Clip and save, for when they trade him in July

Sorry. Hate to be such a pill. (I'm thinking sodium pentothal.) The Moncada thing still haunts me. But in the names of Peter O'Brien and Manny Banuelos, I REFUSE to accept another steaming load of Yankee prospect hype, ginned up by a propaganda machine that will say anything about anybody, as long as it fills space in the paper and seats in the stadium. Nope. Won't buy it.

I ain't a marchin' anymore. I ain't a-goin' back to Hal's farm.

Greg Bird is the third rated prospect in the Yankee system, which is considered to be middling at best, and the reason why we are that high is because of an avalanche of money shelled out last July on Latino 16-year-olds, who have yet to suit up in America. Bird had a breakout season last year and then, in the Arizona Fall Instructional League All-Star Game, hit a big HR. He will play at Double A this year, and that's where most Yankee "real deal" prospects wither and die. One reason why the Yankees are hyping Bird is that Gary Sanchez - who has been touted for the last two springs - is no longer hype-able, due to mediocre hitting lines and personnel matters. If Bird doesn't hit this year - and there are guarantees - they'll ship him off in July for some 32-year-old reclamation project, and they'll claim Bird was never in their plans.

If the Yankees had a rookie like Mookie Betts - the Redsocks' 22-year-old CF - they'd be installing his face on blimps. We had 10 years to develop a replacement for Derek Jeter, and we couldn't do it, and not one of the top brass in our farm system was fired. (Mark Newman has "retired.") Until the Yankees start developing actual players, I will not accept this crapola.

Boston unveils its prize, Yoan Mocada, and all the air leaves the stadium

Damn. I meant to write about last night's big exhibition victory over Boston. Then I saw Yoan Moncada.

Damn. It's like Mom and Dad showing up at your 50 Shades party: Everyone sets down his whip and goes quiet. Yesterday, the Redsocks trotted out Yoan Moncada, the 19-year-old Cuban who was too expensive for Prince Hal Steinbrenner's delicate silken purse. It's one thing to envision another boring and mediocre season. It's another to foresee a crapola decade.

Damn. I'd almost forgotten Moncada. His name didn't turn up in box scores - (nor will they; he'll go straight to the dirt leagues camp.) The Yankees were trotting out Aaron Judge, Jake Cave and Ramon Flores - our future stars, according to the YES/Fox News Channel. I'd made peace with Hal dropping $5 million on Stephen Drew, who didn't hit .200 last season, and $5 million on 36-year-old Chris Capuano, now of the DL, and $2.5 million on Chris Young, who recently fanned against a pitching machine - but who then pulled out his pockets and pleaded poverty, when Mocada's name came up.

Thirteen million on Drew, Capuano and Young... and then you sit and watch Moncada sign with Boston?

Damn. Wasn't somebody supposed to be looking ahead about these things?

So yesterday, there he was, the latest reason to go out and measure bridges.

Yesterday, MLB released its Top 30 List of Yankee Prospects, a whoopy-do designed to foster hope for each team. They're all future stars. But the Yankees are a middling farm system, elevated to the second tier only because of some ridiculously expensive 16-year-olds we signed last summer. For 20 years now, the Steinbrenners have been lavishing money on Latino teens, usually to find that - around age 23 - they're out of the game and selling off their car collections.

It's a plantation mentality, the idea that if you buy a child young enough, you can raise him to be a ballplayer. It didn't work for Jackson Melian. It didn't for Ricardo Aramboles, or Jesus Montero, and maybe not for Gary Sanchez - it hasn't for a generation of kids, and I wonder why the Yankees still see it as their prime strategy. Last summer, when they were shooting money out of the fire hose, did anybody stop to think that it would be wise to hold some back, in case an international player like Moncada came on the market? Isn't that what managment was supposed to do?

The Yankees 2015 team makes no sense. We have a four man rotation, hanging by tendons and tissue. Our DH plays RF, and maybe our 3B is at DH. We have Drew at 2B, with a SS who may actually be a worse hitter. We are touting comeback years from players at the ages when comeback years are far from certain. We tout Tyler Austin and Ramon Flores, who might reach the majors this fall - yet they are older than Boston's Mookie Betts, who looks more than ready this spring.

And they have Moncada.

Damn. Sorry, folks. I meant to write about last night's big exhibition win. Then I saw him. Set down the whips, everybody. The fun is over. It's time for actual torture.

