Alright guys, I don't wanna brag but I will say this: I WAS RIGHT!!!

Now once they reveal that Manny supported steroids to Ortiz my story before is exactly the news. If you don't know what I'm saying, last month I posted an entry saying how Manny and Ortiz (I thought) used roids and my entire theory about it. Apparently today in the New York Times writer Michael Schmidt reported that Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were caught using steroids in 2003. I said quote: "Manny's HGH he used is a post steroid substance, something only players use after steroids. My guess is that he has used a steroid or two before, maybe even in Cleveland, but most likely in Boston." Spot On, Spot On.

Here is what I said with Ortiz:

"Now, David Ortiz lifetime as a Twin, hit 58 home runs in 6 seasons, with 238 runs batted with 393 hits total. The next year he was dealt to the Red Sox, with Manny already on the team, and he finished 5th in MVP voting (2003). He went on to finish in the top 5 in MVP voting 5 years in a row starting in 2003, and the next year he started a streak of All Star Games played until this point, which doesn't look good for Papi."

"Ortiz's home run totals went from 20 in 2002, to 31 in 2003, to 41 in 2004, to 47 in 2005, and to 54 in 2006! His weight has stayed the same throughout his career at 230, but may not mean anything in the long run. When Manny left Boston, in 2008, Ortiz struggled. I can't find his 2nd half stats from last year, but lets say that he hit 20 home runs total, and his batting average dropped 68 points! This year, Ortiz has 6 home runs and a current .213 batting average, and only 30 RBI!"

Nuff Said. Leave comments, especially you Offy, I know you'll find a way to defend this. I'm excited about this. This is incredible. Ciao!

If you have a problem with counting, you may not know that there are 3 autographs on that hat. One is Glenn Gibson, one is Aaron Dott, and one is Kyle Ayers. All 3 are pitchers, and you can see more about them on the links. Glenn Gibson is the son of former Yankee pitcher Paul Gibson, and apparantly Dott pitched a no-hitter against the Green Bay Bullfrogs on June 17th, 2008. Huh, interesting stuff there, although they probably all won't make it anywhere.

So, before I say bye bye for now, I want to promote the future 2009 Album of the Year:

Base Set consists of 300 cards plus 50 short printed cards (301-350). There is one mini card per pack, with a chance of pulling a base, ginter back, bazooka, nno, or insert mini. Inserts included are National Prides (24 per box, 1 per pack) with players shown in front of the country flag they are from (75 card set), many strange mini sets, including The World's Biggest Hoaxes, Hoodwinks, and Bamboozles, with many strange cards in the set, a mysterious creature set including the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot, a Extinct Creature set of 5 extinct creatures, and many more!

MY BOX BREAK RESULTS

Base Cards: 119/300 (39%)
Short Prints: 12/50 (24%)
Base Mini Cards: 10/300 (3%)
Base Mini Card SP's: 2/50 (4%) Baldelli, E. Gonzalez
Mini A&G Backs: 5/300 (1.6%) Josh Johnson, B. Crosby, J. Motte (RC), Bedard, Vlad
Mini Black Borders: 2/300 (.6%) Brett Myers, Kaz Matsui
World's Biggest.... Bamboozles Mini's: 2/20 (10%) Pi, D.B. Cooper
Extinct Creatures Mini: 1/5 (20%) Xerces Blue Butterfly
National Heroes Mini: 2/40 (5%) Niels Ebbeson, Jose Rizal
Crack the Code Cards: 3/100 (3%)
Brian Kong Sketch Cards: 4/25 (16%) A-Rod, Jeter, Chipper Jones, Albert Pujols
National Pride: 24/75 (32%)

Hits:
Alfonso Soriano Bat Relic
Evan Longoria Jersey Relic
Rich Hill Autograph

John Smoltz: 0
Albert Pujols: 0 (I've said this before and I'll say this again, HOW IS THIS GUY NOT ON THE FAVORITES LIST!!!)
Mark Teixeira: -1 (Nice card)
Alfred Nobel: 0
Suez Canal: -1 (I thought I'd get out of getting these stupid ones, I guess not)
Old Faithful SP: 4 (-1 because I got 2 stupid cards IN A ROW!!!)
Koji Uehara Mini RC: 0
Carlos Delgado National Pride: 0

Pack 23 Total: 2 Pts. (2 twos in a row. All I can say is YUCK!!!)

Carlos Quentin: 0
Rick Ankiel: 0 (Awesome mustache in this shot)
Andrew Bailey RC: 0
Louis Braille: 0

Anna Tunnicliffe: 0
Tim Lincecum: 2 Pts.

Brett Myers Black Border Mini: 3 Pts.

Ryan Braun National Pride: 4 Pts.


Pack 21 Total: 9 Pts.

Buerhle has already thrown a no-hitter a few years ago, and he is 11-3 this year. Quietly he is having a career year.

Matt Garza: 0
Raul Ibanez: 0
Samuel Morse: 0 (Awesome, Morse Code dude!)

Yadier Molina: 0
Sigmund Freud: 0
Chris Young SP: 5 Pts.


Vladimir Guerrero Mini A & G Back: 2 Pts.

Albert Pujols National Pride: 0 (HOW HIS HE NOT ON THE FAVORITES LIST!)

Total: 7 Pts.

Not too bad, could've been worse.

It was an incredible way to start it off. I walked into Yankee Stadium, and was lost in the pride of the Yankees. I turn and look and see the Yankee photos posted up on the walls, of all of the legends. My dad & I had to look around. We really wanted to see Monument Park or the Museum, but it was too late, the lines were already filled. "We'll go another time," I said, after we left the museum line. But then, along the way to our seats was Monument Park waiting for us. So we got in line, and about 5 minutes in at 11:45, the ceremony for Old Timer's Day began, with John Sterling and Michael Kay announcing the Old Timer's one by one. We took a long rush to our seats, finally there...

