Welcome to the official launch of the all new and improved It’s About The Money, Stupid.”

For those of you here from my old site, a big welcome to the new digs. Thanks for making the trek. There’s some cold ones in the fridge; help yourself. Your loyalty is humbling and I’m thrilled you have chosen to continue with me here.

For those of you new to IIATMS, thank you. Briefly about me and IIATMS:

• This is a baseball blog, mostly. I will take random detours, but not too many.
• This blog has a distinct Yankees tilt, but I’ve strived, and will continue to strive, to make this not a “typical Yankee blog”. I’ve spent the last year and a half trying to convince you (and me) that the previous statement is as true as possible. If not, call me out on it.
• I don’t live in my parents basement. I’m a resident of Westchester County NY, a quick drive from Yankee Stadium. I’m married with two amazing boys (ages 6 and 9) who are huge baseball fans (as if they had any choice). I’m a finance guy by trade and training.
• I have some wonderful readers/followers/blogging friends who will hopefully make this a great destination. Please feel free to use the Forums to chat it up (there’s a link atop the page). I need your help there!
• I’ve included both “My Daily Circuit” and a blogroll highlighting some of the best the baseball-centric blogosphere has to offer, including many smaller/newer sites that produce some amazing content. Please visit them all. Tell them I say hi.
• I welcome your comments and discussion; it’s the reason why I started this in the first place. Feel free to disagree all you wish. My only request is that we keep it civil.
• I’ve been able to port most of my postings from the last year and a half of writing. There’s an Archive button up top. Articles are sorted by year, then month. I’ve also added a Search field to the right.

I’m still unpacking the boxes and getting used to the new set-up and interface. Please don’t hesitate to contact me or let me know if there’s something you don’t like, understand, etc.

Most of all, thank you.

This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress.

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

Thanks, Pop, for all the good stuff over the years. You know. The games, lessons, laughs. And all that other stuff, too: from The Eagles, to Old Timer’s Day games, to the “Engineers”, to Caddyshack, to sledding, to the Stones, to History of The World Part I, to Springsteen, to the Jeep ride home from the Bronx in the rain, to The Hunt For Red October, to CSN (you can still have Y to yourself).

Hope you get to enjoy Father’s Day and Grandfather’s Day with Marc and the kids. We’ll be toasting you from this coast.

To Marc: Keep doin’ what you’re doin’. Wish I could see it more often.

To Matt: Happy 1st Father’s Day. You’ve learned well and it’s fun to watch.

And to my father-in-law, who’s done nothing but made me feel like a member of the family since Day 1: thank you. You are a wonderful role model and a great friend.

For the rest of ya: Make sure you call or visit your Dad if you can.

This one came, unsolicited, from joeorange31

Select View Full Post to continue reading.

It’s Friday and that means afternoon video fun! And today, it notes the end of my week as I am leaving the office early.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_rslXAXE6Y&hl=en&fs=1&]
Have a great weekend everyone.

Sure was nice to see this sort of thing done yesterday at Yankee Stadium, following a 5+ hour rain delay:

I also heard that they invited all fans in the upper levels to come and sit in the lower level –nooo, not in the moat– but lower level, since there were only about 10,000 fans at gametime.

That’s getting it right.

Select View Full Post to continue reading.

Heard yesterday on MLB on XM:

Jody McDonald: “If you couldn’t work out a contract with the Red Sox before free agency comes up and you eventually become a free agent (after the 2011 season), is the Bronx ever a possibility?”

Jonathan Papelbon: “Oh, of course. I mean, I think if we can’t come to an agreement on terms here in a Red Sox uniform, I mean, I think that’s pretty much the writing on the wall. If they can’t come to terms with you they’re letting you know that, “Hey you know what? We can go somewhere else.” And I think it’s the same way on the other side, “Hey if ya’ll can’t come to an agreement with me then I can go somewhere else.” Not only in the Bronx, but anywhere. I think anywhere is a possibility. You always have to keep that in the back of your mind because you can’t just be one-sided and think that, “Oh I’m going to be in a Red Sox uniform my entire career.” Because nowadays that is very, very rare and hopefully we can because there’s no question I would love to stay in a Boston Red Sox uniform but I have to do what’s best for me and play in an atmosphere where I’m wanted and play on a team where I’m wanted and that’s all I can really say about that, you know?”

I know it’s one of the reasons why I love the game: because any team can beat the other on any given night. But for the Nationals to come into the Bronx with just 16 wins this season and take two of three is just embarrassing. Credit the Nats pitching. They came in threw strikes, got ahead and silenced the Yanks bats. Rough.

I only hope Gardner’s doing OK. His head hit that plexiglass pretty darn hard.

Moving onto Florida.

When does this rain stop? Seriously?

Things I am seeing while watching the 1972 All Star Game (in Atlanta) on the MLB Network during lunch, in no particular order:

• Stirrups, lots and lots of stirrups
• Incredible Astros unis (not the rainbow ones, though)
• Bullpen carts
• Hank Aaron hitting a HR off Gaylord Perry
• An OF fence that looked shakier than one of those flimsy pressure fences you can install at home to keep pets out of a room
• Expos
• Cookie Rojas
• A rookie Carlton Fisk wearing a Brewers helmet
• Joe Torre’s lambchops
• Tug McGraw
• Chicago WhiteSox’ uniforms with red
• Jim Palmer’s leg kick
• Jars of Andro and sacks of greenies (kidding)
• Gawdawful SD mustard unis
• Joe Morgan’s arm flap before knocking in the winning run in extra innings

Here’s the lineups, in case you are wondering.

And ya know what? The players played hard. And the game was only an exhibition.

Oh my, the 1978 game is about to begin….

The slow, sad downward spiral of Jose Canseco continues:

“A lot of these players have not been inducted into the Hall of Fame: Mark McGwire and so forth. They’re losing salaries, because obviously when you’re inducted into the Hall of Fame, you get asked to do certain, you know, appearances and shows and so forth, which incorporates income. So there is a major income loss.

“Not even that, baseball blackballs you from their family, meaning you can’t have a future proper reference from them, a job, no managerial jobs, no coaching jobs, nothing. They completely sever you.”

Canseco “intends to enlist Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro to join in the suit“. Yeah, good luck with that. Those guys have made their money and (likely) not pissed away as recklessly as you have, Jose. Palmiero has chosen to fade into the ether. Sosa’s in the forefront due to recent events, but will likely fade as well, enjoying his stature in his homeland (and his megamillions). [Canseco earned $45m over his career; Palmiero $89m; Sosa $124m]

Time to look in the mirror, Jose. You did this. You brought this upon yourself. You chose to write the book. You knew what it would mean to you. Just because you’re broke and forced to “fight” 7′ Japanese dudes to make rent doesn’t mean MLB owes you one more red cent than you already have taken from them. Nobody owes you $%^&, Jose.

Want some money from baseball? Go crusade against PEDs. Go do something good for the game instead of constantly trying to tear it down.

Knucklehead.