Get your Phil

Once again, a blog post of mine has directly influenced a professional ball club. Last night, I wrote that I was baffled about the non-use of Phil Hughes in the Yankees bullpen. Joe Girardi clearly read my musing and was swayed. Hughes came into Monday night's game with the Tampa Bay Rays in the 7th inning, relieving Andy Pettitte. He pitched that inning, getting a strikeout on one of baseball's best hitters Evan Longoria. Not for nothing, he had BJ Upton, who he overpowered, and Carl Crawford before that. An impressive outing by Phil.

Much better than Phil Coke, who was helped by a few amazing defensive plays. Sorry Coke. I call it like I see it.




--By the way, the Yankees TV broadcast team gets hated on way too much. Michael Kay and the color analyst of the week always have some thrilling banter and moments. There's usually a Michael Kay head size joke -- Paul O'Neill telestrated his head once. That made it onto the big screen in Yankee Stadium.

Then there was this, which Kim Jones chronicles nicely:

Kay and (to a lesser extent) Cone are digging into pints of Turkey Hill ice cream as we write this. When Cone's talking, Kay's eating by the spoonful. For dinner, Kay and some others in our crew ordered out from Yolanda's; he had chicken parmesan. Cone's dinner: four cups of coffee (so far) and a piece of chocolate.


Michael was eating a pint of ice cream during the game! That was hilarious! Every chance he got, he was taking bites of ice cream. Every time Cone was on, even though you couldn't hear it, you knew that Kay was making love to that ice cream.

Who does that? Not the SNY team. Don't worry Michael and YES Network, I see you.

Photo: (Star-Ledger)


--Max Caster