Shocker! We ended up with $200 in Mets tickets for free! (And we can print them at home if we want to!)

Remember how Squawker Jon and I waited in the cold for two hours on Presidents' Day to get free Mets tickets? And how I almost froze my tuchis off, the day after running a 10-mile race in single-degree weather and getting hypothermia? Anyhow, you may remember that the Mets ended up giving us a better deal on free tickets than we expected. And today was the first day we could redeem our free ticket vouchers.

We had a choice of field-level box seats in the outfield area for most Monday to Thursday Mets games from April through June. So Jon and I chose two games: Tuesday, May 17, Mets vs. Nationals (Daniel Murphy's first game back at Citi Field!) and Thursday, June 30, Mets vs. Cubs (only time Cubs come to town this year.) The Nationals tix are in Section 130 and retail for $37 each. The Cubs tix are in Section 131 and retail for $63 each. So, yes, we ended up with $200 in tickets for waiting in the cold that day. Not too shabby!

Anyhow, there is something else I noticed about the Mets' ticket policies. You can either print the tickets at home, or add them to Apple Wallet so you can show them on your mobile phone! Imagine that! Also, we don't have to worry that we'll get kicked out of our field-level seats, or that somebody will wonder if we really belong there. Amazing.

Funny that the Mets don't seem to be worried about that massive ticket fraud problem that the Yankees are so concerned about. Or, maybe it's that there is no problem at all in the first place! Gee, ya think?

John Sterling is closing in on his 5000th Yankee broadcast. Are you excited?

It's official. John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman will be back in the Yankees' broadcast booth this year and the next, something that was talked about a few weeks ago. WFAN recently announced the news with some hyperbolic comments that made my eyes roll so much, they're still at the back of my head! Let me go through what the statiion said, and give my own hyperbolic comments!

“Yankees baseball on the radio provides a soundtrack for the summer, and it would be unimaginable to listen to the Bronx Bombers without these two iconic broadcasters,” said CBS Radio New York senior VP and market manager Marc Rayfield. 

Unimaginable? Really? I can imagine it. I can imagine listening to broadcasters that -- shocker -- help me understand what's going on in the game, instead of devolving into schtick and cliches and incorrect calls. Because while the Yankees' TV broadcasters are no great shakes (and I've never been a fan of Paul O'Neill the broadcaster, as opposed to Paul O'Neill the player, even before he endorsed Donald Trump) at least I can, you know, follow the game from the visuals. When it's a radio broadcast, I'm at the mercy of John and Suzyn. And that's not a fun place to be!

Heaven forbid we have professional broadcasters like the Mets' Howie Rose and Josh Lewin (no relation to Squawker Jon!) who actually paint the picture of what's happening in the game. Not to mention the way every facet of the broadcast has a sponsor. I'm still waiting for "John takes a bathroom break, sponsored by Charmin" or "Suzyn's lipstick is brought to you by Revlon."

And 2016 is also an anniversary year of sorts. Rayfield sez:

“This is a special year, particularly as John closes in on his 5000th consecutive broadcast, an ironman feat almost as remarkable as Cal Ripken, Jr and Lou Gehrig’s legendary streaks.” 

Is there anyone who considers themselves the luckiest man on the face of the Earth for getting to listen to 5,000 broadcasts with John Sterling? Just wondering.

And Mark Chernoff, CBS Radio VP of sports programming and WFAN program director, makes his own hyperbolic comparisons:

“We’re thrilled Yankees fans will continue to hear this legendary broadcast team that has been together for more than a decade. John and Suzyn are as much a part of Yankee tradition as Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Derek Jeter and Yogi Berra.” 

Good lord. What a ridiculous comparison. Sterling and Waldman are more like the Cotton-Eyed Joe or YMCA of Yankee tradition: things that were entertaining once, but are well past their prime. Yet they keep on going and going and going, like the Energizer Bunny.

You know, I wonder if WFAN, which paid a gazillion dollars to get the rights to the Yankees' broadcast, and dumped the Mets, ever wonder if they made the right decision when it comes to teams. They sure didn't make the right decision when it comes to broadcasters.

Lonn Trost's comments harken back to an ugly time in Yankees' history

Thursday was the Yankees' first official day of spring training, when pitchers and catchers report. This should have been a fun, exciting day for us Bombers fans who haven't seen baseball since October. But instead, Yankees COO Lonn Trost managed to make headlines that day for all the wrong reasons, as I discussed yesterday.

You've heard me say this a hundred times about the Hal Steinbrenner regime in Yankeeland. Since Prince Hal neither really has a fan's interest in the Yankees, nor any business sense short of being a member of the Lucky Sperm Club, he allows the inmates to run the asylum. And that's how you have somebody like Trost, an elitist twit who has said so many dumb things over the years, speaking for the team and stepping all over the first day of spring training. All because he was apparently ticked off over what the tabloids and bloggers like yours truly said about the team's new ticket policy. Ha!

Per Roger Kahn's 'Rickey & Robinson,'  Lonn Trost is carrying on
a grand premium seat tradition.  pic.twitter.com/fSo8eoabY6

— Greg Prince (@greg_prince) February 19, 2016

Trost's quote was all over the media last night. Does Prince Hal agree with him? Is anybody in the organization going to rebuke the COO for it? The only followup I've seen from the team was in this morning's New York Daily News: "A Yankee spokesman said Trost meant no offense by the comment." That's it? Not even a quote with a person's name attached? That's unacceptable. Trost insulted the team's fan base. He needs to apologize, and/or lose his job. Enough!

There are a few more things I wanted to point out about this controversy. The first is a quote that Faith and Fear in Flushing's Greg Prince highlighted from Roger Kahn's book Rickey & Robinson. It's about why the Yankees took so long to integrate the team. It was eight long years after Jackie Robinson for the Yanks to bring up an African-American player -- Elston Howard. And part of the reason is that George Weiss feared that having black players would bring in black fans that would alienate the rich, white fans. Oy. That was an ugly part of the team's history. And Trost's awful quote, whether it is race-based or class-based or both, harkens back to that attitude.

