You gotta believe

Nick Swisher released an album, “Believe” on October 11, 2011. Last Saturday, November 19, 2011 he came to J&R Music to sign copies of the CD. I went, I bought a CD, I waited in line, I shook his hand (twice- once for hello, then again for good-bye). I also took pictures.

The store is at 23 Park Row which is downtown. I got off the subway at the Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall stop and walked past City Hall and the bridge to the store. I got there about 11:30 (the signing was at 2:00), I was rather surprised to see that the line was not very long, there were maybe 20 people waiting. The man from J&R kept coming out and saying Nick Swisher would only be signing copies of his CD, so I got out of line and bought one. Then I got back in line, by now there were about 40 people in line. Nothing to do but wait and chat to people.

The couple behind me were interesting. She was a Met’s fan, just there to keep her boyfriend/husband/partner company. He was there to get an autograph for his favorite daughter-in-law who, according to him is simply mad about Swisher. Everybody was behaving themselves. Being orderly, not blocking the sidewalk, an elderly man with a walker and “OWS” button was walking down harassing people waiting to see Swisher. A YES cameraman was there, but I don’t think he got me so I won’t be on TV.

It was cold, not freezing cold but cold and they let us come inside, I think it might have been the size of the line and so that when Swish got there they could start the signing right way. The way the line was I was at the back of the room, a straight shot up from where Swish was going to be sitting for autographs. He comes in, loud and cheerful, stands up and poses next to the sign. The whole time we were waiting the people in charge were saying, only the CD’s signed and no pictures. People were standing between the CD bins taking pictures so I walked up to get this shot. The people behind me encouraged me, saying they would hold my spot, I had already told them everything I know about Swisher including the fact that Dave Robertson is WAY CUTER. I told them, that I thought they just didn’t want people taking pictures from right in front of the table. When I got up close, I saw people getting CD’s signed, stepping back and taking a picture, so then I decided, no pictures must have meant, no pictures with Swisher. One woman was told to put her video camera away.

I took this picture right before I went up to get his autograph, its a little blurry cause I took it quickly and was a little nervous, then I went up. He stuck his hand out, asked me ‘How you doing today?’ I told him my friend had asked me to say hi, that seemed to amuse him and he said, ‘Tell her hi back!’, then as I was leaving he stuck his hand out to shake again, good-bye. He’s such a doll.

So here it is, what I waited 2.5 hours for.

Bleacher Creatures ~ Sunday, June 26, 2011

It was the 65^th annual Old-Timers’ Day with a host of former world champions, All-Stars and Hall of Famers. Former managers Joe Torre and Lou Piniella made their long-awaited return to Yankee Stadium in uniform, as did former center fielder Bernie Williams for his first Old-Timers’ experience. Before the game there was a tribute to Gene Monahan, who is retiring after this year. In a post game interview, you could tell that he was not used to talking to the press and a little overwhelmed.

Tino Martinez played the star in the annual Old-Timers’ Day game, hitting a two-run home run off David Cone for the only runs in the Bombers’ 2-0 victory over the Clippers.

Bernie Williams was in center field, Monument Park was still open during the Old Timer’s game, so people in Monument Park were yelling and waving at Bernie. He turned and waved to them.

~~ Yankees 6, Rockies 4 ~~

Our seats were in the bleachers 4 rows back from the bull pen, which meant when Mike Harkey came out and started throwing baseball in to the seats I got a good picture of him. It also meant bleacher creatures, roll call, full on sun, heat and a headache. I thought I was going to die, it didn’t help that the Rockies were hitting home runs off Nova. He wasn’t pitching bad, just made a few mistakes and got hit hard for them. I got up to walk around, found a cool breeze in a shaded spot, bought a soda and took some headache medicine. I came back to a 3-0 score, Rockies. After I got back Sarah left to go to the bathroom. Cano got the first Yankee hit of the day and was on base, things happen when we go to the bathroom. Then she sends me a text message asking if I want ice cream, before I can reply, “BOOM” my sweet Nicky♡ hits a two run home run (he knew I was there) into the seats. Before she got back to the seats with the ice cream Jorge hit a home run and the game was tied.

