Flickr Image Courtesy of andy.wolf
I’m sorry but I cannot bring myself to even rehash tonight’s debacle. So this picture will have to do. I know it’s not “professional” and other big time blogs wouldn’t dare act like this but I don’t care.
Hopefully Phil Hughes will stop the bleeding tomorrow.
Happy What’s Wrong With The Yankees Week!
In the past, Yankee fans have experienced “What’s Wrong With Mo Week.” This is a phenomenon that occurs when Mariano Rivera doesn’t seem like himself and has some bad outings. They usually happen in a cluster. It also usually seems to happen some time in either July or in August. You guys know those weeks when everyone in the media declares Mo done and then he comes back better than ever.
Well, now it seems like we are right smack in the middle of “What’s Wrong With The Yankees Week.” This year, the entire team is in a bit of a funk at the same time.
Some recent facts about the Yankees that you need to know:
1) They are 3-8 over their last 11 games.
2) All eight of those losses have been by two runs or less and six of them have been by one run.
3) Their last nine losses have been by a combined 12 runs.
Tonight’s game was another one of those one-run losses, this time to the Baltimore Orioles.
The Yanks scored first on an RBI single by Eric Chavez in the second inning.
Baltimore came back in the next inning with a run of their own off the bat of Wilson Betemit who hit a Freddy Garcia offering into right field – it was Betemit’s 12th home run of the year.
The Orioles scored again on back to back sacrifice flies by Omar Quintanilla and Nick Markakis in the fifth inning to pull ahead 3-1. Wow, what a novel concept. Sacrifice flies? Hmm.
They scored yet again in the seventh on an RBI double by Markakis and a J.J. Hardy single to right.
So with the score 5-2, the Yankees had to try and mount a comeback. Again. This movie is beginning to look awfully familiar.
In the bottom of the seventh, it looked like the Yankees would have a chance to do just that. After two quick outs by Nick Swisher and Raul Ibanez to start the inning, Chavez and Ichiro Suzuki hit back to back home runs.
Do not adjust your monitors, you are reading that correctly. Ichiro hit a home run – the 100th of his career – to pull the Yankees to within one run.
After a quiet bottom of the eighth, Nick Swisher got the bottom of the ninth started with a ground rule double to right center off Orioles reliever Jim Johnson.
What’s that? A blip on the heart monitor? The Yankees still had life. Or so everyone thought.
Joe Girardi replaced Swisher with pinch runner Ramiro Pena. Ibanez came up with a chance to tie the game and struck out swinging. Chavez followed that up with a walk and Ichiro came up to bat.
Would he be the hero? Nope. He grounded into a force play i.e. it would have been a double play if someone else were running. So Pena advanced to third and there were two outs.
It was up to Russell Martin to try and tie the game. Last night’s would be hero, if the Yankees hadn’t coughed up another late lead to the Red Sox struck out to end the game.
Ballgame over, Yankees lose.
Poor Freddy Garcia. He wasn’t that bad tonight. He pitched six full innings and gave up three runs on nine hits. He also walked three and struck out two. On the flip side, Orioles starter Mike Gonzalez won his third game of the season. He gave up all four runs to the Yankees on six hits, struck out eight and didn’t walk a batter.
Anyway, I’m really not enjoying WWTYW and I hope they snap out of it soon.
I’m glad ESPN wanted to write an article showcasing Mark Teixeira’s nice July but it would be nice if they actually used a picture of Mark to accompany the article.
That’s clearly Nick Swisher being congratulated by Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano. Teixeira isn’t even seen in the picture.
Fail.
If you’re not on Twitter, I’ll have to explain this to you.
After tonight’s loss to the Red Sox, reporters asked Mark Teixeira about his slow start out of the box after his home run off of Vicente Padilla. He claimed he was making sure it didn’t go foul. The reporters all had to keep from laughing as Tex apparently said his explanation with a straight face. In case you missed the home run, it was hit pretty deep into Section 104 which is not close to the foul pole at all.
About an hour later,Tex tweeted what you see above reiterating what he said in the locker room about making sure the ball was going foul. David Robertson joined in the fun and responded to him.
I love this team so much. They’re such smart asses.
How I feel right now
Well, that sucked.
The Yankees were down by as much as 6-1, tied the score and then lost when Curtis Granderson misplayed a ball in the top of the ninth. That’s so frustrating.
But some positives from the game:
Some negatives:
Oh well, the Yankees can still salvage a series win tomorrow night. So far this year, they’re 6-2 against the Sox this year. Those two losses occurred when the games aired on Fox. And of course, when that happens Joe Buck and Tim McCarver act as though the Yankees are really 2-6 against the Sox this year.
Tomorrow’s game is on ESPN. So rest up kids!
