Yankees Legends Team

In my favorite baseball game, All Star Baseball 2004, you can unlock a Yankees Legends team. They created a team of not only great Yankees, but guys who also fall into the category of "legends". Unfortunately, the game did not have the rights to many deserving players, leaving the vacant spots filled by players active at the time like Soriano at second and Stanton in the pen. I've always wanted to make a more complete team, so i went over the stats and have created what in my mind is the Yankees Legends Team.

There were basically two qualifications for making the team: Statistics and Fame. There are many great Yankees statistically, who are lost in time and fail to live up to the title of a "Legend". The team was mostly decided based on statistics while a Yankee, but other players were added to the team due to their notoriety despite not having overly-significant Yankee stats.

The Team

• Batters are followed by their years with the Yankees, Average, Homers, RBI, and Hits as Yankees
• Pitchers are followed by their years with the Yankees, Wins, Era, and strikeouts as Yankees Saves are noted for relief pitchers.
• Bold indicates Hall of Famer, Italicized are Hall of Famers as Yankees
• #X indicates number is retired
• C indicates a captain of the Yankees

Starting Line-Up (Years) Avg, HR, RBI, Hits

1. SS-Derek Jeter (15+) .316, 215, 1032, 2624. C
2. CF-Joe Dimaggio (13) .325, 361, 1537, 2214. #5
3. RF-Babe Ruth (15) .349, 659, 1975, 2518. C, #3
4. 1B-Lou Gehrig (17) .340, 493, 1995, 2721. C, #4
5. LF-Mickey Mantle (18) .298, 536, 1509, 2415. #7
6. 3B-Alex Rodriguez (6+) .299, 219, 653, 905
7. DH-Reggie Jackson (5) .281, 144, 461, 661. #44
8. C-Yogi Berra (18) .285, 358, 1430, 2148. #8
9. 2B-Joe Gordon (7) .271, 153, 617, 1000

Bench

• 3B-Tony Lazzeri (12) .293, 169, 1154, 1784
• OF-Bernie Williams (16) .297, 287, 1257, 2336
• OF-Dave Winfield (9) .290, 205, 818, 1300
• SS-Phil Rizzuto (13) .273, 38, 563, 1588. #10
• C-Bill Dickey (17) .313, 202, 1209, 1969. #8
• 1B-Don Mattingly (14) .307, 222, 1099, 2153. C. #23

Starting Rotation (Years) Wins, Strike Outs, ERA

• Whitey Ford (16) 236, 1956, 2.75. #16
• Red Ruffing (15) 231, 1526, 3.47
• Lefty Gomez (13) 189, 1468, 3.34
• Ron Guidry (14) 170, 1778, 3.29. C. #49
• Catfish Hunter (5) 63, 492, 3.58

Bull Pen

• Long Relief-Mel Stottlemyre (11) 164, 1257, 2.97
• Set Up-Goose Gossage (7) 42, 512, 2.14, 151 sv
• Sparky Lyle (7) 57, 454, 2.14, 141 sv
• Dave Righetti (11) 74, 940, 3.11, 224 sv
• Closer-Mariano Rivera (15+) 69, 973, 2.30, 500 sv

Just Missed

• OF-Earle Combs (12) .325, 58, 632, 1866
• OF-Rickey Henderson (7) .288, 78, 255, 663
• C-Thurman Munson (11) .292, 113, 791, 1558. C. #15
• C-Elston Howard (13) .279, 161, 733, 1405. #32
• 2B-Willie Randolph (13) .275, 48, 549, 1731. C
• SP-Allie Reynolds (8) 131, 967, 3.30
• SP-Andy Pettitte (12+) 185, 1635, 4.02
• SP-Mike Mussina (8) 123, 1278, 3.88
• SP-Roger Clemens (6) 83, 1014, 4.01

Worth Noting

• 3B-Graig Nettles (11) .253, 250, 834, 1396. C
• 1B-Johnny Mize (5) .299, 157, 505, 733
• C-Jorge Posade (15+) .277, 231, 916, 1422
• SP-Jack Chesbro (7) 128, 913, 2.58

Future members?

• 2B- Robinson Cano
• C-Jorge Posada
• SP-CC Sabathia
• 1B-Mark Teixiera

Oh, I'm sure if they were Orsen Wells it'd be ok but since they're Judd Apatow its like the worst thing I can do

So I saw "The Year One" tonight...it was eh. Reviews are right, not really their best despite a pretty good cast (minus Jack Black). If you have nothing to do, no harm in seeing it, but I wouldn't make it priority. Speaking of "not being their best", I decided to think about what was their best works. "Their" being from the Judd Apatow "Pantheon" (Allen Sepinwall's words), movies written/directed or produced by him, OR written by/staring/featuring actors from his works.

