Great game last night, the benches cleared twice, and Clemens retaliated (finally). Posada hit a backbreaking double right after the non-fight, and Chamberlain looked good. Man, it was weird to see a Yankee hit 99 on the gun. You can tell he's a starter though - he's more apt to try and bait guys around the zone than he is to go right after than like a bullpen guy would.

Anyways, Jays get what they deserve (after hitting A-Rod the day before AND last night, in the knee) and Shelley Duncan had a slide like a linebacker last night. If you can find it, it is great.

It's about time

I just saw on the news that they suspended Clemens for 5 games, and Torre for one, and they were both fined. Three players on the Blue Jays were fined. This was all due to the ARod bench-clearing incident.

This really pisses me off. The Yankees have been hit by pitchers more than any other team, yet the one time that Clemens decides to hit back, the Yankees get the short end of the stick.

Clemens will appeal. If you noticed, he was quite thorough in his explanation to the umpire the night he was tossed, and I think he'll go into the meeting saying that, look, their team hit our star player not once, but twice over two nights, we had no choice but to retaliate. The umpires had no control over the game. He hit Rios in the back, which was not dangerous, compared to the Jays hitting A-Rod in the knee.

Etc., etc.

At worse, Clemens will miss one start, and the appeal could take it deep into September by that time. Torre serves his tonight. Donnie Baseball should get a chance to hone his managerial skills.

I agree that it sucks, SB, but I think that Clemens will be vindicated.

Doubtful.

I give Clemens credit for doing what he was supposed to do ("protect" his teammates), but I would be very surprised if his ban was lifted.

Like you said, he'll miss one start (but that one hit-batter pitch can lift a team's spirit and be more beneficial to the Yanks than Roger pitching one game).

Well, vindicated in the sense that he'll have his day and basically say his peace, as well as delaying his actual suspension for awhile.

I'd be surprised if the ban was lifted too, but given the Jays comments, I think Roger has plenty of ammo. Plus, he didn't tweak.

Does anyone know how many times the Yankees have been hit by pitchers?? I would love to know if there are actual statistics to show how many times Jeter or ARod have been hit, because it seems like an awful lot.

I'm pissed at the suspension because a friend and I were gonna go down to the game on Monday when Roger was suppose to pitch. It's a good thing I didn't buy the $175-$200 tickets we were looking at on stubhub.com

It is insanely lopsided, especially when we play Boston.

Also a little note - according to Brian Cashman and Peter Abraham of the LoHud Yankees blog, should A-Rod opt out, there is a clause that will allow the Yankees to offer him arbitration. This means that should he go to another team, the Yankees would receive compensatory draft picks, including a 1st rounder at the least.

So even if A-Rod goes...we could still be looking at a nice pick-up as a consolation prize.

Source: Padres claim Igawa off waivers

If the Yankees want to get rid of Kei Igawa, they have their chance.

The Padres, continuing in their attempt to upgrade their starting rotation, have claimed Igawa off waivers, major league sources told FOXSports.com.

San Diego was awarded the claim on Friday, and the two teams have until the end of the weekend to work out a trade for the 28-year-old Japanese pitcher. If no deal can be worked out in that time frame, Igawa would remain in New York for at least the rest of the season.

No American League team put a claim on Igawa, nor did any National League with a worse record than San Diego.

The Padres had expressed interest in the left-handed Igawa before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

The Yankees, despite being unhappy with Igawa's performance this year, are unlikely to part ways with their first-year pitcher after having paid $26 million during the off-season merely to negotiate with Igawa's former Japanese club, the Hanshin Tigers. Igawa signed a five-year, $20 million deal with New York.

The Padres, meanwhile, cut ties with David Wells earlier this week, after the 44-year-old struggled mightily in his last few starts. Justin Germano and Wil Ledezma currently round out San Diego's rotation, and the Padres clearly feel that Igawa would be an upgrade.

Igawa, who has struggled through most of the season with control problems, has been optioned to the minor leagues twice already this year. In his time in the bigs, he is 2-3 with a 6.79 ERA, having walked 32 batters in just 62 1/3 innings.

Source: FOX Sports

Woohooooooooooooo!

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Hey, awesome! The MLB disciplined the Jays as well!

Oh, wait. They only fined the pitcher, Matt Stairs (who tried to instigate the fight), and their third base coach. In addition, Tony Pena, A-Rod, and Larry Bowa received fines as well! Gee, I'm glad that's settled. So we lose one of our starting pitchers during a playoff push, our manager for a game, and fined...and the Blue Jays get some blow-off fines.

I'm glad to see Selig still has his head up his ass.

