Yankees game story
Here's an updated game story. I imagine most of you who watched the game will find this strange, but Ian Kennedy didn't think he pitched badly.
BY KAT O’BRIEN
kat.obrien@newsday.com
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Ian Kennedy’s return to the Yankees’ starting rotation — and in his hometown, no less — didn’t match any of his hopes and expectations. He failed to make it through the third inning in the Yankees’ 10-5 loss to the Angels Friday night.
Kennedy (0-4) allowed nine hits and was charged with five runs in two-plus innings, pitching to five Angels in the third without retiring a batter. After the Yankees moved within 6-5 with two runs in the sixth, the Angels heaped on four runs in the seventh inning against Darrell Rasner and Brian Bruney to make their win a more lopsided one. They wound up with 17 hits.
Yet somehow, Kennedy didn’t think he pitched that badly.
“Any bad outing is disappointing,” Kennedy said. “But it’s the first bad outing I’ve had in a long time, since the All-Star Game. I’m not too upset about it.”
Others might disagree, particularly since the loss cost the Yankees a chance to pick up a game on the Red Sox in the wild-card chase. They remained three games behind Boston and fell 61/2 games behind first-place Tampa Bay in the AL East.
Manager Joe Girardi, usually one to defend his players to the max, did not pull any punches. He said of Kennedy: “He was up. I mean, he was up in the (strike) zone.” Girardi also said: “It’s not what you want, obviously. You want to get some distance out of him.”
Those last few good outings that Kennedy referenced didn’t come against major league batters. They came at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. It’s been a long time since he had a quality start at the big league level. This year, he has had two quality starts in nine.
Early on, it was a rematch of Kennedy’s college debut for USC, with Jered Weaver starting for the opposition, as he once did for Long Beach State University. But this time neither had an outing to brag about. Weaver (10-9) was better than Kennedy, but it was no pitchers’ duel.
The Angels started pounding Kennedy early. With two on and two out in the bottom of the first inning, Torii Hunter (four hits, four RBIs) belted a ball to deep left-centerfield. Johnny Damon crashed into the wall as he went for the ball, actually knocking a door in the wall open, and two runs scored on the double.
It was reminiscent of the July 4 game against the Red Sox in which Damon injured his left shoulder while smashing into the wall. Girardi and trainer Gene Monahan went out to check on Damon, but after a couple of minutes, he remained in the game.
“I felt like I made some good pitches,” Kennedy said. “I gave up a bunch of singles and three doubles. I’m just not real upset about it.”
Those words weren’t echoed by his manager, who said: “We have to find a way to get him better.” They need to do that fast, unless they plan to move Darrell Rasner back into the rotation. Girardi said last night that Kennedy is in the rotation.
After allowing a leadoff double to Howie Kendrick in the second, Kennedy managed to get through a first-and-third, one-out jam without giving up any more runs. And by the time he returned to the mound for the third inning, the Yankees had staked him to a 3-2 lead.
Alex Rodriguez — who was 0-for-15 entering the series after going hitless in 14 at-bats in the Texas series — led off the second inning with a home run to leftfield on a 3-and-2 pitch. It was his 25th of the season.
The Yankees scored two runs in the third but left the bases loaded. Damon singled with one out, and after Derek Jeter flied out, Bobby Abreu’s ground-rule double put runners on second and third. The Angels intentionally walked Rodriguez and Weaver unintentionally walked Jason Giambi to force home a run. Xavier Nady followed with a dribbler down the third-base line that Weaver watched roll by, thinking it would go foul. Instead, it rolled into the third-base bag just as A-Rod was getting there for an infield single that drove in Abreu. But Robinson Cano grounded out to end the inning.
