Before getting to some likely alterations to The Heartland, I just read that Bobby Murcer is having a biopsy done to see whether or not cancer has returned, or if scar tissue has formed.  I sincerely hope that it's the latter.  Whenever we might think that we have it bad, or that life is clamping down on us, there are usually people whose circumstances would make us blush in embarrassment.  Murcer's, potentially, are those.  He seems like a genuinely good guy, he's always been well-liked, and he lends important insights into the game that only a very good ex-player can.  I hope I'm not alone when I say that I hope Murcer is still healthy, and that the dreaded cancer he has fought to recover from has not returned.  Keep him in your thoughts.

I am excited because I'll be teaching a US History survey course this summer, in the morning no less, allowing me to follow up with office hours, then some quality time at the pool with the kids.  However, given the need to work on lectures for a few hours a day, it will likely result in my scaling back some of my presence at The Heartland.  That does not mean that I won't post daily game summaries, since I'll still be following The Boys.  Nor does it mean that I won't open the HDLR, which has become an important facet of life here.  But it does necessitate a recalibrating of things.  The first is that come summer, I'll likely post frequently, but comment much less often.  It also means that I'll likely have the HDLR open only on the weekends, or during the week for big series and games.  I'd like to be around much of the time that the Living Room is open, although during the week there may be times I open it for your enjoyment only.  I might even post HLDR days a week ahead of time.

This is certainly not intended to scare anyone off.  On the contrary, I'd love people to continue to come around a lot when the season is underway--and before if you're so inclined.  But I know how I am, and if given my druthers, I'd gladly allow certain things to slack in order to spend a ton of time chinwagging in the HDLR when I've got a lot on my plate, not counting the dissertation already in the works.  I'm somewhat reluctant to make these modest alterations, mainly because I believe that certain things such as the HDLR really have been collaborative.  But I also think that this helps to preserve the uniqueness of the HDLR by saving its frequency for the stretch run.  Mike had mentioned this a while back, and I think (as usual) he's right.

March is just around the corner, which means a couple things.  I'll be brewing a bock for the Spring this weekend, so that should be ready just after Opening Day.  Things should also start getting warmer here in the Midwest, and there is nothing better than sauntering out in early April to high 60s and sun.  I'm also itching to get back to barbecuing.  Lastly, when vacation comes around and since I have a laptop, I intend not only to have some HDLR time from the beach, but also to introduce you all to the illustrious and elusive Frank the Sage, to whom I refer frequently here. 

Lots in store here at The Heartland.  Oh yeah, and Yankees baseball too.

I just got back from a two week-long research trip in Detroit, where I was working on my dissertation.  It's good to be back, and it was certainly good to see the family again.  I have to say that I miss them terribly when I'm gone.  It's more than just missing them for the obvious reasons--love.  It's also, especially with the kids, that our daily routines are so intertwined. I always get the kids from school, make dinner, take GLG to piano, help the little guy with homework, read and watch movies with the kids, et cetera.  Being away from all that I do with them is always as hard as anything to endure.  I did my best to occupy myself daily at the gym, to read and do work outside the archive.  Yet I forgot to bring my Yankees 1996-2001 DVD set to play on the laptop, and just end up sad without the family.  Although there were a couple inches of snow back home to greet me, it was great to get home.

It's been good to read up on the Yankees--aside from the Syringe Chronicles, that is.  I'm pleased to see the players working so hard in camp, running a ton and ensuring good fitness from the beginning.  My understanding from Pete Abraham is that not only has Joba lost weight, but Brian Bruney has also lost 20 pounds or so.  According to Abraham, Bruney also seems to exhibit a different attitude, being more outgoing and showing himself willing to listen to advice.  I'm not willing to place a lot of faith in Bruney until he proves himself to be steadily productive.  But there's no question that the bullpen is full of open positions and, with Torre and Guidry moving on, Girardi will certainly give lots of players a shot at making the team.  Given how expendable much of middle relief actually is, whoever find themselves in the open spots--Veras, Bruney, Ohlendorf, Jackson, Henn (who knows, but another guy I won't hold my breath on)--will need to produce or risk banishment.  That's the nature of the job, and the Yankees as much as anyone can afford to tinker with different options until they find the combination of pitchers who throw hard and throw strikes.

