Hospital Tour-ing; Andy, You're a Star; Jers-day Nights; Duke Romp

Hospital Tour-ing
We took the hospital tour today of where we will be having our baby.  It's an awesome hospital but they have some pretty strict rules.  Lindsay has to pick two support people and those are the only two allowed in the room with her throughout child birth.  Once she is admitted into a private room, visiting hours are in effect.  If one or both of her "support people" are ill, have to work, etc. etc., she can't add another person.  Looks like I have to stay strong and on my feet.

Also, only still shots are allowed.  No video cameras allowed.  Wrist and ankle bands are put on the baby as soon as it's delivered and warmed up and baby isn't allowed outside the exits otherwise the sensor in the bands locks all the exits to the entire hospital.  This is to prevent child abduction, which is scary as shit, but it's real.  So I'm glad they're on top of that.

All in all, it was a good trip, and although it feels like we've been in Manhattan every day for the past week or so, it's still cool to see everything that NYC offers.  Today, there was a lot of ice - on streets, sidewalks, and crosswalks.  When we were walking to and from the hospital, we saw somewhere around 5 people just bite it.  Some went down gracefully, some just took a dive - one thing about all of them though - it always makes me laugh.

We took the train down, walked across Central Park, and got to the hospital.  We chose to take the bus back.  It was bitter cold outside and didn't feel like walking back across the park.  Oh well.  And there was a Crumbs right next to the bus stop - we mighta picked up a few.

Andy, You're a Star
I got home today from the hospital tour and flipped on my iPad and the ESPN ScoreCenter only to find out that Andrew Eugene Pettitte is announcing his retirement.  After 16 seasons, the first of the Yankees' Core Four is calling it a career.  It was a sad day when he took his talents to Houston in 2004, but it's a sadder day today, as he hangs up his cleats for the last time.  He should be a Hall of Fame'r, and will certainly go in as a Yankee.  He was the big game pitcher for them throughout his career, and with five World Series rings to show for it, it's easy to tell how he fared in those games.

Let's go inside the numbers (which hardly tell the story of what Andy Pettitte meant to the NY Yankees) and take a look at a stellar career:

5: World Series rings ('96, '98, '99, '00, '09)
1: ALCS MVP Award (2001)
3: All-Star Game selections ('96, '01, '10)
6: Post-Season series clinching wins (1st all-time)
19: Post-Season wins (1st all-time)
102: Games over .500 for his career (240-138)
3.88: ERA
2,251: Strikeouts

The city of New York and the Yankees organization will lose a great man and great ballplayer on Friday, when the announcement is made.  You will be missed Andy.  Thanks for the memories - and the signature fist pump that always made me give a fist pump as well.

Jers-day
Speaking of fist pumps, Jersey Shore is on at 10:00 pm.  Don't miss it, even though it's a fair assumption to say I will.  This early, crack of dawn practice thing is throwing off my sleeping (or lack thereof) pattern.  I'd like to get some good zzz's in tonight since I felt like a zombie this morning walking in to practice.  The one good thing about the cold is that it wakes me up by the time I get to the gym.

I follow Vinny and Pauly D on Twitter, and they are both pretty funny guys.  Vinny is hilarious, so if you do Tweet, follow @VINNYGUADAGNINO - you'll enjoy his one-liners.

Duke Romp
Duke headed to College Park and Maryland has one thing on their mind - handing Duke it's first two-game losing streak since February 2009.  Duke was up for the challenge and wound up leaving Maryland with an 80-62 win.  Two 40-point halves and stifling defense in the second half allowed Duke to pull away.  Not to mention the fact that they shot 53% from the floor.

Critics always say how Duke draws fouls because they're Duke - whatever that means.  Well, Maryland attempted 11 more free throws and was +10 from the line. 

The two seniors, Singler and Smith led Duke, again.  Mason Plumlee actually asserted himself and had himself a double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds) - only his third one of the year.

My ass hurts from typing this - I'm sitting on the floor, so it's time to get up.

Get your sleep.  I will.  It's clean sheet night thanks to Lindsay.  (she did laundry)

Sliver of hope...

  The big guy kept the season alive, even if for only another two days.  The Yankees have a fighters chance tonight when they take on the Rangers in Game 6 at 8:07 ET.  Hughes v. Lewis.  Hughes was less than stellar in his last start looks to rebound from another rocky start while Colby Lewis looks to build off the standing ovation he received last time he walked off the mound in Arlington after 5.2 innings in Game 2.

  Alex Rodriguez, who seems to have broken out his Halloween costume (a ghost) two weeks too early.  He needs to get it together if this team is going to move on at chance for redemption against the mighty Cliff Lee, on Saturday.

  I have to head to a women's soccer game tonight, but believe I will be sprint-walking home after the game to catch the end it.

