(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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(Something about the Yankee bullpen pitching five scoreless innings, the grittiness of Brett Gardner’s sliding into first base starting that five run eighth inning rally, and why you should never hang “Mission Accomplished” banners)

(Nolan’s only sad because Swisher decided to bunt.)

(Or what happens when you use so many pitchers in the bottom of the eighth and your best one never makes an appearance!)

Images via Fangraphs and Reuters. A more serious post in the morning. Maybe.

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This blog, when it was originally named, was called “This Purist bleeds Pinstripes” because a friend had been kind enough to point out that I am, at heart, a baseball purist.

I love watching the no-hit bid, the smell of hot dogs and crackerjacks, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” played on an organ and….

…baseball players that rock the high socks, wearing them as the baseball uniform is meant to be worn.

With that in mind, and with some help from Twitter (especially @mikeaxisa and @richardiurilli), I was able to come up with a High Socks All Star Team, comprised of current MLBers who have been known to wear the High Socks.

Here’s how it breaks down:

The lineup, in a DH-league*:

Ichiro Suzuki, RF. Ichiro is headed to Cooperstown, should he ever retire, and is easily the most recognizable Japenese import to ever hit Major League baseball. Besides some locker room gems (Google it, trust me), Ichiro leads the league in hits consistently, and has never had a year in the States where he has batted under .300. He’d also never stolen less than 30 bases until last year–his age 35 season.

Johnny Damon, LF. Not many baseball players can say they’ve won World Series with the Red Sox and the Yankees; Damon is one of the few that can. Damon has been a Major Leaguer for fifteen seasons now–debuting the same year as Derek Jeter, among others–has a career OBP of .355, and with 2529 hits is only theoretically a few seasons away from a run at 3000. He may not elect to play that long (or find a suitor), but his help in securing a World Series ring for both the Red Sox in 2004 and the Yankees in 2009 is undeniable.

Miguel Cabrera, 1B. The five time All Star is the face of the Detroit Tigers, and has hit 25 or more home runs every year after his rookie season (2003, when he was a mere 20 years old), as well as four seasons (and then this one) posting a .900+ OPS. In fact, this season, Cabrera leads the Majors with a .427 OBP and an OPS+ of 178. Yeah, um, he’s kinda good. Just ogle it..

Alex Rodriguez, DH. To get a sense of A-Rod: there’s been talk of him having a down year, so what does he do tonight? Hit three home runs. The Yankees’ third baseman is something of a legend in odd years (’03, ’05, ’07, and what he did when he played in ’09), and really good the rest of the time. A-Rod is already the youngest player to 600 home runs, and one of just three (Barry Bonds and Mays being the others) to have 600 home runs and 300 stolen bases in his career.

David Wright, 3B. The face of the New York Mets is a five time All Star, a third baseman who has every year since 2005 posted a batting average of .300 or better and on base percentage of .380 or better. Although Citi Field has perhaps stifled his power numbers, Wright’s OPS+ numbers indicate that he has consistently still been one of the top hitters in all of baseball. Oh, and he plays a pretty good third base, too.

Ian Kinsler, 2B. Kinsler is one of the game’s best young stars. As a second baseman, he hit 31 home runs last year (and has even hit for the cycle, as well). While he’s only got six homers so far this season (partially due to time on the DL), his on-base percentage is up to .387–approaching Nick Johnsonian territory.

Jason Bartlett, SS. One would expect there to be more high-socks wearing shortstops, but alas, those currently manning the land between second and third are not an old school set. The Rays’ shortstop came out of almost nowhere last season to post a line of .320/.389/.490/.879, which is decent for any player but practically obscene for what is traditionally a weak-hitting position. There’s been a massive fall off this season, the result of which is somewhat less than his career norms, but the only other shortstop I could find wearing high socks is hitting .219.

Chris Snyder, C. It’s hard to find a catcher that wears high socks, and when your other options are a zombie Jason Varitek and no-longer-out-performing-expectations Francisco Cervelli, Snyder more or less wins by default. but if you have the desire to look, here are his numbers.

Brett Gardner, CF. Brett Gardner in the long run is most likely not a .300 hitter; that he remained so for so long this season is a testament to stepping up to the role and seizing the opportunity that was given to him via the departed Johnny Damon. The outfielder possesses enough speed to turn what should be routine ground balls into infield hits, and already has 33 stolen bases on the year. Whether 2010 is a true break out year or a fluke remains to be seen, but don’t ask the Yankees where they’d be without Gardner this season–they wouldn’t like the answer.

The Rotation:

Felix Hernandez: I’ll admit, it was really, really hard to choose a number one starter for the High Sox All Stars, but I’ve been a Felix fan for a long, long time. Felix debuted at NINETEEN, so while it feels like he’s been around forever, he’s only 24 years old. His numbers have, predictably, improved over time, and last year he perhaps emerged as the ace that everyone expected–and there’s no reason to feel he’ll let up any time soon. He finished second in last year’s Cy Young voting, and has a career ERA+ of 129. Oh, and he once hit a grand slam off of Johan Santana. That was cool, too.

Josh Johnson: I love him just for being my fantasy team’s savior two years running. He’s given up one home run every three games, basically (a HR/9 rate of 0.3) this season, and has an ERA of 2.27. You can argue the merits of ERA, but 2.27 is utterly ridiculous in mid-August. Especially since it recently just went up. You might–might be able to argue that Cliff Lee’s better in 2010, but only Johnson wears the high socks.

Ubaldo Jimenez: Alas, Ubaldo’s uber-start has cooled considerably, but what a fun first half of the season it was to watch, over two months with an ERA under one, and the season’s first no-hitter. Wins and losses are stupid, we know, but when you have 17 wins in mid-August, you still notice. Even if it’s just luck going your way, so much in the game of baseball is dependent on luck that you can’t discount it. How good was Ubaldo’s first half? On June 6th, his ERA was still under one; despite an ERA of 4.63 since then, it’s still at 2.27 for the season. I’m not sure any pitcher can do what he did the first half over the course of a full season, but at 26, Ubaldo’s as sure a bet as any to figure it out.

Tim Lincecum: When the two-years-running reigning Cy Young winner–the guy that’s won it two of his first three years in the Majors–is your fourth starter, you have your team a rotation. Lincecum is known for wracking up the strikeouts–265 in 2008, 261 last season, as much as he is for his unkempt hair and funky, gymnast-like delivery. His numbers are down fairly considerably this season–resulting in his demotion in this rotation–perhaps spawning questions as to whether or not previous workload has caught up with his small frame. Never fear though; even if it has, Lincecum’s teammate Matt Cain also wears the High Socks. Hrm. Maybe I should become a Giants fan.

Stephen Strasburg: You’ve already heard the phenom’s name, no doubt. Not many pitchers strike out fourteen in their Major League debuts while walking none over just six innings. Recently DL’d with shoulder issues, he’s healthy again and given gaudy college numbers and pitching number as a rookie in the Majors, Strasburg is very possibly headed for greatness. Wearing high socks from the get-go, Strasburg has made a lasting, good impression on this fan.

In the Bullpen:

Closer: Jose Valverde (hate the antics, but alas, until Mariano or Soria starts wearing high socks, this is the best I can do).

David Robertson (recently stopped wearing high socks on the current Yankee road trip, but as @bryanhoch, informs us, “They’ll be back on the homestand. He says they don’t go well with high tops.” The Yankees’ reliever had one of their most important playoff appearances in 2009, when in Game 2 of the ALDS he had the bases loaded and no one out (largely leftover by the previous reliever), and got out of the inning without allowing the run.)

Damaso Marte (On the DL, where he’s spent far too much time as a Yankee. That said, when he’s healthy, he’s one of the best LOOGYs in the game).

Casey Janssen (Plays for the Canadien team. Wears high socks. Good enough.)

On the Bench:

Todd Helton, Ryan Zimmerman, Brendan Ryan.

*How can I be a baseball purist and a fan of the DH? I don’t know *sobs*. I don’t know.

So there you have it, your High Socks team. They could probably use an upgrade at catcher, and some help in the bullpen, but all things considered, I’d pay to see these guys in a game against the All Fat Team.

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So, it would seem that the top of the Yankee lineup isn’t hitting. Well. At all.

Back in the last millennium, Joe Torre would on occasion see this, and his solution to the problem would be to shake the line up around–do crazy things, like bat Knoblauch sixth or whatnot–until the offense started to hit again.

In that vein, I invite suggestions from you, loyal reader, as to how you would go and construct a slump-busting batting order for Tuesday’s game in Minnesota.

Caveats:

1) Current injuries apply. No including Johnson or Posada or Granderson as they’re unavailable.
2) Use B-Ref or Fangraphs for more detailed stats and splits for the hitters.
3) Unfortunately, we can’t shuffle too much with the rotation, no matter how much we might want to.

Bonus points for creativity.

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So we’re almost a month and a half into the season, and I realize the entire time, I’ve still been listening to my soundtrack from the 2009 playoffs when making my journeys to the Stadium.

I realize there’s nothing inherently wrong with this–I mean, as Yankee fans, we love the past–but my iTunes could definitely use some updating.

So, here I invite you to list your selections for this playlist, according to the following criteria:

1) “New York, New York”, “Enter Sandman” and “Empire State of Mind” are already on this list.

2) Songs should make you think about the Yankees–in a good way–ie, get you amped up for the game. They can be particular to a player or general, to the team as a whole.

3) I love you Black Eyed Peas, but if I hear “I Gotta Feeling” another time I might freak.

Happy suggesting!

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Early season statistics can be funky.

For example, right now, the league leader in ERA is…Livan Hernandez? Huh? (Mike Pelfrey and Carlos Silva also make the top ten, along with the names you’d be more expectant to find there, such as Halladay, Lincecum, and Wainwright).

So, as I’m sure you, the astute fan you are, know that it’s not really a great idea to put too much into the early season leaderboard.

That said, when Andy Pettitte makes an appearance there, with an ERA of 1.29 after four starts and a WHIP of 1.07, you start to wonder: can this be a fluke? Or can this be like Cliff Lee in 2008 or Zack Greinke last season?

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Going into this season, any Yankee fan worth his or her salt would have told you that the number one concern for this team was their dependence, still, on the “Core Four”, a quartet (Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte) that seems to have somehow gotten a hold of naked pictures of Father Time, or something. Year after year, writers and fans inscribe their doom; year after year, they like to prove us wrong.

Okay, so there are some signs that they may be slowing just a little, but the dramatic fall off and collapse many have predicted has never materialized.

In fact, switching Derek Jeter to the leadoff role last season seemed to spur a renaissance, and Mariano Rivera had the best season (thus far) of his career at the age of 38.

Given the hijinks of this quartet, then, is it really any surprise that Andy Pettitte is off to one of his best starts in career history?

****

The question, then, is thus: how can we tell if it will last? Logic tells us that there is no possible way Pettitte will end this season with an ERA of 1.29; experience tells us that with a member of the Core Four, anything, really, is possible.

For what it’s worth, there have only been two seasons in Pettitte’s career–two out of fourteen completed–where he has finished with an ERA under 3.00 (1997, and 2005 when he pitched for Houston), and only six where he has finished with an ERA under 4.00. This would seem to indicate that there’s no way Pettitte could maintain his start, but if that was the end-all of the argument, you wouldn’t be reading this.

The sabermatician in all of us knows that there’s really only two ways to figure out if Pettitte’s tremendous start is a fluke or not:

a) Watch all of his starts from now until the end of September and look at his final statistics, or
b) Look at his peripheral statistics.

So let’s start by analyzing the most basic of these.

Walks = good. Strikeouts = bad.

In Pettitte’s career, he has average 2.33 strike outs for every walk–while it’s always good to strike out more than one walks, Pettitte is hardly (nor has he ever been known as) a strikeout specialist.

In 2010 thus far, Pettitte has 22 strikeouts to 9 walks–a not-so-different ratio of 2.44.

What does this mean? Whatever the secret to his early season success, it’s not that he’s striking out any more batters.

Still, we’ve known for a while–since 1995, really–that Pettitte isn’t really a strikeout pitcher. That’s why the almost-no-hitter he had in Baltimore last year, the one where Hairston’s error caused him to lose a perfect game, was so weird. Out of all the starters on the Yankee staff, Andy Pettitte is the one guy you’d least expect to do it–he’s a “ground ball” pitcher, and as BABIP will tell you, sometimes balls get through.

Ground Ball pitchers may not have all the flash of the CC Sabathias or the Tim Lincecums, but they can be pretty effective in their own right when they’re on–ever watch Roy Halladay pitch?

Actually, one of the cool things about good ground ball pitchers is that since they can induce swings early in the count, they can keep their overall pitch count down. It’s certainly not the only reason, but it’s likely one of the reasons Halladay seems to pitch a complete game every single time he steps on the mound.

The converse, however, might be what we saw from Chien Ming Wang last season–when ground ball pitchers get hit, they can get hit hard. Pettitte’s not traditionally considered a sinkerballer in the way that Wang is; it’s perhaps less imperative for him to keep his pitches low than it is for Wang, but if Pettitte starts giving up lots of fly balls and home runs, there’s probably something wrong.

By now we’re pretty familiar: a hallmark Pettitte start involves some base hits, a couple double plays, and more likely than not, some sort of caught stealing or successful pickoff.

ANYWAY, the point here, is that just as for some pitchers we look at strikeout-to-walk ratios, with Pettitte, we need to look at groundball-flyball ratios as well.

Our friends at Fangraphs tell us that, career wise, Pettitte pitches to a tune of a 49% groundball percentage (for comparison, Javier Vazquez is at 39% ).

Fangraphs has yet to update with today’s start, but through three starts in 2010, Pettitte’s groundball rate was…dun dun dun…48%.

So, once again, we have a peripheral statistic that’s pretty much in line with his career norms.

Where, then, is the difference? Pettitte’s career norms aren’t that of someone who pitches to a 1.29 ERA, so something’s gotta be going on, right?

Right.

This is where we take a journey over to the BABIP column. As many of you will know, batting average on balls in play is basically an indicator that tells us how often batted balls “find holes” or otherwise eschew fielders. It’s basically a measure of luck–though maybe (and I stress maybe here) someone could find a way to include BABIP in an analysis of a team’s defense.

A normal-ish BABIP is about .300. For his career, Pettitte’s BABIP is .315. Through three starts, as Fangraphs lists it, Pettitte’s BABIP is .260.

Simply put, then, either Pettitte is getting some really, beyond-the-pale help from his defense, or he’s just been pretty darn lucky.

This doesn’t mean Pettitte’s pitched poorly (so don’t fret); just that a season long ERA of 1.29 is probably unsustainable.

Thus far, if we’re to be encouraged by anything, it should be that Pettitte’s given the Yankees four quality starts by the standard definition (6 IP with 3 ER or less), and that in each of his past two starts, he’s given the Yankees eight innings. In fact, I’m personally encouraged that Pettitte’s worked deep into his most recent games considering that due to the weather deities, he didn’t pitch nearly as much as he would have otherwise during Spring Training.

So, there will probably be a clunker in the near future, but even if Pettitte only pitches to his career norms, that should suit the Yankees just fine.

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I was going to attempt this post in the vein of Jay-Z’s “99 problems and a bitch ain’t one”, but the thing is, the Yankees don’t actually have 99 problems.

Well, I’m sure they do, but I got stuck after 34–and that was with the majority of them being completely nonsensical.

So where does a manager who brought the Yankees a 100+-win season and their 27th World title in his second year with the team–and third, overall–rank in terms of issues the Yankees may deign to consider as the dawn of the 2010 season approaches?

Pretty far down. I can think of a lot others–both serious and not-so-serious–(these are only in the order they occur to me)

Oh. And for the record, since this seems to sail over some people’s head: If the following is all that plagues your franchise, you are in remarkably good shape.

For instance,

1) Nick Johnson, who history tells us will probably get hurt at some point, is supposed to be the fulltime DH.

What happens when Johnson goes down? Right now your fillers are Randy Winn and Jamie Hoffman; otherwise you’re talking Posada DHing and Cervelli catching, and if Cervelli goes down, you’re rushing Jesus Montero. Johnny Damon would be the perfect fit here, of course, but it looks like both sides blew that one.

2) Jeter’s 36, Mo’s 40, A-Rod’s 35, Posada’s…you know what? I’d rather not know.

For a team that prides itself on getting younger, many of the most important players–Jeter, Mo, A-Rod, Posada, Pettitte–are all on the wrong side of 35.

I’d hate to be considered agist, but the older you are after your mid-20s, the easier it is to wear-and-tear and get hurt, and the Yankees, as 2008 showed us, can ill-afford a slate of injuries. To keep them healthy, Girardi needs to rest them, but when he does rest them, he gets hammered Jim Caldwell-style for sitting his starters…

3) Our best prospect is a 20 year old kid who’s never played above AA.

Yeah, sure, trades are fun, but we’ve more or less gutted the upper levels of our farm system. Sure, Kelvin DeLeon and Slade Heathcott and Manny Banuelos may turn out to be studs, but they are a long, long way off.

2009 worked as well as it did because we had guys like Cervelli and Peña who, though not All-Stars, could still come up and do their fill, what was needed of them, and not be completely overmatched. It meant that hurt guys, like Posada and A-Rod, could take their time coming back, instead of risking re-aggravating their injury.

4) In the time it takes Joba to set between pitches, I managed to finish, print, revise, print, publish and ship my novel.

Speaking of which, there’s the whole Joba-vs-Phil debate, and then someone is bound to bring up the 8th inning thing again, and meanwhile you want to tear your hair out because you remember that good pitchers aren’t built in a day–even though the rest of the media seems to have forgotten this.

5) That (rhymes with duck)-ing moat.

And Kate Smith. And Cotton Eye’d Joe. And YMCA. And fans doing the wave. And everything that says “let’s be cheesy” instead of just letting fans enjoy the game that’s played on the field, like the main attraction it’s supposed to be.

6) The fact that if Granderson and Winn hit back to back, there exists a potential “Grandy and Randy go back-to-back, ain’t that dandy?” from Sterling.

‘Nuff said.

Yeah, there are a lot more problems, I’m sure, but the point is, all things considered, Joe Girardi isn’t really a worry.

Yes, if the Yankees miss the playoffs it will be 2-of-3 years that they missed, but let us not forget that in 2008 the team lost many of its best players due to injury for extended time and still managed to win 89 games–which would have made the playoffs in at least two other divisions.

Then, last year, Girardi and his team won over 100 games, far and away the best team in the league, and virtually steamrolled through the postseason.

Honestly, there are other New York coaches–Tortorella, Coughlin, whatever dude manages the Mets–that should find their seats a whole lot hotter…

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Over at River Ave Blues, our friends have come up with a series outlining the Yankees’ 10 best pitching performances and hits of the 2009 regular season.

Since I lack a single original bone in body body, I thought I’d come up with a similar list–except, of course, for the postseason, and one that combines hits, pitches and all-out instincts.  See if you agree or disagree–comments are always welcome!

10: Jeterian:  In the grand scheme of things, Derek Jeter’s ALDS game one game-tying home run may go unnoticed.  In a game the Yankees ended up winning by a comfortable margin, Jeter’s hit came relatively early, thus it perhaps lacks the drama of some of the later moments.

Still, until that hit, the Yankees were trailing the Twins, and the feeling of “oh no, not again…” was rampant–after all, these were Yankees that still hadn’t won a playoff series since 2004.

9: Pettitte Pizazz With his team down 3-0 in game three of a deadlocked World Series, the Yankees were in serious danger of going down in the World Series two games to one while on the road.  The Yankees, however, got help from an unlikely source–Pettitte himself, who blooped a single off of Cole Hamels that scored the game tying run.  The Yankees never looked back, taking a lead in the game (and in the series) that they would not relinquish.

8: Fundamentals 2, Angels 0 It’s one thing to win on a walk-off, another to win because of the other team’s miscues, and still yet another to do both of these in an ALCS game.  Helped by an unseasonably cold and wet night, Jerry Hairston Jr. helped the Yankees do just that–scoring after the Angels’ second baseman botched what could have been a double play ball–and the Yankees took a commanding two games-to-none series lead.

7: Halloween Hijinks Pettitte’s game-tying hit in Game Three of the World Series would have gone for naught had it not been for what happened almost immediately beforehand.  Alex Rodriguez (who else?) hit a long fly ball that looked, on first glance, as though it bounced off of the top of the wall in right field for a long double.  His teammates, however, saw differently:  the ball actually hit a camera that was hanging over the fence, and would have likely gone into the stand otherwise.  After a brief protest, the umpires conferred, watched the first-ever World Series replay, and issued their ruling:  two-run home run.

6: David Robertson, Miracle Worker Although A-Rod’s game-tying home run in Game 2 of the ALDS (see below) may have been the biggest moment at the New Yankee Stadium at that point, the home run did, alas, only tie the game.  Thus, as the Yankees proceeded to extra innings and Girardi burned reliever after reliever, he was eventually left to call upon David Robertson to come in and do the impossible:  get out of a two men on, no one out situation without giving up a run.

Robertson did not help his own cause at first–allowing a base hit–but the ball was hit so hard that Minnesota could not score, and instead was left with the bases loaded (and still no one out).  Let the miracle begin:  a line-out to Teixeira, a ground ball hit hard enough for Teixeira to make the out at home, and a lazy fly ball to center field.  The Yankees won the game in the bottom of the same inning.

5:  CC, completely in control Heading into the postseason, one of the biggest question marks the Yankees had was the ability of Sabathia to pitch on rest as short as three days–he had done so in Milwaukee, but done so so often in September that there was nothing in the tank in October.

Yankee fans, however, needn’t have worried.  Sabathia excelled on short rest–and perhaps not more so than in game four of the ALCS, which the Yankees would win 10-1.  Sabathia allowed just five hits over eight innings, and the not-so-hidden benefit of his dominant performance was that the Yankees were able to employ a ready and rested bullpen in the wake of a poor performance from AJ Burnett in Game Five.

4:  Matsui go Boom–The only thought going into Game Six of the World Series for Yankee fans (and one presumes the Yankees) was simple:  don’t go to Game Seven.  No one, it seems, heeded that call more than designated hitter Hideki Matsui, who got to work quickly, with a two run home run, two run single and two run double.  The six RBI night was enough to crown Matsui World Series MVP in a series with no clear-cut winner–and as far away as crowded bars in Manhattan, you could hear the chants of MVP! MVP! reverberating just as Matsui’s double (and RBI 5 and 6) landed, missing being a second home run by only a little.  Godzilla, indeed.

3:  Johnny Damon takes the 2-1 special: Keith Olbermann called this the smartest play in World Series history, and while you may debate this, the fact is that this play illustrates why sabermetrics, though important, cannot be the be all and end all–that an acute awareness for one’s surroundings can be as, if not more, important.

In the ninth inning of a tie game on the road, with two out and Phil Coke (!) warming in the bullpen, Johnny Damon worked a miracle at-bat against Brad Lidge, finally singling after what seemed to be an eternity.  Then, with Teixeira at bat, the Phillies over-shifted–something of perhaps little consequence in a regular season game, but made all the difference in this situation.  After stealing second base, Damon noticed that no one was covering third base–so he took it.  The decision, which had to be made in hundredths of a second, meant that if successful, Damon could score as easily on a passed ball or wild pitch as on a base hit.

2:  AJ and an Empire State of Mind AJ’s postseason can be explained very simply:  when he pitched at home he was great; when he pitched on the road he was awful.  Fortunately for the Yankees, his most important pitching performance came at home–Game Two of the World Series.  After having being beat soundly by Cliff Lee in Game One of the Series (which many Yankee fans will tell you did not feel like Game One of the World Series), the Yankees were at risk of going down two games to none, and then having to go to Philadelphia to try to salvage the series.

Philadelphia’s surprising Game Two starter–Pedro Martinez–pitched better than most expected, but it was Burnett who had the endurance to outlast him.  Burnett went seven innings, allowing just one run on four hits–and impressively (for Burnett) walked just two.  In a game that the Yankees won by a low score of 3-1, Burnett’s performance was nothing short of exactly what the Yankees needed.

1:  It’s an A-bomb, from A-Rod You might disagree about where this home run is placed, but after having seen it in person, I admit I am biased.

It’s not just that A-Rod’s home run was a bottom of the ninth, game-tying blast, or that it happened in the postseason, or that it happened after the Yankees’ vaunted set-up and closer duo of Phil Hughes and Mariano Rivera faltered, just a bit but enough to give Minnesota a 3-1 lead, or that A-Rod had long been the scapegoat for Yankee postseason woes, or that the entire 2009 season seemed to be about A-Rod’s redemption after admitting he used steroids, or that the way the season started and ended for him–first and last pitch home runs was an incredible story, if not a bizarre coincidence–

–It was the fact that A-Rod’s home run was an aggregate of all of those, coming in a game that itself was incredibly close and well-played.

It’s not often that you can say one hit changes everything–but this time, you can.

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(with thanks to Jonathan Mayo)

There’s a proud man.

He was once (and presumably still is) a millionaire.

He had a fantastic job, one which many young children dream that they might one day be able to do.

Alas, this November he lost his job.  He wasn’t fired, he didn’t do anything wrong, but his skills were not what his company needed at the moment, and, well, with the economy the way it is, his salary was a little too extravagant for what his performance warranted.

His company decided that they would prefer younger, fresher talent–talent that was not too far removed from training, and thus cheaply obtainable.  In an economy such as this, any dollar saved was supremely beneficial.

As autumn turned to winter, he looked everywhere in his industry, with all the competitors of his former company, his career counsellor advised him that there was no reason for him to ever consent to a salary or employment contract inferior to his previous one.  His career counsellor had long given the same advice to others in the same industry, but niether seemed to grasp the difficulties and the climate of the current economy.

And so, as our hero continued to look, the opportunties disappeared:  in LA, in St. Louis, in Atlanta, in New York and in others, the position was filled by others with either better skills or less pride, and sometimes both.

Soon the new year came around, and not so long after that the proud man found himself only a few weeks before the High Season still seeking employment.

Could he, one must think, return to his previous employer?  Though they have filled the void, they have not done so to the degree that their shareholders had come to expect.

The company, however, is not in the same state that it was when our hero was first employed by them–they can no longer pay him the salary he so desires; out of choice or necessity is known only to those executives, so we must only speculate.

One thing, however, remains clear:  the witching hour grows nigh and our hero is still without a job.

What’s the moral of the story?

Swallow your pride, Damon.  I am about to lose all the credit in the world of Yankee blogging for saying this, but swallow your pride and come back to the Yanks.  Not for your defence, but because Nick Johnson being Nick Johnson is probably going to get hurt at some point and we will need a decent DH and besides do we really want Brett Gardner playing left field every day of the season when a better option is available?

I realize it’s a lot to ask, but you’ve got at least one good year with the bat left; NYS is perfect for your swing and don’t tell me you’re mulling retirement, either….

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