Bubba Links
Baseball Links
I just have to say...what bizarre alternate universe have I fallen into, where Kenny Rogers can hold a two-run lead and Mike Mussina can't??
Friday the 13th was bad luck for #13. Or maybe it was good luck? A-Rod was a passenger on a private jet that skidded off the end of the runway today in California. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Still no news on what Bubba's doing in the off-season, or what he's planning for next year. While he could theoretically make the Yankees out of spring training next year, the odds are not very good. The Yanks have obviously decided he's not part of their future. He'd be better off with another club - one that would give him a fair shot. But if he doesn't get any better offers, the Yankees would probably sign him to a minor league contract. Though I suppose they could trade him as well.
The Clippers' website has already converted over to the Nationals, while the Red Barons' has not yet converted over to the Yankees. So news on the Yankees' Triple-A club is pretty scarce.
However, MinorLeagueBaseball.com has this story about the Yankees transporting their equipment from Columbus to Scranton.
Before moving to the northeast, the only thing I knew about Scranton, Pennsylvania was the Harry Chapin song, 30,000 Pounds of Bananas. I've since driven by it a few times; it looked pretty generic, not even as interesting as it sounds in the song. But this article kind of made me want to visit:
Future Red Barons pleased
“I remember there was a forest in the outfield and there were deer walking around,” [Kevin] Thompson said, referring to the backdrop surrounding Lackawanna County Stadium. “And I remember the hotel we stayed at was an old train station and there were stories that it was haunted.”
A forest in the outfield? I hope he means beyond the outfield. Crashing into walls is bad enough, without having to worry about trees, too.
The train station hotel is probably the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel Scranton. Fancier digs than I usually go for, but if Bubba does end up playing for the Red Barons (or against them), maybe I'll go down there, stay in the haunted hotel, and go to a game or two.
Assuming I can get tickets. According to that article, the first day after the Yankees affiliation was announced, 47,000 tickets were sold.
A couple of seasonal links...
Two writers, one a Yankees fan, one a Red Sox fan, are collaborating on a book called Haunted Baseball.
The tone of Haunted Baseball is light and conversational. Its forty chapters offer discrete, self-contained narratives about shadowy figures hovering over beds, stereos sliding off tables in a Major League clubhouse, ghost encounters at home plate, spectral Hall of Famers throwing fastballs in living rooms, blue orbs flying towards terrified ballplayers at a neighborhood haunted mansion, and pop-ups disappearing into thin air.
The book won't be released until next October, but it sounds interesting. The list of baseball players, coaches, etc., interviewed for the book is amazing. I guess when the subject is ghosts, everyone wants to talk.
And speaking of ghosts...this is the logo for Obiwan's UFO-Free Paranormal Page, AKA Ghosts.org:
The owner of the site is a Red Sox fan. Kind of an odd logo to choose, though. Is she saying the Sox are dead? Or just their postseason hopes...
It's a fun site, known for its user-submitted true ghost stories. Be warned, though: it gets so much traffic around Halloween it often crashes under the load.
Meanwhile, at Shea, the light-hitting LIDR hits the go-ahead homer in the 9th. Gotta love it...
