(You can vie last year’s here)

Best Grit: Brett “Grit is my middle name” Gardner. What pushed him over the edge? the head-first slide that started the eighth inning rally to win game one of the ALCS.

The First Annual PBP Award for Awareness: Robinson Canó. We are now aware.

Best Dancer: Curtis Granderson and the Roll Call Heart Attack Dance. Should audition for next season’s So You Think You Can Dance

Knock on Wood Award Kerry Wood, oh how we’ll miss you…

Hey Now, You’re An All Star, Get Your Game On, Go Play: Nick Swisher and his winning of the All Star Final Vote category in the American League

Best Reason to get mad excited that Jesus is coming: Francisco Cervelli.

Best use of a Cat: Lance Berkman, the Big Puma.

Best Name: Ivan Nova. ‘Nuff said.

Matchups are overrated: First half Boone Logan and 8th inning Joba Chamberlain. Oh Joba, how we miss the Joba of August/September 2007 and the unlivable-up-to hype….

Life, The Universe, and Everything: 42.

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Coming into the 2010 season, there did not seem to be a whole lot of questions for the defending World Series champions.

One of the questions, however, centered around the Opening Day outfield: Brett Gardner had not been much more than a fourth outfielder last season who lost his job to Melky Cabrera, Nick Swisher had some crazy home/road splits, and there were doubts over whether or not Curtis Granderson would really make up for the loss of one of the Yankees’ top prospects, Austin Jackson.

By season’s end, however, the view of the outfield was quite different: Nick Swisher was an All Star, Brett Gardner was one of the team’s most valuable players, and Granderson simply went on a late-season tear.

So what did the Yankee fielders do? Let’s take a look.

The Breakout

Brett Gardner was a walk on at the College of Charleston; when he first made his MLB appearance the main asset he was supposed to provide was his speed.

While Gardner still has plenty of that, his speed was not nearly as important as his team-leading .383 on base percentage. It’s not often that your team’s ninth hitter gets on base more frequently than anyone else–even your MVP-caliber second baseman–but this is exactly what Gardner provided.

One area of future concern, however, is that Gardner’s stats dropped phenomenally in the second half. While it’s entirely possible that a lingering injury may be partly at fault, the worry is that the first half of 2010 is Gardner’s high point.

We’ll know more in 2011, but at any rate, even with the second half decline the Yankees got far more out of Gardner–offensively and defensively than almost anyone might have expected–except for Gardner himself.

The All Star

In many ways, Nick Swisher is the hero of Michael Lewis’s Moneyball (okay, so Billy Beane is the protagonist, but Swisher is the guy you actually end up liking), and he has always had tremendous potential value.

The difference, however, is that in 2010, Swisher put it all together. He has career highs in hits, batting average, slugging and OPS–signifying that Swisher wasn’t just hitting, but hitting for power–and was one shy of thirty home runs as well.

Like Gardner, Swisher had a second half slump as well, but if you’ve got an OPS of .833 when you’re slumping, that’s not really an awful thing. In fact, Swisher’s second half slump is most noticeable in September, when the Yankees as a whole had a horrible month.

As Swisher will be entering his age 30 season in 2011, his career years may be past him, but he is still very much in his prime, very much loved by fans (especially those in right field) and, we know, now capable of an All Star season as well.

The Dancer

There’s really no other way to say this: until Curtis Granderson went to hitting Kevin Long for help, he was having a horrible season (missing most of May to an injury, as well). It’s easily reflected in his splits here.

However, once Granderson revamped his swing it was almost as if the Yankees had just gotten an extra player–and one who was a spark in the playoffs, to boot. He hit much better batting second than later in the order, but small sample size and pitcher-handedness caveats should be employed.

If Granderson’s revamped swing holds over winter an works again in the spring, the trade that sent Austin Jackson and Phil Coke to Detroit may go from being a bust to a good one; the jury’s still out.

all the pictures are mine

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Although it’s never too soon to start planning for 2011, there will be plenty time to discuss that later. For the moment, on the theme of hey-it-wasn’t-such-a-bad-year, here are my top ten moments of the 2010 Yankees’ season.

Honorable Mentions: Kim Jones’s porkchop incident, Jorge Posada hits two grand slams in two days, Brett Gardner hits a grand slam in an eleven run outburst inning vs. Toronto, A-Rod grand slamming after Mark Teixeira is intentionally walked on multiple occasions…

10. Hope Week Returns

The Yankees might be the big, bad, evil empire…but for the second year running they showed just how big that Yankee heart can be while honoring those whose ability to overcome various disabilities or obstacles inspire hope in so many of us. Some things are bigger than baseball, and HOPE week is a tradition that we all hope may continue.

9. Golson’s gun

Greg Golson was a bench player, a spare body to come in as a late inning defensive replacement or pinch runner. No one really expected much more from him, but on a September night in Tampa, he may have been responsible for the best defensive play of the year.

Closer Mariano Rivera had been struggling (buh?) that month, and the Yankees were nursing a one run lead over the Tampa Bay Rays. When Matt Joyce hit a fly ball to right field, it was an “okay, we can live with this” second out–or so we thought. Carl Crawford, who was on second base, did as we thought he would and tagged up, trying to get to third base. At this point, Golson unleashed a perfect throw, all the way across the diamond, right into A-Rod’s waiting glove. Game, set, match.

8. 600

Bruised shins and banged up calves may have marred Rodriguez’s season, but the Yankee third baseman still has the power to wow, like he did on a Wednesday afternoon game. There were a couple funky notes to his becoming the youngest person ever to hit 600 home runs:

It was the third year anniversary of his 500th home run, and the same starting pitcher–Phil Hughes–was on the mound for the Yankees.

Over the previous weekend, the Yankees had first inning, two-run home runs in multiple games, only to go on and lose almost all of those. Rodriguez’s home run? A first inning, two-run home run (the Yankees won).

7. Papelbad, Part One

Is there a better way to ingratiate yourself as a member of the Yankees than hitting a home run in your first at bat? How about an extra-inning home run that gives the Yankees a lead up in Boston in the first series of the season? Curtis Granderson did both of these, which no doubt built him his fair share of post-trade good will. The moment was huge, but what may have been bigger was that, as the Yankees’ new center-fielder, Granderson helped anchor an outfield that may have been the best the Yankees have had in years. Their defense, coupled with the offensive breakout of Brett Gardner and All Star campaign of Nick Swisher was far more than the Yankees could have possibly expected back in March.

6. The Awareness of Robinson Canó

It’s impossible to pick just one moment or one play for Robinson Canó. That’s how good his season was this year. Truth be told, he was great last year, but for one fluke or another, couldn’t hit with runners on base. This year, however, was a much different story. Canó was the most valuable Yankee, and it wasn’t even close. Whether a grand slam after an intentional walk or a defensive play that looked so easy you almost think you can do it, Canó was owning it.

If you’re a Yankee fan, you are no longer unaware of the team’s superstar second baseman.

5. Behold the power of Colin

Coming into a game to pinch hit is hard enough. Coming in to pinch hit when it’s mid-count and you have two strikes on you is even harder. Now, try doing it as a rookie. Tough, right?

Well, not according to Colin Curtis, who blasted a three-run home run while pinch hitting for Brett Gardner. The Yankees went on to win the game–one of the few Javy Vazquez games that Yankee fans will remember fondly from the 2010 season.

4. Mariano Miracle

At this point, there’s probably nothing more that Mariano Rivera can do to amaze us. In the postseason, in the regular season, it is as though Yankee fans are watching an immortal when the otherwise-very-humble Rivera steps on the mound. Yet, for all the accolades, Rivera still had yet another trick up his sleeve in Arizona.

In the bottom of the tenth inning, after the Yankees had taken an extra-inning lead, after a single, double and intentional walk, the bases were loaded with no one out and Rivera was in his second inning of work.

That’s when Rivera got down to business: a foul out, a pop out and a strike out that ended the game.

It makes us wonder: is there anything the great Rivera can’t do?

3. Sunday Night Surprise

The 2009 Yankees left their mark via the late-inning comeback and walk off. The 2010 Yankees hadn’t done that much, but on this Sunday night in Los Angeles, it felt as though the Yankees stuck a season’s worth of comebacks all into one evening.

The ninth inning play by play:

M Teixeira struck out swinging
A Rodriguez singled; A Rodriguez to second on fielder’s indifference
R Canó doubled; A Rodriguez scored
J Posada singled; A Rodriguez to third
J Posada to second on fielder’s indifference
C Granderson walked
C Huffman singled; R Canó and J Posada scored, C Granderson to third
C Curtis grounded out to first; C Granderson scored, C Huffman to second

The Yankees took the lead on a two-run extra inning home run from Robinson Canó, and the most dramatic comeback win of the regular season was secured.

2. Swisher honors the Boss

Ever have to go back to work after a death in the family? It’s hard. Yet, this is what the Yankees were tasked with doing after George Steinbrenner and Bob Sheppard passed on over the All Star break.

The game was a catharsis; while the tributes to The Boss and Bob Sheppard were moving, the game itself was a tense, playoff-like atmosphere. Although Derek Jeter had a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth, it feels almost fitting that instead it came down to Swisher, someone who’s loose, fun demeanor may have been precisely what the Yankees needed, because once you’re done mourning, you still need to go on living…

1. Papelbad, Part Two

One gets the feeling that absolutely everything could go wrong in the Yankee season, but if the team is still better than the Red Sox, you can live with it.

So it was this evening, when the Yankees had a 5-0 lead, then blew it in the latter innings, only to recover with a game tying home run from Alex Rodriguez, and a game winning home run from Marcus Thames. The game echoed the pre-2004 sentiments long expressed in the Yankee/Red Sox rivalry: that no matter how hard the Red Sox tried, the Yankees would still somehow find a way to win the game.

To do it versus Jonathan Papelbon, of course, just makes it that much better.

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Congratulations to the Texas Rangers. They outplayed the Yankees in pretty much every aspect of the game and every bit deserve their trip to the World Series.

The Yankees had a great season.

No, it wasn’t their year to go all the way, but they still played more games than twenty-six other baseball teams. Only those Yankee fans who think that it is written in stone that the Yankees will win a World Series every year can argue the season was a failure.

The Yankees played through the death of their principle owner and the death of their PA announcer for the entire second half of the twentieth century, and then some. They played through injuries to their starting catcher, third baseman, third starter, center fielder and designated hitter. They played through all of these in baseball’s toughest division and took until the last day of the regular season to settle for the Wild Card.

There are moments we will remember in seasons yet to come–Thames’ walk off against Jonathan Papelbon, Nick Swisher’s walk off the first game after George Steinbrenner passed away, Robinson Canó’s MVP-caliber season, Greg Golson’s throw out of Carl Crawford to end a key game, the five run ninth inning come back against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and others. For a season that may have come to a disappointing end, it did not lack for its moments.

Then there was also this: the giant steps taken by the farm system of a team who not so long ago had Eric Duncan as their best prospect. Right now, the crown jewel would be Jesus Montero, who was believed to be the key to a deal for Cliff Lee before the Rangers jumped in, but there are prospects at almost every level that were worth the watching. Where the system goes from here, through the off season, next year and beyond should be a fascinating follow…and some day, when Montero becomes the best hitter on the Yankees (so we hope), we’ll be talking about how we remember him taking his swings in Tampa, Trenton and Scranton.

The future, though, is bright. It’d be bright if only because we know they’ll play again, but it is bright also because there’s the feeling that Phil Hughes and Brett Gardner and perhaps Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson have their best years ahead of them, because Mark Teixeira and Robinson Canó and CC Sabathia will still be in their prime, because the potential in Jesus Montero and the Killer B’s, even if the latter are two-three years away, is that great, because Kevin Long can probably work his magic with anyone, because it looks like Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera will attempt to give us at least one more go around, and because Cashman probably has another miracle trade or three up his sleeve.

So winter came to New York a little earlier than we would have liked this year, but in the end, when they ask if it was worth it, I’d say, unequivocally, that it was.

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Josh Norris covers the Yankees’ AA affiliate, the Trenton Thunder for the Trentonian. He was kind enough to agree to an interview here; you can read his “Minors Matters” blog here.

Which position player impressed you the most and why?

This is easy. It has to be Brandon Laird. Based on his impressive work in the Arizona Fall League, I figured Laird would be a solid little ballplayer, but I never expected this.

I can’t really stress enough how difficult it is to hit a home run at Waterfront Park. He not only managed to do that consistently, but nearly all of his homers were soaring, majestic bombs that made me fear for my windshield.

He was one of the three players I’ve seen with the ability to make the stadium look small. The others were Jesus Montero (perhaps you’ve heard of him) and Jorge Vazquez.

He played a nice third base with a solid arm, but, as most of you know, will be transitioning to the outfield to maximize his potential.

I’m not sure if he has a place with the Yankees, simply because of their current outfield situation. Gardner and Swisher probably aren’t going anywhere for a while, so the only way I see him getting to New York is if Granderson leaves and Gardner moves to center (where he belongs). Other than that, he could be trade bait this offseason.

Which pitcher impressed you the most?

 I think the most impressive pitcher was Brackman, based on the absolutely rock-bottom expectations he had coming into the season. It would have been perfectly reasonable to see him spend all of 2010 Tampa, but he didn’t. He moved to Trenton and, after a brief adjustment period, dominated.

He topped at 98 with the heater and flashed a hook that, even from the elevated press box, looked really, really dirty. In his final game, in relief of Andy Pettitte, he held the Altoona Curve (the eventual league champions) to just a hit and a walk over five shutout frames.

The coup de grace came in the eighth, when an error put the winning run at second base with nobody out. With help from a one-out intentional walk, Brackman loaded the bags with just one down.

Earlier in the season, this would surely have led to a crooked number. This time, however, Brackman buckled down and coaxed an inning-ending double to keep alive his team’s chances in what wound up being the team’s final win.

The stuff was clearly there from day one, but his mental toughness grew by leaps and bounds as his Thunder tenure grew. That showed me a lot. He’s still got a bit to work on, but I think the Yankees may have scratched off the right lottery ticket with Andrew Brackman.

Of the Killer B’s (Brackman-Betances-Banuelos), which looks most polished/advanced?

I’m going to go with Banuelos, because of the extreme poise he showed as a 19-year-old in the playoffs. The game against New Hampshire really sealed it for me. Here he was, in a game with the potential for a clinch, against the best hitting team in the league, and he comes up nails.

He coupled high-90s heat with low-80s change-ups in his first start with the 80-pitch count removed, and in the process more than lived up to all the praise that was lavished on him during the offseason.
Moreover, his command of the English language was impressive, and his maturity with the media was very, very good. You don’t always see that out of prospects, particularly ones facing a real media contingent for the first time.

Romine started hot and then kind of fizzled. Still an elite prospect? What impact does Montero/Sanchez have on the way we percieve Romine?

At this point, I think Romine is a B+ prospect rather than an A. I wouldn’t be at all shocked to see him return to Trenton to begin the season. He has too much work to do as a hitter and a receiver, plus I think Montero will probably begin 2011 at Scranton for more work with the glove.

Romine did make excellent strides as a game-caller this year, and I still believe he will eventually take over for Posada down the road. That said, he will be 22 once next year opens, and that means there is PLENTY of time for him to develop. If that means Cervelli or Montero has to serve as a buffer for a year.

Ever thought Cervelli would stick in the majors as long as he has?

5. Absolutely not. He really hasn’t lit the world on fire with his bat, and I didn’t even give him that much credit when he left. He hit a blistering .190 during his brief time with Trenton, and seemingly got the promotion solely because of his spot on the 40-man. That he could have two World Series rings by the end of the year is an absolute shocker.