It was starting to get cooler, there was some cloud cover and a breeze. I was also now in a better mood, so much so that even Ty Wigginton’s 2^nd homer didn’t upset me. The boys were hitting the ball now. In the bottom of the sixth the Yankees tied it up again with a RBI single by Alex. In the seventh inning Jorge walked, then Martin got a single, he smacked that ball so hard and the short stop couldn’t get a handle on it, it was ruled an error though. Then Chris Dickerson replaced Jorge at second and on a single by Nunez he scored. I turned to Sarah, “That’s why Girardi put him in.” She smiled, I don’t know if she heard me, she was smiling at the fact that this was the first time in the game the Yankees were in the lead.

We started down to the great hall in the eighth. At first she wanted to stay because, “I want a home run ball.” Then she decided it wasn’t going to happen. Before we started down she needed the bathroom and walked ahead of me toward them. I glanced at the T.V. as I walked past it and noted that Mark Teixeira was batting. Earlier I had said I didn’t want Mark hitting a home run because I was behind in my donations to his charity. Sarah told me if Mark hit a home run she would give me the money. Remember what I said earlier about things happening? As I turned to follow her into the bathroom I heard the unmistakable sound of the crowd reacting to a home run. I ran to the top of the stairs and saw Mark running around the bases, and then I ran into the bathroom shouting, “Sarah! You owe me $15!” She came out with a big grin on her face. “Going to the bathroom works.” She said as she dug the money out of her purse. As we walked to the stairs the crowd roared again, this time for Mo. We went down to the great hall, watched Mo shut the door on the big screen, then left to get dinner.

It’s a tossup what I enjoyed more, this game or hearing Mo call Michael Kay a “Big head”.

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

She was sad she didn’t get a home run ball from Curtis, but happy the Yankees won.

Sometimes, the headlines are pretty funny ~ Tuesday, June 14, 2011

~~ Yankees 12, Rangers 4 ~~

This this one: “Job well done: Yanks solve righty Ogando”. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be a play on words, I’m a little bit clueless. I suppose they are referring to the fact that coming into this game Ogando hadn’t lost a game. The Yankees sure showed him who is boss of the Bronx, he gave up 6 runs in 1.2 innings. I would feel sorry for him, but he plays for the wrong team.

After not hitting much on Monday, the Yankee bats were really hot on Tuesday, Swisher, Granderson (hey Jose, Curtis says HI [stolen from @The_Stace]) and Cano. Curtis is now tied with Jose for most home runs. Gardner stole his 14^th base of the season.

CC pitched and gave up 4 runs in 7 innings, not a problem with the twelve runs the Yankees scored (part of me wonders if A.J. is making a CC doll, just out of jealousy, or maybe putting ex-lax in his cocoa puffs?, Nah ….. ). There is a problem with me typing all my posts on one day, my thoughts just all run together and the games start to mesh, not to mention I am watching the encore showing of the current days game so things could get a little confusing, just bear with me. Ayala and Pendleton pitched scoreless innings, no Mo, these guys are just hitting to many runs.

And Texas likes to hit our batters too, I didn’t realize it was open season on baseball players.

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

Yankees decide to place Jeter on DL
Martin remains out with stiff back
Nunez ready to fill in while Jeter is out

Off day

The Yankees were off today. Nick was posting quizzes and polls on Facebook, Curtis was looking for soul food. I don’t know what the rest were doing.

After work I went to Target to get shampoo and cat litter, that is where I saw these. That is why the Yankees are such a financial empire, they know how to market. And no, I did not buy these shampoo. I need shampoo for colored hair.

Tomorrow night the Yankees will be playing the Royals. My regular posting will resume then.

Do they have a rally in their bones?

~~Yankees 6, Orioles 5~~

Michael Kay always says that when the Yankees go into the last inning and they are behind. He said it tonight, going into the ninth inning the score was 5-4 Orioles. Phil Hughes is still struggling, although I think he is getting better. Of course the numbers don’t show it, but his last outing against Boston he lasted 2 innings and gave up 6 runs, at the end of the game, his ERA was 16.50. Tonight he gave up 5, but it was over 4-⅓ and his ERA while still high (13.94) has come down. Of course the question is, what do you do with him? Pitching coach has to work with him, figure out what is wrong so they can fix him. I think they just have to let him keep pitching building up his strength and hopefully that will bring his speed and location back. Of course I am not an expert in these things. I am just a fan with a blog.

Top of the fifth Colon came in to replace Hughes, by the middle of the 5^th the score was Orioles 5, New York 0. Some have described what happened next as the Yankees started chipping away at the lead. First a run scored in the 5^th, Alex scoring on a double by Cano. Run number 2 & 3 in the 6^th inning. And in the meantime Colon was holding the Orioles to 5 runs. 7^th inning Swisher walked, then scored bringing the score to 5-4. In the 8^th inning Colon came out and Joba came in. On a wild pitch Felix Pie ran in to score, Martin flipped to Joba and Pie was tagged out at home plate. But in the bottom of the eighth, no runs were scored.

