I'm sorry.
I'm sorry for everything. I apologize for putting you through this, for spreading hope - yeah, ridiculous hope, what a joke - when, actually, none existed.
I think I lost my mind. I drank the Kool-Aid. I believed.
Look... there's no nice way to put this. No soft words, no respectful tone, no rhyme, no reason. Maybe I shouldn't say anything, but the dead silence - the part where John should be saying, "That's baseball, Suzyn," - it hurts too much. I mean, here we are, facing the end of time... again. With nothing to show.
If the Yankees lose to Boston - our "arch rivals" - at home, it will simply cap another lost season, adding 2025 to the ever-rising monument to incontinence that the shithouse of Steinbrenner has built.
Once again, what we're seeing is not merely a game between two teams. It's a clash between organizational beliefs - the Yankees being a lineup of millionaires who singularly swing for the fences, hitting solo HRs - against a team that moves runners and builds rallies. (Was there any more vivid illustration of this than last night, when Jose Caballero - leading off the 6th - belted a long, long fly to deep CF, all the way to the warning track. Here's Caballero, a banjo hitter who should thrive on bunt singles and stolen bases, trying to hit one to White Plains. What a joke.)
It's a battle between a franchise that spends just enough to finish second every year, and one that builds from the bottom up, with waves of young stars. Boston will be better next year. The Yankees? Who knows? Depends on the purges.
History has shown, quite vividly, what results when HR-happy lineups encounter good pitching. From Koufax to Halladay, from the Big Unit to, gulp, Curt Schilling, it happens again and again, as it likely will tonight.
The last ugly vestiges of a frustrating season are about to play out, as so many have done in this millennium. Once again, we will witness a packed stadium, sitting in frozen disbelief, booing as Yankees march back to the dugout, having taken their mammoth swings. By then, Boonie will have been ejected - O, what injustices the home plate umpire will have done to us! Instead of cheers, we will hear the background noise of 50,000 fans crumpling their scorecards and heading home, vowing to never again be taken in by the journalists cheerleaders, most of whom work for a media that the team self-owns.
If the Yankees lose to Boston, put it down as another shameful, wasted, demoralizing year. We'll have more time to go hunting and fishing, right? Damn. I got nothing else to say. Is anybody there?
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80 comments:
Brilliantly put, Duque. Simply brilliant.
JM, great point on Aaron Boone saying that he was "convicted." Sigh. Indeed you were, Ma Boone, indeed you were...
Meanwhile, a great bloody rant from Michael Kay of all people!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Hm6vKwqpY
Even his getting Luke Weaver's first name wrong initially—he called him "Jeff Weaver"—inadvertently illustrated how long this sort of incompetence has been going on with the Yankees.
It was 22 years ago that Cashman insisted on getting the wildly overrated Jeff Weaver—that the Yankees' coaches would fail to turn Weaver around (something the Cards would later do to win a World Series)—and that Joe Torre would pitch in a critical, extra-inning World Series game after keeping him inactive for weeks.
Cue the Talking Heads: "Same as it ever was..."
Also loved that Ma Boone called that "a great game." Oh, Boonie. Oh, poor, sad, sweet Boonie. The game you won as a player, in which the Yanks beat a Boston team with Big Papi and Manny Ramirez and starting Pedro Martinez was a great game.
Don't you remember that? All of us here, any older Yankees fan alive could point you to a dozen postseason games—even the ones we lost—that were infinitely greater than that one, played with an awful lineup and decided by some terrible managerial decisions and an injured player.
Boone is an idiot. This team is lame.
Saddest of all, perhaps, was Ma Boone's closing smirk about how the Yankees would respond to this devastating—and wholly unnecessary—loss. He said something to the effect of, "Oh, we've been playing must-win games with our back to the wall for some time now."
No, no, you haven't, O Keen Observer of the Horsehide Realm. The Yanks all but clinched the playoffs a couple weeks ago. They have spent most of the intervening time stomping cupcakes, while a division race happened to fall back into their laps.
But that was it. Our run to second place was not 1978, or any other true, back-to-the wall year. 2025 was yet another meander into the Top 40 percent that make the major-league playoffs. It showed us nothing, prepared us for nothing, taught us nothing...
