I am not a writer until I start to write. I am not an emotional guy until I get emotional. And I am not a sentimental guy until I get sentimental. So When I turned on last night’s Yankee game I realized what a sentimental curmudgeon I really am. Not that it is a bad thing to be sentimental and a guy. Remember, this is coming from a guy who has the attention span of a blonde in a room filled with shiny objects.
I wasn’t all that interested in spring training. There were no real big interests or excitements for me in the off-season besides the hiring of Joe Girardi as manager. The Roger Clemens, Brian McNamee, “he said he said,” hearings were all about political affiliation. So I filed that one under: “the more you study, the more you know. The more you know, the more you forget. The more you forget, the less you know. So why study?” theory.
There is something about opening day (or night as in this case) at Yankee stadium. The weather is rarely accommodating. Some players are so nervous they probably feel like a pregnant nun in a confessional. After the first pitch the fans feel like the prolonged winter dreariness is coming to a screeching halt. The players feel absolved.
Even though this was the last opening day at the storied stadium in The Bronx I was not overly sentimental. After all there has been no world championship in seven years. The Boston Red Sox have two titles in the last four years. Joe Torre is gone. George Steinbrenner is no longer a present force to be recognized. Reggie Jackson threw out the first pitch. Joe Girardi is manager. The pitching staff is made up of young unproven talent.
Then the TV cameras started to take some unique shots from all over Yankee Stadium. I saw the courthouse and the subway from high above the Yankee façade. I saw angles of the playing field that I used to see as a kid roaming all around the upper decks of the stadium. I started to get sentimental. I started to get emotional. I started to write.
I heard Mel Allen and Red Barber. I heard Phil Rizzuto and Bill White. I heard Frank Messer. I heard Bob Shepard.
I had flashes of The Mick, Yogi, Whitey, Billy, Maris, Elston, Richardson, Bauer, Boyer, Kubek, Macdougal , Skowron, Tresh, Coleman, Stengel, Larsen, Sturdivant, Downing, Duren,, Reniff, Slaughter, Stafford, Terry, Turley, Blanchard, Houk. I saw a packed stadium. I saw world championships
Then there was a decade and a half of darkness.
I had another flash. I saw Munson, Guidry, Nettles, Randolph, Dent, Rivers, Pinniella, Chambliss, White, Murcer, Blair, Ellis, Figueroa, Holtzman, Tidrow, Alexander, Gullett, Dempsey, Stanley, Bloomberg, Gamble, Lyle, Hunter, Johnson, Spencer, Jackson, Lemon. I saw a packed stadium. I saw world championships.
Then there was another decade and a half of darkness.
Then there was an enormous bright flash. Like a flash not seen in decades. Like Haley’s Comet. I saw, Mattingly, Showalter, Torre, Jetter, Williams, Girardi, Posada, O’neill, Rivera, Gossage, , Pettitte, Gooden, Key, Rogers, Wetteland, Weathers, Wickman, Clemens, Cone, Hernandez, Lloyd, Mendoza, Stanton, Wells, Grimsley, Nelson, Brosius, Knoblauch, Leyritz, Martinez, Soriano, Boggs, Fielder, Duncan, Sojo, Vizcaino, Spencer, Curtis, Ledee, Strawberry, Justice, Raines, Davis. A quick flash, Canseco, Polonia, Kelly, Hill, Neagle, Lily. I saw a packed stadium. I saw world championships.
This storied stadium, The House that Ruth Built, The Great Cathedral in the Bronx, Baseballs Vatican, what ever you want to call it. Yankee Stadium, it is a baseball shrine. It makes men out of boys and it turns men back into boys. There are ghosts and there are spirits that linger there. That is if you believe in that sort of lore. I don’t usually until I think of it. Then I am a believer.
This is the first of the last go around in the Stadium. There will be a year long of first lasts progressing throughout the year. Try to embrace all of it as it is happening. It will be just a memory all too soon. Let’s hope it leads us back to the future. I see a packed stadium. I see world championships.
