The LoHud Yankees Blog

In all of the Cliff Lee madness, this press release was obviously buried yesterday.

The New York Yankees announced today that seven members of the 1950 World Championship team will be on hand at the 64th annual Old-Timers’ Day on Saturday, July 17, at Yankee Stadium. Introductions are scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. with the traditional Old-Timers’ game to follow, both of which will be aired exclusively on the YES Network. The Yankees will then host the Tampa Bay Rays at 4:05 p.m., airing on FOX.

The Old-Timers are headlined by seven members of the Yankees’ 1950 World Series-winning club, including Hall-of-Famers Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford, as well as Jerry Coleman, Don Johnson, Duane Pillette, Charlie Silvera and Hank Workman. For Johnson, Pillette and Workman, this year will mark their first Old-Timers’ Day appearances. Dr. Bobby Brown, Ralph Houk and Fred Sanford were invited, but will not be able to attend the event.

Also in attendance will be Hall of Famers Rich “Goose” Gossage and Reggie Jackson, along with 2009-inductee Rickey Henderson. In addition, Cecil Fielder will make his Old-Timers’ Day debut.

Joining the Hall-of-Famers and members of the 1950 Yankees club on the baselines will be more than 30 additional former Yankees and the widows of four legendary Yankees—Arlene Howard, widow of Elston Howard; Helen Hunter, widow of Jim “Catfish” Hunter; Kay Murcer, widow of Bobby Murcer; and Diana Munson, widow of Thurman Munson.

List of those Scheduled to Attend
(*Denotes First-Time Old-Timer)

Luis Arroyo
Jesse Barfield
Yogi Berra
Ron Blomberg
Homer Bush
Rick Cerone
Chris Chambliss
Horace Clarke
Jerry Coleman
David Cone
Bucky Dent
Al Downing
Brian Doyle
Mike Easler
Dave Eiland
Cecil Fielder*
Whitey Ford
Oscar Gamble
Joe Girardi
Rich “Goose” Gossage
Ron Guidry
Charlie Hayes
Rickey Henderson
Arlene Howard
Helen Hunter
Reggie Jackson
Don Johnson*
Pat Kelly
Don Larsen
Hector Lopez
Lee Mazzilli
Gene Michael
Diana Munson
Kay Murcer
Jerry Narron
Jeff Nelson
Graig Nettles
Joe Pepitone
Duane Pillette*
Mickey Rivers
Charlie Silvera
Bill “Moose” Skowron
Aaron Small
Mel Stottlemyre
Ralph Terry
Mike Torrez
Bob Turley
Roy White
Hank Workman*

For those of you who wanted Cliff Lee in pinstripes, yesterday wasn’t a total loss. Worse-case scenario would have been either Tampa Bay or Boston landing the lefty. Best-case scenio — non-New-York division — might honestly have been Texas.

The Rangers are are reportedly optimistic that they can sign Lee this winter, but for a team with significant financial and ownership issues, that might be a tough free agent move to make.  They’ll have exclusive rights to early negotiations, but it’s not hard to picture Lee slipping through to the open market.

And if he’s on the open market…

“I don’t think we have to do much recruiting,” CC Sabathia said. “He knows what it’s like over here. I’ve talked to him a bunch about what it’s like in the clubhouse and being part of this team. Hopefully it works out.”

Sabathia spoke very highly of Lee. The two old Cleveland teammates talked three times during yesterday’s swirling trade rumors, and when Dave Eiland and Mike Harkey asked Sabathia about Lee, he gave a good report.

“I told them we got along great,” Sabathia said. “He was great in the clubhouse. He’s a good dude.”

Of course, Sabathia couldn’t help laughing at the reporters gathered around his locker for a second day in a row, asking questions that have nothing to do with Sabathia. First LeBron James, now this.

“Trades that ain’t happening and basketball players,” Sabathia said.

Associated Press photo of Lee during his brief press conference yesterday.

Hanging in Phil Hughes locker after tonight’s game were a half dozen or so All-Star Game jerseys. They’re gifts for friends and family. He pulled the smallest one — intended for some young relative — and said, “I’m going to wear this one in the game.”

Yes, the Yankees No. 5 starter is an all-star, and he pitched like it again tonight. This was his 11th win, and his ERA dropped back down to 3.65. Joe Girardi was impressed by his fastball, and Hughes said his curveball was as good as it’s been this season.

Thing is, Hughes’ day started with uncertainty. He woke up believing he would be pitching against Cliff Lee, then he heard the trade rumors and wondered if he might be bumped to the bullpen because of Cliff Lee.

