Friday, January 4, 2019

As he heads to Philly, the Daily News takes a nasty swipe at David Robertson

Among the working stiffs of the Yankiverse, it's hard to find haters of David Robertson. The guy grew up a Yankee. He studied under Mariano. He runs a well respected charity. He's plied his craft through two Bronx incarnations, through thick and thin. And if he signed with Philly yesterday, well, it's because that city is mortgaging the Liberty Bell for 2019. You can't blame Robby for - at age 33 - chasing the last big contract of his career. Besides, the Yankees have the money to keep him. They chose not to open their wallet. That's baseball. That's business. That's China Town, Jake. 

Apparently, though, some Klingons in the front office do not like Robby, as evidenced by a bizarre hit job in today's Daily News. In it, Wallace Matthews takes some parting shots at Houdini, based on a source within the brain trust. Of yesterday's signing, the Gammonite writes:

It was a great day for the Yankees, who rid themselves of a player some in their clubhouse had come to regard as a negative presence.

Huh? Negative presence? Robby? Okay, you might remember a mini-controversy after the playoffs, when the team voted to dole out postseason bonuses. Supposedly, it jettisoned peripheral players and employees, pissing off a few lug nuts. Robertson, as the team's union rep, oversaw the crime. Writes Matthews:


The Yankees no longer have to deal with a player rep who made more than a few enemies when it came time to divvy up the postseason money in November, a man who many tell me seemed like a different person after returning to the Yankees from the White Sox last year, and a teammate who was especially disliked by some of the younger players in the Yankees clubhouse.

Huh? Disliked? Robby? I don't know what to make of this. I'm sure Matthews talked with someone; a writer doesn't make that stuff up. And I can't judge the team's decision on doling out its money, but I'm sure a vote was taken. Still, I think there are some interesting aspects to this.

1. The front office just got rid of the team's union's rep. That's got to be a thankless job, and my guess is that Robby took it seriously. That probably put him in the cross-hairs of management, and Yankees - with their bans of facial hair - don't like to be challenged by the help. Good luck to the next team rep. Instead of a number on his back, he'll be wearing a bull's eye. 

2. The front office just got rid of a player who - instead of being represented by an agent - was personally negotiating his next contract. I don't know the dynamics between GMs and sports agents, but my guess is that there is more than enough acrimony to go around. Robby, by representing himself, surely pissed off somebody in management who would have preferred a professional negotiator, cut from the same MBA cloth, someone who knows the right fork to use on lobster.

3. It's delicious, wondrous irony that the front office chooses to rip a player for being cheap. Wow. This is a brain trust that watched Boston spend $40 million more on talent last year, cruising to a championship, while the Yankees squeezed thin dimes to escape paying luxury taxes. And now, they're whacking Robertson for being tight with the purse strings? That's a good one. 

There's one more clue here. Matthews writes:

Robertson talked himself off the team by stiffing the traveling secretary, the clubhouse kids and other “low-level team employees’’ in that infamous playoff share meeting, 

So there it is. The traveling secretary. Yep. That'll piss off the suits. One of their own got ditched. 

Listen: I'm not saying Robby was right or wrong in doling out the bonuses. You hate to think of "low-level team employees" getting stiffed. But it's a team vote, we weren't there, and my guess is there were other dynamics involved. It's just weird to see the Yankees anonymously ripping a respected veteran player on his way out the door.

The upshot of Matthews' article is that the Yankees, rather than chasing Robertson, have honed in on Zach Britton for the bullpen. And frankly, I think Britton - at age 31 - is a better bet than Robby. But if I were Britton, I'd read the Daily News carefully today, because of all the loaded messages in the column, one comes out most clearly: Rile the front office, and this can be you.

15 comments:


  1. The only question is whether the front office source was Randy Levine or Lonn Trost.

    Levine is often a bigger (and more ham-fisted) jerk but the class-ist vibe I'm picking up here reeks of Trost.


    [FWIW, the official communication from the organization was a Facebook post thanking him for his contributions. In fact, that's how I found out he'd signed. If you have an active FB account and are logged in, you can see it here.]

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  2. I dunno… seems more like Levine to me. Levine throws players under the bus. Trost tosses fans...

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  3. The other things in that catty hit job of an article were...

    "By the way, I’m told Robertson had a vocal accomplice in his fiscal austerity plan – Sonny Gray! Who says the guy’s got no stones?"

    and one that should make us worry...

    "But Ottavino is probably not really a serious contender... Ottavino virtually disqualified himself from being a Yankee by stupidly telling an MLB.com podcast that “I would have struck out Babe Ruth every time.

    Not only is this remarkably uninformed – it is my humble but hardly unqualified opinion that the best performers of their era would rise to be the best in any era – but it shows a lack of knowledge of baseball history and an appalling lack of awareness for how easy it is to strike hitters out in the modern game."

