Another reason people don’t take you seriously…

Manny  Ramirez has been one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball.  He can do what’s very difficult to do in baseball…single-handedly change a outcome of a game.  He’s a very talented hitter, and he has over 500 home runs to show for it.  He’s been very dangerous, especially when he’s motivated.  Just look how he carried the Dodgers into the playoffs last year. 

Now I’m not about to defend how he acted in Boston and got himself traded.  But at the same time, Boston let him get away with childish behavior for way too long.  Guess they learned Manny being Manny was only good when they were winning.  And that hair is just ridiculous.

So all the off-season tabloid fodder has surrounded baseball players and whether or not they’re on steroids.  Who’s juicing?  Who’s not?  Are records legit?  Now one of the great things about baseball is that over the course of history, the game itself has evolved from the introduction of non-white players, to the 162-game season, to division play, to the designated hitter, to the wild card and expansion teams.  Records one year may not necessarily have the same set of scenarios as the next season.  They’re being played in different stadiums with different dimensions.  And different players.  So what? 

So now the question is whether or not steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs really do give players a competitive advantage.  Some can quantify it, others say the jury is still out.  But we do know one thing…they’re not proverbial cans of spinach.  I’m the sam age as Derek Jeter, and you can shoot a gallon of the stuff in my ass, I’m not about to start fielding like Jeter or swinging the bat like Reggie Jackson any time soon.  Or even a single-A player. 

So it’s old news that Manny Ramirez got caught.  He denies it.  OK, what else is he going to do.  He’s trying to land one more big contract.  Per wikipedia, “According to an ESPN report, the drug used by Ramirez is human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a women’s fertility drug typically used by steroid users to restart their body’s natural testosterone production as they come off a steroid cycle. It is similar to Clomid, the drug Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and others used as clients of BALCO.”  If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, well, any idiot can draw their own conclusions. 

Now come out the clowns at Peta issuing a press release.  http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=13036 “We want to turn Manny on to the wonders of ‘veggie Viagra’–a healthy vegetarian diet–so that he can get his ‘big stick’ back in the game without having to use any weird ‘performance-enhancing’ drugs,” says PETA Assistant Director Dan Shannon. “Guys who stuff their bellies full of dead animals in the kitchen are often unable to score in the bedroom.” 

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??? Manny Ramirez makes an excuse that’s as hollow as can be to maybe he can get another $50 million dollar contract.  If I were him, I’d say anything short of being Jesus to get that kind of coin.  And the dopes at Peta are taking him at face-value to push their vegan agenda?  It’s no wonder this diddy din’t get much press coverage.

For the record, I have no problems grilling up some veggies next to my steaks.

The House that Steinbrenner Built

The one thing about being a Yankee fan is that there is never a lack of drama.  There’s always stories in the tabloids about some off-field antics.  Some years, it’s better to follow them than to follow the team.  I lived through the 80s.  And during the lean times, George Steinbrenner wanted to get out of the Bronx in the worst way.  He threatened to move the team to Jersey.  NEW FUCKING JERSEY???  I figured I’d have to pick some other team to follow than to root for a team that played in Jersey. 

Then came the 90s, they win a few World Series, and now that they’re the hot team in town, they wanted to leave the Bronx.  This time for midtown Manhattan…the cursed West Side Yards.  I call it a cursed site, since they’ve been talking about building anything and everything on that site, and nothing has been built.  Back in the 70s, Sears wanted to build their tower there rather than Chicago.  The Jets were promised it a few years ago, but were cock-blocked by Cablevision, which will try to build a new Madision Square Garden on the site.  We’ll see…

Bottom line, the Yanks have been talking about leaving the Bronx for over 20 years now by my count.  Then they said they would build a new stadium across the street.  Again, I said I’d believe it when I see it.  Boy, did I see it. 

