YFSF

Fancy Meeting You Here

On Saturday we met some friends in Prospect Park for a summer picnic, some frisbee throwing, and the eventual ice cream cone nearby. It was a beautiful day for such a gathering, and the park was full of other like-minded souls happily enjoying the lovely weather. As we began to pack up our gear, a voice called. "Andy? Andy SF?". I looked towards the voice, and not really understanding the "SF" suffix to my name (my last name is not SF!), I mumbled something on the lines of "no, INSERT REAL LAST NAME HERE", as if someone actually thought my last name was "SF". Now, YF and I have run this site for almost 8 years, and during the run of conversation here there's no chance I don't know what "SF" means. But out in Prospect Park and a little sun-addled, I really didn't know what was going on.

That is, until I saw the person and he introduced himself as "Nick, Nick from the blog". Nick (that's Nick-YF to most of you) had also been lounging about nearby, perhaps no more than 25 feet away. Now Nick, as many of you know, is based in Jakarta. Indonesia. In town for a mere couple of weeks, he had met some friends in Prospect Park at almost exactly the same time we were getting ready to head out from our spot on the grass. Nick had recognized me from Facebook, and that's all it took. It was a great end to a great Saturday - Nick was in town when Jeter hit his 3000th, and I was in Prospect Park when Nick happened to be visiting the exact same spot, all the way from the South Pacific. Those not from New York should realize that Prospect Park is big. As in 585 acres big. And I rarely go to Prospect Park - this was the second picnic I have been to in 15 years, and my other visits to the Park have typically involved the Zoo or the soccer fields. But on this day it might as well have been the corner barber store (though I would have been getting a shine or a shave, I am the bald guy on the left). It was amazing, after all these years of virtual interaction, to finally stand in the same space, talk baseball, catch up on life, to meet someone with whom I have had a friendship based simply on a shared love for our national pastime. It was a great day, and I am thankful to have met Nick, who is certainly as nice and enjoyable a person as he is in all of his posts.

3,000,000

This post is not about a free agent contract, or cash considerations sent in order to assume a bad Omar Minaya signing. It is, rather, about the number of page views this site has received over the past six years since we moved this blog to Typepad - we passed the 3M threshold sometime in the last month.

We fully realize that YF and I were solely responsible for the first half million, but nonetheless we are very proud to have had so many people stop by the site and join the fray. Many thanks to all who have participated and to our esteemed co-authors as well.

Onwards to 4,000,000!

Oops

So my last post around these parts was April 20.

Sorry about that.

I could give you a host of pretty good reasons -- new job; two kids 2 years old and under; the Red Sox' generally crappy season; and, frankly, frustrations with the tenor of the debate here, for which I know I shared some of the blame. Probably all that boils down to burnout. Since YF and SF first elevated me from the ranks of Lowly Commenter to Grand Poobah of Posts (it's in the contract) in May 2006, I crafted 1,159 pieces of art threw 1,159 pieces of dung at the wall to see what stuck, or roughly 290 per year. That's a lot of time and energy, probably an unhealthy amount, given that it is just a game and this is just the Internet.

I never stopped following the Red Sox, though doing so as closely as I did before our first daughter was born in July 2008 -- and then again before our second was born last November -- was obviously impossible. I lurked around SOSH for a while, actually scored a membership thanks to the writing I had done here, decided I didn't feel like paying for the privilege of hanging out with the cool kids, underwent some significant shifts in my personal life, especially regarding how I set priorities, and pretty much unplugged from baseball beyond reading the Boston Globe's Extra Bases blog (I'd be lying if I didn't admit the Sox' lousy year didn't help make that easier).

Yet baseball is something of a drug, and the Red Sox are the pushers, and here I am again. I've always been a sucker for the hot stove season -- the rumors, the drama, the hope, imagining five-way trades that would bring Justin Upton and Adrian Gonzalez to Boston simultaneously. You know how it is. I started posting comments on the Extra Bases blog, on the excellent Red Sox Beacon blog, Baseball Think Factory, etc.

Then I thought, "How much more effort would it be to just go back and do the same thing on YFSF?" AG sent me a link he'd posted, asking for my thoughts, and for the first time in months, I checked back in.

