Jane Heller

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

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I'm Blaming Everything On The Full Moon

April 6, 2012

Yup, everything.

  1. CC’s lack of command.
  2. The insane number of runners left in scoring position.
  3. Girardi’s managerial decisions.
  4. Joe Maddon’s managerial decisions.
  5. Joe West’s strike zone.
  6. The nearly four hours it took to play the game.
  7. And especially Mo’s meltdown.

It was all too weird, and I spent the entire night while I was out for dinner with friends wishing we could have a do-over. Mo told the media there was just one pitch he wanted to have back, but the truth was he was up over the plate to all the batters he faced and looked as wobbly as CC did in the early innings. And then there was Robertson. He was getting squeezed, yes, but does he really have to put guys on base in order to play Houdini? If so, it’ll be a long season for my blood pressure.

So many missed opportunities. And not the way anybody wanted Opening Day to go. I know I’m supposed to say, “Oh, it was just one game,” but I’m disappointed. Can’t help it.

Were there bright spots? Of course. The Yankees played incredible defense – from Swisher and Gardner to A-Rod and Tex. And how about A-Rod’s offensive day? Very nice to see.

But the Rays are not supposed to dominant the Yanks and that’s what they’ve been doing lately. I hope their streak ends tomorrow night.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Confessions of a She-Fan Tagged With: CC Sabathia, Joe Girardi, Joe West, Mariano Rivera, Opening Day, Rays, Yankees

Comments

  1. YankeeCase says

    April 6, 2012 at 9:52 pm

    You can also blame my “Super Happy-Ack!!” from yesterday. I think we’ve all learned a valuable lesson today. ‘ACK!’ is only meant for very, very bad things…

    Loved seeing Robertson up to his old tricks and getting out of that jam, though! It really felt like we were in the middle of season with that eighth inning. I was hoping for an insurance run in the ninth because I feared what we saw happen. And they just went down 1, 2, 3.

    And really, what the hell was up with that strike zone?? There was that one pitch Mariano threw that was right down the middle of the plate that was called a ball simply because Martin reached his glove back across the plate. I’ve never liked when the umps do this! Who cares if that wasn’t where the pitch was supposed to be?! You don’t call balls and strikes on intent, you call them on where the ball crosses the plate, if it does! I think Mariano eventually struck out Sean Rodriguez, if I’m remembering the correct at-bat. (work got in the way…)

    The important thing to remember is this is only game 1 of 162… It’s going to be a loooooooong season. :D

  2. Audrey says

    April 7, 2012 at 3:49 am

    This is what I posted to Facebook:

    “It’s the first inning of the first game of the season and Girardi has CC walk a mediocre hitter to get to left-handed Carlos Pena? Really? That worked out really well, didn’t it? I swear, I cannot take Joe Girardi’s micro-management style anymore. He – not CC, not Mo – lost that game for us. Just let the boys play, Joe, please – just let the boys play!

    And that’s how I still feel about it. Yes, others were shaky, no doubt about it – CC has not been CC for quite a while now, including the end of last season. Robertson always has to make it exciting but if that adrenaline rush is what helps him perform, so be it. And Mo has a tendency to melt down a couple of games in a row and then get it back together for the next twenty games so I don’t mind him getting that out of the way. But he never should have been in the game. The score should have been 6 (or 10) to 1 or 2. Joe Girardi has got to stop consulting computer models and start using his gut – and a little common sense.

    And with a little encouragement I’ll tell you how I REALLY feel!

  3. Leo says

    April 7, 2012 at 5:16 am

    You guys pretty much covered mostly everything that I wanted to say. Especially about Girardi and his usual overmanagement. Regardless of the numbers, just about everyone could see it was a bad idea to intentionally walk a weaker batter in Rodriguez to face Pena. At least the offense fought back to make it close. Wow at Raul Ibanez. Its only one game but I hope he can get in his work with Long and continue to rake consistently as our DH and I’ll take back what I said about wanting him to be released. A-Rod also had a notable offensive day as you already mentioned, Jane. The inability to score after the third and the many runners left on base after that inning was annoying but 6 runs is usually more than enough to win games if the pitching does its job. I’m not worried about CC and especially not Mo. They’ll turn out fine as always.

  4. Melissa says

    April 7, 2012 at 5:22 am

    I’m blaming it all on the Trop. What a lousy place to open the season – it can’t really feel like real baseball.

    I am extremely pissed at the YES network.
    Since it was an afternoon game and we were busy, we figured we’d watch Yankees encore. My husband turned on the tv around 7 and yelled “You’d better get down here!” Carlos Pena was up with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th. So we watched the end of the game. There was no Yankees encore, they showed a Nets game. Isn’t it the YANKEES Entertainment and Sports network?
    It was so disappointing!

    One of my best friends was down in Florida and they went to the game. At least they got to see lots of action.
    And Carlos Pena is a good guy and answered the post game questions in a very classy manner.
    Let’s hope Mo gets this out of his system now.
    I can’t wait to watch some real baseball on an open field with grass and sunshine.
    PS About the juju stuff from yesterday. My favorite thing about it is that I’ll do some of that stuff when watching the encore presentation. Now that is really silly!

  5. Barbara says

    April 7, 2012 at 5:47 am

    Ouch.
    To think we waited eagerly for months for that pain.
    Hopefully kuroda can give us some happiness.

  6. Jane Heller says

    April 7, 2012 at 6:04 am

    YankeeCase, I did worry about your “ACK” from the day before. LOL. No more of that unless we’re talking about a game like…well, yesterday’s, for instance! I agree completely about that strike zone regarding Mo, but how about when Robertson was pitching? He threw one right down the middle and it was called a ball and it was just plain ridiculous. From my perspective, Mo was asking for trouble from the first batter. He just didn’t look sharp at all.

