Lorenz brings the laughs

Almost forgot to mention how funny Lorenz was tonight, particularly before we went on the air.

He asked me what’s new, “besides those earrings.”

I was wearing silver hoops.

“They look like rims from a monster truck!” he said.

It was funny. Maybe it was partly Lorenz’s delivery, but it was really funny. We always laugh a lot — unless I’m in a bad mood 🙂 — before we go on the air. Hopefully that translates, when appropriate, when we are on the air.

CC is dealing! Who cares about the heating pad? You know, CC handled the past few days as well as he could have. The guy doesn’t act like the media is a bother. (Yes, it’s April 11, but he seems genuine). He was always available, and affably so, to discuss his awful Monday start. But, something tells me he’ll enjoy talking about this one more..hmmessage P
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Teixeira a late scratch in K.C.

teixeira250_041109.jpgMark Teixeira was a late scratch (around 5:15 p.m. local time) and expected to see the Royals doctor about his sore left wrist before the game. Kevin Long told me that Teixeira took only four swings right-handed before saying he couldn’t go. “Obviously, we don’t want him out of the lineup,” K-Long said when I asked his level of concern. We’ll have more from Girardi on postgame. (I love the “level of concern” question and know that I ask it all the time.)

Very, very generous offer from Kay, who bought dinner for the guys. He even made Patrick (one of our runners here in K.C.) find me to ask if I wanted anything.

What a gesture! I’m not always easy to find.

But, I had already eaten chicken and mashed potatoes (two scoops) in the press dining room, so I passed. Patrick reports that Kay gave him a “crisp, new $50” to pay for din-din. He also says that since Flaherty bought yesterday and Kay today, it must be Cone’s turn tomorrow. I like Patrick.

OK, so Kay and Flaherty each ordered a burger and fries. Both burgers plain. Kay must be rubbing off on Flaherty. Cone went with the Italian sausage with mustard. Crazy guy.

By the way, the Royals charge $10 for dinner but have no receipts to prove it. So, when I file my expense report with Bruce Williams, I will include this blog entry.

Wanted to catch part of the Red Sox-Angels game today but didn’t. Must have been a good game (Don’t know if you saw it, but the Angels did an outstanding job with the Nick Adenhart tribute Friday night. Thank you, MLB.tv.). In the clubhouse today the players were watching the Masters. Swisher says he’s a 13-handicap. It’s impossible to imagine Swisher on a golf course, exhibiting the requisite decorum.

“I’m calm when I golf,” Swisher insists. “Really, I am.”

So, now we know the two places the guy isn’t going 100 mph: At the plate and on the course.

Big day for autograph seekers here at the New K: Joba and Mariano signed for a while after BP. Gotta watch the game now. See you on the post!

Lunchtime tidbits from the City of Fountains

jimcarreyblog041109.jpgSunny afternoon here in KC. Waiting for room service lunch. Thought I’d give you a shout.

Meant to mention that I watched “Yes Man” on flight Thursday night. Laughed out loud several times, which is a good barometer of whether I like a movie or not. Jim Carrey actually reminds me of Bob Lorenz. Very naturally funny guys.

Am probably late to this party, but I love, love, love Duffy’s CD. Listened to it on the plane. And have to download it to my iPod. (Duffy was the name of my first dog. I used to crawl on him. I don’t remember him but have seen pictures.)

A couple of answers to some very, very important questions that have been posted here:

Yes, Vanessa, YES announcers do share a fascination with food. And Matsui speaks some English to his teammates but I mostly hear Japanese. I do think he understands almost all English.

Newygiant wants to know if I wear makeup on TV. The answer: Heck, yes!!

And, yes, mlb2008, I do enjoy interviewing Jeter.

That’s it. The chicken sandwich and two Diet Cokes have arrived. Went with fruit cup instead of fries, which is a terribly difficult decision for me.

Later, skaters!

CC also impressed with New K

swisher250_041009.jpgFlaherty just bought lunch for the fellas. What a great teammate! Flaherty, Kay and Cone are each having a personal pan pizza from the concession stand. Actually, Cone isn’t eating his, not yet.