“Obviously we’re not going to go with a six-man rotation in the second half,” Hughes said. “Something’s got to give. You kind of do the math and figure it’s not going to be the top three guys, so where do we fall into this picture? It’s kind of the way this game is. It’s not always about feel-good stories and keeping guys that were good in spring training around.”

Hughes is one of those feel-good stories: A 24-year-old who seems to be coming into his own at the big league level.

“Right now,” Mark Teixeira said. “All the hype is true.”

• Speaking of Teixeira, he hit home runs from both sides of the plate tonight and has looked more and more like himself at the plate lately. “It’s one of those times when I’m seeing the ball from both sides, and I’m not having to fight one or the other,” he said. “That happens on and off all during the season. Sometimes you’re fighting one, sometimes you’re fighting the other.”

• Hughes tied Andy Pettitte for the highest winning percentage (.846) in the American League. He has yet to allow a home run on the road this season.

• This is the first time since 2002 that the Yankees have allowed two runs or less in five straight games. They’ve allowed a total of six runs in the past five games. Most of that is due to great starting pitching this turn through the rotation. “It really helps,” Girardi said. “Because we’ve been in some tight games and we haven’t scored a lot of runs.”

• That’s 30 straight games reaching base for Teixeira. Since June 8 he’s batting .309 with nine doubles, nine home runs, 25 RBI and six walks.

• Chan Ho Park allowed two fairly weak singles, but Girardi was actually impressed with what he saw. “I thought his stuff was about as good as we’ve seen,” Girardi said.

• Dave Robertson had that ugly outing in New York earlier this month. He’s since pitched 3.1 scoreless with two hits and four strikeouts.

• A seven-game winning streak is a season-high. The Yankees have won 12 of their past 15 games on the road.

Associated Press photos of Hughes and Teixeira

In his final start before the break, Phil Hughes pitched like he belonged in the All-Star Game. He walked none for the second time this season and picked up his 11th win in a 6-1 game against Seattle. Mark Teixeira went deep from both sides of the plate for the 10th time in his career. Hughes, Andy Pettitte and CC Sabathia are the first trio of teammates to have 11 wins at the all-star break since the Astros in 1999 (Jose Lima, Mike Hampton and Shane Reynolds).

Associated Press photo of Hughes. I know photographers have taken that same photo of Hughes several times, but I always like it.

YANKEES (54-31)
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson CF
Colin Curtis RF
Brett Gardner LF

RHP Phil Hughes (10-2, 3.83)
Hughes vs. Mariners

MARINERS (34-51)
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Chone Figgins 2B
Russell Branyan DH
Jose Lopez 3B
Franklin Gutierrez CF
Casey Kotchman 1B
Michael Saunders LF
Rob Johnson C
Jack Wilson SS

RHP David Pauley (0-0, 0.00)
Pauley vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 10:10 p.m. ET / YES Network

UMPIRES: HP Ron Kulpa, 1B Lance Barksdale, 2B Ed Rapuano, 3B Tom Hallion

WEATHER: A few clouds in the sky but nothing to worry about. Temperatures in the 80s with practically no chance of rain.

I’m calling an audible tonight. I usually put the game post 15 minutes before the game and some pregame notes before that, but this has been a pretty weird day. I just haven’t had time to write a regular pregame notes post, so we’ll go with an early game post that has some notes. To be perfectly honest, it was pretty much all Cliff Lee here at Safeco. There aren’t many Yankee notes to begin with.

• Girardi said he heard the Cliff Lee rumors this morning. He made one call to ask what was going on, then went about his day. “I don’t ever think you’re gonna have a guy in your clubhouse until he actually walks through that door,” Girardi said. “There’s a lot of things that take place that, as a manager, I really don’t ever have to deal with. I went through it in ’96 where we thought we were getting players, and we were going to get this guy, and that was my first taste of it. I realize that until a guy’s in that clubhouse, you really can’t think too much about it.”

• Nick Johnson did not see Dr. Ahmad today. He was expected to see him but did not. There’s no word on when that might actually happen.

• Girardi said there’s nothing new on Alfredo Aceves, but Sergio Mitre is scheduled to make another rehab appearance tomorrow.

• The Yankees have not settled on a rotation for after the all-star break.

• Girardi said he’s “pretty close” to naming an all-star game starter.

• The Yankees had Kangaroo Court today. Mariano Rivera was once again the judge. “I’m sure I’m rung up,” Girardi said.

UPDATE, 10:52 p.m.: Well, Mark Teixeira hit that solo home run in the first inning, but David Pauley has shut the Yankees down in the second the third. It’s still 1-0 Yankees.

