Here is the absolutely last, no two ways about it, this time I mean it blog entry about baseball for this season. Ready? Here it comes:
BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA
UP YOURS, GEORGE!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Ha.
Whew.
Okay. I’m done now.
PAD
AND THIS JUST IN In a move that may provide some small solace to Yankees fans, Derek Jeter will not be charged for the error in the sixth inning. Instead, he’s having it charged to Visa.
• 
Well as a Yanks fan in South Florida, I’m a little disapointed that the Yanks have yet to win in the 21st Century, though they did win in the ’00s (now who did they beat again?, but my local team won. So in the the last 10 series, the Yanks are 4-2 and the Marlins are 2-0. Little factoid, this year and 1997 when they also won the series were the only years when the team had a winning record.
And there is the whole “Cinderella” aspect. Lousy start in the begining, the bringing in of a 72 year old manager (now the oldest championship coach is pro sports), a hot player who started the season in the minors, a couple of very young pitchers, a payroll more than 100,000 less that the Yanks, beating both the Giants and the Cubs (including the game 6 miracle), hey they deserved it.
And hopefully, while some players will obvously be let go, it won’t be like the firesale of 1997.
Now they’ll probably try to get a stadium again. Go ahead, but with all the budget cuts going on, don’t ask me for my tax money to pay for it.
David
Well thank goodness. I find the Marlins winning it all to be somehow ultimately amusing.
Jack McKeon sure does look like a fricking genius, doesn’t he?
David Serchay: I’m a little disapointed that the Yanks have yet to win in the 21st Century, though they did win in the ’00s (now who did they beat again?)
The Mets. As with every World Series featuring the Yorkies since 1998, I boycotted it, but I was mostly rooting for someone to win in 4 games (I think it went five) to send as many New Yorkers home as unhappy as possible. (Though if forced to pick, I probably would have rooted for the Mets.)
Major League Baseball really needs to add about three more teams to the New York City metro area. It’s certainly big enough to support them.
Amen to that!
There are few things in this life that give me more pleasure than watching the Yankees bite the dust!
a payroll more than 100,000 less that the Yanks,
Actually, the difference in payroll is quite a bit more pronounced than that–the Marlins payroll was only $52 million this year, while the Yankees was somewhere between $162 million and $180 million (depending on which source you look at). The Yanks spent more than three times what the Fish did, yet still had to watch the Marlins celebrate a World Series championship on the field at Yankee Stadium.
Sometimes life is sweet.
Just for that I’m no longer buying Fallen Angel…
UP YOURS PAD!
BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA
The problem is never strictly about money. It’s about how you spend the money. This year, the Marlins spent their money more effectively than the Yankees, who struggled all year to put together an effective team, constantly trying to apply little band-aids to every little problem, and all too often failing along the way.
The Yankees have been as good as they have been for the past decade (clearly, the Yankee Dynasty) because of the strength of their scouting. It’s not the dollar figures that won them World Series, but the fact that their scouts have done such an amazing job in finding people, and in not trading away some of the fine talent in the minor leagues. Remember: Pettite, Williams, Jeter, Posada, Nick Johnson, and — most importantly — Mariano Rivera are all products of the Yankees system, even though many people would like you to think they were bought and paid for in some other way.
This year, the team never gelled, and they slumped at the wrong time. They lost and the Marlins won. Maybe they’ll figure out their bullpen problems a little earlier next year.
Still, losing Game 7 to the Diamondbacks in the 9th inning with Rivera on the mound is still ten times more heartbreaking than this loss.
No matter what, we’ll always have that magical series against the Red Sox.
-Augie
I don’t know what I should be feeling…
Should I be happy that the Yanks lost at home, thereby really getting George’s panties in a twist?
Or should I be utterly depressed that a town like Miami, where the people didn’t care about the team until October, and probably won’t care about the team next year, can celebrate 2 championships in 10 years?
And does anyone want to guess what Steinbrenner’s gonna do now? I have a funny feeling that it’s going to involve an even larger payroll.
Gee, maybe if I inspire this kind of hatred I need to seriously rethink some of the decisions I’ve made in my life.
