On Michael Pineda, A.J. Burnett, Pedro Feliciano, and the media's double standard

I just want to, for once, admit that Squawker Jon was totally right on something. Specifically, he called the Michael Pineda injury issue correctly three weeks ago, comparing it to Phil Hughes' tendinitis, and mocking Joe Girardi for calling the diagnosis at the time "great news:"

When reporters noted that Hughes was also diagnosed with shoulder tendinitis last year, and he missed three months and finished the season with a 5.79 ERA, here was Girardi's response:

"They both got tendinitis, but I wouldn't necessarily say they're similar [injuries]," Girardi said. "There's a lot of parts to that shoulder."

Girardi's rationalizing about Pineda's injury reminds me of how some people said that Johan Santana would make it back faster than Chien-Ming Wang and others who had the same injury because all injuries are different.

Jon also noted in that column about how the Mets and Yanks get treated differently in the media when it comes to such injuries. He also has been saying to me in person that Andy Pettitte would be pitching before Pineda would.

Anyhow, now Pineda has had a setback that looks to be pretty bad -- he isn't expected back for what could be months. You know, just the way that Hughes shoulder tendinitis kept him out until after the All-Star Break.

Marc Carig wrote something rather shocking for the Star-Ledger about Pineda, talking about why the Yanks are so upset on the recent news on the pitcher (emphasis added):

When the Yankees placed Michael Pineda on the 15-day DL, they did so for two reasons.

They wanted to rest his right shoulder, which the Yankees believed to be afflicted by minor tendinitis. And they hoped to give him a chance to mentally regroup after a difficult first spring training with the Yankees. Conveniently, the minor injury afforded the Yankees the benefit of time, which they hoped Pineda would use to catch up on the conditioning he did not do in the winter.

Which is why, privately, the Yankees were stunned Saturday when the 23-year-old Pineda reported lingering pain in the back of his right shoulder.

I was against the Jesus Montero/Michael Pineda trade from Day One, and nothing has changed my mind. And to hear that he was put on the DL in part because of his conditioning is appalling. Didn't the Yankees have enough pitchers -- Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain, to name two -- who have shown up to spring training overweight and out of shape? They had to trade Montero to get another one? Good grief.

Obviously, I knew Pineda showed up fat to spring training, but to hear that he was put on the DL for said lack of conditioning is outrageous. Let me get this straight -- Pineda is in only his second season, and he is already acting like an entitled veteran? Who did the due dilgence on his personality? Yet again, Cashman shows a breathtaking lack of judgment, something he never gets called on by his buddies in the press.

Granted, Montero hasn't exactly set the world on fire as a Mariner just yet, but at least he is in shape and playing, two things Pineda is not. And I have to wonder if, yet again, Cashman got taken to the cleaners by another GM.

Also, when Cashman is not outwitted by other GMs in the game, he does dumb signings, like signing Everyday Pedro Feliciano for two years and $8 million after the Mets completely overworked him. And guess what? Chances are that Feliciano, who is recovering from rotator cuff surgery, will never pitch for the Yankees, something completely unshocking to every Met fan out there.

In other news, A.J. Burnett, the pitcher we Yankee fans are paying over $20 million for to *not* pitch for the Yankees in the next two seasons, pitched seven shutout innings Saturday for the Pittsburgh Pirates, giving up only three hits and striking out seven. And yes, he came back from an orbital bone fracture quicker than Pineda will return!

The trade of Burnett to the Pirates really did not get enough media scrutiny. As maddening as Burnett was as a Yankee, it makes no sense to me to pay him $20+ million of the $33 million owed to him to pitch somewhere else. Some Yankee fans acted like Cash was some magician for getting rid of him. Gimme a break. The Yanks would have been better off keeping him and sticking him in the bullpen than paying him so much money to pitch elsewhere, simply to keep their options open.

Anyhow, the Yanks are stuck with Pineda being injured -- he's going for a dye-contrast MRI this week -- and with Brian Cashman, the most overrated GM in all of baseball. Oh, joy.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Honor Chipper Jones? How about with a gift certificate to Hooters?

Sorry, Mets fans, for jinxing your team. (Well, not really, but I have to be nice!) Squawker Jon is right -- I am the Citi Field jinx!

But when it comes to making dopey moves, your team doesn't need any help. Like the reported notion for the Mets planning to somehow honor Chipper (Larry) Jones in his last season. Why would you give a moment's tribute to somebody who mocked your team by naming his child Shea, and who has kicked your team's fannies ten ways to Tuesday? When I wrote on my Facebook page that the Mets were going to do something to commemorate Chipper's career, even Yankee fans were outraged. More than one said that it would be like the Bombers honoring David Ortiz for his career!

You guys have one retired player number in 50 years, and you're going to do something to honor Chipper? Really? If your team does so, I strongly suggest giving him a gift certificate to Hooters (Google Chipper Jones and Hooters for the details!), coupled with a showing of "The Three Stooges," with everybody chanting "Lar-ry!"

What I remember most about the Mets first post 9/11 game at home was not Mike Piazza's home run, or Liza Minnelli singing "New York, New York." It was how jarring it was to see Mets players hug Chipper Jones! Please, keep the hate. Don't do anything to honor this clown!

* * *

Speaking of the Mets, I want to point out two things about Dillon Gee, the starting pitcher in the game we attended. First of all, he was seen on this pre-game clip on Diamond Vision telling fans not to jump on the field. Then he pauses, and strokes his beard. What's up with that? Is he auditioning for the new season of "Duck Dynasty"?