It will end tonight, with just the sort of sullen ugliness that our Peerless Leader is predicting. The reaction of those thousands of fans not happily ensconced behind the dee-lux whiskey bars who just spent next year's vacation dough on what they thought would be a seat at St. Crispin's Day, but will turn out to be Dunkirk, with yet another badly assembled, badly run, badly motivated Yankees team beating them to the exits and wading off to home.
Next year: more of the same!
Never apologize for believing, Duque. That's a noble thing and it attests to your spirit. I, too, enjoy the breeze up here on the top deck and am not worried about that iceberg in off the port bow. Captain Boone says it's going to be fine.
The Yankees simply do not care about fundamentals. That's it, in a nutshell. The Yankees simply do not care about fundamentals.
I guess I was hoping they could steal the first game. Now the game's up. Backs against the wall. Gotta run the table and win two. But first things first, win one freaking game!
They just don't know how to win, psychology and momentum, nah. It's home run or nothing, like in the game of bridge, aces and spaces, hard to win that kind of hand.
Before last night, Yankees this year were 4-9 against Boston. Now 4-10. Do you realize that that is a .286 winning percentage? That if they had played 162 games, they would have gone 46-116? That that would be one of the worst teams in MLB history? And you (Boone) think that you could manage this team to a 2 out of three series victory?
These are the questions that the media should be asking. Because I don't think the 4-10 record so far this year is a coincidence. Not a fluke. Not due to small sample size.
As soon as they loaded the bases with three singles against Chapman, I knew they'd never score. It's the kiss of death for the Yankees to have the bases loaded with nobody out. I knew Chapman would get out of it with nothing across. Sure enough, strikeout/popup/strikeout. WOW!!! In the old days, everybody used to say that, in bases loaded/nobody out situations, the pitcher should think about escaping the mess with just one run in. These days, opposing pitchers should be very happy if the Yankees have bases loaded/nobody out. Because it means strikeout/popup/strikeout!
Oh, it's even worse than that, Hammer. Since Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS, the Yankees are 1-9 against Boston in the postseason. 1-9. Soon to be 1-10.
And that, The Great Reversal, started with another, major lapse in fundamentals by a mediocre field manager, Joe Torre. With everyone in the house knowing that Dave Roberts was going to—HAD to—steal second, he would not call a pitchout.
So our century has gone.
This might sound crazy, but I'll tell you a secret. The way to beat the Yankees is to load the bases with nobody out in every inning. That's right. Hard to believe, eh? It would guarantee a shutout. Probably would be a major league record too, right? 27 men left on base in a 9 inning game? Gotta be a record. But these Yankees are more than capable of doing that. Hell, they'd have a 99% percent chance of getting shut out.
I've been thinking about how it is that Boston is a factory that generates Yankee killers. And not just Boston, now. Toronto is also a newly built factory producing Yankee killers in staggering numbers. As we all know, Tampa used to have the blueprint for building such factories, before Tampa tanked this year and became a Yankee doormat. All these teams are in the A.L. east, if you notice. It can't be a coincidence. Not just luck.
It's gotta be the coaching. Their coaches know how to produce players who'll destroy Yankee pitching and shut down Yankee hitting. And it ain't any kind of hocus pocus magic. It's just fundamentals and good coaching. The Yankee hitters are easy to shut down, if you pitch them a certain way. The Yankee pitchers are easy to hit, if your hitters know what they're doing. It's really that simple.
Chapman is Exhibit "1" of the indictment against Yankee coaching. The guy who used to implode as a Yankee is now the best closer in baseball. He was great before he came to the Yankees. He sucked when he was a Yankee. Now he's back to being great again. Sounds just like Sonny Gray, eh? Yeah, Sonny Gray is Exhibit "2". Jordan Montgomery is Exhibit "3". I guess you can even go back to Jeff Weaver. Did he win a World Series after leaving the Yankees? Guess Jeff Weaver would be Exhibit "4".
Yeah, committing hara-kiri with the bases loaded in the 9th can hardly be called "a great game" by any stretch of the imagination.
Yeah, the Yankees, even in their recent dynasty years, weren't very good in elimination games. Ex: 1997, 2001. And later on of course, the year the earth stood still: 2004.
