Blogs – Page 240 – Keefe To The City

Feb 11, 2010

Plenty of Relief In Sight

No bullpen is perfect and no bullpen is unbeatable, but for the first time in a while, the Yankees might have one close to those things.

Every season I like to believe the Yankees bullpen is going to be better than it was the season before. For the first time since Mike Stanton and Jeff Nelson were building the bridge to ninth inning, it looks like the bullpen in the Bronx will be the best it’s been in quite some time.

I won’t have to convince myself this spring that the Yankees can catch lightning in a bottle four times in one season with four different relievers. There’s no more Brian Bruney. No more Phil Coke. No more watching late leads disappear into the right field bleachers. No more needing to worry about how the day’s bridge to Mariano will be constructed, or if it will be sturdy enough to reach the ninth inning.

The acquisitions of Curtis Granderson and Javier Vazquez this offseason will overshadow Brian Cashman’s decision to ship away Bruney and Coke, but I think these moves deserve just as much recognition. Cashman was able to take away two of Joe Girardi’s most used relievers, two pitchers who inspired zero confidence among fans, and whose only roles in the major leagues should be serving as mop-up men. Bruney and Coke combined for 116 appearances last season, and not once in any of those 116 pitching changes was there a feeling that the opposition wouldn’t add to their run total.

The obvious problem with the Yankees during the beginning of last season was behind the outfield wall in their bullpen. The absence of A-Rod from the lineup and Mark Teixeira’s early offseason woes didn’t help matters, but the real dilemmas began when Girardi went to the mound to pull his starter. The Yankees were a $200 million team with a $200 bullpen. On Opening Day, the bullpen consisted of Rivera, Bruney, Coke, Damaso Marte, Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras. Outside of Rivera, there wasn’t one pitcher capable of getting important outs on a consistent basis. (Marte only remembered how to pitch in the postseason, and thankfully he did then).

All of the books and DVD specials about the 2009 championship season will focus on a number of elements: the return of A-Rod; Mark Teixeira turning it around offensively; the walk-off wins against the Twins; and Joe Girardi’s Billy Martin impression in Atlanta. All were notable turning points in the quest for No. 27, however, three dates that won’t be recognized when it comes to the club’s remarkable turnaround are May 18, June 8 and June 13.

May 18 was Edwar Ramirez’s final game with the team before being sent down until September call-ups. June 8 was Phil Hughes first appearance out of the bullpen – the most significant decision the team made all season. June 13 was Jose Veras’ last game as a Yankee before being traded to the Cleveland for three pouches of Red Man and two daily passes to the Rock and Hall of Fame.

The destruction and rebuilding of the bullpen midseason was more necessary than any walk-off home run or come-from-behind win. The reconstruction of the bullpen allowed for the late-inning heroics to take place, and turned the Yankees from postseason hopefuls into postseason favorites.

The decision to make Hughes the setup man and the emergence of David Robertson changed the late innings for the Yankees, by shortening games and allowing starters to know their winning decision wouldn’t vanish at the hands of Bruney, Coke, Ramirez or Veras.

This season, the Yankees enter spring training with Rivera, Robertson, Marte and Alfredo Aceves as sure things in the bullpen. Chad Gaudin will likely join them as the long reliever as will someone from the Mark Melancon-Jonathan Albaladejo-Boone Logan group. That leaves one spot for either Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes.

Even when the Yankees have finally decided on a set role for Joba, the debate as to whether he belongs in the rotation or bullpen will never end. The discussion is not going away anytime soon and will likely control the baseball talk once the Yankees make their decision on him for 2010.

I have been an advocate of Joba being a starter since the transition was made in 2008. More importantly, I am an advocate of the Yankees winning games and right now, putting him in the bullpen gives the Yankees the best chance to win.

It would have been satisfying to see Joba mature as a front-end starter and be a staple of the rotation for years to come, but it doesn’t look like he is going to get that chance. In this market on this team, there isn’t time for Joba to gain experience as a starter by failing at first. There just isn’t room in the rotation for a 4 1/3 inning pitcher, especially when that pitcher has had immediate and exceptional success as a reliever.

After Joba’s postseason dominance – aside from one fastball to Pedro Feliz – and the return of his high-90s velocity, it doesn’t seem possible that he will begin 2010 in the rotation, and it doesn’t appear likely that he will ever return there.

