Lisa Olson FanHouse

Phillies Fade Into New York Night

Lisa Olson — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:33:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK - Finally, there was life in Ryan Howard's bat, energy in his words. "Come on man, let's go," he shouted upon crossing the plate, as if adding a hardy exclamation point to his two-run homer in the sixth inning would spark whatever the defending champions had been missing since they took a brief World Series lead way back in October.

The Philadelphia Phillies brought the bravado, for sure. On the eve of the Fall Classic, Jimmy Rollins made one of his many extemporaneous observations, saying on the Jay Leno Show, of all places, "If we're nice, we'll let it go six. But I'm thinking five. Close it out at home." So here's the first lesson, to any budding big leaguers: try not to mouth off when playing the wealthiest, hungriest, most talent-stacked team on the planet.

More Phillies Coverage:
Few Mysteries in Defeat | Howard's Dubious Record

On a wintry, raucous night in the Bronx, the New York Yankees captured their 27th World Series title, beating the Phillies, 7-3. The last out of Game 6 came at 11:50 PM ET Wednesday, when the incomparable Mariano Rivera threw his 41st pitch of the evening. Shane Victorino, playing despite a bruised right finger, battled through a gutsy final at-bat, fouling off cutter after biting cutter, until his groundout sealed the inevitable.

Nine years removed from their last ticker-tape parade, there will be another one through the Canyon of Heroes, probably on Friday, as millions of New Yorkers line the downtown streets and hail the Yankees as they wave from flatbed trucks. Yankee haters will mock the excess, the fans' cocky entitlement, but there is no denying this collection of ultra-millionaires in old-world pinstripes epitomizes everything a modern team is meant to be.

"They just beat us on all levels," admitted Rollins, as the party outside the visitor's clubhouse reached a level not heard in these parts since 2000. "Fair and square, they are the legitimate champions."

But the more reporters poked, the more Rollins snapped at the bait. "Do I think we're the better team? I really do," Rollins said. "They just executed. I think we weren't playing bad, but they were playing that much better. They got the hits, we didn't. It's that simple."

The Phillies buckled across the board: Starter Pedro Martinez, effective in Game 2, lasted only four innings Wednesday night, victimized by the flashback strokes of Hideki Matsui; Chase Utley, Mr. November, went without a homer in Game 6; Howard decided to show up, albeit briefly, before ducking like a turtle back into his shell and notching his 13th strikeout, a World Series record.

And there was Charlie Manuel, hardly enjoying his finest managerial moment. Manuel, as loyal as a pup liberated from the pound, left Martinez in to face Matsui in the third inning, after Matsui had taken Pedro deep in the second with a two-run homer that snuck inside the right field pole. Matsui had worked back from an 0-2 count in that at-bat, and now the bases were loaded one inning later, the count again 0-2, Martinez pitching against the same team in back-to-back starts for the first time this season.

Lefty J.A Happ was up in the bullpen, ready to replace the laboring Martinez, who could barely hit 88 on the radar. Manuel chose to stick with Martinez, hoping guts and guile would prevail over power. Somewhere, Grady Little screamed at his TV.

Martinez, the self-declared "old goat," had vowed to get by on survival skills and "frog's blood," which must be a concoction he mixes up under the mango trees, but the high fastball he threw to Matsui was ripped to centerfield, scoring two runs for a 4-1 Yankee lead. Matsui (Mr. November-san), with his aching knees and uncertain future (he won't be joining the Seattle Mariners to join Ichiro, a prediction we can guarantee), finished the Series with a ridiculous .615 average (8-for-13), three homers and eight RBI, along with a shiny MVP trophy he dedicated to all the good folks in Japan.

"They just beat us on all levels. Fair and square, they are the legitimate champions."
-- Jimmy Rollins "When he got there, Pedro, he knows how to pitch. He's got experience, he knows how to pitch and everything, and you know, I had to let him face that guy, " Manuel said later. "Also when we were down, if Matsui got a hit, of course, but we can go down 4-1 and we can definitely rebound there. But I had to let him -- it wasn't time for me to take him out.

Said Martinez, as he left Yankee Stadium, probably for the last time as a player: "It's over with and he got me and that's it." Was this it, his last call after returning to baseball in late summer, when the Phillies signed him for the rest of the season? Martinez had hinted he would retire if Philadelphia won the World Series, but now he would only say reporters should come find him at his Dominican ranch over the winter, and maybe he'd have an answer.

As Martinez hedged, and as Manuel attempted to put a positive twist on Philadelphia's downward spin, the revelry in the $1.5 billion House that George Built grew to a fever pitch. Amidst a sea of popping flashbulbs and corporate feng shui (no bunting brought over from the old digs across the street -- that would get in the way of advertisements), the Yankees' new guard, led by Joba Chamberlain and Nick Swisher, took a flag-waving celebratory romp around the warning track. Rivera told the crowd he was thinking of retiring but now he just might stay another five years. After declaring the trophy was right back where it belongs, Derek Jeter said it was in spite of hearing "a lot of predictions," a dig presumably aimed at Rollins. Manager Joe Girardi, the No. 27 between his shoulder blades a season-long reminder of the Yankees' quest, jokingly told family members he reckons his job is now safe.

These were the Phillies one short year ago, all delirium and muscle-flexing promise. Drenched in champagne and joy, they dreamed out loud of building a dynasty.

So what happened? They took a 1-0 Series lead, stealing Game 1 in the Bronx behind Cliff Lee's masterpiece. But in Game 4 in Philadelphia, Johnny Damon singled and stole second and third -- on the same play -- and the Yankees jumped ahead, three games to one. Something shifted within the Phillies after that Damon play. They grew tight, lost their typical feistiness and joie de vivre. The psyche of Cole Hamels and Brad Lidge turned into running distractions, seemingly more of a concern than the Yankee lineup. Howard looked like a lost victim in a Cold Case rerun.

Howard's home run in the sixth off Andy Pettitte offered momentary hope. It was nice of Howard to join the Series, his dinger putting the Phillies within four runs, with a wobbly Yankee bullpen still to come. When Chamberlain left with two Phillies on base and two outs in the seventh, left-hander Damaso Marte came in to face Utley, a threat to get on base however possible. With his fourth and fifth homers in Game 5, Utley tied Reggie Jackson's single 1977 World Series record, but Marte got the dangerous Utley out on a checked swing, a call that signaled it was time for the plastic to be readied in the Yankee clubhouse.

There's no disgrace in losing to the Yankees, winners of 103 games in the regular season and the most decorated team in modern sports. (Wealthiest too, if you haven't heard.) It was certainly different for the Phillies last October, with Tampa Bay on the other side, but the American League wasn't bound to be without the Yankees at the top of the heap for long.

"I'll tell you something, we will be back," Manuel promised. "As MacArthur said, I guess, we will be back."

Something tells us, so will the Yankees.

Phillies Fade Into New York Night originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:33:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yankees Cash In With Burnett's Gem

Lisa Olson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:30:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- The good A.J. Burnett showed up at Yankee Stadium Thursday night. Scratch that, this wasn't just the good Burnett on the mound, his pitches dancing across every tiny speck of the plate's corner, his psyche remaining as calm as a summer day. This was a great Burnett, an imposing Burnett, a Burnett who managed to keep his evil side stowed away in the broom closet for one entire game.

And what a game it was, with Burnett and Philadelphia starter Pedro Martinez daring each other to blink first, to crack slightly, to make consecutive bad pitches. When it was over, when Burnett and the Yankees had held tight to a 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 2 of the World Series, New York manager Joe Girardi still looked as if you could bounce subway tokens off the bulging veins in his neck.

"Extremely impressive. [Burnett] was great tonight," said Girardi, breathing slightly easier now that the Yankees can head down the turnpike with the World Series tied 1-1, and his team's bats itching to break out in Philadelphia's warm weather.

Who knew that it would be Burnett, of all players, who could relax the shoulders of New York's tightly wound manager? Burnett's outing - one run, four hits, nine strikeouts, two walks across seven innings - was so spectacular, his arsenal so nasty, it had observers wondering how he's ever lost a game. There are times when Burnett makes you question why the Yankees thought it wise to blow $82 million on him, and then there are games like Thursday on a cool, clear night in the Bronx, when the tattoo-covered, pie-tossing enigma is worth every cent.

"You try to prepare for yourself for these games and this city and this crowd and the team you're going up against, that's an outstanding lineup right there," Burnett said. "But I think I fed off the crowd tonight. They were up every time I got one strike, they were up every time I got two, and instead of over-throwing, I kind of just stayed within myself and they started to cheer a lot. They were cheering all the time, but when I struck guys out they really got loud, so I was just trying to keep that going for them."

There are times when Burnett makes you question why the Yankees thought it wise to blow $82 million on him, and then there are games like Thursday on a cool, clear night in the Bronx, when the tattoo-covered, pie-tossing enigma is worth every cent.
Burnett and his personal catcher, Jose Molina, engaged in a few of their usual therapy sessions on the mound, but this time their conversations had to go something like this: "Hey, there's Kate!" "Did you hear Jay-Z and Alicia?" "Wonder if we can still make Nobu?" For some reason even Burnett can't quite explain, he's usually good for one wild inning, a meltdown that often ends with balls sailing toward the backstop, but it never came. He was all about throwing first-pitch strikes and heartbreaking curves and stuff that had more movement than Alicia Keys and Jay-Z combined. He threw 108 pitches and probably could have gone another inning if the Yankees didn't have Mariano Rivera, the ultimate comforter, ready for a six-out save.

"That was a beauty. We needed it," said Mark Teixeira, who tied the game 1-1 in the fourth by ripping a changeup off Martinez into the Yankees' bullpen in right field.

"A.J. was just on. That was incredible to watch," said Hideki Matsui, who golfed a two-out pitch at his knees in the sixth to put the Yankees up, 2-1.

We interrupt this well-deserved love fest to pick a few nits off Burnett's teammates. Alex Rodriguez, in particular, is ripe for questioning, which tends to happen this time of year. He had been so spectacular though the first two playoff rounds, practically carrying the Yankees to the World Series on his back. But now he is hitless in the Fall Classic, striking out three times for the second straight night to make it 0-for-8 in the Series, and you can tell the pressure is getting to him by the way he chomps his gum. What's happened to Kate Hudson's good luck Buddha beads? What becomes of the Yankees if his slump continues? These are pressing concerns for Gotham.

It was Rodriguez who also waved like a matador at Matt Stairs' sharp grounder in the second inning, the ball sailing past A-Rod's glove and allowing Raul Ibanez to score from second for an early 1-0 Philadelphia lead. If Burnett hadn't been so masterful, A-Rod and his pal Derek Jeter would share the evening's devil horns and tail. Jeter struck out three times, including a very non-Jeter-like at-bat in which he tried and failed a sacrifice with two strikes.

The drama reached its tipping point in the seventh inning, when Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel had his Grady Little moment and decided to allow Martinez to start the inning. Jerry Hairston Jr., who came into the night batting 10-for 27 against Martinez (but hadn't faced him since 2004), hit a flare to right, and with Brett Gardner pinch running for Hairston, Melky Cabrera singled, moving Gardner to third. Pedro was done, with zero outs, with runners on the corners, with old friend Jorge Posada at the plate.

Martinez pointed to the sky, walked to the dugout and cracked a smile that lit the night. He had pitched with a sniper's nerve and a mad scientist's guile, giving up homers to Teixeira and Matsui that were more the product of great swings than bad pitches. If Pedro isn't quite the most influential player to ever play at Yankee Stadium -- a hyperbolic boast on his part -- he sure is still one of the most compelling.

Naturally, as if the Babe and Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle and all the other influential ghosts got together and decided to have a little fun, Posada smashed a line drive off reliever Chan Ho Park, making it 3-1.

"I knew it was going to be crazy," Burnett said of Martinez. "I knew he was going to be on his game. I focus on myself, but you can't help but watch his game. It's the funnest I've had on the field."

Burnett toyed with the Phillies from the second inning on, Carlos Ruiz's double in the fifth one of his few blips. He struck out Howard staring at a backdoor curve in a breezy 1-2-3 sixth inning, and then turned the heat up even higher in the seventh. He whiffed both Ibanez and Stairs, again on pitches that made the heart stop, and topped the inning off by getting Pedro Feliz on a soft grounder to short.

"I went out tonight with confidence, and just, you know, the game just rolled by," Burnett said, after putting his first playoff win in the books. "I was in a good rhythm. Stairsy hit a good pitch to get his RBI but it never stopped me, and I just continued to stay in that rhythm and just continued to try to get strike one."

Can he do it again, on three days' rest? That's impossible to predict, considering we still don't know which Burnett is going to roll out of bed each morning - the one who needs coddling, or the one who oozes confidence. Burnett said he watched Cliff Lee's interview after the Philadelphia ace's brilliant Game 1 win here Wednesday, and he decided to channel the belief that all his pitches would work in harmony.

"Cliffy, he was a man against boys last night. He talked about confidence a lot, and that was huge for me tonight going up against Pedro because you know what he's going to offer," Burnett said. "He's going to throw strikes and he's going to make our guys work a lot, and that's what he did tonight."

Burnett was an antsy observer in his first World Series, sidelined with arm troubles in 2003 when his Florida team won it all. Postseason in the Bronx is a whole different animal. Burnett picked a fine time to earn his money.

Yankees Cash In With Burnett's Gem originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No Better Show Than Pedro in Bronx

Lisa Olson — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:47:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- Set the clock, nudge awake the kids. There might not be a more fascinating evening in sports this year than Thursday night, when Pedro Martinez takes the mound at Yankee Stadium and flips the World Series on its rump.

Most anything Pedro does is must-watch theater. He turned a routine press conference before Wednesday's Game 1 into an astonishing revival session that included Martinez proclaiming he "at times [is] the most influential player that ever stepped in Yankee Stadium" and featured his first in-depth, blow-by-blow look back at his 2003 tussle with Don Zimmer. It was almost as if Martinez was craftily writing his own prelude to whatever might happen in Game 2, when he attempts to lift Philadelphia to a 2-0 Series lead.

Will Pedro's first World Series pitch since 2004 (a year that still makes Yankee fans' skin crawl) serve as a reminder to Derek Jeter that some things never change? More delicious, how will Pedro treat Alex Rodriguez? With deference owed a man who has finally (we think) proven October no longer makes him flinch? Or will Pedro buzz them both, buzz them all, and quickly silence the crowd's mocking chants?

Who's your daddy? Who's your daddy? It's no longer original, this sing-song tease invented many seasons ago by the always creative Yankee fans, and it's been awhile since they've had reason to use it, what with its inspiration making such infrequent appearances in the Bronx. It seemed as if all of New York was oiling its lungs in practice early Wednesday, before Cliff Lee's masterpiece; the news of Martinez drawing the Game 2 start dominated all the other juicy angles in this Turnpike Series. Even Jimmy "Phillies in five" Rollins melted in Pedro's shadow.

Charlie Manuel, the Phillies manager, said his reason for entrusting the second game of Philadelphia's repeat championship bid to the just-turned 38-year-old Martinez is fairly simple. Manuel wants to split up his two lefties -- Lee started and dominated Wednesday's 6-1 Philadelphia win; Cole Hamels, last year's World Series MVP, is more comfortable pitching at home, according to Manuel, and will get the ball in Saturday's Game 3. But what really nudged him to make this rotation decision, said Manuel, was Pedro's affection for the big stage. It's akin to a lion tamer loving the circus.

"I don't know if you realize this, but because of [the New York media] in some ways, I might be at times the most influential player that ever stepped in Yankee Stadium. I can honestly say that."
-- Pedro Martinez Manuel has no idea he's just given tens of millions of New York fans an early holiday gift. Yankee fans adore this move because they are obsessed with Martinez. Some despise him, most grudgingly admire him, almost all hope to see him end up on the back pages of Friday's tabloids with horns and a tail crudely attached to his body. (Don't even get Pedro started on this caricature, which he understandably thinks is beyond offensive.) Mets fans can't wait to see what Pedro does in Thursday's game because watching him succeed with the Phillies, in a World Series, against the Yankees, will at least give them a reprieve from gouging their eyes out.

"I don't believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I'll drill him in the ass, pardon me the word." -- Martinez, then a Red Sox, said in the months before Boston wiped away 86 years of futility and tears. While maturity has taught him to stop barking obvious headlines, Martinez can still wow a crowd.

In the playoffs, the next day's pitcher is required to sit at a podium in front of the press and field a few questions. The answers generally are about as riveting as a lecture on tax preparation. Martinez waited until the third question Wednesday to cause a room full of jaws to hit the floor. Pedro might as well have knocked us on our heels with a bucket full of fastballs, that's how stunning his answers were.

"I don't know if you realize this, but because of you guys in some ways, I might be at times the most influential player that ever stepped in Yankee Stadium. I can honestly say that," Martinez said, when someone asked him to elaborate on his unique relationship with fans in the Bronx.

He later clarified his meaning of "most influential player," saying, "I think in every aspect, the way you guys have used me and abused me since I've been coming to Dodger Stadium" -- a slip, he meant Yankee Stadium -- "just because I wore actually a red uniform just like this one while playing for Boston. I remember quotes in the paper, 'Here comes the man that New York loves to hate.' Man? None of you have probably ever eaten steak with me or rice and beans with me to understand what the man is about. You might say the player, the competitor, but the man? You guys have abused my name. You guys have said so many things, have written so many things.

"There was one time I remember when I was a free agent, there was talk that I might meet with [George] Steinbrenner. One of your colleagues had me in the papers with horns and a tail, red horns and a tail. That's a sign of the devil. I'm a Christian man. I don't like those things. I take those things very serious."

(It should be noted that the tabloid cartoonist responsible for the drawing was not in the press room, but many blocks south, where presumably he and his editors were deciding how to playfully mock that night's goat.)

Someone else asked about that fateful night in the building across the street in 2004, Game 7 of the ALCS, the Red Sox creeping back after losing the first three games against the Yankees. Martinez turned the question back further, to the day he pushed 72-year-old Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer to the ground during an on-field brawl in the 2003 ALCS between Pedro's Red Sox and the Yankees.

"Actually, and I'm sorry I'm going to recall this because it was an ugly scene -- this is probably the first time I'm ever going to talk about it publicly. But when Zim came over to me, I thought he was going to just give me advice or something, just go, 'Pedro, you need to slow down,' or something, or try to make it look a little bit different.

"But at that time, I'm going to be honest right now, my shoulder was barking. I was pitching on three days' rest, I think. It was two men on. I loaded the bases with a hit-by-pitch that wasn't a hit-by-pitch. The ball hit the bat of Karim Garcia, and Zim charged me, and I think he's going to say something, but his reaction was totally the opposite, was trying to punch my mouth and told me a couple of bad words about my mom.

"I just had to react and defend myself kind of. But the tweak that it took made me look like a monster that just came in to play in Yankee Stadium. And you know what I did, go out there, compete, and nothing else. I remember getting back to my dugout and seeing middle fingers. My mom, poor mom. I'm glad she's blessed by God because all those curses were, I mean, unbelievable."

His answer was as unprovoked as it was unexpected, which is exactly why Pedro is still baseball's most compelling character. He pitches the way he talks and lives his life: without apology.

