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Sunday, April 18, 2021

HELP ME, MR. GERRIT, HELP ME! Yanks-Rays Game Three Game Thread

 

Jay Bruce has received his letter of transit.

37 comments:

Stang said...

Hicks batting third again. Strap yourselves in!

Stang said...

Testing to see if I've successfully turned off Capcha

Stang said...

Gosh darn it

13bit said...

Just joined a Facebook group called "The Horace Clarke Years." So far, not bad.

I still say we should try to do some Zoom thing game-watch party. My lack of cable won't be a problem, as I still retain my tube-powered radio wave receiver.

Let me know if you want me to set something up for some fine day in May when we can all stay inside, remain alienated, yet interact in the two-dimensional world of Zoom.

Oh, and by the way, Hal doesn't care and Brian is a moron.

Ken of Brooklyn said...

Hey Bitty, great idea, count me in for a IIH Zoom watch party, misery loves company!

BernBabyBern said...

Today's IIH in-game quiz ...

"Barely making contact with the ball" describes

A. Aaron Hicks at bat.
B. Aaron Hicks in centerfield.
C. All of the above.

I think this answer is painfully obvious.

Platoni said...

Three brainfarts in one inning. Well done Yankees, you paragons of continuity

ranger_lp said...

Since when Boone is an exponent of fundamentals?

Pocono Steve said...

Can't even blame Judge for going out of the zone on 3-2. It's not like Hicks would've done anything after him.

BernBabyBern said...

Watching the game on Amazon Prime is infuriating. I have to watch on my phone because my office "smart TV" is too old (5 whole years!) and stops to buffer every 30 seconds; I can't rewind to take a second look at something like I can on regular TV; and Amazon runs the same 5 ads for the same 5 shows every f'ing commercial break. I want to scream.

Plus, I STILL have to watch Aaron Hicks play baseball.

Anonymous said...

Bern,

The repeating ads is an issue on MLB.TV as well. The only way to survive it is to change the context for the commercials into something funnier and keep pushing it out.

the mute button works as well.

Doug K.

BernBabyBern said...

Doug,

Yes. I keep turning the volume down during the commercial breaks. And every time Hicks comes to the plate.

Of course, if I was smart I'd just turn off the game rather than watch this listless Yankees team.

Anonymous said...

Bern,

lol. Too true. As to making your own context...

One year there was a Buster Posey and his wife commercial for a car company that I was subjected to 18 times a game and I decided the commercial was actually about her wanting to have sex with him but he was too interested in the car.

As the season progressed they made new ones and they kept getting funnier and funnier. In the last one the Poseys added Jon Miller and his wife. And Buster wants to play his "pump up jam" and the announcer talked about the Rav 4 allowing you to mix it up.

I just about pissed my pants.

Doug K.

Doug K.

Leinstery said...

BernBabyBern, I've watched one game so far. I check MLB Gameday a couple times here and there when I remember the game is on. This team is beyond unlikeable to the point of hate-able and, worst of all, completely unwatchable. I recommend you shut it off until things change.

If you don't, let me know if the crowd is killing Hicks. However I feel Hal is going to descend into tyranny and order any fan that boos or shows displeasure with the team to be banned permanently.

ranger_lp said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ranger_lp said...

It is truly the lost weekend...

Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside said...

My god they’re going to lose again.

Ken of Brooklyn said...

Truly pathetic,,,,,

Unsustainable BABIP said...

On Friday we put down (one of) our 18-year old cats. The vet said it was the humane thing to do because of her heart and kidney diseases, but i know the real reason: the poor thing simply couldn’t stand the thought of this pathetic team getting swept by the Rays.

That’s right. THE YANKEES KILLED MY CAT.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Sorry to hear that BABIP. That's always a hard thing to do.

BernBabyBern said...

Doug,

You know, I was thinking of trying to associate the Borat commercial with something lewd and inappropriate, but apparently Rudy Giuliani beat me to it.

HoraceClarke66 said...

I honestly thought Kevin Cash might have bet on the Yankees when he brought in Ryan Yarborough, a pitcher described by The Master as a lefty who righties had 20 hits off in 57 at-bats. But no. He pitched 5 masterful innings.

Hard to know what to say about this team. Frazier and Torres have gone a combined 87 at-bats with 0 HR and 1 RBI. Stanton is advertising almost a ribbie a game, but seems to leave hundreds on base.

Does even Gerrit Cole strike you as a guy who can bear down, overcome diversity, and get key outs in a big game? Not to judge by this game...