The Yankees have never fared well as a Wild Card team. They've always had their butts handed to them by Wild Card teams, like in 2001.
Sorry, not 2001, that was against the Snakes. I'm all discombobulated. Well, you know what I mean. Other teams have won the World Series as a Wild Card, like in 1997 with the Florida Marlins. Not so with the Yankees.
True, they don't believe in fundamentals like bunting and advancing the runner. Why should they move a runner up when the next guy is only going to hit a home run? It's a waste of an out.
2003 World Series against the Marlins too.
I'm always baffled by the fanbase's tendency to pile on the manager and not the players after a bad game.
I think it's purely an emotional reaction because we prefer not blame the players. It's always easier to offload the blame onto management.
Boone's biggest mistake was pulling Fried in the 7th for no reason. I'll give you that one. Leave him in to finish the frame and don't overthink it.
Everyone complained about Volpe starting, but he had two hits and drove in the game's only run. Everyone complained about Goldschmidt starting but he had two hits. Everyone is complaining now that Jazz and Rice didn't start, but Crochet devours lefties. Yankee LHB went 0-9 with 6 K against him last night. Yeah, it woulda made a huge difference seeing Jazz swing out of his shoes against Crochet's sweeper. Surely that woulda saved us.
As for the bullpen management, guess what? This bullpen stinks. There's no one reliable to turn to. The Yankees had the worst bullpen ERA of any team to make the postseason. There ain't no Mariano Rivera here to save us.
Luke Weaver's inability to retire Ceddanne Rafaela (career .685 OPS) and Nick Sogard (career .656 OPS) is entirely on *him*. That's a ridiculous performance by Luke. David Bednar's inability to get three outs before giving up a back-breaking insurance run is also entirely on him. Terrible.
Fernando Cruz had a 6.75 ERA in September, and I don't trust him one bit. Camilo Doval can't throw strikes. Devin Williams had a 5.06 ERA in the second half. Mark Leiter Jr. had a 5.79 ERA in the second half. You want him out there? Paul Blackburn and his 6.23 ERA?
These guys are garbage, man. And that's a problem way beyond Boone. You can roll a dice to make bullpen decisions, and it won't be any better/worse because these guys always come up small.
And I know we all love Stanton for his postseason heroics, but he went 0-4 with 5 LOB. He had a chance to win it and didn't come through.
For some time now, they've believed in re-inventing the game of baseball. Fundamentals? HA!!! Yankee management believes that they invented the idea of walk/2 run homer. They obviously believe that their computer algorithms trump more than 100 years of baseball knowledge. They are mis-using analytics. That's why they get their butts kicked by teams that properly use analytics, with good coaching.
Last night’s key stat: 11 k’s, 0 walks. Also, the awful LOB stat. Yes, boone was wrong to pull Fried so quickly. The starting lineup was trash. The 2/3 format seems bogus as well.After 6 months and 162 games, the team could be eliminated in a 24 hour stretch.
Of course, the saddest part of all is that boone and most of the players will be back next year, with similar results. The organization needs a reset that will never come as long as the gravy train keeps falling. There will be some harsh words by the media flaks, but all will be forgotten long before the start of next season
As the Ramones sang, “We need change and we need it fast!”
Yeah, I heard that stat. Hard to believe. That's hard to do. What should we call these guys? The Bronx Bums seems too kind. The Bronx Bastards? The Bronx Bitches? The Bronx Brainless? "Brain-less in da Bronx". Would be a good title for a new movie.
HELL, I NEED TO BE SEDATED!!!
Carl / Hammer, downplaying fundamentals is one of the hallmarks of analytics. Over reliance on analytics also gives cover to the toadies in the organization. They are just following the numbers. No thinking required, which is why analytics fails.
Hammer: ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅
Oh, I'm not piling on Boone's in game moves on this one. Bringing in Luke Weaver? Yeah, I didn't like that one. Thought he was the wrong choice. And it turned out I was right. But all that aside, Boone's biggest problems are a failure to get his team to execute fundamentals properly. Last night was just another example. This has gone on the entire time that he's been managing.
