Frustrated with the end-of-the-games calls against Nick Green, Angels manager quipped(emphasis mine):

“What was the count at the end, 3-4 to Green?“ Angels manager Mike Scioscia said sarcastically. “I thought we had him a couple of times. I was surprised. It’s a good umpiring crew and I think we really feel strongly they missed a couple times we had Green struck out. Unfortunately, that’s the focal point of the game and it didn’t go our way.”

Ouch.

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As I mentioned when we first learned of his inoperable tumor, I didn’t have the pleasure of growing up listening to Ernie Harwell as I’m an East Coaster. I grew up on the meandering rambles and non-sequiturs of The Scooter. But over the last bunch of years, I have been able to better enjoy and appreciate the beauty in Ernie Harwell and enjoy the stories of his good nature, respect for others, others respect for him. Fitting that he say some poignant words at his night at the park last night, perhaps his last. His words to the fans:

“It’s a wonderful night for me. I really feel lucky to be here. And I want to thank you for that warm welcome.

“In my almost 92 years on this Earth, the Good Lord has blessed me with a great journey. And the blessed part of that journey is it’s going to end here in the great state of Michigan.

“I deeply appreciate the people of Michigan. I love their grit, I love the way they face life. And I love the family values they have.

“And you Tiger fans are the greatest fans of all, no question about that.

“And I certainly want to thank you from the depth of my heart for your devotion, your support, your loyalty and your love.

“Thank you very much and God bless you.”

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The fine folks at WSJ.com are even mocking the Mets (h/t to the gents at FackYouk):

(large picture after the jump, sorry)

Heading into last night’s game the Yankees probably thought their main problem would be figuring out how to hit off Roy Halladay. Instead, they may need to figure out how to play without their starting catcher for a few days, as a frustrating game turned into a brawl in the late innings. The Yankees lost 10-4 and emotions ran high, leaving fans wondering what we may see tonight, or whether the players will be able to put the game behind them.

The Yankees broke through in the bottom of the second. Posada started the inning with a grounder that dribbled right past the second baseman and into right. Swisher then sent a double to left, moving Posada to third. Brett Gardner battled Halladay and slapped a hit to right center, scoring Posada. Jeter followed with a RBI single and the Yankees had the 2-0 lead. Mitre gave the lead away quickly, walking Jose Bautista and giving up a homerun to Travis Snider. After getting the next two outs, Mitre gave up another homer, this time to Adam Lind. Swisher tried to climb the wall to rob Lind, but was unable to catch the ball in his flailing glove. He battled back to get the final out, but the damage was done and the Yankees fell behind 3-2.

In the bottom of the third A-Rod smacked a double and tried to score on a single by Matsui. Bautista made a perfect throw to Barajas who got A-Rod at home. Mitre started the fourth inning by giving up a homer to Edwin Encarnacion, putting the Yankees down 4-2. After getting two outs, Mitre gave up another bomb to Travis Snider and the Yankees found themselves down by three. Mitre went out in the sixth and promptly gave up a single and hit Encarnacion with a pitch. Barajas then doubled to right, scoring Overbay. Edwar Ramirez was then brought in and he walked the bases full. Toronto tacked on another run on Marco Scutaro’s sac fly.

Trailing 9-2 in the bottom of the eighth, things took a particularly ugly turn. Carlson, the Toronto reliever, threw a pitch behind Posada, apparently as retaliation for Hill getting pegged in the back earlier in the game. Posada got heated and took some steps towards the mound telling Carlson he didn’t want to do that. Both benches cleared, but everything was quickly back to order and the at bat resumed. Posada worked a walk and Cano singled. Gardner drove a grounder down the first baseline, scoring Posada, who appeared to bump Carlson as he jogged across home plate. The home plate umpire tossed the Yankee catcher, Carlson started dropping f-bombs at him and Posada came out swinging. Both benches were back out on the field quickly and there were fists flying. Carlson walked away with a big knot on his head and Girardi looked like he got cut-up a bit. In the end, the Yankees lost 10-4, but perhaps more importantly, they will likely lose their starting catcher to a suspension.

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About that fight last night at the Yanks game….

