Friday, September 24, 2010

JUST A WASTE OF FOUR GAMES

***RAYS AND YANKS SPLIT FOUR***
The Rays came in a half-game behind, and they left a half-game behind. Nothing got settled except to emphasize that these two teams are evenly matched. If they face each other in the playoffs, I think it will come down to a few well-placed breaks. First, they both have to get thru the first round: Texas, with the most holes in their lineup and the Twins, the hottest team in the American League right now.
Last night wasn't very pretty from the pinstripe viewpoint. They had Price on the hook and let him off. Announcers Kay & Flaherty were impressed with Teixeira's swing, saying he looked like his hand injury was okay. I don't think he was able to pull the ball at all. Hitting to right field and right-center is Jeter's territory. Vasquez solidified his spot in "Mop-Up Rotation" with his efforts (I use the term loosely). Gaudin gave up consecutive home runs, but Javier went him one better: he HIT three batters in a row. Anything you can do, I can do better...
Yanks play 6 against Boston and 3 against Toronto to end the regular season; the Rays play 10 games against 3 teams who gave up the ghost a month ago. Good scheduling.

***IS THIS FOR REAL?***
I can't believe this: the San Francisco Giants scored 13 runs? In one game? That's normally a weeks worth of scoring for them. Can't poke too much fun at them though, they're leading the NL West.

***MUST HAVE FORGOTTEN WHERE HE WAS***
One day in New York City and Joe Torre is big news. First the papers make a big deal of Torre and Cashman making up and the Yankees burying the hatchet. Then Torre makes what he thinks is an innocent statement about managing the Mets. Current (for now) manager Jerry Manuel calls him out, asking why would somebody lobby for a job that's already filled. Torre, of course, denied ever making the statement but apologized anyway. Typical.
Interestingly, David Wells, no slouch in the 'big mouth' department himself, criticized the comment and then went further in calling Torre a "coward" when he managed the Yanks, claiming Joe often sent coaches to give bad news to players, rather than telling them himself.
Nothing like the NY press to catch you with your mouth open.

***TWO MILESTONES REACHED IN ONE GAME***
Ichiro Suzuki gets his 200th hit - been there, done that for Ichiro.
Jose Bautista hits his 50th home run - virgin territory for him. He's never hit more than 16 in a year in four full seasons in the majors. Because of the extensive testing, I think we can rule out drugs, so next season should be ver-r-r-y interesting.

***FROM DWIGHT PERRY'S COLUMN***
"Coach Knight has requested that none of the roasters bring up his past behavioral issues or his considerable use of profanity," cracked emcee Jay Bilas to open last week's Bob Knight roast, "so thank you everybody for coming, and good night."

***SEE. IT'S NOT JUST NEW YORK***
Joe Maddon got beat up a little in the Tampa press for screwing up his bullpen and not having a lefty available to face lefty hitting Cano. To quote Joe, "I'm on the mound handing the ball to someone who doesn't look like Randy Choate." Good line Joe, but not every one thought it was funny. One Tampa blogger suggested they institute drug testing on managers.

FYI: "Chad Picasner At Large" has been quoted in 11 different newspapers and 2 other blogs, but this is the first time Chad has been quoted in his OWN blog. (see previous posting)

CP-

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