Well, as most logical baseball fans have sensed for months the New York Yankees reign on the American League East title is over. There are thirty one games remaining and New York trails the well balanced division leading Boston Red Sox by seven and one half games. This is not the nineteen seventy-eight New York Yankees.
Although New York leads MLB in many offensive categories their pitching is in the middle of the pack.
Andy Pettitte has been all the Yankees have asked of him with all but three or four bad starts. With a decent bullpen, early on, he would more than likely be among the league leader in wins. After Pettitte and more often than not, Chien-Meng Wang, it is a real #### shoot.
Roger Clemens, playing half a season, has given them innings but at forty-five years of age is not the Clemens of previous years. Still it is amazing how well he pitches at times.
Mike Mussina has been more awful than respectable. He will throw a gem every eighth or so start. His velocity is down, again, and he needs to be almost perfect with his location to be effective. Not an easy task given the diverse strike zone of many umpires. Add to that equation how Mike shows his arrogance and displeasure when an umpire squeezes his strike zone. Not mister public relations along those lines. Umpires are turning into stage performers, but I digress, that is for a future article.
Phil Hughes is poised for a twenty-one year old but is still a rookie with little experience and will make rookie mistakes. This year, with injuries, has been hard but helpful for this future front line starter.
The procession of raw rookie starters that paraded through the Yankee rotation early was not impressive, at all, at this level. With more minor league development they will thrive given their talent. The Yankee farm system has never been stacked with this quality of young gifted arms. This seems to be the trend for many quality franchises to develop their own young talented arms.
The bullpen has been erratic to dreadful, at best, for most of the season.
Luis Vizcaino, Scott Proctor, Brian Bruney and Kyle Farnsworth were basically the same type of pitchers and were having the same kind of problems. Location, location, location. They walked everybody and gave up a ton of extra base hits. So did the likes of Ron Villone, and Mike Myers.
Mariano Rivera, due to lack of work early, has shown signs of age and inactivity. His velocity is down a notch. He really is only a one inning pitcher but unlike Farsworth can pitch on multiple days and still be effective. He still is among the elite in MLB as a closer.
The bench was weak and shallow.
Given that assessment the Yankees have improved both the bullpen and bench dramatically in the past five weeks. With the addition of Joba Chamberlain and Edwar Ramirez, the resurgence of Vizcaino, the bullpen has a more balanced and diverse feel for Torre.
The bench has been shored up with power defense and diversity. The acquisitions of Jose Molina, and Wilson Betemit proved to be wise. The promotion of Andy Phillips and Shelley Duncan ads some power and energy to the mix.
Back to basics. The Yankees are awful in one run and extra inning games. They do not play consistently well against the better teams in the league. They play bad on the road. On the plus side, they play well at home (excluding Baltimore) and have beaten up on the lesser teams in the AL.
Losing to a Sheffied-less Detroit on Friday night/ Saturday morning and again on Sunday was telling and painful. Derek Jeter was hurt and was hitting into many double plays lately. If he were healthy perhaps they win those two games. Perhaps.
Seattle has ten of it's next thirteen games against playoff contending teams. Will they crack? I thought they would a month ago. I was wrong, again. They are a legitimate club, with good hitting, pitching and a good bullpen.
The Yankees need to approach and play each game as a potential seventh game playoff. I am not crazy, this is what they need to do thanks to the enormous hole they dug themselves early on.
With Mussina going tonight there is a chance that the Yankees will be eight games behind the Red Sox when they meet at home on Tuesday. A sweep of Boston, while not impossible, is mandatory.
The Yankees are chasing two teams, well, really only one. The Red Sox are not going to fold with that pitching staff and their momentum.
More than likely the Yankees need to play .650 ball to advance into the playoffs as the wild card. Even that is not a given with Seattle playing superb baseball.
