This is Andy Pettitte's postgame interview after the Yankees 4-2 win against Baltimore earlier this week. His answer to Kim Jones's question about the possibility of Joba Chamberlain pitching 4 or 5 innings had me rolling in laughter!
Yesterday the Yankees signed first baseman Ben Broussard to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple A Scranton-Wilkes Barre. Could this be the death knell for Shelley Duncan?
I love Shelley Duncan just as much as any other Yankee fan, but the guy just isn't getting the job done this season. He's batting only .164 with a .242 OBP, with 1 HR and 6 RBIs. Broussard's a left-handed hitter and the Yankee lineup is stacked with leftys, but at this point anything would be better than Duncan's practically non-existent right-handed bat.
In other news: After the home run derby in Baltimore last night, Ian Kennedy was placed on the DL. Now two of the "three amigos" have gone down with injuries. Joba Chamberlain will move into the starting rotation sooner than later now. Will the third amigo end up on the the DL as well? If that happens, the Yankees might as well start thinking about folding up their tent early and calling it a season.
The Lady
So, Willie Randolph will remain the manager of the New York Mets. For the time being. He's on the shortest of leashes and if his team doesn't starting winning more consistently, he's probably out the door.
The Mets have been under .500 since the middle of last season. They collapsed last September. Jose Reyes no longer knows how to play baseball. Johan Santana has been just an average pitcher so far this season. The clubhouse has been cancerous.
Are any of these things Willie Randolph's fault? The clubhouse problems might be but only partially. It comes down to the players themselves and yesterday, for what I think was the first time in a long time, the players confirmed it. David Wright, Billy Wagner, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado spoke up. The strongest quote came from Carlos Delgado. When asked what he thought about his manager's situation, he said:
“I’ll tell you what I think, we need to play better. This is not about the manager. I’m not in the position to think or not think, they don’t pay me to think. They pay me play baseball."
Amen, Brother Carlos.
The Lady
You will not want to miss Monday night’s A Show Of Their Own. We’ll be holding our first ever listener contest! "A Show of Their Own," together with Write-Field.com, will present the winner with a prize package of products from Derek Jeter's Diven line. So, if you want to smell like a winner, tune in LIVE on Monday, May 26th at 9:00pm EST for your chance to win!
The Lady 
On last night's Yankee game telecast on YES, Ken Singleton was in the middle of talking about Orioles hitting coach Terry Crowley when, all of a sudden, an unknown voice made its way onto the air, saying, among other things: "Terry Crowley is lucky he's in fucking baseball." Here's a clip:
I couldn't believe how quiet it got in that booth after this happened! It was as if Singleton, John Flaherty and Michael Kay disappeared into thin air. There was nothing but dead air for what seemed like ten seconds! Luckily nothing was happening on the field for those ten seconds.
Where did this come from? According to another blog I saw, some have speculated that it was either a producer who was talking in Singleton's ear and accidentally got on the air or it was a YouTube clip of Earl Weaver that someone in the booth was watching. In any case, I think it's safe to say that the number one regional sports network in the country is a little red-faced right now. It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the media handles this one!
The Lady
Update, 5/23/08: Mystery solved. It was a clip of Earl Weaver that someone in the booth was watching. Click here for the details.
In the Yankees 11-2 loss to the Mets last night Carlos Delgado's 4th inning shot to the left field corner was a fair ball. The umpires ruled it foul however. It wasn't the only foul thing in that inning. Everything the Yankees did in that frame could have been called foul by anyone who was watching. After being lights out for the first three innings, Chien-Ming Wang fell apart, giving up 4 runs. The Yankees never recovered.
Is a pattern developing here? Wang had a meltdown in the 4th inning last night. Andy Pettitte fell apart in the 4th inning in each of his last two starts. The fourth inning. That's about the time a pitcher begins to work his way through a line up for the second time. How did opposing batters adjust so quickly in these three games? I don't know the answer to that, but if it continues I'm going to really start scratching my head.
In other news: Per Peter Abraham's blog, Giambi's thong story is old news. Portfolio.com presented it recently as something new, when, in fact, it's not. This is the second time (that I know of) that Portfolio has been the bearer of juicy Yankee gossip, the first time being their expose about George Steinbrenner, in which he was portrayed as a rambling, feeble old man. I don't know about you, but I'm not impressed with the contents of this portfolio.
The Lady
[Photo: Al Bello/Getty]
If you haven't heard the news, here it is: Jason Giambi wears a gold lame thong to get out of hitting slumps. I thought it was a joke, but it appears to be true! It's all exposed in the Daily News, who got it from Portfolio.com.
To me, the funniest part about this article was that Giambi and several of his teammates admitted that it was all true! Giambi said "It works every time." Derek Jeter complained that "it's so uncomfortable running around the bases." Jeter revealed more: "I had it over my shorts and stuff," he said. "I was 0-for-32 and I hit a homer on the first pitch. That's the only time I've ever worn it." Johnny Damon's also worn it, admitting to wearing the panties "probably three times."
Jorge Posada, on the other hand, had something else to say: "Whoever is on slumps, puts it on. I don't know if it works. I haven't worn it yet." He hasn't worn it yet?
Bobby Abreu, who strikes me as being the most macho Yankee, claimed to know nothing about the thong, but Mark Feinsand and his colleagues who co-wrote the article didn't believe him.
