Home Opener

Flush with victory, the Yankees over the Rays and myself with my jinx, both of us headed to the Bronx. Are you ready for some baseball in the city?

~~ Yankees 8, Rays 1 ~~
Monday, 10 April 2017

I managed to get a ticket for the home opener, not great seats but I’m not picky.

Still, the last time I had seen the Yankees vs Rays the Rays scored 10 runs by the 3rd inning. I was a little nervous.

It was however a beautiful day. Marred only by the idiots sitting around me. I left my seat around the 6th or 7th inning and never went back.

Big Mike was perfect through 7 then Evan Fucking Longoria hit a double. I almost went over the wall and went after him, I wasn’t going to do any permanent damage just rough him up a bit.

And the Yankees won! Two in a row, which stretched to 8 in a row before they lost to the White Sox.
~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Yankees 10-5 (0.667)

Opening Day

~~ Tampa Bay Rays 7, New York Yankees 3 ~~

Yesterday I read a blog post about how everyone quit blogging in 2016. I realized that statement could apply to me. Today while watching the game I decided I should start again with blog posts for games. After all today is opening day.

And what a shitshow it was. Tanaka is our ace and he gave up 7 runs. He now has a less than sparkling ERA of 23.63. He lasted less than 3 innings. Our bullpen held the Rays to those 7 runs. Gah what a start to the season.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~

Game 1
Yankees 0-1

It’s a beach

The last two games I have been to at Yankee Stadium I have not bothered to write about, the first I waited too long, the second was only memorable in that it wasn’t memorable at all. When I got home I was trying to find one memorable thing to say besides, it was so hot. Strawberry daiquiris are good – and strong. Except, I may be confused about the dates and number of games. That happens sometimes.

July 2 was the date and it was so hot I got a frozen strawberry daiquiri, I made a comment about I would need to drink it slow because it was so frozen and icy, then an hour later I was looking at the bottom of the empty glass and wondering if I should get another. The other things I remember are, my bison jerky had been chewed on (probably by a little furred creature), we got to the stadium too late to get a Lou Gehrig bobblehead, the Yankees lost and on the way home I got caught in the rain. On the plus side I got to see Em and Gwen and Gwen’s friend and we got to go to dinner. Which is why I got caught in the rain, if I had gone straight home, of course I didn’t because, dinner.

My last three baseball games have been minor league games. I finally got Em to come to one, opening day in June. Then I went to the game on July 4th, that was a last minute decision because my other plans got cancelled. I would much rather sit in a baseball stadium and watch fireworks than stand or sit in a field. I also went July 6th & 7th. July 7th was a double header which made for a very late night, and on the subway home some people were playing charades. Only in New York.

Breaking the streak

Yankees have lost two in a row, the last game to the Blue Jays, Nova was pitching and the score was 4-8. Then the first game with the Rays, Sabathia was on the mound and the score was 1-5. Phil Hughes gets the ball tonight.

~~ Yankees 4, Rays 3 ~~

Hughes did not give up any home runs tonight. That does not mean I have changed his nick name. He is still a fly ball pitcher, but he managed to keep the balls in the park this time. In fact the only home run in this game was hit off of Mariano Rivera.

Tampa scored first in the first inning, then in the fourth the Yankees tied the game. After a rather rough first inning Phil settled down, he even had a 4 pitch inning. That was pretty sweet. In the third inning, Jennings got caught stealing twice. Robot Umps anyone? The Rays scored again in the 7th making the score 2-1. Which was upsetting, then the Yankees tied it again in the 8th, in the ninth with the bases loaded Ichiro brought in 2 runs. Which was a good thing because that jerk Longorio hit a home run off Mariano. But that was all they got, Yankees win.

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

Game 19
Yankees 11-8 (0.579)

My favorite game
Played by my favorite boys
Win or lose my team

The Yankees won?