The second was my friend Steve's point about season ticket sales. Steve, a former season ticketholder, wrote about this situation in his Was Watching Yankee blog about the idea that a season ticketholder with a premium seat would be mad if somebody sitting next to him paid less money:

It doesn’t matter to me if the Yankees charged me $90 and they charged some other guy $90 – and then that other guy went out and decided to sell his ticket for $2. That’s his problem, not mine. In fact, it’s REALLY not my problem. I had season tickets to the Yankees from 2001 through 2014. And, a big part of why I gave them up after FOURTEEN YEARS was the fact that no one wants to pay face value for a Yankees ticket anymore and I was taking a beating on games where I couldn’t attend. And, that’s probably the Yankees real problem. People like me will no longer buy their tickets because of the secondary market. That’s why they want to shut down the secondary market.

The answer? Don’t charge so much for tickets that it makes it so attractive to buy them on the secondary market at such a cheap rate. Or, put a product on the field that makes people want to see the games so bad that they would never consider selling their tickets. It’s all about supply and demand. Create the demand for the supply and the market will take care of itself.

You know, this is New York. Where people brag about getting deals and paying less for something than others. And I think what it comes down to in Yankeeland is that Yankee fans got tired of paying full price for tickets, especially when, as Steve points out, they would lose so much money on the season tickets they couldn't use. The only advantage to having any sort of season ticket plan is the ability to get playoff tickets. But when the team has had exactly one postseason game in the last three years, that doesn't really matter much anymore, now does it?

And finally, if this alleged ticket fraud that Trost keeps on harping on is such an issue, then why hasn't Ticketmaster dumped print-at-home tickets completely? Instead, they STILL offer this as an option. It says right there on their website: "It’s your tickets, your way: Print at home OR get in with your smartphone. You decide! Just remember: While you can print the same ticket you put on your phone, the first one scanned at the venue is the only one that will work." Yet Trost claimed yesterday that "multiple people" were getting into Yankee Stadium with the same ticket. Hmmmm. Sounds like he played fast and loose with the truth!

So much for this being a gravy game: I am royally peeved over this Yankees loss

I was trying to be philosophical about the Yankees' postseason. This Yankees-Astros Wild Card game is the gravy game, I kept on saying. Since I didn't expect them to do anything this year, any postseason game is gravy.

Well, you know what? I care. Way too much. I am an intense, passionate person, and especially passionate about the Yankees. Jon says it's what makes me a good blogger, because I get so worked up over stuff like whatever the latest Yankee controversy is. (Jon is laconic, while I am sassy. It's in my nature!)  

So as much as I would like to be all zen over sports, the reality is that is not who I am. I get intense over stuff in the games. I curse a lot over such things, something I am usually able to control in other aspects of my life. 

Speaking of sports, I won my running club's fantasy football matchup this week by 0.06 points. Not one point; not even 1/10th of a point; 0.06 points! Needless to say, I was cursing up a storm watching Monday Night Football, until I got the fraction of a point I needed! (I think that's why Matt Harvey missed today's Mets workout. Russell Wilson's fumbles may have hurt his fantasy football chances, and he was probably upset about it!) I know people in my fantasy football leagues are looking at me like "WTF?" when I get so intense,  but that is who I am!

I also have a real competitive streak. It's why being part of the running world has been a totally different experience for me. Because it's an athletic activity that I have zero natural ability at! But I digress. 

All of this is to say that tonight's game was a nightmare to watch. A real shit show (yeah, I cursed, something I try not to do in the Squawkers. But there it is.)

Squawker Jon and I had this text exchange above, which should show my mindset tonight! (Notice Jon's little golf icon at the bottom. He's just soooo clever, isn't he? It's enough to make me want to root against the Mets!)

Speaking of which, I did my postseason prognostications a little differently this year. Instead of writing who I think will win, I ranked all of the teams in the order I would like to see them win, in order from least to most. Here's my chart. I posted it on Facebook last night before the game:

10. Cardinals:I'm sick of these dynasties and their entitled fans!
9. Dodgers: I'm still bitter about 1981.
8. Royals: I'm still bitter about 1980.
7. Blue Jays: Blame Canada.
6. Rangers: My nephew is a Rangers fan.
5. Astros: I have a slew of Astros fan friends.
4. Cubs: Because it's long past time.
3. Pirates: I interviewed Cutch and got to see the team up close. Great bunch of guys.
2. Mets: What's good for the Mets is good for the Squawkers!
1. Yankees: Wouldn't it be something if they won this year, preferably with A-Rod as MVP? All kidding aside, there are a lot of deserving fan bases there. Except for St. Louis! They've had enough lately!

Anyhow, can we bring greenies back? With all of the older players the Bombers have, who were dragging themselves into October, it would only be fair play to get them access to them! I'm kidding. Kind of. Oy.

Yankees-Astros Wild Card: Why we're calling this "The Gravy Game"

I was interviewed for my pal Paul Francis Sullivan's Sully Baseball podcast for a preview of today's New York-Houston Wild Card game. Sully, the Astros fan interviewed before me, and myself are all calling this matchup The Gravy Game. Meaning that since we never expected our teams to make it to the playoffs this year, just having one postseason game is gravy to u!

Way back in March, I couldn't foresee the Yankees making it into the postseason. Heck, I said then I didn't think they would win more than 80 games, and I figured they wouldn't finish any higher than fourth place. I've never been so happy to have been wrong! (I did correctly predict, though, that the Mets would have a better record than the Yankees. And that A-Rod would have an epic year, although even this A-Rod apologist couldn't have predicted 30+ homers!)

Most baseball prognosticators didn't even think either the Yankees or the Astros (or the Rangers or Mets, for that matter) would make it into the postseason. Check out the teams 80+ experts predicted for ESPN; the vast majority of the teams picked didn't even make it into the postseason!

Don't get me wrong. I want the Yankees to win it all. I can't tell you how many times I have run this year (I am training for a half-marathon that I'm running this weekend) when I have visualized the Yankees winning the World Series, and Alex Rodriguez winning the World Series MVP. I want a Subway Series, too. It would be good -- make that great -- for the Squawkers! I have big plans for world domination. They start with a win tonight!