Kennedy, who was expecting a crowd of more than 50 friends and family members, could not hold the lead for even a couple of minutes. Mark Teixeira doubled to lead off the third and scored on a single by Vladimir Guerrero, with Guerrero going to second on the throw. Hunter’s infield single advanced Guerrero to third, Garret Anderson’s single to left drove in a run and Kendrick’s single to right knocked in another. That made it 5-3 and ended Kennedy’s first major-league start since May. Even given his poor performance in the rotation at the start of the season, his ERA rose from 7.41 to 8.17.
“Last year, I think I helped with some pretty big starts,” said Kennedy, who pitched well in three starts upon his debut last year. “I still think I can do that. This is a bump.”
With two out in the fourth, Guerrero doubled and Hunter singled off Rasner to make it 6-3.
The Yankees managed to do some damage against Weaver, who gave up six earned runs to the Yankees in New York last Saturday. This time he allowed five earned runs, seven hits and two walks in six innings.
The final two Yankees runs off Weaver came in the sixth. Nady lined a home run over the leftfield wall and Cano tripled to rightfield before scoring on Melky Cabrera’s grounder to first. That cut the Angels’ lead to 6-5.
The seventh inning ended any Yankee hopes of a rally. Hunter homered to center off Rasner (three earned runs and five hits in 41/3 innings). The Angels batted around that inning, scoring one run each on Jeff Mathis’ double, a wild pitch and Teixeira’s single.
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Comments (6)
And Ian thinks the Yanks are going to win the World Seies also!
....the end is near.
I'd say 12 to 14 out by next weekend
: (
It would seem that Ian's time in the minors did not teach Ian the lesson in humility that the Yankees felt he needed.
More disturbing than his pitching is the fact that Kennedy, by his comments, indicates that he doesn't appreciate that there's a difference between pitching well against the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, Charlotte Knights, or Norfolk Tide and pitching against major league teams.
I really believe Kennedy can be a solid major league pitcher, but he has lost his manager and he is quickly losing the room as well. The only person in the organization who still is supportive of him is Cashman and I wonder how much of that support is genuine and how much is aimed at keeping his trade value high enough to spin him for a CF or 1b this winter.
"Having successfully orchestrated his divorce from Boston and his landing in with the Dodgers, Manny Ramirez would like to make life miserable for the Red Sox during the next few seasons.
According to people who have spoken to the eccentric outfielder since he was dealt to L.A. on July 31, Ramirez wants to sign a free-agent deal with the YankeesNew York Yankees this offseason and get 19 chances a year to punish Boston.
"He wants to play for the Yankees so he can get at the Red Sox," a close friend of Ramirez's told The Post." - George King, NYPost.
King goes on to point out what we already know - everyone says they want to play for the Yankees, it's a good way to drive the price up.
koolman2
This post is out of the blue, but critical for all Yankee fans to KNOW!!!
The story is about how the Yankees in the championship season of 96 used a body cooling invention of a homeless inventor and never gave him credit for it.
http://www.ozonemag.com/press/nydailynews-benzino.htm
He finally asked for compensation, but the Yankees turned a deaf ear on him which has kept him in a homeless situation ever since and deprived the firefighters, police, soldiers, elderly, and everybody from having his revolutionary body cooling device that could have saved thousands of lives from heat stroke and allowed us to win the war in Iraq, years ago.
It's a great story and a sad one for the Yankees, which might explain why they stopped winning championships so suddenly and were humiliated by Boston.
It just might be the curse of the Kool Rope coming back to haunt them.
The reason I know the story is because I am Phil Simkins!!!
And for those who want to know the entire story follow along:
I had been in touch with the trainer for the Yankees, Gene Monahan, in 1995, about the cooling units and had made him several units of the necklace version which he kept in the training room locker.
He had even put me in touch with the Valvoline Nascar racing team and Mark Martin their driver to see if they could test the units while driving in a race.
I sent down 2 heavy duty Kool Ropes to Mark and he tried them out while practicing in his race car.
He got back to me and said that they worked great and if I could get the electronic freezer pack finished, he would definitely use them at races.