  I was down on them after the ass-kicking they took in Game 4, but they rebounded to force tonight's game.  Yankee Nation can only hope to get it to Andy Pettitte on the mound for the deciding game.

  Go Yanks!!

  (Check out my counterpart Joe Brackets blog - he's just starting his blog but has a little more experience that I do with the whole writing thing)

The Bronx is Burned

  The Bronx was once "Burning", but now it's officially burned. 

  The Yankees just finished a 4-game split with the Royals, cutting their lead over 2nd-place Tampa to 1 game.  The race remaining tight so whenever Pettitte is ready to come back won't be a day too soon.  As much as I like seeing Dustin Moseley have moments of brilliance, I still am about as comfortable with him as I am Sergio Mitre.  They need to win series' from here on out and take care of "the easy part of their schedule" as they keep saying on ESPN Radio.  Detroit (57-60) for 4 and Seattle(46-72) for 3 at the Stadium.  Then they go to Toronto (62-55) and Chicago (65-63) for 3-gamers.  Toronto   Following that, a 10-game homestand versus Oakland(57-59), Toronto, and Baltimore(41-77).  Buck has those boys in Baltimore playing well now though, so that may not be a walk in the park.  They do need to take care of business at home though against the weaker teams in the AL.  The AL (b)East and the NL West are the only two dvisions with four teams over .500.  That's a pretty astounding number.  The AL Central has two (MIN, CWS), AL West has two (TEX, LAA), NL East has two (ATL, PHI) and the NL Central has two (CIN, STL).  Winning either one of those two division ain't gonna be easy for the Yankees and Padres.  The Pads have a 3.5 game lead over the Giants and are showing no signs of slowing down.  Just hope their arms stay healthy.

  I returned Sunday night from a 3-day hiatus from this borough only to find my television not working - turns out the neighbor took it upon himself to take my DirecTV dish down.  I am going to cancel their ass, the service they've given sucks and God forbid it rains heavy or snows - service is spotty.  I guess I have no one to blame but myself so I can't be too angry.  I told them when they installed it that where they were going to place the dish was on my neighbor's yard.  This shmuck was sold on the fact that because the wall to the garage was facing my yard, it was OK.  Now take into consideration I'm renting, so whatever's whatever.  Neighbor comes around the block, tells me to move it, I relay the message to DirecTV, no luck.  They keep telling me it's fine.  Next time I need service, they come out, adjust the dish, I tell them it needs to move, they say it's fine.  Now it's sitting next to my house near the garbage pails.  Nice job DirecTV.

  We're looking for a new apartment, and had two in mind and were anxious to start somewhere new.  Broker called me today and both are rented - within the last 48 hours.  Keeping on with my hunt.

  There was a independent photo shoot on the side of the house, affectionately known as the "jungle" because of my landlords refusal to give a shit about what the yard looks like.  Sorry, it's not a yard, it's an empty lot.  Some dude was  on a motorcycle riding around in the side lot - it's a shame he wasn't able to use a lawnmower instead to cut some of those damn weeds.

  School starts in a few days, some of the athletes are back (volleyball, soccer) and the rest of the plebes come back soon.  Looking forward to another year - of baseball.  Summer is such a tranquil time of year here on campus except when the GYLC's are here.  Kids from all over the world come in and take over the dorms, forge new friendships, partake in summer love, and speak in foreign languages so that no one here can understand them.  Their invasion lasts about a week each, with 6 sets of GYLC's coming in throughout the summer.  It's over, they're out, thank God.

  Nathan had some shots the other day, one of which turned him from a dachshund into a shar pei.  His face turned into a giant swollen mess.  We raced back to the vet to get some benedryl for the swelling.  He's back to normal now, just have to keep medicating him twice daily for another 4 days.  It kind of knocks him out, so he's out of it.

  I am literally sweating my cojones off.  I have a little to nothing left to do today except see the apartment this afternoon.

  Adios kimosabe.

Hot, Hazy, Humid, Hell

   Today started with a pounding headache and a swollen throat.  After generously pouring this crap down my throat (OK, 2 cap fulls), I asked LMD when it expired.  I felt like we've had that thing for years - luckily, JAN11 was stamped on the bottle.  Crisis averted.

   Took the fur-kid out at around 5:48 am, basically sleep-walking around the mean streets of the Bronx, he did his business, and we went back in to the AC to cool it down for another two hours before physically removing myself from bed for the day.

   I went outside and it was relatively cool out this morning, probably about 15° cooler that the hell-hole apartment.  Still perplexed as to how in the hell the apartment gets so hot and muggy when it's cooler outside.  Made me angry.  So here I was, sick, sleep-walking, and angry.  A trifecta, all before 6:00 am.  Awesome.

