Now we know why A-rod got all those 'meaningless' homeruns

From account of Selena Roberts' unflattering book about Arod: "In one shocking disclosure, the book accuses A-Rod of "pitch tipping" when he was with the Rangers -

• letting a friendly opponent at the plate know which pitch was coming in lopsided games.

Rodriguez expected players he helped would do the same for him when he was having an off night and needed to get his batting average up

• and it wouldn't affect the outcome of the game."" (this item is toward the end of the NY Daily News article which mainly focuses on other topics whispered about).

P.S. Having fun, Hank?

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AJC Sports Editor Ramos departs, was against BBWAA awards voting

• With news of Sports Editor Ronnie Ramos leaving the AJC for a post at the NCAA, I looked to see who his successor might be. Haven't found out yet, but I remembered Mr Ramos' prevented his writers from voting on BBWAA post season league awards. I believe they could still vote for HOF. A 2005 article described Ramos' views and outcomes:

(Westhoff, Riverfront Times): "Every year baseball scribes representing the Baseball Writers' Association of America cast ballots for four prestigious awards: the MVP, the Cy Young Award (limited to pitchers), Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year. In each of baseball's twenty-five big-league markets, eight votes are distributed, two per award.

• Their choices are critical to players' and managers' livelihoods.

Besides triggering contract-clause bonuses that can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, BBWAA honors are potentially worth millions come salary-negotiation time,

• and they burnish the résumés of candidates for enshrinement in baseball's storied hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York — another honor bestowed via BBWAA vote.

Theoretically, "homerism" is a moot point in the awards process: Every home team-favoring baseball writer has a counterpart in the "rival" city. But in recent years, increasing numbers of writers have opted not to participate,

• potentially skewing the results.

This year, for instance, sports editor Ronnie Ramos told his writers at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution they were not allowed to cast votes.

• Atlanta Braves center fielder Andruw Jones finished second in the balloting, with thirteen first-place tallies, seventeen second-place nods and two for third place.

• Pujols earned eighteen first-place votes and fourteen votes for second. (Chicago Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee accounted for the rest of the 32 votes.)

"Everybody's writing these stories about how the AJC is gonna cost Andruw Jones the MVP," Ramos said last week.

• "They're just making the case for why reporters shouldn't be in this business in the first place.

"Their expertise is to be used to put stories in the paper and gather news, not make it," Ramos says of his writers, adding that he doesn't permit them to vote for awards in any sport.

• "I want to avoid any perception of being involved in something that could affect players' incomes and salaries, in an age when our credibility is at stake.

"You put reporters in a no-win situation," Ramos goes on. "They're expected to vote for Andruw Jones, and if they don't they're sort of going against the local team. Why should it be that two people in St. Louis vote, and the expectation is that they're going to vote for Pujols? That cheapens the entire existence of the award."

• Ramos isn't alone. Other news organizations that prohibit sportswriters from voting in year-end baseball awards include the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press and the St. Louis-based Sporting News.

Though the pool of writers has been shrinking for years, the Journal-Constitution's withdrawal was particularly problematic because it

• compelled the BBWAA to assign an Atlanta vote outside the Atlanta market.

• The Journal-Constitution's MVP vote went to ESPN.com's Jayson Stark, based in Philadelphia.

• Stark put Pujols at the top of his ballot.

The region's other MVP ballot was cast by Travis Haney of Morris Publishing Group, which owns three papers in Georgia. Haney, the sole Braves beat writer to vote for NL MVP, says he picked Pujols as well.

• "The Atlanta thing really bothered me," says BBWAA secretary and treasurer Jack O'Connell. "I was always worried that a one-newspaper town would do this.

• I've been permitted for the last eight years now to
• use national writers in emergency situations,

but I'm never really comfortable with it. I'd much rather get people who are there."

Houston Chronicle sportswriter Richard Justice tapped Jones. But he says it may have been his last MVP vote.

"I personally think there are too many issues that smack of conflict for us to continue," Justice comments via e-mail. "My sports editor hasn't decided, but I'd guess he's leaning the same way. There's no way of getting around the fact that

• many players have bonus clauses for these awards."

"I think if you were just now starting the [BBWAA] awards, there's almost no way it would be set up the way it currently is," posits Mike Berardino of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

• "When baseball writers started this way back [in 1931], there were no clauses of any sort."

That said, Berardino believes writers make more informed decisions than, say, pitchers.

"I think the Gold Gloves are the biggest joke, and who votes on those?" he explains, referring to annual honors handed out for defensive prowess. "Managers and coaches — and they always factor in hitting, which is ridiculous. You think Greg Maddux is really the best fielder in the league? He's 39 years old."

Rob Neyer, who covers baseball for ESPN.com, says the way to counteract homerism — perceived or real — might be to bar sportswriters from voting for hometown players. "But you could still manipulate the vote," Neyer notes.

• "For example, if you're in Atlanta and can't vote for Andruw Jones, just put Albert Pujols eighth.""...

"The Times they are a-Changin'" 11/16/05, RiverfrontTimes.com. News of Ramos departure via Poynter.org/Romenesko

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View of Pinchy as motivated seller

• photo by Staff graphic from Boston Herald, 4/28/09

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Patrick Schuster game to be televised on Brighthouse

Patrick Schuster's bid for a fifth no-hitter will be broadcast Tuesday, April 28th at 4PM in Florida on Brighthouse Network channel 47.