I was able to get tickets to the first exhibition game at the new Yankee Stadium against the Cubs on April 3.  I’m still walking on air.  The place has by and far exceeded all fan’s expectations.  It is a combination of the old (pre-70s-renovation) Yankee Stadium, and a brand new futuristic ballpark.  I think the Yanks started to get the itch when they built their Legends Field spring training facility in Tampa.  They brought back the frieze along the top of the stadium there, and being flush with cash coming off a few World Series and record-breaking attendance, they couldn’t have picked a better time to do so.

The subway is the only way to get to Yankee Stadium, as driving and parking there is an absolute nightmare.  We took the 4 train, which is my preferred subway to get there.  It pops above ground just before the old Stadium, and the small gap in the old stadium gave you a glimpse inside.  The field is gone, and it’s just dirt in there.  Weird.

But right across the street where McComb’s Dam Park used to sit, now stands a new Stadium so big, so new, so over-the-top amazing, you almost feel bad that you turn your back, literally, to enter the new Stadium.  You get the feeling how people felt back in 1923 when the showed up to the old Stadium and found a brand new imposing venue, the first to be worthy of the designation “Stadium.” 

When Derek Jeter gave his speech after the last game at the old Stadium, he said we should bring the old memories across the street, where we’ll have new memories.  While the game itself wasn’t all that memorable, walking into the new Stadium sure was.  Not only is everying shiny and new, it seems that architects finally combined the retro concept and the modern concept.  From the friese along the roof to the Monument Park in centerfield, there is no doubt you’re in Yankee Stadium.  And with a nod to all the history and the pictures and banners in the Great Hall and the concourses, there is a modern feel to the venue, as the place is dripping with technology, be it HD televisions (all 1100+ of them), or the ribbon boars, or the largest true HD jumbotron in the world. 

When you enter the Stadium, you quickly find yourself in the Great Hall, the outer ground-level mezzanine.  The lights and banners and animation and inside jumbotron are so overwhelming, you feel like you’re a kid again, in a giddy haze wandering about, not paying attention, walking into other people’s pictures.

Great Hall

Reggie Jackson talks to Lou Pinella prior to the game.

Can you tell the difference between the old and new Stadiums?

Here’s the bottom line.  While it’s a completely new place, sitting at my seat, I got this eerie familiar feeling that I’ve been here before, even though it was the every first game played there.  It’s no doubt Yankee Stadium.  But even though it’s a brand new place, it has a very familiar feel about it.  And while I was glad to be able to drag my infant daughter to the old Stadium, I can’t wait to bring her to the new one.  And like Jeter said, create new memories…

Ho, hum. The Superbowl is over? Great. Time for more pressing issues.

Andy Milonakis hit it right on the head when he sang, “The Superbowl is gay.”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8pxMXiYaNk It used to be that you’d watch the game for the commercials.  Now at least the games in the past two years have been compelling enough to actually watch them for themselves, but the commercials are god-awful.  I love to criticize commercials, and will do so in future posts.  But I’m too tired from staying up past my bedtime to watch the end of this game to mention that only the Castrol grease monkey had it all: an easy-to-understand spot, humor, and the right length.  I HATE commercials where, for example, the guy gets hit by the bus.  Funny.  I understand that no actors were actually harmed in the filming of this commercial.  So WHY THE FUCK DO YOU HAVE TO SHOW HE’S OK???  Who are you appealing to?  What, the violent act of him being hit by a bus (stomped by a dinosaur, etc.) is OK if he winds up living???  No, if I’m walking down the street and somebody kisses the front bumper of a Septa bus, there’s going to be police, ambulances, and a lead story on the 6 o’clock news.  But this is a commercial, not a documentary.  It’s comedy.  Who are the suits appealing to?  I can understand that companies may not necessarily want a shock/cringe comic to do a commercial for them.  But this kind of stuff is harmless.  Nobody is having nightmares about runaway transit vehicles.

Now that football is out of the way, we can finally make way for spring training.  Because what’s more important than Opening Day?  Especially with a new Yankee Stadium coming online…as Derek Jeter said, it’s time to make new memories in the new stadium.