ghost of miles

Dave James and fellow Yankee fans: thank the baseball gods for Ivan Nova, eh? He's looking like a strong candidate for Rookie of the Year. And great to see Brett Gardner again making his quiet but dramatic contributions to the team, what with the two great plays in left field tonight that kept things from getting totally out of hand in the first inning, and then the two-run homer later on. Neither Tex nor A-Rod in the lineup tonight, but with Nova throwing a great game, not too many runs were needed. (And A-Rod as a presence in the lineup is starting to seem like a dusty memory...)

Damn, Mo, way to just about give me cardiac arrest. Nothing like loading the bases in the bottom of the 9th in order to face the best hitter in the American League!

Anybody else see the story about the dog of the dead Navy SEAL at the SEAL's funeral? Heartbreaking. EDIT: here's a link to the story.

Never dreamed NY would come back in such overwhelming and record-setting fashion. Great day for the history books, but I share the concern about Hughes having such a bad start... hopefully an aberration in an upward curve. And at least we didn't get swept at home by the A's.

We re-aired Chicago Calling: Unsung Heroes of the City's Hardbop Scene last week, and it remains archived for online listening.

Hilarious: Please tell us Irsay's kidding

I nearly mentioned in my earlier link to Granderson that he's all but made me forget how much I was looking forward to seeing Austin Jackson (the main prospect the Yanks gave up in their trade to Detroit for Granderson) hold down centerfield for NY... his walkoff throw against the Tribe today brings back that lingering regret: Jackson guns down runner at plate Glad that AJ is finding such success in Motor City.

Yes, the only thing worse than paying a pitcher $16 million a year to warm the bench is paying him $16 million a year to put games out of reach for you before the second inning's over. Why does it matter, and why do you care??? The Steinbrenners do not know the meaning of the word "budget". They will always continue to pay as much as it takes to win. ?? Not sure that's as true as it used to be, and not sure what it has to do with my remark about A.J., which concerns the notion that his high salary makes NY hesitant to pull him from the rotation. Highlight from today's game against the Twins: Curtis Granderson hits the first-ever inside-the-park home run at Target Field.

I actually feel bad for Wakefield (there was a shot of him looking pretty miserable in the dugout after KC had tied the game) and would like to see him finally pick up #200. Preferably, in the process, snapping a four-game Bosox losing streak...

Again, I think J.H. meant it only in the context of taking too much pride in a team running up an amazing W-L record. Rightly or wrongly, a team that wins a ton of games but fails to win the championship tends to be forgotten, or remembered primarily (as those Bills teams are, or the Vikings teams of the 1970s) for never having gone all the way. Nobody's season is utterly meaningless, no matter how many games they win or lose. But I'd go along with the notion that a claim to being the best team in MLB rings pretty hollow if you don't win the World Series--especially given that you have to win three intense/high-pressure series to pull off the whole thing, a serious test of any team's mettle. It doesn't mean that your season was meaningless (hey, ask me about the 2001 Yankees! ), but it does (in my eyes) invalidate any aspiration to be judged as the top team of the year. On the A.J. Burnett page, here's another interesting stat bouncing around the Internets tonight: Also, according to the PSA round-up, in terms of IP and ER given up, this was the worst start of A.J.'s career. Right now I'd say NY's looking at a postseason rotation of C.C., Hughes, Nova, and either Garcia or Colon. Yankee fans have to hope that Hughes' recent success continues and that one of the two reclamation projects (Garcia and Colon) has enough gas in the tank to last the rest of the season. (In Colon's case, the signs are not promising.) EDIT: in the postgame Girardi evidently teed off on the media, saying that he and A.J. were both mad about the ump's call on a pitch to Mauer that would have ended the second inning if it had been called a strike, and not mad at each other. I hope that's the case; there's enough drama floating around A.J. as it is, without adding a conflict with the manager to it. EDIT 2: Hmmm, not sure I'm buying it: video of Girardi pulling Burnett Joe says he went into the clubhouse to view the ump's call on the last pitch to Mauer (which looked like a ball to me anyway).

Somebody posted this image at Over the Monster tonight after Boston fell behind the Royals, but I think I'm going to swipe it for future A.J. starts: Meanwhile, over at Pinstripe Alley, some reaction during tonight's debacle--particularly after Girardi pulled Robinson Cano and moved catcher Russell Martin to second base: ABANDON YOUR POSTS!!!! FLEEEEEEE FLEE FOR YOUR LIVES!

