ghost of miles

Uh, its your team that has trimmed the lead by two games to the slim margin that now separates the teams, with Boston facing Masterson behind Bedard while the Yankees go for the sweep. I'd say there are better than even chances the Yankees arrive in Boston as co-division leaders. Well, I won't deny that I'm happy that your speculation proved to be true; I never would have guessed that NY would be tied with Boston 2/3 of the way through the season. But NY's bound to cool off, and there's an excellent chance it will happen this weekend against the Red Sox. I'd be ecstatic just to see the Yanks take two of three from them, but that's a steep hill to climb in Fenway. BTW, if, by any chance, Boston and NY end the season tied for first, Boston's got a huge head start on the tiebreaker--what are they, 8-1 against NY so far? Even if NY somehow managed to catch up there, Boston's got a far better record against AL East teams as well. Interesting stat cited over at Pinstripe Alley in the postgame thread: Have to say I'll be depressed to see Nova get demoted again (or sent to the bullpen) on the basis of one excellent start from Hughes, but at least it's good to know we have a good starter in reserve if Colon or Garcia gets injured, or if A.J. disintegrates into an ongoing implosion again.

I've e-mailed him as well, but I think the address I have may be out of date/inactive.

Thanks for the update. I just looked at that DEMS link again and was happy to see that they're including 8 tracks from the 1943 Hurricane broadcasts. I have a tree of much of the '43 Hurricane material but would love to see an official release of all of it at some point. There is a Storyville release (I guess that's official) of 3 Hurricane broadcasts from '43 including one "Pastel Period" broadcast. "At the Hurricane" Storyville 101 8359. Yes, that's the "official" one that I have--I think there's some overlap with the tree I have as well. Not sure how much more is out there, but I really would love to see a multiple-disc box of those '43 Hurricane broadcasts.

Excellent CD! Will have to dig it out and listen to it again. And thanks for the heads-up, LV, sounds like a great show... I'll try to tune in for some of it.

A-Rod's contract is indeed a bit of an albatross for NY, but the whole "gambling/illegal poker" story may be somewhat overblown.

Up for Mr. Armstrong's birthday: It's All In The Game: Louis Armstrong, 1947-57

Yes, Boston can start losing, like, any time now. But I'm not counting on it; their winning percentage since the first two weeks of the season must be hovering in the neighborhood of .700. And yes, pathetic performance from Burnett tonight, who somehow has managed to let the Chisox make a game of it. A PA poster claimed in A.J.'s defense that it's the first time he hasn't gone 5 innings this season, and only the third time that he's given up more than 4 runs... so I won't throw in the towel on him at this point. He remains an extremely up-and-down .500 pitcher, who's still doing somewhat better than he did last year.

Just thought I'd ask--hopefully he's simply taking a sabbatical from online activity, as he seems to have also deactivated his Facebook account.

I sure hope Eric Chavez can stay healthy for the rest of the year.

Anybody care to weigh in on the Jered Weaver/Magglio Ordonez/Carlos Guillen brouhaha? After reading up on it and watching clips from the game, it seems to me that (a) Weaver grossly overreacted to Ordonez' alleged "showboating," i.e. standing at the plate watching his third-inning home run, which was hit deep enough that it was clearly leaving the field of play, but not clear at all whether it would stay fair or foul (b) yes, Guillen then overreacted to Weaver's earlier overreaction with his stop/stare/turn-sideways-towards-Weaver post-home run gestures © none of that justifies Jered Weaver's throwing at the next batter's head. Then you have the Aybar bunt in the 8th, with Verlander throwing a no-hitter at that point, touching off another imbroglio about "unwritten rules." Get over it! The Angels were getting nowhere against Verlander by swinging away. Yeah, I suppose if it was 9-0 and Aybar laid down a bunt that the Tigers might have cause to be irked... nevertheless, a batter's going to try to get on however he can, and bunting's a fair way to do it, no matter what the situation. And the game was 3-0 at the time, hardly out of reach for the Angels. (Aybar did indeed reach safely, but as a result of a throwing error.)

The return of early-2010 Phil Hughes? From Pinstripe Alley on last night's game: One excellent outing is still only one outing, but it's far more heartening than yet another terrible outing; hopefully Hughes has finally turned the corner.

