Black People Don't Play Baseball. Who Cares?

Yesterday was Jackie Robinson day around baseball as you might have noticed if you turned on the Yankee game and wondered why Mariano Rivera was so much whiter and playing every position. To honor the pioneering Robinson everyone wore his number 42, and it's a classy tradition that MLB has done for a few years to celebrate a truly great player who accomplished a lot for minorities everywhere. Unfortunately, this day also means we have to hear the requisite hand wringing articles and commentaries about the lack of black baseball players problem. Stuart Scott referred to the "troubling" statistics that the Major Leagues are only 8% African American now on Sportscenter. Yes, it's true that there are less and less black players every year, but it's not a problem at all. The truth is black people don't like baseball. That's it. They're not beating down the doors of major league teams only to be turned down by racist owners who want an all Dominican baseball league on American soil. They just aren't interested.

Part of it is the lack of resources in urban areas and the expense of playing baseball i.e. equipment, traveling with a team. But even more than that, black kids just aren't that into you, baseball. Get over it. You've been replaced by more exciting sports like basketball and football that promise immediate huge pay days for those involved as opposed to years riding a bus in the minor leagues. And the "action" of baseball seems absurdly slow to a generation of urban youths raised on hip hop. Basketball arenas routinely play Dr Dre and Kanye beats while the teams are bringing the ball up the court. Besides when A-Rod steps out of the on-deck circle, can you imagine "Niggas in Paris" playing during a baseball game? It just doesn't work. So black kids aren't growing up to be baseball players, does that mean we have a racism issue at work here or Jackie Robinson's achievements were all a waste? Not in the slightest, African-Americans don't want baseball, not the other way around. That's not some kind of tragedy like Jason Whitlock or some other writer searching for a noble cause might want to believe but a simple fact of life. The fact that black athletes have the choice to reject baseball is something that even the original number 42 would be proud of.

There's No Allergies In Baseball; Leave our Peanuts Alone

Opening day is now finally officially here (we won't count last week's games in Japan or last night's game in Rainbow City). Cue up the organ, pour a frosty 11 dollar brew and grab a bag of peanuts and a hot dog and let's play ball! Wait, we can't have peanuts anymore at a baseball game? Thankfully, it hasn't gotten to that point yet but this season the Mets and Yankees will have peanut free sections to protect those poor babies who suffer from allergies to that silent shelled killer. You may have heard about the hundred or so people who have died from peanuts over the years so the NY teams are joining many other sissy major league teams in providing these safe havens. Well, all I can say to that is GROW UP YOU PUSSIES. The song says "buy me some PEANUTS and cracker jacks". It's an accepted part of the tradition of baseball. If you risk a painful death by sitting around someone eating a peanut, first of all, your life really sucks and secondly, stay the hell home and watch the game on YES in your nut free home. Listen to The Civil Wars and drink coconut milk while root root rooting for the home team, you fussy little troll. We're trying to get our peanut on here. Charles Darwin no doubt had the peanut allergy sufferers in mind when he fleshed out his natural selection theory. The fittest will be enjoying a bag of Planters and a Heineken while the allergic waste away in their segregated, pretentious peanut free zone. I hope they die and go to peanut hell, where Mr Peanut pokes you with his cane and forces nutter butters down your throat for eternity. It starts with one roped off section, next the entire stadium will be peanutless, and then where does it all end? No hot dogs for the pork averse? Only soy ice cream served in little helmets? That peanuts guy who works in the bleachers that looks like Pedro Martinez and throws behind the back passes to customers will be out of work. Where does it stop?? Even if you can't eat nuts, grow some and quit complaining.

Anyway, play ball and let's go Yankees! See you at the ballpark.

Bobby V: Still A Clown

The first spring training game hasn't even been played yet but the Yankees Red Sox shit talking is in full swing. This is thanks to a new face who has been introduced to the age old rivalry, none other than former Mets and Japanese league manager Bobby Valentine, who seems poised to become the next Rex Ryan. A buffoonish loudmouth who says clownish things to draw attention to his team. It's all great when you're winning (sexy Rexy is a refreshing honest sports figure!) but when the losses come, it's ugly. Same will go for Bobby V. He's replacing a fairly boring guy in Terry Francona who tended to shy away from the rivalry talk even though that's all the media and fans want to hear for the most part. But with the comments from Russell Martin last season and now Bobby V's dumb comments about Jeter being lucky to make his most famous play, things are heating up a little. Valentine's always been a guy who likes to provoke even going back to his playing days, and this is obviously a ploy to win over Red Sox Nation. Except to just say dumb things about Derek Jeter might endear Bobby to the hardcore Sawx fans in Quincy and South Bahston, but to everyone else it just looks like an annoying cry for attention (particularly us over here in New York). So if that's what he was trying to accomplish, then congratulations, Bobby V. You sound just as dumb as the dumbest of Red Sox fans and you have successfully annoyed New York city. Jeter had to explain that the Yankees actually practice that play, and he wasn't really out of position, and then Valentine came out and said the old "utmost respect" thing for DJ, but there's no point in arguing in Jeter's favor. The best thing to do with people like Valentine or Rex Ryan is ignore them or accept their dumb comments as theatre like professional wrestlers yelling at the camera. At least for now we're all paying attention.