FWIW though, I guess it probably would be the best thing possible for the Yankees and for the rest of the league if they don't suspend Josh Towers (5-9, 5.36 ERA), who btw, called Tony Pena "a quitter" who "managed a team and quit
in the middle of the season because he couldn't hack it."

As always, the gracious response from Pena? "I have no comment. Let him talk."

I actually have no problem with the Clemens suspension. Everyone had a feeling that A-Rod bought his HBP after the bush league yelling, "Mine" a few months ago.

When the benches emptied, nobody was really interested in fighting, except possibly those who got the fines. But this was an incident of baseball policing itself. Jeter was smiling on the field as were other Yankees and Blue Jays, who understood why this had to happen and that the matter was over.

I understood why Clemens did what he did, and don't necessarily fault him. But the matter had been settled and it happened after a warning, so the consequences are appropriate.

I just hope this doesn't happen everytime the Yankees and Blue Jays play each other. Get over it already!

I have no problem with Clemens being suspended.

But baseball is fucked up when two games in a row, a player (of A-Rod's caliber no less) is thrown at in a dangerous location (not his back, say, but his knee) and the umpires are as inept (purposefully?) as ever. Why is only one side *truly* penalized, and the other side (who instigated) gets a slap on the wrist?

Then again, as I said before, maybe having to have Josh Towers in your rotation is punishment enough for the Blue Jays.

Yankees keep rolling, as Mussina adjusted and score a big win over the Indians.

Incidentally, Paul Byrd might be back in Buffalo soon if he keeps pitching he way he did last night. Anyone else glad we didn't try to acquire him way back in the Spring when all our starters went down?

New topic, if the season ended now....who would be YOUR American League MVP?

I'm not a happy camper about it

Down to 4 games Man Gagne is really getting roughed up in Boston. I really don't understand what his problem is. He was doing fine in Texas. But I guess his lousy performance is helping the Yankees stay close. Before long though, he'll break out of this slump, he's too good of a pitcher not to.

Who was the Yank that broke the bat today?

I didn't watch most of the game yesterday, Miggy. What did he look like/did you catch his number?

'Scooter' Rizzuto dies at 89

Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto, who overcame his diminutive size to become a key contributor to numerous New York Yankees championships and followed his playing career with a lengthy and entertaining stint in the team's broadcast booth, died Tuesday. He was 89.

Rizzuto's playing and broadcasting careers were in contrast with each other. As a player, Rizzuto had the reputation for being an alert, heads-up competitor with keen baseball instincts that eventually earned him a place in the Hall of Fame. Behind the microphone, he was at times oblivious to the events on the field, nevertheless his lack of polish as an announcer was ignored by generations of Yankees fans who accepted his eccentricities the way family members do an amusing relative.

In many ways, the Yankees were Rizzuto's family. Excepting a three-year stretch in the United States Navy (1943-45) during World War II, Rizzuto was the Yankees' regular shortstop from 1941 into the 1956 season, when he retired under somewhat disagreeable circumstances. The next year, he began a broadcasting career that would run 40 seasons through 1996, the first year of the Yankees' most recent stretch of success under manager Joe Torre.

In retirement, Rizzuto frequently returned to Yankee Stadium to throw out ceremonial first pitches on special occasions. After Derek Jeter's famous shuttle toss home in the 2001 American League Championship Series, Rizzuto mimicked the play in tribute to the current Yankees shortstop rather than throwing from the mound, to the delight of the Stadium crowd.

Rizzuto was part of the Yankees' dynastic years of the 1940s and '50s that included a record five straight World Series championships from 1949 through 1953. It was during that period that Rizzuto was an American League Most Valuable Player, in 1950, a year after he finished second in the voting to Ted Williams. In his 13 seasons with the Yankees, Rizzuto played in nine World Series and was on the winning side seven times. He was a rookie on the Yankees' 1941 championship team that beat the Brooklyn Dodgers for the first of five times in the Series before losing to their Flatbush rivals in 1955, Rizzuto's last postseason appearance.

Among the highest compliments paid Rizzuto came from Williams, who frequently said the Boston Red Sox might have been in all those World Series had Rizzuto been on their side. As a member of the Hall's Veterans Committee, Williams lobbied hard for Rizzuto's enshrinement in Cooperstown, N.Y., which became reality in 1994. Rizzuto had been the oldest living Hall of Famer. That distinction now belongs to former American League president Lee MacPhail, with former second baseman Bobby Doerr the oldest living Hall of Fame player.