Not sure what the built-in difference is here. That whatever artist/person B is coming up with that's original is of no interest or value? (Therefore sending said artist/person in search of someone else's story to lift?) Rather like the old joke about the writer getting the rejection notice that said, "We found your work both interesting and original. Unfortunately, the interesting parts weren't original, and the original parts weren't interesting."

Yankees going with six-man rotation this week. Colon will start the series opener against Boston on Friday with one day extra rest, with CC pitching Saturday on normal rest, and Garcia on Sunday on one day extra rest. Hughes on tap tonight against Chicago.

Lester, Beckett, and the Boston offense are definitely enough to get them through the postseason in fine style.

That´s a wonderful foto and it´s great you knew Francis Paudras. How much would I have liked to get to know this man. I often listen to the recordings he made of Bud at home (in France) and at Birdland. That´s where I head that tune "Margarete" I mentioned. Also got one of the first editions of his book "Dance of the Infidels" in one of the first french versions in 1986 when it came out, and years before "To Bird with Love" which he published together with Chan Parker. You are the piano player who worked often with Johnny Griffin, right? Johnny Griffin was the very first musician I saw live in a club, and ironically also one of the last, shortly before he died. Michael's also in the booklet for THE COMPLETE BUD POWELL ON VERVE--he and Barry Harris provided commentary on many of the recordings in the set.

Tha't why I said "possibly." And I think it is quite possible that Nova will replace Hughes, sooner rather than later, if Hughes doesn't improve. I still wouldn't want to see us give up Montero and 2-3 other top prospects (Banuelos, Betances, etc.), which is apparently what was being discussed.

A big yes to Greg Ward--I was really impressed by his playing when he came through here with Mike Reed's People, Places and Things last October and finally got around to picking up his leader debut, SOUTH SIDE STORY. Just unearthed our station's promo copy of the Chicago Afro-Latin Ensemble's BLUEPRINTS, which also features Ward, and am going to give a listen to that tomorrow. I haven't heard SHADOWLESS yet, but I also agree w/you about Kreisberg being a talented player, Larry; I heard him in person as well last year when he came through here as a member of Lonnie Smith's touring trio.

I'm really glad NY didn't give away the farm (literally) for Ubaldo; I'd rather see us take our longshot chances at going the distance in the playoffs this year. Yes, it's a bit of a ramshackle staff after CC, esp. with Colon not being as sharp as he was before the hamstring injury--and Phil Hughes is not looking good at all. Glad, otoh, to see Ivan Nova possibly back in the rotation. If NY has to go into October with a CC/Colon/Burnett/Garcia-or-Nova rotation, so be it; I'm pessimistic that adding Ubaldo would be enough to stop the Bosox anyway, if they keep hitting like they have been for almost all of the season. Like Dan said, anything can happen in October, plus the road to Boston will most likely run through Texas, and with or without Cliff Lee, that's a real challenge for the Yankees, as last October proved; right now such a series would be a complete toss-up, esp. with the Rangers just having bolstered their bullpen. (Am I right, that if the Yanks are the wild-card coming out of the AL East that they'd again face the Western division winner?) What about that first inning last night in Game 2 of the doubleheader, btw? Geez, guys, save some for the rest of the season!

Yankee fans, take note of Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci piece on the 1998 New York Yankees, which he calls "the greatest team in the history of integrated baseball": The best team I ever covered

Strong advocate here of limited instant replay, per Jsngry's comment. Seeing a 19-inning game end that way was just ridiculous. Not as bad as the blown perfect game last year, but still another example of why there's no excuse for not having some sort of method to address this stuff, particularly when we have the technology that we have. Blown call at end of game Honest, competent people make mistakes too. Good workplaces try to find ways to fix those mistakes and make them good. In this instance, instant replay is an easy and accurate way to do so.

WBGO's The Checkout told me they have official confirmation from the family, so the news appears to be true.

Ron Aprea has posted on his Facebook page that Frank Foster has passed away--info supposedly from Frank's wife Cecilia.

Thanks for the update. I just looked at that DEMS link again and was happy to see that they're including 8 tracks from the 1943 Hurricane broadcasts. I have a tree of much of the '43 Hurricane material but would love to see an official release of all of it at some point.

NY Times obit Thanks, btw, for posting the video of "Moody's Mood for Love." Here's another Winehouse-sings-standards clip: Teach Me Tonight ...and speaking of Keith Richards! Amy Winehouse sings with the Rolling Stones

Anybody here have experience with ordering from Racksandstands.com, in terms of delivery, quality of storage shelving units purchased, etc.?