Here's to You Ken Singleton

Many of you have never had the privilege of hearing Ken Singleton broadcast a baseball game, never mind the privilege of hearing him on a regular basis. As a Yankee fan in the NY area, I get the pleasure of hearing him quite often and I want to write a tribute to one of my favorite broadcasters out there.

Why is Ken Singleton so good? Well let’s start with that he’s completely unpretentious. He doesn’t speak down to you, and never comes off as self-important. At the same time he’s clearly very articulate. He doesn’t talk about things he doesn’t know about and keeps the focus on the game itself.

He’s completely self-deprecating and you’d never know he was really a quite good player, unless well… you knew was quite a good player. (No he wasn’t hall of fame material, but he was no slouch.) All these things allow him to work seamlessly with a multitude of partners, from Cone, to Lieter to Flaherty to Kay; he doesn’t miss a beat no matter who is in the booth.

But the best part about getting to listen to Ken Singleton? The little sayings you’ll hear every game.

One particular game a pitcher threw a curveball and they were showing the replay of said curveball and Singleton describing the brake on the pitch goes, “WEEEEE” like a school child going throwing his hands up and jumping down a slide. It was unexpected, enthusiastic and quite simply great.

Another game a Yankee (probably Jeter) made a high throw to first and Giambi has to jump up to grab it, lands on the bag and gets the out. Singleton says, “Giambi proves you gotta get up, to get down.” Once again unexpected, enthusiastic and great.

So here’s to you Ken Singleton, keep doing what you’re doing.

Hank Steinbrenner: Just Shut Your Mouth Already

Hank Steinbrenner the new managing owner of the Yankees is running his mouth yet again. After already saying the Red Sox Nation was B.S., giving deadlines for the Santana deal and saying the Yankees wouldn’t sign A-Rod (and then did) Hank Steinbrenner has taken the cake recently. He said he wants Joba in the starting rotation and only an idiot would want him in the setup role. Additionally he mentioned 5 starters he wanted on the team going forward and one of them was not Mike Mussina who is currently in the rotation.

Previously I haven’t minded his comments and proclamation. Granted he’s probably hurt the Yankees bargaining position in certain situations, I figured as long as he keeps writing the checks like his father did it would be ok.

Now I’m going to not so politely have to tell him to Shut his Facking Mouth. First in saying he never liked them moving him to the pen last year he’s ignoring the fact that if they did not, there’s little to no chance they make the playoffs last year. Granted they didn’t get past the first round last year, however without a bad case of the bugs who knows how that series could have turned. My point is last year it was clearly a smart decision to move Joba to the bullpen.

Now I understand he’s probably been watching Bronx is Burning and wants to be like his dad when George told Billy Martin to hit Reggie Jackson fourth, but it’s possible to own a successful team without being an idiot.

Here’s a few reasons why Hanks comments are so dumb.

1) With his recent statements in one foul swoop you’ve alienated one of your starting pitchers, your GM and your manager.

1a) Mussina hasn’t been that bad, aside from his last start he’s pitched at least 5 2/3 every other start and not given up more than 4 runs in all of them

1b) Your general manager is the one who drafted Joba in the bloody first place

1c) Your manager is less than 20 games in, is there really a need to castrate him already and make him face constant questions?

2) His baseball people (you know the ones that actually know the game) think Joba should only pitch about 150 innings this year and if he went through 30+ healthy starts he would be way over that by the end of the season, lets just throw him out there anyway.

3) The Yankees really have no proven setup guy if Joba is moved to the rotation. Number one starters are more important than setup guys, but between Rivera in 96 and Nelson, Stanton and Mendoza after that the Yankees haven’t won a W.S. recently without a very solid setup crew.

4) We’ve never seen Joba as a major league starter. Is he doing to be as dominant throwing 94 instead of 97, and having to work in curveballs and changeups?

5) One of his reasons for thinking Joba needs to be in the rotation is because you don’t keep a guy with a 100 mph fastball as a setup guy. According to Jayson Stark: Joel Zumaya, Justin Verlander, Joba, Matt Lindstrom, Ubaldo Jimenez, Jonathan Broxton and A.J. Burnett. That's the list of all pitchers who threw at least three pitches last year that were clocked at 100-plus. Not including Joba that’s three starters and 3 relievers. And other than Verlander who has struggled this season, none of them are dominant.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not against moving Joba to the rotation and giving him a shot there, but to call people idiots for thinking its not a bad thing for him to be in the bullpen at this point is, well… idiotic.