"BIG BOY SEASON IS ABOUT TO COMMENCE"

 The words of ESPN staff writer, Coley Harvey, forecast what Yankee supporters hope will be a massive display of baseballs leaving the confines of ballparks across the nation. Not since the early '60s, the days of Mantle, Maris, Berra, Moose Skowron, Elston Howard and Johnny Blanchard, has a lineup threatened the existence of pitchers like this one. No shortcuts, no easy outs and no respites, there will be home runs and strike outs galore. Whether they win or lose, it will be exciting to watch.
Judge, Stanton, Encarnacion, Sanchez, Voit followed by Torres, Gregorious and Hicks with DJ LeMahieu, the teams leading hitter, waiting his turn.  It starts tonight and should be in full bloom by the weekend. I'm waiting. Everyone's waiting.

**There's been a number of discussions this week about players unconcerned with running hard after hitting the ball. The argument is, why run hard and risk an injury when the end result is obvious. When they run hard but not all out on easy grounders and pop flies, I can understand. When they loaf to first on obvious home runs -  which turn out not to be - then that I cannot handle. The problem comes down to the managers. There is no chastising, no fines, not even any nasty looks. They make excuses for them. Yesterday, Welington Castillo  of the White Sox, hit a ball that bounced off the base of the wall in right center and he made it all the way to ...first base. What happened to him? They took him out of the game because he "had a bad back." If Billy Martin was the manager, Castillo's pain would have been a bit lower than his back. I think that's what is needed.

**About a week and a half ago, a minor league player bunted for a base hit in the ninth inning against a pitcher who was throwing a no-hitter. The score was 3-0 .  Players on the other team - and a lot of other people - were incensed by this. Why? Well baseball's Unwritten Rules say you can't bunt when a pitcher has a no-hitter going. Bull roar! The object of the game is to win. You get on base, you score more runs than the other team and you win. Why do I have to make it easier for you to gain a personal achievement and in the process, lose the game? You don't like it? Take up needlepoint.
The same thing goes for this "defensive indifference" thing about stolen bases. I'm not indifferent about anything. You give it to me and I'm going to take it and you can live with the bad statistics.

**Happy Father's Day to all dads (belated). My Dad taught me try hard, don't show the other team you're upset when you fail and don't embarrass the other team with excessive celebrations. The USA Women's Soccer team should have been taught this lesson. It's nice that they beat Chile 13-0 in the first round of the World Cup. And they celebrated wildly after  every  single  goal. Soccer games where a total of one goal is scored is not uncommon so thirteen goals is outrageous. Not only was the Chilean team embarrassed, I was embarrassed. The country should have been. Shame on you, USAWNT.

**An interesting tid-bit. Cities with two baseball teams rarely have both teams scheduled to play in that city on the same day. We happened to be in Chicago a few years ago when  both the White Sox and the Cubs were scheduled to play afternoon games. We had tickets to the White Sox game, but the game was rained out.    But the Cubs played. I've been to both stadiums. They're not that far apart. How could this have happened?


**There are often stories written about fathers on Father's Day. Here's a good one written by my friend, Brad Dickson:
https://www.braddicksononline.com/sports/2019/6/14/the-shot

***THEY SAID IT***

"Only 3% of the U.S. population donates blood, according to the Red Cross.Even worse, it’s only 1% if you toss out MMA, the National Hockey League and Black Friday shopping."  -- Dwight Perry

" And who’d a thunk that so far,  the SF Giants are having a much better June than the GS Warriors."  -- Janice Hough
" O.J. Simpson has joined Twitter. As you know O.J. has a dark past - he once played for the Buffalo Bills."  -- Brad Dickson
"A runaway gold cart injured five people at the U.S. Open. No one had any idea that John Daly had even qualified to play in that event."  -- Jim Barach
"Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius, while sidelined after Tommy John surgery, taught himself to play the piano. Maybe he accidentally had Elton John surgery."  -- Rob Merc via Twitter

"The Chicago Bears waived kicker Chris Blewitt. Headline writers were inconsolable."  -- Dwight Perry

