So They're Tearing Down Yankee Stadium

Right now, they're tearing down Yankee Stadium.

As we watch the Yankees play in Atlanta, where so many memories from that October in 1996 still reverberate, forming part of our conscience as turn-of-the-millennium Yankees fans, up here, amidst the rain and the unseasonable chill, they are tearing down Yankee Stadium.

When you walk past it, on your way to the new park, do you acknowledge it? Do you notice it? Do you remember it?

Or does it just stand there, like that relative you only think about when you go to the funeral?

It's still standing, sure, but it's a wounded animal. Eviscerated. Crying out to be saved, but with no one who seems to notice.

We marvel at the new because in an era of iPods, iPhones, Blackberries and WiFi, we are taught that only the new is good. Only the new is worth saving, only new is worth fighting for.

We forget the past.

In the age of Obama and hybird cars, could you, young fan, show your elders the site of the Polo Grounds? Ebbets Field?

These places exist only in our memories. Is it enough? Go ask a Dodgers fan that remembers the team's Brooklyn days. Go to Brooklyn, to the Ebbets Field/Jackie Robinson Apartments. Tell me you think it's the same. Tell me you feel like you're on the field in 1947 when Jackie Robinson integrates baseball. Tell me you feel like you're on the field in 1955, that one, magical next year for Brooklynites.

I know, I know, we're Yankee fans, with our own tradition, and our own history and not Dodger fans, but think about it.

If the Dodgers lost all this when Ebbets Field went down, what will we lose?

We don't have one magical season.

We have twenty-six of them.

We have the Babe and Lou (and Sweet Lou) and Joltin' Joe and Yogi and the Mick and Reggie and Donnie Baseball and Jeet, and so much more.

We have the called shot, the pope(s), the New York Football Giants, Bob Sheppard, and the healing of a broken city in 2001.

We celebrated the Stadium last year. We celebrated the memories and we said our good-byes, joyously celebrating the All Star Game in July and the Final Game in September, even if the sadness of a lost October was somewhere in the air.

The celebration has ended now, and the old Stadium has shifted into the shadows.

It will be gone before we blink, and only then will we shake our heads and say "what a shame."

This is our reality.

This is the price we are chosing to pay so that our team can be newer and better, like all of the other gadgets we own, so very 21st-century.

We'll get so wrapped up in the now, in the present, in the future that we'll forget the past. We'll forget the legacy that is our one responsibility to save. We'll forget to mourn while we still can, and only, when our grandkids ask us, "what was it like, the original Yankee Stadium?" will we answer: "It was home."

"A home," we'll continue, "that we should have saved."

Stinging the Rays (Postgame Notes 07 June 2009)

Winning can change everything.

It can change something as simple as after game plans--deciding to eat Chinese food with friends instead of going straight back home, and it can change something as intangible, but still important, as the atmosphere in which it occurs.

For seven-and-a-half innings, the atmosphere at the Stadium was mostly that of a lull.

Fans cheered when Nick Swisher hit his home run in the third inning, and again when Melky Cabrera made a great diving catch, but when Joba Chamberlain gave up a bases-loaded single to change a 1-1 tie into a 3-1 deficit, some actually left the Stadium.*

Obviously, these people know nothing about the 2009 Yankees.

If they had, they would have seen the Stadium come alive in the bottom of the eighth.

Johnny Damon singled, Alex Rodriguez walked, Mark Teixeira walked, Robinson Canó walked and forced in a run, Jorge Posada reached on an error and Hideki Matsui legged out what would have been a double play.

All of a sudden a 3-1 deficit turned into a 4-3 lead, all without a hit, and a chance for Mariano Rivera to redeem himself after yesterday's failed outing, and redeem himself he did: A 1-2-3 ninth inning without a blink.


Perhaps more important, the Yanks have at least gotten the Tampa Bay monkey off their back, beating them at the Staduim for the first time this year. When push comes to shove, at the present moment Tampa has a bigger litany of issues than the Yankees, but they have been playing well of late and shouldn't be counted out.

Which means that wins like this mean that much more.



*How to tell Joba has the potential to be an ace: he had no, and I mean no command. It was still just 3-1 when he left the game.

Yankees Move To Ten Over .500 (Postgame Notes 02 June 2009)

Sometimes you win with pitching, sometimes you win by luck...

...and sometimes you decide you don't like it when the other pitcher hits you, go hard (but clean) into second to break up a double play, score seven runs in an inning, break a close game open, and never look back.

The Yankees won today not so much because they outhit the Rangers (though they did), but because they out scored them--if you look at the line score, the total hits-13-8 would indicate that the game was a lot closer than it was.

To be fair, over the first three innings it was a close game, but then the fourth happened.

