No, the Expos never really tried to trade Vladimir Guerrero and Pedro Martinez for Derek Jeter. Why this story is bogus.

Part of my day job involves fact-checking information. Plus, I also have a healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to stories that seem too good to be true. So when I saw a recent claim about a longtime trade offer involving Derek Jeter, I immediately called shenanigans on it. And sure enough, my initial thought that it was BS turned out to be correct.

 Here's the scoop. Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe recently wrote this:

As the story goes: When Jeffrey Loria owned the Expos, he was obsessed with Derek Jeter. So he ordered his general manager, Jim Beattie, to try to make a deal with the Yankees and to give up whatever he had to. Beattie offered Yankees GM Brian Cashman Vladimir Guerrero and Pedro Martinez. Stunned, Cashman told Beattie, “I can’t trade Derek Jeter."

This is sheer nonsense, and here's why:

1. Pedro Martinez was traded from Montreal Expos to the Boston Red Sox on November 18, 1997.

2. Brian Cashman didn't become Yankees' GM until 1998.

3. Jeffrey Loria didn't buy the Expos until 1999.

So how in the world could this trade offer have been made, when Pedro was already in Boston during this timeframe? And when Martinez was an Expo, Loria did not own the team, and Cashman was not a GM?

I wonder where, exactly, Cafardo heard this story. Did Cashman feed him this nonsense, knowing that the reporter wouldn't fact-check it? Or did somebody else do so?

At any rate, it literally took me two minutes to Google the dates on this information, and prove definitively that this story could have never happened. Not that complicated, folks. You'd think a reporter -- or his editor -- would do the same. Good grief.

Should Yankee fans cheer David Ortiz in his last Yankee Stadium game?

I was on my my home when I saw about the retiring David Ortiz's "plea" in the New York Post to Yankee fans. And I couldn't wait to get home and Squawk about it, because obviously, I have something to say!

Post columnist Kevin Kernan talked to Ortiz today about what he wanted in his final game of his career at Yankee Stadium:

When Ortiz, 40, makes his final Yankee Stadium appearance on Sept. 29, this is what he wants, and it speaks volumes about Ortiz the player, the competitor, the enemy, the star. 
 “You know what I want most of all?’’ Big Papi told The Post on Tuesday at JetBlue Park. “I would love it if the fans at Yankee Stadium gave me a standing ovation.’’

Kernan writes that Yankee fans can "show class" by doing this:

Cheer for Big Papi. Chant his nickname. Send him out with class.

You know, I mostly like Kernan's writing, but this is a bit much for me.

Look, I gave Ortiz a standing ovation in my living room when, after the Boston Marathon bombing, he took the mike at Fenway and said, "This is our f*cking city." That was a great moment, and it's the one time in my life I wanted to cheer for Ortiz.  That's enough for me, thanks. Unless he's got Lou Gehrig's Disease or something, I am on record in thinking these endless farewell tours are too much. And I'm not cheering for him. I also think it's a little weird for him to ask for this.

Now, I'm not going to tell other Yankee fans that they shouldn't cheer for Ortiz. But I say not just "No," but "Hello, no." to the idea of me cheering and giving him a standing ovation and chanting "Big Papi." Good grief.

And I don't think not doing so for him makes me unclassy. (Class is overrated, anyway!)

 I also don't think  that sportswriters should tell fans what to do here. This is a personal decision every fan has the right to make. And I'm sitting on my hands, thanks!

What do you think? Will you cheer for David Ortiz?

What can we learn from Liverpool soccer fans' protest of ticket prices?

Yankee fans and Red Sox fans have more in common than we want to admit -- especially with The Rivalry being so snoozeworthy these days. The latest example of this is something my Boston friend Tyler has been griping about. Tyler, who mashes for Monstah Mash, wrote about the recent uprising with Liverpool Football (Soccer) Club fans, and how team owner John Henry, who also owns the Red Sox, had to back down and apologize to that fan base.

Here's the story. The team announced that they were raising the best ticket prices to 77 pounds (approximately $112) for next year. (Gee, I think both Boston and New York fans would be jumping for joy if that were our top ticket prices!) Liverpool tried to spin the price increase as only affecting some tickets but Liverpool fans were outraged. So the fans planned an in-game protest. At least 10,000 fans walked out in the 77th minute of a game, when their team was leading, 2-0. Their team, apparently flummoxed by the fans leaving, ended up giving up two goals. That got the powers that be's attention.

All it took was this one walkout for John Henry to cry uncle, apologize to Liverpool's fans, and roll back the price increases. He wrote a letter of apology to the fan base that Lonn Trost and the Yankees could learn from.

And my Sox friend Tyler is irate. He wants to know when Boston fans get an apology:

Here’s my big issue with all of this though, where the hell is OUR apology? Where is the apology for ridiculously high ticket prices (sh*t I’d love it if our tickets capped at $112), the second mortgage I had to take out just to buy a hot dog, and not to mention the classless buffoonery we’ve seen from the three stooges in their cushy box seats since they came here? Where’s our apology for gutting Terry Francona, screwing up the Jon Lester negotiations while insulting him in the process, and ruthlessly canning Don Orsillo or putting “sexy” star power over actually good players? Honestly I’m so sick of the Sox ownership and management I just have nothing left to say. Heck, maybe we could take a cue from Liverpool fans and stage a walkout or boycott at Fenway Park because apparently nothing is getting through to these bone-headed greedy pieces of crap who pretend to care.

Remember what I said about us having a lot in common with Boston fans? See what I mean?

Lonn Trost still has yet to apologize for his offensive comments about fans.  And now Boston fans are losing StubHub; the Red Sox are starting their own ticket service, with a price floor, of course. Whatever happened to the free market?

Anyhow, I wonder what we fans can do to show our disgust. Would a walkout work? Petitions? Simply not buying tickets? It's a conundrum, to be sure. Any thoughts of what might get team owners' attention? Please leave it in the comments section below.

Zzzzzzzzzz: Why the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox rivalry is so boring these days

No, that's not Wile E. Coyote.

I always refer to the competition between the Yankees and the Red Sox as The Rivalry, but at this point, maybe I should just call it "a rivalry" (lowercase letters). What used to be vehement, fire-breathing hatred between the two teams -- and the two fan bases -- is now more like Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog.

Remember them from Looney Tunes cartoons? They clock in to work, bash each others' brains out all day, then exchange pleasantries as they punch out. That's kind of where we are in the Boston-New York rivalry. Heck, even the trash talk between Subway Squawkers and Boston site Monstah Mash is friendly and fun. Twelve years ago, we would have been at each others' throats. Now our sass comes with a wink.

As Monstah Masher Tyler recently wrote:

Let’s face it, the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry peaked when Jason Varitek fed A-Roid his catcher’s mitt. Since then it’s been nothing more than two rich kids saying how their dads could beat each other up while attempting to b*tch slap each other like a couple of grade school girls.

Ouch! But, but, I don't disagree. (Although our rich dad has cut off our allowance these days!)

Not only are the fans friendlier these days -- I have a slew of Red Sox friends on Facebook, and I can't remember the last time we really got into it -- but the teams also don't seem to have the hatred any more for each other. After all, the Red Sox did tributes for Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter when they were on their retirement tours, and you know the Yankees will for David Ortiz this year.

