As American as Apple Pie

The seventh inning stretch personifies baseball. It unites the crowd, and typifies America's past-time. Baseball is a summer sport because it's leisurely, slow-paced, and relaxing. So relaxing in fact, that in the 1880s the seventh inning streth was developed so baseball fans would not fall asleep in the mid-day summer heat.

The song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" became a staple of the seventh inning stretch in the 1970s when the White Sox announcer Harry Caray would sing the song in the booth during the seventh inning. The owner, Bill Veeck, moved a microphone into the booth so that Caray could lead the stadium in baseball's anthen. Since then, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is sung at every game during the seventh inning stretch.

Following 9/11, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was temporarily replaced by "God Bless America" in many stadiums. Yankees fans hear Kate Smith sing this anthen about 80 times a season in addition to "Take Me out to the Ball Game."

Other teams have traditions associated with the seventh inning stretch as well. The Astro's play "Deep in the Heart of Texas" during the seventh inning stretch, while the Red Sox play "Sweet Caroline." Nearly all teams replace the phrase "home team" with the name of the actual home team.

During the 15 inning All-Star Game in Yankee Stadium, fans participated in the traditional seventh inning stretch with "God Bless America" sung by Josh Groban followed by 'Take me out to the Ball Game." However, during the 14 inning, fans were asked to stand again and sing baseballs anthen.

The question arises, what do the winter leagues in Central America do during the seventh inning stretch? After the void begins in America, baseball season begins in Central America with the Caribbean Winter Leagues featuring teams from Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. Their season runs from October to the first week in January. Playoffs start with a two week Round Robin during the second and third weeks of January. Locals and players from the Minor Leagues play in the Winter Leagues and players such as Bernie Williams have participated.

Although they play traditional baseball, there is no seventh inning stretch and no singing baseball anthems. However, in the Chinese Professional Baseball League, there is a 15 minute smoke break between the fifth and sixth innings. The Seventh Inning Strech must be as American as Apple Pie and Baseball.

A Grander Line-Up

Curtis Granderson, an outfielder recently acquired from the Tigers, needs to begin his Yankees career by deciding what kind of hitter he wants to be.

In his six season career, Granderson has been both a gap hitter and a power hitter. Granderson started in 2004 as a gap hitter, but has gradually turned into a power hitter with 30 home runs in the 2009 season. The shallow right field wall in Yankee Stadium offers Granderson, a left handed hitter, a new temptation not encountered at Comerica Park.

Over the last three years, Granderson batted .277 with a .351 OBP and .500 SLG. However, in 2009 Granderson transformed into a power hitter batting .249, with a .327 OBP and .453 SLG with 30 home runs. This is a sharp decrease from Granderson's MVP year in 2007 when he batted .302 with 23 home runs.

Although power hitters hit more home runs than gap hitters, their statistics drop as their strike outs and pop ups increase. This is true for the statistics for Granderson over the last three years.

The beginning of the 2009 season at the new Yankee Stadium was marked with discussion of balls flying over the right field wall more frequently than at the old stadium. This was especially beneficial for the left handed hitters such as Johnny Damon and Mark Texiera who frequently smashed balls over the right field wall.

237 home runs were hit in Yankee Stadium last year, while only 188 home runs were hit during Yankees games at away games. Although it is common for batters to hit better in their home stadium, the left handed hitters had substantially higher batting averages in Yankee stadium than their regular season average. Switch hitter Mark Texiera who usually batted lefty in Yankee Stadium batted .312 at Yankee Stadium, substantially higher than his 2009 average of .292. Another switch hitter Jorge Posada batted .325 in Yankee Stadium, but his season average was .285.

With power hitters like Alex Rodriguez, Mark Texiera, and Robinson Cano, the Yankees do not need another power hitter, especially if Johnny Damon turns down pinstripes for next season. Although no Yankees fan will turn down a few more home runs, the Yankees need to master small ball this year and advance runners on the bases. At this point, it's up to Curtis Granderson to decide whether to smash balls over the right field wall, or hit through the infield gap.

Is Damon Done?

The Yankees are not recession proof. General Manager Brian Cashman said the payroll budget is lower than last year and there is no chance of expanding the budget to bring Outfielder Johnny Damon back to the Bronx.

"I do have a number that we're working under," said Cashman. "We will be at that number and it will be less than last year. It's as simple as that."