The past few years, had a Yankees' batter been hit by a pitch in the way Teixeira was (and he was actually hit twice) the response would have been to simply ignore it.

While, in theory, the turn-the-other-cheek-mentality would nominate the team for sainthood, baseball players aren't, and are not supposed to be, saints. Heroes, yes; saints, no.

So today, Teixeira didn't try to be a saint...but he also took his revenge the right way--playing hard and clean on the basepath.

It's the fight in this team that we've seen all year that makes this the most fun it's been to watch the Yankees in years.


As for pitching, it was not AJ Burnett's best-ever start, but he walked only one over seven, and the Yanks will take that, likely, every single time.

I think the statistic is that the last nineteen of twenty-one games, Yankee starting pitching has pitched at least five innings.

The stat I like more? Since the start of the Yankees' nine game win streak--way back when on May 13th--the starting pitching has lost a grand total of one game. The Yankees have lost more games than just that one, of course, but those losses were taken by the bullpen which indicates 1) yes, the bullpen is an issue, 2) the Yankees aren't getting blown out, and 3) the Yankees are making a fight of it nearly every single time.

The Yanks are 16-5 in their last 21 (.761) and haven't lost two in a row since that five game losing streak that had everyone ready to jump off a cliff.


Do the Yankees have issues? Sure. They need to figure out that bullpen and whatnot, but at the same time, they're winning in a way we haven't seen in ages.

Everyone's contributing; they're playing well in nearly every facet of the game and not only are they beating teams like Baltimore and Cleveland, whom they're supposed to beat, but they are also winning against teams like Texas--and until tonight they had the best record in the AL--and they all count.



Some late night breaking news to wrap this up: Jesus Montero, it has been confirmed, has been promoted to Trenton. If you haven't, check out his stats for the Tampa Yankees. Dude can rake.

Baseball as I Grieve, Part Two

Baseball as I Grieve, the original


I still look to baseball to comfort me.

It's a comfort, an escape, whatever you want to call it, but whatever it is, it's something I can grasp, something I can hold onto, something that I can at least pretend to understand.

There is something about the every day, something about the regularity of the sport, that draws me in, that tells me, "hey, get on with your life."


So what if I've been told that I should not pursue a PhD because my mode of work is incompatible with graduate school and that I have not progressed enough?

So what if I hear these words the very first day I've returned to campus after my aunt's funeral?

So what if I am physically and emotionally exhausted?


There's still baseball...right?

On Thursday, there is no Yankee baseball. It's one of the few days of the year that's a scheduled off day, and the timing of it rankles: I need baseball today almost now more than ever.

There was plenty of Yankee baseball on Wednesday-fourteen innings of it-and I know the off day is sorely needed for the bullpen, but I need baseball today.

I want to do nothing the rest of the day but curl up in a ball and cry.

There's plenty of crying in baseball, right? Why does real life have to be any different?

I find myself reading the Tanakh again, and this time getting a bit turned off. This is the word of G-d? It's full of gratuitous violence, and killing for the sake of killing, which, while normally not something that bothers me, here is not what I want to read.

I am a history student and for once I'd like to stop thinking about death.



Friday is the first day I smile, really smile, since my mother's phone call last week.

I have one class Friday, instead of the usual two.

It's a philosophy class and nine times out of ten the material sails over my head, and I struggle just to keep up with my notes.

Today, however, it's different.

For whatever reason, maybe simply that I'm amped up because it's Sox and Yankees this weekend and the adrenaline is already flowing, I follow the entire lecture and contribute to the discussion. My questions aren't ignored, but, instead, I am told they are good ones, and perhaps the first time all semester I actually feel as though I belong in the class.

After what I had been told on Thursday, Friday, today, is the perfect remedy.

Even baseball seems to play along for much of Friday night.

Sure, Joba's a bit wild and walking on egg shells, but four double plays in five innings means there's no way we can lose this game...right?

Then I remember: 4-2 games with Mariano Rivera on the mound at Fenway have not always ended well in the past. 2004 still lingers like an old concussion that never quite went away.

Blown saves happen, as they do on this night, and tonight it hurts. It's the first day I've smiled, really smiled, in over a week, and all that earlier contentment disappears with one bad pitch.

Perhaps I'm too attached to this game.


Saturday summer comes to the Bronx.

By noon it's 75 degrees outside, with a bright sun, and all I want to do is stop time so I can bottle this weather forever. I want nothing more than to sit outside and enjoy it, but my building has no porches, and I, with skin as sensitive as a (natural) redhead's, am out of sunblock.

The weather's fitting.

Down in Maryland, today, there's a memorial service, for my aunt's friends and family that couldn't make it up to New Jersey for the funeral.