Don't Blame Beer. The Red Sox Just Sucked

There's been a bit of a non story floating around since last week regarding the Boston Red Sox and their wild drinking ways. As anyone who's half glanced at this blog before can tell you, we are no friend of Boston and it's sports teams, in particular the Red Sox. But we do love beer. And beer is not the problem with the 2011 Boston Red Sox nor is it the reason that they played like a Parkville team in September. As that t-shirt they sell outside of Yankee Stadium says: the Red Sox were never cursed, they just sucked for 86 years. And similarly, the Red Sox weren't drunk in September, they just sucked.

Sucked really bad. But it's not beer's fault. I wouldn't expect pitchers on their off days to not drink beer, in fact I'm surprised all of baseball doesn't crack open a six pack in the dugout. As Homer Simpson once realized, baseball without beer is a really boring game. If Lester and whoever else wants to open a beer while they sit in the bullpen more power to them, can you imagine sitting there for 3 or 4 hours (if it's a Yanks vs. Sox game more like 5) stone sober. It's not like Papelbon was funneling Coors cans in the locker room before he's called out to pitch and make that retarded face (though maybe drinking would explain the face), these are guys who aren't pitching for at least another day. I think we can allow them a Heineken while they sit on their asses like the rest of us. Not to incriminate myself, but I have maybe once or twice had a beer or an entire mini bottle of Hennessy while at work. Did this hinder my job performance? Absolutely, but I'm not going to say baseball players can't have the same fun I did. They weren't going all Don Draper, sucking down entire bottles of scotch and looking longingly out their windows. No, they had a beer or two and maybe some Popeye's chicken and sat in the dugout. And let us not forget that the revered 2004 team, the one that can do no wrong, those plucky "idiots" that reversed the curse. They said themselves in their 30 for 30 documentary that they took shots of Jack Daniels before games. And this was the starting lineup who had to get up and bat. But their drinking was just part of that loose, fun atmosphere that stood in contrast to the big, bad boring Yankees. Those little scamps! It's just an example of how winning colors people's perceptions. Fun loving Nick Swisher is just what the stiff Yankee lineup needs in 09 when they're winning. When they lose, he's a light hitting bum who doesn't take his job seriously like the old Yankees did. Like the cliche says, winning cures all.

So, Boston Globe and people of New England and the rest of Red Sox Nation, criticize the Sox for playing some of the sloppiest, error filled baseball this side of the Bad News Bears. Or for not hitting in big spots for an entire month. Or for letting big leads slip away time and time again. But don't blame beer for your team simply sucking.

Haters Unite! The Joys of Rooting against Boston

PTU's hatred of Boston is well documented. Hater J leads the pack with the most unbridled feelings of hate for Bahston with Mr. D not far behind. Lately, I've come to the realization that I too hate Boston more than previously thought possible. Boston hate is kind of in vogue these days, but we here at PTU don't hate because it's trendy. No sir, we've hated New England since Brady was a back up in Michigan and Kevin Garnett was still respected. I won't even eat Boston cream donuts or watch reruns of Cheers (but I do eat New England clam chowder, I'm not an animal). Ask Hater J his opinion of Good Will Hunting and he'll spit in your face. Yeah, we don't like Boston.

So it brings us great pleasure to witness the recent Red Sox slide. While I might have picked Adrian Gonzalez as my MVP and predicted the Sox would easily run away with the division not long ago, this is one time that I am glad to be proved wrong. The Red Sox are on the verge of a historic collapse and being the true haters that we are, it brings us almost as much joy to see the entire city of Boston considering a mass suicide in the Charles River as it does seeing the Yankees cruising to a division title. After tonight's gutsy play by my Tampa Bay Rays (including a triple play) to top the Yanks and a closer than it should have been game in Camden yards, the Sox and Rays are all tied up heading into game 162. The sign of a true hater is the fact that the misfortune of your rival gives you more pleasure than the success of the team you root for and that is most definitely the case here. I've never rooted this hard against the Yankees (it feels a little wrong but whatever). I have a feeling that the Sox will somehow pull this out but all of us at PTU will have our fingers crossed that they don't. In the meantime, I hope Ben Affleck, Mark Wahlberg, fucking Jim from the Office and whoever else is shitting their shorts over the prospect of their season ending in Baltimore on a Nick Markakis' base hit.

Let's go O's!

Who Will Win the 2011 American League MVP?

