On the Yankees' Walkoff Win, "Glee," "Dancing With the Stars," and the Mets

I was watching last night's Yankee game until 9 p.m., when I switched over to the season finale of "Glee." Hey, don't judge. I don't like to watch season finales on DVR or tape delay, because I know that even if I wait an hour to watch it, I'll come across somebody talking about the show in question on Twitter or Facebook or online, I'll get ticked off that the show was spoiled, and it will ruin my enjoyment. So I'd rather prevent the aggravation and watch it live.

Anyhow, because of that, I missed watching the end of the Yankees' exciting walkoff win live, although I did catch it later, after watching the season finale of "Dancing With the Stars." I was happy to see Hines Ward, who I have rooted for all season, take the mirror ball trophy home! I still want to see a baseball star on DWTS one day, though.

It was good to see the Yankees have an old-fashioned rally, and they looked about as happy as I've seen the team all year!

In other news, there's word that Rafael Soriano is going to visit Dr. Andrews, which is never a good thing. Brian Cashman looks vindicated on that signing, that's for sure!

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As for the Mets' mess, there have been some really good articles written criticizing Fred Wilpon. In his piece "Choose the Mets," my friend Mark Healey suggests not putting any money into the Mets' coffers until Wilpon is gone. Ian O'Connor has an angry column which asks that Bud Selig take over the team. "Enough is enough is enough," O'Connor sez. "If wresting the Mets from Wilpon isn't in the best interests of baseball, what the hell is?"

And Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post wonders when the fans will get an apology from Wilpon:

When Wilpon described the Mets as, um, “sh***y,” what he did was admit what we’ve long suspected: that he plays his own fans for suckers, chumps, rubes, that he believes they drive to work on the same turnip truck he so vehemently wants us to believe he rides in on (or else how could poor Fred — a good man — have been so relentlessly duped by so many.

Wilpon may believe he is, in the words of that New Yorker piece, "snakebitten," but I think it's interesting how many times a supposedly smart and good man has been "fooled" so many times. Aside from the Madoff issue, and having Kirk Radomski as a clubhouse staffer back in the day, there's the whole Charlie Samuels scandal.

Samuels, who worked for the Mets for 30 years, and was their longtime clubhouse manager, not only was a clubhouse snitch for ownership, but he was involved with illegal gambling (the second Mets employee to be busted for such a thing). And he also was recently charged with swiping $2.3 million in stolen Mets autographed memorabilia from the clubhouse and storing them elsewhere to sell. According to a news story about the theft, the items recovered included "507 signed and unsigned jerseys, 304 hats, 828 bats, 22 batting helmets and 10 equipment bags." And nobody noticed a thing? Are you kidding me?

What do you think? Tell us about it!

On Philip Humber, Phil Hughes, Breaking Up No-Hitters, and Booing After a Missed Pop-Up

Last night, when Chicago White Sox pitcher Phil Humber was in the seventh inning of a no-hit game against the Yankees, I tried to jinx him on Facebook by talking about it. And within 20 seconds (I am not kidding!), Alex Rodriguez got a hit to break up the no-hitter. It was the highlight of the evening for me! (Oh, and by the way, a friend pointed out that if Humber had succeeded in throwing a no-hitter, he would have been the seventh ex-Met to do so, with the Mets still never having a no-hitter of their own. I loved telling Squawker Jon that!)

Now, the not-so-fun stuff. After a setback Monday, Phil Hughes has a date with an MRI tube today. I don't understand why the Yankees have been so reticent about having Hughes checked out earlier. I wrote on April 9, after his second start, that he should get a medical exam. It's now April 26, and he's finally going to be checked out, weeks after being put on the disabled list. What was the holdup? Did the Yankees had to get a referral from their HMO or something?

I felt terrible for A.J. Burnett -- we had the Great A.J. last night, but the Yankees couldn't get any runs to help him.

There was something very weird that happened in the ninth inning, when Rafael Soriano was on the mound, that I thought would be a pretty big story. But I only saw it mentioned in a Wally Matthews ESPN blog entry, and at the end of a Star-Ledger game article. Alexi Ramirez hit a popup in the ninth inning. Soriano pointed and motioned, as if to say that he couldn't get it. Derek Jeter came charging in, but he wasn't quick enough catch the ball, which dropped to the ground.

