Today was a fun day in the city

Kasey finally made it to the city and we had a blast, eating chicken with hot garlic sauce, going to get tea in SoHo and what else? Oh, baseball.

~~ Yankees 3, Blue Jays 2 ~~

Kasey checked first and said that we needed to find a bar to watch the game, cause the Yankees were behind. So we started walking and looking, actually she did all the looking since I didn’t have my glasses on. By the time we found someplace it was 8th inning and the Yankees were ahead. We got to watch Mo pitch.

Kasey said that Sarah has decided to ‘like’ Overbay until Curtis gets back. She was concerned that it might not be all right to continue to like him after Curtis returns, Kasey said, “It’s fine, you can have more than one ballplayer.” I’ve kind of lost track of how many baseball players are on my ‘like’ list. In other news around baseball, the Tigers swept the Braves, 10-0, 7-4 and 8-3. It’s kind of sweet. And in a bizarre turn of events in Chicago, On his off day, Rays RHP Jeremy Hellickson was ejected after the seventh inning after he yelled at home plate umpire Tom Hallion from the dugout.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Game 24
Yankees 15-9 (0.624)

Opening Day

Next Monday is Opening Day. I don’t know if I have ever been this excited for a Monday. I will be in the Bronx at the game if I have to beg for food for a month, if I have to sell a kidney, if I have to sell my best friend’s kidney, by now you should get the picture. I have been waiting for this day since the last out of the World Series.

During the off-season, I tried to amuse myself. I started watching football. Most of my life (sports fan life that is) I’ve been a Bills fan. Last year and this year I have been following the Ravens. They have purple uniforms. They made it to the playoffs, but no one expected them to make it to the SuperBowl. I bought a red and black wig to wear to a Super Bowl party and cheer the 49ers on to victory over the Patriots. I guess Tom Brady is not as good a quarterback as he thinks he is because the Ravens beat the Patriots. Which was after they beat Payton Manning which they also weren’t supposed to do. So I ended up wearing purple and black and the red and black wig is still unworn. I will find an occasion to wear it.

Hockey has also become a minor obsession with me. Last year I thought I would follow the Islanders, but interacting with Islander fans proved to be problematic. First were the questions: You don’t live on Long Island, why do you want to be an Islander fan? I could understand that question coming from a Rangers or Devils fan, but this was from Islander fans, like they didn’t want me to become an Islander fan until I moved to the Island. Then I stated on the Islander’s game chat that Kevin Poulin was cute. Hmmmm dead silence (well he IS). Then I made the ultimate mistake, I said that J.T. looked hot in the cool black jerseys, only to be told that the black jerseys are hideous (they’re not, they’re cool and J.T. is hot even if he’s not wearing …. never mind). Thoroughly pissed off I started looking around for another hockey team to follow, it was suggested that since I am from Buffalo, I should follow the Sabres. So I am, and the Sabres suck, they’re as bad as the Islanders and as bad as the Bills are, but they are my team. Even though right now I’d like to shoot all the players off into outer space. Just don’t expect any profound hockey analysis.

But baseball, baseball is back, or will be soon. Jumping up and down and yelling at my TV will commence within days. Before you ask, yes I WILL be rooting for Youkilis, he’s a Yankee, as soon as a player puts on the pinstripes he is one of my boys and I support him. Doesn’t matter what team he comes from or how much I hated him as a Red Sox, I’m rooting for him now.

Right now is spring training which doesn’t count, and boy am I glad it doesn’t count since the Yankees are in last place. Oh and they are dropping like flies, it seems like every day someone is injured. First game of spring training, Curtis Granderson gets hit on the arm and his bone is fractured. Then Teixeira goes out with a sprained wrist. Derek Jeter has swelling in his ankle, Phil Hughes is out with back issues, today Boone Logan got hit with a line drive in his “fat”, translation butt-cheek, and A-Rod is better known these days and A-WHO? As in, when was the last time we saw him, or for that matter anything was written about him? They should change their name from the NY Yankees, to the NY Walking Wounded, but Mo is back and he says they will find a way to get it done. If not, I will be putting these to good use and might actually see the bottom of my Jameson’s bottle.

ALDS GAME 2

~~ Yankees 2, Orioles 3 ~~
ALDS: Yankees 1, Orioles 1

Live blogging: The Orioles game is currently in rain delay, estimated start time: 8:45 P.M.

