SU is back from Houston and hosting a variety of pro sports teams representatives at Minute Maid Park.  Great venue, cool roof and a smoking hot team.  I even got to listen to the end of last night’s Yankee game after flying into 3rd world country  LaGuardia Airport and getting stuck in grid lock traffic at 1 am outside the terminal.  John Sterling was in rare form calling the game.  SU says he must actually close his eyes and describe the game based on crowd noise.  It’s hard to say if the grid lock traffic was worse or listening to him and his delayed calls on the action.  The Yankees lost another painful game after coming from behind several times and even taking the lead.  SU’s observations on the Yankees:

• First of all, I preface all comments on the fact that they are ahead of schedule this year and it’s all been gravy so far.  I will not get down on this team.
• Tyler Clippard needs to go.  There is a reason he has been on so many teams in his career.  He is the 2nd coming of Paul Quantrill – trying to lose every game he pitches now.
• The injury to CC’s hamstring is huuugggeeeee.  SAD!  This will linger as he is older, out of shape and over-weight.  Four weeks is conservative and he has been oh so consistent all year.  Now Gary Sanchez has tweaked his hammy as well.
• SU just read that Greg Bird has stopped his rehab and is seeing Dr. Ahmad.  Not good.  You just know something is broken in that leg and he will miss the rest of the season.
• Pineda is starting to come back to earth after a strong start and Tanaka is still feeling his way.  The bullpen features a number of youngsters – none of whom are taking advantage of the opportunity (see Rob Refsnyder and his book on not taking advantage of your opportunities).

SU is a firm believer in that you are not as good as you look when you are red hot and you are not as bad as you look when you lose 3 in a row.  But these have all been winnable games.  Gardner and Hicks are cooling and this is probably a good time for Ellsbury to get back in action.  But if they really want to do something here, start moving up some more youngsters and make some moves with players who are not on the 40-man roster.  They are limiting themselves right now and it’s time for some reinforcements – especially to play first base.

Meanwhile, it’s time for the Mets to become sellers in July.  Harvey is the latest pitcher to go down.  They have some chips to move for young talent.  Start the fire sale.

Question: if Golden State had not picked up Kevin Durant, would they have beaten the Cavs?  I am not so sure.  And does Cleveland look to move Kevin Love?  He really couldn’t cover anyone in the finals.  Note to long-time SU subscriber D. Green: I will not suggest that Cleveland is going to acquire Carmelo Anthony now but I do think they could use his offense.  Kyrie is terrific but if Love is a non-factor in this match-up, you do not want to have to rely on JR Smith for offense.  Just sayin.

Unreal.  He is the man.

Quiz: What do Gardner, Sanchez, Judge, Gregorius, Holliday, Castro and even Chase Headley (occasionally) have in common?  Hint: they do something that Mark Teixeira never did – at least batting left-handed.  Answer: they hit to the opposite field.  If you’ve been watching a lot of Yankee games of late, you see this year how teams are not shifting as much and when they do, the Yankee hitters are adjusting.  Even Aaron Judge with all his power goes to right field time and time again.  Teixeira and McCann in large part both were strictly pull hitters and as team leaders, the rest of the players seemed to fall in line.  This year, the best hitters go to all fields and that is contagious.  We rarely hear the announcers talk about the shifts this year for that reason.  SU says: “Mark Teixeira: we salute you.  Thank you for retiring and allowing the team to once again prosper.”  For the record, he hit .292 in his first year with the Yankees in 2009, and his highest season batting average for the rest of his career in the Bronx was .256.  That’s what happens when you blindly hit into the shift every at bat.

Greg Bird is hitting .300 in his minor league rehab games with no power.  SU says leave him down there until he starts to get some extra base hits.  They need  him to be productive from day #1 in order not to lose more confidence.  Someone will need to go when Ellsbury returns as well as Bird.  Carter figures to be the odd man out.

SU has been thinking about the player development differences between MLB and the NBA.  Why is it that even the best young players in baseball really need several years in the minor leagues to figure things out while the NBA is anxious to take 19-year olds and throw them out there right away at the pro level?  A guy like Judge needed several years at different levels in the minor leagues to finally make it to the Bronx in late 2016.  Starlin Castro made it up to the Cubs at 19 or 20 but that was the exception.  Same with Jeter.  And why aren’t there multiple levels of the D-League in basketball as there are in baseball’s minor leagues?  I guess you could say that the European League or China is another form of minor leagues for the NBA.  Thoughts?

