Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Suddenly, the end is in sight for the Yankees. It will not be pretty

For nearly 60 years, I have watched the Yankees obsessively. They were never a hobby or fun-filled pastime. They are a presence, a projection of my mind, or my soul - or maybe something I'd prefer not identify. I dunno. They have brought great joy, moments when I literally leaped up to shout with happiness. But I also know this:

The end - that is, the final loss of a Yankee season - is never pretty. 

In this world, there are few things uglier than a final loss at home.

That last defeat is not PG-13, not suitable for children, or women who are pregnant or may want to become pregnant, or people with heart conditions or who may be experiencing suicidal thoughts. The final moments come with unholy shrieks, words best unpondered, and a dark sense that a zombie damn has burst, that no security force on earth can control this crowd, and that we are staring into the open maw of Hell.  

When the Yankees lose this series - as I now expect - Yankee Stadium will become Hong Kong. 

We will hear boos of an intensity not known in recent times. They will corroborate the worst decade in Yankee history, a stretch when the once-premier team in American sports failed to reach the World Series. It will take months to fully process the magnitude of this failure. We will have squandered some of the most uplifting events in modern times - career years by wondrous, over-achieving players... because we dumped them for a bunch of returning celebrities.

How I could have been so naive? Why did I believe Luis Severino - or anybody, for that matter - could miss six months and suddenly return in peak form? How did I convince myself that the long Yankee history of home run hitters failing against solid pitching would no longer apply, and that this year, it would be different? What made me think the Yankees could "bullpen" the entire month of October? Why did I think Giancarlo Stanton would stay healthy for a week, much less a month?

Yeah, I know, I'm venting, lashing out at everyone near... but damn, I've seen this movie too many times to not shout out to the theater what's about to happen next. The Astros look alive in every sense of the word, while we just march back to the dugout, bats in hands. We have yet to touch their bullpen, while ours will soon crack at its seams. We cannot beat Geritt Cole, and we know it. Tonight, Greinke will shut us down, and then comes Verlander. And if we're even lucky enough to bring in El Chapo with a lead, then comes the inevitable meltdown. 

I doubt this series will return to Houston. Our world collapsed with the game-tying HR that Adam Ottavino surrendered Sunday night. Aaron Boone was over-managing because last year, against Boston, he under-managed. It's a symmetry, right? It almost had to happen. 

All season, the Yankees roared back from adversities, many of them just like this. But that was a team of nobodies. This is a lineup of poohbahs who sporadically sat out the last four months, carried here on the shoulders of men who earned the Major League minimum. The end is near. And trust me, it will not be pretty.

18 comments:

TheWinWarblist said...

Ottofuckingshitheadavenofuckface!??!!!!?!!!!!!

JM said...

Damn.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Kinda makes you miss Joey Binders.

Naw, what was I thinking!?

They both suck.

TheWinWarblist said...

Duque, I could feel the pain in your every word of every optimistic post leading up to today. And you see where that has gotten us? I know you want victory, oh how I personally know. But not this year and perhaps never again with the current ownership. The current Yankees are not the Yankees we love. They are the corporate CBS yankees. Mere entertainment, a diversion. This year I hoped (secretly so deep in my consciousness that I could pretend it wasn't there), I hoped it would be like 1996. '96 was an awakening, a miraculous beginning of the last true baseball dynasty (yes, I see and acknowledge you, SF Giants). But it's not '96. It never will be again. Not while the management and ownership does not value wins or championships as worthwhile goals. They only value profit. Only profit. They did nothing to make this team more competitive. It's obvious where the team needed help. Even Cashman must have known. But profit uber alles. "Oh, Corbin. Sure. It'd be nice, but look at the big picture, look at the bottom line."

Sigh.

So what I'm saying is this, THESE YANKEES ARE TERRIBLE, BY FAR THE WORST 103 WIN TEAM EVER AND THE WORST YANKEE TEAM GOING BACK TO THE STUMP MERRILL ERA!! THEY WILL FLAIL AND FAIL AND LOSE AND NEVER FULFILL THEIR PROMISE OR FILL OUR BROKEN HOLLOW EMPTY HEARTS WITH JOY!! IT'S OVER!! LET IT GO!! MY ADVICE TO YOU IS TO START/CONTINUE DRINKING HEAVILY!!! THE YANKEES WON'T WIN A(NOTHER) SINGLE GAME AGAINST HOUSTON!!!


FUCK YOU HAL CASH LARRY ALL OF YOU YOU FUCKING FUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ken of Brooklyn said...

