Friday night links

It is now officially baseball season in the Geant world, as my Syracuse Orange entered Heartbreak City last night. (That link is to a Gus Johnson soundboard. Have fun.) And that is the only mention of them I will make until I can do it without crying, so give me about 6-8 months.

But, as I said, baseball is right around the corner! We're just about 9 days away from Opening Night against the Red Sox as the World Champs head to Fenway to supply a Boston Beatdown.

It's been a uncharacteristically quiet spring in Tampa. But, as they say, no news is good news.

There are a few links to some interesting stories:

• A-Rod may or may not have been questioned by Federal Investigators in regards to Dr. Anthony Galea. If he was, he is back and in the lineup for tonight's spring training game against the Phillies. (How many times have the Yanks played the Phillies this year in spring training? And I thought we played the Red Sox a lot.) And as I was writing this A-Rod has told reporters that there was no meeting today.
• If you hadn't heard, Michael Jordan has become the principle owner of the Charlotte Bobcats in the NBA. Apparently, Derek Jeter wants to follow in his footsteps, and own a professional baseball team. Now, I know we would all love it if after his playing days were over Jeter would one day become the owner of the Yankees. In my mind, that would be the only person I would feel comfortable owning the Yankees besides the Steinbrenner family. But, when you look at it realistically, I don't see how it could possibly happen. According to a Forbes report from last year, the Yanks are worth $1.5 billion. That's a lot of money. Now, Jordan can afford to do it because 1) the Bobcats are worth $278 million. If Jeter wants to buy the Marlins (valued at $277 million) it might be possible. And 2) He's Michael Jordan. You know those shoes Jeter endorses? The Air Jordans? Guess who those were named after. And guess who gets a royalty every time they're sold. Though, I don't think Jeter has gambled away as much of his money as Jordan did.
  

Also, late Wednesday night, John and I drafted in our Fantasy Baseball league. It's a 12-team 5x5 Rotisserie league. His team, SwishHawk, is led by Prince Fielder, Troy Tulowitzki, Nick Markakis, Tori Hunter, Chris Carpenter, and Matt Cain. My team, A Deuce for the Cuse, boasts Matt Kemp, Mark Reynolds, Ben Zobrist, Roy Halladay, Ryan Zimmerman, Josh Johnson, and Jonathan Broxton. Of course, I think I have the better team, but I'm sure John thinks otherwise. We'll keep you updated throughout the course of the season on which Michael Kay's Successor is faring better in the league.

SEE YA!

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Yankee Stadium Music Turns it Up to 11

Image via Wikipedia

Well, I'm in the same boat as John with a bunch of school work to do in the next week in a half before my spring break. I like to listen to music while I work and it got me thinking about the music they play at Yankee Stadium during Yankee home games. Here's some of the ones that came to mind quickly.

Black Betty- Ram Jam


This one's sure to get the head bopping and the feet tapping, plus you've got to love the hair/beard combo going on there.

Get Ready for this- 2 Unlimited


Much like the next one, I associate this more with basketball, most likely because it appeared in Space Jam. (Awesome movie, and I'm not just saying that because I'm part of a Sport Management Department named after Jordan's agent and executive producer of the film, David Falk. Ask any one who grew up in the 90's, and they'll tell you they love the soundtrack.)

Sirius-Alan Parsons Project


Considering I live just outside of Chicago from 1997-2000, this song will always be the Chicago Bull's intro. ("Annnnnnd now, the starting lineup for yoooour Chicago Bulls... from North Carolina, Six foot Six, Number Twe-nty Three, Mich-ael Jordaaaan.)

For those About to Rock- AC/DC


The guitar part at the beginning and the drums throughout the song make this the perfect stadium song. The lyrics ("For those about to rock") also lend themselves to being used prior to the game.

Cotton-Eyed Joe-Rednex (that pretty tells you all you need to know about the song)


YMCA


I lump these two together because they fall under the "give fans an opportunity to look stupid on the jumbo-tron" category. Some people love them, some people hate them, some people don't really care, but they are played.

The "Yankees Score a Run" Chimes


A lot of fans will recognize the sound, but few know its actually the intro to the song Workaholic by 2Unlimited. (If you don't want to pursue that link, trust me, you are not missing anything.)

Empire State of Mind- Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys


We heard this song about a million times during the playoffs last year, and I guess it's possible Derek Jeter can still use it as his intro music this season, so we could hear it some more. Nice beat, solid vocals, and lyrics relevant to the Yankees means this song will be around for a while.

Enter Sandman- Metallica


This one goes without saying, as it's Mariano Rivera's intro music. Hearing the entire Stadium sing along as Mo ran in from the 'pen against Boston to finish off a sweep last season sent chills down my spine. Personally, I think this song is retired from the Stadium whenever Mo hangs 'em up, because there is just such a close connection between the two, you can't have one without the other.

