YES Network's Bob Lorenz Arrested For DUI

From the AP:

YES Network television host Bob Lorenz has been charged with drunken driving in Connecticut where police say he was found passed out in his car in his hometown of Westport.

The 48-year-old Lorenz was arrested early Wednesday morning. Police say they found him slumped over the wheel of his car and when they woke him up he drove away slowly and nearly hit a utility pole. Officers say his speech was slurred and he smelled of alcohol.

Luckily nobody was hurt. Bob, I'm sure you make good money, next time, call a damn cab.

Posada to Officially Retire Tomorrow

From Wallace Matthews:

The YES Network will televise Jorge Posada's retirement press conference live from Yankee Stadium beginning at 11 a.m.

Should be a pretty sad day in Yankeeland, though it would have been sadder to see him in a Rays uniform.

Piniella on Verge of Signing on with YES

From the NY Daily News:

Sweet Luigi is headed back to the Yankees.

Lou Piniella, a fan favorite as both player and manager, is deep in negotiations and close to signing a deal to return to the Bombers as an analyst for the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network. He also will likely serve as a spring training instructor.

According to industry sources, Piniella will do a limited number of appearances for YES in the broadcast booth and studio.

Piniella would join YES’ cast of analysts that includes Ken Singleton, John Flaherty, Paul O’Neill, David Cone, Al Leiter and play-by-play man Michael Kay.

Piniella is no stranger to the Yankees broadcast booth. After being fired — for the second time — as Bombers manager by George Steinbrenner in 1988, Piniella still had a year left on his contract. He spent the 1989 season in the Madison Square Garden Network’s Yankees booth.

Welcome back!

YES Networks Deal With DIRECTV Ends Today

If you watched the game yesterday, I'm sure you noticing one of the many commercials about this. If not, here is some info from Direct TV:

You may have heard that our current contract with YES Network expires April 1. We wanted you to know that DIRECTV is still negotiating with YES Network. Their threats to take down the channel are nothing more than gamesmanship to try and gain leverage in the talks. Obviously their goal is to get DIRECTV customers to pay as much as possible for their network, so these are the games that they play in negotiations. This will get resolved if YES agrees that DIRECTV should pay the same amount as the other three dominant TV providers in the market (Comcast, Time Warner & Cablevision). DIRECTV customers should not be forced to pay a penny more for YES Network.

DIRECTV plans to keep the channel up while we conclude these negotiations. However, if the channel should go dark for any reason, make no mistake that it was solely the decision of YES Network to take the channel away from DIRECTV customers.

If YES Network goes dark, MLB Extra Innings and NBA League Pass customers will continue to see Yankees and Nets games but will not have access to the YES Network feed. In most instances DIRECTV will provide the opposing team's feed for these packages. If you receive YES Network as your local RSN unfortunately these games will not be available.

It's time like these that make me happy I have Time Warner.

Good luck to all you DIRECTV subscribers out there, I hope, for your sake, that this gets worked out quickly.

Coney Returning to the YES Booth

After an embarrassing story earlier, YES did something good this time:

YES Censoring Affiliated Bloggers

As you all know, Yankees fans had varying opinions of the Rafael Soriano signing. Some liked it, some hate it, and some are taking a wait and see approach. Where you sit on that fence is not important right now. What is important is that TYU's Moshe Mandel reported earlier today that some bloggers weren't allowed to express those opinion freely:

Pinstriped Bible is directly affiliated with the YES Network, as the site is designed to look like the YES homepage and is frequently featured on the YES front page. A few hours after being posted, Steve Goldman’s post was suddenly pulled, only to reappear a number of hours later with a new title (Soriano Strengthens the Pen, But Do Dominoes Fall?) and a softened stance. A visit to the page shows the altered title and article, but the URL still contains the original title. I have the original article saved (available upon request), and the primary differences are a few sentences added in support of the deal, as well as the moving of a positive paragraph to the beginning of the article. When asked about the incident, Goldman declined to comment.

River Avenue Blues has a slightly weaker affiliation with YES, as they simply have a YES toolbar at the top of their page, but they too are featured on the YES website and in commercials that run on the YES network. After seeing what had happened to Goldman’s post, I kept an eye on RAB to try and see if something similar occurred. Sure enough, a few hours after their criticism of the signing, I noticed that the YES toolbar had disappeared. When I asked the guys at RAB about it, they declined to comment, and continue to do so. I am not sure when it returned, but I did notice that it was still missing at least 4 days after the signing. It is now back in place.

Geeez, I didn't know Joseph Goebbels worked for YES.

I wish I was surprised by this, but I'm really not. More disappointed than anything. Very lame move by the Yanks and YES. 

