A New Setup Man in Town

The Yankees got some much needed help today when they added All-Star closer Rafael Soriano to act as setup man for Mariano.

The deal is for three seasons - Soriano is 31 years-old.  Might he be the closer-in-waiting for the Bombers?  If his 2010 season is any indication of what this guy's capable of, things look good in the 9th inning for the future.

Over the past two seasons (2009 in Atlanta, 2010 in Tampa), he's racked up 72 saves, 4 wins, 159 K (only 41 BB) in 138 innings (only 89 hits).  His ERA is low, as you could have guessed - 1.76 to be exact.

They didn't add the ace of the staff, but they have one of those in CC.  Burnett (if he can ever get his shit together) has the stuff to be an ace.  He's as streaky as he is inked up.

About to turn in for the night.  Later troops.

Playoff Baseball is Here!!!

  As an appetizer, an ex-Phillie dominated the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Pete.  For an intermezzo, Doc Halladay no-hit the Reds.  NO-HIT.  Understand something - it's only been done once in MLB Playoff history - by NYY great Don Larson.  The Yankees trail the Twins 2-0 in the third inning now, after a leadoff hit by pitch was followed by a 2-R bomb to center field.  Leadoff freebies always come back to bite you in the ass - ask CC.

  A-Rod is still not great.  Clutch he is not.  Yanks get the first two guys on - BB and 1B - and proceed to hit two fly balls and a K from Mr. Rodriguez.  That was the chance to get right back in it, get some of the momentum back.  Instead, a goose egg.  Swisher had the right idea bunting - he gets it down and the next fly ball scores a run.

  Good thing they told him not to bunt - SIKE!

  C.C. needs to settle in here and act like the big donkey he is - be a horse and get some 0's up there to give them a chance.  They've been playing like crap coming down the stretch, and it cost them the division. 

  I am home with Nathan watching the ballgame, missing the Mrs.

  Time to get ready to take Nathan for a stroll in the park - may make a night-time trip to the dog park out back.  Dog loves it over there.

  Sofa, chair-and-a-half, and ottoman are scheduled for delivery tomorrow - it only took Bob's over two weeks to do what I asked them to do.  Never order from them, and if you do, pick it up yourself.  Maybe it's just their customer service department that blows.  You walk in there and get bombarded by 40 sales people looking for a sale - it's like a feeding frenzy.  I'm just happy it's finally going to get delivered, start making this place look like something.  It gets old sitting on the damn floor.

  Time for October baseball.  Let's make it a game Yanks.  Joe Mauer is a good hitter.  A pro.  Damn the Twins are a scrappy team.  Good play Teixeira made, but Hudson's a sneaky little bastard.

  Big AB.  Posada sucks defensively.  I'm out.

  A split on the road is good for me.  Then they gotta continue their domination of the Twins.

The Yanks Lost!?; Revis Island back on the NY/NJ Shore; Scrabble Dominates

  For the first time in 8 games, the Yankees found themselves on the losing side.  No surprise who pitched - Phil Hughes.  Almost as inconsistent as AJ Burnett but making much less.  For that reason alone, he's the less criticized of the two. 

  Hughes is 5-5 with a 5.47 ERA in 10 post-All-Star game starts.  Get your game right dipshit.  They got you on an innings limit.  Maybe he thinks pitching like shit will get him out of the game earlier, thus allowing him to prolong the inevitable.  Figure it out.

  Burnett (who starts this afternoon) has seen his ERA steadily creep up in his past seven starts - from a 4.52 to an gaudy 5.15 when he takes the hill today.  TOR, SEA, CWS have been the last three to light him up.  Time to get it together AJ.  Don't let a one game losing streak become a two-game slide.  With TB right behind them (2.5 GB) and Boston (10 GB) and CWS (9.5 GB), the Wild Card isn't a lock either.

  Maybe he needs to get another tattoo to remind him he's getting paid an ass ton of money to win games.  $16.5 million.  $16.5!!  Get it together.  You're leaving too many ???'s in the rotation.  C.C. is the man, that much is the only certainty.  But he ain't God.

  In NFL news, The Jets defense once again became the #1 defense in the league when Derrelle Revis decided to come to his senses and sign a contract.  What a dick.  Way to put yourself out on an island.  I understand you're the "best" cornerback in the NFL, but I still think it was messed up to not play out the current contract before bitching about it.  You need to earn your stripes.  I hope Nnamdi Asomugha has a better year and you get flattened by Anquan Boldin on MNF.  Greedy mo-fo.

  My Raiders travel to Tennessee to take on the Titans in Week 1.  At least they'll be in first place until the early games end.  I'm expecting at least 7 wins this season.  OK, maybe I should temper my expectations - how's 6?

  And as far as gaming goes, Scrabble is far and away the best game out.

  Time for lunch yo!

Relax!

   I'm talking to my readers, not referring to the Frankie Goes To Hollywood hit. (featured in Zoolander)

   I know more and more of you are probably having a tough time falling asleep at night without getting your daily fill on WRT, and for that I apologize.  I am on vacation and haven't had a chance to log on to post.  I just found the only spot in the whole place that has an internet connection (albeit a poor one), so I am sitting inside for a few with Nathan by my side.  LMD is out watching the third installment of the Twilight saga (Eclipse??)

