On the Yankees beat

Let's go Mets!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh , the stupidity never ends!

Happy and Healthy New Year to my fellow bloggers.

Carrying over the discussion from the previous thread:

Realist,

RiverAve seems to be going through a good period, agreed, but has its ups and downs over time just as this one does and Pete Abe's does and all blogs do.

The question is -- what do you do as a reader and poster? Do you become part of the problem by entering destructive posts? Do you skip out and forget it, then dip back in once in a while so you'll know when the upswing comes and things get interesting again? Do you try to reason with commenters and the blog owner to recognize problems and change things?

I ask because I have these questions on my mind.

hfrhrt

been trying to post for an hour now

KAT PLEASE GET RID OF THIS SECURITY CODE IT'S RUINING THE BLOG

Wondering why the yanks blog has nothing about leyritz? What do the yankee fans have to say? Is he forgiven because he is a world series hero? Or not because he killed someone with his recklessness? This is yankees off the field news. It was about this time of year that Billy Martin killed himself. Atleast he did not kill anyone else.

DRU - Thanks for your comments on the last thread. I'm not sure that we'll be much help with any future dinner plans but we'd always be happy to try! Francoise is a great cook though her real talent lies with patchwork!

Diane, you were right 'next door' to us when you were in Orleans. We live in a small town on the Loire River between Orleans and Blois. When were you last in Orleans? Do you have family here?

By the way, I wholeheartedly agree with your comments, Diane, regarding the posting system. Perhaps it's just the winter doldrums, but the blog seems to be really dragging since the advent of the security system. Happily, you DRU, Viper, Larry, Jim A, John and a few other regulars are still posting, but it seems to me that we're missing a lot of fun people.

Hopefully we'll soon be seeing some substantial baseball news. ST still seems years away! I can't wait to read about the guys back in action!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still around, but with the holidays and the lack of much baseball to talk about (I got sick of regurgitation), I'm not blogging much.

Happy New Year!

Yanks61,

My dear cousin in Orleans died several years ago, coincidentally followed by my daughter's return to this country from Germany, and as I have no one left there I have not visited Europe since, though my memories are all good ones.

Thanks for saying where you are. It is nice to be able to visualize the locale of my fellow fans who live 'away', and the Loire Valley is indeed lovely.

(Re)watched Girardi's introductory press conference today along with media questioning et cetera - puts things into nice perspective re: Yankee fortunes this coming season. He had no idea if Posada, Pettitte, and Riviera would be re-signed at that juncture. He handled questions effortlessly, articulately, and intelligently - I like the fact he's at the helm and think he'll do a better-than-fine job. Still not fond of the fact we're going into the season with potentially 3 rookies in the rotation, but c'est le vie. It'll be a good time watching whatever happens. It has not been a whole lot of fun watching people cannibalize themselves on most posting boards (except this one, for the most part) over the offseason.

And I really do not think the Red Sox are as good a team as they or their fans think they are. If they win 3 out of 4 WS championships this coming year, then I'll concede, otherwise, Bring On '08!

I also don't think entering a Security Code is that big of a deal, Kat!

Diane - It's always a pleasure reading your posts. I hope you have the opportunity to get back here one day!

sevrox - It's not typing in the security code that's the problem. It's having your attempted posts constantly rejected, even though you've properly typed in the codes.

NIght all and, once again, Happy New Year!

Happy New Year all, I hope everyone had a good time last night and everyone is ready to get back to discussing baseball on a regular basis.

Hopefully, Newsday's resolution was to fix this code system so that it allows us to post without such a hassle. I don't mind having to enter a code, but it's just not working the way it should as we are all getting the "too many posts" message and that is ruining the flow of conversations.

Kat: Perhaps you could look into this when you get back?

Thanks!

Happy New Years everyone!
I didn't have to catch my son's vomit last night, so we're off to a good start.

Actually I spent last night sober as usual with my wife, my cousin and her husband playing Scene It and wondering why ABC let's Dick Clark on the air.

I'm turning into an old fogey.

Spent today with my wife and kids at a tidepool just south of San Francisco looking at starfish. Ah January in California! Not a bad start for the year.

Looking forward to another year with my Yankee blog friends as the AL East promises to be close again.

I just wish this whole Santana thing comes to a close either way before players start reporting... which is about a month and a half away!

With the HOF voting coming up, I'm rooting for the Goose and Blyleven to get in. Blyleven had something like 60 shutouts inhis career and I believe places pretty highly in career strikeouts.

Gossage, in the days when closers routinely went 2 -3 innings and sometimes more, was a simply domineering reliever. I think he should be a no-brainer.

