Yankee4Life

Oh man with scores like what laroquece and Jim got today I could be in for a long month. 😬 😃

7 out of 10, 267 seconds. Ouch!

Read this article. Mike Lupica explains the difference between the Mets, who actually did something at there trade deadline and the Yankees, who for some reason did not and stood pat. I don’t praise the Mets a lot but they did a great job and they embarrassed the Yankees big time. Mike Lupica: Cohen’s Mets decide to dig themselves out of the hole, while Yanks just keep digging Steve Cohen has stopped kidding himself about the Mets, which means a very smart guy stopped acting like a sucker about baseball. It’s why Cohen’s baseball people have now traded just about everybody except Mr. Met over the past few days. At least the Mets did something. The Yankees did nothing. Maybe the only suckers left at the table are Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman. All the Yankees did on Tuesday was add a pair of marginal pitchers, Keynan Middleton of the White Sox and Spencer Howard of the Rangers. They must think they can relief-pitch their way into the tournament in the American League. Or maybe the people in charge just continue to tell themselves their team is better than it really is. Across town, what Cohen is doing, to borrow an expression from the world of money, is a baseball version of selling off a losing position. His Mets made a big bet this season – that Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer could anchor a contender – and ended up with the short end of it once the cards ran out. Instead of clutching to the fool’s hope, he’s selling off what assets he has left before they all go to zero. Cohen took a good, hard look at what his team has done this season despite the biggest payroll in all of recorded history, and realized that the Mets were going nowhere, a little more than 100 games from when they won 101 last season. There were too many under-producing and overpaid veterans, in a sport that keeps getting younger, one in which the successful teams combine kids from their own farm system with smart veteran acquisitions. Cohen didn’t have a farm system when he took over. He’s trying to buy one now after finding out that even a payroll of $364 million couldn’t buy him a World Series. So with Max Scherzer already gone to one Texas team, the Mets on Tuesday traded Justin Verlander to the Houston Astros for a Double-A kid, Drew Gilbert, who is supposed to be the Astros’ best minor leaguer. And you know why the Astros weren’t afraid to deal him for the 40-year-old Verlander, with whom they won a World Series nine months ago? Because the Astros always know there are more where Gilbert came from, that’s why. In the end, Cohen paid $86 million for Verlander and Max Scherzer for the 2023 season and got a combined 35 starts out of them and now they’ve both moved to Texas. So for now, and maybe for a long time, Cohen decides not to throw more good money after bad. Cohen’s general manager, Billy Eppler, can talk all he wants about “repositioning.” Eppler is a nice guy, he is, but that is just baseball double talk. What has happened to the Mets over the past few days, with 39-year-old Scherzer gone and now Verlander gone and all the rest of them following two future Hall of Famers out the door is that they decided to start all over again. Citi Field is still expensive baseball property. But this is a teardown, whatever they want to call it. At least the Mets acknowledged at this Trade Deadline that they really have been kidding themselves for the past few months. You cannot say the same for the Yankees, who refused to sell off any of the handful of actually marketable guys that they have, which means players coming up on the end of their contract. In the end they essentially did nothing except add a bit of depth to the one strength the team has not named Judge. Maybe they didn’t sell because they didn’t have enough that anybody wanted. So maybe it is the Yankees who continue to kid themselves that they are somehow getting closer to the World Series with their own overpaid, over-the-hill gang; continue to kid themselves that they have all these future star kids in the chute. Well, where are the kids when the Yankees need them? For now all we see is a team without a leftfielder, with aging corner infielders, and with no lefthanded bat in a ballpark with a rightfield wall close enough for hitters to spit on. They somehow thought they were right there with the Astros last October even after getting swept in the American League Championship Series. They weren’t. Still aren’t. Now the Astros get Verlander back. The Rays? They traded for Aaron Civale of the Guardians, one of the hottest pitchers in the sport right now. The Blue Jays get a big arm like Jordan Hicks for their bullpen and get Paul DeJong to play shortstop after Bo Bichette goes down with a knee. The Orioles? They keep winning as they seem to keep getting younger and now add another starter, Jack Flaherty. Ask yourself a question about the 2023 Yankees: Other than Judge, who else do they have who would start for the Atlanta Braves? Yankee fans keep hearing about “Yankee DNA.” What in the world does that mean at this point? The Mets have lost more games than the Yankees have this season. But it is the Yankees who look like just as big a flop. Obviously Judge getting hurt on the first Saturday night in June changed plenty for this team. But once he went away for two months, you saw what kind of cover he was providing for all of the other guys Aaron Boone keeps running out there. “I want to win,” Judge said Monday night. “Whatever gets us closer to being a better team and winning, that’s why I’m here……” Maybe if he wanted to win sometime soon, he should have gone to San Francisco.

