Neil Keefe

Apr 16, 2010

The 2010 All-Animosity Team

The Yankees’ series win over the Angels felt too easy. It was strangely and almost eerily easy. Sure the Yankees nearly blew both their wins over the Halos with a shaky bullpen and some shakier

The Yankees’ series win over the Angels felt too easy. It was strangely and almost eerily easy. Sure the Yankees nearly blew both their wins over the Halos with a shaky bullpen and some shakier managing, but they came away with the series win despite those things. Even though the Yankees won their third series in as many tries to open the 2010 season, I feel like they could have and should have swept the Angels. And if Javier Vazquez didn’t lay an egg against Joel Pineiro, maybe they would have.

I think the Angels are close to forfeiting their title as an elite team in baseball. Now this isn’t as sure of a thing as it was for me to put the finishing touches on David Ortiz’s career as “Big Papi” last week, but I believe we are watching the Angels’ slow fall from grace. This doesn’t mean that the Angels won’t wind up winning the West – a division in which even the A’s have a chance – it just means they are no longer the threat they used to be.

I used to look at the Yankees schedule and search for series the Yankees could win, series they could split and then series against the Angels. The Angels were their own separate entity on the Yankees’ calendar and they deserved to be. The most wins you could pencil the Yankees in for against the Angels in a three-game set was one, and then hope they get lucky and win a second game.

Mike Scioscia might very well be the best manager in baseball and the Angels might run one of the best fundamentally sound organizations in the game, but they have slowly pulled key pieces of their franchise out like blocks from a Jenga tower, and their carefully constructed foundation looks ready to crumble.

Prior to the Yankees’ ALCS win over the Angels last October, I would have rather had the Yankees play any team other than the Angels. I would have gladly gone through the physical and emotional grind of another Yankees-Red Sox seven-game series if it meant the Yankees wouldn’t have to face the Angels. But after the Yankees beat the Angels in relative ease in October, it became obvious that the team built to expose every flaw of the Yankees over the last decade was no longer capable of doing so.

Howie Kendrick’s three days in the Bronx best summed up the state of the Angels. Kendrick, a career .409 hitter against the Yankees in 31 games, left town after going a miserable 1-for-11 with a walk. Over the last few years, Kendrick had become the biggest Yankee killer since Ortiz, and as a favor to the pure fastball hitter, the Yankees always made sure to give him a steady diet of middle-of-the-plate heaters.

Kendrick wasn’t the only Angel who consistently hurt the Yankees though; it was the entire lineup one through nine, the starting rotation and the bullpen. I grew to despise Chone Figgins, Garret Anderson and Vladimir Guerrero and was pessimistic about the Yankees facing John Lackey and Francisco Rodriguez. But all those players have left, leaving the Angels with a completely different cast of characters to try and keep the Halos as the best in the West.

There is no one on the Angels I fear the way I used to, and because of that, there is no one I have a strong dislike for on the team anymore. With the Angels looking like they will experience a decline in success, my animosity has turned to other players around the league that aren’t just Red Sox. Here is my All-Animosity Team in the majors:

Catcher: This is the only lineup in which Jason Varitek gets to start for, so I’m sure he would be happy to be a part of it. During Varitek’s freefall over the last couple of seasons, the fact that he was more of an automatic out than National League pitchers wasn’t an issue in Boston because Bostonians were made to believe that he could call a great game, and that was enough to offset his atrocious abilities at the plate. Now that he has been relegated to a job formerly held by Doug Mirabelli and Josh Bard, we will no longer have to see Varitek stand up behind the plate for a high fastball, or see his uniform with “C” on it with any frequency.

First base: Kevin Youkilis plays the game hard, and he is the textbook example for a guy you’d love on your team, but hate to see playing against your team. His entire look, demeanor, unorthodox batting stance and approach to the game is worth despising, and that’s before you factor in his .317 career average against the Yankees. Youkilis has taken over as the most feared hitter in the Red Sox lineup, becoming one of the toughest outs in baseball, and therefore my disgust with him has grown ten fold.

Second base: Everything about Dustin Pedroia’s game says that I should like him. His blue-collar style of play, knack for big hits and bigger defensive plays are the qualities anyone would want in a player on their favorite team. But he falls under the same category as Youkilis as a player you hate, but would love if they were on your team. Pedroia is the last person I want to see at the plate for the Red Sox in a big spot, and for that, he gets the nod at second base.