   I guess it could be worse.  That's the way I seem to look at everything nowadays.  It could be worse.  I mean, I have my wife and dog and family and friends, but that's really all.  I still don't think the mantra I'm living by is healthy though.  It really grinds my gears.

   Moving on (quickly before I get agitated again), in MLB news, Brewers pitcher Chris Capuano got his first win since 2007 last night, a string of 13 straight losses with a myriad of ND's sprinkled in there.  In his 13 losing decisions, the Brewers scored only 38 runs (2.92 runs/game) for him.  I mean you gotta feel for the guy, he's had 2 Tommy John surgeries.  Most guys would have called it quits.  He's persistent, to say the least.  This is a guy who went 18-12 with a 3.99 ERA in 2005.  Not to mention he's a DUKE guy.  A real feel good story, similar to Dodgers reliever Hong-Chih Kuo (who still hasn't let up a hit to a LH batter this year) and also had to deal with numerous surgeries.

   The Yankees placed Andy Pettitte on the DL, giving Sergio Mitre a shot in the rotation, so says the NY Daily News.  It shouldn't really be a huge issue, so long as the front four can keep giving quality starts (AJ Burnett needs to have a quality start).  Pettitte has been on a tear all season long, so it's really a tough pill to swallow.  Every fifth day, you knew you had as good a shot at winning as there was, and now you have to hold your breath as you send Mitre out there.  We'll see how long it takes before the Yanks make a move and acquire another aging arm (Oswalt, Westbrook).  I'd rather see Carmona or Haren, but who knows what they're thinking.  Just gotta keep winning two of three, three of five and avoid a prolonged drought or losing streak.  Their offense should be able to carry them for a month or so.  No worries from Yankee-land.

   Health wise, I feel like crap again.  For some reason, my nose continues to run (maybe the humidity melts the mucus) and my head is beginning to ache, and my neck is beginning to get stiff.  I may be coming down with the (sic)ness. 

   I want a Harley Davidson too.  I was just thinking the other day about how bad-ass it would be to ride up to a field to recruit on a Harley with the loud pipes screaming.  Just a though, probably won't come to fruition, but it's good to dream. 

   OK, headed out.  Gotta go to Target, always find some neat stuff over there, not that I really need anything.

   Keep cool and try to keep your cool.  That's what I'm gonna try to do the rest of the day. 

   I'll leave you with this.  Good for the public school education in the Bronx.  They can't even get their 123's and ACB's? right:

   Siyanara suckers!

Back to basics

   I am going to come back to my bread-and-butter - baseball.  I just turned off the Yankees-Dodgers game in favor of Discovery: Health (Hoarding:  Buried Alive, Ch. 279 on DirecTV).  Disturbing watching this guy walk around his house knee deep in clothes, garbage, books, and magazines.

   What is even more disturbing is the way Andy Pettitte is fielding his position (or should I say not fielding it).  He has only one error tonight, but should have two (they gave one to Robinson Cano).

   The inning started with a double to right field by Reed Johnson and Kershaw coming up.  Sac bunt.  Pettitte threw it down the left field line, allowing Johnson to score.  The announcers were saying it's the catchers call and A-Rod gestured to go to first base as well, but the ball wound up in left field.  Man on 1st, 1 run in.  Furcal bunt single.  1st and 2nd, 0 out.  Belliard sac bunt to Pettitte, who threw wide of Cano covering first.  Kershaw scored, Furcal to third, Belliard to second.  Sac fly from Ethier scored Furcal, allowed Belliard to go to third.  IBB to Manny-wood, Casey Blake struck out, Loney walked, Martin grounded out to third. 

   3 Runs.  2 Hits.  2 Errors.

   What Pettitte didn't execute is what we like to call in the baseball world PFP's.  Pitcher's Fielding Practice.  Something that is done day after day after day in spring training, in college baseball, and in high school baseball.  The reaction of pitchers after day three or four in a row is usually to roll their eyes, their necks, or just put their heads down.  Truth is, it is something that can win and lose games and add or shave points off the ERA.  So far tonight, it's biting the Yankees in the ass.

   Pettitte had only 29 errors in 15+ year career.  Pretty solid.  Six errors is his season high, in 2003 with the Yankees, when he won 21 games.  Might have been 22 or 23 if he made a few less errors.  Regardless, 29 errors in 15 years is excellent (.954 FLD%).  Greg Maddux, perhaps the best fielding pitcher there ever was, had a .970 FLD% (53 errors) in his 23-year career.

   When it boils down to it, a successful pitcher can repeat his delivery, throw to spots, and can field his position.  Throwing 96-99 MPH helps, but those guys are rare.  PFP's, everyone is on the same level as far as they go.  It's what you do once you get the ball that seperates the winners from the losers.