Colon was aided in keeping Orioles from scoring any more runs by the infield. On particular play made me happy, it was a running scoop up by Jeter with a turn and a jump and a throw right to Mark. It made me particularly happy because some people were mocking Jeter’s jump throw, saying it looked silly and wasn’t effective. Let me tell you, if Jeter didn’t have that ‘jump throw’, he wouldn’t have gotten the runner out at first.

So there they were in the bottom of the ninth, one run behind? Did they have a rally in their bones? Posada came up to bat, D started saying how Posada was doing “nothing” blah, blah blah. Then Jorge smacked that ball into the bull pen, the fielder climbed the fence but it was gone. Kasey yelled at D for ‘doubting Posada’. Ball game was tied and Mariano came in to keep it that way. Tenth inning, Mark walks, Alex doubles, Cano hits a single and Nicky ♡ hits a sacrifice fly to bring Mark home. And you know what that means. Yankees win, pie time for Swish, and lets not forget …

After the game Russell Martin tweeted:

Great comeback! Picking each other up is what it’s all about… That a baby swish @NickSwisher sweet pie.

I hope one day, Russell gets to taste how sweet the pie is.

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

And the streak is broken

~~Red Sox 9, Yankees 6~~

The Red Sox losing streak that is. It is a little upsetting that they broke it against the Yankees. I’m sure Phil is a little upset at his ERA. Of course it’s not all his fault, after all, Lackey’s ERA is almost as high as Phil’s, the rest of the team, as per Kasey was not playing well. Mark made a fielding error, as did Granderson. Kasey said Gardner was playing well and that was about all.

In other news, Manny Ramirez has retired. The statement from the MLB said in part, Ramirez had “an issue” under MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program and informed the league he would retire rather than “continue with the process under the program.” According to the NY Times he tested positive for PED’s in Spring Training. If you remember, Ramirez was on the players on the Red Sox 2004 World Series Team whose name appeared on the same list as Alex Rodriguez. And people chant steroids at A-Rod. Idiots.

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

Sarah’s first game this season

~~Yankees 4, Twins 3~~

Sarah and I were at this game, what I normally do during games is tweet via text message. I do it through most of the game. Sometimes I get involved in dialog with some of my followers, sometimes not. I decided I would just copy my tweets here, with some explanation, and also some links to video hi-lights if you are interested.

Since I know some of you won’t want to read all my tweets, let me just say that A.J. was dominant, 6 innings and only 2 runs. Joba gave up 1 run in the inning he pitched, Yankees scored 4 runs, no home runs, and Nick Swisher broke the Twins second baseman’s leg. Which everyone who wasn’t there and thinks they know something is second guessing.

A.J. sets the twins down 1-2-3

I’m going to the bathroom now, someone usually hits a hr when I leave my seat. (It didn’t happen)

Sarah just said: ‘Brett get on base, it’s ur job.’

Brett steals 2nd!

K Nicky honey, time to hit a home run. And if that pitcher hits you. Take. Him. Out

@FoxxieeLady No homers while you were in the loo! Assuming you are now out of the loo! LOL

@pjmclaugh I’m not coming out till nick hits a home run!

Andruw spanked that ball! Tie game twinkies!

Yeah russell baby! That’s what I want!

Woooo Hooooo Brett found a hole!

O.m.g! Did you see that catch by Jones!

That’s my guy! My captain did that!

A new pitcher? Really twins?

That twins 1st is no Mark Teixeira. Butterfingers!

This crowd is fiesty today. Eat some cotton candy and chill people!

Oh no I think Derek hurt the 2nd baseman. I told you he was too skinny! (This was actually a hard slide by Nick Swisher not Derek)

Ok Robinson lets get on base! Score some runs! Get AJ the win!

Not listening they’re not listening.

#42 is on the mound, and the crowd goes wild! Ok maybe not wild.

Out #1 – fly ball to Curtis G.

Out #2- fly ball to Brett G.

Mo with the save. Ballgame over Yankees win.

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

Today’s game was a wash

Or I should say Saturday’s game. First off, even though it was televised, I missed it. I was sleeping. Yep, sleepy girl is back. I even woke up around 1:00 looked at the time, thought about the game, and went back to sleep. I can sleep now, when the regular season begins …..

