September 2011
Hey Red Sox! Here’s Some More Dirt On Your Grave.
CBSSports.com Baseball Insider
Hey, Red Sox fans: You think September was bad?
Wait’ll you see October.
September was Robert Andino and Evan Longoria … and Carl Crawford and John Lackey.
October is Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.
There’s no way around it now. It’s as inevitable as a Rays triple play, or as Marco Scutaro failing to scoot between second and third.
The Yankees are going to win it all.
I can’t believe I’m saying that. I can’t believe I’m writing it.
I’m the one who stupidly wrote back in March that the Yankees were the American League East megateam that would miss the playoffs. I said then that their starting rotation just wasn’t good enough.
It still isn’t. And they’re still going to win.
They’re going to win because their lineup is the best one out there, and because that crazy winter idea of a lockdown bullpen really did work. They’re going to win because Ivan Nova grew up, because Freddy Garcia didn’t grow old, and because Joe Girardi will realize just in time that it makes no sense at all to believe in A.J. Burnett.
They’re going to win because the overpaid guy they got from the Rays (Rafael Soriano) can handle the seventh inning, while the overpaid guy you got from the Rays (Crawford) couldn’t even handle batting seventh.
They’re going to win because their beat-up third baseman (Alex Rodriguez) will be able to stay on the field long enough to contribute, while your beat-up third baseman (Kevin Youkilis) couldn’t.
They’re going to win because the catcher the Red Sox didn’t get — Russell “I hate the Red Sox” Martin — is going to come up big.
They’re going to win because if Jeter has a chance to score a big run, he definitely won’t stop halfway between second and third.
They’re going to win because the Red Sox of May through August were the one team that would have beaten them, and those Red Sox went home with a month left.
But mostly, they’re going to win because this is the year that tests all those Red Sox fans who began feeling entitled after 2004 and 2007. This is the year when they find out that the most painful September possible really can be followed by the most painful October possible.
It’ll be a thrilling month for most of us, whether we like the outcome or not. Just as the regular season went the distance, every postseason series will go the distance. The storylines will be so good that the ratings go up, even in Boston.
But in the end, the Sox and their fans will hate October, just as they hated September.
The Yankees are going to win the World Series.
Gleeful Yanks fan serves Red Sox pitcher with child support papers
By ‘Duk (@ Yahoo! “Big League Stew”)
The never-ending rivalry between the New York Yankees andBoston Red Sox added a strange new chapter on Tuesday afternoon and I still can’t bring myself to believe that it really happened.
Hours before he was set to start a game against theBaltimore Orioles, Boston pitcher Erik Bedard(notes) was served papers at Fenway Park as part of an ongoing child support dispute with an ex-girlfriend.
What made a routine legal process of the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court noteworthy and weird, however, was the man delivering the documents. Not only did lifelong fan Tom Cabral proudly wear a Yankees shirt for his meeting with Bedard, he also bragged on his public Facebook wallthat his timing was intentional as Bedard would be pitching later that day in a key game for the AL wild-card chase.
Honestly, you couldn’t even make this stuff up for the pages of The Onion.
“The Red Sox were very cooperative,” Cabral told The Post. “They asked me if I could serve these tomorrow because he was starting tonight. My position was, my client [Bedard's ex-girlfriend Courtney Roberts] wants it served today, and that’s what I have to do.” [...]
“When I walked in I was like, I’m a Yankees fan, but I’m not trying to (give you a hard time),” Cabral [right, looking an awful lot like Louis CK] said. “I told him that and said, sorry, I’ve got to do this. But he said it was no problem. I handed him the copies of all the documents and he signed them.
“(The Red Sox) legal department was joking with me about it … they were saying, ‘That’s why you’re so adamant about doing it today … you’re a Yankees fan.’”
According to the Post, Roberts is seeking more support for the daughter she and Bedard had together because his annual salary has risen since they first signed an agreement in 2006. Only Bedard can say for certain if the papers affected his performance, but his first start since Sept. 3 was not a good one: The oft-injured pitcher lasted only 2 2/3 innings in a 7-5 loss to the Orioles that did not allow the slumping Red Sox to creep any closer to the AL wild-card title.
But regardless of cause, Bedard’s performance and the game’s result surely must have pleased superfan Cabral, who posted several Facebook updates during his unique work assignment. After reading them, it made me ask this question: Has the general public ever sided more with the served than the server in a child support case?
This story might actually be a first, in so many more ways than one.
Some times the best trades are the ones that never happen.
Get a load of this. Buster Olney tells us:
The Yankees considered trading Mariano Rivera twice in the span of one calendar year. First, in May 1995 — as former GM Gene Michael told the story many years ago — the Yankees were involved in talks with the Tigers about David Wells, and the Tigers were interested in Rivera. One day, Michael got a report from the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Columbus, in which there was word that Rivera’s fastball had been clocked at a consistent 95 mph the night before, and he had touched 96 mph.
There was a major split between the New York and Tampa branches of the Yankees‘ front office at the time, and Michael’s initial thought was that Rivera’s velocity reading was an artificial production of the Tampa group, in an effort to pump up the team’s prospects. Michael called to Columbus and asked them to double-check their radar readings; the word came back that the radar gun was fine.
Then Michael called a scout from the Tigers, Jerry Walker, who he knew had been trailing Rivera, and in the midst of talking about other players, Michael asked Walker about Rivera’s velocity — and Walker confirmed that Rivera’s fastball had been in the mid-90s. Michael ended all consideration of trading Rivera that summer, convinced there was more in the young right-hander that he hadn’t yet shown.
But in the spring of 1996, the Yankees were again talking about trading Rivera. Veteran shortstopTony Fernandez had gotten hurt and, early in spring training, Yankees officials — including owner George Steinbrenner — decided to commit the position to Derek Jeter, the organization’s top prospect. After Jeter struggled in spring training, however, one of Steinbrenner’s advisors, Clyde King, told Steinbrenner that he didn’t think Jeter was ready.
The Yankees needed another infielder, King believed, to start the year. Under orders from Steinbrenner, the Yankees‘ front office reached out to the Seattle Mariners about veteran shortstop Felix Fermin, and in return, the Mariners asked for either Rivera or Bob Wickman.
With spring training coming to an end, the Yankees‘ staff met and there was a spirited discussion about why the trade shouldn’t be made — but it wasn’t because anybody was lobbying for Rivera, as one participant recalled. The debate focused on Jeter. “We had all said we would stick with Jeter, no matter what,” Michael argued. “That’s what we should do.”
Steinbrenner, typically anxious about spring training failure, was talked off the ledge, and almost accidentally, Rivera remained with the Yankees. Fermin had 16 more plate appearances in the big leagues before he retired.
Oh, the humanity. One trade could have possibly re-railed Jeter’s career AND dealt the greatest closer of all-time away before he had established himself.
