Farmland Produce

That's Melky, Kevin Thompson and Damon...


...And that's Andy Phillips.

March of The 'True Yankees'
The Yankees edged out the Orioles 6-5 in the 10th with this lineup:

Johnny Damon CF
Melky Cabrera LF
Derek Jeter SS
Jorge Posada C
Bernie Williams DH
Andy Phillips 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Miguel Cairo 3B
Kevin Thompson RF

That's right. No Juicin G, No A-Rod, No Sheff, No Godzilla. What's even more remarkable isthat apart from Johnny Damon and Miguel Cairo, they are all Yankeee farm produce/graduates. Gets even better when you see who pitched:

Randy Johnson 7.1IP
Scott Proctor 1.2 IP
Mike Myers 0.1 IP
C Wang 0.2 IP

Randy Johnson arrived in a trade that represented a swap of Juan Rivera and Nick Johnson for Javier Vazquez, and then Javier Vazquez and Dionar Navarro for Randy. So even if he's not exactly pitching great, he tenuously represents the outcome of the Yankee farm system (by dint of not being a Free Agency signing). Wang and Proctor are Yankee farm-hands. So it's only the sole out that Mike Myers accounted for that didn't involve the Yankee farm. I don't think I've ever seen a Yankee line-up composed of so many of its farmhands; and it's really cool that they actually won.

It's only due to the long list of injuries that reminds one of Frank Zappa's track "Diseases of the Band":

Hiya folks!

Alright, here’s the deal,
This is our last show here in london
Gee, it’s gonna be tough!
Got a few...a few of the boys are sick tonight
But they’re still gonna...give you their all
I want to introduce you to the members of the rockin’ teen-age
Combo and tell you which ones are sick and what they’ve got

Denny walley on slide and vocals
He has, he has an aluminum finger
And we’re gonna have that removed
A little bit later in this show^lthis is ike willis
Ike has a...now ike, ike is our lead vocalist,
Our dynamic male vocalist
He’s got a soar throat
And all sorts of other things are wrong with him
He’ll never be able to get through this show
The only thing he’s got to take care of is his knitted hat

And of course tommy mars,
Who also has stomach-flu, on keyboards
Do you have any other diseases tommy?
No? he’s available! ok!

Ed mann on percussion
Ed is still healthy
Except, and he told me this backstage,
Except for his mental health
You have to expect these things in this kind of a group

And peter wolf on keyboards
There’s, there...apparently there’s nothing wrong with peter yet

(he’s got stomach-flu too)

You have stomach-flu too?
Ooh, my goodness!
The circle is closing in

Okay, vince colaiuta on drums
Now, as you can see from looking at vince,
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with him

(malnutrition)

Arthur barrow, our bass player has got a ...
He’s having a lotta trouble
He’s been very sick all day
Missed the soundcheck and everything
But he’s gonna try
He’s gonna try really hard

And of course: sophia warren on guitar

Oops. The real list reads like this:

Mariano Rivera Back spasm
Juicin' Giambi: Flu.
A-Rod: Flu.
Hideki Matsui: broken wrist
Gary Sheffield: torn ligament in wrist
Bubba Crosby: strained hamstring
Shawn Chacon: Hematoma, drained surgically to speed up recovery.
Tanyon Strutze: Rotator Cuff injury
Octavio Dotel: Recovering from TJ surgery
Darrell Rasner: Shoulder pain, unidentified
Carl Pavano: inflamed bicep.

Have I missed anybody? Amazingly, with all their injuries, they have won 8 of 10 in the last 10 games. That's right, they've won 8-of-10. and with the Bosox losing to the Tigers, they've stumbled out front to 1st in the AL East with a .611 win %. Smoke and mirrors and farmhands.

Look Who's Back In Town!

Orlando 'El Duque' Hernandez is back in NYC, but this time with the Mets.

Whatever Hernández's age, yesterday was a throwback enactment of baseball as it was played according to physiological laws that governed the sport in the pre-enhancement years. Before Mark McGwire, Bonds and the other suspects whose performance peaked so fantastically beyond their primes, Father Time could be teased, fooled, never knocked flat.

When the Yankees made Hernández a major leaguer in 1998 after his defection from Cuba, their general manager, Brian Cashman, said: "If he signed with us, he's 28. If he signed with somebody else, he's got wooden teeth." Hernández proceeded to become one of the most entertaining pitchers in the game. He had one of the great postseason runs ever across three championship seasons.

Officially 36, possibly 40, El Duque found himself back in New York yesterday, trying to seize on the opportunity given him by people who in times of need will tend to see what they wish to.

"He still looks the same," Mets Manager Willie Randolph had said before sending Hernández out to face Bonds and his slowing bat for the first time in his career on a rainy afternoon when the wait for baseball seemed as long as it took Bonds to hit his 714th and 715th home runs. "His motion's the same. He's a veteran who knows how to handle himself."

One playoff relief appearance for the White Sox last October was apparently enough to propel the El Duque mystique forward. He escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam in Game 3 of the American League Division Series in Fenway Park on the night the White Sox put the Red Sox to sleep. Randolph mentioned that yesterday instead of the fact that Hernández hasn't pitched a full season since 2000 and it's anyone's guess when he was in his prime.

All Pedro Martínez could offer on that subject was a remembrance of the El Duque legend spreading from Cuba and reaching the Dominican Republic before there was an Internet to assist in the journey.

"He was one of the most famous Cuban players, him and Omar Linares and Rolando Arrojo, and of course we'd hear a lot about them," Martínez said earlier, as Hernández sat a few feet away, stretching his arms behind his back.

Ah, the wonderful world of International Baseball. El Duque and Pedro are now teammates in Queens.