We met the father/son combo sitting next to us, and enjoyed watching legends like Whitey Ford, Don Larsen, Reggie Jackson, Graig Nettles, Goose Gossage, Mike Mussina, & Yogi Berra step out of the dugout. After the nice ceremony, the announcers had Thurman Munson's wife and Bobby Murcer's wife come out and throw the 1st pitch. Next, the old timers played the game, the Clippers vs. the Bombers. Mike Mussina started the game giving up 4 straight hits, and in an interview with Kimberly Jones (YES), he said by seeing that that he can't pitch anymore and is happy retired. I watched Goose & Coney pitch a little, then Doc Gooden on the other team. Doc really seemed to put on some weight recently. Ron Guidry also pitched in the game, and hit, and played left field. Gene Michael hit the ball once and started running, and immediately after he started, his shoe flew off his foot. Mickey Rivers hit one in the gap at one point, and after reaching 1st already, as the ball is being thrown in, he picked up speed and hustled (fast for an old fast guy) to 2nd for a double. The game would eventually end in a Clippers win (who cares???). Some things I noticed about this event was:

- There were not nearly as many legends as usual.
- Reggie Jackson for some reason didn't play in the game while Mickey Rivers, Bucky Dent, and others from his time played.
- Some Yankee employees missing: Paul O'Neeil and Tino Martinez
- Darryl Strawberry didn't show up along with Dave Winfield.

Anyway, Dad and I got our food in between the ceremony and game time. I got the chicken fingers with some cheesy fries on the side and a Pepsi. The food was really good, some of the best chicken fingers I've ever had. But it was expensive, that's for sure, but we need to overpay A-Rod, Jeter, Sabathia, and others. So we waited for the game, and eventually, it began.

The pitching matchup that day happened to be Joba Chamberlain vs. Edwin Jackson. Jackson so far this year is 7-5 with a 2.52 ERA and around 100 strikeouts. He made his 1st career all star team, the year after he was dealt to the Tigers in exchange for Matt Joyce, a promising young outfielder. The Rays could use Jackson right now. As for Joba, he has been struggling big time this year, but said he looks at the season as 2 seasons and hopes to regain his edge. I thought it would be a great pitching matchup and it looked to be a good game. Both teams have been successful this year, and the Yankees were looking to sweep the Tigers.

So Joba started off well, but walks really killed him. He only gave up 2 hits into the 4th inning but it seemed like more with the consistent 1 walk per inning deal. Joba did give up a shot though in the top of the 4th, serving up a homer to right fielder Clete Thomas, his 6th of the year. In the bottom of the inning though the Yanks fired back, with an A-Rod solo HR bringing them back into the game. Some great pitching went on, but in the bottom of the 6th, Mark Teixeira hit his 23rd home run of the year, and the score was 2-1 Yanks. When Joba left the game in the middle of the 7th inning due to a high pitch count, he only gave up 3 hits, gave up 1 run, and struck out 8. Truly one of his best performances of the year. Phil Coke came in relief for the end of that inning, and Phil Hughes pitched the 8th. Rivera came in for the 9th, and remarkably, this was the 1st time I've ever seen him pitch live. His entrance was awesome, and the fans went crazy. He picked up the 1st two outs, and then walked a batter. He got Gerald Laird to ground out to end the game, and the Yankees won by a score of 2-1.

Overall, it was a really exciting game, and I had a blast. I got a plaque with a 2009 Topps card of Joba to add in my room, along with a 2009 Old Timers Day shirt and the 2009 Yankees Yearbook. The new stadium is really nice, and it shows the pride of the pinstripes really well.

Let me know if you want any of the pictures in the slideshow. Make sure you check out the slideshow if you didn't already, it shows all the pictures I took. I took some more videos but they take forever to load so I just posted these two. I hope you enjoyed this stuff, please let me know if you want me to change things around for next time, by comment or e-mail (yanks1996wsc@gmail.com). Please subscribe to the blog if you haven't already, and see ya later!

Jered Weaver: 0 (Let's Hope This isn't Yawnfest 2.0)
Michael Cuddyer: 0 (Aw, too late)
Rich Harden: 0 (yawn)
Joba Chamberlain: -1 (Yes! Yes! Yes! no)

Javier Vasquez SP: 5 Pts. (Thank you Javier. We know you're not good enough to be in the base set, but you're like Christian Guzman. Coming through in da clutch!)

National Heroes Niels Ebbeson: 5 Pts. (Awesome, some Denmark dude I've never heard of! YAY!)


Albert Pujols Brian Kong Sketch: 3 (Nobody likes him???)

Ryan Rowland-Smith National Pride: 0

Pack 17 Total: 12

NICE! Keep it up!

Justin Upton: 0 (yawn)
J.J. Hardy : 0 (yawn x2 Can we get multipliers on the yawn factors???)
Jeremy Hermida: 0 (I think I hit jackpot on the yawn meter, x 100!)
Jeff Francouer: 0 (I am so bored right now that I noticed that everybody's name so far has started with a J in this pack)
A.J. Burnett SP: 4 Pts. (SP - Yankee, Awesome Card pulled live during the old timer's game!)

Adam Eaton Now Useless Crack the Code Card: 2 Pts.

Jeff Francouer Mini: 0
Miguel Cabrera National Pride: 0

Pack 15 Total: 6 Pts. (yawn x 1000!)

Lastly, tomorrow I will be gone, because my dad and I are going to the Yankee game tomorrow. It is also Old Timers Day, so I'll try to get some great pictures and enjoy it as much as I can. So I'll see you in a while!