Curtis Granderson – Keefe To The City

Tag: Curtis Granderson

Apr 20, 2015

The Shane Greene Trade Has Been an Atrocity

The Yankees picked up a much-needed sweep of the Rays over the weekend to get back to .500 and showed some consistency for the first time this season. Thanks to A-Rod’s impressive start to the

The Yankees picked up a much-needed sweep of the Rays over the weekend to get back to .500 and showed some consistency for the first time this season. Thanks to A-Rod’s impressive start to the season and the zeroes put up by the back end of the bullpen, the Yankees are 6-6, but have played bad enough to be much worse. Things aren’t going to get any easier on this 10-game road trip with the next stop being Detroit where the Tigers have gotten off to the best start in the league.

With the Yankees and Tigers meeting for the first time this season, I did an email exchange with Rob Rogacki of Bless You Boys to talk about David Price’s impending free agency and future, the three-team trade with the Yankees that brought Shane Greene to Detroit and the end of the Austin Jackson era with last season’s trade to the Mariners.

Keefe: David Price has allowed one earned run in 22 1/3 innings over three starts. Incredibly, he has only won one of those three starts because of a lack of run support, but at age 29 (he’ll be 30 in August), Price is off to his best start in any season. Coincidentally, he is a free agent at the end of the season.

I have long wanted Price on the Yankees and it seems like he is following the CC Sabathia 2008 blueprint of having a career year in a contract year and with the money Max Scherzer (who is one year older than Price) got from the Nationals (seven years, $210 million) this offseason, Price is easily going to match that number and likely exceed it. Hopefully, it’s the Yankees giving him that offer.

What do you think happens with Price after 2015? What offer do you want the Tigers to make him?

Rogacki: There were whispers about the Tigers and Price negotiating a long-term extension during spring training, but those voices have all but died, and the two sides are reportedly nowhere close to an agreement. The Tigers haven’t issued a press release like they did with Max Scherzer last season, which leads me to believe that there is hope that he could end up back in Detroit in 2016. Price seems to be much more comfortable with the Tigers this year, and has made fast friends with rotation stalwart Justin Verlander. If Price does not re-sign with the Tigers, it will probably be because of money, not a desire to leave the organization.

I cringe at the thought of giving a 30-year-old starter the kind of contract that Scherzer got, but I think that this is the bare minimum it will take to retain Price. The lefthander checks off all the boxes you want in an ace, and his game should age as well as one could expect out of a pitcher in today’s era. I think a lot of Tigers fans were more amicable to the idea of extending Price over Scherzer, and I have a hard time imagining that the Tigers won’t put together a serious offer this offseason.

Keefe: Miguel Cabrera is off to another MVP-candidate start to the season, which is to be expected from the best hitter in the world. It’s been just over a year since he signed the 10-year, $292 million deal with the Tigers and while it seemed like too long and too much money for a player at his age with his build with his future projection, I loved the deal.

Sure, people are going to complain about it because people complain about every deal in every sport, so it didn’t surprise me that people had an issue with overpaying the back-to-back AL MVP for his 30s. Like I always say with the Yankees, “It’s not my money,” and it can keep a player like Cabrera on your roster for the rest of his prime, then worry about his later years when they come.

What were your thoughts on the Cabrera deal?

Rogacki: While the Tigers have one of the higher payrolls in the game, their budget is still a step or two below the eye-popping numbers that the Yankees and Dodgers are paying out, and $30 million per year for an aging hitter — even one as good as Cabrera — is going to put a strain on their budget going forward. They would have more roster and financial flexibility without Cabrera, especially in the later parts of the decade.

That said, I love that the Tigers went out of their way to retain Cabrera, who is well on his way to Cooperstown (and the requisite statue at Comerica Park that comes along with it). Cabrera is one of the best hitters in MLB history and a joy to watch everyday, and his playful personality makes him all the more entertaining for Tigers fans and opponents alike. Hall of Fame players generally stay very productive well into their 30s, and Cabrera has definitely fit into that mold so far throughout his career.

Keefe: I miss Shane Greene. A 2009 15th-round draft pick, he finally reached the majors last year and struck out 81 in 78 2/3 innings. He looked like he might be a future staple of the rotation and maybe one of the first reliable homegrown starters the Yankees have produced with Brian Cashman as general manager. Instead, he was traded to the Tigers in a three-team deal with the Diamondbacks that brought back Didi Gregorius in return.

Gregorius has been awful through his first 12 games as a Yankee. He is hitting .189/.225/.189 without an extra-base hit, several baserunning blunders and for all we heard about his exceptional Gold Glove-caliber fielding, he hasn’t made a play yet that 40-year-old Derek Jeter couldn’t make.

Is there any chance we can redo that trade? What are your thoughts about Greene and his 3-0 start?

Rogacki: I have been a fan of the trade that brought Greene to Detroit from the start. I was very impressed with his two performances against the Tigers last season, and after going back to watch a few more of his outings during the offseason, my optimism had not waned one bit. Greene pounded the lower half of the strike zone and showed flashes of a developing changeup, one that has served him very well throughout his first three starts in 2015. Greene has an underrated cutter and changeup, and has also started elevating his four-seam fastball in two-strike counts.

This trade isn’t going to look this lopsided for long. Greene is due to regress from his microscopic ERA, and Gregorius’ batted ball profile indicates that he has been somewhat unlucky early on in 2015. His above average defense will start to shine through at some point. I think the Tigers are clear winners in this trade simply because they gave up the least to get what looks to be a mid-rotation starter in Greene, but I think the move was a necessary one for the Yankees (though not the splashy one their fanbase would have liked).

Keefe: Last year at the trade deadline, the Tigers traded Austin Jackson to the Mariners in the three-team deal that landed them David Price. Jackson, another former Yankee who was traded to the Tigers for Curtis Granderson before the 2010 season, never really lived up to the expectations that were placed on him, struck out a lot and struggled to get on base the last few years.

I remember being upset that he wouldn’t reach the majors with the Yankees after he was traded and wondered why they would want to give away a 21-year-old future center fielder for an aging one. But looking back on it, I would have to say both teams came out even on that aspect of the trade and we were able to get rid of Phil Coke and you were able to get Max Scherzer, so it was a win-win all around.

What were your thoughts when the Tigers traded Jackson to the Mariners?

Rogacki: While Jackson struggled for long stretches with the Tigers, his first few seasons made Tigers fans all but forget about Granderson. Jackson was an elite defender in center field during his first four years in Detroit, ranking among the very best centerfielders in baseball in nearly every advanced defensive metric in the book. His penchant for striking out was frustrating at times, but he was an above average leadoff hitter whose value far outweighed his cost to the organization. Jackson was a fan favorite, and the standing ovation he got when he was removed from a game after being traded was one of the most surreal baseball moments I have ever seen.

Personally, I was ecstatic for the deal. It’s not every day that you land an elite talent like Price, and while the cost was steep (Jackson and cost-controlled Drew Smyly were both shipped out), the chance to see Price pitch in the Olde English D was exciting. I have continued to follow both former Tigers with their new teams, and am surprised at how much Jackson has struggled with the Mariners. I think the trade will be unfairly judged on whether the Tigers win a World Series this year, but I think the move was the right one to make for this team.

Keefe: The Tigers are off to a hot 10-2 start in a year in which I thought they would have a down year. They lost Max Scherzer to free agency, Justin Verlander has yet to pitch and I didn’t think their offense was as deep as it had been in years past. But the Tigers have kept on rolling despite the roster turnover and despite the question marks in the bullpen. It seems as though Dave Dombrowski has done it again in what was supposed a deep and hard-to-win AL Central.

What were your expectations for the team entering the season and have they changed after this 10-2 start?

Rogacki: Expectations for this team have definitely skyrocketed after such a strong start to the season. The last two times the Tigers started a season off this fast, they won the World Series, a fact that is not lost on Tigers fans. The starting pitching has been the biggest surprise, both for positive and negative reasons. I already touched on Greene’s hot start, but Alfredo Simon is coming off the best start of his career (and will start tonight’s opening game). Anibal Sanchez, on the other hand, has already allowed more home runs this season than he did in all of 2014. The Tigers definitely need an effective Verlander if they are going to reach the playoffs, but they have been able to withstand his absence so far.

There have been some surprising contributions from the offense as well, but overall I thought that this unit had the potential to be one of the very best in baseball. Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez might be the best one-two punch in baseball, and J.D. Martinez was coming off a red-hot spring training. Yoenis Cespedes was hitting like his usual self prior to last season’s trade to Boston, and I was very bullish on Nick Castellanos taking a step forward in season two. All of those things have happened so far, and more. Jose Iglesias is translating one of the best contact rates in baseball into a not-gonna-stay-that-way .436 batting average, and Anthony Gose and Rajai Davis have become an effective platoon at the top of the order. This lineup is deeper than many people expected, and will make life difficult for many a pitcher in 2015.

Blogs • Email Exchanges • Yankees

May 14, 2014

The Subway Series Makes Its Stop at Citi Field

The Yankees were swept at home in the first half of the Subway Series and now head to Queens searching for answers against the Mets.

So far the Subway Series hasn’t gone as I had hoped. The Yankees scored 14 runs in the Yankee Stadium portion of the series, but gave up 21 as the bullpen couldn’t keep it close on Monday and then Vidal Nuno and the bullpen ruined everything on Tuesday. The Yankees have now lost six straight to the Mets and the last time the Yankees beat the Mets was June 24, 2012. Boone Logan won that game for the Yankees and Rafael Soriano saved it.

With the Yankees and Mets continuing the Subway Series at Citi Field, Matt Callan of Amazin’ Avenue joined me to talk about the growing positivity for Mets fans, how Curtis Granderson is fitting in on the other side of town and what Matt Harvey means to the Mets both on and off the field.

Keefe: The Yankees came into the Subway Series on a two-game losing streak thanks to some bad starting pitching in Milwaukee. With the Mets losing eight of nine entering the series, I thought this four-game set came at the right time and would put the Yankees back on track. So much for that.

After the Yankee Stadium portion of the Subway Series, the Yankees have now lost four straight and are back to .500 for the first time since April 12 when they were 6-6. Fortunately for them, no one in the AL East really wants to run away with the division and the Yankees are just 1.5 games back of the Orioles for first.

