Courtesy of Peter Golenbock's fine history of the Yankees, 1949-1964, Dynasty:
ALLIE REYNOLDS
"When Kiner or Greenberg was over at Pittsburgh, they didn't have a good ball club, but they had that one big guy, and when some pitcher gets in in the late innings and gets runners on base, and then lets the big guy hit one out of the park, he's got to be the stupidest son of a gun that ever walked down the pike. Walk him. If they beat me with three singles, I can accept that. I was outdone. But just to say, 'Here it is. Hit it out of here.' You have to think."
"It's not like I'm thrilled about [the errors], but I'm looking at it as an opportunity to pick the guys up. You don't want to be in that situation all the time, but it's inevitable that you'll be there, so it's like, 'Let's pick somebody up.'
"It would have been nice to get out of that jam. It's just unfortunate."
The incredible thing is that Cole pretends to be some kind of pitching guru. They always show him talking about pitching with the other pitchers. He's always got the catcher by the lapels, telling the catcher what he wants the catcher to call or which side of the plate to set up or whether to set up high or low, in this situation or that situation. Cole is always making like he knows exactly what he's doing. Dictating terms to his rapt audience, like he's some kind of General Patton on the pitcher's mound.
ReplyDeleteWell, he obviously can't tell horseshit from his oatmeal. Because if that wasn't about the 567th mistake that he's made since he's been here, I'll be a donkey's uncle.
I heard an interview on the radio once. Might have Jerry Coleman that they were interviewing. And he said that his years with the Yankees where they were winning championships left and right were not that enjoyable, contrary to what many people seemed to think. Instead, he referred to it as the daily life and death struggle.
ReplyDeleteAnd he said something about how everyone on the team was scared to death of making a mistake because Allie Reynolds might beat them up after the game.
And how a rookie pitcher once made a mistake in location, throwing a pitch on the inside rather than on the outside corner, where the catcher was set up. And he said that, after the game, Joe DiMaggio took the pitcher aside in the locker room and told him "we don't make mistakes like that here, this is the major leagues".
Winning ain't necessarily fun. While you're playing, that is. After you've won is when you can enjoy it. While you're playing, you better have your whole existence 100% dedicated to getting it done. That's what you're getting paid for. That's what the fans come to see. That's (hopefully) what you're playing for. This is the meaning of being a professional athlete and trying to win every single game, every inning, every at-bat, every pitch. If you want to be a winner, you can't take off here and there.
Well said...
DeleteThat's a great story, Hammer, thanks, I had not heard that!
ReplyDeleteReynolds always seemed like a more amiable guy than that, but very smart, became an oil executive, I think, after his playing days.
Raschi and Lopat looked and sounded even more intense. And they thought about the game, all the time. They all talked like this. Lopat and Reynolds used to strike up conversations with hitters on other teams, just to get to know what they were like. Not about hitting per se, according to Reynolds, because then they'd be on to you and try to set a trap. But just to get an idea of their personalities.
Impossible to think of any contemporary ballplayers doing that sort of thing, save maybe Jeter or some of THOSE Yankees. I think part of the difference, as always, is the money. Players of that generation could literally double their salaries, sometimes, with a World Series win. And retirement often meant driving a truck for the next 30 years.
But as you say, if you're not going to put that sort of intensity in it, what's the point? Why should anyone care? MLB seems to want us to just come and enjoy the "spectacle"—which is half ads and braining-bouncing music by this time. No, thanks.
Cole talking to the other pitchers: "We make mistakes like that all the time. This is the major leagues, and I'm making so much money, who gives a fuck?"
ReplyDeleteAce.
LOL JM!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAccording to baseball-reference.com -- the Yankees are on the hook for
-- $36M/year to G Cole for the 6 years starting 2023. $216M
-- $159M to G Stanton thru the end, including the $10M final-year "buy-out"
-- $29.7M to Donaldson for '23 and '24 ('24 includes $8M team buy-out)
-- $31M to A Hicks (includes $1M buy-out for 2026)
-- $60M for the next 4 seasons to General Lemay
I noted that Chapman has no years left on his contract. Neither does Jameson.