Third base: I could write an entire piece on the daggers Chone Figgins has dealt the Yankees in his career. Figgins had been the most important hitter to get out in the Angels lineup for opposing teams and allowing him to reach base meant stolen bases and runs scored. Without Figgins the Angels are a different team, and with him the Mariners are as well. The Yankees have yet to get a taste of Ichiro and Figgins hitting back-to-back, but I’m sure when they do it will include a lot of pitches, infield singles and stolen bases.

Shortstop: If Jose Reyes didn’t play for the Mets, I probably wouldn’t mind him, but he does, so I do. My dislike for Reyes began when Mets fans began the debate as to whether he was better than Derek Jeter, and they even believed they had sufficient evidence to support their case. But Mets fans will believe anything, including the idea that their one-man rotation can keep them in contention this season.

Left field: I didn’t even want to look up Manny Ramirez’s career numbers against the Yankees for a fear of flashbacks and cold sweats, but I know he is the right person for left field. Manny’s removal from the AL East was as relieving as Dom’s removal from Entourage, and his departure immediately destroyed the middle of the Red Sox lineup. Seeing Manny share a dugout and high fives with Joe Torre has only added to his career of torment for Yankees fans.

Center field: Vernon Wells’ demise since signing that albatross contract should be enough for me to forgive him for his clutch hits and web gems throughout his career against the Yankees. Wells appears to have found the talent that J.P. Ricciardi thought was worth giving $126 million, and the Yankees don’t see the Blue Jays until midsummer, but something tells me that Vernon will solidify his spot in this lineup at some point.

Right field: With 20 home runs and a .311 average against the Yankees, Magglio Ordonez and his floppy flow is an easy pick for right field on the All-Dislike Team. It was Magglio’s home run in Game 4 of the 2006 ALDS that got the ball rolling for the Tigers offense as they put an end to the ’06 Yankees. Now Magglio is hitting behind former Yankees prospect Austin Jackson and former Yankee Johnny Damon and ahead of Miguel Cabrera in the Tigers lineup. There will be plenty of more opportunities for me to increase my animosity for Magglio.

Starting pitcher: The 2003 World Series is plenty for any Yankees fan to forever hold a distaste for Josh Beckett. Then he went to the Red Sox and that just made everything worse. Even though I am not as worried about him on the mound as I am with Jon Lester or John Lackey, since the Yankees seem to hit him around (5.51 ERA in 18 starts), there is just something about Josh Beckett that makes me not a fan. I don’t think it’s the oddly uneven dirt patch on his chin, the 53 necklaces he wears during starts or the fact that he is always getting bailed out from taking a loss, but it’s something. I’m just not sure exactly what it is.

Closer: When The Departed came out, I liked the song “Shipping Up To Boston.” I even had downloaded it on iTunes. I haven’t played it since Jonathan Papelbon began using it as his entrance song, and after “Sweet Caroline,” it is the only other song that makes me cringe now. Papelbon’s stare and infield dance routine are bad enough, but him thinking he is somehow greater than or equal to Mariano Rivera only makes his personality less appealing. Papelbon hasn’t been as lights out as he was when he first took over as closer of the Red Sox and his fastball seems to have lost a step. I can only hope it loses all the steps.

Manager: For Joe Maddon it’s a combination of things. It’s his glasses, his “I’m 56 years old, but I manage a team of 20-somethings, so I’m going to act hip” attitude and his cockiness about the Tampa Bay Rays organization. Maddon is the creepy old guy that is a regular at popular colleges bars, and becomes a school wide icon and a fixture in the background of Facebook photos. It’s time he lost the Drew Carey glasses for some normal old-guy glasses and became more worried about the fact that he has only one lefty in his bullpen and it’s Randy Choate, and less worried about being hip and cool with his player.

Blogs • Rangers

Apr 12, 2010

Rangers’ Postseason Bubble Bursts

Of course it came down to a shootout. And of course it was the play of Henrik Lundqvist that allowed the Rangers to even get that far. But in the end, the same problem the

Of course it came down to a shootout. And of course it was the play of Henrik Lundqvist that allowed the Rangers to even get that far. But in the end, the same problem the Rangers dealt with all season wound up ending their season in Game 82: scoring goals.

