Proof That the Yankees Stink

Literally.

According to the NYT, some MLB players are perfectly happy to say goodbye to Yankee Stadium, which is expected to be demolished at the ripe old age of 85 years when the team’s new stadium opens next year.

Times reporter Alan Schwartz points out some of the hassles associated with other stadiums (rats at the Astrodome? ewwwwww) and then shares some of what players won’t miss about the House that Ruth Built. Top beef? The smell.

“Especially when it rains, the smell that comes up through the drainage system is not pretty,” said Jason Varitek of the Boston Red Sox. “It affects your sinuses, I’ll tell you that much.”

[Michael] Young [of the Texas Rangers] added: “It depends on the day. The last time we were there, which was a couple of weeks ago, a pipe burst. I was going back up the tunnel, and there was a flood — a sewer line broke or something like that. So I still have that kind of in my nose right now.”

Twins closer extraordinaire Joe Nathan preferred to focus on the exorcism factor:

“The ghosts,” he said. “There’s a reason these guys have won so much. Good to get a fresh start in the new place.”

But along with crappy accommodations for visiting teams (Joe Crede of the White Sox referenced hitting his head on the low ceiling of the dugout), Schwartz writes, “Olfactory issues led the voting.” Check out the full article here.

One Classy Canuck

Justin Morneau, that big Canadian lug, not only won the All- Star home run derby but displayed a heckuva lot of class doing it, best evidenced by his reactions to second-place finisher Josh Hamilton.

Hamilton (a Ranger no less -- ugh), set a record for the number of homers in the first round of the derby and ended up hitting more over all than Morneau did, but Morneau took two of the three individual rounds, winning the derby itself and becoming the first Twin to do so.



And he faced more than just the challenge of swinging for swat. The Doctor was actually booed by the fans at Yankee Stadium (could this be because he who beat Derek Jeter to win AL MVP in 2006?). On the flip side, Josh – who returned to basball last year after recovering froma drug addiction, and who once said it was a dream to participate in the derby – clearly had the hearts of crowd, which at one point chanted “Ham-il-ton! Ham-il-ton!”

Heck, when he received the trophy, Morneau was referred to as “Jason.”* Sheesh.

And yet, check out his comments, as reported by the Strib:

I was kind of cheering for [Hamilton] because, you know, the whole crowd's behind him. You want to see that story end in a good way.

He's the one that put on the show tonight. I think everyone will remember Josh Hamilton's 28 home runs, more than they'll remember that I won the thing. But I'm just glad I was a part of it.

When it's on ESPN Classic, I'll say, "Hey I was in that, too."

He was even humble about his invitation to the event: "They ran out of all the good players, and then they asked me," Morneau said.

That’s one classy Canuck.

* P.S. My friend Wade points out that, "It wasn't a State Farm yutz (redundant?) that called him Jason Morneau; it was Rob Manfred, executive VP of Major League Baseball." Can we say, double sheesh?

Beer Club, Back at the Card

Early July Flower Photos

Who's This Guy?

Here's the challenge with some of the visitors to the garden: they eat things.

In some cases, this is okay. For example, if I saw a bunny in the yard nibbling on, say, some alyssum, I'd be completely fine with that. Bunnies are wonderful and rarely show up in my yard now that we're in Minneapolis (a stark contrast to our yard in St. Paul, where Dozer and Zoe frequently napped under the tree near our back steps), plus I've got a ton of alyssum.

Ditto the goldfinches (although I thought they were orioles at the time) that visited the dwarf sunflowers last year. The flowers ended up looking pretty scraggly, but part of my goal was to lure more birds to the yard, so I was perfectly comfortable with the result.

On the other hand, one of the stupid fat squirrels was eating a bunch of George's berries (which are surprisingly yummy, tasting like a combination between a pear and a blueberry) the other day. This is not okay. The squirrels have given me plenty of reason to hate them, and although George is doing really well this year, his branches are still pretty small and were clearly taxed by trying to hold the weight of a big honkin' squirrel.

So what about this guy?

Kinda cute, but doing some noticeable damage to my African blue basil. The issue is that I don't know who he is.

Is he a pre-butterfly? If so, I'm pretty okay with him hanging around. After all, my garden is intended to be, in part, a butterfly garden. That means not only choosing plants to attract mature butterflies to their blooms, but also limiting the use of pesticides (even the organic ones) and providing food sources for butterflies in their larval state (caterpillars). So it seems disingenuous to discourage this little guy if he's going to become a Red Admiral or something.

On the other hand, what if he's "just" a bug, eating my plants?

I don't have the answer, so for now, I've picked this little fella off the basil plant and put him onto the goutweed out front. He's welcome to stay, but I've only got the one African blue basil plant so I'm a little protective.