Kevin Baker's book is here!

Kevin Baker's book is here!
"... an exemplary sports book..." Kirkus Reviews

Friday, July 16, 2021

Can a completely disappointing season worsen? Yes, it can.

... And you may find yourself, living in a shotgun shack.
And you may find yourself, rooting for a bad Yankee team...

Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.

(Strike forehead with heel of hand. Repeat.)

So, last night, the Death Barge was going to occupy the national spotlight. Yeah, the barkers would talk up Boston, but the Redsock season isn't on the line. In fact, they're so fat and happy that they planned to showcase a 22-year-old CF trade chip, perhaps to pry Anthony Rizzo from the Cubs. Chris Sale will soon return. Their farm system is overflowing. They lead us by 8 games. I mean, what drama would they bring?

Nor is this new. I mean, they haven't won in - gulp - four years! Four. Their owner wasn't happy with a third place finish, so he fired the GM and brought in the guy who built the Tampa Rays. And now they are ripping at every level. And, meanwhile, the Yankees... well... it's the new normal.

Yanks going nowhere. Boston chasing another ring. 

Letting the days go by. Water flowing underground.

Damn. Thursday was going to be our night. Season on the brink. Gerrit Cole on the mound. An electric crowd. The whole world watching.  

Then, Covid. 

We'll soon know the full extent of the outbreak. We'll learn if the Yankees must go 10 days without Aaron Judge, Kyle Higashioka, Gio Urshela and maybe the entire roster of The Bachelor. In another time, we could anticipate the future legends of Trey Amburgey and Ryan Lamare. But this is the new normalcy: We have a LF out with vertigo, a starter known for his setbacks, a closer facing an identity crisis - and now six players masked in basements.

WTF happened to our beautiful lives?

Well, you chose the Yankees. You fucked up. You thought they'd be your sure thing. You thought that, considering all the failures in this world, all the shit you'd have to eat, you'd at least have one certain rock of victory: the mighty Yankees, who always win. Yep. You fucked up.

And you may ask yourself, "What is that beautiful house?"
And you may ask yourself, "Where does that highway go to?"
And you may ask yourself, "Am I right, am I wrong?"
And y
ou may say to yourself, "MY GOD, WHAT HAVE I DONE?"

19 comments:

Celerino Sanchez said...

If Judge and Urshela can't play this weekend and they get swept AGAIN, I guarantee that the narrative for this season (from Cashman's lackies) will be Covid killed this team. How can you fight the unseen menace.

Anonymous said...

The mystery deepens.
Urshela certainly got the vaccination and I thought that Judge did too.
If the vac works and they are asymmetric, then they should play.
If a MLB player chose not to get vacated, then that's on that person and if they get sick it's too bad. They have had months to get one and they were provided by the team in April. Anyone called up, like Lasgana and Cortez ,could have gotten one.
At some point personal responsibility must take precedent.

It's a cruel world, but I feel nothing for an unvaccinated person who catches COVID.
Sorry
The Archangel

JM said...

I agree, Archangel. Stupid is often its own reward. (Which might not really make much sense as a sentence, but it just sounded so good.)

If they do play this weekend, we would have to try out some minor leaguers to fill the roster. And that could be very, very interesting. Possibly a disaster, but ya never know. The kids could be alright.

I'd like to see that.

HoraceClarke66 said...

I can't help but think back to that Knicks series—nearly 25 years ago now—where the team was forced to play without about half its players for the final two games of a playoff series, because they had technically violated some rule about going on the court during a fight.

If it were the Red Sox who had suddenly lost some of their best players for a big series—or any other, non-NY team—the whole series would be indefinitely postponed, 'Go home and just get healthy you poor Sox, don't you worry.'

Since it's the Yankees? We'll undoubtedly be forced to play and keep playing, no matter how many players go down.

13bit said...

Here's the thing - I did not choose. I was born into the Yankees. My mom grew up practically in the shadow of the stadium. That's all I ever watched as a kid. My dad was a NY Giants fan whose heart was broken when they picked up and moved out west. He then defaulted to the Yankees in deference to my mom. I was born into it. True, there is a photo of me at the age of 7 in an Orioles cap, but that's only because I found it in a box. I was going to Yankee games in 1966 and screaming for them. I obviously wore my Yankees cap at the time. I must shake this guilt over that photo. Anyway, I did not CHOOSE to follow this band of morons, led by a moron and owned by a moron.

Your analysis of Boston and how they improved was succinct and depressing. We no longer react according to baseball logic.

HoraceClarke66 said...

