AL Central

Yanks Lose. Here's All The Baseball I Want To Talk About This Year

Speculation on what caused the train wreck that ended last night with the Yankee's 8-1 loss to Detroit is useless, so I'm going to empty out all the notes I took during this year's ALCS and see what sense can be made of it. First off, this is the third time the Yankees have lost a postseason series ... More >>

A-Rod's Not The Yankees' Only Playoff Goat

I've always resisted the idea that clutch hitting exists, I guess because I don't like the notion that baseball is something more than a game - that it brings out something heroic in an athlete. I pretty much agree with Bill James's early assessment on the topic, which was that what a batter hits ... More >>

Why Do Gabachos Complain So Damn Much?

Let's Hypothesize on Dewayne Wise...

So who's to fault in the Dewayne Wise Foul Ball-Gate? Not the fans, though the Daily News, which headlined its story "Fans in Stands Conspire to Help Wise Stump Ump." The fans didn't have time to conspire to do anything; everyone reacted with complete spontaneity (what are they supposed to do, help ... More >>

Baseball Predictions Are Much Better In Hindsight

​Suppose you brought all the smartest baseball kids on the block together, locked them in a house for two weeks with an unlimited supply of Twinkies and beer, and asked them to pool all their statistical tools to predict the upcoming baseball season? What might the result look like? SBNation's J ... More >>

Yankee Post-Mortem: A-Rod Not the Only Cause of Death

​Let's look on the bright side ... no, scratch that. There is no bright side. Let's try to take in the big picture ... no, skip it. That's crap, too. The Yankees' 3-2 elimination loss to Detroit on Thursday night was as ugly as a one-run defeat can be. They were a better team than the Tigers, not ... More >>

Justin Verlander Just In Case

If you were about to play what could be your last game of the season, would you use every weapon you had? If we are to believe Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland, he wouldn't. Leyland has repeatedly said he "probably wouldn't use Justin Verlander in relief" in tonight's Game Five against the Yanks, ... More >>

Fright Night for Yankee Fans

If I were a Yankees fan, I'd be afraid — very afraid. Of course, as I've said all season, whenever I look at the pitching staff I'm afraid. But in addition to being afraid all season, I've also been wrong all season, so maybe I'm wrong now. Maybe there's something I'm not seeing here, but the ... More >>

Where Have All the Yankees Fans Gone?

photo by Neil deMause​Following last night's ten-inning loss to the Twins, the Yankees' record stands at 3-2 (good!) and the team trails Buck Showalter's undefeated Orioles by a game and a half in the AL East (bad!). But since everybody knows that early April stats don't matter (remember how t ... More >>

Don't Blame the Yankees Bullpen for Last Night. Blame Nick Swisher.

Oops.​Obviously when you have a rotation that consists of one ace and four jokers - and that's what Phil Hughes, A.J. Burnett, Ivan Nova and whoever the Yankees put in the fifth spot are - you've got to win the game in which your ace pitches. Especially when the ace pitches seven shutout innin ... More >>

OPENING DAY

New York Yankees host the Detroit Tigers

With Cliff Lee, Will the Phillies Rotation Be the Best Ever?

​Does the acquisition of Cliff Lee give the Philadelphia Phillies the best rotation in baseball history? That's a little premature, but you can certainly make a good argument. Right now, Roy Halliday, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels certainly look to rank with the 1954 Cleveland In ... More >>

Live: The Hold Steady Try Their Best To Burn Down The Beacon Theatre

Craig Finn, taking the whole Twins thing in stride. Pics by Rob Trucks, more below.​The Hold Steady Beacon Theatre Thursday, October 7 Better than: Cirque de Soleil's Banana Shpeel or whatever usually goes on here. I'm sure some of those Allman Brothers shows get pretty rowdy, but I still ca ... More >>

Pace Student Max Moreno Murdered; Police Release Surveillance Video of Suspects

​Max Moreno, a 21-year-old Pace University student, was killed on September 29 with one gunshot to the head and found in his apartment at 2 Gold Street, in the financial district, just after midnight. The incident took place after he sold marijuana to a couple, leading police to believe he may ... More >>

Q&A: Craig Finn Of The Hold Steady Breaks Down The Twins/Yankees Series

Twins cap not pictured, for once​The MLB Playoffs begin today, kicking off an annual tradition for many sports-minded New Yorkers: rooting against the Yankees. Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn has added motivation this year, given that his beloved Minnesota Twins once again drew the Yanks in th ... More >>

C.C. Sabathia's Start Tonight: None Bigger All Year

​Prudence suggests that Bill Madden's pick in today's Daily News - Minnesota twins in five - is a correct one. Madden's reasoning is sound: the Yankees have been a lackluster 29-30 since July 30 and only 9-17 since September 5. "Combined," Madden writers, "with Girardi's erratic managing and t ... More >>

Download Steve Wynn And The Miracle 3's "Resolution"; Hear It Live At The Living Room Next Week

​"Paisley Underground" veteran Steve Wynn (the L.A. rocker, not the casino owner who puts his hand through Picasso paintings) is a permanent friend-of-SOTC for the simple reason that he once let us film him singing a song while standing in a dog park. He returns with backing band the Miracle 3 ... More >>

Yankees' Biggest Loss of the Year: The Worrying Omens

​Apparently I wasn't the only one who watched the Yankees' hideous 10-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays last night feeling that the Bombers had just bombed in their most important game of the season. There is Filip Bondy, for instance, in today's Daily News: "This was a very big game...C.C. Sabat ... More >>

Here's Major League Baseball's Most Guilt-Ridden Umpire, Jim Joyce, Holding a Puppy

​Maybe you've heard that last night, on the very last play of what was an otherwise perfect game for Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga, umpire Jim Joyce missed the call, thus costing Galarraga his perfect game. Everybody - whether you're a fan of the team throwing the perfect game or no ... More >>

Why LeBron James (Probably) Won't Be Coming to New York

​Terry Pluto, sports columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, has been covering LeBron James since his first high school game. His latest book, LeBron James: The Making of an MVP (cowritten with PD Cavs beat writer Brian Winters) is the definitive work to date on how James became the best pla ... More >>

The Most Shocking New York Yankees Loss, Ever

​Some things are simply unforeseeable. After all, who would've thought that the New York Yankees - the highest-paid team in baseball, the team that won the World Series just six months ago - would sustain what some could only perceive as the most shocking defeat in the history of the franchise ... More >>

The Old Brawl Game

Baseball trades fights for hugs in the age of steroid testing

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Men in Uniform

Fifth Annual Major League Baseball Roundup

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The Baseball Wars

A Labor Conflict Primer

Talking Trash, Backing It Up

Watch Out, Bud! Ex-Met Prankster Gardenhire Is Now the Evil Twin.

Socks Finally Win One

Send Money or We’ll Shoot This Team

Contraction Signals That Baseball’s About to Birth Something Ugly

Alt.uniforms

Kept in the Loop

Kickin' It Old School

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Yanks: Three-peat or De-feat?

Baseball in the Big Apple: Two Teams, One Ticket-Tape Parade

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A Century Of UNI Watch

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The New Whitey Ford

But Is It the End of the Line for David Cone, the New Chairman of the Board?

Boomer Bust

Boomer Bust

Competing With Cancer

Winterball Heats Up

Grading baseball's off-season moves

Ball Bearings

World Theories Preview

Pinstripe Destiny '98

Inside The Yankee Docudrama

Ghosts 2, Yankees 1

The '98 Yankees' Place in the Pantheon