So go the Yankee hopes for 2018. It's come down to that: Maybe we will just magically, suddenly become blessed by the gods, or the fates, or random happenstance, or juju.
So comb that lucky rabbit's foot, folks. Yesterday, the juju gods were not on our side, and neither were the umps. Just sit back and cheer, and maybe things will get better, right?
Well, Suzyn, you can't predict hogwash. It just comes in too many forms. But if any conclusion can be summoned from this horror show weekend, I'd say luck has had little to do with the Yankee losses. In every phase, Boston has proven itself a vastly superior team, and the Yankees look like a one-dimensional, middling, busload of losers on a road to nowhere.
The crowd chants were right. The Yankees suck.
Watching these games, it's as if a mask had been yanked away, and the princess we thought we were dating turned into Vladimir Putin. For the first time all season, we've been able to see the truly dead soul of the 2018 Yankees. It hurts to think the things I'm about to write.
Brett Gardner is now a fourth outfielder at best. Yes, we love him. But he hits .240 with no power, no speed, and overrated leadership qualities. In recent weeks, as we've lost games due to lackadaisical play, has anybody busted a water cooler? In one terrible loss, Gardner stuck out with the tying runs on base, swinging at a 3-2 pitch well out of the strike zone. When he comes up, hope flees. Yet we have no replacement. In fact, we're playing a Triple A retread - Shane Robinson - in right field. Meanwhile, the Gammonites glow about what a great trade deadline the Yankees had. Does anybody judge trades by actual outcomes any more?
Our closer, Aroldis Chapman, nearly needed a shrink two weeks ago, after the All Star break, when he couldn't throw a strike. Now, thanks to a steam of losses, he's gone practically another week without being used. Does anyone think he'll hold the line in a close game?
We have nobody - pitchers or catchers - capable of stopping Boston's base-stealers. How did this happen? The Redsocks run the bases without a care in the world. How does this happen? Isn't there a fundamental baseline of incompetence, below which in the majors is simply not allowed? I mention this because one crowning defeat may be awaiting us tonight: The winnable game blown in the ninth. The ultimate pineapple colonoscopy, folks. Nothing would be more fitting. Brace yourselves. The worst is yet to come.
For various reasons, which trace directly to O'Neill's happy talk, the Yankee-owned media wants us to think this team is merely in a slump. Soon, we will rattle off a 10-game winning streak and be back to where were last week, four games behind Boston. Well, I'm not so sure. We just dropped our pants and exposed to the world not our manhood, but the sad weaknesses of an overly hyped team.
Oakland won again last night. They are now 3.5 games behind in the Wild Card. That's the next wall to crumble.
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I'm not optimistic, not generally -- 3 of my 4 grandparents were Sicilian, and those folks just did not believe the Sun would actually rise the next day.
But I do try to learn from Life, even Baseball -- which can be an enjoyable, it-don't-matter, gimme-another-beer part of Life.
Things I've learned -- I think -- since just b4 the All-Star break, thsnks to the Yankees, include:
1 -- my assessment of the 2018 team was in error. They really were NOT that good, except for a very short time. I was wrong, big-time. Thank the goddess Fortuna that I don't bet basebsll!
2 -- I thought they had enough pitching. I really did. Well, they didn't. Maybe they will when they have Justus + Chance as starters.....or maybe one or both of them will blow out their arms in 2019 (see what I mean about that Sicilian thing?).
3 -- I like a lot of the players on the current team (including Gardy, Didi, Miggy, and Gleyber). I enjoy it when they succeed! BUT: There is a difference between my reasons for liking them and their relative performance (relative to the rest of the league). I don't think Didi is the long-term solution at SS (maybe Gleyber is?). I really hope the team doesn't offer Gardy a 2019 contract, as much as I like him.
4 -- I didn't think GSanchez would be a superstar. I thought he would be at least Above Adequate. Even eliminating the recent injury/lack-of-hustle/whatever-it-was, and even if he's NOT a headcase......he's had a really bad year. In his favor: All of that BS about the fact that Sonny Gray couldn't throw to him seems like a heaping helping of dung, don't it? Did that dung emanate from Larry R?
5 -- I didn't remember the thing about Injuries. We could use Montgomery right now, couldn't we? NOT AN EXCUSE. Just another reminder that you can't ever have enough pitching. Or anything else -- as in,, keep Red Thunder away from walls in the future, please.
All of this, you'll notice, does not reference Cashmoney or Ma Boone. All of the above are my problems.
Among my other problems: I really enjoy Yankees basebsll as a distraction. I have not paid attention to "the news" (fake or otherwise) since Spring Training -- I've been on this site, and tried to keep up with newspaper reports on the team via the Internet. I'm not a footbsll fan; haven't rooted for the Knicks since Pat Riley became coach; and while I once actually worked as a sportswriter covering minor-league hockey games, I can't stand the sport.
On the other hand, I do like women's gymnastics......
...one crowning defeat may be awaiting us tonight: The winnable game blown in the ninth.
I don't know. We might be more like the 1978 Red Sox who, upon being pounded in the 4-game "Boston Massacre", and then the first two of their final 3-game series with the Yanks, came back and won the last game, 7-3. I.e., after they'd had the shit kicked out of them by a better team, they came roaring back and played like world-beaters when it no longer mattered. That's almost more embarrassing.
Regardless of tonight's outcome, we've got issues my friends.
LBJ, I was at that game, of course. Seven magical Yankees wins over the Sox that month, and I had tickets for the one loss.
It happened the year before, too. Sizzling, 4-2 and 2-0 wins at the Stadium, with Reggie not only homering but making a great catch...and I went to the Torrez blowout the next night. Sigh.
Joe FOB, yeah, I was fooled by this team, too—and I, too, still love the distraction it provides.
The thing with Gardy? He has really, ALWAYS been a fourth outfielder, due to his inability to last a whole year. He often gets hurt in the second half, and no matter what, his numbers plunge. Here they are lifetime:
First half: .274/.356/.415/.771
Second half: .245/.333/.358/.690
Any reasonably bright front office would have noticed this years ago and accepted Gardy for what he is: a dynamite fourth outfielder or maybe platoon player.
Not the Yankees. They must go on doing the exact same thing in the same way, and expecting different results.
And to go back to where this post began: Duque makes an excellent case about the base stealing.
This team and this organization is grievously lacking in fundamentals and motivation, as the last week or so has exposed.
This is another reason why a wholesale house cleaning, bleach job, tear-out-by-the-roots, fill in your favorite analogy here, needs to be done.
But it won't be.
JFB...the fish rots from the head down. Old Sicilian saying, I think.
I mention this because one crowning defeat may be awaiting us tonight: The winnable game blown in the ninth. The ultimate pineapple colonoscopy, folks. Nothing would be more fitting. Brace yourselves. The worst is yet to come.
Duque, you certainly predicted the future on this one. I'd say "nice work" but it can't feel to good to have been 100% right.
Perhaps we can put your skills to good use. Please, in your next post, let us all know if we should buy or sell shares in IBM.
I've been thinking of shorting Tesla. whatdoya think, duque?
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