And Celerino, you're exactly right: Brain is no doubt already polishing his postseason spiel about how injuries hurt the team in the first half, and then just when it look like they had righted themselves came the Covid, and HEY LADY!

HAL will chime in with how he's not his father, he understands, they will not make any precipitous moves.

2022 will be billed as a do-over of 2021.

And sadly, it will be.

TheWinWarblist said...

I was not born into the Yankees but I don't feel that I chose them, but rather was chosen by the majesty of the franchise. I was enfolded in the billowing wings of the history of greatness. What is a poor boy/girl to do?

I will leave you with the sage words of the great 13bit: Fuck everybody. I love you all.

TheWinWarblist said...

Regarding the infected players. The Delta variants are more infectious than the original strain. They can infect the vaccinated but the vaccine protects very well against serious infection, meaning the deltas won't cripple or kill you. But you can still get COVID. And then spread it to your teammates.

Local Bargain Jerk said...


There is water at the bottom of the ocean.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Yep, better cancel the rest of the season! Move on everybody, nothing to see here!

ranger_lp said...

From twitter..

[Kim] Sources tell that the #Yankees have called up Hoy Jun Park. Not sure if this is a COVID related call-up, but sounds like he’s heading to New York. Park was batting 0.325/0.475/1.017 in AAA this year.

ranger_lp said...

More info..

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/07/yankees-to-place-hoy-jun-park-on-taxi-squad.html

13bit said...

MLB = MANY LOVEABLE BILLIONAIRES

Anonymous said...

Sterling homerun call for Hoy Jun Park: Hoy Jun PARKS one!

13bit said...

Winnie, my question lately has been, what if I were to be vaccinated and still catch Covid and have an asymptomatic case. Would I be susceptible to long Covid 10 months down the road? I lie around thinking about this.

TheWinWarblist said...

We don't really know the answer to that bitty, but it seems like you are more likely to get long haul symptoms if you were at least moderately ill. There's no accepted diagnostic criteria or testing for the long COVID syndrome. Severe and critical illnesses are associated with many different problems, not just those directly due to COVID, and that adds to a much higher risk of "long COVID." A horrific example: a 21 y/o in our county died not from COVID, but rather a complication to his tracheostomy a couple weeks after he was discharged from hospital after a long ICU stay.

This illness is worse in actuality that those in pandemic disaster movies.

And the pandemic rolls on. The fourth wave is here and ramping up in the USA. Don't go to an indoor gym. Stay safe. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Stay away from the unvaccinated; those fucking bioterrorists should ejected out a storm drain like so much sewage.

I will leave you with your own great and sage words: Fuck everybody. I love you all.





This is a excerpt of some of my reading:

"Reports from various parts of the world show that significant proportion of people who recovered from COVID-19 suffers from various health issues which are collectively called “long COVID-19” or post COVID-19 syndrome. The common symptoms include fatigue, breathlessness, cough, joint pain, chest pain, muscle aches, headaches and so on. Even though collectively called long COVID-19, researchers identified that it is a collection of at least 4 distinct clinical entities which are post-intensive care syndrome, post-viral fatigue syndrome, permanent organ damage, and long-term COVID-19 syndrome [1]. In our experience in addition to these we identified that drug related side effects, complications of COVID-19 (like pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum, vascular thrombosis leading to pulmonary thromboembolism, myocardial infarction, stroke etc), post-COVID-19 psychological issues and other infections (bacterial, other viral, fungal or re-infection with SARS-CoV-2 itself) can also cause similar symptoms in COVID-19 recovered patients. Careful evaluation to rule out causes unrelated to COVID-19 is important to offer correct treatment."

Anonymous said...

Just to be clear: Warblist is not a physician: he/she just plays one on the Internet.

Anonymous said...

Just to be clear, stat baby, you’re a fountain of disinformation and you are actually wrong in this case again. Go back to your hole.

Araka john said...

I won $29,000,000 in the power ball lottery, I took advice from a person who talked about this great spell caster called Dr. OKOYE. The person placed a testimonies on a blog saying how Dr. OKOYE helped him win the lottery by sending him the winning number. I was curious and I thought it was all a joke not until I contacted this spell caster to know for myself how this works cause I have spent a lot buying tickets and I never win. I contacted he and him told me the necessary thing that need to be done and i did it and his told me to wait for 3 days and truly he gave me the winning numbers to play the lottery which i did, Can you believe my name was the first winner that is how i won {$29,000,000} Contact him on okoyespiritemple@gmail.com or Whatsapp +2348109476757 Dr OKOYE is the only answer to that your problem of winning the lottery