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World Series 2009

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 28: Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Cliff Lee #34 fields the ball during Game 1 of the 2009 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium October 28, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Cliff Lee

MLB Photos via Getty Images

MLB

World Series

MLB Photos via Getty Images

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 28: CC Sabathia of the New York Yankees pitches during Game 1 of the 2009 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium October 28, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** CC Sabathia

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NEW YORK - OCTOBER 28: Dr. Jill Biden, Retired U.S. Army Capt. Tony Odierno and first lady Michelle Obama wave to the crowd as part of the Welcome Back Veterans campaign at the start of Game 1 of the 2009 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium October 28, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jill Biden;Tony Odierno;Michelle Obama

MLB Photos via Getty Images

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 28: CC Sabathia #52 and Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees talk on the mound during Game 1 of the 2009 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium October 28, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** CC Sabathia;Derek Jeter

MLB Photos via Getty Images

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 28: Dr. Jill Biden, Yogi Berra, Derek Jeter, first lady Michelle Obama and retired U.S. Army Capt. Tony Odierno pose on the field during pre-game ceremonies prior to Game 1 of the 2009 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium October 28, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jill Biden;Yogi Berra;Derek Jeter;Michelle Obama;Tony Odierno

MLB Photos via Getty Images

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 28: Dr. Jill Biden, Yogi Berra and first lady Michelle Obama are seen on the field during pre-game ceremonies prior to Game 1 of the 2009 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium October 28, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jill Biden;Yogi Berra;Michelle Obama

MLB Photos via Getty Images

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 28: CC Sabathia of the New York Yankees is shown during Game 1 of the 2009 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium October 28, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** CC Sabathia

MLB Photos via Getty Images

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 28: Retired U.S. Army Capt. Tony Odierno throws out the first pitch as part of the Welcome Back Veterans campaign at the start of Game 1 of the 2009 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium October 28, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Yogi Berra;Tony Odierno;Michelle Obama

MLB Photos via Getty Images

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 28: Dr. Jill Biden, Yogi Berra, first lady Michelle Obama and Tony Odierno walk off the field after the ceremonial first pitch prior to Game 1 of the 2009 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium October 28, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jill Biden;Yogi Berra;Michelle Obama;Tony Odierno

MLB Photos via Getty Images

Philadelphia Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz congratulated Cliff Lee, left, who pitched a complete game for the win against the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the 2009 World Series at Yankee Stadium in New York on Wednesday, October 28, 2009. The Phillies won 6-1. (Ron Cortes/Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT)

MCT

"Of course I [regret it]," Martinez added. "It's something ugly. I thought when I saw Zim down on the ground, I thought so much of my dad. I respect older people, I respect elders; I don't condone anything like that. But I've got no choice. I've got no choice but to just respond and get away.

"I never had any incidents in the streets, not here, not in the Dominican. When I was a kid, yes, I got a lot of punching. But after I've been a grown-up and knowing better, I never got in trouble in the States, in the Dominican, anywhere, except on the baseball field, and on the baseball field those things happen. That's part of baseball, actually. But with a coach, uh-uh, never. Teammate, no, never had any problem. I hope it never happens again. But it was something that we have to let go kind of, and forget about it, because it was a disgrace for baseball. Even though it wasn't my fault, I was involved in it, and it's one of the moments that I don't like to see. I don't like to see it because I'm not a violent man."

But he can't hide from the TV replays that appear any time there is a brawl in sports. He can't erase the image of an old man getting thrown to the ground, or the pictures of Pedro pointing to Posada in what many construed as a threatening invitation. (Posada, the Yankee catcher, has told people he initially interpreted Martinez's gesture to mean the pitcher was going to throw at his head, and later came to believe Pedro was mocking Posada's ears.) All of it -- from the crazy years with Boston when Pedro's high-and-tight pitches landed Jeter and Alfonso Soriano in the hospital, to his four seasons with the Mets that were both compelling and a torturous tease, to his mid-season signing with the Phillies - set Thursday's stage, when drama takes the mound.

"Who's your daddy?" It was Pedro who prompted the taunt when he infamously said, after a Red Sox loss to New York, "I just tip my hat and call the Yankees my daddy." Now he says, "You know, any time I hear that, 'Who's your daddy?' it really reminds me that God is my daddy. It gives me strength. It keeps me strong and healthy, and I believe I can do anything. And when you have -- I said it before, when you have 60,000 people chanting your name, waiting for you to throw the ball, you have to consider yourself someone special, someone that really has a purpose out there."

He left out the part about how, many years ago, he was sitting "under a mango tree without 50 cents to pay for a bus." That's another of Pedro's witticism, his mastery of the moment and fun with language combining as the whip cream and cherry to his Hall of Fame career.

On his way into the new Stadium Thursday, Martinez passed by an army of fans who were raw from the rain and more than a little impatient for the team's 27th championship to arrive. They hollered at Martinez, cursed him, yelled comments about his poor mom, and if Philadelphia security would have stepped aside, Pedro would have run over and high-fived each and every one of those Yankee fans.

"I have all the respect in the world for the way they enjoy being fans. Sometimes they might be giving you the middle finger, just like they will be cursing you and telling you what color underwear you're wearing," Martinez said. "But at the end of the day, they're just great fans that want to see the team win. I don't have any problem with that."

He might get introduced early to the short porch in right field, or strike out a slew of batters with inside fire (albeit, not as hot as it once was.) He threw 130 pitches in a late-season game against the Mets, just to prove his body was not falling apart, and was dazzling in Game 2 of the NLCS against the Dodgers, pitching seven scoreless innings in a Philadelphia loss. There might be other ways to spend Thursday night, but nothing will be more entertaining than watching Pedro Martinez say hello to 60,000 old friends.

No Better Show Than Pedro in Bronx originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:47:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ALCS Figures to Haunt Sloppy Halos

Lisa Olson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:04:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- The Angels will be haunted all season by their failure to do the little things correctly, such as not treating the baseball as if it were a ripe pumpkin. The Yankees, especially the unrivaled core four, played and then celebrated as if they had been there before, even if it has taken six long years for them to figure the way back.

Therein lies the difference between going home and booking a trip to the World Series, in two quick sentences. On a night when Andy Pettitte's cutter was nearly as biting as it was in 1996 when he pitched one of the greatest playoff games in Yankee history, the Angels tussled through more misplays in a series plagued with them. On a night when Mariano Rivera reached deep for a six-out save, the Angels strangled all opportunities to extend the American League Championship Series into a Game 7. They clumsily ran the bases, made some atrocious errors, stranded more runners. And the manager probably has a move or two he'd like to have back in the Yankees' 5-2 win that crushed the Angels' postseason and jump-started a New York-Philadelphia World Series.

Mariotti: Yanks Earn Pinstripes | Price: Just Like Old Times
Game 6: Yankees 5, Angels 2 | Box Score | Series Home

And so here was Mike Scioscia, glumly walking around the visitor's clubhouse at Yankee Stadium as the strains of Frank Sinatra kept the party down the hall raging well into Monday's early morning hours. Scioscia shook hands with Joe Saunders, the Angels' starter who battled high pitch counts in 3 1/3 shaky innings, and Scioscia hugged Vladimir Guerrero, the enigmatic slugger who might've just played his last game with the Angels, and the scene went on like this for quite awhile, until Scioscia had run out of players he could pull aside and say how proud he was to be their manager.

"Although this stings right now, what our guys in that room accomplished is very, very important. And we just are going to take that forward and hopefully get better."
-- Angels manager Mike Scioscia on his team Class and dignity drip from Scioscia's pores; we wouldn't expect him to react any other way to such a bitter ending to a season that began with true tragedy. So Guerrero strayed too far from first base and was doubled off on a shallow fly ball in Sunday's first inning, an ominous sign of things to come and a nasty reminder of how they had been? So Howard Kendrick added to the Angels' string of blunders by failing to handle Nick Swisher's finely laid bunt in the eighth? So reliever Scott Kazmir, never one to harness his control, made an ugly throw to first in what was still a close game, with the season on the line?

They'll be troubled by all of the above and more, dating back to the two-out pop up shortstop Erick Aybar and third baseman Chone Figgins allowed to drop between them in Game 1. Surely Scioscia will wonder if he should have summoned Jered Weaver and not Kazmir in Sunday's eighth, when the Yankees had a skinny 3-2 lead. Scioscia doesn't have a binder like Yankee manager Joe Girardi, but it's still easy to mock the Angels' skipper for failing to be the Uber Genius he's been most of his career.

But in the midst of the Angels' clubhouse, the answers to the pointed questions -- "Vlad, what were you thinking, trying to run like that?" -- kept spinning back to a reminder of the vacant locker, and the Angel who is no longer here. Their season began with the death of Nick Adenhart, a young pitcher who was killed along with two friends by an alleged drunk driver, and the Angels hoped it would end with the presentation of a World Series ring to Adenhart's family. Scioscia wasn't about to diminish his players' tears by dwelling on the negative bumps.

"This is tough for our team. It's tough for our guys to get this far and not quite get to your final goal, making it to the World Series. But I don't think any of us have ever been prouder than a group of guys that we had in that room all season for the Angels in this clubhouse," he said. "And the character they showed the whole season is something that we certainly will remember and move forward with.

"So although this stings right now, what our guys in that room accomplished is very, very important. And we just are going to take that forward and hopefully get better."

The Angels' sloppiness wasn't just anathema to their steadiness throughout the regular season; it was blood to piranhas hungry to restore their place in baseball's food chain. It's been an interminable, unbearable six years for Yankee fans since the pinstripes reached the Fall Classic, and now MLB has a beauty in the New Jersey Turnpike series. We get Joe Girardi and his trusty binder vs. Charlie Manuel and his sneaky brilliance. We get Joba Chamberlain vs. the crazed Philly fans (oh, please, let this roll into an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.) We get CC Sabathia vs. Cliff Lee in Game 1 Wednesday, an event sure to make Cleveland fans' heads explode.

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Yankees Angels Photos

New York Yankees' Robinson Cano celebrates with fans after winning Game 6 of the American League Championship baseball series Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, in New York. The Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Angels 5-2 to win the American League Championship. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

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Angels vs. Yankees

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New York Yankees' Nick Swisher celebrates in the team locker room after winning Game 6 of the American League Championship baseball series Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, in New York. The Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Angels 5-2 to win the American League Championship. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

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New York Yankees celebrate after defeating the Los Angeles Angels in Game 6 of the American League Championship baseball series Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, in New York. The Yankees won the American League Championship with a 5-2 victory. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

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New York Yankees' Nick Swisher leaps into bullpen coach Mike Harkey's arms after winning Game 6 of the American League Championship baseball series Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, in New York. The Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Angels 5-2 to win the American League Championship. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

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New York Yankees' Derek Jeter punches the air after winning Game 6 of the American League Championship baseball series Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, in New York. The Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Angels 5-2 to win the American League Championship. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

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New York Yankees' CC Sabathia celebrates in their locker room after winning Game 6 of the American League Championship baseball series Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, in New York. The Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Angels 5-2 to win the American League Championship. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

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New York Yankees' Damaso Marte sprays fans with champagne after winning Game 6 of the American League Championship baseball series Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, in New York. The Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Angels 5-2 to win the American League Championship. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

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Los Angeles Angels' Chone Figgins sits in the team's dugout after their loss in Game 6 of the American League Championship baseball series Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, in New York. The Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Angels 5-2 to win the American League Championship. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

New York Yankees' A.J. Burnett is sprayed with champagne in the team locker room after winning Game 6 of the American League Championship baseball series Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, in New York. The Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Angels 5-2 to win the American League Championship. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

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New York Yankees' Phil Coke celebrates with spectators after winning Game 6 of the American League Championship baseball series Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, in New York. The Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Angels 5-2 to win the American League Championship. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

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Go ahead and decree Philadelphia-New York to be the fantasy ratings grabber that Bud Selig and his blind umps had in mind, once Joe Torre's Dodgers decided not to torment Brooklyn anymore. Annoying East Coast bias will be as large a storyline as uncooperative weather patterns. On the MLB Web site a few hours before Sunday's Game 6, the league was selling shirts and caps commemorating the Yankees as the 2009 American League champions. Pettitte had yet to throw a pitch.

One of Pettitte's rare mistakes in his otherwise brilliant blast from the past (seven hits, one run, one walk, six strikeouts in six 1/3 innings, not a bad line for a pitcher signed as an afterthought), came early, a single by Guerrero through short to lead off the second inning. It would be an odd night for Guerrero: he patiently dueled Rivera in an eight-pitch at-bat before rifling a two-out RBI single that got the Angels within a run in the eighth, he hit a double on a pitch from Pettitte that was just a few inches from the dirt and he finished what could be his Angels career by going 3-for-4, 10-for-27 with five RBI in the series. Guerrero's six-year, $85-million contract expires at the end of this season; he's unlikely to return to Anaheim.

But it's his baserunning blunder in the second that stung. Guerrero failed to get back to first in time on Kendry Morales' fly ball to Swisher in shallow right, another mindless mistake for a team that pats itself on the back for being airtight on defense and smart with fundamentals.

"I thought for sure it was going to drop," Guerrero said.That's been the problem: the Angels test gravity, and gravity always wins. Swisher made the catch and fired to nimble first baseman Mark Teixeira before Guerrero could return to the base.

A couple weeks ago, the Angels closed out a sweep of the Red Sox on the road, with a late-inning comeback that suggested fate and talent were teaming up to bring Los Angeles its first championship since 2002. That's impossible to pull off when spotting the Yankees more than 27 outs per game.

"At times we played good baseball. At times we shot ourselves in the foot. The Yankees are a team that you can't give extra outs to. We did it in a couple of games. And obviously it cost us," said Scioscia, after his Angels recorded eight errors in the series. "You know, I think the bottom line is they played better baseball and they beat us. And they deserve to win."

A few of the Angels stuck around the dugout to watch the Yankees celebrate winning their 40th pennant. "Imagine having that many banners," Torii Hunter said. "It's just incredible."

It truly is, and a 27th world championship would be equally astonishing, even to those who grumble about the Yankees' massive payroll tipping baseball's equilibrium.

But here was the vision that stuck with Hunter and other observers who've witnessed this scene before: Rivera, upon getting Gary Matthews Jr., to swing through a pitch for the final out, raising a fist and hugging Jorge Posada, as if they had just completed any other save. And Pettitte, having set a record for postseason wins with 16, joining the battery in a subdued hug, and then Derek Jeter, rushing over, and as the younger Yankees partied hard near the mound, the core four smiling and embracing as if they knew something others had yet to learn.

"You really have to admire that," Hunter said, as equipment bags were zipped tight on the end of the Angels' season. "How can you hate the Yankees when they play baseball the way it's supposed to be played?"

ALCS Figures to Haunt Sloppy Halos originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:04:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Agony, Ecstasy as Yanks Prevail in Epic

Lisa Olson — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:56:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- Of course it would end this way, in such classic, expected fashion. What, you didn't have Jerry Hairston Jr. scoring the winning run for the Yankees in the bottom of the 13th inning, after the Angel infield completely lost its heads? Join the club with millions of other baseball fans who watched Saturday's American League Championship Series melt into Sunday morning, and still aren't sure how and why this astonishing Game 2 concluded as it did.

Hairston Jr. Unlikeliest Hero | Good Pitching or Poor Hitting?
Game 2: Yankees 4, Angels 3 (13) | Box Score | Series Home

An Alex Rodriguez bomb? Sure, we would've bought that ending considering how he's finally found the October touch. An RBI off Derek Jeter's hot bat? Absolutely, we've witnessed it thousands of times before. But if you had Hairston, a third-generation major leaguer who has spent the chunk of his career in the minors, as the Yankee who'd be the recipient of the shaving-cream-pie to the face after this long, bizarre night in the Bronx -- well, kindly call us with the next Powerball numbers.

"Hey, you never know what's going to happen with this team," said Hairston, who had spent the previous five hours on the Yankee bench, biting his knuckles along with everyone else who couldn't peel their eyes away from a field coated in drama. Hairston still had cream in his hair, courtesy of the customary post-game smash via pitcher A.J. Burnett, who couldn't possibly miss this target. It was the Yankees' second walk-off victory of the postseason -- or should we say float off, considering how their feet barely touched the ground in the giddy moments following the 4-3 win.

The Angels couldn't escape miserable New York fast enough. The visitor's clubhouse at Yankee Stadium was as quiet as a priest's confessional following the game. It was such a catastrophic, spirit-busting way to finish the night, coming on the heels of Friday's messy 4-1 Game 1 loss that saw the Angels commit three errors and look as if the winter weather had penetrated their heads as much as the Yankees had.

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Yankees Angels Photos

New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez celebrates with teammate Freddy Guzman after hitting a solo home run against Los Angeles Angels' Brian Fuentes during the 11th inning of Game 2 of the American League Championship baseball series Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009, in New York. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

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Angels vs. Yankees

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Los Angeles Angels' Maicer Izturis throws to third on a fielder's choice single by New York Yankees' Melky Cabrera during the 13th inning of Game 2 of the American League Championship baseball series Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009, in New York. New York Yankees' Jerry Hairston Jr. scored on a throwing error by Izturis to win the game 4-3. The Yankees lead the series 2-0. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

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NEW YORK - OCTOBER 18: Jerry Hairston Jr. #17 of the New York Yankees wipes off a pie in the face after scoring the game-winning run in 13th inning of Game Two of the ALCS against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium on October 18, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. The Yankees defeated the Angels 4-3 in 13 innings. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jerry Hairston Jr.

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NEW YORK - OCTOBER 18: The New York Yankees celebrate after Jerry Hairston Jr. scored the game-winning run in the 13th inning of Game Two of the ALCS against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium on October 18, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. The Yankees defeated the Angels 4-3 in 13 innings. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

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NEW YORK - OCTOBER 18: Mark Teixeira #25 and Jorge Posada #20 of the New York Yankees celebrate after Game Two of the ALCS against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium on October 18, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. The Yankees defeated the Angels 4-3 in 13 innings. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Mark Teixeira;Jorge Posada

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NEW YORK - OCTOBER 17: Robinson Cano #24 of the New York Yankees runs to second base on a throwing error by Maicer Izturis #13 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim which Erick Aybar #2 reaches for in the bottom on the 13th inning of Game Two of the ALCS during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium on October 17, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. The New York Yankees won 4-3 over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Robinson Cano;Erick Aybar

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Spectators celebrate after New York Yankees' Jerry Hairston Jr. scored on a throwing error by Los Angeles Angels' Maicer Izturis during the 13th inning of Game 2 of the American League Championship baseball series Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009, in New York. The Yankees won 4-3 to lead the series 2-0. The Los Angeles Angels catcher is Mike Napoli. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

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New York Yankees' Jerry Hairston Jr. (17) celebrates with his teammates after scoring on a throwing error by Los Angeles Angels' Maicer Izturis during the 13th inning of Game 2 of the American League Championship baseball series Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009, in New York. The Yankees won 4-3 to lead the series 2-0. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 17: Jerry Hairston Jr. of the New York Yankees celebrates scoring to win Game Two of the ALCS 4-3 over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium on October 17, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jerry Hairston Jr.

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Now the Angels return home trailing 0-2 in the best-of-seven series, with bruised psyches and plenty of baggage to air out. Ditching the ski masks won't solve the heavy issues, such as whether Vladimir Guerrero will ever again get a hit with runners on base. And: Are there any arms left in what had already been a suspect bullpen? Has manager Mike Scioscia's head exploded yet after his infield once again betrayed everything he's stressed throughout his career -- play smart, stay focused, don't get beat by committing boneheaded plays?

"The momentum in this series can swing in a heartbeat. We're going to go out there and come out and play a good ballgame and grind it out pitch by pitch and start all over," said Scioscia, the eternal optimist, after his club stranded 16 men on base, blew a 3-2 lead in the 11th and completed the five-hour, 10-minute marathon by slip-sliding clumsily across the finish line.

One night earlier, the Angels' most glaring mistake came early, when infielders Erick Aybar and Chone Figgins stared at one another as a routine pop-up dropped at their feet. It couldn't get much more embarrassing on the big stage, with so much at stake.

Oh, but it could, and it did. Under a dramatic backdrop of sheets of rain in the 13th inning, with one out and Hairston on second base, with Robinson Cano on first and Angel pitcher Ervin Santana deep into his second inning of relief, Melky Cabrera hit a bouncer to second baseman Maicer Izturis. Any other game it would have been a relatively simple play: scoop the ball, throw to first, keep the winning run on third base.

But the baseball gods must've thought this would be a fine night to cast freakish spells (Jeter, of all people, had also made an error, while Jose Molina, of all Yankee batters, had collected a hit, proving the apocalypse is nigh.) And so there was Izturis attempting an impossible throw to second base. The ball sailed past Aybar, who was as stunned as anybody in the Stadium. As Hairston zipped around third, Figgins, who still had a chance of nailing Hairston at the plate, had trouble gripping the ball and bumbled it.