There is usually a negative attitude and aura around the Mets from their fans and over the last six or so years I guess there has been a reason. But this year, even with Matt Harvey out after undergoing Tommy John surgery, there seems to be a rare sense of positivity around the Mets, even for their most pessimistic fans. Do you feel like that’s true?

Callan: I think beating the Yankees helps for positivity. As much as you want to pretend that that’s not a big deal, it’s always kind of a big deal. I think there is a certain amount of positivity right now due to that, and due to the call-ups of some hyped young arms like Rafael Montero and Jake de Grom.

However, I also think that the mood around any team (not just the Mets) shifts so quickly now, in the age of Twitter, etc., when a team’s outlook is judged almost on an at-bat-to-at-bat basis. If you asked a Mets fans how they felt about the team on Sunday afternoon, when they were in danger of being swept for the second straight series and losing nine of their last 10 games, they probably would’ve said “lousy.” And if the Mets drop the next two to the Yankees at home, they’ll very quickly forget the two wins in the Bronx. That’s not a Mets fan thing so much as a fan thing.

More than anything, I think Mets fans have accepted that the team is still not ready contend, and so any sign of life is greeted as a treat rather than taken as an entitlement. Not sure that translates into positivity, but it’ll do.

Keefe: Curtis Granderson was a good Yankee. He was brought in to be a quick-fix for the Yankees’ outfield depth and that resulted in trading Austin Jackson. He hit 84 home runs between 2011 and 2012 and averaged 29 per 162 games during his four years in the Bronx. Had the Yankees successfully traded for Cliff Lee in July 2010, Granderson would have gotten the ring he is still looking for and had he helped out offensively in the playoffs in 2011 or 2012, maybe he could have gotten another one.

Granderson was brought to the Mets to give the team power and some middle-of-the-order presence as well as experience and leadership. However, he was made for new Yankee Stadium, as we just saw once again on both Monday and Tuesday. But Citi Field isn’t the Stadium and Granderson has just one home run in 71 at-bats there this year. He has been struggling to provide consistent offense through the first month and a half of the season, but what are your early feelings on Granderson as a Met?

Callan: I’ve always liked Granderson for simple “seems like a nice guy” reasons. I personally didn’t have enormous expectations from him for many of the same reasons you mention. He is what he is at this point in his career: an aging outfielder who strikes out a lot but can still hit home runs under favorable circumstances.

There are fans who expected more of him, of course, and he’s gotten some rough treatment already from fans who’ve dubbed him Jason Bay 2.0. The big difference between Granderson and Bay is that Bay completely fell off a cliff, whereas Granderson is still exactly the same player he was, possessing skills that don’t translate well to Citi Field.

The Mets’ front office still hasn’t figured out how to build a lineup that can win at Citi Field. I doubt Sandy Alderson thought he’d solved that puzzle when signing Granderson, and I doubt Granderson thought he was the answer either. They both know he’s a bridge to some hypothetical right fielder of the future. Whoever that is, hopefully he has a better idea how to score runs in that ballpark.

Keefe: The Mets had to make a decision when it came to Ike Davis and Lucas Duda at first base and for now and for the future of the position and the Mets chose to trade Davis to Pittsburgh and keep Duda. Since the trade with the Pirates, Davis has hit .273/.368/.394 with one home run and seven RBIs and Duda has hit .262/.360/.369 with one home run and nine RBIs. The production has been as even as possible and it looks like the Mets would have ended up with the same result as of now no matter who they picked. But the decision to go with Duda over Davis won’t be decided for a while.

Were you a fan of the move to trade Davis and keep Duda, or should it have gone the other way?

Callan: It was clear one of them had to go, and it’s probably for the best that Ike Davis was the one who went. His struggles at the plate were almost soul crushing. It might be the most helpless I’ve ever seen a guy look at the plate, at least one who used to tear the cover off the ball.

There were a lot of contributing factors to his decline, like a weird leg injury that knocked him out for a year, and a bout of Valley Fever, which never goes away and can be quite debilitating. (Conor Jackson had to quit baseball altogether after contracting the disease.) The Mets also announced their intention to trade him in the offseason so loudly they might as well have honked AWOOGA horns everywhere they went. I think everyone involved realized that whatever potential he once had, Ike and the Mets were never meant to be.

Lucas Duda still strikes me as, at best, a DH in a league without that position available. But of the two, I think he’s more likely to succeed in a Mets uniform.

Keefe: Matt Harvey is the future and future face of the Mets. Despite being just 25 and having pitched in 36 games in the majors, he has shown the ability to be a true ace in the league. However, what comes with being an ace and a pitcher and a franchise face in New York is everything that comes with being a celebrity. Because Harvey is the most important Met his off-the-field actions have been closely followed since he isn’t able to give anyone anything to talk about regarding him on the field this year.

What are your feelings about Matt Harvey the pitcher? How big of a deal is it for him to return to the Mets healthy and be the pitcher he was pre-injury? And how sick are you of hearing about his off-the-field life?

Callan: Matt Harvey was the best and worst thing about the 2013 Mets. He was the best because for a few brief, shining months he was among the best pitchers in baseball. The Mets have touted their prospects as their future for the past few seasons, but Harvey was the first one to make it to the bigs and not only contribute, but dominate. His starts became events, and when he pitched, Citi Field came alive for some of the very few times since it opened. There was one awesome night when he outdueled Stephen Strasburg and a very loud crowd chanted the Nationals’ ace off the mound with yells of HAR-VEY’S BET-TER.

His Tommy John surgery was, obviously, the worst thing about 2013 because it robbed him from us not only the rest of last season, but all of this year, too. His injury was also terrible because it provided a smokescreen to the Wilpons. Rather than be forced to put up or shut up and finally make a true accounting of their financial situation, the Mets’ owners could point to Harvey (explicitly or implicitly) as a reason for punting on 2014.

The return of a healthy Harvey would immediately rejuvenate the team and its fanbase, and would also go a long way to forcing the Wilpons to either spend on the team or finally admit that they can’t. Harvey’s status will tell us pretty much everything about the Mets in 2015. So yeah, he’s kind of a big deal.

Being a huge sports star in New York, Harvey has to deal with tabloid nonsense. I don’t worry about it in his case because it all seems to roll off his back. I do wish at times he’d tone things down, just to give the Post less ammunition, but he’s obviously not a tone-it-down kinda guy.

Keefe: This October it will have been eight years since the Mets last made the postseason. Aside from the most optimistic Mets fans, no one pictured them as a team that would contend for the playoffs in 2014 and it was viewed more as a year to give their young players experience and build for the future and create an organization that could sustain success. But just three games back in the NL East and with some roster changes from Sandy Alderson, maybe the Mets can be a surprise story this summer.

What were your expectations for the Mets coming into the season and have they changed with the 19-19 start?

Callan: I expected very little of the Mets going into this season, based on Matt Harvey’s injury and their unwillingness to spend over the winter. My expectations haven’t really changed at all, even though they continue to hover around .500. They have been more fun to watch at times than I expected, and the starting pitching has been better than advertised even without Harvey. But the lineup is still pretty brutal, and the bullpen always teeters on disaster. I’m mostly looking forward to the eventual call up of Noah Syndegaard and a few other pitchers from their farm system. If those guys can contribute this year and get some experience for some hopefully not-too-distant contending future, then I’ll be happy.

Blogs • Email Exchanges • Yankees

Apr 4, 2014

The Derek Jeter-Jose Reyes Debate Is Over

The Yankees head to Toronto to face the Blue Jays after a disastrous opening series and that calls for an email exchange with Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter.

When I saw that the the Yankees were going to open the 2014 season in Houston, I penciled them in for a 3-0 start to the season. At worst they would open the year 2-1. After back-to-back disastrous games to open the season, the Yankees head to Toronto at 1-2 and with an offense that has looked like a continuation of last season despite the addition of Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran.

With the Yankees and Blue Jays meeting this weekend, I did an email exchange with Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter to talk about Jose Reyes and the Blue Jays since their November 2012 trade with the Marlins, the decision to trade prospects for R.A. Dickey and what it will be like for Blue Jays fans to no longer see Derek Jeter in the Yankees lineup.

Keefe: For nine years years in New York, I was forced to be involved in Derek Jeter-Jose Reyes debates, the same way I was forced into Derek Jeter-Nomar Garciaparra. Mets fans would cite Reyes’ abilities and excitement against Jeter’s accomplishments and championships. I would have to defend Jeter against fans who believed that the Yankees would have achieved the same success with Jose Reyes in the lineup over the years. But over time, the potential for Reyes was overshadowed by him becoming the face of everything that started to go wrong with the Mets after their 2006 NLCS Game 7 loss and has continued to go wrong since their September 2007 collapse. Like the Jeter-Garciaparra debate, it seems like the Jeter-Reyes debate has headed the same way.

Sure, when Reyes is healthy and playing, he is a dynamic and rare talent, especially for a shortstop. But “when he is healthy” isn’t something that happens that often. Since 2008, Reyes has played at least 133 games just once and after one inning this year, he’s back on the disabled list with a hamstring injury.

What are your thoughts on Reyes and since I’m asking, what are/were your thoughts on that entire deal with the Marlins?

Dakers: I liked the trade, at the time, but then I figured Emilio Bonifacio would be able to play second base (boy was I wrong) and that Josh Johnson would become our ace (0-for-2). My least favorite excuse for a bad move by a general manager is “anyone would have done the same thing.” I want the GM that does moves that turn out better than anyone would have expected. For a team that prides itself on due diligence and scouting, I don’t know why they didn’t notice that Bonifacio wasn’t good with the glove or that Johnson’s arm was hanging by a thread. But then, we all make mistakes.

A season later and all we have to show for the trade is a mid-rotation innings eater (definitely not a bad thing to have, but not something that will put you in the playoffs) and an often injured shortstop who is entering his 30s who is owed a ton of money over the next four years. I think it is safe to say the trade didn’t work out.

Reyes, when healthy, has been a lot of fun to watch. Unfortunately, he broke his ankle, two weeks into last season and when he came back he wasn’t 100 percent. Favoring the ankle slowed him, and it was very noticeable on defense. For a good part of the season he had the one step and a dive range, only he rarely dove.

This year it is a hamstring problem. I’m hoping it doesn’t keep him out long but I don’t think we are ever going to get a full season out of him.

Keefe: R.A. Dickey became one of my favorite non-Yankees (and there aren’t many of those) during the 2010 season when he put together an 11-9, 2.84 season for the Mets. And his season should have been even better considering he had seven starts where he pitched at least six innings and gave up two earned runs or less and lost or received a no-decision.

