YFSF

MF vs. IF

One's a big-haired foam-loving shrimp who seems to annoy everyone with whom he comes in contact.  The other's a bad-glasses-wearing-succeeding-under-the-radar poseur and closet d*ckwad.  Both love to be the center of attention. 

And no, we're not talking about Paul and the Gerb ;-).  We're talking about Marcel and Ilan, the two finalists for Top Chef.  Due to the dearth of baseball, the site will be, for one night only, about the biggest rivalry in television cooking.  Consider this your evening's game thread for all things culinary. 

(and PLEASE do not spoil the results if you have inside information.  We know some websites have been advertising the possible outcome, but we here at YFSF don't want to know. Keep a lid on it until Chef Tom awards the title. For our West Coast readers, that means 11pm EST -- those on the left coast may want to sit this thread out)

Hot Dog!

All the ladies asking him to their various proms and formals died a little inside. Theo Epstein took himself off the market.

The Red Sox general manager threw a shutout at the paparazzi, gossip columnists, nosy sportswriters, celebrity bloggers, and any other potential wedding crashers by sneaking off earlier this month to marry Marie Whitney, and also managed to keep their honeymoon a secret.

Apparently initial reports that they married at Coney Island's original Nathan's Famous hot dog stand are not true. Perhaps she's more of an Astroland gal?

Oh, Yeah, By the Way....

They're back. Great. Greaaaaat. Baseball in 2007. All about the dignitude.

Closer and Closer

Tom Verducci weighs in on the Sox' closer, or lack thereof.   The article is quite interesting, and it offers a minor view into the mind of Theo Epstein, a view which helps explain why we Sox fans value him: honesty.  Epstein makes no bones about his dubious "closer by committee" plan in 2003.  And he offers blunt self-criticism of that idea: "I definitely didn't do a good job of choosing relievers overall".

Digging a little deeper, however, Epstein seems more self-assured that simply slotting relief pitchers into specific roles will work out better (I am dubious), while Verducci believes that the closer role is an overrated one (possible, but not well-proven by the writer).  I am skeptical. First of all, slotting players into specific roles doesn't necessarily convert them from mediocrities into superstars.  It's a good idea, and I like the psychology.  A good mindset can assist an athlete excel, without a doubt, but any player needs to have abilities and nerves commensurate with their responsibilities.  It's a pet peeve of mine when managers thrust players into roles that they are not familiar with; to me that unfamiliarity adds pressure.  But that's not to say a regular gig is a catalyst to greatness (or even goodness).  It most certainly is not. 

As for Verducci's "study" showing how the most recent World Series teams have fared, he points out that three of the teams succeeded without a bona fide closer on call.  I find this flawed.  The Cardinals won a division with barely a winning record.  Under normal circumstances, their lack of a closer would have contributed to them golfing in October.  This year their success was a fluke because of the horror of the NL Central and, perhaps, the demise of Brad Lidge (how ironic!).   The Diamondbacks also won the title in flukey fashion, having basically blown a World Series because of their reliance on an unproven closer with a sketchy head.  That they were able to rebound and beat the best closer ever was, to me, a miracle.  It still is.  So that hardly qualifies as a test case for the value of the closer.  And two years ago Bobby Jenks emerged and hasn't falterd since.  This season Jenks showed that he's a fine relief ace, and we may look back in a few years and see him with 150+ saves, reinforcing the fact that Jenks was, in fact, already the fantastic relief man that he is today, that his learning curve was very flat.

So we can trust from Verducci's article that the Sox will have something like a closer in April.  We won't know who that is.  And we won't know that the closer in April will also be the closer in October.  And all the while, we're not supposed to be too concerned.  So I wonder how this will all feel on a cold night about 9 weeks from now, when a Sox pitcher, TBD, strolls in from the bullpen to a random heavy metal song (also TBD), only to find himself unable to stand the pressure.  What then?

Love at First Sight?

