C.C. the Squawker Cat: 1996-2010

Sad news today: I had to put my cat C.C. to sleep this morning at my vet's office. C.C. was almost 15 years old, and had been battling cancer for the past year. She was able to survive that, but then she developed kidney failure, and it became too much for her in recent weeks. So I had to make the decision to end her suffering today. Someday we'll up meet again at Rainbow Bridge, along with my cat Rusty, who passed away last year.

A few weeks ago, my minister blessed C.C. at our church's Blessing of the Animals event. And I swear I saw C.C. nod and understand what my minister was saying about her!

Squawker readers may remember hearing about this remarkable cat. She was the original C.C. and was irate when CC Sabathia came to the Yankees with a similar name, but left the periods out of his name. She also liked to sit in my Yankee Stadium chair, although I was never totally sure what team she rooted for!

C.C. was also my very first cat, literally showing up at my doorstep in 1997, looking for a home. I wasn't looking to take a cat in, but she somehow talked her way in, and she was a big part of this Squawker household ever since.

In 2004, she broke her hip when the Yankees were in the ALDS against the Minnesota Twins. It didn't look good for her at first, but she survived that with flying colors, and as time passed, you couldn't even tell which hip she broke.

Unfortunately, her recent health problems were too much to deal with. That, combined with advanced age, meant that it wasn't fair to keep her around, when she was suffering so.

Anyhow, I keep on looking around my home today, half-expecting to see her snoozing on the Yankee chair, or giving grief to my other cat, Rocky. But she's not here any more, and I will really miss her.

What do you think? Tell us about it.,

Here's the story: Brian Cashman uses "Brady Bunch" plotline for inspiration

Think Brian Cashman lost his mind this offseason by picking up Javier Vazquez and Nick Johnson? Wait until you hear what he had planned for this October. It's straight out of a '70s sitcom.

Cash told this to Kevin Kernan of the New York Post (hat tip to WasWatching ) and emphasis added:

"It's kind of like the Derby, Preakness, Belmont, races are longer, shorter," he said. "We won the long race in terms of qualification, whether it's the wild card or Eastern Division title. Now we have a shorter race we have to run in a five-game set, so your roster strengths get analyzed differently or get weighted differently."

When he was asked what he makes of the way his horses have limped to the finish line, Cashman, showing his TV side, said, "I liken it to the Brady Bunch and when they had the phony football playbook. If you are advance scouting us here in September, I think we are holding back all our big plays."

The "Brady Bunch" is his inspiration? What, is Cashman going to have A-Rod get hit in the face with a football and scream, "Oh, my nose"? Is Joe Girardi going to be rocking a perm, a la Mike Brady? Will Wes Parker, the ghost of Don Drysdale, and Joe Namath show up to give the team a pep talk?

Here are some other "Brady Bunch" plotlines that just might work for the Yankees this October:

*  A model volcano explodes at Yankee Stadium to thwart a Twins rally.

*  The new "God Bless America" singer: Davy Jones!

*  Best pre-game meal: Pork chops and apple sauce. That's swell!

*  Forget the team going from the hotel to the ballpark by bus. Station wagons are the way to go -- until gold prospector Jim Backus steals the vehicle, that is!

*  Yanks get revenge against Carl Pavano -- first by telling him, "Baby talk, baby talk, it's a wonder you can walk," then by "accidentally" trapping him in Sam the Butcher's meat locker.

Geez, let's hope that the necklace A.J. Burnett wears around his neck doesn't secretly have a tiki idol attached, or all is doomed, anyway!


Do you have any "Brady Bunch" anecdotes to contribute? Tell us about it!

Yankees have wild card while Mets have wild Oliver Perez

Maybe Jerry Manuel just didn't want his final game to end. Why else would he pull his two best hitters, David Wright and Jose Reyes, in the ninth inning, just so they could leave the field to standing ovations? It's the sort of thing you do when the game has already been decided, not when it's a 1-1 tie and neither team is generating any offense. When the game went into extra innings, the announcers soon began making comparisons to April's 20-inning game.

Sure, it didn't really matter who won or lost the game (though a Met win would have given them a tie for third with Florida instead of a second straight fourth-place finish). But the few remaining fans at Citi Field would doubtless have preferred to save their cheers for the end of the game with a walkoff win, which now had that much less of a chance of happening.

The game staggered into the 14th inning (with Reyes and Wright's lineup spots batting twice each) before Manuel decided it was time to put this miserable season out of its misery.

He brought in Oliver Perez.

For me, the highlight of the game came when Ollie actually struck out the first batter he faced and the remaining fans began a loud chant of "M-V-P!" Ollie, perhaps panicked by what he took to be increased expectations, quickly reverted to form and hit the next batter before walking the next three to force in a run.

Now the game, and season, were all but over. But Manuel had one last dubious managerial decision left. Pat Misch pitched eight innings on Friday night, but that didn't stop Manuel from bringing him back to pitch in relief on one day's rest. The way Manuel deals with injuries and injury risk, his next job really should be in football. Fortunately, it only took Misch three pitches to get out of the inning with a double play.

Now the Mets are done and I get to hear Squawker Lisa get insulted over the Yankees selling wild card t-shirts. Met fans don't even get "Tied for Third Place" t-shirts. At least we have our own postseason fireworks to look forward to, perhaps as early as Monday. Regime change can't come soon enough.

The Yankees spent $213 million, and all I got was this lousy AL Wild Card t-shirt

Shortly after the Yankees lost today, I got an email from Yankees.com with the subject line, "2010 AL Wild Card Winners. Get the gear," and pictures of the various merchandise for sale. A Wild Card t-shirt? You gotta be kidding me.As Chris Rock might say, "With a $213 million payroll, you're supposed to make the playoffs! What do you want, a cookie?"