Tom Brady doesn't think
Frosted Flakes are grrreat!

Heck, I can't even get that worked up about all things Boston, the way I used to. I even have to say I admire Tom Brady (gulp!) on something! Brady took a courageous stance this fall against soda (calling it "poison for kids") and processed food like Frosted Flakes -- two industries that are huge advertisers with the NFL. Brady told Dennis and Callahan on WEEI radio: "You just keep eating those things, and you keep wondering why we have just incredible rates of disease in our country."

As somebody who has been on a mission to improve my own diet, I have to tip my hat to Brady for having the guts to say all this. And yes, I'm cringing as I type that!

Anyhow, something's got to give. What will it take to get The Rivalry back? I asked my Boston fan friends, and most of them agreed that a bona fide two-team pennant race would get things going. And maybe some brushback pitches, followed by a bench-clearing brawl, would help, too. Dare to dream!

Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Me rooting for the Red Sox? Mass(achusetts) hysteria!

This is what a Yankees-Blue Jays pennant race means -- we Yankee fans have to root for Boston to win some games. Specifically, the six games they have against Toronto this month, including the three this week. Isn't that a stomach-churning notion? How am I supposed to deal with that?

It reminds me of that famous "Ghostbusters" scene (YouTube video below) about dogs and cats living together. Talk about Mass(achusetts) hysteria!

Does this mean I have to start talking about how to "Pahk the cah on Hahvahd Yahd"? Think that Denis Leary is funny? Listen to Aerosmith and New Kids on the Block? Oh, the humanity!

Sports hate: Our friends at Monstah Mash make mincemeat of the Blue Jays, the Yankees, and me!

I see so much bad writing every day on the Internet that I make it a point to praise those people I know who are good writers I especially appreciate those who are genuinely hilarious, like my friends at Monstah Mash, the Red Sox fan site. Nick Piccione, one of the lead writers there, had a really funny rant today in an article entitled "An Open Letter to the New York Yankees." Lots of great lines in this piece!

He starts with a sports hate rant, talking about how now that Boston is out of contention,he has fired up "the hate train." Here he describes his full-throttle sports hate:

Every year I get to pick some players, managers, and teams that I get to root against. The Cardinals are my keeper team. They’re in the lineup every year. Keep calling yourselves “the best fans in the country” as your football team leaves for LA you giant collective of asshats. The rest of the roster fills out as follows: David Price (Hall of Fame tool), Joe Maddon (for spawning David Price #unforgivable), David Price again (Seriously, I hate this guy), Buck Showalter (the only manager almost as overrated as Maddon) and the Toronto Blue Jays round out the hate squad.

I tip my hat to Nick for all of this, because I am writing this squawk while watching David Price and the Blue Jays shut down the Yankees for much of Friday's game, before finally wearing out in the eighth. I hate you, David Price!

About those Blue Jays: surprisingly for a Red Sox fan, Nick has invested a lot in hating Toronto this year!:

Look, I take a lot of pride in my hate. My hate makes me happy. You can call it moronic or oxymoronic or sociopathic or whatever, but it’s true. And I’ve invested the vast majority of this season’s hate index towards the Toronto Blue Jays. I think they’re wildly overrated, and that they’re gonna get their doors blown off as soon as they run into any team with a good pitching staff.

I agree that sports hate is an underrated emotion, and it also makes me happy! (And really, hate can be an underrated emotion -- when I am pushing through a road race, I'd like to think I am always thinking warm and fuzzy thoughts, but sometimes when I am running, I am thinking "I'll show you!")

After all, I call myself a New York City football fan, rooting for both the Jets and the Giants, but let's face it -- I hate the Patriots more than I love those teams! New England is just so hateable! Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Gronk, Aaron Hernandez....what is there to like? Hate, hate, hate! I hate them all!

But here's the thing. Because of his sports hate for Toronto, Nick was rooting for the Yankees (!) to win the division. Now he's peeved that the Yanks have blown what looked to be a secure lead. Me too, Nick! Maybe you jinxed them!

I also get a shoutout in the column (emphasis added):

Even the locals are turning against your sham of a team now. My bestest friend on the internet Lisa Swan over at Scrubway Squawkers is so miffed by you baboons that she’s been forced to write about how much the music at your ballpark sucks. As a man who is well versed in that art of the hate-filled rant, I can say factually that if you’ve been reduced to spitting fire about the jingles in between innings, you are so ripsh!t about your team that literally anything can set you off into a pants-pooping fury.

That is actually true! (Well, not the pants-pooping fury part, but the part about me being positively peeved!) Squawker Jon gave me a hard time over that piece, saying I needed to write another article about the Yankees getting humiliated by the Blue Jays. But there is only so much fury I can safely spew, but I think I've got it going again. So step it up, Yankees, or a hate-filled rant will be very necessary!

You know what's missing from the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry these days? Witty trash talk!

We all know that the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is not what it used to be. And an article in the Boston Globe reminds me of the more fierce days of The Rivalry.

The Globe's Dan Shaughnessy got Yankee president Randy Levine to weigh in on the retirement of Larry Lucchino, his counterpart on the Red Sox. He talked about when both teams went after Jose Contreras in 2002 -- then-GM Theo Epstein rented out all the rooms in a Nicaraugan hotel to keep the Yanks out, but the Bombers still won Contreras. Lucchino then called the Yankees the "Evil Empire" for the first time, saying: “The Evil Empire extends its tentacles even into Latin America.’’ That's a Hall of Fame-worthy trash-talk remark!

(An aside: as I have said before, I still think the Yanks should play the Evil Empire music for themselves, and not the opposition, before games. Why not revel in it?)

Lucchino's coining of the Evil Empire moniker for the Yankees is part of his legacy, and it is pretty memorable. When was the last time anybody involved in The Rivalry got off a line like that?

The article also talks about something Levine allegedly said after the 2003 ALCS:

When the Yankees won that series in the Bronx on [Aaron] Boone’s walkoff homer, Levine allegedly was overheard shouting, “Take that, you 1918 pieces of [expletive]!’’

“I don’t think I ever said that,’’ Levine said Wednesday.

C'mon, Randy! Own it! That's the best thing you ever said! I smiled just reading about that again.

Levine also talked about what George Steinbrenner felt about Lucchino, and where The Rivalry stands today:

“George used to call Larry ‘the chameleon.’ When Larry was with the Orioles, he took the issues one way, and then when he went to San Diego, it was another way. Then he came back to Boston and had a transformation. 

“At the end of the day, the Red Sox and the Yankees have a lot more in common than they are apart. Sometimes they have Yankee-phobia. They’re too conscious of trying to separate themselves from us. I think they’re more like us.’’

Ain't that the truth!

David Ortiz's whining aside, you don't really see the trash talk any more between the teams' players. Nor do you see it with the teams' front offices. I really miss that!

* * *

So Luis Severino looks like the real deal for the Yankees -- seven strikeouts and only one earned run over five innings. He seemed poised and confident and ready for the big leagues. 

Too bad the Yankees couldn't get him run support last night. What a heartbreaking game.

David Ortiz is a big ol' hypocrite. And here's why.

David Ortiz, back when he was slim
and trim and didn't hit homers.

