Baltimore Orioles

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 >>

Yankees Last Chance

When Raul Ibanez hit his second spectacular home run Wednesday night, he told reporters, "I'm part of a team. Everything we do is a team effort." After last night's embarrassing, 13-inning, 2-1 loss to the Orioles, I'm ready to believe he was telling the truth. The rest of the Yankee batting or ... More >>

Is A-Rod Expanding?

When your team loses 3-2, as the Yankees did last night to the Orioles, and you leave 10 runners on base, it doesn't come down to the fault of just one batter. But when you're batting 3rd and being what Alex Rodriguez is being paid, you're the one everyone points a finger at. And in this case, justi ... More >>

C.C., I Was Just Kidding -- You CAN Win The Big One

If you didn't stay up last night to see it, you missed a classic. Russell martin -- or "Thank God For Russell" Martin, as he's known in my house -- belted a long shot off Jim Johnson in the 9th inning to give the Yankees 3-2 lead. And then it seemed like everyone in the Yankees lineup got a hit. E ... More >>

Yanks Can't Afford To Lose Game One

On paper, it looks like a mismatch, but Yankees fans who have watched their team sink while the Orioles soared over the last third of the season know that this isn't so. In overall batting, the Yanks lead by 18 points, .265 (5th best in the American League) to the Orioles .247 (No. 10), and in r ... More >>

Yankees 2012: OK But No Cigar...Yet

Is it possible that following one team up close, day by day, for an entire season, can actually give you a distorted rather than accurate perception of how good they are? Like many Yankee fans, I've been ruthlessly criticizing the team's performance, or at least its performance since the All-Star ... More >>

Yanks Split With Orioles; October Looking Bleak

However much relief Yankee fans feel after the split of the four-game series with the Orioles - and it was oh, so painfully close to being 3 of 4 for the Yanks - and however good it felt to finally see the Yanks cut loose for 13 runs on Sunday afternoon, it's hard to come away with any sense of con ... More >>

C.C.'s No Ace And Joba Rules No More; Post-Season Looks Bleak For Yanks

However the Yankees end up after the crucial weekend series against the Orioles, there's one thing that August has pretty much demonstrated: namely, that the Yankees -- as they are now constituted -- are not going to the World Series this year and probably will not even win the American League East. ... More >>

Forget R.A. Dickey, Forget Niekro -- Think Koufax

"The best season for a knuckleballer"? Is that the best that the New York press can do to describe R.A. Dickey's accomplishments so far in the 2012 season? Just look at the record so far and pretend that you didn't know he was throwing a knuckleball. At 10-1, he's tied for the league lead in wins ... More >>

Jimmy Castor, R.I.P.

Jimmy Castor was a smart aleck; a wise guy; a clean shit-talker with so much joie de vivre you had to laugh even when his truth-telling smacked you upside the head. So when he died this past Martin Luther King Jr. Day at 71 near his home outside of Las Vegas, far away from the streets of Harlem he o ... 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 >>

Buck Showalter Ticked Off By Derek Jeter? He Shoulda Kept Quiet About It

​Let's deal with this now so we don't have to deal with it before the April issue of Men's Journal hits the stands. According to the Sporting News, Orioles manager Buck Showalter -- who for some reason Men's Journal thinks is a hot subject for a profile -- has taken pot shots at Boston's g ... More >>

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 >>

Yankees Fans, Are You Worried Yet?

​Be afraid, Yankees fans -- be very afraid. Though some are dismissing the Yankees' late-season slide saying, "After all, they're still going to make the playoffs," there's nothing good to be said about their performance over the last 10 games. On September 4, the Yankees were on an eight-g ... More >>

Three Days at Shea: All Heaven Broke Loose

​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives. October 23, 1969, Vol. XIV, No. 54 Three Days at Shea: All Heaven Broke Loose by Joe Flaherty It is no small wonder that H.L. Mencken was a cranky fellow. Living in Baltimore can do that to a man. Its proximity to New York is so close, ... More >>

Nike's Five Borough Sneakers: A Review of Five Pairs of Nikes

​Nike -- the billion-dollar company who profits off people like LeBron James and child laborers and who make awesome World Cup commercials -- has released a set of sneakers called the Five Boroughs Pack, each with their own specific set of designs for each borough of New York. The Shoe Game ha ... More >>

The Penultimate Regular Season Game

​It sounds a lot more dramatic when you say it like that. But really, like every game since this past Monday, it means nothing. The Yankees play the Rays, and then they'll go on to play more baseball next week, too. The same can't be said for Tampa Bay. Where do teams get their drive from, af ... More >>

Mets Exec Removes Shirt, Challenges Double-A Team to Fistfight

Last night, as the New York Yankees took sole possession of first place in the AL East with a win over the Orioles, the New York Mets (44-49) were trying to laugh off the unusually violent motivational tactics of one of their staff in Binghamton, New York. The Daily News reports that a few weeks ba ... More >>

The Strange History of Final Games in Stadiums Slated for Demolition

Loot, loot, loot for the home team

Bring Hip House Back

Mets and Yankees: If Neither One Wins It's a Shame

Peering into the dugouts of the hometown heroes

Sports

Pranks for the Memories

Ex-Met Wiseacre Roger McDowell Hotfoots It Into Coaching

Do Dew the Crabtown Clam

Baltimore Breakbeat House Trax Are the New Everything

Sports

Sports

Fetishizing the LP

Verve Miniaturizes 20 Old Albums

Sports

Sports

The Kid From Aberdeen

The Most Important Thing in Life Is Just Showing Up

Sports

Alt.uniforms

Sports

Fit to Serve

High-Profile Athletes Toss Their Jocks, and Sports Bras, Into the Political Ring

Timo's Dance Roger's Trance

Transfixing a City and a Game

Sports

Sports

The Winning Formula

New Ingredients, Same Tasty Results

Baseball Abstract

An Artist Plots the Perfect Game

Yanks: Three-peat or De-feat?

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

Major Leagues, Minor Men

Life Is a Perpetual State of Audition for Players on the Fringe

The Dis-Integration of Baseball

A Modest Proposal for the Great Game

Sports

Oh What a Relief It Is

The Cast of Misfits in the Mets Bullpen

Nothing Up My Sleeve

Men's Wear Daily

Style on the Diamond Is Ever Changing

Open Season

Luck Be a Yankee Tonight

Wait Till Next Year!

Will The Yankee Juggernaut Crash In '99?

Colon Watch