During the 95 season, the weather during the Yankee games never got too hot so the ropes were never used, but in 96 I developed the yellow Kool Rope for use by firefighters, policeman, construction workers, that i sent you the sample of.
I called Gene Monahan during the season and asked him if he would show the new unit to Dwight Gooden to see if he would endorse them and also that they were not for athletic use.
I dropped off to Yankee stadium, 2 units in late July and called Gene back on August 20 to see what Dwight had said.
Gene told me that he wanted to wait till after the season ended before doing any endorsement deals and then as I was hanging up the phone he said, "Oh by the way, Phil, some of the players have been using it in batting practice!!!"
I said to myself, Wow, now I am a part of Yankee history!!!"
Gene asked me to give him a call back in two weeks when they returned from California and he would discuss it further with me.
But, the team was doing so well at that time, I decided not to call until after the season was over, so not to take attention away from them winning.
I told the firefighters up at the 77th about the Yankees using the units and said that if we could be patient and wait until the season was over, if they won the Series, than what better publicity to get them into production than to have helped keep the team cool.
Well, as the story goes, they won an exciting Series with everything falling into place and I knew that my moment would soon come.
I waited until after the parades and festivities were over before I sent a letter to Mr. Steinbrenner.
He had known about the team use of the ropes right after Gene told me because I called his office and told his secretary, Lisa,about it and then sent her a unit to give to Mr. Steinbrenner, which she kept in the office refrigerator.
I waited for a reply and got none.
I then sent another and the same thing happened.
I did not know what was going on because I was not asking for money, just acknowledgement of my contribution.
It was a day or two after Christmas when I walked into a copy store on west 52nd street to fax another letter to Steinbrenner, when I saw on the wall all of these Christmas cards that were signed by Yankee players.
I asked the owner, Marthe, how she came by these and she said that her husband worked for the Yankees in the PR Dept.
So, I told her the story and asked her if she would give Gene a call to see what happened.
She spoke with him by phone and told me that he said that the team had used the Kool Ropes for a week in batting practice and then found them to be cumbersome and for me not to write to Steinbrenner anymore.
Well, I was crushed to say the least and didn't know why they would want to keep it a secret since they obviously had a positive effect on the performance of the team and by publicizing their use, it would have enabled me to get them into production for everyone, including the fans who came out to see games on really hot days.
So, for years after never knowing what happened and still trying to get the units into production someone told me that they probably didn't want it to be known that they used the ropes because it might have been considered an unfair advantage.
Gene Monahan knows the truth and the fact that they used the ropes for a week where they were playing in a heat wave in Texas and Kansas City and that they had to win at least one game at Texas or they would have known that they never could beat them at home which would have been a psychological disadvantage come the playoffs.
They won the third and last game they played in Texas and you had to know they were desperate after losing the first 2 to try anything to win. It was a close 6-5 win but keeping cool in that heat surely gave them the feeling of being able to overcome any obstacles and feeling as if they were Supermen.
They went on to Kansas City where they won 2 out of 4 and won on the hottest and most oppressive days. They also won in Texas on the hottest day. Then they left for cooler locations where they did not need the units.
TEMPERATURE IN DALLAS ON JULY 30, 1996
96.1
DEW POINT
69.4
HEAT INDEX RANGERS WIN 15-2
126
TEMPERATURE IN DALLAS ON JULY 31, 1996
89.6
DEW POINT
73.5
HEAT INDEX RANGERS WIN 9-2
107
TEMPERATURE IN DALLAS ON AUGUST 1, 1996
96.8
DEW POINT
72.5
HEAT INDEX YANKEES WIN 6-5
133
TEMPERATURE IN KANSAS CITY ON AUGUST 2, 1996
82.4
DEW POINT
67.3
HEAT INDEX KANSAS CITY WINS 4-3
87
TEMPERATURE IN KANSAS CITY ON AUGUST 3, 1996
89.6
DEW POINT
70.1
HEAT INDEX KANSAS CITY WINS 11-4
104.7
TEMPERATURE IN KANSAS CITY ON AUGUST 4, 1996
95.0
DEW POINT
74.2
HEAT INDEX YANKEES WIN 5-3
127
TEMPERATURE IN KANSAS CITY ON AUGUST 5, 1996
91.4
DEW POINT
74.2
HEAT INDEX YANKEES WIN 5-2
114
The 1996 World Series win marked the birth of the modern day Yankee dynasty, where they went on to win 3 more championships and made the playoffs each year, since.
