Big Lead Sports Bar

5/07/2007

28 Million Prorated Reasons to Hate the Yankees

Well, so much for the Pirates taking advantage of a Yankee front office desperate for pitching. On Sunday, the Bronx Bombers reached into the vault and handed Roger Clemens a prorated contract valued at a whopping $28 million. He is finally reunited with hetero life partner and Grimsley File Comrade Andy Pettitte.

In typical Yankee fashion, even the announcement was dramatic, as Clemens spoke on the Yankee Stadium video monitor during the 7th-inning stretch. This is just another example of the fact that the Pirates are not playing in the same league as the Yankees. Could you ever imagine the Pirates signing any pitcher even worthy of interrupting the game? No, unless you would have preempted the pierogi race to have a video message from Tony Armas.
Speaking of the Pirates, they were outscored 22-7 by the Brewers this weekend. Hey, at least they were able to score that late touchdown and get on the board. It was an ugly series that exposed the gap between the two teams for those who previously had illusions of contention for the Pirates.
Matt Capps had the class act move of the weekend when he threw at Prince Fielder after a J.J. Hardy home run on Saturday night. Thankfully, the Pirates were spared from a bench-clearing brawl, because the way they've been going as of late, they would have lost that, too. Visions of the 262-pound Fielder with Jack Wilson in a headlock are not pretty. Seriously, are the Pirates not the least intimidating team of all time? Who's their most passionate, fiery player? Ian Snell?
Ironic that I mention Snell, as he takes the hill tonight at Chicago against the pus-throwing Ted Lilly. You might remember that the Pirates touched up Lilly for four runs in 5 1/3 innings last Tuesday. When the Pirates are getting almost a run an inning on you, that's got to be a pitcher's professional low point. Maybe the Buccos can improve upon that 3.12 runs-per-game mark that ranks them in the bottom three of the league tonight. That may or may not happen, but there's one thing I can promise: the game won't be interrupted in the 7th inning for a free agent signing.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

The Pirates stand no chance in any brawl: my middle infield in Teener League was bigger, LaRoche and Paulino would probably swing and miss if they tried to punch anyone, Bay might get a chance to knock them out and just leave them hanging, Duffy would complain about being forced to throw jabs when all he wants to do is throw haymaking uppercuts, and Jim Tracy would stand there and talk about how they were getting closer to being able to brawl.

The Duke from Dukes Court said...

I don't blame Capps for throwing at Fielder, at least he showed some passion, that might be the only positive thing this team showed during the Brewers series.

tecmo said...

didn't you hear? drabek's comin back...

AJ said...

Coming back? I thought Leyland still had him out on the mound?

Pirates are such a disgrace. I lived in Milwaukee for 3 years and was always able to say that at least their baseball team sucked as bad as ours. Now I have to hear it every time the Bucs get trounced by those brat eating bastards.

Don't worry... LaRoche should be getting hot any day now.

Anonymous said...

The Yanks' signing of Clemens is so outlandish that it is an insult to baseball fans everywhere. It basically says, "Yeah, everyone knows that we can spend any amount on our players, but now we're so desperate, that there's no sense in even giving the appearance of there being a level playing field anymore."

Look for my forthcoming book entitled "WHY BASEBALL IS IRRELEVANT EVERYWHERE EXCEPT BEW YORK, BOSTON, CHICAGO, AND ST.LOUIS."

Of course, the economics of baseball are only half of the problem for Bucco fans. Sadly, we know the other half of the story.

Remember, this year will mark the 15th consecutive losing season for the Pirates. 16 is the record set by Philadelphia about 80 yrs ago.

History is right around the corner.