Sunday, January 9, 2022

Imagine

 









Imagine there's no Manfred

It's easy if you try

Imagine no HAL or Cashman

Or that awful Lonn Trost guy...


Deep down inside, there is a small, anarchical part of me that hopes the MLB lockout is never resolved. That it goes on and on, until the entire, rotten structure of the sport we all love falls apart.  


...you may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only fan...


Oh, I don't mean an end to baseball itself, because that will never die. 

I mean an end to "major-league baseball," to "organized baseball" as we have known it. Before it goes on mindlessly destroying any remaining interest in the sport. Before it goes on killing still more of the many things we love and value—the minor leagues, extra innings, municipal budgets, reasonable ticket prices, etc.

I think I can safely say that I am as enthralled as the Yankees' legacy as anyone on this site. I have wasted ridiculous amounts of time in my life reading about it, watching shows about it. Writing about it (and WHAT a waste THAT was, I hear you saying).

But you know, I really wouldn't mind wrapping that legacy up right now, and going on to something else.

All we have to look forward to with your (and my) New York Yankees is years, probably DECADES of one awful Steinbrenner heir after another playing the fascinating game of Salary Cap At All Costs.  

Just picture it.  DECADES of wondering if we can be one of the 12 or 14 or (someday) 20 teams to make the play-in playoff round. 

Oh, the excitement! Be still my heart.  

And then there is the ever-diminishing excitement of the MLB product itself. An endless succession of strikeouts and walks, punctuated by towering home runs celebrated for their "veto." 

A baseball where nobody can pitch more than 3 innings, or do anything but throw hard.  

A baseball where the prices keep rising, while more and more money is extorted from the public till—and the entertainment value keeps dropping.

You know that's the future.

What if it wasn't? What if the MLB lockout is never resolved? 

What if the grand and glorious history of your New York Yankees was enveloped in amber and put away in some sacred place where we can revisit it and honor it from time to time—and then we could all start over? 

Baseball isn't going away. All of those taxpayer-subsidized parks aren't going away. And of course, MLB won't go away. 

But would its presumed, all-scab league actually beat out whatever league the players came up with? Or that our cities, taking over, decided to build?

Picture a future with major-league-quality teams still in the Bronx and Queens—but also in Brooklyn, and maybe Staten Island, in that park the Yankees are trying to dump back on our heads.

Picture teams in every city owned by the people, just as the Green Bay Packers are in football. Picture the minor leagues up and running, everywhere—and who knows if they'd even be called "minor leagues"?

Who is to say? 

My friends, to quote that great New Yorker, Thomas Paine, "We have it in our power to begin the world over again."

Why not seize the moment? 

...Maybe some day you'll join us

And the sport can be fun again...

















12 comments:

  1. Right about now they are forming arguments over the betting money...

    Breaking news...

    Rachel Balkovec will manage the Low-A team for the New York Yankees this season, making her the first female skipper in affiliated professional baseball, according to a report by The Athletic.

    Balkovec, who joined the Yankees as a minor league hitting coach in November 2019, will lead the minor league Tampa Tarpons, according to The Athletic.

    A 34-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska, Balkovec was a minor league strength and conditioning coordinator and coach for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2011 to '15, then switched to the Houston Astros as Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator. She's also worked with the Dutch national baseball and softball teams.

    https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33031319/report-rachel-balkovec-manage-new-york-yankees-low-minor-league-affiliate

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, when you go Dutch, you go much. Or something like that...

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  3. What's next? Hiring belly dancers to replace strength and conditioning coaches?

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  4. Considering the Yankees' injuries over the past few years, they couldn't do a worse job.

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  5. Well, I feel much better about the Yanks now that they passed up literally 1000s of former professional baseball players to hire a person who has worked on the Dutch national baseball team, cuz, you know , the Dutch are the new DR for baseball.
    Well at least the Yanks can now appeal to all the woke 20somethings with this diversity and inclusion hire cuz , you know, that was all they needed to make them love baseball,
    I think that she did play college softball and was a catcher. So there is that qualification.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She’s another driveline hire with more history of coaching than Boone had when he got hired.

      Delete
    2. Things Rachel Balkovec has done:

      Strength and conditioning coach in the Cards minor league system in 2012
      Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator (she’s fluent in Spanish) for the Astros
      Same role as above with the Corpus Christi Hooks
      Played catcher for both Creighton University and the University of New Mexico
      Degree in exercise science
      Master’s in sports admin
      A second Master’s in biomechanics
      Fellowship with Driveline
      Minor league hitting coach with the Yankees

      Delete
  6. Weeping, Hoss...weeping.

    My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my brother thanks you, and I thank you.

    God bless America, and god bless John Lennon.

    And oh yeah, fuck Hal...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Poignant and all too true. Preserve it in amber and put it away.

    There's a reason that there are eras in sports.

    Sadly, the next era is the Gambling Era. After all, if your home team is committed to profits over product and Draft Kings makes it easy to create your own dream team, then it is only natural to shift your allegiance to self. You get a measure of control plus the benefit/cost of your decisions.

    Like I said above, SADLY.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you, Bitty—and well-put, Doug K.! I worry about the same.

    All professional sports seem to have turned themselves over to gambling. Yeah, what could possibly go wrong? Professional wrestling awaits.

    Really, I love the Yanks' history. But if it all ended tomorrow, I wouldn't kick. We won't see another champion in the Bronx in our lifetimes—unless it's that soccer Team With No Name.

    I say blow it up!

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  9. Dantes - Thank you for posting that. You should repost it in the thread about her hiring.

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  10. Horace...thanks for waxing eloquent.

    I want a hot dog. Happy New Year.

    Maybe the USMNT makes it to the World Cup and we can watch that. Speaking of strikeouts....

    ReplyDelete

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