Welcome to the Jungle- Guns 'N' Roses


This is my favorite stadium/arena song of all time, and maybe even my favorite song period. The guitar intro is awesome and the beat gives the fans something to clap along to. I can't remember the first time I heard this song, but I remember it was playing when I was on the line for my last high school track race, and it just got me so in the zone and I ran my best time ever. Then, it furthered cemented itself into my life this year, as it's played before every Syracuse Orange basketball game at the Carrier Dome. And last Saturday, when we had 34,616 people (the largest on-campus crowd ever for an NCAA basketball game) for a win over Villanova it was just breathtaking.



I'm sure I missed a few, especially since I didn't even go into other player's intro music. Let us know your favorite Stadium music, either with a comment or an email.

Oh, and if you don't get the movie reference in the title, I feel bad for you, but I'm sure I'd feel much worse if I weren't under such heavy sedation.

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Kurkjian and Stark discussion, Part II

Earlier this week, the Sport Management Club at Syracuse University hosted two of ESPN's Senior Baseball writers, Tim Kurkjian and Jayson Stark, for a discussion on Major League Baseball. This is Part II of the discussion.

Q: What are some of the biggest storylines of the off-season and the Winter Meetings?

JS: The trade market is going to be very interesting this winter. It already has been, since we had about 5 trades within 48 hours of the World Series ending. Roy Halladay will obviously be the most talked about player this offseason, much like Johan Santana a few years ago. And the thing is that they HAVE to trade him. The poor guy went to the All-Star game and for two days had a million people like me ask him about him getting traded and where he wanted to go. Then over the next month it was all that was talked about, and then he stayed in Toronto. He is not going to want to go through that again. He wants to play for a contender, and the Blue Jays are too far away from being that type of team. He has a full no-trade clause. He can go to the team and say, if you are going to trade me, do it in the offseason because I will not do this again. Then they lose him and only get the two draft picks. The teams that are the front runners are the Phillies, who obviously made a strong play at the trading deadline, the Red Sox, and because Boston’s involved, the Yankees will be. Then the Mets will try to make a deal, that is, if they have anything left to trade. The free agent market consists of really three guys: Matt Holliday, Jason Bay, and John Lackey. There is not too much depth in this class. Holliday and Bay are not true centerpiece players, but they are going to want to get paid like they are. Then there is Lackey who isn’t a true ace, but he’s the best pitcher on the market.

TK: This is the most work we have to do as baseball writers. People will come up to us after the World Series and say, “So you’re on vacation for the next four months, right?” No, not at all. During the season, it’s easier because you know where the story is. If the Yankees lose six games in a row, you know that’s the story. But in the offseason, it’s not like that. Most of our work is done over the phone trying to track people down to find out which teams are making trades and which free agents are going where. And Manny Ramirez took four months to sign last year. It was torture trying to figure out where that clown was going!

JS: I’ll tell you a story about misinformation and knowing who to trust when it comes to breaking stories like these. At the trading deadline, one of my best sources came to me and said that the Indians and Red Sox were working on a three-team deal to bring Victor Martinez to the Red Sox. They just needed a third team to put Adam LaRoche. So with that and all the corroborating evidence I had, I was going to run it. But I thought, “I need to run this by someone from one of the teams involved.” So it’s very late and I have an email out to someone in the Red Sox executive and I still hadn’t heard back, and I decide that I trust my source and my reporting enough, and we run the story. We were the only one who had it. That’s a lonely feeling in that situation. So I go to sleep, since most of the time we’re up and working 20 hours a day, and when I wake up I get an email back from my Red Sox contact who says that this information is “completely false.” And this trade actually happened! I email him back telling him about my source and all the evidence I had and why I decided to run the story. Two minutes later I get an email back from him saying, “It’s alright, you got it mostly right.” In two minutes, I had gone from “completely false” to “mostly right.” You just need to know who to trust and who not to and who may be misinforming you.

Q: How will the disaster of the Santana trade (on the Twins end) affect the Halladay deal?

TK: As you saw at the deadline, the Blue Jays won’t make a deal unless they get exactly what they want. They want, and need, better prospects in return for Halladay. There is a zero percent chance that he re-signs with them. Teams are unwilling to part with top prospects because of uncertainties in how a player will perform the next year. In basketball and football you know almost exactly how a player is going to perform the next year, but not in baseball, and that’s the ultimate beauty of the game.

JS: I think the lesson teams are learning is to not wait too long to trade these players. You can’t wait until a player like Halladay has one year deal left on his deal. Especially since teams didn’t get a window to negotiate a contract with him during the season, so it’s unlikely that it is going to happen in the off-season. The optimum time to trade big players like Halladay is with two years left, or even this past trading deadline so team’s get him for a year and a half. If they trade him next July, teams like the Yankees are just going to say, ‘Why should we waste prospects on him when we can wait 3 months and sign him for a bazillion dollars?” just like they did with Sabathia. And the Twins example shows that teams should look for quality, not quantity.