• "Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Scott Kazmir threw four straight no-hitters while at Houston’s Cypress Falls High School.

• The national record is six consecutive no-hitters.

That has been done twice:

• 1961: Chris Taranto -- Notre Dame High, Biloxi, Miss.
• 1989: Tom Engle -- Fairfield Union High, Lancaster, Ohio

Both Taranto and Engle were eventually drafted by major league organizations, but neither made it to the big leagues."

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Bugs and Yankee brass neutered Chamberlain-Francesa

Caller about Joba's use, Francesa says making him a starter was an organizational decision based on the idea starting pitchers are the most expensive commodity. An opposite result has occurred. You have Joba trying to become a craftsman which he's not.

• You're taking an all-out terrifying force in late innings and neutering him. He's not cut out for this role.

• He scares no one.

And the team is without late inning relief.

• The "Bugs" game in Cleveland started to break his powerful aura

• and the Yankee brass finished the job.

Francesa says he obviously can't be moved now with Wang out, but it should be considered for future. On the subject of Girardi, Francesa and others say he looks like he's trying to emulate Tony La Russa. Whatever he's doing, it's not good so far this year.

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Mike Francesa on the state of the Yankees

Francesa on WFAN today about the state of the Yankees: Red Sox are better in the front office, better top to bottom...Yankee front office is asleep compared to the Red Sox'...Yankees can't even use Joba Chamberlain correctly. They're in the middle of ruining his career. They've neutered him. Girardi can't do anything right (because) he has no options, nowhere to go for pitching. Bullpen has no bona fide 7th or 8th inning men, no one to get to Rivera. Angel Berroa was miles off third base at the time of the Ellsbury steal, so not credible the Yankees knew it was coming.

• Francesa says Red Sox have been lucky too. They tried to get Arod and missed. They tried to get Teixeira and missed. If they had gotten Teixeira it might have removed Mike Lowell who continues to be great for them. Francesa points to the acquisitions of Beckett and Lowell when Epstein wasn't in the front office, which at the time Epstein said he wouldn't have done himself.

On Rivera, Francesa allows a caller to angrily bash him for some of his losses last year. Which would have been fine if Francesa reminded the caller that Rivera played injured and in pain the entire season, put off surgery to try and help the team. Not that others don't do it, but you don't heap scorn on a pitcher in this situation. Unless you're in New York.

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Yankee pitching, bench show poor planning

Chamberlain after loading the bases in the third inning v Boston, 4/24/09, ap

• "Yankee pitching is, in fact, the worst in baseball. At 6.41, the team ERA is nearly half a run worse than anyone else in the game.

Even Washington (Nationals), which has won just four games this year, has a team ERA that is more than one run a game lower than New York’s.

• Chien-Ming Wang, the Yankees best pitcher before he was injured last year, can’t get anybody out and has been shunted to the disabled list while the team’s pitching doctors try to fix what’s ailing his delivery.*

CC Sabathia, the huge — literally and metaphorically — offseason acquisition, has been OK, but hardly anything near the best pitcher in baseball, which his salary says he’s supposed to be. A.J. Burnett, the other free-agent signing, has been decent but not overwhelming.

• Joba Chamberlain hasn’t given up a lot of runs, but

• his velocity is down, his walks are up and he’s not averaging even six innings a start.

Of all the starters, only Andy Pettitte is pitching like he’s supposed to. But there was nothing he could do Sunday to win a game in which his offense contributed just one run to the cause. But when the team goes 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, that’s what you get....

• In the first few weeks of the season, Brian Bruney had brought hope to the bullpen and a measure of security to seventh-inning leads as the bridge to Mariano Rivera. But with the rest of the bullpen barely more effective than a batting tee, manager

• Joe Girardi overused Bruney, who is resting a tired arm. They need him back desperately.

Then they need at least two more decent relievers. And if the starters don’t start pitching like they’re supposed to be capable of pitching, that won’t help either....

• Ellsbury got to third partially because of the efforts — or lack thereof — of Angel Berroa, the utility infielder the Yankees picked up before the season started. Berroa was filling in for Cody Ransom, the young third baseman who is doing an inadequate job of holding down third base for A-Rod.

Berroa contributed two errors to the cause Sunday and no hits. He’s a washed-up infielder who plays three positions badly. And he’s what the Yankees have to go to on a thin bench." "Red Sox Sweep exposes Yankees' big holes," NBC Sports, Mike Celizic, 4/27/09. via BTF

• *I heard a report saying Wang's problem stems from a lack of strength in his hip area. And this was due to inaction with the foot injury. Since one naturally follows the other, why didn't they think of strengthening his hip before now? sm

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Yahoo and Newsday differ on source of Pettitte reaction

This ap picture of Andy Pettitte posted on Yahoo is the same one Newsday used, but Yahoo attributes the photo to a different event: Pettitte "watches an RBI double off the left field wall by Boston Red Sox David Ortiz during the fifth inning"...4/26/09 Newsday puts a confused looking Andy Pettitte on their back cover with the headline, "Pettitte Rattled After Ellsbury Steals Home during 3 run 5th." Not the case according the Yahoo MLB site. There was no photo on Yahoo showing Pettitte's reaction to Ellsbury.