Friends said that Rizzuto felt a personal wound 10 years earlier when his Dodgers counterpart, Pee Wee Reese, who was also a good friend, was elected by the Veterans Committee to the Hall, believing that they should have gone in together. Rizzuto simply refused to talk about the Hall after than until the day of his induction, when no one could shut him up -- thankfully. Rizzuto's speech was a delightful ramble without a shred of pretense, filled with recollections of his well-known superstitions and phobias, all the while fanning the air with his hands to shoo away annoying flies.

Yankees fans over the years learned about Rizzuto's love of golf and Italian food, especially pastry, and his fear of snakes, rodents, insects and lightning. He also hated traffic and bolted to the press elevator as if running out a base hit to get to the parking lot for a hasty exit out of the Stadium lot and over the George Washington Bridge to his longtime home in Hillsdale, N.J.

Rizzuto broke away from his play-by-play or analysis to wish happy birthday to fans and friends, many of whom ran restaurants and bakeries and often sent him treats, notably boxes of canolis which he shared with writers and others in the press box. If he missed a play, he'd write in his scorecard "WW," for "wasn't watching." He spoke fondly of his devoted wife, Cora, perhaps the only person he never described as a "huckleberry."

Both as a player and broadcaster, Rizzuto seldom referred to teammates or colleagues by their first name, with the exceptions of Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford. For them, Rizzuto used no last name. He once opened a Yankees telecast by announcing himself as Bill White, Rizzuto's partner at the time. White, who later was the president of the National League, said, "That was the only time in 18 years I heard him mention my first name."

Rizzuto received the nickname "Scooter" while in the minor leagues, from fellow infielder Billy Hitchcock, who later managed in the Majors. Hitchcock took note of Rizzuto's short legs and said, "You ain't runnin', you're scootin.'"

Another nickname Rizzuto had in the politically incorrect past was "Little Dago," a derogatory term for men of Italian descent, but in a way it, too, was a compliment, since it was a play on "Big Dago," which was what many opponents called Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio.

One of the more poignant stories about how much of a loner DiMaggio was came from Rizzuto. On the day Joe D.'s 56-game hitting streak ended in 1941, Rizzuto offered to take DiMaggio out because he knew his teammate was upset. DiMaggio asked Rizzuto to loan him $20 and then went into the night alone.

Being little was something Rizzuto could not deny. Even in an era when many players were not six feet tall, Rizzuto was spare of build at 5-foot-6 and less than 160 pounds. He was athletic, however, and carved out a career as one of baseball's best defensive shortstops and base runners and mastered the lost art of bunting. The five-time All-Star's .273 career batting average was well-earned.

Fiero Francis Rizzuto was born Sept. 25, 1916 in Brooklyn, N.Y., the son of a streetcar conductor. His birth year had been listed as 1917, but Rizzuto told New York Daily News baseball columnist Bill Madden that he had lied about his age after some players told him it would add a year to his career. Scooter played both baseball and football at Richmond Hill High School in Queens and had dreams of playing baseball for a living, which was nearly shattered when he failed to impress the Dodgers, his favorite team, in a 1937 tryout.

"I just got out of high school, and Casey Stengel was managing the Dodgers," Rizzuto recalled in 2000 for the Hall of Fame's Legend Series. "He took one look at me, and I will never forget this -- I would never let him forget this, either -- he said, 'Listen, kid, you better go and get yourself a shoeshine box. That is the only way you'll make a living.' I was going out to Ebbets Field to try to impress someone. I was crushed. And then the Yankees called me. They had a one-week tryout camp. It was a little bit of what they could see, what you could do. And you could play a game every day. It was a good thing I knew how to bunt and steal, although I did hit one in the seats. I hit a home run down the left field line, it hit the foul pole, and so the Yankees signed me to a contract."

Rizzuto would be reunited with Stengel when Casey became the Yankees' manager in 1949, by which time Scooter had established himself as one of the AL's most reliable players. Joe McCarthy was the manager when Rizzuto joined the team in 1941 and hit .307 in 133 games. The only other time Scooter batted over .300 was in his MVP season of 1950, when he hit .324 with 200 hits and 125 runs.

Stengel moved Rizzuto from the bottom of the lineup to the top, where he usually batted second and occasionally led off. Rizzuto's bunting ability helped him lead the AL in sacrifices for four consecutive seasons, He was among the top five basestealers seven times. Gold Gloves for fielding were not given out until 1957, ther year after Rizzuto retired as a player, but he likely would have won several. He led the AL in double plays and chances three times each, in fielding percentage and putout twice apiece and in assists once.

"My best pitch is anything the batter grounds, lines or pops in the direction of Rizzuto," teammate Vic Raschi once said.

