Birthday wishes and Boston fans
Who’s the AccuWeather guy on our pregame? Haven’t seen him. Maybe we should ask him why they always get forecasts wrong. Or why it feels like March in October.
Or maybe we should just leave the poor guy alone and worry about blogging.
(By the way, this is last night’s post being posted this morning. Not sure what happened with the exchange last night. Catch you later today.)
No Beantown blues: One of you asked how the media is treated in Boston. Like dogs! Just kidding. The reporters mostly get along. (Some of the NY writers don’t exactly love each other, but that has nothing to do with Boston.) The players seem to get along. (Everyone in baseball talks to Big Papi during batting practice and the Yankees players are no exception.) The fans sometimes yell vile/nasty things, but that’s life. Boston is no different than any other place. Generally speaking, fans — and especially some callers to sports talk radio — have more venom than players or members of the media do.
On the menu: So everyone wishes Kenny a very Happy Birthday! Kenny had a nice lunch with his wife, whose blog “Mrs. Singy: Married to Baseball” is also available for your perusal on this site.
Besides Kenny’s chocolate cake, which is being cut as we write, dinner in the press dining room dinner included grilled chicken, peas and mac and cheese. Pretty healthy, particularly the chicken. So Kay went with ice cream for dinner. Flaherty had chicken and pizza; we had chicken, peas and mac and cheese. (We ate separately; no one likes to wait until after my pregame pop to eat with me. Well, actually, O’Neill does sometimes.) The Boston press dining is making a comeback this series. Much better than when we were here in April, when it was uncharacteristically slumping.
Speaking of slumps: The Boston fans are giving a clinic in how to treat a struggling superstar. They cheered Ortiz for flying out to deep center. The ball went to the deepest part of the park, but Ortiz walked off the field with his head hung.
And with the fans — some of whom were standing — cheering him.
Can Wang get right? The Red Sox scouting report on Wang indicated that he isn’t the old Wang, neither in command nor in velocity. Turns out, it was right as, for the second night in a row, the Yankees starter went two and 2/3. Not exactly what Girardi was hoping for.
The Kimberly Jones Blog 
Kudoes to Boston Fans, you should cheer on your heroes when they are down, Big Poppi is a class act, he’s not done yet. The Yankees need Wang bigtime. We should try everything to get him straightened out. He can do it.
I enjoy reading it but, your blog always makes me hungry.Good job
Wang was doing great in the minors, where he had regular work. When healthy, he’s a workhorse. His last start there was terrific. When Girardi put him in the bullpen is when it all went back downhill. Wang’s first appearance, in Texas, showed he had his old stuff back…but all the naps and card games between the short relief stints he had left him with no stamina again. I say give him two more minor league starts and bring him back up again…to start!! By the way, the bullpen duty is going to do the same thing to Phil Hughes, you watch. His next start, whenever it is, will be over before the fourth inning…
At Wang’s age, you don’t go from 46 wins in 2 1/3 seasons to being a long guy in the bullpen. He shouldn’t have started the season with the Yankees. They brought him back too soon and made things worse by sticking him in the bullpen. At this point, all the Yankees can do is send him out there every 5 days and he will get better. Last night was more about location and walking way too many hitter than anything else. If they put him back in the bullpen or get him more rehab starts (not sure if that’s possible), he may not recover mentally.
Get Bruney back and send Hughes to the minors to get his starter stamina back. Yanks will need that 6th starter at some point this year and you don’t want it being someone who can only go six.
I felt bad for Swisher. He made those bonehead plays on the basepath and in the OF, but tried to make it up during the game by diving into the crowds for a foul fly and later on making a great diving catch. You can see he wanted to make up for those mistakes.
NYY needs a win and NYM needs a loss.
Hey Kim,
First off, awesome blog.
I was wondering if it were possible to ask Girardi if he has taken any pressure from Mr. Steinbrenner yet, regarding the inability to beat Boston. I can’t imagine big George is happy about this, and I’d have to image there have been some “heated”, one-sided phone calls.
Thanks! Hope we can get a win on get-away day. The only good thing about losing 2 in a row means that the team will be fired up. Good. We can come home and take it out on the Mets. *wink wink*
imagine*……sorry
Off topic but I was wondering what happened to Pinstripes In The Park? Not happening this year?
And why is it Ortiz isn’t getting any grief for the curtain calls? Granting a curtain call every HR is unnecessary and if a Yankee were to do that we’d never hear the end of it..
– V [ http://flairforthedramatic.mlblogs.com ]
Did anyone notice Wang seemed to be changing his grip on the ball while it was in his glove, during his windup? Seemed like he was doing it on every pitch. Maybe it’s normal for him but I would think you would keep the same grip after you get the sign.
Hi Kim,
When you are out of town, do you shop with Suzyn Waldman?
C R Mark