Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Ron DeSantis: Bad for the Yankees, bad for America

Posted by Stang at 3:15 PM


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21 comments:

HoraceClarke66 said...

That lack of "fan authenticity" is the same kind that cost Hillary when she was running for senate here.

Everyone knew she had been a Cubs fan. That's all right, all kinds of people in New York are from somewhere else. But then she had to go and say that when it came to the AMERICAN League, well, she was a Yankees fan.

Stop, already! You're not fooling anybody!

Don't know what DeSantis' motive is—just to prove how much he hates New York? Anyway, we won't have to hear from him much longer.

August 16, 2023 at 3:38 PM
DickAllen said...

In other, non-political news, MLB Pipeline ranked the Yankees farm system at #21

I suppose it's comforting to know the Astros are dead last.

August 16, 2023 at 3:38 PM
JM said...

We're 21! We're 21!

Come on, everybody, say it with me...

We're 21!

I think we should have some foam fingers made up. Lots of them.

August 16, 2023 at 3:45 PM
Rufus T. Firefly said...

Either you're a fan, or you're on the bandwagon.

I'm a Yankee fan despite the Horace Clark years (sorry Hoss, but the team was awful), the lost years of the 80's and early 90's and this totally fucked up regime.

I'm also a Raiders fan, possibly the only franchise with worse ownership than the death barge.

I'm also a Lakers fan, but hate LeFraud with a passion. I just don't watch it anymore because it bores me.

Hockey I gave up on a loooong time ago.

I will root for the New York Football Giants, just because a lot of my friends do. Even though it is a futile cause. But, I don't call myself a Giants fan.

Lets face it, all politicians are expedient liars.

August 16, 2023 at 3:58 PM
AboveAverage said...

I’m a fan of invitation only blogs

August 16, 2023 at 5:28 PM
Rufus T. Firefly said...

I have violated Groucho's prime directive. I belong to a club that would have me as a member.

August 16, 2023 at 5:39 PM
Rufus T. Firefly said...

...at least I am just an alter ego. Or id, as the case may be.

August 16, 2023 at 5:40 PM
HoraceClarke66 said...

I don't mind politicians lying about many things because, as Jack Nicholson told us, we can't handle the truth. But when it comes to sports allegiances....!

August 16, 2023 at 7:10 PM
HoraceClarke66 said...

Rufus, yeah, at their worst, those teams were bad:

1965—6th
1966—10th and last
1967—9th

But bad mostly because an unanticipated tidal wave of injuries knocked out a lot of guys well before their time: Tresh, Maris, Bouton, Mantle, Kubek, etc. A bad trade got rid of Boyer, Richardson retired early, Howard got hurt, Ford got old, Pepitone got crazy.

From 1968-1975, the heart of the "Horace Clarke years" (he actually wasn't on the team in 1974-75)? They had losing records 2 years, 1969 (80-81), and 1973 (80-82). They won 93 games and finished second in 1970, and contended from 1972-75.

For many franchises (see the Mets), these would be known as The Golden Years.

And I'll say this: I thought pretty much all of those guys outside of Crazy Pepitone seemed to give it their all, and played up to their potential. While due to the rules of the game, it was hard to turn a team around very quickly (no free agency).

For these guys today...they're out of excuses.

August 16, 2023 at 7:17 PM
Carl J. Weitz said...

Actually, saying that she was a Yankees fan cost Hillary nothing. She won the election and then re-election.

@ Rufus....I went to HS with 2 players that became Oakland Raiders. One was 2 years ahead and the other was in my class.

August 16, 2023 at 7:19 PM
Carl J. Weitz said...

Oh, and one is in the HOF. I think you can figure out who they are.

August 16, 2023 at 7:22 PM
Rufus T. Firefly said...

Carl, you have me stumped. What HS? (I was going to say George Blanda just to be a wise ass.)

Hoss, you are absolutely right. Even though they stunk up the joint a lot, it was easy to root for those team.

August 16, 2023 at 8:13 PM
DickAllen said...

You know, I think I have been looking at Stanton myopically. I’ve been so focused on the one great year he had whilst ignoring his relatively benign production prior to that. My expectations were (and still are) sky high in spite of the fact that he hit 27 the year before that and 27 the year before that. Since coming over, he’s never hit more than 38 in a year, yet I kept expecting him to hit 59 every year. I’ve come to the stunning conclusion that the man is not capable of it. He had one really great year, and that is all she wrote.

August 16, 2023 at 9:02 PM
HoraceClarke66 said...

True enough, Carl Weitz. But it's the sort of thing that adds to a politician's aura of inauthenticity.

By contrast, for instance, Rudy Giuliani always loved to claim that back in Brooklyn, at the height of the Dodgers' popularity, his father sent him out to play in a little Yankees uniform and hat.

This was almost certainly a lie. Imitation major-league uniforms for kids were rarely seen even when I was a kid, 20 years later. And into the 1950s, George Weiss was complaining about Cap Day, because he didn't want a lot of little urchins diminishing the Yankees' "brand."

So I doubt that Rudy ever went out to play in the streets of Flatbush with a Junior Yankees outfit. But just saying he was a Yankees fan, out and out, even when the Subway Series took place, made him SEEM authentic.

As to how authentic he really was...well, let's not get into that here.

August 16, 2023 at 9:17 PM
HoraceClarke66 said...

DickAllen, I fell for the Giancarlo deal, too. I should have looked more closely at his propensity for getting hurt, even then.

But we shouldn't beat ourselves up too much.

Stanton WAS a much, much better player in Miami than he has been in NYC. His OPS in his 8 years there was .914, as opposed to .825 here. And he stayed on the field, MOST of the time—averaging 122 games a year, playing RF in the pre-DH NL. That total would've been higher, had he not suffered a broken wrist—not a "durability" injury.

He led the NL in HRs once, and in slugging twice, EVEN BEFORE THE BIG, 59-HOMER YEAR.

Only one thing could have led one to think that he would do considerably worse than that. And that is AGE. Which is INEVITABLE!

STILL—Stanton was 28 when he came over. Thus far, he's averaged only 86 games a year, which is ridiculous. The Yanks SHOULD have been able to count on him being at least fairly durable, and fairly good through about, say, this year.

But that's not the case. I think Stanton is clearly finished, at 33. Which is a real indictment of how he trains.

August 16, 2023 at 9:26 PM
Carl J. Weitz said...

@ Rufus....Ocean Township (NJ) HS. The brothers John and Phil Villapiano.

@ Horace...Do you know what Rudy's dad did for a living?
Answer: He was an enforcer/Ice Man for the mob and spent many years at Sing-Sing.

August 16, 2023 at 9:30 PM
DickAllen said...

If Rudy walked the streets of Brooklyn in pinstripes, he would never have lived to be mayor

August 16, 2023 at 9:31 PM
DickAllen said...

But Horace, he can benchpress spinners!!!

August 16, 2023 at 9:33 PM
DickAllen said...

Carl, that’s ironic, considering that he made his reputation as a crime, busting district attorney He

August 16, 2023 at 9:34 PM
Carl J. Weitz said...

It most certainly is ironic, Dick. Rudy was always a camera whore and claimed credit for what the SDNY accomplished even though he had nothing to do with most of the cases and busts. Most people in Justice Dept. are career civil servants just doing their jobs and want no notoriety because they aren't interested in running for office and because of the mobsters they pinch. Rudy has always been full of shit.

August 16, 2023 at 9:41 PM
HoraceClarke66 said...

Hey, the sins of the father should not be visited upon the sons.

I'd still like to know how it was that he didn't know his first wife was his cousin, though...

August 17, 2023 at 12:46 AM

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