Thursday, August 3, 2023

Are the pressures of NYC simply too much for professional athletes?

I've said this before, but following the meltdown of Domingo German, it needs to be repeated: 

If you eliminate the financial advantages of playing in the nation's largest market, as the fathers of U.S. pro sports have done, you end up with perennial losers in New York, the city that never sweeps.

It's no coincidence that in the modern era - where billionaire titans of capitalism run their leagues via socialist mechanisms, most notably the salary cap - no NY sports franchise has been dominant.  

The Yankees, Mets, Giants, Jets, Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Islanders, Devils... none has strung together a repeat champion. (Frankly, if you exclude pro soccer, nobody has won diddly, as the graph below shows.) 

If you forbid NYC owners from outspending their small market clones, you leave them at a huge disadvantage. 

NYC peaked in the 1940s and 1950s,
and hasn't won much in this millennium.
 

LA is built around stardom, with winding hillsides devoted to separating Kardashianic wealth from the Mickey Rourkes of poverty. But NYC athletes can never escape the urban stresses that surround them. From hookers to hangers-on, from talk radio boars to blogger geniuses (like us), from street videos to lunatic stalkers, NY stars  face distractions unlike anything experienced in suburbanite Kansas City or Pittsburgh.

I'm not excusing the Yankees for this year's bumbling, stumbling cast of blow torch butchers. Somehow, the front office squandered about $270 million, building a lineup that cannot qualify for the expanded wild card. And German's personal setbacks - this is the third suspension in his rather short career - are his alone. Last I looked, nobody else on this team has such an epic history of self-immolations. 

Still, I wonder: Was throwing a perfect game, and suddenly facing the harsh national spotlight, the last thing he needed? (Certainly, what German needs most is a trade to a small market.)

As long as the Yankees cannot - or, in Hal Steinbrenner's case, will not - vastly outspend their opposition, these will be middling teams. We should not blame this enduring Yankee malaise on Giancarlo Mendoza or Jackie Donaldson - they are merely the result of financial pressures that brought them to NYC. The Yankees eat other teams' mistakes, at their own expense.

In a nutshell, Bud Selig won.   

11 comments:

  1. I can't think about this right now. I have a doctor's appointment I have to get ready for, and then a ton of work to do this afternoon. In fact, I could use a drink...but it's way too early.

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  2. What’s that saying? It’s Five O’Clock somewhere…

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  3. I’m sure German’s problems go back to his childhood, but we should’ve cut ties with him after the DA incident,

    IMO, it’s not NY, it’s the owners. I mean look at Steinbrenner. I mean look at him! Patrician scumbag. Doesn’t give a shit about winning, and that’s a fact. Even someone who wants to win, like Mara, needs to surround himself with good people. Football isn’t like Baseball, but Mara would not long tolerate Cashmans and Boones in his org…

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  4. We needed that win last night for our sanity.

    Four gamer against the ASS-stros. Sevvy is starting on Friday, so that's a loss. Verlfluffel starting on Sunday, so that's a loss. The best that can happen is a split. Chances of getting swept are super high.

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  5. I don't know how many more year(s) Domingo German has before free agency, but as soon as he gets back from this latest escapade, he should be traded. Of course, Cashman won't do it, but what is and what should be have long been diametrics here.

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  6. I think it's fair to say that New York is not for everyone. True for regular folks and athletes alike.

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  7. Adding to the level of frustration we're dealing with, tonight's loss against the Astros will be on FOX. Perhaps we'll have noted Yankee hater John Smoltz in the booth to annoy the crap out of us.

    Tomorrow, the game is on Apple. Which means we'll have their announcers, commentators and analysts to annoy the crap out of us.

    And I think the Saturday afternoon game will be on YES, so we'll have Cashman apologist and team toady Michael Kay to annoy the crap out of us.

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  8. Didja see the news about this little girl flinging a water balloon at a politician -- and hitting his head?

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/08/03/yankees-water-balloon-politician-video/

    She's a NYYs fan. a 5th-grader. There's a video on the WashPost web page above.

    The team sux, but there still is life in the fan base!

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  9. Saw that. She's got a good arm.

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  10. She does have a good arm. I saw that yesterday.

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  11. Tradition or no tradition, if I had done that to a politician of any stripe, my parents would've grounded me for life.

    Also, the Post reporter refers to Blakeman "commemorating" her at Yankee Stadium. The word you want is "celebrating." Holy shit, this guy works fora big city paper? She's not dead!

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