At age 25, the making of a baseball and Yankee fan

Yankee Stadium, El Bronx, NY -- Tino Ongis went to his first ever game at Yankee Stadium and saw the Yankees beat the Cubs 3-0 behind the 2-hit, 8 innings pitched by Masahiro Tanaka. What makes this worthy of mentioning is that 25 year old Tino (short for Martino) is an Italian visitor to New York, has been to several basketball games, but was waiting for the baseball season to begin before his departure to Bergamo, Italy in early May. 

This writer gave him a crash course on baseball fundamentals after which he said, "Ok, I will remember," and was very excited the days leading to the game.

The game originally was to have taken place on Tuesday evening April 15th, but was rained out, so it became part of a Wednesday double header, and the makeup game was scheduled for the afternoon; it turned out to be an arctic breezy sunny day with temperature at 43 degrees at game time.

Great -- as his anticipation of being there was full of an exuberant enthusiasm that one would only hope would not become a letdown by a fan of fast moving NBA games and soccer back home in Italy.

By mid-game when asked how he thought of the game so far he said, "I really like baseball, I thought I would get bored."

In the first inning he witnessed Carlos Beltran's 4th homer of the season land a few feet below in the famed low porch area in front section 204. Tino had a glove on his left hand even though he is a lefty thrower. The run produced by Carlos Beltran would be the first of 3 runs allowed by Chicago's starter righthander Jason Hammel who would pitch 7 innings of quality ball, only to be outdueled by Tanaka's two-bunt base hits allowed while striking out 10.

Tino was fascinated by the double play Jacoby Ellsbury grounded into in the bottom of the third inning. Not yet far along to be disappointed that his newly adopted team had one of its star players hit into a double play, but the motion set in play to execute it, he found interesting. "I like the structure of the game and I loved how the double-play happened," he observed (I had gone over the play with him after it happened and reminded him of the baseball lesson of what to expect on the field, which included the two revised plays).

After watching this writer look behind to see the speed of Tanaka's delivery on the scoreboard  and other information, Tino began to do likewise to keep track of the ball and strike count and also keep track of Tanaka's strikeouts.

At one point he said that Chicago with two innings to go, would not have a chance, until I told him that in baseball anything is possible. I reviewed the three-outs before a team took the field and the other came to bat and that a team could keep on batting until the 3rd out was recorded in their half inning.

"I really like this game, it is not boring, "Tino repeated several times." And in it there are a lot of actions that are fast."

He watched with anticipation the game ending on the top of the ninth. He inferred that the Yankees did not have to bat if the score remained unchanged. 

At the end, it was obvious Tino was a fan. The cold? "In Italy for a soccer match it is worst."

Waiting to catch the number 4 train, he added, " I would like to come again to the stadium before I return home, maybe the weather will be nice again." Thus we have the making of a new fan, at 25 --and from Italia no less.

To be featured in www.latinosports.com

In The Yard & In The Pen Tidbits: Yankees’ Five Man Rotation’s First Go-Around

Posted by: William Gerena-Rochet on April 6, 2014 in Baseball, Featured  www.latinosports.com

El Barrio, New York - With the 4-0 Yankees loss to Toronto, the positive part of the event was the performance of Michael Pineda as the 5th starter. Thus the five-man rotation went through its first go-around with a 2-3 won-lost record.

RHP Micahel Pineda’s, in his Yankees debut, allowed just 1ER in 6.0IP in taking the loss (5H, 0BB, 5K) and it was his first Major League start since 9/21/11 w/ Seattle at Minnesota. CF

Center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury has shown his star quality and the catalyst he is;  has recorded 3 hits per game for the second straight time this season. So far he is 6-for-16 with 3R, 2 doubles, 3BB and 3 stolen bases in 5 games.

Infielder Yangervis Solarte has multi-hit games in each of his first three career starts (4/3-5), becoming the first Yankee to accomplish the feat since Joe DiMaggio from 5/3-6/36 (also 3G) according to the Elias Sport Bureau. Solarte leads the Yankees this season in hits (7), doubles (3), extra-base hits (3), RBI (4), on-base percentage (.600), slugging percentage (.769) and OPS (1.369).

