Cleveland Indians vs. New York Yankees 4/18/09

There isn’t much to say about this one besides, WOW. The Cleveland Indians beat the New York Yankees, 22-4. No, that is not a typo, the Yankees got beat very badly. In yesterday’s post I said Chin Ming Wang would rebound from his two terrible previous starts, but he did not. Wang was a star pitcher two years ago and this year has followed last years for the worse. He could not get out of the second inning after allowing eight earned runs on eight hits. The man’s ERA is now up to 34.50 and that is unbelievable. I normally like to go over the positive things the Yankees did in each game, but I have nothing to go over. On the other hand, there is plenty to discuss about the Indians. They had two players get seven at bats and their big inning came in the second when they scored fourteen runs. Cleveland hit six home runs in this game with two sets of back to back homers. All Yankee fans can hope is that they can rebound tomorrow.

Tomorrow, the New York Yankees play the final game of their four game series with the Cleveland Indians. They will be hoping to get close to winning after taking a terrible pounding in their prior game. The pitching match up features former Yankee Carl Pavano for the Indians against A.J. Burnett for the Yankees. This should be a great game as the Yankees truly need to win this one.

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com

Cleveland Indians vs. New York Yankees 4/17/09

Yesterday the New York Yankees got their first win in their new ballpark. They defeated the Cleveland Indians by the score of 6-5. Joba Chamberlain did not pitch well for the Yankees; he allowed five runs in 4.2 innings of work. Brian Bruney picked up the win and Mariano Rivera got his third save of the season. Robinson Cano hit another home run for the Bronx Bombers, making it his third of the season. He has been the star offensive player for the Yankees so far, batting .405 with 8 RBI and 10 runs. All in all, it was a good game for the Yankees and they got their first win out of the way at the new stadium. The win wasn’t impressive but at this point they will take. They can only hope that the rest of the offense starts hitting and Alex Rodriguez comes back as soon as possible.

Later today the Yankees play the third game of the series against the Cleveland Indians. For the Indians Fausto Carmona is pitching against Chin Ming Wang for the Yankees. Both pitchers are 0-2 this season so they are both looking for their first win. I’m sure Wang will lower his ERA today but you really have to wonder if he still believes in himself to pitch a quality game today. 

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com

San Diego Padres vs. New York Mets 4/16/09

In the third game of the series against the Padres, the Mets jumped out to an early lead off Jake Peavy. Carlos Delgado hit his second home run in as many games in the first inning to give the Mets an early 3-0 lead. That lead quickly diminished in the 3rd inning when John Maine imploded. Maine let up five runs in the 3rd on four RBI singles by Jody Garut, David Eckstein, Chase Headley, and Kevin Kouzmanoff. That gave Jake Peavy a two run lead to work with the score 5-3. The Padres then extended their lead in the 5th when Chase Headley doubled in a run, while he was on his way to a 4 for 4 evening. The Mets tried to make a comeback in the 8th when former Met Duaner Sanchez let up a two run homer to backup catcher Ramon Castro; that made the score 6-5. That’s as close as the Mets would come though as Heath Bell tossed up a 1-2-3 ninth inning to get his second save of the series and give the Padres the series win.

The Mets will open up a weekend series with the Brewers at Citi Field starting Friday. The pitching match up will be Livan Hernandez 1-0 with a 4.63 ERA for the Mets against Dave Bush 0-0 with a 5.40 ERA for the Brew-Crew. The key to this series is going to be if the Mets can shut down the Brewers potent offense. If they do that, they will have a good chance of winning the series.

Josh Jakers

NYchalktalk.com

Cleveland Indians vs. New York Yankees 4/16/09

The New York Yankees shouldn’t have even bothered opening their new stadium. The Cleveland Indians spoiled the party by beating them 10-2. Jorge Posada did get the first home run at the new stadium but Yankee fans would have rather had a win instead. C.C. pitched a pretty good game; he went five plus innings and only allowed one run. Sabathia gave the Bronx Bombers an opportunity to win, but their bullpen blew it. In the seventh inning Jose Veras let up three runs then Damaso Marte let up six more. This was just not a good game for the Yankees, especially to open their new ballpark. Now the Yankees are 5-5 and this loss is building up to the breaking point of firing manager Joe Girardi. When this happens it would have been long overdue and I doubt he will make it past the first twenty-five games.