You know Dusty Baker always preached to his team that a strikeout accomplishes nothing, that making contact forces the other team to catch the ball, throw the ball, and make the put out? Think Boone ever preaches anything like that to the Yankee hitters? I think not. He actually encourages big swings and strikeouts because, per analytics, he thinks he'll hit the jackpot sooner or later. Therein lies the real problem.
As I said yesterday, "The Sox in 2" because of Crochet and Boone. I know everyone here likes to mock Boone, but seriously, he is the worst Yankees manager in my lifetime. I had no problem with his opening lineup. You need more right-handed hitters when facing Crochet. McMahon can't hit any pitcher, and Cabellero is a serviceable fielder. Rosario is as well and hits lefties like Brigadoon hits lefties. This wasn't a genius or novel move. However, BaBoone lacks the capacity to look beyond the current situation to the next 2-3 innings. Why the fuck did he pinch-hit Jizz Chasm for Rosario? Sure, Jizz can hit a HR against average and mediocre lefties, but rarely against overpowering ones like El Chapo. That's why he wasn't in the starting lineup! So, when you need just a single to tie the game, the idiot replaces one of the better platoon players who makes bat contact with a high-rate whiffer against overpowering left-handed pitchers. What other manager would do that?
Yeah, and I'm just shaking my head at this clown show. Nothing can replace good coaching. Analytics is just one of the tools that a good coach can use to help his player improve or get out of slumps and break bad habits. That Yankee management cannot understand that is the heart of the problem.
Good point, Carl! And as a matter of fact, you were right about not pitching Fried in Game 1. They've wasted his start and now it's Rodon in Game 2. Rodon, who very astutely said earlier in the year that Boston makes contact, takes good at-bats, professional at-bats. It's going to be hard for Rodon to shut them down. They aren't hitters who just swing for the fences all the time. Yankee hitters will have to score some runs to win Game 2.
I meant to say replace Rosario with Jizzm, not pinch-hit.
Hammer, your sizeable check is in the mail!
I would also add that Boone is the worst manager that I've ever seen on any MLB team. He brings absolutely nothing to the table. His in-game management is terrible. His teaching/coaching is terrible. I don't think he does any coaching or advising. He never motivates his team. The only thing he's good at is saying "yes" to the analytics department, which is calling all the shots.
Thanks, Carl!
Crochet is a machine this season and the best hope last night was to have Fried go pitch-to-pitch with him, which he did until Boone pulled him. He was at 102 pitches with the 8-9 batters coming up, he had all week to rest before his next start - leave him the fuck in! - but Boone is out there managing for an imagined future situation like he always does. Save the bullets for ...... something. Meanwhile Cora rode his horse for another inning-and-a-third and got 117 pitches out of him while Boone's bullpen was imploding.
I get that the Yankees bullpen sucks (thanks Brain!) but if you're the manager you should know that and staying with Fried until he implodes or until Crochet is out of the game is what you have to do because you absolutely 100% have to know last night's game was the most important game of the season. You can't be leaving money on the table.
Now we're deep in the woods and relying on the questionable reliability of Carlos-by-God-Rodon to pitch us out, because they're just as bad against Bello as they are against Crochet and I swear if Rodon's pitching his ass off and Boone pulls him at 100 I'm going to shoot a big hole in my TV just to spite that dumb bastard.
What was that movie where Elvis picks up a gun and shoots his t.v. because he didn't feel like getting up to turn it off? (That was, of course, back in the days when there was no such thing as a remote control.)
Yeah, you guys are probably right. Boone should've just left Fried in there to try to end the 7th. He could've also used one of his starters, even Cam Schlittler. It's all hands on deck, a 2 out of 3 short series for all the marbles. If you go to the bullpen, might as well bring in your best relievers. Luke Weaver hasn't pitched well this year. He's been banged around some. Not a good choice in that situation. I didn't like that choice when Boone made the move.
Winning teams do little things. Things that build momentum and add pressure to the opponent.
If Boone pinch ran for Goldschmidt with Dominquez (one of the fastest Yankees by far) it's possible that he scores on the fly ball and now it's a one run game with El Chapo in full melt down mode.
You know... baseball.
Yeah, "damn the icebergs, damn the blackness of eternal night, full steam ahead, we've got to break that Atlantic crossing record", sayth Captain Boone of the 2025 Yankee Titanic.
