Joe Girardi

ne run over seven innings.  The Red Sox mounted a rally off Kyle Farnsworth in the eighth, but Joe Girardi brought Mariano Rivera in with one out to record a five-out save.  He struck out Jacoby Elsbury and got Dustin Pedroia on a come-backer to hold the 1-0 lead.  Mo was at his best in the ninth, striking out Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew to close out the game.

Continue reading "Santana Goes the Distance, Mets Stay Hot"

;s game, the Yankees held a closed-door meeting among coaches and players—reportedly, manager Joe Girardi spoke, followed by Johnny Damon and captain Derek Jeter. In a postgame news conference, Girardi repeatedly (and sometimes heatedly) refused to reveal what was said in the meeting, although the gist of the discussion was obvious: the can’t-lose Yankees have been losing.

Continue reading "More Bad Yankee Luck"

In the days following the excavation of the "cursed" Ortiz jersey from the fresh concrete at "Yankee Stadium--The Sequel" we've seen Jorge Posada go on the DL for the first time in his long career, and ARod join him for the first time since donning pinstripes.

Continue reading "Yankee Injuries = Ortiz Curse?"

Caught my first Boston Red Sox spring training game today on MLB.TV and truth be told, it was a yawner. Ended up 8-4, Yanks; a score that was on the board by the bottom of the fourth inning, rendering the remainder of the broadcast something of an exercise for the announcers, Michael O'Kay and John O'Flaherty (it being St. Patrick's Day, they both added "O"s to the front of their last names.). Having lived in New York for the last 15 years or so, I heard and saw a lot of these two (Flaherty, less. Kay is usually teamed with Paul O'Neill or Al Leiter). Every time the Sox and Yankees got together, I'd be listening to them instead of Joe Castglione and Jerry Remy. Kay and Flaherty are Yankee partisans, of course, but they're also professionals and Michael Kay, in particular, is a first class announcer. He used to do 'color' with John Sterling on New York radio. Sterling is more of an obvious Yankee fan than Kay, with an annoying habit of making routine plays into headline news with phony rhymes. Matsui hits a home run and we hear "A Thrilla from Godzilla." Alex Rodriguez hits a home run and we get "An A-Bomb from A-Rod." And when the Yankees win, he has this annoying habit of saying "The -ah-ah-ah-ah-ah Yankees win."

Continue reading "And so it begins. . .Boston Red Sox ..."

Earlier this week manager Joe Girardi took a stance that was not supported by many others in baseball when he harshly criticized a home plate collision in a game earlier this week, calling it dirty and something that you don’t do in Spring Training. If a young player trying to get noticed by his manager his coming into home and the plate is completely blocked, he has every right to barrel over the catcher. If Girardi doesn’t want such a thing to happen, he should tell his catcher not to block the plate in Spring Training. Nonetheless, I can understand Yankees pitcher Heath Phillips throwing at Evan Longoria in retaliation the next time the two teams met, that at least sends a statement to your teammates that you’ve got their backs. However, when Shelley Duncan slid into second base with his spikes high, that is just plain dirty and something that is unacceptable at anytime in the season. The home plate collision was a young kid trying to make a play, done with no malicious intent. Sliding into a base with your spikes in the air can only be seen as trying to injure another player.

Continue reading "Yankees Playing Dirty . . . And Other ..."

All we need is for him to revive the Billy Martin routine with Joe Girardi, a possibility that may not be that farfetched as it appears Girardi not necessarily that easy to get along with. Little Stein seems to be unpredictable and impatient and not only expects the team to win now, but to do so in spectacular fashion. Earlier this year, Hank implied that general manager Brian Cashman would be on the hot seat if the plan to hold on to their young pitching instead of going all in for Santana didn’t pan out. If Steinbrenner allows his arrogance and impetuousness to take over the organization, I envision a return of the Yankees to the "glory" years of the 1980's when George was the show.

Continue reading "Looking Forward to the Hank Steinbrenner ..."

I think that the Yankees treated Torre abominably and though I have a degree of respect for Joe Girardi, who did a great job with the Marlins during his tenure as their manager, I suspect that he won't be getting much of that from some of the veteran prima donnas on the current Yankee roster.

Continue reading "Red Sox-Yankees Rivalry"