Eat your heart out, Joe Maddon. Vanderbilt pulled off the rare triple-steal against Florida yesterday, and it was basically a straight steal of home with the trail runners advancing as everyone stood around in surprise. One-run lead, bases loaded with two outs in the ninth … that’s a gutsy call. Really gutsy. Hard to see a big league team ever attempting that given the risk, both in terms of outcome and injury.

Anyway, here’s your open thread for the evening. The Nationals and Braves are the ESPN Sunday Night game with a primo pitching matchup: Gio Gonzalez vs. Brandon Beachy. There’s also some NBA playoff action going on as well. You folks know what to do here, so have at it.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Sunday Night Open Thread

You may have seen it already, but if not, that video of Lower Columbia College outfielder Derrick Salberg making a game-saving catch has been circulating through the netweb. It helps that the fence is like, two feet ball, but Salberg gets an A+ for effort. Had his feet not still been in the field of play at the time of the catch, it would have been a homer. Dude really sold out for it.

Anyway, here’s your open thread for the night. The Rays and Red Sox are your FOX prime time game (Price vs. Beckett) though some of you may have another game depending on where you live. MLB Network will air a late West Coast game tonight as well. Apparently there’s also an NBA Game Seven tonight, and Game Sevens are always fun. Talk about whatever you want here tonight. Have at it.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Saturday Night Open Thread

(Al Bello/Getty Images)

The Yankees don’t open their three-game weekend series with the Athletics for another few hours, so use this open thread to bide your time. The regular game thread will be along a little closer to first pitch. The Mets are playing the Padres (Dillon Gee vs. Anthony Bass) and MLB Network will be airing a game as well (teams depend on where you live), but the biggest game of the night is the Rangers vs. Devil (8pm ET on NBC Sports). If the Devils win, they move on to the Stanley Cup Finals. If the Rangers win, they’ll play a Game Seven. Talk about whatever you like here.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Friday Night Open Thread

(Al Bello/Getty Images)

Scheduled days off never seem to come at the right time. When the Yankees couldn’t score a run to save their lives last week, they played. Everyday. Even when the rain threatened, they still played. No matter what, the baseball gods make sure they played so they could struggle. Now that they’ve won two in a row and things are starting to look up, they’re off. Off on Thursday and off to the West Coast for a nine-game road trip through Oakland, Anaheim, and Detroit. Funny how that works.

Anyway, here’s your open thread for the evening. Weather permitting, the Mets are playing the Padres at home (Jeremy Hefner vs. Eric Stults, so yuck) and MLB Network will also air the Phillies and Cardinals (Blanton vs. Westbrook) a little later on. There’s also some NBA playoff action going on somewhere. Hooray for sports. Talk about those games or anything else here. Enjoy.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Thursday Night Open Thread

Could you imagine baseball players doing that these days? Four guys like CC Sabathia, Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, and Mark Teixeira going on Leno or Letterman or something and singing Take Me Out To The Ballgame? Man, things sure were different in 1958, eh?

Anyway, here’s your open thread for the night. The ESPN Sunday Night game is the Dodgers and Cardinals (Billingsley vs. Lohse), plus there some NBA playoff action going on a little later tonight. You folks know what to do by now, so have at it.

(h/t to reader Ben K. for emailing the video … not our Ben K., a different one)

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Sunday Night Open Thread

Kerry Wood was a Yankee for only three months, but I don’t think anyone didn’t like the guy. He was easy to root for — so talented but so sabotaged by his own body — and essentially an underdog despite his pedigree. Wood, 34, announced his retirement from baseball yesterday, facing one final batter before hanging up the spikes for good. He retires with a career 10.6174 K/9, the best by a right-handed pitcher in baseball history (min. 1,000 IP). By Game Score, his 20-strikeout game in 1998 was the best pitched nine-inning game in baseball history*. He was 20 years old at the time. We’re always going to wonder what might have been if not for the injuries, but Wood still managed to have a damn fine career. Congrats to him for being able to call it quits on his own terms.

Anyway, here is tonight’s open thread. MLB Network will air a game later tonight plus there’s some NBA playoff action going on somewhere, but talk about whatever you like here. Have at it.

* My favorite factoid about that game: the Astros’s 3-4-5 hitters — Jeff Bagwell, Jack Howell, and Moises Alou — went a combined 0-for-9 with nine strikeouts. That’s just nuts. Also, make sure you check out my FanGraphs post on Wood’s retirement. /self-promotion

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Saturday Night Open Thread

(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there, especially mine. You ladies make the world go ’round and we’re all eternally grateful. I hope you’re spending the night with your mother and family, but if not, hang out in our open thread. The ESPN Sunday Night Game is the Angels at the Rangers (Weaver vs. Feliz), plus there’s some NHL playoff action going on as well. Talk about whatever you want, go nuts.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Mother’s Day Open Thread

(REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine)

This is the perfect time of year. The weather’s great — not too cold and not disgustingly humid NYC summer yet — and right about now is when the Yankees usually start to go on a bit of a roll. They’ve now won five of six following this afternoon’s beatdown of the Mariners, and they were just one bad David Robertson inning away from six wins in a row. Since Mariano Rivera‘s injury, they’ve won six of nine. It’s an unfortunate reference point, but wins are wins.

Anyway, here is tonight’s open thread. MLB Network is airing a game (teams depend on where you live), but the biggest game of the night is Game Seven between the NY Rangers and the Capitals at the Garden (7:30pm ET on NBC Sports Network). Winner of that game will play the Devils in the Eastern Conference Finals. Talk about that or whatever else you want here.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Saturday Night Open Thread

By now you’ve heard about it, but did you actually see it? Former Yankees draft pick (50th round in 2004) and current Orioles 1B/DH Chris Davis threw two scoreless innings against the Red Sox in Fenway Park to earn the win yesterday. The best part of the whole thing was his splitter — he said it was a split during the post-game, not a changeup — which he used to strikeout Jarrod Saltalamacchia (0:10 mark of the video) and Adrian Gonzalez (1:08). Baseball America’s draft report from 2006 says he pitched with “a 90-92 mph fastball and a decent breaking ball” in junior college. I gotta think he’s messed around with that split while throwing on the side; hard to believe he was able to break it out that effectively after not toeing the rubber in a half-decade.

Anyway, here is tonight’s open thread since the Yankees are off. The Mets are playing the Phillies (Niese vs. Halladay, 7pm ET on SNY/ESPN) and the Rangers have a playoff game (best-of-seven series tied at two, 7:30pm ET on NBC Sports Network), plus there’s a bunch of non-local NHL and NBA playoff action going on as well. You folks know what to do, so have at it.

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Monday Night Open Thread

Nice win today, I think we all really needed that. The Yankees hadn’t had a real blow-out win yet this season and given their recent struggles, it was nice to see them get out and punish some baseballs in the early going. Plus it didn’t rain even though it was totally supposed to. Hooray for not having to give up a future day off.

Anyway, here is tonight’s open thread. The ESPN Sunday Night Game is the Phillies at the Nationals (Hamels vs. Zimmermann), and the Devils are playing as well. There’s also some NBA playoff action going on. Talk about whatever you like here, go nuts.

[gif via Chad Moriyama; here's the MLB.com video]

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Sunday Night Open Thread