Cards pasted the Nationals. Cardinals 12, Nationals 4

Play Ball!!
Top 1:
Jeter singles to center field; Wei-Yin Chen is throwing fast balls, Ichiro reaches on an error; 2 on, no outs; Alex hits into a double play, a weird double play (second baseman caught the line drive, then tossed to second, Alex and Derek out). Robbie hits into the corner, Ichiro comes home, avoids the tag by Matt Wieters. Nick Swisher out at first.

Bottom 1:
Fly ball to left, one out; 2nd batter grounds out to Cano, two out; 3rd batter strikes out. 1-2-3 inning for Andy. Yankees 1, Orioles 0

Top 2:
Baltimore fans boo Teixeira, he pops out to first baseman; Russell fly ball center field; Curtis strikes out.

Bottom 2:
Pop out to Robinson Cano; Ground out third base to first; Strike out. Yankees 1, Orioles 0

Top 3:
Eduardo Nunez is the DH, (WHAT? Nunez DHing?) Pops out 3rd base; Jeter strikes out looking, but he doesn’t agree, is muttering as he walks back to the dug-out; Ichiro singles; Alex singles, runners at first and second; Cano grounds out to the pitcher.

Bottom 3:
Fly out to left field; Jeter to Mark; #9 batter breaks bat, ball drops before Curtis, 1st hit for the Orioles; McLouth in a single to center field, runners on first and second. This is vintage Andy, get into trouble – gets out of trouble. Walks batter, bases loaded and a power hitter coming up. Base hit to right field, two runs score. Baltimore in the lead by one run. Base hit, bases loaded again, bad base running by Baltimore; pop-out to Cano. Yankees 1, Orioles 2

Top 4:
Swisher swings out; Lined up the middle, base hit for Teixeira; Russell walks; Base hit for Curtis, bases are now loaded with one out. Nunez pops out; Jeter hits the ball to the third baseman. RISP FAIL. Ugh.

Bottom 4:
Base hit, bad throw by Jeter and Mark has to jump for it; Strike out; Ball hit to A-Rod gets the runner out at second. Hit to Cano, get the runner at second, again. Yankees 1, Orioles 2

Top 5:
Now it is time for the Yankees to get some runs. Ichiro thrown out at first; A-Rod flies out to center field; Robbie thrown out at first. The inning took about as long to play as it took me to type this. 4 pitches, that is disgusting.

Bottom 5:
McLouth reaches on an error; Hardy called out on strikes; Davis hits a fly ball to Curtis; Adam Jones hits a fly ball to Swisher, who catches it. Yankees 1, Orioles 2

Top 6:
Swisher grounds out; Mark flies out to left field; Base hit for Russell, scratch that, reached on an error; Granderson pops up and out.

Bottom 6:
Weiters get a double; Reynolds smokes it, Weiters scores; Thome strikes out; Machado hits it to Andy, who turns and throws it to 2nd, then Robbie throws on to Mark. That was pretty boss of Andy. Yankees 1, Orioles 3

Top 7:
Nunez leads off with a double (cause he runs fast like bunny, or the road runner, or whatever); Jeter hits the ball over Hardy’s head and Nunez scores; Ichiro hits the ball to Hardy and Jeter is out at second, but Ichiro makes it to first;

Chen’s night is done, Darren O’Day comes in to face Alex Rodriguez. Alex strikes out, Ichiro steals second;

My router crapped out right here, to recap the Orioles brought in a new pitcher, Cano was walked and Swisher hit a fly ball to make the last out.

Bottom 7:
1-2-3 inning Yankees 2, Orioles 3

Top 8:
Teixeira gets on first; Russell strikes out looking on a ball off the plate 😦 ; Curtis strikes out; Nunez pops out.

Bottom 8:
Davis hits over Andy’s head, over 2nd base and he gets on first.

New pitcher for the Yankees. David Robertson – fields the ball and gets Jones at first, runner advances to second; Weiters grounds out to first. Reynolds swings at the air. Yankees 2, Orioles 3

Top 9:
Jim Johnson is in for the Orioles.
Jeter grounds out; Ichiro grounds out. One more out and it’s the end for the Yankees. Alex strikes out. Yankees lose.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Once again the brooms are out

The best team in the AL East went up against the best team in the NL East and won. This makes the third sweep in a row for the Yankees. Next up is the Braves, and then they go away to play the Mets. Then no more interleague play. For this season anyway.