Sunday’s loss to the Flyers was a one-game summary of the Rangers’ season. The team’s inability to score goals, hold leads and produce any sort of attack in the offensive zone was masked by the play of Lundqvist. The Rangers had spent the last three weeks trying to make people believe they were a changed team, and a team that was capable of running the table and pulling off a first-round stunner in the playoffs. But when it mattered most, they were the same old Rangers, and if you didn’t see this ending coming, then you haven’t been paying attention.

I went back and read everything I have written about the team over the last couple of months, and if you took the word “Rangers” out of every story, you’d think each story was about a different team. The Rangers spent the last two months toying with the emotions of the tri-state area and they spent the last few weeks causing more side effects than some prescription drugs advertised during 4 a.m. infomercials.

After I proclaimed the Rangers finished on March 22, following their Sunday loss to the Bruins, the Rangers began the final stretch of 10 games in which they had a 6.9 percent chance of making the playoffs. Not even a 7-1-2 finish was enough for a team that started the season 7-1-1 and wrapped it up in nearly the same fashion. In the end, the Rangers were one goal and one point short of making the playoffs, and they built up the final weeks of the season for nothing.

On March 26, the day after the Rangers completed their improbable third-period comeback against the Devils (the game that would have been used as the turning point in the memorable run had they beaten the Flyers), I wrote the following:

“It would have been easier if the Rangers finished the season like the 2008 Yankees. In 2008, the Yankees folded pre-flop, saving themselves and their fans from emotional heartache and disaster. I’d rather the Rangers went away like the 2008 Yankees rather than the 2008 Mets, who lasted all the way until the river before coming up short. But it’s the Rangers we’re talking about, and being led on and strung along is in their DNA. In all likelihood, the season will come down to the final weekend against the Flyers.”

And it did come down the final weekend. It came down to the final game and the final attempt in a shootout loss. But the Rangers didn’t finish the season like 2008 Yankees or Mets. They finished it like the 2007 Phillies. That is, if the Phillies had lost on the final day of the season.

Part of me is glad the Rangers missed the postseason and staved off embarrassment in the first round. This team was not worthy of a second season, and they weren’t even worthy of having the final game of their season matter. In order to even have a win-or-go home scenario on the last day of the year, the Rangers had to win seven of nine, and have the Flyers basically do the opposite. Not exactly the traditional formula for success of playoff-caliber teams.

Sunday was a typical Rangers game. They managed only one goal, on a deflection, and hoped Henrik Lundqvist could stand on his head for 60 minutes. And if John Tortorella didn’t have Artem Anisimov and Brian Boyle (who was playing in his first game since the loss to the Bruins 21 days ago), killing a penalty in the third period of 1-0 must-win game, then I would be writing about the magical March and April of the 2009-10 Rangers rather than the devastating tease they turned out to be. But that special teams decision is on the great John Tortorella.

Many people are upset that the Rangers’ season ended in a shootout. But for anyone that watched Sunday’s game, a shootout was the only chance the Rangers had at leaving Philadelphia with two points. The shot differential (22) was almost greater than the Rangers total shots (25). The Rangers looked miserable on their only two power plays, and they were unable to produce any forecheck during even strength. They didn’t have a legitimate scoring chance in the third period and the only time Marian Gaborik’s name was mentioned by the commentators was when he went offside on a potential odd-man rush. In other words, the shootout was a gift for the Rangers and they couldn’t even take advantage of that.

No one should be mad that the Rangers’ season came to an end in a shootout. If Henrik Lundqvist makes one more stop and Olli Jokinen doesn’t try to slide the puck threw a closed five-hole, then Rangers fans would be praising the shootout. More importantly, if the shootout doesn’t exist, then the Rangers season would have ended anyways. Under the old NHL rules, the game would have ended in a tie with both teams receiving a point, and the Flyers would have still gotten in. So let’s be thankful that the Rangers managed to even get that far.

I always say if Henrik Lundqvist were on the Capitals or Penguins, there would be no point of a postseason because whichever team had Hank would be unstoppable. If Lundqvist weren’t on the Rangers, they would be a last place team and that is not an opinion or assumption. That is a fact. Lundqvist has been the MVP of the team each season post-lockout and with the amount of effort he exerts each game, his career will probably burn out well before it’s supposed to. He hasn’t had the luxury of sitting behind an elite defense like cross-town rival Martin Brodeur, or the luxury of hiding behind an elite offense like Marc-Andre Fleury. Lundqvist was once again the best player on a bad team, a team in which saving 46 of 47 shots isn’t even enough to win.

