This Day in New York Yankees History 9/21: Goodbye to Yankee Stadium

The New York Yankees announced that 2008 would be the final season of the House that Ruth Built as a new billion dollar stadium was nearing completion across the street. Yankee Stadium III, or the House that Jeter Built, was set to be used for the 2009 season and on this day the Yankees said goodbye to the old stadium as they played their final game of the season in Yankee Stadium. The Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles in the last game 7-3 with Julia Ruth Stevens, the daughter of Babe Ruth, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch. Derek Jeter and teammates stood on the mound after the game and bid farewell to Yankee Stadium in front of 54,610 fans in attendance.

Game Thread: New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox 9/19

And just like that it is game time here in the Bronx between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. In the middle game of this three-game set this week in the Bronx the Yankees will send Luis Severino out to the mound to face off with David Price for the Red Sox. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET inside Yankee Stadium and can be seen on the YES Network in New York, NESN in the Boston area, and on ESPN nationally. You can also follow along with the game on MLB TV, with the MLB At-Bat app, and by tuning into the Yankees radio broadcast on WFAN with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman.

Follow us on Twitter, @GreedyStripes, and “Like” us on Facebook, The Greedy Pinstripes, to keep up with us and the New York Yankees all season long. Enjoy the game, David Price sucks, and go Yankees!!

"Fans" Make Watching The Yankees Less Fun

Perhaps you've noticed that I have not been around much lately. Or maybe you did notice and have been perfectly okay with that. Either way, I thought I'd let you know what's been going on.

For starters, work has been crazy. One of the managers at our location went on a 17-day cruise to Alaska (yeah, I'm jealous), making another manager and I work 60+ hour weeks for a few weeks. I pretty much worked, ate, tried to keep up with the Yankees, and slept during that entire time.

Secondly, my wife and I celebrated our first anniversary by taking a vacation to the place I proposed to her. That vacation came a week after that other manager came back, so as soon as he returned any extra time I had went into making sure we were all set to go.

So right now is the first time in over a month that I've been able to sit down and think about writing anything.

Like I said, I've had to depend on Twitter to keep up with a lot of the things going on in the Yankees universe. I would say that's a good thing because you can get a lot of great up-to-the-minute information on Twitter. At the same time I'd say that's a bad thing because of the following...

I actually tweeted something like this a few days ago, but I wanted to say it here. Not only can I write a few more characters through the blog (at least without having to tweet a dozen or so times), but I didn't get much response to my tweet and I was curious what more people thought.

Here it is... I'm having less fun watching the Yankees this season than I have in a very long time. So long, in fact, that I actually don't remember having less fun. I just didn't want to say "ever", because that reeks of hyperbole, and I try to avoid that. Oh, and unlike what most people probably think, it's not because of how the team is performing.

Sure, it would be nice if the Yankees had a winning percentage of better than .545 since the All Star break. Do you realize six teams in the American League have a better winning percentage for the year than that? Hell, if the Yankees had a winning percentage of .545 this season they would likely miss the postseason.

But that's not it. I'm having so little fun watching the 2018 Yankees because of Twitter. Well, not because of the program itself, but because of so many Yankees fans on Twitter. Or as I like to say... "fans", because oftentimes they act more like haters than actual fans.

Now that I think of it, my Twitter problem is probably just like the Facebook one Daniel wrote about a little while ago. But alas...

I understand getting frustrated watching the Yanks when they have runners in scoring position, with one or zero outs, and fail to score. I understand getting ticked off when they commit two errors in the 9th inning, both of them coming on possible double-play balls that could end the game... against the Red Sox for God's sake!

Some of the decisions made by Aaron Boone, whether on the advice of his coaching staff or not, are baffling. Such as bringing in their lesser relievers when they are only down a run or so, instead of putting their better relievers out there to keep the game within striking distance (aka "punting"). Or batting Gleyber Torres, their second best hitter according to OPS+, at the bottom of the lineup where he's likely to get the least amount of plate appearances (note, their best hitter in terms of OPS+... Aaron Judge... was on the disabled list for nearly two months!).

So I get it... there are things to be upset about when it comes to this year's squad, and Twitter is a great place to vent those frustrations. But it goes beyond "venting", extending into an area of negativity that oftentimes stems from complete nonsense.

The 2018 Yankees do not suck. Sure, like I said earlier, being just five games over .500 since July 20th isn't great. However, having a .545 winning percentage is not horrible. Especially when they played .653 ball before the break, giving them the ability to be merely "okay" for nearly two months and still be in a good position to host the Wild Card game.

Here's more proof that the 2018 Yankees do not stink...

