Tomato can.
Ten takeaways on The End... as Jim Morrison-Boone would say... my only friend, The End.
1. Volpe's canceled HR was far too close to overturn.
2. The fan who caught that ball didn't deserve to be duckwalked from the stadium.
3. The Yankees are the only team to collapse and get swept in the second round.
4. Our best pitcher down the stretch, Carlos Rodon, never picked up a ball.
5. It was beyond hubris - more like madness - to think Giancarlo Stanton could return after six months and hit.
6. Yank fans should root for the looming lockout. Go ahead, MLB, padlock those gates!
7. Regardless of Boone's future, this sorry ending belongs to Cashman.
8. Aaron Judge is a failure as captain; somebody needed to pulverize a water cooler.
9. It's absurd that Ben Rice, at 27, is facing a career as fulltime DH.
10. Worst of all: The Dodgers will win again.
Will the circle be unbroken
ReplyDeleteby and by, Lord, by and by.
There’s a better world a waiting
in the sky, Lord, in the sky.
We are the hollow men
ReplyDeleteWe are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour.
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
You know, when I saw “hollow men” in the first line, I immediately thought of an REM song, which has a verse that also kind of fits this team.
Delete“Believe in me, believe in nothing
Corner me, and make me something
I've become the hollow man
Have I become the hollow man I see?”
Although if we’re thinking about theme songs for this team, “Loser” by Beck is the first thing that comes to mind.
Silhouettes and shadows
ReplyDeleteWatch the revolution
No more free steps to heaven
It's no game
https://x.com/benriceloverr/status/2108045915562918241?s=46&t=xakCsa-eOn5B-j0U_gWfOw
ReplyDeleteWe miss George…
DeleteHe was an asshole, but he wanted to win.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFound this on X:
ReplyDeletehttps://x.com/jjlavs2/status/2108045000999051729?s=46&t=xakCsa-eOn5B-j0U_gWfOw
Thanks, Ranger. Even though I detest X and try to not give them clicks, I did read the piece. Sounds like it could have been written collectively by this motley bunch on the venerable blog.
DeleteNeil Keefe last night:
DeleteThe Rays are the fifth different team in the nine years of the Aaron Boone era to celebrate eliminating the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.
Everyone celebrates in the postseason at Yankee Stadium except the Yankees.
The reviews are in...
ReplyDelete"Why do the Yankees stink? So the blind can hate them too. "
-- Captain Billy's Whiz Bang.
"Put your hand down. C'mon Big Chief. You can do it. No one wants to watch the World Series. Put your hand down Big Chief. Cmon. Put your hand down."
-- Randle McMurphy
"Yanks win big again!"
-- Forbes
---
This was a masterclass in manegerial ineptitude.
As Groucho Marx once said about Aaron Boone,"He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you, he really is an idiot."
This team is run by idiots and makes me feel like an idiot for watching them.
--
Thank you all for making it, not palatable, that implies it was kind of ok. Let's go with endurable.
They don't deserve our love or attention.
ReplyDeleteOverview
History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies the same defeats
Keep your finger on important issues
With crocodile tears and a pocketful of tissues
I got a feeling
I'm going to get a lot of grief
Once this seemed so appealing
Now I am beyond belief
George quote:
ReplyDelete"Winning means everything...You show me a good loser and I'll show a loser."
"I'll show A DAMNED LOSER"
DeleteLife's too dear
ReplyDeleteTo waste it here
At Yankee Stadium
Where crowds used to cheer
And now only jeer.
“If the playoffs are a crapshoot every year, get different shooters.” - Mike Francesa
ReplyDeleteFrancesca is a douche, and despite his former stature as a sports talk radio host, has no better insight (and perhaps worse) than the people on this blog.
DeleteIt takes a village . . .
ReplyDelete(of idiots)
1...The umpireade the correct call. THe fan clearly interfered and the ball had zero chance of clearing the wall.
