All Things Bubba

Yeah, I'm going there. A lot of people are thinking it, but no one wants to say it. Well, except the Indians fan I talked to today, who said, "There’s something deeply wrong with the new park." Yes, even though her team beat the Yankees like a red-headed stepchild today, thanks in part to that short right porch, she doesn't like the new stadium.

I haven’t actually been there yet, but from what I’ve heard...I don’t like it, either.

It seems to be a launching pad. Perhaps it's just a small sample size. Perhaps it's a temporary fluke of weather. But somehow, balls that look like they'll be fly outs keep going, and end up home runs.

That in itself isn't bad. It will have the same effect on both the home and visiting team. But you gotta figure pitchers will hate it, if this proves to be real.

Alex Belth describes the new stadium as a mall with a baseball field in it. A mall where many of the bars and restaurants don’t allow ordinary fans, according to Pete Abe. Where the real fans are excluded from the good seats by insane prices, making the place eerily quiet. The vast expanses of empty seats look terrible on camera. And of course, they don’t let fans from the cheap seats move down, even when there aren’t many people left in the place.

Then there's the expense. The Yankees paid for building it, but they got some serious tax breaks - at a time when the state budget is facing massive deficits. I wouldn't be surprised if some ugly things came slithering out if anyone bothers to overturn some rocks there.

No, I don't believe the new stadium is really cursed. But I think a lot of people already don't like the new stadium, and if there more games like today's 22-4 beatdown, it's going to be hard to warm up to it.

I find myself wishing New Yorkers had done what Red Sox Nation did: declared their stadium a historic landmark, and thereby not allowing it to be torn down or significantly changed.

Today's game was brutal. I don't know what they're going to do with Wang. Skip his next start, but then what? I thought he had options left, but apparently, he doesn't. They can't send him down. They said he's not hurt, so they can't put him on the DL.

We didn't even get the fun of Swisher pitching. I ended up watching Yankees Classics, to wash away the bad taste of today's record-settingly bad game. They showed the game where Jeter went face-first into the stands.

Bubba got into that game as a pinch-runner, and stayed in for the rest of it (which turned out to be several innings). He was so young back then. And had so much hair. Really Elvis-y looking hair. Not just the sideburns. They showed him in the dugout hatless, cheering on Miguel Cairo's triple, and his hair was so fwoopy. Like that vampire guy in Twilight.

I'd forgotten this game was the one where Bubba got one of his two major league errors. I really didn't think he deserved an error on the play. He threw the ball in from center, and it was right on target - a great throw. But A-Rod wasn't there. He was off the base, probably because Big Papi was sliding in. They gave Bubba an error because the ball got past A-Rod. That hardly seems fair.

Meanwhile, the Charlotte Knights won tonight. Andy Phillips was 2 for 4.

I wonder how he feels about this trade. Charlotte, NC is probably closer to Alabama culturally than Indianapolis. Indianapolis is physically closer to his home in Oklahoma, though.