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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

VOTE FOR "THE BEEB" AWARD FOR 2014

At the end of 2013, Bleeding Yankee Blue gave the readers the opportunity and privilege of voting for your favorite BYB writer. It was a fun exercise, and yes, stressful for my staff, but for the most part, many of the BYB readers got it and enjoyed it. In the end, Mike O'Hara won the first annual BEEB, and with that, he wrote his THANK YOU post, simply saying: "I wanted to say "thank you" to the voters. I appreciate your vote and the fact that you take time out to read my posts. It means a lot to me. Please keep reading and spreading the word about Bleeding Yankee Blue.

I want to say thank you to all the writers on the BYB staff. I read every piece you share on the site and really do enjoy them all. It’s been great to get a sense of who you are and what the Yankees mean to you and your families through your writing."

This year, the BEEB returns. The big question is... who will win it?

The BEEB Award is given to the writer that brings top quality, satisfaction, information and energy to their posts from the past year of 2014, according to you, the reader. It's the highest honor for a writer at Bleeding Yankee Blue... and I am happy to put this vote into action again.

The readers have 2 important jobs;

1. You need to think. Think real hard. Think about who you enjoyed reading the most in 2014.

2. You need to vote. Vote once. Vote twice. Vote as many times as you want, but vote for the BYB writer you feel is most deserving of the BEEB.

Do you find Jeana Bellezza fun and unique? She's written about many great personal experiences in 2014.

(In Photo: Suzie Pinstripe)
How about Suzie Pinstripe? She's all over the Hot Stove for BYB and gives us incredible insight on life and baseball.

Ike Dimitriadis has written extensively this off season on the moves that the Yanks have made. He's also well steeped on the players of years past. Maybe it should be him...

Hey, Erica Morales covered the ARod beat the entire year, reporting fairly and honestly. Have you read what she's been writing?

Of course there's always Alexis Garcia, who covers all of Major League Baseball for us. Is she the one who deserves it?

There's the always the thorough and talented Steve Skinner. A guy with a passion for the Yankees, but informative with the Thurman Munson Yankees... more so than many in the blog world.

Could Mike O'Hara win again? He too had a big 2014. We will have to see, won't we?

So, to the BYB readers... I hand you the keys. Vote. You will see the poll on the home page of BYB in the upper right. Vote for the writer that you feel is most deserving of the BEEB award. Once the vote concludes, we will present the award to the winner and they will write an acceptance piece thanking you, the voter, the reader and the fan!

If you need a full body of work of each writer, you may click on their names below, and you'll be brought to their specific pages. It's the archive of each writer.

Click, read, and take it seriously:

And just so everyone is aware, do to work shortages of writers, Lem Allen, Doug Solomon and newbies Wolfgang Von Bunt and Dan Lucia, they have been excluded from this years vote. There are only small batches to go by and the voters would not have enough to work off of. Next year guys, promise.

Also, I have removed myself from the voting. Imagine if I won? Well... that would be weird now, wouldn't it? So yeah, if you're wondering... I am out.

The voting starts now and ends on February 24th at midnight. We will see you then with the winner.

Vote now... vote for who deserves the BEEB!

What's a BEEB anyway....

You've made BYB the fastest growing Yankees fan site in history. Now shop at the Bleeding Yankee Blue store! Follow me on Twitter @BleednYaneeBlu and LIKE Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook! Also, don't forget to check out the BYB Hub!

Sunday, September 28, 2014

O CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN!

#ThankYouCaptain via #BYB

Sunday we say goodbye to El Capitan. And I, for one, am devastated; but probably for different reasons than most of you. Look, Derek is an amazing ballplayer and based on the current state of professional athletes, a role model for kids everywhere. I’m not denying what he’s meant to the game, the Yankees, and fans in general but for me it’s about something deeper.

As stated in many of my other stories, I grew up idolizing Don Mattingly. And throughout most of his career (and my childhood) the Yankees were terrible. He was the only bright spot in a rather bleak era of Yankees lore. So, I get it.

