Free agency is finally here, less than a week before Thanksgiving. And the signings may not come so quick, either.
Mollycoddle (verb): To be overprotective and indulgent toward; to pamper. -- WordNet definition
NEW YORK -- Recently, Andy Pettitte noticed a change in his drive into the Bronx from his home in Westchester.
1. So the World Series comes down to this: the old and familiar. Stop me if you have heard this before: a Yankees team with Andy Pettitte, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera trying to get through Pedro Martinez to a world championship. Game 5 barely was over in Philadelphia when even Jeter, rarely reflective, immediately understood that the World Series is reduced to a most familiar confrontation, an old narrative well told.
1. The matchup so nice we had to have it twice: Six days after he used a darting changeup and great movement to hold the Yankees to three runs in six innings, Pedro Martinez will take the mound in the Bronx one more time, this time trying to stave off elimination of his Phillies. In last week's Game 2, Martinez allowed just two solo home runs, both on tough pitches, in his first six innings, keeping the Phils in a game in which A.J. Burnett was just a little bit better. Serenaded by chants of "Who's your daddy?" -- and quietly hearing worse from one fan whom he chose to upbraid at his postgame press conference -- Martinez showed both the showmanship that makes him a star and the skill to back it up.
PHILADELPHIA -- While the Yankees have to be considered a fairly heavy favorite with only one win needed as they head back to the Bronx, the Phillies still have some characteristically serious fight in them. Until last rites are read to the Phillies, they should be assumed to have plenty of life.
Sports Illustrated baseball writer Tom Verducci breaks down Game 3 from Philadelphia: 1. If Game 3 is the turning point of the World Series -- 68 percent of teams up 2-1 go on to win it -- then a Yankees championship began with one pitch from Cole Hamels that will be remembered as one of the great gaffes in recent Series history. The beginning of the end for Philadelphia was a first-pitch curveball Hamels threw New York pitcher Andy Pettitte with no understanding of basic baseball. When Pettitte stepped in, Hamels was working with a 3-2 lead, a runner at second base and -- here's the key part -- one out. Pettitte is a career .134 hitter who has come to bat a total of 12 times over the past three years. Hamels could dispose of him with fastballs, the way J.A. Happ would do the next inning, and he would be one out away from being out of the inning. Instead, Hamels threw a first-pitch curveball up, and Pettitte slapped a single to tie the game. Why in the world would he throw
Andy Pettitte gave up more runs than he had in any of his first three starts this postseason but got them back by singling home the tying run and scoring the go-ahead tally.
During the past few days, Pedro Martinez has spent a lot of time telling us -- usually rather amusingly -- about all of the things that Pedro Martinez is. He is the most influential player that has ever stepped in Yankee Stadium. He is the would-be King of New York. He is a Christian. He is a father.
1. As the postseason began, Cardinals pitcher John Smoltz gave me a stunning piece of advice about how to stop the Yankees this October. Remember, it was the powerful New York lineup that knocked Smoltz clear out of the American League and very nearly all the way into retirement with a resounding thumping back in August.
Free agency is finally here, less than a week before Thanksgiving. And the signings may not come so quick, either.
Mollycoddle (verb): To be overprotective and indulgent toward; to pamper. -- WordNet definition
NEW YORK -- Recently, Andy Pettitte noticed a change in his drive into the Bronx from his home in Westchester.
1. So the World Series comes down to this: the old and familiar. Stop me if you have heard this before: a Yankees team with Andy Pettitte, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera trying to get through Pedro Martinez to a world championship. Game 5 barely was over in Philadelphia when even Jeter, rarely reflective, immediately understood that the World Series is reduced to a most familiar confrontation, an old narrative well told.
1. The matchup so nice we had to have it twice: Six days after he used a darting changeup and great movement to hold the Yankees to three runs in six innings, Pedro Martinez will take the mound in the Bronx one more time, this time trying to stave off elimination of his Phillies. In last week's Game 2, Martinez allowed just two solo home runs, both on tough pitches, in his first six innings, keeping the Phils in a game in which A.J. Burnett was just a little bit better. Serenaded by chants of "Who's your daddy?" -- and quietly hearing worse from one fan whom he chose to upbraid at his postgame press conference -- Martinez showed both the showmanship that makes him a star and the skill to back it up.
