The ultimate indignity, courtesy of Brandon Lowe, representing the hateful Rays.
Nobody fights a tomato can.
The Yankee Tragic Number - the magic number turned upside-down; it stands for clinching a missed-postseason - now stands at 20.
In the Tankathon, for whatever it's worth, the Death Barge remains tied for 12th with the miserable LA Angels, the team with a half-Ohtani. We should crack the Top 10, if not the top six.
I mean... wow. What a collapse. It's almost Biblical. The Yankees didn't even make it to September. They were done by Aug. 15, the dog days. Back in March, this was a contender. It had the game's best slugger and top free agent pitcher. And it turned into the Spanish armada.
A team whose greatest achievement was in not having a no-hitter thrown against it. (Thus far, anyway.)
Whose greatest moment came from a pitcher on the verge of alcohol rehab.
Who for a whole month played a guy suffering from a concussion, and then we fired the batting coach because the guy wasn't hitting.
Whose manager set a personal record for getting thrown out of games.
Whose DH was so slow - a loping jog - that he could not score from second on a long single.
Who couldn't even shed deadwood at the trade deadline. They just sat and watched.
I mean, wow. Over the years, I've seen wretched Yankee teams. The mid-1980s. The early 1990s. But at least some of those teams brought draft picks, one of which begot Derek Jeter.
This is one of the worst Yankee meltdowns in my lifetime. And apparently, Hal won't even fire the architect... and the sportswriters and broadcast voices, vying for access and keeping their paychecks, will go along.
This is what happens when a franchise owns the media that covers it, and everybody is getting rich by selling the bullshit. Wow.
Duque, the last sentence of your post spoke the raw, unvarnished truth.
ReplyDeleteThis is the worst Yankee season that I've seen (I've been a fan since 1981). For all the reasons Duque mentions, it's worse than the Stump Merrill years, far worse. Because it's become a big joke, pure and simple. A farce. A charade. A Vincent Price masquerade with the Red Death lurking in the shadows, smiling. As Martin Sheen said in Apocalypse Now, "in Yankee Wonderland the bull shit piled up so high, you needed wings to stay above it".
ReplyDeleteYes...that last sentence says it all...
ReplyDeleteThis collapse is SO historic, it should be a subject for a Yankeeography...oh wait, those shows are only for great things that happen to the Yankees...
ReplyDeleteLet's say they fire Boone and hire someone who has a brain. Why not be optimistic?
Well......wait. What is this new person going to do with:
A horrible starting staff, after The Big Kahuna.
An in-and-out relief corps. These pen guys, collectively, remind me of the trotters on which I sometimes wager.....you never know what you're gonna NOT get.
A hobbled superstar outfielder, who will (no doubt) STILL be recuperating from toe surgery on into May. Or July?
A line-up that must apparently, INCLUDE Stanton and EXCLUDE Estevan.
A catcher who (apparently?) looks good to someone or other in a Speedo, but can't hit the weight of a supermodel. And some other mediocre catchers.
Young position players who have made it known to all that they aren't so good.
AND ADD TO THIS: Standing behind the manager is a GM who is a tragic disappointment to the woman who used to stalk him. And he, apparently, pleases the owner beyond comprehension.
Today's task I set myself: Not WHO will they hire, but WHO THE F would take this job?
Summertime when the tanking is easy ...
ReplyDelete"a tragic disappointment to the woman who used to stalk him"...Danny Thomas spit take!
ReplyDeleteAt this point in the season, the 1966 Yankees were 58-72.
Men, we have a shot. Only four lousy games (literally) between us and them.
In the GB race, we've made it to 19 games out. The '66 team finished 26.5 games out. We mathematically have a shot at that, but it doesn't seem realistic. But hey, these are your 2023 New York Yankees. Anything is possible.
Ya gotta believe.
Someone "above" once said something sorta like . . .
ReplyDeleteEVERYBODY stop FROWNING and GRIN !
TO HELL with their never ending SPIN !
A LOSS is NOW officially a WIN!
BOOOO'ING is no longer a SIN!
Hal won't fire the artitect because he is in bed with him. The Yankees are a disgrace. Ed
ReplyDeletePreach, Duque, preach!!
ReplyDeleteWhat you wrote applies to all too much of America today, where business after business, institution after institution, has managed to co-opt its critics or threaten them into silence.
The one power we have with an entertainment? We can go away. I find the Yanks simply too exasperating to watch on TV these days, and I've gone from a 20-game-a-year man some 25 years ago who has now been to the Stadium twice since Derek Jeter retired—both times with this wonderful, motley crew.
You guys are the only reason I would go again...
Hammer, I've been a Yankees fan since 1966, and I agree.
ReplyDeleteThat team finished dead last, but it was mostly because a lot of guys suffered devastating injuries well before their time. The team acknowledged that, admitted it was rebuilding, and by 1968 was turning out clubs with consistent winning records.
The lack of free agency then delayed a quicker turnaround. But at least the Yankees became a winning team and even a contender.
The Stump years were brought about by George reaching full craziness. But fortunately, he was suspended "for life," and with a few years of latitude, some good baseball men made the team a contender again by 1993—and the Greatest Team What Ever Was by 1998, a roster and an organization so mighty that it took years even for Brian Cashman to wreck it.
Now...this team is not only bad and injured, it seems uninterested, and fundamentally does not know how to play the game. It won't turn around without a top-to-bottom makeover. Which would take years, even if they started today.
Joe FOB, that was pretty damned funny.
ReplyDeleteBut you want to know who would take on the job of rebuilding the Yankees?
Any number of terrific baseball men who have done the hard work of making Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Texas, Houston, San Francisco, and other teams into contenders over the years, with much more limited payrolls.
I'm sure they're chomping at the bit to come to the big town for big bucks, and show what they can do with a huge payroll.
You know who else would do it? Derek Jeter. 9/9 is coming!
My thought today is I just want this fucking season to be over.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was over.
ReplyDeleteRizzO however believes that the team is in first place.
That said, I'm a (13) bit concerned that Boone's newest strategy to hit multiple batters on the other team per game is going to backfire.
Maybe . . . Maybe if things get bad enough Boone will do a tantrum-driven strip tease during one of his final post ejactions, "getting his money's worth" cappers that will rival Trump's mugshot as one of the greatest moments of 2023.
One can hope.
@AA..that's right out of Slap Shot...
ReplyDeleteJudge scored on a double from first base. Maybe talk of his surgery is premature. Only one play, but damn if hitting 29 homers in so few games coupled with the rest of his offensive stats show how great he his. Hitting forty homers is definitely doable now. I know, one man, but it's a pleasure to have a player like him on your team, no?
ReplyDelete