Sheppard in the Booth

From Ken Davidoff (Newsday):

Bob Sheppard, the Yankees’ venerable public address announcer, recently signed a two-year extension. While he probably won’t be ready for Opening Day — last October’s case of pneumonia took a great deal out of him — Shepherd, believed to be 97, should return about two months into the regular season.

Before, it was believed that Bob Sheppard was pretty much done with announcing and that his son, Chris, may even have a shot at being his successor. However, Davidoff’s new information seems to suggest otherwise (at least for now).

Upper Deck’s Presidential Predictor Pack

Upper Deck has a pack of “baseball cards” out that features the current (e.g. Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton) and former presidential hopefuls (for the upcoming election).

I must say, the Presidential Predictor Pack (as it is called), is an interesting set of cards. At least Mitt Romney is one of the former guys (I don’t care that he’s Mormon, but being a New Englander bothers me).

If you don’t see Hillary Clinton’s baseball card on the Upper Deck site, there is a reason for that. The card was has actually been pulled after it was dubbed too offensive to some. What, having the first ever female presidential hopeful wearing hot pants and having her ass cheeks hang out didn’t throw up any red flags? They actually have her dressed up as Morganna, aka the Kissing Bandit.

Here’s the pic. Since the cards were already in production and have now been pulled from production, they’re are actually a couple of them on eBay.

For whatever random reason, I feel as though I have to make a steroid comment. Here, you can see why baseball is held to such a high regard. It’s the sport that has tremendous historical relevance, and has truly engrained itself within American culture. Even future Presidents have baseball cards, see that?

Could this explain why baseball is always treated differently in society?

An Interesting Exchange

From the NY Times:

TAMPA, Fla. — Joba Chamberlain recently tried to involve his fellow pitcher Mike Mussina in some postpractice recreation in the Yankees’ clubhouse.

Addressing Mussina by his nickname, Moose, Chamberlain asked if he wanted to join in playing video games. No, the 39-year-old Mussina told the 22-year-old Chamberlain; he does not play video games.

Want to watch me play video games? Chamberlain asked. No thanks, Mussina said. Well, Chamberlain continued, would Mussina like to play Ping-Pong? Without answering, Mussina kept walking out the door and turned left down the corridor.

So Chamberlain added in a loud voice, “Hey, is the hearing the first thing to go when you get old?”

Suddenly, Mussina reappeared in the doorway and replied, “I hear everything!” in a way that made Chamberlain smile and onlookers chuckle.

I wonder what video game it was? MLB The Show (which I play religiously)? Anyways, do any of you find Moose’s reaction to be somewhat cold? I can understand not wanting to play Joba Chamberlain in video games or ping pong, but to not answer him while walking away is sort of interesting. Recently, I wrote about how Mussina has been a mentor for Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, as he has the locker directly between the two young starters. In that same post I asked “what about Joba?”

So, I ask again, what’s the deal?

Wang Opening Day Starter?

Peter Abraham thinks it’ll play out that way. Obviously, this is no surprise at all. Hopefully, everyone is healthy by the time opening day rolls around.

UPDATE (02/24/08)– Kat O’Brien spoke with Girardi and although he didn’t confirm anything about his rotation, including the opening day starter, when asked if Wang could likely be that starter, Girardi said that it was a “pretty safe” idea.

Jeter Doesn’t Want to Switch Positions… Not Yet, Anyway

Mark Feinsand did a good job and asked Jeter about the old “Jeter’s defense is getting worse every year and will inevitably have to switch to another position” theme. The Captain had some interesting comments in response:

One recent University of Pennsylvania study tabbed Jeter as the worst defensive shortstop in the majors, but the Yankees’ captain has no plans to pull a Robin Yount or Ernie Banks and shift positions for the latter years of his career.

Instead, he plans on playing shortstop through the final three years of his current contract, and on remaining there for however many years he plays beyond 2010.

“That’s the plan,” Jeter said. “I haven’t really thought about how long I’m playing. I take it one year at a time; I don’t sit down and say, ‘Well, I hope I’m playing in two-thousand whatever.’ It’s a tough question, because I haven’t really thought about it much.”

