Only if we could envision a possibility where Pineda was traded to the Yankees for Rafael Soriano rather than thinking about playing in the same team with Rafael Soriano.

When does spring training start?  The two weeks before the super bowl are going to kill me.

I am a Giants fan living in Patriots country.  I am a Yankees fan living in the belly of the beast.  If I hadn’t already had numerous anti-social tendencies when I moved here, I would have acquired them.

Try being a Jets fan.  It’s almost like prison.

[3] Ditto living in enemy territory. But I’m a Buffalo Bills fan so people feel sorry for me for several months each year.

It’s a good thing we have football to get us through this boring offseason. I wish Cashman would make some roster moves we could talk about.

I wish he’d make them solely so that we would have something to talk about.

I’d trade Mark Sanchez for a bat.

[5]I’m glad there’s someone here who roots for the only New York team in the NFL.

[9] I believe SG is a Bills fan as well.

[3] I lived in Beacon Hill for 2 years, one of which was 2007. I wore my Yankees hat all the time and actually got a lot of sincere complements by people who were afraid to wear theirs. Stay strong.

[11] What was the Yankees’ worst ever loss to the Rays?  Was it something like 19-0 three years ago or so?  The day after that loss, I was sitting in Subway subs in Newton Centah, eating a sub, wearing a Yankees’ cap, minding my own effing business.  Randomly in from the street comes Sully, and says to me, “How can you root for a team that loses 19-0 [or whatever it was] to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays?”  I said,“26 world championships helps.”  He said, “Yeah well you suck.”  Then he left.

[12] I know that guy. I think I sat next to him at Fenway and he also rode the T with me from Charles to Kendall every day for 2 years. It was weird - he was always on the same train as me. He was also in every restaurant I ever went to in Boston. He was also a really hard worker too, because I saw him in a policeman’s uniform a few times eating donuts while resting his extra large DuDo’s coffee on the hood of my car, and at night he worked as a construction worker digging up the street in front of my building, then filling it back in, then digging it up again, and filling it back in again.

[13] Yes, that’s the guy.

Oh yeah, when I lived in Brookline back in 2003, that guy lived in the apartment above me.

And the one below me.

In other countries such as the one I’m living in now, wearing a Yankees cap means that you’re probably a gangster.

WAIT?!? Pineda is excited about Soriano being on the Yankees next season? Can we have The Jesus back?

[16] Damn, it feels good to be a gangster.

[13]
Very nice.

[17]
No, Ted, you have it wrong. Look at it again.
Clearly what happened is he was excited about who he’d be playing with, started listing them, hit Soriano… and just sort of trailed off into the place where enthusiasm goes to die.

[20] Maybe he meant this guy? Check out that WHIP in 1949!

[15] Sounds like Mahky Mahk’s Cuzzin. Hasn’t worn a shirt since 1985.

Edit: Not sure if the Chrismas Episode was posted here already. Still worth a watch.

Mahky Mahk is from effin Dawchestah.  He’s effin awesome.

True story.  Somebody outside my office door just said, “I’ve got the depo tomorrow of Ryan O’Sullivan.  He’s the assailant.  I’m looking at the stuff in Kelly’s redweld.”

[22] Just saw The Fighter for the first time the other day.  Great movie…

[25] Perfect Wahlberg role. But Christian Bale still overshadows him.

Friends of Eddie Coyle, best Bahston movie evah baybee!

[26] Agreed, though not by much.  I’ve been surprised how much I enjoy Wahlberg in movies…Bale is just excellent.

[28] Wahlberg has a unique charm. He doesn’t have the greatest range or presence, but he’s to be pretty good at picking roles that play to his strengths.

[29] Except The Happening.

I thought Bale blew him out of the water in The Fighter. But that’s just me. I generally do like Marky Mark’s movies.

tb- Also, except Planet of the Apes.

[30] I’m still unsure why anyone signs on to M Night films. I think it’s the same phenomenon that allows ROb Schneider to continue making movies and somehow manage to persuade people to give him a TV show.

[32] A TV show that debuted to an audience of something like 13 million.

[33] I know nothing about TV, but I assume that 13 is a large number.

Maybe in pitch meetings M Night exudes a mysterious gas that makes executives fund his films, then forget that they did badly?

[35] Similarly I am constantly perplexed at how Nickelback continues to make “music” and sell albums. I have yet to meet a single person who admits to liking them.

32 Hated the Sixth Sense.  Wahlberg’s OK, liked him in fear, Bale’s better.  Saw an ad for a “great” new film starring Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski, color me skeptical.

[12] “26 world championships helps.”

“26 world championships help” doesn’t, in fact, sound right to me.  Presumably because this gets parsed as “[Having won] 26 helps”, making 26 the object (of the nominative gerund or past participle?  someone help me out here).  But I’m not sure I should say so as a prescriptivist.  And usually people err by taking number from the nearest noun, so maybe I’m just overthinking.