“Two of Granderson’s Grand Slams have come with the bases loaded”
This was uttered by Ford C. Frick Award winner and Hall Of Famer, Tim McCarver during today’s Yankees-Red Sox broadcast on Fox.
I..I..What?
It’s not like he’s a broadcaster who never played the game of baseball. The man played the sport for years. Does he think the viewers are really that stupid? Did the guys in the truck die laughing? Did Joe Buck turn and look at him as if to say, “What the hell?”
Fans should be used to Tim McCarver saying silly things because it’s become a bit of a tradition but this one was taking things a bit too far. Wow.
Nighttime at the Stadium by SG
2012 has been an odd year. And whenever some of those odd things occur, people joke about the apocalypse.
So here are a couple of new igns of the apocalypse:
What in the heck is going on!??!
The Red Sox struck first with a solo home run by Dustin Pedroia in the top of the first. Wait, Phil Hughes gave up a home run in Yankee Stadium? Surely, you jest.
The Yankees came back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the first because all the Yankees do this year – or so it seems – is score against the Red Sox in the first inning. In fact, the Yankees have scored 15 runs in the first inning against the Sox in their past four games. So, that is all they do.
For their part, the Red Sox made an effort to try and stay in this game by adding two more solo shots – by Carl Crawford and Jarrod Saltalamacchia – but it wasn’t enough.
The Yankees ended up scoring four in the bottom of the eighth to go from 6-3 to 10-3. And this is how it happened:
Curtis Granderson’s 28th home run of the season was of the grand slam variety. Yes, I called it a “Granderslam” on Twitter. I couldn’t help myself. It was the Yankees’s seventh grand slam of the season.
And thanks to Elias for this stat: Granderson is only the third Yankees center fielder to hit a grand slam against Boston. They other two: Joe DiMaggio and Bernie Williams.
Thanks to tonight’s victory, the Yankees are now 6-1 against Boston this year. Wow, that’s also pretty weird. That hardly ever happens.
Flickr image by Maisa_NYC
For many people, whether they’re watching on TV or in person at the ballpark, the game of baseball is a form of escapism. It’s a few hours away from everyday life when people can forget their troubles and become engrossed in watching their favorite team(s).
For others, it’s a form of therapy in a way. No matter how bad life seems to be going, sitting in the ballpark and watching baseball makes them happy.
I’m one of those people.
I have Bipolar Disorder. I had been struggling with it for most of my adult life without knowing what it was and I was finally diagnosed in January 2007.
I’m very open about having Bipolar because to be honest, I don’t want it to be a stigma anymore. Many people are ashamed to admit to having issue with mental illness and with the way its talked about in today’s society, I don’t blame them.
We have a long way to go in how we treat people with mental illness but there are strides being made. What a lot of people don’t realize is that having a mental illness is a lot like having a disease like diabetes and it’s often treated in similar ways: You’re monitored by doctors, you take medicine and you have to live with it the rest of your life.
Does my Bipolar Disorder affect me everyday? Yes. Every single day and some days are worse than others. That’s why I love baseball so much. It helps me to forget what’s happening in my life and I can focus on the game.
In fact, I often call Yankee Stadium my happy place because no matter how I am feeling on a given day, the second I walk into the Great Hall, I forget my troubles and become engrossed in Yankees baseball.
It’s my home away from home. It’s also a form of therapy.
***
I first set foot in Yankee Stadium in August 1983. I was a couple of weeks shy of my ninth birthday and my dad was finally taking me to see live baseball.
When I was very young, before my brother was born and we moved to the suburbs, my parents and I lived in an apartment in upper Manhattan. My bedroom happened to be next to the living room and I’d go to bed listening to the games. Unbeknownst to me at the time, my dad was making me fall in love with the game of baseball before I even really knew what it was.
So on the day I was finally getting to go the Stadium I was ecstatic but I was also a little annoyed at my father for waiting for long to take me. At the time, I didn’t realize that he was being pretty smart about it. Now that I’m an adult, I understand why he waited so long. I often see people with their young children at games and watch as they spend most of the time tending to the children and not paying attention to the game. That’s no fun.
Being a native New Yorker meant that I had seen the Stadium many times from afar as a young child – I had passed it many times in the car on the way downtown – and on television but nothing prepared me for walking inside of the Stadium. I didn’t speak. I just looked around at everything.
It was so dark in the old Stadium, even during the day so when you walked out of the tunnel and saw the field for the first time, it was like a vampire being blinded by the sun.
The Stadium seemed so grand and I made sure I looked at everything as we made our way to the seats. I looked out to the pitcher’s mound, I looked up at the upper deck above us and marveled at how high it seemed. I looked over at the big signs above the bleachers and the frieze above them. I looked toward the Yankee dugout and over toward home plate.
