By JIMMY D / Old lefty burns Jimmy, recall Lefty’s quote | Jimmy's archive

I’d rather be lucky than good.

That was one of Lefty Gomez’s many signature quips. The oddball Yankee pitcher of the 1930s and 1940s made it to Cooperstown, but had no problem in acknowledging the role luck played in his 189 big-league victories.

(He also proposed inventing a revolving fish bowl to make it easier for aging goldfish, but he was a southpaw after all.)

Jimmy D must sheepishly admit that luck continues to keep him atop his baseball league. And one of his top acquisitions made the same confession in describing his recent surge.

Chone Figgins was a cursed man in fantasy circles the first month or more of the season. He forgot how to hit, couldn’t get on base, didn’t steal any bases. In short, he was a fantasy plague.

But Jimmy watched for signs of revival and pounced when he guessed Figgy was ready to bust out. The Angel in the outfield has an 11-game hit streak, was hitting .489 during stretch and ripped off 10 bags.

“How much do we talk about luck,” he said in an AP interview. “It’s just finding holes.”

Maybe. It could still prove to be Fool’s Gold, but he has buoyed Jimmy’s team average and fixed his stolen base category.

Jimmy swiped Johnny Damon at the same time, theorizing that Jason Giambi’s injury would give Damon enough at-bats and a chance to get healthy while DH’ing. Presto, four multi-hit games last week and two steals on a gimpy leg.

Grabbed Jon Garland off waivers; a big win over the Yankees and a quality start against Houston. The only bad luck came with Jamie Moyer, a lefty almost as old as Lefty, who got bombed by the Royals.

This week, we waive good-bye to Moyer and grab Matt Morris off waivers. The righty was ditched in Jimmy’s league in April, but he reeled off seven straight quality starts and Jimmy gets him as a two-start pitcher this week. And rookie hotshot Homer Bailey gets into the lineup, while we bench struggling Chris Capuano (who faces the hot Tigers).

Remember that you make your own luck. Study the trends, scour the stats. It all goes back to Jimmy’s weekly sign off line: “Stay busy and stay lucky.”

It’s not as clever as Jimmy’s favourite Lefty Gomez quip, plucked from Wikipedia. Facing fireballer Bob Feller in a foggy night game, Gomez lights a match as he steps into the batter’s box. The umpire asks him if he figures the extra light will help the poor-hitting pitcher catch up with the Feller fastball.

“No, I’m not concerned about that. I just want to make sure he can see me.”

Girl power

Danica Patrick is good enough to play with the boys in F1.
Annika Sorenstam is good enough to dominate the girls and compete with the boys in tennis.
Rags to Riches proved she was good enough to not just compete with the boys, but to beat them to the wire in the gruelling Belmont Stakes.

The first filly to win a Triple Crown race since Winning Colors won the 1988 Kentucky Derby, she held off Preakness Stakes winner Curlin. It was the first time in more thana century a filly won the Belmont.

Funny how super-trainer Todd Pletcher could never win a Triple Crown race (despite running five horses in the Derby), and he got his first one by sending out a woman to do a man’s job. Guess horse racing isn’t much different from real life.

Alfy shoots puck at Niedermayer
While the Senators appeared to have been outhustled and outmuscled during their five-game loss to Anaheim, a simple, stupid antic by their captain in Game 4 sealed their fate.

The Senators still had a chance at the end of the second period, but Daniel Alfredsson thought he would try another of his myriad little prickly moves and fired the puck at Scott Niedermayer.

While he denied it, the way Alfy was picking corners and threading passes all playoffs long – and the fact he is a dirty little sneak – makes it inconceivable it was an accident. It’s the sort of thing that riles an opponent, sucks momentum and invokes the pagan hockey gods to punish players for dumb-dumb moves.

The punishment was a 6-2 shellacking in Game 5, when those gods administered hexes to poor Chris Phillips and Ray Emery.

Which reminds of us of another old adage: leave sleeping gods lie.
Stay busy, stay lucky.

Jimmy D