Yeah, I have, now that you mention it.
Usually, a caviar omelet.
No, the caviar is the base. I crack the fish eggs and fry em up in a pan. Sometimes I throw a few prawns in there, too.
Very precisely.
Yeah, I have, now that you mention it.
Usually, a caviar omelet.
No, the caviar is the base. I crack the fish eggs and fry em up in a pan. Sometimes I throw a few prawns in there, too.
Very precisely.
Despite being jaded and cynical about The Ways of the World, I still manage to surprise myself with my naive ability to be appalled. This happened on Sunday as I read Mike Lupica's rambling, borderline slanderous column in the Daily News about Jose Reyes. In it, he puts a bunch of dots on the same page as "Reyes", "hyperthyroid issue", and "HGH", expecting you to connect the three without ever explicitly saying so. Reyes says he told the feds he didn't get human growth hormone from a Canadian doctor named Tony Galea, often regarded as a patron saint of HGH.
[J]ust because Reyes now has a problem with his thyroid gland, and is in New York City for sophisticated testing on it, does not mean those problems were caused by any kind of synthetic drug in his system.
Nobody should be surprised that people are looking to draw a line from Galea to what showed up in Reyes' blood tests.
Is there a way human growth hormone could have contributed to Reyes' thyroid problems? There are doctors who think so. Would they ever say HGH definitely caused Reyes' problems? No, they would not.
"Good medicine is about eliminating possible causes," Dr. Lewis Maharam - a doctor of sports medicine who has made sense about performance-enhancing drugs for years - said yesterday. "It's about differentials, making a list of possibilities and then eliminating them one by one. But there is a possibility that human growth hormone could cause a spike of thyroid hormone levels."
They say Jose Reyes has got a thyroid problem. Yeah, and I'm the mayor of Five Towns.
The City said there was no such thing, but Joe threatened to squeal about the no-bid Soilmaster contract, so they gave him what he wanted. Now the guy collects a paycheck while sittin in a hammock all year. Even in the winter, two feet a snow on the ground. Guy loves his hammock.
Welcome bu-HACK to The Mike Francesa Program, New York's Number 1, coming to you live from Port St. Lucie, where spring training has begin. The period called spring training is upon us. The time of year generally referred to by most baseball fans as spring training is here. Something has started to occur down here in Florida, and that thing I'm referring to is spring training. I'm at Mets camp, where apparently they're preparing for the upcoming season, rather than throwing in the towel by Opening Day as I suggested. My first guest on the program is a fifth starter candidate and a promising young pitcher, Jon Niese.
Let me ask you a question, Jon. Didn't you have some sort of injury or something last year?
Where would I have looked it up, the internet? I don't trust those calculator things. They got viruses and cookies in 'em. Now, let me ask you something else: Are you a lefty or a righty?
Yes, as a matter of fact. With Damon and Matsui gone, do you think the Yankee lineup will be as explosive as it was last year? How do you think Granderson's gonna do in his first year in pinstripes?
Don't get testy with me, young man. This is how it works, son. I'm the number one host on the Mets' flagship radio station, and I'm here in Port St. Lucie visiting your team. Of course I have to talk about the Yankees!
RC Cola's association with the Mets continued into the 2000s, but ended by the time the last days of Shea rolled around (hence the Pepsi Porch at their new ballpark). I would lament this fact, but considering RC Cola is now owned by Cadbury Schweppes, they're not exactly a mom and pop outfit, either.
TAMPA--Pitchers and catchers have reported to the Yankees' spring training facility, an annual tradition known affectionately as Hell Week. Prospects and new acquisitions alike report bright and early to endure the humiliation necessary to join America's most storied franchise.
Is somebody honking outside? Jesus, it's 7 in the morning. Oh, that's right, I gotta go to Florida today. That must be the cab to the airport. Well, better quick throw some stuff in the suitcase. T-shirts, undies, a couple button downs to hit the clubs in. What the hell, guess I'll bring my glove in case anyone wants to play catch...