Q: When International Olympic Committee (IOC) member and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) founder Dick Pound came to talk to us [Pound spoke to Sport Management majors on October 25] he spoke about how big of a joke the MLB drug testing system was and it was ridiculous that they thought they had a strong testing program. What are your thoughts on that?

TK: Well, you have to give the MLB credit for how far they’ve come over the past 15 years. If you had told me back then that we would have the type of testing we do now, I would not have believed you. There was no way the Union would have allowed it, but now there have been too many embarrassing situations and something needed to be done. While this system is not perfect, it is not the be all, end all, and it still has holes, there is no perfect way to do it, and right now this is the best way.

JS: I think that the penalty for first-time offense should be a year and not 50 games. That would get some people’s attention. But baseball is completely different than the Olympics. Baseball is everyday and the Olympics happens once every four years. But you have to look at if it is working or not. How many 60 home run guys have you seen lately? How many 50 homer guys have you seen? Baseball’s program is on par with the three other major sports in North America.

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99 Red Balloons

Red Sox 0 2 1
Yankees 3 7 0

WP: Sabathia (19-7)
LP: Matsuzaka (3-6)
S: Rivera (43)

Image by chris.ptacek via Flickr

PLAYER OF THE GAME: CC Sabathia. The lefty went 7, while striking out 8 and surrendering only one hit in a dominating effort.

PLAY OF THE GAME: Melky Cabrera's catch against the wall on ball hit by Jed Lowrie in the third inning. It carried a lot farther than Sabathia thought it would, but Cabrera was able to snag it as he crashed into the center field wall.

TURNING OF THE GAME: Robinson Cano's home run. It got the Yanks on the board and was all the run support CC needed.

GAME NOTES:

• CC has been been worth every last penny so far this season. With the win today, he becomes the first 19-game winner in the majors. He last lost a game on July 28 against the Rays (when I believe John made a comment about the Yankees trading for Halladay because CC was "no ace"). He is 9-0 since and has gone at least 7 innings in 10 of his last 11 starts, and the Yankees are 11-0 in those starts.
• Robinson Cano sure is having a good bounce-back season after a disappointing campaign last year. His numbers in several categories, a .321 batting average, 24 home runs, 80 RBI's, a .352 on-base percentage, and slugging at a .519 clip are much improved over the .271, 14, 72, .305, and .410 from 2008.
  
• The Yankees only stole 2 bases today off of Victor Martinez, instead of the 7 they stole last night off of Captain Varitek. Brett Gardner proved his worth off the bench when he took 2nd base on a pitch in the dirt, stole 3rd base, and then, to borrow a Michael Kay line, got himself into, and out of, a pickle.
  
• This is win number 99 for the Yankees, and the Magic Number for the division is 1. The Bombers can try to win clinch the division and reach the century mark behind Andy Pettitte tomorrow afternoon.
• My Syracuse Orange defeated the Maine Black Bears 41-24, despite two onside kick recoveries and two successful fake punts by Maine. If the season ended today, we'd be Bowl Eligible, with a 2-2 record. Unfortunately, it doesn't and the undefeated South Florida Bulls come to the Dome next weekend.
  

TOMORROW:
Paul Byrd vs. Andy Pettitte
Red Sox vs Yankees, 1:05 PM

SEE YA!

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Game 150: Yankees at Mariners

YANKEES (95-54)
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Posada C
Cano 2B
Cabrera RF
Gardner CF

Pitching: RHP Joba Chamberlain (8-5, 4.39).

MARINERS (77-72)
Suzuki RF
Gutierrez CF
Lopez 2B
Griffey Jr. DH
Beltre 3B
Hall LF
Carp 1B
Moore C
Wilson SS

Pitching: RHP Ian Snell (4-2, 4.86).

TIME/TV: 4:10, YES.

Our apologies for not getting a post up last night. We had a "failure to communicate" and dropped the ball on that one.

Key thing: Magic number is 9 and Boston is up 8-2 over Baltimore, so the Yanks need to win if they are going to lower that number.

And last night Doug Marrone and the Syracuse Orange picked up their first season with a 37-34 win over Northwestern at the Carrier Dome.

Now, I've got a lot of work to do before the Giants-Cowboys game tonight, so enjoy the game. I'll be keeping one eye on the score and will post if something big happens.

UPDATE 5:04: Well Joba is apparently doing his best impersonation of a batting practice pitcher. It's a safe bet that this is the last update of the night.

Let's just hope the Giants can beat the crap out of Tony Romo and make me feel a little better.

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