Friday, January 16, 2026

It's time to invoke the Yankee Fans Insurrection Act

Yesterday, snow squalls near Syracuse offered us a rare photographic rendering of MLB's current free agent market. 

As seen on the right, the top tractor-trailer is Kyle Tucker, who announced he will become the newest Dodger because - of course - he wants a ring. The second truck is Cody Bellinger, surrounded by suitors - the Mets, Phillies, Jays and several mystery teams - all of whom will likely outbid the Yankees, who are off screen in a ditch.

Onto our fire of hopelessness, toss another log. 

This is the most depressing January since 2005, when Cooperstown Cashman was touting the chops of Richard "Bubba" Crosby in centerfield. While the AL East bulks up, via free agents and trades, the Yankees are struggling to maintain last year's aging, also-ran lineup - now a year older and spackled with injuries. 

Tucker's signing - and, by the way, hats off to the inscrutable Dodgers, who sat for three months like a cobra before striking - suddenly explains why Scott Boras has pursued an outlandish seven-year deal for Bellinger. The three wildest bidders - the Mets, Phillies and Jays - must now chase two remaining major free agents: Bellinger and Bo Bichette. It doesn't matter that Food Stamps Hal has lost his taste for spending. There is plenty of money out there. So, how 'bout that Bubba! 

I say it's time to invoke the Yankee Fan Insurrection Act, which means forgetting the holes at LF, SS, 3B, the rotation and bullpen, and starting to say aloud the most frightening word in the team dictionary: 

Rebuild.

Ouch. What a word. In many ways, it's time to think about 2028, or 2030, or some distant future time line, when a crazy, vulgar trillionaire has taken over the team. By then, if we're still cogent, our brains will be wired into the new singularity, running traffic lights and smart refrigerators.  

As a great yogi once said, It's getting late early. I hate to go Chicken Little on the upcoming season. But let's face it: The Dodgers will win the 2026 world championship, and the Yankees will be lucky to reach the second week of October. 

They're not the Yankees, anymore. The Dodgers are. It's time for an insurrection. It's time for fans to remind the Yankees of who they are. (Or were.)

24 comments:

13bit said...

"REBUILD" would be music to all of our ears. But you know what that means? It means money, wisely spent. That is an impossibility on the current team. It also means a shift in priorities from pure profit and tax dodging to *minor* sacrifices - money-wise - in order to field a winning team. Hal suck balls.

JM said...

The Dodgers were named after pedestrian-streetcar activities. Now they're just dodging luxury taxes.

What an outrageous contract. This guy is not a 30 million dollar player, much less a 60 million dollar one.

The Dodgers ownership should be sued for malfeasance.

13bit said...

I don't necessarily agree with the esteemed Publius's post on the DodgerMLB conspiracy theory, but I do think there's something funny, possibly some weird thing we don't know. Otherwise, how do you explain this shit? Is a conspiracy theory simply the absence of logic? Or, maybe L.A. has shopaloism.

AboveAverage said...

It's a . . . beautiful morning,
Oh Hal
I’ll stand by the window and smile a while
Oh Hal
Just press my face against the glass and smile a while
Oh Hal
Its still dark outside and I’ve got the time
Oh Hal
it's a . . . beautiful morning,
Oh Hal
Each bird falling dead from out of the sky
So long
It just ain't no good when the sun goes away,
Can’t breath
When you're still inside trying to hide
Oh Hal
Still inside (trying to hide)
Oh Hal
Still inside (trying to hide)
Oh Hal
Still in - - -
Oh No

13bit said...

do you think that Hal and Brian are sitting around now, after maybe the worst off-season/hot stove in memory, thinking, "we're so fucking smart..."?

13bit said...

In the previous post's comments, AA posits that we should be compensated for watching the 2026 Yankees. To which I say, WHERE ARE MY REPARATIONS FOR THE 2025 SEASON? Hal, do you have something you'd like to say? Even a simple apology? I have known White Sox, Cubs, and Mets fans over my life and they all received money for therapy from the Baseball Mental Trauma Trust©, but it appears that the Yankees don't pay into that one. Another example of Hal's greed and malfeasance.

AboveAverage said...

y e s

AboveAverage said...

y e s y e s

The Hammer of God said...

+1

The Hammer of God said...

Tryin' to buy another championship before all hell breaks loose. And I agree, not even a 30 mill player, even with inflation!

13bit said...