Later today, the Indians and the Yankees play the second game of their three game series. This will be the second game at the new Yankee Stadium and the Yankees will try to get a win to avoid any more embarrassment. The pitching match up shows Anthony Reyes for the Indians against Joba Chamberlain for the Yankees. The Bronx Bombers do not look like a good team right now and I am really wondering if they can get a win today. We will see what happens as the Yankees try to win a game for their home fans. 

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com 

San Diego Padres vs. New York Mets 4/15/09

On Wednesday the New York Mets picked up their first win at their new stadium because the “good” Oliver Perez showed up. Perez threw six innings allowed one run, three hits and two walks, and picked up the win. The Mets scored two runs in the 4th inning on a Carlos Beltran single and a double play groundout from Gary Sheffield. They broke the game open in the 7th inning when the Padres defense fell apart, a wild pitch and a throwing error led to four runs in the inning. In the bottom of the 8th the Mets tacked on another run when Carlos Delgado hit a solo shot to deep right field. In the top of the 9th Adrian Gonzalez hit a solo homerun, but it was not enough and the Mets evened up the series with the rubber game coming Thursday.

Thursday’s pitching match up for the rubber game will feature Jake Peavy for the Padres against John Maine for the Mets. Jake Peavy is one of the elite pitchers in the national league and the key for the Mets is to get to him early so he is taken out of the game. Once Peavy gets into a groove it’s really tough to score runs. On the other hand, John Maine will try to continue his early season winning ways.

Josh Jakers

NYchalktalk.com

New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays 4/15/09

Yesterday in the final game of the series at Tropicana field the Yankees defeated the Rays by the score of 4-3. Andy Pettitte pitched fairly well for the Yankees, only allowing three runs in seven plus innings of work. Robinson Cano was the key contributor in the game because of his two run homer in the forth inning. The Rays kept the game close but the Yankees were just too much for them to handle. Brian Bruney picked up the win after only getting two outs and Mariano Rivera got his second save of the season. Overall it was a pretty good game for the Yankees and they improved their record to 5-4 on the season.

Later today the New York Yankees will have their first official game at the new Yankee Stadium against the Cleveland Indians. That game is going to be very exciting and the Bronx Bombers will be hoping to do what their New York counterpart could not, get a win in their first game. The pitching match up has Cliff Lee on the hill for the Indians against Yankees ace C.C. Sabathia.  

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com

First Game at Citi Field

The Mets opened up their new stadium on Monday and unfortunately they couldn’t come up with the win. The Mets starter was Mike Pelfrey and from the first batter fans knew he didn’t have his best stuff. The first batter of the game was Jody Gerut, he hit the first homerun of the new stadium, a deep drive to right field to give the Padres a 1-0 lead. Pelfrey then let up two more runs in the second inning after slipping off the mound and falling to the ground with two outs and nobody on. In the fifth inning with the Mets down 5-2, David Wright worked the count to 3-2 and then ripped a game tying homerun to right field to tie up the game at 5-5. Wright’s homerun was the first Mets homerun at Citi Field. In the top of the sixth the Padres took the lead, with no outs and nobody on Luis Rodriguez hit a deep fly ball to right field that Ryan Church misplayed for a three base error. After that, Pedro Feliciano balked the runner home to give the Padres a 6-5 lead. The game ended 6-5 when former Met; Heath Bell got the Mets out in order during ninth inning. It was a very disappointing game for the Mets as they would’ve liked to open up their new stadium with a win.

Josh Jakers

NYchalktalk.com

New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays 4/13/09

Yesterday’s game was a complete mess. The Tampa Bay Rays beat the New York Yankees by the score of 15-5. Yankees starter Chin Ming Wang looked awful, allowing eight earned runs in only one inning of work. Once he was pulled from the game the bullpen did not do much better, they allowed seven more runs. When Carlos Pena hit a grand slam off Jonathan Albaladejo the game was basically over. At that point the score was 9-0 in favor of Tampa Bay. On the offensive side, Nick Swisher and Jorge Posada both had pretty good games, but winning is a team effort. There was nothing good that came out of this loss for the Yankees; they will just have to move on and try to get a win tonight.

