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C.C. SabathiaAthletics (65-67) at Yankees (83-50)

Pitching Matchup:

LHP Dallas Braden (9-9, 3.28) vs LHP C.C. Sabathia (18-5, 3.14)

Lineup

Jeter SS
Swisher RF
Teixeira 1b
Cano 2b
Thames DH
Posada C
Kearns LF
Nunez 3b
Gardner CF Continue Reading »

The Horace Clarke Era

Horace Meredith Clarke played second base for the New York Yankees from 1965-1974.  With the retirement of longtime Yankee, Bobby Richardson, Clark became the Yankees full-time second baseman in 1967. In his 10 seasons with the Yankees, he hit .257, with 27HR’s and 300RBI’s.

My dad was born in 1955, and grew up watching these Yankees. It wasn’t a time of celebration, but rather a decade filled with disappointment. From 1965-1974, the Yankees won absolutely nothing. Some of these teams included the likes of Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Bobby Murcer and Thurman Munson.

The big complaint about Clarke was that he wasn’t able to turn the double play. With runners trying for the take out slide at second base, he would wind up holding onto the ball instead of turning it. With that said, Clarke was also a durable player, who came out ready to play everyday. He became the face of those poorly performing Yankees ball clubs, which is often called “The Horace Clarke Era” or “The Horace Clarke Years.”

In a recent interview, conducted by Kenneth Hogan, Clarke expressed his feelings on the subject:

You see (Laughs) every time I hear “the Horace Clarke Era” I don’t know how to take it but I think it is mostly because we were losing and I was a member of all of those teams. I could understand because fans, writers, and commentators were spoiled at being so successful for so long. I know how the fans feel about the drought that we went through, it was a let down during that losing era. But when I hear it I think, “Here we go again. The Horace Clarke Era, the Horace Clarke Years”. I’m going to tell you something, while I was there some guys (writers) always target me, I was targeted more than anybody I think because I played just about everyday. When I was traded to San Diego a writer wrote, “You know, that guy wasn’t so bad after all.” Because he had gone to the record books and saw what I had done over those years.

They said I couldn’t make the double-play but Gene Michael and I were tops in double plays a couple of years. I have looked in Yankee books and compared my stats to some of the older second basemen over the years and they didn’t do any better than me but they were among elite players that won World Series. My play was consistent over the years. I got on base and scored runs everyday. During the time I played I had the 3rd leading fielding percentage among second basemen. How could I be that bad?

Year Tm   W L Ties  W-L% Finish
1974 New York Yankees 89 73 0 .549 2nd of 6
1973 New York Yankees 80 82 0 .494 4th of 6
1972 New York Yankees 79 76 0 .510 4th of 6
1971 New York Yankees 82 80 0 .506 4th of 6
1970 New York Yankees 93 69 1 .574 2nd of 6
1969 New York Yankees 80 81 1 .497 5th of 6
1968 New York Yankees 83 79 2 .512  5th of 10
1967 New York Yankees 72 90 1 .444 9th of 10
1966 New York Yankees 70 89 1 .440 10th of 10
1965 New York Yankees 77 85 0 .475 6th of 10
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 8/21/2010.

Athletics (65-66) at Yankees (82-50)

Pitching Matchup:

LHP Brett Anderson (3-5, 3.32) vs RHP A.J. Burnett (9-12, 5.17)

Lineup

Jeter SS
Swisher RF
Teixeira 1B
Cano 2B
Thames DH
Kearns LF
Granderson CF
Nunez 3B
Cervelli C Continue Reading »

Click on the Image to Enlarge

(Graphic courtesy of Craig Robinson: Flip Flop Fly Ball)

In the ESPN television series, The Bronx is Burning, the Yankees held kangaroo court inside the Yankee Stadium clubhouse in 1977.

When: May 13th, Post-Game: California  Perpetrator: Mickey Rivers

Charged With: Lunch Meat Violation

When reaching for a cupcake, Mickey Rivers private parts touched ham. Paul Blair called it ”Meat on Meat Contact”, while Dick Howser said ”Ball on Ham.” I laugh every time.

Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak is widely considered one of the most enduring records in sports history. It’s right up there with Cy Young’s 511 wins, Ripken’s 2,632 consecutive games, Celtics’ eight consecutive NBA championships and Gretzky’s 2,857 career points.

The streak began on May 15, 1941. During the streak, he had a batting average of .408, 15 home runs and 55 runs batted in. The streak ended on July 16, 1941. In the process, he snapped “Wee Willie” Keeler’s 45-game hitting streak. On July 17th, Cleveland Indians pitchers, Al Smith and Jim Bagby held Joe hitless. He hit two hard shots, but Ken Keltner was flashing the leather at 3rd base that day, and it was all over.

When the streak ended, DiMaggio began a new one. This one lasted only 16 games. Over the span of both streaks, Joe hit safely in 72 of 73 games during that 1941 season.

It’s been just about seventy years since “The Yankee Clipper” achieved this remarkable feat. The only one to really challenge the record was Pete Rose in 1978, when he had a hit in 44 consecutive games. Just like everyone else who went after it, they all came up short (Molitor [39], Rollins [38], Castillo & Utley [35]). A person has to wonder if the record will ever be broken.

