Jeter Out Of Game With Bruised Foot

They're doing x-rays now. Mind you, they could amputate and he'd still downplay it as no big deal.

The View from Section 203

First off, the phrase "Section 203" has so little panache compared to "Section 39" that the new Stadium may as well be on the moon. But it's still the Yankees and when you're watching the game you forget you're in a new place. So after 2 exhibitions here are my thoughts (with help from Joe, Nanny and Pat) on the new Yankee Stadium.

What Michael will like:
Additional leg room in bleachers
Manual scoreboards
View into the bullpen
Derek Jeter

What Michael will hate:
The railing in front of seats 1 & 2
Location of our seats (height, setback, etc.)
Direction our seats face (3rd base instead of home plate)
Ring of video boards around the upper deck
Excessively loud speakers directly behind our seats
A-Rod

Still up for debate:
Plants between the bleachers and box seats
Mega-Jumbotron
New Monument Park
A.J. Burnett

Winners:
The physically impaired (LOTS of wheelchair seating and closed-captioning)
Standing room only patrons (great views from every concourse)
Yankee ownership balance sheet
Brett Gardner

Losers:
Fans with banners in the first row of the upper deck (due to video boards)
Autograph seekers (due to fencing off of uber-luxury seats)
South Bronx children (due to reduced park space)
Shelley “Unknown” Duncan

Nice Additions:
The Great Hall
Yankee Museum
Pavilion above Bleacher Cafe
Wall of MVPs (which change from silhouette to b&w images)
Sabathia and Teixeira

Regretful Omissions:
Bat on top of flag pole
Flags of AL teams in division standings (hopefully added when season starts)
Bernie Williams

Poor Engineering Award (tie):
Massive pillars on either side of the bleachers (causing bottleneck in/out)
Fencing on the side of upper deck and mezzanine (where blowing trash gets stuck inside)

Bob Shepherd Retires

God, the new stadium sucks more and more every day. His replacement will not be that sound-alike backup Jim Hall, though the NYTimes doesn't cite a source for this. Maybe I still have a shot at it.

UPDATE: Or not. Shepherd got very annoyed. He's not retiring, says the 98 year old. But he won't be doing Opening Day and he doesnt know when he'll be well enough to do a game again. If he's not well enough to do Opening Day, he's not well enough to do any days. There's no reason to expect he'll improve because he's not facing any particular illness but the ravages of age. So he's not retiring; he just isn't doing any games and can't say if or when he will do any ever again. By the way, the initial article said he drove his car to pick his son up at the train station. That is crazy. NO ONE who is 98 years old should be driving a car.

The day the music died...

Why, Alex, why??? As if he didn't have enough problems...now he's going to be lumped in with Bonds, Clemens, McGwire, Canseco, Palmeiro, and the rest of this generation's cheaters. I never pegged A-Rod as the sort to do this and the tell-tale signs weren't there either. Very disappointing and probably is the last straw for anyone like myself that had steadfastly defended him to this point.

So what do you think? Will this keep him out of the HOF like it will for the names above?

The New Season Approacheth

Wake up, my Lightningers!

Andy Pettitte is back! What a trouper! Taking less than $6 mil upfront and incentives to get him to $12 mil. Says Andy:

“The bottom line is, I’m a man, and I guess it does take a shot at your pride a little bit,” Pettitte said, referring to the pay cut. “But when you put all that aside, I wanted to play for the New York Yankees. I wanted to be there and I wanted to play in that new stadium.

“There’s no doubt in my mind if I went out as a free agent, I could have made an awful lot more money than what I’m signing for. In fact, I know I could have. It’s just a situation, if you want to play for one team, you’re going to have to make sacrifices for that. If it was going to be me taking a pay cut, it was going to be me taking a pay cut.”

First he cheats for one team (whoops, I mean just tries to speed up the healing process!) and now he takes a pay cut and isn't too embarrassed to talk about how humiliating it is despite the fact that we're in a recession/depression and literally millions of people are out of work and more adding to the list every day. At least he's keeping his Christian perspective.

Plus Joe Torre releases a tell-all. I don't buy the whole omerta, what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room malarkey. But I too find Torre's actions distasteful. He couldn't wait till everyone -- or most everyone -- covered was retired? Or at least until HE was retired and wouldn't potentially be playing against some of these guys or maybe keeping his team from signing them because of what he said or just making THEIR life hell? But who am I to tell him to turn down millions of dollars from a publisher who wants their dirt now? And no, I don't take pleasure in the very believable (to me) comment that players on the team refer to Alex as A-Fraud. It just depresses me and bums me out, even if it is further proof (coming from St. Joe no less) that A-Rod does not help build a good team.

Pitching, Pitching and More Pitching

From Joe:

C.C.
Wang
Joba
---------
Lowe??
Burnett??
Sheets??
Pettitte??
______
Hughes
Kennedy
Aceves


Can never have enough pitching...

From Pete:

Any chance we can package Hughes, Kennedy and Melky for Jake Peavy?

And I'd rank those 4 question marks in this order: Sheets, Lowe, Pettitte, Burnett.

From Joe:

I hope they trade Kennedy for Rick Ankiel just so we can have another
'roid user on the team. I figure eventually with enough 'roid users and
hired guns that Michael's head will explode.

Hughes, Melky, and a minor leaguer for Peavy -- sign me up for that.

From Michael:
x x x
x x
x x x
x x x
x x
x x x
xxx xx x

x x
x x xx
x X
\ \
I /
I /
X X
X X
X -- -- X
X X
X - X
X --- X
X X
X X
XXXXXX


Damn, I carefully drew a picture of me with my head exploding and blogger squished it all together.

Mike Mussina Retires: It's Official

See ya, Moose. I wish he'd come back and we'll definitely miss him. But there's a lot to be said for a graceful exit when you're still on top. A smart man to the end and an honest competitor in an era of cheats.