How To Improve The Yankees

Good morning y'all and welcome back to Yankee baseball.

I've just returned from a scouting mission with El Duque and Mustang.  Turns out, they find all the ballpark bars faster than I do but, when called upon, I am more inclined to " hit it out of the park,"
when it becomes time to lose oneself in public.

In any case, here is what I have seen so far;

1.  Reggie may be right.  Jose Peralta looks like a really good hitter.  He is a bit clumsy, as yet, at second base.  But no where near the fiasco that was Nunez.

I'm told they are playing him everywhere, desperate to find a roster spot for a guy who is not a great glove man.

2.  My new " man of the future" is Jake Cave.  great baseball name, and a fine prospect in CF.  He is having a hot spring with limited appearances, which is my criterion for a quality player.  That is; he delivers whenever he is given a shot.

3.  Judge made a great running/diving catch about four feet in front of our seats in the Sarasota game against Baltimore.  Sadly, he did nothing at the plate.  Nothing.  Mustang and Duque keep telling me about a game changing HR he hit a few weeks back.  Ancient history.  He K'd twice when I saw him.  Send him down and cross your fingers.

4.  The draft pick lefty (Lindgren?) pitched a dominating 1-2-3 ninth.  He reminded me, though his style is totally different, of a young kid I saw in Tampa several years ago who struck out the side in the 9th, on 9 pitches;  David Robertson.

5.  Heathcott struck out on a ball in the dirt in his one appearance.

6.  Refsnyder ( SP?) did the same….looking, I think.  Unimpressive.  But he looked good walking out of the stadium, with an aluminum container of food, heading back to the Yankee bus after the game.

7.  Flores and Austin, two other hot prospects, are rumored to be trade bait.  Maybe they get packaged with JR Murphy ( he hit better when he was JR ) for some old, loser who costs $18 million a year.  Now that Cappy is down, and with Tanaka on a tight rope, those rumors about mortgaging the future again, for Cole Hamels, seem to have some life.

8.  The projected starting line-up is boring beyond belief.  Hedley can hit.  So, too, can Gardy and that ex Red Sox centerfielder.  But Tex is a double play machine with a slow bat; Beltran is a NY Met in the playoffs against the Cardinals; Gregorious could go all spring training without a hit; Mc Cann could hit .300 if he went to the opposite field, but he won't.  Stephen Drew can't hit a lick.  It is two runs on a good day.  And I feel that A-Rod will be ineffective as a DH.

9.  I think Romine wins the back-up catcher job, even though Murphy is already pencilled in.

10.  Starting pitching for this team is precarious, to say the least.  We may have a pretty decent bullpen.

11.  Any day that that other ex-Met plays in ( Young…the outfielder ) , I won't watch or listen to.

Let's play two !

Barely a week into spring games, we are down to four starters

Everyone knows, by now, that Chris Capuano - "Little C.C." - tweaked a gonad covering first against the Redsocks the other day.

I believe I speak for the entire Yankiverse in voicing our first essential thought:

Hey, it's just Capuano.

As Charles Koch once said, "If you aint got nuthin, phuckit, dude, cuz y'got nuthin to lose." What we lost this week is a string of five-inning starts in which 2 to 5 runs score, depending on how well our bullpen handles inherited runners. Instead of Capuano, we'll send in Adam Warren or Esmil Rogers - (the Esmil Empire, anyone?) - or as they say in poker..."the hot hand."

If anybody looks good, the spot is theirs.

Of course, other teams have suffered far more. Toronto lost Marcus Strohman, and if I were a Blue Jays fan, I would just start walking out onto Lake Ontario and figure that I'd never come back. Texas lost Yu Darvish, a reminder that the Yankees aren't the only failed former power in the AL.

But we are slicing the veal extra thin, as we await The Big Tweak: Sabathia, Pineda or Tanaka. And already, the Yankees look like a team designed by a committee. If we were a plane, we'd have six wings and one propeller.

Last March, many of us were in denial over the open wounds at 3B and 2B. Yangervis Solarte was hitting .750, and Brian Roberts hadn't yet shown us how age had affected him. We went through mid-May hoping that Solarte was a diamond found on the beach, and that Roberts would soon get hot. Around June 1, reality set in.

Today, losing Capuano is hardly a death blow. After all, it's just Capuano. But we have an open wound in the starting rotation - one we didn't expect. It could get late awfully early.