Cashman on Tonight's Hot Stove Premiere

In about 40 minutes (6:30 PM eastern time), the new season of "Yankees Hot Stove" will premiere. Brian Cashman will even be making an appearance on the show.

I don't know about you, but there never seems to be any actual news on the show. They just talk about all the things we've spent the last week talking about. We'll see, maybe this season will be different (I doubt it).

George Steinbrenner Special Tonight On YES

It's actually about to start in 15 minutes. Here's more from YESNetwork.com:

With the passing this morning of George M. Steinbrenner III, the YES Network will air a live two-hour special at 6 pm ET this evening entitled George Steinbrenner Remembered. YES' Yankees play-by-play man Michael Kay will co-host the show from YES' studios with YES Yankees reporter/analyst Jack Curry. The network's Bob Lorenz will contribute from Angel Stadium in Anaheim, site of tonight's MLB All-Star Game.

YES' George Steinbrenner Remembered is scheduled to include interviews from Angel Stadium with Yankees manager Joe Girardi, the Yankees players currently in Anaheim for tonight's All-Star Game, and other dignitaries. The special will also consist of interviews with and recollections from many former Yankees greats and other luminaries.

...

YES will show encore presentations of George Steinbrenner Remembered from 8 pm ET to roughly 12 am ET, after which it will re-air its George Steinbrenner Yankeeography.

Starting at 6 am ET tomorrow, YES will rotate airings of its George Steinbrenner Yankeeography and its George Steinbrenner Remembered special.

I know I'll be tuning in.

Yankees Games in 3D

According to Pete Dougherty, the Yankees will become the first Major League Baseball team to broadcast a game in 3D. He also goes on to mention FOX plans on broadcasting the All-Star game with the new technology, but the Yankees first broadcast should be approximately two weeks prior. This breakthrough technology will only be through a partnership with DirecTV and you will obviously need a 3D capable television. The audience will be limited, but it is good to see that YES and the Yankees are on the cutting edge. The YES Network is scheduled to make an announcement later today to give more details.

Updates to come when YES makes official announcement.

YES To Introduce Some New Graphics

YES will be spending the weekend introducing their new graphics for the 2010 season. Here's a gallery of some of the new stuff.

They're also planning on a big Opening Night.

In advance of our telecast of the Yankees-Red Sox season opener at 8 p.m., YES will present a special one-hour pre-game show live from our studios and on location at Fenway Park, during which we will introduce a new graphics package for its Yankees game telecasts, Yankees pre- and postgame shows and our Yankees Batting Practice Today show. This marks YES' first new Yankees graphics look for its Yankees package since 2005.

They seem pretty excited, don't they?

Here's some more on their new look:

What's unique about the new look is the extrusion function, which gives certain elements a 3-D look; i.e. highlighting a specific fact or player within a graphic; the extrusion draws attention to a specific factoid. The package was designed by YES and Mfactor, Inc. out of Venice, Calif. Mfactor helped build YES' last new Yankees graphics package in 2005. Among Mfactor's other clients include FOX Sports, NBC, Speed and Versus. Each piece of the package is built in 3-D, which makes YES possibly the only network to utilize 3-D objects and the only sports network to use this extrusion function in "real-time," which allows YES to highlight/extrude a fact or a player within a graphic in real-time.

From the looks of the preview gallery, the new graphics look pretty good. What do you guys think?

Time Warner Customers Can Now Stream Live Yankees Game Online

This is from the AP:

The Yankees' YES Network is expanding its Internet reach to include subscribers of Time Warner Cable.

The network said Tuesday it will start streaming telecasts to Time Warner viewers who receive YES in the team's home territory, adding to deals it reached previously with Verizon's FiOS and Cablevision.

The charge will be $69.95 for the regular season or $19.95 for each 30-day span.

As a Time Warner customer I'm happy about this, although I probably will not be spending the 70 bucks. Still, it's a good option to have. Now all they need to do is add a YES On-demand channel. I believe you can sign up by clicking here.

Jack Curry To Join YES

From YES:

Jack Curry, who covered the New York Yankees and Major League Baseball at The New York Times for nearly 20 years as its Yankees beat writer and most recently as its national baseball writer, has joined the YES Network as a Yankees studio analyst, program contributor, and a columnist on the Emmy Award-winning YESNetwork.com.

...

"I look forward to this new chapter of my career, and am eager to contribute to YES on air and online," said Curry. "Through my work on Yankees Hot Stove and its pre-game shows, I am already very familiar with YES' high quality of work. I'm eager to provide insight and information to our television viewers and Web readers."

