The Genius Maker #54 - Congratulations Jeter!

Jeter gets his 2,999, 3000th, 3001, 3002 and 3003rd hit! Not much more news than that is there? Well, yes actually. On top of the terrific day by Jeter and his flare for the dramatic, we needed all of his hits as his last one knocked in the winning run and the others were important as well. His HR on his 3000th hit was really cool. But there was more good stuff…

The major highlight I saw was “proof” that someone in the Yankee organization is reading this blog. That was with martin catching, Rivera threw a cutter on the outside corner of the strike zone (this is normal), but then I saw it, I saw Rivera shake off Martin (rare) and then he threw his running fastball inside to a righty for a swinging strike. Then he threw another one that went inside…Then he did what he should do as it was setup perfectly. He threw a cutter that started slightly inside and cut back just to catch in the inside corner for a called 3rd strike! This is exactly what I was talking about the other day that has been absent. Perfect end to a perfect day!

The rest was all window dressing, but I did have a few comments:

Nunez with a big double followed by a perfect sac by Gardner led to Jeter’s drawn in single.

Boone Logan and Cory Wade each pitched a perfect 2/3 of an inning striking out a batter.

Robertson made 2 horrible 0-2 pitches that cost him a triple and a single and the lead, but the Yanks came back to win. When you throw a curve and guy swings at it and then you throw another curve, it needs to be more out of the strike zone or in the same spot to be effective.

Burnett actually had great stuff tonight, but his control was a little spotty…

Anyone else notice how much Price changes his pitching style with guys on base? I don’t know the numbers but I would put money on him being worse when he is pitching from the stretch.

Michael Kay continues to not have any feel of balls off the bat as in the first inning he said that Granderson looped one to CF that he then said was caught by the SS. Later he was shocked that Kelleher (1st base coach) knew that Jeter’s hit was a HR off the bat. Didn’t we all? Finally, he said Tex drilled one to left that was really a soft liner. I am still ok with Kay as an overall announcer, but C’mon man.

Congratulations to a great ambassador of the game who I am proud to have been our SS for all these years!