All that being said, I have to remember that just being in the postseason this year, with this team, is a pretty good accomplishment. A-Rod talked some yesterday about how the Yankees are the "major underdogs" this year. He told Newsday:

"I think with everything we've done this year, we've surprised a lot of people, and that's hard to do when you wear pinstripes," he said. "But I think going into this year, if you rewind seven months and told us we'd have an opportunity to play at home and defend our home court in a wild-card game, I think we all would have signed up for that."

And Rodriguez told the Daily News this about CC Sabathia checking himself into rehab:

“It’s a very courageous thing to do,” A-Rod said. “We play for CC now. CC has gone to the mat for us many, many times. … So now we go to the mat for him. 

“CC is a friend and a great teammate; like a brother to me. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have a championship ring from ’09. What he did was very courageous. It takes a very tough guy to do what he did.”

I wish CC well. He is my second-favorite current Yankee, after A-Rod. And it says a lot about the esteem Sabathia is held in that he has received such positive feedback about his decision to enter alcohol rehab at the beginning of the postseason. (That being said, I have to wonder if there is something that happened this weekend that precipitated this!)

In addition to talking about CC, and also how the Yankees won in 2000 when they slumped at the end (something Joel Sherman also covers in his column for the New York Post today), Sully and I   discussed how amazing it would be if Alex was the big hero tonight. Dare to dream!

On the podcast, I also blamed the lack of greenies for causing the older Yankees to drag towards the end of the year. Yes, I went there!

Anyhow, I'm calling for a Yankees win tonight. And I really want the house to be rocking. Bring back the home field advantage, Yankee fans!

Yankees kick it old school as they win a spot in the postseason

It's funny. I've found this Yankee team very hard to watch this week. Until last night, when they finally clinched their Wild Card spot. Their shenanigans after the game made me very happy. Not only were they enjoying the champagne celebration for their postseason entry (and their 10,000th win, as it turn out!) but they even had the rookies (and Masahiro Tanaka) dress like old-school rappers! How could I not love the music of my youth being honored like that?

I saw LL Cool J, Run-DMC, the Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy in concert back in the day. Back when I stood out like a sore thumb at their MSG shows! But that music is still the best, and it's still regularly played on my iPod Classic.

Anyhow, These pictures make me giggle with glee. Especially the one with A-Rod in the background. Because nothing sez hip-hop like Alex Rodriguez!

From the Daily News: Here are the players, along with the acts they are reppin' (left to right, in the tweeted photo): Rob Refsnyder as House of Pain's Everlast, Jose Pirela clearly as LL Cool J, James Pazos as Salt and Rico Noel as Pepa (with A-Rod in the middle), Girardi, Bryan Mitchell, Nick Goody and Greg Bird we are assuming are the Beastie Boys, Luis Severino clearly as Flava Flav and Masahiro Tanaka, Yankees Japanese media relations Yoshiki Sato and Shingo Horie (Tanaka's translator) as the legendary Run-DMC.

I liked that the Yankees did a full-throated celebration, too, even though they only won a Wild Card spot, instead of a division title. I'm a firm believer in enjoying everything like that, as you never know when you'll get there again. Look at the Yankees themselves. Besides, it's a little arrogant, IMHO, to be like "we only celebrate pennants."

It's like with my running. I try to enjoy every race. Every moment. Because you cannot count on anything else. The future is not promised to you.

Look, this spring, I never expected this team to contend for anything. So anything is gravy, in my view. And even this A-Rod apologist didn't expect him to hit more than 15 homers. Him hitting over 30 is just phenomenal! It was cool to see so happy he was last night, especially when CC Sabathia gave him that bottle of Ace of Spades Champagne! It was also great to see how thrilled Sabathia was as well. He's back, baby!

I noticed how many times the players talked about team chemistry, and their brotherhood. They haven't really had that spirit since 2009.

One other note: how about that John Ryan Murphy interview. Best line of the night :"Everybody is on the same page... and that page is drinking." Ha!

Now, bring on the...other Wild Card team, whoever it is!

Remembering Yogi Berra from a Yankee fan's perspective

Yogi Berra was arguably the most beloved baseball player you can think of, as the great Mike Vaccaro writes in today's New York Post.. Put it this way -- not only are both Yankee fans and Met fans mourning his passing at the age of 90, but I have seen multiple Red Sox fan friends do their own tributes to the Yankee catcher. Think about it. How many Yankees would Boston fans ever have warm feelings for?

Berra was also a pop culture icon. From Yogi Bear to YooHoo ads to even the local Rizzuto-Berra Lanes, a bowling alley in Clifton, NJ, the town where I went to school, Yogi was everywhere. His playing days were done before I was born, yet I and everybody else of my generation knew who he was, thanks to him transcending pop culture. He also was a coach in the late 1970s Yankees teams, which put him in pinstripes for the Reggie/Billy wars -- and for those two titles.

Also, the fact that he was a local -- he lived in Upper Montclair, not far from my hometown of Passaic -- made him a big figure in northern New Jersey. Who else would get a museum in that area on his life, after all?

And don't forget all the things Yogi said, or was purported to say. (Although I think his childhood pal Joe Garigiola was actually the author of some of the Yogi-isms!)

Berra lived a life about as good as you can imagine. Ten World Series championships, three MVPs, a loving wife and great kids and grandkids. A hero in World War II. He was in good shape, physically and mentally, until the end, which is no small thing.

And for somebody known for goofy sayings, he kept his dignity in one very important way. Unlike other Yankee managers, like Billy Martin, who kept on putting up with George Steinbrenner's abusive ways when George was at his worst, Berra walked away from Yankeeland after The Boss fired him in 1985 just 16 games into the season, without having the courtesy to tell Yogi to his face. Berra stayed away until 1999, when he was opening his museum, and Suzyn Waldman brokered the peace. Then, when The Boss honored him with a special day at The Stadium, David Cone pitched a perfect game on that same day. Amazing.