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Sports Museum in NYC goes bust, Baseball HOF treasures among those held hostage

Neil Best notes the Sports Museum going bust has gotten ugly. The Museum opened last year amid fanfare from NYC's Bloomberg administration who steered $52 million in bonds to help finance the ambitious project.

• The National Baseball Hall of Fame was among many partners and donated artifacts from Cooperstown.

• Persons trying to reclaim their irreplaceable donations are being told they must pay various fees to do so and that everything has been put in storage.

One article mentions a children's exhibit with a Little League uniform belonging to Derek Jeter.

• Darren Rovell of CNBC notes situation on 4/22.

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One of these days, Hal will speak

(Mike Lupica): "One of these days, Hal Steinbrenner, the Steinbrenner who is supposed to be in charge of the Yankees these days, is going to be the one speaking for the Yankees.

• Not Randy Levine, the president of the team, an underboss out of the Giuliani administration who somehow is under the impression that he is the team now, as if he is the new Pride of the Yankees because he got a new stadium built.

Right, he’s the only sports executive in the country who has ever been able to pull off something like that.

Levine seems to have no sense of proportion, whether he is sitting across from Richard Brodsky in a hearing about his new Stadium, or going after the president of MLS — a soccer league — because he doesn’t like the guy’s attitude.

As if he hasn’t gotten the memo that he still isn’t bullying people for Giuliani.

“Don Garber discussing Yankee attendance must be a joke,” is the way Levine was quoted Friday. “We draw more people in a year than his entire league does in a year. If he ever gets Major League Soccer into the same time zone as the Yankees, we might take him seriously.”

• And this is the headline Hal Steinbrenner sees on ESPN.com about that:

• “Yankee President Blasts MLS after ticket remark.”

Nice.

George Steinbrenner could say things like that back in the day, because he owned the team."...

from Mike Lupica column, NY Daily News, 4/25/09, "Mo-ment of Mortality for Mariano Rivera vs. Red Sox"

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A lot of people in baseball media are positive they know everything

6/10/08: "There are a lot of people in my business who are certain they know everything."

• Marty Noble on XM 175 in conversation with Charley Steiner on former XM program Baseball Beat, posted on this blog.

It's truer than ever. This particular career choice can't work in its present form because-to put it as politely as possible-there are too many compromises entailed, too many bosses who need serving.

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Whoever 'the Yankees' are, this is how they think

In the Yankee Stadium Ticket Information and Fan Guide (mailed to prospective ticket buyers awhile ago),

• 1. On opening the front cover, there is a picture of one Yankee, Alex Rodriguez. Who had nothing to do with building championships.

• 2. Who else do 'the Yankees' recognize? A few pages later I see a photo of--Johnny Damon. Also had nothing to do with championships.

• 3. I flip the page and see a more logical choice--Derek Jeter--I'm pretty sure it's him--they just show him from the back with #2.

• 4. Facing that page is --another of Alex Rodriguez, page 9.

• 5. Hey, finally, on page 55, the heart and soul of a true champ. Who has yet to pitch for one season not to mention 3 contiguous levels of post season games--Joba Chamberlain (doing his fist pump).

• 6. On page 69, they show the back of a player wearing number 42. It's probably Mo. The one man most responsible for paying for the stadium. (The Yankees didn't become #1 in AL attendance until 2003, dating from 1990. They ranked 8th through August 1998). They squeezed him in on the Alcohol Policy page.

Others have pointed out the Yankee team faces competition from the needs of a new stadium as well as those of the YES Network. I admit one page in there had a thumbnail photo of Yankee Magazine with Jeter's face on it. And there was an ad for Steiner Collectibles that showed a shirt with 42 on it.

• Even though global warming (excess CO2) does not exist, on page 28 the so-called Yankees say: "Guests and employees are encouraged to utilize public transportation in order to reduce CO2 emissions and reliance on foreign oil." Right. That'll do it.

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Keith Olbermann's $850 Yankee tickets separate him from the common man

From NYYFans.com discussion on Keith Olbermann's extravagant Yankee ticket vs his criticism of Sarah Palin :

---

"Quote:

Originally Posted by GordonGecko Someone's got to pay somewhere. I'm sure Guilianni may have, he charges hundreds of thousands just for speaking engagements of a couple hours. I'm thinking he probably gets comped by the Yankees though. The MSNBC news anchor Keith Oberman has Legends season tickets he paid for in the $850 bracket

Really? This from a guy that thought $1,500 for a Sarah Palin (whom I can't stand) dress was just outrageous, frivolous and embarrassing

• when the rest of the country was in the midst of economic hardships, and on and on almost every waking moment. Nice."

by poster Mantle's Mutt, who continues in a later post:

• "The point (Olbermann) was always making was the PRICE of her clothing in the face of the current economic situation, when something more modestly priced might have been in order for something so open for public display (as are his seats).

I find it more offensive that Oldbermann spends $850 a pop for Yankee tickets (about $70G/seat for a full season) than I do contributors to the RNC having their donations go to a few dresses."

