Monday, June 10, 2024

Note to ESPN: There are no "ghosts" in Yankee Stadium. The park is 15 years old. Babe Ruth never played here.

Last night, after the great Aaron Judge blasted a mammoth, 8th inning HR to effectively sink the Dodgers, ESPN played a short clip with - I think it was Buster Olney - and the Captain. The first question: "Do you believe in ghosts?" 

Judge chuckled and said, "Sure."

The follow up: When you're out in centerfield, do you talk to the ghosts of Ruth and Gehrig, Mantle and DiMaggio? 

On this, Judge stammered a deferral, so forgettable I can't summon it. But here is what he should have said:

"No, you fucking dolt. The ghosts of Ruth and Mantle do not roam this stadium. None of them ever set foot in this park. It opened in 2009. That place you're referencing - the one with the history, with the past, with the great moments? - they bulldozed it. They tore it down, sold whatever they could, and troweled the rest onto slow barges to China. 

"They did this not because the old stadium was beyond renovation, but because they couldn't cheaply retrofit it with luxury boxes, for the billionaires and corporations.

"So, they leveled it and built a replica, one that looks like the old stadium - but with a steakhouse and a disco, using hundreds of millions  of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, and they called it "Yankee Stadium," as if it were the same one, and they still pretend that it's the same place. 

"So, there are no 'ghosts.' Ruth and Gehrig never gazed upon this stadium. Neither did Mantle and Maris. Paul O'Neill never played here. David Cone never pitched here. Those great moments before 2009, they happened elsewhere. And the Yankees haven't won anything here since that inaugural season, when the ownership bought the three best available free agents.

"So, recapping here, no. I do not converse with the ghosts of Ruth and Gehrig. But when I'm standing in right field, I'm not far from the Michelob Ultra Clubhouse, and as each game progresses, there are certainly grand conversations to be conveyed."

Insert sigh here.

Sorry to be such a pill. But I hate it, hate it, HATE IT when the Yankees gaslight us into thinking they play on sacred grounds, the House that Ruth Built, with our 27 world championships.

In fact, most of those world series rings came before any of us were born. In this millennium, nearly a quarter of a century, the Yankees are a middling franchise with fewer championships than the Redsocks. 

Which leads me to say, pardon my French...

They better goddamm fucking win this year. 

Right now, the '24 Yankees have their best shot of a championship since 2009. It's time to end the drought. Not only do they desperately need to win this year, but they must then keep Juan Soto and not dismantle the team like the old Florida Marlins. And if Hal Steinbrenner won't do it, a massive and unending chorus must demand a new ownership.

This weekend, the Yankees lost two out of three to the franchise that represents what the "ghosts" of Ruth and Gehrig used to play for. This bullshit about history and 27 world championships? It's starting to resemble those lost empires in a jungles of Mexico, which only show up on ground-piercing radar. 

People, this must be our year. There are no ghosts. There is no mystique. There are merely human beings who wear Yankee clothes. And if we're lucky, maybe someday - a long time from now - some young Yankee star will talk about hearing whispers from the great Judge. In the meantime, ESPN oughta cork the bullshit. 

23 comments:

  1. Yeah...I thought that was a ridiculous question too...

    To put things in perspective, we didn't have all our best pitchers lined up in the rotation this past weekend. We just had Gil. Would have been slightly different if we had Cole, Rodón and Gil...

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  2. ranger - agreed but Stanton and Rizzo in the four and five hole (and I do mean hole) and no Soto was the difference in Game One.

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  3. You tell 'em, Duque!

    Yeah, what a dumbass question that was. Judge is too nice a guy, too even tempered. With my atrocious temperament, I would've exploded.

    As for "[t]hey better goddamm fucking win this year", well, IF they did it right, they'd have a pretty good shot at winning it all this year. But that's just it. So far, they're still not doing it right. Stanton and Torres are still here. Rizzo still an everyday player. Are they going to win a championship with Rizzo, Stanton, and Torres playing everyday, flushing rallies with strikeouts, messing up ground balls? If I was a betting man....

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  4. They should NOT wait 'til next year to bring up the kids. DO IT NOW. Or at least, DO IT SOON, well before the All Star break. Flush Stanton and Torres. Bench Rizzo.

    What this series with the hateful Dodgers showed is that, with Soto out of the lineup, it's once again only Judge that scares other teams' pitchers. The Martian would change that, big time.

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  5. @ ranger_lp, Yeah, but I think Gil is our best pitcher right now. Going on just what we're seeing on the field. Cole put up a good year when they were out of it early last year. He didn't earn Prima Donna Cole status for nothing. Cole and Rodon might've been lit up like Christmas trees this weekend. Thought Nestor Cortes looked bad? Remember the hissy fits that Cole is capable of throwing. And the in-game batting practice sessions of Rodon.