I still don't understand how Berra did not make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first try. His numbers, especially his low strikeout rate, were just remarkable.

In recent years, the Broadway show "Bronx Bombers" helped portray his life. I was asked by somebody connected to the producers to give my opinion of the play. I felt that with them not showing his estrangement with Steinbrenner, they were leaving out a very important part of his story. For a man that some depicted as a clown, Berra had so much class in his refusal to put up with Steinbrenner's shenanigans. Yogi really was something else.

I will leave Squawker Jon to write about Berra's impact on his Mets. But suffice it to say that Berra will be missed by all baseball fans. He'll be reunited now in heaven with his beloved Carmen, though. And with his old Yankee teammates.

On A-Rod's grand slam, Katy Perry's 'Roar,' my Tuesday track night, and how 'I'll show you' is a valid motivator

Doesn't A-Rod look like he's roaring after
hitting his grand slam?

I am exhausted now from running as fast as I ever had in my life tonight with my Tuesday night speed work as part of my half-marathon training. I am also exhausted from screaming my head off when Alex Rodriguez hit a grand slam to win the game tonight for the Yankees! Good thing my landlords are Yankee fans!

I have to say that the redemption of A-Rod is my very favorite baseball-related storyline this year. I wrote in my Washington Post article with that The Redemption of A-Rod title (shameless self-promotion alert):

We want our role models to be perfect, especially for our children’s sake. But what can flawless, contour-free statues — the marble creatures on pedestals — really teach us about overcoming adversity? The reality is that most of us have more A-Rod in us than we do Jeter. No. 2 is cool but boring; No. 13 is the one who, after decades of trying, finally bested his demons — the flawed human who dug his own grave, then climbed out of it.

Outside the #13 luxury suite at
Yankee Stadium last week.

I really am inspired by Alex. Both of us hit rock bottom, in our own ways. (When I look back at photos at my heaviest, I can't believe I let myself go that much.) Both of us didn't exactly have a slew of people believing in us at our lowest points. Both of us faced the snickers and the derision of those who laughed at us, whether openly or behind our backs.  But both of us crawled our way back, and are much better off now in life than where we were last year. As Drake would say, "Started from the bottom/Now we're here." (Actually, he raps, "now we here," but the proofreader/copy editor in me can't abide by that!)

Look, I have tried to stay positive throughout my fitness journey -- I have lost 50 pounds so far, and am trying to do the right things each day. And when it comes down to it, not only do I have people in my cheering corner, but my efforts have also turned some of the doubters into supporters.

However, I have to admit that there is more than a little "I'll show you" spirit in me, especially when I run!

Katy Perry's song "Roar" is reportedly
about Russell Brand, who reportedly told her via
 a text message that he wanted a divorce!

I noticed that tonight at my running club's weekly speed work session at the track. I am usually pretty incoherent when running quickly (yes, I know Squawker Jon will say I am incoherent much of the time!), but tonight I focused on one idea: "I'll show you" -- not really directed at one person or thing, but to the universe.

So as I ran around the track, I kept on playing Katy Perry's "Roar" on my iPhone, one of my go-to "I'll show them all" songs! Some of my favorite phrases in the song are the following (emphasis added to my favorite parts):

I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath
Scared to rock the boat and make a mess
So I sat quietly, agree politely
I guess that I forgot I had a choice
I let you push me past the breaking point
I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything

You held me down, but I got up
Already brushing off the dust 
You hear my voice, you hear that sound
Like thunder gonna shake the ground
You held me down, but I got up
Get ready 'cause I've had enough
I see it all, I see it now

I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire
'Cause I am a champion and you're gonna hear me roar.'

So anyhow, tonight I ran my fastest-ever times. (Granted, we are talking 10+-minute mile speeds, but given that two years ago, I couldn't even walk faster than 16:30 a mile, this is huge progress for yours truly.) That's at least partly because I channeled my anger at the universe into my running.

I wonder if Alex channeled his own anger at the universe into his plate appearance tonight, in which, after going 1-for-27 and not hitting a home run since his birthday last month, he hit his 25th career grand slam to win the game for the Yankees. Not bad for the "unclutch" Rodriguez, eh?

* * *

I have recently started writing down my vision for myself, to help manifest it in the universe. (It sounds New Agey, but I don't care!)

My vision for A-Rod and the Yankees is that they win title #28 this year, beating the Mets in a Subway Series (good for the Squawkers, remember!) and that A-Rod is the World Series MVP. Part of my vision for myself is that I finish my October half-marathon in less than three hours, and that I am in striking distance of my goal weight at that point.

I also am throwing out to the universe my desire to interview Alex (whether on or off the record) after the year is over. I really would like to know more about how he got off the proverbial mat when he appeared to be down for the count. Dare to dream!

A tale of two Squawkers: I am cranky about my Yankees, while Jon is cheering the Mets' rally parakeet

Exclusive: The view inside
 Squawkers headquarters after
the Yankees lost.

I got home after nine last night, after taking a spinning class in Manhattan following a long day at work. And I just wanted to relax with dinner from Chipotle, watch the Yankees win, and then read the brand-new edition of O Magazine, which arrived in the mail yesterday.

So much for that.

Not only did the Yankees lose -- again -- but the Blue Jays won -- again. So the Yankees are now out of first place. On July 28, they had a seven-game lead in the division, which is now gone, gone, gone, thanks to their losing streak, and the Blue Jays' 10-game winning streak.

And I was in too irritated a mood after the game to read my Oprah magazine. No fun. (An aside: this issue is a makeover edition. Note to O Magazine editors: I have lost almost 50 pounds so far, and much of my clothing no longer fits. If you would like to feature a sassy blogger in a future issue, and get her some new clothing, I'm all ears!)

Anyhow, I wonder if I jinxed the Yankees somehow. After all, I went to see the Yankees in person last Tuesday, where they beat the Red Sox 13-3. They even had one nine-run inning! Since then, they have only scored nine runs in the next seven games. Yikes!

Also, the Mets won again. And not only did the Mets win, but they now have a rally parakeet, something Squawker Jon couldn't wait to tell me about!

