Moreover, no bigass roster overhaul is needed. They'll tweak their way to the single-game post-season.
O, why o why did we doubt this franchise? What were we thinking? All this time, the answer was right in front of us: Just rearrange the batting order, recalibrate the rotation, click our heals together and chant, "For the Wild Card, there's no place like home..."
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| Yank fans celebrate Boone announcement. |
Maybe Joey Gallo can lead off? Quick: Run the computer model! If he comes up 200 more times, that means more HRs. Luke Voit - can he steal bases? And Gary? How about a new batting stance? And catching stance? And bench-sitting stance?
Why did we think the Yankees need big changes? They won a Wild Card berth. If that awful, horrible, Covid-plagued Phil Nevin hadn't cost them the season - who knows? And wait - our dreams have been answered: Nevin is gone! There's your tweak, right there! Print the wild card home game tickets!
Insert sigh here...
Seriously, what do you say? When we discuss the Yankees, what do our words matter? The franchise faces no accountability from its fans. We can scream from the rooftops. They won't hear it, not over the sound of coins jingling. The media will follow their lead.
O, sure... there will be critics. You can't go 12 years without a world series game - not if you're the Yankees - without a few bad apples on the monthly Zoom. But generally, nobody questions why the Yankee payroll has arbitrarily remained around $200 million for the last decade. Nobody questions the owner's self-imposed austerity. As long as the Yankees compete for wild cards, this is viewed as a successful franchise. Look at Kansas City, folks! At least we're not them, right? (Wait... I forgot... KC won a ring in 2015.)
And for the record, I do believe Aaron Boone is a jolly good fellow, which nobody can deny.
He is not the worst manager ever, and when Food Stamps Hal Steinbrenner blames the players - of course, he has a point. But the core story of the Yankees over the last 20 years has been a fraudulent, self-inflicted cheapness, an overwhelming hubris that always demands scapegoats, and the pursuit of short-term gains over meaningful changes. Boone, with his constant excuses, rationalizes and enables this mediocrity. And so it goes.
One last thing about yesterday's announcement:
I don't think it matters that the Death Barge gave Boone a three-year deal. Brian Cashman's contract comes due next winter, and if the Yankees again fall short - a serious possibility, considering the huge problems on the current roster - I think Cashman will take the bullets and go. He'll get bumped upstairs to a ceremonial job, and somebody new will take over. (Say what you want, I cling to this belief, anyway.) The Yankees will buy out Boone's two extra years. They will become his golden parachute. That's how things are done in New York.
If Cashman goes, so will Boone. Thus, every move Cashman makes this winter will be framed on short-term tweaks. The Yankees have laid down their goals: Next year, the want that Wild Card home field advantage!
Calgon Bath Oil Beads, take me away!
Reading about Cashman's presser, made me think of "It's a Wonderful Life". Yankee fans are being given the chance to see what life would have been like if The Boss had not been suspended in 1990. If that hadn't happened, there would have been no Jeter, no Posada, no Rivera no WS wins. They would have been traded for the 1990's versions of Joey Gallo, The Great Heaney, Anthony Rizzo, (fill in you loser of choice). Those 80's teams were also good enough to win 88-95 games, but never good enough to win a division, let alone a WS. See a pattern here. There is no Stick Michael on the horizon to save this team. So every year will be like Groundhog Day, you already know what will happen.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why, but reading thru this post inspired in me a deep inner need for the IBS lady.
Don’t worry, after losing the alds in 2022 Boone will be fired and replaced by….wait for iiiiiitt… Brett Gardner. Cashman can’t quit him.
ReplyDeleteI've made noises before about giving up on this team, but after digesting this news, there is a deep waaaaay down to the molecular core of being that has truly given up all hope that there will be any other outcome going forward as long as Cashman is the GM. I will of course be a fanboy when things go well next year for a few weeks, maybe even for a month, but there is now a zen understanding (which is FINALLY not pessimism) that this team, under this management, is not meant/or built to truly achieve.
ReplyDeleteI'm finally at peace,,,,,, which means I surrender,,,,,,, which is profoundly pathetic, LOL!!!!!!!!!
Thank the Gods and Goddesses for IIHIIFIIC, really, THANK YOU ALL!
Great post, Duque—but don't kid yourself. Cooperstown is going nowhere. If things go really bad next year, Ma Boone is all lined up to be the human sacrifice, with 3 years' salary to soften the blow.
ReplyDeleteI love ol' Ma, but let's face it: where else on this planet—save for corporate boardrooms—do people get such huge payoffs for failure?
Celerino, I think you're exactly right. Calculating HAL loves Wild Card Contention, and will keep this team right there for as long as possible. Though as all orbits eventually deteriorate, that won't be feasible for very much long.
ReplyDeleteBrooklynites Ken and Joe, I feel your pain. And Dantes, yes, I think you are right on the money with that one. And I suspect Brett will be every bit as good a manager as Bucky Dent was.
I tried to think of something witty or pithy or even illuminating, but I simply revert back to my 20 year old self and say FUCK THEM ALL
ReplyDeleteYour 2021 Yankees don't need any tweaks! THEY MADE THE WILD CARD GAME, DIDN'T THEY?????
ReplyDeleteJimmy, is completely correct. Corporate baseball. This is as bad as the CBS era, which I am too young to remember.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't miss much, Warbler!
ReplyDelete"I don't think it matters that the Death Barge gave Boone a three-year deal. Brian Cashman's contract comes due next winter, and if the Yankees again fall short - a serious possibility, considering the huge problems on the current roster - I think Cashman will take the bullets and go. He'll get bumped upstairs to a ceremonial job, and somebody new will take over. (Say what you want, I cling to this belief, anyway.) The Yankees will buy out Boone's two extra years. They will become his golden parachute. That's how things are done in New York. "
ReplyDeleteI agree. Maybe it's on the Pollyanna side but it makes sense.
That said,
ReplyDeleteThem re-hiring Boone has unleashed the tsunami of Yankee based depression that normally comes with their elimination from the playoffs.
I was ok with their losing because I hoped it would bring meaningful change.
Clearly it didn't and now I have to decide if following a team that short sighted is worth the tremendous amount of time that I spend watching, reading, goofing around with...
I suppose I have until Spring as far as MLB subscriptions go and I'm sure they will do... just enough to fool me again but... I am not a happy camper.
Why's everybody so glum? We talk of the CBS Era or the Fourteen Year Barf as dreaded, but still past, epochs of Yankees history. These are exciting times! We are now in the middle of a living, breathing barf that knows no end and that becomes more voluminous with each passing year! Barf on!
ReplyDeleteRe Doug,
ReplyDeleteI hear ya Brother!
I'm going to continue my boycott of games at the stadium, I'm not sure if that will really doing anything to nudge/budge Hal to truly shake up management, unfortunately that's my only form of meaningful protest,,,,,, but if anything would, a sizable/consistent loss of revenue at the gate might have an impact.
SELL THE F%^&ING TEAM, HAL!!!!!
ReplyDeleteCelerino Sanchez -- You neglected to note that Steinbrenner put pressure on Michael and Showalter to trade Bernie Williams. They concocted a scheme whereby Michael would claim that he had offered him around but had no takers, to which Steinbrenner replied, "I told you he stinks."
ReplyDeleteBarf on, yes. Barf on.
ReplyDeleteMore to the point....now that the Yankees have figured out that their chances of winning a game are better when they put the ball in play, than when they strike out..all Boone has to do ( and Cashman has to order ) is for the players to improve contact with the ball.
ReplyDeleteWhat an insight. Our troubles are over. Hit the ball.