Blogging The Bombers

Happy Mother’s Day everyone!

The Yankees game today, 5/11 has been postponed due to rain. No make up date has been announced.

This might hurt the Yankees later in the schedule because we do not travel to Detroit another time this year so we’re going to have to use a day off to go play the Tigers in the Motor City.

In the line up today, Jeter was going to bat clean up. Only the 2nd time in his career he would have done that.

Around The League

• Greg Maddux finally has gotten his 350th win after multiple tries at it. Congrats to him!
• Eric Gagne, the Brewers closer (for now) has said he doesn’t deserve the closer role.
• The 1st place Marlins have signed rising star Hanly Ramirez to a 6 year, $70 million dollar contract in which he’ll be making approximately $11.7 per year.

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Update, 5:45p.m.: Ronnie Price of the Utah Jazz just had an insane block on Luke Walton of the Lakers. It was sick. 94 - 86 Jazz 6:26 left in the 4th.

Here’s a recap of the game: Score: 5 - 2 Yankees

• Darrell Rasner continues to impress, giving up 2 runs in 6+ innings and getting the win.
• Jeter got his first home run of the year a solo shot in the 1st inning off Jeremy Bonderman.
• The Big G seems to be coming along, getting a RBI today, giving him 20 RBI’s on the year. He is now 5 for 12 with six RBI in his last four games.

INJUIRY REPORT

Wilson Betemeit strained his right hamstring after he hit a booming double that brought in a run in today’s game, which will most likely put him on the DL and the Yanks will probably bring up Alberto Gonzalez but no word on anything yet.

Albaladejo hurt his elbow during tonight’s game and will be going on the disabled list. He described the pain like there was a needle going into it followed by a burning sensation. That doesn’t sound too good. Chris Britton will be called up once again after being sent down earlier today.

Mike Puma of the NY Post has comments from David Wells saying he would love to come back to the Yankees and Hank Steinbrenner didn’t rule it out of the question. It really depends on how Kei Igawa, Darrell Rasner and Ian Kennedy if he gets another chance (which he will if Igawa or Rasner are bad). I wouldn’t particularly like the idea of signing the 44 year old Wells, and he only averaged 5.4 innings per start last year which would give our bullpen a workout, but hey, it’s better than Hughes’ and Kennedy’s average of 4 innings per start. There was rumors about Boomer becoming a Yankee last year too, that’s why they’re called rumors.

Feel free to weigh in on this.

Game Time: 7:05

TV Station: MY9

YANKEES
Cabrera CF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Matsui LF
Duncan 1B
Giambi DH
Betemit 3B
Cano 2B
Moeller C
Igawa LHP

Notes: Chris Britton has been sent down to make room for Kei Igawa who is making the start tonight. Hopefully it will be a good one…..Former Yankee Kenny Rodgers will be getting the start for the Tigers……….Kyle Farnswroth’s 3 game suspension has been reduced to 1 game after the appeal which he will sit out tonight……Lefty Sean Henn has been picked up by the Padres after being DFA’d by the Yankees.

 Update, 7:35P.M.: Congrats to Kenny Rogers, breaking the all time record for most pick offs in a career with 92.

 Unfortunate Update, 10:13p.m.: Why do we have to wait until the the last inning to start scoring runs?? My heart was beating fast and I was pumped, but we came up short….. Kei Igawa clearly can’t pitch at the big league level.

Final Score: 6 - 5 Tigers

Mr. Sweeny Murti of WFAN and SNY has been kind enough to take the time to answer some questions with us. We appreciate this very much as we know Mr. Murti has a very busy schedule so we thank him for this: You can check out Mr. Murti’s Blog here.

So here it is!

Thank you Mr. Murti, now lets begin.

The women’s softball final was actually a lot of fun.  The US won in their last at-bat because of an error on Japan’s leftfielder.  I was in the middle of an interview with Dot Richardson when she pulled away and said “Wait, I’ll be right back!”  She ran back to the field for some celebrating with her teammates and a photo op and then she actually came back to finish my interview!! 

I haven’t been able to cover any other Olympic Games since then because I started covering baseball the following year and the Summer Games would interrupt our Yankee coverage.

Q: 4. What is your relationship with Mike Francesa and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo of Mike & The Mad Dog? They seem to be a little rude to you when you’re on the show with them.

A: Ya know, so many people say that to me…and honestly, I know the discussions get very heated sometimes, but I’ve known those guys since I was an intern 17 years ago.  They have been very good to me over the years and I don’t think that’s changed.  It’s never personal and I always get along with them well off the air no matter what type of arguments we’ve had on the air.  They’re both guys I’ve asked for advice at various points of my career and am glad they’ve been in my corner all this time.

They yell at me from time to time when we disagree about moves the Yankees are making, but I think they respect my information and my opinions or else they wouldn’t put me on the program as often as they do.