Once again church got in the way of my watching the game. Once again the Yankees won a game and hit home runs in it. That’s why they are called the ‘Bronx Bombers’, so let them hit their home runs. It makes them happy.

Selfish Curtis Granderson

The Yankees swept the Mets. On June 8th the Yankees won 9-1, they hit 3 home runs in this game. It was the first game Johan had pitched after his no-hitter and the three home runs came one after the other against him. The next game was on June 9 and I wrote about it in my last blog post, they hit 2 home runs winning the game by 2 runs. In the game on June 10, the Mets were up 3 runs until the 7th inning then Russell hit a 2 run home run, then two more runs in the 8th put them ahead. Sori gave up a run in the top of the 9th to tie the score. In the bottom of the 9th Russell hit another home run, this was for the win, a walk off home run. Yankees hit home runs in each game.

The series against the Braves was a sweep also, and the Yankees hit home runs in each of those games. June 11, 3-0 and 1 home run; June 12, 6-4 with 2 home runs; June 13, 3-2 with 1 home run.

In some of these games, you could say they wouldn’t have won without the home runs. The game on June 10th, the winning run was a home run. On June 9th the Yankees won by 2 runs and scored 3 of their runs by way of home runs. The home run hit by Mark Teixeira was with Curtis Granderson on base, the one Curtis hit was a solo shot. Phil also pitched very well, only giving up 2 runs to the Mets, so that helped. In the game against the Braves on June 12, going into the 8th the score was 4-0 Atlanta, then with the bases loaded Alex Rodriguez hit a home run. It was his 23rd Grand Slam, tying him with Lou Gehrig (this made Lindsey sad, I was sad too, but then someone pointed out even though he tied the record, that doesn’t make Alex as great a player as Lou. I don’t know if that made Lindsey feel better, but it helped me). After Robbie got on base, Swisher hit a home run to put the Yankees up 6-4 and then on June 13, Curtis hit a two run homer in the 6th which put the Yankees ahead.

However there were other games that would have been run without the home run. Such as the game on June 11 against the Braves. First of all, Ivan pitched a shut out, and he got a hit, his first. The Yankees scored three runs, one was a home run, so without that home run the Yankees would have won 2-0 instead of 3-0.

Then there was today’s game, which the Yankees were winning going into the 9th inning with a score of 6-1, all without a home run. We were all excited, thinking “Will this be it? Will the Yankees finally win a game without hitting a home run?” Yes the Yankees have hit at least one home run in all of their winning games. Then Curtis Granderson just had to hit one out of the park. His 20th this year and the Yankees are still without a winning game without a home run. Will it never end? Curtis is just so selfish.

I managed to type that without laughing. The Yankees are getting men on base, not all their home runs are single shots, and what better way to bring your teammates home than with a home run? The Yankees have power hitters in their line ups and Curtis wasn’t going to swing for a single with a 3-1 count. Not when he got a 4-seam fastball. Joe keeps telling people, a home run is a hit. Someday they’ll believe it.

While I don’t know yet if the Yankees are going to sweep, they are off to a good start. And for the last two sweeps, fireworks are in order I think.

Philthy Phil

Most of the time I don’t go to Mets vs. Yankees games. Mainly because as a general rule Mets fans are obnoxious. There are of course exceptions, I do know some nice Mets fans, like I know some nice Red Sox fans etc. When a friend called asking me if I wanted to go to the game, I said Yes, of course. I don’t usually turn down invitations to the game, especially from this guy since his tickets include the Audi club and Mohegan Sun Sports Bar Access. At this point I should probably say, my win lose ratio going with this friend is more losses then wins so I was a little apprehensive since Phil was pitching. I know he pitched a complete game shut out in Detroit, but I was wearing my lucky #52 Ravens shirt during that game.

However, I really like going to games so at 4:30 I headed up to the Bronx to meet my friend. We went in around 6 and walked to the Mohegan Sun Sports bar. It was Military Appreciation night and the Golden Knights were parachuting in, from Mohegan Sun you can see right out into center field so we got a good view of them landing. It was thrilling as always. Then on to our seats for the game.

