Today, the Globe's Chris Snow quotes from a letter, dated September 19, sent by the Yankees to 2005 suite holders:
The New York Yankees are entering the post season for the eleventh consecutive year.When that letter was written, New York trailed Boston by 1.5 games in the East and Cleveland by .5 games for the wild card. ... Dirtdog notes that the team is also selling AL East Champs shirts.
Johnny Damon says his shoulder is back to 100 percent: "I am finally healthy. I can honestly say that now. My shoulder is not bothering me. I'm happy. I'm excited about this week." ... Kevin Youkilis: "Throwing's not a problem. I can grip the bat. It hurts a little, but I think I'll be okay. The doctors told me I should be ready for the ALCS." ... A nice feature on Yaz.
Michael Silverman of the Herald writes: "Sweeping a doubleheader never is easy ..." In the SoSH Game Thread last night, Cliff Otto posted this:
I did a study a while back using Retrosheet data from 1900-2000 with the following results:Doubleheaders
4614 Home team swept
3171 Visiting team swept
6959 Split
150 Home team won one game,
other game was a tie
134 Visiting team won one game,
other game was a tie
15028 Total
DHs Pct
7785 51.80% Sweeps
6959 46.31% Splits
284 1.89% Incomplete
--------------------------
15028 100.00% Total
6 comments:
Which of course means that the likelihood of a sweep is exactly the same for a doubleheader as for any two game set (unless your team is playing the Orioles under Earl Weaver.) Thanks, Redsock, for putting a myth to rest that we hear repeated over and over by math-challenged color men.
[DISCLAIMER for Sara: "Color Men" is a common term for the second announcer in the booth, often a beloved former star, who is supposed to provide special insight that the play-by-play announcer cannot. The term is NOT used here to in any way denigrate people OF color, or to imply that those with "brown" or other colored skin, including the rare blue (Smurfs)and taupe (me), are especially math challenged or in any other respect less able than non-colored color men, properly designated "color men of no color," kind of like Joe Castiglione. The term "men" as used here merely reflects the overwhelming number of Y chromosomes possessed by the current crop of said color men of no color (noting in passing that one of the less annoying color men, Ken Singleton of the Yankees, and the hands-down best, Joe Morgan, are in fact color men of color), and in no way, manner or form is meant to imply that those with only X chromosomes couldn't do as good a job if 1) they played major league ball, or 2) were given half a chance, or 3) could string three words together, since most so-called "Color Men" have the native ability of Rex Hudler, which is to say, none.]
the hands-down best, Joe Morgan
[eyes popping out of head, jaw-dropping to floor, unable to make any noise except for some Gleasonesque humma-humma-humma]
You like Ken Singleton AND Joe Morgan, Jack? Ugh, I HATE both of those dudes. To each their own.
Bobby Murcer (that's his name, right?) is worse, though. My nightmare pairing watching a YES game is Ken Singleton and Bobby Murcer.
You're kidding me, right? Joe Morgan is one of the biggest baseball idiots on the planet! Everytime he opens his mouth he says something that is either completely wrong, completely stupid or both. There's a reason there's an entire weblog dedicated to getting him fired. Trust me.
Anyone else remember what he said during the Sox/Cubs game back in June that was aired on ESPN? Joe Morgan looked at the lineup and questioned why Doug Mirabelli was doing the catching instead of Jason Varitek. Wakefield was pitching that game. Way to do your pregame research, Joe! Idiot.
"He's so impressive with that excellent gait of his, the way he walks. There's nobody that walks any easier, or comes in from the bullpen with an easier gait than Rivera. And I think that's part of the reason for his success because the ball just explodes out of his hand - hitters just can't believe he can do that."
- Tim "Old Third Inning" McCarver
Pronounce me stunned at the anti-Morgan sentiment. Yeah, I remember the dumb Mirabelli comments. Jeff Brantley also opined that Veritek would catch Wake..that's just bad preparation, I agree. But when it comes to pointing out the fine points of the game, I find Morgan articulate and perceptive. Singleton's just OK. At this point, maybe I'm just thrilled anytime it's NOT Rick Sutcliffe. I miss Tony Kubek....
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