I get the Derek Jeter-mania. For an entire generation of fans Derek Jeter is to them what Don Mattingly was to me. How many kids went to Little League and asked for #2? How many girls do you see wearing a Jeter shirt? Derek Jeter is all they know. Since 1996, Derek Jeter has been the (pretty) face of baseball and the Yankees.

For me, once Mattingly retired I gravitated towards Paul O’Neill, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera. Why? Maybe because those guys played hard. Maybe because those guys, at the time, weren’t the popular choice. Maybe because Jeter has always been a “pretty boy”; an easy choice for fans everywhere. But maybe for me, it was just to be different. Jeter was the obvious successor to the Yankees chain of gloriousness and being an awkward teenager at the time drove me to do the opposite of what everyone else was doing.

I guess that was my anti-establishment phase. Remember, I always took Frank Thomas in the Thomas/Griffey argument.

Flash Forward to 2014, I am a 35-year-old father of 2. All of my heroes from childhood are long-since retired and right now, Derek Jeter is the lone connection to my younger days and now that he’s retiring; once he’s gone so will that connection to those times. Growing old is a part of life, a part I’m having a hard time accepting at the moment. Jeter was never a personal hero but his retirement will leave me with a sense of loss. A sense that time is passing me, all of us, by. Nothing lasts forever.

Wow, it just got dark there for a bit. Sorry about that.

To Derek, thank you. Enjoy your retirement, it’s well deserved. You’ve always done what’s right and played the game hard. You’ve been a constant for 20 years. We don’t see that much with professional athletes these days. While you’re leaving a select few with gift baskets, I will be left with a sense of loss and despair. Baseball is a child’s game and every child grows up. Now it’s time for me to grow up.

--Lem Allen, BYB Contributor

Email me at: bybcurmudgeon@gmail.com

You've made BYB the fastest growing Yankees fan site in history. Now shop at the Bleeding Yankee Blue store! Follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and LIKE Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook!

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

ON THIS DAY IN BYB HISTORY...

88 years ago, March 5, 1926, Big John, my grandfather, was born.

He taught me to bleed Yankee blue. Be sure to read THE MAN THAT MADE ME A YANKEE FAN: THE FULL STORY.

Most of my fondest Yankee memories involve him; His first trip to new Yankee Stadium and his first Old Timers Day in 2009 is probably the best!

Happy Birthday and many more to come!

--Lem Allen, BYB Contributor

Email me at: bybcurmudgeon@gmail.com

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

FEARING THE BEARDS? NOT REALLY

Over the weekend, I was jonesing for some baseball and flipped on MLB Network, which happened to be carrying a Blue Jays game. Sure enough Adam Lind was at-bat. The director got a nice close up of Lind and it got me thinking; “Fear the Beard”! “Fear the Beard” is derived from whatever that growth on Brian Wilson’s face is and started during the Giants last championship run. It was also stolen, that’s right I said ‘stolen’, by the Red Sox last year. Looking at Lind, I fear it; I fear the beard!

Critics rankle the Yankees all the time for their clean-cut, no facial hair policy. “The Yankees are very corporate,” they say. “It’s all business in New York” and “Why are they taking the fun out of it?” Here’s what’s up. Baseball may be a game, but millionaire professionals play the game. Part of the requirement is to look the part. What’s wrong with dressing nice and being clean cut? Am I a “square” for thinking this? Part of “the establishment”? If an organization is trying to uphold an image, there is nothing wrong with asking your employees to uphold that image.

It's been reported here at Bleeding Yankee Blue that Wilson chose his beard over the Yankees. (Read NO BRIAN WILSON? NO PROBLEM.) I think that’s an easy excuse. Brian Wilson is a laid-back, West Coast guy who probably would crack under the scrutiny of the New York media. The beard is part of his shtick. Move on.

Adam Lind and for the most part, the Red Sox, the beard is a gimmick to bring the team closer together and to “rally around”. Really? The whole beard-tugging thing is dumb. It ranks up there with the Rally Monkey. Why do you feel the need to look like a bunch of homeless guys? Damon, Ellsbury, even Big Papi look more professional and respectful when they’re well groomed.

I’m sure I’m going to get killed in the comments section. Am I jealous because at 30-something many Eastern European women have thicker beards than I do? Maybe a little, but come on, buy a razor! You want to make top dollar? Look the part.

--Lem Allen, BYB Contributor

Email me at: bybcurmudgeon@gmail.com

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

TODAY SHOULD BE A GREAT DAY FOR BASEBALL!

But it won’t be. Today is the day the 2014 inductees to the Hall of Fame will be announced. The Veterans committee already voted and they elected Bobby Cox, Tony LaRussa, and Joe Torre. I can’t think of 3 more deserving candidates!

Well today isn’t about them. And it’s not about the players on the ballot. Today is about the self-righteous baseball writers. The Hall is voted upon by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. This is when these “experts” decide who is deserving enough to be enshrined. What makes them experts? Is it because they write about the game? I write about the game and I’m not a member of the BBWA and I’m not allowed to vote. Is it because they get paid and are “professionals”. That’s idiotic!!

We all know some of these writers have agendas. They want to make a name for themselves. They’ll all do something so for the next week we’ll talk about them instead what really matters; the players themselves!

We’ve all heard about the writers who won’t vote for people in their first year of eligibility because no one deserves that distinction. Are you kidding me? Who made you God? If someone is the best player of their era, (hello Mariano Rivera) you put them in as soon as possible!

MLB.com posted their writers’ ballots Tuesday night. Sixteen of them voted for Greg Maddux. One of them, Ken Gurnick, did not. Instead, Gurnick has voted to make this about him.

Greg Maddux is probably the best pitcher I’ve seen in my lifetime. Gurnick only voted for Jack Morris. Morris was good, but I’m not sure he was ever dominant like Maddux was. Gurnick’s explanation, “As for those who played during the period of PED use, I won’t vote for any of them.”

Really? You’re going to throw out 20 years of players? Most people agree the PED Era began in the late 80s. Jack Morris pitched until 1994. So, I’m pretty sure Jack Morris pitched during the PED era. Not to mention all the things guys were taking during the 70s that only a few people talk about (Remember greenies? How about “leaded and unleaded” coffee?) Also, just because someone played during that time makes them guilty? Nobody has ever even whispered Greg Maddux and PEDs. Can we, as baseball fans, vote to take away your voting rights?

By the way, if I had a vote mine would consist of:

Greg Maddux, most dominant and feared pitcher I’ve ever seen.

Frank Thomas, amazing power and one of the best hitters of the 90’s. Amazing Eye. Read ALEX RODRIGUEZ PROVES MY CASE.

Mike Mussina, like Maddux, not overpowering but an amazing pitcher who knew how to get it done.

Tom Glavine, probably won’t get in this year, but should go in with Maddux because they are the best 1-2 combination I can remember seeing. In a three game series, having to face them back-to-back…brutal!

All first year ballots! Suck on that BBWA.

--Lem Allen, BYB Contributor

Email me at: bybcurmudgeon@gmail.com

Thank you to all the Bleeding Yankee Blue readers for continued success. You've made BYB the fasted growing Yankees fan site in the history of Yankees fandom. Thanks for reading, sharing and enjoying. Follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue (Official) on Facebook, just type it in.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

WHO WILL WIN THE FIRST ANNUAL BEEB AWARD?

We're gonna do something different here at Bleeding Yankee Blue. We're seeking your vote for something that not one of my staff members knows about... except for me... because I'm king of the castle and I do what I want...

For the first time in BYB history, we are going to give a BYB writer an award based on reader votes. It's called the BEEB Award and it's given to the writer that brought quality, satisfaction, information and energy to their posts in the year of 2013, according to you, the reader.