Aunt Paula was so vibrant and full of life than any other weather besides that which must have been crafted by the Greek g-ds themselves, would have just not worked.

I wish I was there, but it simply wasn't doable, in terms of time and transportation.

I send Facebook well wishes to my cousin, though it's not quite the same as actually being there.

The game Saturday induces a barrage of emotions.

There's contentment and happiness as the Yankees stake out to a 6-0 lead, then despair at a 6-6 tie, anger at 8-6, cooling off at 8-8...on and on it goes, until, at last it reaches a stage where I am simply blank.

The game itself is a catharsis.

I should be angry, furious, horribly upset at the loss, but I am not.

I am blank.

Drained.

Exhausted.

Every inch of my body hurts, as though I have just been standing out on the baseball diamond for nine innings.

Baseball is supposed to be my comfort, right? So why do I feel like this? Not comfortable at all?

Then I realize something that I think I've already known: The comfort of baseball is that they play on. Tomorrow is as though today never happened. They start again, and no one here can say for certainty that they know how it will end.

It's the same with life. You live on. No one knows what will happen next, but still, you live.

You live, you play.

You play, you live.

And that is comfort.

Heroes and Zeroes

Over at It's About the Money, Stupid, Jason posts an excellent post on how the media ignored the steroids scandal in baseball.

At River Ave Blues, Joseph P offers his take and comments on the following Ken Rosenthal quip:

“That is our greatest sin, extolling these guys as something more than they were. Some of us had a feeling that something was amiss. We are more guilty of making McGwire and Sosa into heroes when they weren’t.”

Joe's comment:

First of all, McGwire and Sosa are not and never were heroes, even if they hit all those home runs clean. Baseball players are not heroes. They are entertainers. We might attach some narrative lore to them, especially the legendary ones, but that doesn’t make them heroes. There are people who sacrifice their lives for the betterment of others. That’s when you can get into the hero discussion. It does not apply to people who hit baseballs 400 feet.

In an ideal world, Joe is perfectly right. Baseball players aren't heroes, not in the way that firefighters, EMTs, soldiers, the members of the Coast Guard and those that risk their lives to help others are. There's no real comparison between them and guys that get paid hundreds of millions to play a game as a living.

The problem is, however, that we don't live in an ideal world.

We live in a world-and I've said this before-where what matters is not so much the reality as does the perception.

In 1998, the majority of us baseball fans perceived at least one of the Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa bashing duo as a hero-and in many cases, we thought they both were. In that instance, Sosa and McGwire became de facto heroes, even if they never planned to be considered as such.

See, the thing is, when you are a marquee employee of a multi-billion dollar industry, you don't get to pick and choose what you want to be-if the fans decide you are a hero, if they think you are a hero, however misguided their notion may be, well, then, you are a hero.

So when these guys do something that's not just disallowed by the governing body of their employer, but in many cases illegal as well, you can't just brush it off and say it doesn't matter.

I wish it didn't matter. Really, I would love more than anything not to care, and if you've talked to me recently, you know that my state of delusional grandeur doesn't extend to the belief that 99% of baseball players are clean and there are only a few bad eggs. We know this wasn't and, likely, still isn't true.

An alarming percentage of baseball players likely used-a conservative estimate of 103/800 yields a percentage of 13%; there are only 750 25-man roster players active at any one time-it might seem like an inconsequential number, but over one in ten using would easily mean that yes, someone on your favorite team's roster is using as well.

The public-the paying public-will probably still pay to see the game, even if only to boo the cheaters, but much of the harm done is irreparable.

The Yankees signed Alex Rodriguez to a ten year deal, when they knew that at the tail end of the deal A-Rod is likely to be dead weight because he was the one that was supposed to "cleanly" break Hank Aaron's record. Alex might still go on to hit 800 home runs, but how many of the runs are tainted? If people demand that McGwire's numbers and Bonds' numbers be tainted with asterisks, there is no reason to think they won't demand the same of A-Rod.

I can't actually tell you that most baseball players have no interest in being heroes, but if the opportunity arose, I wouldn't hesitate to make that bet. Baseball players are, as Joe says, in reality entertainers. The perception of them as heroes is unfair...but it's still there, just the same.

As I said before, the steroids scandal isn't likely to keep fans from the game-if you see a decline in attendance figures this year, you're probably best off attributing blame to the recession/economic collapse/second great depression-but the argument that baseball players aren't heroes and thus how they do what they do shouldn't matter is fallacious.


Baseball players have tremendous ability-they can inspire kids to play and thus stay out of trouble, they can inspire kids to dream and they can provide us adults with an escape from the humdrum of every day life (well, unless you're a Nationals fan, but that's not the point). In that sense, baseball players are heroes, and as much as I have issues with Ken Rosenthal, he is not entirely off the mark.