There will be enough words written in the city between now and Opening Day about Joba’s role on the team, but common sense has him beginning the year as a reliever. With Joba in the bullpen, Phil Hughes will slide into the No. 5 spot in the rotation, in what is currently the best rotation in baseball. Sorry, Boston.

Someone will take the fall as the mop-up man this season, but at least there won’t be several people deserving of that role. On paper, this bullpen has the potential to be the best in baseball, and the best in the Bronx since the last time Yankees went back-to-back and belly-to-belly in October.

No bullpen is perfect and no bullpen is unbeatable. There is usually a Kyle Farnsworth or a Scott Proctor on every club. There will always be a game where a three-run lead turns into a two-run deficit, but as currently constructed it’s hard to pick out who will be this season’s LaTroy Hawkins. For the first time in a while, there might not be one.

Blogs • NFL

Feb 9, 2010

What Have You Done for Me Lately?

Peyton Manning’s legacy and his ability to perform in pressure situations and in the postseason is once again under scrutiny.

This column was originally published on WFAN.com on Feb. 9, 2010.

Peyton Manning didn’t play poorly in Super Bowl XLIV, he just didn’t play the way he was supposed to – the way we have all come to expect Peyton Manning to play. Now, his legacy is being questioned. Perhaps more importantly, his ability to perform in pressure situations and in the postseason is once again under scrutiny.

Throughout the 2009 season, right up until his interview with Dan Marino finished airing in the pregame show, it seemed a foregone conclusion that Peyton Manning would earn his second ring in four years. Peyton Manning: Two-time Super Bowl champion and arguably the greatest quarterback of all time. That is how it was supposed to play out.

But a funny thing happened on the way to Peyton joining Joe and Johnny in the VIP room at the Hall of Fame. Sure, Peyton’s interception was untimely – and the final dagger in the Colts’ season – but it wasn’t that play or any one single play that lost the game for the Colts. A combination of safe play-calling by Jim Caldwell at the end of the first half, a devastating Pierre Garcon drop, Hank Baskett’s presence, and an unexplainable field-goal attempt ultimately lost the game for the Colts. Like any superstar, Peyton Manning takes the credit for a win and the blame for a loss, and Sunday’s loss to the Saints has fallen on the league MVP’s shoulders.

Since the clock ran out on the Colts, the hype around Peyton Manning has died down to the point that he is no longer the immortal, untouchable quarterback that sat down with Marino before the game. Peyton has returned to being the foot-tapping and unpredictable quarterback who was the whipping boy for the Patriots defense during their dynastic run. When you’re expected to win and you don’t, that will happen.

The debate following Super Bowl XLIV should have been about where exactly Peyton sits alongside Montana and Unitas. Instead the debate has been about how badly the loss impacts Peyton’s legacy, and whether or not the Colts will return to football supremacy in the near future.

The AFC Championship comeback against the Patriots in 2006 started a run for Peyton that helped erase his miserable big-game past. He discovered how to win in the postseason and earned the elusive ring some feared he never would. From his Super Bowl win up until the final knee taken by Drew Brees, the only type of attention Peyton had received was praise. He had erased any doubt that he was the best quarterback on the planet and left nothing about his game to be criticized.

One game greatly set back his legacy.

Peyton’s freefall from grace happened in a few hours with his image quickly reverting to what it was before he became a champion. With spring training around the corner, it’s hard not to think about a hometown athlete who undergoes the same superstar treatment.

In New York, Alex Rodriguez is held to the same standard as Peyton Manning. After last season’s success, A-Rod has the ability to build off his new winning image, or he could wind up in the same situation Peyton finds himself.

Like Peyton, A-Rod’s postseason past has been marred by first-round exits and one monster collapse. The Yankees’ postseason problems in A-Rod’s first five seasons with the team were far deeper than their third baseman being unable to hit his weight, but it was easy to pin the upsets on the superstar, and A-Rod took the blame.

It wasn’t A-Rod’s fault that the Yankees’ 1-2 punch in the 2004 ALCS was Mike Mussina and Jon Lieber, or that their best options after those two were an injured Javier Vazquez or head case in Kevin Brown. It wasn’t his fault that Randy Johnson failed to win pivotal Game 3s in 2005 and 2006, and it was Chien-Ming Wang, not A-Rod, who posted a 19.06 ERA against the Indians in 2007. But the Yankees’ pitching problems became A-Rod’s fault, and he took the heat for those losses.

