Day-after reflections...
1. The best team won. Hands down. The Dodgers showed superiority in every category, including hitting, fielding, pitching, running, spending and cooking the financial books (See Ohtani and Yamamoto.) They are the world champions, and the Yankees can't even blame the umps or juju gods. A wide chasm separates these two teams.
2. This was the Yankees' season, and they blew it. No matter who they sign or re-sign, the Yankees will be worse in 2025. And if they don't keep Juan Soto, they will be much, much worse. There is no cavalry coming.
3. Yank fans will never see Aaron Judge in quite the same way. His failures ran the length of October - a month of Weekends at Bernie's - and that botched fly will haunt him for the rest of his life. Last night will never go away. And the collapse began with Judge dropping a Little League pop. A massive balloon popped. It will never be the same.
4. A different vibe surrounds Giancarlo Stanton, though not necessarily in a hopeful way. He had a great October, which means next year, they'll run him back out there, the same-ole same-ole. We'll ride him downwards like Slim Pickens on the nuke, investing the season on a guy who cannot run. You can survive a week, maybe a month, with such a player. A season? Nope. Doesn't matter. We're going to slog another season on the Stanton treadmill. Exciting, eh?
5. Today, the talk radio hounds of hell will be unleashed. I say, light up those phone lines! Let it rip. Let the anger, the venom, the acrimony become Soto's final memories of NYC and propel him to the Dodgers, or the Angels, or the Blue Jays - anybody but the Mets, who will probably bid highest. (When you think of the makeover, imagine Dorothy asking, "And Soto, too? And the good witch responds, "And Soto, too.") This we know: Food Stamps Hal will not outbid the world for another hitter. This shall be Robinson Cano times ten. A cold, dark era for the Yankees is about to begin.
6. Likewise, Gerrit Cole will never shake the fallout fleas from his failure to cover first base. Jeez. If he runs, if he does what every Little Leaguer is supposed to be taught, the Yankees get out of the inning, and they almost surely win the game. Yes, Anthony Rizzo,should have/could have charged the grounder, but he didn't, leaving Cole to stand there for eternity, a lawn statute pointing to the restroom. What an embarrassment. For the rest of his life, whenever a ground ball is hit to a first baseman, he will think of last night.
7. Food Stamps will feel pressure to fire Aaron Boone, but I doubt there will be any changes at the top. It's sort of a thing with Hal - not seccumbing to fan outrage. And, honestly? I'm not sure it matters. Last night the Yankees simply had nobody in the bullpen that Boone could abuse. (That said, I wonder: What did Marcus Stroman do to piss off Boone, because he seemed a more viable option than Holmes/Kanhle/the cast of Glee.)
8. I'm trying hard not to blame Anthony Volpe. He's just 23, and, clearly, the Yankee future. (Not sure that's a particularly an optimistic thought.) Next season will wrap around Volpe and The Martian, Jasson Dominguez, whose fielding is already the stuff of nightmare. Dominguez looks like 30 HRs and 200 strikeouts. He's not Soto.
9. So, no parade down the Canyon of Heroes, eh? I could go for a Walk of Shame along the Canyon of Feces. Game of Thrones got it right. And John Sterling will never forget his final Yankee game. What a disaster. What a send-off.
10. Damn... I'm just so, soooo tired of the Yankees. I don't think I've felt this sense of Groundhog Day mediocrity since the mid-1980s. What a terrible end to the season. Okay, winter, bring on the cold.
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3rd (and final) Yankee Funeral of 2024 (because they're so bad, one funeral ain't enough, better make it three, as George Thorogood said):
Once they were champions
Once they were fine
Once they were world beaters
Once they were mine
But change has come over their franchise
They don't win for me anymore
Changes...
Victims of Dod-gerrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!
NO ... NO ... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Courtesy of Judas Priest, "Victim of Changes" off their "Unleashed in the East" album)
I don't believe I know of a weaker, less compelling Yankees World Series team. '63? '64? '76? '81? '01? '03? No way. I'm certain I've never watched less of a Yankees World Series in my 42 years of fandom. There was mostly no point. The future may hold even less attention paid on my part--and likely others'.
And:
Now it's the same as before
And you've lost again
With no tomorrow for us all
And no one to blame but yourselves
And closing my eyes
And seeing you losing there
Now it's the same as before
Another disgusting loss
And though you're in my heart
We're still a world apart
As now, I'm back to the time
When I would search for a dream
But no use to try anymore as before
Someday I'll die, maybe then I'll be with you
So I'm closing my eyes
(Courtesy of Fleetwood Mac, "Closing My Eyes")
Thank you all for coming to Yankee Funeral, 2024 version. Please contribute to HAL's trust fund on your way out. HAL appreciates every contribution, whether big or small.