Then there is the matter of his theme song. The part of the song played when he enters of the game says: "You can run on for a long time, run on for a long time, run on for a long time." It sounded like Johnny Cash, and it was. The song is entitled "God's Gonna Cut You Down," and the lyrics that weren't featured in the intro are pretty intense:

Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter
Tell 'em that God's gonna cut 'em down
Tell 'em that God's gonna cut 'em down

Yikes!

* * *

As for today's Yankees Opening Day, sadly, I am not going. But it makes me feel like an Old Timer to see that the now-retired Jorge Posada is throwing out the first pitch!


What do you think? Tell us about it!

Which Subway Squawker Will Jinx the Mets Tonight?

The good news for me today is that our long national nightmare is over; the Yankees finally won a game. Yippee! And the good news for Squawker Jon is that his Mets are still undefeated, after a walkoff win last night. However, the bad news will be starting for the Mets soon enough tonight, since Squawker Jon and I will be in the house! And you will be shocked to hear how we got the tickets.

Yes, I signed up for that Club Mets thing --for $19.95, you can get the MLB audio for your computer for the entire season, as well as two free tickets to a game in the Nationals series, and other discounts and whatnot. Of course, this would happen to be the series where the Mets are selling $2.50 tickets, so it's not quite as sweet a deal as it seemed to be a few months ago. But it's still a pretty good deal -- the audio alone is worth $19.99, more than the Club Mets membership! (The Yankees' type of membership for this -- Yankees Universe -- isn't even anywhere near as good a deal, by the way -- if you want free tickets, you have to sign up for the $295 membership. Yikes!)

So anyhow, Squawker Jon and I will be at the game tonight, and the question is, which one of us will jinx the team. It would seem like I would be the jinx, since I am the Yankee fan in enemy territory. But then again, we are talking about Squawker Jon here, the man who killed Mike Pelfrey's career after he purchased a Pelfrey t-shirt!

But what if the Mets (gulp) win tonight, and the Yankees lose in their own game? Jon will hurt himself doing the Snoopy Dance all the way back home! Good grief, as Charlie Brown would say!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Squawker Media Alert: Lisa on the Radio at 1 p.m. Today

Squawker Lisa will be on the radio at 1:00 p.m. today, squawking about the Yankees's do-or-die Game 4. You can hear her talking to host Mike Lindsley on Syracuse's The Score 1260 AM. Click here to listen live online.

The Rain, the Park, and Other Things (Yes, I'm Making a Cowsills Reference!)

I was driving home last night, getting ready to cross the Bayonne Bridge, when I saw a slew of scary-looking clouds in the sky. But WFAN know-it-all Mike Francesa insisted that it was a beautiful night, with a 72 degree temperature and not a cloud in the sky. So much for Mike's weather report. And so much for MLB's weather report.

Not only does the rainout change everything, especially with putting A.J. Burnett in the mix, (and CC had better be pitching tomorrow!) but it also inconvenienced a lot of Yankee fans, including our radio host friend Larry (The Amigo) Milian and his New York Sports Report co-host, Philly "Dizz" Domanic. They flew up from South Florida to see Friday's game, only to see just an inning and a half. Yikes!

To top it all off, the news that Friday's came was being postponed was presented by Joe Torre. You can imagine how thrilled I was to see him, especially after reflecting on the way he mismanaged the Yanks the last time the team faced Detroit in the postseason. Come to think of it, maybe Torre and MLB relied on Mike Francesa's weather report!

Oh, and can we please stop the "Joe Torre should be the Red Sox manager" boomlet in its tracks? Torre has a cushy job now, where he can threaten to punish the people and teams he hates (A-Rod, the Mets, etc.) under the auspices of MLB. He hasn't shown much interest in working very hard for a long time. By his own admission in "The Yankee Years," the clubhouse was hopelessly divided, not playing together as a team. And in any team he managed, he has been the oxygen thief, taking all the attention -- and the credit -- away from the front office and ownership. To top it all off, Joe has no interest in sabermetrics.

So given those facts, how would he possibly be a good fit with Boston, other than entertaining the media with his dopey stories? The press is so solipsistic, focusing on how he made their jobs easier, and not noticing that in recent years, he really didn't do much to make teams better (he would never have even made the playoffs in Los Angeles without Manny Ramirez, for one thing.)  Not to mention that Torre going to Boston would make the furor over "The Yankee Years" look like a day in the park. I should want the Sox to hire Torre, because he would make things even worse. But at any rate, the chances of that happening are about as big as Roger Clemens taking over the team.

Here's hoping that Ivan Nova does as well tonight as the Rays' rookie did against the Rangers yesterday.



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Pride, Power, Proctor

So the Yankees allow a cast of scrubs to blow a seven-run lead while sitting All-Star relievers Mariano Rivera and David Robertson and some folks give Jose Reyes grief for not being Ted Williams?

Before I get to the conclusion of my brief stint as a Yankee fan, I want to congratulate Jose on becoming the first Met to win a batting title. And there's nothing on the final day to apologize for. As Squawker Lisa points out, the reason we remember Ted Williams' heroics 70 years later is that they are so unusual.

Players sit on their stats in meaningless games all the time. As Mike Vaccaro pointed out in the Post, Bernie Williams left the last game of the 1998 season early to protect his batting title. And as one of Lisa's Facebook friends pointed out, in 2008 Derek Jeter left the game early and sat out the last two games, finishing with a batting average of exactly .300.

I do feel a little bad for the loyal fans who came out to Citi Field yesterday, but they ultimately got what they paid to see - Reyes win a batting title and appear in what could be his last game as a Met.

Reyes' early departure was handled awkwardly, but these are the Mets. And my main concern with Reyes is that the Mets now avoid an early departure for Reyes from his Mets career.

