Kim Jones: “Joe said it was a gritty outing for you.  Do you agree?”

AJ: “You gotta explain what that means first.”

Priceless.

[1] hilarious.

And SG, that standing graphics just made me smile.

What’d Kim say? I’d love to hear her explanation.

Yanks just signed a pitcher from the Independent Leagues named Paul Bush. Let’s hope he makes it as a reliever, so we can go pull Wang out for Bush.

(I’m older than 15, I promise)

Well, you know what they say.  A Wang in hand is better than two in the Bush.

What’d Kim say? I’d love to hear her explanation.

It was quite boring, actually.  She just said, “You battled out there.”

sports.yahoo.com/mlb has NYY at the top, you should grab that image.

I’ve been advocating Wang to the pen as he starts coming back, so I hope that’s what happens. 

At the same time, I think it would be silly to stick Wang in the pen if he’s really back to his old, effective, sly ways.  But between both Hughes and Joba’s pitch limits, and the occasional short outings both are prone to now and then, with the supposed days off, Wang should be able to get plenty of walks, and everyone can stick in the rotation for another 2 or 3 turns.

sports.yahoo.com/mlb has NYY at the top, you should grab that image.

Good catch.  I’ve switched ‘em.

What is the swear poll obsession with Joba in the pen?  It’s just freakin insane, in a way that isn’t parallel with any other prospect out there.

I had to listen on the radio for the last few innings as I was driving home.  I’m pretty sure Sterling referred to Texas as “Tampa” a few times - 3 in a row, IIRC.

Oh, and no need to cancel future birthdays, villain. 

And it’s not even like advocating that he becomes a super reliever, like the way Mo was in 1996, but as the female parental unit loving setup/teh eighth guy. It is so freakin stupid.

Go one more time through the rotation with Wang in relief.  If all works out, you go the next time with a 6 man rotation, but with Joba getting skipped (maybe we works a few innings in relief).  Next time through, you do the same for Hughes. 

This keeps them on a regular schedule, but also limits their innings.

Just when I thought Matsui was done, he came back from the grave.

It’s great to see Jeter playing at such a high level.

I don’t think we can risk Joba throwing a few relief innings. What if he dominates? We’ll never hear the end of it.

Pavano is 5-1 in May.

That is, this month, not the last n Mays.

i think Cash and Gardner deserve a smidgen of credit for what they’ve contributed. Not in the sense that it should earn them unwarranted playing time, but just like a “thanks, didn’t think ya had it in ya, fella,” pat on the back kinda thingy.

I’m getting very excited about this team.

That is, this month, not the last n Mays.

no 5-1 in pavano’s record for may from 2005-2009….

I died and went to Heaven.

The original Yankee Stadium is here in all its glory, and I’m playing ball with the Babe!

Nobody likes the new ballpark.

Read on game thread last night that the sox turned down a Delcarmen for Johnson trade.  Is it possible that the Nats could trade him to Yanks after a trade such as this as he would make a lot of sense for the yank?

Could this be the reason the Sox are refusing the deal?  Not too au fait with trade regulations/stipulations so not sure if it is possible for the Nats to trade him on but it seems to me that he would be no 1 ideal target for yanks if they really needed bull pen help at the deadline.

Well, you know what they say.  A Wang in hand is better than two in the Bush.

Why on earth would they say that?

I died and went to Heaven… and I’m playing ball with the Babe!

I’m guessing that he can hit your curveball, and you can’t hit his.  Then again, if it really is heaven, who knows?

FWIW, Nationals acting GM Mike Rizzo told Ken Davidoff that Johnson for Delcarmen never was discussed.

Yay win!

Burnett really wasn’t all that good, but he got away with it and the O did its job.  Nice to hear they hung on, b/c when I went to bed Veras was doing his best to make things interesting.

“I had to listen on the radio for the last few innings as I was driving home.  I’m pretty sure Sterling referred to Texas as “Tampa” a few times - 3 in a row, IIRC.”

