Wonder why they'd say that?

New York Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez, August 2013:

“The last seven months have been a nightmare. Probably the worst time of my life, for sure....I have to defend myself. If I don’t defend myself, no one else will.”

University of Louisville President James Ramsey, May 2015:

"All I have is my integrity … and I can't let people attack my credibility," Ramsey said bitterly at a special meeting of the board that he called. "Nobody stood up for me so I am standing up for myself."

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Baseball flashback

This morning's paper reported that both Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner are on the veterans committee ballot for the baseball Hall of Fame.

Naturally, this fact made me recall the following scene:



I still recall exactly where I was when that happened. It was a wonderful moment -- sweet revenge for this outcome.


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Hot Stove Yankee Hating

Apparently, the New York Yankees have signed free agent first baseman Mark Teixeira. Already this off-season, they've signed pitchers C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett.

The Yanks have reportedly committed about $400 million to these three players! In about three or four years, I suspect, the team will not want to be paying at least one of these contracts.

However, M.C. Teixeira is an excellent hitter in his prime. He'll be 28 in April.

Sabathia is a former Cy Young winner who will turn 28 in July. He does have quite a bit of mileage on his arm.

Burnett will be 32 in a couple of weeks and he has an injury history, but he should have a couple of good seasons in him.

The Yankees also traded for Nick Swisher (losing only Wilson Betemit), who could be a terrific acquisition if he bounces back from a bad season.

These transactions would seem to make the Yankees a pretty good team again, even with the decline of Derek Jeter (and others), the retirement of Mike Mussina, and the failed development of Melky Cabrera.

It looks like Yankee haters can return to form in 2009. It's harder to care when the team finishes third, with only 87 wins as calculated by the pythagorean method.


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Damn Yankees

Don't you love it when the best show on TV, "Baseball Tonight," spends long stretches discussing "what's wrong with the Yankees"?

Variants tonight: What's wrong with Johnny Damon? What's wrong with Mariano Rivera?

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Yankees lose!

Last Sunday, Scott Lemieux wrote:

Could the Tigers win one goddamned game against the Royals? Yeesh. The first round is just going to be a massacre.

In comments there, I was more hopeful:

I'm a full-blooded Yankee-hater myself and I think it's premature to count out the Tigers.

Anything can happen in a short series.

Who among us thought the Angels had much of a chance versus the Yanks in 2002?

Who thought KC had much of a chance vs. the Tigers last week? This is from the game preview KC-Detroit, Sunday, September 24: "The Tigers are 13-1 against the Royals, outscoring them 109-52 in the season series."

Just as I predicted, by the way, KC went exactly 62-100 on the year.

So, despite the fact that I expected my favorite team to lose 100 games, and they lost 100 games, there's still something to celebrate.

Yankees lose!


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Filed as: baseball playoffs

Evil Empire Strikes Again

In NY, at least one media outlet is reporting that the Yankees and Texas Rangers have agreed to a trade that would send Alex Rodriguez to NY for Alfonso Soriano. I hope it's not true.

My reason: ARod (still only 28 years old) is the best player in baseball and I hate the Yankees. It's really as simple as that.

Soriano is a good player, but he doesn't walk enough to be a great player over a sustained period.

I'm guessing that if this deal happens, Jeter will be playing either second or third.