Nick Swisher sez he's bleeping tired of talking about Cliff Lee

ESPN New York is making a whole to-do over Nick Swisher cursing (shocker!) when asked yet another question about Cliff Lee. Good for Swisher, I say.

Here's what happened (hat tip to Was Watching for the link.) Swisher overheard Andrew Marchand asking his teammates about Lee. Swisher responded:

With the Yankees facing Texas Rangers starter Colby Lewis in Game 6, Swisher did not take kindly to a reporter asking teammates a couple lockers down about Lee.


You guys are talking about Cliff Lee?" said Swisher out loud in a room full of reporters. "[Expletive], who cares?"


As he walked off, Swisher said, "I can't wait to hit against his [behind]."

OMG, a ballplayer cursed! Twice! What is the world coming to? What about the children? (And yes, I'm being sarcastic here.)

The story continues:

Later, when asked about saying this out loud with reporters present, Swisher cut off a question when the words "Cliff Lee" were uttered.

"I'm not talking about Cliff Lee," Swisher said. "I don't give a [expletive]."

A few points:

* Whenever you hear a writer refer to what "a reporter" said, nine times out of ten, "a reporter" is really the reporter writing the story. I don't know why sportswriters keep with this silly, passive convention; it does not serve the reader. And indeed, it is the case here; Marchand's ESPN colleague Wallace Matthews confirms that Marchand was the one to ask the question. Matthews also writes that Swisher was openly tired of the Cliff Lee questions as early as last Saturday.

* As for Swish's response, what's the big deal here? Swisher's response is exactly what I want to hear from him. And I don't give a bleep that he cursed to reporters, and offended their delicate sense of being (yeah, because we all know that the harshest word any sportswriter will say is "gosh darnit"!) What is Swisher supposed to say? That he's really, really scared to face Lee, and the Yankees are just terrified? C'mon now.

* Why don't the reporters worry about Game 6 before raising the OMG! Cliff Lee Is Pitching Game 7 specter? Then again, they raised it after Game 2, so that would be too much to ask for!

What do you think? Tell us about it! 

Do the Joba! Chamberlain's pitching, great play bugs the Indians

Even though Joba Chamberlain swallowed a bug, he still had a great outing against Cleveland, pitching eight stellar innings. I listened to the first half of the game on the radio, and was lucky to be arriving home just around the time when Joba made that belly flop double play. So I got to see it live. (Click here if you haven't seen it yet.)

The play was both athletic and hilarious - Andy Pettitte and CC Sabathia were shown guffawing over it. I'm thinking the Joba play could be a new dance - the catch on the ground, the hat falling off, the throw, and then the finale, a double fist pump with a little shaking around? Throw in some bug swatting, and you've got a hit. Do the Joba!

Hmmm - are Red Sox fans going to complain about the double fist pump, given that Yankees weren't leading at the time (the score was tied)? Meanwhile, Jonathan Papelbon throws a towel at a photographer, and nobody says a peep. But I digress.

That eighth inning brought back some bad bug flashbacks, though. And when YES showed the 2007 midge clip, I got angry all over again at why the Yanks didn't walk off the field in protest. Fortunately, the Rally Midge didn't get the job done this time, and the Yanks won.

I did miss seeing Nick Swisher have to fight a flock of seagulls last night. Maybe they were attracted to him because of the SwishHawk hair?

In other news, the Yanks set an MLB record with their 18th consecutive game without an error. Congrats.

Now the Yanks head home, back to the Homer-Happy House That Trost Built. With Texas in the house tonight, expect to crane your neck a lot watching balls fly out of the stadium this series.

What do you think of Joba Chamerlain, midges, or anything else on your mind? Leave us a comment!

Positively Swishalicious! Yanks win eighth in a row on back-to-back-to-back homers

Lots of nice moments yesterday at the Stadium, and the Yankees seem to have found a partial solution to filling up those empty seats.

First up, the game. Squawker reader The Emperor said that John Sterling exclaimed, "Positively Swishalicious" over Nick Swisher's homer. And yes, he went there - he did do a back-to-back-to-back and belly-to-belly-belly call! And the other night, Sterling had the stellar call, "Two and two for Swisharoo." Heh.

Swisher, who has been slumping as of late, finally got his first homer at the new Stadium. I wonder if honorary bat girl Polly Tompkins, the schoolteacher fighting Stage 4 cancer who got to throw out the first pitch, brought him good luck with her cheerful attitude. They seemed to have bonded, hugging after the game. Bryan Hoch of yankees.com wrote a very touching story on Tompkins - click here to read it.

Phil Hughes made it harder for the Yanks to send him down to the minors with his nine-strikeout win. I think the Yanks should keep him up for a while as a long reliever - I'm not sold that Chien-Ming Wang is ready just yet.

Oh, snap! Johnny Damon seemed to call out Joe Torre, saying about how "family-oriented" Joe Girardi runs his clubhouse, suggesting that's why this year's free agents came to play in the Bronx. I don't think that's the case - I think the $423 million the Yanks spent had a bit more to do with it. But I guess Damon couldn't say, "Girardi actually pays attention to players besides the four rings guys," or "Hey, I don't have to worry that Girardi is going to sell me out in a tell-all book."

And somebody in the front office seems to have gotten a clue. Instead of shunting the servicemen and servicewomen in town for Fleet Week to the obstructed view bleacher seats, the way the Yanks did with the West Point cadets on Opening Day, the Yanks put them in the Legends seats right up front. Cool!

Only thing I didn't like about last night's game was Mariano Rivera pitching the ninth. I had no problem with Girardi bringing in Mo in the eighth to shut down the O's. But after the Yanks scored six runs at the end of the inning, Mariano should have been out of the game. Getting him the save isn't worth him pitching the ninth, even if he did throw only 14 pitches in the game.

Speaking of Rivera, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the Yankees' first Kangaroo Court since 2005. He was the judge, A. J. Burnett, Johnny Damon, and Derek Jeter were the jury, and Xavier Nady was the court stenographer. Sounds like it was great fun. I think Brian Bruney should have been the bailiff.

* * *

In honor of the Yanks winning eight in a row, here's a classic video about the number eight. It's Sesame Street's Jazzy Spies segment, featuring Grace Slick on vocals. Yes, Grace Slick. It's like having Amy Winehouse on Barney and Friends or something! Anyhow, the tribute to No. 8 is from early 1969, back when Oscar the Grouch was orange. It

And for Mets fans, click here to check out the day when Keith Hernandez and Mookie Wilson made a cameo on Sesame Street. They told Ernie to put down the duckie. Good advice!