Today in The Journal News
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Jun 03, 2009 
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Mark Teixeira got fired up and the Rangers paid the price as the Yankees rolled to another victory. Kevin Devaney has the story.
A.J. Burnett had a rocky inning but survived. This notebook also has updates on Chien-Ming Wang, Derek Jeter, Xavier Nady, Jose Molina, Damaso Marte and Cody Ransom.
SNY has reported Joba Chamberlain has “shoulder problems”, on their highlight show last night.
wishful thinking, from the Mets channel ?
Tex had a rep for being corporate, but wow – is he ever not that way. He’s had a constant grin on his face since the press conference …….except for when he’s got steaam coming out of his ears on the field. Last night, he had every reason to be angry (though I just heard Carton say that he can’t believe Yankee fans think that 2nd HBP was on purpose……..please a blind man could tell it was intentional). His hard but clean slide into 2nd is being lauded and it should be. Instead of losing his cool, starting a brawl (during which he or other players could be injured) and undoubtedly getting suspended, he had enough presence of mind to just get his “revenge” on the field. The Yankees’ reaction when he came back to the bench was great to see – it was almost as if he hit a HR. LOL and Tex was so happy after Matsui DID hit a HR……….
AJ pitched very well last night – I’d like to see him avoid the one big inning he often seems to have, but I give him a lot of credit for shutting the Rangers down (especially as this was the 2nd time in a week that he’s seen them) after that.
Great win for the Yanks…..
Did anyone see Posada kept calling for a fast ball for the last pitch, he wanted to get the damn game overwith, and Veras kept shaking it off, and Posada kept shaking his head yes and putting down 1 finger until he threw it. That was good stuff.
This team has developed character. Jorge said it best when he said the team rose to the occasion after Teixeira’s takeout slide got the team’s back up. After getting hit by the pitch and the slide the team wasn’t interested in seeing the things go for naught.
@vinny-b: No problems, just some writers thinking up bull, and suddenly the rumor mill starts running…
riveraveblues.com/2009/06/yanks-jobas-shoulder-not-the-issue-12558/
Didn’t get to watch the game last night – sounds like it was a good one!
vinny-b: Maybe they were parroting the report the other day about why Joba couldn’t be a reliever? Something about shoulder problems preventing him from being able to warm up quickly…
I don’t think that came from a reputable source, so I’m not putting any stock in it for now. Besides, I love me some 8 innings of dominant Joba.
What is Kevin Devaney smoking? AJ has had his share of rough innings, but those involve generally giving up now more than 3 or 4 runs…….it’s not like he makes a habit of giving up 8 runs every time out.
vinny-b
SNY is run by a bunch of idiots the Mets. I have a few things to address
1. I can’t recall the name of the website, but it was reported that Joba had shoulder issues and couldn’t warm up quickly and that is why Joba was not moved to the pen. Joba, and Joe were asked about this and denied it. So I don’t know why SNY decides now to pick up this false story.
2. Also related to the Mets. An SNY producer who is around the team on the bus/clubhouse etc is now in isolation with swine flu symptoms. It hasn’t been confirmed that is what he has. Beltran missed his 4th game with ‘flu’ symptoms. The team denies that it is swine flu, says it is different. But he was hospitalized for more tests. They are being very careless. If they have players who have this illness, they are playing with fire. Think of how many people come into contact with these players, from other teams, pr, producers, media, fans etc. The CDC needs to get involved and investigate what is going on. JOhn Maine is a jerk and half. When the swine flu was brought up to him, he made a joke, go out with a winning record. What a moron, people are dying from this, and you are making a joke!!
3. Onto the Yankees. TEX was ticked last night. His face was stone, when the media pressed him he finally gave more details as to the apparent history between Padia and him. Loved that he went in hard to second, loved that AJ protected his teammate. Both actions will garner a lot of respect in the clubhouse.
montero got promoted to AA.
nice
Man, the media is something. I’ve read 2 articles complimenting Tex on his fiery actions last night (Sherman and Klapsich) – and whil they were good articles, they basically said that Tex is an soul-less robot (or seems so_) at times………Since when does wearing constant smile or thinking positively most of the time constitute a robotic personality? He does seem sometimes too good to be true…….but in a good way. Tex is genuinely a good guy -what do these people expect from him?