David Ortiz is at it again. For somebody who has this jolly, beloved reputation, he really is a crybaby. Waaaaah!

The latest thing Ortiz did was passive-aggressively throw Alex Rodriguez under the bus. (Note: I also can't stand passive aggression; it drives me nuts when women do it, and even more when men do it! Especially when Ortiz does it! Be a man, not a sorority girl, dude!)

Ortiz told the New York Post the following about his former friend (emphasis added):

“It is what it is,” Ortiz said before the Yankees blew out the Red Sox, 13-3, Tuesday night at the Stadium. “The guy is playing the right way now — as far as we know. He’s having a good season and doing the right thing. I guess that deserves credit.”

Meow! Need a saucer of milk with that, Big Papi?

Then Ortiz deposited this in the litter box that is the Post:

 “He’s having a good season,” Ortiz said. “Me, personally, I thought having a year off and getting older was something that would affect you, but he looks good to me.”

Hmmmm. I seem to remember Ortiz whining in The Players' Tribune, A-Rod frenemy Derek Jeter's site, about people making assumptions about him using PEDs due to such clues. Specifically, without naming him, he slammed Bostom Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy for asking questions:

In 2013, I came off the DL and started hot. My first 20 games I was hitting like .400. And the reporter with the red jheri curl from The Boston Globe comes into the locker room says, “You’re from the Dominican. You’re older. You fit the profile of a steroid user. Don’t you think you’re a prime suspect?”

He’s saying this with a straight face. I had taken like 70 at-bats. Anybody can get hot and hit .400 with 70 at-bats. I was stunned. I’m like, I’m Dominican? I fit the profile? Are you kidding me?

Of course, as I noted back in March, Ortiz exaggerated what Shaughnessy actually said and wrote, which was this:

But you fit all the models. You are from the Dominican Republic. You are an older player. Older players don’t get better. You’ve had injuries consistent with steroid use. You showed up on the list from 2003. You fit all the formulas.

“[Expletive], I’m a human being just like everyone else,” said Ortiz. “You can get worse or you can get better. One or the other.’’

Anyhow, I find it fascinating that Ortiz was so prickly about people suggesting the he fit a PED user profile, and then he does the same thing to Rodriguez. That's why I call him a big ol' hypocrite. 

I love the smell of defeated Red Sox in the morning. It smells like victory!

So I got to attend last night's Yankees-Red Sox game for free, thanks to Squawker reader Dean hooking me up with a ticket for the game. I sat with him and two of his friends in the Terrace Section and we had a wonderful time. You can't beat a 9-run 7th inning, or a 13-3 victory, especially against Boston!Pretty much the only thing the Sox had going for them, other than Kung Boo Panda hitting a homer, was Henry Owens, their rookie starter, who held his own against a tough Yankee lineup. The rest of the Sox are just abysmal. This is a lousy team from top to bottom, populated by no-names and has-beens (David Ortiz, I'm looking at you!)

Speaking of Ortiz, I saw he recently got some digs in at A-Rod. If there is anybody who needs to drink a nice steaming cup of Shut the Bleep Up, it's Ortiz. He implied Rodriguez was still juicing by saying that he was clean "as far as we know" and whining: “Me, personally, I thought having a year off and getting older was something that would affect you, but he looks good to me.” Pot. Kettle. Black.

Anyhow, what looked to be a pitcher's duel between Masahiro Tananka and Owens ended up being a laugher for the Yankees. As our friends at Sox blog Monstah Mash put it in the lede of their post-mortem on Game 1:

 "I'm sure even the kind folks at Subway Squawkers can agree that this was not a game, or even a massacre–this was a 10 kilaton atomb bomb dropped on the collective hopes and dreams of an entire fanbase. The Yankees could have stopped at six or seven runs to thoroughly humiliate us, but no in typical arrogant Yankee fashion they wiped the baselines with us and it has left me standing still with my mouth gaping open in agony and confusion."

I love the smell of a defeated Red Sox Nation in the morning. It smells like victory!




Some other thoughts on the night:

• Did you know that the Yankees have scored an incredible 90 runs in the last 10 games? That's just unbelievable!
• While we all know what great seasons A-Rod and Mark Teixeira are having, Brian McCann is very quietly having a terrific year himself. The Yanks' 3/4/5 punch with them is among the best in baseball.
• But as good as a hitter as Alex has been, he is as bad a runner. He used to be among the best runners in baseball. Now he looks as slow as me on the basepaths!
• Comedian Tracey Morgan got one of the biggest ovations of the night when he was shown on the big screen.
• Another person who got a good ovation was U.S. Army veteran Noah Galloway, who threw out the first pitch. This guy is a total badass. He is missing an arm and a leg. Yet he threw from the mound and made a perfect strike. That one pitch was better than anything the Sox bullpen put up all night!
• Joe Girardi really micromanaged that Jackie Bradley, Jr. at-bat, bringing in Dellin Betances in the middle of it. Why? More than one Sox fan told me that Joe was pulling a Bobby Valentine with that move! Bradley was hitting .109! Girardi said this move was "strategy." Lunacy is more like it!
• Speaking of inexplicable things, can the Yankees finally ditch "Cotton Eye Joe" and "YMCA" and the Kate Smith version of "God Bless America"? All of these things are way past their sell-by date.

Thoughts on A-Rod turning 40, Teix's hissy fit, the Tulo-Reyes trade, and Shane Victorino, the Cryin' Hawaiian

I was excited to see Alex Rodriguez homer on his 40th birthday last night (his sixth on his B-Day, which sets an MLB record), but I went to bed early. So I missed the Mark Teixeira shenanigans. After he was thrown out at home plate by Leonys Martin, who robbed him of a homer earlier in the game, Teix threw the mother of all hissy fits, tossing around a trash can in the dugout. Turns out that Yankee third-base coach Joe Espada told Teixeira "easy" when rounding third, and it cost him the chance to score. And Mark openly criticized the coach to the media after the game.


 

Then I woke up this morning to see that the New York Daily News actually had a positive back page about A-Rod! I can't remember the last time that has happened, or if it has ever happened. Oddly enough, though, Bill Madden hasn't written about Alex lately. (Remember, Madden said Alex was "finished" as a player and would never play again. Hardball Talk lists the most egregious Madden pronouncements on Rodriguez.)

The New York Post, on the other hand, had a negative cover of Rodriguez, regarding him telling reporters yesterday that he was "clean." Pretty nifty Photoshop, though. Glad they made sure the "Mr. Clean" A-Rod had an earring!

But the News' back page wasn't the most shocking thing in the baseball world I saw this morning. No, the Troy Tulowitzki-Jose Reyes trade takes the trade for that. Toronto, along with Baltimore, is seven games behind the Yankees. But they are clearly going for it this season -- they haven't made the postseason since 1993, as Joel Sherman notes.

I think the Yankees have to be considered to be in the catbird seat for the postseason. But they still need another starting pitcher. Will it be Cole Hamels? Or David Price? Or somebody else?

And what about the Mets? They traded for ex-Yankee Tyler (The Yankee) Clippard last week. But they need a big hitter. Will it happen?

The trading deadline is this Friday at 4 p.m., just around the time I have to phone in to find out if I am going to be in jury duty next week! So that should be a momentous afternoon in a variety of ways. (Squawker Jon said this comment is very solipsistic, even for me!)

