SubscribeJML update, May 15
Ike Davis and the Mets hosted Ryan Braun and the Milwaukee Brewers in the first of a three-game set last night. The home team prevailed, improving to 2-015, which means “if the season ended tomorrow” (as the sports pundits love to say), they would have the second wild-card spot.
Davis was 0-4 with two strikeouts; Braun was 1-4 and scored the Brewers’ lone run in the ninth in the Mets’ 3-1 victory, aided in no small part by his stealing of second base (his sixth of the year).
Ian Kinsler had the day off as the Texas Rangers dropped their game against the Los Angeles Angels, 4-1. Scott Feldman made the start and took the loss, though he deserved a getter fate. he allowed just three hits and walk in 4.2 innings, giving up two unearned runs when a two-out Andre Beltre error prolonged the inning.
Scott Feldman took the loss in his second start of the season. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Craig Breslow pitched two scoreless innings (one hit, three strikeouts), but the Ariz. Diamondbacks lost to the LA Dodgers, 3-1.
Jason Marquis did not appear in the Minn. Twins’ 5-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians.
Kevin Youkilis was eligible to come off the disabled list yesterday, but the Red Sox didn’t make the move. Youk is taking batting practice and ground balls at third, so that’s a good sign.
With God on our side?
Shalom Auslander frequently writes about his conflicting relationship with God. He is also a NY Rangers fan, which proved to have its logistical challenges when the Blueshirts were in the 1994 playoffs. He and his wife decided they had to see game six of the Stanley Cup that year and walked the 14 miles from their home in Teaneck, NJ to Manhattan where they watched the team play the Vancouver Canucks on the Madison Square Garden jumbotron (the game was on the Canuck’s home ice). Auslander wrote about it in his 2007 memoir, Foreskin’s Lament, an excerpt of which appeared in the New Yorker (abstract here).
Auslander was at it again recently; he wrote about the relationship between God and the Rangers in Saturday’s NY Times.
Besides, shouldn’t God want the Devils to lose?
JML update, May 14
Ian Kinsler was 2-4 (two doubles), scored twice, and walked in the Rangers’ 13-6 win over the Los Angeles Angels. For the weekend, Kinsler was 1-12. Scott Feldman did not appear in any games over the weekend.
Ryan Braun was 1-3 with a walk and run scored in the Brewers’ 8-2 loss to the Cubs. he was 2-9 oer the weekend.
Ike Davis did not start yesterday’s upsetting loss to the Marlins (flu-like symptoms) but he did appear as a pinch-hitter, grounding out to the pitcher in the seventh inning. He was 1-9 — his fourth homer un of the season — over the weekend. After the Mets had retaken the lead, 4-2, their bullpen imploded, giving up six runs, the last four coming on a walk-off grand slam.
Jason Marquis did not appear in the Twins’ 4-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Craig Breslow did not appears in the Diamondbacks’ 7-3 loss to the Giants. he appeared in the May 12 game, pitching 1.1. scoreless innings.
For all the Kevin Youkilis fans, beware: his replacement, Will Middlebrooks, has four home runs, five doubles, and 13 RBIs in just 42 at bats. Youkilis, on the disabled list with a bad back, had two/two/13 in 64 at bats.
Getting down to their final outz: Got Balz needs some good bench players
A few weeks ago I did this story about Got Balz, a feature documentary about a bar mitzva boy’s desire to honor his grandfather by donating sports equipment to the country that gave him shelter during the Holocaust — Cuba – and the red tape he encountered along the way.
With about 50 hours to go (the deadline is 12:01 PM on Wednesday), the project is less than $4,000 short of the $40K needed to proceed, so why not take a look and think about making a pledge? Like PBS, you can get all sorts of goodies depending on the level of your support.
And if they ask where you heard about it, tell the Kaplan’s Korner sent you (I always wanted to say something like that).
Sign him up!
Two nights ago, my softball team hit into four double plays in a seven inning game. It would have been five, but the opponent’s first baseman dropped the throw on a ball I had hit. It squirted away from him and I, being possessed by some sort of dybbuk, took off for second. This with that pesky pulled ab muscle and the knee issues that still plague me from my 2009 trip to Yankees Fantasy Camp; you measure my speed not with a stopwatch, but with an hourglass. Thank goodness, I made it (an eventual throw from first glanced off my calf). It should come as no surprise when I say that we lost that game.
But at least we didn’t hit into a TRIPLE play.
All props to that shortstop. And a hand for the batter, too; that’s a pretty good swing for a six-year-old.
(I do hope, however, that the fielder doesn’t start making the morning talk show circuit. Enough with that stuff already.)
JML update, May 11
No ups, all downs for JMLs
Wait, Albert Pujols, whom the Los Angeles Angels signed for $250 million, is batting .198 with one home run and 11 RBI and he still has a job, but Danny Valencia, who was batting .190 with one home run and 11 RBI for the Minn. Twins gets sent to the minors? Guess those eight points really made the difference. Lousy anti-Semites?
Just kidding; Valencia was majorly bad and Pujols has so much of a body of work that he could go through the rest of the season like this and still get a pass.
Also going back to the farm: Phillies reliever Michael Schwimer, who was disappointing to say the least in his few appearances. He pitched 6.1 innings in five games, took a loss, blew a save, walked five, allowed seven hits and six runs for an ERA of 8.53
Other than that, Mr.s Lincoln, how did you like the play?
Ian Kinsler was the only JML to see action yesterday as the Rangers and Orioles split a doubleheader. Kinsler was 1-5 in each game and made his fourth error of the year in the nightcap. Scott Feldman did not appear in either game.
