Happy Groundhog Day
Posted by: Sam Borden - Posted in Misc on Feb 02, 2010 
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It seems that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning (at a place called “Gobbler’s Knob,” which has to be some kind of joke) and thus we’re all headed for six more weeks of winter. I don’t know what Phil’s VORG is (Value Above Replacement Groundhog), but considering the rampant frostiness cloaking the Northeast recently, I certainly woudln’t have minded if he’d whiffed today. Alas …
If you’re interested, here’s a nice little piece on Phil – who seems to live a pretty comfortable life, what with this one-day-a-year job – and keep checking the blog all day. We’ll have a guest post on instant replay, some thoughts of mine to get the week started and the official trailer for tonight’s episode of “How I Met Your Mother” guest-starring Nick Swisher!
(Oh, and sources tell me that the Giants are close to signing Byung-Hyun Kim to a minor-league deal — we can have some fun with that, no?)
Swish was on last night, Sam.
The Nick Swisher episode aired last night. His acting was about on par with what I expected.
Come on guys, give me a little credit. Think a little harder!
Jason
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:23 am
Swish was on last night, Sam.
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Think about it. It’s Groundhog Day.
Sam – GROUNDHOG DAY!!!!!
“How I Met Your Mother” with Nick Swisher was last night, Sam! It was hilarious. The Yankees really got some love on that show; I imagine Red Sox fans didn’t particularly like it, though.
I got it, I got it. And I’m not even a morning person!
Erin – you beat me to it.
You must be a morning person.
Good job Sam!
trisha – OPPC forever – (new lucky picture from last day at the old Stadium) BRING ON THE GHOSTS!
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:28 am
I got it, I got it. And I’m not even a morning person!
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Same here!
trisha – OPPC forever – (new lucky picture from last day at the old Stadium) BRING ON THE GHOSTS!
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:29 am
Erin – you beat me to it.
You must be a morning person.
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Oh, believe me, I am not a morning person.
Come on guys, you didn’t get it??? Time for that third cuppa!
Here’s an article on the history of GHD.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..41000.html
While I can’t imagine that a wild animal particularly likes being man-handled, hasn’t whatever groundhog is chosen been domesticated, so is likely to be a lot less “stressed out” by the crowds, etc.?
In all honesty, if there was no Groundhog Day it wouldn’t bother me. But for me it seems PETA tends to go overboard and in doing so, they lose sympathy from me for some of their causes.
Instead of going for another bat, I’d prefer to see the NYYs go after reliever Kiko Calero for about a $1 mil, 1 year contract.
Erin, maybe thinking too hard was the wrong thing to do and that’s why we got it so fast!
There was nowhere near enough Swish last night on HIMYM, but there was, indeed, lots of Yankees love!
trisha – OPPC forever – (new lucky picture from last day at the old Stadium) BRING ON THE GHOSTS!
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:32 am
Erin, maybe thinking too hard was the wrong thing to do and that’s why we got it so fast!
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I think you’re right!
“The Nick Swisher episode aired last night. His acting was about on par with what I expected.”
Swisher was alright. He should sue his barber.
Jim Nance was excellent in his guest spot.
Doreen – Ain’t it Just “Grand”?
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:32 am
There was nowhere near enough Swish last night on HIMYM, but there was, indeed, lots of Yankees love!
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I know! I was a little disappointed with his lack of screen time, but I still loved seeing him.
Bill Murray’s great line from Groundhog Day:
“Its still just once a year isn’t it?”
Erin,
Me, too!
Frank -
Yeah, Jim Nance really did a great job in his spot.
I thought overall it was a fairly good episode.
can you imagine there were people on this board last spring openly rooting for joe g. to fail so the yankees could hire super-genius peta boy tony larussa to manage?
JohnC
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:38 am
Bill Murray’s great line from Groundhog Day:
“Its still just once a year isn’t it?”
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That movie has so many great lines. My favorite is: “Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today!”
First and probably last time watching HIMYM. I did enjoy all the baseball, esp Yankee, references, and seeing Swish.
I don’t recall any Yankee fan hoping to hire Tony LaRussa. Some wanted Bobby Valentine but I don’t think anyone was dumb enough to hope for LaRussa.
“Today is tomorrow! It happened!”
GB – in honor of Groundhog Day!