Tonight, the Yankees and the Rays play the second game of this three game series. The pitching match up has A.J. Burnett on the mound for the Yankees versus Matt Garza of the Rays. Both men are excellent pitchers so this should be a low scoring affair. The Yankees bullpen is going to have to pitch much better if they hope to win any games versus a very good Tampa Bay team.

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com

New York Mets vs. Florida Marlins 4/12/09

In the rubber game of the three game series between the Mets and Marlins, the pitchers duel between Johan and Johnson lived up its expectations. The turning point came in the second inning of the game when with two outs Jeremy Hermida walked. Then Cody Ross hit a deep fly ball to left, Murphy was under it but he took his eye off the ball and it dropped in. The next batter was Ronny Paulino who hit a line drive base hit over David Wright’s head to give the Marlins a 2-0 lead. Both of the runs were unearned. The Mets remained scoreless and Johnson was throwing a no-hitter until the 6th when Luis Castillo got a base hit. The game stayed 2-0 until the top of the 9th when with two outs Carlos Delgado doubled and then Carlos Beltran hit an RBI single up the middle. The score was 2-1 with two outs in the 9th inning and the Marlins decided to let Johnson finish the game. The next batter was Ryan Church and he hit a sinking line drive to left and Cody Ross made the catch. That gave the Marlins their second straight series win to open the season.

Later today, the Mets will travel back to Queens to their brand new stadium. To open up Citi Field, the Mets will start Mike Pelfrey who is 1-0 with a 7.20 ERA against Walter Silva who is 0-0 with a 3.60 ERA. The Mets would love to give their fans great memories of their first home game at Citi Field with a win. The game will start at 7:10 pm and the pre game festivities will start an hour earlier. Here at NYchalktalk.com we wish the Mets good luck in opening up their new stadium.

Josh Jakers

NYchalktalk.com

New York Yankees vs. Kansas City Royals 4/12/09

The New York Yankees could not complete the sweep of the Kansas City Royals yesterday at Kaufman Stadium. The Royals beat the Bronx Bombers by the score of 6-4. Joba Chamberlain pitched great for the Yankees only allowing one earned run over six innings, but the bullpen blew it. Reliever Phil Coke got the loss after allowing two runs in the bottom of the eighth. This was a game that the Yankees will definitely forget, but they did see great things out of Joba Chamberlain, so it wasn’t all completely bad.

In their next series the Yankees face off against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. After this three game set the Yankees come back home to the Bronx to open the New Yankee Stadium. The pitching match up for tonight’s game features Chin Ming Wang for the Yankees versus Scott Kazmir of the Rays. The Yankees will be looking to bounce back and get a win against the tough Rays. 

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com 

New York Yankees vs. Kansas City Royals 4/11/09

The New York Yankees are now on a three game winning streak and have quieted the doubters (at least for now). Yesterday they played the Kansas City Royals in the second of the three game series and won 6-1. C.C. Sabathia pitched great, allowing one earned run during 7 2/3 innings of work. Both Nick Swisher and Jorge Posada have been on fire as of late. As Yankee fans we know that Swisher is good since he has already earned a John Sterling nickname, “Good old Saint Nick”. In the game he went two for three with three RBI. Posada went two for five with three RBI as well. Overall this game was exactly what was expected of the Yankees, solid starting pitching with good run support.

Later today the Bronx Bombers go for the sweep of the Kansas City Royals. The pitching match up features Joba Chamberlain for the Yankees versus Gil Meche for the Royals. Today will be Joba’s first start of the season and we will see how he performs. On the other hand, the Royals ace Gil Meche will be on the mound today and he is going for his first win of the season. After today’s game the New York Yankees should be on a four game winning streak.