Another bad decision in high school sports
No, this one didn’t involve group from a Jewish day school scheduled for a Shabbat game. Instead we have this story about a baseball team that forfeited a championship rather than play against a girl.
Our Lady of Sorrows bowed out of Thursday night’s game against Mesa Preparatory Academy in the Arizona Charter Athletic Association championship. The game had been scheduled at Phoenix College.
The girl is a 15-year-old second baseman (person?).
Good point:
“Nancy Hogshead-Makar, senior director of advocacy for the Women’s Sports Foundation, said the school’s decision to forfeit doesn’t aid its own students.
“In real life, these boys are going to be competing against the girls for jobs, for positions in graduate programs or in trade schools,” Hogshead-Makar said. “In every other area of their life, they are going to be competing side by side.”
The cynic in me sees a team deliberately adding a girl with the knowledge that their opponent would pull this same stunt and forfeit a game.
Just as a personal observation: When my daughter was playing softball many years ago there was one girl who was head and shoulders above the rest. Great bat, strong arm. A few years later, for some reason, the family decided she would play baseball rather than softball. From what I hear, she didn’t have a very good time of it. The boys didn’t accept her very nicely and at some point the talent level maxed out to where she was no longer the best kid on the team.
JML update, May 10
Ike Davis returns! His three-run homer in the eighth inning gave the Mets some insurance runs in their third come-from-behind victory — this time 10-6 — over the Phillies as they swept a series in Philadelphia for the first time since 2006. Davis also had a double and scored another run. Prior to the game, there had a few pieces about how poorly he’s doing as well as calls by pundits to send him down to AAA.
Davis follows through after hitting three-run home run off relief pitcher Jose Contreras in the eighth. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Michael Schwimer did not appear in the game for the Phillies.
For the second time in the Brewers’ series against the Cincinnati Reds, a Ryan Braun homer accounted for his team’s only tally. Milwaukee dropped a close one, 2-1. Braun also had a single.
Craig Breslow retired the only batter he faced in the Diamondbacks’ 7-2 loss to the Cardinals. Breslow entered the game with two out in the top of the ninth after the previous reliever — J.J. Putz (hold the jokes) — allowed four runs on five hits.
Danny Valencia extended his hitless streak to 0-25 — the entire month of May, so far — following four more trips to the plate in the Twins’ 6-2 loss to the Angels. Valencia did, however, drive in one of the runs with a ground out. Jason Marquis gets the start tonight as the Toronto Blue Jays come into town.
Rain washed out Ian Kinsler, Scott Feldman, and the Rangers’ game against the Orioles.
Kevin Youkilis remains on the disabled list.
When it comes to Delmon Young, forgive and forget?
Well, forgive at least, according to this piece by Rabbi Yonah Bookstein in the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, which boils down to:
“The Days of Awe compel us to believe that everyone deserves a second chance. Does this forgiveness extend to Delmon Young? You bet.”
Rabbi Josh Bennett, a Detroit-area guy, had this to say:
My first reaction was very negative. Obviously as the Jewish community throughout history has been persecuted, we often look for moments like this and say, ‘See, people don’t like the Jewish community!’ And I think that’s what happens in many minority communities. We first look for reasons to feel persecuted or attacked. And then after listening a little bit longer, it became fairly clear that we really didn’t understand the full scope of the story. And even today after talking to Delmon, I still don’t really know the full story. What I do know, though, is that we all make mistakes. And it’s hard to peg somebody’s entire personality on one singular moment of their life. This is not what I would consider to be a Mel Gibson moment, where over and over and over he has proven himself to be fairly anti-Semitic in his actions, in his words. This is one singular moment where a young player made a stupid error under the influence of alcohol. And quite frankly, I don’t even know what he really said. What I do know is in talking to him, he is clear about proving to everybody that he is not anti-Semitic.
Nets not get nuts over Mushnick column
Phil Mushnik, the New York Post sports media columnist who called into question Mike Francessa for allegedly alluding to Jewish involvement in the attacks on in the wake of 9/11. I say “alleged” because when Mushnick wanted to get the tapes of that particular program, he was told (and this is me talking, not him) that their either couldn’t be found, didn’t exist, or were erased, any of which strikes me as strange on the part of Francessa’s employers, WFAN.
This isn't the black-and-white version of a color logo. This IS the logo.
Anyway, I bring this up as introduction to the hue and cry an item in a recent Mushnick column over the Brooklyn Nets logo/uniform decision.
Towards the end of his May 4 column, Mushnick wrote:
As long as the Nets are allowing Jay-Z to call their marketing shots — what a shock that he chose black and white as the new team colors to stress, as the Nets explained, their new “urban” home — why not have him apply the full Jay-Z treatment?
Why the Brooklyn Nets when they can be the New York N——s? The cheerleaders could be the Brooklyn B—-hes or Hoes. Team logo? A 9 mm with hollow-tip shell casings strewn beneath. Wanna be Jay-Z hip? Then go all the way!
“I guess I won’t need my color TV anymore now that the Nets will be wearing black and white,’’ writes reader John Lynch.
And reader David Distefano now wonders what’s left for the Nets to choose as “their alternate third-uniform to sell during nationally televised games.”
So now, of course, there are those who are calling Mushnick a racist. I guess such is a theory when an old white guy (not necessarily Jewish) comments on issues that touch on non-white cultural themes.
Well, not everyone. And Mushnick himself tried to defuse the situation. But really, what can you say at this point? Not matter how right he is, or how he tries to explain, it’s like getting into an argument with someone who always answers “Au contraire.” What is he supposed to do with that?
(Just as an aside, it’s an interesting coincidence that the May 4 column includes another shot at Francessa, which Mushnick seems to do with relish and at every chance he gets.)
