Traitor Tracker: .859 OPS

Traitor Tracker: .859 OPS
Last year, this date: 1.035 OPS

Monday, August 4, 2025

From Austin Romine to Austin Wells, Yankees continue backwards death march to 2013

The 2013 Yankees got off to a roaring start: First place in the AL East, through May 26.

Led by sluggers Vernon Wells and Travis Hafner, and "Mr. Lifelong Yankee" the ever-hustling Robbie Cano, this plucky team was poised to make history, once Kevin Youkilis and Michael Pineda returned from the DL. And if youngster Zolio Almonte became the star we all expected him to be, the Yankees looked like a Thom McAn shoe-in for a postseason run. 

Yep. Close your eyes, and it's 2013... all over again. 

Government shutdown. New pope. Tornados, killer storms, partisan politics, Detroit, Snowden, Fox News, dogs and cats living together! And a glorious, magnificent Yankee meltdown - a lineup so disastrously beautiful that, 12 years later, we remain in awe. 

We're here again - a team built with frayed rubber bands, certain to snap, and to leave their fan base with the worst experience of all - of hopes shattered, of a franchise that not only falls apart, but which ends up with not even a top draft picks to show for it, and a season that cannot be forgotten, because we relive it, year after year...  

Yesterday's worst moment came not during the loss to Miami, but in the postgame show, when Hair Jell Jack Curry grumbled the news that Boston had won, plunging the Yankees deeper into the losing maelstrom. The Redsocks are a young, rising team - everything the Yankees are not. They could win it this year. Meanwhile, look - LOOK, DAMMIT, STEINBRENNER! DON'T AVERT YOUR BEADY LITTLE EYES! - look at the shoddiness of the last 15 years.  


2013... welcome back to Hell. 

Yankee fans deserve better. 

New York deserves better.

Warning: Wednesday begins my annual dRUNK bLOG, when I will be experiencing reality from the filter of a five-day drinking binge, surrounded by angry Yank fans and - yes - a few cynical dastardlys from Boston . I will post now and then, but they will be barely readable. Fortunately, IT IS HIGH's raft of Yankee inspirationalists and sayers of sooth will take over the helm. Godspeed John Glenn. 

20 comments:

Scottish Yankee fan said...

Truly horrific reading

Yankees need to cut out the malarkey and sack Boone sack Cashman and I think for Hal best I can wish him is sponstanious head explosion due to greed

Enjoy you drinking binge have a few for me please watching the Yankees would turn you to drink

13bit said...

Sadly, we have settled into Hell for a while, unloaded the truck, plumped the cushions, planted some annuals, painted the fence, and done got right cozy down here.

TheWinWarblist said...

It's HAL. Someone please pull the plug.

13bit said...

So much winning. I'm actually tired of the winning. And the best people. Brian hires the best people. Anything else that anybody tells you is fake news. YAGA© YANKEES ARE GREAT AGAIN!!!

13bit said...

Winnie, you have to first be plugged in for someone to pull it. That's the trick. How do we get him plugged in? Pulling it is trivial after that.

BTR999 said...

This team needs an enema.

BTR999 said...

YAGA…I like that, Winnie.

13bit said...

A plutonium enema

AboveAverage said...

Was the Y A G A. Card actually just played ?

AboveAverage said...

isn’t a plutonium enema only available through international shipping ?

13bit said...

It's a one-way flush, AA, a one-way flush. Make Enemas Great Again - MEGA

HoraceClarke66 said...

Do we, though? Deserve better, I mean.

Shouldn't our response to the Yankees last demand for a new Stadium have been, "Hey, pal-ly, we already gave your family one free ballpark. You want a new one? Here's the deal:

—You don't shrink the Stadium, you expand it, back to what it used to hold. With prices most people can afford—and a guaranteed, 10,000, dirt-cheap, day of game tickets available.

—At least five of your new luxury boxes have to be awarded on a lottery basis, to whoever enters and wins.

—Yes, you have to accept cash at the Stadium. It's called legal tender.

—You have to put at least 10 games a year on good ol', free TV. And nothing on streaming. Also, you have to clearly advertise, everyday, where every game is going to be broadcast.

—Finally, and most importantly, you have to actually do something for the neighborhood where your team has had its ballpark for nearly a century. And I don't mean some token, "Hope Week" thing. I mean a real, dedicated, years-long effort to restore the Bronx.

That's it for now—but we're also writing in a clause where we can make new demands upon you as the occasions arise. Don't you like it? So lump it. There are a dozen other small-market team that will take your place. Don't let your bags of cash hit you on the way out.

BTR999 said...

Hoss:
1. I love it!
2. I won’t hold my breath…

13bit said...

I cannot argue with that, Hoss. But you know what New York politics is like, along with the New York "developer" community. This is the age of Peak Greed.

Joe Formerlyof Brooklyn said...

The day wealthy individuals are treated as Hoss describes will be the day I finally morph into a Kangeroo.

TheWinWarblist said...

An enriched plutonium enema, Bitty, but yes, I agree.

TheWinWarblist said...

Hoss is such an enlightened leader.

ranger_lp said...

SIGNED: The Yankees have signed veteran RHP Kenta Maeda to a minor league contract.

Maeda posted a 7.88 ERA in 7 games with Detroit this season.

Ken of Brooklyn said...

This team is a horror show in an era filled with more profound and consequential horror shows,,,, I check in every day but I have zero words or insights to share,,,,, I'm just grateful for you ALL who can more eloquently dissect these atrocities with the appropriate humor, venom and wit.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Tpe-dbPQI