And here were the Yankees, rushing en masse for their wildest come-from-behind celebration yet in the new Stadium. Here were Aura and Mystique, choosing a fine time to make their playoff appearance in the new joint. Here was Scioscia, burying his head into his hands, a teacher forced to watch his prized students flunk the easiest of exams.

And here were the Yankees, rushing en masse for their wildest come-from-behind celebration yet in the new Stadium. Here were Aura and Mystique, choosing a fine time to make their playoff appearance in the new joint.
"I think he just reacted. ... But obviously, in that situation, the force isn't really an advantage. If it's another time of the game, it might be. But you just want to get an out there. Izzy just tried to do too much," said Scioscia, unable and unwilling to panic even as his team does exactly that.

"I thought I had a shot at him," Figgins said, "but I lost control of the ball. And just like that, it was over."

Said Izturis, "I was being aggressive, playing the way I always play. I just didn't make the play, and it's sad that the run scored and we lost the game."

The game that would not die wasn't supposed to go beyond the first pitch. The weather junkies told us we were meant to suffer through a nasty mixture of rain delays, floods, migrating midges looking to suck Joba Chamberlain's blood, kids caught in homemade UFOs and whatever else the forces of nature had planned to mess with postseason baseball on the east coast.

Instead, for the first four hours, we were treated with chilly but playable conditions and enough nail-peeling, did-you-see-that twists to satisfy even the curmudgeons who think baseball shouldn't extend beyond late September. The strong rains held off until midnight, and by then even those who were dressed for Lambeau Field in January were numb to anything this extraordinary evening in the Bronx held in store.

All told (and that's only because Joe Girardi hadn't anyone left he could summon), the teams went through 13 pitchers, including the two starters -- wild child Burnett and Joe Saunders with his nerves of steel -- who held the insanity to a reasonable dull roar, both lasting into the seventh inning and leaving with the score knotted 2-2.

In the top of the 11th, Figgins was ready to sell his soul for a hit in the playoffs. He was 0-for-18 in the postseason, but then his sharp flare to left off reliever Alfredo Aceves scored Gary Matthews and Anaheim led, 3-2. The Angels once again reminded us why they're so dangerous, gritty and tough and poised to cause the Yankees fits the way they did the Red Sox in the Division Series. Thanks to Figgins, it appeared cleanup hitter Guerrero, who would strand eight runners -- one in the first inning, two in the fifth, three in the seventh and two in the 13th -- could return to California with only the box score evidence of his wretched night and stunning decline.

But in the bottom of the 11th, A-Rod reminded us why careers and reputations can never be completely crushed. Los Angeles closer Brian Fuentes had escaped the American League Division Series without blowing a save -- somewhere, the Twins' Joe Nathan and the Red Sox's Jonathan Papelbon are still scratching their heads at that time warp -- and he had two strikes on A-Rod. But then Fuentes threw an awful pitch, the kind of pitch a closer should be arrested for throwing to a hitter like A-Rod on a stage like the playoffs.

A-Rod crushed his third late-inning homer of the postseason over the right-field wall, barely clearing the glove of a leaping Bobby Abreu, tying the score, 3-3, and sending what was left of the Yankee crowd into soggy ecstasy. "I felt like I threw the ball really well minus the one pitch. Unfortunately, it cost us the game. I take full responsibility for that," Fuentes said.

On the home bench, Hairston turned to his teammates and declared the game over. It was tied, but it was over, if that makes sense on this nonsensical night.

"We knew it was only a matter of time that we'd win after Alex's homer," insisted Hairston. "We just didn't know we'd win it quite like that."

Agony, Ecstasy as Yanks Prevail in Epic originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:56:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each Moment Is a Tribute for Angels

Lisa Olson — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:35:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK - This is how it ends, in the Angels' perfect little world. They steal their share of bases, acts of defiance that come so naturally, and the starting rotation hands the ball over to the bullpen, which doesn't fall apart. Mike Scioscia, the crafty former catcher who is fluent with quips and stingy when it comes to making managerial mistakes, probably allows a tear or three to leak as his players drench him with celebratory bubbly.

This is for Nick, the Angels will say, in between bursts of hugs and laughter, and they'll tell his story to anyone who asks. The Angels believe his spirit is with them, lingering, guiding them through this remarkable season. "Oh yes, he's cheering for us," Bobby Abreu, the Angel outfielder, was saying Thursday afternoon, as he took shelter in a soggy Yankee Stadium. "We keep him with us here and here."

Abreu patted his chest, then his head. Not all of the Angels like to say they're doing this solely for Nick Adenhart, the young pitcher who was killed with two others in a car crash by an allegedly drunk driver in the season's opening week, because that can sound trite, as if his nearly 23 years on the planet can be narrowed down to a bat and a ball. It also diminishes the effort and talent his teammates bring to the field on every pitch, in every game. They don't necessarily want to beat the Yankees in the American League Championship Series any more or less than they would if Adenhart were still alive.

But the experience borders on surreal, every time they gather for one final meeting before bolting through the clubhouse doors. Adenhart has a locker, at home and on the road, where some of his belongings are placed almost exactly the way he left them the night of April 8: his spikes, a pair of sneakers, some shower thongs, a couple of hats with the "A" logo on the brim. Reliever Kevin Jepsen attaches Adenhart's No. 34 jersey to a spot in the dugout before every game.

Reminders of Adenhart -- his goofy grin, his jokes, his optimism, his youthful promise -- are everywhere, inspiring the Angels to reflect on matters that might otherwise get lost in the shuffle of 162 games and then the blur of the playoffs.

"Just be thankful for everything we have. We tell each other that all the time as a team now, because you don't know when it will end," said Torii Hunter, the Angels' clubhouse leader. "That can come across as so obvious -- I mean, who wouldn't be thankful playing this game for a living? But when Nick died, we were just so distraught. So we struck out? So we booted a grounder? So what, our friend had just died! That's the way we were thinking and it was probably a normal response.

Reminders of Adenhart -- his goofy grin, his jokes, his optimism, his youthful promise -- are everywhere, inspiring the Angels to reflect on matters that might otherwise get lost in the shuffle of 162 games and then the blur of the playoffs.
"But then it kind of hit us, Nick wouldn't like that at all. He was looking down on us going, 'What's up with that kind of attitude?' So that's how we focus now. It's not just 'win one for Nick' like that's our rallying cry. It's 'play like Nick would want you to play.' Honor him. Honor his memory."

This series, which begins Friday night weather permitting, has subplots that extend far beyond the Angels channeling their grief and rising about the tragedy. Very little separates the teams with baseball's best records, though the Yankees do have a sharp edge in the bullpen and an incomparable closer in Mariano Rivera. Both clubs feature robust rotations and deep lineups, the Yankee power hitters countering the Angels' speed and hyperactive baserunning.

And heart? That's such a nebulous quality, impossible to gauge until the gut-check moment presents itself. The Angels set a franchise record with 47 come-from-behind wins this season, dedicating each and every one to Adenhart's memory. The Yankees had 50 pie-in-the-face post-game snapshots, their resiliency as impressive as their overall greatness. The Angels rallied with two out in the ninth to sweep the Boston Red Sox in the first round, the Yankees banished the Twins with similar swiftness. Assuming it ever stops raining in New York, this ALCS has enough window dressing to please baseball purists and soap opera groupies alike.

Forget that the Angels have cleaved through the pinstripes like a knife through liver in recent playoffs, knocking the Yankees out of the playoffs in 2002 and 2005. If the past could never be erased, Alex Rodriguez might as well become a used car salesman. Under Scioscia, the Angels are 53-38 against the Yankees (including a 5-5 split this season), and while New York general manager Brian Cashman admits the Angels were in his team's heads in the past, the Angels manager wasn't much interested in dissecting records on the eve of these playoffs.

"I don't think there's been any dominance, " Scioscia said. "It's been good ballclubs that we've had playing against their ballclub. And we've held our own. But you can take all that and throw it out, where right now it's a different environment."

It's CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett taking the mound five times in a seven-game series. Barring a weekend typhoon -- and who knows what else, considering the varying weather reports predict snow, floods and a besieged Bud Selig -- Sabathia should be good for three starts against the Angels. Cruising through a strong season, Sabathia is only a middling 5-7 with a 4.72 ERA in 14 career outings against the Angels, but again, pasts are meant to be erased.

"Throw it all out the window," Hunter said. "Doesn't matter if we've beaten them a hundred times in the playoffs or if CC owns us or we've owned him. Everything's new beginning Friday night."

John Lackey, the Angels' Game 1 starter, owns a 1.88 ERA in three career postseason starts against the Yankees, more filler before the first pitch. Lefty Joe Saunders gets the ball in Game 2, Jered Weaver goes in Game 3 and Scott Kazmir starts Game 4 (pure torment for Mets' fans). If the innings fall the way the Yankees plan, they'll force the Angels to turn early to their bullpen, the team's weakest link.

If life spins the way the Angels hope, the bullpen will hold, their speedsters will fly around the bases and the celebrations will end in happy tears all the way through November, following a date with the National League champions. No matter what transpires, the team already has voted Adenhart's family a full postseason share. Before Weaver takes the mound for Game 3, he'll share a quiet moment with his friend near the outfield wall in Anaheim. That's where Adenhart's No. 34 rests. Weaver was meant to be Adenhart's roommate this season; they would talk pitching and share stories and revisit the night's games and plan for plenty of tomorrows.

"It didn't happen like it should have," Hunter said. "It's been very difficult for Jered, just like it's been for all of us. The way Jered's pitching, it's with a purpose. It's for Nick. That's the way we're all trying to play. We have a different motivation this season because of what happened to Nick Adenhart. Call it a greater purpose or reason if you want. All I know for sure is you won't see us take anything for granted."

This is how they see it ending: with a ring, a World Series ring, being presented to Nick Adenhart's family. The kid who started all of four major league games is as much an Angel as any of the players who wear the "A."

Each Moment Is a Tribute for Angels originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:35:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A-Rod Shuns Spotlight, Finds Bliss

Lisa Olson — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:20:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- There had to be close to 50 bodies pressed together in the corner of the Yankees' clubhouse, cameras bumping heads and notebooks battling microphones. The team has a perfectly spacious interview room around the corner, a nice podium where an athlete can stretch and pontificate without a bunch of sweaty reporters pushing close enough to see his nose hairs.

But Alex Rodriguez was perfectly happy to make his way through the chaotic crush and face the media without a buffer. Someone fired a question and, from the back of the pack, all we could make out was, "Jetes ...CC ... they were the story." What about his two RBI singles that twice extended the Yankee lead? "Felt good ... team effort ... great pitching from CC." Was the postseason monkey off his back? "Not about me ... good to contribute ... hey, no need to shove each other."

So it went late Wednesday night, in A-Rod's little corner of bliss. He deflected every query about himself with a gracious nod at his teammates, turning the reflective glare back toward other areas of the Yankees' palatial playground. There was Nick Swisher, gushing about how he could barely restrain himself from going "crazy nuts" after knocking in the go-ahead run in the Yankees' 7-2 win over the Minnesota Twins in Game 1 of the ALDS. There was Sabathia, the big lug of an ace, and Derek Jeter, the cool captain, readying for their turns at the podium. A part of A-Rod has to realize life is much more fulfilling when it's not all about his vanities, his insecurities.

"I think that's the guy you're seeing these days," said Reggie Jackson, who knows what it's like when the ego overloads. "A-Rod is content to let the magic work around him. He can be a big star of the show, but not the only star. I think he's enjoying that role."

We've heard it all before, of course, but this time something rings true about A-Rod's transformation. People around the Yankees say he is more humble, a changed man after enduring what he calls his most difficult season of his career. It began in spring training with the bombshell admission he was a steroid user and rolled over to the start of the season when he underwent an operation on his degenerative hip that sidelined him for five weeks. Given all we know about Rodriguez -- his incessant need for attention, his controversial lifestyle choices, his propensity to always be in the middle of chaotic situations -- who could have predicted Rodriguez would emerge from such a troubling time a better player and, more impressive, a better person?

Count me in as one who's happy to be wrong about A-Rod. After writing about him for a decade, I doubted I'd ever reach a point where he wouldn't trigger a reflexive roll of the eyes. That's the beautiful thing about sports: just when we think we've seen it all, just when we've become jaded to the core, someone does a reverse end-around run and causes our jaws to drop in wonder.

The Yankees haven't won a World Series since Rodriguez arrived on New York's shores, and his personal makeover sure doesn't guarantee they'll even finally make it out of the first round. But fans and media beat up on him enough when he was down, when he couldn't find his way out of tangled bedclothes, whenever the situation was clutch and the Yankees needed a big hit. So isn't it time to at least give him a tip of the hat? All the Yankees did when he returned from surgery was go on a ridiculous 90-44 tear.

That's the beautiful thing about sports: Just when we think we've seen it all, just when we've become jaded to the core, someone does a reverse-end around run and causes our jaws to drop in wonder.
"Man, if we didn't have him we'd be a different team," said Mark Teixeira, whose presence in the No. 3 spot ahead of Rodriguez has dramatically altered the complexion of the Yankee lineup.

The change in A-Rod is sometimes subtle. "Alex has had a lot of fun this year," manager Joe Girardi said. "You say, 'How do you know?' I hear him laughing every day. And it's laughing out loud."

The change in A-Rod is intentionally overt. He stopped taking ridiculous advice from Madonna's handlers who thought they could mold him into a global sporting icon who'd appeal to fans and sponsors on both sides of the pond, a David Beckham without the accent. The minute A-Rod heeded producer Guy Oseary's direction to narcissistically kiss his own reflection in the mirror for a magazine shot -- kiss his own reflection! -- was the minute A-Rod and his team of crazy stylists totally lost it. This was worse than when A-Rod was on the silly end of the infamous slap play with Boston's Bronson Arroyo in the 2004 ALCS. This was staged egomania, complete with bronzer, and it made you realize why some of A-Rod's own teammates tattled to the New York media about his dalliances with strippers a few years back, dalliances that eventually led to his divorce.

Why couldn't he be content being known as a great hitter, perhaps eventually the greatest hitter baseball has ever seen (no matter how the steroid era has muddled that argument)? Didn't his obscene contract worth $300 million over 10 years provide enough security, no matter the childhood hurts he admittedly still struggles to overcome?

During those dark, depressing spring months when even he wondered who he was and what he had done, A-Rod made a wise decision. He stopped speed-dialing the Hollywood advisers and started listening to Yankee media relations folks like Jason Zillo, who knows a bit about crisis management. Together, it was decided A-Rod would refocus his priorities, skip all one-on-one interviews with major media outlets (no more calling Katie Couric to ask for her guidance) and, as he'd learn to say, "let my play do the talking."

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Twins-Yankees Photos

New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi speaks at a news conference gathered at Yankee Stadium for the American League Baseball division series at Yankee Stadium, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Yankees vs Twins

New York Yankees pitcher A.J. Burnett speaks during a new conference at Yankee Stadium in New York, Thursday Oct. 8, 2009. Burnett is scheduled to pitch in Game 2 of the American League Division Series on Friday. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

New York Yankees right fielder Nick Swisher, left, laughs with catcher Jorge Posada as special adviser Reggie Jackson and shortstop Derek Jeter watch during a baseball workout at Yankee Stadium, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009, in New York. The Yankees host the Minnesota Twins in Game 2 of the American League division baseball series on Friday. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada throws during a team workout at Yankee Stadium in New York, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009. Game 2 of the American League Division Series between the Yankees and Minnesota Twins is scheduled for Friday. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

New York Yankees' Mark Teixeira reacts after Hideki Matsui hit a ball into the stands during a baseball workout at Yankee Stadium Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009 in New York. The Yankees host the Minnesota Twins in Game 2 of the American League division baseball series on Friday. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

New York Yankees pitcher A.J. Burnett places his sunglasses on hit cap during a baseball workout at Yankee Stadium Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009 in New York. Burnett is scheduled to start against the Minnesota Twins in Game 2 of the American League division baseball series on Friday. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

New York Yankees pitcher A. J. Burnett claps as he stretches during a baseball workout at Yankee Stadium Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009 in New York. Burnett is scheduled to start against the Minnesota Twins in Game 2 of the American League division baseball series on Friday. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire speaks to the media during a news conference at Yankee Stadium Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009 in New York. The Twins take on the New Yankees in Game 2 of an American League division baseball series on Friday. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Minnesota Twins outfielders Denard Span, left, and Jason Kubel are shown during an interview on an off day before their American League Division Series Game Two baseball game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in New York, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

"I think it's fair to say that I hit rock bottom this spring, between the embarrassment of the press conference and my career being threatened with the hip injury," Rodriguez told reporters last week. "My career was at a crossroads, and I was either going to stay at the bottom or I was going to bounce back."

"When you take the expectations of 40 [home runs] and 120 [RBI] away, when you miss five or six weeks, you actually focus on the game. You focus on putting the uniform on, on catching a ground ball. That's what I've been doing all year and that's what I'll do in October."

It's been such a cruel month, that wicked October. In the Yankees' last three playoff appearances from 2005-2007 -- first-round knockouts every one -- A-Rod went 2-for-15, 1-for-14 and 4-for-15, had a total of 15 strikeouts and never really swabbed the home crowd's vicious boos from his ears. He entered this October hitless in his last 29 postseason at-bats with runners on base (dating back to the fateful Game 4 of the 2004 American League Championship Series against Boston), frightening numbers that highlighted just how awful A-Rod had been when the weather turned cold and the pressure grew hot.

A-Rod flew out to right field in his first at-bat Wednesday night against the Twins, stranding a runner at second and prompting the corporate-heavy Stadium crowd to shuffle slightly. His next at-bat was another inning-ender, a strikeout in the third inning against rookie pitcher Brian Duensing that left a runner on first. The murmurs grew. "Alex can't always be Superman," Reggie Jackson had said a few hours earlier. "But he's in a good space mentally and physically. The big playoff hits will come. I guarantee it."

Reggie has uttered similar forecasts before -- every October since A-Rod has been a Yankee, in fact. (Well, not last October, seeing as there wasn't much to predict in New York beyond who might make early-morning tee times.)

"Yeah, but I got a good feeling this time," Mr. October said. "He's going to have a good series."

Entering his at-bat in the fifth, another inning when there were two outs, A-Rod had stranded 40 runners since Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS, a game that has yet to stop haunting the Yankees. Now Jeter was dancing off second, the Yankees up by a skinny run. A-Rod planted a single to left-center, chasing Duensing. In the seventh, as the Yankees cruised through the rout, A-Rod drove in Jeter again with a single that banged off the right-field wall. The enormous screen showed Kate Hudson, A-Rod's girlfriend, celebrating with rapper Jay-Z in their field-level seats. His personal life has never seemed less scripted.

"It certainly felt good to get that hit out of the way," A-Rod would say later, after he snaked his way through the media mass, turned his back to his locker and faced his reflection in dozens of camera lenses. For the first time in many Octobers, he must have been content with the image in the glass.

A-Rod Shuns Spotlight, Finds Bliss originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:20:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yankees' Methodical Win No Reason to Discount Twins

Lisa Olson — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:27:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- It was bound to happen, probably sooner before later. The Minnesota Twins couldn't keep flying high on adrenaline and spunk, could they? This was a mismatch of gargantuan proportions, the mighty uber-rich Yankees against a sweet little team from the Midwest that barely squeaked into the playoffs at the very last second. The Twins couldn't possibly continue to rock and shock the baseball world, could they?

Not on this night, no. Not with CC Sabathia, the Yankees ace, rested and frothing at the chance to prove he can indeed carry the sport's wealthiest, most stacked club all the way to the finish line. Not with Derek Jeter, Captain America, eager to prove last season's postseason absence was an embarrassing, once-in-his-lifetime fluke.

Game 1: Yankees 7, Twins 2 | Box Score | Series Page

The Yankees' 7-2 win over the Twins in Game 1 of the ALDS Wednesday night was meticulously ruthless. It was also as expected as an October chill. Sabathia's nasty changeup bit the corners, his terrific outing topped off by a nearly flawless Yankee bullpen. Alex Rodriguez treated October as if it were any other month, his pair of RBI singles a fitting way to christen the Yankees' first postseason game in the team's ritzy new digs. Jeter ripped a laser deep into the left field seats, alien territory even for him. While the Yankees didn't exactly abuse Brian Duensing, Minnesota's rookie starter, they did everything they were supposed to do as prohibitive favorites.

