mindful rage

Nick Swisher, Man of Action

In a very ugly loss to Tampa last night, Yankee RF/1B Nick Swisher was called on to pitch the 8th inning.  Despite not having pitched since high school, the crafty lefty managed to retire the side after allowing a walk and a base hit.  He had good velocity, changed arm angles, and even struck out former All-Star Gabe Kapler on a high fastball.

I’m not sure what you can say about Nick Swisher that hasn’t already been said.  The man is versatile, a good influence in the locker room, and swings a mean bat.  When he was called in to pitch, he had already homered once in the game and gotten within a foot or so of at least a double only to be robbed by Carl Crawford on an outstanding jumping catch.  Ever the class act, Swisher doffed his batting helmet to Crawford as he trotted back to the Yankee dugout.

Regardless of how the game resolved itself (poorly is an understatement), Swisher is an asset to this team.  How you place Nady in the field ahead of Swisher on any given day is completely beyond me.  He’s fantastic.

In fact, this is my new idea:  On any day where you need to rest Swisher, do it in the field.  Seriously.  Park his ass on a patio chair in right field with a Mai Tai and a boombox playing Molly Hatchet.  I guarantee this is worth at least six runs versus a replacement player.

Absolutely horrible.

This (screenshot from MLB At-Bat on my iPhone) just doesn’t convey the awfulness of the situation.  Click the picture for a more detailed story.

Adam Dunn really just seems to loaf it in the field. I’m pretty glad we didn’t go after him in the offseason. What an awful game.

Wow, that was refreshing – Yankees managed a three-game sweep of the Red Sox, and did so against the heart of their pitching order:  Matsuzaka, Beckett, and Schilling.  Probably the most impressive thing is that Boston was held to 6 total runs in the course of the series.  All props to Yankee pitching, and I continue to fear Joba Chamberlain.

I was just noticing something the other night, that certain things have an inherent amount of cool. Classic baseball caps are pretty cool. The Yankees cap is the single most recognized piece of sports paraphernalia in the world. An old Brooklyn Dodgers cap reeks of awesomeness. The classic Olde English “D” on a Detroit Tigers cap carries a smoothness that cannot be denied.

In some cases, the cap can add seemingly supernatural levels of coolness.

I present the following:

I’ve surely mentioned our interesting vending machine at work.  The one where you can play a little game after a purchase and get a chance to win a prize?  If not, now I have.  Today I managed to luck out and win $5 from the arbitrary little soda-spitter.  I punch in my reward code, and it begins spitting out quarters.

One of which, on the face, has a rather well-done color portrait of Derek Lowe, along with a baseball backdrop and his team name and number.

Derek Lowe?  Come on, people.  Seriously?  Derek Lowe.

Adam: sounds like you got your wish.

Matt: wha?

Adam: wang starts.

Matt: OH. Yea, OK.

Matt: Because I was gonna say, there’s an awful lot of people left here alive for me to have gotten any of my normal wishes.

From today’s Truth and Rumors at SI.com:

The Tigers are satisfied they won’t see a recurrence of the right wrist and forearm inflammation that sidelined Joel Zumaya for three games of the ALCS. Why? Club president and general manager Dave Dombrowski told WXYT-AM the team had concluded Zumaya’s injury resulted from playing a video game. Zumaya was known to play “Guitar Hero,” a PlayStation 2 game.
– Detroit Free Press

Oh my GOD is that tremendous. Forget that awful overthrow to Inge at 3rd, dude finished Hangar 18 and did the encore straight into Freebird! YEAH! THROW UP THE HORNS AND THROW AWAY THE CHAMPIONSHIP!