***

So much for my three-day stint as a Yankee fan. If I had wanted to see epic bullpen meltdowns, I could have stayed in Flushing. But the Yankees are not obligated to use Mariano and Robertson in a meaningless game for them as they prepare for the playoffs any more than Reyes was obligated to play the whole game.

And whatever the Yankees did, it was the Red Sox who were responsible for their own collapse. While I wanted to see the Red Sox win, I have to say that I don't mind seeing the Sox and Braves pass the 2007 Mets on the list of epic chokes.

Especially the Braves.

While my brief stint as a Yankee fan was a bust, my brief stint as a Phillies fan went well, with the Fightins finishing off the collapsing Braves. And the Phillies did themselves proud, with veterans Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and even ancient Raul Ibanez playing all thirteen innings of last night's game.

***

Thankfully, the postseason is here, so I can go back to rooting against both the Yankees and the Phillies. I just hope I don't have to make another grim choice in the World Series.

Backwards Day for the Squawkers

It's as if Squawker Lisa started watching "Doctor Who" and I tuned in to "Dancing With the Stars." As if Lisa started quoting Monty Python, while I quoted Oprah. Lisa is rooting for the Yankees to lose, while I am rooting for the Yankees to win.

People complain that fantasy baseball causes fans to compromise their rooting interests. But look what the collapse of the Red Sox has done to the Squawkers!

Not that it's any fun being a Met fan pulling for the Red Sox these days, when Boston is making the Mets looks good. The Mets have only won five of their last 16. The Red Sox have only won five of their last 22.

And just when I'm putting the 2007 Mets collapse in the past, I get to be reminded of it every day.

Since I know all too well how these collapses turn out, it's not like I have any hope that the Red Sox will turn it around.

The one bright spot about the Red Sox completing their historic collapse is that it will be even worse than that of the 2007 Mets. So maybe every time a team falls apart, the Mets won't be one of the first teams mentioned.

Meanwhile, the Braves are on the verge of their own historic collapse, which would be great, except now I have to root for the Phillies, since they are playing Atlanta.

I'm still rooting for the Mets to finish on a positive note, but even Jose Reyes' pursuit of the Mets' first batting crown is tainted by the fact that these could be his last appearances in a Met uniform.

But when I was hoping for meaningful games in September, I didn't expect it would involve rooting for the Yankees and the Phillies.

Joe Girardi, Scott Proctor Help Save the Sox's Season

I really wanted the Yankees to sweep this series. I wanted the Yankees to tramp the dirt down, put the nail in the coffin, and destroy the Red Sox's season. A.J. Burnett did his part in the first game to smash the Sox. But alas, thanks to Joe Girardi and Scott Proctor, Boston gets to live again, with a huge victory that could be a momentum-changer to their season. If the Yanks face the Red Sox in the ALCS and lose, I will rue tonight even more.

I subscribe to the Conan the Barbarian belief that what is best in life is to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women. But now I am the one doing the lamenting!

I blame Joe Girardi for making several critical mistakes that helped cost the Bombers the game:

* The first was keeping Ivan Nova in for too long when the Sox were clearly getting to him. Nova should have been pulled by the sixth, not in the seventh when the damage was done, with the game tied.

* The second was Girardi refusing to use most of his bench to get a big hit to win the game. Leaving Austin Romine in to face Jonathan Papelbon with the bases loaded in the ninth inning was inexcusable. Romine has all of 15 at-bats in the majors, with exactly three hits, and you leave him in there to face Papelbon? Joe could have used Russell Martin, Alex Rodriguez, or Derek Jeter instead in that spot. Then he let Romine bat again with runners on base, only to have his strike out. Good grief.

Not pinch-hitting for Greg Golson with Andruw Jones made no sense, either. Or letting Eduardo Nunez go 0-for-6, bat in extra innings with Derek Jeter in the house. Why Girardi let the kids get so many at-bats when there were several people on the bench who could have ended the game with one swing makes no sense. What good did it do to give the veterans "rest" when if one of them had gotten to hit in the ninth, or even the tenth, the Yanks would have been resting on the plane much earlier, after most likely winning the game. Who needs the stars refreshed for Tampa, anyway? Tonight was the night to play them.

* And the third was going to Scott Proctor (yeah, I know Girardi was out of the game then, but I'm sure he helped make the decision) in the 14th. Why would you rely on a guy who is best known for having his arm blown out, and setting his equipment on fire, for anything? Proctor is horrible. He shouldn't even be on this team. (BTW, funny how when Brian Cashman was patting himself on the back the other day for all the moves he made this year, he didn't talk about picking up Proctor. Gee, I wonder why.) As soon as I saw that Proctor in, I knew the Yankees would lose. Thanks for nothing, Scottie.

One other note on Proctor. The media's revisionist history on him amuses me. Back when St. Joe Torre was blowing out his arm as a Yankee, it was bloggers like yours truly who pointed out how Joe ruined so many arms. The media mostly ignored the issue. It really wasn't until the whole Joba Rules thing that the press finally started to acknowledge that Joe was a bullpen-killer.

Anyhow, I was hoping to be jubilant over the Yanks sweeping the series, but I am disgusted that the Bombers let the BoSox escape with a win. Yikes!

Too Bad Mets Couldn't Cap Off 9/11 Commemorations

Usually, the Mets do a pretty good job on their own of ignoring their own history. This time MLB and ESPN did it for them.

The Mets may once again not have any meaningful games in September, but Sunday they at least had a meaningful pregame - commemorating the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The Mets played in the first professional sporting event in New York after 9/11. Mike Piazza hit what is probably the most memorable homer in the fifty-year history of the franchise.
And the Mets wore caps commemorating the heroic first responders.