[38]  Procrastinating on another talk?

Today I found out that the ‘local’ gridiron football team will be playing the New York Giants in two weeks and this is an excuse for everyone to eat ridiculous food and watch expensive commercials.

I don’t have TV, is it fun?

[39] Survived the talk; I guess we’ll continue getting funded.  Now I’m waiting for someone to get their complex code to stop segfaulting so I can do something trivial.

If the Giants D can play like they did in 2008 and knock Tom Brady on his ass a million times, then yes, it will be very fun.

[42] Also getting Manning some more of that invincible juice he was drinking yesterday would be nice. Guy took an absolute beating and if you hadn’t seen the game you wouldn’t know it.

But the Patriots aren’t likely to get to Manning as much, are they?  Though he’ll probably still be sore.

WE’RE GOING TO THE F#@$#@$@W SUPERBOWL AGAIN!

I’m nervous about this one because the giants linebackers have no chance of covering Gronowski. On the other hand, Cruz and Nix should torch the Pats (though I think McCourty is underrated).

[44] Less likely sure, but that O-line was looking pretty bad yesterday.

I lived in Boston for 7 years. Those years covered Aaron Boone, the Jeter dive, the year the season got canceled after Game 3 of the ALCS, Boston Massacre 2, Papelbons stupid WS celebration dance, and the Pats/Giants superbowl…actually, the night of the Superbowl after the game ended I ran out of my friends apartment screaming wildly in Kenmore Square and someone punched me in the head right in front of a cop. the cop yelled at me and told me to go inside because I was inciting violence.

Hmm..also, oh yeah, the day after Aaron Boone’s home run I walked around Coolidge Corner wearing my “Boston Sucks” t-shirt and later that week I almost got jumped for wearing a Yankees hat to a Nets/Celtics preseason game and cheering loudly for the Nets.

Another memorable near fight came the night of the Jeter dive game, which I was watching at Our House bar in Allston. Sometime around the 12th inning a Red Sox fan threatened to smash a bottle over my head.

Hmm…oh yeah, the game where A-Rod hit two home runs off Schilling and the Yankees lost, sometime in May 2007 I think…I almost came to blows with someone at the fairly posh Eastern Standard.

By far one of my most memorable experience, though, was when my family and some friends rented out a “private box” at Game On pub for Game 4 of the 5 Game series in 2006…the one where Schilling pitched, Papelbon blew the save (Jeter duckfart single) and Giambi and Posada homered in the 10th inning to win it. We totally took that place over. I’m surprised we got out alive. 

Now I live in Maine. Still Sox territory but people don’t care as much.

actually, the night of the Superbowl I ran out of my friends apartment screaming wildly in Kenmore Square and someone punched me in the head right in front of a cop. the cop yelled at me and told me to go inside because I was inciting violence.

This is simulataneously an abuse of power, completely appropriate, hilarious and painful. Impressive.

Those years (2003-2007) were the banner days of the Rivalry. It’s just nothing like it used to be. Back in 2004 I literally had to buy OTC sleep aids just so I could sleep during the playoffs.

[49] Too many games and most of the strong antagonistic personalities have left. They are just long, stressful games that have no upside and occur 19 fucking times a year.

I think that sums it up Snuggles. We need a good Yanks/Sox ALCS to fix things.

[49-51]
Actually, I think those games just changed us.
You can’t feel that way year-in, year-out.
No one could take it.
It was a joy at first, but eventually became unbearable.

Happy New Year!

In 1991 I attended this game: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS199106270.shtml That was a very bad Yankees team; they finished the year 71-91.  In this game, however, they prevailed over TWN, 8-0.  When my father, Mel Hall, hit a homer to deep right, I, wearing my favorite Yankees jacket, rose from my seat to cheer.  Suddenly I felt myself doused from behind with a warm yellow sticky fluid.  Fortunately it was only beer.  When I complained to the nearest security guard, he said, “What did you expect wearing that f*cking jacket here?”

Meanwhile at the fascist (old) Yankee Stadium, a security guard made my friend take off his “Boston Sucks” shirt when we went to a game vs TWN a couple of years ago.

Truly, you can’t predict baseball.

[55] But they didn’t take away your D batteries, now did they ?

[47] See? That just cements the scumbaggitude of Bostonians. New Yorkers have the decency to pull their Summer of Sam stuff AWAY from view of the police.

Also, quoth Pineda: “I’m feeling great and I’m beyond excited. I never thought I would become a New York Yankee so early into my career.”

Res ipsa ...

[12] That guy was definitely serving coffee in Au Bon Pain somewhere in Huntington Avenue.

I did have some good times at Fenway Park, though. My favorite memory was probably Jeter’s three run homer off Schilling on a Sunday night in September in 2007. That game also ended with a classic Mo/Ortiz battle with the bases loaded.

Wilson Betemit signs with the Orioles.

