Giants ready to notch big victory over Philadelphia with scaredy-cat Barkley. Is there a moral for Yankee fans?

For a moment, let's forget Paul Goldschmidt's dead-on impersonation yesterday of Lance Berkman, Andruw Jones, Ichiro Suzuki, Vernon Wells, Travis Hafner, Chase Headley, Matt Holliday, Chris Carter, Todd Frasier, Kevin Youkilis, Andrew McCutcheon, Troy Tulowitzki, Edwin Encarnacion, Kendrys Morales, Joey Gallo, Josh Donaldson, Anthony Rizzo, Chevy Chase, Mel Gibson, Caitlyn Jenner, Mitch McConnell, Joe Biden the standard, defiant, prickly, old white codger who is five years passed peak foliage, talking about his next film, record album, tv show, bowel movement season. 

Aw, who knows? Maybe Goldswinger has another big year in him. Whatever happens, though, he'll always be one furious Zolio Almonte uppercut away from the two-month gonadal tweak that defines most 37-year-old comebacks. Welcome to NY, Sir. Disregard those names carved into the shower wall. Don't look at the record books for the last 15 years. Maybe you'll buck the odds. Maybe... maybe... um... I just thought of another name... John Mayberry... 

Nope. Let's push out a moment of joy for the New York Football Giants, who hope to end 2024 as they did 2023 - beating a listless, playoff-bound Eagles team in a game that only holds meaning to the lost, desperate souls who gamble on such effluent-spiced affairs. 

With luck, the Giants can finish the season on a two-game win streak (2!) which will solidify momentum heading into 2025 effectively crush their chances to draft one of the top two QBs next year. They'll finish at 4-13, a record that achieves the impossible: It actually sugarcoats the depth of their mediocrity. 

To this, I cry, "Magnificent! Sirs, I salute you! The Yankees, the Mets, even the ghastly Jets - they cannot touch your ability to suck the hopeful oxygen from the Northeast, if not the entire Eastern Seaboard. You are the gold standard for incompetence!" And today, Yank fans should recognize that:  

1. Bad as he is, Food Stamps Hal Steinbrenner is still not as awful an owner as the DNA combination of John Mara and Steve Tisch, two nepo babies of self-entitlement who, together, turned a once-glorious franchise into Rutgers. I am serious here: Compared to these Bozos, Hal and his human clipboard, Brian Cashman, look like Vince Lombardi and John Wooden. The Giants have delivered one of NYC's great meltdowns, on a par with the Dolans, Rich Kotite, the Spiderman musical, and Abe Beam. 

2. Bad as they are, the comedy team of Cashman & Boone is still not as awful as the butcher buffoons of Buffalo, Schoen and Daboll. The Yankees, at least, regularly reach the postseason, though it's pretty well carved out for them by an expanded playoff system, which borders on Little League participation trophies. Still, the NFL has its own system of rewarding bad teams - something the Giants still manage to overcome, year after year. They are truly, in an Olympian manner, "special."

3. And this weekend, the juju gods will savor a special belly laugh: Saquon Barkley won't play against his old team. Chicken. Nope. He'll rest for the playoffs, a decision that perfectly sweetens his vengeance upon Big Blue. Not only did Saquon prove them to be idiots for letting him go - they let him walk to the Eagles, one of their bitterest rivals. And this weekend, he will sit on his splendored butt and watch the Giants happily shoot next year in the balls. 

Is there a Yankee moral here? What happens when you let an arch-enemy outbid you for a truly great player? Jeepers. I can't imagine that happening to the Yankees, right? As for that rising chorus of Gammonites and thunder-clappers, who now speak the clown car courtier message - that, considering his price tag, the Death Barge is better off without Juan Soto, well, I suggest you watch on Sunday and celebrate the money saved by the Giants for letting Barkley go. Hmm. Lemme see. Oh, yes. It allowed them to keep Daniel Jones... Magnificent!  And good luck to Mr. Goldeneye.  

Glad Keefe's back. I get it.

We like reading the guy. That's a given. He's honest, articulate, and accurate. Three traits that all of us here admire and hopefully share. 

I'm glad he's writing again and don't have any problem with him walking back his pledge. 