The Rangers might have technically finished one point out of the playoffs, but they finished well short of the point total needed to be a threat in the postseason. One point would have gotten them an extra four games against the Capitals. Another 10-plus points would have made them an actual a contender. Despite having an elite goalie in Lundqvist and a superstar scorer in Gaborik, two vital tools for true contenders, the drop-off in talent after those two was too drastic for the Blueshirts to overcome.

Barring a miracle greater than what the Rangers were trying to accomplish Sunday, Glen Sather will return to the front office next season. He is probably already at a poolside bar in Hawaii enjoying the offseason and working the phones to see what aging veterans from the 1998-99 All-Star team are available, but in reality he needs to find a way to compliment Lundqvist and Gaborik. It is obvious that not even Lundqvist can survive without support in front of him and the necessary help on defense. As for Gaborik, he finished the season leading the Rangers in goals with 42 and assists with 44. If he had an actual playmaker on his side rather than the 58 points and 38 assists of Vinny Prospal (who shouldn’t be any team’s second-best scorer at this point in his career), it’s hard to fathom what type of numbers Gaborik is capable of putting up.

Rangers fans deserve better than what Sather has to offer. They deserve more than Sather’s big midseason acquisition Olli Jokinen ending the season. They deserve a team they can be proud and a team that can clinch a playoff berth without needing an overtime period and shootout in Game 82 of the season.

All I asked for was the Rangers to make the final weekend against the Flyers to matter, and I got my wish. I should have asked for more.

Blogs • Yankees

Apr 8, 2010

A Yankee Fan at Fenway, Part II

In 2003, Pedro Martinez allowed just two extra-base hits off 0-and-2 counts prior to Game 7 of the ALCS. But when Hideki Matsui doubled off Martinez on 0-and-2 in the famous eighth-inning comeback, he became the second hitter in three at-bats to hit an extra-base hit off Martinez with Derek Jeter having doubled on 0-and-2 pitch to lead off the inning.

I had never seen, in person, the Yankees win consecutive games in the same series at Fenway Park. One win was hard enough to come by, but the second win in a row had been my 0-and-2 against Pedro. That is no longer the case as the Yankees took down the second and third games of the opening series to ride a two-game winning streak into Tampa Bay this weekend. Let’s just hope they can continue their winning ways without me on hand.

Aside from the “Yankees suck” chants and the “You did steroids” chant directed at A-Rod which is ironic coming from a fan base whose team has David Ortiz, Adrian Beltre and Mike Cameron on the roster, it was a rather smooth two nights at Fenway Park. I probably could have done without a soggy Fenway Frank bun that looked like it was dipped in water and prepared for Joey Chestnut or Kobayashi, but you can’t have it all, and I will gladly take the two Yankees wins over a dry hotdog bun.

Judging by the atmosphere at Fenway, the rivalry hasn’t lost a step in Boston and with the Yankees fresh off the 2009 championship, the rivalry has gained steamed as Bostonians returned to second-rate citizens in the AL East. While the rivalry continues to have a strong foundation and key players that help fuel the hatred between Yankees fans and Red Sox fans, one player is being left behind as the battle for AL East supremacy carries on.

In left center at Fenway Park, there is a scoreboard screen that lists the lineup of the team batting and an asterisk denotes the hitter currently at the plate. During Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS, I remember looking at the screen in extra innings and trying to figure out how long the Yankees had until the asterisk made its way back to the heart of the order to Ramirez and Ortiz. And when the duo was due up in the bottom of an inning, I kept thinking to myself, “The Yankees have to score now.” Sure enough, it was Ortiz who had the game-winning hit off Esteban Loaiza in the 14th inning.

I now find myself hoping the asterisk finds Ortiz as quickly as possible because with Jason Varitek on the bench, Ortiz has become the easiest out in the Red Sox lineup.

There was a time when David Ortiz was the symbol of fear for Yankees fans. Extra-base hits were expected from him and when he was held to only a single, you felt like you just passed a cop going 80 mph but didn’t get pulled over. Ortiz wasn’t fazed by anything in the box (mainly because the Yankees never tried to move him off the plate) and he just waited for Yankees pitchers to miss their location by a centimeter before making them pay.