I've had this string on my index finger for so long now, I can't remember when I put it on! In fact, I even forgot it was there until this morning, and I saw it in the mirror while I was shaving. Weird, huh? For the life of me, I can't remember what it's supposed to remind me of. Let me think, let me think...
Hey Omar, can we talk?
Sure thing, Carlos. How's that knee?
That's what I want to talk to you about. I spoke to you about this surgery earlier this week, and I thought everything was cool.
Yeah, definitely, sounds like something I'd say.
But today, your assistant GM made it sound as if I went behind your back to do this. What the fuck?! If you had some problem with how this went down, why didn't we just handle it internally? Why did you go after me in public, by proxy, and make me and everyone else on this team look bad?
I didn't go after you, Carlos, my assistant GM did. But it's clear that somebody pulled a real choke job here on the whole communication thing, and we'll take care of that ASAP. Right after we work out that 7-year extension for Bengie Molina.
You're responsible for this whole mess! Why are you talking like it's somebody else's fault?!
Carlos, you've never been in charge of a multimillion-dollar operation...
I am a multimillion-dollar operation...
...so you don't understand how this works. I am not responsible for the Mets. I am in charge of the Mets. Being in charge is not the same thing as being responsible.
You're right, I don't understand.
You see, people who are responsible are held responsible for their actions. If I were responsible for things, I would've been fired a long time ago. Remember that time we assed away a postseason berth in the last month of the season?
Yeah, that happened two years in a row.
Really? I have no memory of it happening two times. Then again, there was that one season where I took a lot of naps. You see, Carlos, only schmucks are responsible for things. Men are in charge. Men lead. They lead by standing there, immobile, staring straight ahead while their ship runs aground.
How do you get to be in charge?
You thrust yourself ahead blindly, like a bull in a china shop, barreling all your competitors out of your path. Other guys in charge will admire your spunk and grit and determination, and they won't care that you have no idea what you're doing, because they don't know what they're doing either, and they're afraid to have anyone too smart or principled around them to make them look bad in comparison.
Well, unlike you, my job is based on performance. In the big leagues, you can't fail upwards and hope to be rewarded.
You can't? I assume you've met Oliver Perez.
DID SUMBODEE TAKE MY FUNYUNS BECUZ I CAN'T FIND THEMM
The Mets finally made a big move this off season by landing Jason Bay. That fills at least one hole, doesn't it?
It came to my attention thanks to a post by Andrew Vazzano at The 'Ropolitans. The piece was about the offseason plans for a slew of baseball teams, and was written by Bill Madden. He's sort of the News' Peter King type: equal parts reporter and op-ed guy. He's been around forever, and he's very much an old school guy. The old school that says guys should hustle, play the game the right way, and be racially pure.Mets? Did somebody say the Mets? They won't spend the money for Holliday, Bay or Lackey and apparently, they're only interested in signing low-budget Latin players, having shown little or no interest in Byrd, Figgins, DeRosa, Wolf or even Staten Island's Jason Marquis, while waiting for their markets to come to them. At the same time, the Phillies and Braves wasted no time in addressing their needs. Sad.
- Omar Vizquel (White Sox)
- Chone Figgins (Mariners)
- Billy Wagner and Takashi Saito (Braves)
- Placido Polanco (Phillies)
My dream is to retire with the Mets colors. That's my dream. That's what I'm praying for, maybe it will happen, maybe not, but dreams sometimes come true, you know....I love the Mets and I love the Mets fans. I would like that dream to come true.