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy the Yankees are playing meaningful games in October. But they should have won the division. And the fact that they didn't, and had to settle for the Wild Card, is disappointing. The Yankees spent $213+ million on payroll this year, and they didn't even win the AL East? In my writing for Heater Magazine, I did correctly pick that the Yankees would win 95 games. But I thought they would win a tight race for the AL East against the Red Sox. So much for that.

Then again, things could be worse than seeing the Red Sox win two out of three against the Yankees, and watching the Yanks miss getting the Wild Card at the hands of their rivals. I could have been a Mets fan, sitting through 14 innings at Citi Field for my team's finale, only to see the game -- and the season -- end this way (Report from CBSSports.com):

"Oliver Perez hit Adam Kennedy with a pitch before walking three batters in a row in the 14th inning, and the Washington Nationals beat the New York Mets 2-1 Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep."

Let's hope Brian Cashman isn't scouting Ollie as Javier Vazquez's replacement next year!

Anyhow, I had a busy weekend, with Yankees-Red Sox watching being just part of what was happening in my life. I went to see Malcolm Gladwell interview Bill Simmons as part of the New Yorker Festival (more on that in a future post.) I also walked my first-ever 5K race today. (I was very excited to walk 3.1 miles in under 44 minutes, until I saw that a runner on crutches did the same race in 28+ minutes!)

But as busy as I 've been, one thing I won't be doing is buying Wild Card gear. Sheesh.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Page Six Fail! New York Post messes up on Keith Hernandez story

I saw a story in the New York Post Page Six column the other day about Keith Hernandez that looked just too good to be true. And guess what? My instincts were right.

In a story about Hernandez dating a new woman after splitting up from his second wife, the Post claimed that "On the day his [first] divorce became final, legend has it he hit two home runs, a triple and a double, and said, "I should get a divorce every day. I'd be broke, but I'd be in the Hall of Fame."

But that never happened. Check out my Faster Times piece,
New York Post Fails to Check Facts on Keith Hernandez to see what the real story is.

Review: "The House of Steinbrenner"

So I finally got around to watching Barbara Kopple's "The House of Steinbrenner" today. I had very low expectations for it, given that it was part of ESPN's "30 for 30" series. I figured that it would be very critical. It really isn't as harsh as I expected, but it is something nearly as bad -- it's pretty dull.

The documentary is extremely slow-paced and ramblng; it takes a good 20 minutes (out of a 60 minute episode!) to even get into discussing Steinbrenner himself. And if you're looking for a coherent narrative explaining even how many titles the Yankees won under Steinbrenner, forget it. It's not that kind of documentary.

Instead. "The House of Steinbrenner" wastes a lot of time with those annoying "fan on the street" type interviews that I hate, where fans whine about every little thing, like the who says the new stadium isn't for "real fans" because it has a sushi stand. Dude, if you don't like it, don't eat there. Nobody has taken away your ability to get a hot dog at the new ballpark.

Aside from the behind-the-scenes footage of the old Stadium being dismantled, and some shots of the ticker tape parade, the most interesting thing is hearing Hal Steinbrenner talk. He's a very likeable guy, albeit neither colorful nor bombastic. (If only Hank had agreed to appear in this documentary, it would have been much more fun.) Hal looks like a combination of George Steinbrenner and Tucker Carlson, but sounds like his father on Xanax.

One of the big surprises was that Hal is a pilot; I can't imagine given what happened to Thurman Munson and Cory Lidle, that The Boss was too thrilled with his son's hobby, though. And seeing Thurm's picture behind Hal when he's going on about his love of flying was too spooky for me.

It made me sad to see the old clips of Steinbrenner, back when he was the larger-than-life character. And to see the Warner Wolf interview in 2004. where you could see in retrospect that he was starting to decline, although we didn't know it at the time.


"The House of Steinbrenner" isn't a complete waste of time, but it's also not exactly must-see TV, either. I made sure to write this review right after watching, because I figured I would forget it in a day or two! It's that inconsequential.

Carl Pavano: Clubhouse leader? Can you believe it?

My childhood friend Kelly tipped me off to this MLB.com story, "Pavano's leadership shines through for Twins." It turns out that, according to the article, the pitcher formerly known as "American Idle" is actually an elder statesman in Minnesota:

Pavano has proven to be a leader within the Twins clubhouse, using humor at times while also setting a tone for the pitching staff with his unstoppable work ethic. He's worked hard to help create team chemistry, organizing team cookouts and dinners -- even hosting a few at his own suburban Minneapolis home that sits on a lake.

The piece also features this eyebrow-raising quote from the crash test dummy:

"Getting an opportunity to be counted on again, that's what it's all about," Pavano said. "You like that accountability. You like when you take the mound and your team feels like it has a great chance to win that day. It's gratifying."

Well, Pavano wasn't anybody to count upon as a Yankee, that's for sure. Did you know he pitched more innings as a Twin this year than he did in his four seasons as a Yankee? And he has 17 wins this year, to the 9 he had as a Bomber over four years? Sheesh.

That's not the only positive Pavano article out there. Minnesota's Star-Tribune has a column with this title, "Pavano has shown success on big stage." Guess New York doesn't count as the big stage anymore!

I'm not going to root for a particular team for the Yankees to face in the postseason. The last time I did that was 2006, when the Detroit Tigers stumbled down the stretch, only to be worldbeaters against the Yankees. But if the Yankees do face the Twins, whether in the ALDS or ALCS, I just want them to destroy Pavano. Last year, they did beat him, but Pavano hung pretty tough for the first six innings. Yes, I'm still bitter.

What do you think? Tell us about it!