And then the crowd booed. Yes, Yankee fans were booing! Now, it was unclear whether the fans were booing Jeter, or Soriano, or both, but Twitter and Facebook were all a-flutter last night over the incident. (Unless I missed it, the YES Network, of course, didn't get into discussing the booing, and didn't show the clip again in the postgame wrapup.) At any rate, I thought this would be a much bigger controversy, but it's downplayed in today's papers. Very strange.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

New York Sportswriters Take Aim at Rafael Soriano, Joe Girardi

Grrrrrrrrrr. Not only did the weather last night cause a rainout for the Yankees, but it meant another day of media pontificating and self-righteousness about Rafael Soriano and Joe Girardi.

The press makes such a big stink if a player doesn't talk to them. Look, I get that it makes their job harder, but sometimes they take their complaints a little too far. For example, ESPN NY's Wally Matthews said what Soriano "did was wrong, to his teammates, to the media and to the fans who depend upon the media as their pipeline into the clubhouse." Spare me. The Soriano kerfuffle was completely media-created. I don't think any fans lost any sleep over it.

As for the teammate issue, that's another media-created thing -- they make a big story about a player not talking, harangue the player's teammates over it to the point of annoyance, then complain "ooh, the teammates are annoyed." Wheeeee!

An aside -- the thing a lot of fans wanted to see the media ask more questions on was to A.J. Burnett last year. He stunk up the joint from June on, shows up and pitches a game with a black eye, then politely says he's not going to talk about how he got said black eye, and the press just drops it? Sorry, when you've won just four games in four months, and you show up for a game looking like you went 15 rounds beforehand, the fans do have a right to know what going on. And the fact that the media essentially gave Burnett a pass is mind-boggling. 

Anyhow, Rafael Soriano did apologize to the media for not speaking after Tuesday's game. But because of the rainout, there were a whole slew of columns going after Joe Girardi for what they perceived as blunders in Tuesday's game. I think it's second-guessing, myself. There are plenty of times I thought Girardi made bad decisions with the bullpen, most notably his terrible job in the ALCS last year. Tuesday's game was not one of them. And I was there, freezing in the cold, so if I thought he messed up, I would be squawking bigtime about it.

But the press is flipping out over the game like it's a playoff one. Kevin Kernan of the New York Post wrote, "The new-math Yankees are so locked into pitch counts that they put the freeze on Sabathia. That tells me they are so concerned about their starting pitching that they are babying Sabathia, and that cost them a game Tuesday night." CC had thrown 104 pitches on a bitterly cold night on his second start of the year. If Girardi had pitched him into the eighth, and he had faltered, we would be hearing from the press about how the tightly-wound manager was riding his best pitching arm too hard.

And the media has mocked Girardi for saying yesterday that Soriano was his eighth-inning guy. But if he hadn't used him Monday, and the rest of the bullpen had faltered, you just know we would hear about how Girardi had lost confidence in his $35 million setup guy. Joe just can't win.

Anyhow, I'm hoping the weather holds up, so we see actual baseball today, so that there is something for the media to write about other than the As the Bullpen Turns drama!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

I Stayed Out in the Cold for This? Yankees Lose to Twins

I went to the game last night, and saw the first Yankee failure of Rafael Soriano. Hmmmm, did Michael Kay jinx him by coming up with the JoSoMo name, or did I jinx him by talking about it? Yikes!

At least I had a great time seeing my childhood friend Kelly at the game, which cushioned the stomach punch of the loss a little better! Of course, I come home to see that Squawker Jon is gloating about his Mets, and giving me the what-for!

A few thoughts on the evening:

* I was just saying to my friend that after Russell Martin hit a homer in his second Yankee game, John Sterling had a nickname ready to go. So when Andruw Jones came up for the first time as a Yankee, I was wondering what Sterling would come up with. Just a few seconds later, Jones hit a homer in his first at-bat as a Yankee. I called Squawker Jon to ask if he could find out what the Sterling call was. I get a text and a voice mail with the goods a few minutes later: "Andruw Jones makes his bones!" Jon sez that Twitter folks think it's a new low for Sterling!

