Got to the new Stadium

Last night I got the chance to get out to the new Yankee Stadium. Now that I've gone there, I can call it Yankee Stadium, removing the new out of most references. For all of the hate I hear and read about, the place is beautiful. Of course there are some draw backs, it can't be perfect, but overall I can't wait to go back.

Now the game on the other hand, was pretty disappointing. Watching Tex hit is unbearable at this point, and when he's up with 2 outs it's a good indication to start heading towards the bathroom if need be, or to the concession stand. He needs to have a very productive week on the road if he wants everyone to stop booing him hardcore after every at bat. He's now back on the Interstate at .198, maybe it's time to fetch Tino out of retirement.

Cano is swinging at every first pitch again. He needs to accept the fact that he's not a .380 hitter, and stop pressing as a result of chasing that. Cano has been playing solid second base this season, and is still at .319, but since May 2nd he's 1 for 21, and in his last 15 games, he's walked once. Once. That is horrible.

Pena came out to a Beyonce song and I was like "wtf". Pena was much better than Ransom though, but thank god A-Rod is coming back tonight. Manny put up a nice smoke screen for the return of Rodriguez since he was caught taking on a banned substance and recieving a nice 50 game suspension. Bill Simmons wrote an EXCELLENT piece after Manny's test went down, which you can read here "http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090507&sportCat=mlb" . It's about the Red Sox 04 championship, and how it appears so many players on the team were on something.

But back to the game, Pettite gave up more HR's then ever before in his career. Rivera gave up back to back HR's for the 2nd time this season. It's a sad thing when Mo can't finish the 9th inningI'm starting to buy into the wind pattern stuff at Yankee Stadium. There were 7 in last nights game. 7. And yet Swisher, hasn't had a single shot at the Stadium, which is incredibly odd. Even his AVG has dropped to a season low .267, and he hasn't had a hit since April.

43,769 people were definitly not in attendance last night. The Mets became a joke last year with announcing attendances that were clearly wrong, and the Yankees are quickly following suit.

Last but not least, Johnny Damon is the man.

Vote Swisher Update

Good afternoon out there. A quick update on the Vote Swisher movement as of 3:30 PM on Cinco De Mayo:

Facebook Group Members : 96
http://twitter.com/VoteSwisher : 16 Followers

Articles: 1 -
Star Ledger : http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2009/05/nick_swisher_new_york_yankees.html



I've emailed bloggers and writers of a number of newspapers, Yahoo Sports, and ESPN in hopes to gain some additional media exposure. Hopefully the fans start pouring in even more.

Vote Swisher!

Swisher for All Star Team

Guys, we're in a bit of a pickle here. No, we're not caught in a run down between 2nd and 3rd, but it is quite serious. Nick Swisher has been left off of the All Star ballot!

However! There is a write in portion you can fill out to ensure that the most productive Yankee so far this season makes it to St. Louis!

The MLB voting also makes it very easy and quick to vote 25 times in about 4-5 minutes. I did it myself this morning, so I know that claim is not a fallacy.

Visit the officially Nick Swisher endorsed page http://voteswisher.com for more information.

If you're on FaceBook, join the Facebook group! : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nick-Swisher/113837095155?ref=ts#/group.php?gid=183596965127&ref=ts

For the twits out there : www.twitter.com/voteswisher

And to visit Nick Swisher's official webpage : http://www.nickswisher.net/

GO VOTE!

Softball Update

So yes, I play on a couple of softball teams. I actually had played for years since I was 15, but was forced to take it easy following tearing my ACL in March 07 at a tournament, and having ACL reconstruction surgery that summer. I played a few games last season as a sub here and there, but was determined to get back on to the field full time.

For now, I've taken on 2 teams:
Wednesday night - Brookhaven League - The Bronx Bombers
Sunday morning - Island Softball - The Americans

Both teams had it's first doubleheaders this past week.
Weds: Game 1- Lost 8 - 14 Game 2- won 18-17 (8 innings)
Sun: Game 1 - Forfeit (had 7 players) Game 2 - Won 20-10 (10 run ruled, fielding 8 guys)

A decent start to both seasons.. sucked having to forfeit a game, but to come back and win the 2nd with only 8 guys (in softball you field 10 normally).. that was pretty impressive.

Yankees Sox / Nick Swisher

So tonight the Yankees(13-11) Sox(15-10) feud continues, at the house that Cano is building.