UPDATE, 11:06 p.m.: Pretty nice curveball from Hughes to strike out Russell Branyan and get out of the third inning.

UPDATE, 11:28 p.m.: Apparently Cliff Lee left a little bit of himself in Seattle, and he’s calling it David Pauley.

UPDATE, 11:41 p.m.: Oh wow. They gave Lopez an error on that play. Looked like a base hit to me. He was in on the grass and Jeter hits a ball hard like that. Should be a hit, but what do I know.

UPDATE, 11:50 p.m.: Sac fly from Alex Rodriguez brought in a run, but it’s the two-out, two-run triple that’s done the most damage, giving the Yankees a 4-0 lead here in the sixth.

UPDATE, 11:56 p.m.: The Yankees got one more run on an RBI single by Granderson and Hughes is back on the mound with a 5-0 lead in the sixth. The Yankees have five runs and only four hits.

UPDATE, 12:06 p.m.: Did Brett Gardner misread that ball to left? Kind of looked like it from up here. Either way, it fell for an RBI double to get the Mariners on the board, 5-1.

UPDATE, 12:30 p.m.: Starting in front of a lot of home town fans, Colin Curtis just doubled. His friends must be sitting beneath the press box, because that section went nuts when he drove that ball to the wall.

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson CF
Colin Curtis RF
Brett Gardner LF

Cliff Lee spent his morning in Seattle expecting the exact same thing thousands of fans in New York were expecting. Lee was all but certain he was about to become a Yankee.

“I was thinking it looks like I might be going to New York,” Lee said. “That’s what they were saying so I was thinking, maybe that’s reality, but come to find out, that’s not what happened. I think maybe that story triggered some other teams to get a little bit more aggressive and forced this to happen. I don’t know what all was going on. I didn’t know anything. The only thing I knew was what I saw on SportsCenter and what I saw on the news.”

Lee started getting curious last night. He didn’t specify, but he said he had a feeling a trade might be close, and he was hearing the Yankees might be involved. One his first calls was to CC Sabathia.

“I called him last night and said, ‘Hey, have you heard anything?’” Lee said. “I’m hearing that potentially a trade is going down with New York. He said some people had asked him some questions about my background and stuff. He told them what he thought, and he was thinking it was going to happen.”

Of course, it didn’t happen. Seattle GM Jack Zduriencik said he was talking to multiple teams. He said he never took a deal that was done and brought it to another team to sweeten the pot. If the Rangers had included Justin Smoak yesterday, he said, the deal would have been done yesterday. That said, there was more than one deal in place today that he felt good about. He said he simply chose the Rangers package of players, mostly it seems, because of Smoak.

“Who knows what might have happened,” Lee said. “There were probably a lot of things that were close to happening.”

The Mariners have announced that David Pauley will be tonight’s starter against the Yankees. That’s odd. It was supposed to be Cliff Lee.

Must be resting him for the all-star game.

UPDATE, 3:16 p.m.: The Mariners press conference begins in a few minutes. Their trade with the Rangers is official. Cliff Lee and Mark Lowe to Texas for 1B Justin Smoak, RHP Blake Beaven, INF Matt Lawson and RHP Josh Lueke. The Mariners are also sending cash. Beaven, Lawson and Lueke were in Double-A. It’s a tough day for Frisco.

UPDATE, 3:30 p.m.: Joe Girardi doesn’t have a lineup yet because he didn’t know until recently who would be starting for Seattle.

Looks like Cliff Lee will be traded today, but not to the Yankees.

Joel Sherman, who’s been in the thick of this all day, is now reporting that a deal is done between the Mariners and Rangers. The Mariners will send Lee and reliever Mark Lowe. The Rangers will send Justin Smoak and three other young players.

Clearly these things can change.

Is that a better package than the one the Yankees were offering? U.S.S. Mariner seems to think so.

Joel Sherman now says the Mariners are backing away. The deal to acquire Cliff Lee might not happen after all for the Yankees.

Amazing how these things can turn. A matter of hours ago — minutes ago — a deal was imminent, and now the Mariners might be looking to move Lee elsewhere. It could be that they got a better offer. Could be that the Yankees weren’t offering the players they were believed to be offering. Could be one of a million things.

UPDATE, 3:55 p.m.: If Seattle has backed out because of Adams’ ankle injury, I guess that’s legitimate, but infielders Eduardo Nunez and Corban Joseph are also in the Yankees system. I would think there are still enough pieces to do the deal without Adams, but maybe I’m wrong. Another team might be a more pressing factor.