I like that Damon has reported in far better shape than last year.  He's far too important to be out of shape. Nor was the broken toe from which he was recovering last Winter a valid excuse for the weight gain.  In fact, it should have been extra motivation for watching his weight even more.  Plus, as Frank the Sage has accurately put it, "For $13 million a year, fitness should be a year-round concern."  No doubt about it.  None of these players have the excuse of needing to work second jobs in the off-season, as so many did well into the 1950s.  Additionally, Damon is capable of so much when healthy.  He's a very good base stealer, he works counts, he's good for lots of extra-base hits, and proved himself a much better left-fielder than Matsui.  He has to be healthy.

Great to be thinking more and more about baseball.  Every day, in fact, I'm thinking about Jeter driving in runs with a single to right-center, A-Rod creaming one to deep left--or center, Joba, Hughes, and Kennedy stringing together quality starts, Pettite's clutch work, Abreu working counts and steering balls into the left-center gap, Mariano closing doors in teams, the Yankees starting fast this Spring, Mussina's cantankerousness, warm Midwestern weather in April, tossing the ball around with the kids, and sipping a few cold ones with barbecue this summer. 

I Love Baseball.

I am well aware of my propensity for optimism, and I won't apologze much for my glass-half-full approach to the Yankees, or life for that matter. But I have to say that I've been rather encouraged to see and read several developments thus far during spring training.  The first is that, as reported in the New York Post and other outlets, Yankee pitchers are running much more than before, certainly than last year.  I find it impossible not to think about the stark differences between that @$$-head Marty Miller, the so-called "director of performance enhancement," (ignore for a moment the cackles of ribald laughter that the title might induce, certainly from me) and now, with running emphasized for pitchers who, lest we forget, heavily rely on their legs for strength and endurance when pitching.  You remember the guy whose credentials to be the de facto strength and conditioning coach were, as Frank the Sage has so delicately put it, "tutoring tennis backhands for middle-aged retirees at a country club," specifically the Ballen Isles Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla? The guy who de-emphasized running regimens for the pitchers?  Good riddance to Marty the genius, and I hope he got his old job back.  Honestly, this is not to be overlooked, especially considering the woeful start the Yankees had in 2007 and the deleterious consequences for the patchwork staff the team had to cobble together after numerous injuries. "Heck of a job," Marty, to paraphrase our so-called president's lackluster endorsement of the lackluster performance of a guy who, before heading up a division of FEMA, honed his craft for indifference to human tragedy with his leadership of the International Arabian Horse Association, from which he was forced to resign, ominously enough. 

That key members of the team have arrived in good shape, heeding Joe Girardi's warnings, is another plus.  Johnny Damon (from whom I expect good things). Bobby Abreu, A-Rod, Pettite, Hughes and Joba with their workout regimen, Matsui, and others have prepared their bodies for the season-long rigors is really a big benefit--not having to play physical catch-up to shed the Josh Beckett blubber bloat, or the Johnny Damon sexy calves. 

It also expresses a serious approach to the new stewardship of Girardi, and people's awareness that while previous Yankees spring training sessions weren't a country club under Torre, Girardi has clearly conveyed the message of serious preparation for the team.  I loved Torre as a manager, unquestionably think he got the team to play, and that numerous reasons existed why they underperformed in two of his last three seasons, particularly at the beginning.  But can anyone say that the palpable emphasis on preparation and performance from the get-go in spring training is a bad thing? Not I. Girardi has his own way of doing things, and his demanding nature will very likely stem more from scrutinous eye to detail than in-your-face dressing down players. Yet such an approach sets a tone, and I believe a good one. It's also a good system in which players as leaders can lead. 

To reincorporate a point introduced earlier that I believe merits special attention, that Hughes and Joba have spent so much time intensely preparing their bodies for the season's grind is a great testament to their maturity, off-season preparation, and self-motivation.  You have kids, really, in their early 20s, who have adopted rigorous training regimens to prepare for the season.  Can anyone say they're not expecting good things from Joba and Phil Franchise? Combined with Ian Kennedy, the Yankees' fortunes may well hinge on how the kids embrace the work ethic of Andy Pettite, insist upon honing their craft, and practice it over the couse of a long season.