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Did Kansas City Royals "LIE" to media-or are they allowed to protect their business?

MLB.com, 4/24/09: "There is something wrong with Royals closer Joakim Soria after all.

• Manager Trey Hillman said on Friday that Soria is expected to miss at least the next three to five days because of tightness behind his right shoulder.

"There is a problem but it's not a DL situation," Hillman said. "He doesn't have any structural damage but he does have a tight right shoulder on the back side. We're looking at a minimum of three to five days."

• Both Hillman and Soria insisted earlier this week that he was fine despite

• not appearing in a game for eight straight days.

He returned on Wednesday night to post a save at Cleveland but apparently felt stiffness on Thursday.

• General manager Dayton Moore said the stiffness came to the Royals' attention last Saturday at Texas while Soria was warming up as a potential replacement for Zack Greinke who finished the game.

Hillman said he'd kept Soria's situation under wraps until now

• to avoid tipping off opposing teams."...

WHEN THE YANKEES DO THE SAME THING WITH ONE OF THEIR PLAYERS,

• IT'S CALLED A LIE AND THE MANAGER

IS FORCED TO APOLOGIZE TO THE MEDIA. (9/26/08 posted on this blog).

• Sorry for the proof and evidence that the media is Boss of this pathetic, floundering organization. (sm)

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Millionaire Matchmaker on XM Sundays

"Premiere Radio Networks announced today that beginning April 19, "Millionaire Matchmaker" Patti Stanger will host a live, four-week-long call-in special entitled P.S. I Love You. Airing

• Sundays, from 6 - 8 p.m. ET/3 - 5 p.m. PT on
• The Pink Channel (XM Channel 24)

• and Mix (XM Channel 22)...

Patti Stanger is star and executive producer of Bravo TV's The Millionaire Matchmaker. In its first season, the program accumulated record-breaking viewership and captured a worldwide following."...

• P.S. I'm a fan of the tv show and have an observation on the subject of Patti not being married herself. Patti, this is a non-issue and should be off the table for discussion. You're an agent of change in others' lives, period. Being happily married-or just being married-yourself is an entirely different subject. Yes, you have a significant other but

the details beyond that are no one's business and have nothing to do with your qualifications for helping others. Stop entertaining angst and debate about your personal situation.

• Remember Dr. Toni Grant who helped millions on her radio show (may be a bit before your time)? If we had stopped and analyzed her personal life it might have taken away from her talent to help others. (sm)

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MLB devalues players and fans by selling political web of global warming

""Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging

• attitude toward change among the mass of our people.

• They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution." "...Saul Alinsky*

Shake down artists for global warming had an easy mark with Bud Selig and MLB. One such artist described by MLB.com as 'a senior scientist' from NRDC, Alan Hershkowitz has been given further legitimacy for his bogus cause. This political hack got to throw out the first pitch at the Marlins-Pirates game this week. Hershkowitz' education shows a devotion to politics and money, not science:

• "He received his Ph.D. in political economics from the City University of New York Graduate School in 1986, specializing in energy resources economics;

• an M. Phil in political economics in 1982;

• a B.A. (cum laude) from the City College of New York in 1978, and; a Certificat D’assiduite from the University of Grenoble in 1975."

No surprise. Like so many of his kind, it all started at CCNY.

• MLB.com, 4/22/09: "It is happening in Pittsburgh, where Alan Hershkowitz throws out the ceremonial first pitch before the Pirates' 12:35 p.m. ET energy-free game today against the Marlins.

He is a senior scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which partnered with the Pirates last year to launch the team's industry-leading Let's Go Green program -- and energy-free means every dollar spent on electricity at the ballpark will be matched with a dollar spent on natural energy resource development.

• "Earth Day is the perfect opportunity for the Pirates to highlight the many programs we have implemented that are making tangible positive contributions to the greening of our environment," Pirates chairman Bob Nutting said. "As I said when we launched our Let's Go Green campaign last year, we did not decide to do this because it is popular; we did it because it was the right thing to do."...

Meanwhile, it is time to watch Hershkowitz throw out the first pitch in Pittsburgh"...

• (Which global warming alarmist will go to jail for the ethanol scam?)

A Cubs forum discusses Glow-bull Warming Scam

• (So far I've found no objection by Selig's PR department, the BBWAA. They're all bought and paid for by the Banana Republic of Selig upon whom they dote for their own self interest. There is no independent baseball media).

*Quote by Saul Alinsky from American Thinker, "Obama, Alinsky and Scapegoats," by James Lewis

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Forbes 2009 Baseball Valuations

Forbes.com: "In Pictures: What The Teams Are Worth

No one is getting richer faster than the No. 1-ranked New York Yankees, whose value shot up 15% this year to $1.5 billion. The Bronx Bombers pulled in $80 million--by far the most in baseball--from their rights fee with the YES Network in 2008 and moved into the most lucrative stadium in baseball this season. (Full disclosure: Forbes has a show on the YES Network.)

• The new stadium also means the Yankees will have to hand over a lower percentage of their revenue to rivals.

Yes, the team's stadium revenue--tickets, suites, advertising, concessions--is likely to go up by more than $100 million this season. But MLB permits teams to deduct stadium-operating and debt expenses from revenue before calculating the amount the league will take from them to subsidize other teams.