That’s correct, I had to listen from the 6th on. He also started talking about how he was going to sleep in on the off day and started discussing his plans for tomorrow.
“A nice long sleep, a swim and then some din din.” 

Seriously? WTF?

I would think the price on Johnson would be higher than Delcarmen (even though he is quite good.)

I rarely hear the radio broadcast (because I don’t live in the NYC area), but I happened to catch Sterling the other night.  At times he seemed to treat the actual baseball game as some kind of minor distraction that was taking place in the background.  Thank God he’s a sportscaster and not an air traffic controller.

If the Nats need anything, it’s bullpen help.  That said, I did hear on the local DC sports radio that the Johnson-for-Delcarmen rumor was just that.  I could see the Yanks and Nats doing a deal later in the season with the Yanks trading a viable bullpen arm for one of the Nats’ bats, either Johnson or one of their extra OFs.

I listened to the whole game on the radio last night from the construction site in the middle of the Carrabasett wilderness. First, when it’s the middle of the night and you’re alone in the wilds of Maine in them middle of the graveyard shift, hearing Sterling’s voice come through on the radio as the sun disappears behind the horizon is like getting a care package of cookies from your mom your first year at sleep away camp. About as welcome as anything can be.

That being said, the guy is just dreadful. He blows So. Many. Calls. Leaving the goofy shit aside (You’re on the Mark, Teixera!), the guy must be fucking blind. He does at least three balls that turn out to be strikes. He forgot the number of outs in the fifth and then claimed he was right all along.He didn’t blow any home run calls,thankfully, but now every time he goes into “It is high! It is far!” I can’t even get excited until 30 seconds after he says “gone” because he’s butchered that so many times by now.

At times he seemed to treat the actual baseball game as some kind of minor distraction that was taking place in the background. 

That’s the other thing, he’ll be telling some pointless anecdote about show business or something, and then quickly rush in a “pitch is outside” and go back to his story. So frigging annoying. And he NEVER tells you what the pitch is.

Don’t even get me started on the complete non-contribution of Waldman.

Michael Kay, believe it or not, turns out to have been the glue that held Yankee radio broadcasts together all these years.

While I would tend to agree with everything in [28], I still believe that a baseball announcer’s job is to be entertaining; they need to keep people listening.  Therefore, they have to cater to the mass market consumer that will hang on a bit longer to hear the “it is high, it is far…”

I think that’s why the Joe Morgan-esque drones still have jobs at ESPN.  Casual fans can relate to grit and hustle.  They can’t conceptualize run expectancy percentages and VORP.

Sterling’s bad but at least he spends more time talking about the game than Michael Kay does. Kay spends more time giggling than any teenage girl I know. I’m glad he hasn’t been on this road trip.

I could see the Yanks and Nats doing a deal later in the season with the Yanks trading a viable bullpen arm for one of the Nats’ bats, either Johnson or one of their extra OFs.

I’m sure they could get it done if they wanted, but assuming Gardner and Melky keep there heads (well) above water, Swisher finds a sweet spot between en fuego and absolutely putrid, and Nady comes back to at least complement the DH spot with a RH bat, then where’s the need? Johnson would be a fine full time DH, but for a few months, and at the expense of a young pitcher, is he really that much of an upgrade over a Nady/Matsui platoon?

Kay is a TV announcer. It’s a totally different job. He’s not even close to as horrible as Sterling, imho.

I would think the price on Johnson would be higher than Delcarmen

I wouldn’t.  We’re talking about a fragile, 30 year-old, million-dollar-a-month rental who isn’t going to bring back a draft pick when he leaves vs a young but well-established excellent reliever who is making less than $500k this year and won’t be eligible for free agency until after the 2012 season.

At times he seemed to treat the actual baseball game as some kind of minor distraction . . .

Exactly

That’s the other thing, he’ll be telling some pointless anecdote . . .

The only one who could do this well was Rizzuto.

