Double-Play-Rod: The Season In a Nutshell

There are people whose lives revolve around a sports team, and perhaps they care too much. But when you pay a player millions of dollars, they should care a bit more than Alex Rodriguez clearly does.

A-Rod is playing like he just doesn't care, like all that "Waaaah, waaaah, I wanna be a Yankee!" stuff after Hank Steinbrenner told him to take his Scott Boras and get lost last fall was just a ploy to get his moolah back. Moolah in, mojo out.

Really, one at-bat last night was the 2008 New York Yankees' season in a nutshell:

Bottom of the 7th at Yankee Stadium, against the arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox, currently leading the American League Wild Card race. The 1st of a 3-game series we have to sweep in order to make a serious run at the Playoffs.

We were down 7-1. Now we're down 7-3. The bases are loaded. Johnny Damon on 3rd, Derek Jeter on 2nd, Bobby Abreu on 1st. All 3 of those have puzzled us at times this season, but on this occasion, they worked for us, and did their job. Which, basically, has come down to getting on base so we can score more than 1 run when A-Rod jacks one out of the park. Assuming, of course, he does his job.

Loaded up. Just 1 out. And "the best player in baseball" is batting. Against the Boston bullpen, and not Jonathan Papelbon, and not Hideki Okajima, either.

If A-Rod hits one out, that's a grand slam, a tie game, a completed comeback, and a big emotional lift -- in a game the Yankees have to win.

But even if all he does is hit a single, it's 7-5, and Abreu on 3rd and A-Rod on 1st, with Jason Giambi coming up, and still only 1 out, and, with 2 men on, the Sox can't go into the Giambi Shift.

If A-Rod works a walk, now it's 7-4, bases still loaded, still only 1 out, still Giambi coming up, with the shift a bad idea, and the short porch in right field.

If A-Rod so much as flies out, that's 7-2, with men on 1st and 2nd, and Giambi coming up with 2 out. Not a terrible situation.

Given any of these possibilities, you'd have to like the Yankees' chances.

Except A-Rod grounds into a double play to end the inning. Again.

And the Yankees don't mount another threat, and lose the most important game of the season, the one that was going to either likely get them back in the race, at least for the Wild Card, or doom them to their 1st postseason on the wrong side of the TV since 1993.

We trusted A-Rod.

A wise man once said, "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Another said, "Those who fail to learn it properly are simply doomed."

Having lived through 1982 to 1995, I've seen worse than this, and I can handle this. Even if I can't blame the Curse of Donnie Baseball anymore.

But the 2008 Yankees are doomed.

The only saving grace of this season: Our team disappointed... again... but the Mets are well into another choke. Last night, they blew a 7-0 lead over the team they're battling for the Division Title, the Phillies, and lost 8-7 in 13 innings.

We're still better off, even if you don't consider the 26 titles.

It doesn't make this season's performance any less disgusting. We were supposed to leave the one and only true Yankee Stadium with Title 27.

It won't happen. You can blame the injuries. But if A-Rod had done his job, the injuries would've been something the Yankees overcame.

You know what the difference is between Madonna and a Yankee Fan?

A-Rod has only been screwing Madonna for a few months. He's been screwing Yankee Fans for five years. And any pleasure we've gotten has been fleeting.

Prediction: In one of the seasons left on his $275 million contract, Alex Rodriguez will get hurt, and be out for the season. Then, in October, the Yankees will win the World Series without his help.

Then we can watch him pursue 756 (or 763) career home runs with a clear conscience.

UPDATE: A-Rod did get hurt at the start of the 2009 season, but returned about a quarter of the way through, and hit great, and sparked the Yankees in the postseason, and we won it all with him. Alas, a chase for the career home run record didn't happen.

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Arsenal is leading FC Twente Enschede 3-0 late in the game as I type this, so they will move on to the next round of the UEFA Champions League. Not exactly making up for their debacle against Fulham last weekend, but it should have them better prepared for a home match against a tough Newcastle squad on Saturday.

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Days until Rutgers kicks off: 5.

Days until East Brunswick kicks off: 16.

Days until the last regular-season game at Yankee Stadium: 25. (Sob... )

Days until the Yankees' season ends: 32. (Grumble... )

Days until the Devils drop the puck: 44. (Corrected from an earlier entry. Days until the Rangers suck: 0, always 0!)