I was nervous about Dickey joining the AL East last season following his 2013 Cy Young campaign in 2012 because he had given the Yankees some trouble in the Subway Series in the past and you never want to add front-end starters to other teams in your division. Dickey wasn’t the same pitcher with the Blue Jays (14-13, 4.21) that he had been in the NL, though given the team’s performance and the stat conversions from the NL to AL, it’s not like he had an awful year. But to me at least, I wasn’t as scared of the knuckleball specialist I had been in the past and I think that has carried over into this year. Though I’m sure I will regret saying that when the Yankees face him on Saturday in Toronto.

What are your thoughts on Dickey as a Blue Jay? Were you for the team adding him to the rotation and do you trust him as a front-end starter?

Dakers: No, I wasn’t thrilled with the trade. Trading two of your very top prospects for a 38-year-old pitcher, even if he throws a knuckleball, just seemed wrong to me. The idea was to put the Jays over the top, and if it worked it would have been worth giving up Travis d’Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard, but it didn’t.

Dickey is 39 now and he isn’t the normal knuckleball pitcher. He throws a harder version of the pitch than most, so I’m not sure that he will age as well as most did. Last year the drop in velocity was blamed on a sore neck, sore back. This spring he says he’s 100 percent healthy, but he had a rough spring and his first start of the season didn’t exactly make Blue Jays fans think that he’s going to get his second Cy Young Award. Pitchers, even knuckleball pitchers, do lose something as they age, and maybe R.A. has lost a little bit too.

He did finish strong last year, he had a 3.57 ERA in the second half of the season, so I’m not without hope that he’ll be, maybe not the pitcher he was in 2012, but a good member of the rotation.

Keefe: After watching Vernon Wells for nearly a decade as a Blue Jay against the Yankees and then for another two years as an Angel, he became a Yankee in 2013 thanks to a ridiculous amount of injuries. I was actually optimistic about Wells joining the Yankees near the end of spring training last year and I fell into the same trap that the Angels must have when they traded for the backloaded $126 million man.

The Yankees needed Wells. They needed an experienced major leaguer who could provide power, even if his lowest batting average and on-base percentage went against everything the Yankees had been built upon since the mid-90s. But with Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Curtis Granderson injured to start the year, the Yankees had to find depth somewhere. And at the time, paying $13.9 million of his remaining $42 million seemed like a bargain. I mean the Yankees have spent much more money on worse players.

On May 15, Wells hit his 10th home run and had 23 RBIs in just 38 games and 143 at-bats, and was boasting a .301/.357/.538 and the Yankees were rolling. I thought Wells had revived his career at the age of 34 by putting on the pinstripes and it seemed like the Yankees’ latest reclamation project was working. The problem was the Yankees’ entire 2013 team became a reclamation project, eventually failing, and this included Wells as he would hit just one more home run with 27 RBIs over the rest of the year in 281 at-bats, hitting .199/.243/.253.

Wells didn’t work out with the Yankees the same way he didn’t work out with the Angels after not working out with the Blue Jays following his big contract. What happened to Vernon Wells after signing the $126 million in his prime? For Blue Jays fans, what was it like to watch his career fall apart after his success from 2002-2006?

Dakers: What was it like? Sad. Just sad.

Vernon was a favorite of mine. It really isn’t his fault that the team offered him way too much money. He really was the sort of player every fan says he wants on their team. Runs out every grounder hard, always hustles, good teammate, and all around good guy. Unfortunately, he also tended to pick of little nagging injuries, hamstring problems and wrist problems. He also tried to play through these too often. We do like guys to be tough, but sometimes it’s best to take some time off to heal.

The nice part was that Alex Anthopoulos was able to trade him before his salary went up through the roof. His last season with us he was paid just over $15.5 million, and he had a pretty good season, the next season he was paid just over $26 million. It was the prefect moment to trade him, especially since the Angels took almost all of his contract.

Keefe: On Opening Day 2003 in Toronto, Derek Jeter went down with a shoulder injury when he collided with catcher Ken Huckaby at third base. That was on March 31 and he didn’t return to the Yankees until May 13.

Before breaking his ankle in Game 1 of the 2012 ALCS and missing the rest of that series and nearly all of the 2014 season, that shoulder injury in Toronto was the closest I had ever come to not having Jeter in my baseball life. He has been the Yankees shortstop since I was in fourth grade and I have grown up with him as a staple in the Yankees lineup and my life every spring, summer and fall.

Since this is Jeter’s last season, what has been like for Blue Jays fans watching him against your team all of these years? I always get the Yankees fan perspective on experiencing Jeter for all of these years, but you never hear about what it’s like watching him from the outside. The ovations and ceremonies on the road during the Derek Jeter Farewell Tour are one thing, but will it be weird for Blue Jays fans to not see him in the Yankees lineup when they play starting next year?

Dakers: Well, playing against the Yankees has changed so much, over the last few years. Jorge Posada is gone, Mariano Rivera is gone and Alex Rodriguez has been mostly gone. With Jeter missing last year and not really being the same player he was in the past. And now Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson gone it doesn’t seem like the same Yankees as in the past.

An infield made up of an old Mark Teixeira, Brian Roberts, Brendan Ryan and Yangervis Solarte (who?) doesn’t really exactly strike fear in our hearts.

Yeah it will be weird not seeing Jeter out there. He’s been around for so long. He’s the last link to the great Yankees teams of the 90s. Last year, without him, they just weren’t the same team (though we still couldn’t win against them). It will be interesting to see if the Yankees can come up with a new “face of the franchise.”

Keefe: Entering the season, I was confident about the 2014 Yankees because of their free-agent signings and because of their revamped rotation and because I knew there couldn’t be the same series of devastating injuries of last year. I expected them to take care of business in Houston to open the season and I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The Yankees scored just seven runs in three games and without the Yangervis Solarte you asked about and Ichiro, who has become the Yankees’ fifth outfielder, they might have left Houston 0-3. But even 1-2 is pretty disheartening considering the Astros lost 111 games last year.

As for the Blue Jays, after their franchise-changing trade with the Marlins, they became the team to pick to win the division and contend for the playoffs. But like the Yankees, injuries and underachievers ruined last year for them and now they seem to be forgotten in the AL East.

What are your expectations for the Blue Jays this year?

Dakers: Honestly? This has been the most frustrating offseason of my life as a Blue Jays fan. Last year the team was ‘all in’, making huge trades, signing free agents, building a buzz about the team. This year, nothing.

Last season everything that could go wrong did. Injuries? Damn near everyone on the team dealt with some sort of injury. Three members of the season opening starting rotation went down with major injuries. On offense Jose Reyes, Brett Lawrie, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Melky Cabrera and Colby Rasmus all spent time on the disabled list. Most of them for long stretches of time. Other players had their baseball skills seemingly removed. It was just an awful season.

Going into this offseason, the team had three vital needs: improving the starting rotation, finding a major league second baseman and getting a catcher that could get on base more than once a week. Of the three, the only move the team made was to let J.P. Arencibia leave and sign free agent Dioner Navarro. Oh, and they let Josh Johnson go, in a addition by subtraction move.

So we end up with a rotation made of up R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle and three guys who had a collective 10 major league starts last year: Brandon Morrow (who missed most of last year with a nerve problem in his pitching arm), Drew Hutchison (missed all of last year coming off Tommy John surgery) and Dustin McGowan (who has made a total of four starts over the last five years, because of various arm problems). It isn’t a rotation that should fill one with confidence, but odds are they have to be better than last year.

Personally, I see a .500 team. The Injury Gods almost have to be nicer to the Jays. There is a ton of talent there. A great offense (when healthy), a great bullpen and a starting rotation that has a little more depth than last year, even if we didn’t make a big free agent signing. If the team finishes more than five games above or below .500 I’ll be surprised.

Blogs • Email Exchanges • Yankees

Jul 19, 2013

Yankees-Red Sox Rivalry Back in Boston

The first meaningful Yankees-Red Sox series in Boston in over a year calls for an email exchange with Mike Hurley.

It’s July 19 and the Yankees are in Boston for the first time this season for Games 96, 97 and 98. So good job, MLB schedulers! You nailed this one!

But it’s not only the first time the Yankees are in Boston for the first time this season, it’s all the first time a Yankees-Red Sox series in Boston has meant something since July 2012 and you can argue it’s been longer than that. And with a Yankees-Red Sox series comes the mandatory email exchange with Mike Hurley from CBS Boston.

Keefe: Is that you? Is that really you, Mike Hurley? (Or Michael F. Hurley as your Twitter handle suggests.) It’s been a while. Actually it’s been a really long time. It’s been two months to the day since we last did one of these. Back then the Rangers and Bruins were about to start their Eastern Conference semifinals series, the Knicks were about to play Game 5 against the Pacers and the Yankees had a one-game lead in the AL East. Since then, the Rangers were embarrassed by the Bruins in five games, the Knicks were eliminated two nights later and the Yankees are now six games out of first place in the AL East. So things have been going great over the last 61 days! Thanks for asking!

But I’m not emailing you to rehash what happened to the Rangers against the Bruins and I’m certainly not emailing you to talk about basketball. That leaves us with baseball where the Makeshift Yankees have put together a run to be proud of when you consider Lyle Overbay, Vernon Wells, Travis Hafner, Luis Cruz, Alberto Gonzalez, Chris Stewart, Austin Romine, Zoilo Almonte.

This winter, even without A-Rod, it looked like the Yankees lineup would look something like this:

Derek Jeter, SS
Ichiro Suzuki, RF
Robinson Cano, 2B
Mark Teixeira, 1B
Curtis Granderson, LF
Kevin Youkilis, 3B
Travis Hafner, DH
Francisco Cervelli,
Brett Gardner, CF

But that has been the lineup for zero games this season. Instead here is a list of the players that have the most plate appearances for each position:

C – Chris Stewart
1B – Lyle Overbay
2B – Robinson Cano
3B – David Adams
SS – Jayson Nix
LF – Vernon Wells
CF – Brett Gardner
RF – Ichiro Suzuki
DH – Travis Hafner

And here are the other players that have gotten at least one at-bat with the Yankees:

Brennan Boesch, Ben Francisco, Luis Cruz, Reid Brignac, Chris Nelson, Alberto Gonzalez, Thomas Neal, Corban Joseph and Travis Ishikawa.