Anyway, back to the game. First up, “Sabathia has now served up exactly five runs in each of his second spring starts for New York. The Tigers got to him for that total on March 11, 2009, in Lakeland, Fla., and the Pirates did the same last March 9 at George M. Steinbrenner Field.” CC’s second start fits developing pattern Ouch CC. When I came upstairs, after I went and got Sarah from her job, Kasey tell’s me that CC gave up 5 runs. She followed that with “Yankees would have won if he hadn’t.”

With the Nationals up 7 runs by the fourth, the Yankees scored 8 runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Gardner helps Yanks forget CC’s struggles. Gardner hit a triple and a double, Jorge Vazquez hit a two run double then was brought home by Gardner. But in the seventh inning the Nationals scored two runs, then one in the eighth. Final score was 10-8.

Montero continues to impress me with his bat and defensively. Although every time I saw that I feel a twinge of guilt about Frankie. He was in the same form he was beginning of last year and said he was feeling stronger. But still ….. Montero’s progress not only with bat Not only that, but from what he says in interviews, he has a good attitude.

“I want to be behind the plate every single time,” Montero said. “I don’t want to lose all four years I’ve been catching with the Yankees. I want to be behind the plate. I want to catch and help them win.”

and

“I haven’t played in the big leagues yet, so if I’m staying with the team, I’m going to know a lot with the veteran guys that are here, like Jorge and everybody else,” Montero said. “They’re going to teach me, and I’m going to learn real quick. That’ll be awesome for me.”

It has been said, as near as I can remember, that the Yankees are big on helping new players, leading by example, instructing etc. I have also heard it hasn’t always been that way. Progress.

Who do you want to win the World Series and why?

It may seem a little late to be asking this, since the Giants are up 3-1 in the series, but as Aubrey Huff said, “3-1 is great, but this is the playoffs, and teams are certainly capable of winning three straight.” So with that in mind, and since the series isn’t over until one team wins 4 games, I thought I would pose that question. If you want to answer this question, you can do it as a comment here, or comment on Facebook or just answer the question in your head.

Personally, I want the Giants to win for two reasons. One is pretty obvious. I want them to win because the Rangers beat the Yankees. Reason number two is because their roots are in New York. An interesting bit of trivia, the last time the Giants won the World Series was in 1958 when they swept the Cleveland Indians, and at that time they were the New York Giants. They never should have left New York.

~~and that’s all~~ lo dice la principessa 😛

Game 4 re-cap by MLB.com

Tim Wakefield recipient of the 2010 Roberto Clemente Award

Jose Bautista and Joey Votto 2010 Hank Aaron Award winners

Reade Street tweet-up and a postponed game

It was supposed to be a gathering of Yankee fans (met through Twitter) to watch the game. @marciaherold suggested we meet at the bar where she worked, Reade Street Pub & Restaurant, so after my manicure I headed down there and for once I didn’t walk the wrong way. I did however, go out the wrong exit of the subway and so had a long walk to the bar. Along the way I dropped my i-Pod, the nice young lady who yelled at me that I dropped something and picked it up for me, in some eerie coincidence was going to the same place, we looked at each other and laughed.

The game was rained out, the tweet-up was simply incredible. There were some twitter people that I had met before and some I hadn’t. Marcia turned one of the T.V.s to the Rays & Royals game and @tommy_reyes started a “Lets go Royals” chant, “Clap-clap, clap, clap, clap” when they scored a run. He also proposed marriage, (sort-of, I’m told, I kind of missed that), was the leading voice in the roll-call and decided it would be a good idea to have SoCo-Lime shots (someone stole mine). In other words he was having a lot of fun and helping everyone else have fun too.

Besides Marcia, Tommy and me (@Rebel_U), also there was @Stefmara, @SimplySmoov, @amandarykoff, @TheLastJesus, @rebeccapbp, @EJGoose, @ruaalien2, @KelsODonnell, @23yanksgoyard , @JeffreyNYY, @jaydestro, @bkabak, @BNiche and @stevensmithy. All great Yankee (and other sports) fans, give them a look and a follow. If I missed anybody I apologize and I would also like to thank Marcia, I got most of the names from her tweets, since I have such a terrible memory.

Also, this picture was taken by Marcia, if you click on this picture it will take you to her TwitPic account where you can see this picture bigger and also see a picture of the ‘marriage proposal’.

~~and that’s all~~ lo dice la principessa😛