It is a dark secret, kept by the Yankees for twelve years, that have prevented the world from having their cooling units and, certainly, changing the course of history!!!
If you guys want to get rid of a curse that might be keeping the Yankees in real hot water, and you can't blame me because I'm still stuck in homelessness, post this and give Lonn Trost a call who on 2 occasions called me a liar and the other asked what I wanted, because he knew it was true, before slamming the phone in my ear and then stand outside the player's entrance before a home game, usually he arrives about 2:00, and shout out to Gene Monahan, "Is it true that the team used Phil Simkins's Kool Rope in batting practice during the 96 season to keep cool in a heat wave in Texas and Kansas City??? "And why did you stiff him for the past 12 years and not allowed us to get our ropes???"
Monahan is the "keeper of the secret" guys so you have to get in his face and stay there until he fesses up, and then I can get you your ropes and the curse will be lifted.
But, you would think I would be still mad and hate the yankees??? Sure, to some extent, I'm human, but I will root for them and stand up for them by fighting a devious plot to put a curse on Yankee fans by putting up a monument to the Red Sox by a closet Sox fan who was the architect behind renovating the old Verizon buiding on 42nd street and sixth.
Dan Shannon, the architect, and Yankee hater, had the color of the building made in, brace yourself, "Fenway Green!!!"
That's right. Check it out. It's the exact color and shade of the notorious fenway Park and the Green Monster!!!
And you know how I found out his plot???
I matched the color on Google images and then went to his site where he had his projects listed and I knew that if he did any work in Boston then he certainly would know what that color was.
What I found at the bottom of the page when everything else was done in NYC and I was ready to admit he might be clean as a whistle was this entry:
0 ST. JAMES, Boston, MA, (1991)
Senior designer for 600,000 sq.ft. office building in
Boston Back Bay for Macomber Development.
BOSTON CROSSING, Boston, MA, (1989 to 1990)
Senior designer for the master plan and architectural
design for 3 million sq.ft. mixed-use project in
downtown Boston for Campeau Development.
So, as Columbo would break out a cigar when he cracked the case, I said to myself, "I got this guy!!!"
Check out the Green Shadow Post article and see what I said.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08292007/business/the_green_shadow.htm
If I truly hated them would I try to save the team from a curse worst then what the Sox endured.
This one is right in your own backyard sitting right in your face.
Blackstone Group owns the building, so you got to call them, but don't do anything stupid, OK guys.
We'll get the color changed!!! and you guys help me with the Kool Rope. This has been a bitch of a ride but' things happen for a reason and I have some other monumental things to come out.
And, don't get the impression that I am taking credit for their modern day dynasty.
I just played a part in a play that had to be executed perfectly by everyone and I did my part, that's all!!!
Take care guys!!!
Phil, Koolman2, Simkins
Hey Jennifer when your team wins a world series call me
With the Twins now only 1 ½ games back in the Wild Card, it brings up an interesting scenario…
Both the Red Sox and the Yankees could miss the playoffs this year!
And if the Marlins or Phillies win the NL East and the Tigers continue to suck, guess what?
The top 4 payrolls would miss the playoffs!
And if the Marlins won the NL East, the bottom 2 payrolls would make the playoffs.
With this scenario more than possible in nearing mid August, would someone kindly explain to me why a salary cap is needed in baseball?