It’s Subway Series time, and if you can detect the lack of enthusiasm here, well, that’s because the series finds the Yankees — 12th on this week’s Hit List — reeling as they head out to Shea Stadium, 18-21 and having lost their last two series. Here’s what I had to say about them: It …
Given my recent disappointment with the tense Yankee Stadium scene and its heavy-handed security, Friday evening at Shea Stadium felt like a breath of fresh air — the first time in the history of the English language that sentence has been written, I’m sure — with the Brewers and the Mets squaring off for the …
I’m pleased to report that my most recent trip to Yankee Stadium, for Tuesday night’s 8-1 win over the Rangers, went considerably better than the previous outing. The Yankee offense raked Mike Wood over the coals, Alex Rodriguez went deep for the first time in 15 days (since some genius started doing Too Much Math), …
Roger Clemens was on my mind last week. Thanks to a John Perroto piece at Baseball Prospectus, incorporating him into the week’s Hit List was an inevitability, but I managed to have some fun with it: Despite the arrival of Hunter Pence, the Astros are decidedly earthbound after nine losses in 10 games, and at …
Yankees-Red Sox games in the Bronx are always tense affairs, but Saturday’s contest ratcheted the tension through the roof. For starters, the Yanks came in riding a seven-game losing streak, their longest since the end of the 2000 season (their 0-fer on the Hit List stuck out like a sore thumb). They’d lost four straight …
As I cobble together this week’s Hit List, here’s a link to a New York Sun piece I did on Alex Rodriguez’s hot start. Sun articles are now free, but here’s a taste if you need extra encouragement: Before A-Rod this spring, only three hitters have hit more than 11 homers in April — Pujols, …
Less than two weeks after the passing of Kurt Vonnegut, the world of letters lost another giant on Monday when David Halberstam was killed in a car accident near San Francisco. Halberstam was 73 years old but had shown no sign of slowing down; the crash occurred as he was on his way to interview …
You call that a four-consecutive-homer onslaught? Puh-lease. While a few of my Baseball Prospectus colleagues were frothing at the mouth that the Red Sox’ back-to-back-to-back-to-back jacks last night was something they’d never seen, I could only remind them that one doesn’t have to go back any further than last September 18 for a precedent. That’s …
It’s a glorious spring weekend in New York City, the first nice one of the year, sunny with temperatures skirting 80 degrees. With the Tompkins Square Park grass emitting a siren call for outdoor fun, my wife inspired me to buy a new mitt, since the Rawlings Greg Luzinski special (RBG80) I’ve been using since …
This ESPN Deportes poll asking readers to choose the greatest Latino shortstop of all time got me to pull out my JAWS spreadsheet. Not surprisingly, the choices ESPN offered — Luis Aparicio, Dave Concepcion, and Omar Vizquel — while fine players, are a not-quite-representative trio that conformed to the image of the light-hitting glove man …