Rizzuto lost his hold on the position in 1954 when he hit only .195 with 15 RBI in 307 at-bats, and Stengel used Willie Miranda and Jerry Coleman often at shortstop. Billy Hunter actually played more games at shortstop than Rizzuto in 1955, but Scooter started all seven games of that World Series, although he was removed for a pinch-hitter in three games.

The end of the line for Rizzuto as a player came on Old-Timers Day at the Stadium Aug. 25, 1956, the same day the Yankees claimed outfielder Enos Slaughter off waivers from the Kansas City Athletics. Rizzuto met with club officials, who were discussing ways to get Slaughter on the 25-man roster that had to be cemented within the week for his eligibility for a possible World Series.

Rizzuto realized that he was the player the Yankees intended to release, which they did. He maintained that Stengel and general manager George Weiss reneged on a promise that if the Yankees made the Series, Rizzuto would be put on the roster as the backup for Gil McDougald, the regular shortstop, but Hunter was kept instead.

Little did Rizzuto realize at the time that his years with the Yankees were not over. Rizzuto toyed with the idea of joining the Giants' broadcast team but decided against it when he heard the club intended to move from New York to San Francisco after the 1957 season. Instead, at the urging of the Ballantine Brewing Company, which sponsored the Yankees' games on radio and TV, Rizzuto was added to the booth with legendary announcers Mel Allen and Red Barber.

Although Rizzuto occasionally came into the booth when he was out of the lineup due to injury, he was not welcomed warmly as a colleague by the two veteran broadcasters -- even Allen, who had witnessed nearly every game of Scooter's career. Rizzuto believed Allen and Barber resented him because of his inexperience. Former players such as Harry Heilman and Dizzy Dean found success in the broadcast booth, but Rizzuto was a first in the media capital of New York.

Yet it was precisely his unsophisticated manner and nasally Brooklyn accent endeared him to Yankees fans over the years. He refused to give up his "Holy Cow!" call that had been used first by another broadcasting legend, Harry Caray, because it was a phrase Rizzuto had used since childhood to avoid swearing. Anthing that was part of Phil Rizzuto was part of his broadcast.

Rizzuto's first media appearance occurred on Feb. 2, 1950, when he was the initial mystery guest on "What's My Line?" Rizzuto appeared several more times as a panelist on the popular game show that ran on CBS every Sunday night for 17 years. He did commercials for various products, and for a number of years was spokesman for a loan company known as The Money Store.

Among Rizzuto's most famous calls were Roger Maris' 61st home run in 1961 and Chris Chambliss' pennant-clinching homer in the 1976 AL Championship Series. Scooter became so identified with the Yankees that the singer Meat Loaf used with permission his play-by-play of a game as background in the 1977 song, "Paradise by the Dashboard Light."

His uniform No. 10 was retired by the Yankees Aug. 4, 1985 on Phil Rizzuto Day, but he ended up being upstaged by Tom Seaver, who pitched his 300th career victory that afternoon for the Chicago White Sox. Rizzuto never failed to bring that up to Seaver during their eight years as partners on Yankees telecasts from 1989 to 1996.

In 1993, a book edited by Tom Peyer and Hart Seely, "Holy Cow!: The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto," featured portions of Scooter's stream of conscience broadcasts in the form of poetry.

Rizzuto once said on the air upon learning of the death of Pope Paul VI, "Well, that kind of puts a damper on even a Yankee win."

So does the passing of Phil Rizzuto.

Source: Yankees

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Holy Cow! We'll miss you Phil

Well, kudos to major league baseball for suspending Clemens and doing nothing to the Boo Jays. In place of Clemens, we started Karstens (who has pretty much sealed his fate, I doubt he'll ever be in pinstripes again except in mop-up duty) and he got rocked, then put in Brower (who got rocked some more).

All in all? Good example why we need Roger Clemens and Edwar Ramirez a lot more than we need Jeff Karstens and Jim Brower.

What happened to Edwar? Did they send him back down to Triple-A? He needs to develop another pitch. He has a good changeup, but once guys knew that was he strikeout pitch, they're just going to wait on it and crush it

If I'm not mistaken, he throws a serviceable slider.

Yankees sign their top draft picks, including one of the highest touted prospects in the draft, Andrew Brackman, yesterday.

heh, better luck tomorrow. And this is crazy that we are playing 8 games against each other in two weeks.

Almost went to the game tonight. Glad that didn't happen. They gotta do something about Moose because he's been sucking most of this year. Not surprised to hear Sheff get the boos.

Yeah, I'm definitely glad that Chamberlain and Kennedy will most likely be in the starting rotation next year. They desperately need to move Moose to an NL team where he can retire in comfort, instead of sucking in NYC.

The suckage has returned. How depressing.