Have We Started Yet?

Yankees 10, Orioles 7

Ugly win. Off day. Rainout. Ugly loss. Listless and ugly loss. Ugly win.

Not a good start, despite A-Rod's titanic walk-of grand slam. (I think I heard a couple of A-Rod haters complain that A-Rod was showing off -- a single would've done it. I'm kidding. I hope. Please, all you idiots who feel compelled to mindlessly trash A-Rod, please, get some help, before it's too late. This includes a number of NY sportswriters -- more on that plague upon the NY sports scene below.)

Watching these first four games, if feels like the Yankees were caught by surprise that the season started when it did, because they're playing as though it's about March 20th. And in this I have to blame Joe -- a baseball manager has precious few real tasks -- getting the team ready for the beginning of the season is a pretty important item among that limited set.

Speaking of Ugly

Igawa was the first Yankee starter to pitch five innings. The bullpen is now officially shot, in case you were wondering. These short, ineffective outings by starters are flipping that Pavlovian switch in Joe's head; you can almost hear him muttering under his breath "must use bullpen . . . must use bullpen." Henn and Bruney, who look great now, will age before our eyes as they are ground down by constant (over)use.

After Today's Game . . .

Brian Cashman and Joe Torre spoke after today's game.

Torre: So, should I call Scott or do you want to?
Cashman: Scott?
Torre (swigging green tea): Yeah . . . Scott Boras . . .
Cashman: Huh? What? You think A-Rod deserves a raise?
Laughter. More tea-swigging. Torre belches quietly.
Torre: Ummm . . . no, Brian . . . another . . . client?
Cashman looks puzzled a moment then understands.
Cashman: No, Joe! Absolutely not. Bernie will not be on this team this year.
Torre: Well, I just thought, Brian . . . you know, Damon's day to day, Matsui is hurt, Abreu got hit on the ankle, that was scary . . . we just . . .
Cashman gets up and walks away, waving as he walks.
Cashman: I gotta run, Joe. Talk to you soon. About anything but this.
Torre: (calling after Cashman's retreating form) Sorry, Brian . . . jeez, I just figured . . .
Torre finishes his green tea. Skippy the ballboy, promoted to a clubhouse job this year, quietly offers Joe his highlight reel DVD.

Time for a change

During today's game, the Orioles had the bases loaded and Melvin Mora hit a blooper into the Bermuda Triangle in shallow right field. It falls in. Two runs score. Abreu fields it and throws it to second and Mora is a dead duck. Except Jeter can't handle the throw and a third run scores.

The official scorer, amazingly, ruled this a double and three RBIs. The runner who'd been on first, Dave Roberts I think it was, had stopped at third, and only ran home when Jeter bobbled the throw from the outfield. The correct scoring is single, two RBIs, and an error on Jeter (or E-9 I suppose, but I think Jeter should catch that throw) allowing Mora to reach second and Roberts to score. And really it's not that difficult to arrive at the right scoring call.

Egregiously wrong scoring calls are common in MLB.

OK, I understand that it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. It's not altering the result of the game. And yet, if it's worth having an official score, and thus an official scorer, it's worth having it done correctly. Home-town sportswriters get the gig, and frankly, by and large they're terrible at it.

And I understand why. They have to get quotes from these guys -- their jobs often depend upon at least minimal cooperation from the players. And players are, as we all have seen, an oversensitive lot-- they don't appreciate why they feel are bogus errors or questionable earned runs on their records. The sportswriters are all too happy to oblige. And even if the player(s) in question don't talk a lot to the media, the sportswriters still have to be around them. Familiarity breeds contempt -- in this case contempt for the integrity of the official scoring job.

Time to yank this little perk from the hometown sportswriters. MLB should hire a staff of official scorekeepers, beholden to no one except whoever their boss in the MLB office is.