I didn’t even put Eduardo Nunez, Zoilo Almonte or Austin Romine on that list because they represent the top-tier of Makeshift Yankees.

But don’t worry, I’m doing fine! Everything’s going well!

How’s your summer?

Hurley: Hey, Thomas Neal is a friend of mine, good guy, we used to work the Saturday night shift at the liquor store down the street. I’m glad to see he made the Yankees this year. Good for him.

My summer? My summer is confusing. I didn’t think the Red Sox were going to be terrible this year, but I definitely didn’t expect them to sit 58-39 at the all-star break, looking like a legitimate playoff team. In April, I hardly gave it much attention, figuring they’d level out at some point. Yet they rebounded from a .500 May to maintain their spot in first place for months. It makes no sense, really.

Consider that through 97 games, the Red Sox have 58 wins. Through the same number of games in 2007, when they were the best team in baseball, they had the exact same record — 58-39. Um, huh?

It’s been pretty impressive, and frankly it’s giving this summer an unexpected boost. I was sort of anticipating a mediocre Red Sox team playing out the string, waiting for a decent but not great Patriots team to kick off their season in September. Instead, thinking about the playoffs is something that non-crazy people are allowed to do. And, the general population still hasn’t caught on, so tickets are still easy to come by for most games. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Hold on, I’ll be right back. Corban Joseph just showed up at my door with my pizza.

Keefe: I hope you tipped him well.

In the offseason, we laughed about the Red Sox rotation after Jon Lester citing Ryan Dempster pitching in the AL, Clay Buchholz’s constant injuries and decline in results over the last few seasons, John Lackey’s awfulness and Felix Doubront being in experienced.

Despite the Red Sox’ record, we weren’t that far off.

Jon Lester hasn’t been good (and hasn’t been since pre-2011 collapse). Ryan Dempster has pitched the way everyone thought “Ryan Dempster in the AL” would pitch. Clay Buchholz got off to an All-Star start, but hasn’t started since June 8. That leaves us with John Lackey, who is having his best season since 2007 and has actually been better than that and Felix Doubront, who has been much better than last year, but hasn’t been anything special.

So if we weren’t that far off, how are the Red Sox in first place in the best division in baseball?

Hurley: Despite you saying so (based on nothing except for your desire to just say it), we actually were pretty far off.

If you can have just five guys make most of your starts, it means you’re in a pretty good spot. And the Red Sox have gotten 86 percent of their starts from those five guys. Buchholz was exceptional for two months, and John Lackey has defied all odds by losing 300 pounds and pitching well, but the rotation as a whole has just simply been consistent and better than you want to give them credit for. The starters’ 3.82 ERA is the second-best mark in the AL, and they’ve gotten 582.1 innings out of their starters, just 3.1 innings fewer than league-leading Detroit. Boston’s starters are second in the AL in strikeouts, too, with Dempster — Dempster! — leading the way with 104 and Lester just behind with 103.

I get your confusion, because when you look at the guys individually, it doesn’t look good. Lester is 8-6 with a 4.58 ERA, Dempster is 5-8 with a 4.24, and Buchholz has joined the witness protection program because — 🙁 — his neck is sore. But collectively, they’ve done the work necessary to keep the Red Sox in just about every game they play. And when you lead all of baseball in runs scored by a huge margin, it always makes the pitching staff look a little bit better.

Keefe: I know that hockey season in Boston just ended like 15 minutes ago and you have a terrible memory anyway, so we’ll let it go, but we did talk about it.

After the magical month that was September 2011, I was treated to the hire of Bobby Valentine and everything that came with the 2012 Boston Red Sox and hoped it would last a lifetime. But here we are at the All-Star break and the Red Sox are right back to where they were in August 2011 thanks to being able to dump their trash on the Dodgers by throwing Snickers wrappers and newspapers and spray painting “The Red Sox were here.” If that trade in August 2012 doesn’t happen, we’re probably still talking about Josh Beckett’s off days and Adrian Gonzalez’s lack of accountability for anything. Instead the Red Sox are in first place and it’s like they got a mulligan for all of their bad decisions and were freed of their clubhouse cancers. It’s bullshit.

Did that trade change the Red Sox back to their pre-September 2011 ways or are guys just performing better after the atrocity that was last season?

Hurley: Are you saying that the Red Sox f’d the Dodgers’ whole a-hole up? That’s a bold call, Larry.

That ridiculously lopsided trade was the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen. Everyone — locally in L.A. and nationally in places like SportsCenter and Sports Illustrated — rushed to praise the Dodgers for “proving they were committed to winning!” Meanwhile, everyone in Boston was just like, “Wait, for real? What’s the catch? Don’t those people know that Josh Beckett is just the worrrrssssttt???”

But that’s not the only reason the Red Sox are playing so much better. It cannot be overstated how much of a poison Bobby Valentine was to this team. From everything I’ve heard from behind the scenes, the guy was every bit the clown he looked to be publicly and then some. Publicly, we got little snippets of it, like the time he didn’t know whether the opposing starter was a righty or lefty and had to be told by Jarrod Saltalamacchia that the lineup was wrong. Stuff like that was a common occurrence with that goober in charge, and frankly I’m a little surprised the athletic department of Sacred Heart hasn’t completely crumbled yet.

So getting rid of him was huge in that players’ spirits weren’t completely broken down upon their arrival at the ballpark every night. Ben Cherington, who’s still hard to really read or evaluate to this point, also made a few small but key additions. Shane Victorino, much to my surprise, has been pretty awesome filling a spot in the top of the lineup that’s been vacant for years. Mike Napoli signed on for $39 million, only to be told his hip was so bad that he’d only be getting $5 million, and he’s been a pretty solid, reliable addition to the middle of the order, despite all the strikeouts.

Add in Ortiz, Pedroia and Ellsbury all pretty much playing like you’d expect them to, and it’s easy enough to see how it’s all working. The Dodgers, committed to winning, are one game under .500 since taking on all of the Red Sox’ dead weight. Thanks, L.A., you’re the best!

Keefe: Shane Victorino’s playing? And Mike Napoli? And David Ortiz? And Dustin Pedroia? And Jacoby Ellsbury? Wow, that must be nice. I guess you’re feeling the way I would feel if Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson, Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Youkilis and Francisco Cervelli (yes, Francisco Cervelli) were playing. But they’re not and we’re stuck with the names I gave you earlier.

Things aren’t getting any better either as Derek Jeter will start the second half on the disabled list retroactive to when he injured his quad in his first game back since the Game 1 of the ALCS. But A-Rod is coming back on Monday night in Texas, if he isn’t given a 150-game suspension or banned from the game Pete Rose style, so at least we’re getting back our 38-year-old $29 million singles hitter!

The weird thing is I still believe in the Yankees. Not the Makeshift Yankees. But the real Yankees, when and if they ever come back. I think it’s a miracle this team has the record it does and is in the position its in despite having everyone short of you playing for them this season.

If I believe in the 51-44 Yankees who are six games back in the division then you must really believe in the Red Sox for the first time in 23 months. Do you believe in the Red Sox or do you miss the days of 2012 when Bobby Valentine was being praised for building a fence, fans were wearing paper bags over their heads and tickets to Fenway Park cost less than a single T Fare?

Hurley: It’s weird here. On the one hand, seeing this team compete like this has been a pretty fun, refreshing change of pace. Don’t get me wrong, last year was hilarious, and it was fun to watch, but only in the way watching awful reality television is entertaining. (Speaking of which, I can’t believe Bob Valentine doesn’t have his own reality show.) This year’s team has done enough to prove to me that they’re for real.

The problem with the Red Sox is, like you, I’m not counting out the Yankees, and you can’t count out the Orioles or the Rays. All of this positivity for the Red Sox could end up leaving them at the end of the season with the same playoff prospects as last year. It’s a pretty ridiculous race in the AL East right now, but hey, thank goodness some crappy team from the NL West will by default be given a free pass to the divisional round while a much more qualified team in the AL East (or perhaps two teams) will be forced to put its season on the line in a three-hour exhibition that will wipe out the work done over the previous six months! Wahoo!

With the reality of a one-game playoff, how can you ever feel good about your team’s chances when it’s involved in a tight divisional race? An idiot umpire could botch an infield-fly call and allow a team that won six fewer games than you to advance to the divisional round while you go home for the winter.

I guess my point is that baseball is stupid.

Keefe: You still haven’t come around on the one-game playoff? OK, good because I haven’t either and I never will. But don’t forget what everyone says: Just win your division! It’s that easy!

I guess my optimism for the Yankees comes from the fact they still play the Red Sox 12 times, the Rays nine times and the Orioles seven times. And let’s not forget the Yankees have three games with the Padres and close the season with a three-game series in Houston. So if the season comes down to the final weekend, I will feel good knowing that the Yankees will play the Astros, but I will be worried about my emotional state if the Astros keep the Yankees out of the playoffs. Let’s hope the season doesn’t come down to the final three games.

As for this weekend, we get Andy Pettitte-Felix Doubront, Hiroki Kuroda-John Lackey and CC Sabathia-Jon Lester. So that means the Pettitte-Doubront game will be the 2-1 pitching duel and the Sunday Night Baseball matchup will be the 14-12, six-hour affair that leaves you owing all of next weekend to your wife for staying up until 2 a.m. to watch baseball on Sunday night and being too tired to do anything on Monday after work.

The Yankees are still very much alive, but they need to start putting together series wins like they did in April and May. What better place to start doing that than this weekend in Boston?

Hurley: D will be asleep before first pitch, because she’s better at life than you and I.

This is a fun series, though. For the first time in a while, I’m really excited about a series in Boston. I kind of feel like baseball’s back, though I do have this sort of guarded position. When things were as bad as they were last year, it still feels like this whole “winning” thing is a mirage. At the same time, if the Red Sox sweep the Yankees this weekend and crush your soul, I might be fully on board.

Blogs • Yankees

Apr 2, 2013

Opening Day Debacle

The Yankees were embarrassed at home on Opening Day with a makeshift lineup and CC Sabathia on the mound.

Opening Day never really feels like Opening Day. Monday didn’t feel like it would be the first day of baseball nearly every day for the next six months (and hopefully for a seventh month). Even as I rode a packed 4 train to 161st Street, bouncing around between strangers like Cheri Oteri in a Roxbury Brothers skit on Saturday Night Live, it didn’t feel like I was going to a real game. And it especially didn’t feel like I was going to a real game because this is what I woke up to on Monday morning.