   Pettitte (.954 FLD%) has a career 238-137 record.  Maddux (.971 FLD%) was 355-227.  Both can field their position.  Both are successful (Maddux was).  Whitey Ford (.961 FLD%) was 236-106.  Bob Gibson (.949) was 251-174. 

   Chuck Finley (.907 FLD%) could have had more wins (200) and a lower ERA (3.85) if he could only field his position.  Randy Johnson (.904 FLD%) would have been less of a pitcher if he hadn't thrown 100 MPH in his prime - he made 5+ errors in a season in 11 of his 22 years on the mound.  Maybe that was his problem, leaving the mound.  When he was bringing the funk, he was nasty.  When he tried to field his position, he was awful.

   Anyway, non-baseball people can probably give two shits about this post, but it resonates with me.  I considered myself an excellent fielding pitcher when I played.  It's something you need to take pride in.  It saves your team, your pitch count, and your ERA.

   Here's a link to a great article on PFP's published on MLB.com earlier this year:  PFP.  Give it a glance, and if you happen to know someone who knows someone who's kid pitches, tell him to take a look.

   Help a young pitcher out, hit him some ground balls.  Trust me.

We're talkin' NY baseball

Yankees Win.  The-e-e-e-e-e-e Yankees Win!

OK so it wasn't a huge win, but seeing how Boston and Tampa Bay both lost, it gave the Yankees another day to be alone at the top of the AL Beast.

Andy Pettitte was an absolute monster last night, going seven strong innings while scattering seven hits in the Yanks 9-3 win over Arizona.  The ageless one improved to 9-2 on the season and is looking forward to an impending All-Star nod.  His ERA dropped to 2.48, he struck out seven batters, and threw 73 of 113 pitches for strikes.  Unlike previous nights starter AJ Burnett, Pettitte limited the damage with 2-out - allowing only a fluky 2-run single to P Dan Haren in the second inning. (Haren is hitting .452 this  season with 6 RBI.)

The Mets bounced back from their Subway Series loss, pounding out 18 hits in a demolition of the Tigers, 14-6.  Both starters were equally terrible - Justin Verlander (2 IP, 5 R) and Jonathan Niese (4.2 IP, 6 R). (Niese, for whatever reason, went back out after a 90 minute rain delay.  That's no way to treat a young arm Jerry Manuel.)  Verlander's relief was just as bad as he was - Jay Sborz had an MLB-debut to forget - .2 IP, 3 H, 5 R - and left with 67.50 ERA.  It'll get better Jay.  Angel Pagan was huge for Los Mets (4-6, 3 R, 2B, 3B, 4 RBI) and David Wright had a solid game for the Mets (3-3, 3 R, 2B, 2 BB, 2 RBI).

I don't get to watch many Mets games - but from what I remember, they have some lollygaggers.  Maybe I just think they loaf around, or maybe it's from my disdain for the way Carlos Beltran plays the game.  I am not so sure the Mets miss him - Pagan is hitting .304 with 34 RBI and 41 R to go along with 14 SB.  Pretty good production for a guy with a $1,500,000 salary. (Beltran makes $11,000,000 and hasn't stepped on the field.)

Crap, it's late, gotta get ready for work.  T$H's new album Weight of the World is awesome.  I'll discuss later.

Oh well, at least our seats were good

At least our seats were good.  (Section 106, Row 13, Seat 10) - four rows back, not 13

Andy Pettitte looked awesome early and worked out of some jams late.  Shane Victorino, the "Flyin' Hawaiian", smoked a ball to left field to give the Phillies a 3-0 lead.  Damn Carlos Ruiz was on base all night too - 2-3 with 2 2B's and 2 R.  Nothing like getting beat by the light hitting eight hole hitter.  Oh well, that's the way baseball goes. 

Robinson Cano seemed to be the only Yankee in the lineup to have a halfway decent approach at the plate tonight.  Granderson was taking check swings on 0-0 fastballs, Gardner seems to forget he flies and tries to lift everything.  And don't even get me started on Joba the Hut.  He was awful again - he didn't record an out.  Two hits and a walk, and then he turned it over to Damaso Marte who proceeded to let up Joba's runs - good for him.  Swisher was fed up too, he was in the stands the whole ninth inning.  Damaso Marte threw well I thought - besides the time he threw a 3-2 fastball to Utley to the backstop.  Chan (w)Ho? Park got torched too, but got bailed out when Raul Ibanez got hit with a ball just off second base, otherwise it would have been worse than the 7-1 loss.  Tough to win with only one run on the board. 

They lit up Roy Halladay in game one of the series and got shut down by Abe Vigoda, errr Jamie Moyer and Kyle Kendrick.  Funny game baseball is.  Now Los Mets come in for a three game series.  I hope the Mets get pumped.