Hal Steinbrenner may be hoping for a New York dynasty... in soccer

Great news, all you diehard Yankee/soccer fans! This weekend, your new Bronx Booters - NYCFC (which stands for New Yacht-owners Cashing Fat Checks) - will play the first of 17 home games this year in Yankee Stadium, aerating the soil like never before.

It's a good thing that Steiner Collectables sold off most of the original Yankee Stadium dirt, because the old stuff couldn't handle such wear and tear. Of course, the new improved Yankee dirt will shrug off the extra games with no problems. In fact, it should provide a defensive advantage for the Yankees, in that our fielders will be used to grounders that flare up into your nose, or sliding wet clods of grass the size of sea turtles.

The happiest man in NYC should be A-Rod, who won't have to man the hot corner - a veritable shooting gallery for bad hop bullets. Good luck, Chase Headley! Remember how classy everything in NY seemed, compared to San Diego? Buy some body armor. You're about to get a surprise.

Yesterday, a few veteran Yankees - guys who could not be benched or disappeared to Scranton - spoke out about the upcoming soccer season. Mark Teixeira bluntly told the Wall Street Journal:

“It’s terrible for a field. Grass, dirt, everything gets messed up.” 

Brett Gardner tried to sound upbeat. He said soccer is not as horrible as boxing matches or rock shows. (Hey, Yankees, how about a "Monster Truck Mud Weekend!") But Brett added a minor caveat:

“Problem is the root system. After you put new grass down, there’s no root system, so essentially you’re running full speed on top of AstroTurf that’s sitting on top of cement,” Gardner said. “And that grass will give way, and you blow something out—knee, ankle."

Oh, pooh. Is he now suggesting that Yankee fans should fear injuries? Succotash! Our Iron Man oufield - Ellsbury, Gardner and Beltran - never "blows something out?"  Besides, we have ex-Met Chris Young - he of the .206 Club - to fill in. Why should anyone worry? Injuries? Get real.

Well, here's someone who certainly won't worry: Hal Steinbrenner! He's part owner of the soccer team. In fact, by playing games in his stadium, Hal is cashing in on a big investment, because the Yankees and Manchester City paid $100 million to get a Major League Soccer franchise. This deal makes perfect sense to Hal... and he, alone.

(Good grief, it's a shame New York banned hydrofracting, because that could be another cash cow for the family. Hal could put a well in the left field corner, paint it like a foul pole, and nobody would be the wiser!)

NYCFC will play two seasons in Yankee Stadium, or at least until the bigwigs buy enough politicians to gouge the taxpayers into building a soccer stadium. Fortunately, the last few soccer games probably won't bother the Yankees: They're scheduled for mid-October.

Finally, for the record: I am not one of these old-fart baseball fans who instinctively hates soccer. On the contrary, I love it, and NYC needs a team. But if anybody thinks 17 home games won't chew up the Yankee Stadium grass, then they must be smoking it. In one instance, the grounds crew will have just two days to bring the field back into baseball shape. Can you imagine what it will look like if the soccer game is played on a rainy day?

The Yankees are supposed to be the flagship sports franchise of New York City.

Their owner is failing this team, this city, this media and this fan base.

Regime change, people.

I don't know how it can happen, but it's our only true hope.

Regime change.

The Yankees don't give a tweet about A-Rod

Great year for the Yankees on Twitter.

First, you have two ticket office frat boys taking time out of their busy schedules to mock Curt Schilling's daughter. Now this: The iPad gerbil who is supposed to provide upbeat Twitter feeds of Yankee action - (seriously, didn't you want to follow the upcoming season on Twitter?) - excludes a home run by the team's official pariah.

Can you imagine old George Steinbrenner on Twitter? The things he would have tweeted about Bobby Meacham?

Great traditions of spring: The Yankee Post-Game Perp Walk

Nothing evokes the pageantry of spring training more than the post-game perp walk, when the visiting ball club must navigate its way from the smelly, media-clogged locker room to the team bus.

In Sarasota this week, Yankee security was beefed-up and ready to snap into action at a moment's notice.

Dressed as civilians, few Yankee perps were recognized by the crowd. In fact, considering that most were minor leaguers whose jersey numbers are not listed on the roster, some could not even be identified during the game. Nevertheless, fans could tell the players by their containers of take-out food, pilfered from the clubhouse buffet.

Note how they keep their eyes focused on the freedom bus. The pressure is on. This is no time for eye-contact.

