Bolasky is a 25-year-old chunk of Triple A cannon fodder, and you may never see his name again on this blog. But damn! he's our hero today. His big hit kept the Railriders within one game of the International League Wild Card race, which is rumbling down to the wire. And make no mistake: Comrades, it's time to start rooting for your Scranton Riders of the Rail.
Next Monday, the International League regular season ends, with our Scrantonians dueling the always conniving Pawtucket Pawsocks. By then, the Yankees may have raided the traveling Wilkes Barres of Justus Sheffield, Tyler Wade and any pitcher capable of pitching in a blowout.
Or maybe not. Because the Yankees might need Scranton to win that game.
If the regular season ends Monday, so will end Aaron Judge's opportunity to play in a minor league rehab assignment. (Actually, Trenton is a game behind the New Hampshire Fisher Cats in the Eastern League, so there is that chance, too. But the Eastern League has only a two-team playoff, so it won't last long.)
Right now, we can only speculate on whether Judge's wrist is days away from returning, or if he could miss weeks, maybe even the month of September. Wrists are tricky. The Yankees cannot afford to have a mere shadow of Judge standing in the box, swinging in pain, and going 0-30... or - worst case scenario - doing permanent damage.
What the Yankees need is Scranton in the IL playoffs, extending their season into mid-September. That means running the table and keeping the Judge's Chambers alive in central Pennsylvania. Tonight is Two Dollar Tuesday, with the always merciless Syracuse Chiefs coming to Moosic. And Saturday is THE OFFICE Night, with the always terrifying Pawsocks on hand for the Dunder-Mifflin Awards! (Yes, they intend to milk that show forever!) It's time to start watching the scoreboards, because we're in a Wild Card race! Thank you, Devyn Bolasky!
Devyn Bolasky...wasn't he Lou Jacobi's agent back in the 50s?
ReplyDeleteAh, me: I still remember the Syracuse Chiefs championship run back in 1970, when they were still our top farm team.
ReplyDeleteManaged by Frank Verdi, the guy who never would go the whole Stump Merrill and make it to the top. A young Frank "Single" Baker was at short, and Ron Blomberg was the right fielder, a position I saw him play once in Fenway Park, and where he was actually better than at first base. (It would have been hard to be worse.)
In fact, the team seemed to be composed mostly of first basemen: Blomberg, Frank Tepedino, Tony Solaita, the Samoan Strongman, and Len Boehmer, a guy I will treasure forever because the year before I saw him win a game for us in Boston after another of Joe Pepitone's "injuries."
It was a weird amalgam of a team, full of guys (supposedly) on the way up—Bobby Mitchell, Rick Bladt, Gary Jones, and Blomberg and Solaita—and on the way down—Bobby Cox, Charlie Sands, Bill Robinson, Bill Burbach, Thad Tillotson, Joe Verbanic (trying to reinvent himself as a starter), Tepedino, and Hal Reniff, who was actually the Chiefs' closer, after being same for the Yankees in 1963-64.
The core of the team was a couple of starters, Rob Gardner, who was trying to come back after failing as a Mets phenom, and Steve Kline, who could be called up to the big club after half a season. Both would actually have successful major-league careers, however fleeting.
Somehow, in my boyish enthusiasm I failed to notice how long in the tooth so many of all these players were, and thought we were on the verge of a real dynasty (The major-league Yankees finished a stunning second that year.)
Hmm. As Jacoby Ellsbury might write, "La plus ca change..."
Ellsbury.... you know, we could use him about now. too bad he's "injured". Without surgery, I don't really believe that a young man has my old-man penchant for nagging injuries and pain.
ReplyDeletebut man, Ellsbury feels as gone as Chuck Knoblauch. (did you guys see him? oh, jeez... )
ReplyDeleteEllsbury is NOT doing any baseball activities today...check the calendar again tomorrow...
ReplyDeleteYeah, the Knobber...
ReplyDeleteHe was another Cashman special. Before the deal, all sorts of baseball experts pointed out that he was a speed player whose game was likely about to deteriorate, especially away from the Hubert Horatio Hornblower Humphrey Dome. But, Coops wouldn't hear it.
Still, all in all, Knobs had a definite clutch gene, and he racked up a good couple of years for us before his mind started to go. Very sad, that one. Not that I wouldn't pay cash money to take him over Neil Walker...
Sanchez for the stretch run, Judge for the playoffs? Too good to be true, at least too good to be true in Scranton. Cash be praised! He wants another AAA championship, wants to prove he can do it without Al Pedrique.
ReplyDeleteJohn M. "Devyn Bolasky...wasn't he Lou Jacobi's agent back in the 50s?"
ReplyDeleteActually he was Lou Jacobi. He changed his name because it didn't sound Jewish enough.
Doug K.
Agreed on Knobby, Hoss
ReplyDelete
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