Not wanting to stay in this hot apartment today (July 4, so yesterday actually), I have AC but whenever it is on I see dollar bills floating up and away, far far away, I decided to walk around the city. So after I dyed my hair (such an exciting life I live) I left and headed toward the park, actually I was headed toward Beard Papa’s but it’s on the other side of the park. I made it through the Park without ending up on the same side I started on. That is more difficult then it sounds, normally I make a big loop when I walk through Central Park, starting on 5th Ave and ending up a few blocks up or down, but still on 5th. I have a tendency to ramble while walking and writing blog posts.

The game was on my mind, but since the Yankees ALWAYS lose in Tampa, (don’t yell at me, can you say 9 game losing streak? I’m not giving any credit to the Rays, hate hate HATE) I decided not to watch, not to follow on Gameday, just walk around, maybe catch a minor league game, but there again, SO HOT TODAY. Of course there is always Twitter, one of the beat writers keeps us apprised of the various hate trains (I have his tweets sent to my phone). So I knew pretty much what was happening. Phelps was pitching amazingly, not as amazing as David Price (can’t really blame that on the Trop I guess), the Rays got a run in the 4th, one run for Phelps. Then a home run from Teixeira in the 7th, tied game. Then the tweet: Logan kicks the dirt …. I didn’t really need to read more.

Andruw Jones Hate Train. All aboard!

— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) July 4, 2012

When it’s really hot, like it was today, I have this tummy issue, and for some reason beer helps make it go away. So by this time in the game I was looking for a bar, the first place was recommended by someone on twitter, I walked up the stairs and put my hand on the door to go in and got rained on. Fine, the ceiling leaked, water I hope, so I ran out and went down the street down about a block. I found a Korean place that serves Korean food and American craft beer. Standing at the door I looked up at this huge TV screen with baseball players running across home plate. Players that did not have ‘Rays’ on their chest, it was now 4-3 Yankees, top of the 8th. I walked in to get a beer and watch the rest of the game, still thinking, they could lose this, they always lose at the Trop. Well not today. And here is another example of wins not being a true indicator of a pitchers worth, the pitcher that gave up the go-ahead runs to the Rays was the same pitcher that got the win.

Two more things, for those of you on the Russell Martin hate train, don’t stop here you are not welcome. You think Stewart should be the everyday catcher? Are you on crack? His defense is not up to Martin’s numbers, Martin has 4 errors this year and so does Stewart who has played a third of the games Martin has. Yes he has a better ratio of throwing out runners stealing bases, he also has caught a lot of games for just one pitcher, and how much of catching a base stealer has to do with the speed of the ball to the plate? Don’t runners go on the pitch? They are typically running on the pitcher, even though the catcher gets the stat, it’s not all on him.

The other thing, if you have a sports blog check out Sportsrantz it is a network of sports blogs and a social site to share blog posts. They invited me to bring this blog over there, more exposure I guess. I wonder if they have actually read this blog. 😛

Over the slump

The Yankees and I have both been in a slump, there is no reason, I just haven’t really felt like writing here. As you can see I haven’t even written about the games I have been to, my last post was on May 6. I went to the game on Thursday, May 10 by myself and ended sitting next to a creeper. I didn’t write about it because I didn’t want that to dominate the post. I was so annoyed and yet I’m sure that while I was still annoyed he had completely forgotten he had even talked to me. I had bought those tickets because I was buying tickets from a new source so Kasey and I could go to the game Saturday, May 19.

We already had tickets for the next Tuesday, so I don’t know why she wanted to go Saturday. It turned out to be a good thing because Tuesday she was sick and couldn’t go. Kasey left Saturday because she had a nail appointment. Yankees were behind and as soon as she left they started scoring runs. Not enough it turned out, but it was kind of fun to watch. Tuesday I asked Col to come since Kasey couldn’t make it, “PHIL IS PITCHING!” She was thrilled I had thought to offer her the extra ticket, she wanted to see Phil pitch. And he got the win bringing his record to 4-5. “He won for you,” I teased her.