In other trading deadline news, Shane Victorino, aka the Flyin' Hawaiian, got traded from the Red Sox to the Angels. Victorino cried -- repeatedly -- in the presser announcing the deal. Dude, you should be happy to get out of Boston! The Angels actually have a playoff-worthy team!

Squawker Jon and I were talking about the trade, and I mentioned that Victorino is retiring the use of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" as his at-bat music. That song became a rallying cry for Red Sox Nation in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing and subsequent World Series championship.

Jon knew the song but didn't know the title, so I had to mention the lyrics about "every little thing gonna be alright." His excuse was that he wasn't a Deadhead. Huh? What do the Grateful Dead have in common with Bob Marley? Oh, wait!

My thoughts on the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry and whether Rob Refsnyder has soul (Seoul)

Do you ever find that people you couldn't stand when you first met you end up really liking? That's how I feel about the folks at Monstah Mash. They are a Red Sox fan site who discovered me a few months ago, back when I wrote an article fact-checking David Ortiz that got some traffic in the blogosphere -- and in the Boston Globe.

Anyhow, Nick Piccione, one of the writers on their site, saw the piece and the followup, wrote something slamming me, and sent it to me on Twitter. I read it, thought it went way too far in personal attacks against me, so I ended up blocking him and the Monstah Mash Twitter account. Then, after Squawker Jon encouraged me to, I read Nick's article again. And I realized that despite his cheap shots at me, he was actually both pretty funny, and a good writer as well. (Believe me, I don't give those compliments out lightly -- especially to a member of Red Sox Nation!)

Also, dare I say it? There was a little bit of a Subway Squawkers tone to the Monstah Mash site! So how could I be against them?

Anyhow, I ended up unblocking them on Twitter, and started talking. Long story short, this weekend, we did a little good-natured trash talk on Twitter this weekend about the Yankees-Red Sox series. It was fun. We each got in some good digs, but still kept the tone (mostly) light. (Edited to add that they are bitter and cranky today over their team losing the series!)

But it reminded me what such a conversation would have looked like 12-13 years ago. It would have been a lot more intense and angry! Heck, I ended up missing parts of the games this weekend, which would never have happened circa 2004. (Squawker Jon is still bitter that I showed up late to his birthday party that year because I was watching the end of the A-Rod/Varitek fight game!)

Also, the writers at Monstah Mash are in their early 20s, which means they were kids when The Curse was broken. So they don't have the history of Red Sox angst and heartbreak that, say, my pal Sully at Sully Baseball does. They more remember the three rings in a decade for their team (and oy, you don't know how much angst I feel writing those words!) So they are, gulp, used to having their team win World Series championships!

It's a whole new world, folks! I'm just glad the Yankees won two out of three, giving me bragging rights -- for now, at least!

* * *

In other news, Rob Refsnyder got called up this weekend, even though Brian Cashman has made it clear he doesn't want to keep him up here. But Refsnyder got his first MLB hit -- and also his first homer -- yesterday. (John Sterling's call was Rob Refsnyder's got Seoul, a play on his heritage.)

I think Refsnyder should be given a chance at second. It's not like Stephen Drew is the second coming of Robinson Cano. He is hitting .182, for goodness sake!

Remembering the July 1, 2004 Yankees-Red Sox game gives me a reunion idea

I have been fortunate to attend a lot of memorable Yankee games in my lifetime. I was at the Pine Tar Game. I saw Don Mattingly and Dave Winfield via for the batting title on the last day of the season. I saw Mariano Rivera get his 500th save. And, of course, I recently saw Alex Rodriguez get his 3000th hit. But the July 1, 2004 game between the Yankees and Red Sox was, after the Bucky Dent game, arguably the best regular-season Yankees-Red Sox game ever. Yesterday, I wrote the following on Facebook about the game, and about the Derek Jeter "Dive" play: 

I was there! One of the most amazing games I ever saw. At this point in the game, I had sneaked down from my crummy upper deck seat to field level reserve seats between home plate and first base. There were probably only about 20,000 people at this point (much of the upper deck moved down, like we used to be able to do.) So I had a great view of Derek Jeter diving into the stands. I also noticed when the ambulance took him to the hospital during the game to get checked out.

There were so many twists and turns to the game. Pedro Martinez started against Brad Halsey (sadly, as my friend Jo-Lynn noted, Halsey died under mysterious circumstances last year and was mentioned at this year's Old Timers' Day.) Remember when Pedro plunked Gary Sheffield, and Sheffield barked in response? Remember that Manny Ramirez hit two homers? Remember Nomar pouting on the bench? Remember who got the win -- Tanyon Sturtze -- and the loss -- Curtis Leskanic? Remember that Pokey Reese and A-Rod also had excellent defensive plays in the game? I would say to remember John Flaherty's game-winning hit, but since that literally is his claim to fame in Yankeeland, we see the clip about once a week as it is!

Anyhow, as many of my fellow Yankee fan (and Red Sox fan!) friends reminisced about the game, it occurred to me that sometime in the next few years, there should be a Yankees-Red Sox reunion of this era of players. Because let's face it, The Rivalry was much more intense 10 years ago, with such iconic players on both sides, than it is now.

And Squawker reader John brought up that the end of David Halberstam's "Summer of '49" is of a reunion of the '49 teams at the 1964 Yankees' Old-Timers Day. (Back in the day, the event used to also feature players from other teams, as well as the Yankee players.) In the book, the Yankees held a post-game party in the clubhouse with old-time players of both teams. Red Sox player Johnny Pesky,  was carrying his food and walking to a table when he saw Yankees Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi and Charlie Keller at another table.  Reynolds growls for him to sit down with them. Pesky is taken aback at first, then Reynolds tells him that he was a pain to play against, but that they liked him. (The exchange is more profane than that, but this is a G-rated blog!)

Anyhow, back to my point. Who wouldn't want to see an Old-Timers' Game with Roger Clemens going up against Manny Ramirez again? Or Pedro Martinez against Jorge Posada? Or Curt Schilling against Derek Jeter? (I would say Bronson Arroyo against A-Rod, but both of them are still playing, although Arroyo is recovering from Tommy John surgery.)

I would really like to see such a reunion happen in the next five to ten years. Somebody needs to make this happen!

Reveling in Boston Red Sox's fans abject misery -- yeah, I went there!

Any truth to the rumor that Pablo Sandoval
is now known as Kung Boo Panda?

Schadenfreude: It's not just for breakfast anymore!

Have you seen what is going on in Red Sox Nation these days? Boston is having a positively Bobby Valentinesque year. The team is simply awful. They are in last place with a 27-37 record, one of the worst records in baseball. Pitcher Wade Miley threw a hissy fit and openly argued with manager John Farrell the other night, a move that elicited this classic Dennis Eckersley response, which included asking whether Miley were on acid. Dustin Pedroia lost a ball in the sun in hilarious fashion. Hanley Ramirez in left field makes Manny Ramirez look like Yaz. Now the Sox have lost six in a row, and the season looks pretty much over for them.

And you know what? I am loving every minute of this. Are you kidding me? There hasn't been such comic gold in Beantown baseball since the days of the fried chicken and beer brigade!

