News Flash! Austin Wells Says Foul Tips Sidetracked His Season. Is Aaron Judge to Blame???

 

Yankees catcher Austin Wells says that his wretched 2026 season at the plate—as opposed to his merely awful seasons at the plate in 2023, 2024, and 2025—may have been caused by multiple foul tips to the head. His condition only improved (marginally) after treatment, and switching to a "bulkier...hockey-style mask."

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7693650/2026/10/19/austin-wells-yankees-catcher-foul-tips/?unlocked_article_code=1.J1E.cx5Z.v3qhU92IChX7&source=user_shared_article&smid=ta-ios-share

Figures high in the Yankees' front office, who wished to remain anonymous, put the blame for Wells' injuries squarely where it belonged: on Aaron Judge.

"Actually, Wells wanted to go on the IL and switch to the bulkier mask much earlier than he did," one such source, who insisted that he be identified only as "LT," insisted. "Boone, Brian Cashman, all of us wanted Austin to get looked over. But Aaron Judge kept goading, taunting him into playing."

Some sources went even further.

"There is serious evidence that Aaron Judge actually inflicted those multiple blows to Austin's head," claimed another individual, who demanded that he be referred to only as "RL."  "I heard from someone who knows someone who should know someone that there is video evidence somewhere of Judge actually sneaking into the trainers' room while Wells was napping, and hitting him with Jazz Chisholm's baseball bat."

Asked why Judge would possibly do such a thing, "RL" merely shrugged.

"Who knows why Judge does what he does? The man is capable of anything. Remember when he concussed Anthony Rizzo, but kept making Rizzo play everyday? We didn't want to go along with it, but Judge is a big, big guy, and he will stop at nothing. I understand that he has access to a tactical nuclear device."

Above is a photograph of Judge allegedly making a great catch against the Dodgers in the 2024 World Series, though Yankees insiders claimed he actually used the opportunity to pass the Yanks' signals on to their opponents in the bullpen.

"It was completely irrational," confirmed another Yankees higher-up known only as "BC." "Not only did Judge disable Wells, but then he physically prevented us from acquiring a great catcher to replace him. I had a deal all lined up to get Hunter Goodman from Colorado, in exchange for two Dominican Summer League pitchers and $50 in ShopRite coupons. All I had to do was call the Rockies' GM back. But Aaron Judge pulled out my telephone, stood in front of my office door and would not let me out until it was too late."

To penalize Judge for his general savagery regarding Wells, the Yankees' front office said it would do nothing, save to continue to berate him in sleazy newspapers and on sports radio.

Boy-Oh-Boy – The New York Yankees Sure Could use a Laxative!

 

 

A Bitter Pill

I’m watching the playoff games, something I don’t usually do, but the Yankees were beaten so badly and so quickly that I had a whole bunch of unused rooting points.

I decided to use the rest of them against the Dodgers. KaChing!  

Apparently I still have a bunch left. 

I’m hoping that the Guardians ability to win on the road, while being sadly inept at home, carries the day. Probably not.

But, if the World Series pits Cleveland, a city I like,

and Milwaukee, home to Bob Uecker

I’m good with either. Not Tampa though. Screw them. 

--

The reason I’m writing is...

I keep getting shown a commercial for Caplyta. 

In it a wealthy white woman apparently suffers from depression. I can relate to that. Well, half of that description anyway.

They show her sitting in her sun room, doing group yoga in the park with other wealthy depressed women, and hanging out on what appears to be a private beach with her husband, kids, and of course, their golden retriever.

As it turns out she is only able to be happy because of the drug. OK. The mind is complex, I can't speak to hers. So, fine. Glad she’s happy now. 

What’s pissing me off is the commercial uses “This Little Light of Mine” to sell the product.

A little background. Shortened from Wikipedia…

"This Little Light of Mine" is an American gospel song that originated in the 1920s, when it was first sung in Christian churches and penitentiaries…

The gospel song became popular among African American Christians, and it was later adapted by Zilphia Horton, amongst many other activists, in connection with the civil rights movement.”

They’re using a classic civil rights song to help sell anti-depression medication to wealthy white women. Wow. Just wow.

So now when I hear it I no longer think of Martin Luther King. Now I think of the overwhelming struggle of someone getting the wrong kind of milk in their latte. 

That’s just offensive. What’s next… "Strange Fruit" to sell tangelos?

Look, I don’t do the performative anti-cultural appropriation schtick. 

Well, to be fair, I also don’t love the Atlanta Braves tomahawk chop but that’s more of a, I don’t like stadium sized crowds raising and lowering their arms and doing death chants, kind of thing. I always get a “Triumph of the Will” vibe. 

But that could just be me.

This is America. The great melting pot. Appropriate away. You can call me a schmuck and I’m not going to bitch and say, “Hey! That’s my word!” 

You want to wear a giant hat made out of beaver fur in the middle of July? You should live and be well.

Dashiki at Thanksgiving?  Knock your self out. 

A dirndl when it’s not Octoberfest? Thanks for the view. 

This is not a person wearing a dirndl. The view is similar though. This is Front Row Amy. As El Duque mentioned, she sits behind home plate at Brewers games.  See the notebook in her hands? She manually scores the game. Charts every pitch.  I like her even more.  Why can’t the Yankees have fans like that?

All we get is…

I shouldn’t complain. At least she goes to the games, unlike her brother Hal.

But I digress…

I guess what bothers me about the commercial, aside from everything, is that someone, anyone, should have known the history of the song and pointed it out during the approval process. 

It just goes to our general dumbing down as a country.

I’m bumming myself out and now I’m depressed. If only there was something I could take…

 

Tampa or the Brewers? Which team should receive the Yankiverse's prized juju?

Here is comes: Fox Sports' worst nightmare - a Rays/Brewers world series that will draw Dr. Pimple Popper ratings, as MLB's owners prepare to self-immolate. 

Last night, you felt it: Cleveland looks to be sliding into Lake Erie, the cheesiest great lake, which hasn't even been renamed by the Mango. As the game ended, their lone star, Jose Ramirez, sat in the dugout looking pissed and mystified - pisstified? It's all over but the whining. Tampa in six.  

