[I apologize for this because it's not your usual cheery Spring Training update, it's a personal essay that I wrote in December. Truth be told, I'm struggling to come up with stuff to write about this Spring. Juggling two blogs is proving to be much harder than I thought it would be. I promise, I'll be back to normal next week.

Warning: There's some strong language in this piece.

Thanks for reading - Stacey]

2008 was an odd year for me.

It had started off on a positive note. When the new year rolled around, I was three full months into Weight Watchers and I had already dropped 20 lb. The bad news was that I had 40 more to go before hitting my goal of 60.

I was coming out of a really bad time in my life. A traumatic incident such as losing your best friend of 28 years over a guy will make you do silly things like eating enough food to feed six people every night and gaining close to 30 lb in three months.

By September 2007, I had enough. It took struggling to make it up the three flights of stairs to my apartment to become the final straw. It was a hot, late summer evening, I had just gone to the Supermarket and corner bodega to pick up the components of my nightly meal and I was looking forward to gorging like I had never gorged before.

When I took the final step and arrived at my apartment door, which luckily for me was right at the top of the flight of stairs, I honestly thought I was going to die. I unlocked the door, keeled over and truly thought it was the end for me. I could barely breathe, let alone speak or yell or get anyone’s attention and I was living alone at the time which added to my anxiety. Well, I had my feline sons, Jack and Henry, but they were no help as I gasped for air. I stood there with the groceries strewn about my entryway, leaning against the wall, bent at my waist and I was staring at the original 1920′s hardwood floor as my life flashed before my eyes. When my breathing finally returned to normal, I said out-loud, “Enough.”

» Continue reading “Losing Weight, Broken Hearts And Baseball”

(This post was originally published in February 2012. The scariest thing was that a lot of the information in it was from memory. I, of course, consulted different sites for verification to make sure things were correct but overall, numbers, dates and events were burned into my brain. Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Anyway, I picked it because A.J. Burnett wore #34 from 2009 – 2011 for the Yankees. – Stacey)

When he was signed by the New York Yankees in December 2008, A.J. Burnett was on a high. He just had the best season of his career with the Toronto Blue Jays – winning 18 games – and was a coveted free agent pitcher. Now, it’s three seasons later and those same Yankees are about to trade Burnett to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The writing was on the wall for Burnett after the Yankees made a trade with Seattle for starter Michael Pineda and signed free agent starter Hiroki Kuroda in January. The question that was on everyone’s mind had been “What will the Yankees do with high priced, low performing starter A.J. Burnett?”

***

In his three full seasons with the Yankees, Burnett has been just a tad below mediocre record-wise with scant flashes of brilliance and with many abysmal outings under his belt.

Since joining the Yankees, Burnett has amassed a 34-35 record. His best year was his first season – 2009 – when he was 13-9 with a 4.04 ERA and helped the Yankees with a big start in Game Two of the World Series. Facing the prospect of heading to Philadelphia in an 0-2 hole, Burnett out-pitched Pedro Martinez to knot the series at one game apiece and helped the Yankees win their 27th Championship.

Unfortunately for Burnett, baseball fans – and especially fans of the New York Yankees – are of the “what have you done for me lately?” mentality. 2009 was a long time ago. What they care about is the recent past and the recent past isn’t very pretty.

» Continue reading “Countdown: 34 Days Until Spring Training”

A.J. Burnett passed his physical and is now officially a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The three-year long odyssey is now over.

I’d like to wish the best of luck to Burnett in Pittsburgh. Luckily for him, the fans there aren’t total jackasses like they are here in New York.

Now, the Yankees have some money freed up to sign a really old designated hitter.

Hooray!

It’s here! It’s finally here! The day that pitchers and catchers officially report to camp.

And the tweets from the beat writers have been non stop for most of the morning. Thanks to Twitter we know that Joe Girardi is stuck in Newark because his 6am flight had been delayed. We know that Michael Pineda will be wearing #35 and that Andruw Jones switched to #22 while allowing Hiroki Kuroda to wear #18.

We also know that Kuroda will now be using A.J. Burnett’s old Spring Training locker. Joba Chamberlain was the first pitcher out on the field this morning and hopes to be throwing off a half mound sometimes next week.

CC Sabathia says he’s lost 10-15 lb this offseason and that he hopes to maintain his weight this year.

Brian Cashman met with the media at 11am – the time Girardi was supposed to have his meet and greet – and now the writers have been Twitter silenced.

Damn you Cashman!

We’ll have more info as it comes in.

YAY BASEBALL!

I am a big fan of the TV show “30 Rock” and one of my favorite lines from the series is this gem:

I wanna roll my eyes right now, but the doctor said if I keep doing it my ocular muscles might spasm and eject my eyeballs.

I use it every time I see something on Twitter that is extremely eye roll worthy.

This morning’s culprits were a series of tweets by none other than CBS Sports’s Jon Heyman. Now that A.J. Burnett will be traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Yankee fans were left to wonder whether or not the walk off pie tradition would continue.

Here’s Heyman’s take on things:

Can you see why my eyes were so active this morning?

As you can see from his tweets, Mr. Heyman never liked the pies. He thinks the Yankees are above walk off pies. I’m sorry but the idea that a team with a 200M payroll shouldn’t act like they’re having fun playing the game that they love, is totally ludicrous. It also, in a way, sounds a bit like class division.

I guess it would be okay for the Tampa Bay Rays and the aforementioned Pirates to have walk off pies because they have low payrolls, right Mr. Heyman?

I personally think the pies should be a thing of the past but only because Burnett is no longer with the team. It has nothing to do with the Yankees being “above” anything. Burnett started the practice and it should end with him leaving.