Props to A.J. for holding it together after Cruz’s HR in the third…he easily could have spit the bit but kept his cool and the rest is history.
“montero got promoted to AA.”
Good for him. His bat was waaaay over the competition in the FSL.
if montero mashes AA he could move quick.
from what i have been reading the last few days he could be a monster.
he is climbing baseball america’s list.
Yes good for Montero, glad to see he was promoted. I read that they were looking to promote Montero or the other kid (can’t recall his name) because they wanted to break them up and give each more playing time.
They moved Montero to AA, becuase they wanted both Romaine and Montero to catch full time, and Montero’s bat was more ready.
makes sense but i doubt they would move him to AA if he was not ready.
The only reason that this kid is not in the majors is because of his defense right now. He currently can rake major league style according to multiple sources.
Hey guys…can someone help me here? What was offensive about John Sterling’s missed homer call last night? Didn’t hear it live and I heard this morning that they edited part of it out. Thanks.
Jennifer, on the post game interview with Tex he really opened up after a while about the bad blood between him and Padilla. I also liked the fact the AJ went out and retaliated. The umpire handled it well too – let AJ retaliate and then handed out the warnings.
Hahaha Matsui being Japanese might have found it offensive that he used the term A-Bomb to describe his home run!!
Jennifer:
The other kid is Austin Romine. Be big test for Montero. He was shredding FSL pitching, but is splits indicate he was far better hitting as a DH (all of his homers, .400+ average) rather than as a catcher (no homers, around .270 average). Being the true #1 catcher is a big step. He’ll be a good MLB bat no matter what IMO, but if he can make it happen as a catcher, that’s huge.
Eric,
Sterling started an “A-Bomb from A-Rod” call, then stopped himself and went into the Matsui (Sayonara Kid) call. The issue (not a big one) is juxtaposing a nuclear bomb reference with Japan.
Don’t know if anyone caught this last night but Jorge was barking at Veras last night after he got the last out. I rewound it on DVR because initially it looks like Veras doesn’t respond to Jorge’s handshake. But when I looked again Jorge is obviously yelling at him as he’s walking from home plate to the mound to shake his hand. After the tongue lashing, Veras lowers his head and kind of shuffles in line for the win celebration.
Stephen:
What’s more offensive is that Sterling got the name of the player wrong. I mean, come on. It’s not even like Matsui was batting behind A-Rod; he was batting seventh!
John Sterling…you had a good run but it’s time to hang up the microphone.
from what i hear montero has a long way to go defensively.
only going by what i read but the bigger issue is posada only has 2 yrs left so he easily can slide into the dh role.
Eric,
It went something like this.
Lefty to lefty- there it goes to deep right, it’s high it’s far it’s GONE!! An A-BOMB (I heard someone yelling NOOOO) long silence. Well if that would have been ARod. Than he goes onto his Sayonara Kid call.
I wonder if he was ever spoken to about this A-Bomb call to begin with. Also he really needs to be sat down he is going senile. Doesn’t know far/foul safe/out track/hr Asian/Spanish. lol It is painful to listen to and this year it has only gotten worse. He is always asking Susan to watch the replays and tell him what happened.
edzilla
I caught that too. Jorge is a fiery guy. he was obviously frustrated that Veras was having trouble getting 3 outs with a 9 run lead.
girardi say wang is on schedule.
he pitches every 4-5 days and goes two innings.
what kind of schedule is that?
if he’s in the bullpen to build up strength, he needs to pitch at least twice as much as that.
the dude won more games than any pitcher in baseball from 2006-2008 when he was hurt.
there is no love lost between wang and yankee management for some reason.
is this starting to have something to do with treating the winningest pitcher in baseball for the two years before wang was hurt in this way ?
i understand keeping hughes up as long as possible. i don’t understand not giving wang innings out of the bullpen. this limited innings would start to work against any pitcher. wang is bound to have a bad appearance at some point anyway, but this erratic use seems like a sure way to make that happen.
you’d think the yankee plan would be to encourage success and not encourage failure.
edzilla,
I took it as Jorge giving encouragement to Veras for throwing strike after strike with a 3-2 count and not giving in or giving up on the batter. After all, it may have been his first 3 up 3 down inning all year.
i liked rizzuto.
he had a passion for the game that was unmatched.
at least before he lost it with “that ball is deep that ball is caught by the catcher”.