So, the Rays v the Brewers? What a concept: The two best teams in baseball, the two ascendant rosters full of youth and promise, crashing headlong into each other. 

To which franchise should Yank fans bestow our priceless juju? 

The arguments...

FOR THE BREWERS:

1. Neither Jake Bauers and/or Gary Sanchez - ex-Yanks - invoke any grand sense of infidelity. Bauers had no place with the Yankees; it's nice to see that he made something of himself. Same with Gary; a lot of water under the bridge, but no hard feelings. They can't all be Jorge Posada. 

2. Milwaukee has never hurt us. You gotta go back to 1957 to find a bloodletting worthy of vengeance. Eddie Mathews is long gone. That's too long ago, even for me. Yeah, Paul Molitor and Prince Fielder crushed us for a few years, but the Yankees were so bad, it really didn't matter. 

3. Gotta love that cleavage lady fan who sits behind home plate and scores each game in a scrapbook. I thought she had to be a marketing ploy. Apparently, she's for real. Been doing it for years. 

4. Tampa loathes us. Might as well loathe them back.

FOR THE RAYS

1. If they win, they will realize the emptiness of sports success. It will get it out of their system, and they'll be bad for five years.

2. On the eve of the owners' lockout, baseball's cheapest team wins the ring? Not exactly the cleanest prevailing argument for a salary cap.

3. Drew Rasmussen = future Yankee. (Or, more likely, a Dodger.) Either way, he's gone.

4. The traditional "root for your division" viewpoint, as championed by America's Mayor, back in 2024? Remember how Topps inserted Rudy into the Redsock celebration? 

Not sure it brings bragging rights, but if Tampa runs the table, the Yankees don't look so putrid by being whupped. 

FOR THE ASTEROID:

1. Who cares, really? Isn't this why they created Monday Night Football?

A direct line to the current Yankee doldrums extends from Caleb Durbin

On December 13th, 2024 - a date that shall live in infamy - the Bronx Barge traded Caleb Durbin and Nasty Nestor Cortes to Milwaukee for 2-time all-star closer Devin Williams, master of the high-spin changeup known as the Airbender. 

"The Yankees got their man yesterday," beamed MLB.com, in its own form of bending air.  

And, alas, here we are... watching at home.

At the time, Durbin was a buzzy IF pizza rat who had become Maury Wills in the Arizona Fall Instructional League, setting records for base stealing and - at 5'6" - reminding Yank wags of Dustin Pedroia and Jose Altuve - the diminutives who perpetually kill us. 

Instantly, the trade was hailed as a glorious Yankee victory - by the Yankees, anyway. Durbin was too small, the whispers said. Cortes had passed his sell-bye date - (and somebody had to take the blame for the 2024 World Series) - and the Yankees needed a closer. Even if Durbin emerged, he couldn't hurt us in Milwaukee. I mean, when was the last time Milwaukee hurt us? (Are you old enough to remember Del Crandall and Warren Spahn?) 

Of course, Williams turned out to be a disaster. He lost his job to Luke Weaver, who got Scott Proctored, and both ended up on the Mets. Williams finished 2026 with a 4.43 ERA. Yikes. 

But last winter was when Milwaukee traded Durbin to Boston. That's where the Yankee nightmare begins. The Brewers received Shane Drohan, David Hamilton and Kyle Harrison - all of whom are on the current playoff roster. The Redsocks got Durbin, Andruw Monasterio and Anthony Seigler, all of whom played a role in their turnabout season. Durbin overcame a horrendous first two months to bat .248 with 13 HRs and 20 SBs, with a growing reputation as a sparkplug. He'll enter 2027 as Boston's everyday 3B.

And the Yankees? Well, they spent all of 2026 searching for a third-baseman, which turned out to be Ryan McMahon. He hit 11 HRs, batted .213, and - worst of all - let it destroy his defense. 

Yep, everything turned on that Durbin deal, where the Yankees traded rising youth for past performance. It's our signature move. Congrats to all. 

Okay, I died and went to Hell, right? Why else is everybody talking about Anthony Volpe?

Okay, what did me in? Was it those greenish, weirdly crunchy cheese curds, with the dead cockroach mouthfeel? Shouldn't have downed the package. But but BUT... who says no to a curd?  

Or was it last night's rainstorm, which turned low-beams into a laser-show. I was turning left into a swarm of lighthouse beacons, when the radio suddenly shifted into Don't Fear the Reaper. A cosmic moment? Didja know that Blue Oyster Cult was an upstate band? Seasons don't fear the Reaper...

Anyway, if we're together in eternity, this sucks. Today, I wake up to find practically everybody in this dark, Trump-weary universe talking about - gulp - the war, the economy, Sydney Sweeney Anthony Fucking Volpe. Yep, the Volpster. Aaron Judge started it. He said the Yankees need Volpe next year, and - listen - nobody around here ignores the Big Fella. 

Yeah, I'm thinking the cheese curds.

So here we are, in Hell, where there is a movement to figure out what went wrong, and come up with a quick fix for the '27 Yankees. And, of course, no simple solution exists. If you're debating 2B, good luck, because you might as well be discussing the cast of Knot's Landing. Here are the candidates...

1. Jazz Chisholm
2. Anthony Volpe
3. Jose Caballero
4. Amed Rosario
5. Max Schuerman
6. Luis Garcia Jr. 
7. Your mom.

Also, please note that this ignores the looming declaration of martial law End of Times lockout, which will suspend all rules from winters past, and the fact that we still have Dopey Dildox and his algorithm running the show. 

Donno if I'm dead. (If I've crossed over, why do I need to pee?) But if we're talking about Volpe, this is Hell. We've come a long, long way from Bobby.

Cashman is the problem, but Judge really should keep his mouth shut sometimes

Great ballplayer, solid captain (I guess), but he does come out with some of the dumbest quotes in Yankeedom.

Looking like John Schuck a bit

Keefe ripped into him too, too hard, and the whole "New York, New York" thing is a massive Who Cares?, after all.

But if we take Judge at face value, he does show that maybe he's not the brightest bulb in the  league. Which is fine. Again, Who Cares?