But the Yankees 7-9 batters have combined to bat .370 (20-for-54) with 8R, 6 doubles, 4RBI and 6BB this season. The glass is half full; half empty.

As it has been noted in the Yankees  second straight victory 7-3, Tanaka  had a few rough moments. Eventually, he settled down and put up zeros from the 3rd to the 7th inning.  With the offense providing 7 runs on 16 hits,  he got the team’s second victory of the young season; he became just the third pitcher in the last 15 seasons (since 2000) to strike out at least  eight batters without allowing any walks in his Major League debut. Tanaka’s line: 7.0IP, 3R, 2ER, 0BB, 8K, 1HR (to ex-Yankee delivery man Melky Cabrera).

The Yankees first victory of the season had RHP Ivan Nova pitch just 5.2 innings, allowing 2ER (6H, 5BB, 1K, 1WP, 2HP) as the relievers (Warren, Kelley and Robertson) combined to toss 3.1 perfect IP (5K). It was a game Yankees 8-9 hitters (Solarte and Suzuki) had five of the team’s seven hits and scored all four Yankees runs.

In the second game of the season  RHP Hiroki Kuroda started and took the loss, allowing 2ER in 6.0IP (3H, 1BB, 5K, 1HR). A quality start by today’s standards, but lacking run support. In the 4-2 defeat, Yankees pitchers allowed just four combined hits (two of which were solo HRs). Yankees batters on the other hand had one extra-base hit (Beltran double) and scored their only run on a double-play groundout in the seventh.

In the season opener C.C. Sabathia LHP CC Sabathia started  and took the 6-2 loss to Houston, allowing 6ER in 6.0IP (8H, 1BB, 6K, 2HR). Seem as if Spring Training did not follow him into the season, but instead showed some of the deficiencies of the 2013 season. Maybe it was just a one-time case of a “Houston, we have a problem.”

He will pitch the final game of the 6 game road trip before the team opens at home next Monday. It would be a 13-game stretch to open the season.  While that number is taboo for some, it wasn’t an issue to one…oh, never mind.

Wouldn’t you know, Yankees batters have not homered in their first five games of the season, but then again, in 5 games, neither has newly Seattle Mariner Robinson Cano.

Data Source: YankeesPressbox.com

Yankees’ Eduardo Nuñez In Limbo: Designated For Assignment. What Does It Mean For Him?

New York, El Barrio - Eduardo Nuñez has possibly lost his opportunity to play for the Yankees. What does the term designated for assignment mean? Sometimes my intent in writing baseball is to educate the would be fan on terms and plays in the game.

Last season, Eduardo could have cemented his role as an everyday player in 2013 when Derek Jeter missed most of the season playing less than 20 games. He was once coveted as Derek Jeter’s replacement at short and prior to trade talks other teams wanted Eduardo in the mix, but the Yankees had him virtually in a ‘no-trade’ list.

While he passed the grade with his offensive ability to some extent, it was always questionable if he was a good defensive infielder.
In a year that promises to be a second in a row celebratory departure for a future hall of famer, last year Mariano Rivera and this year Derek Jeter, Eduardo Nuñez had been bypassed by infielder Yangervis Solarte in the opening season roster.

Now the Yankees have signed Solarte to a Major League contract and selected him to the 25-man roster. And while infielder Brendan Ryan was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a cervical spine nerve injury (retroactive to 3/22), Eduardo was designated for assignment.

So, Wikipedia (I know it has its pros and cons) will tell you that “Designated For Assingment is a contractual term used in Major League Baseball. A player who is designated for assignment is immediately removed from the team’s 40-man roster, after which the team must either:

• return the player to the 40-man roster within 10 days from the date of designation, or
• make one of the following contractual moves:

1. Place the player on waivers (which can only be done within the first 7 days of the 10-day period)
2. Trade the player
3. Release the player
4. Outright the player from the 40-man roster into the Minor Leagues.