There really is no pressing need for Nick Johnson right now, but the desire to have him back is purely emotional. He was always an absolute favorite of mine. Seeing him finally stay healthy and have a run of take-and-rake excellence with the Yankees would be a dream.Of course, it would seem silly to trade for a 1b/dh when you have Teixeira, Matsui, Posada, etc.

Again, with Rizzuto, the job of a tv announcer is just so different from a radio announcer. I, honestly, don’t care about what a TV announcer does. Actually, I sometimes prefer digression or analysis instead of close and detailed play by play because, well, close and detailed play by play is kind of pointless on TV. I’ll take a few O’Neill clubhouse stories instead. But when you’re listening to the radio, you are helpless and dependent upon the announcer. When he spends more time blathering on about Carey Grant’s funny telegrams (true story) than talking about the game, or when he mangles calls as badly as he does, it truly does ruin the game.

It’s true that TV and radio are totally different jobs.  To me, the biggest problem with Sterling/Waldman is that they’re doing TV, but they’re on the radio.  The concept of simply describing the action as it unfolds seems completely alien to them.  A certain amount of mindless banter from TV announcers is fine, since you can see what’s happening for yourself.  But when I’m listening to the game, you need to tell me about the damned game, you Verasing moron.

I caught an inning or so in the car last night, and Sterling actually said the score in the middle of an inning.  I honestly cannot remember the last time I heard him do that.

Rizzuto did both TV and radio.

Quick question regarding Johnson: where exactly would he play? The Yankees already have a great 1B and they need the DH slot for Matsui and probably Posada a couple days a week.

I meant to say that Rizzuto did both TV and radio at the same time for many years.  The announcers would switch back and forth between the radio booth and the TV booth a couple of times a game back in those days.

Rizzuto did both TV and radio.

Rizzuto did radio before I was born.

Quick question regarding Johnson: where exactly would he play?

Citi Field?

Rizzuto did radio before I was born.

I figured as much.  That’s why I thought I’d mention it.

Michael Kay, believe it or not, turns out to have been the glue that held Yankee radio broadcasts together all these years.

Sterling and Kay did have some type of bizarre yet not unappealing on air chemistry, but part of the reason for their success was that the Yankees were winning championships back then, much of Sterling’s schtick had not yet become played, and perhaps most importantly, Sterling could still see.

Off days suck.

I remember Rizzuto doing radio guest spots (maybe 15 a year?) in the late 80s / early 90s. He’d come in for a few innings of middle relief and leave early, but he was on. Was he the primary broadcaster prior to that?

Was he the primary broadcaster prior to that?

Like I said, they used to rotate between radio and TV.  So on any give night, you might get three innings of Rizzuto doing TV play-by-play, three innings doing TV color commentary, and three innings on the radio.  Or some other combo.  I’d guess that this approach probably ended some time during or shortly after the Messer/White era.  I also remember Rizzuto doing it earlier with Jerry Coleman and Joe Garagiola.  I suspect that they did it in the Mel Allen/Red Barber days too, but I don’t have distinct memories of specific games called by those guys.

Agree with MC about the price of Nick Johnson.  If the price is more than Delcarmen, Nick’s staying in DC.  Would you trade a cost-controlled middle reliever currently sporting a 1.25 ERA (and then something else) for a brittle stopgap solution?

Imagine that Bruney were healthy and back in the groove.  And the Nats said Bruney alone wouldn’t be enough to get NJ.  We’d all howl with outrage.  Or I would at least.  Even if we had the kind of DH troubles the Sox currently have (Matsui’s knees succumb and he’s out for the season or something).

We need Johnson even less than Boston does.  Yatt, with all the bullpen uncertainty, why would you trade a “a viable bullpen arm for one of the Nats’ bats, either Johnson or one of their extra OFs”?

Unfortunately for the Mets, they’re more desperate.  That seems the logical destination.

IIRC, the late 1970’s announcing rotation was Rizzuto/White/Messer, 2 doing TV and 1 doing radio at any given time, in 3-inning blocks.  I don’t think anyone saw a need for a “color guy” on radio.