Gardner 8
Nunez 6
Cano 4
Youkilis 3
Wells 7
Francisco 0
Suzuki 9
Nix 5
Cervelli 2

Given the names, that’s about the worst Opening Day lineup you could imagine as a Yankee fan, but it was even worse when you realize the way Joe Girardi decided to organize those names.

It’s hard to argue with Vernon Wells hitting fifth in the lineup since there weren’t many options even if Wells hasn’t hit like a No. 5 hitter in three years. And it’s hard to argue against Ben Francisco being in the lineup since there were no other right-handed bats available on the bench and Girardi would give up eating before he would he would give in to inserting a left-handed bat against a left-handed pitcher if he didn’t have to. But Ichiro hitting seventh on Opening Day against a left-handed pitcher in the worst regular-season Yankees lineup in two decades is the most Joe Girardi thing Joe Girardi could have done. Girardi’s need to go lefty-righty down the entire order is appalling, disgusting and disturbing and his overmanaging in Game 1 of 2013 was just as bad as his overmanaging in Game 1 of 2012 when he had Sabathia intentionally walk Sean Rodriguez. (He had Sabathia intentionally walk Jonny Gomes on Monday, so at least he’s consistent). The idea that Eduardo Nunez should be hitting second in this lineup or any lineup ever is more unfathomable to me than New York City just now extending subway service on the East Side. And the only thing Girardi’s creation was missing was Steve Pearce hitting cleanup.

I will commend Girardi for finally hitting Robinson Cano third after all these years. All it took was A-Rod suffering a possible career-ending injury and needing surgery and Mark Teixeira enduring a “strained” wrist for Girardi to put Cano into the 3-hole in the lineup since he hasn’t been the best player on the team for three-plus years now or anything.

The lineup really didn’t matter on Opening Day because when your starter puts 12 men on base in five innings, and gives up four runs, it’s hard to win, even if the opponent is last year’s last-place team. If CC Sabathia is going to lay an A.J. Burnett-like egg while being backed by a lineup that features the Ghost of Vernon Wells and the recycled Ben Francisco in power spots then the Yankees are going to have even more problems than wondering about the health of Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, A-Rod and Teixeira.

Here’s what CC Sabathia has now done in five Opening Days with the Yankees.

April 6, 2009 @ BAL: 4.1 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 5 BB, 0 K

April 4, 2010 @ BOS: 5.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 4 K

March 31, 2011 vs. DET: 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K

April 6, 2012 @ TB: 6 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 7 K

April 1, 2013 vs. BOS: 5 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 R, 4 BB, 5 K

I want the “CC Sabathia isn’t good on Opening Day or in March and April” narrative to stop. (He’s 20-15 with a 4.18 ERA in March and April.) Sabathia gets paid the same amount in March and April that he does in May, June, July, August and September. That means that over 34 starts per year, the amount is $676,470.59 and Sabathia’s problems shouldn’t be written off the same way Mark Teixeira’s problems are (when he’s playing) in the same months. Yesterday while I was battling the elements of April weather in New York in the right field bleachers, battling the sore sight that is the 2013 New York Yankees lineup and battling the $11 Coors Light prices, CC Sabathia was making almost $700,000 and then having excuses made for him by beat writers because he’s a “slow starter” as the Yankees lost for the first time at home on Opening Day since 1982.

Sabathia fell apart in the second inning after he walked the fearsome Jarrod Saltalamacchia, gave up a single to the vaunted Jonny Gomes, walked Hall-of-Fame bound Jackie Bradley Jr., despite getting ahead of him 0-2, and then gave up an RBI single to the heavy-hitting Jose Iglesias. It was the 6-7-8-9 hitters that started the second-inning downfall for Sabathia and it was Shane Victorino and Dustin Pedroia who did the damage as Sabathia was forced to throw 34 pitches to nine hitters in the inning.

Sabathia is the most important Yankee in 2013 just like he has been every year since 2009. It’s his job to carry the rotation and for now carry the team every fifth day until the lineup resembles something that’s not only worthy of wearing pinstripes, but of being in Major League Baseball. On Monday, he failed to his job and was outpitched by a starter and hit around by a lineup that’s failed their team for the last two years. Sabathia lost in his typical Opening Day fashion to a team coming off a 93-loss season and sent Yankee fans into the first off day of the season counting down the minutes until Hiroki Kuroda’s first pitch on Wednesday.

Yankee Stadium looked empty on TV in the ninth inning of Opening Day as I watched from Billy’s Sports Bar on River Ave. to the point that I thought the game had ended and an entire inning had been played in my two-minute walk from the bleachers to the bar. And on Tuesday, everyone wanted to talk about how Yankee fans should feel embarrassed and ashamed for leaving early and not sticking around in the rain and freezing temperature to watch the Yankees try to erase a five-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning with Lyle Overbay, who was released by the Red Sox a week ago leading off. I don’t feel embarrassed or ashamed for leaving early. I feel embarrassed and ashamed for staying as long as I did.

Blogs • Yankees

Oct 26, 2012

How I Will Remember the 2012 Yankees

The 2012 Yankees will be remembered as a failure. Not because they didn’t win the World Series, but because they didn’t even show up.

How will you remember the 2012 Yankees? It’s a question that’s staring me down like something you have to answer for your senior year high school yearbook.

I’d like to believe in the whole “Win the World Series or the season is a failure” concept, but even I know that is an impossible expectation even if it sounds good and makes the Yankees organization sound good for supposedly living by it. But you can’t win the World Series every year. You can only hope you get to October and then from there get good pitching, some timely hits, a few lucky bounces and avoid the injury bug.

On Tuesday night, I was at a bar with my roommates and Game 4 of the 1996 World Series was on YES. The Yankees trailed 6-0 before Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Cecil Fielder and Charlie Hayes were able to make it 6-3 in the sixth. The Yankees tied it up in the eighth on a three-run home run from Jim Leyritz, and the bartender actually changed the channel to NBA preseason basketball in the middle of Leyritz’s at-bat. But as much as I wanted to see that home run off Mark Wohlers for the 593rd time, I also didn’t want to see it. I wanted to be reminded of what October was like when the Yankees were going to find a way to win, but I also didn’t want to be reminded of what October was like when the Yankees were going to find a way to win.

The 2012 Yankees wouldn’t have come back against Denny Neagle. They wouldn’t have even scored against him. The 1996 Yankees lost the first two games at home of the World Series and then had to go to Atlanta, to the home of the best team in baseball over the last two years, and they came out alive. The 2012 Yankees lost the first two games of the ALCS at home against the 88-win Tigers and then had to go to Detroit and try to send the series back to the Bronx. They shouldn’t have even gotten on the plane.

The 2012 Yankees season ended before they made Anibal Sanchez look like Cliff Lee and before Justin Verlander shut them down without his best stuff and before Max Scherzer repeated his 2011 postseason performance against them. The 2012 Yankees season ended when Derek Jeter couldn’t get up from the field and when the Yankees couldn’t win a home game in which they scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie it. Seriously, how do you lose that game? No team in any sport loses a game in which they comeback in improbable fashion at home. Ever. It doesn’t happen. But I guess it’s a lot easier to happen when Nick Swisher 007 is playing right field.

I wasn’t as upset as I should have been when the Yankees lost Game 2 or Game 3 because of how upset I was after Game 1. After Game 1, I left the Stadium in the early hours of Sunday morning, devastated and depressed. I knew the season was over. Even though there was still technically a lot of baseball left to be played, I knew without Jeter and without winning Game 1 following the comeback that the season was over. I went into Phase 1 of the Yankees Elimination Process when Nick Swisher misplayed that ball in right field and it carried over to Sunday before Game 2. Phase 1 is when you know the season is over, but it’s not over yet. You probably experienced Phase 1 after Game 6 in the 2004 ALCS or after Game 3 in the 2006 ALDS or Game 2 of the 2007 ALDS or Game 4 of the 2010 ALCS. Sure things can change, but you know the inevitable isn’t far away.

Depending on when you enter Phase 1, the time between Phase 1 and Phase 2 can do crazy things to your emotions. You start to believe that even with the odds stacked against you that you can come back and the season can be extended. You can talk yourself into a comeback of epic proportions the way I did after Game 3 when I started asking, “Why not us?” to anyone I encountered throughout the day leading up to Game 4 like I was Curt Schilling eight Octobers ago. The time between Phase 1 and Phase 2 is full of false hope and that’s the last thing you need before Phase 2 sets in. Phase 2: The season is actually over.

Phase 2 can’t begin until the final out of the season is made. Even after CC Sabathia got rocked and the Tigers were still scoring runs against the Yankees bullpen in the final innings of Game 4, I was stuck in limbo on the outskirts of Phase 1, but oh so close to Phase 2. Phase 2 is when there are no more outs or innings or games. It’s over and it’s not coming back until April.

Phase 3 is the final phase and the phase I’m currently in. It’s the phase when there hasn’t been a game for a few days, so it feels like the All-Star break. But then there aren’t games for a few more days then a week then two weeks and then you realize there won’t be real, meaningful baseball until April. Usually this phase becomes easier because it is negated by the NHL season, but because Gary Bettman thinks a fourth lockout during his tenure as commissioner is a good idea, Phase 3 and the winter are going to drag on.

How will I remember the 2012 Yankees? As a failure. The 2012 Yankees won’t be remembered as a failure because they didn’t win the World Series. They will be remember as a failure because they didn’t even show up to get to the World Series.

I will remember the 2012 Yankees for the Goof Troop. That’s Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, Mark Teixeira, Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson. If you don’t think Mark Teixeira belongs in the Goof Troop because he had nine hits in the postseason then you’re lost. He had one extra-base hit, no home runs and zero RBIs. Let me remind you that he makes $23.5 million to be a power-hitting first baseman and a presence in the middle of the lineup. If he wants to be given a free pass for being a singles hitter then maybe he should give back some of his money away and he can hit with Brett Gardner at the bottom of the order. And if you believe that he makes up for Jason Giambi-like transformation with his defense then maybe you missed his defense in the postseason.