And I am very glad that you did. 8 out of 10, 90 seconds. The two that I missed I just guessed blindly.

5 out of 10, 153 seconds. Not a good way to start the month! Ok, here is the final standings for the month of July. Fiebre was our winner again with 152 points, winning by eight points over second place Muller. Now check something out here because it is very interesting and it is going to make this upcoming month very competitive and fun. Jim began playing on July 3rd and by being two days behind us he had a hard time catching up but look at how many points he got. That is pretty good. And Findizzle? He missed half the month and still collected 72 points. August is going to be good. Here are the trivia winners since last September. (To see this list just click on Hall of Fame. September, 2022 Y4L October Fiebre November Fiebre December Y4L January, 2023 Y4L February Fiebre March Y4L April Y4L May Fiebre June Laroquece July Fiebre To check the current standings (beginning tomorrow because nothing is totaled up for August) click on Standings.

7 out of 10, 110 seconds. These were tough ones to end the month.

I don't watch them either because this is the most unwatchable team I've seen and I can recall the 1990 Yankees very easily. But in my case I don't smile when they lose because there is nothing to smile about. I have not been sold on this team at all and it goes back to spring training. I do noit understand why they did not keep Andrew Benintendi. They give seven-year contracts to Hicks and Ellsbury and they gave an eight-year one to Mark Teixiera but they couldn't give one more year to Benintendi?

10 out of 10, 63 seconds. Easy ones today, some were handed to you.

Cole pitched very well again and if he was on any other team he would've had at least fifteen wins by now. Of course they intentionally walked Aaron Judge. The other eight in the lineup are automatic outs. They have not hit all year and they have not hit last year or the year before that or the year before that. Other teams go into hitting slumps but the Yankees when they get in hitting slumps it lasts a long time. This current one has been going on since June of last year. You don't have to say slip sliding away anymore. We got it loud and clear. I don't blame you one bit for not having faith in this team. I certainly do not. I am not happy about this at all and I wish that they would play better but I know I can't do anything about it. This is the first summer in a very long time that I have not been angry and frustrated and lot and it feels great. I'm not saying I don't care because I do. All I want them to do is win but if they don't they don't. So, big deal if Boston won again. It's not going to affect you. Just enjoy the summer because pretty soon July will be in the books.

Sometimes things just click Jim although for me it does not happen a lot. 7 out of 10, 59 seconds. I missed three and all of them I had no chance on.

The Yankees designated Willie Calhoun for assignment. Thank God.

10 out of 10, 49 seconds. No complaints today. 😲

4 out of 10, 248 seconds. Just like laroquece I hate soccer questions too and it shows. ☹️

Thanks Jim. I had a lot to make up for from yesterday. Every so often I can come out with a good outing. You're doing pretty good this month. Next month is going to be quite a race with our two new guys because they have piled on a lot of points.

10 out of 10, 58 seconds. Believe me I needed to make up from the lousy showing yesterday.

Wow, we swept Kansas City. They beat a team that they were supposed to beat and I get the feeling people are happy once again. If that’s so what is wrong with them? There are twenty series remaining to be played by the Yankees this season and fourteen of those are going to be against winning teams and the remaining six series against losing teams will not be a breather for them because they have shown they have the ability to make teams like the Cardinals, Rockies and Angels look like defending World Series champs. Pitcher Michael Feliz of the Scranton Railriders asked for and was granted a release from his contract so he could go play in Japan. The first thing I thought of was why couldn’t it be Stanton?

2 out of 10, 153 seconds. When it says intermediate questions I know I am in for a hard time.

7 out of 10, 59 seconds. For these questions today I was lucky to get this many right.

10 out of 10, 69 seconds. I have a very good feeling that everyone will get high scores today!