PHILADELPHIA -- While the Yankees have to be considered a fairly heavy favorite with only one win needed as they head back to the Bronx, the Phillies still have some characteristically serious fight in them. Until last rites are read to the Phillies, they should be assumed to have plenty of life.
Sports Illustrated baseball writer Tom Verducci breaks down Game 3 from Philadelphia: 1. If Game 3 is the turning point of the World Series -- 68 percent of teams up 2-1 go on to win it -- then a Yankees championship began with one pitch from Cole Hamels that will be remembered as one of the great gaffes in recent Series history. The beginning of the end for Philadelphia was a first-pitch curveball Hamels threw New York pitcher Andy Pettitte with no understanding of basic baseball. When Pettitte stepped in, Hamels was working with a 3-2 lead, a runner at second base and -- here's the key part -- one out. Pettitte is a career .134 hitter who has come to bat a total of 12 times over the past three years. Hamels could dispose of him with fastballs, the way J.A. Happ would do the next inning, and he would be one out away from being out of the inning. Instead, Hamels threw a first-pitch curveball up, and Pettitte slapped a single to tie the game. Why in the world would he throw
Andy Pettitte gave up more runs than he had in any of his first three starts this postseason but got them back by singling home the tying run and scoring the go-ahead tally.
During the past few days, Pedro Martinez has spent a lot of time telling us -- usually rather amusingly -- about all of the things that Pedro Martinez is. He is the most influential player that has ever stepped in Yankee Stadium. He is the would-be King of New York. He is a Christian. He is a father.
1. As the postseason began, Cardinals pitcher John Smoltz gave me a stunning piece of advice about how to stop the Yankees this October. Remember, it was the powerful New York lineup that knocked Smoltz clear out of the American League and very nearly all the way into retirement with a resounding thumping back in August.
It was 12:01 a.m. when the clock struck midnight for the Los Angeles Angels. It is, of course, somewhat ridiculous to cast a club with the game's seventh-highest payroll ($116.7M), and one that won the second-most games (97), in a Cinderella role. But there was a sense that if the Angels somehow won two in a row and took the series, it would be a shocking accomplishment. Not the equivalent of the Red Sox' recovery from a 3-0 deficit to win the 2004 ALCS, perhaps, but something close to it.
NEW YORK -- The pitching line could have been from nearly any of the past dozen Yankees' postseasons: Win, Andy Pettitte; Save, Mariano Rivera.
In the minutes after the Angels' stunning 7-6 Game 5 victory over the Yankees Thursday night in Anaheim, the Yankees' clubhouse attendants were busy resealing with thick gray duct tape the several large cardboard boxes filled with hats and T-shirts that advertised an ALCS title. The boxes had been cut open, perhaps, after the top of the seventh, in which the Yankees all at once stormed back from a 4-0 deficit to take a 6-4 lead.
Earlier this season, Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury was standing on third base at Fenway Park in the fifth inning of a nationally televised game against the Yankees. It was a relatively common occurrence in an otherwise common game, but the idea that entered the mind of the 25-year-old Ellsbury was a very uncommon one. It was a decidedly mischievous idea, one so rare and so daring Ellsbury had never seriously contemplated it before, and had certainly never acted on it. But in that moment, he resolved to do something dangerous. He would steal home.
This Week's Diamond Digits has a heavy American League tilt, as we look at baseball's best pitcher who resides in Kansas City, a second-year player with a Lou Gehrig record in his sights, a pinstriped pair making history and a couple of Rangers who've been down on their luck.
TAMPA, Fla. -- If Alex Rodriguez didn't do as well as teammate Andy Pettitte at his steroid press conference, it isn't totally because A-Rod isn't the best communicator, though that may be part of it. The real problem is A-Rod's story. It isn't as good a story as Pettitte's. And what's worse, of course, is that the story has changed maybe once or twice too often already.
Longtime Rangers star Michael Young doesn't want to move to third base. But at this point that seems to be a more likely option for him than moving to another team. With five years and $62 million remaining on his contract in this tight market, he won't be as easy to trade as he thinks.