Peyton Manning and Alex Rodriguez share eerily similar career resumes. Both players have experienced extraordinary regular season success (four MVPs for Peyton; three for A-Rod). They have had numerous postseason letdowns, and both spent the better part of their careers chasing their first championship. The only difference is Peyton came up short his second time on the big stage. A-Rod has yet to get his second chance.

A-Rod is coming off of a regular season in which he hit 30 home runs and drove in 100 runs despite missing a month due to hip surgery. He spent October and November making a mockery out of some of the game’s best arms, hitting six home runs with 18 RBIs in 15 games. He got the ring he came to New York for, shed his title of being unclutch and helped the Yankees return to the Canyon of Heroes. There is nothing left about his game to be criticized.

No one can ever take away the prefix “world champion” from Alex Rodriguez’s name, but that doesn’t mean people won’t forget about it.

It won’t take much for A-Rod to become A-Fraud again. A poor series to open the season at Fenway, or a four-game hitless streak at home would do the trick. If the over/under for when Yankee Stadium will turn on their 2009 hero for the first time in 2010 is set at the third home game of the season, would you feel comfortable taking the over? Probably not, considering the Angels are in town.

Prior to the Yankees’ 27th championship, it was unacceptable for A-Rod to make an out. It’s scary to try to fathom what the expectations will be now.

Over the last few seasons, Peyton has raised his personal bar for success to the point that only a championship would mean he and the Colts had a successful season. A-Rod had already been playing for a team with the bar set that high, and now with his remarkable postseason, the bar remains at the same place, just with added pressure.

“What have you done for me lately?” remains a common theme in professional sports, and in New York City, it’s a way of life. Peyton’s super loss was a reminder of how quickly someone can fall from greatness, and how short people’s memories are when it comes to winning. Around here memories are a lot shorter, but after six years, A-Rod is aware of that.

Blogs • NFL

Feb 5, 2010

Can They Be Giant Killers Again?

There’s more than just a second Super Bowl in four years on the line for the Colts on Sunday.

This column was originally posted on WFAN.com on Feb. 5, 2010.

With the Giants’ last game being 33 days ago against the Vikings, and their last meaningful game being 46 days ago against the Redskins, every Giant not named Eli Manning will spend Super Bowl Sunday the same way as me: watching it on CBS.

Without a horse in the race, the decision is whether to back the Colts or Saints on Sunday. Considering the Saints’ role in the demise of the 2009 Giants, the decision is a rather easy one.

When the Giants were 5-0, winning games by an average of 16 points and suggesting that the Raiders leave the AFC West for the Pac-10, they were the class of the NFL. The G-Men were being recognized the same way they had been in 2008, before Plaxico Burress’ fateful night on the town. Flying high behind one of the game’s most potent offenses and arguably the league’s best defense, the Giants had become the favorite to represent the NFC on Super Sunday nearly a third of the way through the season. A trip to the Superdome changed that.

The undefeated, but also truly untested Giants arrived in New Orleans as three-point underdogs in Week 6. They left The Big Easy with their self-esteem destroyed, their first loss on the season and their status as an elite team in jeopardy.

Before the Bayou Blowout, the Saints were trying to finish the feel-good story they began writing during the 2006 season when their magic ran out in the NFC Championship. Even after a 4-0 start to begin the season, no one was giving the Saints the credit they deserved, but a bye week and chance to prepare for the Giants changed that.

It’s likely that the injuries and incompetent backups would have caught up with the G-Men eventually, but the Saints were the first team to realize the Giants defense was overrated. The Saints exposed the holes in the Giants defense, and their season began to quickly take on water. Had the Giants and Saints met later in the season, the Giants would have been three-point underdogs … in the first quarter.

Following the 21-point loss to the Saints, the Giants didn’t win again for five weeks and had a six-week period between wins. While losing streaks of that caliber might be acceptable in Cleveland, St. Louis and Oakland, they aren’t in the Tri-state area.

The blowout had a lasting effect on the Giants, as late-game meltdowns became a Sunday ritual. A franchise built around and remembered for its strong defensive units, the Giants allowed 24 points or more in eight of their remaining 10 games. They limped to the finish line with two of the worst losses in franchise history coming in Weeks 16 and 17.

