Jump Starter
Not Jinx Starter
Highlights from Tom Verducci article that hits newsstands tomorrow -- Theo on trade: "You have to understand," Epstein says, "we were taking a lot of heat in the days after the trade. It was very unpopular. I was getting accosted on the street. So I stayed in, and then I joined the team in Tampa, just to get out of town."
For Dale and Neumy -- D-Lowe on defense without Nomar: "When you have the defense behind you, you become aggressive and go right after [hitters]," Lowe says. "That's what I've been doing. That keeps your pitch count down and keeps you in games."
For Dale and Neumy -- Schilling on improved defense: "What happened to us is so obvious. We're a better team. It's so far beyond night and day, it's not even funny. And it's not just cutting down on unearned runs and errors. Plays that weren't made before that [became] hits are outs now. Ground balls that weren't turned are double plays now. Earlier in the year we were getting 27 outs a night and giving the other team 31. That's stopped.
"When plays get made, you throw fewer pitches, and when you throw fewer pitches, you go deeper into games, and when you go deeper into games, you don't need to ask so much of your bullpen. It's pretty simple."
On the soccer star: "According to two team sources, Garciaparra told Francona he was unable to play on July 1 in New York. Garciaparra watched the thriller, which the Yankees won 5-4 in 13 innings, stone-faced while almost never leaving the bench. But as the game extended into extra innings and New York shortstop Derek Jeter dived face-first into the stands to catch a 12th-inning pop-up, Garciaparra volunteered that he could give Francona an at bat in the 13th. Francona declined.
"Put it this way," one of the sources says. "The difference between the two teams was obvious that night."
Says one teammate, "It just wasn't going to happen for him here anymore. He had such bad feelings toward the team that he thought his phone was bugged."
Yankee Dirtbag Randy
"The rule states that if your team is here and ready to play, and the other team isn't here and not ready to play, there should be a forfeit, and we believe there should be a forfeit." - Yankees president Randy Levine
The answer: "No!" is blowin' in the wind
"The Yankees absolutely embarrassed themselves. Every time Randy Levine talks, he embarrasses himself. Win it on the field, will ya! Are they scared of the Red Sox because they might have better pitching and defense than they do for the first time in ninety years? People were killed in that hurricane, for God sakes! How are the Yankees damaged in comparison to the people in South Florida? The Yankees look very, very bad in this whole thing. The Red Sox are up their rear ends; that's why they are running scared here." -- Mike Francesca, WFAN