It’s amusing because nearly 30 years later, I am the same way. I’ve been to the new place a lot in the nearly four full seasons it’s been open and yet, I still act like I’m seeing everything for the first time.
That day back in 1983, our seats were in the first row right behind the left field wall – in those days, the wall was all the way back to the seats. Having an unobstructed view was a pleasure.
The other thing about that day that made it so special for me was that we were there for a doubleheader. Yes, I was seeing two games for my first trip to the Stadium.
My dad brought me and my friends John, Billy and my crush Joe. I think dad regretted that decision within the first inning. The boys were misbehaving. (I, of course, was a perfect angel.)
I actually can remember what I wore that day. It happened to be my favorite outfit to wear that summer – a white top and shorts outfit that had pastel pink, yellow and blue on it. The top’s straps tied at the shoulders.
I remember having my first Yankee Stadium hot dog and it seeming like the best hot dog I ever had in my life; my dad got us peanuts and we shared a bag – now I can eat a whole bag myself.
There was a ‘funny now looking back at it but not so funny at the time’ moment when I was playing with a mustard packet, squeezing it over and over again until it had enough, burst open and splattered all over my poor father who was wearing white from head to toe. I remember him yelling at me, and I remember how embarrassed I was that he did that in front of the boy I liked.
One of the best moments of the day was when my dad was talking to Dave Winfield during warm ups between the games – Winfield was playing left field. I was in awe at the time and couldn’t say anything. They were talking like they were two old friends. My dad has never had a problem talking to people no matter how famous they are. I really wish I had inherited that trait from him.
The Yankees won both games against the Toronto Blue Jays that day and from that day on, I was hooked on live baseball.
***
After the September 11th attacks of 2001, baseball played an even bigger role in my life. What I didn’t realize at the time was that witnessing those attacks on television set off a chain of events which led to my Bipolar diagnosis. It also led to my losing friendships, losing my apartment and losing jobs.
But the one constant for me and the one thing I never lost, was my love for baseball.
I was fortunate enough to be able to attend to five playoff games in 2001. I’ve always said that those games helped everyone keep their minds off what was happening downtown, even if it was only for a few hours a night.
I was there the night the Yankees went down 0-2 to the Oakland Athletics. I was there the night they defeated them to clinch the Division Series and move on to the American League Championship Series. I was there the night Alfonso Soriano hit a walk-off home run against the 116-win Seattle Mariners in Game Four of the ALCS. And I was there the night Mr. November was born.
I am lucky to have witnessed a lot of exciting – and not so exciting – moments in both Stadiums. And I am thankful to have baseball be a part of my life. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like without it and I cringe at the notion.
I feel like baseball gives me a reason to keep on going. That may seem silly to some but it’s true. A lot of people with Bipolar have suicidal thoughts and I’ll admit to having them every once in a while but the thought of not going on and not existing anymore is too scary for me to comprehend.
So I soldier on, with baseball and writing about baseball helping to guide me through the sometimes murky abyss that has become my life.
And this Sunday night, I will be in my therapist’s office to watch the Yankees take on the Boston Red Sox. I hope it’s a good session.
Good afternoon!
If you’re one of those people who likes to spend their lunchtime at work perusing articles on the internet, this is the place to be!
First up, Matt Imbrogno of The Yankee Analysts writes about the possibility of making Alex Rodriguez the full-time DH.
Marc Carig of the Star Ledger talks about Ichiro preparing for his first home game as a Yankee. Talk about being thrown into the fire! There’s nothing like a Yankees-Red Sox series to introduce yourself to the home fans. I predicted an Ichiro home run to the short porch. We’ll see what happens.
In case you missed it yesterday, Mike Axisa of River Ave Blues explored the Yankees’s options at third base during A-Rod’s absence.
Over at Pinstripe Alley, Tanya Bondurant emphatically states that Hiroki Kuroda is no National League Pitcher – and she has the stats to back it up.
Now for one of my favorite things to read everyday. It’s a general baseball post by The Common Man of The Platoon Advantage. It’s his Morning Cram Session and in it, he talks about what happened the previous day around the league. He’s very funny and I recommend you set aside a few minutes every morning to read it.
Adam Darowski who contributes to SB Nation’s Beyond the Boxscore and to Baseball: Past and Present – a site I occasionally contribute to as well – has a new home over at High Heat Stats. Today he talks about the difference between WAA and WAR.
And finally, in case you hadn’t heard, the Boston Red Sox are finally coming to town this weekend to take on the Yanks. It’s July 27 and this is the first time the teams are meeting in Yankee Stadium. Weird, right? Anyway, the aforementioned Mike Axisa of RAB has your series preview. Big spoiler: No David Ortiz. He’s still injured.
