New York Yankees Diary – September 22nd, 2023

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The Yankees went into their last home series of 2023. In reality, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ record on the season isn’t that much stronger than the Yankees, but they are in a much weaker division – and, therefore, whilst the Yankees will finish fourth or fifth, Arizona will finish second or third.

Today, the Yankees sent Luke Weaver to the mound, who is trying to rebuild his career, whilst Brandon Pfaadt (pronounced “Fought”) is trying first time around to establish a Major League career.

Weaver started the season at Cincinnati, and then when the Reds released him, he was signed by Seattle. The Mariners placed him on waivers, and the Yankees claimed a couple of days later. His career might seem to be on the garbage heap, if he can’t turn things around soon. His first game for the Yankees came in Pittsburgh where he pitched four innings for 3 runs. Tonight, he had a second opportunity to turn it all around and rebuild his career.

Pfaardt went into this game with a 2-8 record on the season, His Earned Run Average stood at 5.86.

It was not hard to predict that the outcome of the game depended primarily on the two teams’ batting performance on the night.

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New York Yankees Diary – September 21st, 2023

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The Yankees came into this one 2-0 down in their series with the Toronto Blue Jays, and with their bullpen and batters struggling. Clarke Schmidt had struggled two days ago, but Michael King excelled and still lost yesterday. The weight was now on the outstanding Gerrit Cole to turn things around.

However with Cole comes Ben Rortvedt, the weakest batter in the Yankees’ camp, and what the Yankees do not need is another weak bat especially if it meant benching Austin Wells who looked like he might be just about to turn things around.

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New York Yankees Diary – September 20th, 2023

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Well, the Yankees have returned to their losing ways. Yesterday, in the first game of their three games series against the Toronto Blue Jays, they lost 1-7 despite Clarke Schmidt (who has had a better than expected season) being on the mound.

Today, with another much improved pitcher, Michael King on the mound, they lost again – this time 1-6. This time, though, the starting pitcher had very little to do with the loss. The main feature of King’s season has been the way that the Yankees have been able to build his stamina, so he has gone from being a long reliever to one of the starters. In these days of many injured Yankees’ starters, this has proved a key element. Today, he delivered up 7 innings for only 1 run, and a career-high 13 strikeouts. And still the Yankees lost.

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New York Yankees Diary – September 11th, 2023

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Value for money. It’s a big issue in the times when your baseball team are not doing so well.

Unlike most critics, I don’t think the Yankees have got some divine right to win – no matter how much the Steinbrenners and Cashmans of this world promise it. However, I do think the Yankees have a duty to take care of their fans and treat them well.

Stadium tours. If you look at what is being charged, and what is being given, it doesn’t seem to be happening.

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New York Yankees Diary – September 10th, 2023

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And there was more rain…

Thankfully, it was nothing like the day before. The delay amounted to only 16 minutes. But there was added time for the fans – this one ran into extra innings.

More surprisingly, the Yankees limited the Brewers who had so dominated them over the previous two days, to a mere three hits over the regulation nine innings. Even more surprisingly, the Yankees didn’t get a hit at all until the 10th.

And so much of the weight of the Yankees staying in the game fell upon the able shoulders of Gerrit Cole, who if there is any justice in the baseball world will walk away with the American League Cy Young award for 2023.

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New York Yankees Diary – September 9th, 2023

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Mike Jerzembeck.

Mike Jerzembeck?

Mike Jerzembeck was introduced to the crowd at Old Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium, and a large percentage of the crowd (including those in the row near me) seemed to collectively go “who?”. Especially since Old Timers’ Day concentrated on the squad of players who played for the Yankees in 1998, and Jerzembeck was one of them.

Now, the 1998 Yankees are one of less than a handful of teams who are considered when the question is raised as to who is perhaps the greatest club Major Leagues history so to even be a minor figure in that story is quite something…

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New York Yankees Diary – September 8th, 2023

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Well, yesterday was yesterday, and today is today. And it couldn’t be more half-hearted, and worse. Right?

Wrong.

Austin Wells was restored to the catcher’s role. He continues to be defensively strong, but with the bat (0-for-3 today), he remains consistently weak. Oswaldo Cabrera who had come on to replace Aaron Judge in the field in the previous game, was now switched to leftfield. Everson Pereira was benched. The rather hopeless Giancarlo Stanton was also benched, with Judge taking over at designated hitter.

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New York Yankees Diary – September 7th, 2023

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(Having been commissioned to be at Yankee Stadium for the home games during September, I kept a diary to submit to my publishers. I am now able to present some of my writings on the games here).

Before tonight’s game, the Yankees, who had been told in no uncertain terms in August by General Manager Brian Cashman that their season was a disaster, then had one of their best runs of the season winning 8 of their previous 10 games. Indeed, one of the two they had lost was due to a walkoff. They were pretty much in contention for every game.

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Macbeth – Double, double toil and trouble;

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O, full of scorpions is my mind

What: Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Where: Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST), Stratford Upon Avon

Who: Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)

When: August-September 2023

Could things get any worse?

An old record by the Who echoed with the words:

“Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss”

Here at the RSC, the same problems that have haunted recent productions look like they are going to be around in the new era. Gregory Doran’s time at the helm was rather mixed. Now as we come out of an interim period, with Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey as co-artistic directors, things have really not changed. This production of Macbeth is diabolical, and I don’t mean devilish.

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The New York Yankees in August – Part Two – The Pitchers (2023)

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So, we are thinking about the Yankees’ performance in August, and obviously based on their record during the month (10 wins – 18 losses), you wouldn’t expect an upswing in the quality of their pitching performances but in reality there were some positive signs.

Indeed, in the bullpen there were as many significant improvements as there were players who made a significant decline.

Let’s see who the strong performers were, and those who buckled under the strain:

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