But for as bad as Teixeira was power-wise, the other four were a flat-out embarrassment. The only thing you can really do with Cano is chalk it up as the worst slump ever at the worst possible time. He is the “best” hitter on the team and the future and foundation of the lineup. You can only hope some team is willing to take on A-Rod and a small part of his contract. Granderson will likely be back for at least 2013, so you have to hope the eye doctor he recently visited found something related to why he is now a three-pitch strikeout. And Nick Swisher? The next time I want to see Nick Swisher in person is in right field at Yankee Stadium in the bottom of the first inning, playing for another team. If Nick Swisher is a Yankee in 2013, I won’t be going to the Bronx and that’s a promise. And you can’t even laugh and say, “I’m sure the Yankees will be fine without you there” because if you were at the postseason games, you know that they can use every single person in attendance they can get at the Stadium.

The Yankees finally got the starting pitching in the postseason that they needed in 2004 and 2005 and 2006 and 2007 and 2010, but they got the hitting they had in 2011. They had the easiest path to the World Series since 2006 when the Tigers also ended their season, but instead they ended up as the first Yankees team to be swept in a postseason series since the 1980 ALCS. They were a regular-season success and a postseason failure, and they didn’t even put up a fight. But after six months of laying down in the final innings of games (aside from Raul Ibanez’s late-inning heroics in the final week of the regular season and in the postseason), I should have seen it coming. You can only rely on your 40-year-old left-handed designated hitter making $1.1 million so many times. At some point A-Rod ($29 million), Teixeira ($23.5 million), Cano ($14 million), Swisher ($10.25 million) and Granderson ($10 million) have to do something. Anything! Seriously, get a hit with runners in scoring position. One effing hit.

Before the postseason started, I was scared that Bruce Springsteen’s “Land of Hope and Dreams” was going to be forever ruined if the Yankees were eliminated the way that Tinie Tempah’s “Written In the Stars” was last year. But even though this was the most embarrassing postseason performance from them since 2004 (though it’s hard to discount 2006 and 2007), I decided that the 2012 Yankees had ruined enough for me and they couldn’t ruin the theme song for the 2012 postseason too. Instead the song will serve to remind me of what went wrong over the final four games and six days of the season.

Ya leave behind your sorrows
Ya this day at last
Well tomorrow there’ll be sunshine
And all this darkess past

157 days until Opening Day.

Blogs

Oct 25, 2012

The Right to Boo the Yankees

Sheriff Tom will boo the Yankees when they perform the way they did in the ALCS and he has earned the right to boo over the years.

Yes, I boo my own.

First, let me be clear. It didn’t start as simply booing a Yankee because he used to be a Met, or even writing it off as booing a player I don’t respect because he is on Page Six too often. To me, applause and boos should be based on performance, not on proclivity alone. If I go to the aquarium and the seal drops the hoop during the scuba show, I’m booing. Bad performance. Tomorrow the seal may be on, and he will get his claps and he will get his little fish. What I don’t want to see is the seal drop this hoop and collect its fish anyway, sort of like Nick Swisher stinking up the postseason and collecting bank at the expense of the fans. If you’re not putting up performance, you’re putting up with us.

I’ve earned the right to boo. I’ve spent my money on Stadium grounds (even dropped some blood out there) and that’s not mentioning TV time, merchandise and discourse. Yeah, I have like 600 games in the docket, but that doesn’t make me any better than the fan who strolls in for the first time, as we all are allowed to boo. We paid our money for a show. If we don’t like the show, we have the right to bark and bray about it.

I’m not sure what surprised me more the last couple of weeks: the Yankees offense or the hue and cry that cloaked the sky as the boos rained down at Yankee Stadium. Sanctimonious Yankee fans in their own minds flying the flag of faith, against those who were straying from the parading herd. Sometimes Yankee fans are funny in that it’s us against the world, but if we turn on one another it’s the most egregious of offenses. I don’t see it that way. It’s not like the fans were booing 30 minutes before first pitch (well, the ones who showed up, anyway) and all was forgiven game to game until the stink wafted from the field and the booing happened again. And oh, did it ever.

How many times in the nearly 30 years I have been going to Yankee games have I booed the Yankees? You can count them on two hands with a finger left over to flip at a Boston fan. But not only was I booing like a ghost this year, I was even doing so from my couch where the only people who could hear me were my wife, daughter and two disinterested cats. Come on folks, this was ridiculous. If the Yankees went down 6-4 here or 5-1 there then this wouldn’t have happened. Baseball happens and sometimes your team loses. There’s no shame in that unless you’re the Cubs and you haven’t won the big one since things were paid for with rocks. We have all seen the Yankees lose playoff games before (many of them in person) and probably too many of them in recent years. That doesn’t mean we booed. This was something different. This was something odious. This was something we may never again see in our lifetime … well, lets hope! To insure this, the Yankees need to jettison the likes of Nick Swisher and probably Curtis Granderson, and if this world is really a happy place and one full of candy canes and rainbows, the much maligned A-Rod.

Do you have to boo? Hell no! Are you allowed to frown while others boo because you subtly disapprove of their actions? Absolutely! Should you reprimand them? Well, go ahead, we don’t care and we will laugh at your lecture. Should you fight over it? Well, that’s just stupid although I saw and heard of people trying. What really puts a burr in my britches is this attitude out there that everything we see on that field is beyond reproach and that we’re supposed to keep staring at the horror show that unfolded behind our pinstriped blinders and possibly give a nice golf clap after someone in the home duds just struck out for the 11th time in his last 18 at-bats. Sorry, if I see the “Clap Car” pulling to the curb, I’m stepping aside and waiting for the “Boo Bus.”

Let me tell you of a time I once booed. It was the first regular season game I kept score and pretty much my first game in the bleacher seats. As enamored as I was with simply being in Yankee Stadium and seeing these wonderful, magical Bleacher Creatures for the first time, I still found it in me to boo. The Yankees had a four-run lead in the ninth inning and Steve “How” Farr “Will they hit it” coughed it up and the Yankees went on to lose the damn game. Not only did I boo – and lustily at that – but I vandalized. Well, to a point, and pretty much to my own property. I took my little souvenir bat and smacked it on the bench in front of me and shattered the thing. (They were still picking splinters out of there as that Stadium came down over a decade later.) To add more credence to my right to boo, I shared the Stadium that night with a mere 14,090 fans. So I put in the time and earned the right to wax venom. The last time you probably saw a mere 14,090 fans in that Stadium was when you were simply counting the people in front of you in the bathroom line.

Looking back on it, the main kicker of boos toward the home nine have been directed at those who held the closer mantle over the years, as they are set up for failure and sometimes the last wretched thing you see before a “W” shimmies away from the box score. Considering Mariano Rivera has been that guy since the halcyon days of the 90s, it hasn’t happened in eons. But man, in the early 90s and mid-90s, we made booing the closer an art form. There’s not much a guy like Rivera that could do to get a burst of boo. I have seen him leave after the rare blown save to a murmuring of discontent, but that’s more the “boo the seal who dropped the hoop” bad day sort of thing and there’s no malice in it. Guys like Farr, Steve Howe and John Wetteland (despite some fine work) heard the hoots for sure, usually coming from the likes of me. Because of them the desperate cry of, “Quick! Lock the bullpen gate!” was coined as relievers started warming up at the Stadium.

One of everyone’s favorite Yankee boo-birding moments came out of our twisted relationship with Jack McDowell. As he left the mound to a crescendo of boos one not so fine evening, he petulantly flipped that bird up in the air and pretty much told the fans, “Right back at ya.” That prompted one of the more jolly backpages I have seen over the years with a full page of McDowell, finger aloft and the block heading of “JACK ASS.” That baby spent a couple of years taped on the closet door in my apartment for a quick look and a chuckle when I needed a pick-me-up or a get-up-and-go. Bring that story up to someone griping about the treatment of the circus clown Nick Swisher or the doting dugout courtier Alex Rodriguez and they will call for a pass and probably add something like, “Save your boos for Jack McDowell.” Well, Jack McDowell, who was looked at akin to the old man on the corner that waves his fist at kids skipping to the bus stop, went 15-10 in his year of service with an ERA on the south side of 4. But he is considered boo-worthy, when today’s pinstriped heroes are immune. Not on my watch!

I’ve seen good men rack up a Golden Sombrero and they were booed for that. In retrospect, it’s not easy to strike out four times in a game, so maybe they should have been applauded. But there is nothing wrong with saying, “Look, I’m not happy with what I saw out of you today. I want you to go home, think about it and not sleep well. Let’s hope for the both of us tomorrow will be a better day.” That said, I have seen dozens of more guys strike out three times on the day, and not get booed. Bad day. We have all had them. Actually, we had a lot of them watching the Yankees this October. So yeah, the three-strikeout guy was not necessarily booed. Well, unless one of them came with the bases loaded, of course.

There’s also a touch of hypocrisy in the “tisk, tisk” thinking of a lot of Yankee fans when it comes to the boos hurled at the heroes. Yankee fans are known to hurl the sharpest of invectives at the foes and are known for not only a rapier wit, but a mean streak that a badger would envy. So, when you think about it, when you have a dog in the house who will bite any idiot that walks in the door, it may turn one day and nip at you. You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to realize it may come to that very thing. We are wired differently, and rightfully so. It’s not simply being spoiled. It’s looking up and noticing the payroll is $200 million. This team should win. Especially when part of that $200 million payroll comes from our $11 beers and our $35 parking charges.

There were rumors making the rounds that Nick Swisher turned into the little girl on the playground who had her pigtail pulled because of “personal insults” that rained down on the clown for one of a dozen reasons. I don’t endorse this and I can see where it would drive fellow fans crazy, but let’s save that stuff for when he comes back to Yankee Stadium next year in the Red Sox uniform. If he thought he heard boos before, wait until he comes to visit in his spiffy new road tags. He may end up being the most hated player in baseball history and not just the worst playoff player in baseball history.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. To “blame” Swisher for Derek Jeter’s injury is so laughable and silly that it should be discounted by him and not used as a reason to pout. Apparently he was taken aback and offended he heard this waft from the right field stands. Yes, Jeter would not have gotten hurt if the Yankees had been out of the inning, but there were a dozen things that led to that. Comments against his wife? Uncalled for, if they happened. I find this dubious, and if they did, it was a fan here and there, and not a pack of rabid Yankee fans looking for amends or his “Bleacher Creature friends turning on him” as this was offered up. Boos are great. Insults to the home team, not necessary, and counterproductive. That said, I believe Swisher should have had some cheese with that whine of his. (And his wife’s TV show sucked, and I’m glad it got cancelled.)