Question: do we know that Yankees are looking for another bat/Of/whatever, or is it just the wish list of people here? I see Reed Johnson (no longer now though), Baldelli, Thames as names thrown around. Since I haven’t been keeping up with all of the posts I don’t know whether the Yankees are looking or posters are looking.
Thanks.
I’m a god. I’m not the God ? I don’t think
jim nantz was great.
I didn’t even see a joke. I was thrown off. Took me a split second to realize that link was probably not about Phil Hughes.
GB – do we know they’re going after anything? Is it possible they go to ST as configured? I’m just wondering if it’s Cashman talk or Lohud wishing (Thames, Baldelli, etc.)
Phil: Do you ever have déjà vu, Mrs. Lancaster?
Mrs. Lancaster: I don’t think so, but I could check with the kitchen.
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LOL That’s another one of my favorites. Along with:
Do you ever have déjà vu, Mrs. Lancaster?
I don’t think so, but I could check with the kitchen.
Y’s Guy:
In all fairness, there are plenty of managers in the game today that probably would have won with the ’09 Yankees and LaRussa is probably among ‘em. Doesn’t mean anyone should want Girardi to fail, and while the year obviously went well for him, I don’t think he had an especially significant impact on whether they won or lost. I do think he deserves credit for his role in creating a more pleasant atmosphere around the club though.
I want to give a shout out to Sam because way back when, when he was guest hosting for us, I absolutely loved having him here and always wished we’d get him for good! Now that we have him (and his two compadres), it my estimation this blog is such a nice place to be. Again in my estimation, it was much less nice to be before the change over only because of the constant sarcasm and biting wit that led the charge.
Dat’s all.
So thanks Sam. Wondering if you ever had possum stew. I know somewhere in life they eat that for breakfast!
Ignore the top part of my post. I was responding to:
Tom in NJ
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:45 am
I’m a god. I’m not the God ? I don’t think
In all fairness, there are plenty of managers in the game today that probably would have won with the ‘09 Yankees and LaRussa is probably among ‘em. Doesn’t mean anyone should want Girardi to fail, and while the year obviously went well for him, I don’t think he had an especially significant impact on whether they won or lost. I do think he deserves credit for his role in creating a more pleasant atmosphere around the club though.
___
Managing the pen and the starters. Torre would have warn out his top two guys and Rivera and by the playoffs, the pen would have been completely shot, not to mention keeping CC, AJ and Pettitte fairly rested.
mel, you’re forgiven. It’s way earlier where you are!
trisha,
I’ll put in my 2 cents (try stopping me-haha).
Barring any unforseen circumstances, I see them going to camp with the existing roster.
Once they get a look at the new guys (mainly Hoffman), they can look at what’s left in the [bargain] bin.
They could always re-tool when the season starts or at the deadline.
Or, if Damon doesn’t sign and he wants to play for pennies he comes back as a DH/bench player.
PETA is just looking to get publicity. Probably their larger point is to increase awareness for the general use of electronic animals in entertainment and saw this as a perfect forum to reach a ton of people and let them know the technology is out there. If they had a problem with the treatment of Phil, they would have voiced their concern a long time ago. Both PETA and Phil have been around for quite some time…
trisha,
Yes! All shadows where I am. What does that mean?
Yeah, PETA has become more about PETA and less about thier cause.
Y’s Guy
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:39 am
can you imagine there were people on this board last spring openly rooting for joe g. to fail so the yankees could hire super-genius peta boy tony larussa to manage?
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This a completely unfair generalization of what Tony LaRussa does. Grow up.
Tony LaRussa’s Animal Rescue Foundation
http://www.arf.net/
“Managing the pen and the starters. Torre would have warn out his top two guys and Rivera and by the playoffs, the pen would have been completely shot, not to mention keeping CC, AJ and Pettitte fairly rested.”
There’s no real evidence of that. When Torre had more than 2 legit starters and better bullpen personnel, he did fine. At the end of his tenure, he really didn’t have either of those. Similarly, Joe G didn’t have more than 2 legit starters and either and had a pen that struggled until Cash moved some of the deadwood and promoted some guys from the minors. You always look a lot brighter as a manager when you have the personnel.
I love groundhogs.
you see them everwhere in the Hudson River valley
PETA lost some credibility when they threw paint on some celeb’s fur coat. While she was wearing it.
I’m sure they do some great things, but they seem to spend a fair amount of energy trying to get their name into the news cycle.
The New York Yankees and Johnny Damon are PARTING WAYS!
