Monday Night Open Thread

January 6, 2014 by Mike Axisa 64 Comments

I know hot stove news should pick up now that the holidays are over, but man I am so ready for this offseason to end. Sitting around waiting for the Alex Rodriguez ruling — which could come at any moment now — is probably the worst part of any offseason I can remember. At least the Masahiro Tanaka stuff has a deadline. This just never seems to go away. Sick of it. Bring on Spring Training already.

Here is your open thread for the night. Florida State and Auburn are playing the National Championship Game tonight plus the Rangers, Islanders, and Nets are in action as well. Talk about those games or anything else right here. Have at it.

forensic

A-Rod cheered at home? That seems like a different lifetime.

Guess the boos started after his third PA, when he made his first home out…
forensic

Jack Curry said on Yankees Hot Stove that Casey Close has been on vacation with his family and that’s part of why it’s been quiet on Tanaka so far.

Who the hell allowed him to go on vacation when we’re all sitting here and waiting??? I’m sure whatever island he went to would still be there in a month.
- Pseudoyanks
  
  Maybe he’s on the island of Japan.
- RetroRob
  
  Ha! A strategically planned vacation. This will be going down to the wire, or close to it, so serious discussions wouldn’t have begun is my guess, even if he wasn’t on vacation.
vicki

so that video made my heart hurt.
Pseudoyanks

Yeah, -45 with the Windchill in Chicago today (yes, Minus 45)…bring on Spring damnit!
- vin
  
  Seriously, dude…
  http://www.mayflower.com/moving/
  - Pseudoyanks
    
    Haha…PMSL! Hoping to move to Boulder, Colorado this summer.
    - forensic
      
      When looking for someplace warmer to live, I wouldn’t think Colorado would be at the top of the list…
      - Pseudoyanks
        
        Believe it or not, although they get the cold days, they also get plenty of days in the 60’s in Winter. They get dumped on a lot with snow but I’ll get a Jeep if it happens.
        
        Caballo Sin Nombre
        
        Yeah, I happen to be planning a trip out there in a few weeks; and the research told me the average winter temp is higher than in the northeast.
    - sevrox
      
      I understand yer can buy that there mary-jew-wanny out there right legal now, eh?
      - Pseudoyanks
        
        It is?
        
        forensic
        
        Yeah, it’s legal throughout Colorado (and Washington).
        
        Pseudoyanks
        
        I should have used sarcasm font.
        
        forensic
        
        heh, oops, sorry…
        
        Preston
        
        As of January 1st
- Jorge Steinbrenner
  
  I have a friend up in Northern Minnesota and have been looking at the weather forecasts. My favorite part is when they recommend that you were a hat and gloves. Really.
  - RetroRob
    
    If they’re recommending hats and gloves in Northern Minnesota, well, that’s damn serious. It’s so cold there normally that the residents just shake it off most days. Has to be -30 before the gloves come out!
- forensic
  
  I was out in a t-shirt today. Almost went with shorts too, but it was still too damn cold.
  
  So, I know how you feel… :-)
  - vicki
    
    having moved to new york from a tropical climate, i’ve learned there is no spring without winter. as i tell myself repeatedly this time of year.
    - Pseudoyanks
      
      I need 4 seasons myself. I also need my winter to be about 4 weeks long.
      - Thurdonpaul
        
        only 4 weeks of winter sounds good to me.
      - vicki
        
        my native south carolina piedmont would suit you.
      - forensic
        
        lol, we still have four seasons, though sometimes it does seem like 2-3 instead. It’s like we were told when we moved out here:
        
        In the northeast, you don’t go out much during the couple months of winter because it’s too damn cold. Out here, you don’t go out much during the couple months of summer because it’s too damn hot.
        
        Guess you gotta pick your poison.
        
        nsalem
        
        Pick your poison
        as in LLoyd Waner and Paul Waner
        
        /gettingbacktobaseball
        
        vicki
        
        glory of their times shout-out. well done.
        
        nsalem
        
        Do you know how they got those nicknames?
        
        vicki
        
        i do!
        
        y’all talk funny.
        
        nsalem
        
        I’m from The Bronx not Brooklyn. Different kind of speech impedments.
        
        vicki
        
        they’re pretty similar to my ear. like many new yorkers can’t discern my drawl from a texan’s.
        
        Jimmy
        
        Awesome book.
    - Jorge Steinbrenner
      
      +1
nsalem

This morning I was working with a weather historian
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF.....e%20Thaler

I asked him what the rest of the winter was going to be like and he said

YCPTW Suzyn
August Gallo

Really u people come on here to talk about the weather and if marajuna is legal in Colorado??
Let’s talk YANKEES BASEBALL!!! They need Tanaka so bad and wanna c them get Grant Balfour.
Love Mcann he’s a beast and takes no crap also love Beltran just wish we would’ve gotten him 8 years ago when the shitty Mets signed him
- forensic
  
  If we’ve already said variations of that stuff 700 times over the last two months, do we have your permission to talk about other stuff then?
- nsalem
  
  Okay August Yankee baseball I went to the first night game of the 2013 season on April 3. I was in the upper deck and the wind chill was in the 20’s. I forgot to bring my gloves and my hands froze. The people sitting next to me were smoking vaporized marijuana. The Sox kicked our asses. Buccholz go the W Kuroda took the loss and Hanrahan got the save. How’s that?
  - Jorge Steinbrenner
    
    Did you check the Colorado Rockies score in the middle of the game?
    - nsalem
      
      They beat the Brewes 7-3 but the game was in Milwaukee. Cudduer and Fowler homered ooff Axford in the 9th.
    - nsalem
      
      True Story. Yankee plaiyng The Brewers Labor Day Afternoon Game 1983. Game is on channel 11 White and Rizzuto the announcers.
      