The secret to a perfect apology, according to perfectapology.com, is "asking to be forgiven in the right way and at the right time." Those simple and true words lead me to two cast-iron conclusions:
TAMPA, Fla. -- I keep hearing this idea from fans about how Andy Pettitte wronged Roger Clemens by telling the truth to Congress about their now infamous HGH conversation of 1999. They think Pettitte should have conveniently "forgotten'' that conversation, as if lying under oath is the right route.
Andy Pettitte deserves credit and the respect to leave alone, for now, his involvement with human growth hormone. His admission, apology, and answers to questions were detailed and apparently sincere, which cannot be said of feeble responses from the likes of Eric Gagne, Paul Lo Duca, Mike Stanton, David Justice, Fernando Vina, Lenny Dykstra, etc.
One afternoon in April 2003 a group of advertising executives gathered for a luncheon at the 21 Club in New York City to hear Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens speak. There was slight alarm that Clemens might not attend because, it turned out, he was scheduled to pitch that night against the Seattle Mariners, and on the days they take the mound, starters are known to be as edgy and unsociable as thoroughbreds on race day.
The most important man that we heard from Wednesday on Capitol Hill, amid all the bluster, the embarrassing fawning over Roger Clemens and the multitude of mind-squishingly moronic questions, happened to be nowhere near Capitol Hill. Yet Andy Pettitte's presence at baseball's latest hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform was unmistakable, his words unshakeable.
Though stumbling on a couple of questions and leaving several others unanswered, Roger Clemens nonetheless emerged favorably from Wednesday's hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Keep in mind, Clemens' primary goal was not to preserve or rehabilitate his baseball reputation or even to convince the legions of fans who disbelieve him -- as others have written, he may have failed miserably on those ends -- but rather to avoid perjury charges. Unless verifiable physical evidences emerges to the contrary, it seems unlikely the available evidence would lead to a conclusive finding that he committed perjury. Here's why, along with other observations:
Roger Clemens said Wednesday he received only vitamin shots from Brian McNamee, but the ex-trainer insisted before a House panel that every injection contained steroids or other performance enhancers.
By the end of an often absurd hearing, the only thing clear was that either the pitcher or his steroids accuser was lying
It was a day of misremembering, misunderstanding, and mystifying inconsistencies, and, in the end, committee members' conclusions about whether or not Roger Clemens used steroids and human growth hormone seemed to hang on how credible Andy Pettitte is, or how credible Brian McNamee isn't.
Editor's Note: Richard Deitsch is blogging live during today's congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., which includes testimony from Roger Clemens, Brian McNamee and Charles Scheeler, a partner with George Mitchell's law firm, DLA Piper. SI's David Epstein is at the hearing and will offer periodic first-hand accounts. Senior writers Tom Verducci and Jon Heyman will also weigh in. And you should feel free to add your observations.
For those expecting another predictable round of wild accusations between Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee during Wednesday's hearing on Capitol Hill, with no clear-cut resolution as to who is telling the truth and who isn't, take note: At least one member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said he already has a pretty good idea of who's lying.
1) Why would Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch and Kirk Radomski ask out of the hearing?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Roger Clemens and his accuser, Brian McNamee, will be the main witnesses at a House hearing on the Mitchell Report after New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte and two others were dropped Monday night.
This is great news, really. It turns out baseball doesn't really have a steroid problem at all. Never did.
Andy Pettitte has told the Yankees he will return to pitch in 2008, SI.com has confirmed.
Nobody wants to go down 0-2 in a best-of-five series. Nobody wants to be in the situation the Cubs and Phillies find themselves in today.
I. The NL ROY runner-up to-be: At this point, Milwaukee's Ryan Braun has pretty much locked up National League Rookie of the Year. Through his first 79 games, "The Hebrew Hammer" has compiled impressive stats: .332 batting average, 24 homers, 17 doubles, 62 RBIs, 59 runs and 10 steals. But enough about Braun.
The Astros need to trade struggling, just-demoted Brad Lidge while he still has value. And apparently, he still does. Three executives contacted Tuesday said they'd gladly take Lidge off the Astros' hands -- at the right price, of course.
Also in this column: • Lukewarm trade market • Griffey's move to right • More news and notes
This year's Major League Baseball All-Star game is being played in Houston on July 13, and the hometown Astros have been garnering all sorts of attention--even though they're nine games out of firs...
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