So I spent some time tonight looking for most pained, angry, agonized Red Sox fans on the internet, especially those on various Boston blogs. Does that make me a bad person?

My Red Sox friend Paul Francis Sullivan -- aka Sully Baseball podcast host -- sez no: "Nope. I read the same for Yankees. It is part of what makes us us."(This is true -- I know that Boston fans do read yours truly after an epic Yankee loss to see how I will react!)

Well, then! Guess that means I have permission to share some of the best -- as in, most enjoyable for a Yankee fan to read! -- of Red Sox Nation's agony over the team as of late.

I actually correspond with some of the Boston fans I am quoting here (Red and Denton of Surviving Grady are longtime friends of the Squawkers, and Monstah Mash is an up and coming blog that has some really fun writing!) But that doesn't mean I can't revel in their team's misfortune!

From Surviving Grady:

But then–and it’s tough to replay it because I still can’t wrap my arms around everything that went wrong–the Red Sox let it get away with a loss so glorious, so insanely inconceivable, that it immediately ranked among the greatest Red Sox f*ck-ups of all time. Maybe top five. Ahead 8-4 going into the seventh, Matt Barnes, Junichi Tazawa and Tommy Layne gave up a staggering 8 hits and 9 runs in one inning, effectively torpedoing any positive mojo and goodwill left in the stands, possibly for the rest of the season.

From Over the Monster:

In a season that has been full of disasters, pathetic performances, and general horribleness, I thought it was beyond the Red Sox to really find that next level. They did. I would hesitate to say they went from bad to worse, because bad doesn't really accurately describe the starting point. But for where they are now, there's only one word: shameful....

I'd go through the motions of typing it all out, but if you really want to subject yourself to this train wreck of an inning, well, I'll defer to the tape, because I just can't! Bad teams lose games. Bad teams lose games after taking the lead. Bad teams lose games that most other teams would win. But it feels like when the Red Sox go bad, they go the extra mile. And tonight, they really outdid themselves. Even if you're somehow of the opinion that 27-35 and seven games down in the AL East isn't enough to consider them out of the running, after seeing a performance like this, it's had to imagine even the most optimistic of Red Sox fans holding on hope.

From Sons of Sam Horn:

Commenter 54th MA: "That's the ballgame, that's the series, that's the season," and "For those of you who weren't around at the time, this is what the Boston Massacre of 1978 felt like. Or 1770 for that matter."

Commenter Nuf Sed: "I am only watching this game because I don't own a ball peen hammer that I can use to pound myself in the head."

Commenter Kilgore A. Trout: "I just don't understand this  How is the manager not responsible when an entire team plays fundamentally bad baseball?  Plays way below their norm?  Not just one player, not two players, the entire team.  For the second straight year.  If that is not the manager's responsibility, then he literally has no responsibility and he's just a figurehead."

From Monstah Mash:

Writer Nick Piccione: 

BREAKING NEWS: The Boston Red Sox came out last night and lost their game against the Toronto Blue Jays in an implosion so spectacularly awful that it would make the death of the King Dome look mundane. 

In related news, the sky is blue, hell is hot, and Pablo Sandoval is fat. Up 8-1 going into the seventh inning , the Red Sox voided their bowels all over the place, gave up nine runs in the inning, and lost the game 13-10. And honestly, I’m not mad about it, I’m just disappointed. 

I’m disappointed that at this point in the season, the Red Sox have beaten me down so much that I don’t even have the energy to fly off the handle like I did last week. I feel defeated. I haven’t hated a Red Sox team this much since the year 199never. And that includes the Bobby Valentine season. Yeah, you heard me, this is my least favorite Red Sox team ever. 

Seriously, f*ck this team, it’s a goddamn madhouse and the lunatics are running the asylum.

Writer Tyler Scionti on Wade Miley:

Sheesh the guy looks like a kid who was told he has to go to bed at 8pm on a Friday. Or an angsty teenage girl who was told she can’t date the senior in high school who’s been repeating the 12th grade for the last six years. Either way Miley doesn’t look like a grown man here, he looks like a whiny little spoiled brat. Honestly I’m surprised Farrell didn’t deck Miley in the face because he definitely wanted to–which is probably why Miley ran away like some scared little five year old with Farrell following and staring him down....

What happened Thursday night was inexcusable: Miley as a player should know to respect his manager and he obviously doesn’t. He’s not alone either on the growing list of guys I’m sick of.  There’s David Ortiz who takes every chance to turn the spotlight on himself and remind us how old his schtick is, or Hanley Ramirez who refuses to address his crappy performance in LF. And don’t get me started on the error-making machine Pablo Sandoval who makes me miss Will Middlebrooks.


Point being: the Sox have about as much chemistry as the nerdy kid who gets saddled up with the cheerleader in a group project: none.

Between this and Deflategate, it has been a fun spring for mocking Boston! Heh.

Remember the Tino Martinez/Armando Benitez brawl? It happened 17 years ago today

Today, May 19, 2015 is the 90th anniversary of Malcolm X's birth, the 50th anniversary of Pete Townshend writing "My Generation" (on his 20th birthday, no less!) and the 17th anniversary of the greatest baseball brawl of my lifetime -- Yankees vs. Orioles! ESPN's Buster Olney mentioned the fight fact this morning. Here is a link to GIFs showing the best part of the fight, and I have also included video of the brawl below.

The fight started after Armando Benitez drilled Tino Martinez in the back. Tino was the next batter Benitez faced after giving up a homer to Bernie Williams, and the drilled pitch was clearly retaliation. Highlights for me include the following:

• Graeme Lloyd and Jeff Nelson running out of the bullpen to get into the fray, with Lloyd throwing haymakers against Benitez.
• Darryl Strawberry proves to be the ultimate fighter. If I have to pick ballplayers for an all-star brawl team, he would be my first choice! He gets into the fight multiple times, connecting with Benitez hard. At one point, Joe Torre has to hold Straw back.
• Future Yankee manager Joe Girardi (!) getting into the fray. Remember that Joe?
• David Wells mouthing off, and being held back by Jimmy Key.
• Paul O'Neill (!) trying to be the voice of reason with Tino Martinez, who looks completely enraged.
• How the fight looks like it is starting to end, then it heats up again.
• How the fight spills over into the dugout multiple times.
• The team spirit of the Yankees -- everybody is out there in the fray! Even a very young Derek Jeter is out there!

At one point in the video, an announcer (I think it might be Jim Kaat) says, "This is horrible." To which I say, no way! This is terrific! I never get tired of this video. (I don't know what that says about me, but there it is!)

We were talking recently about Pedro Martinez throwing Don Zimmer to the ground. It still ticks me off that nobody on the Yankees did anything to Pedro over that. Not to mention the lack of response the next year (Tanyon Sturtze, the day's starter, was one of the few Yankee fighters) after the Varitek-A-Rod fight. What happened to those fighting Yankees?

A few years ago, I heard Darryl Strawberry complain about the Yankees' lack of response in those Red Sox brawls, and how this team would not have behaved that way. I completely agree. The 1998 Yankees weren't just arguably the greatest team of all time. They were also fierce fighters!

 

Who would win in a celebrity boxing match between Jorge Posada and Pedro Martinez?