Today had “rain delay” written all over it, so the weather is a pleasant surprise.

Swisher is (still) shot out of a cannon. It’ll be interesting to see how Girardi finds enough at-bats to keep Swisher and Nady happy. Both want to play every day. Yes, it should help that Swisher is versatile.

CC said he really likes the recently-renovated Kauffman Stadium. He seemed genuinely impressed when he walked out of the dugout. He’s started 16 games here, tied with the Metrodome for most in his career of any road stadium, so he’s pretty familiar with the place. (He’s 8-5 with a 3.62.)

The standing room only area in right field is cool. You’re above or below the fountains and it has to be a pretty nice view.

A.J. Burnett ran the indoor stadium steps this morning. His work ethic has really impressed Girardi. I need to run some steps, or just run. Haven’t seen enough of the treadmill this week.

Game time is nearing. The field looks like halftime of a bowl game at the moment. It also looks like every seat is full.

A new beginning in Kansas City

Greetings from the New K. The folks here in Kansas City are extremely excited about the renovated Kauffman Stadium, which underwent $250 million in changes. Looks nice. Fountains still in the outfield. Scoreboard is enormous; that part of the renovation was finished last year and it’s awesome. Flat screen TVs all over the place. Party Deck looks ready to rock.

The weather kinda stinks, but we’re optimistic. The Royals are optimistic, too. I read today “the first-place Royals…” That’s good, good for baseball, I think, to have cities that haven’t recently had hope have it. And it’s still April.

I’m going to get to some of your specific comments at some point on this trip – and, yes, I know I KEEP WRITING THAT. But one note: I saw a comment the other day that was meant to be a compliment to me but also disparaged three other women in the business. Let’s not do that here, okay? I’m not going to preach about what you should think or write – I hate that, on blogs or anywhere – but I just don’t want this to be a place where we rip people, specifically other chicks in the biz, for no reason.

Let’s face it, you can hear or read negative crap a lot of other places. Heck, the other day one of my colleagues left the distinct impression on his radio show that he’d rather someone else do my job. (As Jennifer Aniston would say, Not cool. But we roll with it!)

Honestly, I really like most of the gals I meet while doing this job, I occasionally go out with them, I text with them and I don’t feel competitive with them. (And I love the word, “gals.”) So let’s stay (mostly) positive but still have (hopefully a lot of) fun. Good news of the morning: John Flaherty just gave me permission to blog about him! Coolio!

Beef and boos from Baltimore

rain250_040609.jpgI will never do a weather forecast again. I will never do a weather forecast again. I will never …

So, today’s pregame show was going along swimmingly, plenty of sunshine and fun times with Bob. I happened to mention the clear skies and emphasized HOW WRONG the “ominous forecast” was. Oops!

As soon as I finish my little report, I turn around. Tarp still on the field. Uh-oh. Black clouds rolling in. Shoot. Rain. Serious rain. Oh, no!

Nice job by me.

Luckily, we seem headed for an on-time start. I’ll say no more.

The press dining in Baltimore is one of my faves, especially when they have crab cakes. They usually go one per plate. I always ask for two.

But, today, the main dish was Boog’s Pit Beef sandwich. Ate it like a savage. Unfortunately, dining at the stadium becomes a fact of life when the season starts. Most options don’t measure up to Boog’s. Most, I just skip.

Kay, apparently, doesn’t share my affection for Boog’s. He just returned to the booth with a bacon hamburger and fries. Lots of bacon. I told him that was a bloggable offense.

Elaborate pre-game festivities going on. Teixeira really, really got booed. With venom. He seemed to enjoy it.

By the way, I checked with Cano about his locker situation — that he and Melky, his best friend, are on opposite sides of the clubhouse at Yankee Stadium. I asked if he and Melky were fighting; Robbie laughed.

I asked if they get mad — and stay mad — at each other, like girls do. He smiled, shook his head and said, “No!”

Turns out, it’s just a coincidence. Those were the only lockers open, so they are half a clubhouse apart. Robbie says they’ll live with it.

Mixed reception for Joe Biden on the first-pitch scenario.

See you for the postgame!