The baseball season is fast coming to a close and at this point there is still no clear cut MVP. Unlike previous seasons, no one is far and ahead above other players and there is no powerhouse team that is dominating the competition. The Red Sox and Yankees are battling for first place, as usual, with each team boasting at least one worthy MVP candidate. There are also a couple other nominees for the award this year scattered among those other teams in the league. As always, the winner will have to meet the standard criteria of dominance in at least (and preferably more) statistical category and should be a member of a winning team (this has not always been the case through out history, but barring a truly ridiculous season like the Texas A-Rod had in his MVP year, the MVP should be on a winning team). Who's on the short list this season?

• Curtis Granderson- The Yankee Centerfielder is making up for his disappointing first season in pinstripes with a ridiculous offensive year, on pace to possibly be the first player in forever to have 100 RBI, 40 Home Runs, 30 Stolen Bases and 10 triples. He's an absolute monster offensively and seems like a really nice guy (not that it matters).
• Adrian Gonzalez- Another recent addition to the Yankee-Sox rivalry, Gonzo has been hitting lights out this season. A shoe-in for the AL batting title (hitting a healthy .342), as well as the most consistent player on the Boston juggernaut who has barely lost this season aside from their early struggles and a couple hiccups here and there.
• Justin Verlander- I hesitate to award pitchers the MVP since they already have their own award, but Verlander's been so dominant that I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he took home the hardware this season. Virtually keeping the Tigers in the playoff hunt by himself (with some help from PTU hero Miguel Cabrera), Verlander is a no-hit threat almost every start, and he throws complete games like he's Doc Gooden in '86.
• Jose Bautista- This guy has really no chance of winning the MVP due to the fact that the Blue Jays kinda suck, and he cheats one of two ways (or both), but he's neck and neck with Granderson for the HR crown so you have to at least mention him. He burst onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere last season, crushing every pitch that came his way. The immediate thought (as always is these days) was that he was a juicer, but Toronto has also been known to cheat in subtler ways. The fact that his home to road homer ratio is so disparate only adds to the suspicion.
• Jacoby Ellsbury- No thanks.
• Dustin Pedroia- The scrappy little guy won it in 08, and he's putting up comparable numbers this season. While none of his numbers are very flashy, he's one of the leaders of the aforementioned never lose Sox so expect a lot of votes based on his "character" and such nonsense. That dominant photo above does make me like him a little bit more, but not much.

So, that's the list of nominees. Who's going to bring it home? I'm, of course, biased towards any Yankee so I'll say Granderson's historical season coupled with the fact that he's the most consistent player on a team battling for first place makes Curtis the feel-good MVP. Unfortunately, PTU doesn't qualify as a press credential so none of us have a vote (sorry M@D , you can't vote for Dante Bichette or Eddie Murray either) and I think the deck stacked with Red Sox players will result in the slow footed first baseman from Beantown being your 2011 American League MVP. The superior batting average and the likely first place finish for Boston is just too much to overcome. I'll settle for a World Series ring on Granderson's finger.

Congratulations, Jeter

Congratulations to the captain on joining the 3,000 club, and in as dramatic fashion as any sappy Hollywood screenwriter or Mike Lupica could imagine. The only thing that could have been more Hollywood like would be if it were a game winning home run and he winked at Babe Ruth as he rounded third base (I know that's impossible but Jeter hitting a home run is almost that crazy these days). Jeter becomes only the second player in Major League Baseball history to reach 3k on a home run, the other being former Yankee and chicken enthusiast Wade Boggs, who did so with Tampa. The fact that it was a home run also means that there is one lucky fat guy out in left field who caught the ball and will I'm sure be receiving a king's ransom in memorabilia or cash from the Yankees in exchange for the magic ball. Now that this plateau (or stateau as some bloggers have dubbed these type of records) has been reached, the Yankees can get back to focusing on winning games and staying ahead of the Red Sox and these Rays in the standings. For now, though, let's take a second to enjoy the moment and show some appreciation for one of the greatest Yankees to ever suit up in pinstripes, and the man who stands alone as the only Yankee to have 3,000 base hits. Then we can all get back to hating or defending him.

Congrats, number 2.

Babe Ruth: Revolutionary My Ass

The conventional school of thought is that Babe Ruth was a larger than life character that completely revolutionized the game of baseball. Was he really revolutionary or just a very talented yet over rated opportunist?

Babe was the best home run hitter in a league that had changed the rules when he began his shift from pitcher to every day outfielder. The league was in transition with rules changes that included banning the spit ball, more frequent changing of used/scuffed balls, the change of the "foul ball on two strikes = an out" to the modern "foul ball on two strikes = another pitch", along with new and smaller ballparks sprouting up around the league.