So, Jorge Posada has been in the news a lot this week, thanks to his new book, and the interviews he has done about them. The A-Rod kerfuffle regarding his remarks has been all over the news this week, so we don't need to rehash the whole thing, other than to make two quick points: Contrary to  Posada's claim on Boomer and Carton that he was "cornered" into saying what he did by the interviewer, he wasn't. Just watch the clip here. Posada is the one who first brings up not just the Hall of Fame, but the 2003 MVP award!

In addition, Posada's PR people aren't happy with my article on him from the other day, and shot down my request for a review copy of his book -- I wanted to put the PED references in context with the book. That is their right and prerogative, but then they can't claim I am taking things out of context, when I cannot actually see the book! Oh, well.

Anyhow, I actually took the time to listen to Posada's radio interviews this week. And while I think he is awfully whiny on things like his sitdown snit, there is something I agree with him on 100%: his anger towards Pedro Martinez. I actually like Martinez, and think he is a smart guy, and one of the most interesting people in baseball, but he went too far in the 2003 ALCS against the Yankees. And he should have apologized to Don Zimmer when Zim was alive. I also thought Pedro was out of line in making fun of Posada's ears -- something he conveniently forgot to mention when he complained about Posada insulting his mother by using a certain expletive. 

Both of them slam each other in their respective books, and make it clear how much they still cannot stand each other. So it got me to thinking: what would happen if there were a Posada/Pedro celebrity boxing match? I posed this question to my friend Jason, who writes on boxing, and suggested he do a column on this! Withering contempt does not begin to describe his response to my writing suggestion. However, he did think  Posada would open as the 3-2 favorite, due to his size, but Martinez would have the advantage in reach and ring savvy.

I then posed this question on my Facebook page. Most readers said Posada would win. My friend Christopher said: "Part of what made Pedro so great was the insane flexibility his fingers had. I imagine making a fist would give him too much pain. I give the edge to Posada." He also noted: "I do give Pedro the edge against aging fighters, however; you saw what he did to Don Zimmer. He'd probably have a chance against Wilford Brimley." Ha!

Longtime Squawker reader Uncle Mike sez: "If it's pro wrestling, where anything goes, Pedro wins because he fights dirty. But if it's boxing, with rules, and a referee to enforce them... It never happens, because Pedro is a coward and would never get in the ring with a real man."

My friend Joe gets a blocking-the-plate dig in on Posada, saying: "All Pedro would have to do is slide at Posada and Jorge would jump out of the way. TKO, Pedro." Oh, snap!

Rahsaan had the funniest line: "I would never let someone who once rocked a jheri-curl beat me in a fight. Advantage Posada." My brother Patrick thought Pedro would win, though. "Pedro would Zimmer slam him to the ground. Plus, compare throwing arms speeds for punches. Pedro hits high 90s; Posada couldn't throw out an invalid attempting to steal 2nd." As for me, I think Posada would definitely win. Take a look at Posada's brawl against Toronto's Jesse Carlson in 2009 vs.  Pedro Martinez's unimpressive "fight" after Gerald Williams charged the mound. Game over. Posada will win!

Now, we just need some TV network to make this match happen!

A-Rod shuts up Red Sox fans with #660, and Jesse Pinkman lookalike catches the home run ball

I was on the express bus on the way home from Manhattan last night listening to the Yankee game on the radio when the reception went out for a few minutes. Wouldn't you know it? That was literally the exact time that Alex Rodriguez was hitting No. 660! So I totally missed hearing it live! Bummer.

When I got home, I did get to see the TV clip in the postgame of A-Rod hitting it, then I stayed up late to watch the rebroadcast of the game to see the homer in context. Just seeing a clip of the homer itself really doesn't do the event justice. Red Sox fans were s on their feet, standing and booing A-Rod from literally the moment he left the dugout to pinch-hit for Garrett Jones. The boos were as loud and vociferous as I have ever heard in Boston. And sanctimonious and hypocritical, too, given that David (Failed 2003 PED Test) Ortiz is the team's biggest hero, and that Manny (Failed Three PED Tests) Ramirez helped them get two rings.

A-Rod has had some dramatic homer runs against the Red Sox at Fenway Park: the 2005 homer against Curt Schilling, last year's homer against Ryan Dempster after getting plunked, but I think last night's HR was the most amazing.  It was the baseball equivalent of Paul Sheldon telling Annie Wilkes in Misery to eat it!

Jesse Pinkman waits after the game.

The thing that made me laugh out loud when watching the replay was the fan who caught the ball. That member of Red Sox Nation was booing and doing thumbs-down gestures to A-Rod at the very same time he was hanging onto the ball for dear life.

Doesn't this fan look like a Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad lookalike or what? I half-expected him to say this to A-Rod after the game. My friend Jerome says that this fan also looks like he is saying "my precious" about the ball!

So this fan -- the New York Post says his name is Mike Shuster, and he is is 25-year-old financial advisor from Rhode Island -- wouldn't turn over the ball last night, despite both the Yankees and Red Sox offering him stuff. He also wouldn't throw the ball back, the way other Boston fans wanted him to do. My first reaction was that this guy, unlike fanboy Christian Lopez who gave up Derek Jeter's 3000th hit ball without asking for anything in return, actually had some smarts and sense. Here is some of what I wrote about Lopez then, and the same goes for this guy:

I will never believe that giving away a ball worth many hundreds of thousands of dollars for free to a guy worth hundreds of millions is somehow a moral obligation, or the right thing to do. I will never think that a guy still living at home with his parents, who has over $100K in student loans, owed the baseball he rightfully caught to somebody who just built a house the square footage of a supermarket. It's not "classy" to do that -- it's ridiculous. It's the equivalent of scratching off a winning lottery ticket and giving it away to Jeter, just because.

Shuster says he is going to sleep on it and then decide what to do. But he did tell the New York Post this, something my friend Joe predicted on Facebook last night would happen! Joe wrote this on my page around midnight last night:

Ready for this? Don't be surprised if the guy makes a YouTube video of him destroying the ball. To make a statement, for Sox cred, whatever. That's the vibe I got when I saw him acting out after he caught the ball.

Sure enough, this is what Shuster tells the Post:

“It’s a questionable ball,” Shuster said. “Throwing it back definitely makes a statement, but that’s done all the time for a lot of things. I think something different should be done with this ball with greater significance. I’m not sure what that is yet. I thought about blowing the ball up and making a video of it.”

Unless he gets paid a lot of money to do that, he would be a complete moron to do so. IMHO, the only way you should give up a ball for anything but money is if you could get something for the history books. I wrote for Guideposts.org last fall about how the San Francisco Giants fan who caught Travis Ishikawa's pennant-winning homer ended up getting to throw out the first pitch at Game 3 of the World Series. That is something worth sacrificing the money for. This silly video idea, not so much.

In closing, check out this video, which has all of the home run calls. My favorite is the Spanish-language one. Alleluia!

Fact-checking David Ortiz's PED-denial column in the Players' Tribune

David Ortiz in his younger, smaller days.

Speak of the devil! I was just talking about David (Sherlock) Ortiz with my friend Staci on Facebook yesterday, We brought up his name because of ESPN New York noting that Alex Rodriguez now faces additional steroid tests. And just after we made the inevitable Ortiz "searching for why he tested positive" joke that many Yankee fans do, Sherlock finally addressed this issue, six years after it was revealed he tested positive for PEDs.