Yankees current record vs the Sox this season : 0-3

Pitching matchups:
Monday Night - J. Lester (1-2) vs P. Hughes (1-0)
Tuesday Night - J. Beckett (2-2) vs J. Chamberlain (1-0)

I think it's great that we have Hughes and Chamberlain heading to the mound for this 2 game set, and that Girardi decided against skipping Hughes in the rotation after yesterdays rain out. Hughes had an excellent outing against the Tigers in his first season appearance, a 6 inning 2 hit 0 ER performance. Chamberlain's last outing was his first decision of the season, a win, after giving up only 1 run in 6 innings pitched.

I'm hoping for a Swisher return tonight. He currently leads the Yankees in HR's (7), 2B's (8), OBP (.436), and slugging (.714!!). (And obviously OBP+Slug.. 1.150).

There is a movement going around twitter and facebook to vote in Swisher for the All Star team, as a write in. Unfortunitly, he is not on the ballot (as he should be), so it's going to take a hell of a lot of write in votes to get him there. Be sure to join the facebook group here , and spread your support for Swisher!

A-Roid

Selena Robert's is about to release her new book, detailing all of the wonderful things A-Rod has done since being in High School. The book is full of accusations, alleged statements, and quotes from unnamed sources. To me, she sounds like a bad reporter trying to make some money and a name for herself.

As seen in the the New York University Journalism handbook (take from : http://journalism.nyu.edu/ethics/handbook/human-sources/ ), "Anonymity: The faculty urges students to avoid using unidentified sources whenever possible. In recent years, The New York Times, to name one media outlet, has come under fire for reporting stories largely based on anonymous government sources promulgating a particular point of view, and this practice undermined the Times' goal of covering news impartially -- "without fear or favor," in the words of its patriarch, Adolph Ochs."

Basically, if you're afraid to name your sources, the odds that you are skewing information in order to prove a point is raised, and level of objectiveness falls. To me, someone who can write an entire book without naming sources is a sham, and doesn't deserve to be published.

Selena will go on to become popular to many A-Rod and Yankee haters in her efforts to destroy one on the best players of all-time. I'm sure she'll make plenty of money doing such. Just remember back to the Duke rape case, where she slandered the Duke players who later were to be found innocent.. http://www.timeswatch.org/articles/2007/20070326114135.aspx if you need a reminder.

Is April < or = September?

Warning: The following blog entry may use examples from the New York Mets



So this past Wednesday was a bit of a hectic day for me. Had to wake up early, drive to Philly (a bit over 3 hours away in no traffic), do some work, drive back, and get to a softball double header by 7:30. While driving back home, me and my uncle listened to the Mets game, and tuned in to the Mike Francesca show afterward.

The 9th inning had went as follows, with the Mets going in trailing 3-4:

- G. Sheffield hit for F. Rodriguez

- G. Sheffield walked

- C. Beltran walked, G. Sheffield to second

- D. Wright struck out looking

- R. Church grounded out to first, G. Sheffield to third, C. Beltran to second

- F. Tatis hit by pitch

- O. Santos hit for R. Castro

- O. Santos popped out to shallow left center

A big discussion came up weather or not Wright should have bunted over Sheffield and Beltran over. Wright's power numbers had been pretty weak in April (1 HR, 8 RBIs) for what he's been expected to produce, leaving on runners all of April. I had come to the quick conclusion he should "swallow his pride" and move the runners over via a bunt. That gives your next 2 batters a man on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. A fly ball ties, base hit takes the lead.

Wright went on to strike out as seen above, and the Mets eventually failed to capitalize on this potential rally.

While listening to Francesca, he adamently agreed with Wright not bunting the runners over, citing that since it's April, you need to let hitters hit more, and you shouldn't really pull manuvers as such with your good hitters until September, where the game's count more.

What?

Yes, Francesca made a point that it's more important to win a ballgame in September as opposed to April. This drove me nuts, if my phone wasn't dead I would've made my first call in to his show. I don't see how games in September are worth more than the ones now. Did a memo go out saying wins later on in the season are worth 1.5 or 2 in the W column? I would think the Mets, who've choked the past 2 years, would do anything it takes to win at every opportunity, giving them less pressure later in the season. Now I'm not saying the Mets win, or even tie the game if Wright moves the runners over. That would be the perfect example of "the fallacy of the predetermined outcome", but they certainly set themselves up to at least tie with a fly ball or ground ball to the right spot. I was just a bit surprised that Francesca would deem games now not as important as later. Maybe I'm used to watching the Yankees, where unless they preform well all year the AL East will be very difficult to win.


"This is what's great about sports. This is what the greatest thing about sports is. You play to win the game. Hello? You play to win the game. You don't play it to just play it. That's the great thing about sports: you play to win, and I don't care if you don't have any wins. You go play to win. When you start tellin' me it doesn't matter, then retire. Get out! 'Cause it matters."