Time for Yanks to Make Their Move

I'm getting concerned about Edwar Ramirez. He turned what should have been an easy Yankee win today into a typical Yankee-Oriole 4-hour slugfest. In the 1st half of the season, he looked like a potential Mariano successor. Now he's starting to look like Paul Quantrill.

And again, Darrell Rasner didn't get out of the 5th. So he won't be in the postseason rotation.

That's the bad news. The good news:

We swept on the road. Yes, it was Baltimore, or as Michael Kay calls it, "the Really South Bronx." But the O's have been a pain in the neck the last few years.

A-Rod, Giambi and Cano, all of whom have been rightfully ripped and needed to step it up, have. Cano was 3-for-4 today, with 2 doubles, and his homer in the 7th made the difference in the 8-7 game.

Xavier Nady continues to make the Mets look like fools for letting him go. And when it comes to looking like fools, the Mets don't need any help: They are quite capable of doing that for themselves.

And we gained a game on Tampa, finally. Thank you, White Sox.

Next up, the Dark Side. The Red Sox. Wonder if Lindsay has taken little Carla Yastrzemski Wrightman and left Ben with his real "life-partners," Troy, Gerard and The Bald Anesthesiologist?

This is the time to make the move. Especially since Josh Beckett won't be pitching in this series.

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Speaking of whom: Beckett has been said to have "tingling" in his arm. That could be a lot worse than a mere baseball injury. David Cone had that in 1996, and it turned out to be an aneurysm. He came back and was a World Series hero -- not just that year, but four times. But it could have been the end of his career. Even his life.

The Sox doctors better be absolutely sure this is nothing like that before they send Beckett out there again. Especially since he's already won two World Series, one with them: Another isn't worth risking his life. The Red Sox will probably still be contenders next year if he's healthy (especially since he does much better in odd-numbered years, like Bret Saberhagen used to). No need to roll those dice, unless and until you know this is not a life-threatening condition.

(UPDATE: It wasn't something life-threatening.)

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The Mets. Does anybody still think they're a postseason team? I mean, the Astros ain't that good. No way they should take 2 of 3 in Flushing. And they would have swept the Mets if Jerry Manuel hadn't let The Great Johan Santana throw a complete game Friday night. (Still, the Mets didn't pay for 12-7, did they?)

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Shawn Merriman, the controversial linebacker for the San Diego Chargers, has a torn-up knee. He may be out for the season. If so, the Chargers, a lot of people's pick to be a serious Super Bowl contender, can forget about it.

Is this injury the result of his past... steroid use? Or has Bill Belichick hired Tonya Harding and her goons?

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A baseball team losing 1-0 is disappointing, but usually not lousy. A soccer team losing 1-0 on the road, even to a crosstown rival, is disappointing, but this early in the season, it's hardly a crisis. But Arsenal did just that at Fulham yesterday.

The Gunners need midfield help, as soon as possible, if not sooner.

So why did they lose to an apparently inferior club? Maybe they were Tottenham in disguise.

No, I take that back! I'm sorry! That was over the line! (Too bad the Gunners didn't put 2 "footballs" over the line!)

Incidentally, the name of Fulham's home ground is misplaced. "Craven Cottage" more accurately describes the owner's box at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge.

UPDATE: Later in the season, Arsenal faced Fulham again, at the Emirates, and it was a turgid 0-0 draw. And the Arsenal fans booed their own players off the pitch.

This got their attention, and they played much better for the rest of the season, eventually reaching 3rd place, and the Semifinals of both the FA Cup and the Champions League.

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(This was the first time I ever did the countdown on this blog.)

Days until Rutgers kicks off: 8.

Days until East Brunswick kicks off: 19.

Days until the last regular-season game at Yankee Stadium: 28. (Sob... )

Days until the Devils drop the puck: 45. (Days until the Rangers suck: 0, always 0!)

Days until the Nets' next-to-last season in New Jersey begins: I don't give a damn anymore. Let them move. There was never any point in rooting for them anyway. So who's my favorite NBA team now?

Do I have to have one? I don't know...

Sometimes it seems like I don't know anything anymore.

