Since it was Memorial Day, the Yanks and Rangers were both wearing those red hats to honor the troops. I appreciate the sentiment - especially since my brother just went back to Iraq for his third tour over there - but it still kind of confused me a little to see the Yankees wearing red, especially when red is a primary color in the Rangers' uniform!
Phil Hughes seems to have stepped up his game since it looked like he was about to have his last start in the rotation. Giving up zero runs and only three hits over eight innings in that bandbox of a ballpark is phenomenal, especially when Alex Rodriguez single-handedly had five hits of his own for the Yanks. And Hughes wanted to complete the game, so he didn't want to shake Joe Girardi's hand after the eighth inning.
Anyhow, it was good to see a blowout, after two nailbiter games in a row. Hopefully, the Yanks will beat up on the Rangers again today.
One other note - I was glad to hear that University of Texas quarterback Colt McCoy threw a decent first pitch before the game. If he hadn't, Squawker Jon would mock me forever about my alma mater's QB not being able to throw!
* * *
In other news, I read that Jonathan Papelbon threw a hissy fit - and a towel - Saturday when a photographer took a photo of him in the dugout after the reliever gave up that homer to Omir Santos. (Click here to see him throwing the towel.) What a baby.
If Papelbon wants to be left alone, maybe he could change places with former Red Sox closer Keith Foulke, who is trying to make a comeback with the Newark Bears. Foulke griped a lot, too, about being in the media fishbowl. But he's now so eager to come back to the majors that he says he'd "even play for the Yankees"!
Hmmm, now that Brian Bruney is on the DL for the second time, could I see Brian Cashman taking a flyer on Foulke? Absolutely. I hope he doesn't, though - the last thing the Yanks need is a pitcher who hates baseball!
What do you think? Leave us a comment!
3 comments:
My mother and sister took the nieces to the beach yesterday, and my father and I had nothing to do. So we checked the schedules. The Trenton Thunder were in Nashua, New Hampshire. The Newark Bears were in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And the Somerset Patriots, actually the closest team to us... well, for reasons I won't get into here, I don't like them. But the Lakewood BlueClaws, the team my grandmother lived near in her final years, were at home, so we went.
Dusty Wathan, son of former Royals catcher John Wathan, is their manager, and I saw a lot of the old Royals in this team. Very aggressive, hustling, beat out some infield hits, stole bases, good bunting, good defense, and a pitcher from Brazil -- Brazil? baseball in the land of futbol? -- pitched six shutout innings. The Claws led 11-0 before the Greensboro Grasshoppers scored in the 9th for an 11-1. This was the first-place team in one of the divisions of the South Atlantic League beating the team that was just a half-game behind them, so it was a big game.
And despite all those runs and Greensboro pitching changes, it was over in 2 1/2 hours -- "very manageable" by Michael Kay standards.
Then, as we got back into the car, we listened to almost the same exact game from the Yankees, right down to the time of the game! Nice day.
I was very pleased to see Phil (We'd Rather Keep Him Than Trade Him For Johan Santana) Hughes put up the best pitching performance of the season by a New Yorker thus far. And seeing 19 hits, none of them homers? Get 'em any way you can, and that reminded me of the 1978 Boston Massacre: 4 games, 42 hits, just 1 homer.
The Mets played pretty well, too, although that could have been a disaster in the first if Carlos Beltran had tried to slide over that bat. What was David Wright thinking, letting the bat stay there? But the Mets did what they had to do and got the win.
Lakewood and the surrounding towns having a lot of retirement communities, there were quite a few WWII and Korean War veterans at the game. Of course, the older Vietnam veterans are now old enough to live in these communities. So the BlueClaws are very attentive to their local vets. A terrific place to watch a game, just 60 miles from Midtown Manhattan -- and they're in first place.
I loved Hughes for not shaking Girardi's hand! What's one more inning? Sheesh! When Aceves gave up the home run, Hughes was probably saying, "I could have done that!
Love the new template, Lisa. Hope you're doing well.
What do you know about the Greensboro Grasshoppers for Greensboro attractions ?
Post a Comment