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com  

New York Mets vs. Florida Marlins 4/11/09

Coming into the fifth game of the season the Florida Marlins hadn't lost a game; that was until they faced Livan Hernandez of the Mets. Livan Hernandez won the fifth spot in the Mets rotation coming into the season and he showed why Jerry Manuel made a great decision. Livan had an easy first inning but in the second after he let up back to back base hits to Dan Uggla and Jeremy Hermida. Livan settled down getting Cody Ross to pop up to short center, Cameron Maybin to strike out and Ricky Nolasko to strike out. The game remained scoreless until the top of the third when Jose Reyes delivered an RBI double to drive in Luis Castillo who was 4-5 on the day. Livan kept putting up zeros and in the fifth the Mets started to pull away. During that inning, Jose Reyes came through again with a his first home run of the season, a two run home run and then in the same inning Carlos Delgado hit an RBI double to score Daniel Murphy. That gave the Mets a 4-0 lead through five innings. After the Marlins got two runs back in the seventh, the Mets broke the game wide open on a sacrifice by Murphy and a base hit by Delgado. The Mets hung on to win and hand the Marlins their first loss of 2009, 8-4.

On Sunday, The Mets will have their Ace Johan Santana who is 1-0 with a 1.59 ERA in his one start in 09.  He hasn’t lost a start since June 28th of last season. The Marlins will counter with an up an coming starter, Josh Johnson. He is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in his one start in 09. He will try to out duel one of the best pitchers in baseball. Both teams will try to win their second straight series to open the season.

Josh Jakers

NYchalktalk.com

New York yankees vs. Kansas City Royals 4/10/09

Yesterday the New York Yankees defeated the Kansas City Royals 4-1. This game was more of what fans were hoping to see from their team this year. Andy Pettitte pitched brilliantly, only allowing one run over seven innings and Mariano Rivera got the save. The key hit came in the top of the first inning when Jorge Posada hit a single to right field scoring two runs. Derek Jeter played poorly going 0-5 but Robinson Cano has been on fire since the season has started. The Bronx Bombers are now on a two game winning streak and they should sweep the lowly Royals if everything goes as planned.

The Yankees next game is tonight against the Royals in the second game of there three game set. The pitching match up features C.C. Sabathia for the Yankees against Horacio Ramirez for the Royals. C.C. has a lot to prove to Yankee fans tonight even though it is early in the season. Sabathia is coming off a very poor start on opening day. As always if the offense is there, especially with C.C. on the hill, the Yankees should win this game. 

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com

New York Mets vs. Cincinnati Reds 4/9/09

Through the first two innings of the game it looked as though the “good” Oliver Perez showed up, that was until the third inning. During the top of the third the Mets were leading 3-0 on a Carlos Beltran RBI single and a Ryan Church RBI double. In the bottom of that inning Perez imploded, giving up four runs in the third inning and four runs in the fifth inning. In the third inning Joey Votto hit his second home run of the season and in the fifth inning Votto had another RBI base hit to help give the Reds the lead for good. The Reds lead 8-6 headed into the ninth inning when Francisco Cordero came in for his first save opportunity. The first batter Cordero faced was newly acquired Gary Sheffield, and Cordero stuck him out with a fastball painted on the outside corner. Cordero then stuck out Reyes and Murphy to strike out the side, because of this the Reds their first victory in 2009.

For their next game, the Mets will travel south to face the undefeated Florida Marlins in warm Miami. In their first series of the year the Marlins easily swept the Nationals. The pitching match up for the first game will be John Maine for the Mets against Anabal Sanchez for the Marlins. The Mets will try and take their second series of the year in this weekend match up against the Marlins.

Josh Jakers

NYchalktalk.com

New York Yankees vs. Baltimore Orioles 4/9/09

Yesterday, the New York Yankees won their first game of the season. They beat the Baltimore Orioles by the score of 11-2. It was a great day for the Yankees new free agent signings, Mark Texiera hit his first home run and A.J. Burnett got his first win. The Bronx Bombers played fairly well and they beat a team in the Orioles who never got their offense going. Burnett had a solid outing pitching 5 1/3 innings, struck out six batters and only let up two runs. Yankee fans are hoping to see more of this play as the season continues.

