Results tagged ‘ ESPN ’
Wells loses steal in official scoring change
Vernon Wells lost a stolen base when an official scorer’s ruling was changed from Wednesday night’s game at Coors Field. Rockies shortstop Jonathan Herrera has instead been charged with an error for dropping the throw from catcher Wilin Rosario that allowed Wells to be safe at second base. Wells eventually scored on an infield hit by Brennan Boesch. Due to the error that run is now unearned on the record of Colorado reliever Rafael Betancourt. This was the correct call. Wells was running on a hit-and-run play and would have been out at second if Herrera had hung on to Rosario’s accurate throw.
ESPN has grabbed the Yankees-Red Sox game of June 2 for Sunday Night Baseball. That makes it an 8:05 p.m. start. The game is scheduled to air on ESPN2. It will move to ESPN if the NBA Western Conference finals playoff series goes less than seven games.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Robinson Cano reached the 1,500-hit mark Thursday at Denver eight years and six days after his major league debut (May 3, 2005), the shortest span from a player’s first big-league game to 1,500 hits for the Yankees. Derek Jeter had the previous mark of eight years and 79 days. The only active players who made it to the milestone quicker than Cano in terms of days after their major-league debut are Ichiro Suzuki, Albert Pujols and Juan Pierre. Elias also noted that Cano (30 years, 199 days old) became the fifth Yankees player to reach 1,500 hits before his 31st birthday, joining Mickey Mantle (28 years, 305 days) in 1960, Jeter (29 years, 51 days) in 2003, Lou Gehrig (29 years, 52 days) in 1932 and Don Mattingly (30 years, 94 days) in 1991. . .Cano’s 186th career home run Thursday put him in 17th place on the Yankees’ all-time list, one ahead of Paul O’Neill. Next up in 16th place is Tino Martinez at 192.
Martin takes Kuroda off the hook
Hiroki Kuroda continued his success at Yankee Stadium Sunday night, although he was not involved in the decision. Kuroda ended up with a no-decision thanks to his catcher, Russell Martin, who homered leading off the seventh inning and singled with two out in the eighth to drive in Andruw Jones from second base to tie the score.
The Red Sox had taken a 2-0 lead in the second inning on a two-run double by Ryan Sweeney. After that, Kuroda shut down Boston on five hits through the eighth and was supported by four double plays.
With the no-decision, Kuroda’s record at the Stadium this season remained 7-3. He lowered his ERA in home games to 2.63 and has held opponents to a .222 batting average with seven home runs and 23 RBI in 82 innings. Over his past 12 starts, Kuroda is 7-1 with a 2.46 ERA and 73 strikeouts in 84 innings.
Martin has had a miserable time of it this season at the plate, but before a national television audience on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball he had one of his best offensive games with two walks, the home run and the RBI single.
Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine should have done some homework before bringing in his closer, Alfredo Aceves, to pitch to Martin. The catcher had 3-for-5 (.600) with a home run off Aceves in his career before that at-bat. So make it 4-for-6 (.667) now.
Scoring change benefits Cano
Robinson Cano picked up an additional extra-base hit and run batted in before taking the field Friday night at Detroit’s Comerica Park. In response to an appeal by the Yankees, Major League Baseball overruled an official scorer’s decision during their 6-3 victory May 25 at Oakland.
A liner to right-center field with two out in the third inning by Cano was initially ruled an error on center fielder Coco Crisp, who got a glove on the ball but failed to hold it. Mark Teixeira then hit a two-run home run. MLB decided to credit Cano with a double and an RBI. The change was good news for Cano but not for Athletics pitcher Tyson Ross because it made all three Yankees runs that inning earned instead of unearned.
Another change announced by MLB was the starting time for the Yankees-Mets game June 24 at Citi Field. ESPN has selected the game for its Sunday Night Baseball cablecast and will begin at 8:05 p.m.
Posada out as Yanks DH
For the second time this season, Jorge Posada’s absence in the lineup of a Yankees-Red Sox game on a national telecast drew attention. Posada was on the bench Sunday night despite his having decent career statistics against Red Sox starter Josh Beckett. This was more than a one-game situation, however.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi met with Posada before the game and informed him that he would no longer be the Yankees’ designated hitter against right-handed pitching. That meant Posada would no longer be the Yanks’ DH, period, since he has started against lefthanders for months.
Sunday night’s game was cablecast on ESPN. Back on May 14 on a Saturday night telecast by FOX at Yankee Stadium, Posada stirred controversy by taking himself out of the lineup after he saw that he was to have batted ninth. The story blew away a few days later when Posada started hitting with some consistency.