One familiar face invoked shouts from the crowd of "JOE, JOE, JOE.." It was none other than Joe Girardi, the most recognizable Yankee. He signed one ball and then bee-lined it to the traveling coach.

Not seen: The Master and his acolyte, Suzyn. They may have been laying low, worried about security. Fortunately, Suzyn's stalker turned out to be none other than Mustang's girlfriend, the notorious and elusive Big Bang.

With the perp walk successfully navigated, the Yankees headed home.

Coming up next: The view from the greatest seat in spring training!

A-Rod homers... but it would have gone farther if he was on the juice, right Mr. Murdoch?

The NY tabs have a J.Jonah Jamison/Spiderman thing going with A-Rod. Last week, the Post celebrated his first spring hit with this creatively hateful zinger.

So, after he homered yesterday, we'd expect them to gleefully accuse Alex of going back on the sauce, right?

Nope. They play it straight, sort of. The snarkless headline reads "A-Rod launches first home run of spring." After the dutiful, happy quote from Alex, they remind us that the disgraceful Public Enemy No. 13 hasn't hit a home run in a long, long while...

 Rodriguez still has to show he’s able to hit them when it counts after returning from his year-long suspension... In five games this spring, Rodriguez is 5-for-11 with two walks and as many have shown before him, success this time of year can be deceiving.

Fair game, I guess. But it's a sign that the tabs are starting to hedge their bets. In the editorial rooms, somebody must be pondering the worst case scenario: That A-Rod actually returns, hits and has a good year.

Of course, the American snipers - Madden, Lupica, et al, the gods of sports morality - will take their shots. Right now, though, with the Yankees looking punchless, it's hard to condemn the a guy who is hitting.

Yankee Indian Point Power Report: With a homer yesterday, A-Rod is now tied for the team lead in home runs, with 1

Bronx Bomber Home Run Leader Board

Alex Rodriguez 1
Slade Heathcott 1
Gary Sanchez 1
Greg Bird 1
Aaron Judge 1
Jake Cave 1
Ramon Flores 1
Tyler Austin 1

Hot day, cold team: Observations of a lost afternoon against the O's

We wuz there, Ed Smith Stadium, Sarasota: Mustang, Alphonso and me. Right field corner for six sun-pocked innings, air conditioned bar stools for the final three. (Thank you, Willis Carrier.) Esskay hot dogs and Stella Artois beer. Old and cagy crowd, quick to grab the best stools. Mostly Orioles' sickly orange, Manny Machado "13" jerseys, a couple "BUCK THE YANKEES" hate crime fashions. Yankee fans wore their finest Jeter attire. My bootleg tee said "NY" on the front and "YOUKILIS" on the back, a reminder that those who cannot remember the past are doomed to...

Aw, screw it. The stool sample scouting report:

Didi didn't. The new Jeter 1.0 experiment, Didi Gregorius - for whom we traded Shane Greene - swings the bat like Taylor Swift. Joe has him leading off. That won't last. This guy will bat ninth. Obviously, it's too early to draw conclusions, and Didi didn't hurt us in the field. But Yankee fans should start pondering the outside chance that our SS this year will be Brandon Ryan, or even Stephen Drew. Hate to be Debbie Downer, but you heard it here first. The guy looks over-matched at the plate.

Drew do-do. For whatever it's worth, Drew came up with the bases loaded and two outs, and though the games don't count, it was clearly the pivotal moment of the day. They overshifted against him, stacking the right side. If Drew could have slapped the ball to left, three runs could have scored, and we would have won the exhibition game. He swang hard. He hit a Little League pop-up to second. Oh, well. The joke is on Baltimore. The games don't count, right?

Aaron Judge. Made the defensive play of the game, charging from RF and diving full-out, to spear a pop fly down the line. Carlos Beltran wouldn't have gotten close enough to take a photograph. Judge did nothing memorable at the plate, but his sheer size makes him a P.T. Barnum "captured man-leviathon" act. Fans were pointing at him, as he towered over coaches and teammates. Listen: If this guy can hit, he's going to make 2019 the year of Giantism.

Chase Headley. Three hits, practically our only offense. One ball bounced off the wall in RF, a foot below the HR line. In Yankee Stadium, it would have been 20 rows back. Can't complain.

