Erm. Ronan, Jewish jokes in NY are probably not the best idea

Was Watching has the scoop from The Daily News

Irish tenor Ronan Tynan sings a first-rate “God Bless America,” at Yankee Stadium, but his attempt at telling a joke offended a Jewish doctor who found it to be anti-Semitic.

Tynan apologized, telling WNBC, “I would never want to hurt anybody’s feelings. It was stupid of me to be so callous.”

But the Yankees still canceled his appearance at the stadium Friday night.

The trouble started when Tynan, 49, bumped into a real estate agent showing an apartment in his East Side apartment building to a doctor from NYU Medical Center.

The agent told Tynan, “Don’t worry, they are not Red Sox fans,” according to apartment-hunter Gabrielle Gold-von Simson.

“I don’t care about that, as long as they are not Jewish,” was Tynan’s reply.

Um.

I'm Jewish, and I'm not easily offended. Without actually being there or hearing how it was said, it'd be foolish of me to embark on any sort of crusade.

That said, for a public figure in New York--and Mr. Tynan, now, certainly is--to make any sort of comment that could even be just even just a little bit anti-Semitic or construed by one as anti-Semitic is a really, really bad idea.

Again, I'm not offended. My gut tells me that it was simply a joke gone awry. However, there are some--such as this doctor fellow--that will be. And, well, when that happens things tend not to end so well.

Joba's Troubles Concerning

The Yankees, as of September 5th 2009, do not have a lot of concerns.

They have the best record in baseball by a decent margin and have had quite a few win streaks of seven games or more. Losses are rare; the team has lost only two series entirely since the All Star Break.

Life, as a Yankees fan, is pretty darned good.

It is not, however, perfect.

There are concerns, and right now there is probably none looming as large as Joba Chamberlain.

It's true that AJ Burnett hasn't won in a month, but some of those non-decisions and losses have more to do with the Yankees giving him no run support than they do Burnett pitching poorly.

Chamberlain, on the other hand, has not pitched well since before that first Boston game of that four-game sweep we remember so fondly.

Since that game, Chamberlain has pitched to an ERA of 7.96, which, even considering ERA's inaccuracies, is really, really bad. Like, Sergio Mitre in that time has been almost twice as good.

Seriously.

Chamberlain's 20-17 strikeouts to walks is nearly identical, which is not something you'd want even from your number five starter, let alone someone that's going to start games for your team in the playoffs.

Opponents are OPSing .923 against Chamberlain--that's better than Mark Teixeira.

Then there's also the fact that Joba is fast (okay, maybe not so fast) approaching the 150 innings gray area, in which the Yankees will begin to risk his long-term health if he keeps going out there.

In short, Joba has about four weeks to show some massive improvement, or else the Yankees might seriously consider starting Mitre, because if the Yankees are in the ALCS, fans will remember easily that a game four win actually matters. At least Mitre can get the occasional out.

The John Sterling Drinking Game

Based on Andrew Fletcher's Michael Kay drinking game, and with his full permission.

With some help from the followers of @rebecca_glass.


PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY I am not liable if you die of alcohol poisoning or any other alcohol-related fatality.

THE JOHN STERLING DRINKING GAME

The It Is High Cluster

Every time he says "It is high, it is far..." take a drink.

If it is "Gone," take two.

If it is "off the Wall," take three.

If it is "CAUGHT", finish the drink.

If it is "foul", you lose.


The A-Bomb Cluster

If it is "El Capitan", take a drink.

"Johnny Rocket", take a drink.

"A Tex Message" and "You're on the Mark Teixeira", take three.

"An A-Bomb from A-Rod", take a drink.

"An A-Bomb from Matsui," finish the drink.

"A Thrilla from Godzilla," take a drink.

"Jorge juiced one," take a drink.

"SWISHALICIOUS," finish the drink.

"Robbie Canó, doncha know?" take a drink. If there were men on base, finish the drink.

"The Melkman delivers", take a drink.



The I-don't-believe-what-I-just-saw cluster

"You know Suzyn, you can't predict baseball", or any variation there of, take a drink.

"Amazing", take two drinks.

Take a drink if he botches a non home-run play and then tries to make up for it by saying "from the booth" or any such that indicates that he needs glasses.

"Lined like a bullet! Base hit!" One drink for a single. "It goes into a corner", two. Any more, add a drink per base. Inside the park HR, finish the drink.

"How d'ya like that?" Two drinks.