Posada got his average up to .240 June 29 when he hit his ninth and most recent home run. In 78 at-bats since then, Jorgie has batted .205 with three doubles and four RBI, a pretty unproductive record for the only purely offensive spot in the order. Posada has never been comfortable in the role after 14 seasons as the Yankees’ regular catcher. In 243 at-bats as the DH, Posada has hit .218 with eight home runs and 25 RBI. Interestingly, Jorgie has batted .344 with one home run and six RBI in 32 at-bats as a first baseman.
Girardi can hardly be blamed for shaking things up. Although Posada was a .267 career hitter against Beckett in 45 at-bats, Girardi decided it was time to use Eric Chavez as the DH against right-handed pitching. Against lefties, Girardi will use Andruw Jones as well as Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez when he wants to give them a break from playing the field. A-Rod is still on the disabled list at this point and working out at the Yankees’ complex in Tampa, Fla.
Frankly, what kept this move from coming earlier was Chavez being on the DL from May 6 to July 25. Chavez entered play Sunday night batting .323 in 65 at-bats. It remains unclear where Posada will fit in the rest of the way. He has only a .215 career average as a pinch hitter in 135 at-bats, including 1-for-8 (.125) this year.
Girardi could have had both Posada and Chavez in the lineup Sunday night if the manager had played Chavez at third base, which he did Saturday against John Lackey. Had that been the case, however, then Eduardo Nunez would have been on the bench, the same Nunez who homered off Beckett in the fifth inning to tie the score.
Yanks feel heat from Red Sox
The pitchers’ duel expected Saturday night from the Yankees’ CC Sabathia and the Red Sox’ Josh Beckett played out for six innings. Boston scored two runs in the fifth on a bases-loaded double by Jacoby Ellsbury, but this was still a ballgame. It became less so when the Sox poured across four runs in the seventh.
The crushing blow against CC was a three-run home run by Adrian Gonzalez, who also homered Friday night and has now gone deep in four consecutive games, half way toward the record that is shared by Dale Long, Don Mattingly and Junior Griffey.
From the Yankees’ standpoint, the pitch that really ruined the inning was a 2-2 slider to Jason Varitek that plate umpire Mike Winters called a ball. It was one of those borderline pitches that could have gone either way. It went the Red Sox’ way. Sabathia was clearly annoyed by it and perhaps had enough of a lapse in concentration that he gave up a single to Varitek on the next pitch that scored the third run.
CC retired Ellsbury on an infield pop for the second out, but Dustin Pedroia singled sharply past Mark Teixeira at first base and Gonzalez followed with his ninth homer of the season. A 2-0 game had suddenly become 6-0. Yankees manager Joe Girardi gave Winters a piece of his mind after removing Sabathia and was ejected.
“Mike called a lot of pitches low in the zone for strikes,” Girardi said. “The pitch to Varitek turned out to be a pivotal pitch in the game.”
It was a tough night for the manager, who had one of his players, designated hitter Jorge Posada, pull himself from the starting lineup before a national television audience on Fox. The whole country gets to watch these two teams again Sunday night on ESPN.
Buckett held the Yankees to four hits, all singles, and two walks with nine strikeouts through six innings and has not yielded a run in 14 innings against them this year. The Yanks’ failure in the clutch continues to haunt them. They had 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position Saturday night and are 1-for-17 (.059) for the series and 5-for-39 (.128) in their first four-game losing streak of the season.
The Yankees have lost four of five games this year against Boston. They trail the Rays by two games in the American League East and are only two games ahead of the third-place Red Sox, who after that 2-10 start are now within a game of .500. The Yankees’ chances of running away and hiding in the division have run away and hid.
Anniversary of a legendary voice
Sunday marks the 60th anniversary of the first game worked by public address announcer Bob Sheppard at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees will conclude the homestand with an 8 p.m. game against the Rangers on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball.”
Back on April 17, 1951, the Yankees opened their season against the Red Sox. The game also marked the major-league debut of Mickey Mantle, who played right field and batted third in the order and had a single in four at-bats.
Sheppard, who died in 2010 at the age of 99, was the Stadium’s PA voice until late in the 2007 season before he was sidelined by illness. His voice is still heard at the Stadium whenever Derek Jeter steps to the plate. Sheppard recorded his announcement of Jeter and it continues to play before each of the Captain’s at-bats.
Bob worked 121 consecutive post-season games at the Stadium, including 62 games in the World Series, from 1951 to 2006. He also handled similar duties for the football Giants, who moved to Yankee Stadium from the Polo Grounds in 1956. Sheppard continued to do Giants games at their stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands through 2005, a total of 50 seasons.
Here are the lineups Bob introduced for that ’51 opener, won by the Yankees, 5-0.