• Last season the Yankees had to hand over $95 million to the league so it could be distributed to teams like the Florida Marlins, Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals and Tampa Bay Rays.

• In the new stadium the Yankees' deductible expenses will be around $100 million, enough to wipe out the windfall in revenue."...

BizOfBaseball has a good synopsis. He listed 10 teams whose value decreased from last year:

• "Washington Nationals: $406 million, down 12 percent
• Atlanta Braves: $446 million, down 10 percent
• Seattle Mariners: $426 million, down 9 percent
• Detroit Tigers: $371 million, down 9 percent
• San Francisco Giants: $471 million, down 5 percent
• Houston Astros: $445 million, down 4 percent
• Cleveland Indians: $399 million, down 4 percent
• Texas Rangers: $405 million, down 2 percent
• Oakland Athletics: $319 million, down 1 percent
• Pittsburgh Pirates: $288 million, down 1 percent" (from Forbes via Biz of Baseball)

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Fleetwood Mac as good as ever

""As many of you know, Fleetwood Mac has had a complex and convoluted emotional history," (Lindsey) Buckingham told

• the tidy, intense crowd of 10,008 fans.

But for this tour, he added, they "just wanted to go out and have fun.""photo from tampabay.com

• (I was fortunate to be among the 10,000 'tidy, intense' fans tonight at the St. Pete Times Forum. The concert was tremendous). sm

P.S. If they had added Sheryl Crow as once rumored I would not have gone.

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'The Melk-man Delivers'

• 'The Melk-man Delivers,' part of John Sterling's call on Yankee radio today as Melky's home run finally ended the 14 inning drama v Oakland. top photo ny times, 2nd and 4th photo ap, 3rd photo getty

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Original Earth Day organizer murdered ex-girlfriend

Ira Einhorn a founder of Earth Day in 1970 as he was taken into custody for a 1977 murder. photo from Salon.com

• Einhorn murdered a woman in his bedroom, fled the US, and hid out in France for many years before finally being brought back in 2001 and put in prison. Article in Salon.com. 8/14/02.

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Andy Pettitte gets 1st Win for Yankee starter at new stadium

(Davidoff, Newsday): "And in this unique universe, Pettitte - the product of the Yankees' largesse, but not a reflection of it - takes the mound every fifth day as a breath of fresh air. As a big, greatly appreciated bowl of normal.

• How appropriate that Pettitte, with his 5-3 victory over the A's last night,

• became the first Yankees starting pitcher to pick up a victory at the new Stadium.

That he made his official Stadium debut with the sort of grinder's effort that, if you couldn't quite bottle and exhibit as Classic Pettitte - the zero strikeouts is low - you could point to as Andy Being Andy."...photo Newsday, "Pettitte Still a Welcome Presence for Yankees"

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Giambi and Jeter reunion

Former team mates Jason Giambi and Derek Jeter greet at Oakland's first game in the new Yankee Stadium. getty photo

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Umpire Kerwin Danley taken from field

Texas Ranger Marlon Byrd watches as umpire Kerwin Danley is about to be taken from the field after being hit in the head by a bat at game in Toronto. getty photo

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Rolling Stone closes last San Francisco office

"Rolling Stone magazine has severed its last tenuous link to San Francisco, the city where Jann Wenner co-founded the irreverent biweekly 42 years ago to cover the psychedelic rock scene and counterculture movement flourishing in the region. New York publisher Wenner Media will shutter its three-person office at 1700 Montgomery St., spokesman Mark Neschis said....

• In the early years, however, there was a symbiotic relationship between Rolling Stone and the city, said Ben Fong-Torres, who joined the magazine as an editor in 1969.

"It was one of the energy centers of the cultural, rock 'n' roll scene of the mid- to late '60s," he said. "For Rolling Stone to be in San Francisco gave it a particular strength, a singularity. Of course, we also naturally nurtured our own scene here. We gave a lot of attention to local bands."

• An early issue featured a spread of a drug bust at the Grateful Dead's studio on Ashbury Street, he said. It regularly reported on San Francisco acts such as Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin's band Big Brother and the Holding Co. and the original Charlatans."...via Poynter.org/Romenesko

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Tampa High Schooler throws 4th no-hitter-and he's a lefty

"Mitchell High School left-hander Patrick Schuster pitched his

• fourth consecutive no-hitter tonight, striking out 17, in a 5-0 win over Pasco.

• Schuster entered the game with three consecutive no-hitters, tying a Florida prep record....

Schuster's next start is expected to come in next week's Class 6A-District 7 tournament." photo from Tampa Tribune via Lucianne.com

• P.S. Any chance he could make it up to Boston next Friday? Probably not. (sm)

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Media revulsion over Tea Parties shows need for overhaul

"Who raised these eternal adolescents?"

• (American Thinker): "In all my years of watching news coverage in America, I don't believe I have ever witnessed more condescending, amateurish, purely politicized reporting than what just transpired among the liberal MSM covering America's Tax Day Tea Parties. The Tea Parties represented a very significant news event.

