Consider that Cashman had to last 18 years on the job, past Derek Jeter’s 2014 retirement, before he could say the entire roster had been built on his watch.
Wait a minute. Credit him for the rings and exonerate him for the duds? Nope. That ain't a-gonna work round here.
But but BUT... Let's not beat on Cash today. Since the 2016 mid-season tear-down, which he handled brilliantly, the Empire has been on an upward trajectory. Could he have done it two years earlier? Of course. But the Yankees were caught up in trying - (and failing) - to give Jeter and Mariano final season sendoffs. So teams floundered, and sites like this one filled with Cashmanic bile.
Truth is, I don't mind praising Cash, an endearing - and certainly enduring - character in the Yankee narrative. Right now, our farm system is boiling with talent, and we will field a bulldozer opening day lineup, at least on paper. It's a great time to be a Yankee fan, and Coop deserves his recent five-year contract extension, and our loving respect... (at least until he signs Todd Frazier. Then, we riot.)
Still, when Gammonites gush over his Cooperstown cred, a few points must be noted:
1. Writers regularly marvel over his front office longevity, as if Old George is still firing Billy Martin for breakfast and hiring him back for lunch. In fact, Hal Steinbrenner has basically run the team since 2008, and for reasons you'd need Robert Mueller to ferret out, Hal doesn't fire people. So, if the upshot is Cashman's great talent for survival... whoop-dee-doo. I hear Rasputin was pretty good.
2. Secondly, when writers fall knock-kneed over Cash, one cannot forget their own survival instincts coming into play. It's a case of the courtiers praising the prince, and the brownest noses - the Fox & Friends wannabees - will get their calls returned.
3. Some grumpy, old-school, out-of-touch graybeard geezers still laughably believe the Hall of Fame is for players.
Yeah, I know: That's sooooo 1970s. But it's no knock on Cashman to say GMs don't belong in Cooperstown, unless it's to stand belly-up in a local bar... in which case I would happily buy Cash a beer, slap his back and never once mention Kei Igawa.
Happy anniversary, Coop. Now... GET OUT THERE AND DON'T SIGN THE TODDFATHER.
Cashman is awful. As long as Gleyber Torres is clogging all the second base plans, Nick Solak will never get his shot. #tradegleyber
ReplyDeleteHey, Rasputin gave the Romanovs the best piece of advice they ever got: don't get into World War I! Don't knock the Raz!
ReplyDeleteAs for Cashman, I still haven't forgiven him for all those years from 2002-2012 when we just needed one more bat/role player/bullpen arm to go all the way in the playoffs...and instead kept getting another junk-armed starter.
Let's not even get into how Cash should have gone to the mat for Vlad over Sheffield, or tried to sign Manny (the Yankees front office were afraid he'd be too close to his homies...and do what, exactly? Start hanging out on the street corners, pitching pennies?).
Had he just, for once, taken Old George's advice and signed Big Papi—dayainu!
But hey, if this team is all it looks like now, I will gladly book a motel room in Cooperstown for the induction ceremony...
I still hate him. The only credit we can today muster is that he hasn't made any moves, lately.
ReplyDeleteBut he still holds the keys to the castle, and it is not difficult to imagine the barbarians swarming in during the night.
Stay alert and beware, say I.
What is this Cooperstown falderol? (I know there is a word there somewhere. Will one of you actual writers please advise)?
No GM belongs anywhere except in divorce court.
Or buried, " in a dung hill in Vermont."
ReplyDelete"falderal" (also spelled "folderol") is a perfectly useful word meaning roughly, "horse feathers", "trivial nonsense", "gibberish", "craziness", etc. In your usage above, I'd you chose the right word.
FWIW, I use it often in business, particularly on conference calls, after I've politely listened to the dipshit opinion of some hubristic but clueless asshole.
ReplyDeleteYou may be able to fetch a definition for Folderol, but not until GAMMONITE is included in each and every online (and printed?) dictionary will this website have obtained its legit due from the rest of the world (esp. Bostonians).
Folderol- Was also in common use in the early days of the laundry industry in England. Because of the flowing nature of regal robes, the duke or duchesses' wardrobe peon would be asked, "How you want yer clothes back love? Fold er roll?" Just sayin'.
ReplyDeleteAs to Cashman and GM's in the Hall of Fame.
I actually think that The Hall of Fame in addition to being a Hall of Fame should serve as a general museum to all things baseball (Which it sort of does - which is why significant bats, gloves, etc. are sent there.)
I of course would also have exhibits highlighting say, clippings from an Oscar Gamble haircut (RIP sir), or Goose Gossage's or Rollie Finger's mustache, Billy Martin's Liver (in a jar or perhaps served with onions in the Hall of Fame Cafeteria) They're all part of the great pantheon of the sport.
Damn it - now I want to write up the Hall of Fame Cafeteria Menu
Billy Martin's Liver and Onions (with extra sauce)
The Babe Ruth Appetizer - a plate of 15 hot dogs served on a hooker.
and Ty Corn on the Cobb.
No, I will refrain and go back to what I was writing about. (That said, I'd love to crowd source that idea.)
The point I'm trying to make is that GMs are in fact a part of the game. I don't believe they should be "enshrined" but certainly celebrated.
Certain owners as well. Bill Veck, George, Walter O' Malley. Etc. Even agents if they were significant. And as I've advocated before Harry M. Stevens. I'm not kidding. The guy that introduced the Hot Dog to baseball? How is he not in there?
Doug K.
Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteDoug K., you are on a roll...so to speak.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind GMs. Hell, the whole place is a (lovely) farce. You know who's NOT in Cooperstown? Abner Doubleday, the Forest Gump of the 19th century.
By rights, it should be in NYC. But hey, it's such a nice little town. Too bad the people who run it are such krum-bums.
It's worse than you think, the Gammonites at ESPN wrote a similar article about Cashman and put it out within an hour of this one by the Post. Collusion is afoot in the media to make us dogmatically believe in St. Cooperstown.
ReplyDeleteLet's see, Cashman inherits a team that, with a tweak or two along the way, wins four rings.
ReplyDeleteHe follow that up with 14 years of general incompetence, 2009, and the past one or two (yet to be determined) successful years.
The Hall beckons. Since "Lucky" Joe Torre got in as manager, Cashman has to get in as GM.
Torre was not merely lucky.
ReplyDeleteTorre was a poor field manager—which ultimately cost the Yanks several more rings.
But he was a superb clubhouse/media manager, which made him the only one ever able to cope with the insanity of King George, and stopped the spiral down into complete disintegration of the Yankeeverse, and the eventual acquisition of the team by the Evil Dolans.
I'd put him in the Hall in a Cooperstown minute.
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