The Yankees play Boston six times Seattle three times and Baltimore (ouch) six times in the remaining thirty-one games. With tonights game against the Tigers that is more than half their remaining games against teams who will play them tough. Not an impossible task but not one favoring the Yankees given their season's history.
For a lot of us baseball fanatics this is our Punxsutawney Phil, “Ground Hogs Day,” week. I know, a day isn’t a week and all of that stuff but, give me some writers suspended reality leeway here, Okay? I just crawled out from under my four-month pile of meaning less, paperless essays and there are bound to be cobwebs.
After crawling out I managed to see my shadow. This means two things. There will be six more weeks of speculation baseball and I need to loose ten pounds. Fortunately, for baseball, the six weeks will pass. Unfortunately, for me, the ten pounds probably won’t.
So far, this off-season, the Yankees addressed their needs like an annual physical exam.
They required a colonoscopy where they found and removed a couple of polyps, of the Gary Sheffield and Randy Johnson variety. A third polyp of the Carl Pavano type was left in tact. They elected to treat the polyp with diet and exercise. The feeling here was removing it now could cause more internal bleeding and require a longer healing process. A re-evaluation of the polyp will be addressed in the next month or so.
The cardio exam revealed the same ongoing issues the Yankees have been experiencing the past few years, a weak heart. There is a lot of plaque built up in those arteries and another new diet is recommended. The Joe Torre Diet has run its course and has been deemed ineffective for the most part. The “Indiana Mattingly Diet” or the “South Beach Girardi Diet” has been suggested. Both are new and trendy. With a little exception of the South Beach Girardi Diet they are basically untested.
In the meantime, they performed another angioplasty and inserted an Andy Pettitte stent with the possibility of a Roger Clemens one to follow in a few months. These should service well for the next year or so but either a triple bypass or a transplant will eventually be needed. I hear the new Philip Huges replacement heart is new and strong but needs a little more development. There have also been discussions on whether to use the new pacemakers on the market. There are several models to choose from: Alberto Gonzalez,Ross Ohlendorf, Humberto Sanchez and the Kevin Whelan. Time will tell and I am still a skeptic regarding these models. A new Japanese model called the Kei Igawa has worked well in Japan but has not been tested in the states.
Endurance has not been a problem for twelve years for the Yankees and the stress test revealed no change.
Strength, which has been questioned in recent years regarding non-prescription additives, will always be an issue, until the medical board sets some guidelines. This is not likely to happen in the near future. Bureaucracy and revenue always cause confusion and delay.
The daily vitamin requirement has been revamped and it will include the Doug Mientkiewicz hand and eye co-ordination supplement. The Juan Miranda Josh Phelps Alberto Gonzalez Wil Nieves and Bronson Sardinha supplements have also been added as a precautionary measure. These supplements are always rearranged and substituted as the season wears on.
The orthopedic evaluation suggested that the bones and joints were all healed. Other than a slight case of arthritis in the first, center and buttocks locations of the anatomy, all is well.
As with every patient willing to go through analysis, there are always issues. The Yankees have their share, with #### envy and non-acceptance paranoia heading the list. A slight case of immaturity and adolescence behavior sprinkled in with some dementia. The latter has been associated with and proven to be a side effect of the Joe Torre Diet.
The Yankees have an excellent health plan carrier in the George M. Steinbrenner group. Given a five star rating by whoever the hell rates these things. They are in good hands, as the saying goes.
So the evaluation seems healthy enough to expect the same results for the coming year. That, my friend, is good enough for me…. for now. Come October I might sing a different tune.
So medication prescribed for these symptoms? Six more weeks of speculation baseball.
The Yankees did have chemistry this year. Unfortunately it was stripped from the lineup in the last three weeks of the regular season with the return of Hedeiki Matsui and Gary Sheffield. Joe Torre’s hands were tied when it came time to play these two. He had to. This, as it turned out, was the wrong time to screw with team chemistry.