I didn’t even watch last night, it’s just better for my brain. I’m glad this version of the Yankkees is done.
It was epically fitting that the defense was the Boone self destruct button on their Starr Insurance consoles in the 2024 Yankee rocket ship.
It was epically fitting that Judge would make an error to start it all. That Volpe would magnify it. That Rizzo would exponentially multiply it all ... by doing ... nothing. (And that Rizzo would not even be credited for an error.)
It was epically fitting that Rizzo - who played a horrendous defense throughout the playoffs, despite that one great wide receiver football catch over the shoulder style, that Rizzo would be the one, with an assist from Fat Pus-sy Toad Cole, to throw away the 2024 World Series. He didn't actually "throw" it way, of course, he simply ate it. Waited a baseball eternity for a sloooooooooooowwwww groundball to finally reach him ... and then it was too late! Had Oswaldo Cabrera played 1st base, that was a can of corn.
It was epically fitting that Alex Verdugo made the final out of the 2024 World Series. He of the flop-on-his-face in that Orioles game just before the All Star break. It was epically fitting because Alex Verdugo ain't going anywhere. Cashman will re-sign him to a 10 year 150 million dollar contract. Because, as Cashman will put it, Doogie is "a warrior", a "diehard", and will come relatively cheap.
Yeah, that was epic! Never seen anything like it. Once again proving the old baseball adage that every time you watch, you'll see something you've never seen before.
So, although everyone was all fire and brimstone over the lack of hitting, it was the defense that applied the coup de grace.
I hate to pull a Christopher Columbo and say this, but here it is: I TOLD YOU SO!
They played a gold glove RF (and best player in baseball) in CF; a LF in RF; a RF in LF; a 2B at SS; a bench boy at 1B; a 2B at 3B; and a DH/bench boy at 2B. What could go wrong? It finally caught up to them in this World Series.
All true, HOG, including "I told you so.
I have only to add:
NO SOTO, NO PEACE!
The only consolation that I take out of this colossal shit wreck is that The Martian is completely blameless, since he never even got an at-bat or played defense for one pitch.
They were worried about The Martian's defense? I can hear the laughter reaching to the heavens! HOW ABOUT THE DEFENSE AT 1B, RF, CF, 2B, SS, 3B? HOW ABOUT THE PITCHER COVERING 1B ON A GROUND BALL TO 1B?
Duque, I don't think The Martian ever gets a chance to hit 30HR or 200 K's next year. He'll be in the minors almost the entire year, because "his path to the roster is blocked by great players like Verdugo, Trent Grisham, Stanton". Doubtless, Cashman will also bring in a couple of dumpster dive outfielders, 27-29 year old failed 1st round prospects from other teams, to ensure that they can keep The Martian in the minors until maybe two weeks before the end of the season. And Cashman will say "Dominguez needs to work on this, that, and the other thing in the minors. He needs to be 'finished' before we can bring him up. I like my players to be finished before they come up the majors."
Fear not, they will also retain Gleyber Torres. Cashman will ink him to a 12 year, 180 million dollar contract. "He's a bargain at only 15 mill a year. Look around baseball, where can you get that much production for that little money? It's a no-brainer."
Pull back to the view of this event from the M31 Galaxy. The Yankees
a. Did not get swept. They deserved to.
b. Are now 27-and-14 in World Series competition. That's not nothing.
c. If you are weak in math, that's 41 World Series which have featured the Yankees.
d. Vs. the Dodgers, in World Series play, the Yankees have won 8 and lost 4.
e. Yes, that means vs. everyone else, the Yankees have won 19 and lost 10.
None of us will blame Soto for going elsewhere. Then again, look how well that worked out for Jogginson...
So it wasn't the physical errors that ultimately killed them. It was the mental gaffe by Rizzo, with an assist from Cole. They assumed that Mookie Betts would run to 1B like Torres or Verdugo, after hitting a harmless groundball to 1B. They got outhustled this entire series.
It all goes back to the manager. Gotta play the game the right way to have a chance. Half the team loping most of the time? Half the team playing out of position? The baseball gods must be roaring with laughter. You can hear them: "And those assholes thought they could win a championship with half the team playing out of position! A-HAHA-HAHA-HAHA-HAHA-HAAAAAAAAAA!"
Who needs Halloween? Who needs Vincent Price? When you've got a horror show like the second half of that game last night? It was fitting that it happened the night before All Hallow's Eve. When the forces of evil will rule the earth for one night.