Although, I have to say, I cracked up reading the end of Keefe's diatribe. Maybe Judge was just trying to encourage his teammates, but he thinks Boone is A-OK and we really need Volpe to be a winner. Yeah, sure.

Encouragement is good, but this is hysterical:

“He can be one of the greats in the game,” Judge said of Chisholm. “I think this will be a big year for him to take that next step.”

Chisholm had the worst season of his career.

“I think this will be a big year for him,” Judge said of Wells, “he’s really going to take that next step.”

Wells had the worst season of his career.

“I think there’s just so much more potential,” Judge said of McMahon. “I think what he’s about to do with the bat this year, he’s going to take off for us.”

McMahon had the worst season of his career.

No, Aaron Judge is not the problem with the New York Yankees.

 

I know that I get very down on Brian Cashman on this site, and I really have to apologize. In fact, I think we all have to thank Mr. Cashman for not going into something like politics, where he would have been really, truly dangerous.

Compared to Cashman, Dick Nixon was an innocent waif, and Roy Cohn a piker.

With the New York sports world roasting The Brain over yet another, pathetic Yankees' playoff exit, Cashman managed to flip the script overnight, and shift the blame to the real culprit in the Yanks' awful October baseball this season: Aaron Judge.

Suddenly, a few innocuous comments that Judge made in the wake of the Bombers' latest flop have been blown up into a catastrophe the size of the Hindenburg.

What Judge dared to say was that, yes, the loss was disappointing. That the Yankees should go all-out to try to win the World Series. That he supported Aaron Boone, who he thought was a good manager, and that he supported his teammates.

Sorry, but I'm old enough to remember when ballplayers used to get chastised for knocking people—not saying, "Hey, fans, wish we had done better, hope we do better soon, and I support my manager and teammates."

Oh, the humanity!!!

The "controversy"—and as true controversies go, this one ranks somewhere around which wine to have with a good appetizer—was wholly manufactured within hours. And by guess who?

Oh, yes, it's The Great Deflector!

Suddenly, the New York Post, that soul of journalistic integrity, had an inside scoop saying that the Yankees' front office was upset by Judge's remarks. 

Gee, I wonder who their inside source could have been? 

Unfortunately, even some of the most astute NY sports commentators around fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. Sal Licata, usually so much fun to watch on SNY, was quickly braying that Judge had to be held "accountable!"

Accountable for what? Saying nice things about his teammates, manager, and the fans?  That war criminal!

Even so beloved an observer as the Venerable Keefe, after excoriating Cashman and Boone with one of his best columns yet, took the bait, with a wild denunciation of Judge that went all the way back to...2018, and his great crime of daring to taunt the Red Sox by playing "New York, New York" on a boombox, after the Yanks' one victory in the ALDS that year.

"Acting like the Yankees had accomplished something simply by splitting the first two games on the road [in 2018], the face of the franchise's foolish decision served as a rallying cry for the Red Sox, who had won the AL East over the Yankees by eight games that year,"Keefe fumed—even crediting it with inspiring the Sawx to knock off the Astros and the Dodgers later in the playoffs.

Stop it. 

Can we please dispense of the notion that bulletin-board quotes really help outstanding big-league teams win championships—particularly in baseball?

Funny, I seem to remember the Yanks starting an injured and confused Luis Severino—whose injury they had ignored for months, and who didn't seem to know what time the game was even starting—in Game 3 of that 2018 series, and watching him get hammered.

Funny, I seem to remember Giancarlo Stanton fanning in the ninth inning of Game 4 in that series, against a pitcher who could not find the plate with a satellite location system.

Funny, I seem to remember Gleyber Torres in that same ninth inning failing to beat out a groundball that was traveling slower than the No. 1 train in the 1970s.

But Keefe goes on to pummel Judge, writing that:

"The narrative that the Yankees have failed Judge throughout his career makes me cringe. Judge has failed himself. He's the on with a postseason OPS two hundred points lower than his regular-season OPS. He's the one who has played in 17 rounds of the postseason and played well in six of them."

This is mostly true. Aaron Judge does have and OPS 198 points lower in the playoffs than during the regular season, from an astonishing 1.020 to a mere .822. 

But the playoffs can be strange. An even greater player than Judge did even worse at the plate than he did in 8 playoff series, his regular OPS dropping from .940 to a mere .668. That man was Willie Mays.

As it happened, Judge hit .500 in 2025's combined playoffs, driving in 7 runs in as many games, and compiling a .600/.684/.933/1.618 slash line against Toronto, without teasing a single Blue Jay. Still didn't help. 

(And incidentally, in 2018? Judge's slash line against the Red Sox was .375/.444/.750/ 1.194, as opposed to Clutch Stanton's .222/.222/.222/.444. But, you know: teasing.)

But here we are arguing about Aaron Judge, who didn't even play in the 2026 playoffs—much less empower the Rays by playing a boombox equipped with a Kander & Ebb tune—while once again, The Great Deflector dodges all blame.

As he has done since what seems like time immemorial.

Wonder why the Yanks didn't sign David Ortiz when Minnesota released him? That was Old George's call. Why they signed Garry Sheffield over Vlad Guerrero, Sr.? George again. The cruel canning of Joe Torre? The Steinbrenners. 

Convincing Hal Steinbrenner that, "The playoffs are a crapshoot"? ("Uh, I never said that.")

Now Keefe repeats the suddenly circulating story that it was Aaron Judge who wanted the Yanks to bring in Verdugo and Rizzo, and hang on to LeMahieu. 

Right.

No doubt, if it suited his purposes, The Great Deflector could convince NY sportswriters that it was Aaron Judge who made the deals for Curt Blefary and Rich McKinney.

But say he did. Say Aaron Judge "wanted" the Yankees to make a dozen bad personnel moves. 

So what?

You think Ed Barrow hopped to when Babe Ruth said they should sign somebody? Think Joe DiMaggio used to dictate deals to George Weiss?  Or Reggie Jackson to Gabe Paul?