Yankees scored first, then when a Mets player hit a home run the Mets fans went crazy. Like no one has ever hit a home run off Phil Hughes before? Been there, seen that, next page please. Phil gives up a home run almost every game. The game was now tied and in the 6th another home run by the Mets put them ahead 2-1. The Met crowd went crazy again. It didn’t last long, Mark Teixeira hit a two run blast in the bottom of the 6th to put the Yankees ahead. Then a home run by Curtis in the 8th put the score to 4-2 Yankees. I was happy about this, so often when a team loses the pitcher is blamed even when he pitched well. Even when Phil pitches well, but gets no run support and I hear, “He’s no good.” Even my date said, “Would you trust Phil on the mound?” Yes I would (followed by a punch). He only got a little run support this time, but it was enough to win, because he only gave up 2 runs. The fact that the two homers were single shots means he wasn’t letting anyone on base. He was doing his job, the bats need to pick it up and do their jobs! I can say this and not be blamed for throwing anyone under the bus because I am a fan and entitled to my opinion. However biased it may be.

We ended up the game in the Audi club, it was humid in the seats. I wanted ice cream but they don’t serve sweets in the Audi club. The bartender is a friend of my date’s so she gave me Girl Scout Thin Mints and a little mini cupcake. I tried the Sangria which was supposed to be really good, alas it tasted to much like wine. My date was annoyed that they let ‘fans of other teams’ in the Audi club, I guess he’s a little more hard core than I am. Overall I had a good time and it was a good game, if a little nerve wracking at times. However in close games I kind of like it when the Yankees take the lead in the last half of the game, less time to lose it. There was one other thing I didn’t like, before the game I saw this tank top outside a store on River St., it was grey and cut away in the back so my tattoos will show. I didn’t pick it up because I wanted to make sure I had enough money for the game, then after the game, it wasn’t out there anymore so I couldn’t get it. Hopefully it will still be there next game I go to.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Frustration

Before the game last night, I was thinking I should write a post about how the Yankees swept the A’s, I was even going to use my little broom gif. However it was beastly hot and I really didn’t want to sit with my laptop making my lap hotter. So I thought I would type it after the game. In the first inning the Yankees scored 3 runs, the Angels came back and scored 4. On the surface that may not seem too bad, but the Yankees got 3 runs because the Angles committed 2 errors. The Angels got 4 runs without any errors by the Yankees. It was a sloppy inning, Phil did not have very good stuff.

At lot of times Phil gets very low run support, on May 22, a game I was at, the Yankees scored 3 runs. It was enough because Phil held the Royals to 2 runs. Last night he gave up 7 runs. The Yankees scored 8 runs, tying it up in the 7th inning. Then the Angels got a home-run in the bottom of the ninth to win it. Mark Trumbo hit it off Cory Wade. But I don’t blame Cory, as he said:

“He got paid to do just what he did with it — hit it out of the ballpark,” Wade said. “If I throw that same pitch 10 more times, he’s going to hit it out 10 more times. It was a pretty bad pitch.”

That gives the Angels 7 wins in a row, and breaks the Yankees winning streak. Tonight Andy pitches, hopefully he can shut down the Angels.

In the third inning Nick and Curtis collided. I confess, I laughed, sorry guys. They both got up, the ball went into Swish’s glove and then bounced out when they collided. Curtis was up first and scrambling after the ball.

Granderson and Swisher collide

Catching up

Once again I am behind, I was going to write about the game I went to, by myself which the Yankees won (yay!) but I forgot, then the Yankees came back from a 9-0 game against the Red Sox which I had a great post written (in my head), which never made it to my fingertips. So just going to pick up with Saturday’s game against the Tigers.

~~ Tigers 7, Yankees 5 ~~

Tom invited me and it was him, me, his sister and nephew. Joe and Joan were also there, but he has different seats this season. They both still have tickets to the Audi Club and Mohegan Sun Sports Bar.

Freddy was pitching, he was pretty bad. He lasted less then 2 innings and 6 runs. Tigers were hitting him hard, even the outs were hard hit balls. The balls were going in the corner in right field where Swish couldn’t get them and he was scrambling after them Rapada, then Phelps and Eppley ended the game. Eppley gave up a home run. The Yankees came back to score 5 runs, it wasn’t enough. Garcia is going to the bullpen, Phelps is going to get a chance to start.