Lakers are about to win the NBA Championship, and if they were playing any other team in the league, I couldn't care less.  But I have Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Doc Rivers' raspy-ass voice. 

Paint it purple and gold, Lakers win, theeee-e-e-e-e-e-e-e Lakers win!

Baseball and Birthdays

Well, the Yankees almost pulled it off last night against the Phillies.  Brad Lidge's ERA went up from a 1.12 to a 2.00 and he made the game pretty interesting.  He's been pretty automatic since he's been healthy this season, so it was good that the Yanks showed a little fight.  I was on the flight back from Dallas, so I missed it.  We flew AirTran but I wish I would have gone JetBlue.  AirTran has some of the most cramped seating of any airline I've ever been on.  K, K, BB, 2B, 1B, K.  He struck out the side, but all the drama started with a two-out walk to Mark Teixeira and could have ended with a walk-off. 

The Rays are reeling (7-6 in June), the Yankees have been fairly steady (10-4 in June), as are the Sox (10-5 in June).  The Blue Jays have fallen back down to Earth and the O's are still looking for an answer.  Shaping up to be a three horse race again, for like the fifth straight season. 

I am going to the Yankees game tonight - and am just counting my blessings I don't have to suffer through a Jamie Moyer start.  Kyle Kendrick vs. Andy Pettitte.  Andy is going for win #201 as a Yankee and #238 overall.  He is putting up incredible numbers thus far, with his only real bad outing being against the Rays on May 20th (5 IP, 9 H, 7 R) in am 8-6 loss.  Looking forward to the game - it's always nice seeing a game at the Stadium, freaking thing is awesome.  It's really a sight to be seen.

The Rays are on the docket too, as Big Game James Shields takes on Tim Hudson in Atlanta.  The Yanks could take over first place tonight.  Hudson has been nothing short of dominant this year (6-2, 2.43 ERA).  He's had some command issues (30 BB in 85.1 IP) but has pitched out of the jams for the most part.  His last outing was a 2-1 CG loss to the Twins (8 IP, 7 H, 2 K).  When he's on, he's tough to hit.  Let's go Timmy.

Party at the "Copacabana", Barry Manilow turns 64 years old today.  He's still knocking them dead - I mean he should be, he's probably had a lot of $$ pumped in and out of his face.  He's made quite the transformation - I mean normally, you go from left to right, he went the opposite direction.  Wrinkles be gone, poof!!  I am kind of glad he chose Barry Manilow, seeing how he was born Barry Alan Pincus.  He was raised in Williamsburg Brooklyn.  He started off writing jingles, and his most famous being State Farm Insurance ("Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there...") and Band-Aid's (I am stuck on Band-Aid, 'cause Band-Aid's stuck on me!").  Happy Birthday Barry, and thanks for taking on your mother's last name.

Back at work, gotta do some work.  Going to purchase some chain and lock it down at Gaelic.

Lock it up!

Hello, Newman.

Sorry for the lack of material this weekend - it's been pretty hectic - Saturday I was recruiting all day, Sunday was spent traveling.  Now it's Monday and I'm raring to go.  Got a lot of material to cover so let's hope you're ready to listen.

Saturday started with an 8:13am alarm clock, NIN's "Discipline" was the song of choice, as it is most days.  Some days, it's The Gaslight Anthem's "Boomboxes and Dictionaries", both solid choices to ease me into my day.

Let's start with the backbone of this blog - sports.

1.  Strasburg was dominant again, although he did walk as many guys (5) as he had in his previous 5 starts (1 MLB, 4 AAA).  He improved to 2-0 (Pirates and Indians) but let up his 2nd HR in as many starts, both to lefties, and both on a change up.  Either way, he's got 22 K in 12.1 IP.  The Nationals may make some noise after all.

2.  The Yankees completed a sweep of the Astros and in the process, moved into a tie atop the AL Beast with the Rays.  There's a World Series rematch series, beginning tonight in the Bronx, as CC Sabathia takes on Roy Halladay.  The Phillies are looking to regain their mo-jo (4-6 in their last 10 games) and crawl back into the NL Least race (3.5 behind 1st place Atlanta) while the Yanks look to distance themselves from the rest of baseball.  I hope I get a good pitching match up Thursday when I go with Lindsay and our fathers - I think it's looking like Moyer vs. Pettitte.

3.  Ted Lilly had a no-hit bid into the 9th against the White Sox, but settled for a 1-hitter and a 1-0 Cubs win.  We were in a bar here in Dallas, and there were a few Chicago fans - one guy, who everyone else refused to give pounds to regardless of how many times he tried - was the epitome of what a White Sox fan is (as told to me by another patron from Chicago).  Obnoxious.  A total jackass.  He was whining when they pinch-hit Juan Pierre to lead off the ninth, then after he broke up the no-no, he said he knew he was going to get a hit - douche.  This guy was shouting all night, almost fell off his stool several times, and was almost forcing his girlfriend (so it seemed) into making out with him - sloppy.