We have several writers here and all have offered excellent work in 2013. I'm proud of that. All of our writers write differently; a different flair, a very individual creation every time. Each have given their all and their time, and while they all deserve some type of award in my mind, much like they do in Pathmark, giving a cashier, an "Employee of the week" nod, We are giving away a BEEB. It's the highest honor for a writer at Bleeding Yankee Blue... and I am happy to put this vote into action.

Here's what you, the readers, need to do. Think. Think about who you enjoyed reading the most in 2013. Was it Jeana Bellezza and her piece about a proposal? Read A YANKEE PROPOSAL....SORT OF
or could it be Chad R MacDonald and his pieces about his daily attire? Read JERSEY BOY. Think it over.

Erica Morales wrote some good ones too. How about her recent one on Jorge Posada? DREAMS DO COME TRUE. Maybe Suzie Pinstripe intrigued you with her piece titled: REGARDING CHAMPIONS...

Steve Skinner is a guest writer for us, but wrote a whole series about the Yankees Mount Olympus. His most recent one is THE YANKEES MOUNT OLYMPUS: DEREK JETER. Maybe Mike O'Hara had you entertained this year. He wrote a good one featuring Rich Gossage called BYB, THE GOOSE & MY DOG.

Ike Dimitriadis was full of energy and put together some quality pieces this year. Here's one titled WOULD BABE RUTH HAD SURVIVED THE PEDs ERA? Oh and who could forget Rudy Laurens reviewing Alex Rodriguez and the "slap" heard 'round the world. Read REVIEWING THE AROD "SLAP" YEARS LATER.

There are even the guys that write less, but still write for BYB when their schedules allow it. Lem Allen with his in-depth interview with his grandfather titled: THE MAN THAT MADE ME A YANKEE FAN: THE FULL STORY, and Douglas Solomon writes once in a while and is always full of statistics. How about his piece titled AN INTERESTING TAKE ON THE YANKEES GETTING RID OF AROD.

The point is, we have unique writers and all bring a special flair to the pages of Bleeding Yankee Blue. This year, our first year, we are giving away the BEEB, the highest honor, but it must be voted on by the readers of BYB.

So, I hand you the keys. Vote. You will see the poll on the home page of BYB in the upper right. Vote for the writer that you feel is most deserving of the BEEB award. Once the vote concludes, we will present the award to the winner and they will write an acceptance piece thanking you.

If you need a full body of work of each writer, you may click on their names below, and you'll be brought to their specific pages.

Read them, think long and hard, and vote. Vote for your favorite BYB writer of 2013. Vote to give one our writers the BEEB.

RULES for the writers are simple; There is no self promoting to get votes whatsoever. You cannot campaign for yourself. You MAY, promote this post, but that's it. For the readers, you may vote as much as you'd like, but I really want you thinking it over. It's important to me.

Good luck to the writers. Thank you to the readers.

Thank you to all the Bleeding Yankee Blue readers for continued success. You've made BYB the fastest growing Yankees fan site in the history of Yankees fandom. Thanks for reading, sharing and enjoying. Follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue (Official) on Facebook, just type it in.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

THE MAN THAT MADE ME A YANKEE FAN: THE FULL STORY

I decided to put the entire series of THE MAN THAT MADE ME A YANKEE FAN into one post because we were able to find some great pictures of my grandfather as a kid. Enjoy this and thanks for reading BYB!

How did a 9 year old seal the fate of 3 future generations?

Now that the terrible 2013 season is over I find myself with a lot more time on my hands; time not spent watching playoff games, time not spent worrying about match-ups, time not spent wondering what the teams in front and behind us are doing (although I am following the playoffs but not with the same vigor and intensity). And now that I have all of this time back I find myself doing a lot of thinking; pondering if you will.

If you’re reading this I can safely assume we have something in common. You’re here because you love the New York Yankees. So do I!! I’ve loved them for as long as I can remember. Have you ever stopped and asked yourself, why? Why do you come here every day and spend your time reading Bleeding Yankee Blue? Why do you go to the store or to the Stadium and spend your hard earned money on the Yankees? These are the things I think about.