Torre was formed by his circumstances as a person and player; Girardi will be the same, as people generally are.  Girardi's involved working hard at all times to fit into teams--certainly during his stints with the Yankees--that usually had more talented players than he.  That Girardi made himself a useful and at times integral player on champioship teams attests to the very ethic of ceaseless hard work that he's instilling, from the beginning, in the talented, and already hard-working, 2008 Yankees.

I like to see it. I can start to smell BIG dividends.

"It's been a looooong, a long time coming, but I knoooow, a change's gonna come.  Oh, yes it will."--Sam Cooke, "A Change Is Gonna Come."

I have to say that I've regained a good deal of respect for Andy Pettite, a man whom I've long deeply respected, after how well he handled himself this afternoon in his press conference, as well as the past week before Congress and the subsequent media scrutiny.  It would be facile to write him off as a PED abuser because he took HGH a few times in 2002 to hasten recovery from an injury.  In fact, Pettite's forthright admission fits in well with a good deal of the people mentioned in The Mitchell Report and others who have tested positive for steroids.  They are quite often either players who used a banned substance for a very short period, and/or players on the margins of security in the game looking to solidify their positions with teams.  To a degree and given his injury, as well as the unfair internal criticism he took from Steinbrenner, Pettite's use overlaps with both, but by far he falls within the first category.

Considering that we as Yankees fans have witnessed Pettite's steady personal and professional development and comportment over a long period of time, I have no doubt that Pettite's decision to admit to HGH use is indicative of his belief system, a combination of religion and plain-spoken decency.  He's always been direct and honest with issues and, although he hid his HGH use, I'm convinced that it ate at him. No one readily admits to that, yet Andy did.  That he didn't admit to using HGH until he was revealed by someone else to have done so should not blur the fact that he was honest about it when the revelation occurred, candid about the circumstances in which it occurred, and humbly self-critical in reflecting upon his deeds.  Anyone who wishes to diminish these deeds as post facto rectitude should glance at the sorry, devolving spectacle that has been the Clemens conundrum and remember how difficult genuine humility can be.  It's something one cannot feign.  I for one will always hold Pettite in high esteem, no longer in spite of his admission of HGH but in no small part because of the way in which he admitted to it and handled the scrutiny.

That took fortitude.

I know I'm not the only one who feels this way but, given the Clemens-McNamee Congressional fiasco and other things, this is most welcome news.  I'm greatly looking forward to talking baseball more frequently, seeing the progress of the kids, watching how Joe Girardi handles the team, how the team handles the transition under a new manager for the first time since 1996, and watching the Yankees climb back to the top of baseball.

Pitchers, catchers, and all other interested parties, come on down!

Five days and counting until pitchers and catchers report, and it's all the more enticing to look forward to with all the recent "news" involving Roger Clemens, Brian McNamee, and now Clemens's wife in the back-and-forth steroids accusations and denials.  I saw that McNamee has turned over physical evidence such as used syringes, gauze pads and more kept in an old, crushed-up Miller Lite can in Queens for several years, all allegedly used on Clemens.   Now, McNamee claims to have injected Clemens's wife with HGH.  Initial reports filtering out of the commissioner's office in New York state that McNamee will reveal tomorrow that he injected the author with C&MF (Clemens and McNamee Fatigue).  Stay tuned.

I have no idea whether or not Clemens used performance-enhancement drugs, though my gut tells me that he did.  I say this in part because of the possibility of guilt by association, working with the same trainer as Pettite and with Pettite's admission of brief HGH use.  In part, I say this because of The Mitchell Report.  But primarily, I'm inherently suspicious of Clemens's mode of defense best exhibited by his "60 Minutes" interview.  The parrying that Clemens performed, consisting of the "if-I-were-guilty-why-would-I-have/have not-done-x?" ploy, almost reflexively makes me believe in that person's guilt.  Honestly, wasn't this the basis for OJ's book? How many of us believe he's innocent?  Of course Clemens isn't OJ, but my point is this: once people start relying on putting themselves into mock scenarios as if they had done what they stand accused of, I'm immediately distrustful.  I don't trust that Clemens is telling the truth, particularly because there are pages of details describing PED use and injection in The Mitchell Report, and Clemens's best friend Pettite admitted to using them.  Can we blithely dismiss the possibility that Pettite knew to whom to turn for HGH through both his trainer and his close friendship with Clemens, who turned him onto McNamee? This of course doesn't constitute Clemens's guilt, but it does triangulate the issue more closely on Clemens.  It's still he-said, he-said, but it's very plausible that Clemens took PEDs.