YES Youth Enjoying Sobriety (various locations)
YES Youth Employment Service (Canada)
YES Yamaha Education Suite
YES Your Education System
YES Youth Exchange and Study
YES Yamaha Extended Service (warranty)
YES Yield Engineering Systems (Livermore, CA)
YES Yankees Entertainment & Sports
YES Youth Engagement Strategy (various locations)
YES Young Engineers Sportcar
YES Youth Energy Summit
YES Young Enterprise Scheme (various organizations)
YES Young Engineers and Scientists (various locations)
YES Young Enterprise Switzerland
YES Youth Employment Solutions (Detroit, MI)
YES Young Epidemiology Scholars
YES Youth Enrichment Services (Boston, MA)
YES Youth Employment Strategy (Canada)
YES Yankee Environmental Systems (Turners Falls, MA)
YES Youth Engaged in Service
YES Youth Emergency Services
YES Youth Education Series (Disney Institute Youth Programs)
YES Youth for Environmental Sanity
YES Youth Experiences in Science (various locations)
YES Young European Scientists
YES Youth Empowerment Summit
YES Yale Entrepreneurial Society (Yale University; New Haven, CT)
YES Youth Enhancement Services
YES Youth Electoral Study (Australia)
YES Young Entrepreneurs for Europe
YES Youth Engineering and Science
YES Young Engineers Sportscar (automobile)
YES Youth Environmental Summit (Youth Environmental Coalition)
YES Youth and Education Services
YES Youth Education Scholarship
YES Youth Exchange Scheme (UK)
YES Youth Employment Start
YES Youth Evangelism Service
YES Youth Engaged in Science (Woodstock, GA)
YES Yanadi Education Society (India)
YES Yellowstone Ecosystem Studies
YES Youth Entrepreneurial Success
YES Youth Entrepreneurship Strategy (Smile Africa International)
YES Youth Elderly Service
YES Youth Entrepreneurs Society (Egypt)
YES Youth Exchanging with Seniors (FCCLA)
YES Yellowstone Electronic Solutions Company
YES Youth and Environment Society (Bahrain)
YES Yamada English Services (Tokyo, Japan)
YES Yacht Escort Ships, International

The Hammer of God said...

Not sure if Publius' theory is correct, but it's true that the Artful Dodgers are MLB's darlings. Whatever they do, like Ohtani's deferred contract, gets rubber stamped. If the Yankees had given Judge $1 a year, then $100 mill a year ten years from now, you know that a-hole Rob Manfred would've cried foul.

The Hammer of God said...

+1

The Hammer of God said...

Yep, we should be compensated for having to watch this drivel. Torture, with no effin' reward.

AboveAverage said...

Yessir
Yessiree
Yes for You
and
Yes for Me

HoraceClarke66 said...

Weirdly, JM, "Trolley Dodgers" was sort of an insult—like "rubes"—Manhattanites threw at Brooklyn residents. Even though...there were trolleys all over Manhattan. It's as if today we sneered "Subway Riders!" at them...

HoraceClarke66 said...

Yeah, those Dodgers!

So...they are spending lots of money to make their product as good and attractive as possible for their many customers.

That's...that's positively un-American!

HoraceClarke66 said...

As for rebuilding...all for it. But here again, we hit THE CASHMAN CONUNDRUM!

Does anyone seriously expect the man who likes to draft and sign pitchers because they HAVE had serious arm surgeries, to be able to rebuild your New York Yankees?

Didn't think so.

Also, I have no idea what the Mets are doing, but they've never sounded very keen on Bellinger. As for Toronto, well, better to run to Toronto than to run to a girl you don't want to.

JM said...

I was just talking with the two guys I used to work for, one of whom is a Dodgers (and Rams) fan. And even he said the Dodgers are just going crazy, and thinks MLB should do something. That's why he likes football better--there's a salary cap, and everyone has to build a team within it.

I'm not so sure about that, but certainly this kind of profligate spending has reached Citizen Kane-reporter-poaching levels. LA is making King George look like a total piker.

Which I would mind less if it wasn't for the shady accounting and deferments. Something not right there, just like the Ohtani-adjacent gambling.

JM said...

But I can't keep the Wolfs from the door, Hoss!

Ever notice that each Wolf ate a pound of meat and every Buck ate a dozen eggs, and a dozen cost a buck? Freeloading relatives were obviously a much hotter topic 120 or so years ago.

ranger_lp said...

This is why Stevie and Hal are not spending to win a championship. It's already been decided...

@JM...they will have to create a hard salary cap...you can't have one team severely go over the soft salary cap and pay the ridiculous penalty sum and have a competitive league...

Doug K. said...

It is probable that after, the lockout , there will be a hard cap but one that allows all previously existing contracts to be grandfathered in by some formula that creates an "even "playing field going forward after they expire.

So it behooves the Dodgers and any other team to lock in talent, even at a higher cost, prior to the lockout, to give them an advantage out of the gate and before they need to get clever in the creation of their budgets.

This of course implies that the Dodgers want to win. No such assumption can be made about the Yankees.

AboveAverage said...

Bo a Met
Shocked
Like
Not
OK

edb said...

certainly is time