Tonight the Yankees go for their 5th win in a row, and improve their record to 10-3 on the season. Taking the mound for the Yankees is Javier Vazquez who has struggled in his first two starts of the season.  If their was a team for him to bounce back with it’s going to be the A’s as they are a lite hitting team. The Yankees offense in contrast is anything but light with the hot hitting Derek Jeter, Robie Cano and Jorge Posada.  With a win tonight the Yankees will at the least keep pace with THOSE DAM RAYS or possibly take over sole possession of first place.
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(9-3)	NY Yankees 9-3 (Road: 4-2) 10:05pm ET Oakland 9-5 (Home: 6-2) TV: YES, CSCA	(9-5)

Opening Week: The Quest For Number 28 Begins

So The first week of the 2010 baseball season is in the books, and the Yankees stand at 4-2 in the Al East. They are second only to the Toronto Blue Jays who are 5-1. First and foremost, the Jays shouldn’t get too comfortable with two things. Vernon Wells’ sudden ability to hit the baseball again, and standing in first place.  I think it’s pretty obvious after this week that the Yankees, Red Sux and yeah THOSE DAM RAYS are going to be the most likely people to sit a top the AL East when it’s all said and done. What?? Your Confused?? Look don’t’ mistake April woes for an easy regular season. Forget those pipe dreams my fellow “Pinstripe Fanatics” of 10 game leads or running away with the division. The truth is it’s simply NOT going to happen despite taking 2 out of three from both of these teams. Including handing the Rays their heads in the two wins at Tampa; these two teams are rock solid and WILL contend with the Yankees this year. More importantly, the Yankees are far from perfectthemselves. I mean lets face it folks, we’ve replaced Johnny Damon and Hediki (Godzilla) Matsui, with Nick Johnson, and Marcus Thames.  Throw in a Chen Ho Park, and Jasvier Vazquez, and there are plenty of things for us Yankee fans to worry about. Of course not all of it is bad. Curtis Granderson is showing us that he was born to play in the Bronx. With that said Lets take a look at how our newest Yankees did this week. The Good, the Bad, and the HOLY CRAP DO I HAVE TO WATCH!!

Ok that’s a look at some of the Newer Yankees this season and how they have done in their first week. As you may have noticed I’m not exactly excited about this new crop of players. Don’t get me wrong I don’t want any of these guys to fail or perform poorly and as you may have noticed a few of them I even have some pretty good expectations for. In the end thou some of these guys are what they are. Putting on the pinstripes and a Yankee hat will not suddenly make them better baseball players or any less likely to be injured. The Yankees will be in the thick of the Al East race and could very well win it. I’m simply saying that they are not going to walk away with it because  they have their own set of problems that need to be worked out this year.  There are three things I know for sure.  1) This season the AL East and will come down to the final week of the season. 2) When that happens the Sux, THOSE DAM RAY’S, and our Yankees will be fighting for playoffs spots. 3) Lastly what I know for sure WITH OUT A SHADOW OF A DOUBT is that the Yankees WILL BE in the playoffs. It may only be as a wild card or they could clinch the Division. In the end it doesn’t matter how it happens just that we get there. Once that happens number 28 is only 11 wins away.

The Yankees and Red Sox are pathetic and embarrassing. That’s what MLB umpiring crew chief, Joe West said the other day after they needed nearly 12 hours to complete a three-game series. 12 hours! That’s half-a-day. The first game of the series last Sunday night in Fenway Park took three hours and 46 minutes to play. So what’s going on here:

• Last year, the average length of a major league baseball game was 2:55. A typical Yankees-Red Sox game now averages nearly an hour longer than that.
• The Yankees and Red Sox were the game’s top slowpokes last season. The Yankees averaged three hours, eight minutes a game, and the Red Sox 3:04.
• The Yankees and Red Sox are slow, in part, because their hitters are patient. Last season the Yankees were first in pitches seen by their batters with 25,066, and the Red Sox were second with 25,005. The league average was 23,894 per team.
• Only the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers averaged over three hours a game last year. The Yankees and Red Sox also put the most runners on base last season. The Los Angeles Angels were third and the Dodgers fourth.
• The Red Sox and Yankees are notorious for playing long games, in part because they play so often on national television, where the commercial breaks are longer. Both teams also are good at working counts, especially when they’re playing each other, dragging out games even longer.
• The longest 9-inning game in history was a Yankees-Red Sox game in 2006 that took 4 hours and 45 minutes. The shortest 9-inning game in history was in the National League in 1919 between the New York and Philadelphia that took only 51 minutes.