Here's what John Filippelli, president of production and programming at YES, had to say:

"He boasts a superb knowledge of the game, has tremendous sources throughout the league, and has earned the respect of everyone in the game. He will be a tremendous addition to our Emmy Award-winning multi-platform Yankees coverage, and will complement Bob Lorenz, our pre- and post-game host, extremely well in the studio."

Curry always did a good job on the Hot Stove shows, and did a great job while writing for the Times. He clearly knows his stuff and should be a nice addition to YES.

YES Propaganda Led To Cone's Departure

From Joel Sherman:

I continue to hear that Cone’s departure after one season in the booth for YES was hardly pleasant. He had a personality conflict with one executive in particular, feeling this executive was intrusive and disrespectful all year. However, there were two incidents, in particular, that made Cone flip out.

Early in the season, with the Yankees struggling, Cone remarked on the air that if the Yankees did not start performing better than they could fall out of the race. The YES executive told the broadcasters that this remark aggravated Hank Steinbrenner and needed to be avoided in the future (so much for a firewall between the team and what is said on the air). Cone felt this was a true statement – and rather innocuous – and should not have been discussed.

Late in the season, Cone remarked that one of the important, behind-the-scenes workers involved in daily coverage of the Yankees was a free agent at the end of the year. This made the top YES executive flip out because the plan was not to retain this particular employee. Cone was confronted by the YES executive and there was a heated exchange during which Cone explained that he had made a lot of money playing (nearly $67 million) and took the YES job as a way to get back into baseball, but that he would not take such verbal abuse from anyone because he did not need the job.

At that point it became apparent that Cone would not be back in 2010. Instead, YES plans on bringing in Tino Martinez to do about 40 games.

The idea that an announcer shouldn't speak the truth even if that truth is that the team isn't playing well is ridiculous and I can't blame Coney for being upset. I used to laugh every time I'd read Bob Raissman's column when he'd call YES Al-Yankzera, but maybe he was on to something. YES needs to understand that Yankees fans are smart enough to realize when the team is in trouble or not, and that no statement any announcer makes about the state of the Yankees should be against the rules as long as it's true.

Sherman also said that Cone has been approached by ESPN, but is more likely to take an advisory role with the Players Association.

Get Ready For The Showdown YES Montage

I don't know how many of you saw it, but YES had this great montage following Sunday's regular season finale:

It's been a fun year, hasn't it?

Steinbrenner Sued By Former MSG Pres

From Neil Best:

Former Madison Square Garden president Bob Gutkowski filed a suit in federal court in Manhattan Friday seeking at least $23 million from Yankees principal owner George Steinbrenner.

The suit alleges it was Gutkowski's idea in the mid-1990s that Steinbrenner launch a team-owned TV network, which eventually became YES, and that Steinbrenner failed to live up to repeated promises that Gutkowski would run the network.

Gutkowski said in a statement that he hoped to avoid a suit but that Steinbrenner's representatives sought to prevent him from speaking to the owner.

"Their actions made it very clear that the only way for me to be fairly compensated for the idea that I brought to George and the work that I performed was to sue him,'' Gutkowski said.

A spokesman for Steinbrenner labeled the allegations "patently false and frivolous. They will be proven so. Mr. Gutkowski had nothing to do with the initiation of the idea for for the New York Yankees nor did he have any role in the establishment or success of the YES Network.

"He was never promised that he would be the CEO of the network nor was he promised any high-level position at the network.''

The suit was filed against Steinbrenner personally rather than the Yankees because Gutkowski asserts the owner made promises himself.

You never know what's what with these sort of cases. There's always three sides of the story; Steinbrenner's, Gutkowski's, and then the truth.

Streaming Games Comng July 8th

Earlier this month it was reported that the YES Network and Cablevision were partnering up in a deal that would bring live streaming Yankees games online to Cablevision subscribers. Today it was announced that the streaming games would begin on July 8th when the Yankees take on the Minnesota Twins. The package will cost fans $49.95 for the remainder of the season or $19.95 for any 30-day period, and all games will come in true HD. Here's a lot more info from YES.

Yanks To Offer Live Streaming Games Online

From Richard Sandomir:

Yankees fans will soon be the first in baseball to buy games streamed on broadband to computers and wireless devices within the team’s local market, according to executives briefed on the pending deal but not authorized to speak publicly about it.

The agreement between the Yankees’ YES Network and Major League Baseball ends a logjam that has prevented teams from making their games available on the Internet within their designated markets. Some teams have wanted to do it, but financial arrangements between them and baseball could not be reached.

Teams stand to gain a new source of revenue, from the millions of broadband users around the country who are not sitting in front of their televisions but are in offices and other locations with a laptop or a wireless device.

The agreement between the Yankees’ YES Network and Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which controls the Internet rights of all 30 teams, will let fans inside the New York market buy a subscription to Yankees games. They will be able to watch on computers, laptops and other devices, giving the games a portability they have not had.