Chase Whitley. Three scoreless innings, but pitched out of several deep jams. It was the type of outing that Yogi used to hate. He'd remove a pitcher who was throwing a shutout, because he couldn't take the stress. In other words: Chase Whitley is in mid-season Chase Whitley form.

Esmil Rogers. Most dominant Yankee pitcher of the day. One inning, whap-whap-whap, thank you, ma-am, lights out. (Second place: Jacob Lindgren, the lefty, whom we watched from the stools.)

Gary Sanchez. Homered in the ninth. Crushed it. Hard to gauge importance. Besides, we were belly to the bar, drowning sorrows, watching on the overhead. At least the guy in the BUCK THE YANKEES shirt wasn't happy. I say, BUCK SHOWALTER.

Will try to post pictures later of post-game Yankee perp-walk. Gotta figure out how to get them off phone.

The Master: "Remember, this guy is one of the greatest hitters of all time.” The Acolyte: "We hear all this stuff about Alex being a distraction. I’m here to tell you it’s not a distraction."

In a column today, The Daily News' Bob Raissman - whose stance on John Sterling has softened since he scored a phoner interview with the Master on the night of the recent apartment fire - welcomes "Ma and Pa Pinstripe" to 2015.

Finally, something to look forward to. Suzyn (Ma Pinstripe) Waldman and John (Pa Pinstripe) Sterling broke the seal Saturday and Sunday on the Yankees Radio Network.

He even mentions our name, in a way.

But Raissman misses one key and often overlooked element of Sterling's mass appeal - pro or con: The Master is uniquely locked into the Yankiverse - like a Vulcan Mind Meld - or in the way that Tony Stark knows his Iron Man suit. Yankee fans can tell instantly through his voice whether the Yankee are ahead or behind. And Sterling possesses the super power of knowing exactly what the fan base thinks.

And what we are thinking this spring is that the '15 Yankees is a tedious collection of old players on the decline, led by a former star who - at best - will win only a half-redemption among the fan base. We are hungering for somebody, anybody, to pop out of the organization's minor league abyss and make a difference. We saw it last year with Yangervis Solarte. This year, it could be anyone - as long as he's under 30.

It might have been cagy to sign Stephen Drew to play 2B. But who gets excited over him there? Chris Young in the outfield? Even if he gets off to a hot start, we know what's coming: A slow, agonizing drift back to .206.

Until the Yankees find several young impact players - four is a nice number - we will be watching a dead and dying team.

John and Suzyn spent the weekend saying so - though in not such graphic terms.

Suzyn: "It's rare to see this many kids here with a shot. There is a future."

John: "We could be looking at the start of something."

Or the end of something.

Still no word on the home run calls for Didi Gregorious or Rob Refsnyder. Let's hope we get a chance.

Finally: Today, Alphonso, Mustang and I will watch our heroes play the Orioles in Sarasota. A full accounting when - and if - we sober up.

Bullet dodged? The Yankees almost traded a bunch of prospects for Cole Hamels

Yesterday, the MLB Rumors website - rumored that the Evil Empire has "come the closest" this winter to obtaining Phillies starter Cole Hamels via a prospect package deal. In exchange for the 31-year-old Hamels, they would supposedly give Philadelphia several young players - more than anybody else has offered.

Luis Serverino? Could be gone. Aaron Judge? Possibly. Greg Bird? Who knows?

It's not as if the Yankees have an exploding excess of prospects, and need to burn them off at the well head. It's not as if we would instantly become frontrunners in the AL East. As The Master says, you can't predict baseball, but the Yankee rotation is as thin as a coat of Windex, and right now, even with Hamels, they'd be lucky to escape spring training with five healthy starters.  

Hamels, 31, has thrown more than 200 innings in each of the last five years. Over his career, he averages more than 200 innings per season. Last year, with Philadelphia, he went 9-9, though his ERA was excellent: 2.45.

Most frightening, though, is his contract. Hamels is signed through 2019 at $23 million per year. That will have him pitching through age 35, and - in the final incarnation - face a $24 million team vesting option and/or a $6 million buyout. Statistically, Hamels conforms most precisely to the career of Jake Peavy, who is deteriorating rapidly at age 33 and who - in fact, began to fall apart at 31. A guy can only throw so many innings. Hamels is nearly his sell-by date.

So... here are the Yankees - who wouldn't spend $60 million on 19-year-old Yoan Mocada - but they offered a package of prospects for a 31-year-old pitcher who would cost them - at the least - $98 million - (counting the $6 million buyout) - through 2019?

