ghost of miles

Phew...that was epic!

Not exactly NY's finest hour in baserunning just now. A bad season for NY in that regard so far... you want to really see a study in abominations, watch Jorge Posada try to stretch out any hit (on the rare occasions when he gets one, though that's been improving of late).

This one just came in over the transom--anybody else hear it yet?

Yeah, I have absolutely NO idea what to expect from Gordon. 5-0 with a 1.14 ERA in triple-A is great, but welcome to the big leagues and all that. Haven't tracked Texas enough, so I don't know how well Wilson's been pitching of late.

So are John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie. (That's a freighted allusion, as well as a simple matter-of-fact statement.) But how can you tell? I mean, a pitch is just a pitch. A sigh is just a sigh... As time goes by!

I'm taking away a lesson from all of this, but it's being inadvertently delivered & not what you think it is. Thanks regardless, and as the Chairman sez: That's Life!

Just read this, and, sorry, but it's bullshit. You can't say that sports is "literature" in it's own way whether you acknowledge it or not unless you are the Great Analogizer God. Are you? If so, do you get paid extra, or is it a volunteer gig? Either way, it's literature in its own way for you. Not for me. For me, sports is sports. Music is music, literature is literature, etc. Music is not skydiving, Literature is not cooking, sex is not auto-assembly, etc. No matter how may parallels you find. And there are many. But when I want to experience baseball, I watch a game (would that I was still fit enough to play one...), I don't read Melville . And when I want to catch a whale, I look for something else to do. ASAP. Not a big fan of harpoons and stuff like that. Enjoy what you find, but don't think that what you find is something that everybody else has to see. Who said that I did? Did you really even read my post? Seems to me that you're the one here who's on the mission to "define" for everybody else, and to level judgment accordingly. There are levels to everything, whether it's a saxophone solo, a baseball game, a book, a meal, or what have you. To each his own and all that. You're leveling a reductive definition on everything that isn't even in sync with how you approach things in general, far as I can tell... this has degenerated into a semantic shouting match. Sound and fury signifying nothing and something at the same time.

Acknowledging the past is fine, of course. More than fine, actually. But - the notion of some sort of "gatekeeper" , symbolic or otherwise, to a statistical grouping starts to make my stomach turn. You find it a beautiful concept. One more time--to me Kepner was simply saying that Clemente's being at 3000 hits exactly has a kind of poignant symbolism to it. Why that is such a big freakin' offense against the Aesthetics and Proper Enjoyment of Baseball is beyond me, but whatever. Why you've found it necessary to make this a personalized, insulting conversation is beyond me, and why you can't even seem to understand what I'm saying--and apparently I don't understand what you're saying either--is depressing (ooooo, I'm getting all "emo"), but I promise not to give up nor to bother you with any sort of offboard communication about it, since the whole discussion seems increasingly pointless. A great example is the above of defining "sentimentality" with all of its icky implications, telling me I enjoy it much more than you do, and talking about puking on my shoes. I promise not to gag on the fumes of self-righteousness coming at me either!

1 - Sports is not literature. Literature is literature. Nothing is just what it is, unless you’ve well and truly traveled all the way through the Zen wormhole. You can choose to enjoy something like baseball at the pure level of performance, mechanics, and execution/expression, and nothing else. But you yourself talk frequently in your posts about players’ character, about narrative patterns that are emerging in games, etc. It’s “literature” in its own way whether you acknowledge it as such or not. The “contexts” are just one more level of appreciation that one can choose to enjoy or not. 2 - Alexi Ogando is a former outfielder turned pitcher as well. This give me little comfort about the Rangers facing Brian Gordon. Gordon is pure untested goods at this point. A great record in AAA minors this year, but a bit of a desperate crapshoot for the Yanks. However, Bartolo Colon and Freddie Garcia were a bit of a desperate crapshoot as well, and they’ve paid off… desperate crapshoots sometimes do. 3- Sports, like jazz, is played in the moment. Some people enjoy the moment more than the re-living, re-contextualizing, re-whatever tha happens after the moment. In sports, and in jazz. I'm one of them. Although I enjoy a good story as much as anybody. The thing is the thing, not the memory of the thing. Too many things always going on to get distracted by the memories. A lesson can be either learned or memorized. Once you learn it, you can move on. If you just memorize it, you have to keep remembering it. ?? Tyler Kepner writing about Roberto Clemente in relation to Jeter’s approaching 3000 hits is some sort of wallowing in memory? If baseball acknowledges its past, its history, it’s engaging in some sort of unhealthy fetishizing of such? Geez, last time I checked the 2011 season was ongoing, and everybody—you, me, Tyler Kepner, everyone else—seems to be following it with great interest. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get to work. Yes, I did the same two hours ago and am now on a nice, short little break…enjoying the moment! When I return to work, I’ll be resuming ongoing preparations for the future, while continuing to take the past into account, since a moment is a moment and so much more than that at the same time. Speaking of the future and various possibilities: Yankee players weigh in on possible realignment

OK--you have no use for literature. I don't agree, I don't even think that's where you're really coming from, but that's how it "reads." I'd like that as well. We'll see how Brian Gordon works out for NY--a converted outfielder (and former Ranger) who I think has appeared in all of 3 MLB games as a reliever. I didn't even find Kepner's quote particularly sentimental (but I guess that's because I'm all "emo" or something), but (1) baseball's probably the most sentimental of all American athletic games and (2) fandom is part of the game, which goes beyond the immediate, statistical/physical happenings on the field. Now if you want to be a dry, soulless statistician about things (again, seems to me that's not at all where you're coming from, but dammit if that's not how you're sounding), then yeah, you can write fandom out of it entirely. But the passionate, emotional, and philosophical connections that fans make with players, teams, and the game in general are a huge part of why baseball has endured for as long as it has.

