Larry Mahnken and SG's

Replacement Level Yankees Weblog

"Hey, it's free!"


The Replacement Level Yankees Weblog has moved!  Our new home is:
http://www.replacementlevel.com

Featuring:
Larry Mahnken
SG
sjohnny
TVerik
Sean McNally
Fabian McNally
John Brattain


This is an awesome FREE site, where you can win money and gift certificates with no skill involved! If you're bored, I HIGHLY recommend checking it out!



Web
yankeefan.blogspot.com

Disclaimer: If you think this is the official website of the New York Yankees, you're an idiot. Go away.


June 28, 2005


Happy Birthday to Me
by SG

Back in April, Larry wrote about the Yankees and his birthday. I started thinking back to the Yankees record on my birthday, and I seemed to remember winning most of the time. So I went back to check, and since 1991 the Yankees are 14-1 on my birthday.

June 27, 1991
New York Yankees 8, Boston Red Sox 0

June 27, 1992
New York Yankees 8, Chicago White Sox 7

June 27, 1993
New York Yankees 9, Baltimore Orioles 5

June 27, 1994
New York Yankees 5, Boston Red Sox 1

June 27, 1995
New York Yankees 7, Detroit Tigers 1

June 27, 1996
New York Yankees 3, Baltimore Orioles 2

June 27, 1997
New York Yankees 3, Cleveland Indians 2

June 27, 1998
New York Yankees 7, New York Mets 2

June 27, 1999
New York Yankees 6, Baltimore Orioles 2

June 27, 2000
Detroit Tigers 7, New York Yankees 6

June 27, 2001
New York Yankees 15, Cleveland Indians 5

June 27, 2002
New York Yankees 3, Baltimore Orioles 2

June 27, 2003
New York Yankees 6, New York Mets 4

June 27, 2004 Game 1
New York Yankees 8, New York Mets 1

June 27, 2004 Game 2
New York Yankees 11, New York Mets 6

Anyway, the point is, yesterday was my birthday, and I just felt the Yankees were going to win. Even when the defense did what it does "best" by playing outs into hits, putting the Yankees in a 4-1 hole, I felt they were going to come back. Trailing 4-1, the Yankees did come back, making them 15-1 on my birthday since 1991. Nice.

Despite not striking out a batter, Carl Pavano pitched ok. He's been much better on the road this year, with an ERA 4 RUNS LOWER than at home. Which is bizarre, because Yankee Stadium has historically played as a slight pitcher's park. To me the key to the game was the solid work of the bullpen, who pitched 3 shutout innings to preserve the game.

The outfield that played yesterday was absolutely brutal, possibly one of the worst ever. Ruben Sierra did make a nice catch in the RF corner, but he really doesn't belong out there very much. Even if Tony Womack could play CF like Willie Mays, he hits like complete crap. And he doesn't play like Willie Mays. Hideki Matsui seems to be much better in CF than LF, but Joe Torre apparently can't see that, even though it's pretty obvious to everyone else. Matsui just seems to read the ball better off the bat in center, which makes up for his average foot speed. In LF, he seems to misread a lot of balls, and it makes sense since he spent the bulk of his career in Japan as a CF.

At this point, looking at the big picture is a little frustrating. What I've always liked about baseball was the fact that even if your team was historically bad, you could always hope to win on any given day. The Yankees are still only 3 games out of the wild card lead, but instead of scoreboard watching and taking each loss so harshly, I'm going to try and enjoy each day's game in a vacuum. Sure, I'll glance at the scoreboards and pay some attention to what's going on around the league, but I'll just hope the Yankees win that day. In a sense, this is the most intriguing season since 1995, when the Yankees barely made the playoffs. No one expects it now, so if they somehow pull it off it will be very satisfying. I don't see them overcoming all their problems, but hopefully they keep it interesting through September at least.