From 2003-July 31, 2008, David Ortiz was a rock star in Boston, and probably could have defeated Ted Kennedy for a seat in the Senate if he wanted to. He received the loudest ovations when he was introduced as the hitter, his jersey was the most popular among Red Sox fans and kids across New England began spitting on their batting gloves in between pitches to mimic the slugger Theo Epstein revived off the Twins’scrap heap. But since Manny Ramirez left Boston, the cheers for “the designated hitter, number 34, David Ortiz” have become almost derisive, Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis have taken over the jersey sales, and I’d imagine little league coaches are strongly advising against Ortiz’s routine and habits at this point.

Since August 1, 2008 (when Ortiz began playing without Manny), Ortiz has hit .261 with 37 home runs and 142 RBIs in 202 games. It has taken him basically a season and a third to produce the same power numbers he did annually from 2004-2007, and those years he hit .301, .300, .287 and .332. He wasn’t hitting .261, which is 20 points below his .281 career average.

On Tuesday night after David Ortiz went hitless again, he wasn’t the happy and smiling face from his days as one of the league’s best sluggers when he flipped out on reporters.

“You guys wait ’til [expletive] happens, then you can talk [expletive]. Two [expletive] games, and already you [expletives] are going crazy.

“What’s up with that, man? [Expletive]. [Expletive] 160 games left. That’s a [expletive]. One of you [expletives] got to go ahead and hit for me.”

As my Red Sox friend Hurley pointed out, everyone always assumed that Ortiz played babysitter to Manny in Boston, but maybe it was the other way around?

I have long waited for the day David Ortiz was no longer able to hit a baseball consistently or with authority, but now that the day has come, it’s actually pretty sad. Don’t get me wrong, the only thing I hate about Fenway Park more than “Sweet Caroline,” which is also the only time I wish my name wasn’t Neil, are the “Papi” chants that pollute the air when David Ortiz steps in with runners in scoring position. But David Ortiz has been the heart of the Red Sox order for so long and is one of the few remaining players on the Red Sox from the heated battles of 2003 and 2004 that it’s almost like a piece of the rivalry dies as his power does too.

Ortiz drove in the only run for the Red Sox on Wednesday, but it was his only hit of the series in 11 at-bats. When the “Papi” chants began in the bottom of the eighth inning on Wednesday in a 1-1 game with Ortiz stepping in to face Chan Ho Park, for a second it felt like three years ago as the Fenway crowd tried to push the calendar back to 2007 hoping for some late-game heroics from Ortiz. But Ortiz’s alter ego “Big Papi” no longer exists, as Chan Ho Park needed just three pitches to strike out plain old David Ortiz and end the inning.

At some point in the very near future (I have the over/under set for May 1), David Ortiz won’t be the full-time DH for the Red Sox. At some point Theo Epstein and Terry Francona are going to have to let Mike Lowell play.

Maybe Mike Lowell hit on Terry Francona’s wife at the Christmas party or ran over Theo Epstein’s dog for them to treat him so poorly, but eventually they are going to have to realize that they are wasting $12 million on the bench while David Ortiz wastes at-bats. I love the mistreatment of Lowell that goes on with the Red Sox because it means less doubles off the Green Monster for the Red Sox and more strikeouts for the Yankees. But you’d have to think eventually enough will be enough.

This is the last year of Ortiz’s contract with the Red Sox with the team holding a $12.5 million option for 2011 that is unlikely to get picked up. As new faces Curtis Granderson, Randy Winn, Adrian Beltre, Mike Cameron, Marco Scutaro and John Lackey enter the rivalry to begin another chapter in Yankees-Red Sox history, the chapter on David Ortiz looks to be coming to an end. And even though he will take a piece of the rivalry with him, it’s safe to say he won’t be missed.

Blogs • KTTC Archive • Yankees

Apr 7, 2010

A Yankee Fan at Fenway

This column was originally posted on April 7, 2010. When I got off the Amtrak regional train at Back Bay station in Boston, the first person to make eye contact with me was a man

This column was originally posted on April 7, 2010.

When I got off the Amtrak regional train at Back Bay station in Boston, the first person to make eye contact with me was a man wearing a Dustin Pedroia shirt, and he obviously noticed my Yankees hat. He mouthed something to me, but with Eddie Vedder hammering out the chorus to “Corduroy” on my iPod headphones I couldn’t hear what he said, though judging by his enthusiasm and facial expression, it wasn’t something the FCC would approve of. But I didn’t care what he said. I was actually happy he was so agitated by me wearing a Yankees hat because it was a sign that baseball is back.