“m
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:53 am
trisha,
Yes! All shadows where I am. What does that mean?”
HA HA HA!!
Swish did okay last night.
Wonder how he got involved. Was the shows first choice or did more well known Yankees take a pass?
trisha – OPPC forever – (new lucky picture from last day at the old Stadium) BRING ON THE GHOSTS!
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:44 am
GB – in honor of Groundhog Day!
Question: do we know that Yankees are looking for another bat/Of/whatever, or is it just the wish list of people here? I see Reed Johnson (no longer now though), Baldelli, Thames as names thrown around. Since I haven’t been keeping up with all of the posts I don’t know whether the Yankees are looking or posters are looking.
Thanks.
————————————————————
Not sure, Trisha. Most of the “intelligence community” like Heyman, Verducci and their bretheren are saying that NYYs are trying to lasso Thames or Baldelli. Cashman, as usual is skirting the issue, neither admitting or denying anything. Why they’d be looking for a right handed bat is beyond me. Depending on the opposition pitcher, the Yanks will run out 2 right handed hitters 4 (Jeter and Rodriguez), 4 left handed bats (Johnson, Cano, Gardner and Granderson) and 3 switch hitters (Swisher, Posada and Teixeira) against right handed pitchers or swap Winn for Gardner against the left handed pitchers. That’s as balanced a line-up as possible. My concern is more with the bullpen.
One last thing, Trisha. The bench is almost all right handed.
P.E.T.A = People Eating Tasty Animals…
Jalapena’s a switch hitter, no? I don’t worry about the health of the rotation so much as I do about the health of the left side of the infield. If those two can stay healthy, we’re in good shape (knock on wood).
Hopefully the presence of some heavy ammo on the pitching staff will keep the Boston beanballers at bay.
(I wasn’t done with the post, thank you!)
I think it means the sun isn’t up yet, mel!
I’m with you on going to ST as configured. And I am also guessing that the desire for Thames and Baldelli are poster-driven and not coming from information that the Ys are still looking.
How much is enough? Come one people. It isn’t as if we have a paltry defensive OF and no offense! I’m excited with what we have.
About Damon. Talk about Groundhog Day! The only reason we’re still talking about this is because Damon is still talking about it. I mean this in the kindest way possible, but the guy truly is an idiot. I have never seen any other player dig his heels in in terms of finances and then come out and announce he isn’t done with the team yet, when the team is the one who let him adios! He really is daft. But well meaning. Seriously. Nobody with a fully functioning brain would have said the things he did. Johnny has lots of descriptions: mercenery, great teammate, gritty player, suspect defender, clutch hitter, da yada. “Bright” isn’t one of them.
Brian Cashman: The book on Damon was closed a long time ago.
Damon: I’m not ruling out New York, whenever it is, whether I start the season with them, or whether they trade for me at the deadline, or if they sign me next year, or what not.
Will that blind determination (and realization that the $$$$ he loves so much will come nowhere but out of a place like NY) work for him? TBD
Granderson and Thames are tight.
it may be Thames
I’ve got groundhogs or possum or woodchucks whatever the heck you call those things in my very own yard. I hate ‘em!
They’re the main reason I have not bothered to try planting a vegetable garden.
That and while I can do many things of the domestic variety, gardening does not come easily to me.
Well played, Sam. Well played!
“Jalapena’s a switch hitter, no?”
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sounds like a pepper
Smokin’ hot! (j/k-he’s just a kid, and he reminds me of Ray Romano) See ya in the next thread).
vinny-b
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:17 am
“Jalapena’s a switch hitter, no?”
————————————-
sounds like a pepper
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LOL
That’s the first thing I thought of too!
“One last thing, Trisha. The bench is almost all right handed.”
Aha!
Gotta think about this one.
New Thread: Pinch hitting: Chris and Trevor Kaftan
Just what the world needs. A $7,000 talking sex robot has been invented. Too many jokes here.
Need breakfast to help me think out batting situation.
Be back.
Don’t know the origin, but IF the Yankees were looking for another RH bat, I thought it was a fairly interesting conversation. Especially now that the field is narrowed quite a bit. Who knows what the Yankees will end up doing?
Pinch hitters are up
“Just what the world needs. A $7,000 talking sex robot has been invented”
I’d pay $8,000 for one that doesn’t talk.
Oh I see what you did there, Sam. Very clever.