The first carrier to sign up is Cablevision, which will share revenue with YES and M.L.B.A.M. Fans can buy the in-market Yankee games only if they already subscribe to the expanded basic service on Cablevision that includes YES. The Yankees’ cable network is pursuing similar deals with other local cable operators, like Time Warner, and telecommunications services, like Verizon.

With the Yankees deal complete, other teams are expected to follow.

The Yankees’ service is supposed to start sometime this season and follows quickly on Cablevison’s recent renewal of its YES contract. A price was not available.

This is very good idea and it's going to be great for fans. I'd be surprised to see the other cable not jump at this opportunity, hopefully they pick this up soon. I'm talking to you Time Warner.

Yanks' Security Insult Another

From Bob Raissman:

‘Securing' the Stadium

Now it appears Yankees security staffers (aka The Trost Toasties) were just warming up when they ejected Paul O'Neill, the former Bomber and current Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network analyst, from the Stadium indoor batting cages before a game against the Angels on Saturday.

On Tuesday night, before the Bombers entertained Boston, security tried to evict another YES analyst, Ken Singleton, from the indoor batting cages.

Spies say Singleton reminded this particular security guard he had been coming to the old Yankee Stadium since “before you were born.” Then, Singleton said he was not moving. So, the bum-rush job didn't work.

Good for Singleton. Apparently those at YES who should be sticking up for him are locked behind closed doors and engaged in a serious game of pickup-sticks.

It would be nice to interview some Trost Toasties but, according to Newsday's Barbara Barker, all Stadium employees have been asked to sign (at least not in blood) a document stating they won't talk to the media.

I know some of you don't find anything wrong with this, but I do. These guys cover the team, and they need to be able to actually cover the team. If a YES analyst can stand on the field during BP and talk to players, they should be able to do the same with the indoor facilities. I can't see how letting these guys down there can effect anything in a bad way.

Yanks Embarrass Themselves Again, This Time By Insulting Paul O'Neill

From Bob Raissman:

The latest episode came during the weekend series with the Angels. Paul O'Neill, a revered former Yankee, now an analyst for the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network, was asked by security to leave the indoor batting cages, where he was watching Yankees hit, prior to one of the games.

A security guard told O'Neill, the man George Steinbrenner called "warrior," he could not loiter in the area. O'Neill had another reason to be perturbed. Security would not allow his wife, Nevalee, into the Stadium "wives room." She was told by security it was for "current" wives only.

Think about it. Here's O'Neill, a guy who bled for the franchise, trying to prepare for a broadcast. Not only is he told to take a hike, so is his wife. O'Neill was not the only broadcaster ejected from a part of the Stadium over the weekend.

Seriously, how many times does this team need to embarrass themselves in a week? Empty seats, near riots, and now they insult Paul O'Neill and his wife. Unbelievable.

I hope I'm not alone when I say that whoever the idiot was that asked O'Neill to leave should be fired immediately.

Apparently they also insulted a few members of the Angels' broadcast team.

The Angels bring multiple announcers (including voices who work Spanish language broadcasts) on the road. The mouths rotate between radio and TV. At times, some of them are not on the air. During those breaks, they need a place to watch the game. There were two empty Stadium broadcast booths during the series. Angels voices, not on the air, used one of them to chill.

Until they were booted by security.

The Angels broadcasters were told they weren't allowed to sit in the empty booth. When asked Monday if the voices had been mistaken and were sitting in a private box reserved for patrons, an Angels source said: "No, it was a broadcast booth." When asked if security invited the broadcasters downstairs to sit in those empty seats behind the plate, the source laughed and said, "no."

Stay classy Yankees.

What's happening to this organization?

YES, Verizon Come Together on Video-on-Demand Pact

From YESNetwork.com:

The YES Network, the most-watched regional sports network in the country for the past six years, and Verizon, the only major provider that delivers all-digital TV service over an advanced all-fiber network straight to customers' homes, have reached a multiyear video-on-demand agreement.

The agreement will provide Verizon's FiOS TV digital subscribers throughout New York state and in north and central New Jersey access for the first time to telecasts of New York Yankees games and other YES programming on demand. The YES on-demand programming will be available beginning Wednesday (April 8). This makes Verizon the first distributor to offer Yankees games on demand.

In addition to YES' Yankees telecasts, FiOS TV customers will have access to other YES programming such as the network's Emmy Award-winning Yankees post-game shows and "Yankees On Deck" series, the Emmy-nominated "CenterStage" interview show, "The Joe Girardi Show" and "Yankees Magazine."

Damn it, I wish Time Warner had this.