- - - - -
That's a lot of money. If you look at it, all that dough does not seem to buy the NYYs anything much . . . and it's impossible to believe any other team would be idiotic enuf to take even ONE of these guys off our hands.
No wonder Judge is gonna have to walk -- not much left for him, is there? If he stays for big money, he's gonna be playing for teams that go 72-90 for the next few years... whereas maybe he can get big money elsewhere and play for a competitive team.
Again HOW has Cashman not been fired
DeleteAce my ass. The next time someone brings up the ONE game he pitched great when called upon, in Houston, in 2021, I swear I'll kick them in the nuts. That's the only goddamn time he earned his salary. Fuck him and his one-inning "mistakes".
ReplyDelete"We make mistakes like that all the time. This is the major leagues, and I'm making so much money, who gives a fuck?"
ReplyDeleteExactly - and Cole went out of his way on Sunday not to autograph balls in the sweet spot.
Even for the kids . . .
Because IF he did that then they'd be worth something . . .
Yep, too much dead wood here. Colossal millstones everywhere, dead albatrosses.
ReplyDeleteIf you think about it, however, other teams don't seem to have any trouble clearing out these kinds of onerous contracts. Boston got rid of a ton of fat, a long time ago, and they ended up winning one in 2018.
Not only does Brain Cashman lack the ability to move these dead weights out, I don't think he wants to either. Probably something to do with HAL's finances. Once a dead weight is signed, he stays until the end of the contract. No matter what.
They even do similar stuff in the minors. For instance, when they signed Hoy Jun Park, and then found out that he wasn't good enough to be a major leaguer, for some reason, they hung on to him for seven years before they traded him for Clay Holmes. Why would they hang on to a guy for that long? Did it take them that long to assess the player's abilities? Or was it something to do with finances? Either way, that's obviously not the way that a winning franchise operates. If it takes seven years to get rid of a minor leaguer, what hope do we have that they'll dispose of any dead weight on the major league roster?
The Astros did not go to rested Cole in the 9th in gm 7 of WS when they had a lead. They knew.
ReplyDeleteCertainly makes the case for firing Cashman, not that its going to happen. But Jesus, if I did my job as bad as does his, I’d be out on my ass right quick.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, with Park, it's the usual thing. These guys stick around long enough, to the point where they are older and run up batter stats—Park, at 25, was finally hitting in Scranton—and then he can trade them for something.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, always this crazy stubbornness. The refusal to give up on Vazquez, or Nick Johnson, etc.
ReplyDeleteHarold doesn’t own the New York Yankees. He’s in the SPORTS BUSINESS. That’s why he and every one of his cronies are snapping up European football teams. They recognize the incoming tide of money from a global phenomenon that is slowly swamping America.
It doesn’t matter whether the Yankees are winning championships. The only thing that matters is ROE, the bottom line, INCREASING PROFIT. European football is the new wave. Fucking Ryan Reynolds’s bought Wrexham, for fuck’s sake. That smarmy little bastard doesn’t even like football: to him, it’s just another investment. He’s a carpetbagger.
The Interlocking NY is popular EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD. Even to people who have no idea what it means. To Harold, it only means BRAND IDENTITY. Nothing else. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t really care about baseball or the Yankees.
This is a lamentation that THOSE OF US WHO ACTUALLY CARE have every off-season. It’s just starting earlier now that our beloved Yankees are circling the drain.
All that money invested in the aforementioned mediocrities is only the cost of doing business. Cole and Giancarlo are write-offs.
I believe the Dodgers are one of only four or five teams that actually believe in winning baseball. The rest are just in it for the money. And there is a lot to be had. Harold, as much as he can go fuck himself for not caring, can’t really be faulted for this mess. He is only following the prescription he learned at Harvard or wherever the fuck he got his precious MBA.
Aaron Judge, if you are reading this, please skip Cashman. Do not return his calls. Insist on speaking with Hal. Once you do, give him an ultimatum: you or Cashman. Please. You're our only hope.
ReplyDeleteWhat Publius said.
ReplyDeletePlease! We beseech you!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'd like to see Judge turn down the Yankees offer and take less money to play for a team dedicated to winning.
