Monday, September 17, 2018

This Just in from Optimism, Inc.


I just received an email from the Yankees.  It was decorated with image shown below:






This amazing offer assumes:

The Yankees will hold off Oakland and will play the one-game playoff in the Bronx; and/or

The Yankees will win the one-game playoff regardless of where it's played and will host "real" playoff games in the Bronx; which assumes

The Yankees will avoid striking out with runners in scoring position (and no outs) for the remainder of the season; and

The Yankees' relievers will not melt down and let winnable games slip away.


I'm a believer.  How 'bout you?

18 comments:

Vampifella said...

I believe, hallelujah!!! The Lord has blessed this team...they will smite the evilness known as the red empire...they will vanquish all other foes and reward us for our sufferings (watching them play). Oh yes, they will grant us true salvation and we will enjoy eternal peace in the off-season as we are the truly the righteous ones who had believed in our team.

Blessed are the Yankee fan for only they know the true peace and the warmth and love of the pin stripe. They are the pride and saviors of baseball and the one true team who will raise above all false idols! I believe! Amen! I'll take 4 tickets please for the World Series please.

Carl J. Weitz said...

"These playoff tickets are non-refundable. If these games are cancelled they can only be used at select games in the 2019 season to be determined by management".

TheWinWarblist said...

I'm buying all 10 games.

Anonymous said...

We haven’t had a good ol fashioned Juju rally as a team in quite a while. I may charge my TV tomorrow to lead off the bottom of the first inning.

KD said...

I recall the only juju that duque called this year was the Gardner assist. and WOW! that one worked very well indeed. perhaps duque keeping his powder dry for the Big Game. don't know. what an odd season this has been.

13bit said...

There will be no magic this year.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Just as the Nazis outlawed miracles in "Casablanca," Cashman, it seems has outlawed JuJu in the Bronx.

Alphonso said...

How can we not all be optimistic?

Have we not watched this team play?

Have we not watched Boone in the " manager's report." expressing a positive spin on everything?

Have we not all seen Giancarlo strike out 189 times, yet we still have all those wins?

And our new captain and idol, " the tough hitting catcher,' Gary Sanchez?

Have we not all seen Betances dominate with a runner on first?

I'm buying. Of course I'm buying. Who wouldn't buy?

Joe of AZ said...

The Yanks have won SO MUCH that I'm beginning tobget tired of them winning..
With Boone as the obvious choice for MOY(No not moron) at the helm how can this team NOT win the WS...
I've drank the Kool Aid Im fully invested in this Real team of destiny!!!

HoraceClarke66 said...

Correction: Stanton has struck out 199 times. Which...just makes me all the more optimistic!

And wait, Boone is a moil?

13bit said...

Optimism is the absence of sanity. I’m not claiming to know what sanity is, either, mind you. I’m just a broken-down guy who loved this team when they were sucking in the ‘60s, when “being a Yankee” had not become so commodified and cheapened as it would by 2018. I obviously yearn for a return to winning and dynasties, but I also want to go back to something a bit more elusive. I need some kind of transformation from these guys. I thought they were on the path at the end of last year. I really miss Joey Binders at this point. I always felt that he earned one more year.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

I'd be optimistic if half the team actually showed some desire. You know -- being pissed at themselves for striking out? These guys walk back to the dugout proud of having 'done the process' and thinking about what the post-game spread will look like in the clubhouse.

No water-cooler was safe when Pauly was playing.
No post-game sandwich is safe now.

Come to think of it, Billy Martin used to regularly tip over the post-game spread when he was manager. Maybe Nevin should do that once in a while. Boone certainly won't.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

On another note, from the record room at KGB, I mean Yankee, headquarters,

What was all this bullshit about Sheffield being called up? Reported in multiple papers, but still not on the active roster OR the 40 man roster. Who put this shit out, Baghdad Bob?

Anonymous said...

"Stanton has struck out 199 times."

So he's done striking out then and will revert to the mean.

(Because no one could possibly strike out more, therefore he will no longer strike out.)

Doug K.

thecontrarian said...

I like to think of myself as an optimistic realist, someone who likes to take a positive view of things, but through a lens of data-informed reality. It is not the kids on this team that have crushed my optimism this year; it is management. I taught kids for 42 years, and I can tell you for a fact that no matter how talented a kid is, he or she is just that - a kid. 24 is 24, whether or not that 24-year-old is playing professional baseball or managing your retirement portfolio. I would venture to say that no one on this blog was a model of perfection in their profession at 24. I think we should take hope when we realize it's not the kids. It's the adults, the management.

Cashman made, in my opinion, two fatal mistakes this season. One was hiring Aaron Boone, a man with nothing more than his last name as a credential to be a major league manager. He has never taught anybody anything in his life, and has lived off his family name and his one home run for his entire life. Before we even think about what to do with the kids, we should seriously consider what to do with the adults responsible for the performance of the kids, and that would be to fire them all and replace them with competent baseball men. You look at the roster of MLB managers today - Francona, Hinch, Cora, Cash, Bochy, Molitor, Counsell, Roberts et. al. - and these are guys with superb baseball minds, familiarity with the new metrics, and good communicators. Boone is nowhere in this league, and I have no idea what kind of crack Cashman was smoking when he thought Boone could come down from the ESPN booth and be a manager at this level. If he wanted someone from a broadcasting booth he might have taken Jessica Mendoza over Boone, for Christ's sake.

Fatal mistake #2 was not keeping the talent together when misfortune and injuries began to strike the team. If we were going to lose, we should have done so with the talent we were training and preparing, and not with a collection of castoffs. It was a remarkably bad free agent market at the trade deadline, and how Cashman could not see that he would have been, in the long run, better off letting the young talent lose and learn something than trying to win with questionable free agents - all of whom had regressing metrics - is beyond comprehension. He should be fired for incompetence along with the rest of organizational management.

Yes the kids look bad. They are kids, and they are right now a collection of dispirited kids whom I am quite sure are even more despondent about their play than the fan base. But they are leaderless, and there is nothing more dysfunctional than a collection of leaderless kids. I actually feel sorry for them, that they get to the big leagues and have to play for this sorry collection of adults. I have hope for the kids for the future, but not if something is not done to rid the team of the collection of Boonedogglers we currently have for a coaching staff.

HoraceClarke66 said...

apoorplayer, I could not agree more.

And it's not just the kids who revert. It's even established stars, as Stanton's struggles have shown.

But we're back to the vicious circle: Nothing will change until the instruction changes. The instruction won't change until the GM changes. The GM won't change until the owner changes. And the owner isn't going anywhere. Ever.

Joe of AZ said...

Well...after thay sad dismal prognosis it's time to drink myself to oblivion and imagine a Booneless yankee-verse while I pen a drunken apology letter like an ex girlfriend begging Binders to come back.

Isiyku Abdulahi said...


I really want the world to know about this great man who brought back happiness into my life again after my husband left me and the kids 3 years ago for another women online when i contacted Dr Believe he cast a love spell for me within 48 hours my ex husband start calling me and begging for forgiveness for everything that have happened between us. I was so happy to have my family back together with love again here is the email of Dr Believe via believelovespelltemple@gmail.com a man with the great powers you can also call him or add him on Whats-app: +2348156148821
God bless you
I am very grateful for your help in my marriage.