* It was bitterly cold. Just very uncomfortable, even for me, who is pretty warm-blooded. The Stadium paid attendance of 40K last night did not reflect the actual number of people in the seats (I think it was more like 25-30K).

* I saw all sorts of talk about the onion rings guy when I got home -- the dude whose food went flying onto Andruw Jones when he tried to catch a foul ball. I saw the clip on big screen, and thought it was a hot dog that went flying (Kelly was in the concourse at the time, and heard Suzyn Waldman say it was onion rings.) A few points: Aside from the waste of food involved, you cannot expect to catch a foul ball with an onion rings basket. And, more importantly, why do you try to catch a foul ball at all when a Yankee player is trying to get it. Isn't him getting an out for your team more than you getting a souvenir? Yankee fans pride themselves on how knowledgeable they are, but I see ignorant nonsense like this all the time. Do people still not know after Steve Bartman not to go after foul balls your team is trying to catch?

* The media is in a tizzy over Soriano showering and going home before talking to them. I get that, but at the same time, they're taking it too far, reading all sorts of aspersions into Soriano as a person and as a teammate because he didn't stick around to talk to the press. Two examples this morning: Wally Matthews sez "Soriano is no Mariano Rivera. And likely never will be. Nor does it seem like he will ever be a true fit in this clubhouse." And not to be outdone in hysteria, Joel Sherman writes:  

..."this game was lost in the eighth. Was it because of the cold that Soriano faltered? Pitching the day before? Unfamiliarity with the role? Or anger at being asked to take the ball at 4-0 in the eighth? Soriano played to the worst of his reputation and was not around to answer.

He took a bribe to come here for a role he did not really want. Maybe money really can't buy happiness."

Glad to see that, in addition to writing, these two have side careers in mind-reading to fall back on!

* We stayed around until the end, and I actually was hopeful the Yankees would come back and win. After all, it was two years ago against the Twins that the Yankees had a walkoff win, and their first pie-throwing! Alas, it was not to be, not even against Joe Nathan, who usually folds against the Yanks. Bummer.

What do you think? Tell us about it.

Just Say No to Michael Kay's "JoSoMo" Nickname

I am very excited about the way Joba Chamberlain, Rafael Soriano, and Mariano Rivera are pitching out of the bullpen for the Yankees this year. I am significantly less excited over the possibility of the wretched "JoSoMo" nickname sticking to the trio. Ugh. C'mon, Michael Kay, as if foisting "QuanGorMo" onto Yankee watchers weren't enough, now you come up with JoSoMo? Good grief.

My friend Sully Baseball has been complaining about what a terrible era we're in for baseball nicknames, with the creativity consisting of the first letter of the first name, and the next three letters of the last name (A-Rod, A-Gon, etc.), or shortening the last name (Youkilis becomes Youk, etc.) What Kay is doing is even worse. It's like putting Squawker Jon and I's names together and calling us JoLi. JoSoMo is not a nickname; it's an abomination!

How about something emphasizing the power of three, like Triceratops? Now that's a cool nickname. Three Mile Island -- they're so tough, they're nuclear? Three Ninjas? The Three Kings? The Three Amigos? We could get musical with Three Dog Night or Three Days Grace or Three Doors Down. Or operatic with Threepenny Opera! Heck, even Three Billygoats Gruff would be better than JoSoMo!

Or maybe one of our readers has a better idea for a nickname. Please, somebody must have a better idea than JoSoMo!

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I am going to the Yankee game tonight with Kelly, my childhood friend from Passaic, New Jersey. We haven't seen each other since Reggie Jackson was on the Yankees!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

What the media is missing in the Rafael Soriano story

Squawker Jon told me this morning that he can't ever remember the GM of the Yankees -- or for that matter, any other team -- introducing a new acquisition by talking about how he "didn't recommend the deal" and didn't want the player on the team. But that's pretty much what happened at yesterday's introductory press conference for Rafael Soriano. Way to roll out the welcome mat, Bri!

And while the media is giving Cashman credit for sticking to his guns, I don't think there was anything the least bit admirable in what he did. In fact, most organizations would call his public comments about how he didn't think Soriano was worth the money insubordination.