Some Random Thoughts from Spring Training

I'll admit it. I've been an awful blogger the past couple of weeks. I'll spare you the excuses.

Anyway, now that Spring Training is a few weeks old, I've had a couple of thoughts that keep repeating:

• I wish the Yankees would do something about the fact that Derek Jeter is not going to be able to play shortstop for a whole heck of a lot longer. They've got a couple prospects at the lower levels, I think, but I would love to see if perhaps they considered trading some of their surplus pitching talent for a closer-to-ready SS...unless the kids the Yankees have in their system really are supposed to be that good...but, given that you never hear them mentioned in the nearly the same breath as Jackson, Montero, Romine, et al, that doesn't bode very well.

• Posada's been swinging the bat well. I wonder how many people remember that in last spring training, in the first game against USF, Posada hit a triple?

• I wouldn't worry too much about the pitching right now--and here I'm talking about the starting. All you need to worry about is whether or not they stay healthy. Don't go too much on Spring Training performances--remember how good Canó was in March and how bad he was in April?

• As the economy continues to collapse and enters downright scary-as-hell territory, I have to think that it might soon become very possible to see ticket prices, at least from fan-to-fan selling, come down a tad. Granted, no, you still won't be able to afford tickets for Opening Day, but the prices for the Cubs exhibition games, at least the ones I've seen, aren't too bad (until you consider that face value is 1923 prices, but we'll ignore that). I'm still hoping to magically land a ticket (or two) for Friday night, but I have to go to a conference all day on Saturday, which is a shame since I'd much prefer the day game.

• If you haven't seen it, PBP was mentioned on the New York Magazine website here the other day, under the appropriate named linked 'fanatic-blogs'. My inappropriate sense of self-importance grows ever larger.
  

It's March 1st. It's okay to step away from the ledge

Apparently, I never realized that Grapefruit League games actually matter.

Right.

Are we so starved for baseball that we take games in the first week of an extended exhibition season and use these to judge the fortunes of our team in 2009?

Right now, the "regulars" leave the game after four or five innings and the pitchers you see are not your Opening Day starters.

Right now, all that matters is keeping the team healthy and getting them up to full strength.

Thus, Jorge Posada and Edwar Ramirez and Jonathan Albaladejo are legitimate concerns (even if grouping Albie here is pushing it a little bit).

Jesus Montero is a bit of a concern, sure, but he is not supposed to impact the major league team for a couple of seasons...kid's 19 years old! When I was 19 years old, my biggest concerns were staying up till 3.30 AM to finish that paper on African myths...

What isn't a legitimate concern: worrying about losing games in the first week of exhibition play.

Seriously. Remember last spring training? How Robbie Canó hit .440ish? How'd that work out during the regular season?

While, right now, Brett Gardner is pwning Melky, remember, there's still a whole month before the regular season starts, and anything can happen, so, I'd exercise some caution before going out to buy those "Gardner" t-shirts just yet.

Spring Training right now is a time to sit back, be jealous of sunny Florida while in NY it's about to dump a foot of snow, take a seat with a cup of hot tea and Baseball Prospectus 2009, take a deep breath...

...and relax.

It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

You cannot judge a season on the basis of the first week.

This we know.

We also know that in 1998, the year of 114 wins, the Yankees started 1-4.

Of course, the Yankees then went 17-2 the rest of the month of April, so perhaps we're best off not considering 1998 but something a little more realistic.

Like 1996.

In 1996 we started 2-3, like we are now, and it got to 6-7 before we began turning it around.


You know, anything that compares favorably to 1996 or 1998 is fine by me.

Manufactured Win (Postgame Notes 3 April 2008)

If the Yankees pitch every game like they pitched tonight, we're in for one heck of a season.

On a night when Dustin McGowan was excellent for Toronto, Phil Hughes was able to match him, nearly pitch for pitch, good enough, in fact, to retire the first nine in a row. Even in the innings when he got into a jam, he was able to get himself out of them with limited damage--two runs over six.

More important, however, was the game that our bullpen had--Billy Traber struck out his lone batter, Brian Bruney did this thing where he threw strikes (!), Joba did his thing and Mo, as always, helped the cardiologists make a little more money before sealing the deal.

As I was saying to Elizabeth of Dynasty NYY, it's amazing how, despite the fact that Mo is (or should be) a first ballot to Cooperstown, you still get nervous every time he comes in, even though 99% of the time he's going to give the Yankees exactly what they need.

Offensively, the Yankees were have trouble bringing runners around to score until the sixth, when they played a little small ball to manufacture a run, and they did it again in the eighth. In games such as these, bona-fide, NL-style pitching duels, that is exactly how you win games.