Of course, this is the man who, upon leaving the Mets for free agency after the 2002 season, used his own money to take out ads on top of taxicabs to thank Mets fans for their support. As The 1999 Project will attest, he had nothing but huge hits that year, particularly in September and into the playoffs. He was a Gold Glove caliber third baseman (I mean in the imaginary universe where Gold Gloves are handed out for actual fielding skills and not on legacy/popularity). But he moved to second base to make way for Robin Ventura, never uttered a peep about it, and played just as well there.I once knew a Molly Coddle. Close friend of Jimmy Jack. Neither is related to Joe Girardi, as it turns out, and for that we should all be grateful.And I once knew a guy named Loopy Louie and another guy named Sad-Eyed Sid. What the hell are you talking about?!
The World Series gave us a novel's share of heroes...but for me, the lasting impression will be Girardi's three-man rotation. He used it throughout the postseason, 15 games' worth, with spectacular success. He turned back the clock, drove a lot of people nuts, and emerged with a great big trophy in his hands.
Checking the national-media reports as the World Series reached its most crucial stage, you got the impression Girardi was an odd sort of dead man walking. "You'd better be right, you idiot," was the general tone. "Because you'll lose your job if you blow this."
I don't remember anyone being too stunned or upset at Girardi's move. The only time it came into question, really, was when he started A.J. Burnett on three days' rest in game 5--which didn't work out too well for the Yankees, you may recall. In fact, I think most reporters were on the same page as Jenkins, praising Girardi for his Macho Manliness in employing old school baseball tactics
Jenkins doesn't name any specific "national-media reports", so I can't really attack his hypothesis. I think he thinks Nervous Nellies attacked Girardi's strategy, and now he's giving these Imaginary Wusses a piece of his Manly Mind!
In truth, Girardi's job never was in jeopardy, but such was the tone of panic and paranoia as the Yankee manager wielded that deadliest of weapons: common sense. He employed a strategy that worked in baseball for, oh, about 70 years, not including the 19th century.
I think Jenkins is confusing "worked" with "was the status quo". Lots of things existed for long periods of time, but whether they were effective, wise, or just is a whole other story. Western civilization "worked" for a few millennia without the input of non-whites, the landless, and women. Does that mean we should return to those wonderful days?
While four-man rotations were employed by most teams until the 1970s, how well they worked depends on your definition of "worked". If by "worked" you mean "allowed baseball to exist", then yes, they worked. If by "worked" you mean "kept pitchers healthy and ensured long careers", that's a different question. It's also a question that's very difficult to answer, but Jenkins doesn't seem interested in asking it in the first place.
Somewhere along the line -- and I'm sure it's connected in some sinister way with the Nixon administration -- baseball lost its way. Forever the province of workhorse starters, pitching entire seasons on three days' rest and approaching 150 pitches in a given start, the game surrendered to the Mollycoddle Generation. Five-man rotations became the rage, and "100 pitches" equated to a traumatic overload, certain to destroy a man's arm and perhaps cause flooding in the neighboring streets.
So many things about baseball are different now. Until 1961, there were only 16 teams and 154 games in a season. There are far fewer off days now--a team will routinely play eight, nine, or ten games in as many days, often while traveling across large distances. In the olden days, series were often four games (or longer) instead of just three, meaning travel between points was less frequent. Until 1958, there were no teams west of St. Louis, and most travel was done by bus or train. I don't care what anyone says, but constant plane travel is NOT good for you, mentally or physically, especially the coast-to-coast variety.
So is it unreasonable to ask the game to adjust to these new realities? Yes, apparently!
The old-school guys didn't know whether to holler or weep. A number of them, including Bob Gibson and Robin Roberts, were hanging around this year's World Series, wondering aloud what happened to the game's integrity. "I don't get it," Gibson said after Game 4. "A guy can't pitch with three days' rest? I don't think it's going to kill somebody."
Bob Gibson wonders why guys can't pitch on three-days' rest because he's Bob effin' Gibson, one of the best pitchers ever. He doesn't know what it's like to be mortal. I'm sure Einstein wondered why people couldn't do quadratic equations in their head.