The Yankees begin a three game series with the Kansas City Royals in Kaufman Stadium later today. The pitching match up features Andy Pettitte for the Yankees against Sidney Ponson for the Royals. The Yankees will be hoping to have a two game winning streak after this game.

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com

New York Mets Vs. Cincinnati Reds 4/8/09

On Wednesday, the New York Mets played the middle game in a three game series against Cincinnati. Mike Pelfrey got the start for New York and had a rough first inning giving back a 2-0 lead the Mets got on a Carlos Delgado homerun in the top of the first. Pelfrey surrendered four runs and threw forty pitches in the first inning capped by a three run home run by Joey Votto. After the first, Pelfrey settled down and left the game after the 5th inning with the Mets leading 5-4. The big hit for the Mets came when Brian Schneider hit a three run double to right field to break the game open, for the time being. Then the Mets turned it over to the bullpen. They were flawless in the opener on Monday. The bullpen was anything but flawless on Wednesday as Cincinnati climbed back into the game and trailed 9-7 headed into the 9th inning. That’s when K-Rod came into the game for the save. Rodriguez started off the 9th walking Brandon Phillips and then got Jay Bruce to pop out. Next up was Edwin Encarnacion, he hit a ground ball to third and David Wright threw the ball to Delgado and instead of just taking the out at first Delgado came off the base before recording the out and threw the ball to third to try to get Brandon Phillips who beat out the throw from Delgado and everyone was safe. The next batter was Ramon Hernandez and K-Rod walked him. The bases were loaded with one out and whether you were watching the game on T.V. or listening in the car, you couldn’t help but think, “Here we go again”. After K-Rod fell behind Alex Gonzalez 2-0, every Met fan had the memories of last years 9th innings in September coming back. But K-Rod settled down and on a 3-2 pitch struck out Alex Gonzalez with a fastball. The last hope for the Reds was Lance Nix, again Rodriguez fell behind 2-0 and Nix hit a fastball to straight away Center field but Carlos Beltran was their to put it away. The Mets escaped game two with a 9-7 victory over the Reds.

The Mets will go for the sweep in the third game of the season later today. The game is scheduled for a 12:35 start and the pitching match up consists of Oliver Perez for the Mets against Bronson Arroyo for the Reds. The big question for this game is which Oliver Perez will we see? The Mets will attempt to correct their bullpen problems and head to Florida with a 3-0 record.  

Josh Jakers

NYchalktalk.com  

New York Yankees vs. Baltimore Orioles 4/8/09

Last night the New York Yankees faced the Baltimore Orioles in the second game of their three game series. The Orioles beat the Yankees once again except this time it was a little closer with the score 7-5. Chin Ming Wang pitched terribly for the Yankees, he let up seven runs, walked three and had no strikeouts. Just about the only bright spot for the Yankees was when Derek Jeter hit a home run in the ninth inning. Other than that, they looked positively awful. The Bronx Bombers are now 0-2 and maybe they can salvage the series and get a win later today.

The pitching match up for today’s game is A.J. Burnett (Yankees) vs. Alfredo Simon (Orioles) The Yankees are going to need an excellent outing from Burnett today with multiple runs if they are going to win this game.  

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com

New York Yankees vs. Baltimore Orioles 4/6/09

The team with the highest payroll in all of Major League Baseball did not start off on the right foot this afternoon. The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles 10-5 at Camden Yards. Their new ace C.C. Sabbathia could not find the strike zone in his 4.1 innings of work. He also let up six runs in a game he will surely forget. The Yankees Captain, Derek Jeter had a solid opening day going 3-5. Second year manager Joe Girardi used his bullpen heavily today in trying to get a win but it just didn’t happen. Since C.C. was taken out so early in the game Joe had no other option.

The Yankees will not be playing tomorrow but they will play the Orioles again on Wednesday at 7:05. The pitching match up features Chin Ming Wang against Koji Uehara. Yankee fans will be hoping their team can bounce back and get a win in their next game. 