OPTIMIST TAKE: The pitching for the Yankees so far has been excellent. Toronto's has been unbelievable, and yet the Yankees never let any of the three games, even last night's loss, get out of reach. We had two bunts in a row tonight offensively, and two good ones, too. I can't remember the last time we did it. Over the first three games, our bullpen has given up exactly one run, and every bullpen pitcher has pitched at least one out.


SCORES AND STUFFS

Padres over Astros 3-2. Hoffman and Mo are neck and neck in the lead for the MLB lead in saves.

Cubs over Brewers, 6-3, giving the Cubs their first win of the year. Kerry Wood closed.

Cardinals over Rockies, 3-0. Colorado did manage seven hits.

Angels over Twins, 5-4. Torii Hunter had a home run against his former team.

Phillies over Nationals, 8-7, with Philadelphia winning in the bottom of the 10th. First loss of the season for Washington.

Royals over Tigers, 4-1. Not only did the Royals sweep the series, but now Gary Sheffield has tendon damage in his left ring finger and Miguel Cabrera has a quadriceps problem. I wonder if the Tigers hired Marty Miller over the winter...

Reds over Diamondbacks, 3-2. That Cueto guy that made his debut today? Pitched one-hit ball.

White Sox over Indians, 2-1. Danks for Chicago pitched a two-hitter.

Pirates and Braves are tied at three in the tenth, while Rays and Orioles were postponed due to rain.

Optimism Campaign 2008

After hearing about George King's article today, and reading the ESPN capsule preview, I've come to one conclusion:

It's time to launch the 2008 Optimism Campaign: Mission 27/08


What's the Campain?

The Optimism Campaign is a campaign to spread an optimistic outlook on the New York Yankees, to focus on what's right, and not what's wrong, but what can be improved. It is a campaign to spread the belief...nay, the knowledge...that the Yankees are fully capable of their 27th World Championship, and that intangibles, the things you can't get from sabermetrics matter. It is a campaign to appreciate the glorious history of the franchise with an eye on the well being of our future. It is a campaign that recognizes that while the team will make mistakes, it does no good to dwell on them, and, instead, to focus on how we can prevent it from occurring again.

What do we believe?

• There are 27 outs to a baseball game and you must play all of them before the game is officially over.
• Everyone on the Yankees roster has the capacity to be the hero of that game, regardless of past actions.
  
• That intangibles, such as clubhouse chemistry and ability to perform in the clutch, matter.
• That whether or not Joe Girardi is the right choice of manager isn't the big issue (even though he is), but that we will support him throughout the season in one of the toughest jobs in all sports.
• That, whatever comes out of his mouth, Hank Steinbrenner (and his siblings) know what he (and they) are doing.
• That the youngsters, here defined as Melky Cabrera, Robinson Canò, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy and Shelley Duncan, may go through harsh growing pains, but that their upside is tremendous and that not trading any one of them has been a good idea.
• That Jason Giambi and Mike Mussina will have bounce-back years.
• That Bobby Abreu, Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Chien Ming Wang and Andy Pettitte will continue to perform at a level appropriate for their position.
• That pessimism is a product of tabloids and certain broadcast media that exists to provide entertainment and rile emotions.
• That negative opinions have every right to exist as long as they are expressed in a civilized and reasonable form, even if we do not hold them ourselves.

How can I be a member?

All you have to do is say you're an optimist, and you're in! While you don't have to agree with every single bulleted point above, the first one is absolutely crucial.

What are the perks of membership?

Sharing a bond with Yankee fans just like yourself, and scientific studies have shown a positive outlook increases life expectancy.

What is Mission 27/08?

It is the mission for 27 Championships in 2008.

If These Walls Could Talk...

It's not the Coliseum. It's not the Tower of London. It's not even the Statue of Liberty.

Yet, even so, when I read the plan is to tear down Yankee Stadium, I still feel my stomach tighten, my eyes get a little moist, my composure shakes a bit...

My first thought is not about how I'll miss being able to go to games there or how I'll likely never get to witness history at the old Yankee Stadium, but instead, my first thought is:

What about the ghosts? Where will they go? They need a home, too.

I am not obsessed with the supernatural, but it's not a lie for me to say that I do believe in ghosts. There's just too much about baseball that can't be explained otherwise...at least, not in a way that sticks with me. I mean, how else do you explain the Chicago Cubs?

I think of the ghosts and I think of how, if you tear down these walls, the ghosts will have no shelter from the winter winds. We hope, of course, they'll come with us just across the street, but something in my mind tells me: ghosts don't move their haunts.

My second thought, and the one that overrides the first, that consumes it, is that tearing down Yankee Stadium is tearing down history. It's saying we don't need the history exist here anymore, the memory of it is good enough for us.

