The Braveheart Kilt

            I leaped off the couch.  The missus, seated next to me patiently waiting to watch the DVR replay of American Idol, was doing her absolute best to feign interest in whatever it was causing this sudden reaction.  The boy, seated next to her in his bouncy seat, looked eminently less interested.  The thing that had slightly piqued the missus' interest was that it didn't seem to make any sense.  She's watched enough baseball, or watched me watch enough baseball, to have a feel for what represented a big moment.  And this didn't seem to be it.  It was a called strike on a 2-0 pitch from Boone Logan to Johnny Damon in the top of the 7^th.  I was indignant.  "That wasn't even close," I screamed.  "You can't do that....  This count should be 3-0 with one out.  That call changes everything," I continued.  The missus, although still doing her best, was a lot less convincing at feigning interest.  I think it was all she could do to not blurt out, "Now you really have to be kidding me dude.  Nothing happened.  What could you possibly so psychotic about now...."  But good or bad, I was p*ssed.  In actuality, I thought home plate umpire Jerry Meals was going to call the second pitch a strike.  It was borderline low and away.  He called it a ball.  Made the count 2-0.  Then came the third pitch.  Waaayy outside.  Called strike.  This is what set me off.  It's not just that with two on in a one-run game you're taking a 3-0 count and making it a 2-1 count.  It's the way you're doing it.  Even if Jerry Meals was reconsidering his second ball, it's not like the NFL or the NBA.  You can't hand out a make-up call on the very next pitch.  Once you do that, the pitcher has you trapped.  Once Boone Logan got that call, catcher A.J. Pierzynski cleverly called for the same pitch three more times.  It was a ball, it was unhittable, and it was not a pitch that anyone should be swinging at.  This is why it's so crucial that an ump doesn't fall into that trap.  He just called a strike.  Now he has to keep calling it.  And the pitcher, catcher, batter, and umpire all know it.  So Pierzynski kept calling it, Logan kept throwing it, and Damon kept swinging at it.  First for strike two, then a foul ball, and then a weak tapper over the mound that just happened to give Johnny enough space to beat it out.  Bases loaded.  Shortly thereafter I found myself getting more and more annoyed with Boone Logan.  They pulled him after his one batter, leaving him in the dugout sulking and feeling sorry for himself.  Michael Kay noted on the YES broadcast that Logan was "really fuming."  Now neither Michael Kay nor anyone at BPS have any idea what was going through Logan's head, but it looked all the world that he felt he was the victim of terrible luck, "making his pitch" to Damon and suffering a weak infield hit as the outcome.  Then the camera continually panned back and forth to him in the dugout, pacing around, hoping for a serendipitous bail-out from the forces of karma.  And the whole time I'm thinking - 'Dude, you should consider yourself lucky you even got that far.   You got a huge gift from Jerry Meals.  By rights you should have been 3-0 on Damon and you probably would have walked him anyway.  And you certainly wouldn't have been able to throw those last three pitches way off the plate and force Damon to swing.  So knock off the woe-is-me, stuff.' 

          So with all of that as prologue, imagine how juiced I was when Bobby Abreu put on the Braveheart kilt and led the forces of justice over the forces of doom.  Beautiful.  Great win.  Great gift for Wang.  You can argue this was a cheapie, and you might be right.  But when you hold a team to 3 runs in 6 innings on the road and you have bats like the Yankees behind you, you are going to give your team a chance to win every time.  So I'll take it.

            Vino and Triple J, we got right down to it on the Joba question, didn't we?   I'm still uncommitted on this, but do I genuinely think the outcome of this game could have been different if it was Farnsworth coming in there in the seventh instead of Joba?  Probably....  Might have been the difference maker.  Nice that we'll never have to know.

            Joseph, nice to see you back commenting.  We missed you dude.  So I'll answer your question.  In a word, yes.  I'm not a talent evaluator or anything, but I know that every single baseball prospect list I've seen has Phil Hughes rated higher than Bucholz.  Sometimes not even close.  And he's two years younger.  But what that means, who knows.  Time will tell.  You need to take your Red Sox hat off and be objective at times, as do I with my interlocking NY.

            Unfortunately, we are giving up our grasp on this series and any chance of moving a few games over .500 any time soon by throwing Moose out there tomorrow.  I'm hoping he makes it through the fourth inning.  I predict he won't.  Javy Vazquez is awful too, but at home he'll be barely good enough.

            Unless, of course, the Yankee bats continue whatever it was they were doing tonight.  A guy can hope....