Whomever he is, I won't envy this poor lug. He will serve as the final wretched image of a totally rancid season - a year of high expectations and complete disappointment. As the boos rain down like rice at a wedding, it will be small consolation that they are quieter than anticipated, because most of the crowd will have gone home.
Right now, my one hope is that this walk of shame does not involve Aaron Judge. It would be a travesty if the greatest Yankee since Jeter gets booed at the end of his time in New York. He deserves better. But this is our reality: Even if it's Judge walking back, there will be booing.
It will signify the most frustrating Yankee finish since 2004 and foreshadow a looming dark period for the franchise, which drained its farm system for a shot at October - and which came up with nothing more than a glimpse at how other teams thrive with rookies, while ours rot on the vine.
Okay, I should probably hedge my bets and say the Yankees can still win tonight! and then tomorrow! and then twice in Houston! - then sweep the Phillies and their Yank wannabee, Bryce Harper - greatest comeback in history! leading to a cure for cancer and a ban on pumpkin-spiced beer. Theoretically, in the Marvel Universe, or the one occupied by George Clooney and Julia Roberts, this can happen. And I'm the Easter Bunny.
Fact is, we'd be ridiculously lucky just to take this series back to Houston, where the fans won't bother to boo us, because - basically - nobody boos a dead mouse.
For now, my dark hope is that the final Yankee batter is Joggin' Josh Donaldson, who has strangled every potential rally this October, and whose best hit bounced off the right field wall, allowing him to be thrown out for not running hard. (Amazingly, the announcers sided with him, because he high-fived the first base coach? People, this is the playoffs: You run.) The Yankees waited on Donaldson all season. Now, we'll wait on him all winter, and then all next season. Our wait will end 2024, when we can buy him out for $6 million.
By then, God knows where Judge will be, or how Hal's ensuing, self-imposed austerity budget will punish a fan base that he seems to detest.
We'll have all winter to figure out what went wrong, but I must tell you...
Fuck. This one has cut me more deeply than I imagined. This one hurts more than I thought it could. It will be a long time before I recover from this. To be honest, I don't know if I will ever believe in the Yankees again. This one may have knocked me out of the game.
And tonight, though I will be watching from behind my living room couch, you better believe I'll be booing.
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29 comments:
I mentioned awhile back that it's how you play in October...we peaked in May-June, they are peaking now...
The Aaron Judge question to ask is not if the Yanks will pay for him...but If Judge wants to stay in NY thinking that he will never get a ring here...
This is sad. Pathetic. Crummy. Lousy.
I'd rather see the Scranton roster playing at Yankee Stadium than the Yankees. Those guys would probably win a game.
Or maybe the Yanks lost because the roof was open?
I just hope that he players realize that, even though we are booing them, we are really booing Brian Cashman. (Boone as manger, with a three year contract, is on him as well)
In a world that does not exist Cashman brings the line-up card to home plate and is pelted with garbage.
I knew it was over when...
The Yankees drew the Legal Guardians, the easy team, and the Seafarers had been roughing up Verlander in game one and I had a glimmer of hope. Maybe we can avoid the Azztros! But then the Alvarez home run happened. That's when I knew we were going down this path of inevitability.
As always, I am in complete agreement with the esteemed Duque - especially when it comes to Liz Truss after a six of Genny Cream - and does anybody remember Knickerbocker Natural, as an aside? That stuff was cheap at the local Gristides.
The one thing I disagree with, though, is the part about the "looming dark period." MY contention and deep-seated belief is that we have been in that dark period for a good while now and it will continue. My only iota, speck, particle and mote of hope comes from the fact that it has been going on for a while. Mortality being what it is, the main characters will eventually turn to dust, probably long after I have turned to dust, but it's still something to hold onto.
Tonight we play. I still think the players should all drop acid before the game.
The Yankees have become the Washington Generals, perpetual patsies to the Cheatin Stros.
Yankee management, spurred on by the fan base and, especially, the Gammonites, is stuck in a Steinbrenner time warp, unable to shift away from buying veterans late and selling prospects cheap. Egads, Carpenter's deal with the devil expired in June or July, and yet Boone still bats him fifth!
The new winning formula -- see Houston, Atlanta, Cleveland, Tampa et.al. -- invest early in young talent, especially pitchers. Meanwhile, the Yankees trade prospects for sore-arms attached to mediocre veterans.
This is no way to run a railroad.
Some of us forget how the Rastros became the Rastros...they tanked for six years and got great draft choices...meanwhile...we celebrate being over .500 for a gazillion years...
Well said, Tom. And why this state of affairs? Because Brian Cashman is a man with a 115 IQ in an industry dominated by men with 135 IQs.
I think this one hurts more because it's now SO repetitive.
Yes, like Mildred I thought that, going into the playoffs, we might somehow have a chance if enough teams were knocked off. Almost miraculously, the Dodgers, Braves, and Mets all fell by the wayside. And yes, with a couple infinitesimal glitches in the universe, Houston might have lost in 3 to Seattle.
But they didn't. And if they had...I suspect we would have found a way to lose to the Mariners. Or the Phillies.
@Hoss, There is no way, no way that the Yanks would've beaten the Mariners this postseason. I think they had less of a chance against the Mariners than against the ASS-stros.
I watched parts of the NLCS game last night. It was only one game, of course, but both of those teams are better, a lot better than the ASS-stros. They both have lefty hitters, lots of lefty hitters. These teams can hit! Looks like one of them will be the team of destiny.