Whenever close to 300,000 middle-class Americans put their productive lives on hold on a midweek workday, make original signs with their own hands, and travel miles and miles to stand with other private citizens just to demonstrate their anger with government, in more than 300 cities from coast to coast and everywhere in between, that's NEWS.

• Yet, many local newspapers - even the Boston Globe for crying out loud! - pettily refused
• to even cover their local protests.

When every news channel - except the only one thriving on the block, Fox - finally decided to cover the events, it was with

• derision, mockery and elitist condescension.

Note to MSM: This is why you're going broke.

• The puerile, vulgar humor of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and CNN's Anderson Cooper,

targeting the most clean-cut, rancor-less groups of protesters possibly ever assembled in the U.S.A., was the kind of thing one would expect on an adolescent playground when the teacher isn't listening. I personally polled 16 friends and relatives, aged 23 to 66, and not a single one of them had ever even heard the sexually perverse phrase regarding tea bags, which peppered Maddow's and Cooper's primetime rants.

Yet, apparently, these two don't even have enough good sense left to be ashamed of themselves.

• Who raised these eternal adolescents?

The real cake-taker in my view, however, was the flighty pomposity of a previously unknown CNN "reporter" on the scene of the Tea Party in Chicago.

• One Susan Roesgen approached an all-American male, holding his toddler son in the crowd of protesters, asking an open-ended question, "Why are you here?" This gentleman proceeded to try to explain his frustration with Obama, citing Lincoln's valiant stand for liberty,

at which point he was sanctimoniously cut off by CNN's know-nothing. Ms. Know-nothing then demanded to know, "What does this have to do with taxes? Don't you know you're eligible for a $400 tax credit? Don't you know that Illinois is getting millions from the stimulus?"

• If the CNN woman had been more of a reporter and less of a shill for Obama, then

she might have actually allowed this Illinois gentleman to explain himself. She might have uncovered the reality that not many Illinois citizens are all that fired up over other

• Americans paying millions into their Blago-genic political system, via the Democrat trio of do-gooding tyrants, Pelosi, Reid & Obama. She might have understood that the Tax Day Tea Parties were more about liberty than about taxes, more about the Democrats' profligacy and waste than about paying one's fair share for the real purposes of federal government as specifically outlined by the U.S. Constitution.

Alas, reporting the facts was not CNN's mission. ...

• This on-air "interview" was quite enlightening on another measure, however. It perfectly illuminated the sheer cognitive dissonance among the lion's share of our too-disgraceful-for-words MSM.

They simply do not get it.

Perfectly akin to candidate Barack Obama's exchange with now-famous Joe the Plumber, these liberal Statists, who see government as more loving than God, more able than Superman and more necessary than drinking water,

• simply have no genuine understanding of liberty or the individual spirit that kindles and keeps its fires burning from generation to generation.

They are so out of touch with the American productive class that they honestly believe no honest-to-goodness patriots even exist in the current day.

• Our media have convinced themselves -- as has the entire Democratic Party cabal of power-wielders now in charge --

• that the November election really was a landslide of historic proportions (which it certainly was not),

• that the "change" moderates really wanted was what they are now getting (out-of-control profligate spending),

and that they are now free as "reporters" to finally come out of the closet as the socialist elitists they've always been.

• Many posed the questions, during their Tea Party coverage, "Why all this anger now? Why are these people protesting now, when they weren't out in the streets during GW's eight years?"

Why indeed. The ordinary American -- normally quite-silent majority -- will take an awful lot of malfeasance and wasteful spending from our federal government. Most of the time, we are just too darned busy to protest anything.

• We are not getting paid to protest, unlike the anti-war and anti-poverty protesters our media covers in never-ending flurries of fury.

• We don't get federal tax dollars to protest, as does ACORN, and

• we have no sugar-daddy like Soros paying us stipends to lend a deceitful public-protest face

• to his personal views.

We're the productive class, the vast middle. We're busy living our own lives, busy building the businesses and earning our livings, busy raising our children and doing the host of volunteer services that infuse life into our Churches, Synagogues and civic organizations.

• We're the citizens doing the lion's share of those things which have made America the great and exceptional Nation she has been for the past 2-1/3 centuries.

Much of the anger now boiling over in protest has been building for the past 20 years, since the end of Ronald Reagan's presidential tenure. Much of it is aimed at Republicans, not just Democrats. And it goes to the heart of the size, scope and fundamental duties of the federal government as enumerated by our U.S. Constitution.

• This mounting anger, aimed at the tyranny of a federal government -- completely off-the-rails of its Constitutionally-framed limited scope and power --

• may be surfacing now due to a tipping in the fragile balance that was upheld during the G.W. Bush presidency.

What was that fragile balance between our quietly continuing our personal business and our taking to the streets?

• One thing and one thing only, in my opinion. As long as the federal government is doing the one job of protecting our national security and standing up for us in the face of the world's sleights, we will take a great deal of folderol from our elected officials. We will suffer the profligate spending and invasions on our personal freedoms when we - at the very least - believe our leaders are stridently bent on protecting our interests and our children from harm.

When a president cuts both those legs off at the knees, as President Obama has shamelessly done for 100 days, then frustration boils over into national protest.

• Obama's first 100 days has been the last straw.