On Saturday, I was up at Blind Brook HS for a game after a showcase at Pace.  BBHS has quite possibly the nicest facilities for a high school I've ever seen.  Field turf abounds - football field, baseball field, soccer field, softball field - they might even have field turf in the hallways.  Almost like VCP.  Anyway, the thing that stuck out was a parent who was chirping the whole game.  Similar to a major league game, every pop up was a HR (or so he reacted), every ground ball was "just missed", and every strikeout looking was outside.  Anyway, same game, same guy - the 7 hitter snuck a dribbler between the first- and second-baseman, to which Super-Dad blurted out, "He squecked that one through there!"  Now, I'm no English major, but "squeaked" is a word.  Squecked, not a word.  #1 Dad.

Sunday was filled with air travel and ground transportation.  LaGuardia to Charlotte, Charlotte to Dallas-Ft. Worth.  The tail end of the trip was turbulent, to put it lightly.  I started getting sick from bouncing around in my seat.  Once we got below the clouds (all 3 minutes of it) and landed, it was great.  The landing was the smoothest part of the flights.  Got off the plane, went to find some "Shared Transportation" and got in.  There were 5 others in there, all going to right near where we were going.  The van was full, but the driver was convinced he may be able to pick up another passenger, so he drove around the airport (to every terminal) trying to find someone else to cram in.  Once he realized he had wasted over 25 minutes worth of gas, he decided to take to the roads, and eventually dropped us off at the hotel.  It was like riding on a wooden roller coaster with no seat belt - pretty scary.  Not quite sure if he was legal.

We strolled around Downtown Dallas a little, I of course snapped some photos, and then we went into CVS - the biggest CVS I have ever seen (I guess everything really is bigger in Texas).  While meandering through the aisles, Lindsay saw a guy and said "He looks like the guy from Jurassic Park" so I looked.  Wasn't sure who she meant, I mean it has been over ten years since I've seen the movie.  We were looking through the "Trial Size" stuff, and I saw the man again - NEWMAN!!  I wanted to be sure, so creepily stared at him for a few seconds.  Then I went up and asked if he was Wayne Knight, and that I was a huge fan (which is an exaggeration) but he is freakin' NEWMAN.  If you've never seen Seinfeld and are reading this, welcome to Earth.  Turns out he's in town shooting a show for FOX, The Good Guys.  I got him to take a picture with me - CVS was empty, so I didn't care.  Had it been full of patrons, I probably would have just taken a sneaky photo of him.  I will publish the photo when I get back to the BX.  How cool is that?

FACT:  Dallas's Downtown shuts down on Sunday.  We found a neat little Mexican restaurant for lunch - Sol Irlandes - we didn't stay for the karaoke at night though.

Passed out several times after getting back from lunch, but managed to stay awake long enough to grab a bite at Press Box Grill.  That's where we were blessed with the Chicago fans.  Ate, had a drink, left as soon as Lilly let up the lone hit in the game, and came back to the hotel to pass out.

Today I will venture out and try to find a place to eat some breakfast.  Lindsay is at the conference so I will explore, maybe I'll bump into another celeb.  Probably not, but I can care less.  NEWMAN!

Hello Big D!

It' 6:17, do you know why I'm up?

Nathan needed to go out, that's why.  Yesterday he slept in, which allowed me to sleep in for the first time since like 2003.  I felt like crap yesterday for the most part, so sleeping until 7:25am was nice, although it didn't help how I felt.  Today, 5:57am and he was walking on the wooden floor, my alarm clock.  Might as well be productive for five minutes.

R.I.P. John Wooden - UCLA legend John Wooden passed away at the ripe old age of 99 yesterday.  He was considered a teacher and an innovator.  He led his Bruins squad to 88 consecutive wins between January 1971 and January 1974, including two undefeated National Championships.  No small order.  He was and always will be considered the greatest of all time.

AJ Burnett looked like crap, and the Yankees lost to the Blue Jays 6-1 last night at Rogers Centre.  They didn't even have an RBI - Swisher had a nice GIDP in the 6th to score their only run.  Completely uninspired effort last night, but it was against one of the hottest pitchers in the league, LHP Brett Cecil.  He's improved to 6-2 on the year, winning his last four starts with a 1.21 ERA over that span.  Today, Andy Pettitte will take on another Toronto lefty, Ricky Romero, who actually has better numbers than Cecil this year.  Tall order, Yankees win, Yankeeeeeeeees win!

Back to the A/C - I'm done for now.  And I'm ready to eat brunch at Jesse and Julia's engagement brunch today.  Checked out the menu last night, looks good.  Will give you the rundown when we get back.

