Tagged: Dodgers
Torre Story 3
The third and final game in the Yankees’ series against the Dodgers was one of the most exciting contests of the season, in my opinion. Gone was the nonstop chatter about Torre leaving New York and A-Rod not talking to him and blah-blah-blah past history. Well, ESPN couldn’t resist bringing up “the soap opera,” as they called it, but once the game turned into a nail-biter, it was all baseball. After stinking up the early innings – how many bunts could Pettitte not handle? – the offense and relief pitching got serious. Robertson and Marte did their jobs (Joba, not so much) so that A-Rod could pop one into the seats and put the Yanks on the board. We were down 6-3 in the ninth when Torre brought in Broxton.
Yeah, he’s large, but he’s not Mo. A parade of hits greeted him, including a huge at bat by Chad Huffman. I know, I wasn’t thrilled to have Huffman up in that situation either. He’s just a kid we got off San Diego’s scrap heap.
But he came through big time to pull us to 6-5. Clap Clap Clap, Chad. I take back what I said about you on Twitter.
My boy Colin Curtis was up next, and his ground out after about 1,000 pitches (I exaggerate, but he really worked that at bat, didn’t he?) sent Granderson scurrying home (thank you, Loney, for not making the play at home). Wow. All tied up. My stomach was in one big knot.
Why was I so nervous? I mean, Mo was on the hill. What drama could possibly take place? Especially when the normally placid Garret Anderson was batting.
Oh. G.A. didn’t like Chris Guccione’s strike zone and got tossed. Torre came out to have his say, and he and the Guccione went at it – for like ever. Was Joe really that upset or was it a bit of gamesmanship to disrupt Mo’s rhythm? No matter. Mo took care of business. On to the 10th and George Sherrill.
Maybe his beard distracted him, or maybe Robinson Cano is just that good. All I know is that Cano’s homer put the Yanks up 8-6, capping an improbable six-run rally. Mo was a hammer again in the 10th – and again the Dodger hitters weren’t happy. This time Russell Martin slammed down his bat in anger, nearly hitting Posada with it, and there was more arguing with Guccione.
I’ve watched Mo fan batters over the years. I get the frustration. But the Yankees won fair and square to finish off a very entertaining series. Bravo.
Losing Games and Winning Friends
When I found out that A.J. would be pitching on Saturday, I went to Dodger Stadium fearing the worst but hoping for the best. Tex staked us to that nice lead in the first, and I said out loud, “This is gonna be fun!” Wrong. Well, the game itself wasn’t fun. It’s natural to focus on A.J.’s dreadful pitching – please come back, Dave Eiland, wherever you are! – but the offense was pretty lame too, except for that early burst. And when will Girardi accept the fact that Chan Ho Park is perfectly fine for one inning but cannot pitch two? It’s obvious. I know we’re short Aceves and Mitre, but surely somebody else – Gaudin? – was available. Even Cervelli had a lousy day behind the plate. But onto more pleasurable things…
Michael and I had a great time at the ballpark, game or no game. Yes, we were disappointed to arrive at Dodger Stadium two hours early – only to be told we couldn’t get onto the field for BP because we didn’t have field box tickets. But our seats in the Loge, just to the third base side of home plate, were excellent, and we had no trouble meeting up with our friend Denise, aka @SunnySoCal on Twitter. To say she’s an A-Rod fan is wildly understating her affection for our third baseman.
Btw, the A-Rod/Twilight reference is courtesy of his appearance at the LA premiere of the movie the other night.
How did Michael get those delicious Dodger dogs, you might ask? Not at the concession stand. We had our own personal caterer — fellow MLBlogger and Dodger fan extraordinaire Cat of Cat Loves the Dodgers. She was too shy to let me put her on the She-Fan Cam, so here’s her own blog pic.
She came over to our seats and handed us boxes of food from the baseline club, where she always sits and has access to incredible eats. She brought us the hot dogs, some pasta salad, some Tri-Tip, grilled veggies, you name it. How sweet was that? Oh, and she also got us a parking pass for the “preferred lot” so we wouldn’t have to walk a long distance to the stadium. A big thank you to her.