But I will always know more than Met fans, and Ranger fans, and Penn State fans, and Man U fans, and people from Old Bridge.

Come On, Baby, Light the Yanks' Fire

I'm taking the unprecedented step of two entries in this blog in one day.

So many Yankee Fans I know are saying that somebody needs to "light a fire under the Yankees."

So what would light a fire under this team? If a 2nd Red Sox title in 4 years didn't do it, what would? The Other Team winning one? Yeah, that's not gonna happen as long as the front office is dumb and the players are immature and/or injury-prone.

Sending down Melky Cabrera should have sent a message. So far, not received. Send down Robinson Cano? Bench somebody? Fire coaches?

Something has to be done, before it really is too late.

It's not, yet. We play Baltimore. Boston is in Toronto, although they won't face Halladay. (Thanks a lot, you useless hosers.) And Tampa is in Chicago to play the White Sox, a very good team. Games can be gained this weekend, and some hope can be restored. Mussina goes tonight, and he's been the best starting pitcher in New York this season.

So let's get some hits and runs, and do what we usually do in Baltimore: Turn Camden Yards into Yankee Stadium South.

(Like I said in the last entry, the John McCain analogy applies: We're not sure how many "houses" we have.)

Now Pitching for the Yankees... John McCain?

Blue Jays 14, Yankees 3. Sidney Ponson didn't get an out in the 3rd. Roy Halladay again made the Yank bats look pathetic.

I'm beginning to understand how John McCain feels. Every time it looks like we've turned a corner, I'm ready to "declare that victory is at hand" and tell anyone that says otherwise that they're "hurting the troops."

Then something happens like last night, the baseball equivalent of a car bomb in Baghdad taking out 70 people, and it proves we're no closer to "victory" than we were before the surge.

At least the Yankees know what "victory" means, which is more than McCain has told us.

Come to think of it, right now, the Yankees are aging, we're not sure who's really in charge, their economic plans are highly questionable, and we're aren't really sure how many "houses" they have.

Meanwhile, the big Red enemy is flexing its muscles again. And there's this upstart kid with no experience under pressure leading everybody, saying, "Yes we can, yes we can." (That's the Rays.)

Not sure who the Hillary equivalent would be, but then, was she ever really a Yankee Fan?

(The photo is from earlier in the year, when the Yanks played the Oakland Athletics. Both managers were former Yankee catchers: Joe Girardi and Bob Geren. I was at this game, and it was my last time inside the old Stadium.)

The Healing Begins

Yankees 15, Royals 6. Where were all these runs when we needed them in Minneapolis and Anaheim?

That's 16 wins for Mike Mussina. Who would've thought at the beginning of the season, after all the hype about The Great Johan Santana, that the best starting pitcher in New York this season would be the Moose?

A-Rod hit Number 544. Only 219 more to go. Not that this matters as much as any hits he may get between now and October 30 (which is when Game 7 of the World Series would be played, if it goes that far).

Hideki Matsui may be back tomorrow night as the Yankees begin a three-game set at the SkyDome -- excuse me, the Rogers Centre -- in Toronto. Joe Girardi says he'll limit Matsui to DH duty to save wear and tear on his knee. Man, I would love to see him come back and smack some horsehide around.

Phil Hughes and -- gasp, this is the big one, I'm coming, Elizabeth -- Carl Pavano both pitched yesterday. One or the other may start on Saturday night in Baltimore. If we can get anything out of either one the rest of the way, it's a plus. Much more so with Pavano, because Hughes is young and can bounce back more easily.

With Boston and Tampa dealing with their own injuries, there's still a chance. This old buzzard ain't givin' up on the 2008 Yankees.

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A lot of slobbering in the Tri-State media over Brett Favre's debut with the Jets. I guess they forgot that, A, the Jets lost; B, it was an exhibition game and didn't count anyway; C, there was a season a few years back where the Jets went 5-0 in the preseason and started the regular season off 1-4; and D, it's the Jets -- if the quarterback doesn't get hurt, his linemen will.

Favre may have made Jet fans hopeful, but he hasn't made the Jets relevant.

And the regular-season opener? Against the Miami Dolphins, with Bill Parcells as GM and the newly-signed Chad Pennington as starting quarterback. Uh-oh...

