ghost of miles

"No hit" as in "perfect game" right? http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=300509111 Can't wait to hear what ARod has to say now. I don't think he's going to say anything except perhaps a perfunctory congrats. He's already said several times that he's through responding to it... it's Braden who's kept this thing going (and being prompted by a reporter is no excuse--he could have said that he was finished with it as well. Reporters have certainly been prompting A-Rod about it and will doubtless do so even more now that Braden's hurled a perfect game).

Well, congratulations are in order to Dallas Braden--he threw a perfect game today and will make headlines for something other than continuing to vent about Alex Rodriguez. As I said upthread, actions on the field will earn you a lot more respect... and I'm also happy that in pitching his perfect game he beat Tampa Bay and thereby put NY in a tie with them for first place in the division.

Hey Alexander, you're following Night Lights on KRML! Hopefully I won't drive your potential audience away...

I predict the next crazy guy to get tasered on the ballfield will be Dallas Braden.

I think it got away from Beckett--the ones that seemed more dubious to me were the ones that nearly hit Cervelli. (Tex was almost hit, too, but I haven't seen the clip of that one.) Why Francona kept Beckett in so long during the 6th seems inexplicable to me. I haven't seen the clip of CC plunking Pedroia today, but if it was retaliation, it was stupid--next AB Martinez hit a home run, putting Boston up 3-2. That's one problem with retaliation--you're putting a runner on base. Re: Cano, he's in the line-up and seems to be OK, so that's a big relief. But! But! Here's a report from today's game (back on again after rain delay)--via the Dave Barry "I-am-not-making-this-up" department: Dan, don't give up hope on today's game--Dave "Houdini" Robertson, he of the 13.50 ERA, has taken to the mound for New York!

Dave--a poster at Pinstripe Alley reports that Nick Johnson has a torn wrist tendon and will be out for at least a month. Who woulda thunk it? I think we should simply start Cervelli at catcher and move Posada to DH for the time being. Conflicting reports on whether or not Cano will be in the lineup today. If he's not, NY will be missing 4 starters overall. At one point late last night Girardi supposedly looked down the bench, saw only Javy Vasquez sitting there, and said, "You used to play infield, right?" Maybe Javy will end up seeing some action in this series after all! EDIT: Cano's in the lineup as DH. Still no sign of Jorge.

Somebody needs to take Mr. Braden out to the woodshed and explain to him as forcefully as necessary that it's time to give this a rest. From ESPN story last night: Psych!

So now Robbie Cano will be sitting out for a few games, as a result of getting drilled by Beckett last night. Posada's missed games after getting drilled earlier this year. Jeter got hit last night, Cervelli nearly got hit twice. An awful lot of high/inside pitching going on against NY... the best way to respond is to keep on winning, but NY's starting to lose players via injuries from this stuff. We called up another player today (Kevin Russo) to help spell Cano for the time being... so the best bat in the AL is now out of the lineup. Still no Posada--Thames will be DHing today. At least any questions about how NY would fare with a rash of injuries are in the process of being answered.

A couple of interesting tweets about this on the Times' baseball page:

Wow...just got home and read the wrap-up, watched some of the highlights on GameDay. What the hell happened to Josh Beckett tonight? Sounds like he had a total meltdown in the 6th inning. Really glad to read that Phil Hughes had another quality start... I thought this was a bit of a test for his newfound prowess, coming in to pitch at Fenway for the opening game of a series with the Bosox bats on a roll of late. Dave, the NY injury parade continues. Cano is day-to-day after getting hit on the back of his leg, and Nick Johnson is likely DL with a "sore wrist." (We knew it was coming!) Will Posada be available to DH tomorrow? I sure hope so--we can't take too much more of this. And did Dave Robertson actually lower his ERA by pitching one inning and giving up one run tonight? I think he did... Not sure there'll be a game tomorrow--Red Sox ground crew is putting the tarp out tonight, and the forecast is bad. As banged-up as the Yankees are, a rain day might not be such a bad thing at this point. Hilarious tweet from Ken Davidoff at the NY Times:

Weizen, you in particular might appreciate this--a glowing review of Foyle's War from the American Spectator: Foyled Again: American Spectator on "Foyle's War" According to reports on the FW discussion board, ratings for the new episodes have been through the roof in the UK, and there's talk of continuing the series with more of a Cold War/late 1940s theme (which would work well, I think...certainly there was highly problematic fallout from the war in Europe for years, esp. 1945-49, that could make for interesting storylines).

Did anybody else see this Wall Street Journal article touting a survey that shows the Indians as the "most-hated team in baseball"? The Indians?! Really?! Gotta wonder about Nielsen's methodology there.

Dallas Braden to A-Rod: Get ready to fight Hey Dallas, here's another "unwritten rule" of baseball... after throwing a temper tantrum, you learn to shut your mouth eventually and let your actions speak instead--like, say, striking A-Rod out three or four times the next time you face him, if you're still fuming so much over his "diss." Continuing to whine and carry on about it in the press is pathetic. Dan: Boston has definitely picked up the pace, both pitching and hitting--great momentum coming out of that Angels sweep. I wouldn't be surprised to see you guys take the series from us this weekend. Re: injuries, though, we've already got Granderson on the DL for a month, Park out of commission for much of the time, and Posada missing 1/4 of the schedule so far. (Throw in the issues w/Pettitte and Rivera, and the joke is that the "Core 4" are on the verge of becoming the "Sore 4" as a result of the SI jinx. Jeter doesn't buy it, but the makers of Bubble Wrap are offering him extra protection .) And yes, Tex and A-Rod's HR production has been extremely disappointing so far. Still, A-Rod's driven in 17 runs to Ortiz's 7 (Tex is at 14), so he's found other ways to get runners across the plate. NY's lineup will be that much better when (and I think it's much more a matter of when, rather than if) the #3 and #4 hitters really start to break out. (Not to mention Nick Johnson, who despite a .171 BA has an OBP hovering around .400, due to his plethora of walks.) So, given all of the above, I'm pretty happy to see NY at 19-8. In the meantime, Cano's having a banner year so far, Brett Gardner is making #9 a double leadoff position, Nick Swisher's proving yet again to be one of the shrewdest pickups NY's made in a long time, and guys like Pena and Cervelli have become key role players. I think our big vulnerabilities are yes, age, and also the uncertainty of the middle relief situation (which will hopefully improve with Park's return). Robertson has been an utter disaster so far and nearly gave the game back to the O's the other day. Girardi keeps up a dizzying pace with the pitching changes, so maybe it's too early to get a feel for who might emerge as a strong set-up person for the Joba-8/Mo-9 formula...but it's certainly a point of the game where I grow anxious these days, after the starter leaves. As for starters, JV is our Dice-K, I think... hard to say what's going to happen there. Everybody else is going strong so far (and going stronger for sure when Cervelli's catching...as I've said before, interesting dilemma there, but at least it sure makes it easy to give Posada all the rest he needs at age 38). AL East--the Bloody East!

It was good to hear and read remembrances of Roberts last autumn (when he was still alive) during the build-up to the Phillies-Yanks World Series.

We've begun to redesign the look of the archived Night Lights program pages, such as this this one... would love to hear what others think: Portraits of Harlem

...a groove the rest of the pen has yet to find, as witness today's 8th/9th-inning meltdown that put the O's right back in it at the very end. And the Pettitte inflammation/strain issue will make a believer out of me yet in the Sports Illustrated cover jinx... remember that "Core 4" story I mentioned earlier? Since it appeared, add Pettitte's situation to: ...via NY Times' Bats blog. Toronto won again today and Boston's ahead of the Angels in the 6th--if they win they'll be at .500. Right now the top 4 teams in the AL East seem incapable of losing. On the other side of the leagues, Zito shutting out the Marlins after 6.

The name of pianist Hotep Idris Galeta?

Re: Cervelli, I've come across several references now to NY pitchers, including CC, raving about how much they enjoy working with him. And yes, Dave, you're spot-on about how he was handling A.J.'s splitters last night; I think a couple of those would've gotten past Posada. On the subject of Tex's woes, another MIA, at least when it comes to power, is A-Rod. Between the two of them they've got 4 HR in roughly 190 AB. NY's been carried by nearly everybody else on offense except them (and Nick Johnson), and its outstanding pitching so far. At some point, though, we're really going to need the #3 and #4 hitters to wake up...especially if Tampa Bay keeps on refusing to lose. Very tough schedule coming up for NY in the next few weeks, too...today's afternoon game vs. Baltimore is the last on-paper "easy" one we'll have for awhile.

Another great game from Francisco Cervelli for the Yankees last night (inspiring ESPN's Andrew Marchand's Cervelli ode this morning). I think Joe Girardi's going to have quite the dilemma on his hands... it's becoming quite clear, statistically speaking, that NY's pitching staff does much better when FC is behind the plate than when Jorge Posada is. Cervelli's catcher ERA, going into last night's game (it's surely gone down, considering that he caught all nine innings and the Yankees didn't surrender an earned run), vs. Posada's: Since the start of 2009: Cervelli’s ERA: 3.43 (241 ip) Posada: 5.02 (785 ip) 2010: Cervelli: 2.57 (74 ip, not counting May 4's 4-1 victory) Posada: 3.98 (147 ip) ...and according to Marchand, Cervelli has the third-best catcher ERA in the entire major leagues since the start of 2009 for any catcher taking more than 300 IP. Marchand points out that this stat depends in large part, of course, on the performance of the pitchers...but certainly catchers can affect that performance, and in the case of Cervelli vs. Posada, they're catching the same staff. If nothing else, I don't think Jorge has to worry about getting enough rest from his catching duties this year. Given how Nick Johnson's pretty much tanked so far as a DH (outside of being a human base-on-balls machine), I wonder how much sense it might make to shift Posada into that slot much more often and let Cervelli catch at least half of NY's games. Matthew--can Cliff Lee please shut down Tampa Bay tonight?

John Sterling was paying tribute to him earlier tonight during the Orioles-Yankees broadcast.

For anybody interested in Transition Records, here's the Night Lights show I did about the label and its owner Tom Wilson last autumn: Before Rock, There Was Jazz: Tom Wilson and Transition Records

If anybody still needs a copy of the booklet, I now have the Japanese CD reissue as well.

"1960: Jazz at the Dawn of a Decade" (a sequel to the previous Night Lights program 1959: Jazz's Vintage Year) features music from Hank Mobley, Wes Montgomery, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, the Jazztet, and Max Roach, as well as a rare encounter between Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman, playing the music of Thelonious Monk. You can also watch a video of the Jazztet at Newport and check out a historical 1960 timeline on the program page, where the show is archived for online listening. Coming up this week: "Returning the Call: More Music From the Unsung Heroes of Chicago Hardbop."

Yankees defeat the O's tonight 4-1 on the strength of a 3-RBI HR moonshot to deep center by...Randy Winn!? Confirmed: Phil Hughes will be starting against Boston at Fenway on Friday. Javy not pitching again until the Detroit series. EDIT: aging Yankee check-in...Posada likely out for several days/games after leaving tonight's game with "tightness in his right calf" (he'll be getting an MRI). So we may or may not be headed to Fenway without Posada being available, in addition to Granderson already being on the DL. Mo had "stiffness in his side" after pitching Friday night, which evidently may be one reason why CC pitched a full 8 tonight and Joba came in for the save in the 9th.

I assume he's another one of your baseball players? Only for a Hollywood moment!