Ortiz is now an "Editor at Large" for Derek Jeter's Players' Tribune, and has "written" an article denying that he ever used PEDs.

An aside: I kind of find Jeter calling these athletes writing for his site "editors" and "bureau chiefs" a little weird. Players' Tribune contributor Mets pitcher Matt Harvey revealed in New York Magazine that he has business cards from the venture that say "NEW YORK BUREAU CHIEF." Really? Is Matt going to be assigning stories in the locker room, too? Marking up Juan Lagares' copy with a red pencil? Puh-lease.

Look, I make it a point of never saying "we" when it comes to the Yankees, because I ain't playing. So for athletes to be given such lofty titles for their contributions here would be like calling me a right fielder because I got stuck at that position in fifth grade gym glass.

Anyhow, I have a long memory when it comes to David Ortiz's PED denials. Plus, I wrote a lot on the issue back in 2009, when it was revealed that he tested positive in 2003. Anyhow, let's review Ortiz's claims in this article and see if they add up:

Ortiz starts his piece with a dramatic story of American drug testers showing up at his home at 7:30 in the morning in the Dominican Republic with "pee cups and big needles." He claims he has been tested "more than 80 times" for PEDs since 2004, and also says he has been tested "ten times a season" this whole time. His math doesn't add up in multiple ways (10x a year since 2004 is 110 times, not 80) and also because in 2009, he claimed he was tested "15 times" by MLB since 2003.

Incidentally, in the article I referenced above, ESPN claimed that in addition to everyone getting tested during the spring, there are only 350 random urine tests and 140 random blood tests done during each season, which, if those numbers are correct, would only cover a fraction of the 1200 players tested under the system. But we are supposed to believe that only Ortiz had been tested this many times? Really? C'mon now.

He also says, "I have never failed a single one of those tests and I never will." I say, "Neither did Alex Rodriguez and most of the players named in the Biogenesis scandal." (A-Rod reportedly told the feds he passed because he used midstream urine. If that actually works, then these tests are pretty meaningless!)

Ortiz then sez: "Some people still look at me like I’m a cheater because my name was on a list of players who got flagged for PEDs in 2003." (I want to put on my "Bette Davis in 'What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" voice to say, "But ya are, Blanche!")

Anyhow, after how talking about how much physical pain ballplayers are in (which I'm sure they are, but PEDs aren't painkillers!) Ortiz uses the "GNC" defense on his positive test, saying that in the early 2000s:

"I’m buying an over-the-f***ing-counter supplement in the United States of America. I’m buying this stuff in line next to doctors and lawyers. Now all of a sudden MLB comes out and says there’s some ingredient in GNC pills that have a form of steroid in them. I don’t know anything about it. If you think I’m full of it, go to your kitchen cabinet right now and read the back of a supplement bottle and honestly tell me you know what all of that stuff is. I’m not driving across the border to Mexico buying some shady pills from a drug dealer. I’m in a strip mall across from the Dunkin’ Donuts, bro."

However, contrary to his emphasis of buying the supplements in the U.S. at the friendly neighborhood GNC, Ortiz admitted in 2009 to buying some of those supplements in the Dominican Republic, where what is available over the counter is more loosey-goosey, to use an A-Rod-ism, than in the U.S. Ortiz also said then, "I definitely was a little bit careless back in those days when I was buying supplements and vitamins over the counter." Which made no sense -- why would you not pay attention to see what the stuff you took did, if for no other reason than to see if they worked?

He also doesn't mention Angel Presinal, the Dominican-born trainer who worked with both A-Rod and Ortiz, and who was banned from all MLB clubhouses after being linked to PEDs.

One of  my truisms in life is that those who are criticized the least overreact the most about it. And this whole piece seems to be a huge overreaction on Ortiz's part to mild criticism. As my friend Sully sez, the only MLB star who has gotten as much of a pass on the PED label than Andy Pettitte is Ortiz. So I don't know why he would bring this up now.

As those of us who have been paying attention in the last few years have noticed, Ortiz can be incredibly thin-skinned and self-absorbed -- a far cry from his lovable image. He whines a lot in this article, complaining about how people don't realize how hard he worked at hitting, griping about others not liking him pimping home runs -- and justifying it because he grew up poor in the Dominican Republic.

He plays up the racial angle about Dan Shaughnessy (the reporter with the red Jheri curls he refers to in the article) questioning him about PEDs in 2013; the actual conversation that they had was significantly different than the way he disparagingly describes it, with Shaughnessy making more concrete points -- that Ortiz has had injuries typical of those using PEDs and had quicker bat speed when getting older -- than he is described as doing.

Then Ortiz claims this is how he found out that he was on that failed test list:

I’ll never forget coming into the clubhouse before a day game against Oakland in 2009 when a reporter came up to me and said, “Hey, you know your name is about to be on a list of steroid users on ESPN?” I literally said, “Ha!” and walked away. God’s honest truth: I thought he was messing with me. About 30 minutes later, I’m getting dressed when I see my face pop up on the TV. I see “Failed Test. 2003.” No one had ever told me I’d failed any test.

Except The New York Times, not ESPN, broke the story. And Michael S. Schmidt, the reporter  on the case, talked to Ortiz before publishing the article, and Ortiz told him "I'm not talking about that anymore," a curious reaction from somebody who claims to have been blindsided by this news.

Also, Ortiz makes no mention in this article of the fact that the MLB players' union informed all the players who tested positive of this fact in 2004. So he knew about this back then, contrary to this dramatic story above.

At any rate, by doing this article, Ortiz is giving reporters a chance to bring this up all over again. There is already a perception among Yankee fans that A-Rod served his time for breaking the rules, while Ortiz had never been held accountable. This article certainly feeds into that perception. I think Big Papi made a big mistake in writing this.

Say it ain't so, Mo: Why Mariano Rivera would have been better off being "The Closer" of his mouth

Mariano Rivera, arguably the most respected player in MLB in recent years, with the most saintly reputation (he's like Tim Tebow but with Hall of Fame talent), is one of the few things Squawker Jon and I agree on. Not only is Mo my favorite player of the 1990s dynasty years, but I have gone to see him speak on Staten Island, and Jon and I went to eat at his restaurant in New Rochelle a few years ago. Squawker Jon also gave him a standing ovation when he saw him pitch at CitiField and at Yankee Stadium in Mo's last season. Rivera is the rare -- make that pretty much the only -- Yankee that Jon can stand.

In case you haven't figured it out by now, in addition for rooting for different teams, Squawker Jon and I have very different personalities. Where I am brash and impulsive, Jon is quiet and methodical. But one of the things we do do for each other is try to bring out the best, and stop the worst. When I have an opinion or impulse or idea that Jon thinks is too much, he will simply say, "What does that get you?" -- meaning, is it really worth the aggravation in saying or doing what I want to? Sometimes Jon is right, and sometimes he is wrong in asking that, but it is a good question to ponder before saying or writing something controversial.

All this is to say that I wonder why apparently nobody asked Mariano Rivera "What does that get you?" when it comes to his new book, The Closer. Because it seems bizarre to me that he would tarnish his saintly image with some of the things he said in his book, written with Wayne Coffey.

For example, there is this, courtesy of the News' article on the tome, on how he throws Robinson Cano under the bus:

In his new autobiography, “The Closer,” Rivera writes about how much affection he has for his former teammate, but adds, “This guy has so much talent I don’t know where to start... There is no doubt that he is a Hall-of-Fame caliber (player). It’s just a question of whether he finds the drive you need to get there. I don’t think Robby burns to be the best... You don’t see that red-hot passion in him that you see in most elite players.”

As for his favorite second baseman, Rivera says Red Sox Dustin Pedroia is “at the top of the list” of players he admires, adding: “Nobody plays harder, gives more, wants to win more. He comes at you hard for twenty-seven outs. It’s a special thing to see.” He later writes, “If I have to win one game, I’d have a hard time taking anybody over Dustin Pedroia as my second baseman.”

Ask yourself this: would Mo have written that if Cano hadn't gone to the Mariners? The answer is that he wouldn't have. And what does writing this get Mo, anyway? It seems more than a little unseemly for him to question somebody else's drive this way, especially when Rivera himself never showed any "red-hot passion" on the field himself. How would he have liked it if people had said the same about him?

And since when did Cano become some underachieving schlub, anyway? He not only was the best player on the Yankees for the last half-decade, but he played nearly every game and showed up to the park early nearly every day to work on his game. But the moment he leaves the Yankees, he becomes some bum?

To top it off, comparing Cano to Red Sox Pedroia, and finding Cano wanting, is a bit much. Sorry, folks, but Cano IS better than Pedroia. C'mon, Mo, you're better than this.

The other thing that really bothered me from the article about the book is this:

Rivera writes that neither the 2003 team nor the one that lost four straight to the Red Sox in the ALCS a year later was close to having the same championship-quality fiber as the Yankees’ previous championship teams.

“Those teams of ours that won four World Series in five years would’ve hammered (the Marlins),” Rivera writes. “They would’ve found a way and will their way through as a team.”

He isn't the first Yankee to raise that whole "it's not the same team" argument, but it makes me wonder: if the heart of the dynasty team were the players who were no longer on it in the next decade, then what does that say about Rivera and the so-called Core Four? That they weren't really so core?

At any rate, I will still be a fan of Mo, but I am very disappointed that he chose to make such comments. In answer to the question "What does that get you?", I guess it will get him some book sales, but at a cost to his pristine reputation. Not an even trade.

Why didn't the "classy" Yankee brass show a Robinson Cano tribute video?

Not only were too many Yankee fans classless and petty and ungrateful when they booed Robinson Cano so vociferiously last night, but the Yankee front office didn't exactly cover themselves in glory either. Unlike when Jacoby Ellsbury returned to Boston and received a nice video tribute, the Yankees chose not to do the same last night for Cano.

According to David Lennon of Newsday, "a team spokesman declined to say why that decision was made." And Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York said that according to a team official, "The Yankees feel they have not done video tributes in the past when players like David Cone, Tino Martinez, Jason Giambi or David Wells have returned," so they decided not to do one here as well.

However, the Yankee brass had to realize that 1) none of those players were ever the caliber of Cano, and 2) there is the fact that Ellsbury just got that nice Red Sox tribute, which did get help him some cheers at Fenway. At any rate, for a franchise that prides itself on class, and tradition, and doing the right things, not doing a Cano video comes across as pretty small-minded and petty. And it only makes Boston, a franchise which has a sordid history of trashing players on their way out the door, look good in comparison. Sheesh.

And I am not the only one to notice this. CC Sabathia was asked last night why Cano got so many more boos than Ellsbury did. He said, regarding the Red Sox, "They showed a video." Yep.

Not that Cano would have gotten 100% cheers during that, but it would have at least showed that the team, which talks so much about pride, and tradition, and Yankee history, would have some sense to acknowledge their best player over the last half-decade, and arguably their best second baseman ever. And it would have given the non-knuckleheaded Yankee fans an opportunity to cheer, too.

I saw this picture of fans holding up this idiotic sign at the game on the Daily News' website. Sorry, Yankee fans, but we should be better than the pathetic taping of dollar bills to signs -- leave that to the fans of the smaller-market franchises, not to those of  the one with the $200+ million payroll. And last time I checked, Cano did actually help the Yankees to both the playoffs, and to a World Series ring. Also, for those who throw out words like "tradition" and "loyalty" and "pinstripe pride," they ought to at least acknowledge Cano for his great play as a Yankee. Finally, look at all of those empty seats!

* * *

Joel Sherman, a frequent target of this blog, actually had a terrific column in today's New York Post slamming the boobirds. He writes: "I almost never comment on fan behavior, unless it is dangerous. But this reaction was so particularly mob-mentality dumb it is hard to ignore."

Sherman points out that the Stadium has been so quiet over the years, but finally erupted loudly over booing Cano.

The 10,000 or so folks who endured the bad weather sounded like four or five times that much with their animus drowning out the few who were trying to offer applause and thanks for the memories. It was as loud as the Stadium has been all year, louder than some playoff games of the recent past.

He also sarcastically notes:

You know [Cano] had committed the unpardonable sin of being the Yankees’ best player (by far) for about the past half decade, never was involved in off-field trouble and was well-regarded by his teammates. That horrible, horrible man. I really can’t separate who is the bigger public nuisance, Cano or Donald Sterling.

Anyhow, the article is definitely worth reading in full. I agree with pretty much every word Sherman writes here!

On Michael Pineda and his strange addiction to pine tar

As longtime Squawker readers know, I opposed trading for Michael Pineda from Day One. And even though, two years later, it turns out that Jesus Montero hasn't turned out as planned, I still have some real doubts about Pineda.

Sure, he has pitched well this season. But he also has some strange addiction to pine tar, something that maybe could be featured on that TLC show. How self-destructive do you have to be to 1) lie the first time you are caught with pine tar, claiming it was "dirt," and 2) when you have to know the Red Sox are watching your every move, go put the pine tar on again in the second inning against your team's toughest rivals. And 3) do it so blatantly, too -- how is it I could see from watching the TV at the gym that he had pine tar on his neck, but apparently Joe Girardi didn't (or didn't care)?

After all, baseball isn't just about having strong skills; it is about being mentally strong. And about keeping your team in the game. And while I did actually feel a little sorry for Pineda after the game, when he seemed overwhelmed by the crush of reporters, I don't ultimately have a heck of a lot of sympathy for him.

Nor do I have much sympathy for the Yankees organization as a whole. Either they didn't know Pineda has the pine tar on his neck, which shows that they are not paying attention, or they did know, and they didn't care. Or perhaps they were dumb enough to think that John Farrell wouldn't do anything this time, even though he didn't have a pine tar using pitcher on the mound this time. (It is hard to swallow, though, that Farrell is so concerned about this issue, given how some of his own pitchers cheat the same way. Not to mention David Ortiz. But I digress.)

Here's the thing that most concerns me. I have no idea whether the pine tar somehow actually does something to make Pineda pitch better this year. But I think he thinks it does. So after he got rocked in the first inning, he went back to it. And that addiction to it should be very concerning to those in Yankeeland.