- Herman Edwards. After being asked if the Jets had the ability to win after losing to the Browns and going to 2-5 back in 2002. People laughed at the quote, but the Jets went 7-2 after this and won the AFC East.

Maybe Manuel needs some help, and Francesca needs to get back to basics.

The game last night (Yankees 2 Tigers 4)

Last night, the Yanks dropped their 4th straight en route to becoming a sub-.500 team.

There was a very simple explanation of why the Yankees could not beat the Tigers last night.


Was it because they drew NO walks over the course of the game? no.

Was it due to waiting until the 9th to score any runs? no.

Was it the 19 left on base for the Yankees? no.

Was it because they only have 1 +.300 hitter at this point? no.

Was it Posada's pinch hit double play in the 9th that killed the rally? no.

So what the hell made the Yankees lose last night?




Michael Kay wasn't in the booth.. duh!

Clearly the Yankees did not have any motivation in winning a game without Kay being around last night. Who knows where he was last night, maybe he was out fighting crime, or breaking the next steroid scandal. Or, perhaps similar to me, seasonal allergies caught up to him when it got to be 90 degrees out of nowhere, and his throat is too sore to speak, let alone announce. Either way, Mr. Kay if you're reading this, PLEASE come back tonight. Phil Hughes certainly cannot pitch his first game this season without seeing you in the booth, and the Yankees cannot afford to drop a 5th straight game.

Make this a t-shirt

I think of this every time I see the Jeter Ford Challenge commercial:




's Edge:

's Edge:

11 hours 53 minutes - Nearly half a day I'll never get back

4/27/09 09:30 am

Friday Night - 4:21 ( 5 - 4 Loss in 11)
Sunday Aftternoon - 4:21 (16-11 Loss)
Sunday Night - 3:09 ( 4 - 1 Loss)

So since Friday night, I've spent 11 hours and 53 minutes watching the Yankees get smacked up by the Red Sox. I spent nearly half a day watching 3 embarrassing games, all of which the Yankees had ample opportunity to put the game away and hold on to leads that hey taken. I think I'll just point out to me what were the highlights of this weekends games, cause frankly the Yanks do not deserve a nice complete blog about this series.

Saturdays game , the 16-11 Loss :
Highlights:
- Almost everybody got at least one hit. Tex didn't, but he walked 5 times, so that's cool.
- Cano got 2 HR's and continued to look great at the plate
- Phil Coke pitched 2/3rds of an inning without giving up a run, a hit, or even a walk!

Yeah.. that's about it for Saturday.

Sunday highlights :
- Cano and Matsui both went 2 for 4 and looked solid at the plate. Hopefully Matsui is feeling better since his knee drainings, and can continue to help out some more.
- Melancon made his MLB debut, coming in after Pettite in the 7th. He pitched 2 innings without giving up a run! A 1-2-3 7th, then he bailed himself out of a bases loaded, nobody out situation in the 8th.
- The "Let a Stranger Drive You Home" Commercial, as seen here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jqZTJk30qg . This commercial was on multiple times during the game, and was possibly the best time I had all weekend watching Yankee baseball. YOUUUUU... YOU GOT WHAT I NEEEEED... AND YOU SAY HE'S JUST A FRIEND, AND YOU SAY HE'S JUST A FRIEND OHHH BABY

YYYYYOUUUUUUU...

Worst part of the weekend:
Ellsbury steals home, fox booth creams themselves and sells the replay as the new viagra.

Horrible start vs the Socks

4/25/09 11:50 am

The infamous Red Sox / Yanks rivalry began once again last night, kicking off their first 3 game set of the series. This year the teams will battle 18 times this regular season, and quite possibly in the post season, if they both make it.

So game 1 ended with a walkoff Youk bomb in the bottom of the 11th, allowing the Red Sox to win 5-4.
All had seemed well going into the bottom of the 8th, up 4-2. With a little trouble brewing, Mo came in with 2 dead, and got out of it. Then, with 2 outs in the 9th, Bay rocks a 2 run HR to CF to tie it up at 4. This was Mo's 1st BS of the year, and 2nd since last season. A lot of people were quick to blame Giradi for bringing in Mo in the 8th, but realistically, it was his best move. Bruney was hurt, Albaladejo had just hit a batter on an 0-2 count, and to bring in Marte would've matched him up against a Righty. I'm sure everyone else out there thought the game was in lockdown when he came in, just as I did. If Bruney had been available, I probably would've chose him to come in during the 8th, simply because he's been on a tear. But he wasn't, so Mo was the only choice.