ReplyDelete2....Agreed
4....There really was no role for Rodon because it only went 3 games. Our bullpen pitched very well. Had the Yankees prevailed last night, undoubtedly he starts game 4. Starting Cole over Rodon was not the problem and unless he pitched a shutout (unlikely) he could not have done better than Cole.
6....Absolutely!
7....Exactly!
8....Judge is not a Paul O'neill or Brett Gardner. He's a Born Again. They don't beat water coolers with their fists or bats. They only quote bible verses. They are anti-water cooler violence. Reportedly, his favorite is 2 Corinthians 5:7. No, it has nothing to do with interior car leather. " For we walk by faith, not by sight."
10...Unfortunately
Feel the luxuriousness of that rich, Corinthean leather....
Deleteumpire made*
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/share/v/19ZPevbg5W/
ReplyDeleteLove that Elvis Costello, 999!
ReplyDeleteI used to be disgusted...
DeleteAnd I am still.
I'm with Carl Weitz on most of this.
ReplyDeleteI think the umps made the right call. And the last thing I wanted to hear all winter—after Rasmussen shut them down in Game Four—was how we didn't get away with "cheating" THIS TIME....
Yes, the fan should have been duck-walked out of the Stadium. Don't interfere with the play on the field. Period...
ReplyDeleteHorace, I think it's a split-second reaction by the fan. I don't believe he did it intentionally. Most fans don't know it's illegal. What all major league teams should do just before the game starts is make a loud announcement about the rule along with a very noticeable, large red lettered warning on the scoreboards. In YS, they always use that park-wide flashing device when a home run is hit or want to urge the fans to get loud. They should use that for a minute before the game starts. They might also keep the first rows along the lower walls in right and left fields vacant during the playoffs. Of course, that will never happen because they would lose a few hundred overpriced seat revenue. Hal would rather have bamboo shoved under his fingernails than lose that money.
DeleteNo, not pitching Rodon was not the problem, to pull a triple negative.
ReplyDeleteWhen you make as many errors as you score runs in a series, pitching is not your problem. Period.
I have never seen so many people so sure that a pitcher was going to throw a shutout in the postseason. Carlos Rodon has thrown a shutout—in fact, a no-hitter—once in his entire career. Against the 6-5 Cleveland Indians, on April 14, 2021. That's it.
Meanwhile, in October, Rodon has run up an ERA of 7.53.
Also, I noticed that the Ray scored 6 of their 10 runs off lefties. Maybe they weren't so helpless against southpaws as we were led to believe...
If you watch the Yankees, you know their identity.....L O S E R S !!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd no, I don't miss George. Just happened to see recently Dave Winfield talking about the hell George put him through.
ReplyDeleteGeorge was simply the flip side of his son. Yes, he wanted to win—and it led him to all but destroy the franchise by the end of the 1980s. If he had not gone so far as to be suspended again from the game—for activity which you or I would have served a jail sentence for—he almost certainly would have ended up having to sell the franchise to the Dolans.
And Knicks in Five aside, that would not have gone well.
Remember: it can always get worse.
If James Dolan owned the team, he would ban ticket holders who booed too loudly. Also, many games would involve drunken chaos along the lines of that Ten-Cent Beer Night in Cleveland. In this case, Dolan would be leading the insanity while drunk off his ass.
DeleteI don't miss George, either.
DeleteWell, what did I tell ya'll? Please allow me to pull a Christoph Columbo one last time this year and say it. I TOLD YOU SO!!!
ReplyDeleteHell, I wuz 5 for 5 in this playoffs. I said the Yankees would sweep the Red Sox, and it happened. I said the Rays would sweep the Yankees, and it happened.
I think I predicted the Yankees losing by scores of 10-2; 7-2; and 24-0. So, it turned out to be not quite so bad. They only lost 1-0; 5-2; and 4-3. Yesterday, I thought the Yankees would get annhiliated, but the Battlin' Bronx Bastards made a game out of it, at least. But I got all the results right. And so, for the last time this year, please allow me to pat mee-self on the old back: [pat pat, pat pat, pat pat]. Good boy, Hammer, you're such a good, good boy!