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The Olympics in Beijing have been everything the Chinese government wanted: Splashy, successful for their own athletes, and without major controversy.

Literally splashy, in the case of American swimmer Michael Phelps: Having won 6 Gold Medals in Athens, Greece in 2004, he has achieved his goal of winning a record 8 this time, surpassing the 7 won by another American swimmer, Mark Spitz, in Munich, Germany in 1972.

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The Great Premiership Experiment continues:

Newcastle United 1, Manchester United 1. At Old Trafford. That's an embarrassment for the defending chumps.

Chelsea 4, Portsmouth 0. As the saying goes, my "upset special" turned into an upset stomach.

Aston Villa 4, Manchester City 2. Not a surprise.

So my first-ever weekend of picking Premiership games ends 5 wins, 4 losses and 1 tie, counting Newcastle's tie of Man U as a loss.

Still, if "A tie is like kissing your sister," then Newcastle must feel like they kissed their sister's really hot best friend, while Man U must feel like they kissed their mother-in-law.

Yankees 3, Arsenal 1

How does that Rod Stewart song go?

You're an essay in glamour
please pardon the grammar
but you're every schoolboy's dream.
You're the Yankees and Arsenal
go on, take it personal
but you're the best team I've ever seen.

Actually, it's, "You're Celtic, United, but baby, I've decided... " But it's hard to root for a team with the same name as one from Boston, even if it's Glasgow soccer; and I won't root for Manchester United unless they're playing the Rangers. The New York Rangers. Or maybe the Mets. Or the Red Sox.

So the question coming into today, the next round of my Great Premiership Experiment, was... who was going to score more, the Yankees or Arsenal?

That the question even has to be asked is not funny in the slightest.

Arsenal played West Bromwich Albion, a team from England's "Black Country" in the West Midlands. The newly-signed French player Samir Nasri scored in the 4th minute, and then Arsenal coasted the rest of the way, winning 1-0.

In the game I watched at their New York Supporters' Club official watering hole, the 11th Street Bar on the Lower East Side, Liverpool was pretty good on defense, but on offense they were terrible. Of course, when it's 11 against 14...

Apparently, being English is no defense against lunkheaded officiating. I kept thinking of the song I read about in one of the books about "football" I've been reading: "Oh, Graham Poll... you're a f---ing ar$ehole... " But he's retired, so we can't blame him. (Note: This was before I began regularly using profanity in this blog.)

This one was the opposite of the Arsenal-West Brom game, where the team I was pulling for struggled most of the game before a late score. Fernando Torres scored in the 82nd minute, and it was "Sunderland 0 - 1 Liverpool." The Reds (though wearing their road grays) walked on through the wind, walked on through the rain, though their dreams were tossed and blown, and beat the North-East club.

Blackburn Rovers 3, Everton 2 -- the winning goal scored in injury time, the 94th minute. Everton had a 2-1 lead at home, and they blew it. "Two-one, and you f---ed it up! Two-one, and you f---ed it up!"

The Liverpool supporters seemed to greatly enjoy seeing that highlight at halftime of their game, seeing their city rivals (whom they call "the bitters" because of their fans' bitterness over LFC's success) embarrass themselves. Unlike their rivals, Everton appears to walk alone. I, however, picked the result of that game wrong.

Middlesbrough 2, Tottenham Hotspur1. Got that one right, but how hard was that? "Sp*rs" -- apparently, Arsenal fans, a.k.a. Gooners, have to type it like that because they consider it a profanity -- were on the road, against a good team (another North-East club), and, we'll, they're, you know, Tottenham. If Arsenal is the Yankees of London "football," and Chelsea having bought 2 titles after decades of none is the Red Sox, then Sp*rs are the M*ts.

(UPDATE: In 2013, I did a post about how the Mets are not "the Tottenham of New York," the Rangers are. And, since then, the Red Sox' owners have bought Liverpool FC. But the Red Sox are still more like Chelsea in how they behave.)

Bolton Wanderers 3, Stoke City 1. Got that one right. Hull City 2, Fulham 1. Picked a road win there, and got it wrong. West Ham United 2, Wigan Athletic 1. I didn't even pick that game, so I have to score it a tie. One point for me, instead of three for a win.

