yankee universe

phil rizzuto passed away today; a yankee legend who, depending what generation you grew up in, was either a hall of fame shortstop during the yankees most prolific era or the unmistakable voice of yankee television broadcasts. i fall into the latter category, and i can still right now hear, as if it is coming directly from my television, rizzuto's trademark "holy cow!", among his other notable vocal characteristics.

definitely a huge part of my childhood, the yankees and phil rizzuto were the sight and sounds of a long summer spent watching my squad lose pretty regularly, yet still finding hope in every single, double, home run, and, if we were really lucky, the occasional "W", which sprang from all those little things. either way, we still finished dead last every year, and i still had to endure the heartbreak of watching decent, even promising, players toil in futility out there in the bronx, where the stadium stood half-empty on good days. you'd never know it, though, to listen to phil rizzuto call the games. he was just as excitable as we were, and his hope for our down-and-out squad burned as brightly as ours did. Just like every Yankee fan and player, the scooter existed, and always will exist, in the yankee universe. It's just different in here.

aside from his presence in my memories, he obviously holds court in the yankee universe as one of the best defensive shortstops in the history of baseball, a five time all-star, AL mvp in 1950 and, wait for it... the proud owner of SEVEN world series rings. seven. ah, the yankees...

speaking of the yankees, so much has been going on of late, and i haven't been able to catch up with it all on the blog... so we are gonna do this thing corporate-boardroom style, without the starbucks and the douchebags, but with BULLETPOINTS. corporate america loves bulletpoints.

• 4 games back, and tied for the wild card. i'm sorry... who was saying what about who's season being over and what kind of non-chance we had of catching who? that's what i thought. don't y'all ever learn? it's a 162 game season, and we have the best lineup in baseball. i'm not even going to waste my bulletpoint time here. we will clinch the al east. period.
• phil "the chosen one" "phil is my father" hughes. can't stop, won't stop.
• joba "the hut" chamberlain. i can't even describe how excited the advent of "the hut" makes me. this is what the yankee-loathing sports guy has to say about it:

SG: And I'll tell you another thing -- not sure whether you've seen Joba pitch yet, but that guy is a specimen. His stuff is positively malevolent. It's almost inhuman.

• can you say "christmas feeling"?
• melkert cabranderson.
• alex "automatic homerun" rodriguez
• shelly duncan, the most excitable minor league vet of all time
• robinson cano, 46 for his last 100.
• i'm not sure if you heard me shouting this from the rooftops, but...SCOTT PROCTOR HAS LEFT THE BUILDING.

that's just a glimpse of what's been going on lately... we also have the best record in baseball, post-all-star break, a-rod is leading major league baseball in home runs and rbi's...etc etc.

and with eric gagne of the red sox being classfied an "unmitigated disaster" over the weekend- by a neutral source, mind you... i'm just gonna point out that no one on the yankees is being referred to in that way. in fact, well... you can just take a look at the bulletpoints.

we have tickets to tonights game, where, much to our dismay, we have the honor of seeing one jeff karstens start, in place of rocket. rocket is out in the name of necessary payback, however, and so we will just have to sacrafice. that doesn't mean jeff karstens has to sacrafice, though. do you hear me, karstens? don't go fucking this up.