The Fat Man even got his own stadium. "The House That Ruth Built" was really built for Ruth's strengths and to mask his weaknesses (mostly defensive). No one has ever had that advantage, ever, let alone for the entire prime of their career. It's no secret why old Yankees Stadium had such a short right field porch and such little space between the stands and the foul line in right field. The Big Boy loved to pull balls into right field and they didn't want to allow down the line singles to turn into triples. It would be the equivalent of the Yankees building New Yankees Stadium with less foul territory between home and third and shortening left field to speed up the "A-Rod race to the Home Run Crown".

When you have a rules shift that benefits offense and a change in the approach towards the game, the most direct benefactors are the young players who were never conditioned to play in the old fashioned (in this case "small ball") way. He was the best of the first wave and the best prepared to take over playing in a league that had shifted its focus to becoming more fan friendly, home run friendly, and offense friendly.

Bottle will have you think he revolutionized the game and that he hit 60 home runs when the next closest player hit 8 forcing everyone in the league to change what they were doing. The truth is that by time Ruth hit 60, Rogers Hornsby had hit 42 and the players in the game were fully entrenched in the less offensively inept game. A look at league total stats starting at 1918 through 1922 shows the following:

1918 - 7,382 Runs, 235 HR, 254 Batting Average
1919 - 8,668 Runs, 447 HR, 263 Batting Average
1920 - 10,761 Runs, 630 HR, 276 Batting Average
1921 - 11,928 Runs, 937 HR, 291 Batting Average
1922 - 12,057 Runs, 1,055 HR, 288 Batting Average

To me...looks like that's the way the league was trending and the talented and powerful Babe Ruth, was the best of that trend...not the innovator.

Now, in no way am I saying he wasn't great. The fact that his single season home run record was beaten out by a guy who had a fluke home run hitting year (Maris) and his career total was beaten by possibly the most consistent hitter in baseball history (Aaron), are testament to how great of a power hitter he was.

Note - I don't count any of the obvious juice seasons and neither should you.

All I'm saying is he wasn't a player who changed the game. He was a great player who was prepared to and took full advantage of the game's changes.

So to all old white men and Bottle, Babe Ruth was great, but he revolutionized nothing, and stop trying to tell me otherwise.

As told by Hater J

Are the Yankees Over rated or Just Hated?

Here at PTU, we know a thing or two about hating. The most common word in the titles of our posts is "hate" second only to "best" or "worst" and "LeBron" (who we always hate on). Hater J is a PTU founder and "things J hates" in the banner is about as broad a term as you can find. Suffice to say, we're no stranger to hatred. To call someone a hater, though, usually implies that they do so indiscriminately and often times out of jealousy (Hater J excluded, he usually has reason for his hatred outside of jealousy). And that's the definition that's usually applied to critics of the Yankees, most recently regarding another one of those anonymous Sports Illustrated Player polls.

The SI player poll is probably my favorite part of the magazine, since it's basically an open forum for the usually boring, don't offend anyone, players to shit on their colleagues (to an even greater degree is ESPN's Player X articles, where some nameless active player hates the hell out of his fellow players). Last week's issue posed the question "Who is the Most Over rated player in baseball?" and to no one's surprise almost everyone mentioned was in pinstripes (the only non Yank in the top 5 played for the Red Sox, naturally). Yankee hating is America's real national pastime (after Nascar) but there is also, of course, the frontrunner who's die-hard Yankee thru and thru despite never stepping foot in New York. And it must be particularly tough on other MLB teams to deal with the attention that even mediocre Yankee players receive from the entire country. Say you're a solid outfielder for the Pirates or some other team nobody cares about. Sweating your way through another long, awful summer catching fly balls in front of half empty stadiums and considering perking up your soul deadening boring existence by cheating on your wife if only any groupies recognized you. Meanwhile, Nick Swisher guest stars on How I Met your Mother and marries a chick from Gossip Girl while getting a hit every 4 days. Ouch. Are these guys really over rated or is this just jealousy from the huddled masses of Yankee haters on the other teams?

I'd say it's everyone's favorite cop-out answer (but true this time): a little bit of both. A Rod was already seen as one of the greatest players before coming here (and one of the most hated due to his douchiness) but what about the rest of the over-rated list? Jeter is a terrific player, a winner for his whole career, and a guy who always plays his hardest and has a reputation for being clutch. But,he is also without a doubt over-rated because he plays for the Yankees and they win all the time. If he played for the Florida Marlins, Minka Kelly would be dating Colin Farrell or someone. That doesn't take away from Jeter, just that he's benefited from being on the big stage, and part of that is a tendency to over rate him. Same goes for Joba and Swisher to an even greater extent. Two marginally talented players who've parlayed their status as Yankees into minor celebrities. And I'm sure nothing irks these other players who were polled more. This doesn't mean that the rest of baseball isn't hating on the Yankees, just that they may be justified in doing so.