Turns out the site somehow hasn't collapsed since I left. And I think I still have some interesting things to say. So we'll see. I can't promise daily posts; in fact, I can pretty much guarantee nondaily posts. But if something catches my eye, I'll come around and post and comment and maybe even get into it a little bit (though not as much). The goal is to be healthy about this. 

I've always been grateful to SF and YF for the opportunity to post here, and I remain so. The game's not over. Let's play some ball.

Did Damon choose YF over SF?

On the surface, Johnny Damon chose the Detroit Tigers over the Boston Red Sox. But underneath it all, he actually made a different choice. Lee Jenkins gets it. He understands that all things Boston lead back to New York, and, in a way, this site.

He could not feign forgiveness. For the Red Sox front office, these negotiations may never have been personal, but for Damon they were. Despite his carefree persona, he held tight to a grudge, and while Red Sox fans were preparing to let go, he was not. Now, those fans will scorn him all over again, as if he were an outfielder in his prime headed to the Yankees, instead of a designated hitter in his twilight sticking with the Tigers.

Damon claimed that the decision to stay away from Boston was as difficult as the one to leave. In both instances, the Yankees were involved, though this time in a more tangential way. When the Tigers traveled to Yankee Stadium just last week, Damon was given a standing ovation, and he wondered how he would be treated if he were in a Red Sox uniform instead. Although Damon is beloved by his peers, who could not care less that he once left the Red Sox for a richer contract with the Yankees, he still seems concerned with how he is viewed by fans. He could not bear to jeopardize his relationship with a second major following.

By picking Tigers over Red Sox, Damon chose Yankees over Red Sox. If his allegiance were not clear five years ago, it is today.

Ergo, Johnny is ours. Does everyone agree?

Back to Reality

You are the hottest girls and proudly buff guys from Massa -freakin-chusettes who believe in God, Family, The Red Sox and partying!!

Finally, a reality show casting call that Paul and I can respond to and not feel like outliers!

(h/t Mrs. SF)

Back Back Back Back Back Back...

A little history for you YFSF devotees. See us as infants here.

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Love Letter In Nine Innings

Reading through the highly entertaining non-gamer threads the last couple of days, I realized I haven't said some things I should have said a long time ago.

1. I love Paul's posts. He is thorough, always interesting, and committed to writing intriguing, intelligent, balanced articles. However, I dislike Paul personally, because his technical writing skills, overwhelming study of statistics, and the fact I feel like I should be paying money for his insight combine to make me feel like a lazy jackass. Which I am. I would prank call a dozen pizzas to his door right now to make me feel better, except that would take more effort than my lazy ass is willing to... eh screw it. That sentence required too much effort to type.

2. I love Jacoby Ellsbury. I would go to Dr. Nick's secret island lair clinic to get gender reassignment if it were guaranteed that I could have Jacoby Ellsbury's babies. But Dr. Nick gives no guarantees.

3. I love Mariano Rivera. But I don't want to have his babies. My own two-year-old hit me in the head with a golf ball and it hurt like hell, and that was without any cutting action on his fastball.

4. I love that the Yanks have an 84-48 record on 9/2. No other team in the game has cracked 80 wins. Those dark nights spent standing on the railing of a bridge back in June after dropping every game to the Sox seem so far away now.

5. I love that Andy Pettitte doesn't suck.

6. I love that everyone is always trying to figure out if Derek Jeter is overrated or underrated. Fact is, all everyone wants to do is rate him because he keeps doing totally awesome things year after year, which I guess makes him "over" rated.

7. I love my fitted Yankees cap, and I hate hats. It's taken more than five years for it to start to fit right, and is one of only two hats I own I do not hate. I hate hats.

8. I love every comment that pretends to say there is some system that lets sox-centric authors get away/commit some perceived atrocity regarding "fairness" that the yanks-centric authors don't attempt, or any comment that tries to throw the TOS up for discussion. Keep them coming, because...

9. I love a good laugh.

Site Maintenance

Nick was complaining that the blue was wearing off the Yankee letters, so we've got a bit of housekeeping to do. Hopefully it should not affect things for long.

update 1:06p - all done.

Separated at Birth: Variety Show Edition

 

By day he is an esteemed writer, Yankee blogger, and design critic.  By night, a visually impaired Billy Joel impersonator.

A true American Idol.

(h/t to Mrs. SF for pointing out the resemblance)