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  6. BTW, Duque, what is a "dolt"? I don't know what it is, but it sure as hell sounds good to call that dumbass questioneer a fucking dolt.

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  7. Lettuce not forget Trent Grisham.

    OK - time to mover on.

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  8. It was also clear that the tech crew at ESPN were using the same equipment and approach that the Apple TV team used to cover the game.

    The giveaway?

    That gawd awful umpire cam.

    Put it on a gimbal mount, increase the quality of the optics and definition and then - when it becomes watchable - throw the damn thing out because it’s awful.

    Thank you for listening.

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  9. I will never again set foot in that atrocity.

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  10. I didn't consider it possible, but the networks are actually getting worse (MUCH worse) in their coverage. More ANALytical/marketing nerds speculating that everyone wants what their gaming league of mommy basement boyz want. Then we get this garbage.

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  11. Hammer -

    Dolt

    noun
    A stupid person; a dunce.
    A heavy, stupid fellow; a blockhead; a numskull; an ignoramus; a dunce; a dullard.

    Which is why Dumb and Dumber should have played in adolt theaters.

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  12. Keefe on fire today:

    “The weekend series against the Dodgers was the Yankees’ version of It’s a Wonderful Life starring Soto. Every Yankees fan was treated to a glimpse of life if the Yankees hadn’t traded for Soto and what life will be like without Soto if the Yankees don’t re-sign him. The result: the 2023 Yankees.”

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  13. AA....when it comes to camera mounts, I much prefer Macy's to Gimbals.

    Good post, El Duque. I can feel the anger dripping in your words. I like it!

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  14. Yankees say it's Soto's forearm. Soto says elbow.

    We are doomed.

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  15. If ESPN corked the bullshit, they'd have a lot of dead airtime. Bullshit is easily 60-70% of their programming and content and game coverage.

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  16. If i may get out of my lawn chair, and put down the can of Bud, I'll tell you what drives me crazy during these telecasts. You know what drives me crazy? The miked up outfielders. I am waitng for the day someone asks them a question they really have to think about at the exact time a line drive is heading over their head and they are trying to talk and catch a ball while figuring out what base they have to throw to. Years ago, Bam Bam Meulens had a mike in the dugout and the Yankees got fined for it when he fielded the broadcaster questions. I could live with it if they got a bit more challenging with their questions "Why do you wear that ostentatious gold chain? (Let him figure out what ostentatious means). Or, 'Why do your your teammates and your bland West Coast cronies do stupid dances whenever they get a hit."
    Or, do all of you guys bet on baseball or it just the DH?

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  17. When Duque posted "not dismantle the team like the old Florida Marlins" -- my immediate thought was: Assuming they (Hal/Cashmonkey) have been trying to win since 2009 (with the results we have seen) . . .

    . . . maybe it would work better (for us) if they TRIED to dis-mantle the team.

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  18. Here's a fun nugget on Judge...

    Aaron Judge has hit .399/.520/.957 (1.477 OPS) in his last 40 games.

    The last Yankee to put up a 1.470+ OPS in a 40-game stretch was Babe Ruth in 1930.

    No other Yankee, aside from Ruth and Judge, have done this.

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  19. Yankee Daddy - Yes. What you wrote X100!

    ZacharyA - Welcome back. We've missed you.

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  20. AA, great point. What is with the press that greatly ignores Judge? He's been the best, or damned near the best player in MLB when he's had healthy seasons. Yet he's way behind Ohtani who is deemed the the "New Ruth", which is laughable. Hell, Soto, as great as he is gets way more press than Judge, and so far is not really in his class. What, has press coverage purely about demographics? I read a lot of websites, blogs, and other publications and I am dismayed at the lack of print that Judge generates. You'd think that sportswriters don't realize what an amazing talent that Judge truly is... Uhhhh, oh yeah, they write what their analytics tell them to. Sports (and the sports media) has gotten to be truly sickening.

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  21. Amen, Yankee Daddy! And fucking brilliant, Peerless Leader.

    ZacharyA, great stat, and great to see you back.

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  22. Agreed, Kevin, but not sure why it would be about the demographics. After all, Judge is a mixed-race orphan—about as perfect a demographic as one can imagine.

    Soto gets more press because he's such a live wire—hey, no complaints; exactly what this team needed—and Ohtani because MLB is so idiotically desperate to Build A Better Babe.

    Can't be done. Ohtani's terrific—but he's a DH who sometimes pitches. That's all.

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