In the beginning of the year the Yankee team that played everyday lacked that chemistry also. Matsui and Sheffield were part of that starting lineup. I remember writing an article on how boring this Yankee team was in the first month to six weeks of the season. No clutch hitting, poor starting pitching and an already over worked bullpen.
There was this familiar feeling surrounding this team that things would eventually work there way to a head to head battle with the Red Sox. Then the injuries unfolded. This perhaps was the highlight of the season for the New York Yankees.
Brian Cashman and Joe Torre had their work cut out for them and the two seemed to be on the same page and that is when the chemistry started to develop. This, in part, was due to the understanding and confidence that Brian Cashman was now the true General Manager of this franchise. Now he and Joe Torre did not have to constantly look over their shoulder for every decision that they collectively agreed upon and eventually made. They would be held totally responsible for their moves and that would be fine as far as Brian and Joe were concerned.
The infusion of younger and hungrier players into the everyday lineup had an immediate impact on the field and the results were equally positive. There was a life to this team that was not present in the past three plus years.
You need a blend of confidence, energy, swagger and yes, even fire. You are not going to win without that mix for the most part. To say that you need a team of Rivera’s, Jetter’s and Williams who just go out there everyday and do their jobs sounds wonderful. It won’t happen because you could never find nine guys with that approach who play everyday. It’s a blend.
The Yankees, in their championship seasons, always had a blend. Knobloch, O’neill, Clemens, Nelson, El Duque, Tino. These guys showed emotion and brought the energy level up to a point where it needed to be, to be a champion. The Yankees had it for a good part of the season but they lost that energy this year in the final three weeks of the season. Too many All Stars and an all too familiar look that lulled them back to a false sense of “We are the best lineup in all of baseball.”
Blame it on pitching, but the pitching was not horrible, the offense was.
Lou Piniella has made a difference every place that he has managed with the exception of Tampa Bay. He can motivate talent. Tampa Bay had a class AA team for the time he managed there and a payroll to match. So it is unfair to judge him on that level. No one could win being dealt with that hand. I am glad he was not hired to manage the Yankees but if he was I’ll bet the ranch he would have been successful.
I like Cashman and I like where he is going with his approach. I’m pretty sure he has learned from his frustrating years as a three-headed GM. I am guessing that this will be the last year of a top to bottom All Star lineup for the Yankees under Cashman’s present day’s watch. He has a lot more rope as far as I’m concerned.
Right after the disappointment of being ousted in the first round of the playoffs by the under dogged Detroit Tigers I was all over some much needed changes. I wanted to get rid of Joe Torre and Alex Rodriguez. Obviously decision makers who REALLY count on the Joe Torre issue out voted me. No surprise there.
Alex Rodriguez is not going anywhere either and after rethinking, I have decided that it is a good thing for A-Rod to stay put. After all pitching did in the Yankees and…well so did hitting but that was spread out equally amongst this post-season offensively challenged Yankee team.
A-Rod did not cost the Yankees a division title and he did not single handedly cost his team a shot at the AL pennant. It was a team effort.
A-Rod plays a decent third base and we all know his numbers offensively during the regular season. He helped put the Yankees in a position to get into the playoffs every year that he has been in New York.
Rule number one: Get to the post season. After that it really is about pitching in a short series. That is where the Yankees have failed to match up with their opponents in post-season play, during this recent championship drought run.
Who cares if Derek and A-Rod don’t like each other or if A-Rod is prettier or self-proclaimed more Bi-racial and makes more money than everyone else. Actually it makes for great arguments at bars, stadiums, water coolers and message boards. It sure takes your mind off important issues like when the hell are we going to get out of Iraq and stop trying to fight two wars and bring our boys home. That’s for another article though.