The eagle has landed in Baltimore

damon_250_040609.jpgAnd by “eagle,” I refer to the most, uh, interesting rental car I’ve ever had the privilege of driving. The kind of vehicle you’d see at Spanky’s Used Car Lot. The air vents didn’t vent. And there was a bit of an odor.

Never mind.

I drove to Baltimore so I could stop along the way and visit my 3½-year-old niece (Little A) and 21-month-old nephew (Big A). My sister and brother-in-law were there, too, which was nice.

So the jalopy and I were a block from the hotel when I saw a cluster of people on the corner. About eight or 10 of them looked like they haven’t worked out in a while – and by “a while” I mean “ever” – and were holding Yankees memorabilia. One was signing. The one was Johnny Damon, who appeared to be by himself. It was, like, 10 p.m. Nice guy, that Johnny Damon.

As I parked, I smiled for two reasons: The idea of valeting the Maybad and the anticipation of blogging. I promise to post more often as soon as I learn how to do so. Same with answering your comments.

In mere hours, we’ll actually have baseball to talk about! Hours! Let’s hope weather isn’t an issue. Torrential rains are in the forecast. But there is hope. The local TV weather guy just said that if it’s your “trash day” tomorrow you might have some trouble with your garbage bins in the morning because of thunderstorms – seriously – but the bad stuff should clear in time for the game.

Let’s hope so.

Debuting the blog…oh, and that other debut

damon_250.jpgSo I told Kevin Sullivan, our persistent internet guru, that I will become a blogger when Penn State wins a national championship in basketball.

Voila!

The Nittany Lions won the NIT on Thursday night — Joe Paterno, Franco Harris and 35 busloads of students turned the Garden into a PSU party — so let the blogging begin!

All right, how exactly do you DO this?

Peter Abraham of the Journal News is the king of this stuff; his lohud.com blog is a completely natural and entertaining extension of his reporting/writing/opining. Neil Best of Newsday is obsessed with the millions of page views Watchdog receives. And Bob Lorenz is funny like he’s always funny.

Where does that leave us? Feeling like a fat guy in a little coat. Or a tad uncomfortable. We’ll get over it.

Thank God it’s baseball season
Which also makes this the perfect time to launch a blog. Really, just perfect. Phil Hughes suggested I take over his blog instead of starting my own. I think he’s lost some enthusiasm for blogging. I also think he’s still 22 years old and probably has a lot of other things to do.

Oh, yeah, the new Stadium
Were you there? We did the whole shebang, pregame, game and postgame Friday night. It felt oddly like the last night at the old Yankee Stadium. But different. If that makes sense.

It seemed fitting that Derek Jeter got the first Yankees’ hit. Perhaps it’s telling that Robinson Cano cracked the first home run. Arguably, it’s an omen that the Hideki Matsui and Cody Ransom homers each hit a foul pole. At the least, it was definitely illustrative that Nick Swisher inserted himself into a Johnny Damon postgame interview. And it was revealing that CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett knew they wouldn’t throw a pitch but stuck around until the last rainy out.

The clubhouse is oval-shaped. The starting rotation is together – Joba likes hanging with the veterans. I found it kind of interesting that best buddies Cano and Melky Cabrera are across the room from each other; I’ll have to ask Robbie about that. Jonathan Albaladejo and Swisher are on either side of the main entrance; Swisher is louder. Jeter and Jorge Posada are at the opposite end of the room, on either side of a hallway that presumably leads to the training room, shower area, coaches’ rooms and other as-yet-unknown destinations. The clubhouse is spacious, has impressive amenities (mounted laptop computers, electrical outlets and shelves for personal items/photos at each locker) and is very clean. AAA would give it five stars.

Just heard on TV
A nitwit who shall go unnamed saying Tom Coughlin has to “win over” the locker room after the Giants’ release of Plaxico Burress. Same guy then says something about Jerry Reese having to prove himself as a GM who can replace the wide receiver.

Ugh. That clichéd nonsense gave us a headache, which means it’s time to end this blog. Not the whole blog. Just, you know, say good-bye. For now.

How DO you end blog posts, anyway?