The writer, Allen Barra, takes the tone that he’s breaking ground about Jeter’s declining skills, and while that fact (Jeter’s decline) is true, he’s clearly not blazing a trail. He’s merely stepping in other’s footprints and calling them his own. I’ve been critical of Jeter when appropriate, but not wholly stomping on his throat just because it seems like the popular thing to do.

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Doing things like this:

The gift that keeps on giving: Jimbo’s inexplicable handshake agreement with Dmitri Young forces Stan’s hand; Da MeatShake to be added to Nats’ 40-man roster before Opening Day. Via Nationals Journal:

The Nationals intend to add Dmitri Young to the 40-man roster before Opening Day because of a handshake agreement that was made this winter between Young and then-General Manager Jim Bowden.

Good for the Nats for honoring the “agreement”, as bizarre and inexplicable as it may be.

See, I don’t think it’s “good for the Nats” to be honoring something that will be detrimental to the team. Maybe that makes me a bad person, but if I were brought in to replace Bowden and I heard of this “agreement” and Young clearly isn’t ready/worth adding to the 40 man roster, I’d call him into the office and explain my view of reality to him. That would be that while we all love him as a person, he did not earn a spot on this team right now and the goal of this team is to win games, not make friends. My role as GM would be to put the best team on the field and if Young wasn’t among those, so be it. It’s a brutal side to the game but the game is a meritocracy and if Young hasn’t earned a spot, he can bring it up with Bowden.

Sadly, the Voice of God won’t be up to attending and calling the first game. It would incredible if he felt able to do it, but he’s in his late 90′s and it’s just too difficult for him:

So the opener is out of the question? “He would love to be there; he would love it,” [his wife] said. “But at the moment the stamina isn’t there.”

Sheppard, who is in his late 90s and has been the Yankees’ public address announcer since 1951, missed the entire 2008 season recovering from a bronchial infection.
[...]
Mary Sheppard said warmer mid-season weather might help ease her husband’s return.”He’s been through a lot,” she said. “But there is no one particular problem. His weight is fine. And his voice is still excellent.”

I wish him well!

I’ll admit it, I love StatCounter. For those unaware, it simply keeps track of the number of visitors (new and old) on a website. It records city, state, ISP, country, IP addresses. Mostly, it’s just noise but I wanted to see who’s been visiting here and it turns out, we have some smart people at some prestigious universities blowing off their schoolwork to hang here for a few. Some of the colleges who have been here in the last day:

• Gettysburg College
• Yale University
• American University
• Marquette University
• Stanford University
• University Of Notre Dame
• State University Of New York At Buffalo
• Ithaca College
• George Mason University (hooray Cinderella!)
• Brandeis University
• Rutgers University
• The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
• University of Kentucky

Now get back to your studies!

Travis at Boy Of Summer spent a month putting together his Phillies preview. So why mention it here, on a Yanks-centric blog? Well, he took that month to write the whole thing in iambic pentameter. Seriously. Do the guy a favor and have a read; it’s the least you could do!

He begins: