What a great moment caught by Jeffery Sauger, MLB.com photographer. As Jeter's look might suggest, it will be a grand parade this evening around our house if the Yankees get booted out of the playoffs later this afternoon. Less than one week longer than the Sox...I might allow myself a small "woot" in anticipation. And I think it would be fair in the sense that the AL East is simply not the powerhouse it was a couple of years ago and stacking the standings during the season with plenty o'games against Tampa and Baltimore will come out in the end. And it doesn't help that you can add another nickname to "E-Rod" and "K-Rod": A-Wol.
The back page of the New York Daily News yesterday aptly expressed how many Yankees fans felt about Alex Rodriguez after seeing him contribute next to nothing in the first two games of the AL Division Series against Detroit. Out of a full-page photo of the dejected third baseman staring at the ground after one of his three strikeouts in New York’s 4-3 loss jumped a screaming headline: "A-WOL: Alex a No-Show Again As Yanks Fall to Tigers." A change of locales didn’t help locate the former MVP, who went 0-for-3 and was hit by a pitch at Comerica Park in the Yankees’ 6-0 defeat last night, which put his team on the brink of elimination in the best-of-five series. Rodriguez fell to .091 (1-for-11) in the series to extend his string of postseason futility.It was a heck of a pitching performance. And Johnson simply did not have it. It looked like he was inflexible, unable to jump for a bloop at one point. I was hoping the Tigers would bunt to him forcing him to stoop but that would have just been mean I suppose. Today, the Yanks rely on 11-7 Wright who was actually 4-1 in his last ten, though that includes two against Baltimore and one against Tampa.
Comments
gr - October 7, 2006 11:17 AM
I, for one, will say some prayers and burn some offerings. I am a Tigers fan today!
Temujin - October 7, 2006 5:34 PM
We are all Tigers.
The headline on TSN currently is "8-Rod", referring to the fact that he has been demoted to 8th spot in the batting order.
Temujin - October 7, 2006 5:57 PM
Craig Monroe! My new temporary hero.
T-Bo - October 7, 2006 7:14 PM
Why yes, yes they will......in two innings (end of seventh as I write this). One thing is clear, and it's not that A-Rod should go......but that Yankees' GM Brian Cashman should. With monopoly money to play with making for a rotisserie situation for him, he's come up short six years in a row now....and the Yankees were only close to being the best team once, in 2003 (the D-Backs should have won it in five in 2001 if not for that gopher-ball reliever). Billy Beane, the GM of my A's, is immeasurably better at the job, making strong teams with much less to spend. The Twins can tell you about that and soon, I think, the Tigers will testify, too. And then the NL champion!!!
But tonight, Gotham will cry. And I will howl with laughter.
Alan - October 7, 2006 8:08 PM
Bottom of eight now. Sheffield at first just dropped a ball. But not all of Gotham will cry - I have my Mets hat on today praying for a sweep in that one.
Alan - October 7, 2006 8:17 PM
Total class leaving Bonderman, the Tiger's 23 year old pitcher, in to start the ninth. Craig Munroe just ate turf seven up in the nonths.
I have a tiny bit of Tigers cred. I used to go to London Tigers AA games back in the summer of 1992. Somewhere I have an Al Kaline card I bought in grade 2.
T-Bo - October 7, 2006 9:38 PM
I liked the Mets until they started getting cocky. I last rooted for them in 1986, but only because back then I didn't like the Bosox at all (Sorry.....though I've grown fond of them in their wars against the Yankees over the years).
The Tigers had farm clubs in the NY-P League for years, and when I was in Auburn all of the managers they had over those years (including Larry Parrish) were first-class and up front all the way. Detroit is also the team of my father and youngest brother, so if the A's lose to them I won't be totally crushed.
My modest streak of seeing the eventual world champion live during the regular season (Red Sox in 2004 and White Sox in 2005 in Baltimore) can still be extended, as I saw the Tigers twice in Cleveland this past summer (Rogers got shelled for seven runs before there were any outs in the first, but the next day Bonderman did to the Indians pretty much what he did to the Yankees today). If it is, next year I'll see the A's no matter what the scheduling problems might be.