I’m sorry, I’m starting to tear up. All I ever wanted to do was spread my evil across the Earth. Is that so wrong?
I feel that it was a bit of poetic justice for the Marlins to win the series in New York. Kept all the fair-weather fans from being able to see it at Joe Robbie Stadium.
Yes, I know that they’ve re-named the stadium and it has some corporate mumbo-jumbo on it. It’s just to me it will always be Joe Robbie, like it’s Candlestick Park, and the Murph. Ulike Houston’s Reliant Stadium (named for energy company) that has only had that name.
You’re missing the point augie.
Sure the scouts brought in those guys through the system but unlike small market teams the yankees can afford to keep the really good players, instead of losing them to free angency. They may have the good players with scouting but, every team has good players that came up through the system, it’s the money that keeps them in new york for 10 years.
and with the exception of pettit all of their starters have been brought in from outside. which is fine but of course with the money they have they are all proven aces. Even Weaver who faltered badly was the best pitcher for his team last year.
In a short series anything can happen, someone gets hot or cold, but george tries to over come that by putting as many superstars on the field as he can.
I wouldn’t call them little bandaids. we are talking a payroll that exceeds it’s closest neighbour by at least 50 million dollars.
Augie De Blieck Jr.: The problem is never strictly about money. It’s about how you spend the money. This year, the Marlins spent their money more effectively than the Yankees, who struggled all year to put together an effective team, constantly trying to apply little band-aids to every little problem, and all too often failing along the way.
Wait a minute. You are talking about the New York Yankees, right? Not one of their farm teams?
The New York Yankees won 101 games this season, tied (with Atlanta) for the best record in the Majors. They finished with the fourth-best offense in the Majors (and only Boston was significantly ahead), and the third-best ERA in the AL (and the two teams ahead of them – Seattle and Oakland – play in pronounced pitchers’ parks).
They went 50-32 at home and 51-29 on the road. (Their road record was, in fact, the best in the Majors.)
By no stretch of the imagination were the Yorkies ineffective or struggling this year.
I’m for Yankee-bashing as much as the next guy, but saying things about them that are flatly untrue seems ineffective.
I’m for Yankee-bashing as much as the next guy, but saying things about them that are flatly untrue seems ineffective.
And yet it’s the type of things many of their own fans say. Last night they interviewed Yankees fans on TV who loudly declared, “We accept nothing less than winning the whole thing!” That’s one of the things that’s so obnoxious. There are many fans who feel that not only is a World Series title their God-given right, but if the Yankees come up short of that, they’re failures and the whole season was a waste.
It’s certainly an attitude reflected by the Yankees owner.
PAD
Up yours Yankess! This will teach pretty boy Jeter to spend less time on comercials and more on practice…..and oh yeah Billy Crystal: your mom lives in South Florida and loves it…maybe you should start loving the Marlins!
YYYYYYYYYYYaaaaaaaaahoooooooooo!
I’m not a Yankee hater, I just think that they have won the championship enough for a while. And, I’m not a Steinbrenner fan anyway, it was fun to see the camera pan over to him during the series and see a frown on that ugly face.
Augie is right, to a point. Money does not automatically win anything, and the Yankees spent their money poorly this year (Jesse Orosco?)
The reason that so many, including me, have so many problems with the Yankees payroll is that they can afford to spend money poorly, and still go find another player whenever they need to.
Baltimore makes a bad contract with Albert Belle and it’s held them back until this year. They’ve been paying him to be retired.
The Yankees also have a habit of signing players for no reason other than to prevent another team (specifically the Red Sox) from getting them. See, Jose Canseco. What were they going to do with him? Steinbrenner wanted Cashman to sign David Ortiz, as if two left-handed hitting first basemen weren’t enough. They dug a little deeper in their pursuit of Contreras when the Sox showed interest. They helped manipulate a trade that sent Bartolo Colon to the White Sox so Boston couldn’t get him.