Using a legend like Gibson to prove your point about short rest being okay is like pointing to to an eagle and saying, "Why can't everybody fly like him?!" We can't because we're not all gifted with wings. For every Gibson, there are 10 guys who had a few good, promising seasons, were overworked when teams didn't know any better, blew out their arms, and were never the same.
How about Sandy Koufax? He was a workhorse, too, and he had six of the best seasons any pitcher has ever strung together. And he had to quit after those six seasons, because the Dodgers rode his arm so hard, he had to get special jackets made with one sleeve shorter than the other.
It was so refreshing to watch Girardi go through a month of excruciatingly tense baseball with CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte as his starters....There wasn't any big puzzle to the strategy [in the old days]. Teams went with their very best, not some questionable fourth or fifth starter, with the idea of rising above the rest. Other sports, notably football and basketball, have found ways to maximize the "bigger, faster, stronger" element and develop athletes more fit and productive than ever before. Baseball has managed to go backward, and it's not as if the pitch-count madness has improved the product. There has never been an era with more elbows, forearms, rotator cuffs and labrums on the shelf.
Thanks to advances in medical science, we're able to diagnose and treat things like torn labrums and rotator cuffs. In ye olden days, when a pitcher's arm hurt, they patched him up with voodoo and greenies and sent him back out there until his elbow exploded. Then they threw him on the scrap heap, because there was no free agency and all players were expendable, interchangeable parts. Ah, the good ol' days!
I don't think there's more injuries nowadays; teams are just able to detect them better and be cautious about them.Thirty years ago, most front office types probably thought the labrum was one of those little bones in the ear. Blaming the modern pitcher's regimen for injuries is like blaming an x-ray for a broken bone.
I'm not saying that a four-man rotation is an idea completely without merit. Even amongst the sabremetric set, the debate rages: at least one Baseball Prospectus writer thinks a four-man rotation would improve the game without damaging arms, while Rob Neyer believes that such a rotation simply wouldn't work with the modern baseball schedule, for many of the travel/day off reasons I mentioned above. I can't say I know enough to make a conclusion in either direction.
This is what I do know: Throwing a baseball the way pitchers throw baseball exerts a huge amount of trauma on the arm. Especially when it's done over and over again, which is unavoidable when you're a pitcher. It seems to me that a pitcher's effectiveness would be in indirect proportion to the amount of work that arm is asked to do. Not in every case, of course. But in most cases.
Asking an athlete to do that to their body throughout a season, then asking them to be in top shape down the stretch when it matters the most--which is the whole point of a baseball season, isn't it?--is begging for trouble.
Long story short: Unless I'm show definitive evidence to the contrary, I don't think a four-man regular season rotation would be to the overall benefit of all pitchers or clubs.
But I guess we should just do it cuz that's what manly men like Allie Reynolds and Bob Feller and Warren Spahn did. Can't argue with that logic!
One thing Jenkins neglects to mention: While the Yankees employed a three-man rotation throughout the playoffs, they didn't really pitch anyone on short rest until the World Series. Thanks to a short NLDS against the Twins and rainouts during the ALCS, they didn't need to. Sabathia pitched game 4 of the ALCS on three-days' rest, but that was the only short-rest start for the Yanks until he pitched game 4 of the World Series.
So this "daring act" Jenkins credits to Girardi was really just the byproduct of some fortunate scheduling. Had the dates and the climate conspired otherwise, who knows what he would have done?
If other managers haven't tried similar gambits in recent World Series, it may be due to the fact that this year's Fall Classic was the first one to last more than six games since 2003. There's little point in starting a pitcher on short rest when you have a commanding 3-0 or 3-1 lead in a series. In fact, when Girardi did that with Burnett in game 5, it very nearly blew up in his face, and basically forced him to start Pettite on short rest in game 6.
But again, I don't recall too many sportswriters in traditional media blasting him for doing this. So I really don't know who Jenkins is railing against here. I imagine that he sees the Bill Jamesians the way that Dave Berg used to draw all "young people", like dirty long-haired types, a bong in one hand and a pitch counter in the other.
