It’s only May 4th and we certainly don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. A Yankees’ sweep in Boston? We don’t see that everyday. The Mets are shut out 1-0 in back-to-back games? The pitching always gives them a chance to win but the injuries may finally be catching up to the offense. SU thoughts from the weekend:
- ESPN must take Curt Schilling off the air for Sunday Night games. I cannot be the only person out there who just cannot listen to him anymore. SU prediction: he does not make it through the season. As we speak, Joe Morgan is warming up in the bullpen and practicing saying “The Yankees are just not that good.”
- In case you were watching “Mad Men” like SU last night and missed it, the Red Sox and Yankees engaged in a little beanball action. Hanley Ramirez got hit with his team down 8-1 and took MAJOR offense feeling it was intentional. Really? Because he did what to them? SU will beat the rush and will start hating him now as he clearly has the sense of his namesake, Manny Ramirez. Of course, the Red Sox had to retaliate and hit Ellsbury on a 3-0 pitch after a couple of previous pitches missed him. The umpire could have stopped it before then but it’s baseball and you need to settle it on the field. To be continued as they will face each other many more times. This is when you wish you still had Roger Clemens who loved these situations.
- Speaking of beanballs, you have to check out the excerpts from Pedro Martinez’s new book Pedro in last week’s Sports Illustrated. Some books should just not be written. He focuses on the 2003 season and fesses up to the fact that most of his HBPs in his career were intentional. I know, shocking news. SU always hated him when he was on Boston but respected him. Great pitcher. Now I can hate him and not respect him. Feels better.
- The Mets continue to get great pitching but will need to find some offense until David Wright and others return. It’s hard to win a lot of close low scoring games. Baltimore did it in 2013 but the odds say you will trend closer to .500. The Yankees are doing it now with their starters going 5 innings and a lights out bullpen. That is not sustainable as the relievers will tire at some point.
- Jose Pirela is lighting it up for the Yankees in the minors in his rehab assignment going 11 for 19 over the weekend with power. Look for him to be brought up very, very soon, and they should put him in the line up every day. He is clearly better than Drew or Gregoius and even Headley could use some competition for his playing time. At what point do you say that Stephen Drew is in fact a .150 hitter at this point in his career?
- Mark Texeiria, for all his early success, is hitting about .080 with RISP. But the Yankees are powered by Ellsbury and Gardner this year who seem to always be on base.
The Jets had a great draft and seem to be trending in the right direction. As predicted, Clippers – Spurs series was fantastic and SU hopes that Chris Paul can get well fast to get them to a Warriors – Clippers Western Conference final which would also be fun. Finally, will the Rangers play any playoff games this post-season that are not decided by one goal? No doubt stressful for the diehards.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
To encourage husbands and wives to talk to each other more, ESPN should pair Schilling with Al Leiter on the broadcasts- the nation will go mute.
You are just learning now that most of Pedro’s HBPs weren’t accidents? Seriously? I haven’t read the new book excerpts, but I recall an earlier article about Pedro hitting people. The gist was that he wasn’t necessarily hitting them on purpose, he just didn’t give a crap whether they got hit or not. He said “It’s my job to throw the ball. It’s their job to get out of the way.” Personally, I wish more pitchers had that attitude.
Hey, I coach both my sons’ baseball teams and throw a lot of BP. As the pitcher I own half that plate and the sooner the hitters can learn that the better. Throwing inside and then mixing in a knuckle ball every now and then keeps both six and nine year olds honest. All hitters are responsible to look for low and away… but watch out for in their ear, no matter what the level.
All kidding aside (I hope that was obvious) – we all know this is just Pedro’s way of keeping his name in the spotlight. Look back to those early Expos years and you’ll see his command was not totally there, so I am sure most of those HBP’s were unintentional. And, doesn’t he have enough money from the royalties of the constant replays of him throwing Don Zimmer to the ground (and from the money he stole from the Phillies at the end of his career) to just go off and enjoy retirement and leave us alone without publishing this stuff? I guess that crazy makes for great pitchers, fun girlfriends, and bad wives…
I heard the Pedro interview with Mike Francesa yesterday afternoon. It was just like watching him pitch. He was bright, articulate and incredibly entertaining. But he was also maddeningly stubborn and confident that he had never done anything wrong and every incident in which he was ever involved has a back story in which he was the real victim. He spoke of all the intentionally hit batters but also of how certain ones weren’t (“Jeter, yes. Soriano, no”). He was extremely critical of a couple of opponents and threw a few teammates, coaches and owners under the bus. Every injury he ever sustained was somebody’s fault but never his. Same could be said for every run he ever gave up and every elderly coach he ever threw to the ground. All in all he was incredibly entertaining. 90% of sports autobiographies should never have been written but he deserves to sell every copy. I hated him as a player and he’s probably not a great guy either. But he’s incredibly entertaining and sports can use more personalities like him.