    He goes on from there like people should give a crap. We've all forgotten. He brings it up, why? Setting us up for the non-sign?

    I lost a lot of respect for Matthews after reading it.

    Also, he wrote "When this offseason began, Boras no doubt believed he was about to rake in piles of Yankees cash on the jewel of his free-agent stable, Bryce Harper. But the Yankees have made it fairly clear that Harper is not a fit on their roster, their payroll or in their overcrowded outfield, and that they prefer to spend the same kind of money on Manny Machado, who at least fills an immediate need."

    That's bull as well. The Yankee outfield is NOT overcrowded.

    Judge and Hicks. After that...

    Gardner? Please. They benched him for McCuthchen last year. How is he a factor compared with Harper?

    Jacoby? Does this require an explanation?

    Red Thunder - Wishing doesn't make it so.

    Pathetic.

    Doug K.

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  4. Right on, Doug K. Like all too many Knights of the Press Box, Matthews sounds like an all-too-easily manipulated tool of management.

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  5. When I get to run my newspaper, there are ZERO anonymous stories from the clubhouse or the front office. You want to rip someone, man up and put your name on it. This ain't the Cuban Missile Crisis.

    I have absolutely no knowledge of what Robertson or any other Yankee is like as a human being (though I can tell that Aaron Judge loves his mom).

    But as regards Houdini singlehandedly ripping off the traveling secretary and the clubhouse boys, well, I can only think back to a professor talking about how, in "The Song of Roland," Roland offs something like 10,000 Moors while he's still getting warmed up: "What were the other 9,999 doing, while he was killing the first one?"

    What were the other 24 Yankee lummoxes doing, while Robbie was stealing all the Who cheeses from all the Who mouses?

    This is such arrant nonsense that any self-respecting editor would've bounced it back at Matthews and told him to bring in a real story. Unfortunately, the Daily News is so bereft just now they probably don't have editors.

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  6. anybody who writes that our outfield is "crowded" cannot be said to be a student of the game. he's a mouthpiece for management that was just given priority for a hot spring training "scoop".

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  7. Hoss,

    Actually the Daily News just eliminated the Sports Editor position yesterday.

    https://nymashup.com/new-york-daily-news-fires-sports-editor/

    Doug K.

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  8. For me a cowardly and pathetic article

    A load of utter mince in my opinion

    The Yankees seem to be a shambles on and off the field with the owners having an army of lickspittles in the press willing to do their bidding

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  9. Doug K., it reads like it, too!

    My Scottish friend: mince, and lickspittles! I love it!

    My mother used to make small mincemeat pies for herself. None of the rest of us would touch the stuff. We thought she was insane!

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  10. THIS ROBERTSON SITUATION REMINDS ME A BIT OF WHEN WE FIRED SHOWALTER.

    I LOVED BUCK WHEN HE WAS WITH US, AND I COULDN'T UNDERSTAND THE FIRING.

    I REMEMBER SOMEONE IN OUR ORGANIZATION (MURRAY SOMETHING? RICHMOND?)-SAYING SHOWALTER DID "HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE THINGS.." ..."UNSPEAKABLE ACTS"..SOMETHING TO THAT EFFECT.

    I REMEMBER THINKING TO MYSELF IT SOUNDS LIKE HE WAS CAUGHT FONDLING A CHILD, OR SOMETHING IN THAT REALM.

    NEVER HEARING ANYTHING ABOUT IT AFTER HE WAS FIRED.

    ANYONE REMEMBER THAT?

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  11. Superb analysis, Duque. Robertson has integrity. Same Front Office that offended Jeter in contract negotiations.

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  12. I keep wondering how to keep rooting for a team that's so hateful on the management level. But the Scooter could tell you it's always been that way. Their negotiation after his last year was go to the booth or you're completely gone. Then there are all of George's managers. Then there's Maris...

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  13. Matthews is nothing more than a sycophant and suck-up. He will do anything the Yankees ask him to do so he doesn't lose access to the Yankee front office. Much like reporters from Fox and other conservative outlets do do for Trump.

    But Mathews wasn't alone in blaming Robertson for shortchanging and stiffing some of the Yankee staff. Other writers echoed the same attack lines or mentioned it without coming to his defense. And it wasn't his unilateral decision. It was voted on by the entire team. Yes, Robertson being the union rep had almost everything to do with reporters doing a hatchet job on him. Robertson did well by the Yankees and this is his reward.

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  14. Very true, John M.

    It's true, Yankees management has always been cruel and heartless. What they did to The Scooter was awful.

    But almost all management of all teams is also terrible. The difference USED to be that the Yankees' meanness was geared toward winning, at least. The NYY owners always put lots of money back into the team—unlike most owners.

    Not now. Now our evil is aimed completely at Hal enriching himself. God help us all!

    ReplyDelete

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