Almost 30...

...according to Lindsay, I am almost 30 years old.  Tomorrow I am actually 29, but she gets a rise out of saying I'm almost 30.  She's a funny one.  Heading to NYC this evening, for a surprise put on by Nathan, still have no idea what we're doing, but I'll just have to wait and see.

In MLB news, the Yankees are pounding the Indians, 7-1.  Even Chan Ho Park is getting in on the action.  Former Miami (FL) Hurricane great Chris Perez (aka: I Whine Over Bunts) got touched up.  He came in to face A-Rod, who homered to center field on a 3-1 pitch.  He then promptly let up another homer, this one to Robinson Cano (3-2 count), and a double to Nick Swisher (3-2 count).  It is so important to get ahead of hitters and get outs early in counts - the longer an AB goes, the advantage goes to the hitter.  Case.  Point.

Andy was dandy, as Michael Kay would put it, going seven strong innings, allowing only four hits, a run, and racked up five strikeouts.  Pettitte lowered his ERA from 2.62 to 2.48, and is in line for his seventh win of the year, half of his 2009 win total.

The middle of the Yankees order (Teixeira, Rodriguez, Cano, Swisher) are a combined 8-18 with six runs scored and nine RBI.  It's always nice when you get that kind of production from the meat of the order.  Every starter has a hit, Gardner has three (along with 2 SB).

Good game for the Yankees - too bad the same can't be said for the reigning NL-champion Phillies, who are about to lose their grasp on first place in the NL East, as the Braves lead 9-3 in the top of the ninth inning.  Tommy Hanson had a solid outing, going 6.1 IP with only one run allowed.  Joe Blanton was ineffective, as usual, laboring through 6 innings (8 H, 6 R (4ER), 2 K).  It's unreal how his career has been so mediocre since he's left the Bay Area.  Half the problem is that he was hurt early on this season (oblique injury in March 2010) but the other part of the problem is his lack of an out pitch.  He averages well under a K/IP (.67 K/IP in his career).  This season, he's only averaging .50 K/IP - with the exception of Mitch Talbot (CLE), most of the pitchers having success this year have higher K/IP ratios (Talbot has a .40 K/IP).  Blanton has always featured a pretty good change up, but his velocity is/has been nothing like the mythical Joe Blanton from University of Kentucky was like in the Cap Cod Baseball League - low to mid-90's.  He's generally 86-89 on the gun. 

Gotta get ready - it'll take me about three and a half minutes - but I have to take Nathan out.

Err's-day

We made some big errors in some big spots today.  Second inning - pick off at second base, runner made a move towards third on a pick off play, pitcher throws to second, we dropped the ball.  Safe at third; next guy hit a sacrifice fly, 1-0 deficit.  Ultimately, I'm not sure if that's what cost us game two, but it sure didn't help any.  Now, our season comes down to one game.  Win and we're in the conference tournament, lose and summer starts early.  Unreal, I'm speechless that some of our leaders (read: upperclassmen) had some of the worst at-bats of anyone in our lineup.  They play with their heads up their asses sometimes.  It's not always cookies and milk, but when it gets tough, you gotta get tougher.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Moving on - the Yankees just went down in order in the first inning - on 7 pitches - after Andy Pettitte struggled through the first and threw around 25, 27 pitches.  Way to give him a breather.  Ben Zobrist is .429 (6-14) with 3 R, 3 BB, and 4 RBI against the Yankees this year - through the second inning of today's game.  This guy is killing them.  Big Game James is on the mound for the Rays - the Yanks aren't going to have it wasy tonight - Shields is 4-1 with a 3.00 ERA and 59 K/11 BB coming into this one - pretty solid numbers - more than a hit an inning allowed, but low walks negate that. 

There's two things that can happen with a pitcher's control - you can walk a lot of guys and not let up many hits, or you can let up a lot of hits and not walk many - do both, and you won't get out of the 5th inning.  Either that, or you better have a ton of strikeouts.

Below are some statistics from the American League only, seeing how their numbers indicate effectiveness better than the National League - the DH is way better than the P hitting.