The Win Warble Cluster

If the "theeeee" warble lasts longer than .... seconds, take .... drinks:

2 ---> 1
3 ---> 2
4 ---> 3
5+ --> Finish the darned drink already.

If it's ALCS over, finish the drink.

If it's World Series over, what the hell are you doing playing a drinking game? Go start a riot in Times Square!


The wasn't watching cluster

Take a drink if he disagrees with Suzyn.

Take a drink for every two minutes he talks without mentioning what happens during the game.

If Sterling sings, ever, finish two drinks.

Two drinks if he says "Let's build something togethaaaa" instead of "together." Three drinks if he sings at any time.

The Big, Bad Yankee Problem No One's Talking about...yet

This weekend's sweep in Boston left many of the Yankees' immediate weaknesses exposed:

A beat up bullpen
A phantom in center field
A big bad black hole of doom at the bottom of the line up
Starting pitching that didn't so much pitch as throw the ball somewhere in the vicinity of home plate, and prayed.

Yet, these problems are, when you think about it, not necessarily all that bad.

When Alex Rodriguez returns from the line up, it should take care of the big bad black hole of doom at the bottom of the line up.

If Cashman wanted, he could probably sign Mike Cameron for a reasonable amount and receive an upgrade over Melky and Gardner in center field.

The bullpen's a mess because Bruney's hurt, though this should be a relatively minor injury, and Mark Melancon certainly impressed tonight. When the starters start giving more innings, the bullpen will be in much better shape.

There's no reason the starting pitching can't get its act together, either. Power pitchers-and the Yanks have three in their rotation-can take a while to heat up. We all know how CC struggled last April.


These problems exist, and frustrate, but they are not the end of the world.


However, the Yankees do have a much bigger issue to contend with, and it only takes a little digging to see what it is.

Derek Jeter's contract is up in 2010--the end of next season.

This, itself, is a big enough problem already.

Jeter's power declined enough last season that many fans considered him a GIDP machine, and they weren't the only one. This season, except when Girardi has opted to play both Gardner and Cabrera, Jeter has hit lead-off, to avoid the DPs.

He is showing more power this season, early though it is, than he did last season, but there is no guarantee that it will last.

What's more, no team has ever won a World Series with a starting shortstop aged 35 or older.

Then, of course, there's Jeter's defense, which, Andrew Fletcher of Scott Proctor's Arm has generously described as "past a diving Jeter"...



Now, imagine for a moment that the Yankees are not playing sentimental, that they are thinking long term and elect not to resign Jeter, or not to resign him for any longer than one year.

Guess what wonderful task the Yankees are then faced with?

Replacing Derek Jeter.

So, if you're Yankee management, which of these kids would you want replacing Jeter?

Straight from the Baseball America 2009 Prospect Handbook

Carmen Angelini? He's #1 on the depth chart. Good, right? Well, he's playing for low-A Charleston right now and has made an error in all but three games this season. It's gone from amusing, to worrying, to worrying and vaguely amusing. Angelini's still young-born in 1988-but even Jesus Montero was not this much of a defensive ornamental fountain last year.

Garrison Lassiter? He's #2, and also at Low A. He's putting together a nice average...but I repeat: he's at Low A.

Eduardo Nuñez is at AA, and is hitting .258. The season's still young and anything can happen-kid is still young-but someone hitting .258 at AA does not a Derek Jeter replacement portend.

Fourth on the depth chart is the guy currently wasting away on the Yankee bench: Ramiro Peña. Peña's certainly got the glove for the position, but unless he starts playing every day, his bat won't get the chance to develop like it should. For the moment, he's the most likable of all the guys listed here.



Now, I should be very clear about this: there is no replacing Derek Jeter.

Jeter's the guy whose name you utter when you are talking Yankee greats: Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Berra, Mantle, Mattingly, Jeter.

They may-I repeat MAY-one day replace his production, and they can certainly replace his defense, but in terms of other intangibles, it's not possible.

So in that regard, the Yankees would be foolish if they were trying to find someone that can replace Jeter as Captain.


They still, however, need to replace Jeter as shortstop and right now the options aren't too appealing.

Granted, it's still early and the young guys have a lot of developing left to do.

The Yankees could decide to use some of their overstocked pitching talent to pursue a trade, but any other GM worth his (or her) salt will probably up the price considerably.

The Yankees could sign a free agent. The list is here. It's not a very promising list. Most teams will do anything to keep their SS worth their salt since it's such a thin position. José Reyes is probably the best on the list and he's a franchise player for the Mets.

