Tag Archives: Yankees

The Orioles stink at everything, especially losing

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Some interesting statistics and rankings of the 2012 Baltimore Orioles:
22nd: Their rank in team Batting Average (.245)

23rd: Their rank in team OBP (.310)

17th: Their rank in team OPS (.719)

18th: Their rank in runs scored (569)

17th: Their rank in team ERA (4.01)

9th most: Their rank in hits allowed (1196)

Tied for seventh most: Their rank in Home Runs allowed (152)

20th best: Their rank in WHIP [Walks and Hits per innings pitched] (1.31)

Tied for second most: Their rank in team errors (97)

2nd: Their rank in the American League East

1: Games back of the New York Yankees

Putting baseball money in perspective

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$5.6 Billion: The amount of money ESPN is spending over a eight-year extension of their MLB broadcasting rights.

$700 Million: The average per-year cost of that deal.

$695 Million: The current GDP of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, given current exchange rates, according to the CIA World Factbook.

$1.85 billion: The value of the New York Yankees in 2012, according to Forbes. This is tied for third in the world, behind only Manchester United and Real Madrid and tied with the Dallas Cowboys.

$1.81 billion: Forbes estimate of the approx. value of the four most valuable NHL teams (Maple Leafs, Rangers, Canadiens, Red Wings) in 2011… combined.

$1.68 billion: Forbes 2012 estimate of the combined value of the NBA’s two most valuable teams (the Lakers and the Knicks).

$321 million: The value of the Oakland Athletics in 2012, according to Forbes. This makes them the least valuable MLB team. This still would put them sixth in the NHL and 19th on the list of Forbes’ most valuable soccer teams in the world.

$3,440,000: Average salary of an MLB player.

$2,921,713: 2011 prize money of Yani Tseng, the best female golf player in the world.

$1.2 million: Babe Ruth’s highest yearly salary ($80,000 in 1930-31), adjusted for inflation. This would make him about the 20th highest-paid player on the 2012 Yankees, behind David Robertson and just beating out Raul Ibanez.

$480,000: Minimum salary of an MLB player.

$400,000: Salary of the President of the United States.

$244,228.72: Honus Wagner’s 1912 salary of $10,000, adjusted for inflation.

$2.35 million: Cost of the T206 Honus Wagner baseball card that once belonged to Wayne Gretzky.

$2.88: The price of a ticket, adjusted for inflation, to the 1858 game between All-Stars representing New York and Brooklyn, believed to have been the first game where admission was charged.

$28: The cheapest ticket available on the Mets website for a upcoming game against the Braves. The All-Star game is in Flushing next year, and it probably will be even more expensive.

In other words: There is a lot of money in baseball, and it’s only gotten richer over the years.

 

Great Baseball Lies: Old replica uniforms with names on the back (and other inaccuracies)

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Quick: What’s wrong with the picture below?

Okay, how about this?

The answer is: Neither of them are correct. In fact, they both have anachronisms in them: the Ruth jersey, for example, has the famous “NY” logo on the jersey itself, something that they didn’t do until 1936, by which point Ruth was retired.

But the biggest lie on these replica jerseys: they have names on the back. To the casual fan, perhaps, this is not anything out of the ordinary. After all, teams have been having the names of the players on the back of their uniforms forever, right?

They’d be wrong. In fact, the first time any MLB team had names on the back of the uniform was in 1960, when the White Sox started doing it.

So, in other words, Babe Ruth never wore a Yankees’ jersey with his name on the back (no Yankees, not even those of the present day, have their names on the back, with the exception of some recent batting practice uniforms). Ted Williams never had his name on the back. And, quite frankly, if you don’t know immediately that a “3” on the back of a Yankees uniform means Ruth and/or a “9” on a Red Sox uniform means Ted Williams, perhaps you should be paying more attention the history.

So, for giving people a false image of baseball history and insulting the intelligence of devoted baseball fans, I hereby declare that having names on the back of retro uniforms is one of the Great Baseball Lies.

For Sale: The Yankees?

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According to the Daily News, the Yankees may be put up for sale by the family Steinbrenner. The most valuable team in American sports- if not all of sports (I’m not really up on the price of Europe’s soccer teams these days) could, possibly, maybe, be put up for sale. Allow me to do the sales pitch for them:

Are you a wealthy member of the 1%? Do you want to be seen, talked about and generally known? Do you like hanging out with celebrities like Billy Crystal, Jay-Z, Spike Lee and Alec Baldwin? Do you have an insatiable desire for victory and an irrational hatred of facial hair?

Then we have the sports franchise for you! The New York Yankees, winners of 27 World Series and 40 AL pennants, and the team of Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Berra and Jeter, are for sale. The current owner, the Steinbrenner Family, bought the team from CBS in 1973 for just over 8 million dollars, and has since greatly increased the team’s valuation. Sale includes new Yankee Stadium, the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network (YES), and all current player contracts. Yes, even Alex Rodriguez’s. But don’t worry, despite the revenue-sharing placed upon you by the other 29 MLB teams, you still will hold a vast advantage over most other teams due to your market size, prestige, and creative accounting.

Beginning asking price is 3 billion US dollars and includes a vigorous vetting process by Major League Baseball, the New York City press, big-name Yankee fans and politicians from the City, County and State of New York.

All questions and requests can be sent to One East 161st Street, Bronx, New York. Sorry, due to demand, we cannot take Jeter autograph requests.

Thoughts on Andy Pettitte’s Upcoming Return

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So, Andy Pettitte is coming back to the majors, and will start for the Yankees this coming weekend. It’s been a tough few weeks for Pettitte, having to testify in the Roger Clemens trial while doing his warm-up starts for the various minor league affiliates of the Yankees. Everywhere he’s gone, though, he’s been treated like royalty. Take his start on May 6 in Rochester, where the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees have been playing most of their games this season as their stadium back in Pennsylvania undergoes major renovations.

I was at that game- I have the sunburn to prove it- and it was a packed house to see the all-time leader in playoff wins. I doubt I was the only person who was taking photos of his delivery as he warmed up before the first inning.

Andy Pettitte warming up before his game against the Pawtucket Red Sox on May 6, 2012. Photo by Dan Glickman.

However, it wasn’t the best of days for Pettitte. He went five innings, gave up three earned runs (five runs total), eight hits and two walks during his 92 pitch outing. He took the loss, and at one point even walked in a run with the bases loaded. However, while watching the game, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that he wasn’t entirely at fault, and that his performance on Sunday was not necessarily a indication of future success or failure.

For one thing, the fielding behind him was atrocious. The first run the PawSox scored, for example, was unearned, as the first basemen for Scranton dropped an easy pop-fly in foul territory (little known rule: an error in foul territory makes the resulting at-bat an unearned run). Brandon Laird was also extremely shaky at third, making an error and having some balls get by him that Alex Rodriguez probably would have gotten. Pettitte also managed to strike out five and do one of his patented pick-off moves, showing that he, at least against AAA competition, still has his stuff.

But, of course, AAA is just that, AAA. Facing the Boston Red Sox (even with how their season is going) is orders of magnitude more difficult than facing the Pawtucket Red Sox. He was able to escape potentially “big” innings thanks to his fastball and off-speed pitches, but that won’t work as often in the bigs.

But, well, the Yankees have been having trouble in the rotation, so what do they have to lose?  Pettitte will at least be an improvement over Freddy Garcia and/or David Phelps. If not, the panic in the Bronx will increase.