The Yankees came closer to winning a ring than they had in 15 years, and they beat tough teams on the way. We enjoyed great moments, magnificent memories -which is why everything still hurts.
I'm thinking Game One. It went 10 innings. It seemed a lifetime. It's been called - by Dodger fans, anyway - the greatest world series game of all time. Not sure I buy that, but this I shall forever believe:
The Yankees fucking gave it away.
They gave it away when Gleyber botched Juan Soto's throw to 2B - officially scored a throwing error by Soto, but Gleyber's slap-attempt batted it into no man's land - allowing Ohtani to take third, and then score on Betts' game-tying sac fly.
They gave it away when LA intentionally walked Soto to get to Aaron Judge, the game's greatest hitter, who popped up, failing to make them pay. (As Judge did all series.)
They gave it away when Aaron Boone brought in Nestor Cortes, who hadn't pitched in a fucking month, to face Ohtani, Betts and Freeman. Alex Verdugo made what should still be a career-defining catch in left, vaulting into the stands. Then, on Cortes next pitch... the fateful HR.
I shall go to my grave believing that if the Yankees took Game One - if just one of the flubs didn't happen - the entire series would have changed.
Already, history views the Dodgers as a super team, unbeatable, a club for for the ages. But they were ours to fucking beat, and we fucking blew it.
One play, here and there... Volpe failing to score from second on a double. Stanton lumbering around third on the way to being thrown out at home. Judge botching the easy fly ball. Cole, inexplicably, failing to cover first. Oh, God, mistake after mistake after mistake...
One play, here and there, and the Yankees could have been riding down the Canyon of Heroes in a cloud of tickertape - an experience that might have changed Soto's mercenary heart to the point where he would never do what he did. One play, here and there, and Gleyber might be staying, maybe even Verdugo. One play, here and there...
It's because we came so close - so incredibly close - that 2024 will always hurt so much. We might not get another chance in our lifetimes. This was the year we went for broke - and came up short. By one play, here and there...
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Thought the same while watching the games and think the same now. LA didn't beat us. We beat ourselves. And that's why it was so soul-sucking.
Fuck. It still hurts.
You forgot the biggest mistake made, but that happened close to 56 years ago when George should have pulled out.
Indeed, El Duque! When I taught college, I had a rule about tests. If one kid got it wrong, it was their fault. If a whole bunch of them got it wrong, it was my fault. Either I wasn't clear in my test question or I wasn't clear when I taught the relevant lesson.
So it was with the Yankees. The collective failure to execute basic fundamentals and routine plays, the utter lack of 'baseball smarts', the mental lapses, bad managerial decisions, etc. culminated in their falling apart in the WS. It truly was the sum of all flaws with this team.
Because it happened across the team, reinforced by excruciatingly and obviously bad field decisions - and reflecting the flaws we saw all year - I have to put the blame squarely on management. All of them.
That's what Soto saw. That's why he's not a Yankee. That the executive class thought it important to put him and his family in their place about a corporate suite, was just the icing on the cake. He made a wise move.
Boone can't manage. Cashman is a disaster on every level. Levine belongs in prison for taking bribes. Trost shouldn't allowed into the stadium, never mind working for them. The analytics squad needs to be demoted, devalued and kept away from baseball decisions. Actual baseball professionals need to be in charge. We need people with fire in their belly (and who know how to win) to be running the show, on the field and in the front office. And their first decisions should be to fire everyone who is responsible for this clown show and fill the place with veteran baseball professionals.
Happy New Year, folks. Stock up on your happy pills. History will repeat itself, so long as these clowns are in charge.
Well said duque…the word that sums it all up is fundamentals, as in lack thereof. It’s the way we played all last year, and the last several seasons. Finally, with everything on the line, we were hoisted by our own petard. The idea that the series was not so much won by the Dodgers as it was lost by the Yankees is indeed the bitter truth.