Batting
1st in home runs (37 homers ahead of 2nd place Oakland)
2nd most runs scored
2nd best wRC+
3rd best batting WAR
2nd best wOBA
4th best OPS+

Pitching
4th best ERA
3rd best ERA+
2nd best FIP
2nd best pitching WAR
2nd best K/9

By the way, some of you may scoff at the idea of even playing in the Wild Card game, let alone hosting it. But let me remind you that the main reason they are in that position is because the Boston Red Sox are in the midst of a historically great season. One that is seen very rarely in Major League Baseball. If it weren't for the Sox having such a season, there's a good chance the Yankees would be 2.5 games behind the Houston Astros to clinch the best record in the league.

Oh, and I guarantee you, if any other team but the Red Sox were having this type of season, the Yankees woes wouldn't be magnified nearly as much. Any problem the Yankees are having is multiplied ten-fold when they are looking up at Boston, whether it be for the division crown or in any one of the 19 games they play during the season.

I kind of get that, but many "fans" lose perspective when evaluating things.

Look at it this way...

There's a difference between criticizing someone you don't know and criticizing... say... your spouse. Real fans criticize the Yankees like you would a loved one, whereas "fans" criticize the Yankees like you would a complete stranger.

Don't fall into that latter group.


Follow me on Twitter at @BryanVanDusen

My IBWAA 2018 MLB Awards Ballot Reveal

2018 IBWAA Season Awards Ballot

	AL MVP	AL CY YOUNG	AL ROY	AL MANAGER	AL RELIEVER
1	MOOKIE BETTS	CHRIS SALE	MIGUEL ANDUJAR	KEVIN CASH	EDWIN DIAZ
2	JOSE RAMIREZ	IAN SNELL	GLEYBER TORRES	BOB MELVIN	CRAIG KIMBREL
3	MIKE TROUT	LUIS SEVERINO	SHOHEI OTANI	ALEX CORA	AROLDIS CHAPMAN
4	JD MARTINEZ	JUSTIN VERLANDER
5	FRANCISCO LINDOR	COREY KLUBER
6	MATT CHAPMAN
7	AARON JUDGE
8	JOSE ALTUVE
9	GIANCARLO STANTON
10	CHRIS SALE

	NL MVP	NL CY YOUNG	NL ROY	NL MANAGER	NL RELIEVER
1	NOLAN ARENADO	JACOB DEGROM	RONALD ACUNA	CRAIG COUNSELL	KENLEY JANSEN
2	FREDDIE FREEMAN	MAX SCHERZER	JUAN SOTO	GABE KAPLER	FELIPE VAZQUEZ
3	LORENZO CAIN	AARON NOLA	BRIAN ANDERSON	BRIAN SNITKER	RAISEL IGLESIAS
4	JAVIER BAEZ	PATRICK CORBIN
5	MATT CARPENTER	ZACK GREINKE
6	CHRISTIAN YELICH
7	PAUL GOLDSCHMIDT
8	EUGENIO SUAREZ
9	JACOB DEGROM
10	MAX SCHERZER

Game Preview: New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox 9/19

The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox will continue their series and their rivalry tonight in the Bronx with the middle game of their three-game set. In the start tonight the Yankees will send Luis Severino to the mound to face off with David Price for the Red Sox. This game has all the makings of being really fun for the Yankees and their fans, or really, really frustrating, so let’s find out which one it is as we get to it here in the Bronx.

Severino looked better in his last start despite being pulled after throwing just 83 pitches. Severino was dealing against the Minnesota Twins with two outs in the sixth inning before being pulled by manager Aaron Boone. Since July 12 the Yankees right-hander has posted a 3-6 record with a 6.43 ERA which may have been the reason for the premature exit from the game.

Price has been spectacular for the Red Sox over the last two months including a 5-0 record with a 1.56 ERA in his last nine starts since the All-Star break. Price, however, has struggled against the Yankees and especially struggled inside Yankee Stadium since joining the Red Sox to the tune of an 0-5 record and a 10.44 ERA in five starts.

The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET inside Yankee Stadium and can be seen on the YES Network in New York, NESN in the Boston area, and on ESPN nationally. You can also follow along with the game on MLB TV, with the MLB At-Bat app, and by tuning into the Yankees radio broadcast on WFAN with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman.

Enjoy the game, make David Price say uncle, and go Yankees!!

Hello… Injuries Didn’t Matter

Good morning Yankees family and welcome back to the blog. Trust me, Yankees family, it pains me to even type out this sentence… but Jared Carrabis was right. If you don’t know who Jared Carrabis is, he is the writer for Barstool Sports that covers the Boston Red Sox. He is a douche bag that loves to rile up Yankees fans for exposure, for clicks, and for fun. The worst part is, it works in most cases. Not with me, but that is for another blog post and another day. One post he made recently actually made a little sense to me, and it was a post calling out the Yankees fans who blamed injuries for their struggles this season and used it as an excuse as to why the Red Sox were winning the division and not the Yankees.

Here is his tweet that I am transcribing, because why give him THAT much notoriety by embedding it?

The Red Sox (27) have had more DL stints than the Yankees (23) this season, resulting in 1,185 games missed by 19 players on the Red Sox to just 20 players and 1,088 days missed for the Yankees. The Red Sox lead the Yankees by 11.5 games (at the time of this tweet).