You can wear Yankees apparel 365 days a year in Boston and for 356 of those days, people will either look at you like you are walking down the street naked, or the real rebels will crack a joke or give you the old “Yankees suck.” But for those nine days of the year when the Yankees are in Boston, wearing a Yankees hat in Boston is like eating at Boston’s South Street Diner sober. You just don’t do it.

After Joe Girardi ruined Easter by holding bullpen tryouts on Opening Night rather than spring training, I couldn’t wait to get to Fenway Park. Even with the Yankees well below .500 in games I attend at Fenway, I was eager for my first game of the season.

Seeing the Yankees win in person at Fenway Park isn’t something I have been fortunate to see a lot. The majority of Yankees games I attend at Fenway end catastrophically and I’m pretty sure I have been to every game at Fenway that NESN uses for Red Sox Classics telecasts. Even with the Yankees having a remarkable record in home games I attend (including a perfect regular season and postseason record in 2009), Fenway Park has been to me what lefties have been to Curtis Granderson. I don’t know how many times I have seen the Yankees play at Fenway, but to give you an idea of what I have endured, here are some of the games I have attended:

May 18, 1999 – Joe Torre returns to the Yankees after missing the beginning of the season to battle prostate cancer. David Cone and Pedro Martinez go toe-to-toe, but trailing 3-2 late, Jason Grimsley can’t keep it close as he gives up three runs in the bottom of the eighth.

Oct 18, 2004 – Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS, which also happens to be the third-worst night of my life. The second being Game 6 and the first being Game 7.

April 14, 2005 – Randy Johnson gets lit up for five runs and Tom Gordon turns a 5-5 tie into an 8-5 loss with an embarrassing eighth inning. And to top it all off, Gary Sheffield brawls with some fans in right field.

May 1, 2006 – Johnny Damon returns to Boston as Friendly Fenway’s center field gets littered with money. Tied 3-3 in the eighth, Tanyon Sturtze gives up the go-ahead run. With two men on and David Ortiz due up, Joe Torre calls for the Mike Myers, the lefty specialist and the man the Yankees acquired for the sole purpose of facing Ortiz. Ortiz cranks a three-run home run into the New England night.

April 22, 2007 – After losing the first two games of the series, the Yankees take a 3-0 lead in the rubber match on Sunday Night Baseball. But after holding the Red Sox scoreless for the first two innings, rookie Chase Wright allows Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek to go back-to-back-to-back-to-back on him to take a 4-3 lead. The Yankees would take the lead back in the sixth only to have Scott Proctor give up a three-run home run to Lowell in the seventh.

April 24, 2009 – The Yankees lead 4-2 in the ninth with two outs and Mariano Rivera on the mound and Kevin Youkilis on first base. Jason Bay hits a 1-0 pitch over the wall in center to tie the game. In the 11th, Damaso Marte gives up a home run to Youkilis that landed just yesterday.

April 26, 2009 – Hoping to salvage the final game of the series, Andy Pettitte falls apart in the fifth. Tied 1-1, Pettitte wakes David Ortiz up by allowing Ortiz to double home the go-ahead run. With Jacoby Ellsbury on third and Ortiz on second following the double, Ellsbury steals home on Pettitte and Jorge Posada and steals Pettitte’s pride, dignity and self esteem in the process.

So when Marco Scutaro doubled off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning on Tuesday, it only made sense that I texted Hurley, my Red Sox friend, “Any more hits or base runners and I’m out of here.” But Mariano escaped the double unscathed and the Yankees got into the win column for the first time in 2010. It was a good night at Fenway and the win extended my personal Fenway winning streak to two (a career high).

It only took the Yankees until their second try to defeat the Red Sox this season and there is always sense of relief knowing that the Yankees are going to leave an early season series at Fenway with at least one win. Here are three things that I took away from Tuesday, and the Yankees’ first W of the season:

1. Watching A.J. Burnett pitch is harder to watch than the scene in Casino where Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) and his brother Dominick are beaten within an inch of their lives by baseball bats and then buried alive. Sure it’s only one start, but it’s not like we didn’t also see this last year. Burnett is either going to come within reach of a no-no or have a start that includes that one letdown inning. On Tuesday, he had the latter and the letdown inning was the fifth. It is good to see that he isn’t complaining about Jorge Posada catching him and the two seem to be working out whatever problems they had a year ago.

