In what is becoming a season that keeps getting references to 1965 when the dynasty featuring Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra Jim Bouton et al. fell to earth, the Yankees are playing less than stellar baseball. For a start they are coming last in the AL East, which must gall Mr. Steinbrenner who is bankrolling this team for $200million. Yesterday, the Texas Rangers jumped all over a Jaret Wright for a 11-2 rout, who turns out to have been nursing a sore shoulder. Today the Yankees unleashed the Big Unit who finally pitched as adveretised and the Yankees handed out a 11-1 blow-out.
Jaret Wright is now on the 15-Day disabled List, as are Tanyon Sturtze and Reuben Sierra. Now, it has to be said that losing Reuben Sierra and plugging in Andy Phillips is probably a good thing, as is getting Colter Bean to come up from the Minors to finally see some action in the majors. At least you hope he's going to see some action. Both Andy Phillips and Colter Bean are overdue to make their case at the major league level; the only thing hampering them is the presence of the expensive veterans clogging up the roster spots, which is no small deal.
It's hard to imagine the Yankees really will 'fold' this year given that well, they're the $200million Yankees; but you never know. Today's outing by Randy Johnson was a good sign, and if Moose and Pavano can continue to build on their previous outings, then maybe the 3-4 spots in the rotation will work themselves out around a hodgepodge of Jaret Wright, Tanyon Strutze, Chien-Ming Wang, Kevin Brown and a big keg of beer (I don't think I can face it straight and sobre). A-Rod, Jeter, Matsui and Sheff will hit. Posada may come around as may Bernie. Giambi is hitting a useful .260/.400/.500 kind of thing and mabe Womack will suck enough to bring up Robinson Cano sooner than later. We can only hope.
I just don't think it's 1965... yet. :)
It Sounds Like A Joke
ARKALYK, Kazakhstan - A Russian, an American and an Italian climbed out of a
Russian space capsule early Monday after hurtling home to Earth from the
international space station, where a new crew is preparing to welcome the first
space shuttle flight after a two-year hiatus.
And the Italian says to the American...
Okay maybe not.
The TMA-5 capsule made a soft upright landing on the steppes of northern Kazakhstan in the early-morning darkness less than 3 1/2 hours after it had undocked from the orbiting outpost. Search-and-rescue helicopters spotted the capsule floating under a parachute toward its designated arrival site about 50 miles north of the Kazakh town of Arkalyk.
Russia's space program has been the only way of getting astronauts to the station since the Columbia disintegrated as it returned to Earth on Feb. 1, 2003, sparking a suspension of shuttle flights. NASA is hoping to renew shuttle flights sometime next month. Russian helicopters and planes had been on call Monday, along with a U.S. medical team, near Arkalyk, but many of the helicopters had to turn back to Arkalyk without landing at the site because the ground was swampy with melted snow.
Engineers followed the capsule's journey through space on a map projected on a large screen at Russian Mission Control in Korolyov, outside Moscow, and communicated with the crew as it sped toward the Earth.
"Again our Russian colleagues have shown how flexible they can be in the face of such daunting weather conditions in the landing zone to safely recover the crew," William Readdy, the U.S. space agency NASA's associate administrator for space operations, told reporters at Mission Control.
"Step by step ... we'll continue our steps as partners to complete the international space station and then move on beyond the Earth's orbit." After landing, Italian Roberto Vittori, Russian Salizhan Sharipov and American Leroy Chiao were whisked to a mobile hospital for a quick checkup; more thorough examinations were to be conducted after the crew members arrived later Monday at Star City, the cosmonaut training center outside Moscow. Vittori, a European Space Agency astronaut, had spent eight days on the international space station, while Sharipov and Chiao had been on the orbiting lab since October. Mission Control said Sharipov had reported that the crew were feeling fine.
Remaining behind on the station were Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and American astronaut John Phillips, whose six-month mission is slated to include welcoming the first U.S. space shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster two years ago. Russian space officials were relieved to have avoided a repeat of the May 2003 return to Earth by the space station crew, when the Soyuz capsule went 250 miles off course due to a computer error, prompting a frantic search over the steppes.
The TMA-5 undocked at 10:44 p.m. Moscow time on Sunday, after a four-minute delay caused by problems with the hermetic seals on Vittori's spacesuit, Mission Control officials said. The capsule entered the atmosphere about three hours later, and its parachute opened 15 minutes before the scheduled landing time of 2:07 a.m. Monday.
Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said even after the shuttle resumes flying, Russian Soyuz spacecraft will continue to travel to and from the international space station about twice a year because they will serve as escape vehicles.
The Soyuz craft keeps on being servicable. I shouldn't be amazed as it is less complicated than the Shuttle system. I guess this is the benefit of having a diversity of solutions to a problem.
Thanks
... to all the people who dropped into listen to my versionof the NIN song 'The Hand That feeds'.
- Art Neuro
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