Red Sox "Occupation" At The Stadium

The 79th All Star Game at Yankee Stadium has to go down as one of the best in ASG History. The starters standing along side their Hall Of Fame counterparts during introductions, George Steinbrenner's surprise appearance, Joe Buck's acknowledgement of Bob Sheppard, and everything else was just great, including the revelation that Ichiro Suzuki gives an annual expletive-laden pep talk to his AL teammates just before the start of every mid-Summer classic.

About the only thing that grated on my nerves during this whole All Star Week, was the media's obsession with the Red Sox "taking over" Yankee Stadium. Way too much was made of Terry Francona occupying Joe Girardi's office, of the all the Red Sox in the starting line-up and about the fact that JD Drew, a Red Sox player, was the game's MVP. I was particularly annoyed with Jeanne Zelasko for talking about all of this garbage during her post-game interview with Drew. She ridiculously tried to tie together the story about the buried Sox jersey at the new stadium construction site with last night's game, bringing that up and then saying that the Red Sox gave the current Stadium a big send-off last night. Uh, hello? The season has another half to go, Jeanne. The Stadium didn't close it's doors last night. If an opposing team is going to give Yankee Stadium a "send-off," it'll be the Baltimore Orioles in September.

All-in-all, though, it was a wonderful night in the Bronx. I don't collect many DVDs, but if the 79th All Star Game makes it onto a disc, it's definitely going in my collection.

The Lady

The 'Stache Lives

Congratulations to Evan Longoria and Corey Hart winners of the 2008 All Star Game Final Vote. Alas, the Big G came in third in the AL voting. However, fret not Giambino fans. You can still support the 'stache. A company down in North Carolina is selling a tee-shirt with this cool picture on it:Buy it and you'll also be supporting a New York City charity.

Long live the 'stache!

The Lady

Support The 'Stache!

The Final Vote balloting closes tomorrow at 5 PM Eastern. If you haven't voted yet, what are you waiting for? Jason Giambi needs a rally to win this thing. So get out the vote!

To help things along, the Yankees will be giving out fake mustaches to the first 20,000 fans attending this afternoon's game against the Rays at The Stadium. Also, Giambi's candidacy has been endorsed by the American Mustache Institute.

Support the power of the 'stache!

The Lady

Posada Believes Clemens

"I’m supportive. He says he never took it and I’m behind him 100 percent. Rocket is one of my favorite teammates ever. It doesn’t take anything away from what he did. For me, he’s the best pitcher I ever caught and it doesn’t change that.”--Jorge Posada [LoHud Yankees Blog]

Well, well. Jorge Posada is in Roger Clemens's corner. Does that mean he'll shun Andy Pettitte? Posada says he'll support Pettitte as well but that remains to be seen. A lot of fans believe the lefthander's teammates will, indeed, give him the cold shoulder treatment. However, if the Yankees know what's good for them, they won't do that. While I don't believe, as others do, that the team has no chance if Pettitte doesn't perform well, there's always the chance that things will be difficult when you depend so much on a young rotation.

The Lady

The 2008 All-Star Game

In case you didn't know it, the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game will be played at Yankee Stadium. It'll be the last season the Yankees will play in the current Stadium before moving across the street to their new home.

I'm watching the Yankee game right now and a little while ago they showed footage of the press conference at which the Game's logo was unveiled. It's slightly different than the one pictured above. Instead of the red "Major League Baseball" lettering it says "Yankees" in white lettering. I'm not sure why but, I guess I can live with it.

The Yankees are pouring it on tonight, knocking balls out of the park left and right, but A-Rod is 0-3 so far. That's baseball for ya!

The Lady

Ichiro: It's Hargrove or Me

Ichiro Suzuki has definitely been flying high lately. Last night, he hit the first-ever inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history, going 3-3 and being named MVP in the process. Shortly before that, word came that the Mariners are set to give him a 5-year extension. Before that, of course, Mike Hargrove resigned as his manager.

Coincidence? I think not.

The rumors about Ichiro disliking Hargrove are well-known, and I think Hargrove was the one thing that stood between Ichiro and re-upping with Seattle. Either he goes or I go, the Mariners star probably said. Hargrove went, and a short while later, Ichiro was getting his extension, which, I'm sure, made him very happy. He was so happy about it that he had an MVP All-Star Game.

Ichiro Suzuki: Not quite like an NBA star, but a prima donna all the same.

The Lady

[Photo: Kevork Djansezian/AP]

All-Star Break Ladybugs

In all my excitement about going to the Yankee game on Saturday I forgot to post another installment of my little Saturday Ladybugs Series. So, here's an abbreviated, All-Star Break edition:


The Home Run Derby is being held in a pitcher's ballpark. Bad news, especially for ESPN. Just because Barry Bonds can hit them into the China Basin doesn't mean any Derby contestants can.



If the All-Star Game counts, why does Baseball still insist on having all teams represented? This can lead to only one thing: A dark rainy day in October when the Mets will be cursing Bud Selig as they lose Game 7 of the World Series in a ballpark other than their own, because John Maine was not selected to the All-Star Team.

The Espys are being taped this week for airing on Sunday. I have only two words about it: Shameless self-promotion.

Speaking of shameless self-promotion, Reggie Jackson is at it again. He's pissed off at ESPN for not consulting with him on the making of "The Bronx Is Burning." Yesterday Jackson told the New York Times, "...they didn't have the decency to ask me a question. Portray me when you don't know the story? Why would you do something like that and no one asked me?" For their part, ESPN said, "...the 1977 season was extremely well-documented, so we relied on our advisers and consultants, including Reggie's best friend on the team, Fran Healy. And, at the end of the season, as any Yankees fan knows, Reggie Jackson is the hero."

A hero he certainly was. I was a high school student in 1977, with less than a budding interest in baseball. The day after the consecutive home run feat, I turned to a boy in my speech class who had a copy of the Daily News on his desk. On the cover was a picture of the Yankee scoreboard, which had simply said, "Re-gie, Re-gie, Re-gie...." I looked at the paper, then at my classmate and said, "Reggie, Reggie, Reggie..." and shrugged my shoulders. Without looking up at me the boy smiled, shook his head and said, "Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah!"

Enjoy the break!

The Lady