9 hours ago
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Today was a 880 Power Couple day, because I thought I'd wait for 108 degree, asphyxiatingly hot afternoon to de-chaing myself from MLB extra innings/unpacking/unnecessary around-the-clock writing. Good move.
Plus my buddy Boston was in town, and it doesn't fly to tell an outta-towner that you'd like to spend Sunday seeing how much afternoon-nap drool you can produce in one of those in-and-out of consciousness day games.
Since Boston inexlicably likes sports about as much as the average person enjoys curdled milk, I gave him the quick and dirty (TWSS) rundown of what we're dealing with in terms of Suzyn and Sterling:
"So he'll get really excited about every hit, but it's usually not a hit. And she'll demonstrate her strangehold on the Queen of All Things Granular."
Armed with this knowledge, Boston got a HUGE kick of every time a batter would foul it off and Sterling would act like the game just ended with a walkoff grandslam. He also was amused by the preoccupation Suzyn had with the Angels game. Despite being entertained by both radio lunatics, I'm pretty sure he was a lot happier when I angrily flicked the radio off once the score hit 7-3.
At least Boston lost too. But it would've been nice to extend the lead to 8.5, especially with the Fenway series this weekend. I love this Yankee team more than life itself, but I still am uneasy when it comes to away games. I think they are, too, maybe.
Some notes from the day/game:
- Most poorly written sentence of the year: "One of New York's few bright spots in the finale of the four-game set was Derek Jeter, who passed Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio for most hits by a shortstop in the third inning." When I first read it, I thought the mileston Jeter passed had something to do with the amount of hits made in the 3rd inning. And I was not very impressed.
- The Yanks were 0-3 with RISP, Seattle was 7-18. The first numbers of those 2 sets are really immaterial, when you consider that the Yanks had RISP exactly 3 times in the course of the game, while the Mariners had 18. Who cares what they actually hit?
- Speaking of hit, there's Aces. And I don't mean hit like a smashing Broadway play. I mean hit like Aces was a complete mess coming in for relief of Joba. 4 runs in 1 and 2/3. But even more notably aggrevating is his 2 HBPs, one with the bases loaded.
- Gaudin wasn't much of an improvement, giving up 2 more runs to the Mariners. GOD. SO MUCH FOR GREAT BULLPEN! (100% kidding, 100% kidding.)
- The win for Seattle goes to David Fister. HOW did I miss this guy when I was compiling my Greatest Last Names list??
- Sign that I'm maturing: The AP headline "Fister, M's hammer Joba, Yanks to avoid sweep as Jeter becomes SS hit leader" made me uncomfortable a little, whereas 4 years ago, I would have had a field day with it.
- I'm ok with this loss. As I typically have been in the Yankees' losses as of late. You really, as they say, can't win em all. They have to lose sometime and the bullpen has to suck sometimes. So why now do it in a series that you've already won, and on a day when the Sux lose, and you only go through 2 relievers.
- I called my dad when me and Boston were on our way back from the Highline and en route to finding a radio. My dad's razor sharp game update: "Uh, you wanna know what's going with the game? Hm, hold on. Ok, it's 1-0 but Seattle's threatending. Joba's pitching, who you hate. If they win, they'll be 6 games up." "Noo Sux lost today, we'll be 8.5 up.""REALLY? Good."Still, better game analysis than 880.
- The AP was a little off today: lead paragraph= "Last summer, Ichiro Suzuki was so distraught over Seattle's losing, he said he was seeking beer from far-flung Papua New Guinea to soothe his pain." Yeah, well, who wasn't?
- Or maybe the AP was just loving the sound bytes from another Japanese player who patently refuses to learn a lick of English: "I think, man, we lost a lot of games last year," Suzuki said through an interpreter. "We also have a lot better human beings on this team." Awesome. A lot better human beings on the team. It's all very "Earth Girls Are Easy" sounding.
- Ok, Joba, you were pitching well, and today you weren't dealing. It happens. Maybe I don't "hate" you, as my dad alleges, but I'm not a fan. But regardless, you gotta stop rationalizing shit:
- "I didn't think I was going to start, and you kind of shut it down mentally," Chamberlain said. You're starting to sound like Mussina a few years ago, who basically refused to get outs if the mound dirt wasn't arranged in Zen garden rows. Or if a game was delayed 15 minutes to honor a legendary announcer who died of brain cancer.
- I really can't tell/decide if I think Swisher/Hideki are awesome or streaky or both.
- My eye is still black and blue. If you go into work with a B&B eye when you're "involved," the first thought is "domestic abuse." If you go into work with a B&B eye when you're single, the first thought it "drunk."
And if you simply explain you got your B&B eye is the natural consequence of aggressive sleepwalking? I don't know, but I'm guessing the first thought won't even come close to approaching, "Understandable."
Tomorrow we got Oakland to deal with. Then a day off Thursday, then Fenway. Damn west coast games. If they screw me up sleep-wise before the BIGGEST RIVALRY IN SPORTS weekend, I'll be madder than a Panda getting woken up by zoo-goers.
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