It's amazing ( or maybe not that amazing) that an International JuJu Intervention has not been called for tomorrow.
I think we're all feeling the mighty Winwarblist's anger at the powers that be that really run this team. I wanted to believe soooooo badly that it could be different this year, whether it was the next man up mentality or the discipline that DJ brought to the team, that maybe, just maybe, there was a sense of destiny to this group. But, for ALL the reasons that you all have of been screaming about for the entire season, this was not meant to be.



HoraceClarke66 said...

Beautifully put, Duque, and I second all these thoughts and criticisms.

I, too, thought somewhere in the far reaches of my seriously corrupted, gin-soaked brain that this was indeed a team of destiny.

But then we started suffering injuries to our injury replacements. So many of the guys who made this season such a joy are simply not with us, or here only in spirit: Tauchman, German, Hicks, Mike Ford, Luke Voit, etc.

HoraceClarke66 said...

I think it will be foolish, though, for the Astros to start Greinke on short rest, IF there's a game today.

That's the same sort of unforced error that almost brought TB back from the dead.

If Houston were to start Miley tonight they still might win...and if they lost, they could come back with a well-rested Greinke, Verlander, and Cole. There is no way your 2019 New York Yankees are beating THAT rotation, not with two of the games in Houston.

Anonymous said...

Fine. I'll say it.

You may be right. I may be crazy. But I just might be the lunatic you're looking for...

Fuck that shit! We beat Grenkie 9-0 in HOUSTON. Took them to extra innings against Verlander and lost to Sandy Bumgardner Jesus Gibson Cole and the game was close until Boone put in Ottavino.

We're down two games to one. With two more at the stadium.

The cry to dump Sanchez is getting louder and louder. (and BTW we can dump him all the way as far as I'm concerned - but that's for the off season.)

This team battled all year. And yes, it is foolish to think that guys could come back and play well but... and it's a bigger butt than Kim Kardashian's... Who's left? Who's not playing?

Tauchman... Hurt.
Voit... I say hurt.
Stanton is hurt. (and a total wuss. I'd say give Reggie a bat but he might beat Stanton over the head with it!)

So Hicks is back. Fine. At least he walks, has speed on the bases and is a good outfielder. Having Gardy in left improves the defense (last night's misread notwithstanding. ) The infield is the same infield.

And, while I'd prefer Ford. EE is coming around.

Sanchez is the black hole.

For all of the Severino hand wringing he gave up two runs. To the Astros.

Right now all I'm seeing is Ottavino and dead bats. Against Verlander and Denny Pedro Nolan Christy Cole!

(As an aside I kept waiting for Joe Buck to tell us that he asked Kareem Abdul Jordan Brady Nitschke Havlecheck Gretsky Palmer Cole to father his child. What a suck up!)

Yeah it doesn't look great. It doesn't even look good. But it also doesn't look over.

Can we beat Grenkie at home with an angry angry stadium screaming at him? Sure, why not. With Tanaka? Yeah.

Can we win a bullpen game in game 5? Uh... yeah. If Ottavino doesn't pitch.

Will we take one of the two in Houston against the two greatest pitchers to ever take the mound in the history of western civilization? Two men who singlehandedly won World War Two and wrote the Declaration of Independence! Two pitchers who are so great that angels descend from heaven to remove their crap to fertilize God's own crops. Uh... yeah. Why not?

Its baseball. All you have to do is BAT GLEYBER THIRD and Gardy 9th. Lose Sanchez for the rest of the series and keep it close. (Which we are doing.)

And speaking of doing... I am done.

Doug K.

Anonymous said...


Oh, also this got buried yesterday in the fast paced world of IIHIIF so I'm moving it here.

Sorry if you read it before. But I kinda liked it. It was in support of Duque’s injury screed and dislike of Stanton.


Training Room Heaven (To Rock and Roll Heaven)

If you believe in forever
and life is more than a home stand.
If there’s a training room heaven…
Well you know that their line up is grand, grand, grand.

Pavano gave us butt jokes,
Giancarlo breaks, each time, that he farts,
And Jacoby, well he stubs something, brand new each day-ay-ay.
and don’t forget our pal Luke Voit
the only thing not hurt is his heart.
They've all found a special place, where they don’t have to play.

If you believe in forever
and life is more than a home stand.
If there’s a training room heaven…
Well you know that is where they all land, land, land.

Remember Miguel AnDUjar,
He was once compared to Joe D.
We lost him, when he dove, back to the bag.
And Jordan Montgomery got the knife
I heard that he’s now back in town.
They're all sitting in a whirlpool
Instead of being in the show.