Yet McNamee really rankles me as a person, and his comportment throughout all this has been deplorable, to me.  Just as I am suspicious of Clemens, I am equally suspicious of McNamee as this physical evidence he supplied.  There are many ways in which this could have been tampered with, regardless of whether or not any DNA test reveals them to have been used on Clemens.  It's possible that they could be leftover syringes from what Clemens says he took--B-12 and other legal substances, and that McNamee tinkered with them after the fact. He certainly held the "evidence" and has had motive in self-protection.  If McNamee truly held these for years in an old beer can, as Beth at Yankees Chick rightly asks, why did he not turn these over to Mitchell's investigators and Major-League Baseball? Why are these syringes surfacing now? Did MLB and Mitchell's investigators know about these before? if so, why did they not demand them? More importantly, did federal investigators know about these?  Could McNamee be charged with withholding evidence?  This too all seems fishy.

Essentially, I'm contending that it's simultaneously possible for Clemens to have taken PEDs, and for McNamee's syringes to be bogus.  I'm also declaring myself officially and irreversibly sick of this whole sordid, selfish, and stupid melodrama.  We recently purchased expanded cable service to include many more channels than before, including a few Encore channels, History channels, IFC, Sundance, and more.  We did this primarily so my wife can catch up on her soaps--the ABC broadcasts--at night on the Soap Opera Network.  As hilarious and convoluted as I find them when I parachute into one of the broadcasts, the Clemens-McNamee saga is beginning to rival them for back-stabbing, histrionic accusations, mock publicity, and melodrama. 

I sure hope I can make it to Thursday in one piece.

Just a few thoughts collected as I devote some time to blog and personal clean-up, and wonder whatever happened to Andy Hawkins.

I read earlier this week on Bryan Hoch's Bombers Beat blog that David Cone will join the YES Network broadcast team.  This is an outstanding move.  Cone is extremely intelligent, articulate, succinct, and engaging.  Combined with the terrific work that former pitcher Al Leiter does in games, I can only think that Cone will only add to the stable of new but talented broadcasters that YES has compiled. YES has also done a good job of keeping ex-Yankees in house, but picking good people for analysts positions.  That they have secured Cone, another well-spoken former pitcher, to add his insights, should make the broadcast teams even stronger.

I have neglected to discuss this, perhaps out of relative indifference, but the Yankees signed Morgan Ensberg to possibly fill in at first base.  He had a big 2005 season with Houston (36 HRs, 101 RBIs, .283 AVG, .388 OBP) at third, but has tailed off dramatically since, in part due to injuries. This smacks of Josh Phelps--low-risk, potentially high reward, righty bat with some pop.  Yet don't the Yankees already have this with Shelley the Marauder, but with more power, the ability to play outfield, and goodness knows more energy?  Don't the Yankees already have bench versatility with Wilson Betemit who, though lacking from the right side of the plate, plays most infield positions and has good lefty pop? To me, this is a direct by-product of the Giambi contract, which is in its last year.  While Mike and I, and Frank the Sage and I have discussed the possibility of Giambi's going out with a flourish for the Yankees, he'll need to in order to atone for inconsistencies, the steroids nonsense, and his diminution to a one-tool power hitter with a very good eye at the plate.  Add Ensberg and stir, but more uncertainty at first is not what the Yankees need again this year.  Pitching undid the Yankees, again, last year, but the lack of first-base productivity in the first half of 2007 was pretty damaging, lest we forget.

