That Happened

That strike zone completely pissed me off last night. Tanaka is great. He doesn't need to help to become a legend- he's great and he's a Yankee, so he's already pretty much there. I would tip my hat to him, but it disgusted me because it’s all so unnecessary. And then Bettances and Robertson also got random outside calls left and right. It’s a cliché at this point to have the strike zone piss a fan off, but it was galling. Brooks Baseball didn't help. At all.

I like that José Bautista is famous and does famous people things, but showing up at the Fan Cave when this team can't seem to win in Yankee Stadium taps slightly on my nerves. It was his day off and I’m not going to tweet it at him or protest, but there you go.

This was his face when he sat next to a hat signed by 50 Cent.

Stroman battled last night, in front of every single person he’s ever met (allegedly.) But the Yankees just wore him down. “That’s kind of what they do,” Stroman said. “They foul a bunch of pitches off and get you pretty deep in the count. I was pretty deep in a lot of counts all day.”

Colby Rasmus has been activated from DL, which thrills me like nothing else.

Tony Gwynn, first ballot Hall of Famer and one hell of a hitter (eight time NL batting champ), died a few days ago of mouth cancer.

Deadspin has done a lot of great work on Gwynn. How Gwynn became a legend.  Keith Olbermann cried. And the Padres' former bat boy

Have you noticed that the tributes to Gwynn all seem to mention his laugh? The man's laughter illuminated the room. "Best sound I've ever heard in my life," ESPN's Chris Berman said in the locker room one day, after I'd sheepishly hauled out my Chris Berman baseball card and asked for his autograph. Somebody—my memory says it was Bruce Hurst—said, "I know that's your rookie card, Chris, 'cause you've got hair in that photo." Tony laughed for the next five minutes straight, literally holding his sides he was laughing so hard. The joke was lame, but who cares? If the payoff is hearing Tony Gwynn laugh for five minutes, I'll sit through anything.

Sigh.

Mouth cancer, of course, is usually linked with chewing tobacco, still considerably popular among baseball players and in various subsections of North America. My mom still talks about the coach at a college in the South interested in my brother playing baseball for them that had a spittoon under his desk. And my dad talks about a dude who played on his ball team when he was a teenager that chewed a combo of dip and black licorice, which created an unholy black tar that used to drip out of his mouth.

As per David Ortiz "I use it as a stimulator when I go to hit,"  Ortiz told the Boston Globe. "But the minute I finish my at-bat, I spit it out. It keeps me smooth and puts me in a good mood. I don't do it in the offseason. I don't really like it that much, to be honest with you."

The idea that Ortiz needs to be “put in” to a good mood is an interesting concept. I assumed that he is always in a good mood, unless David Price is doing something.

I mean, have you heard his laugh?

Please hit for Mark Buehrle tonight. Thank you.