Sometimes, you CAN predict baseball.
I don't think the Yankees qualify as the second best team in baseball this year. You can make the case - quite easily - that the Padres, Mets and Phillies were all better teams. The AL was a shit league.
(Of Judas Iscariot) It was said that it was better if he hadn't been born.
(Of the 2024 New York Yankees) It will be said that it was better if they hadn't made the playoffs. They should not have traded for pitchers for Soto. The time to get him had passed. They should've waited for his free agency and made a bid for him. They should've traded Rodon, Cortes, Schmidt, Verdugo, Torres, Grisham, amongst others, at the trade deadline. (First guessing, no hind sight involved.)
"four pitchers for Soto" sorry
Rizzo is too old. His sense of baseball time is way off. That's what happens when you get old. You think you have a lot more time than you actually have. He had to motor there, but he didn't even know it. That wasn't the only bad play he made this World Series or this post-season. He made so many mistakes that I can't even remember them all. There was a mistake per game, at least. And who is the enabler who keeps playing Rizzo at 1B? Exhibit "A" as to why Boone is the worst manager ever in the history of MLB. Next year, if Rizzo is still here, and he probably will be, he'll be the starting 1B again.
✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅
HoG - do not forget that the Ritz's brain is no longer the same - two earth crushing concussions in his career - one in Chicago that no one seems to talk about (although the video is out there and a challenge to watch for hours at a time on the new infinite loop setting) and the Mike Tyson knee to the melon uppercut with the Yankees. Rizzo, who was in the slow and steady decline in the Bronx before the Patella to the Parietal Lobe, should retire. Maybe take Boone with him.
auto correct is being a bit obnoxious this morning.....not Ritz's -> Rizzo's.
In Boone's defense, everything I've heard on sports radio and seen on online blames Cole for not covering first base.
The Dodgers were the best team in MLB this year, but their city doesn't deserve the title:
https://www.newsweek.com/mass-looting-los-angeles-dodgers-win-world-series-new-york-yankees-1977724
Oh, and Soto is definitely gone...
And more crime to see...
https://nypost.com/2024/10/31/sports/la-erupts-into-chaos-following-dodgers-world-series-win/
Rizzo won’t retire outright until he gets his 6M buyout. Hey, I wouldn’t either! What I fear is trashman re-signing him later for about 5 million and chortling to himself about it. They would definitely start him again at 1B despite his obvious decline.
Boone will be back. Maybe Torres too. Soto? In my opinion no, but Steinsucker will certainly weigh the marketing money to be made.
But as Plato (rumored to be a hell of a SS in his own right) once wrote:
“ Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.”
Certainly looked that way to me.
Tits up folks, the way it was always ending. This was no "championship caliber team" - the Astros would have taken them out behind the barn and shot them, probably the Orioles too, but they lucked into the AL Central. Sooner or later they had to play somebody good, just happened to have been the Dodgers but it could have been the Mets, the Phillies, San Diego, probably even Milwaukee and it would have the same. Thinking anything differently was just whistling past the graveyard,
There was a group or two of young LA fans last night in the East Village. And they carried on with the cheering and the whooping and the yelling when the Bums won.
Very poor form. I would never do that if I was in a losing city. It's just...ugly.
Sadly, you are 100% correct.
Duque, astute observations as always. But I don't think that Judge goes down with THIS ship. Yeah, the drain-plug was loosened with his error (first of the year), but the duo of "Cole and Rizzo" was easily the most egregious and fatal of all the mistakes. Judge has built up too much goodwill to be turned into a Buckner. And IMHO, better to let Soto walk, to hell if he wants, before giving Hal an excuse not to spend on pitching and players. Mark my words, if Soto is signed it's unlikely that any of us lives long enough to ever see that Canyon of Heroes stuff.
BTW, Soto isn't even close to being the best player in baseball. Why in the hell should he be paid like one? So he can become Miguel Cabrera in his early thirties?
Kevin, I agree with you 'bout Judge and Soto. Best player in baseball? That would be Aaron Judge.
I'm pretty sure we're in the minority 'bout Soto. Everyone wants him re-signed here. There are two ways they could go. They could go for broke and spend, spend, spend, be the highest spending team in baseball again and go for it. Or they could use their tiny brains and start managing this team better, using their money better, hiring better coaches, and raising the general level of play to a much higher level. I think the latter approach is probably the smarter one. If Soto has to play RF, Judge has to play CF or LF, and that's just not good enough for me. We saw Soto get exposed defensively in the playoffs and World Series. We saw Judge flub a routine pop fly in CF. I want everyone playing his best position. Not this bull shit with everyone playing out of position.
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