But MLB didn't allow them to wear those caps last night.

I've lost track of the number of times I've wondered, what is Bud Selig thinking? Or more precisely, is Bud Selig thinking? The edict came down from Selig lieutenant Joe Torre, so he must share in the blame as well. As for speculation that the Mets were unwilling to risk a fine because they didn't want to pay it, or because MLB might demand that the Mets start paying back that $25 million loan, even if there's any truth to that, the problem still begins with MLB's ridiculous decision not to allow the Mets to wear the caps.

Had the game been played at the usual Sunday time of 1 p.m., the Mets would have had their ceremony well before the Giants' opening game and the U.S. Open final. The Yankees were also playing later in the afternoon.

Then there's ESPN scheduling the game for the worst possible time - directly opposite the glamor matchup of Jets vs. Cowboys. Complete, of course, with its own ceremony, and frequent shots across the Hudson of the New York skyline. You would think they would realize how many Met fans are Jet fans and vice versa.

Ideally, the game would have been played at the Mets' usual Sunday time of 1:10 p.m, well before the Giants, Yankees, and Jets games, as well as the U.S. Open final.

ESPN recognized that it would be a good night to air a ballgame from New York. But how about at least moving it up an hour to 7 p.m.? Fans could have tuned in to the ceremonies, then switched over to the Jets.

Last Thursday, President Obama gave his jobs speech at 7 pm rather than 8 pm. The President of the United States didn't think a major speech before Congress could compete with NBC's national football broadcast, but ESPN, which knows a thing or two about the popularity of football, thought people would tune in instead to Mets-Cubs?

At least my biggest gripe yesterday involved the particulars of a commemoration. It was far different ten years ago.

When the second plane hit, I knew I'd be coming in early to work that day at the Daily News. My Eighth Ave. subway was diverted to Sixth Ave., so I got out on 33rd St. and Sixth in preparation for walking over to the News' offices near Tenth Ave. It was a few minutes after 10 a.m., and everyone on the street was staring at the smoke pouring from the Twin Towers. I stared as well, unable to believe what I was seeing, before heading toward the office.

What I didn't realize at the time was that the first tower was already gone. There was so much smoke that you couldn't tell. Or maybe I did see just one tower but couldn't process that information - I had enough trouble processing it when I made it to work.

Or more precisely, the street in front of the office, which had been evacuated.

We soon were allowed back in, where I updated the web site with the awful news until finally leaving at 11 pm. I boarded a nearly deserted subway and made my way back uptown.

Sports did eventually offer a respite during that difficult time, but for me, the turning point was not Piazza's home run. It was Game 7 of the 2001 World Series.

I had grudgingly admitted that a Yankee World Series win would be good for the city. When the Yankees held the lead in the ninth with Mariano Rivera on the mound, another Yankee title appeared inevitable. It would be their fifth in sixth years.

Then, miraculously, the Diamondbacks rallied to win the game and the World Series. As a New Yorker, I was supposed to be upset, but I was the happiest I'd been in weeks. The mighty Yankees had lost! Yes, there was a new normal, but at least some things could remain the same. It was all right once again to root against the Yankees.

Squawker Media Alert: Lisa on the Radio at 1:20 p.m. Today

Squawker Lisa will be on the radio at 1:20 p.m. today, squawking about the Yankees. You can hear her talking to host Mike Lindsley on Syracuse's The Score 1260 AM. Click here to listen live online.

Why the Timing Is Suspicious on A-Rod Poker Story

Not to put on a tin foil hat here, but isn't it interesting timing that the Alex Rodriguez poker story broke this week just in time for the Yankees-Red Sox series? Especially given that two of the games will be nationally televised, which means that we can have Tim McCarver tell us about how in his day, Bob Gibson would never play poker. And ESPN's broadcasters can be shocked, shocked, that any ballplayer would ever be playing cards for money. You know, just the way that when A-Rod was caught cheating on his wife, they all pretended to act like he was the only baseball player to ever do such a thing?

Yes, I'm pretty cynical, but here's the thing. This is not even a new story that just happened to break about ARod; this is a story that was originally published over a month ago. So why is it being regurgitated again?

Let's take a look at the timeline:

* The week of July 1, Star Magazine ran a story about A-Rod being involved in high-stakes Hollywood poker games. Patrick Courtney, MLB Senior Vice President Of Public Relations, told RadarOnline, The Star's online partner, "This is the first we have heard about this and we will look into it."

The New York Daily News wrote about the article July 1, but the story didn't get much traction.

* A month later, just in time for the Yankees getting national media attention via Fox and ESPN game broadcasts, Star Magazine runs another story about the exact same topic -- A-Rod playing poker at these high-stakes Hollywood poker games. But they threw in some salacious details to get more media attention. There was titillating details about a near-fight, about some poker player using cocaine, and about rumors of sexual shenanigans as well. They re-released the story again this week, just in time for Yankees-Red Sox.

This time, the article proved to be catnip to the media, and it's been wall-to-wall A-Rod coverage in the press for the last two days. This, even though Dan Blizerian, the sole named source in the Star story, told the Daily News that the Star messed up the details about what poker match Rodriguez was at, insisting that A-Rod wasn't at the one with cocaine and a near-fight:

"A-Rod was not at that game," pro-poker player Dan Bilzerian told the Daily News. "It's ridiculous."


Bilzerian claimed to be the main source of the Star story, but insisted the magazine got it wrong.


"I would remember because I got stiffed," said Bilzerian, adding that the game took place at Leibel's house in November 2009.


