The LoHud Yankees Blog

Kei Igawa — remember him? — tied the Scranton franchise record for career wins yesterday when he beat the Pawtucket Red Sox. The K-Man has 26 wins with Scranton over the last three season. He tied the record set by Evan Thomas, a former Phillies prospect who won 87 games in the minors from 1996-2006 and never made it to the majors.

“It’s a stepping stone, not a final goal of mine,” Igawa told Chad Jennings of the Times-Tribune.

Meanwhile, the Yankees passed on All-Star Ted Lilly and paid $46 million for Igawa. Yikes.

Meanwhile, Chad reports that the International League could move home games out of Scranton if the field drainage issues cannot be solved. The Yankees sent Stadium groundskeeper Dan Cunningham to check the situation out.

Read Chad’s story for more details.

If you’re interested in seeing Bernie Williams, here is where he will be playing in the fall:

Sept. 25: Westbury, N.Y. (Theater at Westbury)
Oct. 6: Albany, N.Y. (Hart Theater)
Oct. 9: Morristown, N.J. (The Community Theater at Mayo PAC)
Oct. 10: Ridgefield, Conn. (Ridgefield Playhouse)
Oct. 17: Avalon, Calif. (Avalon Casino Ballroom)

Contact the venues for ticket information.

For more in Bernie and how to get his new CD Moving Forward, go to Bernie Williams.com

Tonight: LHP CC Sabathia (7-5, 3.85) vs. RHP Scott Baker (6-6, 4.99), 8:10, MY9

Wednesday: RHP A.J. Burnett (7-4, 3.83) vs. LHP Glen Perkins (4-4, 4.38), 8:10, YES

Thursday: TBA vs. RHP Anthony Swarzak (2-2, 3.90), 1:10, YES

Here we are at the Joe Piscopo International Airport in Newark waiting to go to Minneapolis. The B Terminal here is the land that time forgot. The “restaurant” is a Pizzeria Uno stand with bagels that appear to have been wrapped sometime last week. Meanwhile, of the roughly 250 magazines at the news stand, 247 of them had Michael Jackson on the cover. The exceptions were Playboy, Popular Mechanics and the New England Journal of Medicine.

But there are amusements. There’s a family of five at the gate and they’re all wearing the same tie-dyed t-shirts. The parents seem quite happy at their choice of attire. The two younger kids don’t know any better and the oldest seems seems to be contemplating running away from home. He has a “maybe I can sneak onto this flight when Atlanta when nobody is paying attention” look.

I feel comfortable speaking for my sisters in writing that had Mom and Dad Abraham decided we were all going to wear the same t-shirts on a flight, there would have been a mutiny. U.N. Peacekeeping Forces would have been needed to quell the uprising.

The coming road trip for the Yankees should be interesting. The Twins were swept in a four-game series at the Stadium back in May and can’t be too happy about. Meanwhile the Angels seem prepared to rush by the fraudulent Texas Rangers and take over the West. If the Yankees come out of the trip 3-3 or better, they’ll have done well.

A few people wrote to ask why I didn’t opine here on the All-Star Game selections. Two reasons: I was off over the weekend and didn’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about baseball. Plus I don’t get too fired up about the game. There are 66 players selected. As honors go it’s not exactly a big deal. I think Johnny Damon and maybe A.J. Burnett had a case, but not enough of one to get too riled up about.

Anyway, they’re about to call the flight. Check back later for the pitching matchups for the series and of course the lineups this afternoon. With any kind of luck, I won’t be sitting near the Deadhead Family.

Eric Hinske had an eventful debut as the Yankees fell to the Blue Jays. Jake Thomases has the story.

Andy Pettitte was puzzled by his poor outing. This notebook also has updates on Hideki Matsui and Jose Molina.

Joe Torre was back in Westchester for his annual golf tournament.

He was 0 for 3 with a walk as the DH for Trenton tonight.

Molina is 1 for 10 with two walks and three strikeouts in four rehab games. He is scheduled to play for Trenton on Tuesday night.

So it would seem Derek Jeter was right.

Umpire Marty Foster called Derek Jeter out today when he tried to steal third base in the first innings. Replays showed that Jeter evaded the tag. Joe Girardi was tossed arguing the play.

“I was told by the umpire that I didn’t have to be tagged to be out,” an annoyed Jeter said after the game.

Reporters went to speak to Foster to get his side of the story. Crew chief John Hirschbeck spoke instead. “Marty asked me to handle things today,” he said. “We hopefully learn from our experiences. It’s the only way we get better at what we do.”

As for the call:

“It would make (Jeter’s) actions seem appropriate if that’s what he was told,” Hirschbeck said. “The best way I can answer it is to talk to Marty about it. “Not here at the ballpark, but if I see him tonight, or if not, we’ll have lunch tomorrow and we’ll discuss it. Getting a play right is one thing, but how you handle it is also important. Nowadays, with the cameras, ESPN and the reporters, I say the media, I actually mean television — it used to be if the ball beat you, you were out, but it isn’t that way anymore. It’s not a reason to call someone out. You have to make a good tag.”

Hirschbeck admitted Jeter doesn’t argue very often.

“Yes, in my 27 years in the big leagues, he is probably the classiest person I’ve been around,” he said.

Hirschbeck was asked about two plays that second base umpire Wally Bell got wrong.

“Sometimes, you just miss a play,” Hirschbeck said. “I think you’re human, and sometimes you just miss it.”

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Kudos to Hirschbeck for be willing to speak and being so candid. But it doesn’t speak well of Foster that he sent somebody else out to speak for him instead of taking the heat himself.

It’s not going to do the Yankees any good, but it would seem that Foster and Bell will have to answer for their mistakes. No, they’re not going to be suspended or fined. But MLB does hold umpires far more accountable than in previous years.