Not so long ago—well, actually, too long ago—The Great Deflector was strutting around New York, boasting about how he had faced down Derek Jeter at contract time, and that if Jeets didn't like it, why the Yankees would just bring in Troy Tulowitzki. 

Now Macho Cashman is helpless whenever Judge so much as looks sideways at him. Once again, The Great Deflector has stuck the blame for his own failings on someone else.

But again, I suppose we should be grateful. I mean, imagine if he were president!

 

Ding-dong, the Dodgers are dead. And what does that say about us?

 

A-way back in 1998, when people interested in winning World Series still ran your New York Yankees, Peter O'Malley, inheritor of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Hal Steinbrenner of his day, announced that it was no longer possible for a single family's fortune to run a baseball team. (Something that must have come as news to almost all of his fellow owners.)

A few romantic souls suggested that, if O'Malley fils wanted to sell the Dodgers, why not bring them back to Brooklyn? Surely, an ownership group could be put together within about five minutes or so for such a venture, and if assorted Steinbrenners and Wilpons objected, well, what's a guillotine for?

Pete quickly put the kibosh on such notions, though, scornfully insisting that "commitment to the community, to Los Angeles and to Southern California is the number one priority."

O'Malley then sold the team to that longtime pillar of the community, Rupert Murdoch, for $325 million.

I am merely ecstatic that the Los Angeles Dodgers are out. They should not win another game, never mind another World Series—they or the Giants, both. Both teams left New York City out of greed and racism, and they should only die.

That said...I have to admit that if the Yankees were run like the Flock (as they were called in NYC newspapers until their move), I would be running through the proverbial field of nipples that our Peerless Leader so brilliantly evokes. 

The Bums (also a popular nickname in Brooklyn) spend money to make money. They go all out to win, and found a way around baseball's spending restrictions to go sign even more stars.  

They are what capitalism is SUPPOSED to be all about, and too rarely is:  building sustained excellence to make money. 

This is what the New York Yankees used to be all about. 

So, for the record, the Dodgers failed to become the first National League team ever to win three consecutive World Series. Only four NL teams have won two in a row:

1907-08:  Chicago Cubs*

1921-22:  New York Giants

1975-76:  Cincinnati Reds

2024-25:  Los Angeles Dodgers

From the American League, the following teams have won two or more consecutive World Series:

1910-11:  Philadelphia Athletics

1915-16:  Boston Red Sox**

1927-28:  New York Yankees

1929-30:  Philadelphia Athletics

1936-39:  New York Yankees***

1949-53:  New York Yankees****

1961-62:  New York Yankees

1972-74:  Oakland Athletics*****

1977-78:  New York Yankees

1992-93:  Toronto Blue Jays

1998-00:  New York Yankees******

*Cubs record should not stand due to awful Fred Merkle call, which led to Chicago's 108-year "Curse of Fred Merkle."

**Boo.

***Four consecutive World Series titles. 

****Five consecutive World Series titles. Still the record.

*****Three consecutive World Series titles.

******Three consecutive World Series titles.

 

The Dodgers are cooked, (like their books), and 10 other musings of the Apocalypse

It finally happened. Our long national nightmare is over. The Dodgers are toast, and for the next 20 years, no trip to Hollywood will be complete without mentioning the name "Bobby Bonillia." Long live the Brewers. No matter what happens, they slew the giant. 

Ten other ponderings...

1. Trouble in paradise. Tampa still can't fill its giant ping pong ball. Game II against Cleveland drew 32,125 - about 8,000 fewer than the Yankee massacre. This is not supposed to happen with a healthy sport. 

2. Fortunately, the Rays know who to blame: The fans, of course. And count me in. What a bunch of cheapos. They move to Florida, skip on taxes, rent a Lazy-Boy and a satellite dish, ride around on their scooters, scream about MAGA and complain about ticket prices - $84 for the Ueker seats. Pay up, grampa. 

3. Actually, they're pissed about the secondary markets, and how the Rays jiggle prices like hotel and airline reservations, all to sit in a sunless vacuum and watch baseballs kick up fake dirt and bounce off the ceiling rings. I thought domed baseball was done. 

4. Last year's Yankee fulcrum moment was when Trent Grishman accepted their $22 million one-year qualifying offer. It meant a clogged OF and no spending upgrades elsewhere. We'd play the same team, with the same fate. This year, it looks to be Jazz Chisholm. Will the Yankees make him an offer? Be careful. He might just take it.

5. I know it's moronic to do this, but close your eyes and imagine that the Yankees - instead of crapping the bed last week - had played the same quality of baseball they did against Boston. If the Yankees were still afloat - (of course, they are not) - we would be extolling the new Core 4 - Schlittler, Rice, Jones, Lombard - and fancying a new era for the franchise. Ugh. Parlor games, right?

6. Maybe let's not write the Dodgers' obit. They're still one of the richest teams in American sports, and there is no reason to think they won't continue their voodoo economics. Supposedly, their owner faces numerous federal investigations. What a joke. A couple campaign checks will solve that. Come February - a normal February, anyway - who thinks the Dodgers won't outspend the rest of humanity?

7. Some people claim a world series between Milwaukee and Cleveland - two small markets - will undermine the owners' argument about too money in sports. These people are fools. It wouldn't matter if the world series was Toledo v Reading. The forces behind this lockout have been edging into place for 20 years. No matter who wins the series, baseball is heading toward a dark place, (and, damn, so is America.)

8. One Yankee concern is already emerging: What to do with Ben Rice? This year, they bottled him up as a DH, a horrible fate for a generational star. He must play 1B or move back to catcher. You cannot expect him to waste his career as a DH. 

9. I suppose Shohei Ohtani will stay in LA, but I've always believed that before his career ends, he will try a stint on the East Coast, either in NY or Boston. That might not take place in 2027, but crazier things have happened. And the Yankees - see #8 - always need another DH, right? 

10. The Yankees are a handful of back pages behind the Knicks for tabloid cover supremacy. If they had reached the ALCS, they'd be well on their way to winning the year. Now, with injuries redrawing the NFL, the Giants and Jets might even show a pulse. And the Knicks will soon begin. It's a wide-open race. 

😂😂😂 That's Schadenfreude!

