I'm going to get our tickets for May 4th at the end of the week.

Here's the list I have:
jscape- 2 tickets
NumberSeven- 1 ticket
Ronster- 1 ticket
Greenfuzz- 1 ticket

mrljdavid and LateInningRelief were questionables. Any updates there?

If you want to come, say so in the comments.
Anaconda? Amato?

So I missed the game tonight.  Apparently there were some fireworks.

We all know how great Alex Rodriguez is and could be and will be.  We all know how rich that has and will make him.

My question tonight is one I've been thinking about, though it treads closely on the 'True Yankee' nonsense that talk radio loves so much:
Judging just his four years in pinstripes how great has Arod been?  

Do you think of him as a great Yankee, a la Mantle, or does your vision focus on his other uniforms?

Rickey Henderson arguably had his best season with the Yankees (1985), but I always think of him as an A.
On the other hand, Reggie is in the Hall as a Yankee, despite driving a dynasty in Oakland.

In my mind there are four tiers of Yankee-hood:

Hendersonish:  This is the player who had a decent run with the Yankees, but who belongs with another team.  Henderson, Strawberry, Boggs, and Clemens all fit the bill for me.

Jacksonian:  A player whose career out of pinstripes is overshadowed, but not eclipsed by his career in pinstripes.  the Davids Cone and Wells are prime examples.  

Ruthian:  The category for players whose Yankee careers eclipse their non-Yankee time.  This could just as easily be the Paul O'Neill catagory.

Mantle-esque: A born and bred Yankee.  If you have to be reminded that the guy played for another team (see: Yogi, the Mets), he belongs in the Mantle-esque category.

NYPost.

Add IPK to the list.

I like the moves.  We know who we're going to see in important spots (Mo, Viz, Joba) and who isn't going to get work unless it's a blowout (Britton, Bruney, Farnsworth).  You can add Veras to that second list.

Minky and Alberto will both make decent late inning replacements.  Alberto's glove is supposed to be one of the best in the minors.

Quick hits:

• Cleveland just beat Seattle on a walk-off walk. New York and Seattle are now tied in the loss column.
• I have a hard time being excited about this sweep because I felt that we had to have it. At this point, taking three in a row from Boston is only acceptable.
• I don't understand sending Joba back out to pitch the 9th, except to announce to the world that the Joba Rules are evolving.
• I don't think Joba was throwing at Youk. But Youk is one of those pansies who complains about everything, so if Joba were to throw at him I'd be ok with that.
• 12 of the Yankees on the acive roster came up through the farm system. The Red Sox? 5. Remember what it was like when it was just Jeter, Mo, Bernie, Andy, and Jorge?
• In a 2008 preview, we're throwing Hughes, IPK, and Pettitte against three D-Rays with WHIPs of 1.38, 1.71, and 1.83 respectively. In the past, the Yankees had cases of Red Sox letdown (6-9 in the game following a Red Sox series in the last 3 years). There's no room for that now.
• Chris Britton hasn't pitched yet.

Look familiar?

Matthews Jr steals 2nd base.  None out.
Morales doubles, LAA 7- SEA 6
With two out, Willits walks.
Cabrera singles, bases loaded.
Vlad singles.  LAA 9-SEA 6
Wild pitch and IBB to Anderson, bases loaded.
Izturis singles, Vlad thrown out at the plate.

2 back in the loss column.

Just heard it on the radio:
IPK will be starting against Tampa Bay in place of Moose.

And the peasants rejoiced!

Mussina did not talk to the media.  I'm stunned.

I'm booing.

I saw this linked over at NoMaas and felt that I should share...

A part of me says, he's right.  With Phil and Joba up, IPK at his innings limit and Ross Ohlendorf struggling to recover from his early injuries, the next best options are stop gaps at this point.

But a part of me says, Screw you Mike Mussina.  No one in is bigger than the team, and if you don't produce you can ride the pine for the next month.

I know, I know...  I've turned an nice relaxing offday into a post-fest, but this will be my last one for today.

And don't worry, I won't have this much free time once classes start on Monday.

If you haven't seen the great analysis of Joba and Phil's mechanics up at hardballtimes.com, click the link already!

I'm not sure if that footage of Phil Franchise is from before or after his hamstring injury, but it could explain some of his struggles locating his fastball.  If he's still tentative out there because of his injury Gator needs to work with him on that.

Joba's short followthrough is certainly something I expect him to work on during the offseason.  It's hard to remember that this is only his first year of professional ball.

It's another evening getaway day for the Yankees, and I'm bracing myself to hear John Sterling complain about how the Yanks can never play a day game like the rest of the league.

So I went through the rest of the schedule to see how many getaway days each team has left and how many of them are day games.  

I did not distinguish between night games followed by a day off and consecutive games, and I didn't count the last game of the season.

Here's what I came up with:

Angels: 8/8
A's: 7/8
Blue Jays: 4/9
D-Rays: 7/10
Indians: 7/8
M's: 8/8
O's: 3/7
Rangers: 3/9
Red Sox: 4/8
Royals: 6/9
Tigers: 4/7
 Twins: 5/7
White Sox: 6/7
Yankees: 1/8

As much as I hate to agree with Mr. Sterling, he seems to be right.
I'll have to do this for next year's schedule during the offseason when I have more time and energy to eliminate some of the variables like makeup games and travel days.

Since the EMBED command doesn't work on SBNation, you'll have to click this for youself to enjoy it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIfiQePVbqU

So that went well.  Actually, it went better than I'd imagined it could after the disaster that is Mike Mussina started game 1.  Joba and Edwar could be the keys to our season with 6 weeks to play.

Even Farnsworth decided to contribute.

But as they say: "Don't look back.  You can never look back."

The boys play in Anaheim tomorrow (which is near LA, I saw it on the map.

Phil Franchise leads off against Dustin Moseley (1.40 WHIP).
Our own version of Dustin Moseley (Mike Mussina) follows against the very good Kelvim Escobar (1.19 WHIP).
Andy Pettitte closes it out against John Lackey (1.28 WHIP).

Rockin'.

Update [2007-8-19 22:47:32 by jscape2000]:

I was just looking at the standings, and I realized something:

If the Yankees win the series against the Angels they can guarantee that they will be in first place in the wild card. The Mariners are only one game back of the Angels, and if the M's win their games, they'll be in first place in the AL West with the Angels chasing the Yankees. If they lose their games, they'll be that much farther back.

So after 124 games, it's that simple. All we have to do is beat the Angels and we'll be in the driver's seat on the way to the playoffs.