On the Yankees beat

In my experience great-aunts know just about everything. No, seriously.

A bit on Spring Training from Tampa:

I caught the end of the Phillies/Yankees game at Brighthouse field in Clearwater. What a great field. It's a pretty new ballpark and I love it. Seats about 7,000 and is really fan friendly. There is a tiki bar in left field and beers are $5 or less. That's really great for a ball park if you ask me. The tiki bar stays open a bit after the game and has some live music. There were lots of fans there having a good time and unlike in Philadelphia, they were even friendly to the New Yorkers and New York fans. I was impressed. What didn't impress me however was Ryan Howard. First, he came up to the tiki bar (seemed cool), but then he stood behind his security for 20 plus minutes, never once signing a single autograph or getting close enough for good photos. A bunch of little kids were surrounding the area and screaming for him, but there was no change. Well, I was leaving the ball park and I saw him again. This time driving away. There were 5 kids waiting and not another person aside from their parents within eyesight. Ryan just opened his window, stuck out his hand and yelled, "can't sign now." He left behind a number of disappointed kids and it just didn't sit well with me. He sounds like our Derek Jeter.

After, I went to the Tilted Kilt. Without getting graphic, you'll find attractive girls dressed as scantily as Hooters girls and a great selection of beer. The combination of an indoor/outdoor bar was great and it's within walking distance to the park. Simply put, Clearwater will DEFINITELY be part of my Spring Training trip next year (Jim A, Rich, take note).

So, I arrived at Legends Field pretty early the morning of the Pirates game. It was fun to walk around and shop the gift shop. I got some good deals on some sale items from St. Patrick's day. More people got souvenirs in my family than would have otherwise since I was saving money. The staff looked like it was completely made up of retirees, but they were all extremely friendly. I was able to pick up a spring training program for $4. The bargain of all bargains in my mind. The Yankees had a collectible card set giveaway in the programs, one per game, 15 in total. Yesterday was Steinbrenner, which was very fitting with the ceremony.

The gate opened up about an hour and a half before the game started and to my surprise, you couldn't enter the 100 level unless you had 100 level tickets until after the game. Not that it mattered as no one was signing autographs and the team was never out on the practice field (apparently because of the ceremony). The pregame ceremony for Steinbrenner really was great. You could see how happy he was and listening to the fans, Yankee fans and Florida locals (just in my section, I was speaking with fans of the Yanks, Braves, Nationals, Red Sox, Pirates, Phillies, and Rays) you could hear so much respect. It really was great and while I had mixed feelings about it originally, I'm now glad they did it. A County Representative spoke of George and his contributions and her words rang true of a man that had done a lot for that community. After the field name was unveiled, George was carted around the stadium and the crowd stood for a standing ovation, kind of like you would stand for the wave, section by section as he passed by. The game was sold out and there were scalpers around the stadium, but I'd say that it never filled above 80% capacity, maybe even less. This was surprising because it was a gorgeous day in Tampa. A perfect day to be at the park (if you remembered your sunscreen). Before the game started, Shelley was awarded the Spring Training Rookie MVP award for the Yankees to no one's surprise.

Unfortunately, Igawa put an end to the happiness pretty quickly. He doesn't have confidence (at all) and he rarely if ever comes close to the catcher's target. The best part of his pitching was listening to the amusing heckling from the stands. It was non-stop for 3 innings and I loved it. Jeter got quite an ovation after his first inning home run, but the Yanks really didn't look good offensively throughout the game, even with the RH heavy line-up.

Ensberg looked HORRIBLE at first. He was only credited with 1 error, but it should have been 2 or 3. The crowd was shocked that it wasn't at least 2. On the other hand, Shelley looked GREAT in RF. He showed off not only his strong throwing arm, but made a diving catch on the run towards the foul line that would definitely have made web gems on ESPN. Similarly, with Betemit playing second, I was quite disappointed. It wasn't that he was committing errors, but he cost us a couple of double plays and there were just balls that he couldn't get to. He didn't look sharp. It was nice to see Matsui in LF, but he's not ready to play LF. He is slow out there and hesitant and could be seen limping around in the field on multiple occassions.