I think it’s great that so many people are listening to that show, because there is no doubt that’s when I get the most response from people in public, after one of those shouting matches.  But the one thing I always remember and I think other people should too…it’s not called “The Sweeny Murti Show.”  It’s called the “Mike & The Mad Dog Show.”   

Q: 5. What is your honest opinion of Fenway Park and the Boston fans?

A: I went to Fenway Park for the first time in 1998 as a fan and sat in the stands and I loved being in that historic place.  Working there is difficult though because the working spaces are cramped.  They’ve made some improvements to the press box upstairs in recent years and that’s helped, but the clubhouse area is still hard to maneuver.  There’s just so many media members for Yankee-Red Sox series that its hard to move around and get to the people you need to talk to. 

I know these are not the kinds of things anybody really cares about.  They don’t like hearing the media complain about any aspect of the job, and I understand that completely.  The only things I try to worry about are the things involved directly with how I do my job, and although everybody tries to their best, it’s just a difficult environment sometimes because of the older facilities and the larger groups of media.

Boston fans…well they root for their team just as hard as Yankee fans root for theirs.  If baseball fans were not this passionate, I probably wouldn’t have the job I have now.

Q: 6. Growing up a Phillies fan, who was your favorite player and why?

A: I went through phases with my favorites.  So many of the 1980 Phillies were my favorites at one time or another—Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt, Larry Bowa, Garry Maddox, Manny Trillo.  I guess it just depended on who I watched play the night before or who’s baseball card I just got.  I remember Juan Samuel was a guy loved to watch play when he first came up a few years later.  He was a lot like Alfonso Soriano, though not as much power. 

Those were fun teams to watch…they made the playoffs every year but lost in the playoffs to the Reds in ’76 and the Dodgers in ’77 and ’78, so they never got to square off with the Yankees.  The Royals knocked off the Yanks in 1980 when the Phillies finally got there. 

Q: 7. Do you think the Yankees will rebound this year from another slow start and make the playoffs? If you think they will make the playoffs, how far will they go?

A: I don’t know about making the playoffs yet…it’s just too early to tell, but it’s also too early to write them off.  I think they’ll start playing better when A-Rod and Posada get back, but obviously they have to pitch better.  I knew Hughes and Kennedy would struggle a bit, but I didn’t think it would have been this severe.  That definitely hurts going forward, but Wang is off to a great start, Mussina has pitched well in the early going, and Pettitte gives you pretty much what you expect each year.  Right now I think they fall a bit short of 90 wins and I can’t say with any certainty that will be good enough to make the playoffs.  But I wrote them off last year and in 2005, so let’s not make that mistake again!

Q: 8. Lastly, how do you think the reigning NL MVP Jimmy Rollins and your Phillies will do this year?

Thank You Mr. Murti!

YANKEES
Damon LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Duncan 1B
Matsui DH
Cabrera CF
Cano 2B
Ensberg 3B
Molina C
Wang RHP

Notes: Sorry about the late post again but I was busy, again.

Update, 7:44p.m.: Matsui has extended his hitting streak to 16 games, quite impressive.

Game Time: 7:05

TV Station: YES

YANKEES
Damon LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Matsui DH
Giambi 1B
Cabrera CF
Cano 2B
Betemit 3B
Molina C
Pettitte LHP

Notes: Sorry for the late post but I was quite busy…..Anyways, Wilson Betemiet has been activated from the DL and is in the line up tonight. Alberto Gonzalez has been sent down. “That was a tough one,” Joe Girardi said “He didn’t do anything wrong.”

UPDATE, 8:25 p.m.: Ian Kennedy is perfect through five innings in Scranton and has struck out 3, I’ll keep you posted.

Update, 8:33p.m.: From CJ’s SWB site:

“Top sixth: Nice little ovation for Kennedy, who just gave up his first hit on a lazy single to center field. It came on a 2-1 changeup to Jerry Owens. Kennedy had fallen behind 2-0 to Owens, only the second time Kennedy had been down 2-0 this game. Owens went on to steal second and take third on an error by Chris Stewart, but Kennedy stranded the runner with a fairly hard hit ball to center. The inning started with Kennedy making Paul Phillips look foolish on a breaking ball away. Pretty sure it was a slider. Phillips had no chance.”

Update,9:54p.m.: ATTENTION TO YANKEE FANS: Joba “The Hut” Chamberlain is a human being, just like the rest of us. I know I know, when Joba ever gives up a run, let alone a home run, it’s stunning. But it happens, unfortunately

Welcome to the Yankees 2nd off day of the season. In some baseball news around the league, Jacque Jones has been DFA’d by the Tigers and called up AAA stud Matt Joyce.

Roger Clemens has aplogized to his family for mistakes he has made in his personal life but did not say what those mistakes were. He also denied some of the accusations against including having an affair with a 15 year old girl when he was 28 that lasted over a decade.