Morris is an interesting and unusual case. I'm not so sure about Rice (sorry Sully, I'm sure you won't agree) because while he was a completely terrific offensive force for a number of years, I believe (please correct me if I'm wrong here!) that even in his best years, his offense was skewed by Fenway where he hit much better than on the road.

Thoughts everyone?!

To me, it is a shame that Goose and Rice are not in. I think this may actually be Goose's year, but I don't think Rice will get in as his votes actually decreased last year (how the heck does that happen!).

Goose is a no-brainer to me. Sure, he hung on a little too long but he was still throwing hard when he retired and the man used to come in the game in the 7th inning to close out it out, there is no way he should be denied entry again.

Rice was a feared hitter who put up HOF numbers if you look at the people he played with. I remember hating seeing Jim Rice come up for the Sox during a close game against the Yanks.

Blyleven is someone I waffle on. He had good numbers, not great, he pitched forever too. I just don't know if longevity should get him into the Hall. I just don't ever remember thinking "oh man, Blyleven is pitching today, the Yanks are in trouble".

Morris gets in eventually if you ask me, but not if he had not pitched so well in the playoffs. The game he pitched against Smoltz where I believe he went 10 innings was unbelievable.
Being the opening day starter for 14 years sort of shows how good/respected he was.

All I know is, if Goose doesn't get in, I'm going to be mad as h*ll.

Just the Facts - if you are still around - you really need to get "YOUR" facts straight. There is a huge difference between being granted immunity from a criminal prosecution, and having immunity from torte or civil liability. The Feds basically told McNamee that in return for his disclosure of information, the Department of Justice agreed not to use that testimony against him in a drug distribution case. That does not, in no way shape or form, give him immunity from a civil law suit, under State or any other jurisdiction..

Jim A - We are certainly on the same page about Gossage!

I don't know if you've read "The Bronx Zoo," but while I thought Sparky was being a bit juvenile about his situation, I also believe he had a great argument about his salary when the Yanks brought in Goose and I believe Eastwick.I did love the guy. I met him once at a local event in NJ and he was really a great around the kids.

Here's some interesting stats:

Gossage:

22 Years - 124-107 (.531 PCT) - 310 Saves - 1809 IP - 732 BB 1502 SO - 3.01 ERA

Lyle:

16 Years - 96-76 (.566 PCT) -238 Saves - 1390 IP - 481 BB 873 SO - 2.88 ERA

I did some comparisons between Sutton (who I thought was possibly a marginal HOF - I know he's in, but I thought he was really marginal) and Blyleven.

Sutton:

23 Years - 324-256 (559 PCT) - 1343BB 3574 SO - 3.26 ERA- 58 Shutouts - 178 Complete Games

Blyleven:

22 Years - 287-250 (534 PCT) - 1322BB 3701 SO - 3.31 ERA - 60 Shutouts - 242 Complete Games

In as much as I think that Sutton was just a marginal HOF, I suspect those stats may stregthen your argument, however, was not Sutton on better teams for most of his career (the win percentage being the biggest difference between them?) It would be interesting if someone could look up the W/L of the teams on which they both played. It could certainly be said, don't you think, of Sutton, as you said of Blyleven, that one didn't immediately think their team was in trouble going into a game against him.

Nonetheless, I certainly can see your point about waffling on Blyleven. I think a lot of voters having been doing exactly the same thing!

Yanks61,
I read "The Bronx Zoo" when it first came out and I was a teenager so I don't remember all that much about it, but I decided to read it again just to refresh my memory. I'll order it online today I guess as it will be a fun trip down memory lane.

I agree about Sutton, I remember him being pretty good for a couple of seasons, but definitely not a guy other teams feared.

I'm really interested to see how many votes Tim Raines gets. He is an interesting case if you read the article on ESPN.com about him.
I certainly don't think he'll get in any time soon, but he may eventually get in.

Jim A. - I read an interesting piece a few weeks back on why Raines should be considered and it was quite convincing. However, aging as I am, I can't recall the arguments!

I think that you'll have a good time re-reading "The Bronx Zoo."

By the way, in case you might be interested, I just finished reading, "October Men" by Roger Kahn (about the Yankees 78 season) and thought it was excellent. Kahn is a terrific writer.

I hope you have a good afternoon and look forward to checking in again soon!

Florida is great!

If you don't like the Keys there's the Everglades

If you don't like the heat there's ice hockey

And if you don't like baseball there's the Devil Rays!

Yanks61,
I just bought both books from Amazon so I'm looking forward to reading them. I'll start with "October Men" since I've never heard of it and the '77 and '78 teams are the ones that got me started on this Yankees odyssey.
Thanks for the tip!

Ant: Nice shot at the Rays (they removed the "Devil" from their name), but we better be careful, that team is improving.

I support Hideki Matsui. Please do its best this year. For the World Series conquest of Yankees!