[60] He got a two-year deal with an option on a third.  Whew.  I didn’t think he could command that kind of a deal.

Seems Cashman is up to something on the trade front.  He mentioned in a conference call that he prefers to trade an arm for a bat and getting a DH on the FA market is plan B.  Sherman twitters to same effect.

LoHud: “Cashman refused to speculate on who would round out his rotation next season, but he dismissed the notion that Phil Hughes — because of his past bullpen success — is an obvious candidate to be bumped out of the rotation. “I think he’s a starter,” Cashman said. “I know he can pitch out of the pen, but I don’t look at him as a reliever. Never have. I know with any quality arm, whether it’s CC or A.J. or Nova or Hughes or now Pineda, you can run them out there into the pen and they’d look pretty special. But it’s not something you want to do.””

Unless it’s Joba.

Trading Garcia makes more sense to me, as he is cheap and is a good bet that he will eat some innings at league average ERA, he could bring a nice return at DH.

On Wahlberg…his early movies I wasn’t too impressed.  E.g. Three Kings.  But since then I’ve liked him.  I agree that I think he’s settled into knowing what roles work for him, and he plays those roles well.

On Shamalan…I really liked The Sixth Sense, and Unbreakable.  I honestly haven’t seen Signs - not all of it - but most people say it’s good.  I hated The Village, only other “recent” movie of his I’ve seen is The Last Airbender, but only because I watch the cartoon with my kids and wanted to see it with them.  It was hilarious.  Wasn’t supposed to be, but was.

On Nickleback…I like them, and know several other people who do.  But I don’t actually own any of their music.  They are one of those bands that you (or me anyway) always find yourself signing along when they’re on the radio, but rarely do you say, “I think I’ll pop that CD in”.  Saw them in concert, went more because all four bands (Hinder, Saving Abel, Papa Roach) together was worth it.  Good show.

Unless it’s Joba.

You know, considering how much effort the Yankees seem to go through to get other young starters a full opportunity to start.  Considering how many analysts they have on staff, including looking at sabremetrics.  Considering all that…I’m of the mind they aren’t just being stubborn or blind, that they know (or at least believe) something about Joba that makes him ill-suited to start.  Doesn’t mean that they are correct of course.  But I’m not going to stress over it.

Trading Garcia makes more sense to me

Trading AJ makes the most sense.  They owe him $33M.  If they eat $25M, they’re saving $8M.  That’s more than they save with Garcia.  It also removes a problem for next year.  I also like the idea of Garcia as the 6th starter better than AJ.  There are issues with both of course…AJ has a limited no-trade.  Garcia can’t be traded until a month or two after the seasons starts (de-facto no-trade).  Garcia is old, isn’t flashy, and hasn’t thrown 170 innings in a long time.  AJ is (not as) old, stuff is declining, and is a bit of a head case.  Trading Hughes of course is easiest, because he’s young, cheap, and even if a team views him as a setup man, has surplus value.  But that’s all the more reason for Yankees to keep him…

I don’t know if any of you watch Dexter, but I just finished season 6 and HOLYFUCK.

Mike, that all made sense except for the but I’m not going to stress over it. You do know where you are, right?
I hope you’re at least anticipating arguing fruitless about it at great length and with passion.

Evidently the O’s want a potential defensive upgrade over Mark Reynolds. Man, that’s funny.

You know, if the Yankees had just an extra twelve million dollars or so, they could have easily afforded both Pena and Betemit, but where could that have possibly come from?

[68] could that money possibly have been spent on a middle reliever whom SG admires so fervently?

Assuming the prison were okay with it, would any of you recommend the acquisition of a Ukrainian bride?

Posada: “I could never wear another uniform…I will forever be a Yankee.’’

“Everytime I stepped through the Yankee Stadium doors ... I quoted Joe DiMaggio, ‘I thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee.’”

Diana Munson up to the podium. 
Tuesday January 24, 2012 11:23
11:24 She and Jorge hug… 
Tuesday January 24, 2012 11:24
11:24 “This is a man who, probably doesn’t realize it, but he in fact is the one who brought me back to baseball.” 
Tuesday January 24, 2012 11:24
11:24 “After losing Thurman, I lost my heart for baseball.” 
Tuesday January 24, 2012 11:24
11:25 “I have admired and loved watching him play the game. He played the way Thurman did, with a lot of grittiness and toughness.” 
Tuesday January 24, 2012 11:25
11:26 “I think he and Thurman would have been best buds. He has the ‘it’ factor.”
“I’m honored to have loved two Yankees catchers in my life.”

[67] Lots of other things to complain about.  Like when the Noesi/Montero battery shuts the Yankees out with Martin grounding into 3 DP’s and Pineda letting up 6 runs (2 Montero HR)...

[70] I knew some Ukranian girls once.  If I had your savy, I would have realized the one who *couldn’t* speak English was the one to target…