At 10:20 central daylight the HotCut rolled on: NorthSideHotCut. Did you know? This is the Yankees' first HotCut of 2017? How-da-ya like that?
I listened to the lion's share of the first game of today's slate as I did the camp unpack (air out, shake out, put away) and then did a few housework and gardening odds and ends. I also listened to some of the game on my phone via headphones and LTE as I sat outside in my lounge chair marveling at this incredible blue-skyed day. We saw a rogue, seemingly lost flock of six dozen snow geese, tilting and lilting in the high sky to the west, very bright and visible when the sun hit their white backs just right but then appearing to disappear when they angled back away in their skysong marionette's dance. I saw the Mississippi kites, which I wondered at last summer, never having seen one before. I feared their presence here last year was just a fluke, but they have returned. I watched chimney swifts aloft, starlings, house finches, mourning doves, cowbirds, and house sparrows at the feeder. ... Is this a bird story or one about baseball?
Not That Chris Young hit homers. Jorge Polanco, considered a good fielder, made a two-out error followed by seven unearned runs. Porcello had gotten something like seven runs of support in all of his starts to-date in 2017 but now he has gotten eight runs through a few innings today. Betts led off, Benintendi cleaned up, JBJ sat. Sanó leads the American League in RBI. Nick Tepesch started for the Twins, who have demoted Kyle Gibson.
Indians at Royals is on now, top 6, KC 1 - CLE 0. Jason Vargas keeps spinning it. 83 pitches thus far. Brantley out 4-3 on a tough slide-stop and throw by Whit Merrifield. I turn my head and José Ramírez looks bad on some Vargas junk, the inning suddenly over. Is this for real? Vargas's numbers are upper-echelon, not in Sale territory, but just a tier below and who else has seats there? Ervin Santana, the now-defunct Paxton, Bundy...oh yeah...Dallas. Do you believe in Holland? Do you believe in sphericals?
...
Judge 4. Yanks 5, Cubs 0. Hicks, Castro, Gardner, Sánchez, not Judge, not Carter. Headley but not Holliday (who isn't playing). Didi with a nice piece of hitting, going the other way, down the line. Not Montgomery. Russell 8, nice play by Hicks. Contreras... Baez... FO 6-4. Commercial break in progress. Baseball vignettes, as the day unfolds. Swinging bunt. The Swinging Bunt, a baseball bar. Sánchez, 1B. Didi, 1B, pulled on the ground, he can hit. Felix Peña K's Headley on an 81 m.p.h. change. Carter, with a slow heavy swing, hits a grounder to third, tough hop, but...he dodged that ball...E-5. Montgomery goes 6-4-3 GIDP and the inning is over.
Pitchers on the bases with their jackets on. I heard a recent reference to this phenomenon. Didi brought a jacket out for someone. Felix Peña is in a jacket just now.
Szczur DFA's today. In turn, another player with two Z's in his last name was recalled: Rob Zastryzny. There aren't many other players with two Z's in their last name: Piazza, ScuZzer, Rzepczynski.... Headley out 6-3 on a nice play by Russell.
Toothpick sighting!
I went to Phils @ Nats. There is no one there. It's cold a lot of these places, points north or east. Daniel Murphy fights one off. He is 32 years old. "Is Ryan Zimmermann older or younger?" asks B. Same age, I say. 32. That is correct. The 'Cut is on in the background. Bryant walks. RiZzo!! Two Zs...duh...I knew I was missing someone obvious. Peraza, no. AdrianZa, no. SouZa, no. Ryan Zimmermann doubles. He has 12. Mitch Moreland has 13. Rendon is up to .283 with 19 RBI. It's 3-1 Nats, top of the sixth. Rendon homers, 6-1 Nats. Velasquez is smarting. Montgomery, on the bases, reportedly refuses the jacket, per John Sterling. Phil CuzZi, umpire. Tom PagnoZzi. Serious Dusty toothpick work. End over end, inside the mouth. He does not fear getting it stuck midway, Battle of Midway was second in the Derby. Franco walks. Óliver Pérez warms. When did he come into the league? His career arc is fascinating. R Zim makes a diving catch at first. The Yankee broadcast mentions that Britton is headed back to the DL with a forearm strain. He will now see a specialist. Gonzalez! Any Gonzalez. I guess I have underestimated the number of Zs in last names.
