ghost of miles

My grandfather saw Bartolo Colon make a similar play back in the early 1970s!

I've been to minor-league games much better-attended than that... better call the Ghost of Bill Veeck-as-in-Wreck! Also the worst name ever for an MLB stadium... sounds like a cheap motel chain or a shady used-car lot.

Actually, the 2017 NY bullpen, despite its vaunted ERA and strikeout rate, blew 23 saves and had a 61% save-conversion rate—both among the worst for all MLB teams. It’s one big reason why they were a 90-win team instead of a 100-win team. I agree with you about the rotation, though I think that Gray will turn out to be a decent third starter. But with Drury out indefinitely and Andujar not looking ready yet, with Bird in his usual injury hiatus and second still up in the air as well (Gleyber Torres, please accelerate your development!), this team looks nowhere near division championship caliber, let alone ALCS or World Series. We’ll see how things are shaking out by the ASB, but there are serious issues that don’t seem readily solvable to me. Btw all of the good things said about Alex Cora when the Sox were rumored to be pursuing him seem to be panning out so far... smart of Boston to nab him from Houston. And J.D. Martinez hasn’t even really started to hit yet.

The posters at PA aren’t really in panic mode—they’re a far more level-headed and baseball-savvy lot, in general, than, say, fans in Yankee Facebook groups, who tend to veer into Steinbrenner-ish straits of rage and desperation after bad or back-to-back losses. I think there’s a deeper concern, though, over the instability of the infield (Didi is the only regular starter right now), the consistency of the bullpen (a big problem last year), and how well the starting rotation’s going to hold up over the course of the season, what with CC knocking on the door of retirement and Montgomery still not a proven quantity yet. Stanton will surely start to hit better (good graph last night during the game on Tino Martinez, Jason Giambi, A-Rod and Mark Teixera’s first Aprils as Yankees—all about as abysmal as Giancarlo’s has been so far), and I think Sanchez will, too—his swing just looks off to me right now. Just a lot of hype and expectations around this team, as opposed to last year when nobody expected them to go anywhere. The 2009 Yankees had an awful April and still ended up winning 103 games, but that was the result of an insane post-ASB performance—and that team had a much more solid core than this one does. Anyway, AL East could again come down to a 1-2 game margin, in which case too many early losses can come back to haunt you. But right now NY’s looking like a team that will be lucky to win 90. Too many questions that don’t appear to have any solid answers yet.

Comment from Long Time Listener late in the game thread: >>some day we're going to laugh about this stretch I wish I could be placed into a coma until that day.<< The threads at PA are often entertaining, win or lose. It’s a long season etc, but if NY gets swept they’ll be 7 back in the loss column already. Quite a hole to try to dig themselves out of. I don’t really know enough about the Angels... are they playoff-viable this year, especially if Ohtani pans out as a starter and part-time DH?

Some gifs posted in the post-game thread at Pinstripe Alley tonight:

Oh, I definitely noticed! Certainly a Ruthian start to his season, after the dreadful spring training that had led to some speculation that be might even have to spend some time in the minors. A great story to follow this season, that’s for sure. I nearly posted earlier today that it would be a moral victory for the Yankees to take one of three in Fenway this week. After tonight’s dumpster 🔥, I may have to ratchet that definition of moral victory down to Judge’s home run off Sale. Not even mid-April yet, but Boston’s clearly the team to beat in the East... not NY. Houston doesn’t seem to have lost a step from last season either.

I got the Naxos because of your previous praise for it!

I tried to call Scott about this yesterday but couldn't get a hold of him--however, he emailed me and I wrote back, will definitely post any updated info that he might have to pass along. UPDATE: Scott says "Best we can say is 2 to 3 weeks... which when you factor in Murphy's Law, comes to 3-4 weeks!" So sounds likely to be very end of this month or beginning of next.

We re-aired Freddie Hubbard: The CTI Years last week in honor of what would have been the trumpeter's 80th birthday, and it remains archived for online listening.

Kudos to that Naxos “Jam-a-Ditty”—a very good-sounding compilation of the Ellington Musicraft sides. Much of the Teddy Wilson material came out in the early 1990s on these two CDs: Everytime We Say Goodbye Isn’t It Romantic

Yes, thanks, Dave, hadn't seen that highlight! Somewhat reminiscent of the ending to this 2009 Yankees-Mets game: After another morale-buster embarrassment of a loss today, I'll try to take solace in remembering that the 2009 team struggled out of the gate as well. But oh, man, did that suck. And so far the Marlins appear to have gotten the better of the Stanton-for-Castro deal.

The Red Sox are off to a great start, especially with their starting pitching. For all of the hype about the Yankees acquiring Stanton, I still put them third overall in the AL, either tied with or a notch ahead of Cleveland, with Houston and Boston pacing the field. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see the same four teams in the American League playoffs this year. We’re also two weeks into the season and the Yankees are already the walking wounded. Greg Bird out (again), Hicks, Ellsbury, Clint Frazier, now C.C., plus Brandon Drury’s heretofore hidden migraine problem (which may account for the three errors he’s already accumulated), plus the bullpen’s shoddy performance out of the gate... NY’s in good shape, I guess, to be 5-4. Hopefully it won’t be this rocky all season long.

I’ve listened only to disc 1 so far, and it was quite late at night, which ended up seeming like a perfect time for it. It does have the feel of a relaxed afterhours (or after-afterhours) get-together. I’ll probably listen to the other five discs in the same manner. I bought the set because I’ve been on a Buck Clayton jag of late and another board member was offering it at a very reasonable price... quite glad to have it. But I can see (or hear) how it might be a rather sleepy fit for others. A lot of beautiful playing, though, at least through disc 1.

Up in remembrance: Jazz Advance: Early Cecil Taylor

This is making my wish-list: Woodfall: A Revolution In British Cinema

My neighbor Sam Stephenson (The Jazz Loft Project author) is a Mets fan and shares your pleasure at their performance out of the gate. He was sporting a Mets hat when he stopped by last night to borrow a book. ☺️

Yankees bullpen imploding yet again. Tonight it's Chad Greene against the Orioles.

Oh yeah! Finally scored a reasonably-priced copy of this. Excellent late-period Ellington:

I was delighted to see that Loren Schoenberg penned the notes for the Goodman set and that Dan Morgenstern handled the Clayton duties. Two of my favorite Mosaic booklet authors. I've only been able to listen to disc 1 of the Goodman so far (still absorbing the new Wilson set), but really looking forward to the rest of it and the Clayton as well. (I've been on a Buck Clayton kick of late, so this was perfect timing!)

Jack Cooper's "Gynn Square." He was half of the amazing Ultimate Painting songwriting partnership that just ended (their albums are all worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of the Velvet Underground's third, eponymous album, often used as a point of comparison for their sound--but they morphed it into something all their own). This song is beautifully evocative, a sort of Joycean-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man moment from Sandgrown, the childhood-song-cycle solo album Cooper released last year. Another sign to me that we're living through another golden age of indie pop:

Shohei Ohtani seems to be putting his spring-training struggles behind him. Excellent first pitching start over the weekend, and then a 3-4 performance at the plate last night in his home-field debut as DH, including a home run in his first at-bat: Ohtani debuts at home with a home run

The Buck Clayton and Benny Goodman sets arrived today. They’re in beautiful shape... much appreciation!