However, had Yankee batters delivered when the opportunity rose, Rivera probably wouldn't have even entered the game in the first place.
A total of 28 runners were left on base for the Yankees during the game. During the 7th and 9th especially the Yanks had ample opportunity to blow the game open. In each the Yankees had bases loaded with NO outs. The 7th consisted of Tex knocking in a run with nobody out, Posada getting a single to load the bases (0 outs), a Swisher weak pop up (1 out), a Cano sac fly (2 outs), and a Melky ground out (3 dead).

In the 9th, Tex was HBP, Posada walked, and Swisher walked in order. 4-2 Game, top 9th, bases juiced, apeears to be a good time to blow it open no? No. Cano decides not to go the other way, as he'd been doing so well with, and grounds to the epic 2B Pedroria, who throws home, gets the lead out, allowing Varitek to throw out Cano at first for the 4-2-3 DP. Cabrera then popped out to the catcher to end the potential rally.


During the early half of the game, I was amazed that Chamberlain had 1 ER on 9 hits and 4 walks in 5 and 1/3rd. He was getting smacked around, but ALWAYS came up with the DP to get out of the jam. Ok, not always, but 4 out of 5 times is pretty close to a DP every inning.

I was impressed with the Yankees ability to run the pitch count up on Lester from early on. 114 pitches in 6 innings led to a somewhat early departure, getting the Sox bullpen from the 7th on.


So if theres one thing to take away from today's blog, it's DO NOT blame Girardi for this loss. I liked his lineup, got plenty of guys on base, having Posada at DH and Molina at the plate seemed fine to me. Offensively they combined 3-7 and 4 BB's (most of which was from Molina surprisingly). Even Ransom had a nice rbi rouble early on in the game. This loss simply came down to Yankee batters not coming through when the opportunity arose.


Steve Finney

Empty seats at the new stadium

4/21/09 01:53 pm

I've heard the topic of empty seats at the New Yankee Stadium being discussed on radio, in forums, etc. If you've watched any Yankee games so far (past opening day), you've definitely noticed non-sell out crowds at every home game so far. It's kind of obvious why this is (the prices of these empty seats are through the roof), but is it a huge deal to have these big gaps in the Stadium during games?

I think it looks terrible to see complete empty sections in a stadium that the Yanks play in. I've heard a some solutions, to filling in these seats, mainly which have the Yankees severely reducing the prices and letting fans just rush to buy them up. Sounds great, but what about the people who had already spent hundreds of dollars on their tickets, knowing they're sitting next to someone who spent a fraction that they did. This would force the Yankees to either refund the difference to the originally purchasers, or face losing their business in future games/seasons. I think that idea would cost the franchise money in the long-run, and is a bad idea.

I have an idea of a solution, maybe I can hear some of your thoughts:

Start by offering the unsold tickets at discounts to those who have already purchased tickets of similar value. Give the opportunity to those who spent 500 bucks on a ticket to buy more at say, half price. What they do with these tickets is their business (whether they decide to sell them off, or bring more fans with them). It will show appreciation towards those who have already bought expensive tickets, and nobody can really take offense to this. Will this help sell off many tickets? It's hard to say.. but it's a thought.

Then, with the remaining tickets, sell them in an auction style off of the Yankees website. Have some sort of minimum (that way fans aren't getting 2500 seats for 30 bucks) for each ticket, and advertise the auctions in the broadcast and constantly on YES network. Maybe even give some of the auction proceeds towards charity and such for good PR.


So please, leave your comments, let me know if I'm crazy, or if I might be on to something good!

Sunday (the 19th) mornin'

4/19/09 11:21 am

A couple of interesting games the past couple of days over at the new Stadium for sure.

Friday - NYY 6 CLV 5

My prediction for the game was entirely wrong. I had figured the Yanks needed a long and solid outing by Joba ( 4.2 IP, 6 H, 5 BB, 5 ER, 4 K, 1 HR), which they did not receive. The bullpen, however, running with Coke, Albaladejo, Bruney, and Rivera, went 4.1 innings, gave up only 3 hits (2 of them off of MO, who got the save), and not a single run.

Offensively, the Yanks deceided that solo shots to their jet streamed right center field would do the trick, and it did. Damon, Tex, Cabrera, Cano, and Jeter all homered, bringing the Bronx Bombers nickname back to life.