So why does it feel as if this series hasn't begun to show its teeth?

Because the Twins have sneaky resilience, that's why. Baseball lifers call it "scrappiness," which is really just another way of saying don't ever turn your back on this club until the final pitch is tucked safely away.

Minnesota was understandably weary against the Yankees, its fielding not always sharp, the bats lacking some of the sting that carried the Twins through an extraordinary last week of the regular season. But Duensing, the lefty rookie who spent most of the year in Rochester and was called up initially to pitch out of the bullpen, didn't take his first ever look at Yankee Stadium and melt with fear into the mound. The Twins, still searching for a single win this season against the Yankees in eight tries, might not have crazy momentum riding shotgun with them anymore, but they're pretty sure the magic hasn't completely vanished.

"We're still full of energy, why not?" Orlando Cabrera, the irrepressible Twins shortstop, said. "We still have a lot of magic in us, sure. That's a really good team over there but this is the playoffs now, and we still know anything can happen."

The game didn't crack open until the fifth inning, after the Yankees had gone a few rounds with Duensing. He fooled them now and then with his heavy sinker, staying ahead of a murderous lineup with first-pitch strikes at the knees. There had been a brutal mistake with Jeter, the captain smashing a two-run homer in the third that knotted the score 2-2 and changed the game's complexion. Nick Swisher pulled a go-ahead double down the left-field line in the fourth, scoring Robinson Cano from first. One inning later here was Jeter drawing a walk, and then scoring on A-Rod's two-out single to left-center. With the Yankees up by two runs, with Duensing tiring, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire decided it was a fine time to bring in reliever Francisco Liriano.

A lefty reliever, to face lefty designated hitter Hideki Matsui. Who, by the way, kills lefty relievers?

But Gardenhire figured Duensing's pitch count was rising and, as the manager said later, he didn't "want to leave the kid out there and let him get all beat up." The Twins bullpen was mostly drained; Liriano was fresh and available.

Matsui turned on Liriano's fourth pitch, driving it into Monument Park for a 6-2 Yankee lead. All that frustration bottled up from missing the playoffs last year, all the pressure brought on by heavy expectations, seemed to dissipate as Matsui's dinger cut through the autumn night. Suddenly it felt like Octobers are meant to feel in the Bronx, delirium clashing with entitlement.

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Twins-Yankees Photos

New York Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera follows through on a delivery against the Minnesota Twins in the ninth inning of Game 1 of the American League division baseball series at Yankee Stadium in New York on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Yankees vs Twins

The New York Yankees, right, and the Minnesota Twins line the base paths during ceremonies before Game 1 of the American League division baseball series at Yankee Stadium in New York Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009. The Yankees won 7-2 in the first playoff game at the new stadium. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Hip hop artist Jay-Z watches Game 1 of the American League division baseball series between the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium in New York Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Hip hop artist Jay-Z, center, watches Game 1 of the American League division baseball series between the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium in New York on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Singer Paul Simon watches activities before Game 1 of the American League division baseball series between the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium in New York Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 07: Actress Kate Hudson looks on from the stands during Game One of the ALDS between the Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium on October 7, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Kate Hudson

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NEW YORK - OCTOBER 07: Actress Kate Hudson takes a photo from the stands during Game One of the ALDS between the Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium on October 7, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Kate Hudson

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NEW YORK - OCTOBER 07: Actress Kate Hudson looks on from the stands before Game One of the ALDS between the Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium on October 7, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Kate Hudson

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NEW YORK - OCTOBER 07: Actress Kate Hudson and rapper Jay-Z look on from the stands before Game One of the ALDS between the Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium on October 7, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Kate Hudson;Jay-Z

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"It think this is the fun time of the year," said Jeter, who never grows tired of these moments, these games. "What you try to do is when you're in those situations you think of the times you had success. I don't think you can be afraid to fail. But you just try to have fun. That's all I try to do is have fun, because we're playing a game."

The Twins, probably more than any other team, understand that sentiment. They felt as if they took a magic carpet ride from the Midwest to New York, their plane arriving at 3 AM ET Tuesday, their heads landing on their hotel pillows shortly before the sun began to rise. They were at the Stadium a short while later, still riding high from their extraordinary 12-inning division title tiebreaker game against the Detroit Tigers one night earlier. They couldn't stop talking about all the twists and turns their 163rd game of the season took, eager to share the exhilaration and memories with anyone who asked.

"Most exciting game I've ever been a part of," said Joe Mauer, the Twins catcher who seemed far more pumped by his team's improbable journey to the playoffs than his own incredible feat of capturing his third batting title in four years. The Twins won 17 of their last 21 regular-season games, overcoming a seven-game deficit to the Tigers in early September. This time last week, the Twins trailed Detroit by three games with only four to play. They have character and survival instincts, honed in the toughest of circumstances.

So the Yankees sailed through the AL East, clinching the title in their 156th game? So the Pinstripes splurged on three stud free agents over the winter, spending $423.5 million on Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira to put the payroll for the year at an even $206 million? So the Twins must make do with a modest $65.3 million, plucking their players through keen scouting and old-fashioned development? So?

"I think once you get on the field, no one plays with a bill fold in their pocket," Gardenhire said, a snappy retort that beats whining about the Yankees spending loads of money in a system that allows them to do what they wish with their riches.

You could have heard a wallet drop in the Stadium after the Twins took an early 2-0 lead in the third. Cabrera, a player who has a little of the October magic himself and who calls himself Gardenhire's lucky charm, singled with two outs, Mauer doubled to the gap, Michael Cuddyer ripped an RBI single that landed Mauer at third and Sabathia looked strangely out of sorts. His fastball was floating up and away, and then suddenly the ball was bouncing away from catcher Jorge Posada. Mauer stutter-stepped down the line, Sabathia momentarily froze and the Yankees couldn't cover the plate in time to prevent Mauer from scoring.

"Yeah, that kind of took the air out of the place," said Posada, admitting he and Sabathia got crossed up twice -- once the fault of the catcher, once the fault of the pitcher. "But being down 2-0, you still have a pretty good chance to win a game with CC out there. He showed you why he's such an ace."

Sabathia recovered nicely from his 22-pitch first inning and that confusing third, allowing just one earned run and striking out eight across 6 2/3 innings. It's why the Yankees signed him for $161 million, figuring he could carry them through October the way Randy Johnson and Kevin Brown never could.

"Got a little sketchy there I guess in the third, but I was able to come back and put up zeroes like I have all year," Sabathia said. "Definitely when I signed, this is what you come here for. To have a chance to win and pitching in the postseason, playing in October. It was electric tonight."

The Yankees babied Sabathia as they coasted toward the playoffs, slowing his innings down to conserve his arm. Forget about that obscene payroll, there is nothing the Twins can do but sigh and marvel at the Yankees' overall freshness. Gardenhire was asked if the stress and intensity of the one-game playoff to reach the postseason might have affected his club. "I kind of think [it's] CC Sabathia stress," he said. And what about the Yankee lineup, anybody he feels he can pitch to?

So why does it feel as if this series hasn't begun to show its teeth? Because the Twins have sneaky resilience, that's why. "No, not really. Everyone is a stinking All-Star. The more people that get on base, the more opportunities for crooked numbers," he said. "So you try to stay away from those things. But it's almost impossible to start picking and choosing who you want to walk to get to because they can all hit."

No use crying about it, as Gardenhire kept noting throughout the day. So exhausted they could barely feel their legs? A pitching staff so chewed up, the Twins aren't even sure who'll they'll start in Game 3 -- either Carl Pavano or Scott Baker? Pavano is lucky he's not arrested for grand larceny while visiting New York, considering all the money he stole from the Yankees. But he's a different pitcher now, a different person who has managed to revive his lagging career in Minnesota. He was booed viciously during team introductions Tuesday night, New Yorkers not willing to forgive those awful four seasons he spent languishing in the Yankees' hot tub.

So what did Pavano do as he stood on the new Stadium turf, bathing in the wrath of some 40,000 folks? He laughed. Gardenhire rushed over to the sidelines, to give Pavano a hug. The Twins have seen -- and overcome -- much worse.

Yankees' Methodical Win No Reason to Discount Twins originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:27:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yanks Gamble on Chemistry Experiment

Lisa Olson — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:50:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- Huge breaking news from Yankee camp: Jorge Posada is furious he won't be catching A.J. Burnett in Game 2 of the playoffs. No, wait, scratch that, now Posada is acting like an unruffled veteran, calmly saying "it's all about the team," and so it's over to Joe Girardi, to ascertain why the manager picked such a fine time to cause so much hyperventilating around what had been the most stable team in baseball.

By choosing to start Jose Molina and not Posada behind the plate Friday when Burnett makes his first ALDS start for the Yankees against the remarkable Minnesota Twins, Girardi proved he's neither sentimental nor averse to taking an unpopular risk. Of course, the Posada-Burnett battery has sometimes looked as uncomfortable as Jon and Kate sitting on the couch together, and to pair the fiery catcher again with the streaky pitcher at this juncture would be a mighty large gamble. Still, no matter how sensible, stat-driven Girardi's decision might be, it landed with a considerable thump.

"When a pitcher and a catcher get in a rhythm, you hate to break it up,'' Girardi said. "And that's kind of the feeling we have going now. Jorge is our No. 1 catcher. But in this situation, we just are going to choose to catch Molina.''

Though the manager gave Posada the news Sunday, and though Burnett and Molina presumably had received advance notice, all the participants were grilled Tuesday as if they were part of some nefarious plot to change the pinstripes into polka dots. Before the Yankees workout at the Stadium, Posada was glum and subdued, telling reporters, "It's not like I didn't see it coming. You know what, I just hope we win that game. That's all I have to say." That sparked early afternoon media updates reporting Posada was spitting nails, and more dissection of Posada's curious and sometimes cantankerous relationship with Girardi, who once served as Posada's mentor.

A few deep breaths and sharp cuts in the batting cage later, Posada was mouthing all the right things, hoping to put to rest any talk about a rift in the clubhouse. He knows there are only two ways for this to play out: if the Yankees win Game 2, the Burnett-Molina battery was the correct, obvious way to go; if the Yankees lose, especially if they lose a low-scoring game, Girardi will be slammed for caring more about Burnett's psyche than Posada's bat. Joe Torre never would have made this move, which might be why it makes perfect sense.

Joe Torre never would have made this move, which might be why it makes perfect sense. A year removed from Torre's fatherly, veteran-friendly regime -- and a year removed from failing to stretch the schedule into October for the first time in 14 seasons -- the Yankees haven't had many kinks to smooth out. But beyond all those post-game pie-in-the-face celebrations throughout the season, the lack of chemistry between Posada and Burnett continued to be a messy inconvenience.

Posada had trouble handling Burnett's wild pitches, his curveballs in the dirt. Burnett had problems with Posada's volatile communicating skills, his in game-managing style. Posada is also a catcher with four rings who is hitting .285 with 22 home runs and 81 RBI. Burnett is a first-year Yankee who is clearly most comfortable making his biggest professional start with Molina, a backup catcher with whom he shares a symbiotic relationship. But Molina also brings a .217 average, one home run and 11 RBI to the equation, a liability the Yankees hope will be hidden amidst all their offensive power.

"It was the manager's decision," said Burnett, but would the manager have made it if Burnett hadn't pushed for it? Or is this more a case of Burnett being so mentally fragile, the manager decided to placate him rather than telling the pitcher to suck it up, stash the attitude and figure how to work with one of the team's most feared hitters? Designated hitter Hideki Matsui didn't make Girardi's verdict any easier; Matsui is hitting .274 with 28 dingers and 90 RBI, meaning Girardi's unlikely to pull him out of the lineup so Posada might DH.

The life of a Yankee manager is never simple. All those riches, all those egos. It's a dilemma other managers would love to experience, and it sure beats having to solve other, more worrisome problems, such as dealing with a player who spends the night before the season's most pivotal game getting legs-up drunk and engaging in a domestic spat with his wife.

Burnett, with the sleeve of tattoos snaking up his arm and his playful initiation of whipped and shaving cream pies to teammates engaged in post-game interviews, looks nothing like the Yankees who so thoroughly dominated the late 1990s. Those Yankees were built in George Steinbrenner's image, a mix of corporate rules and militaristic ideals. Posada was their anchor, along with Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. Burnett has never fully explained why his chemistry with Posada is so awkward; perhaps it's a sign of how so much has changed in the Bronx that Burnett doesn't feel the need to adapt to Posada, or shrug away the veteran's defensive limits and throwing tics.

The stats prove what Burnett won't say: in the last six starts Molina has caught for Burnett, the pitcher has gone 3-1 with a 2.92 ERA. Opposing hitters are batting .270 off Burnett in his 16 starts that Posada caught, and just .221 in 11 starts with Molina. Burnett has struck out 77 of 288 batters while throwing to Molina, and whiffed 79 of 434 batters while pitching to Posada.

Burnett and Posada can be as harmonious as two feral cats screeching in the night. Burnett and Molina are melodious without having to work at it, a couple clearly in sync.

"It's his rhythm. The rhythm of wanting the ball and just throwing," Molina said. "He's not thinking, he's just pitching. I think he's in a real good place right now. It's been that way for a month, month and a half. He's the guy that's going to step up in the playoffs."

But which guy will Burnett be? The one who pitched beautiful one-hit shutout ball to beat Boston in early August, with Posada behind the plate? Or the one who two weeks later got shelled against those same Red Sox, giving up nine runs in a 14-1 loss in a game where his issues with Posada were clearly exposed?

For one news cycle Tuesday, it seemed such a pressing deal, a brewing controversy that threatened to take away some of the gloss off what had been such a low-key, trouble-free Yankee season. Posada went from miffed to reasonably disappointed, the expected arc of any veteran who can't abide sitting on a bench. Burnett is a pitcher not afraid to demand his comfort zone, hardly a crime.

Girardi? He's a manager who had to make a tough call, hurt feelings be damned. Nobody said the road to championship No. 27 wouldn't have its share of potholes.

Yanks Gamble on Chemistry Experiment originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bizarre Game Leaves Phillies, Mets Asking, 'What Just Happened?'

Lisa Olson — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:05:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- Just when you think you've seen everything there is to see in baseball, a second baseman shuffles his body just a tiny bit to his right and bedlam breaks out. It was only a few inches, mind you, almost an unconscious move choreographed by Eric Bruntlett as he tried to shake the cobwebs from his head.

He'd already made an error in the bottom of the ninth, clumsily booting the ball and allowing the hapless Mets to hang in. Bruntlett was also on the end of what was generously called an infield single, and now the Mets had two runners on base, the winning run at the plate, and Philadelphia closer Brad Lidge was flirting with another meltdown.

A few inches. That's the gap between incredulous rub-your-eyes wonder and here-we-go-again exasperation. A few seconds. That's the time it took to once again seal the disparities between baseball's defending champions and this season's cursed losers.

More: Unassisted Triple Play Adds to List of Mets' Lowlights

Bruntlett turned an unassisted triple play to seal the Phillies' 9-7 victory over the Mets Sunday afternoon, just the 15th overall unassisted triple play in major league history, the first to end a game in National League history and the second to end a game period. He was in the right place at the right time -- All-Star second baseman Chase Utley needed a day of rest -- and an hour after Bruntlett's magical spin into history, he was still clutching the ball as if it were a lump of gold.

"What a shocker," Pedro Martinez kept saying, after he had become almost an afterthought in his wild return to Queens. Martinez got the win, but only after a string of peculiarities flipped Citi Field into a carnival house. If a feral black cat had escaped the ruins of Shea and stopped by to greet Martinez along with 39,038 humans, nobody would have blinked, that's the kind of game it was.

"Completely crazy," said Jeff Francoeur, the Met who ripped a sharp liner up the middle that would have been a clean single and continued the rally had the runners not been going with nobody out.

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NEW YORK - AUGUST 23: Jeff Francoeur #12 of the New York Mets reacts after hitting into an unassisted triple play by Eric Bruntlett #4 of the Philadelphia Phillies to end their game on August 23, 2009 at Citi Field in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jeff Francoeur

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BOSTON - AUGUST 23: Mariano Rivera #42 and Jose Molina #26 of the New York Yankees celebrate the win over the Boston Red Sox on August 23, 2009 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. The Yankees defeated the Red Sox 8-4. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Mariano Rivera;Jose Molina

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BOSTON - AUGUST 23: Derek Jeter #2 and Mark Teixiera #25 of the New York Yankees celebrate the win over the Boston Red Sox on August 23, 2009 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. The Yankees defeated the Red Sox 8-4. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Mark Teixiera;Derek Jeter

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BOSTON - AUGUST 23: David Ortiz #34 of the Boston Red Sox looks on in the ninth inning against the New York Yankees on August 23, 2009 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. The Yankees defeated the Red Sox 8-4. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** David Ortiz

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BOSTON - AUGUST 23: Mariano Rivera #47 of the New York Yankees delivers a pitch in the ninth inning against the Boston Red Sox on August 23, 2009 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. The Yankees defeated the Red Sox 8-4. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Mariano Rivera

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BOSTON - AUGUST 23: Jason Varitek #33 of the Boston Red Sox reacts after striking out in the ninth inning against the New York Yankees on August 23, 2009 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. The Yankees defeated the Red Sox 8-4. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jason Varitek

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Boston Red Sox's Kevin Youkilis reacts to flying out during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park in Boston on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Josh Beckett watches a hit by the New York Yankees during the eighth inning of a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

BOSTON - AUGUST 23: Nick Swisher #33 of the New York Yankees makes the catch for the last out in the eighth inning against the Boston Red Sox on August 23, 2009 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Nick Swisher

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BOSTON - AUGUST 23: Hideki Matsui #55 of the New York Yankees is congratulated by Rob Thomson #59 after Matsui hit a solo home run in the eighth inning against the Boston Red Sox on August 23, 2009 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Hideki Matsui;Rob Thomson

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The Mets, down 6-0 after the first inning, had aggressively chipped their way to this point, but on the 2-2 pitch to Francoeur, Bruntlett broke toward second. Covering the back end of the double steal, he was in perfect position to snag the ball, touch second base to force out Luis Castillo, then turn and chase Daniel Murphy, the trailing runner. Murphy backpedaled until Bruntlett caught him with a tag to the chest.

"The whole game was strange. There were a lot of oddities that happened there. It really is true. When you think you've seen it all, you'll have something you've never seen before happen," said Bruntlett, who also had a fine afternoon at the plate, batting 3-for-5 with a run scored.

"Even with the runners going I did not expect him to be there. The only place he could catch the ball was where he was. To end the way it did was a little disheartening," said Francoeur, who halted halfway to first, eyes about to pop out, as he watched the unimaginable take place in midfield. Francoeur's frustration could be heard in the skyboxes. Given the Mets' misfortune this season, it's a wonder he didn't break both arms slamming his helmet to the turf.

"That's a first for me," said Jerry Manuel, the Mets manager who has witnessed pretty much everything this season. If Manuel was still in shock, it might be because he also had the misfortune of watching his own starter's wretched performance. There aren't many things in baseball more painful than viewing Oliver Perez when he's in the throes of a bad day.

And this was a bad, bad day for Perez. If the game hadn't ended in such ridiculous, unbelievable fashion, the restless crowd might have chased Perez to the Whitestone Bridge. Perez lasted 2/3 innings, giving up a pair of three-run homers to Jayson Werth and Carlos Ruiz. The last batter Perez faced was none other than Martinez, who yearned to return to the Mets this season. It is still too early to pound the Mets for passing on Martinez (his four seasons in Queens were a mixed bag of occasional brilliance and injuries), but how could they justify awarding Perez $36 million over three seasons when he is to finding the plate what Bernie Madoff was to honesty? The biggest free-agent bust of the winter raised his ERA to 6.92. The man who approved that contract -- Omar Minaya -- will be back next season. For Mets fans, the news just gets better and better.