BTW, another indictment against Yankee management this year. What the hell are they doing with Jasson Dominguez? He's sitting on the bench again, same as this time last year. Can't even get into a game. For some crazy reason, cannot hit a fastball. Doesn't even swing at fastballs. Seems to look only for off-speed. A switch hitter sits on the bench against the best pitcher in baseball whilst lefty Trent Grisham flails at 101 mph lefty fastballs. Crazy, right? Gotta be bad coaching/bad managing/bad player development. This is why the Yankees don't develop players.
@ Doug K. Yeah, I remember those days when Chapman would come out of the 'pen throwing 103 mph and Gary Sanchez looked like a deer in headlights/didn't know what to do. One time, I even remember that Chapman threw one so hard and high that Sanchez jumped but it was ten feet over his glove! The ball hit the backstop and came back to Sanchez's face, who caught it on the fly in self defense. Then Sanchez turned around and threw out Chone Figgins at third base to end the inning, who had tried to advance from second (on what Figgins thought was a wild pitch). I don't know what was harder: the pitch by Chapman, the rebound off the backstop to Sanchez, or the throw by Sanchez to the third baseman. Had to be the greatest "pin ball" play I ever saw. Sometimes I wonder if I only imagined that, or did it really happen? Good times, eh?
I fuckin LOATHE our manager 😒
Great points all around, guys. Zachary, you're right: the main thing wrong with this Yankees team is the roster. Goldschmidt seems like a good guy, but he should not be on first—not when they could have had Alonso cheap, for one year. He's done—just as Rizzo was done last year...
Keefe to the city thinks pretty much the same thing as we do here:
"From the minute Boone filled out the lineup card until the very last out of the game, he blew every decision he had to make. Starting Grisham was foolish. Leaving Rice on the bench was idiotic. Pulling Fried against the bottom of the order was moronic. Inserting Jazz Chisholm into the game for defense instead of potential pinch-hit opportunity was shortsighted. Never letting Rice take a swing in the game was insane."
Seems keefe is more concerned with the bad in-game moves, but as I said above, I think Boone is a blockhead who doesn't know how to bring the best out of his players. He doesn't emphasize fundamentals, doesn't teach his players how to win these kinds of games. That's the biggest indictment on Boone. He brings literally nothing to the table. Why is he managing the New York Yankees? That's the biggest indictment on Cashman. And why is Cashman the GM? Cashman brings little to nothing to the table. Has not produced a championship since 2009. That's the biggest indictment on Yankee ownership. The shit parade clownshow just keeps on going, year after year.
...Lest we forget, Chapman actually did have some good years for the Yanks, and Cashman initially traded him as a rental...for several guys who never really worked out. (Looking at you, Gleyber.) But then he returned...and just deteriorated. Which is par for the course...
Zach, I know you're right when you say Crochet eats lefty hitters alive, and Jazz and Rice were rightly benched. On the other hand, it's hard to say. Especially where Rice is concerned, maybe his hot hand trumps Crochet and things are different. We'll never know if the obviously right move was the right move.
And BTR, your observation that analytics are used to cover decision makers' butts is totally true. When I was still in advertising, it was the same thing. Research could determine that a commercial wasn't going to work, so the paper pushers had something to point to. If research "proved" a spot was effective, and it then bombed in the real world, the same people could point to the research and say "it wasn't my fault, the research said."
The reduction of unmeasurable things to numbers is the coward's way out. It takes judgement out of the picture and makes decisions robotic, not necessarily effective.
...As I keep saying, "Everybody gets worse, nobody gets better" should be the Yankees' mantra. And as several of you have pointed out here, the Red Sox' coaches and manager probably dissected how the Yankees played against them, and developed a game plan accordingly.
WE don't stoop to any such thing, because we are led by The Great Humongous Cashman, whose analytics preclude any game-by-game or team-by-team analysis. The result is a style of baseball that—year-in and year-out—leads to running up wins against the many, many teams deliberately tanking or just mailing it in...and subpar performances in the playoffs, when everybody's on top of their game.
Oh actually, keefe to the city says he thinks Yankees would've had a much much better chance in a best of seven against the Red Sox. On that point, I have to disagree most strongly.
