We assure ourselves that all is well...
Any day now, Aaron Judge will return, belting home runs and lifting everyone in the lineup.
Any minute now, maybe tonight!, Luis Severino will regain form and launch a skein of scoreless innings, if not outings.
Any second now, we'll hear that Aroldis Chapman is pain-free, firing 100 mph fastballs like bullets into a garage door.
We tell ourselves the
Because that now defines the Yankees in this millennium:
We reach late September only to be whacked by a Hanley Ramirez or a Rafael Devers, or even a Jackie Bradely Jr. - players with no business being inscribed into the "great rivalry," which grows more one-sided every year... and you can feel it happening... again!
We played the first-half seeking to avoid the Wild Card. We played the second half believing the home field advantage was ours. Now... to avoid an out-of-body collapse and a four-hour, transcontinental flight on the day after the regular season ends, the Yankees must go through Tampa and Boston in the final week, needing to beat the Rays and Redsocks, something they haven't been able to do since the all-star break.
Yet another season is boiling down to a September series against Boston, and in this decade - no, in this millennium - they have eaten our lunch cookies.
The 21st Century Yankees have one world championship - won because the owner sprang for the three priciest free agents and then shot up A-Rod with enough testosterone to kill Seabiscuit. After that, we have fielded annual waves of excruciating disappointment and dire collapse.
Despite this, the New York media courtiers never question the Yankee ownership, even as the team is wildly outspent by other franchises, including Boston. Brian Cashman is feted for Cooperstown, and nobody even blinks when Bernie Williams is turned away.
Can you imagine that? Someday, long after we're dead and Florida is a python-infested swamp, our grandchildren will eye Brian Cashman's plaque in the Hall of Fame, and Bernie Williams will be just another centerfielder in the record books.
Last I looked, the score last night was Minnesota 10, Yankees 1. The Twins were crushing us, and Oakland had won. The three game lead, now two. And the announcers noted that the Yankees will have the tie-breaking advantage over Oakland, as if we should be reassured.
I turned it off. I went to bed. I punched the pillow and told myself, no... it cannot be happening again...
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Here's my suggestion for a IIHIIFIIc protest for the one-game playoff:
On the day the playoff is held, reverse all the record-setting "Win Warble" wav files on this
site so that they run in the correct direction, thus sticking it to the MLB "man".
I got nothing else. Watching this team play .500 ball since the All Star break has thoroughly sucked.
Boone must go.
Is Boone so stupid that he handles horrible pitchers the way he does? (Bases loaded, no outs? totally ineffective? lots of relievers available? hell yes leave him in!) or is he simply obeying the puppet master Millennial? I believe he was hired to do just that. Hal and Cash are probably pretty happy with him. Boone doesn't even need match-up binders because he makes no decisions.
The pitching sucks, outside of Tanaka and Happ and Robertson. The handling of the pitching sucks, outside of nobody.
The second half collapse is amazing. Astounding. Disgusting.
And if they get there, I'll watch the Selig playoff game anyway.
There should be a branch of psychiatry exclusively for sports fans.
Sad. Just sad. I turned it off after Mr. Twin's salami. It has all the feel of a "season's over, let's see what we got" game. Well, we ain't got much, it appears. So, in order to line Sevy up for the two Boston series and maybe the WC game, we gave Oakland another game in the WC race. Great.
The only consistent thing about this team right now is inconsistency. Even Romine had a bad outing behind the plate. What's truly the saddest of all is watching all this young talent sink into quicksand, and watching the manager ask if anybody has a rope he can borrow, or maybe where he can go buy one. I could stand the losing if I thought they were taking any reasonable approach to playing the game, but it's all a collection of hopeless flailing about, as if somehow "Yankee mystique" will hit theses guys all of a sudden. So very sad.
PS - If you want to read the saddest bunch of baseball cliches you've ever read in your life, then read this.
INCREDIBLE HOW IT IS HAPPENING AGAIN.
EXCLUDING LAST YEAR'S SURPRISE LATE PUSH, SOMEHOW WE REVERTED BACK TO THE PREVIOUS 5-7 "BINDER YEARS"......OUR TEAM HAS RUN OUT OF GAS IN THE LAST MONTH OF THE SEASON.