"He wasn't there, I'm telling you," Bilzerian said of A-Rod. "He was playing in the World Series at the time."

Shockingly, Bilzerian's defense has made it into very few stories about Rodriguez playing poker.

And of course, as is usually the case when it comes to Alex Rodriguez, nothing is ever put in context. In 1997, Albert Belle admitted to not just gambling, but illegally betting on professional sports, and losing at least $40,000. (Hat tip -- Baseball Think Factory.) MLB investigated it to see if he had bet on baseball, determined that he hadn't, and never instituted any sort of disciplinary action about his bets. At the time the story broke, Sports Illustrated ran this about the issue (emphasis added):

The revelation that Albert Belle indulges heavily and frequently in sports betting had barely come to light last week when the pooh-poohing began. Even before pledging that baseball would investigate Belle's gambling, acting commissioner Bud Selig reminded the press that betting pools and friendly wagers are a part of every big league clubhouse. Jerry Reinsdorf, chairman of the Chicago White Sox, the team that signed Belle to a five-year, $55 million free-agent contract in November, said he was "not worried" because "there is no indication Albert bet on baseball." Belle himself downplayed the gambling issue, telling USA Today that he did not bet on baseball and that he and his teammates merely bet casually on other sports. Said Belle, "It's no different than anyone else's office pool."

Aside from the fact that nothing was done to Belle, I also found that Selig information interesting. Players owing money to each other, especially when some of them may be rookies or journeymen making the league minimum, is apparently okay with Selig. (And remember that anybody tells you about MLB's zero tolerance policy on gambling.) But a guy worth hundreds of millions playing poker with Hollywood A-listers is the crime of the century. Good grief.

There's also been all sorts of speculation about whether MLB will suspend Rodriguez. Aside from the fact that baseball will look to have misplaced priorities in suspending somebody for playing cards, when six MLB players have gotten DUIs this year, and none of them received any disciplinary action from baseball, there is the fact that there is nothing in MLB's rules that prohibit playing poker for money. The only rule regarding gambling is Rule 21, which specifically addresses betting on baseball. Not playing poker with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

And forget about the idea of having A-Rod's contract voided. In contract terminations, MLB's Collective Bargaining Agreement allows the Players' Union to get an arbitrator to hear the case. And historically, the players have usually won here, as a Sports Illustrated story from last year shows. Lamarr Hoyt was convicted on drug charges, and still ultimately got paid. And Sidney Ponson and Denny Neagle ended up getting most of the money owed to them, despite drunk driving (Ponson) and prostitute solicition (Neagle) issues.

Anyhow, I guess it's too much to expect any sort of perspective or context from the press when it comes to Alex Rodriguez. But, what else is new?


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Is Coffee the Met Fan/Yankee Fan Dog Being Abused?

Last year, I wrote an article about Coffee, the Met fan dog who wore a David Wright jersey, a pipe, sunglasses, glasses, a bandana, and a Mets cap.

My scoop was that I was the first to notice that this dog, seen as a "Met fan" asking for money outside CitiField, was pawing both sides of the street -- he also showed up dressed as a Yankee fan asking for money during the playoffs! Click on my original article to see the pix. I thought it was funny that even a dog would change baseball alliances when it was convenient! I guess money talks.

Anyhow, a few weeks ago, I  noted on our page view reports that we were getting a lot of traffic on that old story, and a whole bunch of new comments. I didn't understand why people were reading the piece. Then I saw that there was a Facebook group called Stop Abusing Coffee set up, with a link to my own article, among other stories about the dog. The page said that "Coffee the dog that is forced to sit outside of Citi Field before, during & after EVERY Mets home game needs to stop being abused."

Anyhow, I didn't want to accuse the owner of abuse without hearing or seeing evidence of it, so I held off on writing something right away. Then the Gothamist site ran several stories last week, with photo evidence of Coffee having to wear a shock collar to stay in line. Yikes! Then they ran a photo of Coffee's owner, apparently holding the controls for the shock collar, a picture where it looks like Coffee does not have any teeth!

The latest news is that Coffee's owner had her pretending to be a Yankee fan outside Yankee Stadium during the Subway Series this past weekend, and some concerned folks took some more pictures. This story is now blowing up -- it's one of the lead items on today's Drudge Report.

A lot of people have called the Mets, the ASPCA, and other animal rights groups to get this stopped, to no avail. You can read more about this issue at the Stop Abusing Coffee page. Here's hoping for a happy resolution to this story.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Subway Series: Mets Can't Fight the Power

The world didn't end last night, so the Yankees moving into first place by beating the Mets will have to do. The Yankees got only seven hits, but four of them were homers, leading some to suggest that the Yankees are an all or nothing team.

But I wish the Mets had such problems. Brett Gardner has more homers than last night's cleanup hitter, Jason Bay. And while Bay clearly doesn't belong in that spot, nobody else on the active roster does either.

So the current Mets lineup goes only as far as their pitching takes them, and last night Chris Capuano didn't take them very far. Capuano had been pitching well as of late, allowing only two earned runs in each of his last three starts, but that only got his ERA down to 4.78, and it's now 5.36 after last night's homer barrage. And it's not as if he's that much better at home - his Citi Field ERA is 5.04.

Today's rubber game will be a good test for the Mets' pitching staff. Mike Pelfrey has a 5.11 ERA and 1.54 WHIP for the season, but after a disastrous start, his May ERA is 2.11 and his WHIP is 0.98.

But when Pelfrey pitched against the Yankees at the Stadium last June, he allowed homers to Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson. Not a good omen when Granderson is doing so well and Teixeira already has a homer in each game of this series (and a homer in the Baltimore game before that).