This is a Yankee team that has been beaten like a pinata by the Red Sox all year. Yet Keefe thinks they'd have a better chance in a longer series? Conventional wisdom says that the weaker team has its best chance in a shorter series. And yes, the Yankees are the weaker team. 4-10 this year against the Red Sox is no accident. I don't care what the final records were in the regular season. I think the Red Sox have the better team, all things considered. And it's not even close. I guess I was hoping for a Yankee miracle. There's a better chance of a miracle in 2 out of 3 than in 4 out of 7.
I still say it's Ca$hman making out the batting order. They also might be using some weird metrics we never have heard of to create perceived favorable match ups. Like Ben Rice doesn't get hits in night games on Tuesday at home when the temperature is less that 75 degrees...
Amen, Hoss!
Yeah, and therein lies the root of the problem. Weird metrics nobody's ever heard of being used to create the perception of favorable match ups. They are mis-using analytics. That's the bottom line. Teams like the Red Sox are using analytics properly. That's why, whenever they match up against each other, the Red Sox look like professionals and the Yankees look like the local beer league team.
Maybe that's the trouble, Hammer. Maybe our guys should drink beer the whole game. Might help, can't hurt.
Hello again.
I'm still holding out some hope for a win tonight.
It is what us "emotional fans" do.
And I'm not sure if any of you, uh, guessed it but like, you know, I'm not really that big of a fan of Aaron Boone's managerial acumen. Of this I am convicted.
Nor am I a fan of many of the players in our bullpen, several of our position players, Pal and, alas . . . our owner, Hal. (You may toss Randy into that Bronx stew)
Even when you don't have the best players to call on in mid to late inning situations, smart, timely decisions will often increase the likelihood of a positive outcome.
I believe that Boone has shown us time and time again what happens when, uhm, the opposite is true
My neighbor is a huge SF Giants fan. He's very excited to see who will be coming in to replace Melvin. When I offered him Boone he said, "What are you fucking crazy? Your players routinely out perform Boone's ineffectiveness as a manager. I'd rather have the guy you had before Boone, Girardi. At least he seemed to have a better grasp of the game."
Time for some more coffee and have that root canal thingy finished up.
Enjoy your day, Gents !
Now I'm thinking that Boone and the Analytics gang might be using something like a PitchCom to manage the games with.
I've often thought that Boone looks as though he's hearing voices in his head during a game.
Maybe he actually is . . .
I wouldn't be surprised if they were!
Hell, maybe they should drop some acid. That couldn't hurt either, the way these guys play. Where's Timothy Leary?
I am convicted. You are convicted. Boone is convicted. We are all convicted!
We all live in a blue Bronx conviction
A blue Bronx conviction
A blue Bronx conviction
We should make a movie titled "Brain Dead in da Bronx". One of those "so bad, it's good" movies. A Yankee playoff game against the Red Sox deteriorates into a zombie end of the world meltdown. Maybe we could get Anthony Volpe and his girlfriend, Cashman's daughter, to star in it. (Sorry guys, but we'd all just be extras in the movie, unless you have acting or directing experience. But we could write the story and the script for them!) Hey, it's incredibly hard to make a "so bad, it's good" movie. There can't be more than a dozen or so of such cult classic masterpieces in the entire history of movie making. I'm up for the challenge, are you?
DO NOT BELIVE THE LIES.
IT'S ALL RIGHT IN FRONT OF US.
Who, exactly then, is, US?
This is from yardbarker (a completely free site): "According to Opta Stats, it is the first time in postseason history where a team loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the ninth and failed to score a run, losing the game. For the Yankees, such a feat isn’t a very rare event. In fact, it is an elusive magic trick they rehearsed numerous times this year alone." https://www.yardbarker.com/mlb/articles/yankees_embarrassing_comeback_attempt_vs_red_sox_marks_an_mlb_first/s1_13132_42827642
I'm telling ya, I'm just waiting for the game where the Yankees load the bases with nobody out in all nine innings, only to strand all 27 baserunners and lose the game 1-0 to boot. If there is any team that could accomplish such an embarrassing anti-Herculean feat, it would be the New York Yankees, as long as they're managed by Boone the Buffoon, who rode into town on a big bad balloon, and whilst blowing bubble gum balloons, seemingly baffled, befuddled and bewildered holding a baby baboon, bet and blew all of HAL's money on a game of bridge in the Yankees' Last Chance Saloon.
