In a horror movie, you make bad decisions. It's what you do. It's been running for 10 years, a Halloween classic akin to Elvira, the Great Pumpkin and Simpson's Treehouse of Horror.
Lately, I've wondered what kind of movie the 2024 Yankees are writing - because of their bad baserunning decisions.
Okay, lemme back up. This is no time to whine about Boone, or the umps, or anybody's contract. This might just be the best single week of 2024, four off-days leading to the world series. We haven't lost a game. We haven't stranded a runner. Why am I ragging about botched steals and pickoffs?
It's simple: If you're a Yankee fan, you rant and rave. That's what you do.
Sorta like the Presidential election. Everybody wants it to end, but what follows might not be so nice. Someday, we might look back on mid-October, when we were enjoying a heat wave and an iconic world series - and wish we could go back. But that's another thing. For now, it's all about running the bases.
In recent weeks, we saw speedster Jose Trevino get thrown out at third. We saw the plodding Gleyber Torres get nipped at home. We saw Jazz Chisolm get picked off second. We saw Anthony Rizzo get - well - here's how John Sterling called it...
“A bouncer. And Rizzo is going to be picked off! He’s in the middle, between second and third. Tagged out. End of inning. Boy, if that’s not the Yankees! That’s what they do, run the bases like drunks.”
Yep. That's what he said. That's what they do. In 35 years of listening to Sterling, I have never heard him compare the Yankees to such a thing. They "run like drunks."
One other thing, can you imagine what we'd be writing if Giancarlo Stanton been thrown out, attempting to steal second? It turned out well, and we'll have all winter to laugh about it, but would he dare try it again?
Look, I write this in the hope that - by saying it aloud - it will come to pass. I mean, what are the odds that we predict something, and it happens?
I guess the question is simple: Are we in a horror movie? The answer? Dunno. But we are definitely running toward that barn full of chainsaws. It's what we do.
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21 comments:
Many horror movies have pleasant beginnings.
RIP Fernando. Only 63. He had a hell of a scroogie.
Fernando? I had not heard.
Keefe has said it all.
https://keefetothecity.com/yankees-alcs-game-5-thoughts-ballgame-over-american-league-championship-series-over/
Grant Brisbee, on The Athletic site:
"Every October, I warm my heart by thinking about Fox executives who lie awake at night, worrying about a Cleveland Guardians and Milwaukee Brewers World Series. These chuzzlewits and pecksniffs aren’t thinking about the excitement a pennant would bring to the areas that haven’t enjoyed enough of them (or any of them at all). They’re not thinking about specific matchups and baseball-related quirks. They’re thinking about eyeballs and star power."
I have never heard those two words before, but I feel enriched having encountered them.
In the meantime, The Intern is explaining to the Daily Murdoch the real cause of the Yankees failure over the past fifteen years:
“I hate the 15-year thing because it completely forgets and discounts that some other organization cheated us when we were already in the end, if you knew what was going on, I don’t think they would be advancing during that time thing, I think we would have been advancing”
And even better:
“I hate that 15-year thing because I don’t think it accurately reflects history.”
And he's right. It doesn't reflect the fifteen years of your consistent incompetence. That and the fact that this Yankees team is horribly flawed and has only made it to the world series because the competition to get there was even worse.
This asshat can't even fess up to his own shortcomings. It's so much easier to blame anything else than to take full responsibilities for your own inability to produce and nurture talent.
I think they're both from Dickens, JM, as are so many marvelous words. But I'm not sure. But I find that comment rather oleaginous: once again, the NY Times worrying about the poor, poor fans in other cities, "who haven't enjoyed enough" pennants.
This era has more parity in professional sports than any time that has gone before it, with all sorts of "small market" franchises winning it. More would have won it, but their management is incompetent—or, all too often, perfectly content to take the enormous revenue sharing payoffs that cities like New York generate, then not put a decent team on the field.
And as for "specific matchups," he doesn't like Judge-Ohtani, or Soto-Betts, or Cole-Yamamoto? Yeah, I'm sorry we can't have the Guardians-Brewers middle-reliever showdown.
Speaking of Ohtani: no full-time DH should ever be named, "Best player in the game."
Before, Ohtani was the greatest thing since sliced bread because he could pitch and hit like Babe Ruth. Now, he's the greatest thing because he can hit...and sit on the bench. O-kay.
And yes, DickAllen, you haven't heard the half of it. I just had to read an entire book of Cashman apologia, Andy Martino's "The Yankee Way." Oy. What a lesson in today's "journalism" and office politicking. I'll tell you guys more about it later—whatever you do, PLEASE don't go buy it.
Aha, Martin Chuzzlewit. I had totally forgotten that book. Never read it. Now I might have to.
Thanks for the tip, Hoss. And DickAllen, those intern quotes made me want to vomit in my mouth. Everything is right there in those quotes. He's even more arrogant than I had thought. Also, has anybody said what got Fernando? I'm assuming it was the big "C". Last photo of him that I saw was just awful.
No cause of death was given, but the Dodgers announced earlier this month that Valenzuela, part of the Dodgers' Spanish-language broadcast team, would sit out the rest of the season due to an unspecified health problem.
Various media reports had surfaced earlier indicating that Valenzuela left the broadcast booth Sept. 24 during the Dodgers series with the San Diego Padres and was hospitalized, although no reason was provided.
He looked like he had lost a lot of weight. Could be cancer. Could be heart condition. I think cancer may be correct.
This is a long fucking week.
Endless
Everything will end. I guarantee it.
In case anyone is interested:
"Seth Pecksniff, fictional character, an unctuous English architect whose insincere behavior made the name Pecksniff synonymous with hypocrisy. He appears in the novel Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens."
Brian Cashman, our very own Pecksniff.
Bruce Springsteen - Growin' Up (Official Audio)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw_sYSOBepk
I prefer to think of him as Quisling.
Sounds like the C.
His no-no is amazing since it happened when he was pitching his worst.
Not to disparage the dead, but it is doubtful that he was honest about his age when he first came up. Likely late 60s when he died, but still way too young.
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