The parakeet's bright yellow coloring matched the armband padding that Yoenis Cespedes was wearing last night. And that was no accident -- he said he spotted the parakeet before the game and chose the padding to match the bird! (What, does he have padding in every single color, just in case?) Of course, now that Cespedes hit his first home run as a Met while wearing it, he will have to keep on doing so!

Incidentally, is it Citi Field or the Queens Zoo? They have had a menagerie of animals over the years: a cat on the field on Opening Day 2009, a raccoon in the weight room, the chicken named Little Jerry Seinfeld.

Speaking of animals, Squawker Jon has turned from Eeyore to Tigger in the last few weeks, thanks to his Mets winning, and I do not like it one bit!

An example: I posted the above image of Lucy on Facebook (a FB friend sent it to me when I said I was cranky over the state of the Yankees!), commenting that this was "an exclusive look inside Subway Squawkers headquarters after the Yankees dropped out of first place tonight." Jon responded: "Lisa, here's a longer look inside Squawker headquarters after the Yankees fell out of first and the Mets won again," and posted this video:




Good grief!

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!

Thoughts on A-Rod vs. Jeter, the music at Yankee Stadium, and the ballhog dude

Team-first captain Derek Jeter (r.) with Christian Lopez

I had a few other thoughts about Friday night's game, in which I got to see Alex Rodriguez hit #3000.

Here is a link to Alex's post-game presser. He really seems as relaxed as I can ever remember him. But he is wearing a simple light blue button-down shirt. Doesn't he know that when you hit 3000, you are supposed to wear a hat and shirt with a logo featuring an image of yourself and your achievement? That is what a team-first guy like Derek Jeter did after getting his 3000th hit!

Jeter, of course, had Christian (Sap) Lopez willing to give up the HR ball for a few trinkets. On the other hand, A-Rod is being shaken down by D-lister and professional ball hog Zack Hample, who said earlier this week that he would give Alex a dummy ball back if he happened to catch #3000. What class, what integrity!

Look, I think that if you catch such a momentous ball, you ought to be fairly compensated for it, with real money. That being said, Hample sounds like a real jerk. It was charming when he was a teenager going around catching balls. But he is 37 now, and I find it a little sad. (Then again, I am 48 and got so excited when I met Mr. Met that I gave him a hug!)  IMHO, you need to leave the glove at home when attending games once you graduate high school.

Hample brags about having snagged 8,000 balls. Reportedly, he has also knocked down little kids to do so. He denies it, but there are way too many witnesses who saw him do such things to believe him.

Anyhow, I also noticed that Michael Kay made a big deal about how the Detroit players did not go on the field to celebrate A-Rod, the way Tampa Bay players did with Jeter. I think this is much ado about nothing. But I don't remember Yankee players doing this post-game tribute to their captain that CC Sabathia arranged for Rodriguez:

Upon arriving in the clubhouse after the game, Rodriguez found a few dozen champagne glasses set up for a toast, courtesy of a six-liter bottle of Armand de Brignac “Ace of Spades” purchased by CC Sabathia to celebrate A-Rod’s milestone. “I completely broke down,” A-Rod told the Daily News before he left the ballpark. “I was not expecting that at all. It was amazing; overwhelming.”

That stuff is pretty pricey -- I think it's at least $6,500 for one bottle, if not more! I will be lucky if somebody opens up a bottle of Ripple (Fred Sanford's favorite drink!) to toast my being in the Washington Post!

* * *

I noticed that the music played Friday when the Yankees came on the field was "Pour Some Sugar on Me," by Def Leppard. But where is the stripper pole? That is what I associate that song with! That and getting ready to go out to college parties. "Pour Some Sugar on Me" was the primping and preening song we used to play. At any rate, I don't associate it with baseball!

Also, I noticed that after A-Rod hit #3000, the Stadium played Eminem's "Lose Yourself." I kvelled over this! My Facebook friends know that I was very angsty after getting the opportunity to write for the Washington Post. That song was pretty much how I felt, with lyrics like this:

Look, if you had, one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted.
In one moment
Would you capture it, or just let it slip? 

So to hear it played after AROD3K was just too much! Amazing!

Bouncing back: On A-Rod and Urban Rebounding

I had dinner plans in Brooklyn Thursday night, so I missed seeing Alex Rodriguez get to 2998 and 2999 on the all-time hits list. (Incidentally, he got the hits against pitcher Mat Latos, who has a cat named...wait for it...Cat Latos! No joke.)

But I was listening to the Yankees radio broadcast, so I heard John Sterling call it, and I heard the crowd boo and chant a certain epithet when Sam Dyson refused to throw anything that A-Rod could hit. Pretty funny.

I was glad he didn't get to hit, though. After all, I have tickets for tonight's game. And Alex will have to reach 3000 since I will be in the house, won't he?

Anyhow, I am totally fascinated by the way A-Rod has bounced back this year. It wasn't that long ago when a certain segment of fans (and sportswriters!) said that the team should just cut him. Remember that? Now he is arguably the Yankees' MVP, and definitely the team's most popular player!

Anyhow, as Squawker Jon pointed out earlier today, I wrote an article for the Washington Post called "The Redemption of A-Rod." I initially hoped to be on the paper's online PostEverything area. Somehow, not only did I end up in the Outlook (op-ed) section, which is where their big-name columnists write, but my article will be in the Sunday Washington Post, which has the most circulation of any of their editions. I feel blessed and honored and all that good stuff. Unbelievable.

So people in DC who are reading the Sunday WaPost to see the important things that are going on in the world will also see 1300 words or so of me squawking about A-Rod and cracking jokes. How funny is that? My degree in Arodology is finally coming in handy!

* * *

In my continued efforts at not just my fitness journey, but at personal growth, I have been putting myself out there, trying to conquer my fears and hopefully becoming a thinner, braver and more confident person out of this. Part of that is trying things I have never done before.

So the other night, I jumped on a trampoline for 45 minutes last night and survived! Heck, I thrived! I had so much fun it should be illegal.

