Keefe To The City

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.