Saturday - CLV 22 (lol) NYY 4

Just when you thought it wasn't possible for Wang to raise his ERA going into this afternoon game (starting from 28.93), he went and proved us all wrong. 8 ER in 1.1 IP raised his ERA up to 34.50.. ouch! But, that was only 8 of the 22 runs. Clagget, making his MLB debut out of the pen, then wanted to show that he could could give up 8 runs. Unlike Wang however, he was able to record 5 outs. The Indians had ended up getting 14 of those 22 runs in the 2nd, the most ever given up in an inning by the Yanks. The 22 total runs also tied their worst run surrendering effort.

Hard to bring up positives after an onslaught like this, the game was just terrible to watch. Being broadcast on Fox only made it worse. Joe Buck and Tim McCarver make me temporarily jealous of the hearing imparied; I'd actually prefer listening to the two-faced Kay in the YES booth. I don't know how many of you listen to Kay's radio show on ESPN, but the entire preseason consisted of anti-yankee laced tirades since spring training began. He's annoying as hell to listen to, and should just leave YES.

Anyways, Pavano (0-2) vs AJ Burnett (2-0) at 1:05 this afternoon. That's as favorable a match up as any Yankee fan could dream of for today. Surprisingly to me, according to the sports lines, the Yankees are much smaller of a favorite today in comparison to yesterday. Hell, I should've bet the house against Wang yesterday, I would've won one and a half houses after the Indians got through with him.

4/17/09 11:30 am

Friday 4/17/09 11:30 AM

Yesterday the new Yankee stadium opened in front of a sell out crowd of 48,271 fan. The pregame ceremony brought back many former Yankees, a great tribute to former Yankee teams. I was surprised at how the crowd came off on TV.. as in not that loud. Why was this?


For one, the last game of the old Yankee Stadium held 54,610, a difference of 6,339 fans. In addition, the upper deck and bleachers have been pushed back, and are much less audible then in the old Stadium. Joel Sherman of the New York Post wrote an article in which he called the new Stadium "The Stadium that Mute built", It describes how the New Yankee Stadium will lose some of the home field edge they used to carry. Not a good sign of things to come.

The Yankees bi-polar bull pen got the best of this game. The game had been tied up after 6, 1-1, when Veras took the mound. C.C. had lasted 5 2/3, but had reached 122 pitches, his most before reaching June ever, and needed to be pulled. Veras failed to get an out after giving up a walk and 2 hits, including a 2 rbi double that left Marte with a runner on 2nd and no one out. A walk, 3 hits, a grand slam and solo HR later, the Yankees trailed 10-1. Chants of "We want Swisher!" could be heard throughout the end of the inning, in reference to Swisher's 1 inning of shutout ball he pitched on Monday. In that game, Nick Swisher was the only pitcher not to give up a run. Considering he is a position player, that was pathetic.

The Yankees bullpen has either been hot or terrible this season. After a rough opening day against Baltimore, the Yankees pen went 9 innings without giving up a hit! Then Veras and Coke blew the game on Sunday against the Royals, and the next night, Swisher became their go to guy. The pen was only used one inning the next day, with Bruney striking out the side when he came in, and the following game, on Wednesday, Rivera picked up the save in a 4-3 game after Bruney relieved Pettite with no problem.

Today's game against the Indians starts at 1pm, with Joba (0-0) going up against Reyes (1-0). Unless the Yankees can get on top of Reyes quick and put a lot of runs on the board, I think their success will depend on how far Joba can go and if the pen can be limited to Bruney and Rivera. We shall see.

In other New York sports news, the Rangers took a 1-0 lead in their first round playoff series against the Capitals on Wednesday night. The game was exciting to watch, especially the 3rd period captivating with Dubinsky's go game winner at 11:43. Game 2 takes place tomorrow afternoon at 1. The Rangers have a long road ahead of them to make it to Lord Stanley's finals, but if they take it one game at a time, you never know.

First of who knows how many blogs

4/17/09 11:30 am


Good morning.

I'm starting this blog as a fun way to give some personal analysis of what's going on with the Yankees. I've recently been hooked into Twitter, but its mostly short line updates that you really can't extend your thoughts too much on. I spend a good amount of time on the computer reading other blogs, twitters, keeping track of sport news, listening to sports radio, so I figure, why not formulate some of my own rants and raves.

My writing background is not profuse by any means. Honors English classes through Junior and High School, as well as a couple of media classes mixed in. A whole year (yes year) of college RLC class, with one semester of basic journalism / media analysis. I'm sure I'll have some mistakes mixed in here and there, but I should be able to get points across with no problem.

So here's to a new blog, the first I've attempted in over 6 years. Maybe I'll write and write and write for months and have two followers, or become the next internet star. Probably the first of those two, but it's all in fun.

Steve