The Yankees could-and probably will-resign Jeter, though that might be their worst option. If his glove won't play at shortstop, the only other realistic option is DH-which his bat can't really carry in the American League, especially if the other option is (and it probably will be) Jorge Posada.

For 2009 at least, Jeter remains the Yankee shortstop and the Yankee captain, but while possible heirs to Mariano Rivera (Mark Melancon), Jorge Posada (Jesus Montero/Austin Romine) and Andy Pettitte (Joba Chamberlain/Phil Hughes/Take your pick) are at least beginning to emerge from the shadows, Jeter's situation is much murkier.


If the Yankees do not already have a plan in place for November 2010, they need to figure one oout.

The sooner, the better.

A-Rod Conference Today's Big Draw

Alex Rodriguez is supposed to have his press conference today at 1.30 PM. I will be unable to cover it, so I figured I'd write a tiny bit before hand.


The most crucial thing for Alex to do is come clean. Pretend the Gammons interview never happened and come clean. Don't act like you're holding back, either. Come clean. Oh, and you probably should apologize, too.

After that, if you want to say that after today you never want to talk about this again, it's your right.

It might seem odd to us that Alex hired a PR firm to help him with this, but we have to remember that two years ago, this was the guy that 'opted out' of his mammoth contract during the clinching game of the World Series. Good PR is not exactly his thing.

However, as much as we might want to hope that the A-Roid saga will end today, the answer is that it won't--not when there's a book coming out, not while Alex is still a Yankee, not when the saga will continue to sell papers and magazines.

The thing the Yankees can look forward to after today, though, is that if they and Alex do this press conference thing right, they won't have to address it after today, at least, not publically.

Miguel Tejada Charged with Lying to Congress

Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada has been charged with lying to Congress about the prevalence of steroid use, ESPN is reporting.

It is going to be painfully apparent pretty soon that this goes way beyond Alex Rodriguez and perhaps strikes at the very heart of baseball.

As long as there has been a game there has been cheating, but the difference is that with the media now--TV, radio, blogs, etc--it's a hell of a lot more noticeable. Alas, many casual fans don't care if Mantle was a drunk or Cobb a racist--they care about what their players are doing now.

Is it too early to call for Selig to resign?

This did happen on his watch.

Selig's done some good for the game--look at the attendance totals and revenue sharing--but the idea that people didn't know what was going on, ranging from players to owners, is preposterous.

Oh well. Not like there are tons of things more American than a good scandal, anyway...

Alex Rodriguez admits to Steroid Use

According to the handy dandy text I just recieved from ESPN.com, A-Rod has admitted to steroid use in 2003 and will make confession on the 6 PM edition of Sportscenter

I'm on my way out to do grad school stuff but I'll write more later.

A-Rod A-Ruined?

With A-Rod's situation now out in the open, there are these possible courses of action for him to take:

1) Admit whatever allegations are true, even if they aren't. The Pettitte/Hamilton/Giambi route seems to be the most successful in terms of dealing with illicit substances, although it should be noted that Hamilton's situation was different.

2) Clam up and say nothing, which solves nothing.

3) Go the Clemens/Bonds/Palmeiro route and deny everything. This, I don't need to tell you, hasn't always worked very well.

However, whatever path Alex takes, there is one basic constant--rightly or wrongly, he'll never be considered a "clean" player again.

That clean break of Hank's record?

Gonna have to wait for someone else.

It sucks for everyone involved--Alex, the team, the fans, baseball as a whole.

For every argument that the anonymous names should have remained anonymous, there's the more powerful argument that Alex shouldn't have put himself in that situation in the first place.

We want to like A-Rod. We excused the stripper in Toronto incident, and then tried not to pay too much attention when he started banging Madonna and divorced from his wife, despite their two young daughters.

For everyone that argued 2006 and 2008 were subpar, we said, look at 2005 and 2007.

We welcomed him back after the op-out fiasco and only a few dared voice complaint when he signed on for ten years.

But this, this strikes at the very heart of the game. If it's true, we can't simply brush it aside, and neither can Alex.

While we hope that it's not true, unfortunately, in public perception he's already guilty (just check out that poll on ESPN.com)

You know, I have to think, for all the wishing we did that the Torre book wouldn't be a distraction during Spring Training, I think we may have to be just a little more careful about what we wish for...

Alex Rodriguez fails Steroid Test?

I was woken up this morning by a phone call that went something like this:

J: WFAN is reporting that in 2003 Alex Rodriguez failed a steroid test, and Alex is not denying this.


I have not yet found anything to substantiate these claims, but if I do I shall edit this post accordingly.

Check this SI article out