In the “Can You Believe It?” Department, Darrell Rasner took a ball off of his index finger in the first inning today, and well, it broke. Rasner now will be out until the All Star break or so, according to reports. He joins Jeff Karstens, Phil Hughes, Carl Pavano, Mike Mussina and Chien Ming Wang on the list of Yankee pitchers who have been or currently are on the DL. Who put the curse on this team?
Clueless Joe to remain for the season?
There sure are a lot of folks in the Yankee organization, and these folks are want to talk to Joel Sherman about Joe Torre’s job.
In a short piece today for The Post, Sherman heres from a whole bunch of anonymous folks about whether or not Torre was fired, will be fired or should be fired. Here’s what the folks said:
Torre would have been fired already this season a) if a worthy heir were available or b) if Torre had not been such a valuable prop in the seduction of Roger Clemens, a lure beyond the pro-rated $28 million to convince The Rocket back to pinstripes. Clemens told Yankee management he was expecting to come back to play for Torre, not Don Mattingly, not Larry Bowa, not Joe Girardi.
Perhaps those two factors are season-long salvations for Torre. Some people in the Yankee organization will tell you the Torre crisis has passed, that George Steinbrenner’s tepid statement of support on April 30 provided season-long amnesty. But you also will find folks in the organization who are not quite so sure about that.
So now, this whole Roger Clemens thing is coming back to kill the Yankees. They are paying a pro-rated $28 million for an old pitcher with rumors of a PED past growing louder and louder. He will give them six innings tops and may or may not be the pitcher this team needs. He can’t play right field; he can’t produce the offense they need.
And with Clemens on the team, Joe Torre stays. And right now, the consensus seems to be soundly against Joe Torre.
The Yankees could still come back. It’s improbable but not impossible. All of our complaining could be for naught. But for now, Roger Clemens and Joe Torre are just more nails in the coffin of a frustrating season.
Boston’s High-A affiliate loses 30-0
That’s one heck of a box score. Well, at least we can make fun of them for that…
September 22, 1995
As Steve Lombardi noted, the game ended early enough for him to catch NUMB3RS. For me, it ended early to go out, have some beers and come back before it got too late. So here are my half-sober ramblings on tonight’s loss.
First, the Yanks are now ten games out for the first time since September 22, 1995. I was 12 then, and I don’t remember seeing that 10 in the GB column. These are dark days for the Yanks, and they now find themselves 6.5 games behind Detroit for that Wild Card spot. It is only May, but still.
Johnny Damon: What are you doing? Seriously. Top of the first, just stay at first base. That singlehandedly killed the Yanks. Instead of having two on and no one out, the Yanks were down an out on a base hit. This guy has gotta go on the DL if he’s hurting that badly. He was out by ten feet at second base.
Bobby Abreu: Quality at-bat there off the bench. Way to, once again, take a called third strike. I hope that doesn’t earn him a spot in the lineup later today against Tom Glavine.
Alex Rodriguez: 4 for 37 translates to a .108 batting average. He’s got 1 HR in his last 78 at bats. That hot start seems like another season right now.
Andy Pettite: Should be 6-1. Tonight, his one bad pitch — a high, 88-mph fastball on what should have been a bunt — killed him. It’s the same old story.
With Tom Glavine vs. Darrell Rasner and then John Maine facing off against Tyler Clippard, things are looking bleak for the Yankees. This was their best game to win, and they lost it.
Maybe Green Day was talking about this baseball season when they said wake me up when September ends.
Catching a glance at the prospects
With the circus surrounding Roger Clemens’ debut tonight, I was looking most forward too taking advantage of the TV broadcast to catch a look at guys like Jose Tabata, Colin Curtis, Frankie Cervelli and Juan Miranda. However, I turned on ESPN2 only to find out they aren’t going to show Tampa hitting, and instead will show a bunch of bumbling morons talking out of their ass.
Errrrrg. So I headed over to milb.com -Â which is a wonderfully fantastic site that is way better than anything ESPN could ever put together – paid my $3.95 for a nightly pass to milb.tv, and watched the game. Roger threw 30-40 pitches in the bullpen after he came out of the game, and I caught a glimpse of the ghost of Kei Igawa sitting in the ‘pen.
Here’s my notes on the kids:
The slow ride from Shea
Well, in case you live in a hole in the ground, the Subway Series starts tonight. Since it’s baseball and the subway, I have to do some cross-promotional posting. I wrote today on my subway blog about the painful 7 ride home from Shea Stadium. It’s a local ride while the express tracks sit largely unused, taunting the tired masses on the way from Shea back to Manhattan. Short story: It would be easy to run express service. Long story: Well, go click that link.
What the hell is ‘ansky’?
Remember the old adidas commercials with the ANSKY guys? Well, the Yanks’ mortal enemies over at Metsblog broke out this old adidas commercial. (Warning: Topless Steinbrenner ahead.)