So Joel Sherman has an article in which he talks about new Yankee Lance Berkman, and his disadvantage from being forced to play in Houston and the NL Central - which is apparently baseball's version of being Helen Keller:
What struck Andy Pettitte hardest when he left the Yankees for the Astros after the 2003 season was not separation anxiety from the only organization he had ever known or the elation of playing in his home city.
No, what smacked Pettitte was the difference in intensity. Where was the pitch-to-pitch, inning-to-inning passion that had been so part of Yankees life? Where were the second-by-second critiques from the fans and media? Where was the unrelenting expectations to thrive?
Even after three years as an Astro, he never could reconcile the absence of that fervor. Now Lance Berkman is experiencing the same scenario, only in reverse. A Texan who schooled at Rice and had played exclusively for the Astros, Berkman not only has to adapt to New York, but figure out how to raise his game from the dredges of the majors’ worst division to the top of the best.
Makes you love the Yankees and New York media even more, no?
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
