Greetings from the wasteland of Westchester County, NY – home of thousands of people without power in the wake of Tropical Storm Isaias.  As they like to say in HBO’s Game of Thrones, we are all ready to “bend the knee” to Con Edison if they will please, please, please fix the down power lines and restore power.  Not their best moment this week.

Anyway, I digress.  Now that SU is in a hotel, lots of time to watch Yankee games.  SU has to agree with long-time subscriber (and prolific commenter) S. Goldman, that it is incredibly frustrating to watch hitters mindlessly step up to the plate and try to hit into the shifts.  It is just stupid when 2/3 of the infield is open every at bat.  And it’s especially frustrating when you are Gary Sanchez, Gleyber Torres or Aaron Hicks and hitting about .100.  They are daring you to go the other way and the way the ball flies in these smaller ballparks in the hot weather, well, there is absolutely no excuse.  SU no longer even knows who the batting coach is for the Yankees but please, get them to try it.

SU is thrilled that SU fave, Mike Tauchman, is finally getting regular at bats.  He does go the other way and can actually get a clutch hit here and there.  Andujar was sent down – too bad – but he was given a shot and in a 60-game sprint, you don’t have the luxury or the track record to be given more rope.  Sanchez and Torres do, and Hicks is a Cashman favorite and he doesn’t have to perform to get his at bats.  Just needs to show up and stay healthy.

SU did not comment on Giancarlo Stanton when he was hot (for the first 4 games) and now that he’s gone cold for the last 8 games I won’t comment either.  SU wishes the Generational One well and he can fly under the radar with Judge slamming home runs all over the place.  He will settle in at .252 at some point.

The Yankees’ record is deceptive with Paxton and Happ not pitching well at all.  You have to hope that Paxton’s arm strength will rebound to his historic level and that someone other than Happ can claim the 5th spot in the rotation.

The Cespedes Era is officially over for the Mets.  What a knucklehead.  SU still believes the Mets will get untracked this season and make a move but the clock is ticking.

I miss Didi Gregorius.  Should have been re-signed.

SU is enjoying the NBA games.  Love watching Duncan Robinson on the Heat and Trey Burke on the Mavs as they are both getting some minutes.  The playoffs will be entertaining.  Plenty of room on the bandwagon so get on board.

Nadal out at the US Open and Federer will miss as he is hurt.  Djokovic has not officially committed as of yet.  The issue seems to be traveling from Europe and getting some clarification if players will need to quarantine once they return to Europe after the Open is completed.  The schedule is very condensed and the French Open comes up quickly.  The USTA should pipe in the crowd noise the same way other sports have been doing that.  Makes a difference for the telecasts.

We have the PGA Tournament in SF this weekend and more baseball.  Enjoy the live sports action while you can as you never know when a few failed COVID-19 tests shut things down.