I read some petulant tweets a couple of days before the Yankees were shown the door that the A’s, their World Series hopes dashed, were then serenaded with a nice ovation from the local fans with comments like, “That’s class! Too bad we won’t be seeing that if the Yankees are eliminated.” Ding, ding! You win what’s behind door No. 2! You nailed it, ace! After that postseason performance from the Yankees? I can sit here and recite the putrid numbers that were put on the board, but they can be found in the obituary section, as well as the record books. What the hell would I be applauding for? I did my share of applauding all year and it cost me a pretty penny to do so. I also sat through some bad baseball, and even worse, some lazy baseball. I’ve seen Robinson Cano get down the line so slowly that butterflies passed and beat him to the bag. This sort of thing should not be booed? Years of playoff ineptitude in the cases of Swisher and A-Rod should not be booed? (Yeah, I know “the Yankees would not have won that World Series without A-Rod,” but hey, even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.)

In the end, there was a lot of support for the “I Will Boo a Yankee” doctrine I follow myself. One night, after Granderson stuck to plan and struck out, I took a picture on my phone of some lout in Yankee Stadium engaged in a hearty “Booooooo!” toward the field on my TV, which also featured a crabby looking lady in mid-holler behind him. I tweeted this work of art, with a simple “Boooooooo!” as the caption. Well, I continued this on and off over the next couple of days to a litany of my Twitter followers that soon were asking me to break it out if the situation warranted it. I got to know this booing guy in the picture quite well simply by forwarding him out three to four times a night when things were at their worst. While we don’t like what leads us to boo, we like to boo. It’s cathartic.

So here is the deal. Yes, I have booed Yankees. I’m sure I will do it again. It’s not a task I take to lightly, but I’m prepared to do so if the situation warrants it. I raise my glass to others who booed since they know a bad product when they see it. And if you think I’m not a real fan for booing, you never walked in my shoes and you can go to bed tonight in your Yankee pajamas and count Nick Swishers walking back to the dugout after striking out in your sleep.

Yankee ALCS baseball! Booooooooooo!

Blogs

Oct 17, 2012

ALCS Game 3 Thoughts: ‘Why Not Us?’

The Yankees lost Game 3 of the ALCS and are one loss away from elimination unless they can do what was once done to them.

What if I told you Robinson Cano would have three hits in eight postseason games and none of them are home runs? What if I told you Curtis Granderson would have 15 strikeouts in 29 at-bats in the postseason? What if I told you Brett Gardner would lead off Game 3 of the ALCS, Eduardo Nunez would play shortstop and Eric Chavez would start at third base? What if I told you that the Yankees would be held scoreless in 28 of the 30 innings of the first three games of the ALCS? What if I told you the Yankees would give up nine runs in the first three games of the ALCS and be down 3-0 in the series?

That’s how I envision the voiceover guy for ESPN previewing the “30 for 30” series remake of Four Days in October in a few years to document these next four games of the ALCS. Because for some wild reason I believe that this Yankees team can come back in the ALCS against the Tigers. (No, I’m not drunk as I write this.)

I thought about calling these thoughts about Game 3 “Hi, Mom” to honor Alex Rodriguez mouthing those words to the TBS camera before first pitch. A-Rod sitting on the bench once again for Eric Chavez is as much of a joke as his in-game antics, which are as much of a joke as how the Yankees have played the first three games of the series. A-Rod not being in the Game 3 lineup was the only problem I had with Joe Girardi’s Game 3 lineup.

Yes, A-Rod has been awful and unproductive and hard to watch and a complete waste of money in these playoffs, but he did hit two home runs off of Justin Verlander this season. And if you aren’t keeping track at home, Eric Chavez is still hitless this October. But Girardi did what he thinks he has to do every game now and benched A-Rod, which is the “cool” thing to do these days. (What, mom? Everyone’s doing it!) Maybe we will find out after the season ends that A-Rod is legitimately hurt and that is the cause for his slump and for Girardi putting him in the Eduardo Nunez Early-Season Doghouse.

Game 3 was about what Games 1 and 2 were about: the Yankees’ inability to score runs. Well, actually this game was about the Yankees’ inability to even put guys on base. Ichiro was once again the only Yankee who could do anything and Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson continued to do nothing related to power.

I’m not mad about Raul Ibanez and not A-Rod hitting against the left-handed Phil Coke in the ninth inning since the Tigers would have brought in the right-handed Joaquin Benoit to face A-Rod anyway. I’m mad that Ibanez swung at ball four against Coke, but let’s be honest, Nick Swisher wasn’t tying the game if got a chance to hit after Ibanez.

The Yankees are in the worst of spots. Five days after surviving one elimination game they will have to survive another. And if they want to make it out of the ALCS they will have to survive four of these games in the next five days. It’s improbable, but not impossible and even I (of all people) believe that this Yankees team can do it. (Again, I’m not drunk.)

I entered Phase 1 of the Yankees Elimination Process on Saturday night with the combination of losing a game in which there was an epic comeback turned and the loss of Derek Jeter. I’m not ready to enter Phase 2 yet and I don’t think CC Sabathia will let me get to Phase 2 yet. We’ll get to the different phases of the Yankees Elimination Process if there isn’t a Game 5 on Thursday, but I think there will be. I know there will be.

***

Here are my thoughts from Game 3 of the ALCS.

– If anyone still thinks Robinson Cano is a Top 5 player in the league, I can give you my MLB TV account and password so you can go online and re-watch these postseason games.

– I have watched five of the eight postseason games on TV and in all five games I haven’t been able to know if the pitch is going to be a ball or a strike until the umpire signals for one or the other. That’s not good, is it? No, no it’s not. Justin Verlander is either the best pitcher on the planet or he’s the second-best pitcher on the planet (I’m taking Felix Hernandez first.) He doesn’t need any help from the umpire. But in Game 3, Verlander was getting blatant balls called strikes while Phil Hughes, who needs all the help he can get, was getting blatant strikes called balls. If you want to have a non-textbook strike zone or a moving strike zone, fine. Well, it’s not really fine, but if you want to have either one of those then at least be consistent for both pitchers.

– If you believe in TBS’ slogan of “Legends are born in October,” well, Ichiro’s birthday is Oct. 22. The only problem with that is Robinson Cano’s birthday is also Oct. 22.

– Was Eric Chavez hooking up with the two girls A-Rod landed at the Stadium in Game 2? Unless he got shot with a paintball gun on the off day on Monday, he definitely got a hickey from someone.

– Russell Martin has caught every inning of the playoffs for the Yankees, including two 12-inning games and a 13-inning game. There he was during Game 3 having his hand and wrist looked at it in the dugout in the middle of the game and there’s most likely something wrong with it, but he continued to play. I can’t help, but think that Mark Teixeira was probably advising him to not play if he’s even at 80-percent health.

– Is YES going to show Kevin Long in 2013 when Curtis Granderson hits a home run off a lefty or are we finally over that? Maybe Kevin Long is only responsible for when things are going right for the Yankees offense and they are crushing No. 4 and 5 starters in the regular season and September call-ups. If Kevin Long can survive the offseason after this postseason disaster then the Yankees might as well give him a lifetime contract because if he’s not going to be fired for this then he can’t possibly be fired for anything related to the team’s hitting ever.

– My brother texted me to say that John Sterling called Eduardo Nunez’s foul ball in the ninth inning fair. Never change, John Sterling. Never change.

– Phil Coke has reached the Josh Beckett Tier of Athletes I Hate to Look At. There aren’t many people in this club, but Coke has made it. Congratulations, I guess?

– Nick Swisher better not be in the lineup for Game 4. He shouldn’t be in the lineup again this series. And if he isn’t and he has played his last game as a Yankee, I can proudly say that I didn’t enjoy having the opportunity to watch him play baseball for four years.

– My fear of having “Land of Hope and Dreams” forever linked to postseason failure from the Yankees is coming true. It might be time for TBS to play “Lonesome Day” or “Better Days” on the Tri-state feed when they go to commercial. I’m all for them changing it to the song about Linda in The Wedding Singer if they have to. We’re at that point.

A wise man named Curt Schilling once asked, “Why not us?” So, I ask that question today with the Yankees facing a 3-0 deficit in the ALCS. Why not us?

This train carries CC Sabathia in Game 4. Don’t make it the last stop.

Blogs • Yankees

Oct 15, 2012

Nick Swisher Is a Sensitive Guy, Bro

The fans let Nick Swisher know they aren’t happy with him in Game 1 of the ALCS, so he turned on them.

In the 12th inning of Game 1 of the ALCS, Nick Swisher once again misplayed a ball in right field that led to the Tigers taking an extra-inning lead, and that’s when it started.

“Citi Field Nick! Citi Field Nick! Citi Field Nick! Citi Field Nick! Citi Field Nick!”

The chants implying Swisher would be a New York Met starting in 2013 rained down following his second defensive miscue in three nights that would also lead to another extra-inning loss. The Stadium grew quiet and fans let Swisher know he wouldn’t be given a free pass for his postseason failures at the plate when they had now made their way to the outfield and were costing the Yankees games. No one in the Stadium wanted to see Swisher’s Grinch smile/smirk combination that he was likely giving following his latest blunder and no one thought he would redeem himself at the plate in the bottom of the 12th, and he didn’t.

There’s a case to be made that Nick Swisher is the worst postseason player in the game’s history for the amount of opportunities he has had. In 45 postseason games he has a postseason career line of .167/.284/.300 with four home runs and seven RBIs in 147 at-bats. With the Yankees he’s played in eight postseason series and has hit .083, .150, .133, .333, .091, .211, .111 and now .250 in this ALCS. He was so bad in the 2009 World Series that he was benched for Jerry Hairston Jr. in Game 2.

During that World Series, Alex Rodriguez drove in six of his 18 postseason RBIs and beat the Twins and Angels by himself before changing Game 3 against the Phillies with a two-run home run (his sixth of the postseason) off Cole Hamels in the pivotal game. A-Rod is the No. 1 reason the Yankees won the World Series in 2009 after putting together one of the best postseason performances in history.

Prior to 2009, A-Rod was booed heavily in the Bronx during both the regular season and the postseason for his postseason failures stemming from the final four games of the 2004 ALCS. After A-Rod put the team on his back in 2009, you would have thought the booing would be over forever for a guy who finally brought the franchise and city a championship. Nope. The booing continued for A-Rod. Not at first , but it found its way back into his at-bats and his life almost as if 2009 never happened and his Yankees career consisted of only World Series-less seasons.