With that much said, Eduardo Nuñez can possibly be placed back on the 40-man roster within 10 days, or navigate through waivers. What is that? Well, maybe that will be part 2 of this story as we keep an eye open on Nuñez’s fate within that 10-day period. Those who have gotten to know Nuñez hope that he can move forward to a solid major league career — if not with the Yankees, then with some other team. In the meantime we welcome comments and any clarifications or questions from the reader.

This article was written for Latino Sports and was posted on April 2, 2014

The Murals Speak: Los muros hablan live from Spanish Harlem/El Barrio

Artist Manny Vega, Melissa and La Respuesta 

representatives

A news conference on Monday afternoon was held in front of one of Manny Vega's  murials on East 105 Street and Lexington Avenue, kicking off Los Muros Hablan NYC, an urban artistic and musical series of events (August 19-25, 2013) happening in El Barrio, and one in the South Bronx. There will be a numerous events open to the public.

Puerto Rico's La Respuesta, a leading cultural entity has initiated this collaborative project that features a number of artists from around the world that will paint "spaces into places that promote cultural collaborations, exchange of ideas, dreams, concerns and passions," said Jose Morales Perez, founder of La Respuesta in Santurce, Puerto Rico.

One would appreciate this as a sister project -- one between Puerto Rico and the "great cultural scene present in the historic Puerto Rican neighborhood of El Barrio," as Mr. Moralez-Velez posited

+Melissa Mark-Viverito  said, "From the moment I learned about Los Muros Hablan in Puerto Rico, I knew that we had to bring this unique and dynamic event to El Barrio."

For more information http://www.losmuroshablannyc.com/

Giants finally won a postseason series opener as El Panda reminds Justin Verlander of All Star Game

El Barrio, New York – Justin Verlander whose start and loss in the mid-Summer All Star Game determined that the Fall Classic be played in a National League Park, got roughed up by Pablo Sandovar who would end up matching a postseason record of being just the fourth player to hit three homers in any World Series game. Of the Panda’s three blasts, two came off Justin Verlander who in four innings of work gave up 5 earned runs on six hits. And the Giants finally won a postseason series opener.

The Giants starter Barry Zito, left off the roster in the Giant’s 2010 World Series win over the Texas Rangers, has won 2 post season games so far. He went 5.2 innings allowing only one run on six hits. He even got a fourth-inning RBI single to left field off Verlandar. This win extended the Giants' winning streak in Zito's starts to 14, dating back to the regular season.

Another interesting note on this game’s heroes is that Pablo Sandovar, also in the 2010 World Series played only one game and had 3 at-bats with no hits while striking out once. He may have looked like Babe Ruth, but was not hitting like him. Even though he still has that pudgy look, he seems to be in better form despite only hitting 12 home runs during the regular season with just 63 RBI. In this post season, however, Sandoval is hitting .370 in the postseason, with six homers and 13 RBIs in 54 at-bats.

The New York Yankees, who led the Majors with 245 home runs during the regular season before totally collapsing in the ALCS, can learn a lesson from the Giants anemic over the fence heroics.  While the Tigers were 16th, with 163, the Giants were 30th, dead last, with just 103 home runs. Go figure.

The Giants hit 31 regular-season home runs at AT&T Park, by far the fewest in the Majors and the lowest total since 1992.  Sandoval, it seems, made a mockery of that statistical blemish. Go figure.

 Written for: www.latinosports.com

Game Tidbits: In a Jeter-less game, slumping Yankees manage 4 hits in ALCS Game 2 blanking: 3-0

El Bronx, Yankee Stadium –   Raúl Ibañez, given it was only the bottom of the fourth, thought of something other than hitting late innings come from behind home runs: he attempted to steal a base after getting a single up the middle; he would be thrown out. Alex Rodriguez who batted two batters later (6th), on the other hand, was still doing the same thing with the same results, not hitting and striking out for a second time.