Let's face it: as much as we might beg and plead, Harold is NEVER going to fire The Intern. He's got a job for life.
ReplyDeleteIt is the JUJU way of totally fucking with us.
Some of these guys who spend an eternity in the minors roster fillers. It seems unlikely that any minor league team has a roster full of guys who have even a tiny chance of making the Majors. Hoss, you're forgetting that Nick Johnson was every thing you'd want in a player, he even played a great first base. Unfortunately he was cursed with the possibly the worst connective tissue and bones of any person who made it into adulthood.
ReplyDeleteWell said, DickAllen! And I'm sure it's hard for Hal to care much about a team to which his father probably lent much more time and attention to himself. But I think he could be surprised at how fast the Yanks' brand goes down the tubes if they REALLY stop winning.
ReplyDelete09/01/22 New York Yankees activated SS Marwin Gonzalez from the paternity list.
ReplyDelete09/01/22 New York Yankees recalled SS Oswald Peraza from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
Yeah, Kevin, and I guess you could say that Park paid off, in the end.
ReplyDeleteAs for Nick Johnson, yeah, I had high hopes for him, too. He was an OBP machine, with some pop. Sure, I started calling him "Sling Vlad" after he managed to get picked off third in a World Series game, but he had great potential.
Thing was, Cashman just never lets go on these guys who he thinks are "his" acquisitions or special projects. Not sure why he thought that about Nick, who was in the Yankees' system for a while. But I think that's why he kept insisting on bringing back the likes of Vazquez, or actually signing Tulo.
Wasn't Johnson the key Yankee in the Vazquez deal?
ReplyDeleteHe was indeed, Kevin. And I thought it was a shrewd deal at the time.
ReplyDeleteJohnson already looked injury prone, the Yanks had Giambi, and they had to do something to replace the 700 wins Cooperstown Cashman had let walk off the team in the form of Clemens, Pettitte, and Wells.
Vazquez was only 26, and he looked classically like one of those guys who had not become a 20-game winner only because he was playing with a mediocre team. On paper, I can't blame Cashman for that trade. And sure enough, through July 9th, 2004, he was 10-5, 3.56, with nearly 100 Ks. Not superstar level, but very solid. Pitched a scoreless inning, striking out 2, and got a "hold" in the only All-Star game he ever made.
Then...the bottom fell out. First start back from the break, he got bombed by Detroit, 8 earned runs in 4 1/3. He had some good starts over the rest of the year, but he could never put a string together.
Postseason, he had one start, gave up 5 earned in as many innings to Minnesota. Made only 2 relief appearances after that—got the win in that 19-8 slog over Boston (despite surrendering 4 earned in 4 1/3), and then, Game 7...
Yanks moved him on as part of the Randy Johnson deal, but he stunk it up there, too, then in Chicago. Finally had a good year with the White Sox—then a bad one—then a good one in Atlanta, and Cashman decided he was back...
On paper, at least, I can't blame Cashman for making this deal—unlike some he's made (looking at you Frankie Montas, we knew you stunk from the stat sheets!).
ReplyDeleteBut when there are so many bad pitching deals, in particular, you begin to wonder when Cashie ever goes BEYOND the stats. Isn't he supposed to be able to do that? No?
Uh-oh. Boone's starting to give way. Here was a comment on Michael Kay's show, regarding Falafel:
ReplyDelete"The internal numbers we're looking at . . . he's been in the Top 5 to 7 SS in the game defensively this year"
And Rizzo stayed in CA for "injections" to his back. About which, Boone is optimistic:
ReplyDelete"There's a chance he can get an injection and miss this Tampa series potentially, but the prognosis is really good for him."
Hey, he might miss the World Series, but things are looking up for him.
Yeah. Look out, he's gonna blow!
If a Yankee player sneezes on the field, it might throw Cole off.
ReplyDelete@DickAllen "I believe the Dodgers are one of only four or five teams that actually believe in winning baseball. The rest are just in it for the money."
ReplyDeleteI think you're right! And unfortunately, the Yankees are no longer one of those four or five teams that are trying to win. The Yankees have become one of those franchises that we used to sneer at and ridicule.