Stand-up guy.

 

No doubt, that will be the take in some places, after Brian Cashman's Punxsutawney Phil-like emergence yesterday to face the media over what he himself called the Yankees' "disaster" of a season.

In fact, Cashman was, as usual, more of a stand-up comic than a leader, making sure to tell the assembled sporting press:

"I think we've got a pretty good track record here. We've had a real good run of success. But this, at the same time, is not an easy sport. Nothing is guaranteed. So I guess I would counter, I don't think there's anyone on this planet that felt that the New York Yankees weren't a playoff-contending team.  I wouldn't say anybody on our roster, anybody on an opposing roster, or anybody in this room in the media—I doubt there's anybody that predicted that we're not a playoff team."

Ah, Brian, you crack me up!

First, Mr. Cashman has obviously NOT been reading this blog, sad to say. 

But let's unpack this a little:

"A playoff-contending team"??? 

Since 6 teams—or 40 percent of the league—now make the playoffs, what exactly does this even mean? In fact, the Yankees have been a playoff-contending team this year...and so what? 

As the estimable John Jastrzemski was saying last night on SNY, being a "playoff contender" wasn't supposed to be what the Yankees are all about. They are supposed to be a World Series contender. 

But that, as we've been told, is all a crapshoot. 

I also I love how many people Cashie includes in his "J'accuse" statement here. "Anybody on this roster"? Right, it very much matters what Oswaldo Cabrera thought about the Yankees' chances this year. "Anybody on an opposing roster"? C'mon, fess up, Timmy Anderson! You thought the Yanks had a chance to make the playoffs.

Far from "standing up," all that Cashman was trying to do was spread the blame here. To say, "You're no smarter than me, you media types, what with your suggestions that we have a left fielder and a third baseman and everything. So there."

All in all, though, Cashman's comedy was a fairly predictable meal of buck-passing, garnished with false promises of future "evaluations."

What really has me worried was Ma Boone's statement:

"It's all-consuming. That said, you always try to have a level of perspective that I certainly do in my life. School's getting ready to start, a couple going off to college and trying to be as present as you can be there, too. So you do try and separate, and I think I'm decent at it."

"Try to remember the kind of September

When life was slow and oh so mellow...

Try to remember the kind of September

When you were a tender and callow fellow

Try to remember and if you remember 

Then follow, follow..."

Uh, Aaron? You okay, man?