6 out of 10, 228 seconds. Some tough questions really got me this time.

They haven't done anything in over a year. Even though I am not ranting and raving right now that does not mean I am not upset or do not care about how bad they have been playing. I’m not happy at all but I know I can’t do anything about it and getting mad solved nothing except to give me headaches. They have not hit bottom yet but they are close. If they miss the playoffs with this expensive collection of ballplayers it may be the best thing that they needed. Maybe, just maybe mind you just maybe that will wake up the management of the Yankees. Starting with Steinbrenner and having him get rid of Cashman and Boone. I am tired of the excuses coming out of each one of them. Why we entered this season without a left fielder and why we let Benentendi go is an explanation I have yet to hear.

You're not kidding Jim. Two of the questions were very similar. It's like they were handing you a good score. 10 out of 10, 48 seconds.

Vic Raschi In the Yankees’ unprecedented streak of five straight World Series titles between 1949 and 1953, Vic Raschi’s record was 92-40, an average of eighteen wins a season and a winning percentage of .697. From 1949, only his second full season in the majors, through 1951, Raschi won twenty-one games each year. Victor John Angelo Raschi was born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 28, 1919. His nickname, “The Springfield Rifle,” combined the speed of his fastball and the name of the neighboring city—the site of the U.S. Armory which had been producing army rifles since 1794. A star in baseball, football, and basketball at Springfield Tech High School, Raschi attracted the attention of Yankees scout Gene McCann while still a freshman. In 1936 Raschi signed an agreement under which the Yankees would pay for his college education in return for getting the first chance to sign him when he graduated. He enrolled at the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1938, and by 1941 the Yankees decided it was time for Raschi to begin his professional career. After the ’41 college baseball season, Raschi was sent to upstate New York to pitch for the Amsterdam Rugmakers in the Class C Canadian-American League. He continued to attend classes at William and Mary in the off-season. A 10-6 season at Amsterdam earned Raschi a promotion in 1942 to the Norfolk (Virginia) Tars, the Yankees’ affiliate in the Class B Piedmont League. His record at Norfolk was only 4-10, but he had an impressive 2.71 earned run average. World War II put both his career and education on hold. The six-foot-one, 200-pound right-hander resumed his professional career in 1946 with the Binghamton (New York) Triplets in the Class A Eastern League. The Yankees called him up in September, following his 10-10 season for the Triplets and five games with the Newark Bears, the Yankees’ Class Triple-A affiliate. On September 23, 1946, at the age of twenty-seven, Raschi made his Major League debut before a tiny turnout of 2,475 at the Yankees’ home finale. Raschi, a “well-proportioned right-hander with burning speed,” pitched a complete-game 9–6 win against the Philadelphia Athletics. Six days later he won his second start, 2–1 over the A’s in the season’s final game. Given that successful debut, Raschi was bitterly disappointed when the Yankees optioned him to the Portland Beavers of the Class Triple-A Pacific Coast League in May 1947. Initially he refused to report but finally relented. In Portland he benefited from the tutelage of manager Jim Turner, a former Yankees reliever who in 1949 would become the Yankees’ pitching coach and remain in that position for the rest of Raschi’s career. Raschi compiled an 8-2 record with Portland, including nine complete games in eleven starts, and was called up to New York in July. The Yankees had won nine straight games, but on July 10, with starter Spud Chandler injured and Mel Queen sold to Pittsburgh, manager Bucky Harris telephoned Turner. Late that night, after a doubleheader in San Diego, Turner approached Raschi, who had won his fourth straight in the second game, and asked if he could be ready to pitch on Sunday, three days later. When Raschi said “Yes,” Turner told him he’d been recalled by the Yankees. Raschi showered and caught a plane to Portland before flying on to Chicago to join the Yankees. Raschi did pitch that Sunday, in the second game of a doubleheader in Chicago, giving up three runs in 6 1/3 innings to earn a 6–4 win over the White Sox. It was the Yankees’ fourteenth straight victory. Five days later, Raschi gave up six hits in a complete-game 7–2 win over the Indians in Cleveland. It was the final win in the Yankees’ nineteen-game streak, putting their record at 58-26 with an 11 1/2-game