Still had fun, I like it when I’m at the game, and even in the Clubs I scream loud, like when Swish gets a home run, he hit two and Curtis hit one. And the ticket I got has Don Mattingly on it and “EIGHT game record tying home run streak begins July 8, 1987”. Little bit of trivia for you. I also got roped into invited to a barbecue at Tom’s next weekend. Kasey will be in the city, but D will be with her since it’s their anniversary. I couldn’t come up with a reason to say no, other then I despise barbecue …… more on that later.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

The next opening day

The season opener was in Tampa on Good Friday, April 6. The home opener was the next Friday, April 13 against the Angels, NY Yankees 5, Angels 0. As I have mentioned, to anyone that will listen, I was not at the game and I desperately wanted to go, I wanted to go so bad that up to the last possible minute I kept checking StubHub™ hoping a ticket would magically appear for under $100. Every time I looked up tickets, I noticed that tickets for Sunday, which was also Jackie Robinson Day were really cheap, probably because the game was at 8:00pm on Sunday. I bought two tickets, it was cheaper to get two then one, go figure. Jackie Robinson Day was going to be my opening day.

Now I had two tickets and had to think of who did I want to go with me? I put a post on this blog, I casually mentioned it on Twitter, then I saw a tweep that I’ve met a few time, that has a few times tweeted me to “Come on Down to _____ for some drinks”, so I just asked her want to go to the game Sunday? I have an extra ticket. She was thrilled, it was her birthday weekend and she loves the Yankees. In particular Phil Hughes, she wore his shirt, she squealed when his picture came up on the Jumb-o-tron.

It was also calendar night so we got this nice calendar. It has coupons from subway and the Yankees in it are: April: Derek Jeter; May: Mariano Rivera (taken the day he got his 602nd save); June: Alex Rodriguez (he looks like he just hit a home run, he’s got that happy look on his face and relaxed); July: CC Sabathia; August: Robinson Cano; September: Mark Teixeira (I probably should tear September off and send it to Kasey); October: Nick Swisher (not Mr. October but hey, my sweet Nicky! Who two years in a row hit a walk off home run on my birthday. The next year and this year, no home game on my birthday, so no walk-off); November: Curtis Granderson; December: Russell Martin (without his face mask. Very important); January: Ivan Nova; February: David Robertson (who so coolly in this game got the last out with the bases loaded {thank you Rafe you bum}); March: Brett Gardner.

~~ Yankees 11, Angels 5 ~~

Everyone was wearing 42 today, before the game when C and I were eating pizza and drinking beer at the pizza place around the corner from the stadium, I wondered why they were showing an old Yankee game, I mean #42 was pitching, but the uniforms were the wrong color …… Then during the game she showed me a tweet, “I just turned on the Yankee game and couldn’t figure out why Mariano was pitching in the 5th inning.” So I wasn’t the only one confused.

The #42 that was pitching was Ivan Nova, despite having a cold he maintained his winning streak. 6 IP, 4 ER, 8 Ks and his ERA is now down to 4.15 (He ended spring training with an ERA over 8. I guess he needs the adrenalin of regular season). Derek Jeter and Raul Ibanez hit home runs. Then in the 7th inning Rafael comes in, gets two out and then walks two, the bases are loaded, I was screaming at him “You are not David Robertson! You cannot load the bases! If you lose this game for Ivan Nova I will kick your ass!” Since Joe didn’t want to see me get in trouble he called in D-Rob. When Boone came in for the 9th inning C pouted, she wanted to see Mo, but since it wasn’t a save situation no Mo, Boone pitched a scoreless 9th. Good game.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

MVP! MVP! MVP!

The chants were there this year, I heard them them all the time, I even participated in them. Curtis Granderson for MVP, and he had an amazing season, batting .262 and setting new career highs, including hitting 16 home runs off left-handed pitching. He led the league in runs scored (136), gave Jose Bautista a run for his money in hitting home runs (41) and in the 156 games he played brought in 119 runs. He is also the only Major League player to record 40 home runs, 10 triples and 25 stolen bases in a single season. Sounds like an MVP to me.

But he didn’t get it, neither did Robinson Cano (the best 2nd baseman in baseball), instead the award went to Justin Verlander, who also won the Cy Young award. I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve either award, after all he helped his team make it to the world series …… [snark]

That comment is because I am still sore at the person who didn’t vote for Cano last year because the Yankees finished in 3rd place at the end of their season. In fact in 2009 the AL MVP was Joe Mauer, of the Twins, the team the Yankees eliminated in the ALDS.

So now you know more about me. I am able to hold a grudge for years, I get it from my mom, I’m still mad at the Braves for hitting all those home runs off Andy Pettitte in 1996.