Now, it wasn't the type of trampoline Joba Chamberlain broke his ankle on -- and I gave him so much grief for! Instead, I took the Urban Rebounding class at the New York Health and Racquet Club, my gym (you can see a video of of the class works here.) You get a small, round personal "rebounder" trampoline that is only about a foot or so off the ground. And you bounce around on it. So much fun!

I have wanted to do this class for a long time. But I wasn't about to do it when I was at my heaviest -- I was afraid of disaster!

However, I have lost 40 pounds, so I figured it was time to give the class a try. It was fabulous.

I am not done facing my fears. I still have plenty of things that terrify me. But I am a work in progress, and I am doing better than I was. Kind of like A-Rod!

Shocker! Brian Cashman's winter trade with the Marlins was a disaster -- and helped beat the Yankees tonight

After I finished up Tuesday night track with my running club, I noticed this text from Squawker Jon: "Eovaldi gave up 8 runs in 2/3 inning." To which I thought, "Brian Cashman sure is a supergenius, isn't he?"

Tuesday night's game against the Miami Marlins was a matchup of two pitchers Cashman traded for each other -- Nathan Eovaldi and David Phelps. And in a shocking (well, not really) turn of events, Eovaldi stunk up the joint, while former Yankee Phelps pitched very well, giving up just two runs and six hits over seven innings, and the Marlins beat the Yankees, 12-2.

In December, Cashman traded Phelps, Martin Prado, and $6 million in cash to the Marlins for Eovaldi, Garrett Jones, and Domingo German. The trade never made any sense. The Yanks ended up paying $10M for a two-month rental of Prado. They also would have been better keeping Phelps, as opposed to getting Eovaldi.

And if they had kept Prado, he could have played second this year, which would have meant that the Stephen Drew Experience would be over. But that would make too much sense.

Oh, and how about Giancarlo Stanton? He hit a homer off the Yanks to make the score 11-0, and he will be in the Bronx for the first time ever this Wednesday and Thursday,which should create some buzz. But he still can't eat a KitKat in the correct way!

RIP St. Clare's of Clifton, NJ: Saying goodbye to my old grade school

You know how comic book movies talk about origin stories? Well, St. Clare's of Clifton, NJ is where much of my own origin story began. I went to elementary school and church there. And I heard today that the school is closing, and the church's future is unclear. Hearing this news brought on a lot of emotions for me today.

My memories of St. Clare's are pretty bittersweet, starting with the fact that the last time I was there, it was for my father's funeral at the church.

Also, I was in the first grade at St. Clare's when I contracted encephalitis from a case of the chicken pox. I talked in my Guideposts magazine Spartan Race story about how the illness sapped my coordination. Encephalitis also nearly killed me.

I literally don't remember most of what I was like before I got sick, but family members tell me I was a really bright, confident child. Taught myself how to read when I was three. When I was in kindergarten, classmates would ask me to read what the teacher's notes to their parents said!  

But everything changed when I was six years old. I was rushed to the hospital after taking ill. I spent several weeks there. There were real doubts about whether I was going to live, which is why Father Hooper, a priest at St. Clare's, came to the hospital to give me communion for the first time, a year ahead of the traditional First Holy Communion service. Not exactly a good sign.

Obviously, I recovered, but it was a long journey, and I missed an entire marking period of school. I have blanked out on most of the details. But my mother and brother recently filled me in on some of these details after my Spartan Race piece ran. It turns out that my coordination was so bad that my mother had to carry me up the stairs when I first got out of the hospital, and I couldn't even use the bathroom for a while without her help. She also had to teach me how to do everything all over again, including riding a bike.

 

My brother said that my coordination was so bad that I couldn't even put a lollipop in my own mouth -- I kept on missing! I also had to have months of speech therapy. And obviously, my psyche was permanently changed after nearly dying; I became a pretty neurotic kid, for the most part.

 

Fortunately, I did get some positive support from the school at the time. I do remember missing my classmates when I was out sick, and how they sent me cards and such. I also remember how one of my classmate's parents painted a beautiful pink ceramic music box princess for me that had blonde hair and blue eyes, just like I did, and even painted my name on her. (My younger sister was extremely jealous of this gift and managed to "accidentally" break the fingers on her over the years!)

 

I also remember that in the next school year, Miss Treptau, my second grade teacher at St. Clare's, gave me my first and only D of my elementary school years. I had never even had any grade lower than an A before that!

 

The D was for my bad handwriting, and I was devastated over that terrible grade. The issue was that I had problems holding a pen or pencil correctly due to coordination issues. I still hold a pen in a weird way (I kind of turn my hand like a lefty, even though I am a righty.) And my handwriting was admittedly pretty awful. But you would think that my physical condition might have made that teacher cut me some slack here. No such luck.

 

Fortunately, there were some good teachers at St. Clare's as well. The one I remember the most was Miss Bernadette Henry, my fourth-grade teacher. She was kind of a hippie/New Age type, and taught us all sorts of things that made us more well-rounded kids than just the Three Rs. For example, she fostered a lifelong love of music in me by showing us a documentary on the Beatles. Hearing and seeing them was a real revelation, and I ended up wanting to listen to all of their music, a passionate pattern I have repeated over and over in my life, most recently with the Grateful Dead!

 

My brothers loaned me some of their Beatles records to listen to, which I did, incessantly. I also ended up using the money I got for my 10th birthday that year to buy "Abbey Road." I even acted out the "Woke Up/Fell Out of Bed" part of "A Day in the Life" for a skit I came up with for my fourth-grade class. That was one of my happiest memories ever.

 

Miss Henry also was big on teaching us things like how to make butter, and how you could cut up an apple and make some really cool designs, and then let the apple dry like that. We also had arts and crafts every week, which is where I learned how to crochet and do needlework, things I still like to do. Miss Henry only stayed one year at St. Clare's -- I think she was probably too radical for a Catholic school -- but I think I learned more real-life, interesting, practical stuff from her than from any other teacher I ever had in my life.

