BEFORE YOU RIP MATT BLAKE, KNOW WHO HE IS

When Matt Blake was hired by the Yankees to be the new pitching coach, some Yankee fans went bananas.  I guess they all wanted David Cone because he was a name that they can recognize.  He's also very smart and a perfect fit for the Yankees clubhouse. But for whatever reason, the Yankees thought that Matt Blake was a better candidate.  By the way... Matt Blake is a GREAT hire.

Now weirdos are out there blasting this guy, I guess because they have no idea who he is.  But trust me, it's a great move.

The New York Post writes of Blake:

"Blake was perhaps a name not heard of outside of those familiar with the inner-workings of the Indians and others who knew his reputation in New England, where the Holy Cross alumnus had come to be thought of as something of a “pitching guru,” according to his old college coach, Craig Najarian. 

Just four years ago, Blake was a pitching coach at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School near Boston, where he was also the owner and founder of Elite Pitching Development and the pitching coordinator at Cressey Sports Performance, a program that has worked with the likes of Noah Syndergaard, Max Scherzer and Curt Schilling, among others.

'He’s ahead of his time,’ said Kirk Fredericks, who brought Blake on as his pitching coach at Lincoln-Sudbury about a decade ago.'"

And Sweeny Murti writes:

"Who is he? Part of the new breed. ...Pitching Coordinator at Cressey Sports Performance, a factory similar to Driveline. And Driveline, coincidentally, is where the Yankees found Sam Briend who they named Director of Pitching earlier this year. Someone who has worked with Blake told me he is

'extremely smart on the analytic side but doesn’t have much actual coaching experience. That might be the challenge, but it might not. He’s easy going, but very smart.'”

And isn't this what we want? Larry Rothschild, God love him, was there too long.  There needed to be a change. Plus, good for the Padres, they just hired him to do the same role.

And sure, it wasn't Coney, but whatever... give Blake a chance.

I like this move a lot.

"YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!!!!"

Sweeny Murti's getting screwed.

"You gotta be kidding me!!!!"

That was the comment my buddy Jason Keidel of CBS Sports.com wrote when he posted this New York Daily News story on Facebook.  Travel reduced for WFAN's Yankees beat reporter Sweeny Murti, Mets' Ed Coleman.

Bob Raismann writes:

"It’s been traditional for WFAN to send its baseball beat reporters Sweeny Murti (Yankees) and Ed Coleman (Mets) on the road with both teams. Now it appears a cash crunch at FAN has resulted in cutting back on the snoops’ road itinerary.

MLB spies say neither Murti nor Coleman will be travelling west of the Mississippi much this season. While the perception of a travel cutback is not good for the station, it has more impact on the Yankees, since FAN is the Bombers’ radio flagship and trumpets the fact it provides comprehensive coverage of the team. Murti is also a mainstay on the game radiocasts hosting the postgame show."

And so, what the F? How in the world can that even be possible? How does Sweeny, who's one of the top Yankee guys do his job? And what the hell is going on at FAN? Seriously.

Photo of Justus Sheffield

In this incoming Yankee season, the most exciting one in several years chock full of youngsters, you would think FAN could find the money to feed a Yankee audience. 

Photo: New York Daily News

That doesn't seem the matter.  In fact, the whole thing is ridiculous.  I wish Sweeny could truly give me his thoughts on this whole mess. I would gladly print them here on BYB, but I know he'd get in trouble doing that.

This is a great story, and we will keep following it closely.  Hey, Keidel, thanks for the nugget.

Happy Sunday everyone.

YANKEE BROADCASTING & THE BASEBALL GODS

What is going on with some Yankees media members lately? This happened...twice to John Sterling:
Poor John Sterling. I guess the baseball Gods have it out for him. First, he appears to be so blind that he doesn’t even see the ball coming towards him. Maybe Robbie Cano is sick of his nickname, “Don’t-cha-know”.

A week later he’s got another one coming right in at him. Don’t you hear the excitement in Al Leiter’s voice, “ooo, here we go boys!”? Leiter either has it out for Kay and Sterling or he just wanted to show his defensive skills. He even accuses Kay of running. The whole dialog is hilarious. Unluckily for John, YES had the replay and the world can see him ducking like a fragile flower. He left poor, defenseless Suzyn to fend for herself, AND to top it all off, Sterling is forced to take a shot from David Cone, “It is high, it is far, it is off my forehead!” If you remember, this is the same David Cone who sang "Call me Maybe."

Maybe John should borrow Don Zimmer’s war helmet from a few years ago!

But wait, there's more. Wednesday, Yankees beat reporter Sweeny Murti was a guest on WFAN’s Mike Francesa Show. Sweeny was detailing the Yankees/Red Sox series when the Sports Pope got real quiet and actually allowed Sweeny to finish his thought. Regular listeners of the show must’ve been shocked by this because we all know Francesa likes to cuts off his guests and tell them what he thinks and who he knows.

Luckily Mike’s show is simulcast on YES and viewers were treated to something special. As it turns out, Mike was either uninterested or Sweeny was just that boring that Mike actually fell asleep.
The look on his face when he comes to is pure comedy gold! The fact that he needed to ask his producer, “What’d I do?” just makes it so much better for his critics. To his credit, he made a nice recovery and radio listeners were non-the-wiser. Thank goodness for the internet.

Keep up the good work guys!!

--Lem Allen, BYB Contributor

Email me at: bybcurmudgeon@gmail.com

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