Montero and Vazquez in Trenton?
Thunder indeed.
Good game last night. I hope they can get tonight’s in. The weather does not look to good.
I think the Yankees don’t want to ruin a good thing. Right now the Yankees are rolling. Maybe they think if they start messing with the rotation they screw up a good thing. Maybe they are affaid Wang isn’t right yet, and if they slot him back in and he gets bombed everything will be messed up again.
IMHO, Wang should be building up the strength to go back into the rotation, and Hughes should be sent down.
jennifer-
they don’t have to start wang to give more than two innings every 5 days.
throwing that few pitches and those few innings could send him backwards and certainly isn’t building strength.
Mark in Tampa,
Man I have to disagree. I (embarrassing to admit) watched it in slow motion and Jorge stuns Veras with his yelling. Jorge never stops moving. He’s walking up to Veras and yells in his face while he takes his hand and continues his remarks as he walks past – finishing his remarks looking 3rd base side but not directly at Veras. Then he takes his helmet of and turns the brim front side.
If you can catch an encore it’s worth a look. It is quite obvious in HD!
Montero gets to catch McAllister & Garcia.
Where/when is Wang going to pitch 3 innings or more?
It’s tough to find innings for a guy who’s trying to get right when the team is trying to win games.
Bottom line is that he should never have beeen called up when he was.
“I think the Yankees don’t want to ruin a good thing.”
In one sense, they already have. I think a lot of what’s gone wrong with Wang this season can attributed to how badly the organization has managed his recovery. Between Cashman telling him not to work on his legs to foolishly cutting his 30 day rehab short, he’s really done Wang and the Yankees a disservice.
That said, you’re probably right about not wanting to disrupt the groove the Yankees are currently in.
Bru:
When Rizzuto blew a call it was all part of the act…crazy Uncle Phil. It was great stuff like Yogi’s mangling of the English language is great stuff. That was just who Scooter was…a funny guy who would say anything that was on his mind with the “holy cow” and the “huckleberry” and missing calls because he was talking about Cora’s lasagna.
What’s scary about Sterling is that a) he’s really playing it straight, not like Phil and b) he’s been announcing all kinds of sporting events for 30 years, he should have it down pat by now.
Sterling’s got to go…it’s been 20 years, give him the gold watch.
usually with broadcasters they stay until they get sick or die.
the yankees will be fine with wang & hughes.
when & if hughes pitches bad enough wang will take his start.
what to do with hughes then?
why do you all think you know more than the coaches about Wang’s recovery? lol
tom in nj-
pitch him one inning then. pitch him two innings. somehow he’s got to get innings in.
the yankees were up 9-3 after the 6th inning last night. there was no way to get an inning in?
he was the winningest pitcher in baseball for over a two year period.
this is just bizarre the way he’s being treated.
i wouldn’t start him right now because he could regress for all we know. the one thing i know is he’s not getting stronger on two innings every five days.
i’m simply saying it’s a dumb schedule if wang is indeed on schedule as giradi says.
maybe girardi just misspoke because 2 innings in 5 days makes no sense.
“why do you all think you know more than the coaches about Wang’s recovery? lol”
I know nothing about it. I think that ties me with Cashman.
Listening to Phil in the late 80s/early 90s was one of the only reasons to watch the Yankees.
Remember when he said “look at the butt on that guy” in reference to Cecil Fielder?
i don’t think the yankees or anybody else knows with certainty the correct path to take with wang.
they think wang can easily make the adjustment imo.
rizzuto linked the old with the new.
i can’t stand sterling.
Randy,
I agree with you. Wang should be pitching more-especially now, since he’s so close-get that arm up to strength and to re-train his muscle memory.
Remember when he said “look at the butt on that guy” in reference to Cecil Fielder?
***********
LOL!! that is funny!
I can remember Rizzuto having an in-depth conversation with Spencer Ross about how amazed he was that a player was able to button his jersey with one hand when he was wearing a batting glove!
Also, after watching a slow motion replay of a batter hitting himself in the groin with a foul ball, Phil exclaimed-”Ohhhh!, it rang the bell!”