SU checked out the composite box scores for the NBA Finals.  The Warriors have 130+ assists so far to the Cavs’ 82 on only 9 more field goals.  Kyrie Irving, for all his greatness and he is a truly great offensive player, is all 1-on-1.  The key question is whether he can do that on the road in this series.  SU believes that if Cleveland can steal game 5 tomorrow night, this is going to 7 games.  After last season, the Warriors will have that little bit of doubt especially if there is an injury to a key guy or if Draymon Green loses his mind which is always possible.  However, if Kyrie can’t have that type of game, it will be blowout city Monday night for Golden State which is the better team.

Finally, SU fave Djokovic basically tanked the last half of his quarterfinal match in Paris.  Bad job and time to take a sabbatical.  He is lost out there mentally and has lost the fire to compete through adversity.  We have seen this over the years with players like Borg or even Agassi who needed an extensive timeout but not lately and not with the Big Four players.  It’s very striking and perhaps a lesson for the younger, up and coming stars on how they manage their careers.  And hard to watch for SU.

Well, that was certainly a letdown last night.  SU caught most of the first half and the 3rd quarter before dozing off.  Seriously, this game looked just like the NBA All-Star Game.  The pace was great.  Up and down, push the ball as quickly as possible, don’t feel the need to run down the shot clock or wait for your teammates.  Could you imagine Carmelo Anthony in this game?  He would never make it past half court.

Cleveland had no interest in playing defense.  At all.  There were more than a few plays where Durant dribbled up court and the seas parted to allow him to finish with a dunk.  Golden State missed a ton of layups; otherwise, they would easily have scored 140 points.

End of series?  SU says no.  This is what happens when you have a long lay-off between games.  Game 2 will tell the story for the Cavs.  The series is just beginning.  I think.  But they need to make some adjustments on defense.  Kevin Love is the liability factor as he really cannot cover anyone on the floor.  He’s just too slow-footed as Lonzo Ball’s dad would say.

SU liked the Yankees’ line-up adjustment moving Judge up to 3rd to provide some protection for Sanchez and to get him more at bats.  Once Bird returns, this could be a really terrific offensive line up.  The key will be to get Ellsbury to buy into a more limited role as Hicks needs to play much more than him.  SU says enough catering to the veterans.  Bat him 8th and rotate him in and out.  He makes $22 million a year – there are worse things to happen to a guy.  Be a good teammate and wait for your chance to play more.  He should be the odd man out.

Check out my man Djokovic at the French Open yesterday.  This is why he is SU’s fave even though he is going through some personal issues and may be on the downside of his career.  SU likes this type of stuff even at the professional level.

Novak Djokovic was so impressed by his opponent’s shot that he gave him a high five

Jacoby Ellsbury’s stay on the DL may be longer than anticipated.  It’s time to not worry about arbitration eligibility dates and bring up someone from the minors who can contribute now.  SU did some checking and Dustin Fowler is hitting .314 at Scranton/Wilkes Barre with 13 doubles, 7 triples and 8 home runs in 44 games playing centerfield and batting left-handed.  SU says the time is now.  He’s 22 years old and this will put fans in the seats at Yankee Stadium.  Maybe he can even play first base?

Finally, Tiger Woods registered a 0.00 on his breathalyzer test.  Looks like his explanation has legs regarding painkillers.  Not fake news!

OK, first the good news: starting Thursday night after a week’s delay of nothing, we get a couple weeks of quality NBA finals action.  It’s Cavs – Warriors for the 3rd year in a row.  So, is this a good thing?  Are months and months of basically less than stellar NBA action worth the 2 weeks a year?  SU says unless you are a fan of either Cleveland or Golden State, it’s hard to love this scenario.  It says that for 3 straight years, the other teams and their GMs were unable to really test either of these teams in the playoffs.  This year has been especially embarrassing as between the two teams, they lost one playoff game.  Pathetic.

SU sees the only hope being that Klay Thompson might want out when his contract is up.  It’s great to win and win but at some point he is going to see himself as a third wheel.  He would definitely be the star player on any other team (aside from the Cavs of course).  But for the foreseeable future and assuming no injuries to key players, this is what you will have in the NBA.

As for SU’s prediction, I see a Golden State win in 6 games.  But it will be entertaining, fun and worth tuning in and staying up until midnight for these two weeks.

