Thursday, October 15, 2020

First sign of winter: The Yankees are poor-mouthing

Grease up the snow-blower and find the windshield-scraper. It might look October-ish, but the radar shows an advancing Siberian system of  Steinbrennerian nickel-clutching.  The message to Yank fans - based on Food Stamps Hal's phoners to assorted Gammonites -expose one key plank of the 2021 hot stove.

It's not whether we should re-sign DJ, or seek generational reparations from Gary. Nope, the message is much simpler. It goes... 

Listen, you ungrateful whiners, the 2020 Yankees lost me a shit-ton of scratch, moohlah, mudinga, globba-gucha... and before you go demanding that I finance another Brad and Leonardo blockbuster, you oughta remove your caps and thank Brian and me for this powerhouse legacy of Wild Cards. 

Says today's Gray Lady:

While teams have not opened their books, M.L.B. Commissioner Rob Manfred has said about 40 percent of revenue comes from tickets, concessions and other gate-related income. The Yankees, who generally rank near the top of the league in attendance, have said that share might be higher for them. 

So it goes. The story's headline says it all: "Murky Financial Forecast Looms Over Yankees Off-Season Questions." And don't get me wrong: There is truth in those brown-nosing words. I'm not knocking James Wagner. But tell me one sports franchise in America - or, for that matter, one business in America that doesn't fit into those words like a leather body glove. 

Yeah, the Death Star must weigh its budget carefully - no question - but here's a silly thought: Hal Steinbrenner is a billionaire several times over, who sits atop one of the biggest self-sustaining mountains of gold on this planet, and Covid is basically another crossroads of financial opportunity. He can either use his might to win a championship or to make more money. And the early returns suggest the clink of coins is hard to ignore.

“We’ll see,” Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ managing general partner, said on Tuesday on the radio show hosted by Yankees television broadcaster Michael Kay. “It depends what kind of money is going to be required to be spent, based on what we look at and decide needs change. But look: There’s no doubt we sustained significant losses this year, more so than any other team in baseball. It’s just been a crazy year.”

So it goes. And don't get me wrong: Merely spending money won't guarantee anything. We can buy another Giancarlo or Aroldis, and watch their games deteriorate in slow-motion, as they become Exhibits A and B in Hal's reasons to cut costs. We can be smart, or we can be stupid. Money doesn't care.

About $65 million in 2020 salaries are set to come off the books as star infielder D.J. LeMahieu, and pitchers J.A. Happ, Masahiro Tanaka and James Paxton are eligible for free agency. That doesn’t include Zack Britton, a key reliever, and outfielder Brett Gardner, the longest-tenured Yankee, who have team options or clauses in their contracts that will need to be sorted out soon.

So it goes. Winter is here. The Steinbrenners, who have more money than you could spend in ten lifetimes, are pulling out their pockets and shaking their heads. News flash: It was a tough year, 2020. Now... where's that scraper? It's 50 degrees, but the windshield is frosted over.

15 comments:

TheWinWarblist said...

Fuck the living Steinbrenners.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Yeah, and soon we'll hear about how they, and every other team in New York/baseball/professional sports has lost money for years! (Something you'll find is impossible if you do the math.)

Of course, the sportswriters never do...

DickAllen said...

Ah, I feel your pain. Winter does suck. That is if you live in a place where you’re up to your ass in sub-zero weather.

As for me, after many years of living in tropical Rochester New York (where winter begins in October and ends in April), I had the good sense to move to Southern California where I’m sitting on a beach in Malibu enjoying 80 degree weather.

Fuck Hal, fuck Brain, fuck Boone, and FUCK WINTER!

DickAllen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
HoraceClarke66 said...

Malibu would be nice—though we barely have winter here anymore, at least in the city. Most of the leaves haven't changed, and we're bearing down on Halloween.

So now the big tabloid debate is whether or not Boone is a puppet of Cashman. Well, no need for strings when you hire somebody who agrees with you on everything.

Anonymous said...

Really, duque, this is a tired trope. Building a first-rate baseball team is not necessarily about spending money--the Rays have a payroll that is one-fourth that of the Yankees, but they're clearly a better team. The Steinbrenners have been pissing away money for twenty years under Cashman's misdirection, and with only one pennant/World Series to show for it. Now you want them to piss away more? That's your idea of team-building? Time to get serious.

Anonymous said...

^ Keep writing, I'm certain that Hal could use a baseball savant such as yourself who knows how to do more, with less.

Anonymous said...

*Or perhaps he could do with a psychopathic Internet flame addict who knows nothing about baseball. Even better!

By the way--after I fucked your mother in the ass last night, she sighed, "If only I had done it this way the night my Internet-loser son was conceived!"

Anonymous said...

^Excitable boy, isn't he? To say nothing of the class he brings to the blog. My guess is that the shift washing dishes at Denny's went badly, and he didn't have the money for some PBR. Fl, fly away, excitable boy.

The Dago said...

Come for the incisive baseball commentary and Yankee Community. Stay for the psycho-troll and his disjointed ramblings.

Anonymous said...

Here is the psycho attack dog again, spewing his deranged drivel under multiple names to make it look like he's not a solitary loser. And more of his patented Trumpian contempt for the working poor--ridiculing people struggling to stay alive in this barbaric economy is his notion of of wit and class. Just wait for HIS comments on baseball--you won't find any. And by the way--your mother needs to shower more often. PHEW!

Anonymous said...

Oh--and try making any comments on baseball, and this imbecile will start frothing about "stat boy" when he's not spewing contempt for people who aren't as well off as he fancies he is. What a contemptible piece of shit.

The Dago said...

Excitable Boy is, unfortunately, quite crazy.

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