Monday, December 28, 2020

The Year in Review - Because Hindsight is 2020

Ah,  those last precious few days before the calendar changes.

A time of reflection, of looking back over what turned out to be, as future historians will no doubt call it, the beginning of the end, or, as it will be more commonly known by those of us who survived, The Great Fuckening.

Here are some of the things I failed to notice this year and some of what I learned. 

Carboard Cutouts

While I actually enjoyed the cardboard cutout fans, particularly when the crowds contained Easter Eggs like Connie Mack and Ben Franklin in the stands at Phillies games, (and I can’t believe no one tried to slip Waldo anywhere) I failed to notice that Gary Sanchez had been replaced by a cardboard cut out at mid-season.  Passed balls, strike three looking, how did I miss that?

How Much I Require Watching Sports On TV

I have always loved sports. I think part of its appeal is that it is non-contrived drama. There is no writer, no editor, no guiding hand. If the best player on the team hits a home run it is because he did. If he strikes out in a big moment, ditto.

We just don’t know until it happens.

For me it’s an opportunity to turn that part of me off that tries to guess endings or figure out how I might have done it differently. Or just that sense of dis-ease I get when the math is off. Sports is what it is, and I love it for it.

I just never realized how much until it was taken away. Suddenly I had three-hour gaps in my day. No point on the clock to look forward to.  No reason to be home by four PM. (PST). 

I started filling the gaps with stuff I normally wouldn’t watch like Boxing on Showtime, or reruns of North Carolina HS basketball tournaments from 2006 on Stadium. 

Just for the record, I never got so desperate as to watch the Masked Singer. I want to make that PERFECTLY CLEAR.  Ok, once. 

So, when we got baseball back, even with its seven inning games, or starting a runner on second in extra innings, or pretty much every single fourth inning of a Yankee game when the starter, who was pitching a no hitter, goes walk, single, double, three run HR. I was happy.

A respite from politics. A respite from Covid. A respite from myself.  

The Yankees Are Boring

Not the team. The entity.

I don’t mean this as heresy. I am a Yankee Fan. My faddah was a Yankee Fan. My son… not so much.

As I wrote above, watching them is part of the fabric of my being but, if there is anything that can be learned from this blog, aside from (CONTENT REMOVED BY AUTHOR) it’s that the team is owned by a soulless corporate entity and not by a fan.

I get it. It’s a business. But I don’t root for Burger King to beat McDonalds. I don’t root for Disney Plus to out subscribe Netflix.  The closest I come is wanting Rachel Maddow to beat out Hannity in that all important 35-50 demographic.  

But I do root for the Yankees.

The last few weeks I’ve been reading articles about the Mets. Let’s face it having an owner that cares is a lot more interesting and a lot more fun than having an owner that doesn’t.  It’s why I can watch the NY Giants even though I enjoy virtually NONE of the games.

I know that the Maras and the Tischs care. They just suck at it. But I’m willing to forgive that and take small joys when… wow were they bad yesterday… I can’t even think of anything they… I don’t think Daniel Jones fumbled… I sort of spaced out towards the end.  

You get the point. So, back to the Yankees.

Yes, they will sign someone, hopefully DJ, but in the end, as we often say here, it will be just enough to make the playoffs (and because it’s a crap shoot – maybe a championship every once in a while) but there is no passion for winning.

As Duque pointed out, the Dodgers are the new Yankees. The Mets have the new George Steinbrenner. The San Diego Padres just traded for Blake Snell, and we wait for the Yankees to get a bargain when they re-sign Gardner for $4M (a savings of 6M over last year!!!).  Brain has turned us all into accountants.

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I’m sure there are other things I learned this year, how much I took my lungs for granted comes to mind, but I’ll save them for another post, or maybe I'll just write something along the lines of “Ten Candidates for Yankee Third Base Coach.”  Candidate Four will blow your mind!”  

Either way, just in case I don't...

Have a Happy and Healthy New Year!!!!!!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Carl J. Weitz said...

Doug, you are correct. The entity called the NY Yankees are very boring. They have all the vibrancy of a soon-to-be retiring bank loan officer. Their organization is run like the military with little room for any individuality or expression of personal identity which runs counter to the cookie cutter image of the short haired, neat and clean conservative collective. They must suck the life out of every young kid drafted by the team. Just like they eventually do to almost every fan. The fan that is exploited and abused by ownership with price gouging, extortion and dishonesty all while their faces are being rubbed in it.

And yet we all come back every year.

Carl J. Weitz said...

Doug, you are correct. The entity called the NY Yankees are very boring. They have all the vibrancy of a soon-to-be retiring bank loan officer. Their organization is run like the military with little room for any individuality or expression of personal identity which runs counter to the cookie cutter image of the short haired, neat and clean conservative collective. They must suck the life out of every young kid drafted by the team. Just like they eventually do to almost every fan. The fan that is exploited and abused by ownership with price gouging, extortion and dishonesty all while their faces are being rubbed in it.

And yet we all come back every year.

Publius said...

The New York Yankees are America writ small...brimming with talent, expertise and the resources to exploit that talent and expertise, but led by self-interested frauds and mediocrities who are slowly but inexorably destroying the greatest organization of its kind in history.

HoraceClarke66 said...

You're very right, Doug—and well said, Publius.

Even Mad George, who nearly drove me to become a Mets fan at his nadir, was more interesting than this.

Anonymous said...

So totally spot on. Although I am an old geezer who does not fit in the choice demographic , I have spent huge portions of my life watching the Yanks from pre-cable days through to DirectTv and have spent untold thousands on tickets, merchandise and other bobblehead type drivel for my kids. Now I feel like it was all a scam since the turn of the century. They are just a product with no soul, owned and managed by people who want it to be a product with no soul. I hope Hal sells them before I die. Seriously, I don't read anything Yankee other than this blog cuz I feel dirty after I finish. I know that we are supposed to be funny here, but this is just aint funny. The proof is in the pudding and I realized after reading this that I have never bought anything "Yankee" for my grandkids. That says it all.
The Archangel

Anonymous said...

So totally spot on. Although I am an old geezer who does not fit in the choice demographic , I have spent huge portions of my life watching the Yanks from pre-cable days through to DirectTv and have spent untold thousands on tickets, merchandise and other bobblehead type drivel for my kids. Now I feel like it was all a scam since the turn of the century. They are just a product with no soul, owned and managed by people who want it to be a product with no soul. I hope Hal sells them before I die. Seriously, I don't read anything Yankee other than this blog cuz I feel dirty after I finish. I know that we are supposed to be funny here, but this is just aint funny. The proof is in the pudding and I realized after reading this that I have never bought anything "Yankee" for my grandkids. That says it all.
The Archangel

JM said...

Back in the 50s and early to mid 60s, people used to call the Yankees "corporate, "bloodless," and so on. Hence, "the Chairman of the Board."

But those teams won. A lot. The rings piled up. I remember my father saying, "Wonder who the Yankees will play this year in the Series?" It was a given.

If I had a kid, the best I could say is, "Wonder who the Yankees will play this year in the wild card round?"

That's all we got.

HoraceClarke66 said...

And with the likes of Ford, Mantle, Yogi, Larsen, Hank Bauer, Maris, Bouton, etc.—not to mention Casey Stengel—they were really very entertaining.

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