Tiger Woods had a DUI arrest last night in case you missed it.  Just a continued slide into the abyss for Tiger.  It’s clear he needs to go back to the porn stars as that was when he was at his peak.  Too bad as he is good for golf although there are certainly enough young players now to entertain the fan base.  The problem is Tiger helps to grow it.

SU is still loving the Yankees but they need a left-handed bat in this line-up.  They are way, way too right-handed this year.  Greg Bird will hopefully provide that in another week.  Once Ellsbury was injured, they could have brought up one of the youngsters but SU believes arbitration eligibility no doubt caused the Yankees to abandon that idea and go with the Rob Refsnyder option.  He will never play.

SU has done the math and the official over/under for Chase Headley’s trade to anywhere is now July 17th.  Glaybar Torres needs to be brought up and the Chase Headley era needs to end in NY.  Batting Headley and Chris Carter 8th and 9th is like having a National League line-up with two pitchers hitting.  The Yankees are losing some winnable games with good starting pitching – happened again today.

Finally, SU saw a column by Bob Klapisch about how the Yankees should look to trade some regulars and prospects for Mike Trout.  SU says no, no, no.  For once, they have really good prospects and the good news is that most of them are not Yankee draft picks who as we know are often over-hyped and over-rated (see Jesus Montero).  This is an exciting time.  Let’s see how these youngsters develop and enjoy the ride.  We are past the days of investing A-Rod type money into one player.  SU has spoken.

Your thoughts?

Seriously, I know there have been a few series that went the distance – maybe it’s 2 series that went the distance – but the playoffs have not been entertaining this year.  You have two ultra-dominant teams that will no doubt have a great Finals but is that enough?  Jeff Van Gundy said last night that they should make the finals best of 11 games.  He was probably only half-joking.  The NBA has a problem – for the moment.  An off-season of free agent moves plus a strong draft may start to rebalance things but for now, not good and not FAN-TASTIC!

Speaking of not fantastic, the Yankees are starting to show some signs of what David Cone likes to call “regression to the mean.”  Tanaka is out of sorts and SU suspects there is an injury in play here.  Back in April, his fastball was touching 97 and 98 mph which was very unusual for him.  But lately, we are down in the low 90s.  Long-time SU subscriber S. Goldman believes Gary Sanchez is not a great catcher and that may actually impact all of the starters which could be a factor as well.  But Tanaka is enough of a veteran to call his own game and he is just off.  Brett Gardner was on fire for 2 weeks but throughout his career, he is either hitting .450 or .125.  He has always been hot and cold and we are now approaching the winter weeks for him.  SU believes that they are too right-handed without a productive Greg Bird in the line up.

It is certainly no time to panic.  After all, for SU, this was a transition year where you wanted to play the youngsters.  I did not think they would win 90-95 games and as certain pitchers go down (see Chapman), it shortens what is not a deep bullpen.  SU says bring up some more youngsters and get them the experience.

The bean balls are starting up again.  In sports, it’s all about “respect” and “dis-respect.”  In yesterday’s Yankee game, Matt Holliday gets hit by an off speed pitch with a runner on first base.  No way that was intentional.  Then, Yankee reliever Tommy Layne who is bad on his best days hits Dickerson on the numbers after he had hit 2 home runs.  It was unnecessary and you could see the pain on Girardi’s face in the dugout.  Of course, the Rays retaliate and hit Aaron Judge.  SU says Layne will be released by Monday as who needs a bad pitcher making trouble?  Dodgers and Marlins had a major incident and of course, the Red Sox and Orioles had theirs.  I know it’s tradition but if you lose a top player in one of these beanball incidents, how stupid is that?  It needs to stop.  Find a better way.  Post some inappropriate pictures on the internet – be creative.

Finally, as shown on Tennis Channel yesterday and viewed by SU along with at least 9 others globally, Novak Djokovic showed some chops – finally – and annihilated Dominick Thiem, one of the up and coming youngsters who beat Nadal on clay on Friday, by 6-1, 6-0 playing flawless tennis.  Maybe, just maybe, he is finally coming out of his funk and regaining some of the fire.  With the French Open on the horizon, the timing is good.

Long-time SU subscriber E. Alper passed along this short clip on Aaron Judge of the Yankees.  Cool dude.  The next big thing in NY.