Dear God. It's 1984 all over again. It's the Steinbrenner family incompetence gene.

I recognize that many modern bloggers are too young to remember Doug Drabek, Al Leiter, Jose Rijo, Willie McGee and Jay Buhner. They know about the deals from reading River Ave. Nobody recalls the talent those young players showed, or the anger that that trades provoked among the fan base. They think the Yankee organization is too smart to make a dumb deal.

To be drunk on hubis is a wondrous feeling.

A lot of young fans - and writers - simply cannot believe a team with as much money as the Yankees can fall apart. (Though they watched it happen in Boston.)

I assure you, the Yankees can fall apart.

Trading prospects for Cole Hamels - which the Yankees apparently tried to do - is the perfect way to dial us back to the 1980s.

Yesterday, a report out of the Cactus League said the Diamondbacks believe Pete O'Brien looks like a future frontline catcher. The Yankees didn't think so. They traded O'Brien - their best power-hitting prospect - last summer for a drunken charge at the final Wild Card slot. We can't keep going from July to July, always bobbing in the waves, trading the future for a chance to entice fans to watch in September. At some point, the Yankees must change. Apparently, they still don't know this.

We almost traded for Cole Hamels. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

The poetry of James Arthur Boeheim

THE CASE REMAINS

By James Arthur Boeheim

Yesterday...
I issued a full statement
With my thoughts on
And reaction to
The NCAA Committee
On Infractions Report.

In that statement...
I said I would have
No further comment
On this matter,
As I consider my options
Moving forward.

That remains the case today.

March 7, 2015

Good news: Yankee infield looks "really good." Bad news: When compared to last year.

George A. King III - the Post writer with the Times' name - wins the Glass Half Full Award for "Most Optimistic Gammonite" with his rosey outlook piece on the 2015 Yankee infield. George A III says our infrastructure looks far better - defensively - than last year's 84-win team, which finished second in the American League East, only 12-games out.

Of course, it's sort of like saying New Orleans looks better than it did underwater.

Anyway, George A-3 says:

Provided nobody suffers an injury before Opening Day, the Yankees will have a significantly better infield defensively than a year ago.

And he's right, dammit!

Keep in mind, though, that last year the Yankees had:

1. Yangervis Solarte battling Zelous Wheeler, Scott Sizemore and Kelly Johnson at third.

2. Dean Anna, Yangervis, Zelous, Scott, and the population of Gary, Indiana, facing off against the injured Brian Roberts at second.

3. Serious questions whether Derek Jeter could last the season.

4. Not a clue that Mark Teixeira would collapse so completely.

Nope. Write this down, everybody: The Yankee infield is DEFINITELY better than last year.

The rotation, though... uh... (cough)... might be a... um... (cough)... problem. I just don't recall last year expecting to hear the name "Capuano" every fifth day. Oh, well... GO D.

Searching for light in an infinite darkness

As further indignity, Jim Boeheim's name is misspelled by Daily Beast

If you live in Syracuse, NY, and you absolutely REFUSE to follow SU basketball, you still will end up watching at least 20 full games per winter. They are impossible to avoid. You'd have to encase yourself in a lead box, and even then, 10 games would seep into your consciousness.

And you could grow up in Syracuse thinking SU coach Jim Boeheim is your uncle Jim.

The two most famous people in Syracuse are Boeheim and Billy Fucillo, a car dealer who shouts "HUuuuJAH" in frantic TV ads that run around the clock. After that, there is a lawyer team called Alexander and Catalano - (the Alexander being the son of Lee Alexander, the former mayor who was convicted of racketeering and corruption in the 1980s); they run TV ads calling themselves "the Heavy Hitters." After them, there are the requisite local TV anchors, though they come and go. And finally, there is Tim Green, the former NFL defensive tackle and author, who was booted out of the wealthy Skaneatles high school football program a few years ago for recruiting players from inner city schools. It was a mess.

Other famous people? Hm-mm. Well, there was Bernie Fine, the SU assistant basketball coach under Boeheim, who became a national punch line a few years ago, when ESPN charged that he had sexually abused former managers. That case is still moving through the courts, but Boeheim did not end up getting Joe Paternoed.

After Bernie, well... there are always a few sportscasters from SU's Newhouse School, but they aren't really Syracusans, they just studied here for a few years. There is a guy named Robert Congel, who owns the Destiny Mall. He's famous for being rich. There just isn't much here, I guess.