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com

New York Mets vs. Cincinnati Reds 4/6/09

The New York Mets wanted to erase the bad memories of last season with a win on opening day, and they did just that with a 2-1 win in rainy and windy Cincinnati. The New York Mets made General Manager Omar Minaya look like a genius on Monday as Sean Green pitched 1.3 scoreless innings, J.J. Putz pitched a scoreless 8th inning, and Francisco Rodriguez pitched a scoreless 9th inning to pick up his first save of the season and the Mets first win. Everything worked exactly as the Mets planned with their pitching staff and Johan Santana gained his first win of the season. As far as the hitting was concerned, the Mets had 9 hits including a solo home run by Daniel Murphy. The problem with the Mets offense was that they left seven runners in scoring position. The positive thing was that Daniel Murphy drove in both of the Mets runs. Nevertheless, a win is a win and it’s good to see the pitching coming through on opening day.

Their next game will be on Wednesday after tomorrow off. The pitching match up will be Mike Pelfrey for the Mets against Edison Volquez for the Reds. The Mets will hope to continue their good start.

Josh Jakers

NYchalktalk.com

American League Predictions

2009 AL Predictions
AL EAST:
1. Tampa Bay Rays
2. Boston Red Sox
3. New York Yankees
4. Toronto Blue Jays
5. Baltimore Orioles

MVP:
1. Evan Longoria
2. Mark Teixeira
3. Kevin Youkilis
4. Carl Crawford
5. Dustin Pedroia
CY YOUNG:
1. C.C. Sabathia
2. Roy Halladay
3. Scott Kazmir
4. Josh Beckett
5. John Lester

SURPRISE PLAYERS:
1. Jacoby Ellsbury
2. Adam Jones
3. Brett Gardner
4. Jed Lowrie
5. Felix Pie

AL CENTRAL:
1. Minnesota Twins
2. Cleveland Indians
3. Chicago White Sox
4. Detroit Tigers
5. Kansas City Royals

MVP:
1. Justin Morneau
2. Grady Sizemore
3. Miguel Cabrera
4. Carlos Quentin
5. Joe Mauer

CY YOUNG:
1. Francisco Liriano
2. Cliff Lee
3. Justin Verlander
4. Gil Meche
5. Francisco Carmona

SURPRISE PLAYERS:
1. Mike Aviles
2. Carlos Gomez
3. Carl Pavano
4. Alex Gordon
5. Shin-Soo Choo

AL WEST:
1. Texas Rangers
2. Los Angeles Angles
3. Oakland Athletics
4. Seattle Mariners

MVP:
1. Josh Hamilton
2. Matt Holliday
3. Vladimir Guerrero
4. Ian Kinsler
5. Chris Davis

CY YOUNG:
1. Felix Hernandez
2. John Lackey
3. Eric Bedard
4. Ervin Santana
5. Sean Gallagher

SURPRISE PLAYERS:
1. Chris Davis
2. Nelson Cruz
3. Jared Saltalamacchia
4. Jack Cust
5. Elvis Andrews

Josh Jakers
NYchalktalk.com

Citi Field

Besides the new Yankee Stadium opening, the Mets opened their new stadium, Citi Field as well. Citi Field cost half as much to build as Yankee Stadium so you really can not compare the two. The stadium is great; however I do have a few criticisms regarding the field set up. The first fault I found is the field there is virtually no foul territory down the sides of the field. This is a problem because a ball is either in play or in the stands. Citi Field is supposed to be a “classic pitchers park” but, this makes it the opposite of what they were trying to achieve. The Mets wanted to give their fans an experience where they would be right on top of the field but this aspect of the park hurts their pitchers. The reason, fielders have no place to move in foul territory to possibly get a foul out. I understand that it goes both ways because each team will deal with the same problem but this could have been avoided by just adding a few feet to each foul line. The only other fault I found with the new Citi Field, goes hand in hand with the first. There is also no room behind home plate. This was a problem as shown in yesterday’s game. A Mets pitcher threw a wild pitch with a man on third but the runner could not come home because the ball bounced back so quickly off the short backstop. The stadium is great and so far one positive part of the stadium is the shape of the outfield walls. Hitters such as Jose Reyes should have a great time hitting at the new ballpark because these strangely shaped walls should create many triples and a few inside the park home runs. The Mets split their exhibition series with the Red Sox 1-1 but it really doesn’t matter considering the games do not count. Mets fans don’t worry there will be plenty of actual wins to come at Citi Field when the real season starts.

