Friday Night Musings

Yankees – Red Sox

The Red Sox and Yankees hooked up for a 3 game set this week, and the boys in pinstripes not only lost two of three, they also came out of the series with some serious questions that need to be addressed if the team is to reach its potential.

What’s wrong with Randy Johnson? Is it mechanics? Age? Confidence? All of these? Whatever the reason, the Big Unit hasn’t been the dominant pitcher that the Yankees thought they acquired in 2005. He was supposed to be New York’s answer to the 2004 version of Curt Schilling, and while his record in ’05 was very respectable, his game performances weren’t the intimidating masterpieces that fans had come to expect from Johnson. It’s possible that the Yankees can be successful with another ’05-like campaign from RJ, but with recent injuries to Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield, there’s more pressure on the pitching staff to keep runs down.

Who is going to play in the outfield? Hideki Matsui may not return from his broken wrist this season. Gary Sheffield is nursing a wrist injury. Johnny Damon possibly re-injured his ailing shoulder. And the remaining options aren’t for everyday use: Bernie Williams, Bubba Crosby and Melky Cabrera. While Sheffield may return to the lineup soon, the loss of Matsui hurts the team both in the field and at bat. He wasn’t the greatest left fielder around, but he was capable and reasonably dependable defensively. His bat will be missed more and it opens up a gap in the Yankee batting order.

Can the pitching staff keep this team in games? Thus far, the starting pitching for the Bombers has been quite good. I believe they led the American League in ERA for the month of April. With that said, the pitching staff is somewhat schizophrenic. Starting pitching has performed a little better than expected, but middle relief has been extremely disappointing. Without the link between the starters and closer Mariano Rivera, the Yanks could have a very tough time winning a majority of the contests with their dreaded rivals, the Red Sox.

Rome Masters

The semifinal matchups are set for the Tennis Master Series event in Rome, Italy this week, and Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are on course to meet again in another final. Before that happens, Federer will have to successfully deal with one of his demons from the past, David Nalbandian of Argentina. Nalbandian defeated Federer in 5 sets in their last meeting at the 2005 year-end Master Series Cup final, and he has always played with confidence versus the world’s number one. Federer’s form in Rome has been a little spotty. On paper, his scores look dominant, but his performances haven’t been flawless. I thought he looked better in Monte Carlo and he's going to have to play much better to beat Nalbandian and likely finalist, Rafael Nadal.

As I write this, I’m watching the replay of Federer’s quarterfinal match with Nicolas Almagro of Spain. Almagro has the look of a rising star. He’s currently ranked 54, but he’s number 20 in this year’s points race. His game is fun to watch. He’s solid off of both sides with an especially impressive one-handed backhand. Federer had to go the distance to win the match 7-5 in the third. One gets the feeling that Almagro could do some damage at the French Open later this month.

The Americans have been conspicuously absent from the European clay court season and Rome saw Andy Roddick’s debut on the dirt. As a group, the American players seem to treat the clay court season as an exercise in futility. With so little preparation on the surface, there isn’t a single American player that will make an impression on the draw at Roland Garros. Roddick did manage to reach the quarterfinals in Rome, but his draw was surprisingly devoid of any clay court specialists; no one is going to confuse Greg Rusedski with Sergi Bruguera. Tennis’ A-Rod did show me a new wrinkle in his game this week: a loopy two-handed backhand that he used effectively to get the ball up high on his opponents. It was encouraging to see Andy try something different to turn his year around and I think the change is good. His backhand is a known weakness and anything he can do to take some pressure off of it will be good for his results. Unfortunately for him, he still has no chance of doing anything significant at the French Open.

Other Thoughts

· My sports viewing habits aren’t exactly mainstream and Thursday evening was a challenge. Should I watch game 3 of the Sox-Yanks series, men’s tennis from the ATP Masters Series Rome or the Copa Libertadores match between Libertad of Paraguay and River Plate of Argentina? I started off watching the tennis, but the matches on the card weren’t capturing my attention. I switched to Yankees-Sox, but every time I tuned in, something bad happened to the Yanks. Do you ever get the feeling that your team does better when you don’t watch? I tried to use that strategy last night, but it didn’t work. At about 8:30, the River Plate – Libertad match started and that was the best event of the night, especially the last 20 minutes of the game.

· Rumor has it that Tennis Channel founder and CEO Steve Bellamy will be leaving the network soon. What does that mean for the fate of the fledgling network? The answer to that is unknown, but if the network goes adios, it will result in a serious change in my television viewing habits.

· I’m getting psyched up for the World Cup in Germany this June. I hope to publish my own preview of the tournament over the coming weeks.