I have mixed feelings about the Suns' trade for Shaq.  He doesn't appear at first glance to fit into their style, being bigger, older and suffering from lingering hip and knee issues. They also gave up disgruntled but talented forward Shawn Marion, who did a ton for the Suns--played very good defense, shot well, and ran the floor.  Yet something tells me that this trade will benefit the Suns.  For all his foibles and occasional bluster, Shaq is usually a very good team player, ceding leadership to Dwayne Wade immediately upon arrival to the Heat, knowing that he had to be a pivotal role player fitting into the budding young star and team's style.  He did that to the tune of a championship.  Given how many easy baskets the Suns score because of Steve Nash and the rest of the greyhounds they have, Shaq might actually be able to rebound and cherry-pick a bit, not unlike the great Kareem did later in his incredible career.  Shaq's arrival will also send Amare Stoudamire to the power forward position, which might be more natural for him anyway, as long as he moves his feet to guard quicker forwards he'll now have to cover.  With Grant Hill and Boris Diaw, the Suns still have flexible depth, and moving Diaw to the bench might be a good move, allowing him to spell the 3, 4, and 5 positions and rest Hill and Shaq, who is still an undeniably imposing presence when healthy. The Suns will likely have a bench of Leandro Barbosa, Boris Diaw, resurgent Mike Skinner and more.  That's pretty strong. If they jell, and I won't put it past them, the Suns with a healthy Shaq just might win the West.  With the Lakers' expensive but brilliant trade for Pau Gasol and the eventual return of talented young Andrew Bynum, as well as Tony Parker's injury and the Spurs' replacement with Damon Stoudamire and the still-talented Jazz and Mavericks, the West will no doubt be very exciting down the stretch.

One week until pitchers and catchers report, and I must say that I'm starting to get the itch for baseball in a big way.  There is a lot to be excited about this year, still a good degree of uncertainty about certain parts of the team, and a couple positions to be won.  I think what will happen regarding Shelley Duncan is an overlooked key to the team.  If Duncan can earn regular playing time at first, can show steady defense, consistent pop in his bat, and patience at the plate, he'll be a big addition to the team's bench.  The resigning of Jose Molina was a great move, a guy who hit well for the Yankees, is a defensive stalwart, and masterfully handles pitchers.  His ability to give Jorge a blow every five games is good for both players and the team.

But as per usual, the arms are the linchpin around which the Yankees' fortunes pivot.  The bullpen will likely rely on fairly unproven youngsters, as will at least 2/5 of the rotation.  I expect Jose Veras and Ross Ohlendorf to get ample opportunities to prove themselves.  Veras was a monster in winter ball this off-season, and can be a strong addition if he can consistently throw strikes.  I also think that once he's ready to return from Tommy John surgery, the Yankees will give Humberto Sanchez a thorough look in the pen.  He throws heavy gas, and replacing Joba's dominance in 2008 would go far in solidifying the bullpen.  The rotation faces a potential Catch-22, with younger starters who will likely be restricted in total innings for the year needing to pitch both well and long into games to cover for what may be an unsteady bullpen.  Girardi cannot afford to burn out anyone, least of all Joba, Hughes and Kennedy.  How they progress and hold up may well be the biggest key to the Yankees this year.  A steady, consistent, and winning staff would be a most welcome change after several years of constant turnover and struggles.

One week...

Mike, you called it buddy.  Eli worked some late-game magic, and the Giants pulled this one out late against the previously undefeated Patriots, 17-14.  A defensive struggle for most of the game, this opened up as the Patriots drove late, absorbing over five minutes of game time to score the go-ahead touchdown on a Brady-to-Moss play, 14-10.  Yet Manning and the Giants prevailed, driving down 83 yards for for the winning score. I have to say that as much as anything, I loved seeing the clips of big brother Peyton cheering lustily from a luxury box as Eli led the team to victory in a tense, and ultimately thrilling, game.

I have to add this: although I had no horse in this race, and although I'm an AFC/AFL guy from the old school, and although the perfect-season story line was very compelling for me to watch, seeing this trumped by the Eli arrival story was tremendous.  What's more, I loved reading around the Internets (to quote our so-called president) and particularly the baseball blogs at MLBlogs and elsewhere the desire among regional New England partisans to break the hearts of New York fans again. That didn't happen now, did it? All I heard in November was how the Red Sox triumph would be followed by local and regional sports dominance by the Celtics (whom I've always like as I've said), the Bruins (who are a lower-rung playoff team in the Eastern Conference and need a run to be an actual contender), and the undefeated Patriots (who now lost the Big One).  I think that any of you Bah-ston and Red Sox partisans who hoped for more sports misery in and inflicted on NY should get used to this, especially about nine months from now, from our beloved Yankees. Choke down that crow and get reacquainted with the taste.

