Lance Berkman, Joe Buck, and Yankees give me something to scream about

I'm peeved. I had a meeting to attend last night, and I missed the first hour or so of the Yankees-Red Sox game. "No problemo," I thought, "I'll just put my TV on the game channel before I go, and rewind the first hour." Unfortunately for me, I forgot that the game was on My9, and not the YES Network. So when I came home, the Yankees were losing 4-2, and I didn't get to see the Francisco Cervelli-Javier Vazquez uncaught ball mishap until later. Maybe that's just as well, though.

Then today, my Facebook friend Paul (a Red Sox fan, BTW) posted something on my Facebook wall about Lance Berkman hurting Alex Rodriguez during batting practice. My reaction in front of the computer was similar to "The Scream" picture I posted here!

I found this article on ESPN New York about the mishap, which occurred when Berkman accidentally hit his shin with a batted ball, while Rodriguez was at third base:

In obvious pain, Rodriguez hobbled around on the infield grass for a few seconds before staggering into short center field, where he rolled around on the grass before turning face down.

Some of Rodriguez' teammates, including Derek Jeter, thought at first that he was joking and yelled some light-hearted insults. Then, when it was obvious the injury was serious, Jeter shouted for trainer Gene Monahan, who hurried out to where Rodriguez lay.

Manager Joe Girardi, conversing with a member of the Red Sox behind the batting cage, also set out to minister to Rodriguez, and a small group of Yankees huddled over the stricken player before he arose and walked slowly off the field under his own power.

The clip is even more dramatic. A-Rod looked the way I did when Squawker Jon told me he would not go see "Cats and Dogs 2: The Revenge of Kitty Galore" with me!

To top it all off, FOX broadcaster Joe Buck just revealed that A-Rod got hurt because Rodriguez was saying hello to him. Yet another reason to hate FOX baseball broadcasts!


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Won't you come back, Dave Eiland? A.J. Burnett needs you!

If Friday night's Yankees-Dodgers game was one of the more exciting ones of the year, Saturday's game was one of the most painful to watch. It wasn't just that A.J. Burnett looked like Dontrelle Willis did against the Yankees last week. (Actually, Burnett was much worse, come to think of it!) It was that the game dragged on, and on, and on. The first inning took forever. Three hours had passed before the fifth inning was over.

I didn't stay up for the whole game - I went to bed when the score was 9-4 Dodgers, and felt like I had watched fifteen innings or something, because what I did see dragged on so long.

A.J. Burnett seems to desperately need pitching coach Dave Eiland back - he's been in a downward spiral ever since Eiland left the team due to some undisclosed personal issue. Please come back soon, Dave! Yankee fans are flipping out over watching A.J. pitch!


And so much for skipping Phil Hughes, eh?

It figures that the Yankees lost, though - it was a FOX game, and the Yankees' record in those games always seems to be bad. And having to hear Joe Buck and Tim McCarver in the booth added to my misery. All the effusive, unwarranted praise for Joe Torre was just nauseating. The two of them acted as if "The Yankee Years" book never existed, and that nobody in the world, except for maybe Alex Rodriguez, had anything but positive stuff to say about Teflon Torre.

They went on and on about how Joe increased attendance, and somehow was involved with the YES Network become a success, and stuff that sounded like it came straight from Torre's mouth. Buck even suggested that Torre would make a great MLB Commissioner. Yeah, because somebody who tells private tales about incredible people like Johnny Damon, all the while preaching the sanctity of the clubhouse, is just the guy I want running the game. Good grief.

Billy Crystal and his dopey Switzerland hat were also nauseating. Guess he didn't read "The Yankee Years" either - his "good friend" Torre threw him under the bus in that book, griping about Crystal getting a World Series ring from the Yankees in 2000.

Then there was the train wreck that was Tommy Lasorda and Reggie Jackson in the booth. Actually, Reggie was fine. It was Lasorda who seemed to have had a bellyful of bile and bitterness, showing incredible hostility towards Reggie. He kept on threatening to deck him, and said Reggie would never be able to hit his curve ball. Huh? I guess I missed when Lasorda was a Hall of Fame pitcher. Lasorda also said Jackson was "about as funny as a bloody nose," but it was the Dodgers' old manager, not Mr. October, who made a fool of himself in the booth.


Banter like that needs to be good-natured, or it just comes off like you're stuck in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" or something. FOX owes fans an apology for that nonsense.

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