For the record, the game lasted 3:56 over 11 innings, which, compared to latest Batman movie, makes it - technically - a quickie. Slam-bam, thankyou mam. But it sure didn't seem that way. (Note: I felt guilty about missing John & Suzyn, but radio feeds never synch with the YES broadcast; the NFL offers its fans Manningcasts, why can't the Yankees - with their iconic announcers entering perhaps their final year - provide a simple alternative?)
Okay, back to the game. Look... don't get me wrong... a win is a win, and yesterday was sweet. We welcomed Josh Donaldson and The Hyphen. We got to see Gerrit Cole practically go Will Smith on a comedian. Gleyber came through. El Chapo channeled 2015. At one point, on a called strike three, I actually heard David Cone say, "AND UP JUMP DA BOOGIE!" I wonder what "Show Tunes" Michael Kay was thinking...
But but BUT... sadly, what I will most remember from yesterday were the strikeouts.
Lead by Giancarlo Stanton - (a hero for his HR, despite a four-K Golden Sombrero) - the Yankees fanned 15 times, and Boston chipped in 11. NY drew four walks, the Redsocks, three.
Do the math. That amounts to 39 plate appearances without a ball in play. Overall, the game tallied 78 At Bats (actually 86, see comments) - nearly half of them ending with a batter trudging to the dugout or down to first. Each K or BB required a full complement of pitches. We've gotten to the point where a 9-pitch strikeout is considered a "quality at-bat."
Then there was the relentless pitching turnover: The Yankees used eight; Boston, seven. In 11 innings, Aaron Boone burned his entire (three-man) arsenal of position players. (This, on a 28-man roster.) If somebody blew out his hammy, he'd be replaced by Randy Levine.
Okay, a beautiful day at the ballpark... close game, back and forth... it shoulda been a Yankee Classic. And it was tiresome.
At some point, to save baseball, the lords of the game will have to tinker with the pitcher's mound, or the strike zone, or the basic philosophy of hitting. Right now, baseball is out of whack. In Coney terms: No up-jump-da-boogie.
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14 comments:
You are correct.
Then factor in the ballpark experience.
$16.00 beers and long commercial breaks between innings.
I saw a great game in Atl. last August between Yanks and Braves. The one that went to the last pitch to Freeman with the bases loaded. Perhaps the best Yankee game that I have ever seen in person, BUT those stadium TV commercial breaks between innings are loooong.
Luckily I was with people I LIKE.
BTW, No cash used at that Stadium either. So in fairness to Yanks, it might just be the way now.
Just like video killed the radio star, metrics have killed baseball...
I am so upset this morning .
I just saw in the Daily Murdoch that Cole was upset that the game started 4 minutes late because they had some Ukrainian girl sing her national anthem and Judge is "upset" that the Yanks disclosed that he turned down 30 Mill a year.
Poor boys, I hope that their wives gave them some Bosco before they went to bed last night.
This is a HARD team to like.
Wish the Mick could just bitch slap them.
There were 86 at bats in the game. Walks and the sac fly don't count in the box score. I said during the game the Yanks were already in mid season form, its walk, strikeout or home run. That's today's game. We think it's just the Yanks, but its at least half the league and most of the playoff teams.
Archie,
Sounds like Cole has a little Mike Mussina in him. He was always worse if his schedule was thrown off even by a little.
Or, and I'm sure we've all been there, he mistimed the drugs.
This would explain him coming up short in playoff games. There are always longer commercial breaks, a fancier national anthem etc.
Also - (from my comment from yesterday.)
Bench Hicks and play Judge in Center as often as possible. I'm no longer concerned about his health long term. Gallo-Judge-Stanton with the nonstarter of DJ/Gleyber as the DH.
Great idea Doug k.
Agreed, guys. It wasn't a bad game to have in the background while doing work, but to have one's full attention? Oy. And what's with the "no cash" stadiums? Is it legal fucking tender or not?
And when I wanted to turn on the Mets later to have on in the background, no could do, as it was on Apple++-long division form, and I needed my laptop screen.
It's everything that makes celebrity-driven, dollars-driven culture so damned noxious in the US. Working people need not apply. No credit card you want to run up? No cellphone or computer chops?
Sorry, pal, you're shit out of luck...
...And regarding the aforementioned Battle of the Overpaid Celebrities:
Yes, no reason why the Yankees need to join the promo campaign for Billy Crystal's latest Broadway show, a.k.a., cashing in on a mediocre movie he did 25 years ago.
And...no need for Gerrit Cole to have a Maria Callas-scale hissy fit over it all.
As it happened, I was just reading something about Happy Jack Chesbro, the Yankees/Highlanders' very first ace. In 1904, the pennant race against the Sox came down to the last day of the season. Chesbro, starting his third game in four days (in a season when he won a modern-record, 41 games), was "surprised" by his fan club while batting in the third inning.
They interrupted his at-bat to give him an extended verbal tribute and gifts. Happy Jack was a rather morose fellow (the nickname was sarcastic), but he listened to their whole presentation, and told the fans how honored and touched he was.
He then got back in the box and hit a triple over the Sox outfield.
He lost that day on a wild pitch—after the Yanks' fielders let up two unearned runs on errors, but he made no excuses and blamed himself.
Even so, NYC sportswriters spent years visiting his New England farm after his retirement, to interview him for stories about how he "blew" the big game. Chesbro patiently answered their questions, before going back to the milking and chopping.
I guess multi-millionaire Cole would've killed somebody.
Sadly, in this case, a win is not a win, as the illustrious Duque suggests.
A win is a loss. Every single win that the Yankees get this year is equivalent to another brick in the foundation of Brian Cashman's permanent Yankee contract for life.
Until they start posting historic - epic and major - losing seasons, we are doomed to a lifetime of Cashman mediocrity.
Don't believe me? Think about the past 20-plus years. I'm not inventing this shit.
A win is a loss.
Bitty makes an excellent point! I have to admit that I couldn't shake that thought yesterday,,,,, unfortunately every win now is bittersweet.
The word from the clubhouse is that Cole's eggshell petulance was on full display yesterday because drinking the liter of the new "magic potion" the night before (equal parts egg whites, agave nectar, and fermented yak sperm) had zero effect on the stickiness of his perspiration. It was just a coincidence that his outburst synced up with BC's ceremonial first pitch. It was more a matter of viscosity than vitriol . . .
I have a question for whoever it was who suggest IPTV the other day. (Archangel?)
I used the developer a access to put IPTV Smarters on my Roku. Then I got NikonIPTV, and a username and password and URL to log into.
But while it works on my phone, I keep getting a login error on the TV. And their customer support seems to have disappeared in the couple of days since I set all this up. I even got a VPN in case Spectrum was blocking the IPTV.
Any ideas? Any pointers? Or should I bag the whole idea? By the way, I got an Amazon Fire stick delivered today but haven't tried it yet. Supposedly, this process is easier using that versus Roku.
That's Baseball!
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