Martinez was cheered loudly as he walked to the plate in a ballpark crammed with Phillies fans. But the home crowd showered Pedro with love, too, until he worked the count to 3-0 and the anger rotated back toward Perez. He was pulled in the middle of the count, having thrown 47 pitches (20 for strikes), and the boos that trailed him were as vicious as any heard at Citi Field this season. (Castillo's bumble against the Yankees seems like it happened eons ago, doesn't it?).

Reliever Nelson Figueroa struck out Martinez to end the inning, and soon Pedro's touchdown lead was marred by another unexpected marvel -- an inside-the-park home run. Angel Pagan hit a rocket to the deep centerfield gap, the ball lodging under the wall's padding. Outfielder Shane Victorino raised his arms in a theatrical appeal to the umpires that the ball was stuck, as Pagan chugged toward third. Left fielder Raul Ibanez easily dislodged the ball, threw it to the infield and Pagan slid home.

"I'm like, 'What just happened?' " Victorino said later. "I don't know, I thought the ball was dead."

That's how it went for nine bizarre innings. What just happened? Martinez, a lifetime .099 hitter, poked a RBI single to right field in the third for a 7-2 Philadelphia lead, nudging him over the .100 mark. "Imagine that," Martinez joked. "You never thought you would see that, did you?"

Martinez tossed two 1-2-3 innings, looked shaky in a couple others. His fastball teetered around 90 mph and he now has a 2-0 record in three starts with the Phillies, which is one more win than Perez has with the Mets this month. Completely crazy? And then there was this: Phillies manager Charlie Manuel going slightly bananas arguing a play involving -- who else? -- Bruntlett and Francoeur in the top of the ninth. Francoeur made a Ron Swoboda-like diving catch on Bruntlett's line drive, Francoeur swallowing the ball with his glove as Bruntlett motored around to third. But umpire Rob Drake ruled the ball hit the grass first, Jerry Manuel argued, the umpires reversed the ruling, the other Manuel came out to argue.

And got tossed.

And missed a front row seat to the most improbable finish of all. An unassisted triple play to end the game? Just when you think you've seen it all, the unpredictable happens.

"I'm not surprised about anything that happens in my starts," said Martinez, laughing. "To see stuff like this doesn't really surprise me, but at the same time, it's so strange that everybody would have to say 'Wow, what happened here?' "

Only bedlam. Only history.

Bizarre Game Leaves Phillies, Mets Asking, 'What Just Happened?' originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:05:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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David Ortiz and Union Spin Story, Should We Believe?

Lisa Olson — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 22:30:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- "I'm glad I have a clear head," David Ortiz told a few friends a couple of hours after he bellied up to baseball's confessional and bared a sliver of his soul. He was heading toward the Yankee Stadium cages, bat in hand, and the Red Sox slugger looked like a man who had just tossed aside a load of complications.

The rest of us should be so lucky. Because now baseball's steroid scandal is more convoluted than ever, the line muddled between the guilty cheaters who gained an unfair advantage by using hardcore steroids and naive players who did nothing worse than pop vitamins and guzzle protein drinks. Ortiz swears he falls in the latter category. Somewhere, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Sammy Sosa, Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte must have been screaming, "Hey, why didn't we think of that?"

Mariotti: Difficult to Believe Ortiz Sob Story

In a press conference before Saturday's game between Boston and the Yankees, Ortiz admitted he had been "careless" about using over-the-counter supplements and vitamins that might have triggered a positive doping result in 2003 and caused him to land on the infamous list of drug users now in the hands of the federal government. But Ortiz denied ever using or buying steroids. He spoke without referring to a script, without conjuring some awkward story involving a cousin Yuri.

And, most telling, Ortiz had by his side Michael Weiner, the soon-to-be union chief, offering a hard proactive defense for Ortiz and any player who subsequently finds his name leaked from the list. By addressing some details about the survey test in 2003, Weiner insisted there were discrepancies between the number of players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and the number of tests seized by the government. He paved the way for any player to declare reasonable doubt and plausible deniability.

A player on the list could be one of the eight who tested positive for a spiked dietary supplement such as 19-norandrostenedione, which was legal in 2003. A player on the list could be one of the 13 of the 96 positives disputed by the union, an argument Major League Baseball never contested because all it needed was 83 positive tests to reach the 5 percent collectively-bargained threshold required to implement a testing program. A player could be named twice on the list for failing multiple tests, a possibility Weiner tossed into the mix.

Ortiz denied ever using or buying steroids. He spoke without referring to a script, without conjuring some awkward story involving a cousin Yuri.It's a brilliant strategy, as long as the list remains tied up in a complicated court case between the players association and the government. It allows players like Ortiz to maintain they were ignorant about the chemicals they were ingesting during an era when bodies looked as if they were stuffed with silicone and home runs captivated a nation.

"I definitely was a little bit careless back in those days when I was buying supplements and vitamins over the counter -- legal supplements, legal vitamins over the counter but I never buy steroids or use steroids," Ortiz said. "I never thought that buying supplements and vitamins, it was going to hurt anybody's feelings.

"I'm not here to make any excuse or anything," said Ortiz, adding he has tested negative about 15 times since baseball's program with penalties began in 2004 and additional times for the World Baseball Classic. "I really used a lot of supplements and vitamins."

Despite everything I know and all the lies and denials I've heard players utter over the years, I'm inclined to believe Ortiz, despite the circumstantial evidence tracking his mediocre career in Minnesota to his superstar resurgence with Boston. Here's why: no union officials ever felt the need to sit beside Giambi, Ramirez or Pettitte during their so-called confessionals. If any player deserved the union's seal-of-approval, it was Pettitte, who admitted to using human growth hormone, a PED for which baseball doesn't test. Pettitte also basically confirmed a link between Roger Clemens and the steroid trail. Throughout all of Clemens' laughable denials and excuses, there's probably a reason the union hasn't felt the need to act as linebacker for the Rocket.

Are Weiner and union officials confident Ortiz won't eventually be linked to steroids such as Winstrol or Stanozolol, bodybuilder drugs that were illegal under federal laws and banned by baseball in 2003? Are they sure he never used Deca-Durabolin and HGH, the illegal stuff Giambi admitted to taking, according to his testimony before a grand jury investigating BALCO, the steroid factory that launched a thousand scandals?

Are they positive Ortiz has never experimented with Primobolan, the banned juice A-Rod confessed to taking from 2001-2003 when he was a Texas Ranger? Are they convinced there are no angry ex-trainers ready to reveal bloody gauze and needles with Ortiz's DNA? Nine days ago, when The New York Times reported that Ortiz and Ramirez were on the list, Ortiz said he needed time to do his own investigation before commenting. He wasn't the only one. The union, with its fleet of investigators and mountain of resources, had to have done its research on Ortiz before deciding to support him so vocally, while providing particulars about the 2003 survey testing it had never before publicly shared.

So why disclose them now, barely seconds after the beloved, universally adored Big Papi offered up his defense?

"It's a fair question," said Weiner, who seems much more forthright than Donald Fehr, his predecessor. "We decided that the cumulative effect of these leaks, with this last one, required us to try to set the record straight about 2003 testing. Almost all of what I said today was available in letters that we sent to Congress and has otherwise been publicly available, but it didn't seem to affect the way the stories were being reported. And we thought it was incumbent upon us to protect all the players in the union, those who have previously been tarred with this and any other players who are allegedly on the list, to set the record straight. So it really was the cumulative effect of this latest story and these latest leaks."

The players association is often lauded as one of the strongest unions in the country, but it has dropped simple pop-ups many times during this tainted era. By fighting testing and punishment for PEDs, it protected the guilty and stained the innocent. It failed to destroy the results from the 2003 tests, in the days before the government seized them in raids. As one of the parties in the case currently stalled in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the union could petition a federal judge to have the list released -- something players past and present have called for -- but Weiner rejected that idea. (MLB reiterated in a statement Saturday that it does not possess the list.)

"Sure, there are some people who say 'Why don't we just get this story over with and get the list out?' " Weiner said. "I think to do that would, one, be illegal, and two, be wrong. It's illegal because it's covered by court order, and it would be wrong because a promise was made by the commissioner's office and the union to every player who was tested in 2003 that the results would be anonymous."

A-Rod had enough enemies in and out of baseball, so it wasn't a surprise when his name was leaked to Sports Illustrated as one of the players on the list. Make no mistake, Rodriguez is responsible for tarnishing his legacy, but he also has reason to wonder where the union was that day in spring training, when he fumbled through his own clumsy confession about being "young and stupid." Weiner said the union has offered assistance and advice to every player dragged through the steroid muck. He better hope Big Papi is telling the truth, because if he isn't, the union's strong support of Ortiz will be akin to poking a stick at lions.

"We don't anticipate this coming back to haunt us," one person close to the union told me.

Rodriguez said he was sleeping during Ortiz's press conference, still exhausted after Friday night's incredible Yankee win over Boston. It was a game for the ages, decided on A-Rod's two-run homer in the bottom of the 15th inning. He's a different man since that February press conference, admittedly "freer" and no longer restrained by the weight and guilt of knowing his steroid habits would someday be revealed.

"I'm so proud of the way things came out," Rodriguez said. "I took a lot of things off my chest, and to me, since that press conference, I felt like a new man. I feel like I've been embraced by the city of New York, my teammates, coaches and manager. I feel liberated.

"I think I'm able to play better in key situations because I'm at peace with myself. I'm enjoying the game at a level that I really haven't enjoyed it before, because it's simply 100 percent about my team and winning games. In the past, I was so consumed with trying to do special things, but now I'm only worried about one thing and that's winning. This is the best I've ever gotten along with my teammates and the most at peace I've been in New York.

"The humiliation of spring training, how embarrassing and hard that was for me, it allows me to sit here now and just move forward and play baseball."

Ortiz is searching for similar peace. It should come, as long as his admission of only using over-the-counter supplements and vitamins remains true. "This past week has been a nightmare to me because I'm the kind of guy that ... I think about the fans every day," he said. He sat in baseball's confessional until the questions were exhausted, never wavering from his simple excuse about being careless.

Nearly seven hours later, with the Yankees up 5-0, Ortiz struck out looking for the game's final out, his long day punctuated by an 0-for-3 afternoon and two strikeouts. He is batting .171 since July 30, when his name was reported to be on the 2003 list. If his troubles within the batter's box prove to be his biggest worry during these uncertain times, Ortiz and his union linebackers are very blessed.

David Ortiz and Union Spin Story, Should We Believe? originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Sat, 08 Aug 2009 22:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Smoltz's Struggles Leave Sox in Bind

Lisa Olson — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- Legendary reputation intersected with rapid decline Thursday night in the Bronx, and the aftermath of the collision wasn't pretty. There stood John Smoltz, one of the brightest stars in baseball across the last two decades, watching what's left of his amazing career crumble to pieces on the Yankee Stadium mound.

One after another Yankee batters sliced apart Smoltz, until it was clear he had nothing more to give. Was this it? Would this be the final wheeze in his last hurrah, Smoltz's epitaph noting he'd suffered death by lefties? He's pitched so brilliantly for so many years, packing heart and soul into every outing, and yet the Red Sox have to know.

They can't win a pennant with Smoltz in the rotation.

The margin for error in the American League East is as thin as a butterfly's wing, and if Boston doesn't do something with Smoltz -- Release him? Move him to the bullpen, where his fragile shoulder will be even more exposed? - winter could come awfully soon in New England. In the first game of what figures to be a pivotal four-game showdown, the Yankees smacked around the Red Sox, 13-6, but the crooked scoreboard numbers are hardly what stood out.

No, the sight that stung the most was the image of Smoltz plodding off the Stadium grass, the fourth inning still young. He tucked his chin into his chest like a man forced to walk a gangplank. He had hung pitches, missed pitches, turned to watch Melky Cabrera deposit a pitch deep into the second deck beyond the right field fence and was mercifully lifted with one out and the bases loaded. Smoltz was brutal against lefties, terrible against righties. If he has anything left -- and even he isn't sure of the answer -- he picked an awful time and place to unravel.

"No one should have to watch that," Smoltz said later. "I'm pretty humbled right now with the way things have gone. I don't like to use the word embarrassed, but I have a lot of pride and I certainly don't like letting somebody down. I can't throw BP and give up the runs I've been giving."

He verbally flagellated himself for as long as the questions came, vowing to keep fighting, to keep working hard and prove the Red Sox weren't idiots to give a 42-year-old survivor of labrum surgery more than $5 million to pitch one final year. But after eight starts, his ERA is a bulging 8.33, and getting tagged for nine hits and eight runs in just 3 1/3 innings by the evil Yankees is hardly the way to earn the Nation's love.

"I can't dig a hole and hide," Smoltz said. "I didn't make the pitches when I had to. I'll get up tomorrow and try to figure out ways to fix this or do whatever I have to."

But he knows what all the great ones come to realize when they hang on too long. It kills Smoltz to admit it, clearly, but you could sense the thoughts running through his head as he sat in the dugout, watching the Yankees build a 3 1/2-game lead over the Red Sox. The soundtrack in Smoltz's head kept replaying the 1-2 high fastball that Cabrera belted deep into the blue seats to erase a skinny Boston lead and put the Yankees up, 5-3. The soundtrack reminded Smoltz the Red Sox haven't the luxury of allowing him time to find his groove, not with Tim Wakefield and Daisuke Matsuzaka out with injuries and Tampa Bay knocking on Boston's door. The soundtrack ridiculed Smoltz' flat fastball, his dripping slider.

"Time may not be on my side if this continues," Smoltz admitted.

Was Smoltz's track record -- he is, after all, the only pitcher in major league history with at least 200 career wins and 150 saves -- enough to justify one more start? Manager Terry Francona wasn't ready to commit to anything beyond a good night's sleep.

"We have a lot of things to talk about," he said with a sigh. "I know why you would ask that and understand where it's coming from, but I don't think that five minutes after a game is the right time to come to a conclusion on that."

It had been a rough, ugly evening for both sides - the Red Sox stranded 15 runners, the Yankee pitchers combined for 12 walks, Jorge Posada atoned for dumb base-running by coming a triple short of hitting for the cycle (Boston fielders would have had to all fall down for that to happen, but still) and David Ortiz wasn't mocked any more than usual by the largest crowd in the new Stadium's brief history.

This being the greatest rivalry in the world and all that, Ortiz was greeted with a long Bronx cheer, but Yankee fans were mostly smart enough to keep taunts about Big Papi's alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs to a minimum. It's tough to dislike a guy who devotes large chunks of the afternoon to signing autographs along the Stadium rails for Red Sox and Yankee fans alike, and New Yorkers certainly didn't mind sweetly serenading Ortiz after he finished the night 0-for-5.

Ortiz and members of the players association plan to hold a news conference before Saturday's game at the Stadium, to address the details behind the revelations that his name is on the list of 104 major leaguers who tested positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. Odd to say, but unless Ortiz admits to mainlining horse tranquilizers, whatever information he provides will almost seem like an afterthought in this steroid-weary atmosphere.

"I'm going to let you guys know what I got, period," said Ortiz, now hitless in his last 16 at-bats.

Even odder to say, considering New York had lost eight straight games to Boston this season, but this series carries more weight for the Red Sox. Smoltz's future is only one reason Francona looked more weary than usual. Jason Bay's injured right hamstring forced Francona to go with a quirky lineup that included Kevin Youkilis in left field, his first start in the outfield since 2006.

Boston needed "good bats in the lineup," Francona said. "And he's willing to do it, which amazes me. So I just told him, 'You know what, we'll do it. And I said, 'If you make an error out there, send the [media] to me, because it's my fault.'"

Youkilis was lucky he didn't strain his neck, considering how many balls the Red Sox outfielders had to turn and watch sail over the fence. The Yankees exploded for eight runs in the fourth inning, pacing an 18-hit deluge. Johnny Damon, Cabrera, Posada and Mark Teixeira all went deep.

All that flash with the wood, all those awful pitches by Smoltz, and still Yankee starter Joba Chamberlain could not get comfortable. Pitching on seven days rest, Chamberlain won despite giving up four runs on six hits and a career-high seven walks. For five tedious innings, he labored in and out of trouble, falling behind batters and wasting his precious pitch count.

The Yankees are so determined to baby Chamberlain, to shut him down when he hits 160 innings (or so, the exact numbers fluctuating daily), but he did manage to improve to 8-2 on the season and 4-0 since the All-Star beak. He burned through 108 pitches and fell apart in the fifth inning, after waiting out Smoltz's 34-minute breakdown by riding an exercise bike to stay warm. Chamberlain walked the first two batters, got Ortiz to fly out, walked J.D. Drew to load the bases, gave up a RBI single to Mike Lowell and then completed his odyssey with a typical fist-pumping flourish by striking out Casey Kotchman and Nick Green.

But it was the classy, Hall of Fame-bound pitcher in the other dugout who caused the most head-scratching. Smoltz has made it through six innings in just one of his eight starts this season. The end to his glorious 21-year career feels closer than ever.

"I'm man enough to stand up here and say I'm not doing it, and no one feels worse about it than I do," Smoltz said. "This is an organization that expects high standards and I expect them of myself. I'll be the first to say that these last few games -- they all haven't been like this.

"This is probably the worst result game that I've pitched," he said, and he inhaled softly. "You don't want to do it here."

Smoltz's Struggles Leave Sox in Bind originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Warning to Fehr: More Potential 'Leakers' Than You Think

Lisa Olson — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:48:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

A female acquaintance swears she knows a baseball player who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during the now-infamous "survey" to see who was doing naughty things in 2003. He's a famous player, she says, someone who even the casual fan would recognize. She knows he's on the list of 104 bad boys because he told her about his steroid use and the positive test it generated the same night he bought her a diamond necklace. She's pretty sure he also told his wife, his best buddy, some of his teammates, his agent, the kid who takes care of his car when the team is on the road and -- who knows? -- maybe the gardener and his tailor. He's one of the all-time talkers, this guy.

I met this woman years ago, when I was doing a newspaper story about the modern groupie. She's smart, rich (a trust fund baby), gorgeous and slightly insane. Is she telling the truth about the player who once called her his "road wife"? (So much nicer than "road beef.") Probably. Would I or any other credible journalist print the name of this player without backing it up with mounds of evidence and reliable sources? Not on your life.

This anecdote is only relevant in that it illustrates how many people might be aware of the identities on the list, and most of those people are under no gag order from the government to remain quiet. They can "leak" what they know to their hearts delight, without fear of punishment or Donald Fehr's wrath.

Fehr can shake his broken paper shredder all he wants at reporters daring to pick the scab off what many are calling the biggest scandal in the history of sports. So the president of the Players Association is accusing The New York Times of committing a crime in its reporting of players who tested positive for illegal PEDs -- Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz the most recent names The Times disclosed to be on the 2003 list? Fehr's threat is meant to divert the uninformed public, his tactic as disingenuous as the game is long.

So Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera and a slew of other active players are calling for the list to be publicly released, a move that would halt the annoying trickle of names coming out every few months? Their weariness is logical, their understanding of the facts questionable.

The list of the 104 players who tested positive for PEDs in 2003 is now evidence in a complicated federal court case: U.S. v. Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., and the Major League Baseball Players Association. The names on the list can only be released by a court order -- and as a party to that case, Fehr could petition the court to make the list public. Have Pettitte, Rivera and all the other players moaning about the damage baseball continues to reap implored their outgoing union boss to help put an end to the madness?

"We just want it to stop," Rivera said recently. But the last time we spoke, Rivera, the Yankee closer and a caretaker of the game, said he hadn't lobbied his union to help curtail the drip-drip-drip leak of names.

Pettitte, a Yankee pitcher who was outed as a user of PEDs in the Mitchell Report, has admitted to using human growth hormone on two occasions, to help speed his recovery from injury. "I've always said that I don't want anybody else to have to go through it, but at this point, if somebody has the list and they can release it, I think it would be great," he told the New York Daily News. "If all 100 names are going to come out -- and I'm sure there are a lot of names on there that people won't even care about -- they ought to go ahead and just release it."

