All Things Bubba

In addition the Mexican holiday, today is celebrated as Children's Day in Japan. It used to be Boys' Day. It is still celebrated as such in Hawaii, which has a large population of Japanese descent, whose ancestors came over before Boys' Day became Children's Day. (March 3 is Girls' Day.)

In Hawaii, a family will fly the koi-shaped windsocks on Boys' Day, with one fish for each son in the family. I gather in Japan, they fly three, one for the father, one for the mother, one for the kid(s). Or they fly one for each child in the family, boy or girl.

Well, yesterday was a rather dreary baseball day. The Bats lost. And there was no "home" broadcast on MiLB.TV, so there wasn't even a medical report on Bubba.

The Yankees also lost, in a pretty awful game. I had high hopes for Kei Igawa for awhile there, and maybe there's still hope he'll improve. But it looks like the reports on him are right: the issue with him is consistency. Sometimes he's great, sometimes he's terrible, and you never know which it's going to be.

And poor Colter Bean. He was awful. Just dreadful. He threw something like ten pitches before he threw a strike. (Yes, that means he walked two batters on eight pitches.)

Okay, I know Bean is no Cy Young. But he can't possibly be as bad as his major league record, either. He's rarely been given a chance, but when he is, he's been horrible. I don't understand it. He's a decent pitcher in AAA. You'd think he could at least find the strike zone in the big leagues.

The only thing I can figure is that he's something of a head case. The pressure is pretty intense for any young player, especially with the Yankees. And Bean must feel it even more, because he's gotten so few opportunities. He's been stuck in Triple-A so long he set a longevity record in Columbus. He must feel like his career is riding on every pitch he throws. Which it is, pretty much.

The Reds lost in overtime. Former Yankee Mike Stanton gave up a double, which became the winning run when "Stormy" Weathers gave up a single. Once again, the Reds bullpen crumbles.

The Yankees' pen isn't great, either. Last night, they said of the 15 Yankees losses, 13 were on the bullpen. Though I wonder how much of that is due to exhaustion.