I could not disagree with this more. It's not just a lie, it's a big lie. I think J.H. means it in the context of a team running up the best record in baseball, as opposed to any team that makes it into the playoffs. Most famous case is the 2001 Mariners, who won 116 games--two more than the '98 Yankees--but it's the '98 Yankees who often get referred to as the greatest team of the past few decades, whereas nobody brings up the Mariners in that regard.

Yikes--did I put the jinx on him? Man, what just happened in the Boston-KC game? Boston was up 4-1 last I checked going into the bottom of the 6th, and now they're down 9-4.

Yes, the only thing worse than paying a pitcher $16 million a year to warm the bench is paying him $16 million a year to put games out of reach for you before the second inning's over.

Thanks for the extensive rundown. I still think it's going to be a Philadelphia-Boston WS, and I'd give slight odds to the Phillies at this point. Halladay and Lee squaring off twice against Lester and Beckett in a seven-game series would be something to see. Dan: looking good for Wakefield finally picking up #200 tonight? On the Yankee front, another disastrous outing from A.J. Burnett that may well lead to Boston's being back in first place at the end of the night. His final line: 1 2/3 IP, 5 H, 3 BB, 7 ER. To top it off, he evidently got testy with Joe Girardi when Joe took him out (the unmitigable gall!). Sweeny Murti tweets: And Pete Abraham is salivating at the prospect of a John Lackey-A.J. Burnett $82.5-million-bust matchup in Game 4 of an ALCS. Me, I wouldn't bet at this point on A.J. being in the playoff rotation at all, not with the way Hughes and Nova have been pitching. But if it happens, my money's on Lackey, whose 5.33 August ERA looks positively ace-like next to A.J.'s.

J.H., I haven't been following the Phillies closely enough--how are Oswalt and Hamels doing, health-wise and otherwise? Any vulnerabilities that concern you as the team heads towards the playoffs?

You're right about Carisi being with Miller's wartime band in New Haven, Allen. For anybody interested in Miller's AAF (originally called the American Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces when it went over to Europe, but long since routinely referred to as the Army Air Force band), Geoffrey Butcher's Next to a Letter From Home is well worth tracking down. At least two members of the band are still alive--bassist Trigger Alpert, and trombonist Nat Peck, whom I interviewed for a recent program about the AAF (Glenn Miller Goes To War With The Army Air Force Band). Not sure about other jazz musicians besides Miller who died in the war. Artie Shaw and Claude Thornhill both served in the Pacific (Thornhill as pianist for Shaw's band for awhile), and several accounts suggest that they suffered some psychological debilitation as a result. (Wasn't Shaw hospitalized for awhile after he returned stateside? Thornhill too, I think, though I may be conflating the two.) Lester Young didn't see combat, but sure had an infamous time of it during his military stay. Not a jazz musician, but the critic Otis Ferguson, who wrote frequently about jazz (and who's much admired by me and some others around this joint) died in 1943 while serving in the Merchant Marines when his ship was struck by a bomb.

New Hep release on the horizon: Ellington Crystal Gardens 1952 Hep link

Another excellent start for the Yankees' Phil Hughes tonight, and Derek Jeter's batting average is almost within winking distance of .300. If NY had simply managed a split of their matchups against Boston so far, their W-L record would be 79-43, or just one game off the Phillies' impressive mark. On a more negative note, Bartolo Colon may be running out of gas--and per the previous sentence, NY can't seem to beat Boston this year, which doesn't bode well for the playoffs (though Texas won't be a doorstop for anybody either and could easily end up in the WS again).

I received the advance copy of this today, but haven't opened it up yet. As it happens, Barber is one of twin brothers, and their parents named one Rahsaan and the other Roland, after Kirk! Yes--I used to see them play together frequently as the Barber Brothers when they were here in Bloomington. Quite the musical dynamic duo. Their mother met Kirk's widow once and told her about the twins being named after RRK... said Kirk's widow was taken aback but moved by it, especially when she found out that they'd both become jazz musicians.

Jeff Passan ranks the toughness of the remaining schedules for 14 playoff-candidate teams.

Richard Stark, THE MOURNER--fourth in the Parker series to which Larry Kart hipped me. I've become a Parker addict.

Derek Jeter's been on a tear since coming off the DL, looking much more like the Jeter of old: (And he went 2-6 tonight, with a single and a double and two RBIs.) This might be the reason why.

We re-aired Thelonious Monk: From Myth To Man, Part 2 this past week on Night Lights, and it remains archived for online listening.

Last night A.J. Burnett won his first August start since 2008. Albeit in less than dominant fashion. Nice moment from the game: Young Royals fan gives young Yankee fan foul ball Jsngry--you must be pretty happy with the Rangers' play of late.