Following the loss to the Saints, Tom Sheridan became a deer in headlights when the competition was no longer the Chiefs or Raiders. His job security became a weekly discussion, and his time with the Giants led to Osi Umenyiora – the supposed face of the Giants’ defensive future – contemplating retirement rather than ever being part of a debacle like the 2009 season again.

Super Bowl XLIV is just two days away and the Giants are already over a month into their offseason. The future of the defense is now in the hands of Perry Fewell, and seemingly for the first time since their win over the Patriots, Tom Coughlin haters have remembered the call-in line to The Fan. The Giants have had to watch the division rival Cowboys put their postseason problems to rest and the Jets emerge as the city’s top team for the time being. It can all be traced back to the bayou, back in Week 6.

The Saints are 60 minutes of football away from something much bigger than Mardi Gras. They are one win away from giving their feel-good story a fairytale ending and from pulling off the second Super Bowl upset in three years. They have made it hard not to join the Who Dat Nation for one day.

But should the lasting image of the 2009 NFL season be the visor-wearing Sean Payton embracing Jeremy Shockey? Is seeing New Orleans win its first Super Bowl enough to want Jeremy Shockey to win a Super Bowl? Is the Saints getting their Walt Disney-like win worth knowing that Jerry Reese’s trade of the disgruntled and disrespectful tight end worked out in New Orleans’ favor? No, no and no.

This Sunday should be about Peyton Manning joining an elite group of quarterbacks and adding to his case as the best to ever play the game. It should be about Bill Polian justifying the benching of his starters so we don’t have to hear about how it backfired all offseason. It should be about the Colts taking over for the Patriots as the team and face of the NFL.

Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?

The Colts.

Blogs • Rangers

Feb 3, 2010

Blueshirts Without a Blueprint

If Glen Sather does have a plan for the Rangers’ future, I’m not sure what it is.

This column was originally published on WFAN.com on Feb. 3, 2010.

The Flames made their recent transactions with a plan. In an attempt to clear cap space, add offense and put an end to some locker room rifts, the Flames moved Dion Phaneuf to the Maple Leafs and Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust to the Rangers.

Struggling to stay in the Western Conference playoff picture and maintain positive team chemistry, the Flames dealt away a pair of big-name players as part of a plan to fix their franchise. The decision to deal Phaneuf and Jokinen has created skeptics, though it’s hard to argue against any move that shakes up a team with two wins in their last 15 games.

The questions in the hockey world have recently revolved around Calgary’s motives behind its very premature deadline deals, but a more important question remains unanswered after the league’s latest trade: What exactly is the Rangers’ plan?

Glen Sather has received some praise for a deal that, on paper, has the potential to increase the Rangers’ non-existent offense. Sather was able to rid himself of Chris Higgins, an underachiever scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent, and Ales Kotalik, the posterboy for the healthy scratch, and in return acquire the former 30-plus goal scorer Jokinen and momentum-changer Prust. In reality, the move was damage control for Sather’s offseason decisions to acquire Higgins and Kotalik through a trade and free agency respectively.

Sure, Jokinen might still have his goal-scoring gift hidden somewhere, and he is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, but what is the goal here? If Sather’s goal is to pick up expiring contracts, clear cap space and be the NHL’s version of Donnie Walsh, then OK. Someone just needs to remind him that LeBron James can only save one Madison Square Garden franchise next summer.

If Sather is making room for next season, who exactly is he making room for? Any player worth clearing space for has already had his contract extended past this season. The only exception is Ilya Kovalchuk, but the Rangers aren’t the only team rumored to be interested in his services.

If Sather isn’t playing for next season and truly believes that Jokinen could be a difference maker, then Rangers fans might as well stop checking the standings and tracking the playoff picture now.

Since the lockout – when the Rangers rejoined the postseason for the first time since 1996-97 – Sather has made one major move that made sense, which was the signing of Marian Gaborik. Even then, Gaborik’s injury history was a cause for concern. Too many times Sather has rolled the dice trying to rejuvenate the careers of former stars on the decline, and time and time again he has crapped out. If history is any indication, Jokinen will be the latest to join the list of Sather’s failed reclamation projects.

Over the last four seasons, the Rangers have finished sixth, sixth, fifth and eighth in the Eastern Conference. They have been knocked out of the playoffs twice in the first round and twice in the second round. The team has shown no sign of improvement since 2005-06, and if the season ended today, the Rangers would have tee times for tomorrow.