Karstens came in for Igawa and was looking good on the mound until it seemed he pulled up limp with a pulled right groin (I'm sure there is a diagnosis on what it was somewhere, but I haven't looked). Patterson came in and did what he does, ended the inning, though it seemed he would only face one batter. He took a hot shot off what appeared to be his lower back. Thing was, as he was walking to the dug out, it didn't seem to have phased him. Nonetheless, I thought they'd send him to the locker room, ice it down and end his day. Instead, he came back out the next inning and 1-2-3 the Pirates were down. The other pitchers looked good too.

As the 6th turned into the 7th inning and the Yankees started to put in the reserves, the stadium really started to empty out. I saw Tabata in RF and got really excited. The fans from other teams around me were asking me all sorts of questions about the team and I was more than happy to tell them all that they asked. I was just happy they hadn't left the park. Maybe it's just me, but I just don't like it when fans leave games early. I guess that's expected in Tampa though when half the "fans" are senior citizens with nothing else to do. Apparently if you're a senior down there and a resident of the area, you get a really discounted price on spring training season tickets.

Anyone interested in flying down to Tampa first week of September? I'm thinking of going back down for the three game series between the Yanks and Rays.

I think the reception for Girardi will probably be pretty good tonight and tomorrow considering that the stands will be filled with mostly Yankee fans.

Last season, the Marlins were drawing less during the regular season than the Yanks did during Spring Training at The Boss [Field].

This stuff just drives me crazy when I here how Girardi almost brought the Marlins into the playoffs. They finished 10 games out of the wild card. If you finish 10 games behing Boston this year does that mean you almost won your division? This is another one of those Urban legends that people keep repeating as if it were true.

19 games out of first and 10 games off the wild card. 5 teams finished ahead of the Marlins in the wild card race yet people talk as if they JUST missed it. I don't get it. Read the standings, that's all that is needed. No emotion or conjecture....just the plain facts of the numbers.

BTW the Marlins that year finished closer to last place than to the wild card. So Girardi came closer to leading them to a last place finish than the wild card.

Newsday reports that Bobby Murcer won't attend Opening Day after all.

That's a shame.

Opening Day without Murcer and Bob Sheppard is like baseball without hot dogs and beer.

I went to my first Yankee game over 50 years ago - and Bob Sheppard was the anouncer then and at every game since - I will sure miss him!

HYD,

One point you mentioned runs counter to someone elses post here a few days ago claiming that Legends Field has sold out every game since it opened. Was the crowd announced as a sell out?

Nudge: I double-checked what I wrote and it doesn't contradict the sellout claim: "The game was sold out and there were scalpers around the stadium, but I'd say that it never filled above 80% capacity, maybe even less. "

I said the game was sold out, which it was. You couldn't buy tickets at the ticket offices, but a sellout doesn't mean that every paying customer attends the game.

HYD

You are right. A stadium is often sold out but not everyone who buys a ticket attends. Plus people are constantly up and down from their seats so at any given time you can expect a good number of seats to be vacant while people are walking around, standing up, going to the john, going to concessions and whatever else people do during games. You'd think this would be common knowledge, common sense but I notice most things must be explained in ABC elementary fashion to Nudge.

Anon,

Now that my top it for the most ignorant post of ST so far. The stadium appeared only 80% full becasue people were up and about and walking around. Thats what you call the ABC elementary fashion or some stupid thing or the other. I guess you have never been to a stadium because every sell out I,ve been to.....looked like a sell out. Duh! 2000 people walking around? Where? Duh!

Also dopey the questions was whether he thought it was a sell out or was it announced as a sell out. The attendance reporting rules were changed back around 1970's because the AL always reported ticket sales and the NL reported attendance at the stadium. This was because the AL sold 10-20 % LESS ticket s than the NL and the league wanted it to seem more on par with the NL some they basically over reported attendance. Eventually the two leagues decided on the same standards.

In reality no sellout fills all seats. But they don't usually look 3/4 full. So yeah that was about as dopey as you anonymi get. Maybe consisder not posting for awhile until you learn something worthy of saying.