    You tell ’em, Audrey! Joe and his binder got out of hand in that game. I’m sure there wasn’t a single person watching that didn’t see Pena’s slam coming. Ridiculous over-managing, but then Maddon’s moves were equally nuts. Ultimately, the offense had chances to score more runs and kept leaving guys on base. A very frustrating game.

    Thanks for reminding me about Ibanez’s homer, Leo. I should have put it on my list in the post of weird things. Marc Carig of the Star Ledger asked everybody on Twitter before the game to guess which player would hit the first homer of the season and I can tell you I didn’t expect it to be Raul. Good for him and all the work he’s put in.

    That’s crazy about YES not showing the encore presentation, Melissa. My beef was that I didn’t get YES at all. My extra innings package only gave us the Tampa feed so I was stuck watching the game from the Rays’ pov. We often have the away team’s broadcast, but I thought on the first day of our season we’d get both. Grrr. Doing the juju stuff during the encore games is pretty hilarious.

    I hope Kuroda is ready for the Trop, Barbara. It’ll be his first time pitching there, I guess. He’ll need to block out those awful cowbells.

  7. Ruth says

    April 7, 2012 at 6:33 am

    Well, you all beat me to it, but I will say it again anyway, because it’s cathartic, and Jane provides us the platform to do it. I know hindsight is 20/20, and if i was saying this first, I would say ‘I’m saying it even though my brain is screaming ‘don’t say it!’ but what the hell is Joe doing taking the ball out of CC’s hands in the FIRST INNING of THE FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON???? If he doesn’t trust his ACE to pitch to a right-handed batter, then you’ve got big problems. And then, when he had Mo load the bases in the 9th, I thought ‘okay,’ but then I thought that was dumb, because even though Mo gets most batters out, they OFTEN make contact with the ball and get it in the air. So they were most likely going to win with a sac fly anyway. Again, he doesn’t trust Mo to get the batters out? Total over managing! I hope Joe has learned his lesson and will let the guys play a little more. Geez…what a crabby way to start the season. But, as my husband always says as he’s mocking me about getting upset about baseball….’it’s a loooonng season.’ Since I’m from D.C., everyone here is losing their minds that the Os and Nats won, but the Yankees and Red Sox lost….go ahead fans, celebrate while you can….let’s see how you look in September…who me? Bitter? Not much.

  8. Jane Heller says

    April 7, 2012 at 7:24 am

    I love how riled up we get over one game, Ruth. It’s as if we’re in September and heading down the stretch. LOL. I doubt Girardi will change the way he manages, so get used to all the “strategery,” as Will Farrell says. And yes, this is the place to come and vent so we don’t go out on the street and slug somebody. :)

  9. YankeeCase says

    April 7, 2012 at 10:59 am

    Yeah, I think it was Robertson’s pitch I was talking about. Like I said, we had the game on at work, so I didn’t remember correctly. Gerf… :(
    And yeah, YES airs that awful basketball team, the Nets. They’re supposed to be the Entertainment and Sports component of the abbreviation YES, but that team is neither entertaining, nor sports! (Ha! Burn!) Don’t fret, Melissa, their season is almost officially over…

  10. Renee says

    April 7, 2012 at 2:27 pm

    It wasn’t all the full moon, Jane… I think the entire situation was fraught with possibilities.

    Here’s my take. As Suzan mentioned on the radio, Carlos already had a great average against CC. Second, he’s been deliriously happy to be back with the Rays. Third, the bases were loaded. Fourth, he’d already hit 6 slams in his life. Fifth, it was opening day at the Trop and a new banner had been raised. Sixth, it was the first game of the season — practically still Spring Training — and neither pitcher was great. I just think the ball was there, meeting up with the bat and the adrenaline over the plate, fated, as a welcome back gesture. I mean, when he left the Rays last year he was batting .129 fer cripes sake. I don’t think Girardi made a bad move walking S-Rod before him (insofar as walking anyone ever intentionally is a bad move), because Sean is young & coming up, his dad’s a minor league coach and Carlos can be expected to strike out, walk, or hit, usually in that order. (I’d read the Yanks investigated getting Carlos, but they already have a superior 1st baseman who hits.) But Joe was probably familiar with his stats & strengths, and went with the percentages. The adrenaline won.

    As for that shot in the 9th, total amazement. But when Girardi set that 5-man infield (a ballsy move), I’m sure it was like a red flag to a bull to hit the ball over that Maginot Line. Which he did.

    You know I have mixed feelings, NYC born & bred, childhood in the shadow of original Yankee Stadium, Grampa listening to games on the radio, Phillip, Bill, all my personal Yankee influences. So, yeah, I get confused, and sometimes don’t care who wins when they play the Rays… it literally becomes a win-win situation for me.

    And I was not that sad to see Carlos go to the Cubs. I was tired of liking him and his attitude and hating him every time he struck out, which was way too often IMHO. I loved Kotchman at 1st, trusted him to catch and hit and was sorry to lose him to the Indians. But to bring back The Whiffer? Talk about mixed feelings! Back in 2010, I was already calling him Pain Ya and wanting his salary to keep Crawford in town.

    Gotta go, pre-game show’s starting. Still a full moon?

  11. Jane Heller says

    April 7, 2012 at 2:46 pm

    Wow. That was some analysis, Renee. Yes, I think the moon is still full but it’s mid-afternoon here – too sunny to see the moon. The game will start shortly, though, so we’ll find out if there are any odd happenings.

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About Jane Heller

Jane Heller is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Her fourteen breezy, witty novels of romantic comedy and suspense are now entertaining millions of readers around the world, along with her two books of nonfiction.

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