Dave James

You can say what you want about Yankee fans, but what that kid did who caught Jeter's 3,000th is spelled C-L-A-S-S. I know he pulled down a bunch of swag for his efforts, but he could just as easily have been like most of the incredibly selfish people who catch an historic ball, hire an agent and try to take someone for every last dime they can. This guy just gave Jeter the ball. :tup

You can call him the middle weight champion of the tenor if you like, but for my money, and considering not only his playing but his compositional abilities, I'll take Hank over just about any one else I can think of. Just one guy's opinion.

My timing has been bad this year, the way I've denigrated Gardner and Swisher and then all of a sudden they start producing. But your post in light of Jeter's theatrics in today's 5-4 Yankee win, really takes the prize Mea maxima culpa! Even if you're not a Yankee fan, and even if you think Jeter may be more out for Jeter than for anyone or anything else, that HR has to give you goosebumps. Congrats to the Captain.

O.K., the Yankees played 18 games with Derek Jeter on the DL and won 14 of them. Since he's returned, they've played four games and they're 1-3. Someone help me understand why it's more important to kiss this guy's ass than it is to win ballgames. I just hope that after he get's his 3,000th hit, they do what they should have done weeks ago and move him down in he order. If they don't, then something is seriously out of whack in the Bronx. Talk about the tail wagging the dog.

Harpsichord or Celeste:

Who says Bill Veeck isn't alive and well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpp3O-eCdRM

My response to those who didn't care for Burns' jazz documentary. Would you prefer that the subject be left alone entirely, or is it a good thing he did this, however flawed it might have been, in terms of getting the music in front of a largely indifferent audience? Keep in mind, he didn't do this to satisfy the small sliver of the public that's already into jazz, he did it for the 99.9% that isn't.

paps, I don't think that Nancy Grace is with Fox News. I think she is with CNN. Ah, well, shows what I know. It was definitely Fox. Probably Greta Van Susteren.

I know there are all kinds of Ken Burns fans out there in Organissimo-land, so you may be interested to learn that his next documentary will focus on the Prohibition Era. I for one, am looking forward to it but, then again, I've enjoyed everything he's done so far.

From the rather obscure 1935 movie, Roberta. Check out Astaire's chops on the piano. Was this guy talented or what? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Y1TWZ4OBI

Yeah but it wasn't for Casey Anthony, we wouldn't have people like Nancy Grace. Hmmm. BTW, with respect to the trial and the jury's decision, I don't know and I don't care. I do my best to steer clear of the People Magazine mentality. This country is so upside down when it comes to what's really important, it can only be called a tragedy.

The Wings still have quite a bit of cap space and there are always trades to consider, but if I had to guess, I'm thinking they're thinking next year. Lidstrom will come off the books for sure as will Bertuzzi, Holmstrom and Hudler, assuming the Wings choose not to resign any of them. That's going to leave a pretty good chunk of salary dollars available for large scale FA moves this time next year.

A couple of interesting Yankee stats. Of Mark Teixeira's 73 hits this year, 25 have been home runs. Jorge Posada, after the most dismal of Mays, hit .386 in June.

Gotta say, I was pleased to see the Red Wings pull out of the Jagr sweepstakes. I'm sure he'll have an impact on the Flyer's power play, but he can't skate nearly as well as he used to so his everyday contribution isn't going to be that significant. The guy is 6'3" and weighs over 240 lbs. At age 39, that's a fair amount to be hauling around. Speaking of the Wings, their lack of significant FA activity was disappointing. I expected them to make a splash with both a top 4 blue liner and a backup goalie. They did neither. Mike Commodore is at best, a C-level defenseman and by not pursuing a netminder, it looks like they might be giving the wizard of Oz one more season wearing the winged wheel. Big mistake, IMO.

Kind of like the end of an era. Not too many Blue Noters from the golden age are still with us. Hutcherson, Donaldson, Silver, Cranshaw, Shorter. Who else? I'll say one thing, Ruth Lion must've led and extraordinarily interesting life. RIP, Mrs. L.

Well, somebody did... Yeah, but that was back in 2008. We're well outside the statute of limitations on this one. I'm going to go ahead and claim full credit.

Jim, I think you'll find this interesting. Texas must think this kid is an absolute, stone cold lock to drop $5 million on him. He's just 16 years old. http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/mlb/news/story?id=6732843

I think I may have posted this before, but it's worth doing so again. It's a clip of Marvin and his band running down "I Want You" prior to a series of shows in Belgium. There's just something about this that grabs me. Its mix of casualness and taking care of business, calling out how he wants the song to develop and singing like few people have or ever will. Just really good stuff.

For reasons lost in antiquity, I still have the price stickers on some English LP's I bought years ago. Nothing more than the price, but back then (we're talking the late '60's and early '70's) $5.95 was a lot to pay for a record. It is nice to be reminded of what constituted big bucks way back when. Talking about packaging issues, what used to drive me nuts were the old "dog bone" adhesives they used on CD's when they first went away from long boxes. You couldn't get some of that left over gunk off the plastic with a laser beam.

One of these days I really need to find out what "chooglin" is! You came to the right place. The answer is in the lyrics. "You got to ball and have a good time, and that's what I call chooglin'."

Yankees are 36-28 prior to Jeter going on the DL. 12-3 since.

Or big ones.

I figure the only way Jeter moves out of the lead-off spot is when he tells Girardi he's ready to go. To my knowledge, I don't think he's ever admitted he's struggling. Truly unfortunate, but such is the coin of his realm. Two thumbs up for Posada and Swisher. Both have come around nicely after disastrous starts. It would be nice to see Posada to out on a high note and even if the Yanks choose not to sign Swisher beyond this year, it would position him well in the F.A. market. If the Yanks can put together a July that matches their June, I'm going to start getting psyched about the post season. Oh, BTW, don't worry about Colon getting on base. I've taken it upon myself to notify the geology departments at all major universities in the area that they should recalibrate their seismographs beginning at 4:10 PM (ET) this coming Saturday.