lead over the Detroit Tigers. By August 2 Raschi, a power pitcher who complemented his fastball with a slider and change-up, had won his first five starts. After a no-decision on August 8, he raised his record to 6-0 on August 13. (Wins two through five were all complete games.) Raschi’s first Major League loss was one of his best outings of the year. In an August 17 game at Yankee Stadium that according to the New York Times, had “all the thrill and excitement of World Series combat,” he shut out the defending American League champion Boston Red Sox on four hits for ten innings before giving up three runs in the eleventh. Though the Yankees finished in third place in 1948, Raschi won 19 games and lost just eight. He was the winning pitcher in the All-Star Game and also drove in the winning run with a bases-loaded single. He finished 11th in the Most Valuable Player voting after the season. Then followed three consecutive seasons with 21 wins (21-10, 21-8, 21-10); he averaged 263 innings and 34 starts, leading the league in starts in both 1949 and 1951. His winning percentage of .724 in 1950 led the American League. In 1952 his win total fell to 16 (with six losses), but his 2.78 ERA was the lowest of his career. In addition to his 92-40 record from 1949 to 1953, Raschi made 160 starts for the Yankees. What makes this stretch of endurance even more impressive is that a collision at home plate with Indians catcher Jim Hegan in August 1950 resulted in torn cartilage in Raschi’s right knee. Playing in pain, he found it difficult to run or to put all his weight on his right leg when he pushed off the pitching rubber. Raschi and the Yankees kept the injury to themselves to prevent other teams from taking advantage by bunting on him. Not until November 1951 did he undergo surgery to remove the cartilage. In 1952 Raschi signed for a reported $40,000, making him at that time the highest-paid pitcher in Yankees history. But the signing came with a stern warning from general manager George Weiss: “Don’t you ever have a bad year.” Raschi’s 13-6 record in 1953 apparently was a bad year, according to Weiss, who offered Raschi a contract calling for a 25 percent cut in 1954. Refusing to sign, Raschi held out until spring training, one of twelve Yankee holdouts. When he got to training camp in St. Petersburg, Florida, he was informed by newspaper reporters, not by Weiss, that he had been sold to the St. Louis Cardinals. Raschi’s record in his eight years with the Yankees was 120-50, a .706 winning percentage. Raschi spent his final two seasons with the Cardinals and the Kansas City Athletics, compiling a combined record of 12-16 before retiring in October 1955 at the age of thirty-six. In his ten-year career, he won 132 while losing only 66, with an earned-run average of 3.72. As of 2011, his win-loss percentage of .667 was tied for fourteenth best for any pitcher with at least 100 decisions. He finished seventh and eighth in the Most Valuable Player voting in 1950 and 1951 respectively, and he pitched in four All-Star games, starting in both 1950 and 1952. In eight World Series starts, Raschi won five games (against three losses), including a two-hit shutout of the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1950 opener and two wins over the Dodgers in the 1952 Series. His World Series ERA, including his two relief appearances in 1947, is 2.24. But perhaps his most memorable game came on the final day of the 1949 season when the Yankees hosted the Red Sox with the pennant at stake. The Red Sox, who had trailed the Yankees by twelve games early in July but stormed back to take a one-game lead with two games left, needed to win only one of the two to take the flag. But the Yanks won the first game 5–4 to force the Red Sox into a do-or-die finale. Raschi, with a 20-10 record, was matched up against Ellis Kinder, who had won twenty-three (four against the Yankees) and lost five going into the game. With 68,055 fans on hand, Raschi, given a 1–0 lead in the first, shut down the power-laden Red Sox on two hits over the first eight innings; the Yankees then took a 5–0 lead after scoring four in the eighth. But the Red Sox, who had been favored to win the pennant, wouldn’t go quietly, scoring three runs in the ninth with the tying run at the plate in Birdie Tebbetts. First baseman Tommy Henrich approached Raschi to offer some encouragement. But the glowering Raschi was in no mood for chit-chat and before Henrich could say a word he told him, “Give me the goddamned ball and get the hell out of here.” He then got Tebbetts to hit a foul pop that Henrich squeezed for the final out and the pennant.

And back to normal. 5 out of 10, 182 seconds. Soccer and rugby questions always get me.

Thanks to both of you. Sometimes even I get lucky! 😅