That's why Boeheim will keep his job. Syracuse just doesn't have enough famous people to fill the void. Besides, it's taken a while to learn how to spell his name. Uncle Jim.

 

Searching for whatever in a universe of none other

 

 

Syracuse holding steady 5-inch lead in Snowball of Gold

We are reaching the final turn.

 

If Buffalo doesn't make its move soon,

the great lead of early December will be merely a memory.

 

http://goldensnowball.com/

Yankee 2015 colonoscopy continues: There's always a catch

First, a confession: I like Brian McCann. He's a chunk, a lugnut, a goober. He plays hard. He looks mean. He shaves his head, even though he's bald. He got hot last July and showed why we are paying him so much money. Of last year's three free agents, he's the keeper. (The trouble with Ellsbury: Seven years.)

Last month, McCann said something that should be digested as more than the usual wintery smegma that dribbles from a player's mouth. He vowed to adjust his swing in the face of defensive overshifts. He'll bunt or hit to the opposite field, rather than swing harder and try to hit 200 home runs.

Last year, the Yankees faced more overshifts than at any time I can recall in 50 years. They neutered our biggest hitters, because they didn't - our couldn't - react. It was ridiculous. It was almost condescending. Lou Piniella would have altered his stance. So would Thurman Munson, Paul O'Neill, Bernie, Willie, Yogi, Scooter, Jeter... they would have changed their ways to get on base and get something going. Our "sluggers" just swang away.

If Peyton Manning steps to the line of scrimmage and finds 11 DBs in pass coverage, he calls a run. If Carmelo Anthony finds five defenders guarding him, he passes - uh, actually, no, he shoots - bad example, sorry. You get the picture. If a player cannot react, he is a loser.

Brian McCann could become this year's de facto captain. All he needs to do is lead: Lay down a bunt or two in situations where a baserunner is more important than a HR.

Fingers crossed.

Behind McCann is John Ryan Murphy, and I still don't know why he warrants a middle name; it's not like he shot a president or anything. Two years ago, "JR Murphy" was the future, our lone prospect worth pondering in September. So, what happened? Same as what happens to everybody. The Yankees sent him back to Scranton, where he floundered, got hurt, wasted his time and now he's a year older. Moreover, he's a younger version of Austin Romine, who four years ago was such a decent catching prospect that the Yankees traded Jesus Montero. But then they sent Romine to Scranton, where he floundered, got hurt, wasted his... ahh, you know the deal. Ugh.

Now, the future is supposedly Gary Sanchez. In 2012-14, he was generally rated as our Top Prospect (along with Manny Banuelos). He crapped out last season in Trenton and was even booted off the team for two weeks. They say he's a new man, ready to behave! We'll see. This will be his first full taste of Scranton. And we know what can happen there.

Running out of numbers to retire, Yanks may jettison letter "C"

What is it with an Evil Empire that everything is supposed to be immortal and last forever? It's one thing to retire the jersey of Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. With all due respect... It's another to retire Jorge Posada's number.

Now, the team's GM wants to retire a Yankee tradition. Says the Gray Lady:

General Manager Brian Cashman reiterated on Thursday what he said on at least two occasions last season: that he would like to have the title of captain retired along with [Derek] Jeter.

The Yankees are like a cheerleader who got laid for the first time last night, and she's vowing to never love another - even though the guy has moved on. Can't Jeter give the Yankees a gift basket? He's moving to Skaneateles Lake, probably the biggest cougar watering hole in the Northeast. Will it be a blemish on his sacred memory if somebody should ever be appointed Yankee captain again? Jeter's going to be drinking lemon drops on his boat. He's not going to care.

Maybe the Yankees should vow to never win a World Series again. That way, the great teams of the late 90s won't have to share their space in Yankee mythology with anybody else. In fact, maybe that's the reason by pennywise Hal Steinbrenner's cheapness: He doesn't want to make his dad look bad by winning championships.

Listen: This isn't about Jeter. Everybody agrees he's great. (DEREK AKBAR! DEREK AKBAR!) Nobody's going to forget him, any more than we've forgotten Munson, or Mattingly, or Catfish, or any of them. But I'd hate to think the mighty New York Yankees never again field a player worthy of being called "Captain." What a sad organization that would be. Besides, all those poor guys who are wearing numbers 70 through 99 deserve a shot at something.