River Avenue Blues

The RAB Radio Show – February 26, 2009 – Episode 16

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Baseball is back, baby! After live blogging Hughes’s innings, Mike and I recorded this week’s RAB Radio Show. You’ll notice that we’re not as focused as we are most weeks. Blame it on us watching the game at the same time as we try to record the show. Oh well. It was beyond great to see some game action.

We start off by going over Phil’s performance. There’s not much you can ascertain from his very first start of the spring, but all in all it went well. He let a few pitches fly which grazed a couple of jerseys, but all in all he did a solid job. His only four-ball walk of the day came in an at bat where he threw all six or seven pitches to the outside edge. His fastball sat 91-92. I wonder if this means he’ll ramp it up as we get deeper into the spring.

Onto the podcast. It is available in a number of formats. You can download it here by right clicking on that link and selecting Save As. If you want to play it in your browser, just left click the link. You can also subscribe to the podcast feed, which will send it to you every Thursday. You can also subscribe in iTunes. Finally, we have the embedded audio player below.

[audio:http://riveraveblues.com/podcasts/RABRadioShow22609.mp3]

Spring Training Game Thread: Thank Mo Baseball’s Back

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Hughes in STAh, the first game thread of the year. We’ve been waiting for this day ever since Jon VanEvery hit that walk-off single at Fenway Park off Jose Veras in the Yanks’ final game of 2008. Who cares if today’s game doesn’t count, it’ll be great just to see the boys in action again.

But wait, it gets better! We’ve got ourselves a primo pitching matchup this afternoon: Phil Hughes vs Rays’ phenom Wade Davis (#32 on BA’s Top 100). The last time these two met was Game Four of the International League Championship Series last season, when Hughes thoroughly outpitched Davis and clinched the league title for Triple-A Scranton. It really doesn’t get any better than this, does it?

The game is on YES, with first pitch is scheduled for 1:15. If you miss the live broadcast, don’t worry, they’re going to replay it at 7pm. Here’s the starting nine:

Damon, LF
Jeter, SS
Teixeira, 1B
A-Rod, 3B
Cano, 2B
Nady, RF
Posada, DH
Molina, C
Melky, CF

Scheduled Pitchers: Phil Hughes, Phil Coke, Brian Bruney, Damaso Marte, Jon Albaldejo, Mark Melancon

Looks like we’ll get multiple innings each out of the Phils, maybe Albie too. Anyone know anything about this Melancon kid?

Photo Credit: Steve Nesius, Reuters Pictures

Stop the presses: Hank & Reggie have an opinion

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So Alex Rodriguez and Reggie Jackson went out to dinner the other night, and Reggie had some advice for Alex because, you know, he’s dealt with this kind of PED thing before. Coming jointly from Hank Steinbrenner, the invisible executive, Mr. October told A-Rod to “hit the baseball and hit it when it counts.” Hit the baseball. And hit it when it counts. When it counts? When is that? Seems to me like it would be, I dunno, ALL THE FREAKING TIME!!! Reggie also some other words for A-Rod, saying he’s disappointed in him and that when he retired he was one of the best of all time and is sad to see his career accomplishment tarnished. You really didn’t think Reggie could go that long without talking about himself, did you? Even Neyer agrees this is retarded.

Even Japan doesn’t want Kei Igawa back

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In 2006, Japan stunned the international baseball community when they claimed the WBC title. They’re back with a vengeance to defend their crown, and while many players — the pitchers especially — view this tournament as a potential audition for the U.S. Major Leagues, the Land of the Rising Sun is mostly concerned with capture another title. While the rehabbing Hideki Matsui won’t play in the tournament, he is wanted for it. His fellow Japanese Yankee isn’t so lucky. When asked about Kei Igawa’s omission from the team, one of the Japanese reporters assigned to the team said “They think he is not so good.” I don’t think Brian Cashman is going to voice much objection to those sentiments. (Hat tip to PeteAbe for this amusing anecdote.)

Obstructed view bleacher seats drop to $5

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While much of Ben’s post about Yankees ticket prices bothered me, nothing irked me quite as much as Lonn Trost’s take on the obstructed view bleacher seats. In his view, having TVs on the wall is a substitute for seeing the action on the field. This, of course, is preposterous. If I want to watch the Yankees on an HD, I’ll go to my buddy’s down the street. People go to games to watch the games — or at least in an ideal world they do — not watch TV.

Here’s Trost’s explanation (via Neil Best):

“When we built the sports bar we knew architecturally there is an architectural shadow,” he said. “And that means there are a group of seats that are in the bleachers that if you are sitting very close to either the rightfield or leftfield side of the sports bar, you may not see the opposite side.

“We knew that going in, and to that extent we pre-prepared to put televisions in the wall, as well as that big screen so you don’t miss anything.”

He pre-prepared. Now that’s some forward thinking. Problem is, pre-preparing for having obstructed seats by installing TVs isn’t preparing for much, beyond fan disappointment. Again, television is no substitute for the live game. That’s why people shell out so much money for tickets.

We also found out in Ben’s post that Mike Francessa and his crew at WFAN were trying to get Trost on the show — you know, put a little pressure on him. It seems to have worked. As Best reports, tickets in the “architectural shadow,” about 600 in total, will cost only $5. It won’t allow you to see any more of the field, but at least it’s admitting that those seats aren’t equal in value to the full-view bleacher seats.

Also of note: The most expensive seats in the house will become open to partial season ticket plans. Why? Because they’re only 70 percent sold right now. No, we don’t know when they’re going to go on sale.

Canon reups Yankee sponsorship

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While many sports franchises are having trouble securing sponsorships in today’s economy, the Yankees seem to be doing okay for themselves. Today, Canon announced that they will renew their Yankee sponsorship for the next three years. Canon will now be the Official Digital Camera, Copier, SLR Camera and Printer of the Yanks and will receive signage on the left field wall and on the rotation ad block behind home plate. The company will sponsor a promotional day in May as well at which the first 18,000 fans will receive a cap with the Canon and Yankees logos. While that hat sounds like an instant collector’s item, the quote from Jack Suzuki, a Canon official, was even better: “We hope to see many Yankees home runs hit over our sign throughout the season