From SoSH: Re: September 12th - We Crush Them

It’s time for Melendez Jose’s KEYS TO THE GAME.

1. Before the Seattle series ends, Jose has to address the issues that came up in the SoSH game thread a few days ago. There was a lot of talking about how Ichiro has his first name on the back of his jersey rather than is last name. That in turn led to issues about whether Ichiro was, in fact, his first name or his last name, and that in turn led to a broader discussion about Asian names, which in turn led to the Melendezette getting really angry. (Note: The Melendezette is half Irish-half Chinese).

To her mind, Asian athletic heroes were being torn down, and to use her words "I love the fact that Asian players are playing in the big leagues. Growing up I had very few Asian athletic role models - even fewer, okay no, half-Asian role models." Jose of course reminded her of Michael Chang, the athletic role model for all boys and girls having ethnic origins in Asia or the Pacific Islands (Note: Jose is pretty sure Margaret Cho did a lot of Michael Chang jokes once upon a time. See Eric Neel, giving credit, it’s great!!!)

Jose guesses the point is that despite the cultural confusion it may cause us, it is good to have people of all different ethnicities and nationalities in our professional sporting leagues. Heck, it may even be good that Wendall Kim is in the majors, because, despite his incompetence, he has paved the way for future generation of Korean third base coaches, who will hopefully be just as likeable, but a lot less incompetent. Actually, the whole thing has made Jose reexplore his own Japanese roots. That’s why from now one, Jose wishes to be known, in the tradition of his people, as Melendez Jose.

2. During Thursday night’s Patriots game, ABC used some ridiculous new feature that clocks a quarterback’s pass and then translates it into the speed of a baseball pitch. Apparently, Peyton Manning’s 56 mph pass would be 83 mph if he was throwing a baseball. Do the Yankees know about this? A starter who could bring the gas at 83 mph would be a huge upgrade to their rotation.

3. If the Scott Williamson elbow saga has shown anything, it’s that doctors don’t know anything and are just people who like to get up in other people’s business. Jose urges the Yankees to keep this in mind, as we go down the stretch. The next time a doctor tells one of your pitchers that if he doesn’t have surgery, he might never pitch again, just ignore him and send it out to pitch. He’ll be fine. Remember George, that Doctor just wants to take your money. If he really cared about the winning he’d tell players to get right back out there, not "rest a day" or "have reconstructive surgery. Isn’t that what you’d do?

I’m Melendez Jose, and those are my KEYS TO THE GAME.