Really? I thought Texas was the place that prided itself on doing everything bigger and better than the rest of America--so I suppose under Nolan Ryan's ownership, they're perfectly positioned to lead the way forward in the manner of which you speak.

Nobody thinks there is some literal "club" of dead athletes. It's a metaphorical concept, and if you can't even see the symbolic weight of Clemente's clock having forever stopped at 3000 hits--that in a tragic, unintended, but perhaps ultimately poignant way he now represents that illustrious benchmark better than anyone else--and choose to interpret it as some kind of quasi-racist claptrap instead, then you're getting the same weird bitterness out of things that you're putting into them. And "Emo baseball?" Suddenly you're perturbed that there might be some streak of sentimentality invading the realm of baseball? Heaven forbid, that's never been a part of the game at all! But let's slap some modern-day wussy-equivalent term on it and suddenly posture as if "real baseball" is beyond all that? Or beyond narrative, remembrance, and feeling? That's all but the soul of the game!

Beautiful way of putting it.

With Martin's status flirting with the DL again, I sure wish we'd call up Jesus Montero and give him a shot at some big-league time.

I blame Horace Clarke and the Civil War. Growing up in Indiana in the 1970s/80s, also a huge Indiana University basketball fan (and still one to this day, in the midst of our current Dark Ages--save us, Cody Zeller!--though it's been nice to witness the recent rise of Butler, a college that was originally situated in my childhood neighborhood before moving in the 1920s to its current location).

Anybody else hear about this being under discussion? Via Pinstripe Alley: Possible MLB realignment?

So is Boston ever going to lose again? This is the team we were all expecting to see in 2011--Dan, you must be feeling delighted. Power note: with their four HRs today, I think Boston overtook Texas for 2nd-most as a team in the MLB. A sliver of potentially good news for Yankees fans today: Colon's MRI came back "good." He's going on the DL, but hopefully we'll lose him for only several turns in the rotation. David Phelps is coming up from Scranton Wilkes-Barre to take his place (a bit more about Phelps in this post yesterday at Pinstripe Alley).

Oh, c'mon! It's been beanball season for the Yanks lately, and I'm getting sick of it... Lester nailed Tex in the kneecap, Beckett hit us three times in one game, and then the HPB last night and today... Tex gets nailed after a HR by Grandy last night, then A-Rod gets hit today after homering in his previous AB... yes, HBP happen and more often than not they're not intentional, but what's the deal with the Yankees getting hit so much? (Iirc they led the majors in getting the most HBP in 2009; not sure about last year.) As far as Colon's hamstring, yes, it's absolutely devastating if he misses more than several starts. Now that Boston's finally found its form, we're going to be in a race for the wildcard (pretty much what many NY fans thought when the season started), and without Colon that's a pretty iffy picture. A lot will ride on how soon Hughes is back and how well he pitches, which is a big if.

Street date for THE SMILE SESSIONS is Aug. 9, or so someone on the Internets sez.

By way of a tribute to the pianist for his upcoming 70th birthday, a look back at his 1960s recordings with Blue Mitchell, Stan Getz, and Miles Davis, and as a leader: Matrix: The Emergence Of Chick Corea

MJQ and Henry Threadgill.

Too bad, he was having a good year. I hate the Yankees, but I hate more seeing a player going down with a injury. Yes, he really seemed to be evolving into a more reliable asset for the bullpen this season, especially after Soriano's very shaky start and subsequent injury. Any tenuous grasp the Yankees had on making a serious run for the AL East title against Boston is pretty much gone now; I just don't see how they're going to be able to shore up their relief, even if Phil Hughes returns and is able to perform adequately as a starter (subsequently relegating either Garcia or Nova to the pen).

Hope you'll stick around, Shawn--your presence is appreciated by many here. If you don't feel inclined, you don't feel inclined, but at least know that you'll get a warm welcome whenever you return. Well, not that kind of "warm welcome"... you know what I mean.

Pianist Randy Weston is almost always noted for his exceptional physical height, but he also stands tall as the author of jazz standards such as “Little Niles, “Hi-Fly,” and numerous other pieces of note. His compositional legacy has been built on blues, appealing and percussive melodic figures, waltz times and African rhythms. “The Randy Weston Songbook” features Weston’s music performed by Booker Ervin, Gigi Gryce and Donald Byrd, Betty Carter, Jon Hendricks, and Weston himself. It's now archived for online listening: The Randy Weston Songbook Next on Night Lights: "Matrix: the Emergence of Chick Corea."

Yes, both teams are playing well right now, though I'd say the Bosox are performing at a higher level (outside of that four-game skid, they've been almost literally unbeatable the past several weeks). One slight change helpful to NY is that Girardi will start CC instead of Nova Thursday night against Beckett. It's a tough homestand in general, with Cleveland coming in after Boston, followed by Texas; like Dave James, I was pleasantly surprised that we ended this West Coast road trip 6-3. In milestone news, Derek Jeter now needs just 14 hits to reach 3000. The Yankees' next 10 games are at home; after that, they travel to Wrigley Field to play the Cubs. My guess is that he'll fall just short at NY and will get #3000 at Wrigley. Jsngry: maybe I hallucinated this, but I could've sworn that I read somewhere today that Texas is scoring a full two more runs per game whenever Hamilton's in the lineup. I know we're barely 1/3 of the way through the season, and that he missed a lot of games, but that's still a pretty wild differential.