So Squawker Lisa, I hope I'm wrong about my prediction that the Mets would take just one of three, but it looks to be an uphill battle for the erratic Pelfrey and the Mets' makeshift lineup.

Lisa and I want to send our best wishes to Gary Carter and his family, and we are hoping and praying for a good outcome.

Subway Series: Mets Give Yankees a Knuckle Sandwich

Boo hoo, Squawker Lisa. The Yankees had to face a knuckleballer last night - that's not fair! Some Yankee excuses from last night's game:

"It's tough to hit whenever you go up against a knuckleballer." - Russell Martin

"There's just no rhyme or reason to it." - Curtis Granderson

"No one knows where it's going so it's kind of hard to have an approach against him" - Derek Jeter

Actually, this year it's kind of hard for Jeter to have an approach against most pitchers, but I digress. The Yankees can make all the excuses they want, but R.A. Dickey had a 5.08 ERA going into last night's Subway Series opener. In his last start, he gave up six runs and 11 hits to the weak-hitting Astros. Even most Met fans didn't think Dickey had a chance to pitch well in the Bronx.

But for one night at least, Dickey looked like the pitcher the cheap new front office was willing to give a two-year contract. It's great to see Dickey come through and Mets pitching continue to be on a roll. The Yankees got just four hits Friday after scoring 13 runs Thursday night. In the Mets' previous two games, they shut out the Nationals, who then scored 17 runs last night. It doesn't matter if half the Mets' lineup is from Triple A if the pitching is this good.

And by the way, for all the Yankees' complaining, Dickey only pitched six innings. While the Mets rotation still looks shaky, the bullpen could be the best the Mets have had since 2006.

Look on the bright side, Squawker Lisa. Maybe the world will end tonight before the Yankees have to think of excuses about why they struggled against Chris Capuano.

Did Wally Matthews' Boxing Talk Spur A-Rod to Hit Two Homers?

Even though Squawker readers tell me over and over to stop paying attention to what ESPN New York's Wallace Matthews has to say, I still read him every time he writes. Yes, it's a guilty pleasure, although I wouldn't exactly call it a pleasure!

It's more like a "there must be a pony in here somewhere" thing; while he writes a lot of silliness and hyperbole, every so often there is actually something worthwhile or interesting in his columns. And I do appreciate that Matthews has a sense of humor about himself, as evidenced in his tweets.

Anyhow, the reason I am bringing him up today is because of the pre-game talk the baseball (and occasionally, boxing) writer had with Alex Rodriguez yesterday. Matthews details it in his column:

Before the game, sitting in the Yankees' dugout, A-Rod felt like talking. And he felt like talking not about baseball, but boxing.

"What makes this guy Pacquaio so good?" he asked a reporter he knew had covered a fair number of fights.

"Relentlessness," he was told. "Determination. Viciousness."

With each adjective, his eyes got wider. Then, he went out and channeled his inner PacMan, swinging for the KO on every pitch, and later he would say that when he ripped a 3-2 pitch right at the third baseman in his first at-bat, he knew he was coming out of the funk he had been in for the past month.

"I thought my first at-bat set the tone," he said. "I was happy with every swing I took tonight, and I felt like my legs were under me. Just like a boxer."

 Heh! Maybe it was Wally's boxing talk that did it!

Matthews is teasing on Twitter about his influence on Twitter:

I am taking credit for A-Rod's big night so far. B4 the game, we talked boxing and Manny Pac in the dugout. Now, A-Rod's hitting like him

For once, a journalist was a force for good with the Yankees!

Of course, as Matthews points out later in his article, the last Yankee to break out of a slump with a two-homer day was Derek Jeter. Since then, the captain has been hitting just .138 since the slump "ended." So don't get too excited about A-Rod just yet.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Did Jorge Posada Really Want Off the Yankees?

So much for the idea that Jorge Posada just needed a day. The Daily News' Bill Madden reported yesterday afternoon that Posada wanted out of the Yankees for good Saturday, not just for the night. Madden writes:

In the heat of his anger and frustration Saturday night, Yankee icon Jorge Posada told general manager Brian Cashman amid a flood of F-bombs that he not only wanted out of the No. 9 spot in the Yankee batting order - he wanted out of the Yankees, too, according to team sources.

This story makes sense to me. As I noted in a previous blog entry, my very first thought when I heard that Posada had pulled himself from the lineup was that he was going to retire. Given that, I'm not surprised that Jorge would reportedly want off the Yankees, especially given that he would apparently still think he could play elsewhere. Because other teams can't wait to get their mitts on a DH who hits .165!

One of my brothers, who is a lawyer, noticed something in the original stories on Brian Cashman talking with Posada Saturday that piqued his interest -- the fact that Cash and Posada were talking with Seth Levinson, one of Posada's agents. My brother wondered why an agent was getting involved over a lineup issue. Now I think we know why. And unless I missed it, I haven't seen any denials from Yankeeland about Posada wanting out for good.
We also have a better inkling on why Cashman decided to address the press on his issue, instead of sweeping it under the rug. Here's what Cash said Saturday, amid criticism about him flapping his gums on FOX:

"We were explaining to Jorgie and his agent, Seth Levinson, what we were going to say and that it would be short and sweet," Cashman said. "The situation that was created by him, then he would have to explain himself after. It was as simple as that. It is common baseball practice to explain after someone is a late scratch in the lineup, they give a reason why."

"I was down there for an hour," Cashman said. "In one instance I was on the phone with Seth and I actually had to hand the phone to Jorgie. I said, 'Here.' Jorgie knew exactly what was being said. This is not a surprise. I'm disappointed about what he said."