Not only has this president pompously promised the wages of our children and grandchildren in a profligate spending spree

• that guarantees serfdom for the productive class,
• he has bowed, scraped, fawned and apologized his way across the entire continent of Europe.

He has planned huge and irresponsible cuts in our defense spending, promised to do away with missile defense systems and heralded the day he will disarm our nuclear arsenal, so as to set a nice example for the resurgent Russian Bear.

• Obama has obsequiously bowed to the Saudi King, some of whose own subjects blew more than 3,000 of our fellow Americans to kingdom come a mere 7 years ago.

Obama has called off the Global War on Terror, yet has no surrender treaties to accompany this juvenile exercise in hating all things Bush.

• He has welcomed Castro, Chavez, Ortega, Ahmadinejad and Hamas with open arms,

• salivating grins and friendly warmth, while dissing our heretofore friends and allies,

• even making a rude point of telling Israel's PM, Netanyahu, that there will be no face-to-face meeting with him next month in D.C.

So, when our liberal MSM confronts middle America, now on the march, and demands to know what there is not to like about this new Administration,

• they demonstrate the most out-of-touch elitism ever to disgrace

• American media.

It is cognitive dissonance on steroids. And what's worse, their liberal Statist myopia prevents their even realizing it.

• Never in the history of this grand Republic of ours, has a group so demanded massive intervention

• as this media does now.

And I think they may be about to get it from the folks they most hate - genuine American patriots." "MSM's Tea Party Cognitive Dissonance," by Kyle-Anne Shriver

• via Lucianne.com

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Mike Francesa: New Yankee Stadium is amusement park

Francesa on his WFAN show today says, new Yankee Stadium "plays like Coors Field, plays like a pinball joint...Right now the conditions at the Stadium override the game....Everyone involved had good intentions," but the conditions, the apparent jet stream for cheap home runs into right field must be fixed immediately, as soon as the team leaves for its next road trip. You can't play championship baseball and be on a carnival ride. "Not saying Yankee pitchers didn't earn the results" especially in Wang's case, just too many balls went out too easily. "Yankee Stadium was always an honest ballpark and did favor" lefty power hitters, but what is now isn't. "Thanks but no thanks. Not for the cathedral of baseball. If someone else wants to do it, fine," but it's not what Yankee baseball earned. "A beautiful place" but nobody wants it to play like this.

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Posada's pinch hit homerun deflects off fan in stadium

Cleveland Indians right fielder Trevor Crowe leaps for the ball in Indians-Yankee game at the new Yankee Stadium. ap photo

• (Newsday): "Posada's home run appeared to deflect off the forearm of a fan in rightfield, bounce on top of the W.B. Mason sign and then land back on the field near rightfielder Trevor Crowe. The umpires reviewed the play, but ultimately ruled it a home run."

Jeter turning double play over Victor Martinez, 1st inning v Indians, 4/19/09 photo by Newsday

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Eric Wedge: New Yankee Stadium like Arlington

Suzyn Waldman notes Eric Wedge said Yankee Stadium plays like Texas. He observed this, Suzyn said, during the Indians pre-game show. Mark DeRosa said it played like a bandbox. Anthony McCarron noted the wind tunnel going to right field and how well it would suit a player like Jason Giambi.

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WFAN morning show has :40 delay for shock jock

(NY Post): "According to insiders, WFAN (morning show) creep Craig Carton is being subjected to an air-delay of

• nearly 40 seconds

to best ensure that some of the really vulgar garbage he spews is pre-purged."...

• from Phil Mushnick column, "Francesa Blinded by Amazin' Spin"

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Get well soon, Chien-Ming Wang

Back cover Newsday, April 19, 2009. Many observers theorize that Wang is hurt. Whatever the case, everybody likes Chien-Ming Wang but something is very wrong and must be addressed. At some point, we need the real Wang back. In this new hitters' park, a ground ball pitcher is worth his weight in gold.

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Every observer thinks Wang looks hurt-Suzyn Waldman

Kevin Kennedy thought Wang looked hurt and said so on the air during the Yankees-Rays game Monday 4/13. As I decided to post this, Suzyn Waldman says everyone in broadcasting, analysts from various places who've expressed an opinion to her, all say Wang looks hurt. If this is the case, he apparently hasn't admitted it to himself or his employer.

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Legends Jeter and Mo give new stadium first win

• Newsday back cover, April 18, 2009

On the Indians' final out, Akron Beacon-Journal: "(Mark DeRosa) ''It's tough enough when Rivera does throw a strike,'' said DeRosa, who questioned umpire Phil Cuzzi. ''His 91 [miles per hour] isn't 91, because he has serious movement on the ball....

• Had DeRosa reached base, it would have been up to Victor Martinez to bring home one or more runs.

• That's what DeRosa was trying to make happen."...'Homers, plus Error, equal Loss'

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Neil Best interviewed by Al Jazeera outside Yankee Stadium

Neil Best Watchdog, 4/17/09: "That's it for me. It's been a surprisingly limited, lackluster week of blogging, given that I attended two historic stadium openings, met Erin Andrews, saw 85-year-old Jerry Coleman on the F train at 11 p.m., (and)

• was interviewed by Al Jazeera outside Yankee Stadium"...

