The availability of World Series tickets at Yankee Stadium for anyone willing to shell out a few thousand dollars for the high-end seats has created quite a marketing opportunity for one company. KGB, that text message question-answering service with the annoying ads, has put two people in seats behind home plate with t-shirts bearing the company name for the World Series.
While this might seem like a cheap ploy to get free advertising and have great seats for the game at the same time, it’s also quite an embarrassment for the Yankees. Those seats behind home plate have been mostly empty for the 2 World Series games played there due to prices that are way above what most people are willing to pay, even in New York. Rudy Guiliani was sitting in a row by himself the other night. The Yankees are so out of touch as an organization that they don’t even realize the harm they do to the sport. They need to charge less for those seats and let the fans enjoy them. In addition, they need to shut down the catering in the luxury club suite available to ticket holders for those seats by the 3rd or 4th inning, so fans will actually have to go to their seats and watch the game. It seems many of the so-called “Yankee fans” have forgotten that there’s a baseball game going on in that green patch at the center of their luxurious clubhouse.
It seems the folks at MLB.com were a little too eager to post a story about the Dodgers evening the series against the Phillies last night. Perhaps next time they’ll actually wait until the game is over.
Cliff Lee showed the form that won him a Cy Young award last season in giving up just 1 run to the Rockies in a complete game 5-1 win in game 1 of the NLDS. The wind was blowing in hard all game, keeping the ball from leaving our little band box that’s become known for the long ball. Jason Werth could have had an inside the park home run if he had run out a high fly ball that ended up hitting off the wall in left center and rolling all the way to right center field.
The Phillies are now in prime position for a quick win in this NLDS. They’ve still got postseason veteran Cole Hamels to pitch before leaving Philly and heading to Colorado.
The bad news is Jamie Moyer is done for the season (and possibly his career). The good news is the Phillies are not. The Phils clinched their third straight division title last night. This team has a much different make-up compared to the championship team from last season, even with a lot of the same players. Their closer is no longer “lights out”, but they’ve got some other guys like Pedro Martinez and J.A. Happ who few people could have imagined would be doing what they’re doing in a Phillies uniform at the beginning of the season.
A lot of people seem to think the Yankees are going to run away with the crown this year, but I’ve seen a lot of heart in these Phillies. A month from now I don’t think we’ll be hearing about the Yankees finally getting back on top for the first time in 9 years; I think people will be contemplating whether or not we can begin calling the Phillies a dynasty.
Check back later for news about Phillies playoff tickets.
Here’s an absolutely precious video of a Phillies fan who catches a foul ball off the bat of Jason Werth and gives it to his daughter, who proceeds to throw it back onto the field.
Here’s a little video of a Phillies fan beating up a fat Mets fan:
Raul Ibanez is having the best season of his life and is currently #1 in the All Star voting for NL outfielders, but he can’t help but get mad at bloggers suggesting his success this season is the result of performance enhancing drugs. Midwest Sports Fan Site made those remarks recently, although no one from the site actually said Ibanez was on PEDs or even suggested that they suspected he was on PEDs.
While I feel for Ibanez, who has had so-so seasons for about 15 years now and is finally breaking through at the age of 37, I think questions will always be there about players who have “unusual” seasons during the steroid era. In his defense, there has never been more testing on MLB players than there is now. Heck, Manny Ramirez got caught with a fertility drug in his system. If they’re testing for fertility drugs, I’ve got to think Raul Ibanez doesn’t have some secret PED that they aren’t testing for yet.
Ibanez has offered to take a drug test for the media including a urine test, hair test, blood test, stool test or any other test they can think of (to my knowledge, this type of unauthorized test would not be allowed by the players union) to prove that he’s clean. Jerod Morris, the writer of the comment at Midwest Sports Fan Site, has said Ibanez should blame the speculation on all of his peers who have used steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. I can’t say I disagree with him there.
The Phillies finished the month of May with a 17-11 record — good enough to keep them in the thick of the hunt in the NL East. Unfortunately, they also lost the services of their most consistent pitcher thus far, Brett Myers, for what will likely be the remainder of the season. Myers developed a hip injury that seems to be contagious throughout baseball. The Phillies are now in a shopping mood, looking for another starter in a hurry. They were actually already looking for someone before Myers went down, so now they’re even that more desperate.
Brett Myers will need hip surgery and there’s no reason to expect him back this season. If you’ve got him on your fantasy team (as I did), dump him immediately. The Phillies already have problems with their rotation, with Chan Ho Park and Jamie Moyer both struggling. They will be shopping around for a starting pitcher starting today. Expect a deal with someone before the end of next week. Brad Penny of the Red Sox looks like a possible target. If the Phillies weren’t the defending world champions and had nothing to lose, they might just take a chance with Pedro Martinez, who remains unsigned.
Brett Myers probably has a frayed labrum, which would require surgery and probably keep him off the mound until at least September. I did not go to Med School, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, so I can tell you that the labrum has something to do with the socket where the femur attaches to the hip. Apparently that joint is supposed to be spherical, but in most people it’s not spherical and it can lead to injury with repetitive use. So just sitting in your Lazy Boy eating potato chips all day and occasionally reading my ramblings is exactly what you should be doing to protect your precious labrum.
Myers has only been mediocre this season, so it’s probably not a huge loss to the Phillies. I did have him on my fantasy team, but I’ve got a good feeling about this guy I’ve brought in to replace him. He’s former All Star Dontrelle Willis, now playing for the Tigers, and I’ve heard he’s been pretty much lights out in the minors as he recovers from anxiety attacks that caused his career to fall apart. Let’s hope he can be a major league caliber pitcher once again and can fill in while Myers gets checked out by the specialists at the Bo Jackson Center for Hip Repair.
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