Of course, this isn’t just a Yankee and Red Sox problem although it’s kind of weird how they are suddenly aligned together on the same side of an issue. Modern players like attention, and seem to enjoy touching themselves more than Michael Jackson did. Babe Ruth didn’t step out of the box after every pitch to eat a hot dog and then light up a cigar as he rounded the bases after hitting a home run. Baseball games are entertainment but they are not concerts. One hundred years ago in 1910, the opening game between Washington and Philadelphia lasted 1 hour and 55 minutes. This year the opening game between Washington and Philadelphia lasted 3 hours and 4 minutes or about twice as long as that 1910 game.

Baseball enthusiasts like the game the way it is. They see nothing wrong because after all that’s the beauty of the game played with no time clock. Besides, the average MLB Game is roughly 2 hours 55 minutes long while the average NFL game is around 3 hours 7 minutes long. Bob Watson, baseball’s vice president of standards and on-field operations will tell you that the goal is not to shorten the game but to eliminate the dead time. They want to quicken the pace. Ironically, Watson once played for both the Yankees and the Red Sox.

Now, let’s think outside the batter’s box and come up with some ideas. Some are already in place and just need enforcement while others may be too “radical” for those baseball purists.

Already in place and in of need enforcement:

1. Games are to start on time.
2. Innings to start on time. At two minutes, five seconds between innings, with umpiring signaling batters at one minute and forty seconds.
3. Batters have to stay in the box. If not, pitchers can throw a pitch and each pitch will be called a strike.
4. A pitcher, with no runners on base, has 12 seconds to deliver a pitch, or an umpire has the authority to call a ball. (Last year’s average was 27 seconds).
5. Managers to have relievers called into the game before they reach the foul line when going to the mound.
6. Breaks between half-innings for commercials are to be strictly kept at 2 minutes, 5 seconds or 2 minutes, 25 seconds for nationally televised games. (There’s at least 40 minutes worth of commercial time for every game, while teams often stretch the breaks between innings with promotional stunts, music and videos to keep short attention spans up).
7. Only 10 seconds of music between at-bats.
8. Hitters are to bring two extra bats to the on-deck circle in case they break one.

The “radical” ideas:

1. Eliminate ball four (with apologies to Jim Bouton’s book). Make it 3 balls for a walk. Why do you only get 3 strikes for an out but you get 4 balls for a walk? Make the pitchers throw strikes. There might be more walks, or maybe pitchers will actually start challenging batters rather than trying to nibble all the time.
2. A pitcher should only get 12 seconds to throw a pitch whether there is a runner on or not. The umpires need to enforce it and call balls if they don’t throw the pitch in time.
3. The umpire should call an automatic strike if a player steps out of the box.
4. Managers should just tell the umpire they want to put the runner on base rather than have pitchers make throws for an intentional walk.
5. Only one visit to the pitcher on the mound per inning between the manager, pitching coach, catcher and infielders. Pitching changes can be signaled to the umpires.
6. Pitchers coming into the game from the bullpen have already warmed up. They don’t need to throw any more warm-up pitches once they reach the mound.
7. No more than three pick-off attempts per runner. After the third unsuccessful pick-off move the runner automatically gets to move up to the next base.

Realistically, the “radical” suggestions may never happen, but the ones already in place should be enforced.  Fans attending a baseball game should be able to get home before midnight from a 7:00 PM game. Children should be able to watch a good part of the game at home before their bedtime, and parents who have to get up early should be able to see the entire game without staying up all night.