ghost of miles

I'll be there this Thursday and will try to remember to ask. Hoping to listen to some of the Ellington material, actually... anybody know how much of it there is?

So, a bit of a crazy story here: a few weeks ago I scheduled the Night Lights Cafe Society show to re-air last week. Just a few days ago I received an invitation to come out and give a talk about Cafe Society at the very site of the former club (the original downtown Cafe Society that opened in December 1938) as part of a plaque-unveiling event. The basement space at 2 Sheridan Square looks quite different now (it's the home of the Axis Theater Company), but it will still be a thrill to stand in the same space where Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson, Frankie Newton, Albert Ammons, and so many other jazz artists whom I love once performed. In the meantime, here's the Night Lights program again, which includes commentary from Barney Josephson's widow Terry and historian Michael McGerr, as well as some broadcasts from the club itself: Cafe Society: The Wrong Place For The Right People

Maybe if they threw a little less as kids and teenagers, they could throw a little more as adults? At what age do kids start throwing breaking pitches these days? When I played Little League in the 1970s, that was a big no-no (at least in the league I was in); coaches told kids not to even fool around with breaking pitches until high-school or early teens, because it was thought to put too much strain on a young arm. I’m sure science, knowledge etc. are much more advanced now—but given that, why are we seeing a plague of this particular injury? It seems like some sort of adjustment needs to be made at the lower levels of play. (I also have to confess, on a not-really-related note, that I’m beginning to detest the whole “three true outcomes” concept, and an offensive landscape where some of the league’s biggest stars—Harper, Stanton, and Judge—are putting up numbers that remind me of Dave Kingman. I miss Rod Carew, George Brett, and Tony Gwynn. Hell, I miss Bernie Williams and Paul O’Neill! In the meantime, enjoying the rookie performances of Andujar and Torres, both of whom are hovering around that old-fashioned hallmark known as a .300 BA.) EDIT: only fair to note that there are hitters out there with outstanding BAs so far—Mookie Betts, obviously (.359) and Altuve, last year’s AL MVP, clipping the ball at a brisk .342 rate. Mike Trout consistently hits around .300 in addition to piling up a lot of HRs. I think perhaps analytics have worked more in favor of the pitchers so far—plus the beefed-up bullpens tend to offer a near-endless supply of fresh arms for batters to face. A friend of mine said a couple of weeks ago that the collective MLB BA is at its lowest so far this season since 1968, but I haven’t been able to run down any confirmation of that and find it really hard to believe. Wasn’t 1968 the year Yaz won the AL batting title with a .301 mark? I mean, talk about grim times for hitters... that’s when MLB decided to lower the mound, correct?

Younger pitchers are also throwing nearly year-round, which was not the case in previous eras.

Angels GM denying Tommy John decision has been made regarding Ohtani. Unbelievable how many pitchers are missing 1 to 1/2 years of their prime these days due to the need for this surgery.

Ohtani's out for a few weeks too. And Tanaka's getting an MRI on his hamstrings... boy oh boy, bad news if he gets shut down for more than a start or two. I hate interleague games for precisely this reason (a dislike I think is particularly acute among Yankee fans because Chien-Ming Wang's career was undone by a base-running injury in an interleague game). Debate this morning online about whether or not Nevins should have sent him on such a shallow fly-ball--he clearly couldn't decide whether or not to slide, which may have accounted for the awkward stride that caused the injury. Also debate about whether or not Tanaka's conditioning is adequate. But AL pitchers are never in baserunning situations. If somebody goes down in the World Series, that's one thing--the season's nearly over anyway. But to potentially lose a starting pitcher because of some relatively meaningless mid-season game... long live the DH, say I.

I don’t think I was suggesting the Mets accept “shit” or “garbage” for deGrom. (And Clint Frazier, Estevan Florial, and the two pitchers I mentioned are far from either characterization.) Torres was a prospect when we got him for Chapman, not a player already proving himself at the MLB level. If the Yankees have to go the rest of the season with Domingo German as the fifth starter, so be it. They’ll have other options to pursue come the trading deadline if they decide to go all-in for a starting pitcher.

There was a kid at the Yankees-Jays game tonight who kept holding up a “99 All Rise” sign whenever Aaron Judge came up to bat. Judge has been in a bad slump, and the game went 13 innings. In the top of the 13th, he came up again with a runner on base and the game still tied 0-0. You won’t see it in this video clip, but the kid wearily raised his sign yet again on a 1-2 count and heaved a sigh just before Judge blasted a home run to centerfield. Needless to say, the kid was pretty happy. ☺️ https://www.mlb.com/video/c-2126572683 He’d already had some excitement during pre-game batting practice when he realized the ball he’d chased down had been hit by Judge: https://www.mlb.com/video/c-2126698483 Kids really seem to love #99.

No way Andujar gets traded for anybody at this point—same with Torres. Either way you’re probably right, deGrom to the Yankees won’t end up happening.

Thanks for that, excellent read. Ellington's music will be played and written about long after Terry Teachout has receded even beyond the mark of an asterisk in American cultural history.

I don't know that there's anybody untouchable in the Yankees' farm system now, with Torres and Andujar already at MLB level. The Yankees could probably put together a pretty good package that would include Clint Frazier or Estevan Florial as an outfielder and either Justus Sheffield, Albert Abreu or Chance Adams as a pitcher. (Oh, and take Tyler Austin--please!) I'd hate to part with any of them, but yeah, deGrom would command a good price. Wait, I'm overlooking a prime candidate--Jacobi Ellsbury! He'll be well-rested by the time he returns to active duty, that's for sure. (Snark inspired by the chatter I sometimes come across on any baseball-fan site, where team partisans inevitably propose ridiculously lopsided trades that involve disposing of damaged or badly-performing players for the likes of Clayton Kershaw.)

I can’t see anybody beating out Verlander if he stays on his current pace or regresses only slightly. But Sevy is indeed having a fantastic season so far. With Jordan Montgomery lost to TJ surgery, I’ll be curious to see who the Yankees can get to replace him. Cole Hamels’ name comes up a lot, but he’s 34 and in some ways not having such a great season, statistically speaking, to date. Yankees fans would love to somehow peel Bumgarner away from the Giants or deGrom from the Mets, but both seem like longshot deals to me, especially Bumgarner.

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Me as well--I revisit the Decca set much more often than the All-Stars box.