The Yankees took both games of a double header against the Texas Rangers last night elevating them 5.5 games behind Boston and a mere .002% points out of a second place tie.
Andy Pettitte - Unfortunately the bullpen denied Pettitte a decision in the first game, but he still pitched a decent game giving up five hits, two earned runs, while striking out five in six innings of work.
Mike Mussina - Not a bad outing for his first game back from the DL. In 5 innings pitched he gave up four hits, one run, while striking out three. I can be happy with that.
Derek Jeter - Jeter hasn't been getting much attention lately amid the A-Rod streak and the pitching disasters, but last night he extended his hitting streak to 20 games. Even Yankee hating ESPN was forced to recognize Jeter:
Mariano Rivera - 2 games, 2 saves. What did I tell you, Rivera has a couple of bad showings and everyone calls him a has been. He is getting older, but the Sandman is still effective.
Carl Pavano - The bane of my existence. There are more unsubstantiated rumors that he will undergo Tommy John's surgery and miss the rest of the year. If this is true then my previous posts about rumors that he is done for '07 appear to have been true. I don't get this guy. He isn't helping himself or the team by hiding injuries from Torre and the training staff, but he must have told someone something (other than the Yankees) that he didn't think he would be a go for this year. So another year in his 35 million dollar contract goes to waste. We should have cut this guy loose for not disclosing his car accident last year, we didn't and what do we get....more of the same crap. I've given up on Pavano, even if he does come back this year in my mind he has been demoted to bum status.
Musings on The State of The Game
While the Yankees are my blood, I have adopted the Washington Nationals as my National League team. This is partially because as a kid growing up in northern Vermont I used to go to Olympic Stadium to watch the Expos, but also because I live in the District and they are local (no disrespect to Baltimore, but I can't pick you guys since you are in the AL East). Needless to say I was overjoyed when the dying Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals. It was a smart decision for baseball to move rather than expand into a growing market that was desperately thirsty for a team, and finally had a population base that could support and keep them.
It's nice to see that MLB seems to have learned from the mistakes it made expansion wise over the past decade. Fortunately the idea to move the Expos to Las Vegas was nixed (the game has enough problems with gambling), and while Portland may not have been a bad choice clearly Washington DC was the best pick. But there are still the bad choices that baseball has to live with. Case in point, both of the Florida teams. The people who live in these markets are mostly transplants or just don't care. As a result it is hard for Tampa and Miami to get a certified fan base even though the Marlins have won two World Series. It was a similar problem in Montreal, they had a base of people, just no real interest in the team unless they were doing extremely well which was rare. It's all a question of smart marketing, which baseball didn't do a great job of in the 1990's when it expanded. Miami is a Football / Basketball town, Tampa Bay is really a nothing town (none of their sports teams ever amount to much), and while the Expos had been in Montreal since the 60's, it is really a hockey town.
In the absence of some sort of salary cap, contraction would probably be a good thing for the game. In lieu of that baseball needs to think hard about some of it's bad choices and consider moving teams before they ever expand to other markets. It has worked so far moving Montreal to Washington. Even though they are cellar dwellers this year, the new stadium and ownership should provide strong guidance. Further, given that Northern Virgina has some of the fastest growing counties in the country it won't be long before the Nationals have a solid fan base.
Andy Pettitte - Unfortunately the bullpen denied Pettitte a decision in the first game, but he still pitched a decent game giving up five hits, two earned runs, while striking out five in six innings of work.
Mike Mussina - Not a bad outing for his first game back from the DL. In 5 innings pitched he gave up four hits, one run, while striking out three. I can be happy with that.
Derek Jeter - Jeter hasn't been getting much attention lately amid the A-Rod streak and the pitching disasters, but last night he extended his hitting streak to 20 games. Even Yankee hating ESPN was forced to recognize Jeter:
"Jeter, who had a 25-game hitting streak last season, is the third player
in Yankees history to have a 20-game streak in back-to-back seasons, joining Joe
DiMaggio (1940 and 1941) and Don Mattingly (1984 and 1985)."
Mariano Rivera - 2 games, 2 saves. What did I tell you, Rivera has a couple of bad showings and everyone calls him a has been. He is getting older, but the Sandman is still effective.
Carl Pavano - The bane of my existence. There are more unsubstantiated rumors that he will undergo Tommy John's surgery and miss the rest of the year. If this is true then my previous posts about rumors that he is done for '07 appear to have been true. I don't get this guy. He isn't helping himself or the team by hiding injuries from Torre and the training staff, but he must have told someone something (other than the Yankees) that he didn't think he would be a go for this year. So another year in his 35 million dollar contract goes to waste. We should have cut this guy loose for not disclosing his car accident last year, we didn't and what do we get....more of the same crap. I've given up on Pavano, even if he does come back this year in my mind he has been demoted to bum status.
Musings on The State of The Game
While the Yankees are my blood, I have adopted the Washington Nationals as my National League team. This is partially because as a kid growing up in northern Vermont I used to go to Olympic Stadium to watch the Expos, but also because I live in the District and they are local (no disrespect to Baltimore, but I can't pick you guys since you are in the AL East). Needless to say I was overjoyed when the dying Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals. It was a smart decision for baseball to move rather than expand into a growing market that was desperately thirsty for a team, and finally had a population base that could support and keep them.
It's nice to see that MLB seems to have learned from the mistakes it made expansion wise over the past decade. Fortunately the idea to move the Expos to Las Vegas was nixed (the game has enough problems with gambling), and while Portland may not have been a bad choice clearly Washington DC was the best pick. But there are still the bad choices that baseball has to live with. Case in point, both of the Florida teams. The people who live in these markets are mostly transplants or just don't care. As a result it is hard for Tampa and Miami to get a certified fan base even though the Marlins have won two World Series. It was a similar problem in Montreal, they had a base of people, just no real interest in the team unless they were doing extremely well which was rare. It's all a question of smart marketing, which baseball didn't do a great job of in the 1990's when it expanded. Miami is a Football / Basketball town, Tampa Bay is really a nothing town (none of their sports teams ever amount to much), and while the Expos had been in Montreal since the 60's, it is really a hockey town.
In the absence of some sort of salary cap, contraction would probably be a good thing for the game. In lieu of that baseball needs to think hard about some of it's bad choices and consider moving teams before they ever expand to other markets. It has worked so far moving Montreal to Washington. Even though they are cellar dwellers this year, the new stadium and ownership should provide strong guidance. Further, given that Northern Virgina has some of the fastest growing counties in the country it won't be long before the Nationals have a solid fan base.
2 comments:
The Nats will save your soul, Bruce. Soon you'll forget all about this pinstripe stuff.
HA, I'll never give up the pin stripes but I can still get behind the Nats.
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