And if you were to ask most Yankee fans about the walk off pies, they’d say they enjoyed them. They’d say it was nice to see the usually buttoned up, business-like New York Yankees acting like they were actually enjoying playing the game.

They wouldn’t ever say the Yankees were too dignified for such a lowly tradition. Please.

The deal between the Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates is done. The Yankees will receive two low level Minor Leaguers and the Pirates will get a possible number two starter.

That seems even, no?

All that’s left is MLB’s approval (you know, because there’s A LOT OF MONEY changing hands) and Burnett’s physical which is to take place on Sunday.

Via con dios, A.J.

When he was signed by the New York Yankees in December 2008, A.J. Burnett was on a high. He just had the best season of his career with the Toronto Blue Jays – winning 18 games – and was a coveted free agent pitcher. Now, it’s three seasons later and those same Yankees are about to trade Burnett to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The writing was on the wall for Burnett after the Yankees made a trade with Seattle for starter Michael Pineda and signed free agent starter Hiroki Kuroda in January. The question that was on everyone’s mind had been “What will the Yankees do with high priced, low performing starter A.J. Burnett?”

***

In his three full seasons with the Yankees, Burnett has been just a tad below mediocre record-wise with scant flashes of brilliance and with many abysmal outings under his belt.

Since joining the Yankees, Burnett has amassed a 34-35 record. His best year was his first season – 2009 – when he was 13-9 with a 4.04 ERA and helped the Yankees with a big start in Game Two of the World Series. Facing the prospect of heading to Philadelphia in an 0-2 hole, Burnett out-pitched Pedro Martinez to knot the series at one game apiece and helped the Yankees win their 27th Championship.

Unfortunately for Burnett, baseball fans – and especially fans of the New York Yankees – are of the “what have you done for me lately?” mentality. 2009 was a long time ago. What they care about is the recent past and the recent past isn’t very pretty.

» Continue reading “Saying Good-bye to A.J. Burnett: A Somewhat Painful Retrospective”

There are a lot of things on the internet that cause me to cry out, “I can’t even!” because they’re just so unbelievable.

Like take last night for instance, shortly after the Grammy Awards ended, a link surfaced that had 25 tweets complied in which women were saying they wouldn’t mind being beaten up by Chris Brown. Remember him? He beat Rhianna up three years ago. Yeah.

Or the tweets from the kids who didn’t know who Paul McCartney was. Those were pretty bad too and I feel bad for this generation of teenagers who don’t know about the Beatles.

Well, today, another thing that made me say, “I can’t even…” was a link over at ESPN New York called “A Six Pack to Savor: The Best of AJ Burnett” which was written by Wallace Matthews. I should have known what would be written. Deep down, I knew what would be written but I soldiered on anyway. I guess I’m a glutton for punishment.

In his post, Matthews highlights the lowlights of Burnett’s career in Pinstripes and does it so obnoxiously that I actually felt sorry for him – Matthews not Burnett – when I was done with it.

What happened to Matthews that makes him like this? I get that you shouldn’t want the writers who cover your team to be cheerleaders and that they shouldn’t have a bias toward the team. But on the flip side, Matthews writes about certain guys in a way that makes it seem like he has a personal vendetta against them – Alex Rodriguez is another one. Whether it’s on his twitter account or on the ESPN New York blog, Matthews sometimes takes things a tad too far.

But fret not Yankees fans! Even though he’s most likely losing one target of his wrath to a trade, Rodriguez and poor Eduardo Nunez are still around for Matthews to trash daily.

Happy Saturday afternoon Yankees fans! We are just over a week removed from the start of Spring Training. The big question: Will A.J. Burnett still be a Yankee?

Here are some of the links to help you catch up on the news.

Yankees and Pirates Still Talking AJ Burnett Trade – SB Nation

Pirates Talk To Yankees About AJ Burnett Deal – SI.com

A Tough Trick: Making Burnett’s Deal Disappear – WSJ Online

AJ Burnett Could Be Good Fit For the Pirates – MLB.com

Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates In Trade Talks Involving AJ Burnett – NJ.com

AJ to Pirates “Has Legs” – ESPN New York

Pirates, Yankees Discuss Possible Trade for AJ Burnett – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Does AJ Burnett Make Senes For The Pirates? – The Outside Corner

The AJ Burnett Conundrum – By Yours Truly

In case you missed the hullabaloo yesterday, an app called Baseball Boyfriend was exposed to the world.

Lots of people – myself included – didn’t appreciate the app’s message.

Among them Rebecca Glass of Pinstriped Bible and Steven Goldman of Baseball Prospectus.

Rebecca talks about why she doesn’t need a baseball boyfriend.

Steven’s piece is called, “Pardon Me, Sir, But Have You Ever Talked To a Female Baseball Fan?”

Other people tweeted about their dislike for the app.

And then there were some who thought some of us were being knee-jerky in our response to Baseball Boyfriend. I was even told I was being too serious.

Well, here’s a funny take from Diane of the Value Over Replacement Blog who tries to find ways to improve Baseball Boyfriend.

Oh and hey there was some Yankees news – this is a Yankees blog after all.

Bill Hall tweeted that he signed with the Yankees yesterday. Then took an instagram picture of himself in a Yankees cap. That’s kind of awesome. It’s a minor league deal and he can be let go if he doesn’t make the Majors by Opening Day.

The Yanks are still trying to shop A.J. Burnett and they’re also still deciding between Johnny Damon and Raul Ibanez for the DH spot.

Happy Wednesday!