Hawkins has done well. I wonder which bonehead writer will link his performance with the fact that he changed his jersey number?
I really liked that kid Gonalzez that came up, I think and I know this will be unpopular we should move Jeter to the outfield to save his legs... and give this kid a shot... that would stack out lineup
Every single one of them. Then all the people who booed him will say "See? He should never have taken that number!" On a related note, tonight's trivia question was: "which player hit at least 5 homers for both the Yankees and Red Sox?" The answer was Mike Stanley. (44 with the Yanks, 5 with the Sox.) So after answering the question, Kay was talking about how Girardi was originally booed when he took over for Stanley because Stanley was a crowd favorite. Yankees fans are ridiculous. Tino was booed for taking Donnie's spot too. --------------- Moeller's kicking ass. It's like magic when someone puts on the navy chest protector.
To begin with, Jeter would never do it willingly. Beyond that, where are you going to put him? Maybe left field? But then you've got to hold back the kids in the minors even longer. I expect Abreu to return next year now that he's proven he can get off to a better April. And Gonzalez doesn't improve our lineup overall. You'd have to lose Matsui or Damon in the lineup so that he could play. That's a significant offensive dropoff. I like the kid too, but as a utility player to spell the regular infielders.
Seriously, not to start trouble, but doesn't Ortiz look significantly thinner this year? He's one of the guys I don't want to find out did 'roids, along with ARod, Jeter, and Manny, but he looks a lot thinner. Couple that with his offensive struggles, and it paints an ugly picture.
What a disgusting start by Wang. I had a bad feeling since Boston just saw Wang on Friday. But they beated him around badly, and it wasn't like his sinker was bad, it was pretty good, the slider was okay, but overall just couldn't get in a rhythm even when he got the lead back. Bruney gives up a single to Manny on a slider...Youkilis is up...Come on Bruney.
I wouldn't say it was disgusting. He was just a little off tonight. We're talking about Boston here. Had he been pitching against practically any other team, he'd have been brilliant tonight. You just can't afford mistakes with Boston. They'll make you pay. I have to say, Girardi's attitude toward his pen guys is refreshing. Giving Farnsworth another chance right away and Bruney now as well is something you'd never see from Torre. That's going to pay dividends by mid-season.
He was missing badly tonight Alio. This isn't the only time Wang is going to struggle, but I wasn't surprised that it happened since Boston saw him such a short time ago. Wang was missing, walking people, got in some bad jams, and was hit pretty well tonight. The way he was missing tonight, I don't think he'd have been brilliant against anyone else. But it's 1 bad start, I expect Wang to bounce back and be back to normal.
What an atrocity on the game of baseball tonight. It ended up not mattering, but Buchholz should have been out of the 4th(?) when he threw strike three to Moeller and it was called a ball. Just an ugly game all around. Also, Wang didn't pitch much differently tonight than he did last weekend, it's just that the Sox's hits were falling tonight instead of going right at guys. Like I said, most of the time he throws like that, he'll get rocked. He does look a lot thinner, but I don't think steroids make you fat. They were talking about how he lost weight to keep pressure off his knees, but at this point I think he should just go eat some doughnuts.
I started thinking about Mantle's shot in '63 when they said that Arod's HR was one of the longest you would ever see hit by a right hander last night. I thought about it again when Giambi hit that foul in the 8th or 9th. As hard as that ball was hit, it wasn't even close to this. Don't know how many of you remember this but I thought it would be fun to post it in the last year of the stadium. The only ball that has ever come close to being hit out of Yankee stadium. I still remember seeing this picture which was on the front page of the Daily News or Post the next day. In reading the article, he obviously hit some other magnificent shots as well. Mickey said that the "hardest ball I ever hit" came in the 11th inning on May 22, 1963 at Yankee Stadium. Leading off in the bottom of the 11th, with the score tied 7-7, A's pitcher Bill Fischer tried to blow a fastball past Mickey. Bad idea. Mickey stepped into it and, with perfect timing, met the ball with the sweet spot of his bat, walloping it with everything he had. The sound of the bat colliding with the ball was likened to a cannon shot. The players on both benches jumped to their feet. Yogi Berra shouted, "That's it!" The ball rose in a majestic laser-like drive, rocketing into the night toward the farthest confines of Yankee Stadium. The question was never whether it was a home run or not. The question was whether this was going to be the first ball to be hit out of Yankee Stadium. That it had the height and distance was obvious. But would it clear the fa?ade, the decoration on the front side of the roof above the third deck in right-field? "I usually didn't care how far the ball went so long as it was a home run. But this time I thought, 'This ball could go out of Yankee Stadium!'" Just as the ball was about to leave the park, it struck the fa?ade mere inches from the top with such ferocity that it bounced all the way back to the infield. That it won the game was an afterthought. Mickey just missed making history. It was the closest a ball has ever come to going out of Yankee Stadium in a regular season game.** The question then became "How far would the ball have gone had the fa?ade not prevented it from leaving the park?" Using geometry, it is possible to calculate the distance with some accuracy. The principle variable is how high the ball would have gone. If we assume the ball was at its apex at the point where it struck the fa?ade, using the Pythagorean Theorem ("In a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides") we can determine the distance from home plate to the point where the ball struck the fa?ade. Then we can use calculus to calculate that the distance the ball would have traveled would have been 636 feet. However, there are a number of undetermined factors: wind velocity, spin on the ball, the speed of the pitch Mickey hit, and others. (For a more complete explanation of the calculations and complete description of this and other Mantle homers, see Explosion! by Mark Gallagher. This book is the definitive book on Mantle's homers. Unfortunately, it is out of print. It may be available at your local library.) So how do we get 734 feet? In the example above, we assumed that the ball was at its apex when it struck the fa?ade. However, observers were unanimous in their opinion that the ball was still rising when it hit the fa?ade. How do we determine how high the ball would have gone? In fact, we cannot. From this point forward all numbers become guesses, estimates of how high we think the ball might have gone. A conservative estimate would be 20 feet. Those 20 feet make a major difference. They cause our calculation to go up almost 100 feet, to the 734 foot number listed above. Is 20 feet a fair estimate? Those present when the ball was hit feel that it would have gone at least that much higher, and many feel that the 20 foot number is far too low. It is all just a guess. This is a good example of what can happen with estimates, especially computer estimates that determine the length of home runs now. Most of the home run distance numbers used today are the result of computer estimates of how far the ball would have traveled without obstruction. (One of these programs gave the 734 foot number listed.) Whether or not this is a fair number is a matter of opinion. However, if the distance of this home run is disputed, then the distance of many of the home runs hit by today's players must be questioned. While the software used for home run distances has greatly improved, there remain questions as to its accuracy. It is important to note that many of Mickey's home runs were measured to the point they actually landed, leaving no question about the accuracy of the distance reported. (Click Here for an explanation of how the distance of Mickey's record-setting blast was calculated.) http://www.themick.com/10homers.html
Is there any film of that homer? In all the years I've been watching the Yankees, I've never once seen it. My father always told me he was sure the ball was still rising when it hit the facade. I can't even comprehend the power Mantle must have generated with that swing. Even with a conservative estimate, 636 feet is unreal. Putting that in perspective, that's like hitting a ball across two football fields lined up one after the other. Absolutely amazing. Can you imagine if Mantle could have stayed sober throughout his career? And further if his knees remained healthy? As for ARod's homer last night, that was a pretty great shot. I was sitting there going "Wow". I didn't hear an official distance on it though. Does anyone have the number?