Trout fishing...in Anaheim, shorty. McCullers on the mound, one out, Calhoun the batter. Calhoun has a .323 OBP. Highest curve percentage: McCullers is at 49%, Pomeranz is at 44%, then Cobb, Skaggs. That's not a list of the most durable pitching arms. Suzyn says, "It's really cold here." John and Suzyn are talking about players in their shirt sleeves today in the Twin Cities—but not in Chicago. Albert Pujols has 595 home runs, ninth all-time. Then it's Sosa, Thome, Griffey, A Rod, Mays, Ruth, Aaron, Bonds.
I tried to cite the eldest active player in a prior entry, naming Uehara. But now on a Wilmer Flores 8 to Ichiro I realiZe he is probably 43 or 44. B is looking up manager ages. Who's older, Buck or Terry Collins? Francona is 58. Terry Collins is 67. Dusty is 67. Bruce Bochy is 62, younger than I guessed. Hurdle is 59. Scioscia? 58. Maddon is 63. Buck? 62. Aaron...hammers one...ohhh, Hicks hits one to the sticks.
Later. The Cubs battle back, it's 11-6 Yankees, runners on second and third and guess what I'm out of again: notebook space for the second time in this young year. I found just a little more here but there is truly no paper left after this, only plastic #....4? Prado bobbles one and he is pissed at himself, almost too much so. WPIX 11 in New York. It remains 11-6 Yanks after 8 back on the North Side. It's surprising to me that Miguel Montero now takes the mound in the 'Cut. Five-run game? They have no one else I guess. Brett Anderson now has logged two awful starts in a row. Montero throws a 75-m.p.h. fastball. He is a little wild. Steve Lombardozzi. Gio Gonzalez. Chi Chi Gonzalez. Any dozen Gonzalezes. Miguel, Erik, MarWin.
I listened to the lion's share of the first game of today's slate as I did the camp unpack (air out, shake out, put away) and then did a few housework and gardening odds and ends. I also listened to some of the game on my phone via headphones and LTE as I sat outside in my lounge chair marveling at this incredible blue-skyed day. We saw a rogue, seemingly lost flock of six dozen snow geese, tilting and lilting in the high sky to the west, very bright and visible when the sun hit their white backs just right but then appearing to disappear when they angled back away in their skysong marionette's dance. I saw the Mississippi kites, which I wondered at last summer, never having seen one before. I feared their presence here last year was just a fluke, but they have returned. I watched chimney swifts aloft, starlings, house finches, mourning doves, cowbirds, and house sparrows at the feeder. ... Is this a bird story or one about baseball?
Not That Chris Young hit homers. Jorge Polanco, considered a good fielder, made a two-out error followed by seven unearned runs. Porcello had gotten something like seven runs of support in all of his starts to-date in 2017 but now he has gotten eight runs through a few innings today. Betts led off, Benintendi cleaned up, JBJ sat. Sanó leads the American League in RBI. Nick Tepesch started for the Twins, who have demoted Kyle Gibson.
Indians at Royals is on now, top 6, KC 1 - CLE 0. Jason Vargas keeps spinning it. 83 pitches thus far. Brantley out 4-3 on a tough slide-stop and throw by Whit Merrifield. I turn my head and José Ramírez looks bad on some Vargas junk, the inning suddenly over. Is this for real? Vargas's numbers are upper-echelon, not in Sale territory, but just a tier below and who else has seats there? Ervin Santana, the now-defunct Paxton, Bundy...oh yeah...Dallas. Do you believe in Holland? Do you believe in sphericals?
...
