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Sunday, April 18, 2010

The Yankees, Unobstructed

First, I think it's important to start off by apologizing to David Robertson. I have a long history of jinxing things, and poor Robertson never stood a chance. Just two days after I hailed the young reliever for giving up just one run since August, he fell victim to a grand slam.

I'm sorry, Dave.

But, if mentioning how good someone is in this column ruins them, maybe we can make it work the other way. So, the two Nicks — Johnson and Swisher — are struggling to come by hits. Johnson's pulling down a .158 average, and Swisher is hitting a clean .200. They just look bad.

If the world of baseball production really does revolve around me (and c'mon, it so obviously does), then the Nicks should start kicking into high gear pretty soon.

Time for a Yankees, Unobstructed first — talking about stuff that has nothing to do with the Yankees, at all.

Normally we don't talk about other teams on the Bronx News Network. But today an exception needs to be made. Last night the Mets and Cardinals played a 6 hour 53 minute, 20 inning, 120 out game. There are so many great numbers to pull from the affair.
Here are some good ones (courtesy of the sporting news):

  • 11: Number of consecutive innings Francisco Rodriguez warmed up before entering the game in the 19th and blowing a save. Look, I said the Castillo bunt may have been Manuel's nadir.
  • 110: Number of outs recorded before Jose Reyes became the first runner to score, on a Jeff Francoeur sacrifice fly in the 19th inning.
  • 0: Number of times on base, combined, by Francoeur and Jason Bay in 14 at-bats.
  • 2: Number of entire NBA playoff games (Hawks-Bucks and Celtics-Heat) played during Cardinals-Mets.

A Recap of the Ridiculous 20-Inning Cardinals-Mets Epic, By the Numbers

Today's completely useless trivia — courtesy of ESPN, who was obviously just trying to kill an extra three seconds — last night's Ubaldo Jimenez no-hitter was the first by anyone whose name starts with "U."

Back to the Yankees

This week the Yankees are heading to Oakland and Anaheim. I don't know if it's the Pacific air, the sushi snobbery or maybe distraction from being so near In-n-Out, but for the last couple of years the Yankees have been less than great on West coast roadtrips. Consider this a good test of their mettle. If they can pull two of three from both Oakland and Anaheim, then we can really feel comfortable with this April success.

NOTE: Make sure to check back every weekend for The Yankees, Unobstructed, BNN's weekly Yankees opinion column.

For more of Graham Kates' sports writing, check out his True/Slant blog "Coaches in the Crosshairs" (http://trueslant.com/grahamkates).

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