I decided to rank my favorites of what has come from the ashes of Freaks and Geeks (1999) and Undeclared (2001), as well as influenced by the Apatow produced Anchorman (2004). I also listed which main regular players appear in them, but didn't list some minor actors (such as Steve Bannos who is from "Freaks" and in "Undeclared", "Virgin", "Superbad", and "Pineapple" I tried not to go too far from the Apatow track, but some works listed he has nothing to do with but feature enough actors to include. Other shows/works to note include Party Down, Reno 911, and The State.

1. Knocked Up (Seth Rogan, Bill Hader, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Martin Starr, Jason Segel, Jonah Hill, Ken Jeong, Steve Carell, James Franco, Jay Baruchel, Kristen Wiig, Craig Robinson, Louden Wainwright, Adam Scott, Carla Gallo)
2. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Segel, Hader, Rudd, Hill, Kristen Bell, Gallo, Wiig)
3. Superbad (Hill, Rogan, Michael Cera, Hader, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Joe Lo Truglio, Kevin Corrigan, Gallo, Danny McBride, Starr, David Krumholtz, About 5 other Freaks/Undeclared Alumni)
4. Role Models (Rudd, Lo Truglio, Mintz-Plasse, Jane Lynch, Elizabeth Banks, Jeong)
5. The 40 Year Old Virgin (Carell, Rogan, Rudd, Banks, Mann, Lynch, Gerry Bednob, Hill, Wainwright, Gallo)
6. Pineapple Express (Rogan, Franco, McBride, Robinson, Corrigan, LoTruglio, Hader, Jeong)
7. I Love You, Man* (Rudd, Segel, Gallo, LoTruglio, Krumholtz)
8. Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Rogan, Banks, Robinson, Bednob, Justin Long)
9. Adventureland* (Hader, Wiig, Starr)
10. Fanboys* (Baruchel, Rogan, McBride, Bell, Robinson)
11. The Year One* (Cera, Hader, Rudd, Mintz-Plasse)

* I also saw these ones once. "I Love You, Man" and "Adventureland" have the potential to move up, I don't see "Fanboys" nor "The Year One" going anywhere but down after seeing them again.

I'm very much looking forward to "Funny People" later this summer, written and directed by Judd Apatow himself, a can't miss formula.

"Up": 'To infinity, and beyond'

So yesterday I saw the latest Disney-Pixar film, "Up". It was really good, with a much more action-packed plot than I thought there would be. I recommend it. That being said, I was wondering where it ranked in terms of the ten Disney-Pixar movies, so I figured I'd share my rankings.

1. Toy Story
2. Finding Nemo
3. Ratatouille
4. Monsters, Inc
5. The Incredibles
6. Up
7. Wall-E
8. Toy Story 2
9. A Bug's Life
10. Cars.....because I've never seen it. But it is the worst reviewed of the ten, so I'm putting it last.

Yankee Stadium, 6/2/09

So last night I made my first trip to the new Yankee Stadium, and I was simply blown away. It was really amazing, and I had a great time there. As everyone else seems to have, I too have some objections to the Stadium's design and how its being run, which I'll get into soon. But overall, the Stadium is really remarkable, and even the casual Yankee fan must go to appreciate all of the history it has to offer.

We got there right before the gates opened at 4 so that we could see all the sights in time. We went straight to Monument Park at four, and were within the first 10 people there. Monument Park was the first thing i disliked about the Stadium...at least in comparison to the old Stadium's Park. The new one is more confined, and also less garden themed. It doesn't offer the outdoor environment that the old one did, which is what it was designed to do in order to save room. I can't complain too much, but I would have liked it to be more out-doorsy like the previous Stadium.

After that we went to The Yankee Museum, the lesser-known feature of the park. The museum was not too extensive, but was still very interesting to see. They highlight all the championships by the era, and have the most recent 6 (77, 78, 96, 98, 99, 2000) trophies on display. They had a lot of interesting memorabilia such as actual jerseys and autographed balls and bats. They highlight the Stadium's transformation from 1923 to 2009, with actual seats from all the different era's of the ballpark. The highlight is in the center: A statue of Don Larsen, 66.6 inches from a statue of Yogi Berra, catching the historic last pitch of the perfect game in the 56 World Series. Following the trajectory of the ball is a case, filled with autographed balls from as many Yankees as they could get, from Ed Yarnell to Babe Ruth. It was a lot of fun to go by the display and see all the players I loved and all that I barely remembered. The final exhibit is Thurman Munson's locker, removed from the old Stadium's clubhouse, where it's sat since 1979.

Our seats were in section 205, the last part of fair territory in right on the second level. Despite being over 350 feet from home plate, I still felt very close to all the action. For some reason, we couldn't access our seats until 5 pm, which was stupid. Also, we were in the 4th row...the first row couldn't even see if it was a home run in the level below us. Despite the blocked view, the seats were great. The Yankees did an amazing job of bringing the fans closer to the action. Oh, and the best part of the day. Yankees won...THHEEEEEE YANKEEEEES WON!

I know nothing can be done to make Monument Park better, but I think the Stadium well only get better over time. The Museum will grow in size and they will handle the seating issues better. Make sure you go. And, GO YANKEES