Someone In the Mets Organization Makes Sense for Once

I don't know what's more surprising, that someone involved with the Mets finally said some things that made sense for a change, that the person who said them was Fred Wilpon or that there is a seeming public outcry (at least among many Mets fans) over these fairly innocent and very accurate words.

The offending comments were made during an uncharacteristically candid moment for the beleaguered Mets owner in a recent New Yorker article. Sitting in his luxury suite watching his awful creation piss away another game, Wilpon was understandably critical of the team he put together (the article was written early in the season when the Mets were almost unwatchable). What were these hideous insults that have Mets nation all up in arms?

1) David Wright is a good player but not a superstar
2) Jose Reyes is a dissapointment and wants (and will get somewhere else) "Carl Crawford" bread
3) The Mets over reacted to Carlos Beltran's ridiculous playoffs with the Astros by signing him for 20 years and a billion dollars.
4) The sky is blue.

He didn't actually come out and say that last one, but it's just as much of a truism as those other 3 statements. I suppose a lot of the Metropolitans' supporters are taking issue not just with what was said (even a Mets fan has some sense) but the fact that it was their usually quiet, clueless owner saying it to a magazine from the comfort of his luxury sky box instead of directly to the players or something like that. This is, of course, silly. The fact that Wilpon recognizes that this is a flawed team and is acknowledging it to anyone is a sign of things maybe moving in the right direction. At least he's not stubbornly holding onto the beliefs that every move the team he owns makes is a great one like some other idiot owners in New York. And while we're on the subject of New York owners, George Steinbrenner has practically achieved Saint hood for firing up his troops with remarks like these.

One of the arguments I've heard Mets fans (as well as Michael Kay and other impartial idiots) make as to why they're upset with this is that it will somehow
mess up the suddenly glorious team chemistry or offend the sensitive players who were criticized, as if a .500 team that hasn't won a playoff game in 5 years is some kind of fragile dynasty, that if disturbed might unravel. As Mets expert Snoot has been saying for some time, the worst possible thing that could happen to his beloved team is a false sense of security as the result of a mediocre season (kind of like the Knicks had in the early Isiah years) that would prevent the team from doing what it needs most: complete destruction and rebuilding. So, Mets fans, get a grip;Wilpon speaking up and admitting that the Mets suck might be a sign that he's catching on too.

Inside The Pinstripe Curtain: A Mets Fan Goes To The Yankees Legends Suite

As you may know from my previous posts about how I'm fed up with the Mets futility, for some unknown reason I'm life long Mets fan. To be honest, I have almost zero interest in the Mets 2011 season except for my hope that the ownership will change. When the opportunity came up to go to this weekends Yanks-Redsox game in seats 9 rows behind home plate, I couldn't pass it up despite my allegiance to that other NY team. I even decided I would do something I've never done before and root for the Yankees, since it seemed like a waste to sit in good seats and root for Boston. As it turns out, maybe a Mets fan rooting for the Yankees wasn't so good for them, since they played so poorly that I felt like I was at a Mets game (as of this writing, the Yanks are down by 2 runs and are a few outs away from a sweep).

In any case, I always wondered what the hell you get for paying $275 per seat face value for these types of tickets, especially since I usually buy 5 dollar tickets on Stub Hub for Mets games and stand up the whole time by Beer Island. I tried to get as many pictures as I could without looking like a poor homeless person that snuck into the rich people section, check them out after the jump. Pretty much everything in these seats is "free", except for your alcohol.

Is Jorge Wrong?

The latest storyline of the young, uneven Yankee season involves one of the last big 3 remaining from the dynasty years. Jorge Posada reportedly asked out of the lineup after being dropped to the bottom of the order (maybe deservedly so) for the big Saturday night game against the Red Sox. The silence of the other Yankee bats is forgotten as we all take turns wondering if Jorge is just being a spoiled baby stomping his feet at Joe Girardi's strict discipline, or is Girardi, as he does too often, engaging in some more Joe Torre like over reacting and over managing? The score of the game is less important here, it didn't make the Daily News' coverage until 6 pages in of Jorge talk. So is Georgie in the wrong here? I say yes he is, but his frustration is understandable, and may be a sign of bigger issues for the Yanks.

Posada is definitely wrong for asking out of the lineup if he is healthy enough to play, as all reports seem to indicate. Regardless if he's still a day to day player or DH, he's viewed as one of the veteran leaders of the team, and refusing to be lowered in the batting order sets a bad precedent, and can't be good for team morale. Posada has always been stubborn and head strong, as was evidenced by his lack of embracing the DH role. Russell Martin practically had to snatch the catcher's mask from Jorge as the season began. He's a millionaire who has been able to achieve things such as a disproportionately hot wife because of this attitude. But the fact that he is asking out is indicative of the possible lack of respect that Girardi commands from his players, a few of whom once played alongside him. It has to be tough to listen to your former teammate tell you you're just not good enough. Just imagine if one of your co-workers, who you came up in the ranks with, was promoted to your manager, and then decided to demote you. Regardless if your performance dictates this, it's still gotta sting. If Bottle became Editor in Chief of PTU and told me not to write something on here, I'd probably post angry things about him and his mother (don't think about it, Bottle). This has to be especially annoying to Posada, who came up under Girardi as a young catcher. It must be equally difficult to take orders from a 40 year old man with braces.