Then Wednesday Sarah want to go to the game, that was a pretty amazing game, one time when A-Rod hit a foul, I said “Alex, that way!” and pointed to Monument Park. He responded by hitting the ball into the bleachers, not Monument Park, brat. Then he went on to hit another home run next at bat. The way the Yankees just kept scoring runs.

Now the Yankees are out of their slump, hopefully I’m out of mine too.

The Trop is cursed

Last year I promised to write a blog post for every game. Frankly, it wore me out. This year I am giving myself a break, and promising at least one blog post per series. This is it.

As I said, I think the Trop is cursed. The only teams that play well in stadiums with roof are teams that are used to playing with a roof. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

So the Yankees got swept by the Rays, for everyone panicking over this, **slap** IT’S THREE GAMES!! Not only is it just three game, it’s the first three games of the season. Get a grip and get some perspective people!

Reality check. With 0-2 start, the Yankees have played 1.2 percent of their season. If this was a marathon, they would be at half mile mark

— Jack Curry (@JackCurryYES) April 8, 2012

OK so the Yankees are 0-3 not 0-2, that means the percentage is now: 1.8% of their season, so if this was a marathon: 0.48 of a mile. So stop freaking out people.

Season ends with a bang

~~ Rays 8, Yankees 7 ~~

For the Rays, who swept the Yankees and are going to the post-season. They will be playing the Texas Rangers. Yankees will be playing the Detroit Tigers.

This was a crazy game, by the 5th inning the Yankees had scored 7 runs. The Rays didn’t even start scoring until the 8th inning. Then they tied it on the last strike of the ninth inning. Extra innings and a home run to score it. Before this happened, the Baltimore Orioles had come from behind to win their game in the 9th inning. This knocked the Red Sox out of the playoffs. In the National League, Atlanta was 1 strike away from winning their game, and lost it. I’m only sorry about that because my friend Gersh is a Braves fan, other than that, I hate the Braves. Almost as much as I hate the Red Sox.

Mark Teixeira hit home runs 38 and 39, bringing the total of my Harlem RBI donation to $585 for the regular season. I plan to continue making donations into the post season. Andruw Jones also hit a home run.

Nunez has a grand total of 20 errors for the season.

Pretty sure this blog post sucks. But I’m too tired to think right now. See you in the post-season.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ Wednesday, September 28, 2011 😛

Post #400

~~ Rays 5, Yankees 3 ~~

Yes this is my 400th post on this blog, and it’s a shame it’s for a losing game. Even though these games don’t matter one way or the other for the Yankees, they do matter for the Rays and the Red Sox. The only reason I am not extremely upset is that every time the Rays win, it makes things tougher for the Red Sox. I really don’t want the Red Sox in the playoffs.

Another thing that is a shame is that Colon didn’t get the win. He held the Rays to 2 runs, then Soriano gave up 3 runs in the 7th. I may have tolerated Soriano when he was pitching good, but I never really warmed to him. But Bartolo I liked.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ Tuesday, September 27, 2011 😛

Lions and antelopes

~~ Rays 5, Yankees 2 ~~

It’s been said, I don’t know who said it, that the antelope runs for its life, while the lion runs merely for his supper. What does this have to do with baseball? The Yankees are AL East champions, they have home field advantage, there is essentially, nothing left to clinch. Right now they are just playing to win games simply to win. The Rays are fighting for a playoff spot, their ‘life’. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. For the Rays tonight, they played hard and won. For the Boston Red Sox, well need I say more?

It’s never a good thing to lose, but its not always a bad thing. If this loss knocks the Red Sox out of the playoffs, in my opinion that makes this loss, not a bad thing.

Cano hit a home run, that’s always a good thing. He probably won’t get 30 home runs this season, but he has 28 and 118 RBI. MVP? I don’t know, I don’t think so.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ Monday, September 26, 2011 😛