Now I did not stat check this by any means, but I checked the comments section and no one else exposed it for being untrue. And you know Yankees fans, if he were off by a half a game SOMEONE would have called him out for it. So, in closing, no more blaming injuries for a lackluster second half and bad coaching decisions. It is what it is, just keep rooting until the schedule tells us not to or go root for the Mets. Either way is fine with me.

And a special good morning to you, my Kari. I love you with all of my heart. I always have, and I always will. 100 kisses for you this morning.

This Day In New York Yankees History 9/19: Mariano Rivera Is The All Time Saves Leader

The New York Yankees built a new billion dollar stadium for the 2009 season and on this day in 2011 the Yankees saw their smallest crowd in the three year history of the stadium. Coincidentally this was also the day that the great Mariano Rivera became Major League Baseball’s all-time saves leader. The Yankees would beat the Minnesota Twins 6-4 on this day as Rivera nailed down his 602nd career save, breaking Trevor Hoffman’s record, retiring Trevor Plouffe, Michael Cuddyer, and Chris Parmelee in order.


Also on this day in 2001 Roger Clemens continued to dominate Major League Baseball and the Chicago White Sox in a 6-3 Yankees victory. Clemens would get the victory on the day to improve his record to 20-1 becoming the first pitcher to ever start a season 20-1. Clemens would win his last 16 decisions to reach the feat.

Quick Hit: The History Behind the Word “Yankee”

Have you ever wondered where the word “Yankee” actually came from? I have so I did the research and here is what I came up with just in case you were wondering.

The word Yankee is generally considered to be a word that refers to people from the United States if you aren’t living in the US and specifically refers to people from the North if you are currently living in the South. This obviously came from the American Civil War, specifically those who lived and fought in the New England area. The speech dialect in New England is actually called “Yankee” or “Yankee dialect” believe it or not.


The earliest recorded use of the word Yankee was from British General James Wolfe in 1758 when he referred to the people who lived in what was is now the United States. The word caught fire and began being used all across Britain as a derogatory word for the New Englanders and Yankee Soldiers. The word has evolved ever since as Mark Twain wrote a book “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” which was more aimed at New England residents and less towards a United States Citizen. More or less these days the term Yankee, when not being referred to in baseball terms, is used from Americans living in the southern part of the United States referring to the people living in or originally from the northern part of the United States.


The word also has some ties to the Dutch as they inhabited what is now known as New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The Dutch given names of Jan (John) and Kees (Cornelius) were the most common Dutch names and sometimes combined to make a single name, for example Jan Kees de Jager. The pronunciation from the Dutch sounds much like the word Yankee and some believe that Dutch Americans were given the name from the native Dutch. There is also the theory that the Dutch word for pet, Janke, was where the term came from as when you pronounce the “J” in English it comes out with a “Y” sound. The final Dutch theory for the word was the slur “John Cheese” as the Dutch were heavy into dairy cultivation and even introduced the black and white dairy cow from Friesland and North Holland to America in the mid-1600s. When the Dutch would say John Cheese it would sound roughly like “Yankees” and the term stuck over time.

In New York though Yankees just means winning. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

Game Thread: New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox 9/18

EDIT: GAME MOVED TO 7:05 pm ET

And just like that it is game time here in the Bronx between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. In the first of their three-game set this week the Yankees will send JA Happ to the mound looking to right the ship while the Red Sox will counter with Nathan Eovaldi. The game will be played at 1:05 pm ET, not a typo, inside Yankee Stadium and can be seen on WPIX Channel 11 in New York, NESN in Boston, MLB Network nationally and on Facebook Watch anywhere in the world. You can also follow along with the game on MLB TV, with the MLB At-Bat app and by tuning into the Yankees radio broadcast on WFAN with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman.

Follow us on Twitter, @GreedyStripes, and “Like” us on Facebook, The Greedy Pinstripes, to keep up with us and the Yankees all season long. Enjoy the game, beat the Red Sox, and go Yankees!!

Yankees Statistical Leaders Through 149 Games

The Yankees Offense

At Bats:

Giancarlo Stanton – 573

Games:

Giancarlo Stanton – 147

Hits:

Miguel Andujar – 156

Doubles:

Miguel Andujar - 40

Home Runs:

Giancarlo Stanton - 34

RBI:

Giancarlo Stanton - 89

Batting Average:

Miguel Andujar - .298

Aaron Judge - .285

The Yankees Pitching

Wins:

Luis Severino – 17

Losses:

Sonny Gray – 9 

ERA:

Starters:  JA Happ – 2.70 ERA

Bullpen:  Aroldis Chapman – 2.11 ERA

Strikeouts:

Starters: Luis Severino – 207 K’s

Bullpen: Dellin Betances – 108 K’s

Saves:

Aroldis Chapman – 31

Shutouts:

Luis Severino – 1

Masahiro Tanaka - 1

All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference