Burnett burns 'em

It was a gem, I'm told, but I was once more chained to my desk and blissfully unaware of how annoyed I would have been if I'd missed a no-hitter. Not as annoyed as I continue to be at having had tickets for, but having not attended, a boring Sunday matchup on May 17, 1998 against the Minnesota Twins, but annoyed.

Once again, Burnett shines...Swisher and Burnett, in fact, have been the two best pitching acquisitions of the offseason. If he stays healthy, I really like where this is headed. If Wang remembers how to pitch, we'll be unstoppable. It's really nice having a solid pitching staff for a change. 

Small-market fans (and the more hypocritical big-market fans...you know who you are) are, at this time, I'm sure, saying "please, you guys can buy whatever pitchers you want." And you're right. The problem is we...well...not "we," but the people who make "our" decisions, have wanted some really awful pitchers in recent years, and rushed out to get them, at the expense of the staff's overall strength. This time, while Burnett is injury prone (knock on wood that he stays sharp) and Sabathia's return to the AL, like any pitcher coming (back) to the AL, is a question mark, at least I can see what the Yankees were going for, and at least we're seeing some kind of results.

Nick Swisher: Bugs Bunny in our midst?

I'm reminded of Bugs Bunny's showdown with the Gashouse Gorillas: Now pitching, Bugs Bunny, now catching, Bugs Bunny, now playing first base, Bugs Bunny, second base Bugs Bunny, shortstop Bugs Bunny, third base, Bugs Bunny, left field Bugs Bunny, center field Bugs Bunny, right field Bugs Bunny.

Except replace Bugs Bunny with Nick Swisher.

And then shoot me. Please. Swisher is no Wade Boggs, or even a Mike Aldrete. And yet, as Michael Kay just said (because for better or for worse, he and I have a tendency to think the same thing at the same time) Swisher pitched the best inning of the ball game for the Yankees tonight. Just keep telling yourself: it's just one out of 162.

Memo to Chien-Ming Wang:

You are not Carl Pavano. Why are you behaving as though you are?

Coke, fiend.

The title is misleading. Though the Royals managed to have a Coke and a smile, Phil Coke wasn't the problem per se. He was beating himself up after the game, but let's be honest: there was no reason to bring him in. In a bizarre and ironic twist, Veras had been brought in as a "righty specialist" and didn't get the job done. But let's not crucify Veras, either. The bigger question is what buzzcut-sporting genius decided to pull Marte for no reason other than the lefty-righty game? 

Am I being unfair to Girardi? Maybe. He continues to inspire very little confidence in me, and so it's always going to be tempting for me to point a finger his way in these situations.

Meanwhile, what were the Royals wearing? I love powder blue unis as much as the next guy, provided the next guy is my cousin, who is the only other guy who likes powder blue unis (Hi Frank), but there were serious problems here. First commandment of powder blue unis: Thou shalt wear powder blue pants with thy powder blue jersey. I will waive commandment #2 (thou shalt not wear powder blue at home) on the grounds that the Royals wore powder blue at home in the height of the Powder Blue Era. However, note the white-on-blue lettering on George Brett in this...uh...interesting photo:

The Royals' alternate shirt as seen today was blue-on-white-on-blue, which looked like death. It looked, actually, like they just ripped the patches off their whites and sewed them on the blues. 

By the way, apparently the Royals had these unis last year, too... I could just admit that I forgot and/or hadn't noticed, but instead I'm going to pretend I just felt the need to comment now because I didn't have a blog then.

Wang goes limp...

I'm told Wang was limp in his start tonight. I wouldn't know, I just got home from work, after spending 17 hours there. In other news, Alex Rodriguez made my annual salary between the hours of 12 midnight and 9 am today in exchange for his efforts at not playing baseball.

Will Wang go soft on us?

I know there are many games ahead, and that no one game is do-or-die in April. However, since most of the 2008 Yankee team, possibly the streakiest Yankee squad I can remember since about 1993, remains intact, momentum is essential. Hence the reign of terror the Yanks perpetrated in the grapefruit league...meaningless, yes, except that the fact remains the team compiled their 24-10-1 record in very hot and cold fashion. The hot streak was longer than the cold one, but still.

So as Wang takes the ball tonight, the question is whether he'll be rock-solid or go soft on the Birds (wow, that was...that was quite a sentence). There was no question the Yankees missed him last year after they lost him to one of the stupidest injuries you'll ever see (in the sense that interleague play shouldn't exist, and if it didn't, an AL pitcher wouldn't have a chance to get hurt on the basepaths). But I've never seen him as the kind of stopper that, for instance, a young Andy Pettitte was, so who knows what we'll see.

I'm not worried yet, but if this team is anything like last year's, two games counts as a losing streak, and a losing streak can perpetuate itself better than The Myth of A-Rod. A win tonight will go a long way towards keeping the club focused and reminding them what winning looks like (it should take more than one loss to forget, but...)

Pitching wins ball games

Pitching wins ball games. Pitching also loses ball games. Fortunately, there are 161 more games still to be played. On the plus side, with the exception of one particularly bad pitch from Phil Coke, who was otherwise pretty good, the bullpen was fairly solid. The offense was less than efficient, leaving enough men on base to make the 2007 or 2008 Yankees jealous, but the important thing on that front was the strong comeback drive over the middle portion of the game, as well as a good combination of power and manufactured runs. There are still 161 more games ahead, and it's safe (I certainly hope) to assume the starting pitching, particularly from Sabathia, will be better for many if not most of them. Our first baseman will also make himself a bit more useful on offense, I suspect, so these things will sort themselves out.

Remember the none-too-auspicious beginning for the 1998 Yankees, and don't sweat this one too much. There are 161 more games to go, and if this is to be the toughest loss we endure, then we're lucky fans indeed.