Judge 4. Yanks 5, Cubs 0. Hicks, Castro, Gardner, Sánchez, not Judge, not Carter. Headley but not Holliday (who isn't playing). Didi with a nice piece of hitting, going the other way, down the line. Not Montgomery. Russell 8, nice play by Hicks. Contreras... Baez... FO 6-4. Commercial break in progress. Baseball vignettes, as the day unfolds. Swinging bunt. The Swinging Bunt, a baseball bar. Sánchez, 1B. Didi, 1B, pulled on the ground, he can hit. Felix Peña K's Headley on an 81 m.p.h. change. Carter, with a slow heavy swing, hits a grounder to third, tough hop, but...he dodged that ball...E-5. Montgomery goes 6-4-3 GIDP and the inning is over.
Pitchers on the bases with their jackets on. I heard a recent reference to this phenomenon. Didi brought a jacket out for someone. Felix Peña is in a jacket just now.
Szczur DFA's today. In turn, another player with two Z's in his last name was recalled: Rob Zastryzny. There aren't many other players with two Z's in their last name: Piazza, ScuZzer, Rzepczynski.... Headley out 6-3 on a nice play by Russell.
Toothpick sighting!
I went to Phils @ Nats. There is no one there. It's cold a lot of these places, points north or east. Daniel Murphy fights one off. He is 32 years old. "Is Ryan Zimmermann older or younger?" asks B. Same age, I say. 32. That is correct. The 'Cut is on in the background. Bryant walks. RiZzo!! Two Zs...duh...I knew I was missing someone obvious. Peraza, no. AdrianZa, no. SouZa, no. Ryan Zimmermann doubles. He has 12. Mitch Moreland has 13. Rendon is up to .283 with 19 RBI. It's 3-1 Nats, top of the sixth. Rendon homers, 6-1 Nats. Velasquez is smarting. Montgomery, on the bases, reportedly refuses the jacket, per John Sterling. Phil CuzZi, umpire. Tom PagnoZzi. Serious Dusty toothpick work. End over end, inside the mouth. He does not fear getting it stuck midway, Battle of Midway was second in the Derby. Franco walks. Óliver Pérez warms. When did he come into the league? His career arc is fascinating. R Zim makes a diving catch at first. The Yankee broadcast mentions that Britton is headed back to the DL with a forearm strain. He will now see a specialist. Gonzalez! Any Gonzalez. I guess I have underestimated the number of Zs in last names.
Trout fishing...in Anaheim, shorty. McCullers on the mound, one out, Calhoun the batter. Calhoun has a .323 OBP. Highest curve percentage: McCullers is at 49%, Pomeranz is at 44%, then Cobb, Skaggs. That's not a list of the most durable pitching arms. Suzyn says, "It's really cold here." John and Suzyn are talking about players in their shirt sleeves today in the Twin Cities—but not in Chicago. Albert Pujols has 595 home runs, ninth all-time. Then it's Sosa, Thome, Griffey, A Rod, Mays, Ruth, Aaron, Bonds.
I tried to cite the eldest active player in a prior entry, naming Uehara. But now on a Wilmer Flores 8 to Ichiro I realiZe he is probably 43 or 44. B is looking up manager ages. Who's older, Buck or Terry Collins? Francona is 58. Terry Collins is 67. Dusty is 67. Bruce Bochy is 62, younger than I guessed. Hurdle is 59. Scioscia? 58. Maddon is 63. Buck? 62. Aaron...hammers one...ohhh, Hicks hits one to the sticks.
Later. The Cubs battle back, it's 11-6 Yankees, runners on second and third and guess what I'm out of again: notebook space for the second time in this young year. I found just a little more here but there is truly no paper left after this, only plastic #....4? Prado bobbles one and he is pissed at himself, almost too much so. WPIX 11 in New York. It remains 11-6 Yanks after 8 back on the North Side. It's surprising to me that Miguel Montero now takes the mound in the 'Cut. Five-run game? They have no one else I guess. Brett Anderson now has logged two awful starts in a row. Montero throws a 75-m.p.h. fastball. He is a little wild. Steve Lombardozzi. Gio Gonzalez. Chi Chi Gonzalez. Any dozen Gonzalezes. Miguel, Erik, MarWin.
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