Next came my thwarted cell phone conversations with Peggy, our good Friend of the Blog. We were trying to meet up before the game but it was impossible to hear each other. And she found out – much as we had earlier with BP – that she wasn’t allowed to come down to the Loge section because her ticket was one level above. Aaaargh. But then who showed up to help? Emma of Crz Blue’s Dodger Blue World.
I explained the situation, and Emma offered to be my escort and take me to Peggy! So I left Michael and Denise and went up with Emma to Peggy’s section – only to have Peggy not be there! Aaargh again! Apparently, she had gone to get something to eat. So Emmy cleverly grabbed a Dodger flyer and, after I wrote Peggy a note, tied it to the arm of her empty seat so she would know I was there.
“I have another friend, ladyjane, sitting in the Top Deck,” I told Emma. “Any way you could take me up to see her?”
Not a problem for Emma, who seems to know every nook and cranny of the place. Anyhow, up we went and found ladyjane, who jumped out of her seat to come and talk to us atop Dodger Stadium. Here she is with Emma on the Cam. Nice view of the city in the background, but I apologize in advance for my voice. I sound bizarrely excited, and remind myself of Suzyn Waldman doing her “Roger Clemens is back with the Yankees” thing. (Cringing.)
It was great to see ladyjane, but I never did get to see Peggy, which was a bummer. We were like two ships passing in the night. A big thank you to Emma for taking the time to help out.
Somewhere around the fifth inning, while we were drowning our sorrows in some tasty beer, Denise and I got a tweet from some Twitter Yankee friends, @amandarykoff and @Stefmara, and joined them for a tweet-up.
The amazing thing for me is without having met such great fans I would have been sulking about the Yankees loss. Instead, I spent the long drive back to Santa Barbara thinking how lucky I am that baseball has brought so many wonderful new people into my life.
Long Drive Home…
So I didn’t have time to post pics, video and thoughts about my day/night at Dodger Stadium. We all know what happened in the game – ugh – but lots more tomorrow after I’ve had a little sleep.
Round One Goes To The Yanks
It’s late so I’ll just post some quick thoughts….
* Apparently, after all the years Billy Crystal hung around the Yankees, he was only a Torre fan.
* I really don’t like Padilla. His 53 mph pitch was effective, but I’m not wild about his tendency to plunk my players, then glare at us when we plunk him back.
* CC dominated for eight innings – beastly.
* A-Rod wouldn’t talk about Torre’s book before the game. Instead, he smacked a clutch homer, putting the Yanks on top. The team’s offense was quiet again, but he seems to have revived.
* Manny is still a tough out, but that error in left wasn’t pretty.
* Mo is Mo. Three up. Three K’s. Godly.
* Dodger fans disappointed me. All those “Yankees suck” chants? And booing Mo? Really?
* I’m looking forward to tomorrow when I’ll be at the game and can cheer the Yanks on in person. A.J. might need me, given the way he’s been throwing. If anybody else is going that I don’t know about, I’ll be in 121 Loge, row H! I hope I see a good one!
Thinking About The Dodgers Tonight
After a day of reading about Joe Torre and how he’s glad he wasn’t in the dugout while the Yankees were winning the World Series last year (I find that hard to believe, but whatever), I had the Dodgers on my mind tonight. I was at the speaking gig of my friend, author Joe Parent, who coaches all sorts of professional golfers and wrote the bestseller Zen Golf.
Before the event, there was a cocktail hour and I struck up a conversation with some of the other guests. Since I don’t play golf, I figured I’d talk about baseball, which led to a discussion of the She-Fan book and this blog. Before I knew it, I was whipping out the She-Fan Cam. It hadn’t been used in awhile and needed the work, just like Mo does sometimes. Plus I wanted it to be sharp for Saturday, when I’ll be down at Dodger Stadium. The room was very noisy so it’s kind of hard to hear my brief chat with a Dodgers fan named Kyle, but he put me in my place after I rudely suggested that his team wasn’t doing so well.
May the best team win this weekend, Kyle.
