional photographer.

I snapped this photo on River Ave. Wonder how much this sign will sell for? The Yankees still haven’t selling items yet.

Here is the truck leaving. This is a compelling event.

Here are the 1977 and 2000 World Series trophies being loaded up by team employees.

This is a truck waiting for World Series trophies and Carl Pavano’s medical records.