Al Jazeera had previously sought to build on its mainstream appeal via Mr. Best and the Yankees. Mr. Best's 4/4/09 blog entry about the new Yankee clubhouse:

• Neil Best Watchdog, 4/4/09: "The other thing was something that would have been great for blogging purposes had it actually come off.

• I was scheduled to be interviewed before the game about high ticket prices by Al Jazeera. ...

• THE Al Jazeera. But the reporter had to cancel at the last minute because of another breaking story."...

Sports by Brooks noted 1/9/09 that Al Jazeera targeted sports to increase its global influence. From Sports by Brooks on Al Jazeera's pitch:

• "AL JAZEERA is proving that it can see and expose the biggest, most important sports news
• to a homogeneous religious audience

• that disagrees with much nearly all of the culture that manifests itself
• in the sport on the screen."...

and

• "a successful bid for the English top-flight’s rights could completely change the way the (Al Jazeera) network is viewed across the world, which could have

• deep socio-political effects in countries as far and wide as the U.S."...

However, we're greatly relieved. A brand new report from the Obama administration Department of Homeland Security assures us the only terror threat the United States faces is from its own citizens. Especially returning war veterans who might be potential right wing extremists.

• Huffington Post on Dept. of Homeland Security alert for suspicious American citizens.

• CBS tv's Morning Show with Harry Smith on 4/15 details new fears we should have about American citizens. An official from the Southern Poverty Law Center joins the show, agreeing about
• the new scourge.

Top photo of Al Jazeera studio from Honest Reporting, 2/22/04. Bottom ad from front page of NY Times website, 1/09/09

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Yankee lawsuit filer 'originally from New Hampshire'

Today of course is news of alleged political and religious oppression

• involving the Yankees, a former New Hampshire resident attending a game the Red Sox were winning, and the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The NYCLU filed a lawsuit against the Yankees and others for political and religious discrimination that allegedly took place August 26, 2008 at Yankee Stadium.

• A patron, 'originally from New Hampshire' with the Red Sox winning 7-3, decided to leave his seat at the 7th inning stretch (after spewing epithets).

Seeking publicity and financial opportunity, the NYCLU filed suit on behalf of the patron saying the police told him he couldn't leave his seat during the singing of God Bless America. As good an excuse as any to seek fame and fortune while advancing a cultural sickness.

• Reference: Bloomberg News, "New York Man Sues Over Ejection from Yankees Game," 4/15/09

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Yankee opener 10th biggest event in StubHub history--Newsday

(Neil Best): "As for tomorrow's (Yankee) opener, tickets still are available on the secondary market, of course. The average price of those sold on StubHub as of Tuesday was $399, with a high of $5,883 for a seat behind the Yankees dugout.

• The game already is the 10th highest grossing event in
• StubHub history."

'Levine: Yankees May Reduce Ticket Prices Next Season,' Newsday, Neil Best (end of article)

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Few Cubans have cellphones or internet access

"With word that the Obama administration is seeking to open up communications to and within Cuba, there’s been

• no comment so far from U.S. media companies as to whether or not they would play a role in serving the island.

Possible U.S. players are Sirius Radio, Direct TV, AT&T and Verizon, among others. We’re not talking Radio Marti that used to blast the island, 90 miles from Florida, about giving up communism and joining the free world. This would be a full scale, open policy of offering radio, TV and electronic media to the island.

• In 2007, the CIA estimated that the 11.4 million citizens of Cuba had one million phones. There are 198,000 cellphones in use.

• The International Telecommunications Union reports that 11.5 (%) percent of the Cuban population had access to the Internet in 2008. There are eight U.S. companies currently licensed by the FCC to provide long-distance service to Cuba through cable or satellite, including AT&T and Verizon. It’s not clear how many provide the service, however.

What’s also not clear is whether or not the Cuban government would open up their island to us without full diplomatic relations restored"…via Radio Daily News

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Missing since Brad Halsey

Reliever Brad Halsey established in his 2004 tour with the Yankees that he could be called on to respond to another team's overly aggressive pitching in a timely fashion. It's been said many Yankee pitchers have allowed opponents at the plate to get 'too comfortable' so Suzyn and John expressed approval that AJ Burnett reciprocated moving a Rays' player off the plate in tonight's game. The Rays' tv guys observed it was clearly a 'returning the favor' situation for something Garza had done earlier. Halsey looked deceptively cherubic.

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Leo Hindery funds Journalism Online with Brill, Crovitz

The trio offers a business model that may help newspapers by charging readers:

• "Plans call for Journalism Online to be in the market with at least one e-commerce product by the fall; options include an all-you-can-read solution. They hope to work with newspapers, magazine, online-only publishers—in other words, anyone looking for a way to
• make money with news online.

• Crovitz said they have already held discussions with a number of publishers. Those conversations have included issues like what kind of e-commerce platforms they want to have, what they are willing to charge.

(The company has since posted a detailed press release.)"...

• (Hindery among many other things was founding CEO of the YES Network and a recent Chicago Cubs bidder). via Poynter.org/Romenesko

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Beckett suspended for throwing at Abreu's head

AP story from Newsday

• Bobby Abreu vs Josh Beckett

• PA**  AB  H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS 

• 84    65  14  3  0  2   7  19  21  .215  .393  .354  .747

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