Bleacher Creature Feature

#43: New York on Sunday

6 July 2003

Some notes from the day's festivities...

One of these is not like the other:

This is why the Yankees shouldn't have been panicking after last season's LDS removal -- it's exactly the sort of thing that can happen in a short series. Clemens is one of the greatest pitchers who ever lived. Wells is a very very good pitcher, better than most in the league right now. And they can still have days like that. Over 162 games, that tends to even out; in a short series, it can kill you, as it did to the Yanks against the Angels last year (and, for that matter, as it did for the Braves against the Yankees in 1999).

Having said that, Pettitte was simply awesome. Aside from one bad pitch to Bill Mueller, he was unstoppable. Through the first five innings, only one out was recorded in the air -- the rest were groundouts or strikeouts, a sure sign that the low-ball-pitching Pettitte is on his game. He retired sixteen in a row between Kevin Millar's leadoff single in the second and Manny Ramirez's one-out single in the seventh, had a rare double-digit strikeout day, didn't walk anybody, and threw under a hundred pitches in eight innings.

Meantime, the offense continues to frustrate. All nine starters got on base at least once in the first six innings, yet we only had four runs to show for it, including leaving the bases loaded twice. The three-run seventh finally put the game more or less away, but -- especially against Boston's offense -- we can't afford to squander opportunities like this.

(Of course, what we really need is Bernie Williams and Nick Johnson back, which will, if nothing else, lessen our dependence on the likes of Karim Garcia, Ruben Sierra, and Todd Zeile. Bernie's rehabbing in Trenton, and helping sell tickets to Thunder games, and should be back when the team's in Cleveland next week. Nicky's hitting off a tee and will, Fates willing, be back some time between the All-Star break and 1 August.)

I'm wondering of Bob Shepard's advanced age is catching up with him. When he announced the starting lineups, he had Ramirez as the DH, and listed both Millar and Gabe Kapler as left fielders. When the Red Sox took the field, neither of those two were in left -- Ramirez was. Kapler was in right, with Millar as the DH. Weird.

Sometimes between pitches during a Yankee rally (or attempt at a rally), they'll play encouraging music over the PA. Several times, they played the Tarantella -- but when an actual Italian-American (Jason Giambi) was up in a big situation, they played the Havah Nagila. Go fig'.

Today was the Yankee debut of Curtis Pride. A mostly deaf journeyman, Pride's really just keeping Bernie's roster spot warm, but since Raul Mondesi sat down for the second straight day with a bum hip, Joe Torre decided to start him in right. He came through with a leadoff home run in the sixth. Being deaf, Pride couldn't hear his roll call in the first inning, so we just chanted his name a few times and then moved on to Giambi.

The really cool part, though, was that the music they played when he hit his homer was much more bass-heavy than usual -- which meant that Pride, at the very least, could probably feel the bass-line. Very thoughtful touch, that. He said in postgame interviews that he could feel the stadium vibrate with the standing ovation requesting a curtain call, and when he came out to right field for the top of the seventh, the right-field bleacher folk were sure to give him another standing O while he was running toward us and could see it.

Last time, you'll recall that Terri and the woman behind us screamed that Jeff Weaver sucked at the tops of their lungs after he gave up a first-inning home run to Jeromy Burnitz in last Sunday's win against the Mets. We got confirmation from Terri's partner-in-shouting that people heard that particular chant, both behind home plate and on the ESPN broadcast. Which means Weaver probably heard it too, thus lending credence to our theory that he was shamed by the shouting into pitching well for the rest of the game.

That's our story and we're sticking to it. Dagnabbit.

Good for Lou Piniella, who kept his promise to dye his hair if the Devil Rays won three in a row. They took three from the Sox (one Red, two White), and Lou is now blond.

The All-Star rosters were announced today. The fan votes were mostly fine, little I can seriously argue with, but the selection of the reserves -- which was made by the players -- was idiotic in the extreme, and serves as a reminder as to why the selection of All-Stars was taken away from the players years ago. For one thing, they're laboring under the delusion that it's the Who's Having the Best First Half Game, not the All-Star Game. For another....

Where are Sammy Sosa, Jason Giambi, Pedro Martinez, and Roger Clemens? These aren't just four excellent players, these are four of the best currently playing the game. Clemens and Sosa are guaranteed Hall of Famers, and Giambi and Pedro are building strong cases. If these four aren't in the All-Star Game, then it isn't really an All-Star Game.

Clemens's exclusion in what he has announced as his last year, the year in which he has achieved both his 300th win and his 4000th strikeout, is both laughable and embarrassing. It's even more embarrassing in a year when MLB is trying desperately to make the All-Star Game worth watching. This is as much Clemens's "farewell tour" as Cal Ripken's 2001 season was, only more so because Clemens, at least, is still at the top of his game, and is a legitimate All-Star even if it wasn't his last season and if he wasn't 40 years old.

No Yankee pitcher is going to the All-Star Game, in fact, which is bizarre given what a great year the pitching staff is having overall, even with the drag effect of the bullpen. You can add Mariano Rivera to the Gang of Four above, honestly, of ridiculous snubs. The Yankees' starting four includes two great pitchers and two really good pitchers, and they have a historically great closer. And none of them make the All-Star team, but Lance friggin Carter does?

One of the best indicators of pitcher effectiveness is walk-to-strikeout ratio. The Yankees not only have the best BB/K ratio in the league, they're the only team in the AL with more than 600 strikeouts (though they will lose that distinction after Pedro's first K tomorrow), and the only team in either league with under 200 walks.

And none of them could crack the All-Star team. Unbelievable.

I'm going to be on the road a lot between now and early August, so there may be a paucity of BCFs over the next couple of weeks. You Have Been Warned.

NEXT: "Dreaded Deadline Doom"

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