Thanks to this piece, I think I am now legally cleared to smack an 11 year old.Elijah McNally started rooting for the Yankees in 2004, when he was 6 years old. Back then, the Yankees were only a year removed from a World Series appearance, and another championship seemed just around the corner.
Since then, Elijah had known nothing but seasons that ended with the Yankees falling short of winning a 27th World Series championship. On Wednesday night, he and his father, Chris, secured two seats in the right-field bleachers to see the Yankees end that dry spell.
"I've lived too long hearing that the Yankees got eliminated," said Elijah, who stood in the bleachers in an Alex Rodriguez jersey trying to get players to toss him a ball during batting practice.
Ordinary New Yorkers needed to see the Yankees keep their act together, and hang tough day after day, because that is what people have been doing all over the city, all across this tough, tough year....Yes, this ragtag group of misfits are just like us regular New Yorkers! So plucky! Fighting and srapping with nothing but grit and determination! Plus a $200+ million payroll and a brand new state-of-the-art billion dollar stadium! What a testament to our city's spirit!New Yorkers have just kept going. Feeding the kids, squeezing onto rush-hour subways, putting in long hours. Just kept putting one foot in front of the other. Ordinary heroes, their character only getting stronger.
And we saw the Yankees do the same. And we identified with these men in pinstripes.
It had been nine long seasons. Nine campaigns without experiencing baseball's ultimate victory, without a parade through the Canyon of Heroes, without being the last team standing at the end of the season.
After four championship rings in his first five seasons, Derek Jeter had to wonder if the success he enjoyed early in his career would ever come around again.
"With only four World Series rings, piles of money, and tons of beautiful women around him, how could Jeter live with himself unless he won his fifth title?!"
NEW YORK--Stand-up comedians from across the country gathered outside of Caroline's to call for a clarification on the latest Alex Rodriguez scandal. Over the weekend, it was alleged by an anonymous ex-lover that Rodriguez commissioned paintings of himself as a centaur.
NEW YORK--As of press time, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel had yet to decide on what appalling blunder his team would commit in game one of the World Series. Per the expanded postseason rules instituted this season, every team playing the Yankees in a playoff series must commit at least one mind-meltingly stupid error per game and submit it to the league office by 3 pm EST prior to game time.
I have a hard time deciding which is worse: the front or the back cover. And yes, I realize this is coming from the Post, not the Yankees themselves. But it's indicative of certain type of Yankee fan and organization arrogance, dismissiveness, and flat-out ignorance of anything outside of the Yankee Universe Yankee fans have a message for the Phillies and their hometown: This ain't Rocky, and the underdog won't win!Are the Phillies the underdog? Maybe, but not by a huge margin. I think anyone with half a baseball mind knows that the Phillies are a strong team up and down. The bullpen has regressed (or Brad Lidge has, anyway), but their starting pitching and lineup is actually better than it was last year. A good chunk of Yankee fans wouldn't know that, because they're are about as familiar with the NL as they are with self-restraint and perspective.
"Philly fans are a bunch of whiners and should learn how to dress[, said a fan] "They should try reading GQ."This has to be the first time a sports fan has insulted other sports fans by suggesting they pick up an issue of a high class fashion magazine. "Those mooks down in Philly don't even know how exfoliate! Yo, try pickin' up some skin products from the fine people Aveda some time!"
And don't even try to compare the iconic House That Ruth Built with the long-gone Veterans Stadium.You mean the iconic House That Steinbrenner Tore Down so he could bully the city into building a new billion-dollar Yankee Stadium on public land? Or are you referring to the iconic NYY Steak/House of Blues/Johnnie Walker Pavilion with the baseball diamond in the middle of it?