This postseason A-Rod has been pinch-hit for and benched. He took the heat for the Yankees needing a fifth game to eliminate the Orioles and he’s taking heat now for the Yankees being down 0-2 to the Tigers. For eight years now, A-Rod has drawn negative attention from his supposed own fans, the New York media and the nation as the game’s highest-paid player. Through all of this, A-Rod has called out the fans and complained about their antics exactly zero times. Zero. He has taken it like a man who understands the stakes of not only having a $275 million contract, but the stakes of playing for the New York Yankees.

Here’s what A-Rod said after the Yankees’ Game 2 loss on Sunday.

“We haven’t scored a run in a long time. I’m right there with them. You can’t blame them. You can’t blame our fans. We’ve got to go out there and score runs. We have the ability.”

A-Rod has been terrible this October. For all of the awful Octobers he has had with the Yankees this one has been his worst. The 2-for-15 from the 2005 ALDS, the 1-for-14 from the 2006 ALDS, the 4-for-15 from the 2007 ALDS, the 4-for-21 from the 2010 ALCS and the 2-for-18 from the 2011 ALDS are all looking a lot better than his 2012 right now (3-for-23, 12 strikeouts).

A-Rod has become the scapegoat for the Yankees’ inability to score runs. He has been the only regular from the lineup to be pinch-hit for and also benched in seven postseason games. He has watched his spot in the order be given to Raul Ibanez (and thankfully or the Orioles would be in the ALCS) and also Eric Chavez, who is 0-for-11 with five strikeouts in the playoffs. In three Octobers he has gone from the most feared hitter on the planet to an easy out and a platoon player. But he’s not alone.

Robinson Cano has now set the record for longest hitless streak in the Yankees’ postseason history and is 2-for-32 in the playoffs.

Curtis Granderson, the left-handed Mark Reynolds, is now 3-for-26 in October.

Mark Teixeira has one RBI in these playoffs.

The fans have finally started to come around on the rest of the Goof Troop, deciding that the booing should be divided up since A-Rod isn’t responsible for all 27 outs and every loss. (It only took nearly a decade for everyone to figure this out.) And it only took four Octobers for everyone to turn on Nick Swisher.

I will always get to say I was at the Stadium for the historic night when Yankee fans turned on Nick Swisher. And I will always remember the day that Nick Swisher turned on the fans, starting a battle he can’t win and punching his ticket out of the Bronx via free agency at the end of the season.

Unlike A-Rod, Swisher can’t handle the bright lights of New York when those bright lights are shining in a negative light. Swisher couldn’t handle the heckling on Saturday night or questions from fans asking him if would be doing a back-flip while in pursuit of the next ball hit to right field. For the first time as a Yankee, the Anti-Nick Swisher Club gained some steam and made some noise and it was too much for Swisher and his $10.25 million contract to take.

Swisher has been treated exceptionally well by the fans for four years despite not always deserving it. And for the first time, fans reached the tipping point with the postseason disaster that is Swisher and he couldn’t deal with it. So, Swisher took his ball and went home.

Bald Vinny described his salute to Section 203 during Roll Call on Sunday as one he had to make rather than one he wanted to make and he refrained from turning around to face the bleachers throughout Game 2. He made his warmup throws before each inning just beyond the infield rather than in his usual spot in right field. Swisher was hurt by the fans turning on him and his offensive and defensive postseason failures, and he wanted everyone to know about it by making it this noticeable. There has been exactly zero instances in the history of sports where a player has turned on his team’s fans and it has worked out well. Zero. But that’s what Nick Swisher chose to do after Game 2 of the ALCS and now he will have to deal with the consequences.

Here is some of what Swisher said about his relationship with the fans after Game 2.

“I’ve been so fortunate to be here and play every day. When things kind of turn like that, obviously it kind of hurts a little bit. This is the type of city and crowd that really rallies around its team. That’s the reason why we’ve got 27 championships.”

I didn’t realize Nick Swisher won 27 championships. What does he do with all the rings? He can really only wear 10 of them at a time unless he also wears some on his toes. But let’s say he doesn’t wear any on his toes. Does he just rotate them? Like does he wear the 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953 and 1956 ones on Monday with the 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009 ones and then switch them on Tuesday for 10 more? He must plan on wearing them in chronological order, right? That would make the most sense. I really want to know how he organizes this. This sounds like a future segment for Yankees On Deck on YES.

“To go through a stretch like this where it’s kind of a negative attitude, a negative-type setting, it’s tough. But hey man that’s part of the game. Rightfully so. There’s a lot of expectations here and I guess when you don’t get the job done, you’re going to hear about it.”

You guess?! You guess?! Is this real life? Nick Swisher “guesses that when you play for the New York Yankees there are a lot of expectations.” That’s nice of him. But in all seriousness, is this real life?

Apparently Nick Swisher thought that when you become a Yankee, you just put on the pinstripes, salute Section 203 every home game and everything is gumdrops and lollipops and it’s like living in Candy Land and results don’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose as long you give it your best and try your hardest, Nick! And the most important thing is that you have fun, Nick! Winning and losing isn’t important if you lose in the playoffs as long as you have fun, Nick! Everyone is a winner here!

“Last night was pretty big. A lot of people saying a lot of things I’ve never heard before. For example, I missed that ball in the lights and the next thing you know, I’m the reason that Jeter got hurt. It’s kind of frustrating. They were saying it’s my fault.”

I have a hard time believing Swisher lost that ball in the lights. Why? Have you ever seen Nick Swisher play right field before? It’s a little hard to believe a guy that just two nights prior rolled around in the outfield after a ball like Chris Farley and David Spade pretending they’re being attacked by bees in Tommy Boy. If he hadn’t sucked so bad at fielding only 48 hours before and the four years with the Yankees before that then maybe I would believe his excuse. If Ichiro misplays a ball in Game 3 and blames it on the lights I will believe him because he’s Ichiro and a 10-time Gold Glove winner and not the guy who plays right field like he’s had a few cocktails and laughs whenever he screws up or makes an out.

Could Swisher really be that upset about people blaming him for Jeter’s injury? How was he not more upset about the “Citi Field Nick” chants (which I was proudly a part of) suggesting he would be a New York Met in the offseason. The idea of being a Met has to hurt more than thinking you’re responsible for the injury to the most iconic Yankee since Mickey Mantle, no?

“I‘m one of those guys where if you give me a hug I’ll run through a brick wall for you, man.”

And then there are sometimes when Swisher will overrun the brick wall or do an unnecessary barrel roll to reach the brick wall or dive and miss the brick wall completely.

“It just kind of seems right now like there’s a lot of … It’s tough. It’s really tough. You want to go out there, you want to play for your city, for your team. Just right now, it’s just really tough.”

It’s really tough to get up for playoff baseball games at Yankee Stadium when you’re making $10.25 million. That’s a tough spot to be in and not something I would ever wish upon anyone. The $10.25 million isn’t enough for Swisher to play baseball and get up for playoff games, he also needs you to give him a hug.

“That’s the last thing that I ever thought would be in this ballpark, that people would get on you that bad, especially you’re home where your heart is, where you’ve been battling and grinding all year long. It’s just frustrating man. You never want to be in that spot. It’s not like you’re trying to go out there and do bad on purpose. It’s just tough.”

Aww, Nick Swisher never thought people would get on him at Yankee Stadium. Aww, poor Nick. Wait, Swisher has played for the Yankees for four years. That would mean that during the 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons he never heard fans boo A-Rod at Yankee Stadium. Hmm that’s a little odd. I’m pretty sure I have heard A-Rod booed at the Stadium over the last four years. Actually, I know I have. And it hasn’t just been four years. A-Rod has been booed heavily at the Stadium since 2005. That’s eight years. A-Rod has been called things Swisher would have to look up on Urban Dictionary and some of the things he has been called in the Bronx are even too terrible for even the Internet.

“Sometimes I’m a sensitive guy and some of the things people say, man, they get under your skin a little bit. Hey, man, I’ve been lucky to be here for the past four years bro, and we’re not going to go out like this. We’re going to go to Detroit, man, give everything we’ve got and we’re going to go from there.”

The Yankees have to win two of the three games in Detroit to return to Yankee Stadium in 2012. If the series gets back to New York, Nick Swisher will have to face the fans he called out. If it doesn’t get back to New York, he will have to face the fans he called out in another uniform at another time because Nick Swisher won’t be a Yankee in 2013. He decided that on Sunday.

Blogs

Oct 15, 2012

ALCS Game 2 Thoughts: Second Verse, Same as the First

The Yankees were shutout in Game 2 of the ALCS and are now in an 0-2 hole with Justin Verlander waiting in Detroit in Game 3.

When your starting pitcher has a perfect game through five innings, you’re usually going to win the game. I say “usually” because if your offense is the Yankees offense in the postseason then those are the games you’re going to lose when your starting pitcher is throwing a perfect game through five innings.

There’s not much to say about Game 2. The Yankees can’t score. I said going into the postseason that the Yankees would get great pitching, but that it would be up to A-Rod, Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher to produce. And the Yankees have gotten great starting pitching and have the best rotation in the postseason, but A-Rod, Teixeira and Swisher have been their usual October selves. When I made that statement before the postseason, I didn’t factor in how bad Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson would be as well, and that’s why the Yankees are in the worst possible position heading into Game 3.

Hiroki Kuroda took the mound on short on rest for the first time in his career. He earned a no-decision against the Orioles four days before despite going 8 1/3 innings and allowing two earned runs on five hits, and on Sunday, Kuroda was even better. The Yankees’ best starter in the regular season went 7 2/3 innings against the Tigers, allowing three earned runs on five hits while striking out a career-high 11. Kuroda tried to put the team on his back, but no one got on.

The Yankees recoreded just three hits off of Anibal Sanchez in seven innings and one off of Phil Coke (who is in the Josh Beckett tier of hate for me) in two innings. Robinson Cano set the Yankees record for most consecutive at-bats without a hit in the postseason with an 0-for-4, A-Rod and Nick Swisher each struck out two more times and Curtis Granderson, to no surprise, struck out three times.

Saturday night had the same feeling of an elimination game once Derek Jeter went down for the season and Game 2 only helped to justify that feeling. Now the Yankees are sitting in an 0-2 hole with Justin Verlander waiting in Game 3. Let’s hope the NHL and NHLPA settle the lockout this week.

This train carries Phil Hughes in Game 3.