      Phil: “I’ll tell ya the beer in Milwaukee is so strong. You can smell the hops in the beer all the way up her”
      Bill: I don’t think that’s hops you’re smelling Phil
      
      Yankee’s lose 3-1 Rawley complete game loss.
      - Jorge Steinbrenner
        
        God I miss them.
        
        vicki
        
        + 10.
      - Jimmy
        
        Outstanding.
Caballo Sin Nombre

ARod ruling is coming down any moment now

… NOW

OK…

NOW

OK…

NOW
- nsalem
  
  source?
Rocky

I simply can’t understand why someone who has made as much money as A-Rod, continues to embarrass himself for more money. How much is enough? He gets booed constantly. His performance since getting off drugs has reduced him to a better than average ball player when he’s at his best. Everybody knows, including himself that he doesn’t measure up to his pay. Personally, I think that if he does not win his grievance, then his best move is to make a monumental gesture by announcing that he is retiring for the best interest of the team, indicating that the money saved would help rebuild the Yankees. I think it would go a long way in restoring his image as a Yankee rather than continue to drain the finances of the team.
- forensic
  
  Yeah, it must really suck to be an above average baseball player.
  
  And nothing he does for the rest of his life will change or restore his image to the vast majority of Yankees fans who already hate him.
August Gallo

AROD will NEVER go quietly and nobody would ever walk away from all that money. If his suspension is upheld the YANKEES will still owe him a ton of money. And as far as his image. It’s his fault he continually throws himself into the spotlight. I no all players go out to concert sir events w their significant others and families but u don’t ALWAYS have to get ur picture taken and posted on the social media sites. Do u think Jeter never goes out?? I’ve seen him at NY Knicks games. He just chooses not to jump onto center court and pose for the world!!
- vicki
  
  you people and your pathetic fear of not being well-liked. the rod feeds on your hate.
  - Preston
    
    ietc
  - forensic
    
    lol, absolutely.
  - nsalem
    
    I’d rather be an A-Rod than a No-Rod
  - Jorge Steinbrenner
    
    This.
    
    Also, more marijuana and cold weather talk, please.
    - nsalem
      
      Remeber the cold weather series that closed the 85 season. Yankees go into Toronto 3 games out with 3 to play. Win the first game in frigid weather with the great Rod Scurry getting the W in middle relief replacing Whitson who started. We got eliminated on Saturday afternoon and then Niekro pitched on Sunday to get his 300th win. Last time we got that close for a decade. Very dissapointing season. In 1987 Yanks were 51-30 halfway through but we folded up in the second half. A decade to forget.
      - Jorge Steinbrenner
        
        The boss rolled in his……oh, wait, he was in charge.
        
        Scurry came over with Rhoden, right?
        
        nsalem
        
        Actually Scurry was purchased in September 1985 from the Pirates. Rhoden was traded from the Pirates to the Yankees after 1986 with Pat Clements and side arming Cecilio Guante for Logan Easley, Fat Brian Fisher and unfortunately Dou Drabek. Scurry passed on a couple of yeas ago, allegedly due some of his issues he had back in the 1980’s.
nsalem

A-Rod is still my favorite present day player. He is one of the greatest hitters I have ever seen and along with Willie Mays the greatest instinctive player I have watched. I am not an apologist. He has lied and cheated much like many of the people who walk this earth. Unfortunately for him he is in the spotlight all the time and as great as he is at baseball he is terrible at lying and cheating. I’m sure he took steroids and lied about it, but so have hundreds of ther MLB players over the last 25 years. I believe he obstructed the investigations but so did Melky and I think what Braun did was (playing the religon card and the character assasination of the sample collector), I think waht MLB has done is worse and until I see evidence I tend to believe the accusation of A-Rod recruiting other players to PED’s is total BS. I think he will get a 50 game suspension or less. If he can stay healthy, even his decline years will be better than anything the Yankee’s can currently field.
forensic

Auburn sure is doing their best trying to blow this game, several times…
- forensic
  
  And there you go, way to blow the game. And on a related note, their QB sure does seem to suck, no wonder they were essentially a 3-5 loss team this year (non-miracle division).
  - RetroRob
    
    This guy bet $100 at the start of the year when Auburn had 5000-1 odds. He’d have won 50K if they held on to win the game. Must have been painful to watch it slip away. He was live-tweeted the game.
    
    https://twitter.com/markjskiba
nycsportzfan

Anyone think it’d be a good move to check in with Luis Ayala’s agent? Hes pitched well since leaving NY and really has pitched well most of his career. Hes only 36, and dosen’t rely on power to beat batters. Could he be a good player for us to bring back in the fold?
- Lukaszek
  
  Absolutely, he pitched great for New York in 2011
nycsportzfan

Luis Ayala
Shawn Kelley
David Robertson
David Huff
Adam Warren
Matt Thornton

I’d be happy starting the yr off with a pen that looks like this.
- Jorge Steinbrenner
  
  I’d be fine with that.