Baseball All Around

Don't doubt the power of the 'stache...

Holy shit. That's all I have to say. When the Yankees offense comes alive, I LOVE IT! Thursday afternoon the Yankees played the Blue Jays. CMW has SUCKED recently, no lie. Something's bothering him because he has not been the same. Melky had a brain fart in center field and the ball bounced off of his glove, allowing a few runs to score. Ick, the score was then 7-2, but the Yankees fought back. Wilson Betemit brought the game to within 1 run after a 2-run blast. Kyle Farnsworthless gave up a run, but settled down and got the next few outs. ARod singled, Matsui brought him home so the game is back to a 1-run deficit. So now Jason Giambi is up at the plate with the tying run on base. There are 2 outs. He's down in the count, 0-2 and he just unleashes the fury tat is the Giambino and crushes a 2-run game winning homerun!! It was the craziest thing EVER! I was jumping around the house for about five minutes after that. One Yankee classic in the books for the 08 season.

Oh, they're not done yet, though. Today's game was frustrating, thrilling, and bound to give a few people heart attacks and drive people to drink the game away. We lost a heartbreaker last night (fuck you, ump giambi did NOT swing at that pitch, you asshole!) to the royals. And I thought we'd lose again today. We were quickly down 5-1, but in the bottom of the 4th we came back to tie it up (arod single, giambi walk, jorge double, robbie single, betemit sac fly, melky single, johnny single). In the bottom of the 5th, Giambi hit a monster homerun to give the Yanks the lead. Things turned ugly in the 7th when Pettitte gave up a run to tie the game, then a grand slam (he was over 100 pitches, but still no excuse. he has given up all of the leads we've given him the last 2 starts). In the bottom of the inning, however, Arod hit an awesome 2-run homerun to make it 8-10. Then the bottom of the 8th, Robbie singled, Betemit struck out swinging, Melky singled, wild pitch, and a Johnny Damon 2-run single tied the game at 10-10. Then the unexpected happened in the 9th inning. Mo gave up a first pitch homerun to DeJesus. Well, that was a big slap in the face. Mo looked so disappointed. But hey, we can't blame him. He's been lights out this entire season. He finished the rest of the inning on only 9 more pitches, 1 of them a ball. So it's the bottom of the 9th, but the Yanks are facing Soria, who killed 'em last night. He had an era of just about 1 and had not blown a save all year (then again, neither did Mo). So Giambi lines out, and shit there goes one of our hopes. Then Hip Hip comes up and just hits a bullet homerun to tie the game! Yeah, freaking AMAZING! So there's hope. Robbie then proceeds to ground out (though nice play by Pena to get him out), and then Betemit walks, Melky singles, and Johnny's up at the plate with 2 outs. Can he do it? He was 5 for 5 (4 singles, 1 double). Then he rips one down right field and into the corner for a ground-rule double but it doesn't matter because THE YANKEES WIN!!!!!!!!!! Another historic win because Johnny is the first Yankee to go 6 for 6 since 1934!!! Fucking amazing, he is. He's been on fire lately as well as Giambi. Just an instant classic and I was so relieved we won!!!!

Think for a Second

Can you believe it's June already? I can't. It's the worst first day of unofficial summer...ever. It's cold and rainy. Ick. I swear, I've had the best fortune today! Last night I took like an hour-long power nap and stayed up to watch the end of the 3rd/3OT of the Pittsburgh/Detroit game and proceeded to wake up close to 11 this morning. God, I needed the sleep. I've been waking up early a lot, even on the weekends. So there was that. Then my mom suggested we go out to Sati Coffee (a coffeeshop that has the best crepes). We got ready and my mom was taking forever, like usual. We got there around 1 and my mom parked really closely to this big, black Chevy Suburban (with a little scratch on the bumper ;) ) and asked if I could get out OK or she could park somewhere else. I was like don't worry it's fine. We entered and I saw 4 kids sitting at a table with mini Jamba juice smoothies. I was like aw, that's so cute. So we go up to order and I am standing there and look back and the kid's father is there bending over and talking to one of them and I was like wait, his voice is so familiar and he looks really familiar. I then franctically poke my mom and go "MOM! THAT'S KEITH CARNEY!" She knew who it was, thank goodness. I was like FREAKING OUT majorly. and then we sat by them (the kids had their own table and he and his wife had their own table right next to it). I was like "Don't stare, Kelsey. Don't stare" so I start texting Elise and typing as fast as my fingers will go. And when I looked up he nodded and smiled at me. I was like AHHH. Seriously, he is really good looking despite his age. I mean, he's not that old, but for hockey he's getting up there. They were all dressed nicely...I don't know where they were going. But the three little boys were all SO cute. They had nice sweaters on (one had a baby blue argyle sweater with a polo underneath, I just about died. He was my favorite and his hair was parted it was SO cute). They were some good-looking kids! My mom and I stayed awhile, to say the least. Two guys who were sitting at a table started talking to Keith about the hockey game last night. Gah, it was so exciting seeing him there and WAY unexpected! I've had the best fortune of seeing a ton of famous sports stars in the last week or so (Yankees game haha).

Ok well as fun as that was and all (like way cool) back to the original point of my post: I was reading the startrib this morning about this guy who caught the ARod homerun ball last night and threw it back. Personally, I thought he was a complete idiot. But what bothered me the most (and from my experience at the game) is how people view the Yankees. One guy was quoted in the paper as saying "Typical Yankees. You think you can buy everything." Not only is this untrue, but it shows his ignorance of the Yankees today. Yes, back in the wonder years of the 90's the Yankees were "the Evil Empire" buying players right and left and trading like no other. But I think this year they showed they were willing to bring up players from the system and develop them into Yankees. Exhibits A, B, and C: Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, and Ian Kennedy. They took a huge risk this year putting them in the starting rotation (though Joba's first ML start is tonight). They're young and have no major league experience. As for the Yankee's payroll, have you seen the Red Sox? I'll admit, it's amazing how much baseball players are being paid, especially the Yankees. But if we accept that all players are being paid a buttload of money, the Yankees were right in giving ARod, Posada, and Rivera big money in their new contracts. Sure, they're aging and dthey don't know what to expect in a few years (at least for Posada and Rivera and then there's Andy Pettite), but considering how much they mean to the team, it's so worth it. You're telling me any Twins fan would be like "Get rid of Morneau or Mauer" if they were wanting too much money? I'd say...NO. If people want to bitch about the Yankees and how they pay too much to their players and everyone hates them because they win all the time and basically they're "the Yankees" they need to do a little reality check. 1) The Yankees are in 2nd to last place in the AL East with a record below .500 2) The Red Sox are in 2nd place in the AL East. 3) Their payroll is huge, too. 4) Who has won a world series title twice in the past 4 years? 4) Who has not won a World Series title since 2000?

You answer those questions and come back to me on why you dislike the Yankees so much and make sure you check out those Red Sox because honestly people, they're the team to beat. Not the Yankees.