Eventually Alex would line out to Left and sharply hit a grounder in the bottom of the ninth through the right side to get a single, but the offense, as highlighted by Robinson Cano’s slump – hitless streak at 26 at-bats in the postseason is endemic of a lineup that has failed to come up with a big hit with men on base (and in scoring position in particular). The net result was a 4-hit, 3-0 blanking at the hands of Anibal Sanchez and reliever Phil Coke who combined to strike out 10 Yankees.

Hiroko Kuroda held the Tigers hitless through five until Tiger short stop Jhonny Antonio Peralta singled up the middle on the top sixth. Removing the tension of a no-no, the focus for Koruda was then to match Tiger’s starter, Venezuelan Anibal Sanchez’s scoreless pitching. With Peralta moving to second on a ground out by the next batter, Koruda would keep his shut out intact by getting out of the inning.

RAUL GETS RESPECT

Raúl Ibañez was intentionally walked in the Yankees half of the sixth after Ichiro Suzuki got on an error by Sanchez. Suzuki got as far as third, but the Yankees are somewhat not doing anything different in leaving man in scoring position by producing a hit with men on base other than a home run – it seems.

TIGERS BREAK SCORELESS DUEL

The following inning, top of the seventh, Tiger left fielder Quintin Berry opened the frame with a ground rule double to dead center and advanced to third on a single by third baseman Miguel Cabrera. Prince Fielder struck out, and thorn on the side of the Yankees, Delmon Young, almost hit into a double play, but Robinson Cano could not get a handle the pivot-throw to first after getting the ball from Derek Jeter’s replacement, Jason Nix. Berry scored the Tiger’s first and only run of the inning.

YANKS DON’T KEEP UP WITH THE SANCHEZ’S

In the bottom of the seventh, Alex Rodriguez did not strike out; in fact, hit it pretty well to the Left Fielder.  It was followed by a Curtis Granderson walk, who then he dared put himself in scoring position by stealing second base, but the next two batters, Nick Swisher and Jayson Nix struck out. Business as usual, one may think. The game was characterized by the lack of run support Koruda had seen many times during the regular season.

KURODA 11K’S BUT UMPIRE BAD CALL ENDS HIS NIGHT AS TIGERS BREAK GAME OPEN WITH 2 RUNS, REALLY!

Kuroda began the top of the eight striking out the first two batters and skipper Joe Giraldi paid  him a visit and after a brief consultation decides to go with him.  Tiger’s Omar Infante then singles to center. The next batter, Austin Jackson singles to right and Nick Swisher throws to Robinson Cano covering second who clearly puts the tag on Infante scrambling to get back to the base.

But the second base Umpire, Jeff Nelson, and much to the surprise of Infante, called the play safe. After the game and viewing an instant replay, the umpire would admit he was wrong: “The hand (Infante’s on getting back to the bag) did not get in before the tag, the call was incorrect,” said Jeff Nelson.

INSTANT REPLAY POR FAVOR

But that instant replay viewing was after the game when it would not count. Joe Giraldi thinks it should be part of the game, he said, “I just think it’s – yeah, let’s have instant replay. And not just, not just home run, fair, foul. Let’s have instant replay.”

Joe Torre, who would have once been in Giraldi’s place, now Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations explained the process of more instant replay was being studied, but “… but right now we haven’t really com to any conclusion on what’s the best way to go about it and not make the game drag and go longer then they are going already,” he said.

Boon Logan replaced Kuroda and gave up an RBI hit to pinch hitter Avasail Garcia, scoring Infante. Joba Chamberlain replaced Logan and does what seems to be a regular season trait since he got back from the DL; he allowed an inherited run to score with Miguel Cabrera’s RBI hit to right.

With that hit, Cabrera has reached base safely in all 18 career postseason games with the Tigers tying Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg’s own 18-game streak with Detroit.