   I have had a nice time thus far, beach is great (the water is frigid), the food is good (fresh seafood), and the living's easy.  It's vacation, isn't that what it's all about?

    4:00pm is rapidly approaching, which means one thing while down here in Sea Isle City - Dirty Martini's at McNutley's.  I tend to arrive around 4:15 to 4:30, but today I have to be early - it's my day to buy the first round of $3 Dirty's.  McNutley's is the prototypical dive-bar - frequented by no more than fifteen people at any given time.  The bartender works 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off.  The crowd is pro-Philadelphia sports, anti-New York Sports, though they are typically very civil when discussing the two cities. 

   The beach this morning was awesome - sun was shining without a cloud in the sky.  As soon as I began sweating, I took a dive in the frigid water.  I only lasted about 10 minutes before my extremities started tingling.  I did my best to try to eliminate this brutal farmer's tan, but it is still visible.  I guess I need to be out in the sun for longer than 90 minutes.  I used some Banana Boat SPF 50, as I have since the first time here when I was lobster-fied after Day 1, resulting in a miserable week-long vacation (three years ago).

   The Yankees have struggled against the piss-poor Mariners so far (Cliff Lee and Felix the Kid).  Let's hope they can salvage the home-series today as C.C. takes the mound against Ryan Rowland-Smith.  Looks like they're up 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth.  Cano teed another one up (his 16th HR) and Teixeira grounded out to SS in the 1st to score Jeter. 

   Cano is a beast.  He's 1-2 today but overall this season is hitting .354 with 16 HR and 54 RBI.  He's got 10 HR's off LHP's and only 6 against RHP's.  And as hitter-friendly as the new Yankee Stadium is, he's hitting 21 points higher away from the Bronx.  Stay hot Robbie.

   Time to get a shower in and mentally prepare for McNutley's.

   With July 4th right around the corner, I am very excited to see the Stars & Stripes hats come out.  Here's what they look like:

    Man, I love the Stars and Stripes.  Happy Fourth of July Weekend everyone, enjoy yourself.  

   USA!  USA!  USA!

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!

Blah Blah Blah

Mr. Softie just stopped by - well, we stopped him, he was parked down the block.  Lindsay got herself a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate.  I didn't get anything, times are tough here in the Bronx, I had $4 in my wallet.  Pathetic, I know.  Gotta provide for the wife and kid (or in our case, Nathan).   She ate the ice cream coated in the chocolate and fired the rest in the garbage.  Oh well, next time I'll ask Mr. Softie if he can coat the ice cream in layers.

Just started reading a new book, my favorite author, Chuck Klosterman.  The book, Downtown Owl, is a novel about the small town of Owl, ND.  He's written for The NYT Magazine and The Washington Post and his previous books have covered topics ranging from the relationship of rock music, mortality, and love (Killing Yourself to Live:  85% of a True Story) to the history of glam metal (Fargo Rock City:  A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural Nörth Daköta) to previously published columns and articles on pop culture (Chuck Klosterman IV).  I just like his writing style, give him a shot.  You'll probably chuckle to yourself like I do.  Nathan's been trying to learn to read Downtown Owl:

Yankees vs. Mets - not looking too good for the Yankees so far.  Bay kills the Yankees.  Stupid throw by Russo out in LF - C.C. needs to get out of this jam - I hate José Reyes, stupid hair, nonchalant actions - just stay on the DL foo!  Damn, 2-0 Mets.  Alex Cora, seriously?  See, there goes Bay, HR to deep left-center.  Crap!  I'm going to switch topics, this game isn't going how I had anticipated.

Today's Birthdays:

Cleveland Rocks, Cleveland Rocks!! Happy Birthday to comedian Drew Carey, who's 52 today.  I think he's still the host of the new The Price is Right.  When I'm home weekdays (which is never), I'd watch it.

Author, sports-columnist, radio-personality Mitch Albom, who's books my mother loves, is also 52 today.  I hate his hair, it's always covering his ears and just looks stupid, but he's great on "The Sports Reporters" on ESPN.  Keep up the good work Mitch, and cut the hair over your ears.  But Happy Birthday nonetheless.




Game's on - C.C. singles, Jeter singles, Gardner is so fast but hits into the 4-6-3 DP.  Will someone please step up and get some hits off Santana?  Teixeira blows!  Game's off - channel surfing instead. 

Back to work tomorrow.  Graduation was a success, everyone walked across the stage for the first time ever.  It was about 100° in the gym, but they had 8 fans that cooled off the faculty.  Parents, family, and friends suffered in the sweltering humid gym.

Flipped it back on and back off - Joe Morgan is a moron.  I was hoping his new job as special advisor for the Reds would help ease him off the SNB set, but no such luck.  Him and Jon Miller - match made in heaven for a black and white silent film.

I'm done with this game for good - Food Network is going on, even if it means I have to watch "Down Home with the Neely's". 

Monday tomorrow - time for some zzzz's.