Oh, The Trials Of Being A Big League Player!

In Pittsburgh last night, the game between the Pirates and Yankees was delayed by rain after 2.2 innings and, eventually, it was rained out. They'll start again from scratch on July 10th. That'll be the second off-day the team loses, the first being one that'll actually come in September when they make up a game with the Tigers.

Because of today's double-header with the Mets, the Yankees had wanted to play last night's game in the daytime, but the Pirates refused. Also, today's game 1 starter, Dan Giese, was supposed to return to New York yesterday afternoon, but according to Pete Abraham, Giese missed his original flight because he was getting something to eat. He then couldn't get a second flight out of Pittsburgh because of the weather. So he ended up flying back with the team and getting in at some ungodly hour this morning.

As I look out my window now, I see lots of clouds and no sunshine. At some point today there's going to be a huge downpour. Will there be another rainout?

What will the guys do? How will they get through it? This is terrible.

Yeah, right. If anyone feels sorry for these guys they're crazy. When a mediocre pitcher like Shawn Chacon can slam his GM to the ground, be otherwise insubordinate, get released and still collect his Major League salary, it's very difficult to feel sorry for guys in the same union who have to travel in the middle of the night, play a two-stadium double-header the next day using a tired game 1 starter and lose a couple of off-days along the way.

Suck it up guys.

The Lady

Foul In The Fourth

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]

Dance Class

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]

Summer Saturday Ladybugs

Good morning Mr (Josh) Phelps. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Your .263 avg with 2 HR, 12 RBIs in 36 games for the Yankees makes you the perfect choice to grab the reins of leadership for the Bucs. However, watch out for those NL catchers, who will be on the lookout for you as you barrel your way across home plate. Beware of your new teammate, Masumi Kuwata, who'll be looking to get back at you for your dirty play against his countryman, Kenji Johjima. If you are up for this assignment it could prove to be very lucrative. Thank you, Mr Phelps. (This computer will self-destruct if you really read this post.)

Tom Glavine, you just won your 296th game. What are you going to do now? Disneyland?No, that's for when you get your 300th win! Cheer up, you have only four more wins to go. At the rate you're going, though, it will be next season before that happens.



Welcome home, Ken Griffey, Jr. Fans at Seattle's Safeco Field welcomed you with open arms, last night. You were overcome, saying, "I spent 11 years here, 11 wonderful years. I met my beautiful wife here and two of my three kids were born here..." Three kids? Does that include the one you had before you met your wife?


See, Elijah Dukes? You're not the only baby daddy in baseball. Unfortunately however, you seem to be the only one with five kids. The Devil Rays have put you on their inactive list. Let's hope "inactive" means more to you now than just not playing baseball.

So, A-Rod, you're not going to be in the Home Run Derby this year? You're not good at it, you say? Well, that's okay by me. In fact, I wouldn't care if you ever appeared in another HR Derby, ever again, as long as one day you surpass Barry Bonds as the all-time home run hitter. This year you'll get to 500 and before you know it, bye-bye Barry!

Enjoy the weekend!

The Lady

Summer's Here: Let The Fun Begin

I thought Summer was supposed to be fun. The first day of Summer was everything but fun for me.

First, I go downtown to run some errands. If you're familiar with the transit system in New York City, you know that off-peak hours are when the City chooses to do repairs on the 103 year-old system. I made it downtown without any problems, but on the way back the "fun" started. The No. 4 train I was on decided to go out of service at 149th St, Grand Concourse, one stop before Yankee Stadium. So I waited on the platform with hundreds of other people for the next train and, what happens? The next train is also out of service. I was livid. I dragged all my packages upstairs and out onto the street to flag down a gypsy cab. Those cabs are so easy to find when you don't want one, always honking their horns at you, or otherwise just slowing down and peeking out at you when they see you standing on the street minding your business. Today I wanted one and had to look high and low.

Second, the Yankees lost to the Rockies 4-3. That completed a 3-game sweep by Colorado. Joe Torre told the YES Network after the game, "We didn't expect not to score runs." The Yankees are now 10 1/2 games out of first place and 6 1/2 out of the Wild Card.

Third, Jason Giambi is going to cooperate in the Mitchell Investigation. He's only going to talk about himself, not name names. This has to be the biggest waste of time and money to date so far this year.