HoraceClarke66 said...

...But one thing seems certain: Aaron Hicks simply cannot continue to play like this. It can't go on.

If Hicks is suffering from some mental or emotional health problem—for whatever reason—I'm sympathetic. But then he needs to take a month on the DL and figure things out. He is just a cipher out there now—and for Boone/Cashman to keep penciling him into the three spot, game after game, is ridiculous.

Also, does Torres have anymore options left? It might be a good idea to give him a half-season or so in Triple-A—provided that ever starts again—just to see if he really can play shortstop at all.

Why not? It's not like we're going to miss anything from his bat.

Anonymous said...

Re: hicks

That's a good point Hoss. His head is not in the game.

doug k.

13bit said...

Hoss, it cannot go on with Hicks, but it may go on and we - as Hirohito said in his imperial rescript announcing the surrender of Japan in 1945 - "have to endure the unendurable."

Platoni said...

Two days ago they lost by six runs (8-2)
Yesterday they lost by three runs (6-3)
Today they lost by two runs (4-2)

In Aaron Boone's world they are progressing, they're doing some things better, they are almost there. You people that see the Yankeeverse imploding need to stop, smell the roses, and listen to Mother for once.

Anonymous said...

Talking about Hicks's "head" problems are an elaborate form of Cashman apologetics. Hicks lacks the physical ability to his the ball. He stinks. Cashman giving a substandard fourth outfielder such a lavish contract is one of his many dumbass atrocities. And batting him third is simply a blaring LED sign of organizational stupidity and rot. The Hicks disaster is an example of Cashman's penchant for overestimating the discarded garbage of other organizations, which he seems to think is his main job as GM--while burying and destroying his own young talent (latest examples: why is another discarded piece of trash like Kluber given more patience and consideration and priority than Deivi Garcia or Domingo German? Odor over Wade?) If Steinbrenner weren't even dumber than Cashman, this dolt of a GM would have been gone long ago.

13bit said...

Wait...do I hear him in the distance? Oh, never mind.

In other notes, I am less than a day into membership in the "Horace Clarke Years" FB group and am pretty certain I'm going to be getting kicked out for being impolitic.

Anonymous said...

What's the over/under on how many more games it will take for the Yankees to find themselves ten games out in the AL East?

Anonymous said...

Endeavor to persevere.........

HoraceClarke66 said...

Platoni, you're not altogether wrong. The hitting truly can NOT continue like this (unless they really have changed the ball, which is a real possibility). They'll start to win some games by belting around the hurlers on a lot of these mediocre teams.

But at that point, expect the other wheel to fall off. There just ISN'T enough starting pitching—or relief pitching.

This team doesn't have the guns to make a playoff spot. It never did, and it never will—and it will be years before another Yankees playoff team qualifies for October (unless they greatly expand the playoff pool again, which is a real possibility!).

celerino sanchez said...

Not that Bruce has retired, is there a chance that Chris Carter makes a comeback? I can't believe that HOF Cashman missed on out on Scott Kasmir. He'd be their #4 starter right now.

Kevin said...

I keep wondering what great young talents are being held back. You know, the ones our village idiot keeps yammering over. The farm is filled with guys who can throw a ball through concrete, hitters who can accelerate balls like CERN, pitchers who can spin the ball so fast that catcher's mitts are shredded. The problem is that these lads can't actually do all these things in a game. At the MLB level. Yet. And given the history of the Yankees' past twenty years little if any help will be forthcoming to help this Core. Which leaves management in a dilemma. Blow this team up, or start wheeling and dealing with talent throughout the system. Cashman and Friends have made critical talent evaluation errors, obviously. Strong medicine is needed, or we reset to 1982. How do you think they'll play it?

HoraceClarke66 said...

That speaks, I think, to what the Yanks' near-term future will be, Kevin.

By, say, the end of 2022—as thing continue to worsen—Brain will throw Boone under the bus to save his own job. By sometime in 2024, Cashie will acknowledge the need to rebuild—and NYC's finest sportswriters will claim he deserves the chance to turn the team around!

I'd guess somewhere around 2027-28, HAL will finally get tired of losing the town to the Mets (and the lost potential revenue that entails), and hand The Office Boy his golden parachute. Provided he isn't totally wrapped up in buying an English Premier League soccer team.

Kevin said...

Horace I'm with you long term, but do you think that HAL blows the team up, wheel and deal, or allows things to play out?

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