The SanityPrompt

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Sunday, August 21, 2005

Steinbrenner's Head Explodes

Pettitte, Burke power Astros to 8-3 win - Yahoo! News:

"TORONTO (Reuters) - Andy Pettitte pitched seven strong innings and Chris Burke hit a three-run homer, powering the Houston Astros to an 8-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in National League play Sunday in Houston.

Pettitte (11-9) allowed two runs on four hits with six strikeouts and two walks to win for the eighth time in his past 10 decisions, helping the Astros stay within game of the NL wild card leading Philadelphia Phillies"


Bet a good hard throwing Lefty would look pretty good to George Steinbrenner right about now. Oh, gee, look, it's Andy Pettite. Talk about the one that got away. Once again George Steinbrenner shows that for all his eagerness to sign checks and fire managers and players, the Yankees biggest weakness remains his temper. In my mind, he never forgave Petitte for losing the 6th and final game of the 2003 World Series. Not that the series loss had anything to do with Pettite or the Yankee pitchers. If you look at the stats, the outpitched the Marlins. Where they lost was in their hitting which once again went cold in the most important games of the year (doesn't that sound familiar?) The hitters, led by Alfonse Soriano (.227 for the series) also showed terrible judgment, chasing every bad pitch that came their way and swinging early in the count, getting away from the formula that served them (and continues to serve the Angels and A's) so well in their championship years of wearing down pitchers. But Steinbrenner unloaded most of his pitchers and let Pettite get away. And now he has the current crew in their place. Mussina, Brown, Johnson,Leiter, Karsay, Stanton. They could start a senior circuit team and play Old - Timers games around the league. I wonder if he is surprised that so many have broken down this year? 26 different pitchers have thrown in a game for the Yankees this year. If they win anything, that has got to be some kind of record.