Which prospects heading to winter ball intrigue you the most? What about those listed with an unusual position, like Laird as an outfielder?

Because I really don’t know all of the names heading to the various winter leagues, I’ll stick to the AFL. The most intriguing, I think, is Craig Heyer. At 24, he was far too old for High-A. Still, he put up some pretty damn good numbers. In 92 innings, Heyer walked an astonishing six hitters and allowed one home run.

He doesn’t have overpowering stuff, but it will pretty interesting to see how his arsenal plays against some of baseball’s top talent. He could be a nice addition to the Trenton bullpen next year.

Which players are you most looking forward to seeing play next season? Which departed ones do you imagine you will miss most?

 Of the guys I didn’t see in Double-A last year, I am really looking forward to watching Graham Stoneburner. He is one of my absolute favorite players in the system, and really knocked my socks off when I saw him against Lakewood in early May.

That day, albeit against a very young, swing-happy BlueClaws team, he struck out 11 over seven two-hit innings. He allowed just two outs in the air all day long, and hit 95 miles per hour on his 95th and final pitch of the afternoon. He also displayed a tight slider that he could either bury or drop in for a strike.
He also flat-out dominated in Tampa throughout the rest of the season, and compiled a WHIP under 1.00, as well as a batting average against of just .209. He’s just another of the Yankees power arms, and Brett Marshall’s probably due for a taste of the upper levels toward the end of 2011 as well.

As far as hitters go, Melky Mesa and Brad Suttle are the obvious choices. Mesa, the T-Yanks’ center fielder and the Florida State League Player of the Year, displayed dynamic talent all year long. He placed in the top five in the organization in home runs (19), RBIs (74) and stolen bases (31). He does strike out a bit (129 in 121 games), which could hurt him when the pitching gets better.

As for Suttle, he appears to be fully back from shoulder surgery, and he showed it in the second half. After the All-Star break, Tampa’s third baseman hit a stellar .293/.369/.839 with nine of his 10 bombs. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him break out.

Of the ones who depart, obviously Brackman, because of his skill and because he is a genuinely nice guy. Aside from the obvious, I hope I’ll miss Josh Schmidt. He’s a great kid who has no business pitching another inning in Double-A.

Any plans to go to spring training and scout out the players at the minor league complex?

I sure hope so. I had a great time at spring training this year, but I really didn’t know what I was doing. I had never been there as a journalist or as a fan, and it certainly was an eye-opening experience. Pretty much every minor leaguer from Charleston to Scranton are scattered across four fields, with games and drills going on constantly.

I remember one of your colleagues once telling me that sabermetrics aren’t their choice when it comes to evaluating prospects. Where do you fall on the scout vs sabr spectrum?

When it comes to scouts vs. sabermetrics, I really don’t think you can go with one or the other. Scouts and stats are like peanut butter and jelly: Taken individually, both are good. Together however, they are so much better.

Let’s use Stoneburner as an example: Without seeing him, I could have told you he struck out 137 hitters last season and put up stellar statistics. When you sit behind the plate and really watch, however, you can see the way he places his fastball and the way his slider breaks. Numbers alone simply won’t tell you that.

That said, it’s always better to have more information at your disposal. Give me WHIP, give me FIP, give me WAR, give me WARP, give me VORP, I’ll take it all and use whichever metric I feel is most valid.

As for traditional metrics, let me just say this: Manny Banuelos fanned 85 men in 64 2/3 innings that spanned 15 regular-season starts. His record? 0-4.

Of course, they really don’t keep the really sabermetric stats for the minor leagues, so it’s kind of a moot point.

Biggest thing you learned this season?

I didn’t really learn it this year, but the Thunder’s season really reinforced just how important it is for a team to spend on player development. From David Phelps and D.J. Mitchell and Hector Noesi to Manny Banuelos, Dellin Betances, Andrew Brackman and Adam Warren, the Trenton rotation was a testament to the smart people the Yankees have spanning the globe for top-notch talent

Yes, the unlimited payroll is a pretty big advantage, but without spending some of it on the draft and international free agency, there’s no question the return on the investment would be significantly smaller.