At some point (early 80’s?) they added a 4th, radio-only guy.  Fran Healy maybe? So, there were 2 on radio and 2 on TV.

Oh, just to add, as much as I like NJohnson, the Yankees have no real use for him this season.

Maybe as a FA, to replace Matsui.

IIRC, the late 1970’s announcing rotation was Rizzuto/White/Messer, 2 doing TV and 1 doing radio at any given time, in 3-inning blocks.

Except for the last 3 innings of home games, when Rizzutto was on the GW Bridge headed home to Cora.

And I believe the Scooter also skipped a lot of west coast trips, though maybe not till the early-mid 80s.

I loved Bill White (that huckleberry).  Perfect foil for Scooter but also knowledgable and a great baritone.

We need Johnson even less than Boston does.

But what if you were the Mets? I suppose that the price is based on context. I would think Minaya would trade a good young reliever for Johnson.

Except for the last 3 innings of home games, when Rizzutto was on the GW Bridge headed home to Cora.

That really didn’t start until a few years later, after they added the extra radio guy that snapper was talking about.

My memories match those of MC and snapper regarding Messer/White/Rizzuto. They switched roles every 3 innings, taking turns being play-by-play vs. color commentary when on the TV side. Of course, on the radio side they were solo and had to do both.

[51] The optimal plan for the future is to keep the DH spot open to use as rest days for Jeter, ARod, Posada, and so on. 

If they do sign someone as a DH, I would hope it would be someone who could occasionally play the field and not at a position (1B) that is filled with a guy who plays 155 or so games per season.

Plus, Miranda can be Teixeira’s caddy and DH against righties when nobody needs a rest.

My memories match those of MC and snapper regarding Messer/White/Rizzuto. They switched roles every 3 innings, taking turns being play-by-play vs. color commentary when on the TV side. Of course, on the radio side they were solo and had to do both.

Absolutely.  I think things started to change with the emergence of cable and the broadcast of many games on…a station whose name I can’t remember.  Not Sportschannel—they did the Mets.  I believe the fossilized Mel Allen was brought back to do those games, and I can recall Mantle up there for one season.  Maybe Kubek too for a while?  Billy and Piniella each did some time in the booth between managerial stints. 

I think the radio-only crew (they may still have been on 1010 WINS at that point) came I want to say in the late 80s/early 90s when Tommy Hutton and some other guy took over.  I distinctly recall Hutton calling Dave Eiland and Sam Militello starts.

I think things started to change with the emergence of cable and the broadcast of many games on…a station whose name I can’t remember.

MSG.  Unless they were on a different one before that.  MSG had Kubek do the games for a number of years, and Al Trautwig did parts of games as well.  Don’t remember the others there too well, but yeah I’m pretty sure everyone who every played for the Yankees took a turn there for a while.

I remember when I first started watching/listening on the radio, I was about 8, and I used to think that the radio broadcast was the same as the TV broadcast, and whoever wasn’t talking (e.g. White) just literally wasn’t talking at that time.

Rizzuto and White were my favorite; Rizzuto and Seaver was a lot of fun as well.

I thought there was one before MSG but maybe I’m wrong.  Seaver—yes, I had forgotten about him. 

Rizzuto-White together were priceless.  I have a book that organizes some of Scooter’s randomest musings into poetic verse.  LOL funny.

Just looked on wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_York_Yankees_broadcasters)  Anyone remember games called by Greg Gumbel or George Grande.  I don’t.  Dewayne Staats—he was pretty forgettable.  Ditto Trautwig.

Holy shit, I had forgotten about the 2 years that they imported Hawk Harrelson.  Dreadful.  Same mindset that actually stuck us with Dallas Green for 1 season.

And apparently Sportschannel did carry Yankee games for a few seasons.

Kay is way better then Serling and of all the sports broadcasters I have encountered the only announcers worse then Serling are the two yahoos who cover poker for ESPN