So, people criticized Cashman for saying too much. But it sounds like Cash said a lot less than he could have here.

It really does take a special sort of chutzpah for Posada to complain to the media, given the situation, that:

"I didn't know he made a statement. I don't know why he’s going to make a statement during the game, in the middle of the game. I don't understand that. You know, so that's the way he works now," Posada said.

Earth to Posada: The Torre Years are over, and your prime career years are over, too. You can't expect the Yankees to protect you from your own temper anymore when you're hitting .165 and throwing a hissy fit about batting ninth.

Like I said, there is no denial of the story that Posada wanted out, but the DH did deny Madden's later reporting that sources told the writer Posada refused to catch in a spring training game:

"Not at all. Not once. A hundred percent," he said. "Not even close. They told me to go to the bullpen and stuff so I caught in the bullpen every once in a while, but they never asked me (to catch in a game)."

Despite the fact that Posada made up that "back stiffness" story, I believe he's telling the truth here. Not because I think he's a straight shooter, but because it would make zero sense for the Yankees to want him to catch. Given how many times you heard them say since the fall that he needed to think of himself as a designated hitter only, and that his catching days were often, why would they tell him to catch?

So what happens next? I think that Posada handed Cashman a reason to get rid of him on a silver platter. And if Jorge doesn't start hitting -- and soon -- I think he will be off the team by Memorial Day. Contrary to the current media myth that Posada has been so classy and wonderful his whole career, he's always been a little cranky, he's always had a hot temper, and he's always had squabbles with others. But the Yankees could easily overlook Jorge's "proud" (code word for "prickly") personality, and his inability to stay on the same page with others, like pitchers, when he hit up a storm. Now, not so much.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Hear Me on the Radio on 4:30 p.m. Today

I will be on Brian Sinkoff's "Sound-Off With Sinkoff" radio show today at 4:30 p.m., squawking about Yankees-Red Sox. If you live in the Albany area, turn your radio to 104.5 FM, or you can listen to me live by going to ESPN 104.5 The Team's website.

So Now That Derek Jeter Had a Good Day, It's Time to Start Bashing A-Rod Again

Since Derek Jeter looked like the old Jeter this weekend for basically the first time since last spring, some of New York's reporters are back to griping about Alex Rodriguez again.

Never mind that Jeter's struggles have been going on from mid-June to the present, while Rodriguez started out the season on a tear, but has been hitting poorly over the last two weeks, since straining his oblique. As Mark Feinsand notes, Rodriguez  hit ".366 with four home runs and 10 RBI in his first 13 games," but although he did hit a grand slam and drive in six runs on April 23, "over his past 14 games, A-Rod is batting .170 (9-for-53) with three RBI and one extra-base hit." The Daily News writer says, "With his RBI groundout on Sunday, he snapped an eight-game skid in which he hadn't driven in a run."

It depends on your perspective whether Rodriguez is suffering a temporary setback, or an age-related decline.

George King of the New York Post writes:

While Rodriguez wasn’t the only non-producer, he hits fourth, makes the most money, has the out-sized personality and is the lightning rod for everything wrong in the Yankees’ universe.

Until Jeter started to warm this past week, his plate woes provided cover for Rodriguez, who batted .290 with five homers and 18 RBIs in April.

Let me get out my trusty calculator. Those stats over the course of six months would equal .290 over the year, with 30 home runs and 108 RBIs. Are those type of numbers something that would really kill the Yankees' season?

Kevin Long and Rodriguez told the media that the hitting coach noticed something awry this weekend with A-Rod's leg kick. But Wallly Matthews figures Rodriguez is doomed, doomed, doomed. The ESPN writer has an overwrought piece about the fact that A-Rod hasn't hit a home run since April 23. 

"...now that the Yankees have "fixed" Derek Jeter -- or more likely, Jeter has fixed himself -- it is time for someone to do the same with Alex Rodriguez.....

At the rate he was hitting homers and driving in runs, a 50-homer, 150-RBI season was not out of the question.

Now, it certainly seems well beyond his reach. In fact, sometimes when he is at the plate it looks as though he will never hit No. 6.

He continues:

Plenty has been said so far this year, but by Alex Rodriguez, very little has been done.

Derek Jeter's struggles caused us all to forget about that for a couple of weeks. But on one big day in Texas, Derek got better.

Now it's Alex Rodriguez' turn to get better, and fast.

Geez, Louise, you would think he was slumping for six months!

I hope Jeter is back, although I would put an asterisk on the second homer, against Arthur Rhodes (as Bill Madden writes, the pitcher has given up 17 homers in 85 innings against the Yanks, and has a 7.52 ERA against the team). If Manny Ramirez was the greatest Yankee-killer of all time, Arthur Rhodes might be the greatest Yankee patsy of all time.

But really, the biggest beneficiary of the focus on Jeter over the last few weeks wasn't A-Rod, but Jorge Posada. A designated hitter who is batting just .152 is pretty terrible. While Posada does have 6 homers (but he hasn't hit one since April 23, the same date as Rodriguez,) any other player batting so poorly for the year wouldn't be the DH. And given that Posada will turn 40 this August, it's not unreasonable to start wondering what it all means.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Post Publishes Juicy Tidbits From Ian O'Connor's New Book About Jeter/A-Rod Feud

Sorry I haven't squawked for a while -- I have been working on two real-life projects that have consumed almost all of my time. I knew I had better get back to squawking soon when I got this email the other day, with the subject line "Do You Know there are 2 teams in NYC?"  Here's the email:

Hey…do you guys know that there is another team in town. They are called “the Yankees.”

Would think that there is only one team in NYC, to read your blog lately.

What’s the story???