• Completely unnecessary
• Dumb move for Posada to put himself and his teammates in a position of being suspended and/or injured
• Chicken-sh*t move to give a grazing elbow in passing. If you want to make a statement, do it. Do it like that it makes him looks weak. Get nose-to-nose and bark it out.
• Posada was tossed immedately after that little move, before the fight really started.
• I don’t think Mitre’s or Melancon’s pitches that hit TOR hitters were intentional. Not by a long shot.
• Was the need for Carlson’s behind-Posada’s-back pitch really there? I don’t think so.
• In fact, as Melancon was entering the game, Michael Kay & John Flaherty were remarking about his bouts of lack of control with his pitches. Then he hits Aaron Hill. Almost scripted.
• Joe Girardi was in the center of the scrum faster than anyone to try to break it up before it got started. He ended up with a cut by his left eye, perhaps from knocking into someone’s head. I don’t think it was a connected punch.
• Jesse Carlson, the pitcher, however, was knocked on the head, raising quite a welt. The picture to the right is proof.

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We’ll get into the minutae of the fight on Wednesdaytoday, but here’s a quick screen grab of Carlson’s melon with the rising red knot on his forehead. Someone connected, which is rare for a baseball brawl:

With all apologies to Peter King of SI.com for the title of this posting, this has basically no actualbaseball significance. But as a child of the ’80s who now finds it amusing that his boys love singing this song, I found this hilarious:

Steve Perry, the former lead singer for Journey, will be at Dodger Stadium wearing his Giants cap as usual when the team plays there this weekend and he will leave before the eighth inning, as usual, but not to beat the traffic.

Late last season, the Dodgers started playing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” before the bottom of the eighth inning every night as a rally song, and Perry leaves before they do.

“I have to,” he said. “I don’t want to hear it.”

Why? Because Perry is a diehard Giants fan who cannot stand the fact that the Dodgers “hijacked it first” and use it to win games.

I’m officially old. Click thru for some other random Journey stuff, guaranteed to make you laugh at/smile with/mock me or your money back:

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Long time readers know that one of the things I like to use this platform for is for cancer awareness and fundraising. I’m still working on this year’s “Charity Challenge” idea (if you have any ideas, send them my way), but for now, have a look.

American Cancer Society video

Consider this your good deed of the day. Your second good deed would be a donation, even as small as $5 helps search for a cure (click on the Support Shari pink button by the controls to the video to donate, or just click here).

And for some laughs:

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In a makeup game against the Angels, the Yankees began to exorcise some demons from the first half of the season. As we may all painfully remember, the Yankees were swept in Anaheim right before the break. Currently, the Yankees are battling the Halos for the best record in the AL and home field advantage during the playoffs. Last night the Bombers took their first step in showing that they can take on their west-coast foes, as they beat Los Angeles (or is it Anaheim…maybe it’s Disney?) 5-3.

Joba pitched another abbreviated start on Monday, going four innings. In the top of the second he made a mistake to Vladimir Guerrero, who smacked a solo homer to officially give the New Yankee Stadium the most homeruns in a season. In the bottom of the third, Nick Swisher, who has suddenly taken to hitting the long ball at home, tied the game with a homerun to right field. Aceves relieved Joba in the fifth and gave up a double to Erick Aybar. Aybar moved to third on a bunt and scored when Chone Figgins grounded out to second, giving the Halos the 2-1 lead.

Swisher’s bat continued to heat up as he started the bottom of the fifth with a double to right field. Melky walked and Jeter laid down a sac bunt to move the runners. Damon hit the ball to Chone Figgins at short, and Melky forgot basic little league baserunning by interfering with Figgins play on the ball, resulting in Melky being called out and Swisher having to go back to third base. Luckily, Mark Teixeira drove a triple to the deepest part of center, just over the head of Torii Hunter, who lost his shoe in the process, giving the Yankees their first lead of the game at 3-2.

For the second outing in a row, however, Phil Hughes did not have his best stuff. He gave up singles to Bobby Abreu and Guerrero and proceeded to walk Hunter to load the bases with no outs. Kendry Morales hit into a double play to Jeter, but tied the game in the process. Hughes got Howard Kendrick to line out to Teixeira, avoiding what could have been a disastrous inning. In the bottom of the inning, Teixeira smacked a ground-rule double and Alex Rodriguez walked. Girardi pinch ran the speedy Brett Gardner for Teixeira, and it paid off as Gardner stole third and scored as the ball skipped past the third baseman. A single by Cano scored A-Rod, to give the Yankees another insurance run. Mo came out in the top of the ninth and finished the job, giving the Pinstripes a 5-3 victory.