All Alone At The Top
I know. It’s only one day…in June. But first place is first place, and given all the injuries on this team it’s pretty satisfying for the Yankees to be where they are right now. What a game today, right? It had a little of everything – superb pitching by CC, a granny by Tex for his second homer in two days, a bunt by Swisher, an amazing catch by Gardner, a near-ejection by Posada (loved how Girardi had to clap his hand over JoPo’s mouth), another save by Mo, etc etc. What does it all mean as the Yanks head west?
It means that with the Rays, Red Sox and Jays all playing well, we’re in for a real dogfight.
(I decided to show kissing instead of fighting, but you get the idea.)
If A-Rod’s hip is OK and Tex gets hot and stays hot and Aceves comes back to help us out of the pen, I think we’ll be just fine. In the meantime, we’ve got Gardner. Seriously, I knew he was fast (duh) and could slap the ball around Damon style, but I never figured him to be this good. He’s hitting .312, for God’s sake. It seems as if he’s always on base and scoring a run. What a bargain he’s turned out to be.
Right now I’m in countdown mode. It’s only six days until I’ll be at Dodger Stadium watching the Yankees in person. Michael and I will be sitting with Twitter buddy @SunnySoCal, and lots of other friendly faces will be there too, including this blog’s Yankee she-fans, Peggy and Ladyjane, and our Dodger counterparts, Cat and Emma. And, of course, it’ll be a reunion for the players with Torre and Mattingly. I’ve gotten used to seeing Joe in Dodger blue, but not Donnie. Never Donnie.
Good Works Can Also Be A Blast
The item on LoHud today about MLB’s initiative in fighting breast cancer (and CC’s participation in it) was excellent timing for a blog post of my own. Why? Because tonight I took part in an author panel to raise money for our local chapter of Planned Parenthood. The panel was called “Love, Laughs & Life As We See It,” and it was held at a gorgeous private house in the hills of Santa Barbara. Not a tough gig at all. Here I am with my fellow authors and our moderator sipping Cosmos. (Yeah, I’m the one who stupidly forgot to take off her shades.)
At the far left is Starshine Roshell. (That’s really her first name; her dad was an actor in the show “Hair” and named her after the song “Good Morning Starshine.”) She writes an extremely popular column for the Santa Barbara Independent and has collected the best of the columns in a new book. She’s also writing a TV pilot for CBS based on her life as a wife, mother and columnist.
Next to her in the pic is Jenna McCarthy. A former “shock jock” on the radio here in town, Jenna writes for tons of national magazines and is the author of hilarious books on marriage and parenting.
At the far right is Kate Schwab, who used to be head of marketing for Borders in SoCal but now has her own literary PR business. She was a terrific moderator, firing all sorts of interesting questions at us about the craft of writing.
We also took questions from the guests, who had paid actual money to come and hear us speak. One of them approached me as the evening was winding down and said, “It’s such a pleasure to meet another female baseball fan.”
I smiled. “So you love baseball too?”
“Since I was a little girl,” she said. “My friends think I’m really strange to love baseball – it’s slow and boring to them – but I’d rather watch the Dodgers than do almost anything else.”
So…even at a fundraiser…on an off day for the Yankees…when I least expected to be talking about baseball…there was another she-fan. Perfect.
P.S. Here’s the nightly reminder about the Cooperstown Cookie Contest. Last chance to enter is April 11th at the stroke of midnight!
* “CC Needs The Adrenaline”
* That’s what Girardi said about CC’s rather abysmal outing against the Braves today (5 runs over four-plus innings). The truth is CC hasn’t been good all spring. I’m glad he’s been working on his mechanics and getting himself in shape…
…but when does he actually start pitching well? The season starts in, like, FIVE DAYS.
“When the bell rings, CC will be ready,” the Yankees skipper told John Sterling during tonight’s radio broadcast.
Okay, so what Joe is saying is that CC will somehow be able to sweep away the cobwebs, pull himself together and turn himself into the guy who led the Yankees to a World Championship…by Sunday night. I certainly hope so. Maybe he does need the adrenaline that comes from pitching a game that counts, as opposed to a bunch of exhibitions. I guess we’ll find out.
I suppose I should weigh in (speaking of boxing analogies) on the Pat Venditte episode today. I’m all in favor of pitchers using whatever natural abilities they have to get hitters out, including the use of both arms.