Doesn’t seem like we will have to worry about such an outcome this upcoming season, as the chances of us getting all the way to the Series are pretty slim.
The team started to retool after losing Soto., but once we hit the final luxury tax threshold everything has ground to a halt. Despite Cashman’s rhetoric, it seems the only further options we’ll pursue will be the Brennan Davises of the world, other than the inevitable Boone contract extension.
@ Doctor T....One of the best posts of the year!
56 years ago, Nixon should have pulled out, too.
Huzzah. Perfectly said.
All too true and perfectly penned.
Quick Giant note from Big Blue View about the Giants for a little perspective on winning and dropping them in the draft, "Remember the 2020 draft? There were Giants fans miserable that the team had beaten Washington at the end of the 2019 season, gifting Washington the No. 2 pick and defensive end Chase Young. The Giants picked No. 4 and selected Andrew Thomas. Young is now a journeyman on his third NFL team. Thomas is the best Giants’ offensive lineman since Chris Snee."
Thanks, folks!
Ya never know. I might have gone to Wally Cox to block, but this may work out.
It was an illusion. A mirage. We were NEVER close. We wouldn't even have gotten to the WS if our playoff opponents hadn't self-destructed. All a phantasm. It wasn't one play here or there. It was lazy, sloppy, undisciplined - dare I say lolly-gagging? - play from the whole team, the manager and coaches and front office all season and postseason.
This is as close as we will ever get in our lifetimes, and it wasn't close at all.
They got beat by a better team. Why was that team better? For example... re-watch the 5th inning, WS game 5 (if you can stomach it). The Yankees mistakes are obvious. But if not for very good baserunning by Kike and Mookie, the mistakes wouldn't have cost the Yankees as much. That was the difference.
Warbler, it's true we weren't close to the team the Dodgers built—but their injuries gave us a chance. Ohtani playing with one uni arm pinned to his chest, all the pitchers they had who got hurt.
That is the crapshoot element of the playoffs, which we could and should have take advantage of—the way that teams like the Miracle Braves swept a great Connie Mack team in the 1914 World Series, for instance.
But we blew it—and as Publius notes, the Dodgers' savvy gamesmanship made up for the injuries. Our lack thereof took us down.
Great posts indeed, O Peerless One and Dr. T! That Gleyber play in Game 1 was SO typical, and so heedlessly stupid!
Along with all the mistakes noted...I would again add Boone's failure to come out to the mound when things were falling apart in the infamous 5th inning of Game 5. Yanks were still up, 5-1, with two out. Judge was finally hitting. All Boone had to do was calm everyone down.
He didn't. Most egregious Yankees managerial playoff error since Joe Torre, much as I love him, left Joba Chamberlain out there to get eaten by gnats.
Good point about lassiez faire Boonie. Was it here that I saw someone mention that Boone should have come out after the Rizzo/Cole fiasco, call every one to the mound, and say "My bad, fellas. I should have covereed first. Now come on, pick me up." Must have been. Lighten the mood. Something like that. Lead, for chrissake.
I don't love Torre at all, but you're right. Terrible playoff boner by Booner.
But that's who this team was and still is. Careless, sloppy, undisciplined. A season ending flub with every ticket and in every jockstrap. Not every player, just most every player. More than enough to ensure they never win a close game against a good opponent. That's what LA's scouting report said: Pressure the Yankees and they will fail. Because they don't play good baseball. Because they are bad, VERY BAD at baseball.
FUCK BOONE AND HIS INABILITY TO GROW AS A MANAGER.
Bad management. The Athletic just did a peer poll of best run sports teams including all 4 major sports. The Yankees ranked 37th. I guess the people who know best donr buy that BS about Cashman belonging in the hall of fame. Somone must be reading your BLOG.
Then you would have been known as a Cox blocker.
Yeah, that was me, Publius. I felt he should have either said that...or told the filthiest joke he knew. He didn't. A third generation major-leaguer, and he doesn't have a clue.
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