As currently constructed, the Rangers are not a championship-caliber team. They aren’t even a playoff team. Sather has essentially assembled a two-man roster consisting of only Marian Gaborik and whoever is in goal on a given night, with the other 18 lineup spots being virtually unnecessary. The Rangers’ formula for success this season has been simple: When Gaborik scores more points than the Rangers allow goals, the Rangers win; when Gaborik scores fewer points than the Rangers allow goals, the Rangers lose.

On Tuesday night against the Kings, Gaborik had one point but the Rangers allowed two goals and they lost. On Sunday against the Avalanche, he had three points, the team allowed one goal and they won. On Saturday against the Coyotes, he had one point, the team allowed three goals and they lost. The four games before that? Gaborik had zero points combined and the Rangers went 0-4. This isn’t a trend that started after the New Year, this has been an ongoing problem since Game One.

Certainly, a team’s success is ultimately determined by the performance of its top players. In the Rangers’ case, the offense seems entirely driven by one player. When Gaborik gets on the scoresheet, the Rangers win. When he doesn’t, they lose. This is a problem.

Sather doesn’t seem like he is planning for the future, and he certainly didn’t plan for this season. His teams have performed the same since the lockout despite different casts. The status quo apparently represents success for a franchise that hasn’t won a Cup in 16 years.

Maybe the Rangers will find their way into the playoffs as a No. 6, 7 or 8 seed, finishing the season just good enough that their real problems won’t be addressed. They will be forced to face the Capitals, Penguins, Devils or Sabres and they will last one round, two if they are lucky, suffering the same fate they have the last four years.

There is a chance that Sather does, in fact, have a grand plan; that he has carefully crafted a way to acquire Kovalchuk at the deadline and quickly change the fate of the Rangers. Or that he has another blockbuster deal mapped out that will turn the Rangers from pretenders to contenders overnight.

There is also a chance that John Wall returns to Kentucky for his sophomore season, Paul O’Neill starts in right field for the Yankees on Opening Day and I hit a 12-team parlay.

On Tuesday night the Rangers lost to the Kings because Gaborik scored fewer points than the Rangers allowed goals. At the end of the game the camera zoomed in on a dejected-looking Jokinen following a minus-1 debut with the Rangers. He might as well have been Eric Lindros, Bobby Holik, Darius Kasparitus or Wade Redden.

Blogs • Yankees

Feb 1, 2010

I’m Going to Miss Johnny Damon

I can’t believe I’m going to miss Johnny Damon.

This column was originally published on WFAN.com on Feb. 1, 2010.

There was a time when the thought of ever being a fan of Johnny Damon’s was laughable. Of course that was when he was patrolling center field for the Red Sox. But after watching Johnny Damon for four seasons in the Bronx, it’s going to be tough to see him go.

Damon – with some help from postseason hero Kevin Brown – played the lead role in the most devastating defeat I will ever endure in my lifetime as a sports fan. When the self-proclaimed “idiot” turned around a first-pitch fastball from Javier Vazquez in Game 7, he ended the deciding game of the ALCS in the second inning. By doing so, he silenced the “1918” chants forever, and kicked off the beginning of my college career in Boston in the worst possible way.

In October 2004, there were few, if any, athletes I despised more than Johnny Damon. I didn’t think I could ever forgive Damon for his Game 7 granny and the deep depression that his one-handed swing drove me into. That all changed prior to the 2006 season when Brian Cashman realized he couldn’t possibly justify having the highest payroll in the league with Bubba Crosby as his Opening Day center fielder. I had spent the last four years using every ounce of my body to dislike Johnny Damon and now I was being asked to do a complete 180 on my feelings toward him.

The thought of Derek Jeter laughing uncontrollably at Damon recapping his Saturday night in Manhattan, or Damon watching Everybody Loves Raymond re-runs with Mariano Rivera in the clubhouse or creating a special handshake with Jorge Posada was too much to bear. I pictured his Eephus-like relays dying in the outfield. It made me want to puke.

