Joey K homered last night in the ninth, torturing Toronto in a game that was over an hour earlier. But don't get me wrong: No complaints. Against the BJs, I'll take every run we tack on, regardless of circumstance or random sequence.
So, here is today's essay question: Does a two-hit, HR game by Gallo signify hope for an awakening, or is it another blip in our Ether of Indignation™?
Short answer: Dunno. To confuse and complicate, here are Gallo's recent game logs. And takeaways...
1. A big night for Gallo means nothing. Now and then, he has one, then he goes knock-kneed for the next few games.
2. "Big nights" aren't what they used to be. He hasn't had a three-hit game all year. Last night, he drove in three runs for only the second time this season. Yeesh. He deserves to bat ninth.
3. Gallo has achieved 12 Golden Sombreros (3Ks per game) this season, including two Platinums (4Ks.) He has 71 strikeouts and only 31 hits. His once-vaunted On Base Percentage remains a miserable .298, and he recently accomplished something rare: In a three-game home sweep of Tampa, he generated boos.
4. The wormhole to hell that Gallo brings to the lineup has been masked by Judge/Rizzo/Stanton/et al. But it's hard to imagine the Yankees sticking with him much longer, especially when the team cools. (Note: One of these days, it will cool.)
5. The problem is that Aaron Hicks (.224 with 2 HRs) hasn't been much better. Both are so mediocre that Yank fans have resurrected hope for Estevan Florial, who continues to hit (.303, 11th in the International League) despite his own strikeout woes (60 this year.) If the Yankees accept Gallo's strikeouts, why such negativity to Florial's?
Aww, but we know that answer by heart. It's all in the contracts, right? If a guy earns the big bucks, he gets to play. Nothing new here.
Which brings us back to last night. Gallo homered and doubled. Second time this year, two extra base hits. One came in the ninth, the 11th and 12th runs, with fans driving home.
Should we bother to care?
Short answer: Dunno. But I do believe Gallo is running out of rope. These are the biggest games thus far in 2022. He had a good night. Will it lead to something today? (Game time: 3.07 p.m.) The BJs have a tough RH starter. Alek Manoah. Gallo will probably be in the lineup. Can he finally get hot?
If not, you can hear a train in the distance. One of these days, Gallo will be on it.
ReplyDeleteI have one positive thing to say...
The home run swing was not a Gallo swing I have seen before. He did not appear to shift his weight to the back of his shoes and come around with that Joe Frazier uppercut. The swing looked level and, dare I say, balanced.
Maybe 9th inning of a blowout? An accident? Can't say. It was a good swing though.
Maybe it's #13. ARod was a monster in late and not at all close situations too.
ReplyDeleteRe: last night, as one who only listens to the Yankee's games on WFAN, with all due respect, Justin Shackil was extremely knowledgeable, professional and accurate, but he lacked the passion and excitement that The Master brings to the broadcast. In a game with our greatest rival in the division, and with a night of such explosive offense, I found his professional measured demeanor projected (almost) a feeling of ambivalence to what was happening on the field . I freely admit to being raised on the homer theatricality of John Sterling, and I equate his 'flair for entertainment' with listening to the Yankees, warts and all,,,, when I first tuned in last night, I honestly thought I had stumbled into a midwest team's broadcast by mistake, LOL! If Justin Shackil lands the full time job, good for him because he's more than qualified, but it will take some time to adjust,,,, I expect Ricky Ricardo will bring a little more excitement to his broadcast, we'll see.
ReplyDeleteLosing The Master (after this year?) means there is an even bigger reason to root for continuing magic this season.
GOOOOOOOO YANKEES!
LONG LIVE THE MASTER!
Long Live The Master.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know why The Master wasn't in the booth last night?
ReplyDeleteSterling will not be calling a number of road games the rest of the season, apart from those on the East Coast.
ReplyDeletehttps://nypost.com/2022/06/06/john-sterling-significantly-cuts-back-on-yankees-games-for-second-half/
Thank you William
ReplyDeleteIf Ricky Ricardo doesn't get to call most of the Master's absences, there's something wrong with the decision making process. He's the most Sterling of all possible replacements. And while I would happily accept Suzyn doing play by play, I don't know if she would want to. She's been doing color commentary for such a long time, and--regardless of the Master's sometimes unkind contradictory replies--she's good at it.
ReplyDeleteRuocco is a good announcer, no doubt about that, but as the Post article makes clear, he's a busy guy already. Besides, he does fill-in announcing for YES on TV, and is pretty good at that, so he should stay there.
Really, Ricky is an avowed Sterling fan and sometimes you can barely tell it's Ricardo and not our beloved 84-year-old homer. I hate to deprive the Spanish-speaking audience of him, but he's The One. Our Neo.
Ricky, or the other team's broadcast. Or, horror of horrors, the television.
ReplyDeleteJM and Publius, I have to agree, I'm REALLY hoping they go with Ricky!
ReplyDeleteThen would LUCY replace Suzyn in the booth?