If the Yanks lose this series, the one hope I have is that the ASS-stros get their butts handed to them in the World Series. Nothing can relieve the pain of losing a World Series.
But, as Captain Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise said to Lt. Spock in perhaps their most perilous adventure, "Spock, we've ... got ... to take ... that ... one in ... ten thousand ... chance!"
First off El Duque its Genny with a G.
Try a Cream Ale, you will like it.
I am not that disappointed, because I saw this coming when I saw that Marwin was going to be our 26th man all season long.. He batted like.105 over the last three months and the braintrust refused to jettison him.
That truly speaks volumes about the mindset.
Keep old broken-down not ever very good players and trade for sore armed pitchers and such.
All of $man's diamonds in the rough turned into zinc. except for Nasty Nestor the common man's POY.
I won't watch tonight because I don't want to see Baboone and this team betray Nestor.
Remember kids, don't give any more money to the Yankees, Hal, MLB or their extremely tedious sponsors.
@13bit, re. dropping acid before the game
They can't play any worse, so why the hell not? Maybe they'll win.
Someone blow the bugle: bap-ba bap-ba bap-ba bap-ba bap-ba bap-ba bap-ba baaa Charge!
Acid is groovy; kill the pigs.
@13bit, And indeed, you're right about this being the dark ages for Yankee fans. Since 2010, management has done its absolute best to fuck everything up. It's one thing to try their best and lose, but it's quite another to put finances and a whole lot of other crap at the top of the priority list. During this time period, winning has not even been on the priority list. Hence, the Yankee Dark Ages.
I don't blame Cashman as much as Boone. He is and has been in the past totally unable to motivate his players with guts and tenacity. The sports are very different, yes, but look what Dabol has done for the Giants. Boone should be fired immediately.
Cashman disinfo alert above. Kay and Curry are leading the charge on YES, scapegoating Boone. Boone's a cipher, an empty suit. He's no good, but who put him there? And left him there? And put together this roster? Cashman's a complete weasel. Injuries hurt the team immensely. That's his strongest explanation. But anti-manager campaigns via company media and coopted "journalists" are disgusting, esp when conducted to deflect responsibility for one's own shortcomings. And that's what Cash is almost certainly doing right now.
Here is the other thing. I hate Hal, and I consider him where the buck stops and ultimately responsible. I do think he is cheap and not rational about his money and I agree with everything that everybody here says about him.
That being said, he does give Brian the shitface plenty to work with. Any other team would do better with the amount of payroll that we have.
And the only reason we have Boone is that he is Brian‘s meat puppet. Brian, like Xi, can only be surrounded by Yes men, no pun intended.
Pilax: Aside from Judge, the players just aren't very good.
Archie,
Genny Cream Ale drinks like warm phlegm. No offense.
Agreed Doug. I want to like Genny Cream Ale. Spend some time in western NY and you feel like you should like Genny Cream Ale, like it's a moral obligation. But it's bad. It just is. The regular Genny's more drinkable. Not good, but not disgusting. Genny 12 Horse Ale is the best. Approaches good beer.
One of the Boone-headed decisions I don't understand is the reluctance to play the natural shortstop and higher-rated prospect Peraza, opting instead for Cabrera and Stopgap-Falefa. Will he do the same next year?
As discussed a million times, Steingrubber will be crying all the way to the bank. The fans are absolutely justified in booing this horrendous and heartless display of analytics driven faux "baseball".
The only answer is to blow it up and start over. And I mean blow it all up, including Judge, who's never had a successful postseason. Spend all the money on scouting and stealing coaches, analysts, executives from the more successful franchises.
This, of course, will never happen. Cashman and Boone will be back next year. Not sure why our generation is cursed. What did we do wrong in our fandom to treated thus?
Doug, the Yankees play like warm phlegm. No offense.
999, I explained all this. It's the deal Col. Ruppert made with the devil, coming due. It's karma, evening up the universe after we had a century like no other.
Hey, I could even stand the Yanks going back to "ordinary." What I can't stand are these annual fall meltdowns.
And as for immediate solution, I agree with everyone here.
Ma Boone, a nice guy but a manager who is neither inspiring nor a good field manager, must go.
Cashman, above all, must go.
And really, it's time for the Steinbrenner to cash in and go, if they are really going to remain this disinterested in the day-to-day operations of their team.
Stasis doesn't last forever. These Yankees will be hard pressed to win anything, I think, going forward. If Judge goes, they are ruined.
According to Commander Ba-Boone, we've got 'em right where we want 'em!
If the Yankees lose tonight, this will be a dream season for Hal.
The Yankees played well early, got a lot of attention and great ratings. ($$)
Judge's home run chase brought TV attention, sold seats at the ballpark and likely sold tons of merch. ($$)
Hal can insist that the Yankees were "competitive," and had a chance if not for those gosh-darn injuries!! We're still on the right path!! No reason the invest more in the minor-league system or a front-line starter.
And Aaron Judge struggled in the playoffs, so when the Mets sign him, Hal can say, "it just wasn't reasonable to spend $400 million for someone who doesn't do the job when it counts." (Oh, and here's a prediction: At least one of Hal's in-the-pocket media stooges will use a phrase like "Judge is no Reggie Jackson" to justify Hal's low-ball offer.)
Hal will laugh all the way to the polo club.
That is exactly what I'm thinking. HAL's dream season is getting bounced out of the playoffs quickly, while still making money. Then saving money during the winter by not signing Judge. And then winning the P.R. war. While preparing to rinse and repeat next year.
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