2. On Sunday we saw Starter Joba disguised as a reliever. On Tuesday we saw Reliever Joba, and it felt good to have him back. Joba stranded the potential tying run at second base in the eighth inning, and did it with his fastball, slider and the attitude that disappeared following his first start in 2008. Just 48 hours after Chan Ho Park had the worst Opening Day debut in Yankees history, Joba fixed the bridge to Mariano by taking care of business and ending his night with a fist pump that probably made Goose Gossage cringe. But as long as 2007 Joba is on the mound, I don’t care if he fist pumps or Riverdances as long as he puts up zeroes.

3. I was waiting for the few notes of “Billie Jean” to come across the Fenway PA system when Robinson Cano hit his solo home run on Tuesday, as he swung, made contact and dropped his bat like it was on fire all in one smooth, flawless motion before gliding out of the box. Cano has looked really comfortable batting in the fifth spot and even though his home run was a solo shot, his approach with runners on also looks to have improved. Cano’s approach in RBI situations used to be to swing at the first pitch no matter where it was, but it looks like he is growing out of his bad habits and undisciplined hitting. I feel more confident with him up in big spots and believe that he will be able to hold on to his spot in the order over the course of the season.

Despite Burnett’s inability to consistently throw strikes and Damaso Marte’s pickoff move, it was an overall solid night from the Yankees. But knowing that Chan Ho Park is currently the difference between having already won the three-game series and needing to win the rubber game on Wednesday to win the series is upsetting. Winning April and May series at Fenway for the Yankees is unheard of, but on Wednesday they have a chance to do just that.

As I left Fenway Park on Tuesday and walked down Yawkey Way across Van Ness Street and over to Boylston Street, a man playing “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” on the flute stopped playing midsong to greet me with a profanity-filled tirade.

Baseball is back.

Blogs • Yankees

Mar 31, 2010

Opening Day Butterflies

The Yankees will no longer be world champions on Sunday night They will be defending world champions. And the only thing harder than winning a championship is winning back-to-back championships.

This column was originally published on WFAN.com on March 31, 2010.

Something about this spring training coming to an end just doesn’t feel right. This spring has that feeling you get when you leave your house and feel like you forgot something, but you convince yourself you didn’t, and then when you are too far away from your house to go back, you remember what you forgot. I have figured out what has been missing from this spring training, and it’s the distress of the last eight springs.

From 2001-2008, no matter what situation the Yankees faced, I believed they would prevail in the end. But that was me being spoiled and stupid as a Yankees fan, trying to hold onto the magic from 1996-2000. Up until Luis Gonzalez fought off a cutter into shallow right field, I honestly thought the Yankees would never lose again. Winning had become routine and losing wasn’t even considered an option anymore. It’s hard for anyone who is not a Yankees fan to understand this, and trying to explain the concept to non-Yankees fans is like Ron Washington trying to explain to the Rangers front office why he failed a drug test. However, it wasn’t until they hit rock bottom in 2004 that I was able to admit that I was unsure of the next time the Yankees would be world champions.

In 2004, I didn’t even care that the Red Sox won Game 4 because I knew the series would end in Game 5. But when I left Fenway devastated after having wasted nearly all my spending money for the semester on a ticket to Game 5 with my friend Jim, thinking we were going to see the Yankees clinch the pennant in Boston, I still believed the Yankees would finish the Red Sox off in Game 6. And if not, they would certainly get the job done in Game 7.

The Yankees failed in every imaginable way from 2001-2008, and with each year removed from 2000, the offseasons lasted longer and the anxiety for another title grew larger. The Yankees slowly evolved into what the Patriots have become in the NFL, and it wasn’t until November that they were able to rid themselves of their fading image.

Every spring for the last eight springs, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out where the holes on the team were and how Brian Cashman could fill them in order to bring the team back to glory. But this season, there are virtually no holes. The No. 4 starter had a 2.87 ERA in the National League in 2009, and the No. 7 hitter hit 30 home runs a year ago. The only thing to complain about right now is why the Yankees are opening and closing the season in Fenway Park. Aside from that, the team has an answer for everything, or at least it appears that way.

There might not be much to worry about with this team, but there is always something to worry about with every team. Any fan who is completely content with their team is lying to you and lying to themselves. To me, there are two crucial components to the success of the 2010 Yankees. While I’m not all that worried about them, there is still a cause for concern since the margin for error in the AL East is zero, and the difference between these two things working out and not working out is the difference between championship No. 28 and a third-place finish.

