May 12, 2014

"A Stirring Homer, but the Yanks’ Tiring Trip Ends in a Loss."

Aw. Yankees tired.
After being down to their final strike Sunday, the Yankees extended the game with a surprising home run from Mark Teixeira, sending the last game of this exhausting trip to the bottom of the ninth....

After hitting the home run, Teixeira, who turned 34 a month ago, jogged slowly around the bases. He said his legs felt tired from being on the basepaths so much during this six-game trip. He even mentioned to teammate Carlos Beltran after the game that it felt as if he had two concrete blocks on his feet. And it’s only May 11.

“My legs aren’t feeling too good right now,” Teixeira said. “I’m fine. I’m just tired.”
The way things look from New York. But I'm not in New York.

16 comments:

Danno said...

Always good to see the Yankees getting beat. I have always disliked their buying the best team unlimited money can buy philosophy, at least for the past 25 years.

tim maguire said...

A professional athlete is tired from running around the bases a couple times a day for 6 days? A better writer would have raised questions about the team's fitness regime and preparation.

bandmeeting said...

I saw this in the Post and it makes no sense to me. The reason that he plays first base is that he is fairly immobile. When he is in the field about all that is asked of his legs is to trot to the bag to collect a throw. I don't know how much he's been on base but I do know that he hasn't been hitting much the last couple of years.

Is he suffering from a medical condition because there is no reason a 34 year old baseball player should have cement feet unless he has been injured or has some fatigue problem.

He is about the average age (a bit older) of a professional bike racer. In the Tour de France they will race about 19 days out of 21 in stages of around 125 miles. Try that Mark.

Kevin said...


Let me get this straight. You play a "sport" where the average player on the field spends most of his time standing around waiting for something to happen. The rest of the players are sitting on a bench watching the game and waiting for something to happen.

Sounds pretty grueling. Dunno what those slacker hockey, soccer and basketball players are whining about...

FullMoon said...

Not really a baseball fan, but whenever I cannot see "Yankees" without thinking of Babe Ruth.

Everybody needs to read this book, available through AA portal Babe: The Legend Comes to Life

The guy would have drunken sex with prostitutes all night long, then go play baseball in the morning.

Several drunk driving car wrecks.

Not only home run records, but many more that stood for decades.



CWJ said...

About twenty years ago, I was visiting a good friend Yankee fan in New Jersey. At that time, I was still following the Chicago teams and their decades of frustration.

Somewhat defensively he said, "Hey I stuck with the Yankees through the lean years." "What! Both of them?," I replied. Couldn't help myself but we both had a good laugh.

Guildofcannonballs said...

My kin were at that game.

Baseball players are so skilled in hitting they can be lazy and fat and still employed.

There aren't other skilled hitters who are motivated/ambitious and fit who can take the lazy and fat players' place.

Hazy Dave said...

A home run trot that slow against certain hypersensitive teams would likely result in trash talk, bench clearing, and possible suspensions. Just sayin'. A real nice win for the Brewers, and good riddance to all the Yankee fans in Jeter jerseys.

Ann Althouse said...

It's so lame to talk about being tired.

I wonder how many miles a player covers in a given game?

Less than 1, right? Teixeira is a first baseman, so he didn't cover much territory when the Brewers were up.

From Gizmodo's analysis of miles run within a game of various sports:

"Baseball. Ah-hahahahaha. Seriously? C'mon, cut it out. Most baseball players won't run 100 yards during the course of a game, unless you count the slow trot on and off the field between innings. The bases are only 90 feet apart, so even if you hit three homers in a game, that's only 1,080 feet. Even if an outfielder did that and chased balls like crazy on defensive he probably wouldn't break half a mile. Nobody measures how far baseball players are running, because nobody cares and the answers would likely just be embarrassing."

grackle said...

About Babe Ruth: The guy would have drunken sex with prostitutes all night long, then go play baseball in the morning. Several drunk driving car wrecks. Not only home run records, but many more that stood for decades.

Ruth was a mutant. An example of a rare confluence of physical attributes that worked perfectly for the sport of baseball. Some people do not know that before being made into a hitter he was a very good young pitcher who if he had been allowed to continue at that position would probably have set records as a pitcher.

Yet to look at him without knowing who he was you would never know. If there ever was an athlete who looked less like an athlete … I've always been fascinated by these types.

Another example was Larry Bird. Couldn't jump, couldn't run yet excelled in every aspect of the sport. In a game Larry seemed to be able to see ahead in time to what was going to happen, like a chess master who can see several moves into the future.

I also like to see the little guys excel in sports like basketball or as a football quarterback where lack of height would seem to be a real handicap. Was watching Chris Paul guard Kevin Durant last night. Paul did a better job than anyone so far in this series guarding Durant, who is a deadly shooter. Durant is 9 inches taller than Paul!

mccullough said...

Guys can't take amphetamines any more so they are more tired from the constant playing, travel, etc. Tex is a pretty big guy so just at standing in the field for a few hours a day would wear him out at his age.

RonF said...

The Boston Red Sox would like to thank the Brewers for beating the Yankees. We're only 2 games out after having played like crap for about a month and a half.

Babe Ruth also set pitching records. His record of 29 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings pitched in World Series play stood for 42 years. He had the American League's best ERA in 1916 and his career ERA of 2.28 (94 - 46) is 16th best among all major league pitchers.

Sam L. said...

Bummer!

Static Ping said...

Mark Teixeira has been very fragile the past three seasons. In 2012 he suffered through a chronic illness plus calf and wrist injuries. In 2013 he missed almost the entire season with wrist injuries. This year it is his hamstring. He's tired because he is not healthy. Tonight he didn't start but did pinch hit, hitting a ball to the wall in right field. For pretty much anyone it would be a double, but he could barely run and settled for the single. (This proved costly as the Yankees lost when the next batter hit into a double play.) Most likely he's heading back to the DL shortly.

It is pathetic, but not in the lazy way.

Ann Althouse said...

@Paul

"He said his legs felt tired from being on the basepaths so much during this six-game trip."

That's not saying he felt tired because of health problems, but perhaps the NYT is at fault for putting it that way.

I think an athlete saying it was tiring just to get on base and have to be out there on those little 90-foot sprints followed by standing in watchful readiness is funny.

Static Ping said...

I think an athlete saying it was tiring just to get on base and have to be out there on those little 90-foot sprints followed by standing in watchful readiness is funny.

There's a good reason for that. It is funny. Mark probably would think it was funny too if he wasn't wondering what was wrong with his body this time.

On the plus side he seems to have recovered and is playing in the field today. Hit a home run, which allowed a relatively slow, leisurely jog around the bases, thank goodness. So Mark probably thinks it is funny now too. Everybody's funny.

If you want a more pure version, see Bob Horner. Real lazy player. Opening day 1988: His manager Whitey Herzog notices that Horner is not taking infield before the game per team policy. Bob's explanation? "I'm tired." Note that the team had yet to play a single game that season. Perhaps not surprising, Bob had a bad season and never played in the majors again.