Friday, April 26, 2019

The Innocent Bystander

Hey, they were bound to lose one, right?

That will be the inevitable take on this series-ending collapse against the Angels, and what more do you want than three out of four?

The loss, certainly, was primarily the fault of Tanaka—who I am convinced will be on the DL within days—and the Arson Squad, now an appalling 5-12 under my CollBull W/L system (patent pending).

But much more irksome was how, as the Tiger and Jonathan Surrenderer coughed up a four-run lead, the rest of the team reacted.

Frustrated, no doubt, by a mess o' hard-hit balls that just failed to get out or get down for hits, and particularly by the ball-and-strike stylings of home plate ump Ryan Blankney, the Yanks melted into a puddle of self-pity, sloppily tossing the ball around in the field, pouting and posturing at the plate.

Blankney was, to be sure, calling your basic homer game, squeezing Tanaka while expanding the zone steadily when the Yanks were up—something that's become all too common an occurrence in the majors.

But so what?  Deal with it.  Instead, this young Yankees team seemed to lose their composure...and worst of all, Ma Boone once against acted like an innocent bystander to the whole scene.

In such a situation, a manager's got two basic options:  tell his team to grow-up and deal with it, and keep their heads in the game.  Or throw a cyclonic fit, tossing hats, kicking dirt, hurling bases—anything and everything to show he's fighting for his boys.

Ma did nothing but stand around literally blowing bubbles.  Well, Mickey Mantle he ain't, and more than silent stoicism was required.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boone is a really, really bad leader.

One of the most important parts of leadership is modeling. If you act a certain way--brave, ambitious, motivated, fired-up, focused, calm, whatever--your troops pick up on that and start acting that way too.

Boone models complacency.

Then we wonder why half the at-bats by the guys who have been here a year or too they seem to be zoning out, swinging lazily at bad pitches, and striking out with men on base. Total complacency.

Real question is: Who SHOULD be our manager? The dirt-kicking, hat-throwing guys are a dying breed. Now the job description seems to be whoever can get along with the nerds in the cubicles at the analytics department. Who would be up to the job? Who would you pick if you ran the organization and needed to find a new manager?

JM said...

Sparky Anderson is dead, so he's out. Ditto Dick Williams, who I'd much prefer over Sparky.

Mattingly is taken down at Yankees South. Plus, he'll probably never forgive the Yankees for picking Girardi instead of him.

Ausmus may want to jump ship, but he'll have to start shaving.

I don't know. I wanted to get rid of Torre, and got Binders. I wanted to get rid of Binders, I got Boone. I'm kind of afraid who might come next.

HoraceClarke66 said...

I hear ya, JM...although I always loved Sparky as a manager. He understood one of the very simple, but very critical things that a manager must know, which is that it does no good to change pitchers AFTER the losing run is in.

Besides, Dick Williams always had a big—and not very rational—doghouse.

I just wish Earl Weaver was still around.

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