Yankee fans come from all walks of life. We all come from different backgrounds and all have different lifestyles. Some of us became Yankee fans because we all like a winner (like my front-running friend, whom I wrote about here). But for some of us, like me, I didn’t have much of a choice. It was instilled in me on a cold January afternoon in 1979. What was it about that day in particular? It’s the day I was born. I was born a Yankee fan. My mom and dad are Yankee fans and so they decided to raise me as one too. But this story isn’t about me, and with all of my new found free time I decided to investigate further. My dad comes from a family of Mets fans but that’s a story for another time. My mom, on the other hand, comes from a family of Yankee fans so I went back another generation and this led me to my grandfather. I used some of my free time and sat down with him a few weeks ago to find out where it all began.

My grandfather was born in Italy in 1926. In 1929 his parents packed up my grandfather, his siblings and all their possessions, boarded a ship and headed to America to start a new life for themselves. Once here and my great-grandparents began assimilating into the American life, however they still held onto their Italian roots by living in an Italian community and listening to WVO-AM radio, (or that's what he told me... it's not easy to find info on that station), which served the ever-growing Italian immigrant population in New York. As a child my grandfather was a huge college football fan, knowing nothing about baseball. He followed Army football and, of course being the good Catholic boy, loved Notre Dame. That was all about to change.

One summer night in 1935, a 9-year-old boy sitting in front of the family radio, tired of the Italian station starts turning the dial, looking for something else. On this particular night he would stumble on something that affected 3 future generations. On this night he finds the descriptions of a game he’s never really heard or seen. It’s the New York Yankees! It was a road game and as was typical back in those days the facts of the game came back to New York via Teletype and the announcers would recreate the action. The particulars of this game 78 years ago are lost to history, but the love remains immense. He passed it to my mom, she passed it to me, and I’ve passed it on to my kids.

I wish I had a better story than this. My love of the Yankees began, that’s right, by accident. If this little boy doesn’t stumble on a radio broadcast in 1935 I might not be the insane fan I am today.

78 Years is a long time. I can’t even imagine the things a person sees and hears over that time. The Internet is full of facts, but nothing beats hearing a first person account of an event. In April my Grandfather will turn 88 years old and throughout his life he has seen and heard a lot of things. I recently sat down with him to get personal perspective about things I’ve only ever read about.

My Grandfather immigrated to the U.S. about the time of the Great Depression. During that time College Football was the most popular sport in America. He grew up loving Army and Notre Dame football. One night in 1935, he found a depiction of a Yankees road game by accident. He was tuning his parents’ radio and stumbled across this game and instantly fell in love with the game. He can still remember listening to famed broadcaster Arch McDonald. As was popular back in the day, McDonald would recreate the games based on information received on a Teletype machine.

As an impressionable 10-year-old from Italy, little Gianni instantly fell in love with another young man of Italian decent. On May 3, 1936 Joe DiMaggio made his Yankee debut. “Watching Joe graze the outfield was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Fly balls would come out there and he had a way of gliding towards the ball. Back in those days they had those monuments in the field, nobody could maneuver through them like he did.” What about Mickey Mantle? “Mantle was my second favorite player, all-time. He was faster, but for some reason when Joe took those strides not too many balls got by him.”

The Yankees have called 4 ballparks home, Hilltop Park, the Polo Grounds, the original Yankee Stadium, and this new palace (5 if you want to count Shea Stadium). “I’ve been to the oldest one more times than anything. The biggest problem was the poles. You couldn’t see from a bunch of the seats. When they remodeled it, they did away with the poles but they cut the seating down. Before that they had the flagpole and the monuments in the field. I’ve seen a few balls hit out that way. There weren’t any ground rule doubles if the ball them. It was 461 feet away. In my time guys never hit the ball that far. Left field was 457 feet; it was Death Valley out there. That one was my favorite. This new one is nice…smaller. I just like the old one better.”