Boston Red Sox New York Yankees
Dom DiMaggio, CF Jackie Jensen, LF
Billy Goodman, RF Phil Rizzuto, SS
Ted Williams, LF Mickey Mantle, RF
Vern Stephens, 3B Joe DiMaggio, CF
Walt Dropo, 1B Yogi Berra, C
Bobby Doerr, 2B Johnny Mize, 1B
Lou Boudreau, SS Billy Johnson, 3B
Buddy Rosar, C Jerry Coleman, 2B
Billy Wright, P Vic Raschi, P
PSAL title game Tuesday at Stadium
In connection with the inaugural New Era Pinstripe Bowl Dec. 30 at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees have scheduled a series of community initiatives with New York City’s Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL). In support of the PSAL, the Yankees installed a new all-grass football field at Harry S. Truman High School in the Bronx. The sod was donated by DeLea Sod Farms, which plants the same type of grass at Yankee Stadium.
The Stadium will also be the site of the PSAL Football Championship Game at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7, featuring two Brooklyn high schools, Abraham Lincoln against Fort Hamilton. It will be the first high school football game to be contest to be played in the current Stadium. All tickets for the PSAL Championship will be distributed through the PSAL. Fans may request tickets by e-mailing Jennifer Moreno at jmoreno6@schools.nyc.gov.
The Yankees also plan to honor the best scholar-athletes in New York City Monday, Dec. 20, at the Stadium during their first annual “MVP Dinner.” The occasion will bring together 55 male and female students – 11 from each borough – who have led by example in the community, classroom and respective sports. The top graduating high school scholar-athlete from each borough will also be recognized during halftime of the New Era Pinstripe Bowl by introducing them to the crowd and designating them as “Borough Captains.”
During the week of the New Era Pinstripe Bowl, which will pit Syracuse against Kansas State, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation will host instructional clinics in conjunction with the Yankees for New York City-based youth tackle football teams. The clinics will take place at Macombs Dam Park, located across the street from Yankee Stadium.
On the morning of the New Era Pinstripe Bowl, the Yankees and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation are inviting high school performing arts students to Macombs Dam Park for the “Battle of the Bands.” The marching bands of the competing universities in the game will warm up with a friendly musical competition for local youth.
Kickoff for the New Era Pinstripe Bowl is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 30, and will be televised nationally televised by ESPN, which has also secured national and local radio rights for ESPN Radio.
Granderson nominated for Clemente Award
Center fielder Curtis Granderson is the Yankees’ 2010 nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Chevrolet. He is one of the 30 nominees, one from each club, which are finalists for the national award that is given annual to the major league player who combines a dedication to giving back to the community with outstanding skills on the baseball field.
Wednesday marked the ninth annual Roberto Clemente Day, which was established by Major League Baseball to honor his legacy and officially recognize nominees of the award named for the 12-time All-Star and Hall of Famer who died in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve 1972 while attempting to deliver supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. The award pays tribute to Clemente’s achievements and character by recognizing talented current players who understand the value of helping others.
Granderson established the Grand Kids Foundation in 2008, an organization that focuses on improving opportunities for inner-city youth in the areas of education and youth baseball. The foundation recently partnered with the 2010 ING New York City Marathon to create “Team Granderson,” a charitable team that helps raise money and promote awareness for stronger educational programs for inner-city youth. He has also participated in various public service announcements, including the White House’s anti-obesity campaign and as a spokesman for the New York Public Library’s summer reading program.
This marks Granderson’s third Roberto Clemente Award nomination. He was also the Tigers’ nominee in 2007 and 2009. Last year, he won the Jefferson Award for Public Service from All Stars Helping Kids as a top athlete who has given back to his community and the Major League Players Association’s Marvin Miller Award, as voted by major-league players, for his work on and off the field that inspires others to higher levels of achievement.
The Yankees recognized Granderson’s nomination for this year’s Clemente Award on the field at Yankee Stadium before Wednesday’s game against the Orioles. Yankees shortstop and captain Derek Jeter was last year’s Clemente Award winner. Other Yankees winners were pitcher Ron Guidry in 1984 and outfielder Don Baylor in 1985. YES broadcasters Al Leiter and Ken Singleton also won the award, Leiter in 2000 with the Mets and Singleton in 1982 with the Orioles.
Fans are encouraged to take part in the process of selecting the award winner by visiting http://www.chevy.com/clemente, powered by MLB.com, from now until Oct. 8 to vote for one of the nominees. Participants will be automatically registered for a chance to win a trip to the 2010 World Series where the national winner of the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Chevrolet will be announced.
The winner of the fan poll will receive one vote among those cast by the selection panel consisting of Vera Clemente, the Hall of Famer’s widow; commissioner Bud Selig; MLB Network analyst and former Roberto Clemente Award winner Harold Reynolds; MLB Network analyst, TBS broadcaster and former Roberto Clemente Award winner John Smoltz; Hall of Famer and ESPN broadcaster Joe Morgan; former All-Star catcher and FOX broadcaster Tim McCarver; and MLB.com senior correspondent Hal Bodley.
Jack O'Connell
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