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((My apologies for the fewer-than-usual number of postings the last two weeks. Work’s been more than hectic.))

As the Yanks edged past the Angels in a playoff-feeling game last night, we saw the newest weaponn that Manager Joe Girardi is looking to employ: speed.

Girardi pinch ran Brett Gardner for a white-hot Mark Teixeira in the 8th inning, following a double by Teix. I muttered aloud to no one “I don’t like this move“. The game was tied at the time and Teix already had a triple, a single and then the double in the 8th…and the game was tied at the time. My dislike of the move was pulling Teix’s bat out of the lineup even though the pinch runner with no one out was the right move. ARod walked to put runners on first and second with none out.

Then, in a ballsy move, Girardi called for the double steal, a genius call IF the runners are safe. If the 3B fails to catch the throw and it sails into leftfield, well, the manager looks even smarter.

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To ignore Ichiro’s historical moment reached yesterday, in light of the Jeter hubbub last week, would be hyporcitical and flat out wrong.

Ichiro becomes the first player in Major League history to have nine consecutive 200-hit seasons, and making the feat even more impressive, his came during the first nine years of his MLB career. He had been tied with Hall of Fame outfielder Willie Keeler (1894-1901) at eight in a row.

That’s a record that has stood for 108 years! Gehrig’s NYY hits record stood for merely 72 years. Can Ichiro reach 3,000 hits? Five more years at 200 hits a year and he’s there. Even if he slows as he ages and averages 150 hits a year, he can do it in just seven years. The problem is, Ichiro will turn 36 by the end of the post-season. He’s an amazing physical specimen, just 5’9″ and 160 lbs but in fantastic shape and as devoted to his body as anyone has ever been. Could he play until his early 40′s? Absolutely, if he wants to. I hope he does. Cooperstown is calling, no matter what, in my opinion.

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After dropping the first two games to the Orioles, the Yankees looked to bounce back Sunday afternoon. Luckily, the Yankees have found CC Sabathia to be their solution to a losing streak, and today was no different as the big lefty hurled another gem and the Yankee bats went to work, winning 13-3.

Derek Jeter got things going early, singling to right. Teixeira made it on base after being hit by a pitch, and Alex Rodriguez put New York on the board with a scorching double to left center, scoring Jeter and moving Teix to third. The Orioles battled back in the second inning. Starting with an infield single by Riemold who moved to third on Wigginton’s single. CC then walked Wieters to load the bases with no outs. Turner followed with a grounder to Cano, who got the runner at second for the first out of the inning, but allowed Baltimore’s first run to score. A sac fly by Chad Moeller to center, gave Baltimore the 2-1 edge. The Yankees got lead-off hits in the second and third, but failed to score. The Orioles tacked on another run in the fourth when Turner beat out an infield hit for a single. He moved to second and then tagged and scored on a deep fly to Damon – who caught it for the second out but thought it was the third and almost threw the ball in the stands. Just ugly baseball there – as Al Leiter said, That’s just a fundamental part of a Little League game.

Posada and Cano started the bottom of the fourth with singles. Swisher (whose first bunt attempt popped up, but luckily was not caught) drove the ball to the outfield to load the bases with no outs. Melky then dunked a single into shallow center field, scoring Posada and Cano to tie the game 3-3. A-Rod was called out on strikes with the bases loaded to end the inning, a call he vehemently disagreed with. As Matsui walked up to the plate in the fifth, A-Rod apparently exchanged some words with the home plate umpire who tossed him out of the game. This sent Girardi flying out of the dugout and into the face of the umpire, giving him an earful before Joe was also sent packing. Matsui, apparently was unfazed as he knocked out a single and moved to second on pitch that got away from Moeller. Unfortunately, the Yankees failed to capitalize on the early runner yet again.

In the bottom of the sixth, Jeter singled his way on base and sprinted to third when Damon knocked one to right. Hinske, who replaced Alex at third, worked a walk to load the bases for Matsui. Godzilla drove the ball down the first base line, sending Jeter and Damon home and giving the Yankees the 5-3 lead. In the eighth, Matsui added some insurance, driving a three-run bomb into the stands in right field, however, the Pinstripes were not done. Cano and Swisher both followed with singles and Melky dropped a double into deep center, adding two more runs. Jeter walked and Gardner sent a ground rule double to left, scoring Melky. Teixeira then drove the ball down the line for a two run double. When all was said and done the Yankees held a 13-3 lead heading into the ninth inning.

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