"You root for a team that always contends. They're always in the race. Look at the Royals. Look at the Pirates. A Diamondbacks fan would be delighted to be in first, but you're pissed. Ingrate! Thankless prat! Ungracious churl!"
They're right. I'm a churl. Last night in Cincy, Aaron Judge gave Yank fans everywhere a belly rub - a mammoth first-inning HR that's gotta be worth a week of Rockies' highlights. So, why, why, why are we so snippy?
Well, I'd submit this reason:
We know what's coming.
Last night, as I suspect you've heard, the Death Barge went 0-for-12 with RISP, and stranded eight runners. After Judge's solo shot, the closest they came was a HR robbery off the bat of Paul Goldschmidt. It was a signature, standard, stock-issued Yankee loss, straight from the template of Boone the Gummer.
We still lead the AL East, though it's down to two. And let's not kid ourselves. This is not a team that wins big games against tough opponents. The great Yankee teams of the 1990s featured lineups full of grinders. This is a team of flailers.
Nobody bunts. Nobody sacrifices. Nobody moves up a runner. Everybody swings for the western horizon, and when they step into one, they jog the bases alone. This is a team that shuts down against great good decent mediocre pitchers. When you hear they scored five runs, you wonder, who hit the five homers?
Next month, as he does every summer, Cooperstown Cashman will remake the roster. He'll trade prospects for a underachieving veteran on a bloated contract. The Gammonites and YES sirs will react as they always do - committing fully to the gaslight. The Yankees will go down to the last days of September because - well - everybody does. And if they reach October, they will run into superior pitching and, kaboom, they will shut down.
The Yankees believe that, if they make the playoffs, anything can happen. And to make the playoffs, all they have to do is hit a bunch of solo HRs.
That why this movie gets replayed every summer. Last night was no outlier. It was a glimpse into the future.
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17 comments:
Wizard of Oz team.
No brain.
No courage.
No heart.
It's a crap shoot...
A crap shoot of solo home runs! If only the Yanks could hit more and ever more solo home runs! It's just dumb luck that they don't, yessir!
It's a glimpse into the future. It's a replay of the past. Brian Cashman baseball is a circle.
Perfectly said, Duque. And hey, were Red Sox fans "happy" when they used to contend every year, without ever winning it?
"Hey, we'd love to see our team MAKE a playoff for the division title. Or the 6th game of the World Series..."
Also, this is supposedly the contract. We put up with the ungodly price-gouging (bankers want them lobster tails!), the enormous subsidies for stadiums with fewer and fewer seats, the incessant evocation of the glorious, Yankees past, all the endless, all the empty New York rah-racing ("If I can make it here...")
All we ask in return is that they win it all every few years, and that they put spirited, smart, exciting baseball on the field.
What's that? It's all a crapshoot? Your algorithms say it's necessary to eliminate about half the game we used to love? There's no predicting how your crack baseball staff of crackheads will ruin a new generation of ballplayers?
Damn, why didn't you tell us? Well, all right, then. More fool us. So, we'd like our refund then. Lotta real needs around the city and the state. We'd like those hundreds of millions—billions, by this time—back, please. Don't worry, we'll take a check. We know you're good for it.
Oh, and one other thing? Don't you ever, EVER again evoke all those great Yankees teams and players and organizations of the past. Much less all the glories of New York, New York.
They are not to pass your lips. You want to pretend you're Cincinnati? Then talk about Cincinnati.
Indeed.
Who believes being competitive is worthy aspiration? Fuck them. Preferably with the decapitated heads of Boone, CashBrain and HAL.
The RISP failures are particularly galling and are the very epitome of the lack of fundamentals that the team shrugs at.
Let’s not be so sure Steinscammer is going to open his wallet st the deadline. There were ample low cost options available in the spring, but thr vault was closed. Boone is already squealing that getting Gil back is the same as a trade addition.
The Swoon ain’t over yet!
Hoss, I was just discussing with my significant other the great dirty secret of this country - not the original sin of slavery - but the notion of class. Classism, class warfare, the idea that there is no social mobility. It's all a load of shit and you don't have to be a commie or even a socialist to talk about that. They'll CALL you a commie, but god forbid end stage capitalism allows chatter about income inequity to be heard.
Sounds like commie talk, bitty
Since we keep watching the same game over and over I will say this again...
The Yankees are the only team in baseball that, when they get second and third with no outs, the other team gets excited.
I hope those of you still in New York voted, and for anybody but Cuomo. Skeevy bastard.
As for the Yankees, it's the same shit, different season. Because the important thing is sticking to the process. Letting numbers make your decisions.
The once-great ad agency Chiat Day had a line printed on all their coffee cups: Good enough isn't good enough.
It obviously is for the Yankees.
@ 13 Bit
Sure, there is social mobility. But not so much here. The US used to be near or at the top of that index. Now? We rank number 26, just a bit ahead of what we consider other repressive nations (ordering a "We're #26 USA" foam finger from Amazon right now!).
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/social-mobility-by-country
@ JM.....Zohran Mamdani is my choice. He's a progressive populist. Exactly where the Democratic Party needs to evolve.
With ranked-choice voting, I think Zohran will eke out a victory. His re-election slogan can then be "You Don't Mess With Zohran."
Well said, Mr. Baker! This stadium game which goes on around the country is particularly odious to me. The propaganda that is fed to the poor people to get them to vote for a stadium is sickening. The streets will always flow with gold because of "jobs created", what bullshit.
@Carl...if he gets elected, every corporation will leave NYC because he wants to tax them...
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