Sure, the Yanks are overpaying for Soriano, but given their current bullpen options, they really had no choice. (Although commenter at the Yankeeist site notes that Cash could have picked up the $10 million option on the Kerry Wood deal instead, back in November.)  But Cashman insisted that he was correct yesterday, saying that the contract was too much money for a closer, and that the team had enough current options in the bullpen. Please.

Remember, folks, he was willing to give up $10 million -- and a first-round draft pick -- for a one-year deal with Carl Pavano, the worst free-agent signing in franchise history. And he balks at the cost of Soriano? C'mon now.

And I'm not buying all the recent spin that Soriano is a bad person. There were a lot of positive stories last season about how manager Joe Maddon would pour Soriano, a fellow wine buff, a glass of wine after the game to honor each save. But after Bill Madden wrote this week how that the two didn't get along, suddenly Soriano is being portrayed as a chronic miscreant. Besides, Cashman was willing to bring back Pavano, who was universally despised, into the clubhouse. But Soriano is too much?

Anyhow, there's been a lot of speculation about what this all means for Cashman's contract status. Frankly, I'm glad that the organization has finally appeared to have had enough of the way their GM sleepwalked through the offseason. As my Twitter friend -- and bigtime author -- Jerome Preisler put it in a recent column:

In early December, Cashman rappelled down the 22-floor Landmark Building in Stamford, Connecticut as “celebrity guest elf”, accompanying a costumed Santa Claus for the city’s holiday season Heights and Lights event. At the time, neither Derek Jeter nor Mariano Rivera had been re-signed as Yankees, Cliff Lee was off somewhere in his protracted deliberations, and Yankees fans were locked in a state of angst about all of the above. Although Cashman’s extracurricular stunt most likely wasn’t a distraction from the business of putting together a team, it was hardly a sensitive acknowledgement of the Yankee fan base’s profound unease. In the political realm, nobody likes seeing their elected official vacationing in Hawaii or Martha’s Vineyard during times of national crisis. In Yankeeland, it’s probably less than advisable to engage in a precarious lark wearing a green-and-red elf suit when your paying customers are looking at Sergio Mitre as their team’s fourth or fifth starter.

And friend Sully of Sully Baseball is a Red Sox fan, but he makes some very fair points about the situation (he also gave me a shoutout in this blog entry. Thanks!):

Imagine me saying this to a Yankee fan right after their team lost the 2010 ALCS:

You aren't going to get Cliff Lee...
nor Carl Crawford...
nor Zack Grienke...
you will bring back Derek Jeter but he will feel alienated...
you will bring back Mariano Rivera but only after HE called the Red Sox...
Andy Pettitte isn't signed...
the one big pick up is Rafael Soriano who has had 2 elbow surgeries in the last 5 seasons and is a fly ball pitcher in a home run park...
BUT the good news is they might bring back Carl Pavano.

You might start making a noose.

I wouldn't go as far as the noose analogy, but I do think it's time to take away the keys from Cashman. One other point -- not only did all this happen, but it happened at the very same time the Red Sox were reloading their team with Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, and a better bullpen. What a nightmare!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

In defense of the Steinbrenner brothers

There are all sorts of stories coming out over the weekend saying that Brian Cashman didn't want to sign Rafael Soriano, but the team's ownership overruled him. And you know what? If this is the case, Hal and Hank Steinbrenner had every right to "meddle."


What the heck was Cash thinking in making such a big deal about keeping the 31st pick in the draft, instead of bolstering the bullpen? Trading for another bullpen arm, like Joakim Soria, would have cost the Yankees a lot more. Also, as reader Johnmouk noted to me, this prevents Jonathan Papelbon from donning pinstripes next year.

And as much as I love Mariano, the apparent thinking of the Steinbrenner family in being concerned about what would happen if Mo couldn't pitch anymore makes sense to me. The New York Post reports:

According to the source, ownership was worried about the bullpen's depth should Mariano Rivera suffer an injury. Cashman felt Joba Chamberlain or David Robertson could fill the closer's role if needed. But the Steinbrenners, along with team president Randy Levine, wanted Soriano. 

"He stated his case," the source said of Cashman. "But he understood. It's not like he threw a body block to stop it."

Why does Cash have so much faith in Joba or Roberston, especially given that he's the guy who traded for Kerry Wood last summer? Is this something worth going to the mattresses for?

