Ahh Good Ol' China BringingRacism To The Olympics

Sure it's totally irrelevant to baseball and the Yankees' 7-1 blowout of the Athletics tonight [how about that D-Rob striking out the side on 11 pitches in the seventh] but this new story is too insulting to ignore.

Apparently bars with an international clientele in the party town of Sanlitun - not far from Beijing - were told not to serve black patrons before or during the Olympic games. How does a country who lets atrocities go unchecked [Tibet], promotes racism as a means of crime control [above link] and whose Olympic sailing venue was until recently unnavigable, handed the most prestigious, unifying, camaraderie-driven event on the planet? That IOC has got some kind of sick humor.

Do Not Trade For The Cornrows

1+ innings pitched. 11 hits. 10 earned runs. 3 home runs.

Just another reason [of many] why Bronson Arroyo does not belong in a Yankees uniform. Regardless of how badly some people want you to believe that he's some sort of dominant AL East warrior, Mr. Arroyo is merely an above league-average pitcher with a 89 mph fastball and a 7.41 postseason ERA.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Great American Ballpark is a great American bandbox. I don't see it holding Edinson Volquez back and I seem to remember Aaron Harang putting together three straight impressive seasons there over the past three years.

Not to mention Tuesday's beatdown of Arroyo took place in the Rogers Centre against a suspect Blue Jays offense that's ranked 18th in batting average, 27th in runs/game, 25th in doubles, 27th in home runs, and 27th in RISP.

Every starter has poor outings. But this just seems to be an exclamation point at the end of a very cautionary sentence.

A-Rod To Disabled List

Are we into ridiculous territory yet? Alex Rodriguez has been placed on the disabled list with a grade 2 quadriceps strain - which essentially means a tear - and will be out of the lineup for at least two weeks.

The bad news keeps coming for the Yankees. Alex Rodriguez has been placed on the disabled list. He has a Grade 2 quadriceps strain.

“We have to get him right,” GM Brian Cashman said.

So much for the sunny prediction before the game that Rodriguez would be out only a day or two It appears at first glance that the Yankees made a mistake in bringing him back as quickly as they did.

How does the Yankees training staff allow the most dominant regular player on their roster not only back into the lineup but also play the field if he is obviously still healing from an injury? Maybe Hank Steinbrenner should focus his energies on that question instead of putting on his pitching-guru cap.

Joey Gathright Defies Physics

A routine grounder becomes an Olympic event when Joey Gathright is on the basepaths.

Hiroki Kuroda never saw this in Japan:



I love how Gathright doesn't even lose his balance in the process of hurdling an upright human-being. Check him out longjumping a car.