The Boss has lost something off a Hall of Fame fastball, but that doesn't mean the need to win has been sucked from his marrow.There are quotes from Derek Jeter, Reggie Jackson, Brian Cashman, and the Steinbrenner sons, all insisting that winning this World Series would "mean a lot" to the ailing Boss.
You won't see buttons attached to the pinstriped uniforms that read, "Win One For The Boss," but there is a feeling in the organization that it would be a nice touch to give the 79-year-old Steinbrenner another title.Sure, the Yankees have won six World Series under his ownership already, but that's small potatoes. Ring number seven, that's the real special one.
Joe Buck, on the other hand, receives few complaints. I think most fans feel that he's been around for so long, there's no point in slagging him. We'll never be rid of him, we realize now. He's like some small town mayor voted into office for 17 consecutive terms. No one bothers running against him anymore.
Now peep this pic of a young Tom Waits, back when his voice sounded only slightly demonic:
Not convinced? How 'bout this clip of Mr. Waits on Fernwood 2 Night?
It breaks your heart.
It is designed to break your heart.
The game begins
in the spring, when everything else begins again,
and it blossoms in the
summer, filling the afternoons and evenings,
it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.
You count on
it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time,
to keep the memory of sunshine
and high skies alive,
and then just when the days are all twilight, when
you need it most,
Today, Bob Raissman of the Daily News reported that Bobby Valentine is close to signing a "lucrative multi-year deal" with ESPN, and will join the crowded ranks of Baseball Tonight.
NEW YORK--Derek Jeter knows what's at stake. If he can get just one more hit in tonight's game versus the Orioles, he will not only take sole possession of first place in the all-time Yankees hit list. He may also finally erase all memory of the tyrannical Lou Gehrig, history's greatest monster.I don't buy the "Media vs. Reyes" premise. No one who actually knows Reyes calls him a slacker. Just fans or radio hosts.
I could be wrong, but I don't remember reading in any of the newspapers (or their web sites) about Reyes being a slacker.
It's hard to know why the media latches onto a particular narrative.
Sometimes it's a naked attempt to curry favor with the audience.
Sometimes it's to push an agenda (see: the entire Fox News Channel).
Sometimes it's just pure laziness, because it's always easier to go
with what everyone thinks they think about something than it is to
actually research stuff.1) The frequency of these "Reyes must go" features makes me think that the Mets have already decided to trade him, and are feeding these stories to the press to soften the eventual blow.
2) The Mets are extremely sensitive to the media, and also not very smart. If enough people say "trade Reyes", they may just bow to pressure and do it. Particularly since this narrative ties into another Mets-related media narrative: that the "core" of the team (code word for Reyes, Carlos Beltran, and David Wright) is not "tough" enough and therefore, one (or more) of them must be jettisoned for the good of the team.
Jerry, I don't need to tell you that this year didn't go the way we planned. But it would help both of us out if the team could play well down the stretch. You know, salvage some of our dignity, and maybe our jobs.
We're still playing? Sorry, I blacked out sometime in July as a psychological defense mechanism. Besides, I thought you traded you traded your dignity at the waiver deadline a few years back for Luis Ayala.
In any case, we need to some up with a plan for next year. Most of our prospects are 12 years old or going to the Red Sox. I thought I was getting a couple of minor leaguers back for Billy Wagner, but Theo Epstein made me sign all these forms...I still don't know how it happened, but they get our first and second round picks for the next eight years.
It's just as well. I don't like young players anyway, full of spunk and promise and hope. Makes me sick.
So we'll need to address our needs via free agency. First up, the hole in left field.
I heard about that. Big patch of quicksand ate up Jeremy Reed.
Well, that's the worst that could happen, pretty much.
The pic to your right is one of the banner headlines for the NY Post sports section this morning. George Steinbrenner visiting the Yankees in Tampa is, apparently, a huge deal. And Joba Chamberlain's eight great innings against the Rays last night was not another superb outing from a possibly emerging ace. Nope, it was a tribute to The Boss.