So, what's really going on here? Is it all one big joke? Are these guys just playing along or do they really wear the golden panties? Players have done some really superstitious things over the years, so this isn't really that surprising in the grand scheme of superstition. But it is when it comes to the button-down corporate Yankees. Do you want to know something? I kind of like it! If they're really doing this and they're comfortable enough to admit it, more power to them. I'm sick and tired of hearing about how serious and business-like this team is. They need to change their image, and I think having a gold lame thong superstition is a step in the right direction.
So, boys, keep on doin' it, cuz "...I know you wanna show da na da na that thong thong thong thong thong thong!"[Sisqo]
The Lady
Well, it all begins again this weekend. With the first round of Interleague Play comes the 2008 Subway Series. Game 1 is tomorrow night at Yankee Stadium: Johan Santana vs Darrell Rasner.
In honor of this year's festivities (so to speak) I've pasted a copy of the new ESPN commercial featuring Jose Reyes. Have a look:
[Thanks Metsgrrl.com]
From The New York Post: Hank Steinbrenner had some choice words for his team (again) yesterday. "The bottom line is that the team is not playing the way it is capable of playing," Steinbrenner said. "These players are being paid a lot of money and they had better decide for themselves to earn that money."
A few paragraphs later he said: "I'm not saying they are not giving the effort, but they need to be playing harder."
Okay, so they're not earning their money but they're giving the effort. Sounds a little like double-talk to me.
Last I heard, we were talking about baseball here, a 162 game season during which there are peaks and valleys; where, if you hit .300 you're considered perfect; and where, "giving the effort" doesn't necessarily guarantee results. It's also a game in which good pitching stops good hitting, and the Yankees have run into some really good pitching lately, a lot of it left-handed pitching. Good left-handed pitching thrown at a lefty-laden lineup. Meanwhile, MLB is looking at the fewest runs scored this year since this time in 1993.
That's right, Hank, you tell 'em. Yeah, right.
The Lady
Back in November the Tampa Bay Devil Rays changed their name to the Tampa Bay Rays. They unveilled a new logo and introduced new uniforms in a nice little fashion show. At the time, I laughed at these developments, and proclaimed them useless; Tampa Bay still stank.
Yankees Second Baseman Robinson Cano's early season hitting woes have been well-documented lately. As I write this he is batting only .172 and, until yesterday, looked lost at the plate.
Cano got 2 hits during yesterday's game against the Indians. The first one was in the fifth inning, a double down the right line. He scored what proved to be the winning run later in that frame. When he came up to the plate in the seventh, YES analyst and former Yankee catcher John Flaherty (pictured above) commented on how Cano was handling the at-bat:
"Robinson Cano took the first pitch from [Paul] Byrd in this at-bat, and it was probably the smoothest take that I have seen him have in a long time. That tells me he's kind of getting comfortable now. Look for good things to happen if he can take pitches like that." [Newsday.com]
Cano sent the very next pitch from Byrd into the right-field seats.
John Flaherty has been criticized a lot for sounding too dull. I agree, but if he sprinkles in gems like this one every once in a while, I can more than live with it.
As for Cano, let's hope he continues to be a smooth operator in his future at-bats this season.
The Lady
Chien-Ming Wang gave the Yankees another quality start last night. A quality start is defined as pitching 6 or more innings and giving up 3 or fewer runs. Wang did that but the Yankees lost the game because they ran into the buzz saw pictured to the left, Cliff Lee.
I'd barely heard of Lee until a few weeks ago, and when I did hear about him I said I'd believe it when I saw it. So, I saw it and I believe it. Can he keep fooling American League hitters? Time will tell. Good luck, Mr Lee.
In other news: The start another pitcher made last night was of interest to me as well. Barry Zito returned to the Giants rotation last night to face the Pirates. No quality start for him; the Giants lost the game. I still can't believe I thought he'd be the Giants' savior last year. Also, the Twins' Carlos Gomez hit for the cycle last night. Gomez was the key prospect the Twins got back when they traded Johan Santana to the Mets. I found an interesting comparison of Gomez to Jose Reyes over at the blog Mets Brotha.
The Indians play their final regular season game at The Stadium this afternoon. Will they be back in October? Once again, time will tell.
The Lady
There's a lot being said about what the White Sox did the other day with those female blow-up dolls. Here's my take on it:
Things like this go on in clubhouses and locker rooms all over sports, but they're usually kept behind closed doors, away from the public's view. The White Sox had no female reporters covering them that day (and they were in a visiting clubhouse as opposed to their own, where family members would likely be). So, they thought they were away from the public's view. Unfortunately for them, they were not. Now they're being labeled as sexist. Please. They used poor judgement, that's all. What they did does not necessarily mean they're a sexist bunch. It just means they're professional male athletes.
I'm not saying that, if I'd walked into that clubhouse I wouldn't have been offended. Of course I would've been. But I doubt the dolls would have been there if they'd known I was coming. To me this is like doing something in the privacy of your own home and being interrupted by unexpected guests.
A big blow up over nothing.
The Lady
I'm very happy to announce that on tonight's installment of "A Show Of Their Own," our special guest will be Yankee beat writer Peter Abraham. I think most Yankee fans know about Pete's popular blog, The LoHud Yankees Blog, in which he writes about the day-to-day happenings in Yankees Universe. Well, tonight you'll get a chance to hear the guy you've been reading!
My co-host Brittany and I will have lots of questions for Pete, so tune in tonight at 9:00 PM Eastern for this very special show!
The Lady