Lastly, any parting words of wisdom for our readers?

Remember, it’s only a game.

******

Many thanks to Josh for taking the time to do this; come back for a playoff preview live chat, eight PM eastern time this evening.

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The Yankees clinched a postseason spot tonight (whether the division or the wild card is yet to be determined), and I have to say the following, with a big Spoiler alert! caveat if you haven’t seen The Town:

It is beyond satisfying to see the Red Sox robbed and eliminated on the same day.

******

More serious discussion to follow, but for now, go and enjoy it.

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The standings don’t care.

The standings don’t care if a game is won in April or August, by one or by twenty, in sunshine or in rain. All that matters is that a win is a win, and the team with the most in the W column keeps on playing, long after the nights have become longer than the days.

For the fans, however, when narrative is everything, some wins just matter more than others.

Take tonight, for example.

With the Yankees’ having split with the Rays and in danger of being swept in the final home series of the season, they discarded their previous plan to try to conserve innings for their young fifth starter, Phil Hughes, and instead bade him the task of pitching tonight’s game. Not clinching a Wild Card spot is one thing; not even reducing the magic number would have been quite another.

So it was that tonight almost felt, to some, like a need for validation–that the Yankees are not the 2007 Mets, that they will still be playing baseball on Halloween. Losses build upon one another, and losing tonight’s game–where both starters were excellent and Alex Rodriguez worked some familiar late-inning magic–would have been that type of demoralizing loss that can take the color out of autumn leaves.

The win was far from perfect, and there is an emerging worry about Mariano Rivera, who has now blown three saves in one month. Is it his annual dead arm period, or something more serious? It’s not the first time Rivera has blown a save and it won’t be the last, but no one wearing pinstripes, on their uniform or, trite as it sounds, in their hearts, has had to watch a closer who was mere human for at least the past sixteen years. We simply don’t know what humanity on the mound in the ninth inning looks like, and any time previous we may have seen it, we pretend we haven’t.

On the other hand, in some respects the game illustrated the best about the Yankees: a young starter who looks poised to take the mound in the playoffs, the once almost-anathema Rodriguez hitting a late game home run and then fake-bunting to allow a steal of third base, a clutch single from Robbie Canó, dramatically cementing his MVP candidacy if he had not already done so, two and two-thirds innings of absolutely stunning bullpen work from David Robertson, Kerry Wood, Joba Chamberlain and Boone Logan, and a walk-off walk from Juan Miranda–far from the biggest bat on the roster.

All it takes is one win, strategically placed at the right time, to change the outlook from fans and writers: an elimination number of three with a week of baseball left still allows for hope; an elimination number of one would require a six or seven game losing streak.

Of course, the standings don’t care about what the fans think; they’re there, printed in greyscale in the Times and the Record and the News and the Post, and fifty years from now you probably won’t remember how the Yankees got that 93rd win of theirs, but in the end, all that the standings care about is that they did.

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Photo via friend of the blog Amanda Rykoff

How would you remember George Steinbrenner?

The question has been asked and answered, and for many, the monument that now graces Monument Park behind center field in Yankee Stadium, would seem fitting and appropriate as a tribute to a man who was, in many ways, larger than life.

Ask a similar, but very different question:

How would George remember George Steinbrenner?

The answer becomes not quite so clear.

Steinbrenner, we know, was a man who spared no expense when it came to the Yankees, willing to do anything to bring a winning baseball team to New York City–and seven Word Series titles later, he most certainly did– seemingly regardless of the consequences it may have wrought.

Yet Steinbrenner was also a man whose community involvement is something we can only wish to emulate, and this Hal Steinbrenner quote about his father, from the article linked above, says volumes:

“He always told us that America is supposed to be the land of milk and honey, and there are too many people left behind,” Hal Steinbrenner says. “And he taught us if two or more people know you are doing it, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.”

Does that come across as a man who’d want a giant, bombastic monument that overshadows those of Ruth, Huggins, Gehrig, Mantle, DiMaggio and the victims of 9/11 (among others)?