IN THE PAST, I BLAMED IT MOSTLY ON OUR TEAM OF VETERANS THAT CASHMAN CONJURED UP, BUT WE ARE A MUCH YOUNGER TEAM NOW.
THERE IS NO FIRE.
THERE IS NO EXTRA HUSTLE.
THERE IS NEVER ANY URGENCY IN OUR PLAY.
WATCH A RED SOX GAME.
SEE THE DIFFERENCE.
WE GOTTA FIRE THE WHOLE LOT OF 'EM.
ALL THE COACHES.
THE MANAGER.
.....AND THAT WAY OVERRATED DUNCE OF A GM.
GO BACK TO THE GEORGE DAYS.
CLEAN FUCKING HOUSE.
P.S.] AIN'T HAPPENING WITH THE SON STOOGE.
Exactly, apoorplayer-the same old cliches. But they can't seem to control their own games, either. I'd repeat what I've send here endlessly and echo what others have said ten thousand times. But I wont beat that dead horse anymore. That dead horse is wearing a Yankees uniform.
"...enough testosterone to kill Seabiscuit"! I love it, Duque!
Thanks for the quotes, apoorplayer. They are indeed disheartening. I think Ma Boone should now be referred to as "Natural cycle of hitting" Boone.
There is nothing natural at all about hitting, though slumps are to be expected. This one has gone on since May, with our runs-per-game shrinking by more than one per contest. Nearly four months is not a "cycle," but two-thirds of the season, even worse than last year's months-long meltdown.
Last year's was attributable, at least, to a Judge injury that was covered up. You never got the feeling that the whole team was taking days off, or dead in the water.
This seems much worse, and I suspect reflects the entire, idiotic, organization-wide approach to the game catching up to it.
Also, while it's typically stand-up for Gardner to call himself out with the rest of the team, his game has simply fallen through the floor.
He always slumps, and slumps badly, in the second half, a career-long trait that the Kremlin-on-the-Hudson simply refuses to acknowledge.
But after what was a career-year last season, this year he has hit a new low—just .212 in the second half, with 8 RBI, and a .608 OPS. Sadly, the guy looks done.
And contrary to what he's saying, the clubhouse is NOT filled with "great players." It's filled with what were once very promising young players, now rapidly sliding back downhill; past-their-sell-date, marginal older players; and overplayed veterans, such as Stanton, who is a gamer but who has now gone almost a month without homering.
Also, in answer to Doug K.'s speculation that our trade of Original Ice Cream Sandwiches for Pineda was even worse than the deal for Sonny Gray:
Pineda went 31-31 as a Yankee, with a 4.16 ERA, and never got to pitch in the postseason.
Gray? He is 14-16 so far as a Yankee, with a 4.55 ERA, and is 0-1 in the playoffs, with an ERA just over 4.00.
So...on the basis of that, I would have to say: the Pineda deal was slightly better for us.
True, Gray's time with us is not over, and we don't know yet who we might trade him for.
But on the other hand, we don't know yet if any of the guys we traded for Gray will be anything...
I don't know how many of you are fans of Fangraphs, but I love the site. They have many interesting features, not the least of which is a feature called the Manager's Perspective. I've hinted more than once here that I happen to think bringing Showalter back might be a good move, and here is why:
“Let’s face it. Guys come out of college football and they go right to the NFL and are all-pro. They come out of high school and play in the NBA. They come out of Stanford and are on the Ryder Cup in golf. Baseball? Doesn’t happen. There’s such an apprenticeship here. Guys are coming to the big leagues so fast that the importance of being able to teach at the major-league level is higher than it’s ever been. You can’t assume anything anymore. Nothing.” -Buck Showalter via Fangraphs (emphasis mine)
If you'd care to read the whole article, it's right here. Bonus article - AJ Hinch on bullpen use. Then try to imagine anything like this coming out of Ma Boone's mouth. Don't hurt yourself laughing - or crying.
Hoss, Sorry if that wasn't clear... I was trying to say that the Pineda trade was the better one. And I hated Pineda.
Doug K.
I told you yesterday, what makes you think this team even has a chance to go 9-9 down the stretch
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