Harsh, dude! Ouch!

Anyhow, on a brighter note, Happy Easter! When I got online this morning and saw that the New York Post had information from Ian O'Connor's upcoming book, "The Captain" (you know, the one that he's been working on at the same time he's been carrying Jeter's water in his columns), I knew I'd better squawk, or some might think I was comatose!

This "exclusive" article has inside details on the feud (although, for some odd reason, the Post calls it an "unauthorized" bio), and has pretty much vindicated a lot of what I've said over the years. Some tidbits:

* Jeter, the modern day Joe DiMaggio in a lot of ways -- including holding grudges -- so intimidated one Yankee front office person who admitted to being afraid to talk to Jeter about burying the hatchet with Alex. "It would've been the last conversation I ever had with Derek," he said. "I would've been dead to him. It would've been like approaching Joe DiMaggio to talk to him about Marilyn Monroe."

* At the 2001 All-Star Game, according to the Post's account of the book, "a smitten Rodriguez introduced him to Latin songstress Joy Enriquez. Jeter wasted no time -- the singer and the shortstop began dating."

* Don Mattingly tried to get Jeter to make up with A-Rod. "I faked it with Boggs," he said. "And you have to fake it with Alex." Heh!

* Brian Cashman also asked Jeter to "fake it" with Rodriguez, after noticing Jeter's lack of defense when it came to other players and fans criticizing the third baseman. "You've got to lead them all, the ones you like and the ones you don't," he told Jeter. He asked Jeter to defend A-Rod to the fans. "I can't tell the fans what to do," Jeter countered. (Of course, Jeter did just that when it came to Jason Giambi and Chuck Knoblauch, although the article doesn't mention that.) I don't know how many times I wrote over the years that the captain's job was to stand up for all of his teammates, not just his buddies. So good for Cashman that he told him the same thing!

Then there's this tidbit:

It all came to a head during a Yankee loss in August 2006 to Baltimore.

An easy pop-up hung in the air between A-Rod and Jeter. Both players closed in and Jeter bumped into A-Rod, knocking the ball out of his glove. Jeter shot A-Rod a withering look.

The gesture did not go unnoticed. Cashman pulled Jeter aside and ordered him to knock it off.

"Listen, this has to stop," Cashman said. "Everybody in the press box, every team official, everyone watching, they saw you look at the ball on the ground and look at him with disgust like you were saying, 'That's your mess, you clean it up.' "

A-Rod also felt betrayed by manager Joe Torre, who players said added fuel to the fiery feud.

"He would never call Jeter on anything, but he'd have no problem doing it to Alex," one player told the author.

I remember that well. And I remember how much grief I got from fans for pointed out that obvious dis. Believe it or not, readers used to argue me all the time when I said it was pretty obvious Jeter couldn't stand A-Rod. But It was pretty clear to me starting with the way Jeter mumbled and grimaced through A-Rod's introductory press conference in 2004 that the Captain didn't want him on the team.

It's funny -- people would tell me over and over how Jeter would do anything to win. Yes, except for making the peace with Rodriguez!

Even though most of the New York media mostly ignored the issue as it was happening, it was pretty clear that there was a huge issue here. And since I was one of the few people anywhere writing about it, I got a lot of "How do you know, you're not in the clubhouse" in response, and people insisting that Jeter would never be so petty. Oh, really?

What's funny is that O'Connor's book, written with the cooperation of the Jeter camp, has such tidbits which reflect so negatively on Jeter (although, to be sure, the information also reflects negatively on Rodriguez, saying that Jeter didn't like A-Rod acting as a diva as a Yankee, and that A-Rod obsessed over Jeter. IMHO, I think A-Rod could have been Mother Teresa as a Yankee, and it wouldn't have made any difference!)

After all, so much of Jeter's mystique has been on his vaunted leadership skills. But instead of embracing getting the best player in baseball at the time for the team, this article makes it clear that Jeter was "less than thrilled" when A-Rod became a Yankee. And that one of the reasons the Yankees gave CC Sabathia $161 million was to mend the clubhouse, From the article:

"CC's main concern was our clubhouse, and how people got along," Cashman told the author. "I told him the truth. 'Yeah, we are broken. One reason we're committing [$161 million] to you is you're a team builder. We need somebody to bring us together.' "

I guess it would have been too much to expect the team's captain to bring the Yankees together, eh?

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Thoughts on A.J. Burnett, Pedro Feliciano, and the State of the Yankees

Did you know that A.J. Burnett has more wins than the entire Boston Red Sox team does? Talk about a fun fact!

I missed watching much of last night's game, due to another project I'm working on. But I still have a few things to squawk about::

* I am kind of doubting we will see Pedro Feliciano pitch this year -- the latest news isn't good. Aside from the ridiculousness of Brian Cashman blathering about the Mets' abusing Feliciano, I'm wondering about a few things. Like exactly what kind of physical exam did Feliciano get before becoming a Yankee? And why did it take a month between the two MRIs he had -- one in spring training, one this week?

* I read some chatter online about how Jeter is out of his slump, because he had two hits last night. Whoopee. Is that how low the bar has gone for the captain? It was only two years ago that Jeter had 66 multi-hit games out of the 153 he played in. And in 21 of those games, he had three hits or more. Now, people are flipping out with excitement because he had his second two-hit game of the year?

* I thought it was interesting that the Yankees will give everybody who had tickets for last night's game a pass for another game. That's something the team used to do when attendance was much smaller, and I can't remember the last time the team has done it. (I sat through worse conditions and delays at the new Stadium for an April 2009 Red Sox game, and we didn't get anything for our troubles!)

What do you think? Tell us about it!