Afternoon Baseball

Hell of a cool announcement. Just showing up, greeting the fans quickly, and out.

The Yanks looked very boosted by this, and while the back-to-back strong games helped, the presence of the greatest pitcher ever certainly helps.

Now, Clemens, with his relatively high pitch-per-inning count, will be a 5-6 inning pitcher in the American League. And he won't have sub-2.50 ERAs like in Houston. But he can be a tremendous asset, an intimidating presence and a bit unfamiliar to teams with young players.

As for the game, Bobby Abreu showed some stick skills in consistently staying back on the ball, Derek Jeter continued the peak phase of his career with solid hitting to all fields, and Darrell Rasner was better than expected, although 5 2/3 innings being a great start is a sign of how far the American development of pitching has fallen.

As for the beanball war, the warning issued after Phelps was hit was one of the few times I agreed with an issued warning. Phelps clearly was out of line in aiming himself (and his forearms) at Seattle's catcher. He missed the plate, to boot, which shows that he wasn't trying just to score. Hitting him was just evening the score.
At the same time, I can't blame Proctor. Taking an ejection is something the Yanks need to do once a while, or even once a season. Today, with a late lead against a deflated, punchless opponent, was the best-case scenario.

Labels: Baseball, Yankees