Fourth, Kei Igawa gets the start for the Yankees against the Giants tomorrow in San Francisco. Need I say more?

This day just can't end fast enough for me.

The Lady

Wang Mixes It Up Against The Mets

Well into his perfect game bid earlier this season, Chien-Ming Wang decided to mix things up and throw a change-up. Willie Bloomquist wasn't impressed with it and hit it over the right-centerfield wall. Last night the pitch seemed perfected, as Wang mixed it in with a slider and his trademark sinkerball, and the Yankees beat the Mets 8-2.

The right-hander from Taiwan struck on 10 Mets, a career high. At one point, he even had speedster Jose Reyes on his fanny after swinging through strike 2. Wang eventually struck Reyes out, and managed to keep him off the base paths for most of the evening. The only time Reyes was on base was earlier in the game. The Yankees pitched out, gunning him down at second base.

My favorite Yankee continues to work his way back to the ace status he earned last season. After a stint on the DL and a couple of rough outings to start the year, he is now 7-4 with a 3.33 ERA. That makes me very happy.

You know what else makes me happy? ESPN actually treated him like a person last night. As much as I love YES, they never, ever say anything about what kind of person Chien-Ming Wang is, other than the fact that he can't speak English and keeps to himself. Seeing him interact in the dugout with his teammates made that hard for me to believe, and last night ESPN proved that most of it isn't true. They chose one player from the Mets and one from the Yankees to give Father's Day greetings to the viewers. David Wright did it for the Mets and Wang did it for the Yankees. I was pleasantly surprised at how well Wang spoke! There was hardly any trace of an accent at all. Later in the broadcast John Miller mentioned that Wang had been adopted as a baby, and when he found out about it he decided to accept both his adoptive parents and his biological parents as family. Now he sends most of the money he makes back to Taiwan, supporting all four of his parents. Maybe that's a cultural thing and anyone from that part of the world would do it. I don't know, but it was nice to learn about all the same.

The Lady

[Photo of Chien-Ming Wang: AP/Kathy Willens]

Nancy Drew: Now Playing at a Stadium Near You

The first Nancy Drew Movie made for the big screen in 68 years opened in theatres yesterday. Yeah, it meant nothing to me, too, until I started watching the Mets-Yankees game last night.

If I'm watching a Yankee game that starts before 8 Eastern, I always switch over to TCM at about that time to see what they're offering for the evening. Last night it was a Nancy Drew movie marathon. Yeah, it still meant nothing to me, either. After Robert Osborne introduced the first of four movies, Nancy Drew: Detective (1938), I decided to watch the opening credits before turning back to the Yankee game. Bonita Granville as Nancy Drew. Frankie Thomas as her boyfriend, Ted Nickerson. Ho hum. Directed by William Clemens. Okay. Wait! William Clemens???? That's good for a laugh, I thought, as I turned back to the Yankee game.

Roger Clemens was giving the Yankees a second quality start, giving up 2 runs over 6 1/3 innings. The problem was that the Mets' Oliver Perez was making The Rocket's offense look like Nancy Drew; the Mets won the game 2-0. While Roger Clemens was continuing to keep his team in the game, William Clemens was continuing to grab more and more of my interest over at TCM. Nancy Drew: Reporter (1939) was next, follwed by Nancy Drew: Trouble Shooter (1939) and Nancy Drew & The Hidden Staircase (1939), all of which were directed by William Clemens. In these old B movies, Nancy constantly gets into messes in which she has her boyfriend Ted get her out of. A lot of the messes involve driving mishaps, which brings to mind Hideki Matsui's baserunning blunder last night, in which he was doubled off second base by Carlos Gomez. Nancy Drew: Trouble Shooter was probably on around the time of the 7th inning stretch (You know, "Take me out to the ballgame..."). During a scene in that flick Nancy and Ted are out picking watercress when he tells her they'd better get back to the house. She snaps at him, "I don't care if [I] never get back!"

At that point I was feeling the same way, except that I didn't want to get back to the Yankee Game. The Yankees were losing my interest and Nancy Drew was gaining it, though I fell asleep before the end of "...Hidden Staircase." The new Nancy Drew movie doesn't look like it would hold the interest of anyone over the age of twelve, but that series made by William Clemens in the 1930s might prove to be a nice diversion for someone looking to escape a bad evening. Thanks, Nancy.

The Lady