“Back in the 1940s we used to go down and buy $1.25 General Admission tickets. Nobody had a car so we’d hop on the Mohawk Bus to Bob’s Bus Terminal in the Bronx. One Friday night in 1947, the Yanks were playing the Red Sox. We bought General Admission seats and tipped the usher a few bucks. He sat us in the Football press box, which used to be along the third base line. The Yankees won 1-0. Joe Page struck out Ted Williams, Rudy York, and another guy to end the game.”

On September 16, 1951 my Grandfather married my Grandmother. After the wedding they headed into the City and spent the night at Hotel Sadler. It turns out they had forgot the suitcase with all their clothes in them at home. The next day they headed out to Times Square to buy new clothes and then decided to head up the Stadium for an afternoon game against the Indians. Turns out, this was my Grandmother’s first game. As usual they bought the cheap General Admission tickets and ended up sitting in the lower right field seats. The game was 1-1 in the Bottom of the 9^th, Joe DiMaggio leads off against Bob Lemon and singles to third, Gene Woodling singles to right, Bobby Brown is then intentionally walked to load the bases and Phil Rizzuto bunts DiMaggio in to win the game.

After the game they headed back to Times Square to see South Pacific on Broadway thus beginning 62 wonderful years married.

I’ve never known my Grandmother to be much of a sports fan and I guess a trip to the Polo Grounds sums up her fanaticism. My Grandfather said: “Parking at the Polo Grounds was awful. One night we took a bus trip down a Giants/Dodgers game. There were 55,000 people there and I look over and she is sleeping in the seat next to me. Late in the game one of the Giants players hits a home run, the whole place erupts and she’s still sleeping through the whole thing.”

At this point my grandmother yells in from the other room. My grandfather said he barked, “I didn’t know what the scribbles were. I just thought it was garbage.”

Over the years, my grandfather has seen a lot of baseball, both good and bad. He says the best time was the late ‘40s all the way through the early ‘60s. “Guys would get hurt or retire and whoever they brought in to replace them wouldn’t miss. They kept right on going” I totally get what he’s saying. I was in my late teens, early 20’s during the most recent Yankee dynasty. It’s still very vivid in my memory. I’m sure for me that will be greatest moment in history as well.

Having said that and as noted before, I lived through the ‘80s which was a terrible time to be a Yankee fan. For my grandfather, it was easily the late ‘60s. “CBS owned the team then. They didn’t spend any money. For years, the Yankees had no pitching at all.”

--Lem Allen, BYB Contributor

Email me at: bybcurmudgeon@gmail.com

Saturday, November 16, 2013

THE MAN THAT MADE ME A YANKEE FAN: PART 3

After the game they headed back to Times Square to see South Pacific on Broadway thus beginning 62 wonderful years married.

“Another time in the mid 60’s I was working for Western Publishing and they were giving tickets away to a Giants game at Yankee Stadium. The seats were on the 50-yard line right in front of Richard Nixon. I spoke with him briefly and he signed my program. I go home and left it out on the table. The next day I came back to get it and your Grandmother had thrown it out.

At this point my grandmother yells in from the other room. My grandfather said he barked, “I didn’t know what the scribbles were. I just thought it was garbage.”

As the old adage says, ‘those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it’. I hope you enjoyed my journey through history as much as I did. I encourage you all to go talk to older family members and ask them about the old days, you’ll be surprised what you might learn. And hey, if you have pictures or stories... tell us here at BYB. We'd love to publish them!

If you missed the full series of THE MAN THAT MADE ME A YANKEE FAN, be sure to click and read PART 1 and PART 2.

Thanks for reading!

--Lem Allen, BYB Contributor

Email me at: bybcurmudgeon@gmail.com

The Bleeding Yankee Blue store is opened! CLICK HERE TO START SHOPPING! Also, follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue (Official) on Facebook, just type it in.