Just to back up our Peerless Leader's thoughts on Aaron Judge and Juan Soto with a little history—NOT that I would ever back up his continued, reckless tempting of the juju gods WHAT are you thinking, o Peerless One, juju entities, if thou hearest me please smite him and not me thank you very much—Aaron Judge and Juan Soto are, right now, 1 and 2 in the American League in OPS.
(Or as I prefer to call it, SLOB, for slugging average and on-base percentage.)
Sure, you tell yourself, this much have happened all the time in our vaunted history.
No, it doesn't.
In fact, if Judge and Soto were to hold on to those two top spots, it would only be the 6th time in all of our club's history that two Yankees have done it—and the first time in 64 seasons.
The others?
Well, these two fellas, the Babe and the Lou, in 1927 and 1928, then again in back-to-back seasons, 1930 and 1931.
And Mantle and Maris—but only in 1960.
That's it.
That's how rare what we are seeing this year really is.
And Judge and Soto, mind you, are hitting in a lineup with virtually no support around them.
Those Yankees teams of Gehrig and Ruth, of course, were hitting juggernauts, with the likes of Earle Combs, Long Bob Meusel, Tony Lazzeri, Bill Dickey, Joe Sewell, and Ben Chapman on them.
The 1960s Yankees had Yogi, Elston Howard, Moose Skowron, and Gil McDougald on them, among others.
This team? Whatta we got? Well, we ain't got heart, that's for sure. But we do have Flopsie Vertigo, Hammy Cantrun, The Headless Torres, and so much less.
Imagine if some tightwad owner and his idiot GM had let the likes of Gehrig or Maris walk off the Yankees without getting anything in return.
Beyond our powers of comprehension, right? Well, start imagining. Last night on SNY, Sal Licata, Mets fan, was crowing over how great it was going to be that his favorite team would have a shot at Soto in the free-agent market.
Believe it and weep.
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6 comments:
Context just makes the pain worse, Hoss…
I don't know about you folks, but if they don't manage to retain Soto, I'm pretty sure I'm done with the Yankees. Of course, if they DO retain Soto, as Hoss as pointed out here, there's no guarantee that they'll build a viable team around the vaunted duo--which might secure my fandom for another season but ultimately just torture me with a new vintage of mediocrity to add to the shelf next to "2020," "2021," "2022," "2023," and "2024."
Nice piece, Hoss! Especially like the first photo of bat admiration. Never saw that one before.
I wish that Hal would just sign Soto to a long term deal today, on National Financial Awareness Day.
Her deserves 170 million for each of his three dingers yesterday!
Thanks, AA—and from your lips to God's ears. It's crazy this is even an issue.
Are you sure Lyle Overbay and Vernon Wells weren’t 1 & 2?
God help me for this, but I'm verging on optimism.
IF, IF.... Welfare Hal signs Soto we'll have Judge, Wells, who is becoming a very good player, Chisolm, also very good, Volpe, Rice, and Dominguez, along with Soto. All good young guys with the exception of Judge, a great not-as-young guy, and Soto, maybe the best player in the game. No, definitely the best player in the game.
Pitcher or two, couple bullpen cogs and the Yankees could be good for a while. Depending on Soto of course.
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