Arguably.
The depths of this Yankee meltdown have yet to be appreciated.
On June 1, they led the AL East by six games, with a record of 36-22. They were touting the game's best slugger, its best bullpen and the leading candidate for Comeback Player of the Year. (Paul Goldschmidt.)
Since then, they have gone 12-17. How bad is that?
Worse than Miami, which went 16-12.
Worse than the homeless A's, who went 13-16.
Worse than sad Pittsburgh, which went 16-12.
Almost worse than the lowly White Sox, who were 10-18.
Almost worse than the astonishingly rancid Colorado Rockies, who went 11-17.
What's amazing is that they have accomplished this meltdown with two of the game's best players. Remove Aaron Judge and Max Fried and - dear God - how bad are they?
Today, the Yankees are so crappy that it almost seems rigged; it's mystical, supernatural, impossible - an incredibly disturbing omen of impending doom.
As the Yankees go, so goes America.
Dear God, what have we done?
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22 comments:
We are blind and our dog is dead.
Excellent takedown of Boone and Cashman by Keefe yesterday. As they say down south, good Lard, they suck.
I should have sold out and taken a big money job , churning out crap work. My integrity got me nowhere, anyway, and I still ended up doing crap. But without the big money.
You reap what you sow. Years of rotten ownership/leadership have come to roost.
But I wish you all a Happy 4th, even in these dark times. Stand Together!
Maybe this is the year that it comes crashing to earth? If that is the case, it's way overdue...
Yeah, could be Yankee Apocalypse.
Wow, gettin' swept by the Red Sox then gettin' swept by the Jays. Probably will get swept by the Mets now. These sweeps aren't coincidence. They get killed by teams that make good contact and hit for average. Yankee pitchers must think that these other teams are just like them, swinging for the fences all the time, with zero fundamentals or discipline. And, in truth, there are a bunch of teams like that, which is how the Yankees accumulated most of their wins. But the Red Sox and the Jays aren't one of them. And it showed against these two teams.
A late friend, Red Sox fan, called them the YankMe's. He was right.
Mostly, the dumber you are, the higher you get in corporate work. The CEOs are the dumbest of all, making tens or even hundreds of millions a year, whilst intelligent people toil in warehouses or low level management, struggling to keep up with rent and the utility bill. That's how it goes.
All comes back to the hard truth: if HAL really wanted to win, why the hell would he keep Dumbass Cashman as GM and allow Cashman to keep Commander Aaron BaBoone as manager? The managing and coaching on this team are off the charts horrendous. I used to think that a baseball manager and batting coach, pitching coach didn't make much more than a few games difference either way. I don't think that anymore. The Yankees have got the worst manager I've ever seen. And the coaches aren't much better. The old way of thinking that managers and coaches don't make much difference was based on the assumption that managers and coaches are competent, reasonably intelligent people. But these guys here are two legged jackasses, perhaps because they are dominated by two legged jackasses sitting in front of computers, churning out lineups and coaching advice based on what they consider relevant data and computer algorithms. If you allow yourself to be dominated by a jackass, well, sorry but you are a jackass, and a spineless one at that.
Cashman's smart enough to kiss the ass and keep the paychecks flowing for his mail-it-in job. Fell upward and just stayed there I guess.
The Peter Principal lives!
✅
Someone I once knew called them the StankEEz
Hammer, this is what I keep...uh...hammering at, if you'll forgive the expression. One exception: I DON'T think Hal is particularly dumb, and I think he's doing exactly what he wants to do. I believe he thinks he has found the sweet spot between actually trying to build another Yankees dynasty—difficult, risky, and more expensive, at least at first, even if you succeed—and milking the maximum amount of cash out of this business he only inherited and that he may well despise.
If those are indeed his goals...he's doing very well at them. Sure, he overestimates how static a ballteam can be. Eventually, the Yanks will plunge out of contention, maybe even this year.
But how bad is even that for Hal? It will just take him a year or two then to ease Boone down the road, "promote" Cashie to some emeritus position, and recruit new minions who can once again make the Yanks "contenders."
The Yankees trace the progress of American capitalism—NOT, you'll note, "late capitalism"; capitalism will be with us always—all too well. I mean, it was always exploitative, ruthless, and collusive.
But, at least at first, the men who owned the Yankees wanted to maximize profits by winning, and putting the best possible product on the field. They built amazing feeder systems for the big team, built their own, remarkable stadium with their own money, hired the savviest people around.
Sure, the majors were still a nasty cartel, doing horrendous things like leaving Jim Crow baseball in place, and treating the player like trash. But at least some teams were actually trying to give the customers (fans) the best possible product.
No more...
...Now, like so much of American business, most sports owners are willing to go along with ruinous policies just because they will maximize immediate profits.
American-based corporations should know that keeping out or chasing away the most brilliant and talented people around the world, busting the budget for no good reason, and leaving the federal government under the authority of a gang of hoodlums, thieves, and fanatics will not be "good for business"—much less, "good for America"—in the long run (which will be coming up very fast).
But as long as it means a little more money now, they're fine with it.
Happy Fourth of July!
JM, any life worth living is going to bring regrets. But try not to worry about going for the big bucks. Who knows how it would have worked out, and it might have just made everything worse.
I have my own regrets—but I love that first verse from "The Parting Glass":
Of all the money that e'er I had
I have spent it in good company
Oh and all the harm I've ever done
Alas, it was to none but me
No end to the bott0omless pit. Please doofus manager, keep putting Peraza in the lineup and telling your players that the team is the best in the A.L.
I’m an American man: I work, I vote, I pray
I get up at the crack of dawn every day but Saturday
I used to have a pension, yeah I used to have a plan
My family means the world to me, we just don't mean that much to the man
But I still love this country, even in its darkest days
But I bet our founding fathers are turnin' over in their graves
Corporations count as people and people don't count much
And Wall Street don't concern themselves with the middle class and such
We bailed 'em out the first time 'cause they're just too damn big to fail
If I'd've been that bad with my old cash, somebody would'a sent my ass to jail
I still love this country, even in its darkest days
But I bet our founding fathers are turnin' over in their graves
- Will Hoge “Founding Fathers”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-bUnOwvvi0&list=RDh-bUnOwvvi0&start_radio=1
That's pretty good.
I’m always amazed how we idealize The Founding Fathers.
The OG American revolutionaries were only interested in money.
When TJ wrote the declaration, he wrote a scathing denunciation of slavery (while owning his own slaves) and South Carolina refused to sign. They removed it.
And do you know why John Hancock is the first and largest signer? He financed the revolution to his own profit.
Nothing has changed here. The propaganda that tells the “American Revolution Story” is a lie.
What an impressive offense today. All those... SOLO... homers.
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