that's something you don't see everyday!

well, it worked. i guess i've seen it work once before..maybe. the pitcher stands on the mound with a runner on third and one on first. he fakes to third, and than either fakes back to first or futily tosses over, everyone in the house boos, no one is faked out and play resumes. well, that's precisely what happened tonight in the yankees game in the bottom of the ninth. three times the pitcher pulled this cheeseball move, two times he failed and one time, well, it worked out swimmingly and granderson was caught taking off early to steal second. pitcher throws to first, first baseman throws to second baseman, a useless rundown ensues, and that's your ballgame, all with the tying runs on bass and their biggest slugger up. i was basically left speechless, granted i was alone when it happened.

and:
this comes on a day when dontrelle willis and chien-ming wang pitch very well. baseball is impossible to predict.

daydream on 161st street

tonight i did not have to watch freddy garcia pitch a great game or look up his BORING INDEX to determine that he is a pretty rad pitcher. i have watched him pitch plenty this year and throughout his career and i have come to this conclusion: dude is a good ass pitcher.
it starts with his mind set and it ends with his ability to locate pitches. this guy has lived through only ups and downs. his birth and rebirth and maybe even rebirth birth leave me with this same conclusion: dude is a bad ass. he throws the ball where he wants to at a speed that is disruptive to a hitter. mission accomplished. of course, like anyone, when he's missing his spots and bad he gets beat up, but overall, more than anything else, he has been a valuable asset to a conceptually shaky starting rotation. i would like to cease all calls for an upgrade. you can't find a better alternative than what he's been doing all year unless your name is weaver, or halliday, or gallardo or something. any team would love this out of a number two starter even. it's not too young, it's not too sexy but the results are the same and i'll take it everyday.

.....for jorge? (and other things i saw during the game tonight).

you had to figure it would happen but you didn't necessarily want to be there when it did. what do you do now if you're jorge? i would be thinking about retirement. even if he can still hit like he has shown flashes of lately this year, i don't know if he can sustain it. if he does retire, he'll kind of go out on top if you ask me. he's hitting better than he was early in the season and his fade out is going as easy as possible, things can and often do get uglier. i really don't care much for the move but mostly because you "upgrade" your chances to andruw jones. if we could upgrade that further to jesus montero i'd be more inclined to wanna see it. jorge will go down in history as one of the best ever yankee catchers, it's important that he goes out gracefully, and i will miss him when he is gone. he's one of my favorite hitters ever. he's got the mattingly eye.

observations:
during the yankees half of the ninth, they managed to score one run on one hit and three walks. the pitcher responsible kissed his rosary chain and pointed to the sky when he walked off the mound after the third out, thanking the good lord that he got out of it with no further damage…because that was indeed enough. it was the poor guys first ever appearance in major league baseball, he's just glad it's over now.

more observation:
eduardo nunez is fucking fast.

and more:
mariano still gots it.