LeBron James Loves the Yankees

For all the shoe fanatics out there.

LeBron James is releasing a new shoe with Nike that sports a NY Yankees theme (seen in the picture above). Check out the underside of the tongue. How great is that?

I’m loving this, and I’ll probably even buy a pair (so what if they were made in Indonesia for 10 cents… okay, that’s wrong, but still).

Olney’s Hypothetical

From Buster Olney (ESPN):

If the Twins struggle early, Smith could dangle Santana again during the season — and odds are he could get offers in quality to what he has now from the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets, and maybe even better, depending on the level of desperation of the teams involved. For example, if Andy Pettitte is distracted in the lawyered-up life he must live these days and struggles, and the Yankees are dying for a frontline pitcher like Santana, they might relent and give up Hughes and Ian Kennedy (depending on the development of other minor league pitchers).

From Hank Steinbrenner (NY Times):

“With young pitching, everybody seems to want to keep all of them — a lot of the fans and media seem to lean that way,” Steinbrenner said.

“But everybody’s got to remember, we’ve all got to be patient. They’re only going to get better. That’s a fact. The young pitchers are only going to get better and better each month. If one of them has two or three bad starts in a row, I won’t care, because I know what they can do, and all our people — all our baseball experts — know what they can do.”

I know it’s Hank Steinbrenner, but even so, I don’t think that Olney’s hypothetical is at all realistic, especially if the kids are actually doing well in 2008. Hank believes in the kids (enough) and I doubt he’d panic and do a midseason deal. If anything were to happen to Pettitte (e.g. legal issues, performance, etc.), the biggest issue would be innings as all three of the kids have their innings capped. However, one of the big-3 could simply fill in for Pettitte while Moose/Igawa fill out the rest of the rotation.

Weekly Bit: Random Red Sox Fan’s Opinion

In order to encourage some reader participation, each week, I’ll be posting one statement (or opinion, I guess) by a random Red Sox fan, and discussing the quote (if discussion is truly necessary or warranted). Many of the quotes will be taken via Facebook and without the consent of their original authors (in case you were wondering).

Most of the time (like for this instance), I will not discuss the texts, and will likely just post them and ask if you (my faithful readers) have any sort of reactions (Red Sox fans are welcome too, of course). Then I’ll hop into the discussion.

Try not to get too riled up when you read these. Some of them will probably upset you (Yankees fans), so please don’t go out and punch the nearest Red Sox fan you see or know (or at least don’t punch them hard). If this fails, I’ll just discuss them myself or I’ll post up random quotes that are simply nonsensical (which is also fun).

Here’s the first of the series:

Joba can’t be a part of both the bullpen and the starting rotation. Aside from Rivera (who is old and way past his prime), who is only good for a maximum of like 6 outs (and you’d probably have to rest him for like 3 days afterwards since he’s not as young as he used to be), the Yankees have no bullpen. As for the starters, Mussina and Pettitte are also too old and past their primes, and about the only thing they’ll be good for is passing their wisdom on to the young guys (none of whom are as scary as the Yankees make them out to be). Case and point: the Yankees may have a solid offense, but it’s going to do nothing for them unless they can get their pitching together, and frankly, I don’t think they have yet (maybe in a few years).That’s an interesting point about the Yankees and their fans. They have this incredible ability to blow things out of proportion. I’ve been watching Yankees fans talk like the sun shines out of the asses of Chamberlain, Hughes, and Kennedy. All it’s going to do is set them up for disappointment when these three pitchers have mediocre seasons at best. It happened with Wang: he’s a mediocre pitcher surrounded by a terrible starting rotation with a strong offense behind him, so he looks a lot better than he really is (about the only good stat of his is that he has the most wins of any pitcher over the past two seasons, and wins are very dependent on offense). Then all of the Yankees fans were disappointed come the postseason when the offense (a.k.a. A-Rod) stopped being good and he was shown to be the so-so pitcher he really is.

The Red Sox have a World Series team, and now that Gagne is gone, Francona will not be tempted to try to use him anymore so things can only get better. I think we can look forward to another season of the Yankees playing catch-up the whole time, only this time they won’t even have the season series to hold over the heads of the Red Sox.

I see a few valid statements. But, the rest doesn’t look to promising (Chien-Ming Wang is mediocre?). Reactions? Thoughts? Emotional outbursts?

The Dawning of a New Day

How about this brand, spanking new image:

What a great look. The New York Post has more information and pics of the stadium’s development. I for one am pretty excited about the new ballpark. The Yankees have become a transnational, iconic organization and therefore, they need a stadium that captures the essence and feel that is put forth by the team.

I love the old stadium, but we have to come to grips with the fact that it was falling apart, and will be torn down. Many memories have been forged beyond its entryway, and whether they involved family members, friends, ballplayers, etc, those memories will still be with us, even after the stadium is gone.

Are You Kidding Me?

From the Houston Chronicle:

Commissioner Bud Selig seems ready to suspend San Francisco Giants owner Peter Magowan and general manager Brian Sabean for looking the other way while a certain slugger bulked up and hit a bunch of home runs. Magowan and Sabean are front and center for the ethical dilemma many baseball people found themselves in regarding steroids. At some point, they had to suspect Barry Bonds was doing something.

If this is the case, Selig should be prepared to suspend himself and everyone else in the MLB. Everyone knew what was going on and everyone looked the other way. There’s no point in singling out specific people anymore.

Bad Week for Miguel Tejada

For whatever reason, the Justice Department may investigate Miguel Tejada, as they attempt to validate or discredit the testimony he provided to the House Committe on Oversight and Government Reform in an “undisclosed” interview (related to steroid use and Rafael Palmeiro) over 2 years ago.

Honestly, why waste your time on this? 

Miguel Tejada has truly had a tough week. Sadly, The Justice Department is the least of his worries. On Tuesday, his older brother was also killed in a motorcyle accident in the Dominican Republic. Of course, our thoughts go out to the Tejada family during these tough times.