Memories will not leave us--I've said this before--not while we have our cameras, our videos, our own methods of recollection, but over time, they fade.

We can live the memories because we've been there, we've been in the solid steel and concrete of the stands, we've felt the August sun and the October moon. We can tell our children about them, our grandchildren as well, and maybe even our great-grandchildren...

...but sooner or later, we turn to dust, and then all we have are the memories. There's no place for our children (if you're as young as I am), our grandchildren or our great-grandchildren to live them.

You can tell someone about the magic of Ruth, of Gehrig, of DiMaggio, of Berra, of Mantle, of Jackson, of Jeter...but it's not the same when you're not there. There's no question about it.

There is perhaps nothing that binds us together, as Yankees fans, or is such a large part of our being as Yankee Stadium.


If baseball is America's pastime, Yankee Stadium is America's ballpark. There are other historic parks, like Wrigley and Fenway, but there is nothing like Yankee Stadium. I know I sound like the obnoxious Yankee fan when I say it, but there's no other ballpark that's played host to 26 championship teams...and in baseball, home-field advantage actually matters.


Time moves forward, and we can't change it. The facilities at Yankee Stadium are old, and there's no doubt, that at least from a sanitary and safety point of view, a new stadium is needed.


Why should we feel as though we have to tear down the old, though? Why should we feel that it's okay to tear down history? Because other teams have done it?

Yankee Stadium need not be an empty shell; keep it, keep the field, use it as a park...maybe the Little League team or that middle school team from the Bronx can use it as their home park?

What about it?

Imagine it, the eleven year-old boy with mossy hair and the scraggly, lanky body, who can barely lift the bat over his shoulder comes up to bat with two out in the bottom of the ninth, the team's best runner on second, his team down by one, the burly thirteen year-old pitcher from some other team (maybe one in Queens), sets, pitches, there's a crack of the bat that echoes through the empty stands, giving rise to the ghosts, rise to the memories...

Pay Attention!

Most of you have probably become acquainted with the knowledge now that use of ADHD drugs Ritalin and Adderall has soared in the MLB since 2006. One of the possible and often cited reasonings for this is that it is a legal way to get around the ban on amphetamines. It's pretty simple, too: go to a psychiatrist, get an ADHD diagnosis, get a prescription, ask for an exemption.

It should, of course, be harder than that, but that's not the point here.

This one strikes home for me.

You see, for much of my childhood, let's say ages eight to sixteen, I was on said medication. The memories that I associate with this are not happy memories.

Mostly they are memories of being told by various adults that I could not function properly without said medication, that I had to take it on the spot or I'd be a wild, uncontrollable, disobedient child...but there are other memories, as well.

There is the memory of the one time I took it before school, on an empty stomach, and got rather sick from it.

There is the memory of never being able to properly fall asleep.

There is, of course, the memory of knowing how I was never really allowed to feel quite like myself.

About the time I was just about to turn seventeen, I decided that I'd had enough. My parents were never up with me when I was eating breakfast, so it was incredibly easy to just not take the pill. So I didn't.

While I cannot 100% prove that the medication destroyed my digestive system, it does seem like the most likely culprit. My sleeping habits are still a mess, though the university life may be to blame there.

Anyway.

This is a rather bare account, I admit, but it gives you an idea. After all, most people on Ritalin or Adderall are not professional baseball players or grown ups, but school-age children who have (usually) no say in their own mental health. There are certainly some cases in which the drugs are needed, but for what it's worth, as I'm no doctor, often the issue is simply an overly imaginative child being forced to sit still for long periods of time.


The idea of baseball players using these drugs, glorifying them in a respect, is disgusting. For every baseball player trying to use it as a legal way to get around the ban on amphetamines, there is a heaping of children being told by their parents, their teachers and their doctors that they can't function without the drug, that having an imagination is a bad thing because it will make them misbehave.


I am passionate about this--but we tend to be passionate most about the things that affect us directly and I have been on Ritalin and I have been on Adderall. If you really need to concentrate, that much, have a cup of coffee, or better, tea, before the game.

Home Sweet Home (Postgame Notes 17 Sept 07)

That was a good, old-fashioned win, except for the small part where the bullpen decided to make it as scary as possible.


Phil Hughes needs to find a better way to warm up--through the first 30 pitches his ERA is over 10; afterwards his ERA is around 2.55.

Tonight, he was true to form: Two runs in the first on over 30 pitches, and then no runs afterwards. I wish I could say first inning jitters aren't a big deal, but if Hughes is matched up against a pitcher like Sabathia or Lackey, two or three runs in the first might not be such a small thing.