The Yankees over the past 3 seasons have seemed to win despite Girardi's meddling, rather than because of it. He has a nagging tendency to over manage (especially when it comes to pitching changes) and his critical choices have been second guessed around here for a reason. When the team is rolling, and winning championships, it's easy to ignore some of Joe's shortcomings, and the team was talented enough (and I believe still is) to still be a winning club. But when the bats stop working, and the pitching and defense is at times as sloppy as the drunk girls post-gameing at Billy's, it takes a real strong skipper with a hold of a locker room to get things back on track. You have to wonder if Posada is alone in shaking off Girardi's authority, or if this is just a symptom of a team wide distrust.

Derek Jeter - Stop the Hate

Derek Jeter has spent his entire career being hated on and almost always being held up to impossible standards. When entering his prime, people loved to remind him that he wasn't as good a hitter as A-Rod or Tejada. He's never been implicated with anything involving steroids...the guys he was being compared to have. He wasn't as good a fielder as Omar Visquel. Yeap, he wasn't as good, defensively, as the best defensive short stop of the 90's, and arguably one of the top 10 greatest defensive short stops to ever play the game.

Now, at age 37, Derek Jeter is contending with a new impossible standard. Derek Jeter 2011 is being compared to young Derek Jeter. The Derek Jeter who wasn't good enough then but still managed to amount Hall of Fame numbers, improve his defense, and win a ton of titles in the process. Aside from Barry Bonds, not many ball players put up numbers better than the numbers they put up in seasons played in their mid 20s. Its an unfair comparison, but the Yankees Captain is asked to do exactly that. Like other points in his career, he doesn't get mad about it. He doesn't cry about it in the press. He goes to work, and then he produces.

While Mr. D continues to send other writers at PTU slanderous emails about the production (or lack thereof) of Yankees captain Derek Jeter, the man put together an impressive game yesterday going 4-6 with 2 homers. He saw his batting average jump to a respectable .276 for a short stop and placing him 11th in short stop batting average. The Captain is also currently top 10 amongst all short stops in hits, runs and even home runs (although that isn’t saying much given that aside from guys like Tulowitski, Gonzalez, or Hanley Ramirez, there aren’t many power hitters at the position).

I will concede that yesterday’s game will probably be the best performance at the plate we see Jeter put up this year and not something that will be the norm. However, I think it’s fair to say he isn’t as bad as his first few weeks indicated either. You can expect his year to finish with about 175 hits, 65 RBI, over 100 runs scored, and somewhere around a 275 BA…all very respectable numbers for a shortstop at the top of your lineup. He'll probably be top 10 in all meaningful stats. The Yanks may contend for another title. Then when next year comes, he gets to try and prove his value again.

Will The Mets Ever Throw a No Hitter?

One-time Met Philip Humber brought a no-hitter into the 7th inning last night against the Yankees, continuing the Yanks perennial issues with pitchers they've never seen before, as well as leading to some discussion on the YES broadcast (and amongst me and M@d Scientist) about one of the saddest droughts in sports: the Mets having never thrown a no-hitter in their history. Never. Not once, not an asterisked one that was ended with a bad call, or a half-assed 5 walk, two wild pitch run scoring no-hitter, or a combined team no-hitter like the Astros put on the Yanks a few years back. Nothing. Every team that they have played in their fairly long (not so storied) history has gotten at least one hit against the Metropolitans.

Of course, no-hitters are by no means a common occurrence, according to Odds maker.com the odds of pitching a no-hitter at the major league level is 1 in 775 or roughly the same odds as Alabama State winning the NCAA title next season. This hasn't stopped every other franchise in Major League Baseball from having at least one no-hitter in the books besides the San Diego Padres and our New York Mets. That's 49 years and 15 days without one, or a little younger than Julio Franco. While it is still a rare feat, the Diamondbacks, Marlins and Rays have all managed at least one despite only being around since the 90s. What makes this all the more frustrating for the already frustrated Mets fans is the great number of pitchers who have gone on to baseball immortality with other teams, (6 to be exact) and one of the players they traded away managed to throw 7 himself, each one like another punch to the gut of hapless Mets fans. And a Nolan Ryan punch does not feel good, ask Robin Ventura.

To make matters even worse, the hated Yankees seem to throw No nos every couple of years, and a couple of times they involved(of course) guys who used to star for the Mets in David Cone and Doc Gooden. Other times, the Yankees have had fat, reportedly hung over pitchers throw no-hitters, and just to really rub it in their Queens' neighbors faces, a guy with one arm tossed a no-hitter. Ho hum.