Hitting StreaksPlayers With At Least 1 Hit in At Least 30 Consecutive Games
Rank Year Name Team League Games
1. 1941 Joe DiMaggio (AL Record) New York AL 56
2. 1896-1897 Willie Keeler (NL Record) Baltimore NL 45
3. 1978 Pete Rose Cincinnati NL 44
4. 1894 Bill Dahlen Chicago NL 42
5. 1922 George Sisler St. Louis AL 41
6. 1911 Ty Cobb Detroit AL 40
7. 1987 Paul Molitor Milwaukee AL 39
8. 2005-2006 Jimmy Rollins Philadelphia NL 38
9. 1945 Tommy Holmes Boston NL 37
10. 1896-1897 Gene DeMontreville Washington NL 36

“Now this is over thirty years later and the guy said he was that cab driver (who drove DiMaggio to the game on July 17th). He apologized (for telling DiMaggio that he thought the streak would end that day) and he was serious. I felt awful. He might have been spending his whole life thinking he had jinxed me, but I told him he hadn’t. My number was up.” – Joe DiMaggio Continue Reading »

Athletics (65-65) at Yankees (81-50)

Pitching Matchup:

RHP Vin Mazzaro (6-6, 3.61) vs RHP Phil Hughes (15-6, 4.12)

Lineup

Gardner LF
Jeter SS
Teixeira 1B
Cano 2B
Swisher RF
Posada C
Thames DH
Granderson CF
Pena 3B Continue Reading »

I thought about this for a long time, but Rebecca Glass’ blog post about Posada urged me to get this up:

When you think of all the Yankees great players from the 1995-2010, some of the names that come to mind are Derek Jeter, Mariano RiveraBernie Williams, Andy Pettitte, etc. One name missing from that list would probably be Jorge Posada. He’s always been overshadowed, with the constant sluggers coming and going in the Big Apple (Giambi, Sheffield, Abreu). When you look at a team filled with superstars, sometimes people get left out of certain discussions, and it’s about time Posada is given credit for all that he’s done.

Posada is a 5X All-Star, 5X Silver Slugger and a 4X World Series champion (5X if you count ’96..where he played only 8 games). I’m not going to analyze all of his numbers, and start comparing him to each and every player, because you already know that he’s one of the greatest offensive catchers of all-time.

When Posada took over the starting catcher’s role in 1997, the fans didn’t know what they really had. Over the next thirteen years, Jorge became an offensive force in the American League. You can tell me that he can’t run, he calls a bad game behind the dish and he doesn’t have a very good arm. It almost sickens me to hear all the complaining about him. How often do you get a catcher who can both hit for power and play great defense? Not very often. Posada has one of those qualities, and he’s good at what he does.

Finding a solid catcher in the major leagues isn’t a very easy thing to do. Georgie is a switch-hitting catcher with power, which is considered a rare commodity. Watching Molina, Cervelli and Moeller hit over the last few years has been painful. It gives you a greater appreciation for what Posada has done, and how long he has done it. I’m well aware that the Yankees have great catching depth in the minors, with Montero, Romine, Sanchez and Murphy coming up through the system, but prospects don’t always pan out.

With Posada’s career winding down, you really shouldn’t take him for granted. He ranks right up there with Elston Howard and Yogi Berra in the record books, and will go down as one of the greatest to wear the pinstripes. Hopefully, one day he’ll be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. When Posada hangs up his cleats, fans will look over his career and really start to appreciate all the things he’s accomplished in his career.

Jorge’s Career Statistics: .276AVG 259HR 1013RBI .378OBP .480SLG .858OPS Continue Reading »

Former Yankee, Wade Boggs, was one of the most superstitious athletes of all-time. He had quite the routine. During his career, he woke up at exactly the same time every day, ate chicken before every game (Jim Rice nicknamed him “Chicken Man”), took batting practice at exactly 5:17, did wind sprints at exactly 7:17, and etched the Hebrew symbol “Chai” in the dirt before he entered the batter’s box. The thing is..he’s not Jewish..so I always wondered why he did that. Of course, the symbol can be worn by anyone, but it was a very unusual thing to do.

Before he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, he gave an interview to Mark Groenich, explaining why he did that throughout his enitre career.

From Being Jewish:

MARK GROENICH: I have an offbeat question that one of my clients wants to know about.You write the word chai by home plate. How did that come about? Where and when did you first start doing it? How did you first learn about what chai meant?    

WADE BOGGS: I was seven years old and in Brunswick, Georgia. I was going through a magazine and there were symbols in the back of the magazine. One of them was the chai sign for good luck and life. I looked at it and said, well, I’ll just wish myself good luck when I get into the batter’s box and I drew it with my feet. I just continued to do that throughout my career. I would draw the chai sign in the dirt before I got into the batter’s box, not being Jewish, but, it was just a symbol that I used throughout my career — just wishing myself good luck when I got up, before I got into the box.    

GROENICH: It would help?    

BOGGS: Along with the other 85 (superstitions) that I had — they all helped. Continue Reading »

A few weeks ago, I passed along an image of the 2010 World Series logo. Now, Chris Creamer of SportsLogos.net has released  a collection of all the patches that will be used for this years Postseason (ALDS, ALCS, WS). I think they look great.

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