YANKEEMANIA RUNS RAMPART

Nick Johnson is out for wrist surgery again. He can't shake hands without getting hurt. Imagine if he was on the same teams with Shelley Duncan? We could nickname him stumpy because after one of Duncan's high-fives he wouldn't have any hands anymore.

Did you see Marcus Thames trip over his own bat? I never saw that before at any level. I wonder is that is an unwritten law of baseball? He is also a horror show in the outfield but he makes Randy Winn look like a gold glover. Look for it to settle down after the Grandy-Man returns. Yankees center fielder Curtis Granderson is set to test his injured left groin in a rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Saturday Granderson took the collar in 4 ABs as DH. He did pick up a hit on Sunday.

In other SWB News The New York Yankees are pleased to announce the extension through the 2014 season of their Player Development Contract (PDC) with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, their Triple-A affiliate in the International League. In addition, SWB Yankees LLC, a joint venture between the New York Yankees and Mandalay Baseball, renewed their management agreement to operate the franchise for the next four seasons as well.

Javier Vazquez was removed after six brilliant innings against the New York Mets on Friday because of a bruised right index finger. He got the injury while successfully bunting. Another reason to use the DH everywhere.


Remember Duane Staats who use to do play by play for the Yankees on MSG? No he is not coming back. He is now working for the Rays in Tampa. Here is what he had to say about Mariano Rivera.

Dwayne Staats was taking viewer's questions regarding Mariano. He stated that Rivera is now a vulnerable reliever and get this: scouts have told him that he is losing his cutter and age has caught up with him. I do not know whose scouts told him this, but he was in agreement with it.

Duane Staats had a very professional voice and that was it, he and Tony Kubek were a couple of Bozos when they teamed with the Yankees, with my apologies to the clown union.

NOT SO BAD AFTER ALL ...

Hey just got this email from BTB's own John Manaco. It proves Alex (and the Yankees) are so bad at all.

From: Ward, Jeff

Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2010 9:51 PM

To: Monaco, John

Subject: THought you might like this.....

John,
Do you recognize this guy? J The guy in the white shirt taking the picture on the left is a good friend of mine. He’s Director of Operations for Make A Wish in Southern California. The kid with the hat on is one of the Wish Kids. My friend Bruce is not a sports fan at all. He has done this several times with the Angels and Wish Kids but he said he has a real appreciation for the Yankees. He said the Angels organization was nice and all but the Yankees were total class. They were in the dugout a couple of hrs before game time at Angel Stadium and just about every Yankee came up and talked with this kid. Jeter, A-Rod everyone. This kid’s wish was to meet A-Rod. Apparently he took the kid out to the field with him while he did warm ups. He took the kid (without Bruce or anyone) down into the clubhouse and met a bunch of the guys. Bruce said the Yankee’s PR organization was top notch. They had a uniform for this kid, A-Rod pulled a bat out of his bat bag, signed it and gave it to the kid. There were several baseballs that got signed right there by the players and gave them to the kid. It was funny because one of the Angels Stadium officials (the girl in the right picture with the red strap around her neck) told Bruce “uh-oh” when A-Rod gave him the bat because fans aren’t allowed to take bats into the stands as they are considered weapons. Bruce said that shouldn’t be a problem….just give to one of the Angels Stadium PR people and have them give it to the kid after the game. She said normally that would work but she said she didn’t trust ANYONE with a bat signed by A-Rod – the kid might never see it again. So, here’s how much of a sports fan my friend is. Bruce offered to take it home with him and bring it back after the game. HE HAD NO INTENTION OF STAYING FOR THE GAME!!! EVEN THOUGH HE COULD HAVE HAD VIP SEATS!!!!! So Bruce goes home, does his putzing around the house, turns the game on around the 8th inning so he’d know when to leave to go to the stadium with the bat. (He lives close to the stadium). What did he see when he turned it one? They were in between innings and he basically saw this scene below with himself on TV. They were talking about the wish kid. I forgot to mention that they let the kid take the starting lineup out to the umpire at the beginning of the game. Class act for sure!

Jeff Ward Area Manager Field Operations - Canada and Western US