Overall, for my first-ever attempt at picking Premiership games, 4 wins, 2 losses, 1 tie, a percentage of .643 (counting a tie as a half-win) -- 4-2, .667 in the games I actually tried.

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Back in New York, there was a great story about how the local supporters' clubs of Liverpool and Glasgow's Rangers got together for a charity "friendly" and raised $5,000 for local youth soccer. Here's the story: http://www.lfcny.org/

That's another one where I would've had to root for Liverpool. A team in red, against a team in blue called "Rangers"? Yeah, that's a hard choice. Even if the only team in the Premiership with a "Devilish" nickname is the Red Devils of Manchester United -- Boooooooo!

But pretending it's hockey makes it a lot easier to watch, as there are a lot of similarities, particularly when the team you're rooting for seems to have forgotten how to pass the damn rock!

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And in a game actually played in New York, the Yankees blew opportunity after opportunity... and beat the Kansas City Royals 3-2 in the bottom of the 13th inning. Brett Gardner, called up when Melky Cabrera got sent down because he wasn't hitting squat, got the winning hit. A message.

Am I relieved? Yes. Am I encouraged? Not yet, although we gained back a game on Tampa.

The Met bullpen nearly blew it for Pedro Martinez, but they were playing the Pittsburgh Pirates, who haven't had a winning season, much less made the postseason, since the fall of 1992, when the elder George Bush was President and lost to Bill Clinton (or, if you prefer, since John Major won his one and only general election and the "First Division" became the "Premier League"). The Mets hung on to beat the Bucs.

The New York media, as you might guess, slobbered over Brett Favre's first game as a Jet, saying how great he was. First of all, it was an exhibition game. Second of all, they lost, to the Washington Redskins, a mediocre team these last few years.

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Yes, it's Superman. Strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman! Who can swim the course of mighty rivers, break world records in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Michael Phelps, mild-mannered swimmer for the U.S. national team, fights a never-ending battle for truth! justice! and the American way!

You got a better explanation of how Phelps went 8-for-8, setting world records in each event, topping by one the 1972 achievement of Mark Spitz, and raising his career total to 14 Gold Medals, an Olympic record that may never be matched?

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The Yankees have to make their move. Yesterday has to be the beginning.

Mike & the Mad Dog: 1989-2008

So, Christopher (Mad Dog) Russo has left WFAN, New York's all-sports station at 660 AM, leaving Michael Francesa to turn Mike and the Mad Dog into Francesa on the 'FAN.

This is a big mistake. They're so much better together than apart. You see, Mike, when alone, talksinalowrumblingmonotone, andnobodycanstanditforlong, byhimself, he'sreallyreallyboring.

And when Chris is by himself and he doesn't have Mike to slam on his brakes, do ya know what happens? DO YA KNOW WHAT HAPPENS? I'll tell ya what happens! Dog goes outta control! He starts screaming like a lunatic! And his Yankee hatred spirals up to da moon! And he gets to da point where da guys at WIP in Philly can hear him! Without turning on their radios! I'll bet even those goofballs up at WEEI in Bahston can hear him!

(Sometimes there's a 7-second pause of dead air... )

And when he catches his breath he GETS BACK ON DA HIGH HORSE AND HE CAN'T BE STOPPED! I'D LIKE SOMEBODY TO STOP HIM! JUST ONE TIME! ONE TIME! ONE TIME! ONE TIME!!!!

Plus, he talks about tennis way too much. It's a major league sports in only 8 weeks of the year, and, even then, most Americans don't pay attention except for Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. And then, just from the Quarterfinals on. So, 2 weeks of the year. Face it, if Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal had played that incredible Final in Melbourne (in the Australian Open) instead of London, it would still have been a major, and it still would've been great, but would we be talking much about it?

And they both talk about golf too much. There's no reason to talk about golf on a sports station, because golf is not a sport.

Then again, neither was The Sopranos, which they both talked about way too much. Though watching that show appeared to involve some athleticism, to hear them talk about it.

Well, you know the old saying. Mike & the Mad Dog were an institution... but who wants to live in an institution?

Mike and the Mad Dog. Requiescat in pace, September 5, 1989 - August 5, 2008.

So long, "Kathie Lee." Hey, "Regis," get somebody good to take his place.

Of course, you know me: I can do a show all by myself, titled, Mike IS the Mad Dog.