ReplyDeleteI’ll now be listening to Ricky when John isn’t on, even if I have to listen in Spanish. I don’t understand Spanish beisbol totally, but I used to work in Dominican car parts store and learned all the Spanish I needed to sell car parts. Bomba de Agua por Civic Honda Ocho nueve, that kinda shit. This will be fine because I usually ignore most the broadcast until John gets excited. I’m sure I’ll be able to tell what’s going on with Ricky. Except the commercials… unless it’s Miguel’s Amazinco Mayonaisso or Coches cuatro niñas.
ReplyDeleteMake that Koches kuatro ninas
ReplyDeleteOk it’s more awesome than I thought… he just flat out says “Mike’s Amazing Mayonaisse”. Flips in and out of English with every sponsor. Beisbol Yankees En Espanol over and over again. He gave a traffic report too I think…. Coho Siebo blaho blaho espanol Holland, blaho blaho George Washington Bridge blaho blaho Rogers Center. It’s great. I love it already.
ReplyDeleteGallo will found out to third in his first at bat today. It will be his only contact with the ball.
ReplyDeleteTwitch is batting 5th because...?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThese idiots are talking about the "circle of life" and they ceased calling the actual fucking game. Highly annoying.
Joey Whiffs whiffed…
ReplyDeleteNow there’s a tongue twister…
This Gallo guy is kinda bad at this baseball thing
ReplyDeleteThe Twitch's Tongue even Twitches and Twists
ReplyDeleteHicks cleared the bases - thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteI'm almost starting to believe in this team....
ReplyDeleteAlmost Juju Gods...don't judge me
The dreaded third time around…
ReplyDeleteI have the radio broadcast through sirius.
ReplyDeleteThe guy with Suzyn should be named wonderbread. He is tolerable though. Still miss the Master.
What is *really* annoying, is the sirius broadcast is one or two batters behind.
Kinda opposite to how radio used to work. TV would always be behind by a few seconds, so you could turn around and look at the TV to catch a big play "live".
Ricky might be good in Spanish, but my depth of language is limited to asking women to take their clothes off or perform something with them off. That and curse words from their boyfriends.
ReplyDeleteSerious question: Why did Boone pull King right there? I mean, it's ok to ask Holmes to close out the 9th but King had been dealing and had just rung up Vlad Guerrero. What's the rationale for the switch right then?
That was a big Yankees win.
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ReplyDeleteThere's nothing to complain about. This f-ing sucks.
ReplyDeleteYankees Win!!!
ReplyDeleteDespite Paulie trying to do his very best to mess it up, tempting the juju entities by saying that if this continues, the Blue Jays would not think they have any chance of catching the Yankees in this game—or catching them at all.
ReplyDeleteLet's just hope the juju gods were too busy trying to think of ways to mess up the Mets to listen.
Didn’t get through the whole game in Spanish. I did like how they play the Yankees theme song at the top of every inning. Ricky is way more animated than this generic stuff we get on the ESL broadcast. The Spanish Suzyn is kinda flat and almost sounds like a dude (it’s radio and 2022, we can’t be certain). I turned it off for a few minutes to go to the hardware store and when I got back all the scoring was over. I wanted hear Juan Sterling make some calls! He doesn’t do every inning either.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, please please please sweep Toronto Tampa Houston and the A’s. That’s all I ask.
We're being set up.
ReplyDeleteMr. Bit, always the voice of reason in a giddy blogosphere.
ReplyDelete@Ken of Brooklyn, I agree, nobody does it like the Master. This replacement guy sounded like he was doing play by play of a funeral. The Master might make some ridiculous errors sometimes, but at least he makes it exciting, entertaining. Long may the Master reign!
ReplyDeleteBeau,
ReplyDeleteIf that's all you ask, could you throw in a pony for me?
@Local Bargain Jerk, I don't why the Ba-Boone pulled King at that point either. Perhaps he got a memo, (I'm dating myself), a text message, I should say, from the number crunchers. The trained Ba-Boone continues to press blinking lights on the rocket ship's control console. So far, so good. Let's hope the number crunchers don't flash the light on the self-destruct button.
ReplyDeleteDespite heating up recently to lukewarm levels, I still think Gallo sucks. He's the worst hitter on this team by 20,000 leagues. You're telling me that Andujar can't be two or three times the hitter that Gallo is? What a joke. Come playoff time, Gallo will go something like 1 for 50 in the playoffs, assuming that we go far. I have a feeling that we'll miss Andujar's bat in the World Series, if we get that far.
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ReplyDeletePuckered.
ReplyDeleteALWAYS on point. It's a small one and not really sharp.
Don't forget to tip the servers.
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ReplyDeleteCredentialism (Ivy League!) and high regard for yet another bland corporate baritone. Barney, just "consume" your product via some pay-to-watch tech oligarch platform, like the rest of your generation's conformists,, and leave the radio to sentimental nostalgists.
ReplyDeleteLove The Master. Love Suzyn. And love Ricky Ricardo, who not only is a good announcer with a great name, but also saved The Master's life! Who could be more appropriate?
ReplyDeleteIt's fate!
And I agree, Hammer. Gallo is the sort of guy that a superior team gets away with all season—only to see him stick out like an infected, suppurating thumb in the playoffs. He's the kind of guy who clutch situations find.