Joe Torre was back in New York today, hosting his annual charity golf tournament at Trump National in Westchester.

Journal News reporter Harold Guttman was on hand and sent along these comments:

On coming back to New York: “It still feels like home, there’s no question about it. I’m glad I’m in L.A. because of what I do for a living, it’s not as stressful, but it’s always nice coming back to New York. I have plenty of fans and friends and family, and it always feels very comfortable.”

Comparing Jason Giambi to Manny Ramirez: “Jason was a little more comfortable talking. What Manny wants to do is just play baseball and be a teammate. He really doesn’t want to talk about it. There are some similarities, but Manny with who he is and what he’s done over the years, probably gets more attention than he wants, although his antics sometimes makes you think he wants that, but I think that’s just him having fun.”

On Manny’s comeback: “He’s admitting he did wrong and he got suspended and he’s not crying foul in any way. But this is where we are as a society. It doesn’t matter if it’s for a positive or a negative thing, there’s a good deal of attention. The message you don’t want to send is what he did is OK, and have the youngsters take that and think it’s OK. We glorify a lot of stuff, whether it be positive or negative, it’s all about being the eye of the storm. The one thing I go back to is Manny’s a fun person, and he’s been a good teammate.”

Was he offended by Manny: “I think we’re disappointed, but if you look at the big picture, they’re talking about 100-and-something names. … It’s something that may have started small but evidently the competition thing, if you’re going to be able to compete on a level playing field, I’m going to try and keep up with what you’re doing, and I’m not saying it’s the right thing, but I’m guessing this is what snowballed into what it became.”

On the steroids issue: “I think we’re all guilty. I’ve been in baseball my whole life, even though I didn’t literally see anybody do anything, and I’m naive in a lot of ways, I don’t want to think bad things about people because I want to trust people, but I certainly didn’t think it was as widespread as it turned out to be.

I remember seeing Bob Gibson on TV, somebody said they had something for you to make you better, not that it would be illegal, you’d think about it. The difference is, years ago you would have done something to help you win a ballgame. The more recent years it’s all about putting statistics up. Different motivation, I think.
I put players in certain catagories. You’re Alex’s and Manny’s, you watch them play over the years, when they hit home runs it doesn’t surprise you. That middle group is the one where there’s a lot of questions about numbers. Would these guys have hit as many home runs? Possibly. Would they have hit them as far? Maybe not.”

On steroids users being in the Hall of Fame:” I feel that ability-wise there are guys that, cheating aside, Barry Bonds is a Hall of Fame-type player. Before anyone questioned him about anything he won four MVPs. Does that mean he should be in the Hall of Fame? I’m not saying that. Pete Rose is not in the Hall of Fame, and he certainly has the credentials. I think Clemens and Manny and Alex and all those people are in that upper group of guys who, ability wise, with steriods-stuff aside, are legitimate players to be in.”

Did Manny taint what the Dodgers did last season? “I don’t think so. He obviously did something he got punished for. As far as tainting, no. What do you think about Andy Pettite and Alex? I think baseball right now is tainted, and we need to get the trust back. Even your guys who have never possibly taken anything will hit a home run and there’s still going to be someone sitting in the stands saying, ‘What do you think?’ Hopefully we have a grip on it now and we’re going in the right direction.

“When I say we all have to take blame for it, a lot of stuff went on. Guys were hitting 60 home runs every year like it was no big deal and we were glorifying that instead of wondering about it. We all have to take our share of the blame, and it’s too bad, but it’s an era that hopefully we can get through and gain trust back. The most important thing in life is trust.

“When you go out to a ballpark you want to be entertained, you don’t want to be deceived. You’re getting away from your problems. They don’t want to work hard when they go out to the ballpark. They pay money to get away from that part of their life, and they want to be entertained. We’ve seen players hit 10, 15 home runs. All of a sudden they’re hitting 30, 40. That’s a suspicious thing. If you see someone who’s a good-sized guy, all the mechanics seem to work, I can see myself believing he legitamately does that. I don’t think we should question every single thing that happens in that game. The middle group that was hitting more home runs than made sense, those are the guys you scratch your head over.”

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Interesting comments there by the skipper. He had Bill Clinton, Yogi Berra, Donald Trump, Don Mattingly, Tino Martinez, Larry Bowa, Darryl Strawberry and others in the tournament.

The All-Star Game has morphed into assorted foolish events including the Legends and Celebrity All-Star Game, which will be Sunday at Busch Stadium.

Among the “celebrities” scheduled to appear include Carlos Diaz, Annie Wersching, James Denton, Brian Littrell and Andy Richter.

Ashanti, Ginuwine, Nelly and Chingy will be there, too. So at least they did OK with the music celebs.

Meanwhile, Bob Knight also is on the list. Yes, the grumpy old basketball coach. He is a Cardinals fan and a Tony La Russa stooge. But for a guy who made a career out of making people miserable, playing in a celebrity all-star game is pretty disingenuous. Hopefully he’ll get mad and take a swing at somebody.

Now that would be entertaining.

Joe Girardi said after the game that Jose Molina would play at least two more games in Trenton. He’ll DH tonight and catch tomorrow.

Two things: Molina needs the at-bats after nearly two months of relative inactivity. Plus the Yankees probably want Francisco Cervelli to catch CC Sabathia tomorrow night. Just a guess.

Meanwhile, it’s pretty grim state of affairs at Scranton when the Yankees can’t send their rehabs there because of the poor field conditions. The team has had to postpone several games this season on sunny days because of poor drainage. The question now is who pays to put in an acceptable field? If a good prospect blows out a knee because he’s playing in a swamp …