Apr 08 2009
WANG AT CAMDEN, JOBA’S A REBEL
There wasn’t much to report yesterday in Yankeeland, but today we move on from that brutal opening day peformance, as Chien-Ming Wang faces the O’s at Camden Yards around 7:05 pm (EST). The sinker-ball throwing Bomber will be going against Koji Uehara, who formally was an ace on the Yomiuri Giants. We haven’t seen this guy yet obviously, so it should be an interesting match-up tonight. I think Wang will do his job, and we’ll rebound with a good game. You always want to start the season by winning the first series, and as we know, getting off to a fast start is something critical for the Yankees of late.
Going back to the first game, there were actually a few positives to take from it - Swisher came up with a big pinch-hitting double (going the other way), and he was clapping and getting the team pumped up for a come-back. This is exactly the kind of stuff a winning team needs, and he will fit in extremely well. Albaladejo also had a nice outing, coming out of the bullpen pretty early and did what he was asked. Finally, Posada and Matsui both went deep, which is very encouraging when you take into account the age/injury factor.
Last on Wednesday’s agenda will be the hard-throwing rebel, Joba Chamberlain. Now I realize that he may have offended a few people with his comments connected to the intoxicated-video which recently leaked, but you can’t go too crazy about it. He obviously still has some growing up to do, and I’m sure he wasn’t looking to insult Yogi (after all, he is a short guy), nor was he looking to insult Yankee fans. What’s more disconcerning is the fact that he drove under the influence, and had an open bottle of Crown Royale in his car. My other point related to this issue, is that Joba Chamberlain’s building his baseball legacy in the shape of a rebel. He’s got the long side-burns, he throws gas, he pumps his fist when he gets a big out, he’s a big guy, and now he’s caught partying a little too hard. I’m telling you, he would fit right in with those 70’s teams, and maybe that’s not such a bad thing to have. It’s nice to have players like that (i.e. David Wells, Jim Leyritz, Reggie Jackson), because it could toughen the team up a bit more and get them playing the right way. Let’s face it, the team’s been comprised of wayyyy too many soft players over the past few years.