This morning My Lovely and Delightful Partner asks me, "I thought the Yankees were good this year."
ReplyDeleteI am fresh out of the shower. My teeth grind and gnash. A veritable tirade in the construction of this Yankee roster later, and I am asked, "Why don't they just fire Boone?"
I think a new vein popped out of my forehead.
Duque, I do gots to disagree with ya on some of your ten points:
ReplyDelete1. The trajectory of that ball plainly showed that it would've hit just below the top of the fence. So unless a ball hitting the fence a few inches below the top of the fence can miraculously rise against gravity and climb its way out, that was the correct call. The fan's wrists/forearms kind of carried the ball out. Hell, it was just like the Jeffrey Maier homer (that was not really a homer, but called a homer by the ump).
2. Maybe the fan didn't deserve to be thrown out. I get it. It was close, and fans are entitled to balls that are over the fence and can fight the outfielder for such balls. But he did stick his hands, wrists, forearms over the fence, so he was not entitled to this ball.
3. Yankees are the only team to collapse and get swept in this round. Yep, shows how little battle they have. They don't have the stomach for it, for sure. That's all on the manager. Teams typically take on the persona of their manager. The bench boss is the leader, and if he doesn't lead well, you get these kinds of results.
ReplyDelete4. Can't complain too much about Rodon getting the ball. That's what happens when you get broom swept clean. There'll be unused ammo on the shelves. Unused gasoline in the tank and in the can. I would've used him at some point, but that's not really the reason they lost.
5. Hubris + hubris. Hubris squared, Hubris to the power of ten, to the power of infinity. That's Cashman's management, is it not?
By the way, Volpe hit a 96 mph inside fastball, the same kind of fastball Stanton couldn't get around on the other day. When Volpe is a better hitter than Stanton, does that not tell us that Stanton should've been put out to pasture long ago? Yeah, Cashman don't see it that way, and that's all that counts.
"Rodon NOT getting the ball" Sorry!
Delete6. We should root for the looming lockout? Hell, yes. Absolute-fucking-mente. Let the two sides kill each other. Give 'em bowie knives and let 'em negotiate on top of the table, steel to steel.
ReplyDelete7. This sorry end belongs to Cashman: All of the sorry endings from 2010 on are Cashman's. So that's now 17 and counting. 17 years of fucking up, coming up short, doing just enough to make it a clown show.
8. Maybe Aaron Judge don't need to beat up a water cooler, if it ain't his style, but somebody should. I want the next manager to put some fire in their bellies, stick a red hot iron up their asses. Where's the corpse of Billy Martin? Get Dr. Frankesteeen and reinvigorate him. When is the next big lightning storm?
ReplyDelete9. Ain't it funny how they handle Ben Rice with kidd gloves, but they used Aaron Judge like a beater jacket, a pair of old sneakers?
10. I think we'll get our revenge this year. LaLa Land Dodgers are going down, down, down....
BTW, I thought that they were supposed to change the outfield fence/seating configurations so that it was impossible for fans to stick their grimy little hands out over the fence. Once again, I guess those front row bleacher seats are too damned valuable to rich bastards like HAL to cordon off and have security rimming the perimeters.
ReplyDeleteMessage to the Artful Dodgers from the Commanding Officer, French Foreign Legion:
ReplyDeleteIf the Native American Warriors don't get you, then the Mill-Walk-Key Brew Crew will.
If the Brew Crew don't get you, then the Tampons will.
If the Tampons don't get you, then the final battle for the soul of baseball, the lockout will.
I don't know which is worse. But you will wish that you never made it to the end!
What a shitty end to a shitty season.
ReplyDeleteGo Giants!
No amazing. Those who run the Yankees are arrogant clowns. This starts with the moron GM>
ReplyDelete