Could Jeter, who has been named to eight American League All-Star teams in his 12 big-league seasons – four as the league’s starting shortstop – ever see himself playing another position?

“Right now?” Jeter said, “No.”

He didn’t necessarily shoot down the concept, altogether. He essentially said that for now, this is what he’s doing and this is where he’ll play. It could change later on, but that transition is still fairly far off in the horizon. Jeter still thinks he can play well defensively (which I think is somewhat debatable, although the stats don’t ”lie”), despite that UPenn study which really got a tremendous amount of media coverage.

So what position would Jeter play if he didn’t play SS? Obviously he’s not going to be behind the plate. I’ve stated before that Jeter could possibly be a good outfielder and that he may even be a valuable asset at first base. Mark Feinsand elaborates a bit more.

Many scouts believe Jeter would be able to make an easy transition to the outfield, where his speed, strong arm and terrific instincts would make him a natural. Asked about the possibility, Jeter waves off the question before it’s finished.

Recently, Buster Olney (ESPN) offerred a similar evaluation as well.

Jeter, who turns 34 this summer, has reached the stage of his career where he will be evaluated year to year at shortstop, and if he regresses from how he played the position last year, he may well be asked to move, to first base or the outfield. Personally, I think he would be better suited at first base than in the outfield, whenever he makes a move off shortstop, and could become an excellent first baseman.

It’s an interesting idea, moving Jeter to first or to the OF. It’s all debatable and a position switch definitely makes sense when you think about it (not necessarily now, but later). However, exactly how practical is this idea, and what does Jeter think about it. Well, Feinsand got to hear about that too. Here’s what Jeter had to say about a switch.

“Hopefully, I don’t have to think about that for quite some time,” Jeter said.

Oh, okay. Well, how about playing the outfield Derek?

“I ain’t going out there,” Jeter said. “It’s not as easy as it sounds to just pick up a glove and say, ‘I’m going to be an outfielder today.’ It doesn’t work like that.”

For all of those who think Jeter should move to another position one day, maybe we have to come to the realization that it just won’t happen. Olney states that Jeter is being evaluated, defensively, “year to year at shortstop”. However, when Joe Girardi speaks about Jeter and his abilites at SS, he seems ready to keep Jeter there for the rest of his career (or at least for the rest of his managerial tenure).

“The thing about a guy like Derek Jeter is that it’s hard to envision him not playing,” Girardi said. “There is going to come a day when he’ll retire, but in my mind, it’s too far out so I don’t really see it. Maybe if he’s playing at 47, he won’t be a shortstop.”

So, we can argue about Jeter’s defense all we want. At the end of the day, the man will be manning that position for years. He could even be there beyond 2010. What’s amazing about this whole situation is that the UPenn study really caused all of this. It’s pretty interesting how quickly it became mainstream knowledge (even though it’s highly statistical) and Jeter himself had to actually respond to it.

You think he’s bitter?

As for his current position, Jeter feels he’s a better shortstop now than he was during the early years of his career thanks to experience. By making the necessary adjustments on a regular basis, Jeter is constantly addressing what he feels are his strengths and weaknesses in the field. Just don’t ask him what those are.

“I’ll leave that to the computers to figure out,” he said with a grin.

Hmmm, yeah, I think he’s a little bitter…

Duncan Versus Kennedy

From the Times-Herald Record:

On the field: It was the first day of live batting practice with Chamberlain, Mussina and Chien-Ming Wang throwing some BP on the main field. The pitchers are usually ahead of the hitters and for the most part that was true. Ian Kennedy nearly hit his buddy, prospect Eric Duncan, and the two kidded about it in the clubhouse later. Kennedy called “Hey, rook!” to Duncan as he teased him and the player later joked he would have had to take a “hard first step” toward the mound if he had been hit by his friend.

“Hey, rook” is right. I wonder if Eric Duncan will ever improve. He was thought to be a special talent at one point and, in fact, he’s still thought to be a special talent, it just hasn’t really translated to any substantial or consistent success thus far (his career line in the minor leagues is .250/.338/428). However, Duncan is still very young, so maybe he can rebound and put up some adequate numbers next season.