Nice comment today by long-time SU subscriber, S. Goldman, which is shown below in its entirety.  SU is a strong proponent of sharing the space here with those of you who would like to thoughtfully comment which thankfully is virtually everyone.  Check out other blogs and by the third comment, it’s reduced to “you’re an idiot.”

SU’s quick take on last night’s ceremony:

• I must admit that the parade of ex-Yankee players is impressive.  It just is.  We were really privileged to watch some great, great athletes in their prime as Yankees.
• Jeter’s speech was fine.  No notes, no tears, no errors.  I suspect it was more difficult when he retired vs. having his number retired.  He seemed to enjoy himself throughout and was joking around quite a bit.
• The absence of A-Rod is wrong, it’s just wrong.  He sent him a congratulatory tweet but was not invited to attend.  The reason was to spend Mother’s Day in Florida with his mom but you know that was to avoid any controversy.  SU heard that there was a recent interview with Jeter where somehow A-Rod was part of the interview (maybe as a questioner?).  Anyway, Jeter got pissed.  SU says: grow up Derek and move on.  Throw A-Rod a bone and make nice.  It’s unnecessary and he should have been part of things last night.  Perhaps once Jeter is a co-owner of the Marlins, his Yankee ties will not be quite as intense.  And don’t forget: SU predicts A-Rod is the next manager of the Yankees.

As promised, check out S. Goldman’s comments from earlier today:

“With the Jeter ceremony yesterday, it was nice to be reminded of the teams from 96+ (a nice diversion from the weaker performance of the 17 Yankees in 4 games against a good Astros team). Surprised not to read any SU reflections on Jeter given than everybody seems to need to weigh in on it. Here are mine:

You remember the 1996 season.  New manager, nice mix of veterans (Chili Davis, Paul O’Neil, Daryl Strawberry, etc) and the up and coming youngsters (Jeter, Pettitte, Bernie).  Well, SU is getting that feeling again with a team that I felt was a year away from really contending.  Last night’s game cemented it for me.  Chapman implodes in the 9th inning although only one hard hit ball in the inning.  SU was growing tired of Aaron Boone’s strategy comments and saying it was a no-brainer to walk Bryant to pitch to Rizzo with the bases loaded.  For the record, SU called the HBP there (naturally, only my chair and the adjacent couch can confirm that).  But here’s the thing.  In years past, you bring in Paul Quantrill with the game tied and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th to end the game quickly.  No one did that better than Quantrill – wild pitch, quick single – get the jet warmed up as it’s time to get out of there.  Girardi summoned Tyler Clippard and lo and behold, he escapes.  SU watched through the 11th but did wake up in the middle of the night to confirm that they lost.  Surprise: 5-4 win in 18 innings.

This year is different and this team is really balanced.  When healthy and able to keep Chris Carter on the bench (he is worse than I thought; Greg Bird: please stop sucking), you have a true circular line-up where everyone can make contact and even run the bases.  SU cannot express enough gratitude to Mark Texeiria for retiring and for Brian McCann moving on.  There is ball contact this year!  Soon they can bat Chase Headley 9th in the order and really take off.

Meanwhile over in Flushing, the Dark Knight was exposed for the lazy dude he is.  Think about being a starter for a major league team.  You pitch every 5th day, you walk to your position, you walk back to the dugout.  All they ask of you is to show up on days that you’re not pitching, shag some balls in the outfield during batting practice and then sit on the bench and pretend you’re not chewing and spitting tobacco.  Not that hard right?  So, it seems he played golf on Saturday, called in that he had a migraine and then claimed mis-communication.  You can see it as there really aren’t enough ways to communicate with your boss these days.  Perhaps the wind direction was not conducive to using smoke signals.  It’s not like he over-worked during the off season to shed a few pounds either.  There may be a better explanation but for now, SU sides with management.  No doubt this was an accumulation of things over some period of time.

So, how good is LeBron James?  Another 4-game sweep and scored 35+ points each game.  It’s hard to see either the Celtics or Wizards making them sweat on their way to the finals.  Golden State vs. Cleveland is worth watching although we will need to slog our way along another month to get there.

Finally, interesting to see that Brian Cashman was willing to give Girardi an out on his contract in 2013 to go to the Cubs to be their manager.  And have you seen that former Yankee utility man Clay Bellinger has a son playing for the Dodgers who is tearing it up as a rookie?  Not bad – good for him.