1. The production from 2, 20 and 42
The same way I don’t want to believe that Eric Taylor of Friday Night Lights isn’t really a high school football coach at East Dillon, I don’t want to believe that Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera will one day be bad at baseball.

Jeter is going to be 36 in June, Jorge will be 39 in August and Mariano turned 40 in November. At some point these three won’t be the same players they are going to be remembered as being. Let’s hope that never happens, but more importantly, let’s hope it doesn’t happen this year.

The Yankees are in a position in which the success of these three will likely dictate the success of the team. Since 1996, the team has made the playoffs in 13 of a possible 14 seasons. The only season they didn’t was the year when Posada appeared in only 51 games. When they are healthy the Yankees win, and it’s as simple as that.

Eventually Father Time is going to catch up with the trio, but their demise has been falsely predicted each season for the last few seasons. This year, many analysts and “experts” are jumping on the bandwagons of the Red Sox and Rays, banking on old age finally catching up with the old guard. But the “experts” have been wrong before and will likely be wrong again.

I don’t think we are at the end of the road with these three, but eventually we will be and no one knows for sure when that will be. Not only does that deeply sadden me, but it also scares me since a decline in production from Jeter, Posada and Rivera will mean the end of an era and a year without postseason baseball.

2. The bridge to Mariano
The first time I saw Joba Chamberlain fail in person was May 6, 2008. Aside from the midges in Cleveland, it was the first time Joba had every failed in the majors. Joba allowed a go-ahead three-run home run to David Dellucci at the Stadium, and then leaned over on the mound in disbelief, appearing as though he was going to throw up on his spikes after what happened. The entire stadium felt the same way. Joba had been untouchable in his career up to that point, and seeing him blow a lead was like seeing Brian Bruney hold a lead.

In 2007, the only run he allowed in the regular season was a solo home run to Mike Lowell. When Ron Guidry went to the mound to check on him following the homer, Joba reversed roles with the pitching coach. Joba patted the Gator on the back and sent him back to the dugout, assuring him that he was fine and that it wouldn’t happen again. That was the personality of Joba Chamberlain before he became a starter and before the Joba Rules were created.

Joba wants to be a starting pitcher, and he has made that very clear. Why wouldn’t he want to? That is where the glory and glamour is, and the big money as well. But will knowing that he lost his starting spot after the team tinkered with his career and arm for a year and a half cause him to be a different reliever than we know him to be? Will he still possess the personality that meant a 1-2-3 inning and an emotional outburst?

When Joba returned to the bullpen during the postseason, the aura from 2007 and the beginning of 2008 was back, and so was his fastball. It was like watching the guy get the girl at the end of a movie. Everything was the way it was supposed to be, and the result was a happy ending in the form of a championship.

The world now knows two Jobas: Reliever Joba and Starter Joba. Joba might be a reliever now, but that doesn’t necessarily make him Reliever Joba. No one knows what to expect from him as he returns to his original role with the team.

This offseason seemed to go by a lot faster than years past, which is partially due to the Yankees playing until Nov. 4 and partially due to not longing for another championship. Eight springs as the hunter and not as the hunted have made me value championships more than I did the last time the Yankees won, when I took the Subway Series win for granted.

Fans of the other 29 teams will credit the 2009 World Series to the Yankees spending $429 million last offseason, but that was just part of the process. The thousands of breaks, the vast amount of luck and the tens of injuries the team dodged made up for more than half of the pieces to the 2009 World Series puzzle.

If CC Sabathia had actually been hurt when he left in the second inning of a game against the Marlins on June 21, the new Yankee Stadium would have opened the same way the old one closed. If Phil Cuzzi doesn’t call Joe Mauer’s ground-rule double foul in Game 2 of the ALDS, and if Mike Scioscia intentionally walks A-Rod in the bottom of the ninth in Game 2 of the ALCS, maybe the Canyon of Heroes goes unused for another fall.

I have tried to cherish the 2009 season as much and as long as possible because after Josh Beckett delivers his first pitch to Derek Jeter on Sunday night, the Yankees will no longer be world champions. They will be defending world champions. And the only thing harder than winning a championship is winning back-to-back championships.

Author: Neil Keefe

The 2010 All-Animosity Team

Rangers’ Postseason Bubble Bursts

A Yankee Fan at Fenway, Part II

A Yankee Fan at Fenway

Opening Day Butterflies