Another Yankee, Mark Teixeira, echoed the theme song from many players and focused on the illegality of the leaks. "Whatever your personal views or opinions are about the list, it doesn't matter, because those names were never supposed to be leaked out anyway," Teixeira, a member of the executive board of the Players Association, told the Daily News. "It's illegal what these people are doing."

But it's only illegal if those folks are connected to or are parties in U.S. v. Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., and the Major League Baseball Players Association. There are dozens, maybe even hundreds, of people on the case's periphery who can blab without legal consequence.

Just for instance: How many players have their own cousin Yuri? Alex Rodriguez's fall guy is not a party to the court case, and is thus free to talk to any reporter he wants. So are mistresses, clubhouse attendants, personal valets and disgruntled employees of MLB or the players' union. The amount of people who have knowledge of players on the list is staggering, a pack of octopuses hiding in a coral reef.

In its report revealing that Ramirez and Ortiz were on the list, The New York Times -- a minority stakeholder in the Boston Red Sox, by the way -- cited its sources as "lawyers with knowledge of the results." If these lawyers are under the court's gag order, they should be prosecuted, because even simple journalists understand the danger all citizens face when Fourth Amendment rights are illegally violated.

But leakers, snitches and whatever epithet you want to call them aren't always government employees wearing poor-fitting suits. Troy Ellerman once was a lawyer with a client named Victor Conte. You might know Conte and his lab outside San Francisco as ground zero of the steroid scandal. Turns out Ellerman disclosed privileged information from a grand jury to the San Francisco Chronicle during its investigation of Conte and BALCO. After admitting he secretly leaked testimony by Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield and other athletes embroiled in the government's steroids investigation, Ellerman received a 30-month prison sentence for his illegal activities.

The players tested in 2003 were assured of anonymity by the league and the players' union. There is no excuse, none, for the union failing to destroy the results, no matter the convoluted reasons Fehr now gives. Those players on the list of 104 have every right to be upset if their liberties are being illegally violated. Those players also knew steroids and other PEDs had been banned by baseball since 1991, though users weren't punished until 2004.

The amount of people who have knowledge of players on the list is staggering, a pack of octopuses hiding in a coral reef. Those of us not as smart as Fehr can still examine the previous two sentences separately. As the Daily News noted: After Judge Susan Illston declared the details of the case sealed in March of 2004, the union went clubhouse to clubhouse "informing players that they could be on the list ... many people, including the players themselves, team personnel, agents, friends and family members could have been aware of the names and wouldn't necessarily be subject to the gag order."

Is it possible players, or the lawyers/agents of those players, are divulging personal but not illegal information to reporters about other players? Is it possible someone who once worked for Fehr is the leaker? An athlete would never go to bat with blinders on, so why do they choose to do so now?

For another instance: The Boston Globe recently reported that the Red Sox fired two security staffers last summer after an investigation into steroid use. (One sacked employee was Jared Remy, the son of Red Sox television commentator Jerry Remy.) Both employees confessed to being steroid users, but denied knowledge of drug use by the players. Neither is banned by the court from spilling whatever they might know.

It's fair to follow the crumbs, without violating any Amendments or liberties. The crumbs might lead from the Boston clubhouse to Manny Alexander, the well-traveled infielder whose Mercedes-Benz was stopped in 2000 by police near Boston, the glove department filled with anabolic steroids and hypodermic needles. A Red Sox attendant was driving the car, but maybe that's where the crumbs end. Maybe that's what Senator George Mitchell found when MLB commissioned him to lead a 20-month investigation into the use of steroids and human growth hormone in baseball. Mitchell, a director of the Red Sox who is listed fifth on the team's masthead, did name players with ties to the Red Sox, but the crumbs mostly led him further south, to Boston's bête noire.

Yes, that will be quite a conflicted chorus in the Bronx starting Thursday, when Boston and the Yankees open a four-game series that might decide the history of baseball as we understand it. (Come on, you know Red Sox-Yanks is the center of the universe, or at least the home office for players using PEDs. Follow the crumbs, from Pettitte to Roger Clemens to Giambi to Sheffield to A-Rod to both Mannys to Ortiz. Any Yankee fan who mocks Ortiz really ought to be ejected, just for being a slug too dumb to occupy a valuable seat.)

One last for instance, before we go back to tracking more cousin Yuris: Could someone close to Mitchell feel the urge to leak names on the list? It sounds ridiculous, but the point is, they would not be legally prohibited from talking to reporters, and nothing is beyond ridiculous in this scandal. Go ahead and scream "release the list," but understand that is up to the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, and a judge who is said to be willing to at least listen to parties like Fehr if they were to petition her. But why would Fehr do that, when he has so much to lose?

Curse the leakers? Again, by all means, prosecute those evildoers if they dare snub the court's gag order. But when Mets catcher Brian Schneider says he hopes whoever is dropping names from the list "gets caught because what they are doing is totally wrong and they should get in trouble for it because it is an ongoing case, an ongoing investigation," he really needs to draw upon the instincts that have taken him this far.

It's not just the obvious sluggers who are slicing apart baseball. It's the octopus tentacles: the ears in the dugout, the gossiping friends and family in the stands, the eyes not under threat by any court. Agents? Mistresses? Clubhouse employees? Disgruntled union employees?

The list of possible leakers of the list is as long as the entourage behind every player.

Warning to Fehr: More Potential 'Leakers' Than You Think originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:48:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Phillies Hope Pedro Can Be, Well, Pedro

Lisa Olson — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:45:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

A few hours after the trading deadline had passed, on a team called the IronPigs, baseball's most intriguing possibility strained to reach a level that once was high art form.

Will Pedro Martinez ever again be the dazzling pitcher who could disguise his wares like a master thief? Can he rediscover the nasty breaking balls that once had batters reeling backward and dancing on their toes? Is he the final piece in the Philadelphia Phillies' quest for a consecutive World Series championship?

Martinez might be 37 years old, but he's still got a certain pizzazz that forces you to watch, listen and marvel at the skillful way he maneuvers around pitching jams and tough questions. He is pure delight, stuffed inside a wafer-thin body. He is a fountain of hope, about to join a team already overflowing with talent. He is a foil to reporters, forever providing good copy and imploring us to examine controversial issues from new perspectives.

But is he still, well, Pedro?

In a rehab start that was meant to be his last go-around with the minor leagues before joining the big club, Martinez was equal parts rough and imposing Friday night for the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs. He gave up three hits and three walks across five innings, allowed five runs (four earned, including a lead-off home run to Columbus' Michael Brantley that temporarily took the air out of a packed-to-the-gills Allentown, Pa., stadium) threw 84 pitches (53 for strikes), fooled a good share of Clippers with his changeup and relied more on guile than heat before losing steam while working out of the stretch position.

It was mostly what Pedro wanted to deliver, what the Phillies needed to see before summoning him to the big club for a late-summer push for the pennant. Martinez is expected to throw one more bullpen session Sunday, and if he stays healthy, if he manages to recapture some of the magic that once was a blur of arm angles and trickery, the Phillies won't just win the weak National League East going away. They'll be a can't-miss carnival, exactly what baseball needs.

Isn't that why Philadelphia signed Martinez July 15 for $1 million-plus-incentives, for the entertainment value as well as whatever disguises and mastery he might still possess in his right arm? Then all they did was trade for Cliff Lee, to suck up innings and perform his usual domination over NL teams. So the Phillies didn't make a move for Roy Halladay. By luring Pedro out of limbo in the Dominican Republic and snagging Lee, they still brought four Cy Young Awards to the roster, and that's pretty good work in a couple of weeks.

Martinez says the Phillies have told him they expect him to be a back-of-the-rotation starter. He's not in love with the idea of working out of the bullpen, but no role has been ruled out. His fastball has pop, his changeup follows in harmonic convergence, and the universe seems to be cooperating on every level.

"I know I'm not too far away from what I want to achieve," Martinez told reporters Friday after the Clippers beat the IronPigs, 9-6. "To me, it felt great; the results might not be what everyone wanted, including me. As far as health and conditions, I feel great, and I see it as a positive day, a very positive day."

Of course, the pink elephants on this positive day were the blaring headlines and non-stop television reports that David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, teammates of Martinez during his years with Boston, were on the list of 104 players who tested positive for a performance enhancing drug during the 2003 season. Steroids and other PEDs have been banned by baseball since 1991, but the league and the union shamefully did not begin punishing users until 2004. Martinez, as usual, didn't tiptoe around the subject in conversations with reporters Friday.

"I can tell you, I didn't know they were doing it," Martinez said. "It was something that was very common among the players, as far as I know. I was never told that they were using anything. I never heard anything from them. I'll tell you one thing: They're good, with or without it. Both of them are really, really good.

"I've seen Manny throughout his career and Manny's been as steady as you want a player to be," Martinez added. "David, I mean, you have to be some kind of a person. Even though [performance-enhancing drugs] might help you physically, help you to keep your concentration and do the things you have to do, it's not like he hit a homer every time. There were a lot of bloopers that looked like a guy who hit the ball with paper that still did the job.

"I'm not going to say anything, because I don't agree with it. I believe the game should be played clean. They've got my total support. They weren't the only ones. There were a lot of guys."

Martinez was smack in the middle of some of those magical, memorable Red Sox games in 2004, a season that culminated with Boston rebounding from an 0-3 deficit in the American League Championship Series to defeat the hated Yankees. A sweep of the Cardinals in the World Series ended an 86-year-old drought or damn curse, as Pedro once called it. He sounded like he was speaking directly to Yankee fans giddy with schadenfreude when he brushed back the idea the Sox' championships were now tainted.

"There's no crying in baseball," Martinez said. "We won in 2004. That's it. Are you going to tell me that the other guys, who used it on other teams are now whining? They used it, too."

More than a great quote, Martinez isn't afraid to provoke. He questions the statistics behind the headlines. Out of the dirty list of 104 players, seven names have been leaked. Four are of Dominican descent -- Ramirez, Ortiz, Sammy Sosa and Alex Rodriguez. Out of 69 suspensions from last season's minor league drug program, 42 went to players from the Dominican Summer League. Five more joined the bad-boy brigade July 17.

"One thing that's really caught my attention is -- why is it all Dominicans? What's going on? Why is it all Dominicans that all of a sudden come out positive? The last one standing might be me," Martinez told reporters. "What's going on here? Why is it I'm the only one who might be left standing? All of a sudden, they're going to come up and say: 'Pedro, too.' That's when I'm going to start stripping my clothes off and showing everybody I've never had acne on my back. If I did use it, it didn't help me. They need to give my money back. It didn't work."

Surely someday Martinez will give his thoughts on the slimy underbelly of the DR's baseball factories, where adults looking for a finder's fee victimize young children. He can talk about the cultural differences, and perhaps how the mostly Anglo media and MLB executives bring their own biases and experiences to steroid scandals. But for the moment he's focused on his own reinvention, an artist not yet willing to put down the brush.

Will he be the crafty marksman able to paint any corner of the plate? The charismatic quote machine happy to contribute to sports' lexicon? (My favs from the years covering him: "Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I'll drill him in the ass, pardon me the word." And, "I just tip my hat and call the Yankees my daddy.") Should he have retired after four up-and-down seasons with the Mets, his last major league start coming on Sept. 25? Will he and Don Zimmer ever share a cold one under the mango trees?

It seems like Pedro has lived several baseball lifetimes. Throughout each one he gave us compelling, great theater.

"I always expected I would leave the game sooner rather than later," Martinez said last week. "I don't want to embarrass myself out there. When god doesn't allow me to do that anymore, I'll just take a hike on my own terms."

Seventeen seasons on, he's still baseball's most intriguing possibility.

Phillies Hope Pedro Can Be, Well, Pedro originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:45:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dysfunctional Mets Fit for a Straitjacket

Lisa Olson — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:15:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- The Mets are certifiably nuts. Just when you think they've done most everything they can to invite mockery and derision, they readjust the clown nose and refill the water hose.

The team called a press conference Monday to announce the firing of Tony Bernazard, an executive whose personnel file had grown thick with reports of odd and inappropriate behavior. Most anywhere else -- even, dare we say, over at the Knicks' main office, which once housed people doing pratfalls into giant mounds of dung -- this would have been a fairly easy one-and-done. Take a few questions, tie it up in a bow, and vow to focus energy on the trading deadline, getting players healthy and making a run for a wild-card spot.

But rather than simply explain the Mets were terminating an employee who had made the organization look silly and out of control, general manager Omar Minaya sat behind the microphone and proved the organization had long passed silly and out of control and was careening wildly into a brick wall. Now Minaya's own future with the Mets hangs in the balance, because the public once again got a peek at how adept the Mets are at manufacturing their own scandals.

It was odd enough when Minaya used the presser to lob scurrilous claims at reporter Adam Rubin, the Mets' beat reporter for the New York Daily News. Rubin's meticulously reported stories about Bernazard -- including how the 52-year-old VP of player development took his shirt off in the clubhouse of the organization's Double-A team, called players obscene words and challenged them to a fight -- were only a few of the bad marks in Bernazard's HR file, which may never have come to light if it hadn't been for Rubin.

Minaya could barely bring himself to condemn any of Bernazard's actions or behavior. Instead Minaya decided to play the oldest trick in the book -- blame the messenger, who happened to be sitting a few rows away. "Adam, for the past couple of years, has lobbied for a player development position. He has lobbied myself, he has lobbied Tony," Minaya said. "So when these things came out I was kind of a little bit, I had to think about it. And I was a little bit, you know, somewhat, kind of, we gotta find out about this. We really have to do a thorough investigation of this."

Rather than ramble on, Minaya might as well have just said, "Adam, you knee-capped my guy. You better be wearing a thick vest." Guess we should all be thankful the Mets have moved on from tossing firecrackers and spraying bleach at reporters.

This might be the day Minaya officially lost his mind, possibly his job. It will take some artful contortions on Minaya's part if he is to survive this latest storm. A few hours after Minaya opened his mouth and inserted leather, he was forced to offer Rubin a kind-of apology, saying the press conference "was not a proper forum for me to raise those issues."

The controversy even flushed the owner's son out of his cubbyhole. Usually Jeff Wilpon shows his face at happy events -- the announcement of a free-agent signing, the unveiling of yummy food at concession stands in Citi Field's centerfield. But he and his father Fred have mostly kept out of the public eye during this wretched season, pushing Minaya to drive the clown car.

It is not just injuries and internal miscommunications that have blindsided the Mets, either. The Wilpons lost millions of dollars in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Some reports put the figure around $300 million; others, like Wilpon's old friend Larry King, say the family empire suffered losses closer to $700 million. Whatever the amount, the Mets insist the scam has no bearing on how the Wilpons run the team with the highest payroll in the National League. Truth and reality don't always make the starting lineup at Citi Field, but hey, have you tasted the curly fries out at the Shake Shack? "Hmm, how to spin the story away from the truth and into dubious reality? Powder the red nose and point the water hose, that's how. The Mets do both so very well."

The Wilpons have always had Minaya's back. But they always had Bernazard's back even while most everyone in baseball knew the former big-league second baseman and players' union executive had a history of behind-the-scenes underhanded behavior. (Former manager Willie Randolph's scars are between the thoracic and lumbar curves.) Then came Rubin's bird-dogging reporting, prying open the curtains. Until a few weeks ago, Minaya and Bernazard were long-time confidants who shared a similar background. Being forced to cut ties with the guy he brought aboard five years ago must have stung Minaya, because he did everything at the press conference but scream, "I'm a man! I'm 40!"

Rubin, just off a two-week road trip that included covering the All-Star game, came straight from the airport to Citi Field even though this was meant to be his day off. The Mets had news to announce and it's the beat reporter's job to be there when news happens. When Minaya segued into a rant about Rubin -- and remember, not one Mets' employee disputes why Bernazard was fired -- Rubin took the microphone and called Minaya "despicable" for suggesting alternative motives clouded his reporting.

"I've never asked Omar directly for a job in baseball. I've spoken with Jeff in the sense of probing him like, 'how do you get a job in baseball?'" Rubin said later. "I'm absolutely floored."

Rubin called Minaya's charges, "deplorable, ludicrous, flabbergasting and startling." Jeff Wilpon followed up his general manager's surreal accusation by saying media-types have been known to ask him hypothetical questions about a franchise's operational directions or for career advice. "And I don't think there's anything wrong with that, for Adam to come to me with that" Wilpon added. Reporters sometimes do leap over to the dark side, for better pay or personal growth. David Kahn, Minnesota Timberwolves' president of basketball operations, used to be an NBA writer and columnist for the Portland Oregonian. Chris Snow, director of hockey operations for the Minnesota Wild, used to be a baseball writer for the Boston Globe.

"This was a well-reported, well-researched, exclusive story, and it's a shame that the Mets deemed fit to cast aspersions on our reporter instead of dealing with the issues at hand," Martin Dunn, editor-in-chief of the Daily News, said in a statement. "We stand by Adam 1,000 percent."

The New York press corps is an odd collection of agendas and egos. We bicker, complain, gossip and try to beat the vowels out of every competitor. Some can shut off the nonsense after deadline; others, like Adam Rubin, can't ever really quiet the noise. He's forever making the extra call, filing another story. I say this after covering thousands of baseball innings with Rubin, including hundreds of games on the road: there might not be a reporter more dedicated to his beat. Sure, we've had conversations about how to survive a profession in which raises and bonuses had been eliminated. Would a job in academia make sense? What about working for a team? If you haven't heard, the newspaper business isn't exactly printing money.

Latest Baseball Images

Cleveland Indians' Ben Francisco, right, is tagged out by Los Angeles Angels second baseman Maicer Izturis as he attempted to steal second base in the fifth inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Monday, July 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Mark Avery)

Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Ryan Roberts, left, gets the force out of Philadelphia Phillies' Pedro Feliz while trying to turn a double play during the sixth inning of a baseball game Monday, July 27, 2009, in Phoenix. Phillies' Paul Bako was safe at first. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Toronto Blue Jays' Rod Barajas is congratulated in the dugout after hitting a solo home run on a pitch from Seattle Mariners' Felix Hernandez during the fifth inning of a baseball game in Seattle on Monday, July 27, 2009. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

Milwaukee Brewers Jody Gerut is out at the plate as Washington Nationals Josh Bard applies the tag on Monday, July 27, 2009, at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (MaryJo Walicki/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MCT)

MCT

Washington Nationals Adam Dunn caught a long ball hit by Milwaukee Brewers Felipe Lopez in the third inning on Monday, July 27, 2009, at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (MaryJo Walicki/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MCT)

MCT

Milwaukee Brewers Felipe Lopez is tagged out at the plate by Washington Nationals Josh Bard in the first inning on Monday, July 27, 2009, at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (MaryJo Walicki/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MCT)

MCT

Seattle Mariners' Rob Johnson (32) is forced out at second as Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Marco Scutaro leaps out of the way to complete a double play at first on Chris Woodward during the second inning of a baseball game in Seattle on Monday, July 27, 2009. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Felix Hernandez delivers a pitch against Toronto Blue Jays during the second inning of their MLB American League baseball game in Seattle, Washington, July 27, 2009. REUTERS/Robert Sorbo (UNITED STATES SPORT BASEBALL)

Reuters

Toronto Blue Jays' Lyle Overbay, right, celebrates with Rod Barajas after hitting a solo home run on a pitch from Seattle Mariners' Felix Hernandez during the second inning of a baseball game in Seattle on Monday, July 27, 2009. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

Seattle Mariners' Felix Hernandez winds up to pitch against the Toronto Blue Jays during the second inning of a baseball game in Seattle on Monday, July 27, 2009. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

But if Rubin was angling for Bernazard's job, shouldn't Minaya have proof in the form of a resume, a cover letter? No, better to trash the reputation of a fine reporter who just happened to write a series of scathing articles on the dysfunctional front office, including Minaya's role in the ongoing mess.

The Mets, decimated by injuries to nearly every starter, probably won't be in a position to turn September into another nail-biting adventure. The logjam on the disabled list isn't Minaya's fault, but the rashes of miscommunication between medical staff and players happened on his watch. Hmm, how to deflect that issue?

