Yankee Fan Plants Grass at Fenway

Let me be the first Yankee fan to call this guy a genius.  NBC sports reported that a Yankee fan went to a Phish concert at Fenway Park and brought and planted some Yankee grass seed in the Fenway outfield (since they let you on the grass for concerts at Fenway).

Brilliant.  What better way to get back at the stupid guy who buried a David Ortiz jersey at Yankee Stadium.  By the way, the “curse” of that buried jersey seemed to have the opposite effect since Big Papi is currently batting below the Mendoza Line.  Looks like Ortiz’s hitting was buried deeper than that jersey.

Here’s to hoping Yankee grass grows at Fenway.  In other news, It’s interesting to note that someone brought actual grass in to a Phish Concert…

The Who What of Who?

Legal reasoning aside, I think it’s stupid that the Angels are allowed to call themselves the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  Since their inception in the 1960s, they have been the Los Angeles Angels, the California Angels, the Anaheim Angels and now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  Talk about a lack of a brand identity.

The team actually took on the “Anaheim” name when an agreement with the municipality gave the franchise some money to renovate their stadium and all the city asked for in return was their name in the team’s name.  Under Disney ownership at the time, the owners of the team took on this identity and hoped to make “Orlando West” with Anaheim the equivalent of Orlando, complete with Disney Park and sports team.

When Arte Moreno purchased the team and chose to rebuild its brand from the pieces it was left in from the Disney days, he changed the team name to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in order to appeal to a broader market.  A lawsuit that was just settled or dismissed or something enables the Angels to keep this name.

I think it’s tough for a team that’s been around for 40 years to go through four different “location” portions of their name.  This, of course, begs the question: what geographic area are the Angels attempting to appeal to?  Is is LA?  California? Anaheim? Some combination of the three?  Needless to say, the team’s fans are frustrated with these changes and at least when this current, long name was implemented, there was some resistence.  Maybe that’s not the case now.

The judgment that allows the Angels to keep this long, ridiculous name is a bad precedent to set in sports.  With the Oakland A’s moving to Fremont one of these days, does that mean they will be the Oakland A’s of Fremont?  How about the NFL’s Giants and Jets?  How long is it until the state of New Jersey wants those teams to be called the New York Giants of New Jersey.  Realistically people generally disregard the “of Anaheim” when referring to the Angels.  Their abbreviation on scoreboards is LAA (Los Angeles Angels) and since it’s a mouthful to say Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, people generally cut the “of Anaheim.”  Regardless, I know that Anaheim gave the Angels money to rennovate their stadium, but I think it’s time, for everyone’s sake, to just cut the “of Anaheim” to ensure this isn’t a precedent for teams moving going forward.

My Personal 2008 Yankee Stats Now Available

Let me stop you right there.  Yes, I do (sometimes) have too much time on my hands.

For those frequent readers of Backwards K and for those new to the site, I had a miserable 2008 season at Yankee Stadium in terms of the Yankees’ record.  In 14 games at the Stadium this year, the Bronx Bombers were an abysmal 5-9.

I won my first game, lost NINE IN A ROW, then rebounded for four straight W’s to end the season on a high note.

At baseball games, I really like keeping score and I have compiled my stats for every Yankee to play in a game when I was there and now these stats are available by clicking “NYY 2008 Game Stats” on the right-nav under “Pages” or by clicking HERE.

Some interesting notes:

• Five different pitchers won games for me.  Only two, Mike Mussina and Joba Chamberlain, were on the opening day roster.
• Edwar Ramirez, a favorite of mine, had an ERA above 12.00 in 5.2 innings pitched.
• Andy Pettitte (17 IP) and Joba Chamberlain (10.2 IP) each had 15 strike outs.
• Mariano Rivera was his typical self, posting an ERA of 1.50 in 6 IP to earn 2 saves.
• Bobby Abreu led regulars with a .339 batting average in 56 ABs (Matsui hit .391 in 23 ABs).
• A-Rod hit .200 with 3 of his nine hits being Home Runs.
• The Giambino was a perfect sample of his season: .244 average and .404 on-base.
• Abreu and A-Rod tied for the lead with 3 HR each.
• Derek Jeter grounded into a Yankee “worst” 4 double plays
• Giambi (13), Abreu (13), Damon (12), and A-Rod (11) struck out in double digits.
• The Yanks only stole 3 bases.
• Robinson Cano actually hit a respectable .294.
• I saw 23 hitters and 21 pitchers for a season total of 44 different players wearing the pinstripes.

Check out the stats, they’re actually pretty cool, and let me know if there are any other good observations.