In the meantime skipper Joe Giraldi gets ejected from the game by 2B Umpire Jeff Nelson, yes, the one who botched up the play accounting for the eventual two Tiger runs. Clay Rapada came in and issued a walk to load the bases, but his successor on the mound, Cody Eppley stops the bleeding – Ok, only 2 runs would score, but the way the Yankees have been swinging, it must have looked like 10 runs instead – by striking out Delmon Young to end the top of the eight.

Kuroda’s line: 7.2 IP, 5H, 3R (earned), 0BB, 11K and no Hr’s allowed. His counterpart, Anibal Sanchez: 7IP, 3H, 0R, 0BB and 7K.

THE MEEK WILL NOT INHERIT THE WOLRD. NO COMEBACK ATTEMPT

Ex-Yankee Phil Coke put down the meekly Yankee bats in order (Suzuki, Cano and Teixeira) in the bottom of the eighth. Coke would get a save with two scoreless innings on just one hit, striking out 3.

José Velvarde is not going to see action as a closer after anytime soon after the debacle the night before (and an ALDS blown game) so instead, in a save situation, Tiger skipper Jim Leyland left Coke to face Raúl Ibañez, Russell Martin and Alex Rodriguez in the bottom of the ninth.  The first two strike out. Then to a little fan delight, Alex Rodriguez’ sharply hit grounder to right for a single gives them a short reason to cheer, but Granderson strikes out ending the game.

The Yankees, who led the mayors in comeback wins during the regular season, for the second night, fail to do so to win the first two games of this ALCS. In a pivotal game, they fail to go to Detroit even at one game apiece and in the first post season Jetel-ess game in 17 years, Justin Verlander awaits a meek Yankee offense to possibly give the Tigers a 3-0 advantage with one more win to go and secure the AL Championship.

Post-Game Extra:

Joe Giraldi will travel to Chicago for his dad’s funeral. He expressed his desire not to have any players there as he told those who asked to be present to “enjoy their off-day and come ready to play on Tuesday…rest, rest,” he said.

The Yankees will get a needed day off after playing 5 straight postseason games.

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Photo Bill Menzel/Latino Sports

 

Bird watching Days: on September 24th Yankees gain ground on Orioles

San Juan, Puerto Rico – While I am blessed with the sounds of birds where I am and have the opportunity to do some bird watching, the bird watching taking place – along with baseball fans keeping tabs on the races for first place and Wild Card berths – is particularly the one of the AL East where the Baltimore Orioles, in their hunt for first place, are chirping down the necks of the New York Yankees. The Orioles have been acting like the Puerto Rican bird el Pitirri, a small bird that beats up on a larger Guaraguao.

The Yankees won their first of three against the Minnesota Twins (6-3), while the Baltimore Orioles split a double header (W 4-1; L 9-5) and as Monday came to the end; the one run lead the Yankees had turned into a gain of half a game. Andy Pettitte turned out six inning of shut out ball in his second game from the DL.

While there may be for NY fans some comfort in the Yankees schedule playing against under-.500 teams the rest of the season, let’s not forget how the ball bounces in baseball when scrubby teams suddenly become a formidable challenge. 

While the Yankees put away the first of three against the Twins with a win, just recently the Detroit Tigers (as of this writing are one game behind), chasing the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central, much as Baltimore is on New York, lost a double header against the Twins before the Yankees came to town.

And at Baltimore, interestingly enough, bird watchers, the Orioles were overpowered by the Toronto Blue Jays in that second game of their twin bill.

Baltimore’s schedule is seen a slightly tougher because the face Tampa in the last three games of the season.

On the other hand, the third place six games back Tampa Rays, , have a shot at the Wild Card. They are three games behind there. Their schedule, besides the Baltimore series to end the season, has them playing three games against the AL Central first place Chicago White Sox.

The Yankees face Minnesota, Toronto and end at home against their distant once rivals Boston Red Sox.

New York fans keep your binoculars on hand as there may be birds of prey circling the skies.  The Orioles relentless in building a first place nest. The Blue Jays being spoilers, while not having Yunel  Escobar call the Yankees’ Latino players a bunch of … have his bat, as he did earlier in a game at the Stadium in September, do the talking.