The Mets' minor-league system might not be barren, but it sure needs watering and tending. Sources within it say Bernazard alienated scouts and other executives, punching a lot of holes in the organization with his behavior. He had a confrontation on a team bus with closer Francisco Rodriguez, a profanity-laced dust up with a team official during a game at Citi Field, in front of fans. Hmm, how to change the subject?

Before Minaya went off the deep end, he said an internal investigation by the team's human resources department had shown "multiple things" that led the Mets to fire Bernazard. "There was an investigation already going on because some people had filed [reports], employees within the organization that had complaints about Tony ... in different areas, but I can't get into details," Minaya said of Bernazard. Hmm, how to spin the story away from the truth and into dubious reality?

Powder the red nose and point the water hose, that's how. The Mets do both so very well.

Dysfunctional Mets Fit for a Straitjacket originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Against Jaded Pro Sports Landscape, Altruisic Granderson Stands Out

Lisa Olson — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:10:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- Curtis Granderson made sure every business card was laminated, the times and places immaculately engraved. He confirmed the restaurant reservations, paid for the hotel rooms, wrote down exact instructions for the subway to Yankee Stadium. This is how they would get to and from the airport; here was the nightclub where everyone would meet at 11:30 p.m., sharp. If Granderson didn't already have a pretty good job, he'd be a fine community organizer.

As it is, Granderson plays center field for the Detroit Tigers -- when he's not going to extraordinary lengths to make life a whole lot better for people he may or may not know. Searching for an escape from the daily rundown of athletes involved in steroid scandals, gunplay, drug use and assorted mayhem? Granderson might be ground zero for good work and good deeds.

It makes you dizzy just looking at the amount of charity Granderson does. Most of it is designed to enhance the lives of students in urban communities, and you need a box score to detail it all. He doesn't just write checks or lend his name; Granderson gets his hands dirty planning and running fundraisers, and the lives he's already touched in his 28 years on this planet will leave a far greater impression than anything he accomplishes on the baseball field.

There's his Grand Kids Foundation, his annual celebrity basketball game, his Scoring For Schools initiative. He's a spokesperson for both the Tigers' "Gloves for Kids" campaign and the Detroit Free Press Newspapers in Education program. He's hosting a charity gig July 23 with the Detroit Wine Organization, where teammates Edwin Jackson and Ryan Perry will join Granderson in a bachelor auction. He invited Michigan fourth-graders to submit artwork that captured their career goals, chose the most inspiring and included them in his book, All You Can Be, which will be released in August.

Those are just some of Granderson's selfless outlets, and if we were to list anymore, Jim Leyland's head might explode.

"I love Curtis because he's a great human being and a good player, but I also worry that he's doing too much," the Detroit manager tells me. "I'm concerned about it, because he's the type of guy who won't say no to anybody, and I think sometimes it gets in his way a little bit. He's just one of those guys, he's got a presence about him and a poise about him, a charisma about him. He's special, and he attracts people naturally."

Leyland says he's had conversations with Granderson about blending his philanthropy and his occupation. Not that Granderson's baseball gifts don't shine: He leads the American League with 287 runs scored since 2007, and has 175 extra-base hits and 47 triples since 2006. "He's very receptive in our conversations," Leyland says. "We don't want to discourage him from doing good."

Altruism is in Granderson's blood, as much as any sport.

So his combination of speed and power sometimes reminds observers of Willie Mays and Ken Griffey, Jr.? Granderson gets a far bigger thrill when a child tells him about receiving an "A" on his report card. So Granderson hit a triple and then scored the winning run for the AL in his first All-Star Game earlier this week? He shrugs, says he'll probably have a few more three-baggers before his career is over, and then, as if a light has been flipped on from somewhere deep within, he becomes animated and starts to glow as the conversation turns to the miracles found behind school walls.

"There are a lot of kids who won't go to school for a number of reasons," Granderson says. "Hopefully we can change that. So many kids don't realize for things they like to do, they can go to school for it. If you like cell phones, you can go to school for technology. If you like video games, you can be a video game engineer. If you like music, you can be a person working for MTV, BET, CMT. Those are great jobs, doing what you love."

Friday night's home run was Granderson's 19th of the season.

It's Friday night and the Tigers are in New York for a weekend series against the Yankees. His friends from the Midwest, all 18 of them, have arrived safely via the No. 4 train from their midtown hotel (where Granderson has picked up the entire bill for five days) and are checking out the scenery around the stadium. What Granderson did for his buddies so they could celebrate a bachelor party in New York in style is just window dressing to the bigger picture, but it offers a nice illustration on how far he extends his generosity, just because he can.

"You know what's crazy? He planned the whole trip for us down to almost every minute of every day," says Joe Lacy, who first met Granderson in the fourth grade, when they were going over spelling homework. Lacy shows me the laminated cards Granderson personally made for each traveler/partier, so they'll have their own tour guide, even while he's otherwise occupied with running the bases and stuff. Stops at all the hotspots are listed: Hudson Terrace was to be their post-game Friday haunt, the doorman ready for Granderson-plus-18.

Footing most of the New York bill is nothing compared to the gift Granderson recently gave his childhood friend. Lacy's sister Rachael, a soldier preparing for duty in the Middle East, died from complications of an anthrax vaccination in 2003. A few years earlier, Lacy's brother Jemell was murdered in Las Vegas on New Year's Day. "I was lost," Lacy says of the dark hole he found himself in. He dropped out of college, spent a few years wondering and wandering.

Finally, Granderson told Lacy he'd pay the remaining tuition if Lacy returned to college. Lacy graduates from Governors State University in August, with a double major in English and Spanish.

A similar offer from Granderson to another friend hasn't been cashed yet. "But I have hope he'll take me up on it," Granderson says. "I believe no matter what you do, finish up your college. That way things you want to do, you don't get eliminated because you don't have that degree."

Granderson is sitting in front of his locker in the visitor's clubhouse, a constant beacon for reporters, teammates and employees from both teams. Soon the bachelor party will be seated in section 226, row six, right off the Tigers' dugout. They'll witness Granderson smack a leadoff double against Yankee pitcher A.J. Burnett, score a run, get hit by a pitch in his next at-bat and smash a home run in the fifth. The Yankees win, 5-3, but not before a magnificently scary thunderstorm causes a 57-minute rain delay.

The stadium is still quiet and dry as we chat about Granderson's upbringing and how he intuitively knew he'd be one of those points of light illuminating the country. His parents Curtis Sr., and Mary were educators in Lynwood, a suburb of Chicago. Granderson remembers them forever organizing different fundraisers, selling tickets for this charity or that, and encouraging people to become active in their community.

"I didn't really ask questions because they were always just doing it. I never knew any other way," says Granderson, who held his first job at age 14, cleaning up local parks.

From grade school through college, his parents always displayed Granderson's report card on the refrigerator. (Granderson has a business degree from the University of Illinois-Chicago). "Or a good assignment he might have done," Mary says in a phone interview. "I'd tell my students about honoring his work, and then a lot of their parents started telling me they began doing it. It's beautiful when you can pass something on. We managed to be where we were because we had people behind the scenes helping us. As a tribute to them, we give back."

Role models beget role models. Mary, who taught biology and chemistry for 27 years, and Curtis Sr., who taught physical education for 35 years, happened to sit next to John Fuller, founder of Full Athlete Marketing, at a game a few years ago. Fuller says the athletes he represents almost always have the same question: How can they get endorsements? It was different when Fuller was introduced to Granderson.

"I'd like to work with schools in Detroit. Can you help me with that?" Fuller recalls Granderson asking.

Granderson isn't sure why this request seems odd. Ask him what he had in mind and the expression on his face is the same as if I questioned why he doesn't showboat around the bases. "With Detroit being in the situation where it is economically, and the literacy rate at 50 percent amongst all people there, adults and kids, what better place to try to help out, especially considering education was so important to my family," he says.

Lacy, the friend from the party of 18, says Granderson just can't help sharing his blessings. "He's very wise, always has been. Funny and wise," says Lacy, who was Granderson's plus-one when Granderson went with other major league representatives on an ambassador baseball trip to Africa. "We're always telling him, 'Stop. You don't have to pay for everything. We can buy dinner.' But he cherishes these moments."

Does Granderson worry about his good deeds interfering with the career that enables him to perform those good deeds? Does he fear he might buckle under the burden of being a role model? "I'm good at discipline and time management. I like to plan stuff. I was the point guy back in high school, planning homecoming and prom, stuff like that. Everything from where we're going to how we're getting there," he says.

"And as far as being a role model and doing things right, that's something I gladly take on."

Granderson drove with his parents from St. Louis to Chicago late Tuesday night following the All-Star Game, just the three of them in the car for nearly five hours, in pouring rain. Granderson was chatty at first, talking about the game, the pregame ceremony honoring volunteers, and of course, the appearance of that other community organizer from Chicago, President Obama.

"But mostly he slept," Mary says of her son. Leyland, for one, will be happy to hear that.

Against Jaded Pro Sports Landscape, Altruisic Granderson Stands Out originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Boo Him, Eject Him -- Mannywood, Population 1, Ambles On

Lisa Olson — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:50:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK - The good citizens here rarely need justification to boo. They'd jeer a cockroach scurrying across subway tracks just as quickly as they'd hiss a nun moving too slowly in the crosswalk.

But it wasn't until the fifth inning of Tuesday's game at Citi Field that New Yorkers truly cleared their lungs. Whatever gunk had been accumulating - soot, rage over the home team's incompetence, disgust at cheating ballplayers - got expunged in a massive exhale, as Manny Ramirez threw a tantrum and was ejected for acting like a petulant baby.

Mariotti: Fans Glorifying Manny Need to Get a Life

Was this crew chief John Hirschbeck's way of telling Ramirez he should have more deference for the sport and its rules? Perhaps, and though the men in blue have hardly had a stellar spring or summer, there was something purifying about the home plate umpire showing Ramirez he was sick of the Dodger slugger's whining and disrespectful gyrations.

It was Ramirez's fourth at-bat in a laugher Los Angeles would win, 8-0. Already he had three RBI and one strikeout, with Hirschbeck ringing Ramirez up in the first inning on a 3-2 pitch that kissed the plate's outside corner. Hirschbeck's strike zone was generous, clearly, but Ramirez had been treated fairly by the full house in his third start since returning from a 50-game suspension for violating baseball's drug policy. Ramirez was booed in his first plate appearance in his hometown, but it wasn't the kind of vitriol New Yorkers showered on Barry Bonds when he came visiting, and it was a whisper compared to the fury Mets fans have been known to bestow on their own closers when they blow a game. (Somewhere, John Franco and Armando Benitez felt their ears burning.)

"Ster-oids! Ster-oids," sang most of the fans as Ramirez sauntered to the plate. "Man-ny! Man-ny!" came the chant from other pockets. New Yorkers do love a good argument.

The first time Hirschbeck called strike three, Ramirez briefly argued, and the conversation continued from the visitor's dugout, where TV cameras caught him barking at the ump. The second time Hirschbeck called strike three, there were two outs, the bases were loaded and the fans' throats were sufficiently lubed.

Pitcher Mike Pelfrey got Ramirez blinking on a slider away, and Ramirez responded by tossing his helmet. As he walked toward left field, Ramirez then flipped his elbow guard in the direction of Hirschbeck, who was looking elsewhere. Hirschbeck's delayed response was brilliantly timed, if only because Mets fans needed a reason not to start doing swan dives off the Triborough Bridge. As soon as Hirschbeck raised his arm to signal Ramirez's night was done, Citi Field imploded. The Mets might never win another game, but at least they had this one despair-snapping moment.

"He's human, he makes mistakes," Ramirez said later of Hirschbeck. "That's a ball. I only play five innings so I was leaving anyway, so that was good. It wasn't a big deal."

Ramirez lives in the moment, for the moment. If he has any regrets about the suspension that he jokingly calls his "criminal behavior," he has no desire to share them with the world. If he cares about the consequences of his sometimes-irrational actions, he rarely admits it.

He was as carefree as a hummingbird early in the day, when he spotted the ultra-large media blob waiting for him at Citi Field. "Guess I'm the most wanted man alive," Ramirez cracked, and when he told reporters to "put in a good word for the All-Star Game next year," it was clear whatever remorse he might be feeling is probably limited to the $8 million hit his bank account took. Baseball questions only, Ramirez warned reporters, as if the how and why behind his suspension had nothing to do with baseball.

MLB dodged a travesty with Ramirez finishing seventh among NL outfielders in fan voting for starting All-Star spots, but the sport will continue to take a hit as long as one of the game's most popular players persists on acting as if his unpaid leave was a harmless vacation. Dodgers manager Joe Torre implored Ramirez to answer all questions about his suspension honestly, with a dash of humility, but as he did in San Diego over the weekend, Ramirez swatted away inquiries with mindless indifference.

The more he repeated that he didn't want to talk about the past, the more Manny sounded like Mark McGwire. Ramirez wouldn't say why he was caught with a prescription for human chorionic gonadotropin, the drug prescribed for women undergoing IVF treatments in the hope of getting pregnant. When men use HCG, experts say it is because they are trying to restore natural testosterone levels in an attempt to help the body cycle off steroids. Say what you want about Alex Rodriguez's conflicting statements during his press conference where he admitted using performance-enhancing drugs, but at least A-Rod acted as if he understood his role in the contamination and corruption of an entire era. Either Ramirez hasn't a clue or, more likely, he simply doesn't care.

As Ramirez sparred with the media, longtime Dodger coach Manny Mota stood off to a side, rotating the mirror on Ramirez so it reflected a different angle. "He works harder than anybody on this team. You should see the way the younger kids look up to him and want to be like him," Mota said. "Manny brings us so much energy and fun and positive vibrations. I don't know how you can't appreciate that."

The Boston Red Sox, Ramirez's former team, would add that Ramirez committed the most egregious crime of all by quitting on his teammates so he could force a trade and sign a new contract. The kids at George Washington High, the school on the northern edge of Manhattan that Ramirez attended, would add that Manny has reneged again and again on promises to donate cash and baseball equipment to their dirt-poor programs.

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San Francisco Giants pitcher Sergio Romo, right, and catcher Bengie Molina celebrate the defeat of the Florida Marlins after a baseball game Tuesday, July 7, 2009, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Arizona Diamondbacks' Chad Qualls, right, hugs Miguel Montero after the Diamondbacks win over the San Diego Padres in the ninth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, July 7, 2009, in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks defeated the Padres 4-3. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Baltimore Orioles' Luke Scott is greeted at the visitors' dugout after he hit a three-run home run against the Seattle Mariners in the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday, July 7, 2009, at Safeco Field in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

ANAHEIM, CA - JULY 07: John Lackey #41 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim looks down after giving up a three-run home run to Andruw Jones of the Texas Rangers in the fifth inning at Angel Stadium on July 7, 2009 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** John Lackey

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ANAHEIM, CA - JULY 07: David Murphy #7 of the Texas Rangers slides safely past catcher Mike Napoli #44 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and scores a run in the fifth inning at Angel Stadium on July 7, 2009 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** David Murphy;Mike Napoli

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ANAHEIM, CA - JULY 07: Jarrod Saltalamacchia #21 of the Texas Rangers hits a single, scoring two runs in the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Angel Stadium on July 7, 2009 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jarrod Saltalamacchia

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ANAHEIM, CA - JULY 07: (L-R) Hank Blalock #9, Josh Hamilton #32, Andruw Jones #25 and Michael Young #10 of the Texas Rangers celebrate Jones' three-run home run in the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Angel Stadium on July 7, 2009 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Hank Blalock;Josh Hamilton;Andruw Jones;Michael Young

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ANAHEIM, CA - JULY 07: Dustin Nippert #57 of the Texas Rangers is pulled from the game in the fourth inning against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Angel Stadium on July 7, 2009 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Dustin Nippert

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San Diego Padres' Chase Headley watches his RBI double against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the eighth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, July 7, 2009, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

San Diego Padres' Kevin Kouzmanoff, left, celebrates his run scored against the Arizona Diamondbacks with Padres' Jim Lefebvre, bottom left, Bud Black, middle, and Everth Cabrera in the eighth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, July 7, 2009, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

The Dodgers still see Ramirez through rose-colored goggles. They've reinstated the Mannywood section in left field at Dodger Stadium, which promises to be a financial windfall. The Dodgers proved to be a very good team without Ramirez, but with him they are a traveling circus that packs ballparks, clogs TV airwaves and sprinkles dollar bills on everyone affiliated with baseball. The sport continues to profit from its sins.

New York was thought to be Ramirez's grand test, a city sure to torment and taunt him for his cheating ways. But fans here, like elsewhere, sounded mostly like they don't much care what Ramirez did to his body while thumbing his nose at the lofty idea of fair play. In San Diego, Ramirez was treated as though he was returning from a pulled hammy. At Citi Field, he was hissed and jeered, but not much more than any other player who hurts the Mets.

Sure, they mocked his eyes and his timing on those two strikeouts -- was it all the games he missed or the lack of drugs? -- but then came the sound of tens of thousands of fans collectively choking in the second inning when Ramirez slapped a bases-loaded, broken-bat blooper into center field. Two runs scored, the scoreboard flipping to 3-0, Dodgers, and Ramirez's RBI single in the fourth made it 5-0.

"Man-ny! Man-ny!" grew the chants, bolder and louder than before. He froze, then pouted, then got tossed in his final at-bat, but as he audaciously noted later, he never planned to play more than five innings. His solipsism is truly Hall of Fame material.

Boo Him, Eject Him -- Mannywood, Population 1, Ambles On originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blood on the Tracks in Subway Series

Lisa Olson — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:50:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK - Alex Cora might as well have been swinging a licorice stick. That's how effective his bat had been every time he stepped into the box and looked out at pitcher A.J. Burnett. Cora was 0-for-19 against Burnett, with seven strikeouts, and so of course Cora's manager did the only sensible thing Saturday night, when the Yankees played the Mets.

Jerry Manuel made Cora the Mets' leadoff hitter.

Snorting, charging bulls have been known to treat waving red capes with more kindness.

"I'm due, man. Have to be due," Cora kept saying to anyone who mentioned his total failure against Burnett, the curveball-throwing maestro who over the winter signed a five-year, $82 million deal with the Yankees. It wasn't just reporters picking at Cora's pitiful stats vs. Burnett. He heard about his ineptitude from fans, from taxi drivers, from the weatherman on an area cable station.

Cora figured nothing lasts forever. Manuel figured Mets fans hadn't reason to bite their nails down to a nub in 24 whole hours. Burnett figured it had been a while since he flirted with a no-hitter.

And so it was that the Subway Series came screeching into the sixth inning at Citi Field, with Burnett cruising along splendidly against an offensively challenged Mets lineup. Burnett's curve was especially dangerous, cruelly teasing the Mets hitters with a sharp dive. Burnett struck Cora out in his first at-bat, Cora lined to center field in the third, and now here was the sixth, the Yankees having turned a tight game through five innings into a 5-0 lead, and Cora again replayed in his mind the words Kobe Bryant uttered during the NBA playoffs.

"When he had a bad game he'd say, 'Hey, when that happens I keep shooting because the next one is going to go in,' " Cora said. "I've been saying that for the last five years."

Burnett followed a fastball to Cora with a backdoor breaking ball that Cora drove cleanly into right-center, ruining Burnett's no-hit bid. It was the only hit the Mets managed all night, a worrisome sign that their grittiness and pluck is beginning to dissipate like fairy dust.

Behind Burnett's brilliant outing, the Yankees beat the Mets 5-0, in the fifth game of an interleague series that comes to a merciful ending Sunday night. Burnett pitched seven marvelous innings, striking out a season-high 10 while walking only three, and a Yankee lineup depleted by flu (Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon both sat out) still managed to turn cavernous Citi Field into a bandbox.