Yankees are so bad, they deserve to have a "so bad, it's good" movie made about them. I want it to be the worst movie in the history of movie making. It's got to be so bad, that it's good. Just like the Yankees.
The first thing we got to do is compile a list of such movies that we can use as an inspirational blueprint. I nominate the movie "I'm Gonna Get You Sucka" as one of our models.
Plan 9 From Outer Space
That's an amazing stat, Hammer. And how many have we seen like that this year? "This is the first time since...1908...1913...ever..." Incredible it does not even seem to register in the mainstream media...
I usually agree with everything Zach, but this Yankees roster could have won this game. It is all on Boone and his underlings.
It's as if a middle schooler made out the lineup based on the best cool pictures on their baseball cards.
And in the name of all things Sterling, can someone please teach these overpaid millionaires bunting and situational hitting?
...Hey, we can all have a good, Bosnian smirk at Juan Soto, who ran up pretty much the same year he did last season, but is going home. "He needed us more than we needed him, HA-HA!"
But to Hammer's point, I noticed the other day that Soto was choking up during an at-bat. Not a whole bunch, but some. In other words, he was adjusting to the situation. Last night, Stanton did not need to put the ball in the bullpen, in either key at-bat. All he needed to do was push a nice single somewhere. He could not, because his game is never adjusted for the situation at hand...
...Ah, Rufus, as usual I was busy typing when I should have been reading! Great Yankees Minds think alike. But just to end that thought, one of the great beauties about baseball is that there are many ways to win. During the great Boston Massacre of 1978, the Yanks had 10 extra-base hits in 4 games...and an almost unbelievable 57 singles.
They didn't knock down the Green Monster. They just took whatever the Red Sox pitchers were throwing and lined it or grounded it through the infield.
Great teams, great players adjust. The Yankees' patented One-Dimensional Ball is a betrayal of the game. All sports are more one-dimensional now, alack. But if you saw, say, a football team that just ran up the middle on every play, you would not expect it to win anything.
Oh, and above I meant to write "Boonian" smirk. Autocorrect decided otherwise. But let it be said here and now that I have nothing against any Bosnians, nor do I believe them to be a smirkish people. Thank you.
Rufus, I've never seen or even heard of that one! Just read the wiki article that it's regarded as the worst movie ever made and a "so bad, it's good" classic. I'll see if I can watch it on youtube.
Hoss, this negative record setting has been going on for quite some time. It started in 2004, with the 3 games to none blown lead debacle. Although they did win in 2009, afterwords they went right back to the negative record setting. Witness last year's World Series with the only walk off grand slam ever in W.S. history. And there were plenty other negative records in that one series alone. They just keep piling up crazy feats of absurd ineptitude. We are seeing anti-miracles by the day. It all stems from trying to re-invent the game. They're accomplishing things nobody in the history of major league baseball has ever been STUPID enough to do.
Actually, "I'm Gonna Get You Sucka" has one of my favorite comedy film moments of all time. It's when he comes back from Nam and his Momma says, "I left you room just like it was when you left."
Yeah, "...Sucka" might be just too good of a movie for this list. I have several faves from that movie: the scene with the girl from the bar, when she starts taking everything off (and I mean everything); the scene with the ex-pimp and his goldfish fishbowl high heel shoes; the scene when Hammer says "you can never have enough". Too many iconic scenes to count!
We're gonna win tonight, and the Schlitt will finish the job tomorrow.
Stanton reverted to his old blind man routine. That was a hittable pitch he whiffed on. A bad slider, some kind of off speed pitch. It was thigh high and had a hit me sign on it, but Stanton, maybe geared for heat, completely missed it. He should've been in survival mode, two strike, opposite field/late swing, spoiler mode. That was a terrible at-bat. Unprofessional at-bat. Completely unacceptable if you want to be a champion.
57 singles + 10 extra base hits in one four game series. Now that is hitting, winning baseball. The current incarnation of Yankees are never going to get 67 hits in one four game series, I'm sure. That's an average of almost 17 hits a game. These guys today might do that against a lousy pitching staff once or twice in a year but never four games in a row.
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