The Yankees are not willing to spend more than $2 million per year for a left-fielder and they could get Gardner, Nady, or Hariston Jr. for that amount. Additionally, at 36, Damon will need regular rest and will play DH to acquire the rest he needs.

Although Damon said that he would like to continue playing for the Yankees, under the new leadership of Hal Steinbrenner it seems the organization is cutting their budget to form a more cost efficient team. Both the Giants and Braves have shown interest in signing Damon to their organizations.

Yankees Charity

The biggest sign of an uneducated Yankee hater is the most common insult, "they just buy their team." I hate this arguement more than anything else in the world! Seriously, the argument doesn't stand and here's why.

1. Most of the time this arguement is given by supposed fans of the large baseball teams like the Red Sox, Braves, Angels, and many others. Here's the thing. Sure, the Yankees have the highest payroll, but they are followed closely by the Mets and then by Cubs and Red Sox according to USA Today who compiled the list prior to opening day 2009. If you're Marlins Fan, who had the lowest payroll prior to opening day 2009, I might let you make that arguement, but if you're a fan of one of the big spending teams, I don't want to hear it.

2. Money isn't everything. The Yankees didn't win a World Series for 9 years even with the highest payroll. Also, according to "Money Ball" by Michael Lewis, the Oakland Athletics refuse to spend mass amounts of money on their team and they make the post season almost every year becuase of young players fresh from the minor leagues and good managers.

3. The Yankees are one of the most generous teams in Major League Baseball. The Yankees are donaing $500,000 to the Haitian Relief Effort in addition to the $1 million that Major League Baseball is contributing. The Prime Minister said the death toll may be in the hundred thousands and MLB is doing their part to contribute. To donate to the Haitian Relief Fund log onto mlb.com and there is a link where you can donate money.

"The catastrophic event has devastated an entire nation and will have far-reaching effects in the worldwide Haitian community. The Yankees hope their donation will inspire people throughout the United States to do everything they can to aid the people of Haiti in their time of need." said the Yankees in a statement.

Here's a link to the payroll list

http://baseball.about.com/od/newsrumors/a/09teamsalaries.htm

Confession from a Cardinal

At this point, I'm sure that everyone has already heard about Mark McGwire's confession - not that it was a surprise to anyone - but here's some of my thoughts about the matter. Way to go McGwire finally coming clean! I wish that more players, specifically Barry Bonds and Roger Clemmons, would follow his example. However, a confession ten years later doesn't excuse his previous actions. The New York Times reported that he called his Father, his manager Tony LaRussa, Roger Maris' widow, and Bud Selig to come clean. He agreed to an interview with Bob Costas on the MLB Network and told his story and seemed extremely apologetic. He said that steroids were one of his biggest regrets because he believed he would have broken Roger Maris' record even without the steroids. I was impressed he would call Roger Maris' widow. In the New York Times article he said he felt like it was something that he had to do and that she was disappointed that her husbands record was broken by cheating.

Bud Selig and Bob Costas both said they believed the steroid era is coming to an end! This is great news for baseball and hopefully the record books will start coming clean now. Some people say that the baseball commissioner is just keeping his head in the sand, but the steroid tests are not coming back positive so before too long the integrity of America's pastime will be restored.

CNN.com reporter Steve Wilstein believes that McGwire should be banned from baseball. At first I was shocked when I read the story, but as I read the article, it made more and more sense. He said that McGwire's actions were even worse than Pete Rose betting on baseball and rather than becomming the Cardinal's new batting coach, he should be banned from he game. I partly agree with this because Pete Rose did not destroy the integrity of the record books like the steroid era has, but it would not be fair to just ban Mark McGwire when so many other players are guilty of the same crime. I think that maybe an asterisk is in order for this though. After all, Barry Bonds got an asterisk on his ball (not MLB approved), but maybe the asterisk was a good idea after all.

Here are some links to good articles about McGwire:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/12/wilstein.mcgwire.ban/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/sports/baseball/12steroids.html?ref=todayspaper

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/sports/baseball/12mcgwire.html?ref=todayspaper

Alison Loves Baseball

I Love Baseball! Seriously, my dream job would be to work for the Yankees Entertainment Sports Network and just watch baseball all day. I could write about games, report on them, blog on them, really I would do anything the YES Network wanted me to do as long as I got to watch baseball. I decided to start a blog based on my love of baseball with updates about the Yankees. There will be other big news about other teams when it's important to baseball as well. Lets Go Yanks 2010!!!