Of course, only George himself knew what he would have wanted, so perhaps it’s wrong to say that the monument is too big or a noble effort but misguided.

@emmaspan tweeted that “it would be kind of inappropriate if Steinbrenner had a tasteful, understated, modest remembrance,” and my co-writer at You Can’t Predict Baseball @jordan_smed told me, “I think George wouldn’t have wanted a giant monument, but it was still the right thing to do…because the guy he was demanded it.”

There is certainly some truth to these notions, but I’m still left wondering if Steinbrenner was about the monuments and the tributes so much as he was the cause, be it the Yankees or helping out the underprivileged wherever he could.

Don’t mistake this for hagiography–Steinbrenner wasn’t a saint, and I doubt he’d enjoy classification as such, but that’s kind of the point.

Our society still bears traces of those that came before, of the idea that bigger is better (a sociologist or anthropologist would probably love to examine the root causes of this notion), that the more gold, the heavier trophy, the bigger monument you get, the more important you were.

In the postgame, Derek Jeter was asked about it and commented, ““It was big,” Jeter said. “Probably just how The Boss wanted it. The biggest one out there.”

Jeter, unlike me, would be in a position to know, and yet it’s hard to reconcile his comment with the notion of the man who thought the highest form of charity was that done anonymously.

It’s hard to argue that any one person was more important to the Yankees than the Boss in his prime, since he held the purse strings and thus the keys, but does that make Steinbrenner more important than the Yankee name, brand, legacy or ethos?

More importantly, did Steinbrenner see himself as such?

The monument is there, and by all rights and purposes one should be there, but when it was unveiled the great reaction–via IM, Twitter, correspondence from those at the game–was one agog at how big the monument was, more than anything else.

I never knew Mr. Steinbrenner, so I can’t answer the question with any certainty, but I wonder…

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So, Andy Pettitte was reportedly brilliant and Mariano had his 4th blown save (what the…); I was playing softball so I missed the game, but that’s not what I want to talk about.

First, check out this screen grab

Now, this:

Colvin was scoring from third on Welington Castillo’s RBI double when a piece of bat hit him in his chest. He was transported to the Ryder Trauma Unit of Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where X-rays were taken and the wound was being sutured.

He’s being treated for pneumothorax, a puncture of the chest cavity, which allowed air into the chest wall and the potential of a collapsed lung. A tube was inserted into the wound, and Colvin is resting comfortably, but will remain hospitalized for 2-3 days for further examination , and manager Mike Quade said he will not play again this season.

Colvin was not in labored breathing, and there was very little blood. There was no immediate word on the depth of the wound, though it was only a few inches from his heart, and his neck, and could’ve been much more serious. The sharp end of the larger piece of Castillo’s broken bat is what went into Colvin’s chest, but it did not stick into the chest.

That’s from Here

Baseball is a sport, and while it might not be football or hockey or another full-pads, full-contact sport, it’s still a sport and people will get hurt. It’s part of the game, and something you’re supposed to understand when you sign up for it.

That said, there’s a difference between, say, a pulled quad or hammy, or even a torn ligament in the elbow–all of these things suck, and life would be better if they didn’t happen at all, but had that bat shard been just a few inches in another area, as the above says, it could have been much, much worse.

If you don’t want to all-out ban maple bats –which Castillo, the batter, had been using, via Deadspin et al sources– because of whatever reason you have, then why not a batglove, as our friends at IIATMS have so often been promoting, or some similar device?

Do we really want to hope that our luck holds out forever and no player…or fan…is critically injured?

Do you want to risk it happening to Jeter or A-Rod or (next year) Jesus Montero?

Do you want to risk it happening to a fan? Forget yourself; would you want it to happen to your mother or father, sister or brother, son or daughter?

Because sooner or later, it will happen. We got lucky today it wasn’t worse. We won’t be lucky forever.

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This can kill you:

This was the Yankee game:

Images from EKG Fileroom and Fangraphs

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