Here's a list of the top 3 WHIP with their H/BB and ERA and K:
#1 Doug Fister SEA 0.91 (40 H/10 BB in 50 IP) - ERA 1.96 - 25 K
#2 Shaun Marcum TOR 0.97 (46 H/14 BB in 62 IP) - ERA 2.61 - 45 K
#3 Jason Vargas SEA 0.98 (32 H/13 BB in 46 IP) - ERA 2.93 - 33 K

Here's a list of the top 3 BB with their H/ERA/WHIP and K:
#1 Rich Harden TEX 32 BB - 41 H/4.74 ERA/1.67 WHIP - 43 K
#2 Gil Meche KC 31 BB - 51 H/6.75 ERA/1.92 WHIP - 25 K
#3 Brandon Morrow TOR 27 BB - 42 H/6.15 ERA/1.68 WHIP - 54 K

Here's a lost of the top 3 in H and their BB/ERA/WHIP and K:
#1 Scott Baker MIN 64 H - 12 BB/4.88 ERA/1.37 WHIP - 47 K
#2 Kevin Millwood BAL 63 H - 15 BB/3.65 ERA/1.26 WHIP - 48 K
#3 A.J. Burnett NYY 61 H - 22 BB/3.86 ERA/1.42 WHIP - 40 K

The guys with the lowest WHIP don't necessarily need to strike a lot of hitters out because they're rarely in too many jams.  Pitchers with high BB and a lot of H allowed rely on strikeouts more, helping them out of jams.  The pitchers with the highest BB totals have terrible ERA's because they are always allowing free baserunners - even allowing only a hit an inning, as Harden and Morrow do, BB's before those hits will kill the ERA.  And finally, the guys with a lot of H allowed have decent ERA's because they don't walk a lot of guys and have pretty good K numbers.

Yankees tied it up at 3 - scored on a HR by Juan Miranda and an error by Shields on a bunt from Gardner.  Damn, Upton just homered - that's also been our Achilles’ heel this year - we score and instead of throwing up a 0 and keeping a little momentum on  our side, we go out and let up a run, or 2, or 4.  The inning after your team scores is a huge inning - throw up a goose egg and get your guys back hitting again.

I have to shower, I'm disgusting.  Our shower sucks, it's like a 3' x 3' square - tight quarters.  Clean time.

Yankees looking to extend domination of Twins

Today's 1:05pm tilt between the Twins and Yankees will feature two lesser known arms for both side - Nick Blackburn (MIN) vs. Sergio Mitre (NYY).  Game 1 had AJ Burnett taking on Scott Baker.  Game 2 was two lefties, Andy Pettitte vs. Francisco Liriano.  Advantage:  NYY.

The Yankees took the first two games of this series and are looking for their third series sweep of the season (vs. TEX, vs. BAL).  The first game was tight until A-Rod decided to show up, belting a grand slam in the 7th with the Yankees down a run - IBB to Teixeira to pitch to Alex Rodriguez?  Then bring in a guy who A-Rod is 4-6 with 3HR against?  Gardy, bad  idea!!  The second game was won behind with pitching - Andy Pettitte gave them 6.1 innings of 2-hit ball in his first start in 10 days.  A-Rod had another good game at the plate - in his last 10, he's hitting .378 (14-37) with 3 2B, 2 HR, and 11 RBI.  Looks like he is starting to get hot.  Teixeira hit an absolute bomb in the 7th inning, and he is starting to pick it up a little too - in his last 10, he's hitting .317 (13-41) with 2 2B, 5 HR, and 16 RBI.  He's raised his average from .136 to .217 since we flipped the calendar to May.  That's two big names stepping up for the Yankees, who are surprisingly only 6-4 in the past 10 games.

Blackburn has pitched against the Yankees before - most recently in last years playoffs.  He pitched well enough to win (5.2 IP, 3H, 1R) but didn't.  Overall, in 4 career starts vs. the Yankees, his numbers look like this:  16.1 IP, 21 H, 12 R (9 ER), good for a 4.96 ERA, almost a full run above his career ERA of 4.20.  He seems to be struggling with his command a little this year - through 39.2 IP he's walked eleven batters and struck out only nine.  He has never been a strikeout pitcher, but the most walks he's allowed was 41 last season (in 205.2 IP).  Four starts vs. NYY?  Seems like I hear his name every time they play one another.  Weird.

Mitre has been throwing the ball fairly well this year - I mean he has HOF numbers compared to his career stats:  2010 - 3.86 ERA; Career - 5.50 ERA.  The trick with him may be the bullpen.  He can fool a few hitters at a time, but starting hasn't panned out for him.  I think it's a good idea once the rotation gets back in order, but in the long run, he'll be a bullpen guy.  And for some reason, I like Sergio Mitre, I hope he does well.  Don't ask why, I don't have any ties to Mexico or any of the other teams he's played for.

Game's on at 1:05pm, I will more than likely not watch, gonna be in the city for brunch.  May be able to catch the tail end of what will hopefully be the 14th straight win over the Twins.  The Twins are up a game and a half on the Tigers, who are hosting the Red Sox.  They pulled it out last night on the always exciting two out, walk-off walk to Ramón Santiago, a career .245 hitter.  Poor Red Sox, can't close games out with their bullpen.  What a shame.

Time to take Nathan out - he's slept all night, woke up at 5:45am, and is sleeping again.  The life of a dog is one I'll never understand.