 

I do have some baseball-related memories connected with St. Clare's as well. My father always encouraged my love of the Yankees. In 1978, when the Yanks were having their post-World Series ticker tape parade, my father showed up at the school to get me out of class and take me to the parade in New York City! How cool was that?

 

Sister Clare, the principal, agreed, but said that he could only do it that one time. "Don't let it happen again," she said. As it turned out, that would be the last time the Yankees would win the World Series until 1996. It seemed like Sister Clare had put a jinx on the Yanks, and that it took Joe Torre, with a sister who is a nun, to remove the jinx!

 

Thanks to the magic of Facebook, I am back in touch with some childhood friends, which I love. Especially my fellow Yankee fan friend Kelly Deutsch, who was cool and a little dangerous then, and still cool now!  

 

On a sadder note, one of the worst days of my life was my father's funeral at St. Clare's Church in September 2007. My dad had suffered from dementia for the last few years of his life, but it didn't make his death at 86 any easier for me to take. He died in Austin, TX on September 10, 2007; my parents had moved to Texas in 1987 after his retirement from the Passaic, NJ police force. We had the funeral at St. Clare's because many of my father's relatives and friends still lived in the area. Then my father was buried in Arlington National Cemetery two weeks later. He had earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart in World War II (read more about his record here.) 

 

My father getting promoted to police sergeant in 1972. 

This is a pre-encephalitis photo of me in the purple coat.

I took care of all the funeral arrangements, as I was the only Swan kid living in there area at the time, and held it together as much as I could until the day of the funeral. Then I was a mess from then until weeks afterward. I remember shedding so many tears that day. Seeing a phalanx of Passaic police cars escort us to the church in a sign of respect. Seeing my then-18-year-old nephew weeping even more than I did, over the passing of the only real father figure he ever had in his life.

 

I think back about how hard my father worked to support a wife and four children on a cop's salary, supplemented with a gazillion part-time jobs, including working as a pallbearer at several funeral homes, and doing security jobs at Foodtown and at Pope Pius High School. He worked so hard to pay for our schooling, and sent us to Catholic school at St. Clare's because he wanted his children to have the opportunities he never did. As my brother put it in his excellent eulogy (you can read it and more about our father here): "I sometimes wonder if he ever slept at all during the years I was home growing up." I wonder that, too. He literally never had time for himself; no time to ever do anything he wanted to do. We worry about being fulfilled in our jobs; he just worried about making enough money to put food on the table.

 

I will always associate the September my father died seven years ago with the Green Day song "Wake Me Up When September Ends," which is about singer Billie Joe Armstrong losing his own father. These lyrics still make me cry, as they are doing right now:  

 

Summer has come and passed

The innocent can never last

Wake me up when September ends

  

Like my fathers come to pass

Seven years has gone so fast

Wake me up when September ends

 

Here comes the rain again

Falling from the stars

Drenched in my pain again

Becoming who we are

 

As my memory rests

But never forgets what I lost

Wake me up when September ends

 

Have the Yankees hit rock bottom? Or could it get even worse?

I jinxed CC Sabathia. Let me explain.

So I was out and about Saturday morning and early afternoon, doing a three-mile fun run at Clove Lakes Park, going to the farmers' market, buying groceries at Trader Joe's, doing other errands, and chatting with different people I know in the small town that is Staten Island.

Lots of people I saw today complimented me after seeing the Staten Island Advance article about me in print. But you know who hasn't seen the article as printed in the paper? Yours truly! I was in Texas when the piece ran. Heck, I don't even know what placement I got in the paper! Hmmm, would that be gauche to ask? (Sorry, folks, but as a former newspaper girl, I want to know where I ranked in the paper!)

Anyhow, enough about me. Let me explain how this relates to Sabathia. I finally got home at the beginning of the third inning, when the Yankees were scoreless. And just when I put the game on while I put away my groceries, everything completely fell apart, with CC Sabathia having one of the worst starts of his career, and his worst ever game as a Yankee. ESPN says that Sabathia "is now 0-6 with a 9.42 ERA in his last six Yankee Stadium starts, dating to the beginning of the 2014 season." Yikes! Considering I literally put on the game just before Sabathia's meltdown, I felt partially responsible. Sorry, CC!

Sabathia giving up six runs to the Texas Rangers was bad enough. The Yankees bullpen gave up four more runs in the third, and another five in the game, for a 15-4 loss This, after Michael Pineda gave up seven runs in the third the night before in Friday's 10-9 loss. Good grief.

Longtime Squawkers reader Uncle Mike pointed out something interesting. Position player Garrett Jones, who pitched the ninth for the Yanks, wears #33. So did Nick Swisher, who once pitched for the Yankees in a mop-up game -- and struck out Gabe Kapler! ESPN noted that Jones was in good spirits after the game, the way Swisher was in that 2009 game. Remember what a snit fit Jorge Posada had after Swisher was smiling and laughing to reporters, whining that there was nothing to be happy about? Good grief.

Anyhow, there isn't much for the Yankees to be happy about these days. As MLB.com notes, the Yankees have lost nine of their last 10 games, and their starting pitchers are "1-8 with a 6.61 ERA (37 earned runs in 50 1/3 innings)."  This looks like rock bottom to me. Unless it gets even worse, that is.

"We got embarrassed," Brett Gardner said after the game. "I feel bad for our fans," he said. "We've obviously looked pretty bad the last week or so." No kidding.

Prospect Jacob Lindgren is getting called up for tomorrow. It makes you wonder: can the Yankees end the Stephen Drew Experience for good and call up Rob Refsnyder? Even Jack Curry suggested on the YES broadcast today that the Yanks might want to bring up Refsnyder, and compared it to 2005, when the Yanks called up Robinson Cano. Hopefully, something will happen soon.

Anyhow, something's gotta give. Otherwise, it's going to be a long year.

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!