It’s fun to pick on A-Rod because he always has something really scripted and eyebrow rising to say. This has been a writers dream to have the likes of Alex Rodriquez in New York. Derek gets the endorsements but A-Rod gets the press. When it comes to whether Derek gets more money for his endorsements or writers get more page exposure writing about Alex, I’ll opt for Alex every time. It makes a writer’s job easier and we get out all our frustrations to boot.
A-Rod bashing has been in Vogue, but fall fashion is history. It’s time for a new wardrobe. Something geared for spring with a little curve around the right or left arms. Something that says hard and fast and young…but always in pinstripes.
Joe Torre is a true mentor in his ability to keep a level presence when the boiler room reaches scorching temperatures. His slow methodical demeanor has a calming effect on all who surround him.
Unfortunately, Joe is not a motivator. He has been part of three straight colossal collapses in the post season. These failures have been monumental and embarrassing to the Yankee organization and it's fan base. Unless the organization finally realizes that pitching really is the key to post season success, Joe will end his reign as manager with just four rings (not a bad number).
During his first six years and four World Championships Joe had the horses on his pitching staff to be successful. There was quality starting pitching and great middle relief leading to the best closer of all time in the post season, Mariano Rivera.
Since 2002 the Yankee management decided that All Stars at every position was the way to go. Well it got them to the post season but in a short series we all know good pitching stops good hitting.
With this year’s pool of free agent pitching talent the market for staring pitching is weak at best. Therefore trading will be the highlight of this off-season restructuring strategy for the Yankees.
This will prove to be quite difficult given the Yankee dearth of large contracts and older injury prone pitchers that will be hard to move.
Look for either a major overhaul through trades (highly unlikely) or the same looking Yankee team of the past six seasons (more than likely).
If the later is the case, then expect the same result as the last six years. Joe does not have the motivational skills to get all these all stars on the same page to play team situational baseball. To be fair, I don’t know of any manager who can pull that one off.
----------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- --------------------- This is an article I wrote last week concerning My opinions on retaining Joe Torre
The longer this debacle plays out the more secure Joe Torre’s job will be. If he is not let go now there will be more damage done next season when the Yankees go into their first management and media proclaimed slump and his head is on the block again.
I would hope, and hope is the only rational thought I have, that Joe decides to step down as manager and take on a lesser role with the organization or just hangs them up. Let him leave with dignity and as they say, his terms. He has brought class and dignity to this organization for eleven years. He gets an A+ and a paycheck to prove it.
Joe Torre is a true mentor in his ability to keep a level presence when the boiler room reaches scorching temperatures. His slow methodical demeanor has a calming effect on all who surround him. The problem here is, after so many years, the soldier becomes lulled into a false sense of comfort and the troops are not prepared for battle.
The failures in the past three years have been monumental and embarrassing to the Yankee organization and it’s fan base. A drastic change has to be made and Torre and A-Rod are the projected targets. One or the other or both have got to go.
My real choice is for both to leave, but the lesser of the two problems would be for Joe to stay and A-Rod to go. There is no telling how team chemistry would react to a roster that included a player, in A-Rod, who is so psychologically fragile that causes teammates to make statements like the one Gary Sheffield made, which states, ” Joe Torre’s decision to bat Alex Rodriguez eighth in Game 4 ended up dooming the Yankees. I think that affected the morale and psyche of the entire team, not just A-Rod. I’m not making any excuses, but everyone was wondering what was going on. It made it a real weird day. You would like to be treated with a little respect, I don’t care who you play for.” (this coming from a guy who shows no respect for anyone but himself throughout most of his career). By the way, no matter what, the Sheff has cooked his last meal in New York’s AL kitchen.
By firing Torre an hiring Piniella this means A-Rod stays and the above mentioned team chemistry is going to suffer.
By keeping Torre and trading A-Rod, the team is once again lulled back into a “Daddy will make it better” mentality and here we go again.
