Ever since, Cashman has avoided playful Star Wars imagery. He also stays away from "toxic" social media - (such as us, I suppose) - and prefers the company of friendly Gammonites, who, as the NY Post does today, when describing the last 13 ringless years, puts the words "drought" in quotation marks.
Now, I don't want to nitpick. But I don't think the last 13 years - without winning a world series - constitutes a "drought." I think it's a drought. A fucking drought, actually.
Yank fans love to tout our 27 championships, which make us America's most successful pro sports franchise. But remove the eras of Ruth-Gehrig-DiMaggio - which hardly anybody is alive to remember - and the Yankees, since 1962, have seven world championships. It's the most in baseball - hooray - but not so overwhelming. The Cardinals and Dodgers each have five, Oakland and Boston, four. I mercifully won't live long enough to see the Yankees displaced, but my kids probably will.
Listen: This isn't a "drought." It's a muthafuckin' drought.
And from here, 2023 doesn't look like a drought-breaker.
LeMahiue. Judge. Rizzo. Stanton. Donaldson.
Cabrera. Hicks. Peraza. The catcher (whoever.) Cole on the mound.
Missing were Higashioka and Trevino (WBC and IL), Gleyber (WBC), the gaggle of non-roster left-fielders, a CF (seriously, Hicks?) and Anthony Volpe (destined for Scranton?)
After Stanton, the cleanup hitter, this lineup drops off a cliff - unless you believe Josh Donaldson can turn back the clock to 2019. There are no signs of such a rejuvenation, aside from assurances by Donaldson.
Also, I know it's bad form to look at spring training records. It's stupid, it's meaningless, it's ridiculous, and the Yankees have lost five straight. Old George would throw a fit. We won't, and I suppose we shouldn't.
But here's the reality: We are in a drought. We are a team looking to make the playoffs and then get lucky. Like all the others. We don't look like the glamor team of baseball. And those 27 world championships? Most of them look pretty tarnished.
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12 comments:
I figured with the shift gone that some of these guy's BA would jump 20-30 pts, but I guess when the team SO's 8-12 times a game the shift really doesn't matter. Also why isn't Trey Sweeney playing different positions? The guy can hit so why not move him around. You can't play 5 guys at SS.
I cannot remember feeling more indifferent about the opening of a season,,,,, congratulations Brian Cashman, you have broken me!
Meaningless stat: we're 2-7-1 the last 10 Spring Training games.
How droughty.
These games in spring don't matter...
Ken is correct.
We here are becoming indifferent, which is worse than hate.
We hate Cashman, Hal and the gaggle of toadies that surround him from the press.
I wish Dick Young were alive just to write one article about what a-holes Cash and Hal are and then he can go back to Hell.
The team; I am on the bullet train towards indifferent.
@Celerino Sanchez, I'll believe it when I see it, as far as batting averages going up. I think a lot of these guys suck, can't hit for their lives. If they can't get a hit when half the infield is open, why should we think they'll get a hit when the fielders are playing more normal positions?
And I'm sure that teams like the Tampons will push the rules to the limits and get away with it. They might even have people moving around while the pitch is being delivered. How are the umpires going to police this? Can you say selective enforcement? I don't like the idea of shifts being banned. Seems too artificial to tell a defender where he's got to stand.
@Ken of Brooklyn, I think I've been moving towards indifference for the last few years at least. If management ain't trying to win, why should we care?
@AboveAverage, They are Meat Puppets.
I was thinking last night that this franchise has become just like the KC Royals or even the Chicago Cubs. We might not see another championship during our lifetimes. HAL and his progeny might be shooting for one championship every hundred years, like the Cubs. God save us from the losing ways of HAL, the Yankee anti-christ.
This is the first time a lot of years that, when I look at the lineup, in particular the pitching staff, I don't see a good team. They are OK. Better than many but they fail to inspire fear, awe, or even respect.
The starters are mediocre and quite possibly, bad. The pen is mediocre. There is no dominant closer. The bottom half of the line up looks like well, nothing.
The irony is that their payroll is the highest it has ever been. We rightly complain about Cashman and this year is absolutely some of his worst work yet.
Normally I figure we are good for between 95-100 wins. This year 90-95.
The only thing that can save us is if the starters get Rodon back and then pitch to the back of their baseball card. A phrase, by the way, that people only say when things turn to shit.
No one ever says, of course DiMaggio will hit .300 Just look at the back of his baseball card.
Amen, guys. Indifference it is. This team is the least inspiring I can remember since the "severe drought" years of 2013-2016.
Great piece, Duque. But a small caveat:
The greatest World Series win drought is still the beginning, 1903-1922. That's 20 seasons. (True, there was no World Series in 1904, but the Yanks finished second, so they weren't goin' no how.)
Also, I think the 1979-1995 drought should only be 16 seasons, as the strike canceled the end of 1994, and the Yankees DID have the best record in the AL when it happened.
So...The Franchise Ringless Drought Records:
20—1903-1922
16—1979-1995
14—1963-1976
13—2010-2022
But...not even making the World Series? Those droughts look like this:
18—1903-1920
13—1982-1995
13—2010-2022
11—1965-1975
That's right. When it comes to Fall Classic appearances, we're already 2 years past the seemingly endless, "Dog Days" of 1965-1975. Oy.
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