If Venditte, the ambidextrous wonder, proves he can retire batters from both sides, then he’ll advance through the Yankees system and become more than a novelty act. That said, he made me wonder about other possible permutations of pitchers. Like could there be a guy who pitches with his eyes closed?
Doesn’t seem to be a problem for Hiroki Kuroda. How about a pitcher who literally turns his back to home plate?
Hideo Nomo did it. So did Luis Tiant before him. And how about an insanely high leg kick? I need to go all the way back to Juan Marichal for that.
What we’ve never seen is a pitcher who practically pokes his eye out with his kneecap when he winds up to throw the ball – and who has a dance named after him. Oh, wait. Yes we have.
I know. I posted this clip a few months ago. My apologies. I can never get enough of it.
Who Are You Telling To Hurry Up?
I mean, really. Did everybody see this item on Yahoo Sports, via the AP?
Major League Baseball made one recommendation without waiting. It’s directly calling the Yankees, the Dodgers and Boston slow pokes, and telling them to speed up.
The Yankees (3:08), Red Sox (3:04) and Dodgers (3:02) played the longest nine-inning games last year, STATS LLC said; the MLB average was 2 hours, 52 minutes. Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon(notes) was fined $5,000 for slow play and the champion Yanks drew the eye–and ire–of baseball for holding incessant mound meetings in the postseason.
“We have hitters that see a lot of pitches. The Red Sox have hitters that see a lot of pitches. We haven’t played the Dodgers so I don’t really know. But that’s going to be a part of it,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
“We do whatever we can. We tell the players what to do, but if you’re going to score runs and see lots of pitches and there’s pitching changes, the game’s going to be longer. But we’re doing everything we can to adhere to the rules,” he said.
There aren’t any threats about what will happen if they don’t comply. Will the prompts help? “We told those three the same thing last year,” MLB vice president of on-field operations Bob Watson said.
So that’s what the committee Bud Selig convened came up with in the way of recommendations? To bark at the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers for playing too slowly?
I’m not saying the typical Yankees game isn’t long. I’m not even saying some of the games aren’t like watching paint dry. But we’re talking about a team that takes a lot of pitches and, in certain instances, makes a lot of pitching changes. It’s called playing smart. And longer games mean more baseball for fans to watch and enjoy, not to mention more time for vendors to sell beer and hot dogs. So what’s the problem? What difference does it make how long the games last? One of the beautiful aspects of the sport is that there’s no time clock. If we, the fans, aren’t complaining…and if the players themselves don’t mind sticking around the ballpark… why should the MLB owners care? Why?
Five Things You Always Wanted To Know About Chan Ho Park
I was surprised by the news that Cashman had signed Chan Ho Park. Sure, he pitched well against the Yankees in the World Series, but I just never figured – OK, I guess this is about the old axiom: you can never have enough arms. Now we have another one. Is Park up there in pitcher years? Yeah, but at least he’s not 40. Has he been with a lot of teams? You bet (Dodgers twice, as well as the Rangers, Padres, Mets, Astros and Phillies), but that’s not as many as LaTroy Hawkins. Will he turn out to be this year’s Brett Tomko – a guy who’s here today and gone tomorrow? Maybe, but Tomko actually pitched pretty well. So many questions…..
So here are some answers – five things I learned about Park that I didn’t know only eight hours ago. Ready?
1) He was the first South Korean to play in the majors.
2) He’s the only pitcher in baseball history to allow two grand slams in the same inning to the same player (Fernando Tatis of the Cardinals in 1999).
3) He gave up record-breaking home runs #71 and 72 to Barry Bonds in 2001.
4) He sued a former Dodger teammate, Chad Kreuter, for not repaying a loan of $460,000.
5) He’s married to the daughter of Japan’s 76th richest man. (No wonder Kreuter came to him for a loan.)
Will he bump Mitre or Gaudin or even Aceves out of the long man role in the bullpen? Or will one of them get traded? I have no idea, but if I were the Yankees I wouldn’t let Alfredo fall by the wayside.
Two grand slams in the same inning to the same guy? Did anybody give any thought to taking Park out in that game or maybe walking Tatis? Sheesh.
Confessions of a She-Fan 