So why can't the Mets get their moment to hoist one of their own on their shoulders? They've certainly had some great arms in their history, and 10 Mets pitched no-hitters for their previous clubs. Some might call it the curse of Nolan Ryan, but much like a lot of Mets history, part of their problems stem from the fact that they can't seem to get out of their own way. While it's always a dilemma for a manager to keep a pitcher in the game who's on the brink of history (particularly in this era of strict pitch counts) the Mets have pulled a pitcher mid no-hitter 14 times in their history. They've also come oh so close 9 times, the most recent by Will Ferrell look alike R.A. Dickey, and most famously by Pedro Martinez in the bottom of the ninth (a game they would eventually lose). So, the Mets are not only not able to close the deal but even when they flirt with going all the way they cock block themselves (sorry Snoot and M@d).

Will the New York Mets ever get their names off the extremely exclusive never thrown a no hitters list? It's bound to happen eventually, but knowing Mets history they will most likely throw a no-hitter on the first day that instant replay is implemented to review balls and strikes and have it overturned or something. One thing's for sure, whatever manager even thinks about pulling out a pitcher who's close to a no-no will be booed off the field. It'll happen, Mets fans, be patient.

Thanks to Mets fan (and possible closet Yankee fan) M@d Scientist for a lot of the no-hitter and Mets research.

Derek Jeter, please retire.

Ok, I know that is never going to happen. He has this year and two more years left on his current contract. But he is really killing the team. Jeter's chase for 3,000 hits is a great story but overshadows how badly his play has slipped recently.

After an 0-5 tonight, he is batting a sparkling .219. It's early, you say? While I have not seen all of his at bats, I have seen enough games this year to know this might be more than "just a slump". Seemingly every ball he hits is a grounder to shortstop or second base. All of his hits are of the infield variety or seeing eye grounders. I think I've seen him hit one line drive and it was caught by the right fielder. If Jeter's poor batting continues, Girardi will have no choice but to drop him in the lineup. I say he should have been dropped to 9th in the order already. Torre dropped A-rod in the playoffs to 8th in the order years back and that was for a much smaller sample of at-bats than Jeter is afforded. If Jeter was really a team player, he would not bitch about it but you know he will, because Jeter is a diva just like the women he dates (see Carey, Mariah).

Pittsburgh Police Try To Tase Some Sense Into Fan

The other night an unruly Pirates fan was tasered by police in Pittsburgh for 'using excessive foul language and disrupting others enjoyment of the game'. There are so many jokes here I don't even know where to begin. First of all the victim is wearing what looks like a Dream Team Jacket (circa 1992) or possibly a Starter Jacket. Can we really say that anyone enjoys living in Pittsburgh or would enjoy going to a Pirates game? They haven't been worth watching since Andy Van Slyke was roaming centerfield and Barry Bonds had the head size of a normal human being.

I give props to this guy. We don't really know what he actually did since the video starts too late but he sure can take shots from the cops. He barely seems to notice that he is getting whacked by clubs. The Pirates have a tough enough time getting people to come to the stadium as it is. The last thing they need is for the police to beat the sense into the few remaining fans.

This is the second incident this season after Dodger fans beat a Giant fan in the parking lot after the game on opening day. I read that the guy in the latest incident was very drunk, which make sense when you see the video. This begs the question.....Should stadiums put tighter limits on drinking at games? I, for one, completely disagree. These people that are drunk and cause problems are the small minority and they should not ruin it for everyone else that wants to drink. There should be tougher penalties by law enforcement for people who become violent at games. Or maybe beer companies should lower the alcohol content (even more than they already do) on the beer they sell at stadiums. What do you think?

Jim Thome - Hall of Fame?

The real life Paul Bunyan, Jim Thome, is within weeks of hitting his 600th home run. Consider two facts: one, that Thome has never been linked to performance-enhancing drugs; and two, that every non-steroid player who has ever hit 500 or more home runs has made the Hall of Fame. Makes a strong case for the big doofy lumberjack.

The positive: 589 home runs (8th all-time), 1627 RBIs (30th), .559 slugging (20th), .404 on-base (49th), 1535 runs (57th), and 5 all-star game appearances.

The negative: .277 average, 2401 strike-outs (2nd), 0 MVPs, 0 World Series Rings (he was on the Indians team that lost in the 11th inning to the Marlins, and the Philles won 3 years after he left the team). Also, he was not known as a good defensive player.

Does he make it to Cooperstown? Would he fit through the door frame?

YES and MAYBE.

So Long, Manny

Manny Ramirez has officially retired from baseball today amid some mysterious trouble involving MLB's drug policy. There's no specifics as to what drug is at issue here but I think we can all safely say that it's steroids. Or, looking at Manny, maybe weed too.