Note to Yankee brass: When A-Rod outclasses you, perhaps you have gone too far

I had insomnia this evening, woke up in the middle of the night, and put on the replay of the Yankee game, just to see Alex Rodriguez's home run (I missed seeing it live, as I was out running.) Not only was it a game-winner homer against the Baltimore Orioles, but A-Rod got loud cheers, a standing ovation and even a curtain call. Hitting #661, as it turns out, even got mention on Yankee Stadium's big screen. Hmmmm. And the Yankees are still claiming that he is unmarketable? Puh-lease.

Anyhow, New York sportswriters are writing not just about the homer, and the win, but about the massive support A-Rod is getting from Yankee fans. The New York Daily News' John Harper wrote about all of the cheers A-Rod received last night, calling the "affection" even "more remarkable than his comeback itself."

Yes, A-Rod always longed for this type of love from Yankee fans, and it’s a bit odd that he’s finally the People’s Choice after being suspended all of last season for his use of PEDs. These fans loved nothing more than to boo A-Rod, except for the 2009 postseason and a few big-game performances here and there. Now, it’s almost as if with Jeter in retirement, they don’t feel guilty about cheering the anti-Jeter.

As an Arodologist (and Arodapologist!) over the years, I think A-Rod got more cheers than Harper is acknowledging. Even in the worst days, he always had some fans. But I do think Jeter's absence has something to do with this. The media no longer has to worry about kissing Jeter's tuchis by avoiding running anything positive about A-Rod. And Alex's teammates themselves no longer have to worry about offending the captain, either. (Newsflash: I don't think Rodriguez only became a good teammate in 2015! I think it's just that now that Jeter is gone, A-Rod can be treated as an elder statesman on the Yankees by both his teammates and the media.)

But Harper, like Joe Girardi, thinks Rodriguez's popularity now is only due to him hitting well again, and says "I doubt it" when positing that the fans are cheering Rodriguez to stick it to Yankees' ownership about their pettiness regarding fighting the milestone issue. I disagree with that, and instead agree with ESPN New York's Wally Matthews' (yes!) take on the issue. In an article entitled "Alex Rodriguez the winner in dispute with Yankees," he writes:

Whether it's right or wrong -- and again, only the Yankees, A-Rod and his representatives really know how the contract is written and if he has any claim to the money -- the fan perception seems to be that the Yankees have behaved badly in this matter, that their actions were forged in greed and are now colored by vindictiveness. They see Rodriguez as the victim here, even with his $275 million contract and a potential $30 million more tacked on simply for doing what he is already being paid to do, which is hit home runs.

But as we know, perception is reality, and if the fans perceive A-Rod is being bullied by the big, bad Yankees, that is going to be a tough perception to shake. And as long as Rodriguez continues to hit the way he's hitting -- his seven home runs, 18 RBI and .883 OPS are second on the team to Mark Teixeira's 10, 25 and .951 -- there's no way Hal Steinbrenner, Randy Levine and Brian Cashman stand a chance of reversing the tide.

Add in the fact that A-Rod has refused to be dragged into the mud -- he has yet to take a verbal misstep, despite plenty of bait -- and you've got a clear win for a player who, about a year ago, had some very respected baseball writers saying that he would never step on a big league ball field again.

In closing, Matthews says that  Rodriguez is "more than welcome" at Yankee Stadium: "He owns the place." He adds, "Not only have the Yankees succeeded in making Rodriguez popular again, they have even managed to make him something no one could ever have believed he could be. Sympathetic."

Um, Wally, I am raising my hand here. I believed this could happen! I am frequently wrong on stuff, -- for example, the Yankees are playing much better this year than I thought they would -- but I totally called that the A-Rod accolades would happen. This spring, when I was interviewed, along with other Yankee bloggers, by my friend and colleague Daniel Shoptaw, most of the bloggers were pessimistic on A-Rod's chances in 2015. Not me! Here is what I wrote then:

I am actually pretty optimistic about A-Rod, given his glorious spring so far. He seems in a good place, both mentally and physically. He has handled all of the hubbub about his return much better than expected. And remember that his 2013 OPS in just a month and a half of a season was still better than the entire team’s was in 2014. Another thing Alex has going for him is the soft bigotry of low expectations. All he needs to do is be halfway decent, stay halfway healthy, and not embarrass himself, and many fans will be on this side. There is a real “sticking it to the man” edge to rooting for Rodriguez this year, given how much the media and the Yankees management despise him. The irony is that the team’s biggest marketing asset, as far as putting fannies in the seats and getting people to tune in, is the very person they are claiming they can no longer market in their refusal to pay those home run milestone incentives.

Yet despite the fact that Rodriguez is clearly the Yankees' most popular player, they are still claiming that he isn't marketable. How petty. How sad. How short-sighted. Matthews is right -- A-Rod has won the battle. And he will win the war over 660, too. Pay the man already!

Sympathy for the devil: A-Rod gets cheers,Tanaka melts down, Yankees implode

I was at work yesterday, so I didn't get to see the Yankees' Opening Day in person or on TV. But I did listen to the first half of the game on the radio, and the team didn't exactly impress -- Masahiro Tanaka seemed to be pulling his punches, so to speak, when pitching, and the lineup was flat, as predicted.

Also, I wanted to hear what kind of reception A-Rod received (turns out I correctly predicted that he would get the loudest one, and that it was mostly positive.) But why the radio broadcast didn't play the pre-game intros live, and didn't include Rodriguez's intro for his first time at bat since September 2013, is beyond me. I would have rather actually have heard it live, instead of hearing Suzyn Waldman talk about it! (I did get to hear both intros later.)

And it turns out that A-Rod walked up to Jay-Z's "Public Service Announcement" yesterday, specifically to the lyrics, "Allow me to reintroduce myself." (Click here to watch a clip of his intro for his first at-bat.) Cool choice!

After hearing about that, my brother Patrick had his own choice for the walkup theme song: the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil!"!  Heh! C'mon, Daily News, I am very disappointed that you guys didn't put that in a post-game headline, especially considering that Cousin Yuri's wife called A-Rod "the devil" in your paper!

Sure, it is only one game. But let's face it. This Yankee squad is not a good team, and it is not going to be a good team this year. To add insult to injury, Squawker Jon's Mets had an impressive Opening Day victory. Oy.

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.