Sure, he issued an ultimatum," Sign Soto or I'm gone!" But, as we all know, it's hard to quit a team we've loved since early childhood. (Cough. Giants or Jets. Cough.) 

In the case of baseball it's even harder. 

Technically, even though I am a lifetime NY Giant fan I can still enjoy watching the game of football even if they are not in it. 

Yesterday's Texas v. Arizona St. game had one of the best fourth quarters I have ever seen. And that RB guy on AZ, whose name escapes me at the moment. (See the note posted earlier about insufficient coffee consumption.) turned in one of the greatest and gutsiest (and we saw his guts when he puked on the sidelines) performances in college football history. It was a fantastic watch. 

Side note -  Arizona State was totally jobbed on the non-call of helmet to helmet late in the fourth quarter. Really makes you wonder about the purity of the sport. 

But I digress... my point is that unlike football, a game I can watch other teams play, my relationship with baseball (and I suspect Keefe's as well) is 100% with the Yankees.  

Using the above example... would ANY of us here watch the Arizona Diamondbacks play the Texas Rangers?  Uh... I'm guessing, no.  

Consequently, to give up the Yankees is to give up baseball and that's something that is very hard to do. Especially if it is your favorite game to the point of writing about it.  

I can't blame Keefe for walking it back, finding some hope, and sticking with it because, that's pretty much the definition of real fandom. We're not front runners. We're Yankee fans.  He's stuck. We're stuck. 

And, given our collective ages around here, we've suffered through worse. They actually won the pennant last year. Albeit in relatively joyless fashion. 

No Soto? No worries. I heard Stanton has a new Yoga mat. 

Ten Reasons why Anthony Volpe holds the key to the 2025 Yankees

It's the economy shortstop, stupid. Always was. Always will be.

For the Yankees, beyond all the gnashing of teeth and bone over Juan Gone, this is the 2025 reality: It's all about the shortstop. 

Derek Jeter is 50, a full 10 years into retirement. Fifth-graders - the next generation of Yank fans - only know him as a TV postgame meat puppet. Since he left, we've burned through Didi Gregorius, Tyler Wade, Thairo Estrada, Gleyber Torres, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Oswald Peraza and Oswaldo Cabrera. For now, our long and short term future rests with Anthony Volpe.

How can I say this? We have the game's greatest slugger and perhaps the league's most intriguing leadoff hitter. (Note: That's Jazz Chisolm.) We have Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt, and The Martian. How can so much balance on Volpe's 23 year old shoulders?

Well, it's easy. Ten reasons... 

1. The Yankees have nobody in the farm system remotely resembling the next star SS. The bonus baby, Roderick Arias, and the former 1st round pick, George Lombard Jr., remain mired in the distant minors, long long ago and far far away. Maybe one will break out in 2025. At best, they might reach Scranton, ready to arrive in 2026. But right now, it's Volpe or your mom. (And she can't go to her left.) 

2. Amid last year's carnival of upheavals, Volpe treaded water. Good news: His rather meh .243 batting average turned out to be 34 points above 2023 (when he hit a ghastly .209.) But his HRs fell from 20 to 12. Overall, his OPS was almost exactly the same - in 2023, a Satanic .666; last year, an Oswaldic .657. He began 2024 at the top of the lineup, finished hitting 7th. Meh. 

3. Two winters ago, Volpe was being compared with Bobby Witt Jr. NY hype? Probably. It surely won't happen again. But Witt's rocketlike ascension last season should offer hope for Volpe. Witt, now 24, is a full year older. They're on the same timeline, so to speak.  

4. Volpe is a grinder, known to put in the work, and to be coachable. (With the Yankees, that can be a problem.) Last spring, the brain trust tinkered with his swing. In the end, he sacrificed power for average. Not sure whether it worked, but there is no reason to think Volpe cannot improve. He might never equal Witt, but he could be a top-tier SS. Sadly, last year, he wasn't.  

5.  His dramatic World Series grand slam highlighted a .286 batting average through the postseason. In October, Volpe seemed to remember his speed. He stole 5 bases, never once thrown out. In the 2024 regular season, he stole 28. Damn. This guy should steal 50. He needs to run wild. Last year, he was like an NBA point guard who misses a few jumpers early on, and then stops shooting.  

