Serby Q&A With Lemon

Bobby Murcer is the subject of Steve Serby's Sunday Q&A in today's New York Post. Here are a few tidbits:

Q: First time you saw Yankee Stadium?

A: I just was mind-boggled by how big it was when I walked out on the field. I thought to myself, "Oh my goodness, how am I ever gonna catch a fly ball in this place?"

Q: You didn't appreciate Gaylord Perry's spitball, so you sent him a gallon of lard.

A: I think I got the clubhouse kid to get it. I just asked him to get me some pure, old grease.

Q: Toughest pitcher?

A: Mickey Lolich.

Q: Funniest teammate?

A: Sparky Lyle.

Murcer called Thurman Munson "one of the [greatest] clutch hitters of all time." Delivering Munson's eulogy was something Murcer said he "wanted to" and "had to" do.

Hal Stein Speaks Again

Ed Price of The Star Ledger has the latest Q&A with Mr. GQ, Hal Steinbrenner. As was the case in earlier interviews with the younger half of the Brothers Steinbrenner, Hal comes across as most money-men do - i.e. boring.

There was this part about the offseason nonmoves:

So is life a lot different for you than a year ago?

Yes. But it's been great. I'm very excited about these young pitchers we've got.

Watching the Super Bowl ... the one great thing I really got out of it was watching Eli Manning, who -- you know better than I do -- struggled a bit when he first got there. And the lesson to be learned, that hopefully our fans have learned, is that if you're patient with young talent, great things can happen. That's all I could think of when I saw him on the field at the end with that trophy.

Having spent a lot of time in New York in the offseason, which I did because of the stadium, every person that came up to me said, "Good job not trading (Phil) Hughes, good job not getting rid of the young kids." So I think they are going to be patient, and hopefully these kids will do as good as we think.

The Hughes Q&A Session

Pete Abraham of the Journal News sat down for an extensive Q&A session with Phil Hughes. The entire interview and audio is available at the LoHud Blog and on Hughes' blog. All of the questions were taken from fans, making for more original discussion than your standard sportswriter-to-athlete interchange.

Hughes Interviews Kennedy

Using his blog, Phil Hughes took tens of questions from his fans posed to fellow starting pitcher Ian Kennedy. IPK answered six of them which were posted today:

1. What’s something you’re into or a fan of that you are embarassed to admit to?
The TV show Grey’s Anatomy

2. This is not baseball related but what is your all time favorite movie?
Dumb and Dumber

3. hey Ian, Do you answer fan mail or did I just waste 82 cents?
I try and answer as much fan mail as I possibly can. Sometimes it can be very time consuming so I won’t guarantee it.

4. Who’s better at HALO, Phil or Joba?
Phil, hands down.

5. Ian, what’s the benefit of throwing the “vulcan” changeup instead of the normal changeups (circle and straight grips)? more downward movement? it is a comfort thing?
It’s more of a comfort thing. I had trouble throwing a traditional circle change so I tried a “vulcan” grip and found it more comfortable and had more movement.

6. (bonus) How come you chose #31 and do you have any plans to change it in the future?
31 is my favorite number and what I used in high school. I don’t plan on changing it.

The whole Grey's Anatomy deal is a little frightening. Wouldn't watch that show if the alternative was hearing John Sterling commentate the rest of my life, live. That said, Dumb and Dumber is an alltime great, so good save by Kennedy.