ReplyDeleteThey should get Andujar AND Florial on this team, NOW, and see if either can manage to hit better than Joey. I bet they would.
I'm kinda on Barney's side on this, much as I've enjoyed The Master. Shackil has been pretty good. I could do with slightly less detail about sun rays entering the SkyDome (or whatever they get paid to call it now) but it's been two games; he can smooth that out. Friday he got what I thought was a pretty good line in about the scoreboards imploring the Jays fans to cheer several runs down: "Cheer WHAT?" I think I like him. And Suzyn, without her man, seems to be repeating herself and repeating herself and going with the latest unnecessary addition she's picked up as if she wanted to win the gold medal for fan inclusions in "Hal Gurnee's Network Time-Killers": "does". "Clay Holmes throws a hard slider, does Holmes." Usually there's a little unbidden chuckle before that sort of scene gets repeated. Not knocking John or Suzyn; I like them the way people like things they don't really like but are more or less used to hearing forever. But when you can go innings without the opposing team's name being uttered before the score is given (and that happens all the time; lest you think it's a youth thing I will tell you my mid-70s mom noticed it before I did) I can see why people might appreciate change. Fire away if you feel the need but I'm leaning Barney's way on this one. (And yes: I only listen to games on the radio. Not that it should matter but tossed in because it might.)
ReplyDeletePuckered comments can usually be summarized as TLDR.
ReplyDeleteTonight is no exception.
The real question is not John or Justin. Warts and all, John's around until he decides to call it quits. It's Ricky or "insert bland corporate baritone name here". And to that question, the answer is Ricky.
ReplyDeleteJustin telling a bewildered (and increasingly annoyed) Suzyn that Manoah and Sabathia have a lot in common, not least both warming up to Notorious BIG, made for interesting radio. Not sure it's sustainable though.
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ReplyDeleteThe Yankees should be like the Mets. We have reached terminal velocity.
ReplyDeleteAlright, I’ve kept this under my hat for days now, but it’s time to out Barney as Justin Shackil (or his mother, brother, or lover). He also likes Wonder Bread, warmish tap water, and chain store pizza.
ReplyDeleteSad Sad thread
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ReplyDelete12
13
15
chain store pizzas?
ReplyDeleteYankees Sign Chris Owings To Minor League Deal
ReplyDeleteJune 18th, 2022 at 9:18pm CST • By Darragh McDonald
The Yankees have signed infielder Chris Owings to a minor league deal, per Conor Foley of the Scranton Times-Tribune. Owings has been assigned to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com.
Owings, 30, is a veteran of ten MLB seasons now, appearing in each campaign from 2013 to 2022. Overall, he has a .239/.287/.366 battling line, good enough for a wRC+ of 69. In 2021, he dealt with thumb injuries and only got into 21 games but somehow had an incredible showing in that small sample. He hit .326/.420/.628 for a huge 158 wRC+, though his .481 BABIP was likely the key contributor there.
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ReplyDeleteRegarding the nasty sniping in this thread. I hope this is all the result of too much schnapps, or other kindred spirits. Hit the fucking mute button if Sterling proves to be such a trigger. Obviously he helps to keep Hal and his partners in diesel for their yachts or he would have been cut years ago.
ReplyDeleteSince the Yankees are playing as though the ghost of Billy Martin was lashing them, the gripe has to turn to into Legacy hatred? Really?
I wouldn't get too worried about Hicks and Gallo. Even The Brain can see the problem. Of course Hicks' wrist could heal over the next six weeks, and Gallo finds IT. The thought does make me nervous.
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ReplyDeleteI'm not sorry I missed the sniping: been reading this blog for years and love the humor it has captured. I assumed "Barney" was the alleged Pizza Pit employee but the poster made a point or two. If the guy or gal has been an impossible asshole then...at least some of you have said FUCK about every third word and not only aren't removed but appear to be revered here. Which is cool. As is the left-wingery that's tossed out here regularly, then "no-politics-ed" by the elite commentariat. Totally cool. It's Duque's place and I just type here. But this seems to be turning into a great big pile of selective acceptability. Can't do that, myself. What's that amendment, the free-press and -expression one? Given the people on here who claim to have earned their bread under the protection of that damned thing (more than a few of you) the comment removal seems, from the place of one still loving the freedom, not so much wrong as totally lame. If Pizza Boy pisses you off, you can't among all of you professional writers shut his (or, to be fair to possibilities, her) ass down? Doesn't say a hell of a lot for the power of the press, or your collective abilities to jumping people's shit when needed. This is a depressing development. And please take my words as a pep talk: you are better than this. At least you've always seemed to be.
ReplyDelete"Pizza Boy" is actually a woman, FWIW. MJ, I only luckily discovered this blog fourteen months ago. I've been around longshoremen, nuns, you name it, but "Pizza Girl" actually almost sickened me. This has nothing to do with censorship, and everything about civility. IMO, this is the most civil and knowledgeable bunch that I have yet to have seen on a baseball blog.
ReplyDeleteWhat Kevin said.
ReplyDelete