Be careful what you wish for...
Well, sigh, here we are:
A 30-day spring training, followed by a 60-game sprint and an NBA-style playoff barf - under constant threat from a pandemic outbreak - without live fans, with teams in seclusion, without the pastoral innocence of the minor leagues, with owners and players locked into an acrimonious labor dispute, and facing a rare simultaneous TV competition from hockey, basketball and football.
This could easily be the worst baseball season in our lifetimes - which leads to a lengthy work-stoppage in 2021 - which then flows into a death-spiral of the game itself.
As Yankee fans, we face an existential crisis: Is it honestly worth still following this team, this ownership, this industry? (I was going to say "this game," but the word doesn't fit.
The Yankee season will be balanced on winning at least 30 games. Thirty fucking games.
Last year, through the first 60, the eventual champion Washington Nats were below .500.
I'm still not sure about the playoffs. For now, it's listed as 10 teams qualifying, the same as in previous post-seasons. My guess is that any franchise with 35 healthy, non-quarantined players will qualify. A serious question is whether non-contending franchises will throw in the towel by Sept 1, deciding that the 2020 season was always a lost piece of shit, and then trade away their big names, instantly transforming some mediocre rosters into collections of all-stars - loading up like a Utica beer league tournament.
A slow Yankee start and a plodding August, and we could find ourselves rooting for the team to ditch Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and/or Gio Urshela - just wanting this horrible season to be over.
Or, truth be told, I could find myself not even caring. Not a whit.
Oh, I suppose when the games start, when The Master starts hollering, when the juices start flowing, I will be drawn back into the Yankiverse. Muscle memory, it's called. I've spent basically the last 60 years following the Yankees, through thick and thin.
But all things come to an end. And right now, I'm on the fence.
We will watch and listen. Perhaps with warbles. Perhaps with pants upon heads. Perhaps not. But watch we will. Perhaps a Sunday afternoon Zoom group game and drinking fest??
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteMe?
I’m going to be watching with a paper bag over my head.
I like the Zoom group idea...can we pursue this?
ReplyDeleteSorry, but I don't think this season gets off the ground. Several Phillies have tested positive. Charlie Blackmon and a couple other Rockies, I think, as well, and who knows how many more once they start really testing. This "season" announcement is a desperation attempt by the owners to not lose every cent of the TV money. Hal's got to be freaking out ... I mean, he might actually have to lease out his second private jet because nobody's watching the 1997 New Jersey Nets games they have to show on YES. But as much as the owners would be OK putting zombies in uniform just to have a game on TV, someone with common sense is going to have to step in and shut this thing down. Sorry, this season is a washout.
ReplyDeleteI"d absolutely be down with Zoom watching, though, even if it ends up just being the Aaron Boone game.
ONE 3 GAME WINNING STREAK BY THE METS OR RED SOX MAY SNAP ME OUT OF MY FUNK.
ReplyDeleteBern speaks truth. But do not underestimate the immorality and greed of the super-rich. They'd burn their own children if they could get a paying audience.
ReplyDeleteBoy, Winnie, you just gave Hal a hell of an idea.
ReplyDeleteNothing packs them in like a little intra-inning entertainment.
An IT IS HIGH Zoomfest could definitely be in order.
ReplyDeleteAre there takers?
Taker!!
ReplyDeleteA few things,
ReplyDelete1) I agree with Bern. This season is not happening. Vegas should post an over under on the number of games that actually get played.
2) As an MLB on line subscriber I can't wait to see how many games are on ESPN or other national broadcasts that will be blacked out on the service.
Vegas should post an over under on how many MLB.tv will actually show. Also will they refund a prorated amount for the short season?
3) JM - Hulu just got season 4 of Brockmire. I'm halfway done. For those of you who have not seen this show it is one of the GREAT television shows of all time. I kid you not. Find a way to watch it.
4) Improving the game -- I'm not so sure the game can be meaningfully fixed sufficiently to attract the younger generations. However I like it because it's slow and doesn't require my full attention every second. Which is good because I have ADD.
Maybe they should leave it alone and just play into the idea that you can do a lot of other things while the game is on. (JM - if this is one of the things they come up with I swear I haven't reached it yet. Don't tell me. :))
5) Should we watch the games?
YES. If getting Covid, being quarantined, having to live with my ex, realizing that I might never see my Mom again, watching the republic disintegrate while living through a time that makes the movie Idiocracy look more and more prescient, I believe we should take what joys are available to us. Baseball is one of those joys.
6) How can we enjoy it if we know it's a farce?
Simple. In what has been the most amazing season of all time, every single team is inexplicably and miraculously tied with only 60 games to go. This will be the greatest pennant race in the history of baseball.
7) Last -
That said, the season won't get off the ground and we're all going to die.
Doug K.
I have stated long ago, that there would not be a season ( if there is no medical break-through).
ReplyDeleteSame for football( although it is possible that every player on every team will have had the virus by kick-off).
In the highly unlikely possibility that my long-ago prediction proves incorrect, I support the IIH Zoom.
How would that work ( in terms of watching a game?).
Listen on radio and watch each other react?
Compete for passing out?
Have hot dog eating contests?
You watch...in the future stadium seats will be replaced with monitor screens. You will purchase a seat which is a zoom session of some kind to watch the game and the audio will be mixed with the other 46,000 users. Very Orwellian...
ReplyDeleteThe cheap seats will have the 800 x 400 pixel screens...the expensive seats the 4K screens...
ReplyDeleteI’ll be listening to the games, from the buggy insect infested garage, the second they start playing.
ReplyDeleteAs for the baseball players who tested positive, they aren’t gonna die. Of the rest to get it, and there will be maybe 30 more, 90% will be asymptomatic. Private airplanes and drug overdoses will remain the #1 killer of active professional baseball players.
As to each and everyone of those proposals, Alphonso, I say yes, absolutely.
ReplyDeleteAs to various games we can play...how about everyone downs a shot every time The Master says our blog name? There won't be a man standing—or even sitting—by the end of the night.
Honored Guest: Dr. Emu, of course!
As to the meaningfulness of the season itself:
ReplyDelete—If the Yankees do not win it all, it will be a cheap and silly travesty.
—If the Yankees DO win it all, it will be a fitting, karmic down payment for the lost world championships that fate, bad calls, cheating, idiot owners, silly GMs, awful groundscrews, abominable commissioners, or managers suffering from petite mal strokes robbed us of in 1904, 1920, 1921, 1926, 1940, 1948, 1955, 1957, 1960, 1964,1980, 1981, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2017, 2018, and 2019.
I'm so glad we got that testimonial about Dr EMU!!
ReplyDeleteYES ON ZOOM! I can help set it up if needed. If we keep it below 100 people, and I don’t know why on earth we would want to go above that for any reason, I can host it.
ReplyDeleteI love you all.
ReplyDeleteI 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.