All Things Bubba

Discover is offering 150 different designs for their credit card. Landscapes, patriotic, abstract graphics, fine art, flowers, wildlife, hobbies, flags, pets, etc. (Weirdly, they have only one US state design: Texas.) They're all very nice looking, I must say. Of course, I went straight to the sports category to see what they had. The only individual teams they had were WNBA. But I rather like their generic baseball design. I almost picked the football design instead, or a nice beach scene, but in the end, I went with the baseball one. I like the way it looks: attractive and unusual. And of course, I love baseball.

It's do or die for the Yankees tomorrow. Torre is reportedly thinking about putting Giambi in the lineup. Pete Abe thinks it will be Minky who sits, because Matsui has a better record against Westbrook.

PeteAbe also posted this, under the title Recipe for a disaster:

Damon 1-9
Jeter 1-8
Abreu 2-6
Rodriguez 0-6
Matsui 0-7
Posada 0-7
Cano 1-7
Cabrera 1-8
Mientkiewicz 0-4

The Yankees are 8 of 66 (.121) with 17 strikeouts in two games.

Ugly. And so similar to what happened last year. That's why a team full of sluggers is not the way to win in the post-season. I don't think it's a coincidence that the two players who have hit home runs, Damon and Melky, are also two slap hitters, not known for their power. That's the way to deal with good pitching. Take something off, just go for contact.

Came across this amusing bit, at a site that has nothing to do with sports or baseball:

Yankee Loss Attributable To Global Warming

Cleveland players seemed unaffected by swarms of bugs, O-for-October A-Rod says, "They're used to living in filth, Cleveland is such a pit."

"I mean, I don't want to make excuses, or divert attention from my own poor performance, but this is bigger than that. We could be witnessing a slow motion climate catastrophe, perhaps the breakdown of the whole North Atlantic thermohaline conveyor. It's not about one player. There is no I in unusual weather."

(It's a joke, of course. He didn't really say that. Though you could almost imagine him saying it...)

I think the chances of A-Rod staying in NY are shrinking rapidly. If the Yanks lose tomorrow and A-Rod is still O-for-October, I don't think he'll stick around. And I'm not happy about that. A-Rod is not the most likable player, but he's a once-in-a-generation talent. If the Yanks let him walk, they'll regret it. Betemit is probably the A-Rod insurance, and promising as he is, he's no A-Rod.

And when A-Rod is playing with the Angels or Red Sox or whoever his new team is, he's probably going to go Kenny Lofton on us and just kill the Yankees. Year after year after year.