 

The definition of sanity.

Is it just me, or does Brian Cashman look more like Paul Schaefer every year?

Speculation continues to roil that Cashie is going to let Boone go. I will believe it when I see it—and I won't see it this year, not with the big labor fight looming.

At least the Yankees' failure was so egregious this October that it even started to penetrate the minds of many of the New York sports media.

SNY—granted, the Mets' channel—has been especially good on this. Soon after Trent Grisham went down barfing, the wonderful Sal Licata was on the air screaming about "ACCOUNTABILITY!" Marc Malusis said straight out that the Yankees didn't win "because they have no intestinal fortitude."

The great John Yastrzemski—a Yankees fan—scornfully wondered if Aaron Boone would once again bring out the tape of the Red Sox coming back from down 3-0 in games in 2004, to "inspire" the Yanks, just as Boone did before, during the Astros' 2022 sweep of the Bombers.

From other Knights of the Press Box, you even began to hear that shopworn cliché about "the definition of insanity"—that is, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. 

But of course that has nothing to do with what happened to the Yankees in 2026. Quite the opposite.

In fact, the 2026 Yankees "ran it back"—and achieved almost exactly the results they had for the previous two years, and for most of the now 17 seasons since they last won a World Series.

And they were exactly what Hal Steinbrenner wanted.

The 2026 Yankees won 93 games, as opposed to 94 in 2025 and 2024. But they were deprived of one home game by that early hurricane that drenched the last weekend of the season.

They finished second to the Toronto Blue Jays in attendance, after leading the AL in the last 4 straight seasons, 6 of the last 7, and 19 of the last 23. Their average gate of 41,214 was also down a little from 41,885. 

But again, here is where that pesky hurricane distorted reality. Officially—due to the rainout and a hastily scheduled doubleheader on that last weekend—the Yanks lost out on the attendance crown by about 41,000 to the Jays. 

But the Bombers are credited with only 79 home games, meaning that they would have easily passed Toronto with that last weekend. And believe me, they already have the cash from most of those missing fans, to be compensated with a make-up game against the Mariners or the Wandering A's, sometime in 2027—provided there is a 2027.

What does that mean, in terms of profits? 

Hard to say, exactly, which is very much how all major-league owners like it. Thanks to the luxury tax, bond payments, and those property taxes that Hal grouses so bitterly about, the Yankees actually claimed to have lost $53 million in 2025.

This is ludicrous, of course—and something that doesn't bode well for the coming labor negotiations.

Zachary D. Rhymer, writing for bleacherreport online, (https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25508132-now-time-new-york-yankees-burn-it-down), notes that:

"Back in 2011, the Yankees' year-end $216 million payroll accounted for 49 percent of $439 million in revenue. Last year, they had a $301.5 million payroll against $710 million in revenue. That's 42 percent."

 Whoops. Hal, your black ink is showing. 

For this year, well, just do the math. Again, stats for the average ticket price at Yankee Stadium differ widely online—is any other major, publicly subsidized corporation so difficult to get accurate financial information about; outside of sports, that is?—but one internet figure for online, "face value" tickets is $67.75, the highest such ducat in baseball.

Do the math—or, plug the figures into your handy-dandy, fingertip source of all knowledge—and you get over $223 million ($223,382,183.50, to be precise. But I hate to show off.) 

Baseballreference puts the Yanks' estimated payroll this season at $284,070, 833. I don't know if that includes the dreaded luxury tax—maybe not.

But then, the attendance money above doesn't include those two missed, regular-season games. Or the three, jumped-up playoff games this October. 

Or, I suspect, any of the revenue from the Stadium's luxury boxes, or the Legends Suite, or the incredibly overpriced rat dogs and other comestibles. Or the beer, or the souvenirs and all the gear—onsite and off. All the corporate sponsors and tie-ins, all those "Official Mobbed-Up Waste Disposal Contractor of the New York Yankees" ads.  

Or that other thing...what was it again?  

Oh, yeah.  All the broadcasting rights.  In everything.  And several languages.

Then there was that $2.6 billion, Apollo Global Management investment, that kicked the Yankees estimated value up to $12 billion. 

So...definition of insanity? 

Not in the least. Hal Steinbrenner and his minions set out, as always, to maximize the club's profits while investing the minimum they figured they could get away with...for this year and all the years ahead. 

They did not go all out to win the World Series, because they understood the demands that would make on the payroll in the immediate future (Just look at the Knicks.)

Sure, they got lucky about a few things. If, say, Aaron Judge had remained healthy or Giancarlo Stanton had come off the DL a month earlier, the Yankees' pitching might actually have been good enough to go all the way, all that Jazz notwithstanding.

But overall, the Yankees did exactly what they set out to do. By the lights of Hal and his family, 2026 was another, unmitigated success. 

And now they are leading the fight to erase their New York team's major, competitive advantage—being the best team in the biggest market in the country—and increase their profits by even more in the future.

Insane like a fox!

The playoffs bring one harsh revelation: This is what well-coached teams look like

Last night, watching Jake Bauers did it. 

Bauers, you know, is Milwaukee's HR guy. This year, he led the team with 26. And last night, he finished a grueling 11-pitch at-bat - a Fox barker christened him "the Marathon Man" - that drained Dodger pitcher Blake Snell the way Tik-Tok does my iPhone4 - with a game-changing blast. It followed Bauer's game two heroics, when he coaxed 12-pitches out of Yoshi Yamamoto, before winning a walk that flattened the pitcher's spirit like a bootheel on a ladybug. 

Long before he discovered Milwaukee, Yank fans may remember Bauers from the 2023 team. Over 272 at-bats, he hit 12 HRs - "Jake Bauers, the Man of the Hour!" cried John Sterling - though he hit a measly .202. It was the season of Bauers, Willie Calhoun, Billy McKinney and Franchy Cordero, the four boners of the apocalypse. "Jackie" Donaldson played 3B, next to SS Anthony Volpe, who hit 21 HRs and was hailed as the next Bobby Witt Jr. The Yankees that year finished fourth in the AL East.  