Is a crazed Lou Piniella making the back pages of the New York Sports pages on a weekly basis and a coddled Alex Rodriquez whining about being treated unfairly because of his Bi-racial good looks and equally good looking pay stub what Yankee management and fans want to hear and read about? If so, bring on Sweet Lou. Let the Three Ring Circus begin and put that long running Class of New York Broadway hit Joe Torre directed in his eleven years into the record books.
Both acts have played their last matinee in New York. It’s time for a change. Let us hope that it is a classy one.
Joe Torre's handling of his bull pen on occasion defies logic. What happened last night in the Yankees 7-6 loss to the Detroit Tigers was a direct result of a move he made, or did not make, a few nights ago against these same Detroit Tigers.
Most of us subscribe to the theory that :You don't bring in your closer in a tie game on the road. This is pretty straight forward when this scenario develops. Joe Torre likes to challenge this rule of thumb from time to time. He did so a few nights ago against the Tigers in an 11-6 extra inning Yankee win. In the process he created a collective.." What the...." in living rooms, bedrooms and bars from The Bronx to Syracuse and all points west. I should be bald by the number of times I have scratched my head concerning Joe's handling of his bull pen. Well, I am not bald and Joe is, and... the Yankees won the game. So what is the problem?
Here in this 11-6 Yankee win that I refer to a couple of nights ago, Joe decides to bring in his closer Mariano Rivera, into a tie game, in the 9th inning, on the road. My hand is now raised on top of my head, fingers searching for answers. OK, this is what makes Joe, Joe, I tell myself. He has done this before and it has not always been a good move. Warning, warning Will Robinson! Mariano pitches two innings of no run ball only throwing sixteen pitches in the process. Good outing. My hand is now wiping sweat off of my forehead and I let out a sigh of relief. Pun intended. In the top half of the 11th, the score still tied, Torre gets Ron Villone up in the bull pen to get ready. Good sensible move I think as my fingers and hand return to a resting position. The Yankees score five runs... FIVE runs! This process takes a collective fifteen minutes. Granted it is a warm night in Detroit. Mariano is thirty-seven. We recall, old bones like warm weather. Still, any athlete who sits for fifteen minutes will stiffen up. That is a physical reality. I look at Joe in the dugout and he is confiding with pitching coach Ron Guidry. Can he be serious? He is actually thinking about letting Rivera pitch a third inning of relief? The Yankees have a FIVE run lead. Mariano has not pitched three innings of relief in a regular season in ten years. If the bull pen can not hold a five run lead for one inning then the Yankees are in real trouble.
So herein lies the problem. Is it worth the risk of not having your closer available for two more games of an important series by letting him pitch one more inning? Do you risk the odds of having your franchise relief pitcher injure himself in this scenario?
Joe elects to have Rivera close out the game to the astonishment of all who said,"What the...,in all regions of Yankee land. No harm no foul...Yet.
Last night Torre's decision of a few nights ago, came back and bit him on his back side. I can't help but think that Mariano Rivera's back problem was a direct result of his over use in that extra inning game. I'm sure his back had stiffened during the top half of that inning and was weakened because of it. That is my theory. Back problems are tricky. I know, as most know who have chronic back spasms. When the back is weakened any movement (like tying ones shoe laces) can set off a spasm. Mariano had back spasms two hours before last night's game. Rivera was not available to pitch last night and is day to day on his availability in the bull pen.
So when it was time to bring in a closer last night in a game that the Yankees had a one run lead in the bottom of the 9th inning, Joe had no choice but to go with Kyle Farnsworth. Farnsworth has been dreadful. Farnsworth has control issues and is always pitching from behind in the count. The Tigers score two runs and win the game. Of course if Mariano were available the chances are the Yankees win this one and leave town hurt but feeling very good about themselves.
This Yankee team is a shell of it's former self and needs all the help it can muster. The manager does not need to add bad decision making into the equation. That is truly bull.
go into their first management and media proclaimed slump and his head is on the block again. 
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