Adventitious blog entries 7

ad·ven·ti·tious
[ad-vuhn-tish-uhs]
–adjective
''associated with something by chance rather than as an integral part; extrinsic.''

In today's 'adventitious' entry - Lester, Clemen$, Giambi Bonds and Mr April get's classy.

Lester
Pretty good news from Jon Lester's outing at Pawtucket last night. The big left hander went a solid five innings giving up just four hits along with two walks while striking out an impressive six. I wonder what the Sox front office is thinking now, one more rehab start for Lester and then bring him up assuming everything goes okay? Tavarez is doing a fine job as a starter but will fit nicely into the bullpen and will be nice insurance should one of the other four guys pick up and injury.


Lester pitching in that fifth spot of the rotation makes the Red Sox starting pitching staff particularly formidable. Just imagine the possibilities a rotation of Schilling, Beckett, Matsuzaka, Wakefield and Lester brings. A 110 win season? It's not entirely out of the question with that superior staff.

Clemen$
Meanwhile, strange goings on in the Bronx. Ro$er Clemen$ pitched more minor league innings on Monday, going six without giving up a run, meaning he was perfectly positioned to take the hill for the men in pinstripes at Fenway this coming weekend. The 22 Million (pro rated) dollar man steps into the breach and carries the Yankees back into contention on his broad, Texan back, right?

Wrong.

Amazingly the Yankees will not be debuting Clemen$ at Fenway. Joe Torre said;

"I'm not disappointed that he's not pitching at Fenway, I don't think that series needs any more hype than it gets every time we play it, whether it's in Fenway or at the Stadium. You'd obviously be tempted if you had a kid pitching and you can replace him with Roger Clemens. When you have Wang, Moose and Andy, there's really not the temptation to do that."

A couple of quick questions so. First off, has Joe Torre seen Mike Mussina pitch lately? He looks absolutely brutal right now and is obviously struggling. If Clemen$ is here to save the Yankee season, why not drop the Moose down the rotation, take a little pressure off him and throw the big lug Clemen$ in there to lead the way?

Secondly, assuming the Yankees actually want to catch Boston in '07, surely they should be throwing everything including the kitchen sink at Boston this weekend? What does it say that they are going to pay this fella 22 million or whatever and he is not going to be used in a series that will possibly make or break their season?

Make no mistake, if Boston takes 2 or 3 this weekend, it's game over AL East.

Thank you for playing.

Giambi
It has also come out that the Yankees have said their DH Jason Giambi is going to have a cortisone shot on his injured heel tomorrow, Thursday, a day the Yanks have off.

No comment on whether this will render Giambi mute while also healing the pain.

Bonds Meanwhile, on the left coast, Barry Bonds continues to beg America to love him with yet another endearing quote. In response to questions about giving the Hall of Fame souvenirs once he hits this 756th home run. he said;

"I'm not worried about the Hall, I take care of me."

Classy.

Speaking of classy..
Fantastic blog by Dave of 'the Coffin Corner' on Mr April, A-Rod, being photographed heading into a Gentleman's club in Toronto with a mystery woman.

The New York Post is taking a calm, level headed and non judgemental view of the incident;

''Cynthia Rodriguez - A-Rod's wife and mother of their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Natasha - was nowhere to be seen during the slugger's big night out on the town, which occurred the evening before the last-place Bronx Bombers' pathetic 7-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.''

The Post goes on to describe the entire situation in crime-scene-like detail, down to Mr April's attire and the beautifully sordid finalé;

''As the doors to an elevator opened, he and the blonde got in together, the witness said. The doors then closed, and they disappeared upstairs.''

Boy oh boy, just what those Yankees needed eh?

Comments

Dave said…
The Yanks not throwing Clemens this weekend is their surrender flag. Especially since we're the only team they've had any success against as of late.

Now the watch begins...who will get traded? How long does Torre have? Will George finally throw a tantrum to remind us all of the 1970s?
Cormac said…
...does George even know where he is right now?!
Torre's safe because Clemens expects him to be the manager. Cashman might be gone very, very soon. The holdup actually involves a very underreported story: Steinbrenner's poor health. It's probably a good thing Mr. April has become "Stray Rod" or the Post would be giving us George's deathwatch.
Dave said…
Apparently, the buzz is that George is not doing well health-wise and the press is keeping quiet on it. He may just not give a damn at this point.
Cormac said…
Loyalties aside, here's hoping George recovers. He is the Yin to our Yang.
Dave said…
Baseball aside, he is actually quite the stand-up guy (all those illegal Nixon contributions aside...) Every year for the annual Jimmy Fund telethon he calls in and donates a ton of cash.
Anonymous said…
Cormac I like the new look of the page. I have been blasted by BOMB....MER fans since I started watching games in 1976. 2004 was the greatest thing I ever saw , But this is pretty close. Tim
Anonymous said…
I hate it every time people get going about the Yankees and Red Sox. That is a rivalry, but there are tons of rivalrys. The reason it's the Rivalry of all Rivalries is because some TV guru 30 years deemed it to be so and started playing all games between the two. There are tons of good teams out there that never get on TV because they are all too busy playing the REd Sox/Yankees 30 times a year.

Rant Over.
Anonymous said…
Clemens is starting Monday the 4th against the White Sox in Chicago. Where no one will care.