Bronx Carnival

July 31, 2007

         “I got two for tonight.  Who wants in?”  I had called Tony Sherry, but Acc answered.  Apparently the Sherry brothers, Mikey Juice, and Acc were all at lunch together in the Rock.  Without bothering to ask how that happened, I just posed the question to Acc instead of Tony.  “What do you mean you have two?  I had the two and I gave them to Paddy B [of the 2006 Wifflemania Champion Blue Balls] and his brother.  Do you have the three?” asked Acc, who was now confused.  “No dude, these aren’t ours.  I got them at work.  They’re in section 14.”  I heard Acc announce the situation to everyone at the table.  Mikey Juice grabbed the phone.  “Of course I’m in.  Tell me where and when we’re meeting and I’ll be there.”  “Alright,” I said, “Let me go get the tickets and I’ll call you back.”  I hung up.  Thirty seconds later my phone rings.  It’s Acc directly.  “Dude, Juice isn’t taking that ticket.  I’m taking it.  I’m in.”  It didn’t really make a difference to me, and I figured Juice was cool with being usurped, as he was sitting right next to the big boy when he called me.  “Okay, dude.  See you at 1978….”

         Wow.  Flashbulbs popping everywhere, the crowd rabid.  It was truly electric at the Stadium tonight.  Not exactly in a playoff kind of way, more like a carnival.  And the place just rolled in waves of alternating anticipations and explosions.  For nine innings. 

         There is some housekeeping to attend to in the final analysis of this, the 106th game of the Yankee season.  The Yankees tied their all-time record of 8 home runs in a game, as 7 different players hit bombs tonight.  Perhaps most interestingly, of course, none of them were named Alex Rodriguez.  The Yankees picked up ground on both Boston and Cleveland, and now find themselves just 3 games out of a playoff spot.  For anyone interested in stats, the Yankees led all of major league baseball in runs scored at of the start of the Detroit game, although as of right now they’re behind by one.  We’ve been talking a lot about run differential the last few days, and how it so pungently illustrates the Yankees outlier status on the statistical leader board.  With all of the division leaders and wild-card leaders clogging up the top ten in run differential; there are the Yankees, all alone on the very top of the heap, with a major-league best 130 more runs scored than allowed, a full 5 runs better than second-place Boston.  And yet they are not in first place, not currently in a wild-card position, and not even runner-up to a wild-card position.  Just goes to show you what a wild first half it was for them.

         It’s not like this should come as a great shock to anyone.  The first half of the season saw Bobby Abreu having the worst three months of his professional career, Robbie Cano falling from an All-Star who was among the top 10 in the league in batting last year to a .240 hitter with no power.  His buddy, Melky, looked like he was swooning in a vicious sophomore slump, was hitting .230 with no power.  Johnny Damon was hurt and useless, and Jason Giambi was hurt and slightly less useless, as he was hitting some bombs before he went down.  But when he went down he went down.  Even the Ferocious Lion looked like a shadow of the player who was so devastating two and three years ago.  Now you’ve got Damon healthy, hitting .250 and starting to come on, Abreu at .275 with his power stroke coming back, and Cano, Melky, and the Ferocious Lion all at .290 or better, with ever-increasing bombs.  Which, frankly, is where they should be.  And Allie and Jeter are both where they should be.  The only positive outlier is Posada, who, bless him, is still hitting .339 after a four-hit night tonight.  And with Phil Hughes coming back, you’ve got five very capable starters taking you through the last two months of the season.  This is not a team to fool around with.

         So the post-script on the trading deadline, for me, is that the Red Sox in essence swapped Joel Piniero for Eric Gagne on the 2007 roster, but were unable to land Jermaine Dye or a more reliable outfield bat than Wily Mo Pena/JD Drew.  The moves beg a lot of questions for 2008, as Gagne will be a free agent this year, and the Red Sox already have a closer.  We thought.  But this isn’t 2008.  It’s 2007.  And they’re better today than they were yesterday.

         As for the Yankees, they needed a back-up catcher, a set-up man, and maybe a better option at first.  The catcher had to be someone who could give you something offensively and wouldn’t hurt you defensively.  Jose Molina is that guy.  Love the move.  I don’t really get the Proctor for Betemit move.  I know Proctor is whatever he is, but I’m not sure I understand why the Yankees are so in love with Wilson Betemit.  Because he can play any position?  So can Miguel Cairo.  And he certainly doesn’t have any kind of offensive numbers that jump out at you.  And he’s no kid, at 27.  So I guess I’ll resign myself to being confused.  The story, as far as the set-up situation, is not any deal made, but a bus ticket purchased.  Joba Chamberlain is going to attempt to ride into town playing the role of K-Rod or Bobby Jenks in 2002 and 2005, respectively.  Or Mariano in 1995, for that matter.  So we’ll see how that works out.  And it appears, waiver wire notwithstanding; that they will stay with Andy Phillips for the time being, as the hole isn’t as prominent when the rest of the team is hitting.  It’s also not as prominent when it isn’t a hole.  For now.

         Two last things.  As the big boy and I sat in section 14 (a little strange) tonight, who did I see sitting two rows in front of me?  None other than mlblog’s Zack, the baseball collector.  “Hey baseball collector,” I called out.  He looked up, somewhat startled.  “You here to catch A-Rod’s 500th?”  “I’m going to try,” he said.  “I enjoy your blog,” I said.  “Best of luck to you.”  “Thanks,” he said.  And there you have it…          

         Last, Scott Proctor.  I know he is not enjoying his flight out to the West Coast.  He was erratic and tough to watch at times, but he was also the only guy outside of Mo you could trust at times.  And you never saw him dog it, you never saw him go half-*ss, and you knew that every time he went out there, he wanted to do everything in his power to help the Yankees win.  And I’ll take a guy like that any time.  Best of luck, dude.  Thanks for putting your heart into it.

Written by mlblogsbleedingpinstripes Posted in Dailies