I cannot say the Yankees should have - or could have - kept Bauers for the last three years. The ebbs and flows of baseball rosters would kill such a chance. But last night's 11-pitch duel was the stuff of Derek Jeter and/or Jorge Posada - or Jose Altuve and/or Freddie Freeman. (These days, it's dangerous for Yank fans to look back on October heroes. The list of failures far exceeds our successes.)  

And when you watch the games still happening, you generally see well-coached teams playing with fundamentals that the Yankees have abandoned through 16 Octobers. Instead of winning a ring, they collapse into a chaos of excuses. And often, you find a former Yankee stepping out of our miserable past. David Robertson. Nathan Eovaldi. Aroldis Chapman. Mike Lowell. Now, Jake Bauers.

Nothing changes. Another hard, lost October. Is there nothing else to watch?

Let us all call upon the Lard (as they say down South)

A man named "Bit" from a place called "Bronx" has written the following questions:

Uh..theological question here, JM: Is Dua Lipa a good or a bad angel? AND, what form of salvation does she offer? AND, if I may, where does Carl Pavano fit into the grand firmament arching over all of us in this YEAR OF OUR LORD, 2026? And, if being a Yankee fan is living in Groundhog Day now, where does the Groundhog bit into this picture? I know that's a lot. I'm happy to have just one of those questions answered. I need to sleep again at night.

These are intriguing questions, Bit, so it's a good thing I went to a Catholic elementary school through 8th grade.

Wikipedia informs me that Dua Lipa is neither a good angel nor a bad angel, but a pop artist who plays with duality, morality and contradiction in her music. I don't personally know, since I've never knowingly heard any of her songs. My assumption, however, is that she's no PJ Harvey, so I don't think she has any theological or salvationary standing whatsoever.

Carl Pavano, on the other hand, continues to exert his horrible influence on Yankeedom and our Rector, Brian Cashman (that's t-o-r, not t-u-m), has for years fought this curse without success. Only in recent times has St. Camelot Schlittler, with his blazing righteous fastball array, begun to dispel the darkness wrought by Pavano and his disabled posterior.

Finally, to your last question, we are indeed living in Groundhog Day. And just as the walrus was Paul, the groundhog is Boone, which is why we cannot stop reliving our ringless nightmare. Andie MacDowell is nowhere in sight.

May the blessings of Sisters Borromeo and Benidicta be showered upon your household.

Dominus proboscis to all.

Cleveland Rocks!

 

Hell, yeah, Contrarian!

Cleveland rocks. I've been going there every few years since 1998, on book tours.  

(In '98, I was even there in the midst of the Indians-Red Sox ALDS, and was really hoping to go see the deciding game in that cool park they have. Alas, the Sox lost in Fenway the day before. Oh, I was crushed.)

But suffice to say, it always struck me as a terrific city, well-kept—full of readers!  

Some nice buildings, such as the Terminal Tower, shown here. Beneath it is a great train station, one that was abandoned for decades with the decline in inter-city train travel, but which I understand has been restored as a commuter station.

(Amtrak, strapped for funds as always, had already built another crude "Amshack" out in the suburbs.)

Part of their trouble seems to do with names, as "Terminal Tower" and "Terminal Station" might indicate.

And while the "Guardians of Traffic" come from a cool, WPA bridge, I think they could do better, too. As someone said, why not bring back "Spiders"? Why doesn't ANY North American sports team have "Spiders" as a nickname? 

(Might have to do with the fact that the Cleveland Spiders went an all-time worst, 20-134, in 1899. But it wasn't their fault. Owners could have more than one team in the NL then, and theirs simply transferred all their best players to St. Louis.)

I would also have liked to see them go back to the "Cleveland Napoleons," which they were called for their great, early star, Napoleon Lajoie. But I think that was ruled out by the memory of the original Napoleon who, you know, did all that dictator and killing stuff. (Also, headline writers would surely have taken to calling them the "Naps.")

But...why not, "Rockers"? They have the rock-'n'-roll hall, they have the song.  Cleveland Rockers it should be! 

I wish you success with them, whatever they're called, Contrarian. It's hard switching teams, I know.

I got so fed up with Old George after he dealt away Craig Nettles before the 1984 season, that I tried to become a Mets fan. Yes, I did. I had never hated the Mets, as I did the Red Sox, and as it happened they were just turning into that terrific, 1980s team they had.

But...didn't stick. Couldn't do it. When George was banned permanently, absolutely, forever and a day from baseball in 1990, I was happily back in the fold, even though the Yanks were in last place, just as I found them in 1966, and...

Well, sometimes permanently and forever means less than you might think. Interesting to speculate on what might have happened had George really been kicked out of the sport then.

Maybe things would have been very different, if Hank and Hal or Steve Swindal had taken over that much earlier. Maybe the family would've sold the team to the Dolans, as George himself very nearly did in 1998.

Remember the truest thing ever said about New York sports: It can always get worse.

But whatever happens, the Yankees are my team and I'm stuck with them. Not so bad, I know. But I can certainly understand being good and fed up. The Guardians are a fine team representing a fine city. I'd love to see them steal a championship this year.

And if you find it doesn't stick, Contrarian...feel free to come on back here.

Another existential question...

 Why did the Rays revert to the Devil Rays?

Wasn't there an evangelical backlash to the team's original name? And didn't that cause the switch?

Has God forgiven Tampa? 

Or is Satan on the loose?

Ten existential questions for the Yankees and their juju gods

1. Who made the decision - Cashman, Boone, Hal, Judge, Dua Lipa? - to bat Giancarlo?

2. On the last pitch of 2026, Jazz Chisholm was breaking for third. Would he have stolen it? 

3. Did Paul Goldshmidt's two rather lame Yankee seasons help or hurt his Hall of Fame chances?

4. Will Aaron Judge ever again be Aaron Judge?

5. Are we going to wait on Anthony Volpe for the fourth straight year?

6. To be sated, how much money do the Steinbrenners need?

7. In our lifetimes, will the Yankees ever develop a homegrown all-star 3B?

8. Are the Yankees prisoners of a HR mentality that stems from the right field "porch?"

9. What happens if the Mets ever field a great team? 

10. Considering the state of the world - from measles to diesels - should we even bother to think about 2027?

I mean, Tim Hill will be a free agent. Why the fuck should anybody care?

A Players' League?

 

Just to respond to some of Carl J. Weitz's very valid reservations about a potential players' league of some sort:

Yes, it is a huge longshot. 

But I don't know what club owners have in mind to keep this from ending up as another fiasco...and judging by past history, they don't know, either.

Total major-league attendance had been rising pretty steadily from around 1975, when it was just under 30 million, to 1993, when it hit a new high of about 70.3 million.

Then came the strike. The majors did not get back to that number until they drew 70.6 million in 1998, the year of the great, McGwire-Sosa Home Run Fraud Race.

After reaching an all-time high of 79.5 million in 2007, though, attendance began a slow decline, even before Covid.

(In good part, this was due to team owners repeatedly REMOVING seats from their ballparks, in favor of luxury boxes, suites, and tony bars and restaurants—making them a luxury destination.) 

Still, in 2026, attendance was at 71.6 mill, after several seasons of moderate rises.  And I assume that all prices are much higher than they ever were.

For the owners to destroy this growth, fighting for a salary cap they don't need, would be madness. But that's our club owners for you!

Would the owners be able to staunch a players' league, should one arise, by threatening to ban advertisers? 

I don't know. If there is a players' league...what will the owners do for players? Even if they find enough scabs, won't the advertisers prefer to advertise on broadcasts of what will be easily the better league?

Carl J. Weitz mentions how Rush Limbaugh and other denizens of right-wing radio threatened advertisers into boycotting liberal Air America back in the day. But Rush and friends still had a product—albeit a noxious one—to offer in Air America's stead.

(By the way, as someone who was occasionally a guest—and, for one week, even a substitute co-host on Air America—I can attest that its problems went well beyond that. It was, for one thing, badly run—there would be entire, ten-minute gaps in broadcasting, filled only with ads. And...people of the liberal/left persuasion just didn't listen to talk radio. I sure as hell knew nobody who did.)

The big fight, I think, would be over who gets to use the ballparks. I have no idea what the contracts say, and quite possibly our elected officials were stupid enough or venal enough to give complete control to the owners. 

But if they didn't...

Will all these cities, which have already foolishly forked over so much money to build these ballparks, really be content to have them sit idly, generating no sales taxes and no subsidiary revenues?  

This could be their—our—big break—a chance to become a full partner in the game with the players, and grab back a lot of that public money. 

I know, I know. Unlikely.

Most of the players are right-wing greedheads, too, and when it comes down to it, well, to quote Elvis Costello: Money talks/ And it's persuasive.

But still. We seem to me to be at a dead end in this country. Everything has got to change—the rip off that professional (and even college) sports are now, along with the rest.

Just getting the thought out there—just getting the idea out there—that there might be a different way is, I think, worth it.

Actually, it was a great World Series...

So sorry to be out of some of the best discussions we've had of late, but that terrible thing known as work has interfered.  

(Remember that old ad for some aspirin, when the announcer used to say, "Isn't it terrible when something so unfair as a headache interrupts?"...which made every single person in the developing world hate us all the more.)

But I digress.

Stang, thanks so much for the great post on the 1926 World Series. I love me some Heywood Broun.

He was a wonderful writer and a great lefty, also the founder of the Newspaper Guild, back when there used to be those things called jobs.  

A Round Table regular and quite a character. Somebody—Dorothy Parker?—described him as always looking "like an unmade bed."

But actually, the 1926 was a helluva World Series.

It went seven games, with three of them decided by one run. Ruth did indeed become the first man ever to hit three homers in a World Series game—a feat that he, and later a certain, Mr. Reginald Jackson would match.

(We don't count Juice Ball boboes, Pablo and Albert.)

But it became most famous for Grover Cleveland Alexander striking out Tony Lazzeri, with the bases loaded in Game 7 at Yankee Stadium.

(Amazing fact: both men were epileptics!)

That was only in the seventh inning, though.  The game ended when The Babe got, yes, another free pass, and tried to steal second with two out in the ninth.

Ruth was thoroughly lambasted for this, by sportswriters convinced it was a typically silly stunt by the big guy—or even hinting that he might have been paid off by gamblers.

Ruth, though, was not a bad base stealer, it was a close play, and he never regretted it. He was simply trying to put his team in a position to tie up the game.

The next hitter was Long Bob Meusel, who had had a triple earlier that afternoon, but only on a pop fly that the outfielder dove for and missed. He was hitting just .238 on the Series, and yes, the chances were way better that he might hit a single than a home run or another triple.

It also beat sending up Giancarlo Stanton or Trent Grisham to try to win the game.

Ten signs of the looming Yankeocalypse

It's happening. 

Our long-anticipated Yankee existential crisis is here. 

Sorry, folks, but it's time for sandbags, headlamps and Dinty Moore. Here are 10 signs that, at least for Yank fans, the end is near.

1. The Dodgers may bench Shohei Ohtani. 

2. In the playoffs, no less.

3. Trump came to Syracuse and was snubbed by Ryan McMahon (the GOP Onondaga County Executive, not the 3B.)

4. In Syracuse, Trump called out Yankee president Randy Levine.

5. Of our loss to Tampa, Trump said, "He's won so much, it's not going to matter." 

6.  The Giants lead the NFC East.

7. They achieved this by playing miserable Washington to an overtime tie.

8. The Yankees next 2B could be Gleyber Torres.

9. Giancarlo's eternity contract is entering its final year.

10. Suddenly, the Rays can't catch foul pops?

I say, let it happen. At least for the next five months, we don't have to think about Michael Kay stirring tea with his glasses. 

Goodbye, NY. Hello, Cleveland!

After careful consideration, and with due diligence and deliberation, I have decided to turn traitor and become a fan of the Cleveland Guardians. This is not a decision I have made lightly. My first and perhaps strongest memory of the game of baseball at large and the NY Yankees in particular was the sight of Bill Mazeroski sending the ball over Yogi Berra’s head and the left field wall of Forbes Field (the 66th anniversary of which is tomorrow Oct. 13 at 3:39 PM) to win Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. I was 8 years old, and devastated. The next season I followed the M&M boys as they chased the Babe’s home run record. My father had been a Yankee fan before me. I was hooked.

Today’s Yankees don’t thrill that little boy remaining in me anymore. The Cleveland Guardians do. What follows are the reasons why I am making the switch. Listicles are stupid and they suck, so however many reasons there are, that’s what it is.

I grew up in the NY metropolitan area. My parents followed the traditional post-war path from urban dwellers (144th and Amsterdam) to suburban dwellers (Nassau County). The 60s were a pretty good era overall for NY sports, but baseball and the Yankees were always the first in my heart. When the interloping Mets showed up in 1962, I would have nothing to do with them. Even Casey Stengel’s presence couldn’t make me switch.

But I don’t live in the NY metro area anymore. I live in western NY, between Buffalo and Erie PA, and the Guardians are the closest MLB team in the region (for the record, I live in the blackout region for the Yankees, Mets, Guardians, and Pirates). Cleveland is a two-hour drive away, and Progressive Field is a cozy place to take in a ball game. And for the rest of you old-timers out there, I just want to bring you up to speed and let you know that they put out the fire on the Cuyahoga River 49 years ago, and in the meantime built the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame, a beautiful new Science Center, the International Women’s Air and Space Museum, and a modern football stadium for the hapless Browns. It ain’t your father’s Cleveland anymore, and the Mistake on the Lake is history. So why not root for a local team?

Have you noticed, by the way, what a terrific young roster of players they have on the team? Let’s start with a player who may be the best all-around player both offensively and defensively in the game today - José Ramirez. He has played his entire career with the Guardians (14 years), spat on big-money contracts as a free agent to sign with Cleveland (7yrs/$128.5M from 2026-2032), hustles every single second of the game, plays through injuries, never complains, never a breath of scandal - nothing. He’s a career .276 hitter with 297 HR, 1002 RBIs, 1072 runs, and 324 stolen bases. He’s 33 and stole 37 bags this year. His lifetime OPS+ is 128. His 162-game average over 14 years is 28 dingers, 94 RBIs and 30 SBs. Give me this guy any day in my lineup. No one in the game today compares with him on an overall basis.

He leads a young collection of players who are showing surprising promise. There are five - FIVE - rookies on this team, all contributing. Chase DeLauter, Angel Martinez, Brayan Rocchio, Steven Kwan, Travis Bazzana, Petey Halpin - all of them contact hitters with some pop. They put the ball in play, run the bases hard, and force defenses to react. They are even getting production from guys like Jo Adell and Nathaniel Lowe. They could use a tad more slug, but hey - they’re in the ALCS. Which team isn’t? Oh and PS - not a head case in the bunch. Not one guy in the lineup who’s a veteran just hanging on for one more contract. No would-be stars looking for that big free agent payday. The exceptions are Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, nabbed in the 2025 gambling scandal for throwing games.

Pitching? They have pitching. Parker Messick, Gavin Williams, and Tanner Bibee form a strong starting core to go along with a strong bullpen, including Shawn Armstrong, Hunter Gaddis, Eric Sabrowski, and their closer Cade Smith. Joey Cantillo can start or go long from the pen. The Guardians have always had good starting pitching (Corey Kluber, Shane Bieber), and that continues with this core. TBH, NY’s pitching is better, but this pitching staff doesn’t suck.

And let’s spend some time with the organization. Stephen Vogt, their manager and 2x Manager of the Year, is light years better than BaBoone (a low bar, to be sure). He manages to get the most out of all his players, and they hustle like hell for him. Pitching coach Carl Willis can read the stats, but he also has years of on-field experience to go along with the numbers. Sandy Alomar Jr. coaching first base adds his knowledge, presence, and historical stature to the team chemistry. And GM Mike Chernoff, PBO Chris Antonetti, and owner Paul Dolan of the Dolan family don’t sit around just hoping to get to the playoffs and see what happens. They have a plan (gasp!). They are committed to building a winner with the resources that they have as a small-market team. They made smart pickups in the last trade deadline. I can’t help but wonder what they would become if they had the budget of the NY Yankees that Ca$hman seems to squander every year. Their 2026 payroll is $148,966,666, 24th in the league (two spots lower than Tampa Bay).

Finally, they are a franchise with a lot of remarkable history. No, they haven’t won 27 World Championships. Their last World Series title was in 1948, and they only have one other, in 1920. But they have 6 AL pennants, 14 Central Division titles, and two Wild Card series. They were the first American League team to sign a black player, Larry Doby (guess who was the among the last and tried desperately to keep that player on the bench?). They were the first franchise to employ the strategy of locking up young players early and developing them through their early careers as winners. They wisely and gracefully retired their Indians name and the racist stereotype mascot Chief Wahoo (unlike the smug southern hand-chopping racists in Atlanta), taking on the name of the four statues on the Hope Memorial Bridge, the Guardians of Traffic (fun fact - the Hope Bridge is supposedly named after Harry Hope, who represents all the stonemasons who carved the statues, and is the father of comedian Bob Hope, a Cleveland native). Those sculptures, by the way, would blend in nicely with anything you can see in Rockefeller Center. In short, a class organization, which would have been completely destroyed had George actually bought the team.

So yeah, in my dotage, I want to return to the feelings and excitement I had for baseball as a boy growing up and rooting for the Yankees. Today’s Yankees make me sad and depressed, and there’s enough about being old to be sad and depressed about without having to watch the Yankees play. I’ll just hop in my car, take a two-hour drive, grab a hot dog or three on Sugardale Dollar Hot Dog Days, and enjoy watching a young, hungry, motivated, and talented baseball team play the greatest game ever invented. And when I can’t get to the stadium, I can listen to one of the finest radio broadcasters for the past 35 years, Ford Frick Award winner Tom Hamilton, call the game from the corner of Carnegie and Ontario off the shores of Lake Erie (another fun fact - Hamilton spent the first three years of his broadcasting career with the AAA Columbus Clippers from 1987-90). All in all, I consider this a significant upgrade in fandom. Go, Guardians!