The Mets have all sorts of trouble hitting home runs in their own park - injuries to Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes don't help - but leave it to the Bronx Bombers to show how it's done. In the first 37 games at Citi Field, only Washington's Nick Johnson and Adam Dunn had slugged opposite-field homers. The Yankees hit three in two games, beginning with Alex Rodriguez's smash to right-center Friday (the first by a right-handed hitter). Nick Swisher rocked a slider off Tim Redding deep into the left-field seats Saturday for a 1-0, third-inning Yankee lead, and Jorge Posada channeled his inner youth with a sixth-inning, three-run blast that curled over the left-center wall.

Think the Mets can't wait to return to the National League East? In the first two games this weekend, the Yankees have outscored the Mets, 14-1, outhit the Mets, 22-4, and the way this is going, the Mets will catch whatever germs the Yankees brought with them and spend Sunday hacking up lungs. With four wins in five games against their crosstown nemesis, the Yankees have already clinched the series, and it's probably time for Yankee fans to switch their obsession back to a real rival, like the Red Sox.

CC Sabathia and his bionic arm befuddled the Mets Friday, holding them to three hits over seven innings. Burnett one-upped Sabathia one night later, and that, dear friends, is exactly why the Yankees spent $243.5 million on the two free agents over the winter.

"You can say I was inspired, definitely," Burnett said. "I thought about his game all last night. And I've told him a handful of times over the season, 'I can't wait to throw behind you, Big Man, I can't wait.' "

The odd thing is, the tattooed, pie-tossing Burnett wasn't nearly as nasty as he was the last time he faced the Mets. That was a 15-0 Yankee laugher on June 14, in the Bronx, when Burnett allowed a stingy four singles in seven scoreless innings.

"I really felt A.J. had better stuff at Yankee Stadium than he had today," said Manuel, the Mets manager who, like his team, appeared drained of all energy.

"Seems like every time I play against him he has great stuff, since 2004. It might be me," said Cora, the Mets shortstop who has ably filled Reyes' spot and a leadership void, but who glumly admitted after Saturday's loss that the strength it took to hold together a pieced-together team was finally cracking.

The All-Star lineup the Mets boasted at the start of the season is now mostly made up of Triple-A call-ups trying to keep the team above the .500 mark until the big bats return. Manuel preaches staying afloat through the All-Star break, a reasonable philosophy as long as the Philadelphia Phillies keep blowing leads. The Mets took three of four games against St. Louis last week, prompting Cora to say, "Don't feel sorry for the Metropolitans. We're not as bad as people think." But after Sabathia and then Burnett ripped through the Mets' bats, Manuel admitted the crisis might be wearing down his team.

"That's a legitimate question. Are we worn down by this? I don't know the answer," Manuel said, though his body language said otherwise.

"You know what? Today was the first day I felt like it hit us," Cora said. "I can tell we didn't have that bounce in our step."

Of course, pluck, grit and guts hadn't much chance against Burnett's devastating curveball. It dropped like a tear against the first five strikeout victims, and a couple of terrific defensive plays behind Burnett stopped the Mets from doing any damage beyond Cora's single. Brian Bruney and David Robertson each threw perfect innings in relief, to complete the one-hitter.

At age 24, despite throwing a fastball that hadn't been tamed, Burnett pitched a no-hitter for the Florida Marlins in 2001, against San Diego. He walked nine that night, then spent the next eight seasons striving for another no-no. Melky Cabrera's running, diving, one-handed grab of Daniel Murphy's line drive on the left-field warning track in the fifth inning Saturday suggested Burnett might get his wish.

"That's when you start thinking it might happen," Burnett said. "To have guys out there running around and diving everywhere makes you go harder.

"I was pretty much shooting for it, you know, from probably the fourth on."

The guy who had done nothing but swing licorice sticks against Burnett burst the bid. On this night, that's about all the Mets can claim.

Blood on the Tracks in Subway Series originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A-Rod in Spotlight, Back to Old Ways

Lisa Olson — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:16:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

In a kinder, gentler world, one without cell phone cameras and the insatiable desire to know everything about everyone, here's what would be relevant: Alex Rodriguez is in a brutal slump, the Yankees are in a bit of trouble and most of the pertinent details can be found in the latest box scores.

In a Jon and Kate world, here's the, ahem, rest of the story: Behind closed doors, Yankee executives argue about and stress over what they call "the A-Rod situation." They wonder if his awkward flails with the bat, his slowly swiveling hips, are merely expected by-products of the surgery he underwent during the spring, or a harbinger of much worse? They wonder how he can be caught shamelessly canoodling with actress Kate Hudson at nightclubs in the wee morning hours, while his employers who pay him $30 million a year decide he needs days off, to rest his weary body.

It's always something with A-Rod.

Tuesday night, it was Rodriguez going 0-for-4, as the Yankees were shut out 4-0 in Atlanta by the Braves, to drop five games behind Boston in the AL East. Most anywhere else, losing three straight games and four of six barely sparks discussion at the morning water coolers. Most everywhere else, the sport's erstwhile best hitter isn't batting .143 in June, with one hit in his last 23 at-bats.

A-Rod is hardly the only reason Yankee fans are acting like someone sprinkled rat poison in their coffee. The Bronx Bombers are a hot mess all around. Their rotation is hanging by the seams, their lineup bursting with aging stars who'd be better off sliding gracefully into the DH slot. But in the middle of a nine-game swing against middling National League teams - the Yankees are 1-3, with two games left in Atlanta before this weekend's Subway Series in Queens - much of the worrisome chatter revolves around A-Rod.

First came the strange weekend in South Florida, when the Yankees decided Rodriguez would be rested once a week until the All-Star break. He had played in 38 straight games since coming off the disabled list, his return initially helping to spark the Yankees as they christened their new palace in the Bronx with spectacular home runs and come-from-behind wins.

With A-Rod melting easily, almost effortlessly, into the ornate background, the Yankees' camaraderie and gutsy play made it possible to forget their payroll stretched above the $200 million mark.

But then the Yankees were swept in Boston, and the only reason they took two-of-three from the crosstown Mets is because Luis Castillo failed to squeeze a pop-up. A series loss against Washington followed, and when Yankee fans weren't baying at the moon over that awful shame, they were resuming their convoluted love-hate affair with A-Rod.

Mired in a 7-for-51 drought over 15 games, A-Rod appeared to be straining, lunging. That string of early-season games - and Rodriguez insisted he be in the lineup for all of them, his desire to quell the furor over his steroid admission admirable - was understandably taking a toll. How could he be expected to be the sport's best hitter so soon after surgery, and presumably with an all-organic diet? On the eve of the Yankees' series in Miami against the Marlins it was agreed during a conference call that A-Rod would sit one game out of every seven.

"We'll take this month and we'll regroup," Rodriguez said. "You might see it once every 10 days, and we'll regroup again. The idea is to get a little stronger each month. I do think it's healing and getting better, but this is all new ground for me."

If Joel McHale, the incomparable host of The Soup, were narrating this surreal reality show, he'd call it, "A-Rod. Colon. It's Complicated."

Because even while general manager Brian Cashman insisted it was a strictly a medical decision, and manager Joe Girardi seemed bewildered that what was to be a two-day rest would be labeled a benching, the rest of the story veered into crazy territory. There were rumors of a shouting match between A-Rod and Girardi, who wasn't on the conference call. The manager and the slugger "spoke sharply" to each other, reported the Miami Herald. Pure baloney, insisted the two alleged participants.

Alex Rodriguez Controversies

Alex Rodriguez is in hot water again. Mired in a slump, the Yankees slugger was given a few games off for a weekend series against the Marlins. Then it was reported that he was out late that night in Miami partying with actress Kate Hudson. Click through for more about A-Rod's checkered past.

Getty Images (2)

Alex Rodriguez, seen here as a highly-touted 18-year-old with the Seattle Mariners, may have been using steroids as far back as high school, according to a new book.

Rich Pilling, MLB / Getty Images

After a report was released in February that Rodriguez tested positive for steroids during his AL MVP campaign in 2003, he admitted to injecting performance-enhancing drugs during his time with the Texas Rangers between 2001 and 2003.

Chris Carlson, AP

Rodriguez arrived in New York in 2004 via a trade with the Rangers and announced he was willing to move from shortstop to third base as a symbolic olive branch to Derek Jeter, who he had blasted in the past.

Gregory Bull, AP

Former manager Joe Torre's recently released book, 'The Yankee Years', included details of A-Rod's tumultuous tenure with the Yankees. Torre claims A-Rod was known by teammates as "A-Fraud" and paints him as mentally fragile.

Ezra Shaw, Getty Images

Despite being named AL MVP (48 homers, 130 RBI) in 2005, Yankee fans called out A-Rod by saying many of his homers came in meaningless situations.

Morry Gash, AP

A-Rod's awkward slap that knocked the ball from Bronson Arroyo's glove in the 2004 ALCS enhanced his reputation as a player who folded in the clutch.

Amy Sancetta, AP

Rodriguez temporarily endeared himself to teammates and Yankee fans by slugging it out in 2004 with Jason Varitek of the hated Boston Red Sox.

Winslow Townson, AP

In May 2007, many called this slide into the Red Sox's Dustin Pedroia to break up a double play dirty, as part of the heated Red Sox-Yankees rivalry.

Nick Laham, Getty Images

A-Rod filed for free agency during Game 4 of the 2007 World Series, drawing the ire of fans and officials. Some accused A-Rod of trying to grab the spotlight as the Red Sox were closing in on their second title in four seasons. He later re-signed with New York.

Jim McIsaac, Getty Images

More bizarre, there were suggestions that Girardi, fired as manager of the Marlins in 2006, purposely refused to start one of the game's biggest superstars because it would adversely affect the Florida ticket gate. Girardi might play occasional mind tricks with the media, but there is no reason to believe he's malicious, or dumb. A-Rod, meanwhile, admitted he bought hundreds of tickets for family and friends so they could see him play in his first meaningful professional game in his hometown. He had invited kids from the local Boys & Girls Club, a charity dear to him. He seemed seriously bummed he'd disappointed fans, and if he didn't recognize how clueless his joke sounded about having to tell his mother to save her gas money, he sure was adept at playing the good soldier.

I have to admit, I felt a little sorry for A-Rod. He had been on his best behavior all spring, sticking to his vow that from now on he would be all about baseball, about the team. He was a fine example of how quickly America forgives, going from steroid cheat to a sympathetic, picked-upon figure almost as quickly as he circles the bases. Just a few weeks ago he was unfairly caught in David Letterman's vile joke about A-Rod having sex with one of Sarah Palin's young daughters.

As Letterman offered a lame apology straight out of the athlete's bible ("IF I offended anyone ... blah, blah, blah"), A-Rod held true to his "baseball questions only" mantra.

Finally, he was getting it right.

Then came this headline Sunday in the New York Post, after A-Rod sat out Friday's game and pinch-hit in Saturday's loss: "Call him M.I.A.-Rod." The article's first sentence read: Kate Hudson must be wearing A-Rod out.

The Miami Herald had the salacious play-by-play:

Yes, yes, Alex Rodriguez and Kate Hudson partied at the Fontainebleau following A-Rod's benchwarming during the Yankees and the Marlins game Friday night. According to our tattle, the duo wanted to be seen and were they ever, pawing and prodding each other like Kevin Federline at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Says our source, the duo was "all over each other at Blade where they were sucking face for like an hour without coming up for air." The snitch also tells us Hudson was acting like "an out of control teenager, giving A-Rod what seemed to be a lapdance."

Girardi, the buzz-cut, straight-shooting manager who could be fired if the Yankees don't turn around the ship, must love hearing about his weary slugger partying with Kate at 3 AM. Cashman, the oft-criticized general manager whose job hinges on the Yankees reaching the World Series, must wonder how he can get through another nine weeks, never mind nine seasons, picking up A-Rod's dirty laundry.

If reporters wrote about every player's off-field activities, there wouldn't be enough trees or space in the blogosphere to report on anything else. If reporters acted as if they'd never been out playing in the wee hours, well, we'd be quite the hypocrites, wouldn't we?

But it's fair to wonder why A-Rod wouldn't be more discreet, after all he's put the Yankees through.

In the third inning Tuesday night, against flame-throwing youngster Tommy Hanson, Derek Jeter was on base after a double. Hanson didn't seem to mind walking Mark Teixeira, because A-Rod was up next. Hanson got Rodriguez swinging through a breaking ball for the second out, the rookie skillfully pitching out of another jam while A-Rod sulked back to the bench, 5-for-the-last-45.

In the fifth inning, just before Rodriguez flew out to right-center field, Yankee announcer Michael Kay told a television audience, "His mind is obviously messed up. He's thinking too much at the plate."

Yes, A-Rod, his season average dropping to .207, does have much to ponder.

At year's end, if not before, Rodriguez will have more surgery on his hip, and there is no way to predict how it will impact the rest of his career. At mid-June, with the Yankees caught in a team-wide tailspin, A-Rod is weary, struggling and, as usual, smack in the eye of the storm.

Latest Baseball Images

OAKLAND, CA - JUNE 23: Tim Lincecum #55 of the San Francisco Giants pitches against the Oakland Athletics during the game at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on June 23, 2009 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin/MLB Photos via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Tim Lincecum

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OAKLAND, CA - JUNE 23: Vin Mazzaro #54 of the Oakland Athletics pitches against the San Francisco Giants during the game at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on June 23, 2009 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin/MLB Photos via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Vin Mazzaro

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OAKLAND, CA - JUNE 23: Randy Winn #2 of the San Francisco Giants runs the bases against the Oakland Athletics during the game at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on June 23, 2009 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin/MLB Photos via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Randy Winn

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Seattle Mariners outfielders Wladimir Balentien, left, Franklin Gutierrez, center, and Ichiro Suzuki pause during a pitching change in the sixth inning against the San Diego Padres in a baseball game Tuesday, June 23, 2009, at Safeco Field in Seattle. The Padres beat the Mariners 9-7. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

ANAHEIM, CA - JUNE 23: Closer Brian Fuentes #40 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim celebrates after getting a strikeout to end the game against the Colorado Rockies at Angel Stadium June 23, 2009 in Anaheim, California. Fuentes picked up the save as the Angels won 4-3. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Brian Fuentes

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ANAHEIM, CA - JUNE 23: Closer Brian Fuentes #40 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim throws a pitch in the ninth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Angel Stadium June 23, 2009 in Anaheim, California. Fuentes picked up the save as the Angels won 4-3. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Brian Fuentes

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ANAHEIM, CA - JUNE 23: Erick Aybar #2 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim slides home with the eventual winning run on an eighth inning two RBI single by teammate Bobby Abreu #53 against the Colorado Rockies at Angel Stadium June 23, 2009 in Anaheim, California. The Angels won 4-3. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Erick Aybar

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ANAHEIM, CA - JUNE 23: Bobby Abreu #53 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim hits a two RBI single to put the Angels ahead in the eighth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Angel Stadium June 23, 2009 in Anaheim, California. The Angels won 4-3. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Bobby Abreu

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A-Rod in Spotlight, Back to Old Ways originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:16:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yankees, Phillies Deliver October Feel

Lisa Olson — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:41:00 EST

Filed under: MLB, FanHouse Exclusive

NEW YORK - Jimmy Rollins swears he isn't obsessed with teams from New York. He doesn't spend late nights worrying about whether the Mets might finally shake the choke collars from around their necks, doesn't wake up thinking the Yankees just might be built for October.

So why does it seem Rollins is forever talking about the Mets and the Yankees? Two seasons ago he made a remark that proved to be pretty prophetic, saying his Philadelphia Phillies were the team to beat in the NL East, and Mets fans reacted as if Rollins personally removed the frontal lobe from Jose Reyes' brain. Now from Rollins' crystal ball comes this enticing prediction: the Phillies will play the Yankees in the World Series this October.

Rollins didn't elaborate on his forecast Sunday, after the Phillies beat the Yankees, 4-3, on Carlos Ruiz's two-out, run-scoring double in the 11th inning. It had been a rollicking weekend filled with dramatic comebacks and sky-rocket home runs and blown saves and pies in the face, and if Rollins wasn't exactly handing out "save the date" cards as he left Yankee Stadium, he sure sounded like a man who planned to return at summer's end.

"How great would that be? A World Series here, us against the Yankees?" Rollins said with a grin. "We've proved we can put on a pretty good show."

The Phillies took two out of three games from the Yankees, but such basic numbers can hardly define this interleague series. Along the way a few truths were revealed. Away from home the reigning world champions are lunch-pail tough, finishing their 10-day, three-city road trip with an 8-2 mark for a league-best 16-6 on the road. They were just a dead-red hit away from sweeping the Yankees, and their starting rotation might not be as brutal as everyone thinks. But the Brad Lidge problem is a legitimate worry. He had two save opportunities in two days, blew them both, couldn't stop the Yankees from stealing behind him and looks nothing like the closer who last season was only perfect.

Over on the home team's side, the weekend confirmed the Yankees have indeed had the sticks surgically removed, allowing them to rediscover some of the feel-good karma that used to bounce off the walls of the old Stadium. This is a team with chemistry and a will to fight, two traits that defined the champion Yankee teams of the 1990s and mesh well with a payroll stretching past $200 million.

"We have a belief we can win games late, even if we've been down all day," said Johnny Damon.

The Yankees had four walk-off wins during a homestand in which they went 8-2, and though Sunday ended without anyone being pelted with a pie in the face during a giddy post-game interview, the Yankees departed for Texas feeling, as Damon said, "like Little Leaguers playing in the state tournament."

Clubhouse attendants rushed to ready the crème pies in the bottom of the ninth when Lidge started to crumble. One day earlier Lidge gave up a ninth-inning homer to Alex Rodriguez that tied the game, then lost it when Melky Cabrera smashed a single for the 5-4 Yankee win. Now it was Robinson Cano leading off the ninth with a single to center, and pinch-runner Ramiro Pena stealing second, and Cabrera, the walk-off king, slapping a single that danced under the glove of a diving Rollins, and Pena racing around to tie the game, and Cabrera stealing a base, and all those Phillie fans who had invaded Yankee Stadium suddenly felt their throats clutch.

Lidge recovered, getting Nick Swisher and Brett Gardner on groundouts, but you could already hear the rumble down the turnpike. What's wrong with Lidge? How long will manager Charlie Manuel continue to have faith in a closer who turns most every inning he pitches into a power walk on a tightrope?

The questions lingered well after the Phillies worked a little comeback magic of their own, starting when Yankee reliever Brett Tomko walked Chase Utley with two outs in the top of the 11th. That mistake proved pivotal when, after Utley stole second, Ruiz smashed a 3-2 slider that skimmed the third-base line and scooted into the corner, scoring Utley and igniting fires under the large pockets of red-shirted fans.

The Yankees have built a moat that divides the $2,500 seats from the poor folks who pay $400 or less to watch a game. There were no barriers between the invading Philly fans and the home team supporters, always a hospitable bunch. (The amount of fights in the stands matched the intensity of boos directed at Lidge.) When the bottom of the 11th ended with a whoosh, with reliever Clay Condrey retiring three straight for the win, it sounded as if Citizens Bank Park had been dropped in the Bronx.

Lidge is probably lucky he didn't cross paths with any of the thousands of Philly faithful as they left the Stadium. It was his fourth blown save in 12 opportunities this season, his third on the 10-game road trip, his second against the Yankees, but Lidge insists there is no linear issue binding them together.

"Man, today was totally different than yesterday. I felt great," Lidge said. "I was throwing the ball where I wanted to. They got two ground balls that weren't necessarily hit that well, and a stolen base in there and that was a recipe for a run. The things I was in control of today I feel real good about. I'm disappointed with the result and I know that I've got to start -- no matter what it is -- I've got to start getting them down."

Manuel said his confidence in Lidge hadn't wavered. He liked his closer's fastball and slider, said Lidge still has plenty of talent. "You know what he needs? Just to get 'em out one more time. That's what he needs. He's fine," Manuel said.

Regarding his shortstop's prediction of a Phillies-Yankees World Series, Manuel was only slightly more guarded.

"You know Jimmy, he's pretty confident," Manuel said. "And he's not often wrong."

Yankees, Phillies Deliver October Feel originally appeared on Lisa Olson FanHouse on Sun, 24 May 2009 22:41:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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