If you believe in forever
and life is more than a home stand.
If there’s a training room heaven…
Well you know that is where their comeback is planned, planned, planned.

There's no spotlight waiting
Just another seat at the bar
'cuz you ain’t helping get a ring
just a cumulative negative WAR.

If you believe in forever
and life is more than a home stand.
If there’s a training room heaven…
Then I hope it's run by Gene Monahan han han.

Doug K.

Anonymous said...

Great column. I was hoping I wasn't the only one that saw the entire momentum of the series change when Ottavino was inserted in game 2 and (yet another) hanging slider was deposited in the seats by Springer. Suddenly 2-1 was 2-2 and the Astros had life again. Everything changed at the moment. I really believe had Boone not pitched a guy who has been bad for a very long time, we would have won game 2 and hence the series. But...with the unsinkable Gerrit Cole on the mound for the Astros and a struggling Severino for us...we were only down 2-0 and still had a good chance...until Boone decided he just had to make the same stupid mistake again and inserted Ottavino and the game was shortly over. I'm not even blaming Ottavino. He's struggling. We've all seen it for months. The manager is the stupid one who chose to insert him in key situations. When a guy is struggling like this, what does Larry do to help them? It appears nothing.

Then there's the decision to include CC on the roster for this series so he could make a ceremonial appearance to one batter. We lost Tyler Wade because of it. Encarnacion got on first the other night with it 2-2 and we had no one to insert to steal a base. If we'd had Wade, he would have been on second. Gardy singled. It would have been 3-2 and we likely would have been up 2-0 in games. Thanks to Boone (again) and Cashman and whoever else made that decision.

As much pressure as there may be from us fans to bench Sanchez, it isn't going to happen. The worst of all of it is that we held onto him until every other team has learned that he really does suck as a catcher and hits home runs but nothing for average. He has little trade value.

One last thing and I'll stop. Stanton. Do you think it even bothers him a bit to sit out with what we think (?) is a minor injury when he's "earning" $25 million a year? After sitting out the entire season. In game one when he looked great, I thought "this is his time". Instead it was his time to be the wuss that Reggie said he is. And we've got him for the next near decade.

Hoping for a miracle...

Brett

ranger_lp said...

I see the same way el duque...you didn't get the feeling at the end of the game that the Yanks would have a chance in game 4 or game 5. The one team with record HRs in a year got dispatched in 3 games. The team with the second most HRs ever in a year is on their way to not as early tee times. And the team that remains in the AL beats you, not with HRs, but with timely hitting, great starting pitching and solid defense.

Yet our analytics can't come up with this. Houston's analytics are beating New York's analytics. That's how I see it. It will be interesting, after the Astro's World Series win, that their analytics will have to figure out if Cole is worth $40 million a year...

Anonymous said...

Brett,

Well said.

As to Stanton. I don't know if it bothers him to sit out as much as he might not have a "big stage" mentality.

There are people who love the spotlight and the pressure (Gleyber, Reggie etc.) and people who think they do, but discover that they don't (Sonny Gray).

Given a choice of messing up on the big stage or giving in to an injury they choose the latter. Guy's like Munson would have played on one leg. Kirk Gibson did.

I obviously can't say that I'm right. That's just how it seems to me.

Doug K.

ranger_lp said...

Oh, and one more thing I've brought up before...

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27859249/astros-aj-hinch-finds-pitch-tipping-paranoia-funny

ranger_lp said...

And more on the subject...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/sports/baseball-spying-sign-stealing.html

Do we need a countermeasures group in our organization for this?

Anonymous said...

YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE KILLS ME?

BEFORE THE PLAYOFFS EVEN STARTED, I HAD MET FANS TELL ME, "YOU KNOW YOU'RE GOING TO GET KNOCKED OUT IN THE PLAYOFFS, RIGHT?....YOU'RE THE YANKEES, THAT'S WHAT YOU DO."

....AND YOU KNOW WHAT?

THEY ARE RIGHT.

....AND THAT GETS ME CRAZY.

MAYBE THIS RAIN OUT CAN HELP.

GRASPING AT STRAWS NOW.

Suzyn's Bitch said...

I feel your pain, Duque. Why do you continue to believe? Because hope springs eternal. We're all like Charlie Brown and the football..... maybe THIS time, right?!

And as to Giancarlo, I have two words: Willis Reed!

Margaret (Peggy or Peg too) said...

I agree with everyone. It's pathetic.
I won't repeat what most of you said, I'm with you! Last night was pitiful.
George is rolling over in his grave!

Celerino Sanchez said...

On the brighter side, Stanton, Ellsbury & Bird should be ready to go next spring!