Anyway, the important part is that he did settle down, and did more than give the Yankees a chance to win; he won the game! Hughes got his first Yankee Stadium win, and you have to feel that he's broken through the wall, if you know what I mean...if you can win at Yankee Stadium, you can win anywhere.

Bullpen: K-Ram was great with the bases loaded, getting the one strike out, but the next inning, it looked like bad K-Ram had showed up, so I'm not totally down on Torre waiting so long for Viz to get in...but Viz performed wonderfully. Just a pity that he couldn't pitch the ninth, could have saved both Farnsworth and Mo.

Farnsworth was back to his old tricks, though part of it was probably because he hasn't pitched in so long. Still, though, there's no reason the Yankees should have had to brink Mo in...

Ah. Right. Important thing: Yanks won.

Offensively, it's a much better story.

Every Yankee except for Giambi had a hit, a far cry from the lack of offense in all but two innings for the Yanks against Boston in their series this past weekend.

The bottom of the order, especially was spot on, and it was great to see Matsui hit one out again and both Cano and the Mient Man had great hits.

Posada had three hits...any other year but this, the chants of MVP would be raining down on him...


Anyway, it was great to see the Yankee bats doing the little things, driving in runs with runners in scoring position (including a hit by Damon that went off the back of Daniel Cabrera), and playing a clean game in the field. Cano made a GREAT play for an out in the ninth, but don't be surprised if you don't see it in the highlight reels.

Now the fun part:

The win tonight coupled with Boston and Detroit losses means that the Yanks are 3 games back in the loss column in the East and 4 up in the loss column in the Wild Card.

It's too soon to say for sure that the Yanks have the WC locked up, but it's at that point now where every win and every loss is huge, and the difference between a three game lead and a four game lead can seem like a gulf of eternity.

So, for Yankees' fans, it's best to have faith: there's no reason to not hope for the East, expect the Wild Card, but take NOTHING for granted.

This is our year.

We just have to get there first.



A note: Bob Sheppard missed tonight's game with laryngitis. Sending out my best get well soon wishes his way!


Scores and Stuffs

Well, most of you will know Toronto beat Boston 6-1. What you might not know is that Frank Thomas hit THREE HRs, and McGowan pitched a complete game for the Blue Jays. Doesn't mean I want McGowan pitching against the Yankees, but for the moment, I can appreciate what he did!

Cleveland beat Detroit 6-5 in eleven, coming back from 5-1 to do so...coincidentally, that is why when the Yanks were down 5-1 to Boston on Friday, I wasn't that worried. Detroit must be crushed by the loss...

The White Sox beat Kansas City 11-3, Javier Vazquez having 13 strike outs in the process. I could make some chide remark about him not doing that on the Yankees, but that would be juvenile...

Minnesota beat Texas in the bottom of the ninth, but ESPN says the score is 4-4, so I can't actually tell you what the final score is...

Seattle is up on Oakland 1-0 in the sixth, a game unlikely to have any postseason significance whatsoever.

LA is up on Tampa 5-4 in the 3rd, a game that's remarkably see-saw-ish for such mismatched teams.

Atlanta beat Florida 11-6, keeping their slim hopes (still) alive. Oh, those pesky Braves...(I do kind of miss the late '90s heyday, when Yankees-Braves was nearly as crazy as Yanks-Sox!)

The Mets did themselves no favors, losing to Washington 12-4. Looks like they're trying to find the most painful way to get into the playoffs...I'm telling you. Cardiologists everywhere are on the secret payroll of NY sports teams!

Philadelphia gets the HEART ATTACK award for tonight, though. They beat St. Louis 13-11. At one point, the score was 11-0. Yeah. St. Louis had two on in the bottom of the ninth, and you have to think that if St. Louis was so adamant about not being able to win a game in the final month of the season, that they would have one the game. Philadelphia escaped; their bullpen should be doing anything but celebrating tonight...


Cubs beat the Reds 7-6, scoring three in the ninth, as, at last, one team in the NL Central has decided that winning the division isn't really a bad thing.

Milwaukee beat Houston 6-0, but neither Ryan Braun nor Prince Fielder homered.

San Francisco leads Arizona 3-2 in the 6th. Don't think it will hold, though.

San Diego is up on Pittsburgh 3-0 in the 7th, a good, old-fashioned game, which probably means something crazy will happen, or has happened but not in the box score!



What a night!

This week I went 7-8, likely to be 7-9. In my defense, did ANYONE have the Browns over the Bengals or the Bucs over the Saints?

Seventh Heaven (Postgame Notes 12 Sept 07)

It's not often that a team with four hits will beat a team with seven, but when you do the little things like walk and steal bases, it's certainly possible.

The Yankees just proved it.