6. Volpe compares to Jeter in one metric: Durability. Over the last two years, Volpe has missed five games. (Three in 2023, two last year.) It's hard to imagine the Yankee lineup without Volpe at SS. 

7. Also, Volpe brought decent glovework. In 2023, he won a headscratcher Gold Glove. Last year, he botched some high-profile plays. Remember that out-of-body loss to Baltimore last July, before the All-Star break? Hint: Verdugo's face plant? It happened because Volpe muffed an easy play. Also, he shall be remembered forever for the Knoblachian throw to 3B in game five, which helped unleash the hounds of hell. It barely went 20 feet. I hate to think of that play haunting Volpe all winter. Could it foster the yips? He must put it far behind him. Like, I shouldn't even mention it here. Right? 

8. The hometown hero aspect of Volpe's career - he's from Morristown, NJ, where fun fact: I once worked in the local library - is winding down. Local Boy Makes Good can only go so far. In 2025, Volpe will live or die based on output. If he doesn't hit, the Gammonites will start whispering that he "needs a change of scenery." From there, he's gone. 

9. Age-wise, he's entering his prime, as the undisputed anchor of the infield. Depending on where Jazz Chisolm plays, the Yanks will have a new 1B, 2B and/or 3B.  Goldschmidt should save a bunch of errors, though he carries a whiff of Youkilis, Tulowitski, et al. But heading into 2025, this is Volpe's infield.

10. Did I mention that it's the shortstop, stupid? Because it is. The Yankees will live or die with Volpe. Imagine their lineup if his bat justifies him hitting leadoff? And what it signifies if he's eighth? It's night and day. It's Volpe or nothing.

Three more wishes, seriously.

El Duque's list was very comprehensive. If half of them work out the team will be in good shape. Here are three more...  

1) A Tighter Ship 

With the removal of Gleyber and however they decide who plays second or third and, with the addition of a Gold Glove level first baseman who can still bend at the waist, the defense starts to take pride in... playing defense. 

No more slapping the glove at balls, No more just missing the DP by 1/2 a step. No more missing the cutoff. That kind of stuff. 

2) Play Angry

The Yankees were exposed as a team that is "not very good at baseball". That should piss them off. They should use that insult as fuel and play with more focus and intensity. They need to become "Warriors in the box." again.  

3)  Hire Someone to Re-imagine the Stadium Experience.

Change the music. Change the vibe. Make it a fun place to be. Citi Field is worlds better than YS3.  

YS3 is a soulless, themed Vegas casino. At times the game seems as important as the aerialists at the old Circus Circus. Something you look at while deciding where to lose your money next. 

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And, Happy New Year to all of you and yours and eat as many eggs as you can 

while there are still eggs to eat. 

Yankee top 10 wish list for 2025

1. The Martian must arrive. He doesn't need to be great (though, come to think of it, that would be nice.) Most importantly: He must not crash and burn. No Ruben Rivera.   

2. Volpe's gotta improve - not dramatically, just a bit. Thinking: .270, 20 HRs and 35 SBs. (Up from .243, 12, 28.)  

3. Fried must be an effective No. 2 starter. Yanks can't afford another Rodon.

4. Mega-negative juju towards Soto and Mets. Tabs turn acidic. Yank fans relentlessly boo. He butchers a few pop flies, tweaks something, assumes a "Woe is me" posture. Think: Bobby Bonilla.

5. Giancarlo needs a full year. What he did in the '24 postseason, he must do over five months. Outside world thinks he's unstoppable, but Yank fans see an always-injured spare part.

6. Yanks must still add pitching. Remember the Iron Law of Boone: He'll use up and squander whatever he's got. 

7. For Chisolm, big year in Big Apple, hitting in front of Judge. Career year? He must channel world series game one, when he singlehandedly stole what should have been the winning run. 

8. Somebody must take 2B or 3B, depending on where Jazz plays.

9. Hope RH Sasaki ends up in NL, not AL East. (Because, let's face it: Yanks won't sign him.)

10. To all of you - health, prosperity, unrelenting sex, crypto windfalls and comfortable shoes. It's gonna be a great year, 2025. We're gonna laugh. We're gonna cry. We're gonna ride down the Canyon of Heroes, (congestion pricing applies.) We're gonna become one with the Yankiverse. And it will be okay... I think...