For Giants fans and backers, this is not intended as either a swipe or a diminution of their chances in today's Super Bowl.  On the contrary, I do not put winning past the G-Men at all, and think that, if they do the right things, they can come out on top.  Yet I believe the Patriots just have too much offensively, a well-balanced defense, plenty of big-game experience, and great coaching.  The Giants can win if they pressure Brady and their defense continues to excel as it did from the second-half onward against the Packers, Eli Manning continues to play solid, error-free ball, and they're able to use Jacobs to pound the Patriots' defense, keeping it on the field and their high-powered offense off it.  That's a lot they need to go right, and I think a couple of those things won't, not over the course of 60 minutes.  Prediction: Patriots 31, Giants 21 (sorry, Plaxico), achieving football immortality in a game that will very likely be more competitive than the score might indicate.

Enjoy the big game, everyone.

So let me get this straight.  Chuck Knoblauch needs to testify before Congress to answer questions regarding allegations of using performance-enhancement drugs a few times in 2001 (according to The Mitchell Report).  Yet Congress has taken a powder on the fact that former White House employees Harriet Miers (former White House Counsel), Karl Rove, and also chief of staff Josh Bolten all completely blew off their legal obligation to either testify before Congress (Miers and Rove), or to provide the House and Senate Judiciary Committees with requested materials (Bolten).  More galling, Miers and Rove refused to even show up for their House and Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, respectively, citing protection via executive privilege that did not and does not apply to them.  To clarify, Miers and Rove, who were legally required to appear before Congressional committees in order to answer questions about their roles in the politicization and quite likely illegal firings of US Attorneys General, failed to even show up to cite the alleged executive privilege that did not and does not now apply to them, and Congress failed to follow through on contempt of Congress votes.  Horrible.

Yet Chuck Knoblauch, long retired and out of baseball entirely, must appear before Congress to answer questions about PED allegations.  This country has been mired in a grotesquely expensive and illegal war in Iraq, has faced the ascendancy of an utterly unaccountable executive branch, has tortured people, has held thousands of citizens without being charged with a crime (not unlike what the British did to Americans in the 18th century, thus helping to instigate both the War for Independence and the formulation of the fourth amendment ensuring habeas corpus that used to exist in the US), has established and run illegal prisons around the world, has witnessed the abject failure of the country to properly respond to the Hurricane Katrina disaster for 2 1/2 years, has seen the outing of a CIA agent's identity for pure political vindictiveness, has been told by Administration blue-bloods that "outsourcing jobs is good for the American economy," has seen the Justice Department not only fail to investigate the federal government about rampant and illegal domestic spying operations affecting tens of millions of people but also threaten to criminally charge reporters who wrote about such illegalities, has been lectured about citizenship, service, and sacrifice by a president who didn't even deign to finish his National Guard tour during the war on Vietnam, has stood by as the president has issued over 1,100 signing statements absolving him from any obligation to follow or be held accountable under laws that Congress passes, has seen the economy creak to a halt, and on and on.  But if Chuck Knoblauch doesn't tell what he might or might not have done regarding a sport, well now, that's a crime.  Beyond Pathetic.

Congress has far more important things, issues, and quite frankly national crimes to investigate and resolve, matters that, unlike in the second term of the Clinton administration, actually deserve impeachment and accountability.  Chuck Knoblauch's possible use of performance-enhancement drugs seven years ago hardly ranks among anyone's national priorities.  That this is what Congress chooses to occupy itself with, along with demanding that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell testify before Congress about the destruction of materials relating to the Patriots' videotaping cheating scandal, is perfectly emblematic of the out-of-whack national priorities and myopic political consciousness afflicting this country.  These are sports, and whatever wrongdoings occur in them are far from high crimes, unlike the panoply of malfeasance that we have witnessed in the last seven miserable years.