Monday, November 12, 2018

Crazy People

Lately, I've been reading a lot about crazy people.  I don't buy it.

For instance, I've been reading about how President Trump is "a lunatic."  I don't want to start another political discussion here, but I will say that, love him or hate him, our president is not crazy.  He is pursuing various strategies that he thinks work best for him, but whatever you think of them, there is nothing insane about this.

Same goes for Hal and Brian.

They are not insane.  They simply have different priorities than we do, and they are very sanely pursuing the strategies that have worked for them so far.

Hal Steinbrenner's main priority is maximizing the profit of his family business—a very common goal in this great country of ours.

Sure, he would like to see the Yankees win it all because that would be the fastest and easiest way to maximize profits, as well as deliver the sort of prestige and goodwill that would enable him to once again fulfill what was apparently his great, hidden fantasy of appearing in drag on a Macy's Parade float.

But it's far from the only way for him to make money.  This week, for instance, was a bad week for Hal not because the Yanks apparently dropped any idea of pursuing any real stars in the free-agent market, but because the NYCFC "Pigeons," the wholly manufactured soccer team he owns in conjunction with various sheikhs and an English soccer powerhouse, went down to defeat and was eliminated from the playoffs.

This not only cost him another lucrative November event date at Yankee Stadium, but also eliminated the slim chance this year for building the sort of "Pigeon Mania" that might have enable him to squeeze yet another free stadium—and surrounding luxury housing development—out of the City of New York.

This isn't crazy.  It's just business.  The only business he cares about.

Similarly, Brian Cashman isn't crazy.

Cashman's goal is to maintain his lucrative position of general manager of the New York Yankees.  Sure, he'd like the Yankees to win a world championship, because that would be the fastest and easiest way of further burnishing his reputation and increasing the revenue flow for his boss, Hal, and enable him to again fulfill what was apparently his great, hidden fantasy of rappelling up a Connecticut building dressed as an elf.

But winning it all would mean exercising skills Cashman does not possess, such as being able to identify and nurture first-rate talent, or hiring people who can do that—something that would only create a potentially dangerous rival for him in the front office.

Thus, Cashman will quite logically go on with what has worked for him over the past 22 years, which is maximizing profits for his boss, working the press, and being a veritable ninja at office politics.

Hal and Brian, Brian and Hal.  Not crazy in the least.

Just not interested—primarily—in the same things we are.






14 comments:

A. Ferengi said...

Do you remember me? I've followed earth creatures and commented on this blog as I find it fascinating how you primitives denigrate The One. I am speaking, of course, of the revered Mr. Hal Steinbrenner. His fame has spread all the way to my home planet of Ferenginar. Mr. Steinbrenner has a love for profits that rivals even the most successful of our species. It is a right of passage for every male Ferengi to participate in the annual pilgrimage to the city of Latinum. There he visits the Colossus of Avarice, a gargantuan golden statue of Hal Steinbrenner offering a $15 beer to a thirsty baseball fan. We don't understand baseball but we DO understand profits!

Now we learn of a Mr. Brian Cashman, a human (perhaps?) that well serves Mr. Hal Steinbrenner. I will continue to monitor your pathetic musings and exultations of these giants, especially Mr. Cashman. Tell me, is this is actual name or an honorific? With such a name, has he a greater love of profit than Mr. Steinbrenner?

Alphonso said...

Dear Hoss,

I needed that injection of reality and optimism.

If I may attempt to summarize your well thought-out treatise;

we ( the fans ) are screwed (and delusional) if we expect to experience another world championship for the Yankees.

Therefore, we must modify our aims.

Target mediocrity and humiliation.

Count me in.

HoraceClarke66 said...

You were really the leader on this, Alphonso.

Sure, the odds could align whereby in trying to stay just competitive enough to keep the turnstiles whirling, the Yanks manage to win it again. Stranger things have happened.

Joe Formerlyof Brooklyn said...


The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.

Or something like that.

How does the Cashmoney-Steinbutter team NOT do that in the future? They've done a heck a lot of it in the (recent) past, ain't they?

Alphonso said...

Joe....the expression is even better than " stupidity."

It is "insanity."

HoraceClarke66 said...

I should have said, "the stars will align."

But again, it's not insanity. They are getting exactly the results they expect, and the result they want.

Both Coops and Hal are fabulously wealthy and famous, respected amongst the Gammonites everywhere as a savvy GM and a successful owner.

That's what they want. Championships, rings, glory...that's so 20th Century.

TheWinWarblist said...

I would take Brian Cashman's mutated ravenously hungry hemorrhoids messily gobbling up most of the Steinbrenner brothers in the Executive Suite over signing the cloned reincarnations of Walter Johnson and Sandy Koufax AND transplanting Yogi Berra's soul into ICS's body.

13bit said...

I'll see you the hungry hemorrhoids not only eating up the Steinbrenner brothers - AND DON'T FORGET JENNIFER SWINDAL, THE SISTER - then shitting them out into the entry chute of a fertilizer factory, to be combined with pig shit and spread over toxic land in which to grow durian fruits. Then, I'll raise you 2 Christy Mathewsons, 1 Koufax, 3 Whitey Fords and 1 Pedro Martinez hurling lead buttplugs straight at Big Papi's head, just to get rid of that evil rotten dynasty and flush Cashman's pasty ass down the Port Authority's grossest toilet.

JM said...

Well said, Hoss. These guys are not on the same page as we are. Otherwise, they wouldn't do and not do the things they do and don't.

It's that simple.

Carl J. Weitz said...

I agree that Cashman isn't crazy. However, if he tried "rappelling up" as you wrote,going up the Landmark Building in Stamford he would be insane. Rappelling is the opposite of climbing up. You only rappel downward. Unless, of course, you're King Kong. :)

Carl J. Weitz said...

13 bit....I'll see your Jennifer Swindal and raise you a Jessica Steinbrenner. George's daughter (the face of Miss Ugly before there was a Sarah Huckabee Sanders) with the man hands and horse face that married and divorced 3 men who became either team executives or minority partners and quickly became unemployed upon divorce. Who can forget the third and last husband,Felix Lopez, who rose from a groundskeeper to Director of Latin American Player Development (and was ultimately caught scamming kids out of bonus money)until his canning shortly after the divorce papers arrived at his front door. You know.....if only we had the luck of Jessica making Brian Cashman marriage and divorce # 4!

13bit said...

So many scenarios, Carl, and so little time. I was unaware of or had forgotten all of those sordid details about daddy's little girl, Jessica. If we could have gotten A-Rod in the mix and had a deadly lover's spat...

HoraceClarke66 said...

My bad, Carl Weitz! Please forgive my ignorance of proper climbing terms.

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