“why do you all think you know more than the coaches about Wang’s recovery? lol”
tom b-
do you ever you think on your own or do just follow authority at all times?
you think not pitching builds strength ?
think again.
when you want to tell us that the yankees know all, explain how marty miller was a yankee conditioning coach hired by cashman.
or explain how cashman told wang to not work out all winter on his foot or build strength in his lower half.
and then explain how they didn’t test wang’s lower half strength until after he bombed in his first three starts and not until arod’s rehab guy told the yankees what he thought was wrong.
lol?
what’s funny is people who have no ability to think on their own.
Mark in Tampa:
Well, that’s what Phil brought to the game…a player’s knowledge combined with a slightly loopy guy’s take on things…back in the 40s and 50s, protective cups were made out of metal, so when players got hit in the junk, it would make a “DING” noise. Very funny except if yours was the junk in question.
Jim Bouton had a funny anecdote about his roommate, Gary Bell, getting hit in the cup while with the Seattle Pilots. As he was crawling away, the players were yelling “DING-DONG!” at him…resulting in the oh-so-appropriate nickname Gary “Ding-Dong” Bell.
Thanks for the assistance guys! I’m convinced he’s just not watching the game as much as he used to. Last night when the Yanks plated their fifth run, he declared they had taken a 5-4 lead. The game ended 12-3, so Texas obviously never had 4 runs.
The days we can never have back-Rizzuto remembering on the air the days of playing with DiMaggio, Gehrig, Mantle, and all the others. It was endless hours of listening to Rizzuto do the Yankee games that got me interested in the history of the team, and helped me to realize just how great they were. Amongst all of his shtick and the birthdays and the golf and cannolis, was a true Yankee treasure with a trove of stories of the Yankee glory days.
Tomorrow is a day game right?
Guess I’m gonna be counting on Sterling and gameday. Lord help me
John Sterling is a professional broadcaster. Phil Rizzuto was a professional baseball player-turned-broadcaster. Rizzuto was not only allowed, but encouraged, to have his own personality, his own colorful take on the game, and was loved for it. What would a Yankee game have been without the recitation of birthdays, the canoli report, the fear of thunderstorms and the nightly rush to beat the traffic to the GWB?
But this is not why John Sterling was hired. He’s not supposed to be “colorful.” He’s supposed to be able to call a game clean. Everyone makes occasional mistakes. He occasionally doesn’t.
SA, yes, it’s a 1:05 start. May a god have mercy on your ears.
~groan
Thanks Guy
I’ll be stuck listening to the radio too.
I’m glad people are finally talking about Sterling…. just awful. Pick any inning and your bound to hear a ridiculous mistake by this guy.
“they don’t have to start wang to give more than two innings every 5 days.
throwing that few pitches and those few innings could send him backwards and certainly isn’t building strength.”
First, winning the games is more important.
Secondly, for all we do not know, after two innings in the game he may be pithcing extra in the bullpen to build the arm strength.
I would have more confidence in the Yankee management than the second guessers here. There is a reason why they are in charge of the team, not the second guessers here
As always, the guys from “It is High” come through for us, the Sterling call: http://johnsterling.blogspot.c.....ideki.html
I have NO idea why Sterling still has a job. If you watch the game with the sound off and have the radio on, sometimes it is like there are 2 different games going on. I can’t stand his stupid homerun calls anymore. I sure do miss Phil. He was the best. I’d actually rather listen to a game with Phil than watch it on TV. Sterling is so full of himself because he thinks he is the voice of the Yankees. I’d love to see him get the boot and just let Flaherty be the radio guy.
Sometimes you wonder if Sterling is actually paying attention to the game.
An atomic bomb from Hideki? That’s just wrong on so many levels.
Sterling’s awful, but it could be that he has some undisclosed illness.
He’s never been good at distinguishing a flyout from a HR, or adept at the nuances of baseball, but his mistakes are rampant these days.
I learned my lesson when listening to Murcer refer to Tampa players as Toronto Blue Jays, and other miscues. I just thought he was getting lazy, like a domestic cat, in the broadcast booth.
Who knew he had a brain tumor? I don’t even know if he knew at that point.
You just never know.
Just a comment about Posada. Love the guy and he is a true Yank through and through, but he is not gonna be what the Yanks will want at DH when his contract runs out. What’s to guarantee he’ll be able to hit even close to what he was last year or this. I just hope he’s able to catch 2 more years and still hit well during that time. He’s been an outstanding team guy his whole career and I wish him well throughout the rest if his career!!!
Fake an injury and put Sterling on the DL.