" Long NBA season is finally over. So I presume the preseason starts next week?"  -- Janice Hough
" I attended the Mississippi State-Auburn CWS game tonight. For almost three hours I sat amidst fans from both schools and now I keep saying "y'all."  -- Brad Dickson
"Texas A&M says it will sell beer and wine at football games this year. Mostly because they need the revenue now that the school is no longer getting bribes from non-athletes to get admitted."  -- Jim Barach
"If race car driver Mike Conway sends a tweet, would that be a Conway Twitter"  -- RJ Currie

CP- 

AROUND THE HORN

 Am I the only one listening?
After using all of his six prime relievers in a 5-3 Yankee win over the Red Sox, Mgr Aaron Boone lamented that he needs to get more innings out of his starters. The bullpen was responsible for 9 innings in the two games against the Sox. Okay, makes sense that you need to be judicious in your use of the bullpen, but consider this. Boone consistently pulls his starters after 5 or 6 innings, even with the pitch counts under control. Ask him and he'll tell you that the saber-metrics say that a line up hits starters a lot better the third time through. They better learn how to get thru seven or eight innings or Boone will have an exhausted bullpen come August.
In the meantime, the Yankees "B" team continues to impress. And they find a lot of ways to do it. Mike Vaccaro, NY Post says it best: "When you play the Yankees, you either wait around for them to figure out a way to come back on you or you take your beating up front, right away, and play the rest of the string out." 
**Home runs are being hit at a record pace this year. Currently there are about 11 hitters on a pace to hit 50 home runs. The record for a team for the year is 267. There are five teams on a pace to beat that, led by Minnesota, who could hit 300. I grew up rooting for the Bronx Bombers, so I love this. 
**Tom Brady applied for the domain name "Tom Terrific." He can file for all the trademarks he wants, all the domain names he can think of and patents for everything else, and it won't matter. "Tom Terrific" is now and always will be TOM SEAVER. How about applying for Tom Thumb, Brady? After all, you are a little man. 
**I read that Robinson Cano, that paragon of hustle,  is close to re-joining the Mets as he has now begun jogging. Jogging? Sounds ready to resume his normal activities to me. One NY sportswriter has begun calling him 'Joginson' Cano.
**ESPN is promoting Women's World Cup Soccer Tournament.  I love watching this tournament but couldn't ESPN find a better picture to show than the one they have? The middle lady looks like the result of electro-shock therapy. Anyway, these ladies are prime athletes and I'm looking forward to these matches.
**Did I hear right? Did Serena Williams really get beat in the French Open? I didn't think that was possible. 

***THEY SAID IT***
"Wrestler Ric Flair’s recent hospital stay cost a reported $1.8 Million. He should have turned down those six aspirin he was prescribed." -- Jokes By Jim (Jim Barach)

"Astros shortstop Carlos Correa says he broke a rib while getting a home massage, landing him on the injured list for at least three weeks. That’s what you call getting rubbed the wrong way."  - Dwight Perry
"Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva openly   spoke out against gays, then hours later claimed she was misunderstood. More later from the world back-track and field championships."  -- RJ Curry

 "Pete Rose is finally in the Hall of Fame — the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame.Coincidence? Museum curators discovered the Ray Fosse doll on the floor, broken, the very next morning."  -- Dwight Perry

"Dennis Rodman,  accused of slapping a Florida man’s face in a bar, is saying he’s never hit anyone in his life. That must be comforting for the cameraman Rodman kicked in the groin."  -- Brad Rock

“On (May 26), the last full day of Bill Buckner’s life, 16 major-leaguers struck out at least three times in one game. Buckner played 22 seasons and never did it once."  -- Tyler Kepner
" The SEC is lifting their conference ban on alcohol sales in stadiums, and will let individual schools decide.  And let’s see, most of these universities are in open-carry states. What could possibly go wrong?"  -- Janice Hough
"Blues defender Carl Gunnarson was talking to his coach at the urinals just before O.T. when he predicted his  game 2 winner against the Bruins. Known henceforth in NHL annals as The Boston Pee Parley"  -- RJ Currie

" An Ethiopian woman survived a week with a knife stuck in her back. Which means she is now qualified to take on a management job with the Lakers." -- Jim Barach

CP-