Eventually I came to accept the fact that Damon was going to be a Yankee whether I liked it or not. Once I was able to put aside my emotions from Oct. 20, 2004 and think rationally, there were two immediate positives to Damon becoming a Yankee:

1. The Yankees would finally have a real incumbent in center field to Bernie Williams. Cashman had been trying for the previous two seasons to replace Williams in center. His Kenny Lofton experiment in 2004 worked out as well as Jay Leno at 10:00. In 2005, he brought Tony Womack in to play second base, but Robinson Cano’s emergence relegated Womack to the outfield where he was ineffective. That same season Cashman called a 20-year-old Melky Cabrera from Triple-A too early and his short stint ended with an inside-the-park home run in Fenway at the rookie’s expense. Cashman’s lack of roster depth kept Bubba Crosby on the team long enough that his collision with Gary Sheffield in Game 5 of the ALDS cost the Yankees the series. With the signing of Damon, Cashman was bringing in a proven center fielder who could still play the position (or so we thought), and was still capable of producing offensively.

2. There is really nothing that can erase Oct. 17-20 of 2004, the four darkest days in the history of the Yankees. But if anything could put even the slightest blemish on a week that made me light-headed to look up on Baseball Reference, prying Damon away from the Red Sox could. David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Curt Schilling will always be the most recognized players when it comes to the run that reversed the 86-year curse in Boston, but it was Damon who was the center of attention of the 2004 Red Sox. Damon was the founding father and ring leader of the “Idiot” culture the 2004 Red Sox lived by, and along with Kevin Millar, the duo turned the Red Sox clubhouse into Delta Tau Chi. It was Damon’s appeal that helped turn Red Sox home games into social events, attracting pink hats and a crowd whose primary concern seems to be what inning beers sales end. Johnny Damon had become the face of the Red Sox, personifying the change the franchise had undergone by erasing the losing mentality from the team and the city. By stealing Damon away from the atmosphere and environment he helped create in Boston, the Yankees did more than just acquire their rival’s leadoff hitter and center fielder. They acquired the heart and soul of their rival, and at the time it was the only possible remedy – outside of winning another championship – that made 2004 hurt a little less.

Damon’s career in New York went according to plan. He used the short porch in both stadiums to his advantage, served as a run producer at the top of the lineup and was eventually forced out of center field after years of crashing into walls began to take a toll on his body. The Yankees got exactly what they paid for with Damon, as he was as good, if not better than he was in Boston. There were few surprises when it came to his performance.

After four entertaining seasons, a brilliant base-running decision that will make for a nice “Classic Moment” commercial on YES and a world championship, it doesn’t look like Damon will be returning to the Yankees. However, it seemed unlikely that Damon would be a Yankee when he was sporting a Christ-like beard, so never say never.

Damon is still playing the same free-agent poker game he chose to play with the Red Sox during the holiday season in 2005. Except this time no one is calling his or Scott Boras’ bluff. Some Yankees fans are offended that Damon has decided to hold out for every last penny this offseason, but if you have followed Damon’s previous contract negotiations, his decisions this winter should come as no surprise.

If being a fan favorite in Boston and part of a championship-caliber team couldn’t keep him with the Red Sox at their price, why would Damon sing a different tune under the same circumstances with the Yankees?

Damon has always cared about winning; he has just cared about money more. To his credit, he has never tried to hide the fact that he will go wherever the most money is, even if that means taking offers from non-contenders in baseball Siberia. Damon remains a true reminder that Major League Baseball is a business, and that hometown discounts and loyalty are no longer a part of the game. Then again, it’s hard to blame a player trying to get every last penny he can on what is likely the last multiyear contract of his career.

Cashman and Joe Girardi have preached about getting younger across the board for the last two years, and it just so happens that Damon is being used as the example for their newly instituted philosophy. Locking up a 36-year-old defensive liability with a well below average arm doesn’t really fit their long-term plan. The Yankees never met Damon’s minimum of two years, $22 million to stay in New York, and now it’s Feb. 1 and he is still a free agent.

It took the Yankees eight years of coming up short to spend $423 million on the top three free agents in one offseason. It took the first championship in nine years for the Yankees to decide they needed to work under a budget.

Damon will end up in Oakland or Tampa Bay or San Francisco – somewhere that isn’t the Bronx or Boston. No matter where he goes, it won’t compare to the two cities he has spent the last eight years in.

It will be odd to see Damon return to Yankee Stadium in another uniform, though I won’t miss his unorthodox routes to fly balls or throws that roll to the feet of the cut-off man. But I will miss the clutch at-bats and his patented “point” during roll call.

I thought I’d never say this, but I’m going to miss Johnny Damon.