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com

New Yankee Stadium

On Friday April 4, 2009 the new Yankee Stadium opened to the public. The first ever game was between the New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs. The Yankees won 7-4 to get their first ever win in the new yard. Derek Jeter got the Yankees first hit and Robinson Cano hit the first home run. Obviously Yankee fans were happy but the game did not count and it was more about checking out the brand new ballpark. The Yankees paid over one billion dollars to have the stadium built and it looks beautiful. It is almost identical to the old stadium architecturally but everything is much more modern. Today the Yankees played again and they got the same result with a win 10-1. In this game Mark Teixeria hit two home runs for the Bronx Bombers and they won easily. There are many great restaurants in the stadium as well as the regular concessions so there is plenty of excellent food. We here at NYchalktalk.com look forward to seeing how the Yankees season turns out and check back later today for Citi Field review. 

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com

2009 Final Four Preview

I think the 2009 Final Four in Detroit, Michigan should be renamed “The John Calapari Four.” Think about it, I just remembered today that there is still college basketball to be played. ESPN has been hyping up the Calapari mega offer all week, instead of the actual games. He finally signed a contract to coach Kentucky for eight years and over thirty million dollars. Since Calapari is ready to coach the Wildcats, lets discuss the actual final four. The first game is between the #1 seeded UCONN Huskies and the #2 seeded Michigan State Spartans. This is going to be a very close game throughout, the Huskies are the favorites but I truly think that since State is basically playing a home game they will pull off a big upset. UCONN fans may argue that they have two of the best players in A.J. Price and Hasheem Thabeet but college basketball is all about momentum and Michigan State will definitely have this key aspect. The next game features the #1 seeded North Carolina Tar Heels and the #3 Villanova Wildcats. This game is far less intriguing then the first game and expect UNC to completely outplay Villanova. The Heels have a much better team and no one in the country can stop Tyler Hansbrough. I’m expecting North Carolina to get a double digit win and advance to the championship game. These games will be played at a packed Ford Field where the Detroit Lions play. It really doesn’t make sense to play basketball games at football stadiums but the NCAA is selling all of their tickets so they continue to do it. The city of Detroit is ready to see great basketball action and hopefully see their team win. We will see what happens, now that the John Calapari drama is over, its back to basketball and get ready for some great action on Saturday night! 

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com

USA vs. Trinidad and Tobago Recap

I understand that United States Soccer fans are few and far between, but lasts nights world cup qualifying game was something special for all sports fans. The match featured the United States versus Trinidad and Tobago at LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee where the Titans play. There are many soccer haters out there however; there was a crowd of 27,959 crazy fans in attendance. The United States men’s team will be playing ten qualifying games in CONCACAF. For everyone who does not know what that is (most people don’t) that is just the league in which the U.S. plays their games. Last night was the third game out of ten and team USA got a big 3-0 win against Trinidad and Tobago. In soccer, you get three points for a win, one point for a draw and no points for a loss, so winning a game is extremely rewarding. Jozy Altidore had all three goals in the game and Landon Donovan assisted them all. Altidore plays professionally in Spain and Donovan plays for the Los Angles Galaxy. These two men are the leaders of the team offensively and they showed it last night. Trinidad and Tobago is not known as a great team and they did not play well last night. Throughout the entire game viewers saw their goalie screaming at his defenders because they were not in their correct positions. A major difference between soccer and other professional sports is that soccer players have “country duty” This is when each player leaves their respective teams and they come together to play for their country. This is unbelievable and it would be like having the world baseball classic stretched out through the regular MLB season. You have to give the players credit considering they do not play together all year round, so it is hard to create team chemistry. With that said, there is a long way to go until the 2010 World Cup in South Africa but the United States got their first win on the long road of qualifying. Their next game is on June 3 vs. Costa Rica, so if you get a chance turn on the T.V. and support your country, considering they are not half bad. 

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com