And so ends the tumultuous career of Manny Ramirez. I'll leave it to some other more accomplished writers to recap his entire career, but it definitely was crazy. From a normal looking, athletic power hitter in Cleveland, to freakish looking lovable goofball power hitting freak in Boston, to not so lovable goofball who basically quit on his team in Boston, to a one-dimensional side show in L.A., to steroid user to whatever he's been the past couple seasons, Manny has had a career probably unlike any other baseball player before him. Being a Yankee fan, I've hated him for most of that career, but mostly because I hated seeing him at bat. Plus, I hated his stupid hair and that point he used to do but if he was on my team I'd probably deal with it. "Manny being Manny" became probably the most popular catch phrase in Boston next to "Yankees Suck" and he was indeed a weirdo/jerkoff who could hit his ass off.

This will go down, however, as another ugly end to a baseball player's career. We can debate the relevance of the stats and whether or not they should count, or if we should even care if he was juicing instead of focusing on his achievements on their own. It's a nuisance that no other sport has to deal with, the questioning of its' best players, and it gets boring and annoying after a while. Manny was suspended from the Dodgers for 50 games after testing positive for steroids, and that's what did him in in Tampa too. And with that, let's just shut up about him, starting now.

Yankees vs Red Sox 2011 Part 1

And so it begins again, another season battling it out for first in the AL East, except this year has started differently than most people expected. The Yankees have been pretty good, minus the 8th inning Tuesday and some missing MPH's off of Phil Hughes's fastball. The Red Sox, meanwhile, have gotten off to about as awful a start as you can imagine, losing games on base-running mistakes, not hitting, hitting but not pitching, forgetting basic rules like force-outs at home, and generally looking terrible. Red Sox Nation is crumbling, and anything less than a sweep of the Yankees this weekend will signal absolute disaster in Bean Town. "Don't even get me stahted about the Sahx".

Most of this panic is warranted (0 and 6 after the acquisitions they made is inexcusable) but let's put things in a little bit of perspective. The season is 162 games, that's 156 more games left. They've yet to play a home game and they started the season on the road against what seems to be an offensive juggernaut in last year's AL champ Rangers. PTU contributor Lupica already wrote his "worst team money can buy" column this morning (and only mentioned fathers and sons once I believe) and ESPN has begun their doomsday clock "computer simulated" championship odds crawl on the bottom of the screen (Johnny Five apparently thinks the Red Sox are 20% less likely to win the Series after this week). Don't get me wrong, I'm loving every minute of this; I wish they would lose every game the rest of the season, Carl Crawford would be run out of town crying, Dustin Pedroia's scrappy little ass would get lyme disease, and Ben Affleck would fall down the stairs. But it's a week into the season, and most likely the Sox will get it together enough to be right there, annoying as ever, breathing down the Yankees' necks for the last couple weeks of September. Let's get it started.

Bottle Got It Wrong

I disagree with Bottle’s picks (shocker)….

In The AL

MVP – Robbie Cano (A-Rod isn’t the best player on his own team…how can he be MVP?)

Cy Young – Jon Lester (He’s very good, and I painfully tip my hat)

East – Yanks – They bring back the same team that struggled against Lee in the ALCS (less Andy Pettite). You can almost see them trading Banuelos for a quality lefty to fill in that 2nd/3rd spot. There is no pressure, a better rotation than credited, and better bullpen than rival Red Sox.

Wildcard – Red Sox - They made some great signings to make up for the losses of Martinez and Beltre…but the issues they had last year haven’t really been addressed. Papelbon is still closing games and that’s not a good thing.

Central – White Sox - They made a great push last year and have good young arms. I see Pavano taking his big payday and doing a “Pavano” this year and mailing it in sometime in the next 2 weeks.

West – Texas - You could have picked almost anyone in the West and had an argument given its fairly wide open. But picking Seattle is sort of like picking the handicapped kid for a pickup basketball game. It’s a nice thought, makes them feel good about themselves, but you don’t really expect for it to translate into a win for you.

Yanks beat White Sox

Sox beat Rangers

Yanks beat Sox

In The NL

MVP – Albert Pujols (makes a case for mo’ money)

Cy Young – Clayton Kershaw (he’ll settle down after a loss tonight)

East – Phillies ARGUABLY best staff in baseball…remember that San Fran can still pitch. They should win the division easily.

Central – Reds – They have the most keeping it real second basemen in the game, last year’s MVP, and a dude who throws over 100 MPH. I’m in

Wild Card – St. Louis They have good pitching and although they lost Wainwright, they still have a good enough rotation to compete. If Pujols is going to win the MVP...they need to get into the playoffs.

West – Giants They still can’t score runs, but not many in the West can. All they have to do is make the playoffs. No one wants to face this team there.

Giants beat Reds

Phillies beat Cards

Giants beat Phillies

And in the highest rated WS of all time – Yanks beat Giants