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Tag: Curtis Granderson

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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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