First things first: Mussina, in one of the most critical starts of his career, was excellent. I'm not sure anyone expected him to go six; he got one out away from that, and no doubt if not for a couple of blown strike calls, he would have had it.

However, there's absolutely no reason to complain when your starter pitches 5.2 scoreless innings...

It wasn't likely that K-Ram would have been in the game for much more than one batter, given that the Yanks needed one out to get out of the inning, but still, the decision to use him here after having pitched two innings yesterday has got to raise some questions.

Which brings me to Joba.

He had a very nice, Joba-like seventh inning. Why he was brought out in the eighth, I'm not sure--I don't know how the Yanks justify being able to use him for two games in the Boston season.

However, good news the run scored was unearned. Though Joba did allow a run, his ERA is still 0.00, which is still a helluva lot better than that Buchholz chap!


Rivera made things interesting in the eighth, but returned to form in the ninth.


The top four guys on the Yankees today went something like 0-12, but Damon was robbed of an RBI when Wells trapped a hard-hit ball to center and the umpire called Damon out. On the replay, it was clearly a blown call.

More importantly, however, despite the Ofer, the top four guys did manage to walk a couple times, and Toronto paid the price.

Matsui had a great game, the type of game that breaks a slump--a great RBI single, and two walks, which means he's not trying to reach out of the strike zone to get his hits.

Robby Cano also had a great hit, but more importantly, he had great defense today. He had eleven assists, six in the first three innings alone. His defense now has improved greatly--it wasn't too long ago that even the routine throws over to first seemed to always pull Phillips or Giambi off of the bag.



It was the small things that got the game won tonight, and the Yankees have to be happy about that, despite A-Rod's error. I don't blame Joba if, for just tonight, he goes and considers Posada the MVP...

Anyway, more importantly. The Yankees have now won the series against Toronto, a series in which none of the pitching match-ups could really be said to be in our favor (Shaun Marcum is now 12-7, which is a better record than many of the Yankees' own starters, McGowan was 2-0 against the Yankees before tonight and we had Mussina on the mound, and tomorrow AJ Burnett is pitching), we've been able to win the games that matter.

Now, if only Tampa Bay knew that walking the Red Sox 'power guy' when the count is 3-1 is a much better decision than serving a fastball down the plate when there's a runner on and it's the bottom of the ninth, we'd be set!

Well, the Yankees can't concern themselves too much with Boston and Tampa--they have no control over it, and, well, for Tampa to take one of three is still not too bad.

Since I'm there anyway,

Scores and Stuffs

Boston beat Tampa, 5-4, in the bottom of the ninth on an Ortiz HR. Ortiz actually had five RBI, meaning he was Boston's entire offense tonight. Well now, if Tampa couldn't hold a seven run lead yesterday, do you honestly think they were safe with a one run lead? Still, I guess of all the Red Sox pitchers to beat, Schilling isn't a bad target...

Detroit beat Texas 5-1 to keep pace in the Wild Card. However, unless Detroit puts together a seven game win streak the same time the Yanks put together a seven game lose streak, it looks like the Yankees are probably in with at least the Wild Card.

Angels beat Baltimore 18-6. Anaheim fans are probably astounded that they couldn't score twenty.

The Chi Sox did the impossible and won the game, beating Cleveland 7-4. Jim Thome had his 499th career home run. Yankees fans can take heart: If Thome hits #500 this year, it won't come against the Yankees!

Kansas City beat Minnesota 6-3, finally getting a win as they attempt to stay out of last place in the AL Central.

Seattle leads Oakland 2-1 in the third, but it looks more and more like the Mariners are just playing out the string.

In the National League,

The Mets beat Atlanta, 4-3, as the Mets continue to be one of the two best teams in the NL. If they and Arizona don't meet in the NLCS, it'll be a surprise, and as Colorado beat Philadelphia 12-0, it looks like the Phillies, too, are no longer eye-ing the NL East as a prize.

Cincinnati beat St. Louis, 5-1. Rick Ankiel had a hit and scored the Cardinals' only run, a bit of good news since the HGH story broke. He has not homered since the story broke.

Pittsburgh beat Milwaukee 7-4. Neither Prince Fielder or Ryan Braun homered as Milwaukee seems to be unable to decide whether or not they actually want to win the NL Central.

The Cubs beat Houston 3-2, so I think that means the Cubs and the Brewers are tied for first, but I'm not really sure and the best decision might be just to look at the Sports Page on October 1st.

The Dodgers are up 2-1 on the Padres in the fourth, and, rounding out the night, Arizona is up 3-0 in the fourth.


I would like to say Shana Tova to any and all Jewish readers, may the New Year be filled with sweet and happy memories. I don't have any apples or honey on me, however, you're on your own for that =P