Ok, so he's not on the Red Sox.  And since we've caught some (ill-directed) grief at our thoughts on Derek Jeter's love life, we thought we'd give Yankees fans a chance to take our city's pride and joy (one of them, anyway) to task for his Casanova act, post-Bridget.

Looks like Tom's moved on.

ED NOTE: Yowzah. Not sure what got into our dear SF. This is, of course, a family site. A downsized version of Mr. Brady's new squeeze after the jump. Most assuredly NSFW. Apologies!—YF

The Yankees Go to China

Last year, I wrote a book about the export of baseball around the globe in the nineteenth century—an Editor's Choice selection of the NYTBR, I might add—so, as you can imagine, the expansion of the game to foreign shores remains a subject of considerable interest. Last year the World Baseball Classic, for all its flaws and detractors, was a tremendous and inspirational success. (The Boston front office was clearly paying attention to the champion Japan squad.) It is thus with great pleasure that we learned today that the Yankees have signed an agreement with the Chinese Baseball Association by which the team will send coaches and training personnel to China to assist with the development of the game in that nation, and also welcome members of the CBA to Yankeeland back in the USA, so they can see how things are done here. There will, no doubt, be some nattering nabobs complaining of American cultural imperialism, and carping that the Yankees only interest is a mercenary desire to exploit a vast open market. Those arguments are only so fair. When does a healthy desire to share our national culture with others become an act of imperialism? Not all cultural exchange is hegemonic. Like it or not, our capitalistic system means that culture is business; the development of the two naturally go together. More than 100 years ago, the great baseball impressario Albert Spalding set off to plant baseball's flag around the globe. Like the Yankees, he was acting to a large degree on his own behalf—wherever the game could be established, he would have a new market for his nascent sporting-goods empire, and his team, today's Cubs, would be in the news.* But he knew well that the trip would lose money in the short run, and genuinely believed there was no greater good then spreading the American game, and through it the American way. If he were alive today, I suspect he'd be proud.

* Yankee fans can be forever grateful for Spalding's efforts to establish baseball in Australia. That late 90s dynasty may never have happened without Aussie Graeme Lloyd.

Under Construction

As you may or may not have noticed, and as SF intimated below, the categories to your left are in a bit of flux. We're redoing them to better reflect the discussions that now take place at YFSF, as well as to provide a better and easier reference/research tool for you. The idea is that when we're done, every post from the beginning of 2006 to now -- and from now on -- will be categorized into one or more of the 15 slots at the left. The names and types likely will change a bit as we head toward Opening Day, and we're always open to better ideas, so feel free to post some in the comments.

As always, these changes are designed to make YFSF a better place for our casual readers and avid posters alike -- and just maybe serve as some sort of simple chronology for the greatest rivalry in sports. So pardon our dust, and do keep dropping by!

The End of the Affair

That sound you hear is Red Sox Nation breathing a collective sigh of relief. Julian Tavarez isn't going anywhere!

We Need Your Help!

As we continue to refine the graphic design of our site, we also are looking to increase the sortability of posts through a more intuitive and easily searchable category system.  Many posts emerge with similar themes, so we've come up with a starter set.  Please let us know what you think of the following, or if you have any suggestions.

• Anything That Moves: Jeter's Love Life
• Humorlessness and RSN
• Traitorship Free Agency
• chASS

Clemens on 2007: Enough Already

Roger Clemens tells the Daily Texan he's not sure whether he'll pitch this season go with a burrito or lassagna for dinner tonight, and he just can't decide whether he should TiVo CSI and watch L&O, or TiVo L&O and watch CSI. He also hasn't made up his mind on who he prefers in the Top Chef finale and thinks either we should go with the whole troop surge thing or maybe more something closer to what the Iraq Study Group outlined. Not sure. And he has to go get a new blender this morning and can't figure out whether he's best with the Cuisinart or the Maytag, or whether he should drive to Best Buy or Target or Walmart, and whether he should take the Caddy or the Hummer or the Viper. Be sure to read tomorrow's paper though, because he'll be happy to let us know exactly how his thinking has morphed over the coming 24 hours, and thank god the press will be there to document these crucial developments.