And I don't get why Cashman is being so stingy about the draft picks all of a sudden. Since he became GM in 1998, there has been exactly one first-round draft choice, Phil Hughes, who has been a big-league contributor for the Yankees. And Gerrit Cole turned down signing with the Yankees. It's a crap shoot, and I will never understand who Cashman would put this pick ahead of improving the team now.

The New York Times' Tyler Kepner wonders when Cashman is going to publicly speak about the Soriano deal., writing:

Maybe Cashman simply changed his mind; he did not return phone calls Friday. But Cashman takes seriously his reputation for honesty, and at some point he must explain his reversal. The organization has run smoothly since Cashman demanded a restructuring of baseball operations in October 2005, and he must blunt the appearance that this might have changed.

I wonder, too. He was like a Chatty Cathy doll this offseason, and now he has nothing to say? Very strange.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

What Brian Cashman and the new horoscope changes have in common

I heard two earth-shattering pieces of information yesterday. First was that thanks to some wacky new horoscope configuration, Squawker Jon and I now apparently have new astrological signs. He was a Cancer and is now supposedly a Gemini, while I went from being a Pisces to Aquarius. What will these changes do for our Squawker compatibility? The mind boggles!

Then Jon called to tell me the news that Brian Cashman signed closer Rafael Soriano for three years. Wait a minute here. It was only a week ago that Cash made this big pronouncement to the Journal-News' Chad Jennings, announcing that the Yanks would not sign Soriano -- or any other Type A free agent not named Cliff Lee:

Essentially taking himself out of the running for Rafael Soriano, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said this afternoon that he absolutely will not make a move that costs the Yankees their top draft pick.

“I will not lose our No. 1 draft pick,” Cashman said. “I would have for Cliff Lee. I won’t lose our No. 1 draft pick for anyone else.”

Talk about famous last words! Not that I'm objecting to Cash changing his tune here. This is a win-now team. I think getting Soriano is a great move, between Mariano being no spring chicken, Joba no longer being Joba, Kerry Wood being in Chicago, and Dave Robertson being a disaster in the playoffs. (Although I'm not that crazy about some of the terms in the contract itself -- more on that in a sec.)

Sure, the Yankees still need a starter -- make that starters -- but picking up Soriano, Tampa Bay's former closer who led the league in saves last year, makes a lot of sense. Worrying about saving the 31st pick in the draft, when even a successful pick won't be able to help this team for at least five years, made zero sense.

It boggles my mind, though, why Cash would make such a ridiculous pronouncement in the first place, then go back on it a week later. What could possibly have been the negotiating strategy behind it?

Not to mention the contract itself that he gave Soriano. Scott Boras definitely has his groove back. Last week, he told ESPN New York's Andrew Marchand that his client would be open to being the setup man for the Yankees. It was looking for a sec like Boras was desperate to get his client any job, given that it's already January, and other teams didn't want to give up the draft pick for Soriano. Then Cash made his pronouncement, essentially agreeing that Soriano wasn't worth the draft pick.

Now, not only has Cashman completely changed his tune, but he has made Soriano the highest-paid setup man in baseball, and the third-highest-paid reliever in the game, according to Buster Olney (Mariano is No. 1.) Boras wins again!

And that's not all. Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk writes:

As was reported all over the place, the contract calls for Soriano to make $10 million this season, $11 million in 2012 and $14 million in 2013. But the final two years are player options, which means that Soriano can opt-out after this season. Or after 2012. This is savvy because there’s a non-trivial chance that the new Collective Bargaining Agreement will do away with free agent compensation picks heading into 2012, and Soriano’s status as a Type-A was probably the biggest thing hindering his marketability this year. No one wants to give up a first round pick if they don’t have to.

Boras is something else, isn't he? I am all for the signing itself, but I don't get the opt-out clauses. Given that they are not mutual, how do they possibly benefit the Yankees?

And please, I don't want to hear about how smart and clever Cash is as GM. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. He has exactly one instrument in the ol' toolbox -- the ability to spend a lot of money. Don't get me wrong -- I'm all for signing Soriano. But those dopey opt-out clauses don't help anybody but Soriano and Boras.

What do you think? Tell us about it!