But the two real places where their payroll comes into the equation is starting pitching – everyone knows pitching wins and Pettite is the only Yankee starter from their system – and ability to retain players – imagine if Oakland had kept Jason Giambi, or Pittsburgh kept Barry Bonds, or Montreal Pedro, Randy Johnson, Larry Walker and soon Vlad Guererro and Javier Vazquez.
Their scouting has been good, but I don’t think it is extraordinary.
Florida has more home-grown players than the Yankees, but we’re already hearing that they won’t be able to resign Luis Castillo or they might have to let Derek Lee go rather than pay him what he’ll get through arbitration.
Payroll affects everything that they Yankees are able to do.
Actually, given that in general I favored Bud Selig somehow finding a way to declare this series a tie or otherwise null and void, have to confess I would’ve prefered the Ðámņÿáņkëëš had won. To them, it’s just #27 in a series, and what’s expected.
Instead, the Fish win. Their second Series in eleven whopping years of existance. The only years they’ve had a winning record they win the Series. They’ve never managed to win a division, but have won the Series twice. They’ve had two of the worst owners in the past decade (you just know Montreal was rooting for the Yankees over Loria’s team). They don’t have a devoted fanbase or history.
Nothing against the players or coaches, but there’s this feeling that the team entity as a whole just doesn’t deserve this. At least they didn’t do the trifecta of beating the Giants (1954), Cubs (1908), and Red Sox (1918) or else the various nuclear facilities in the vicinity of those three cities might’ve been working on making Pro Player a smoking crater. 🙂
I’ve never understood why a team who has only existed any number of years is somehow less deserving.
If seniority counts for anything, forget the Yankees. They’ve only just reached the century mark- the Reds, Phillies, Cubs, Pirates and several others predate that.
I guess it’s the same mentality that makes it nearly impossible to sell a comic book character who has been around for less than 30 years. I’ve never understood why those characters are somehow more appealing either.
Sure, Jeffry Loria is a putz, and he’s probably the least popular owner in baseball not named Steinbrenner. I wasn’t thrilled to see him win a World Series, but the Florida players, and Jack McKeon certainly, did a great job. They deserve this, they earned it.
That’s one of the things that’s so obnoxious. There are many fans who feel that not only is a World Series title their God-given right, but if the Yankees come up short of that, they’re failures and the whole season was a waste.
Absolutely! That’s what they celebrate cheating weasels who win the ALCS for them. (C’mon, you knew I was going to get one more shot in on that). Yankees fans are not baseball fans. They have no respect for the game, just winning no matter what.
Michael C Lorah: Augie is right, to a point. Money does not automatically win anything, and the Yankees spent their money poorly this year (Jesse Orosco?)
The reason that so many, including me, have so many problems with the Yankees payroll is that they can afford to spend money poorly, and still go find another player whenever they need to.
Baltimore makes a bad contract with Albert Belle and it’s held them back until this year. They’ve been paying him to be retired.
Well, I agree with your sentiment that the Yankees have the payroll to afford to make mistakes that other teams can’t absorb (Jermaine Dye’s salary is going to be a millstone around the Athletics’ neck for a couple more years, and his signing wasn’t even a bad decision! He just had some fluke injuries that hammered his ability). That’s a fundamental problem with baseball, and a reason the game needs true revenue sharing (not a lame “payroll tax”).
I disagree with some specifics, though: First, the Yankees actually spent their money pretty well this year. They do have a few holes in their strategic game: Jason Giambi is reaching the point of never-ending injuries, as many people suspected. Derek Jeter is a good hitter (for a shortstop), but a lousy fielder. Alfonzo Soriano is a hacker who can be exposed by the better pitchers (as we’ve seen). Their biggest problem is a reliance on old (albeit once-great) starting pitchers. They’re going to have some work to do if Clemens, Wells and Pettitte all leave.
They are, however, fundamentally the same Yankees team – and same type of Yankees team – which won four World Series last decade. They have power, patience, a little speed, and very good (or better) pitching. They’ve just finally run into some teams who can expose their weaknesses in a short series and play until the final roll of the dice, rather than getting run over like the Padres and Mets.
Oh, and on Albert Belle: He’s not really what’s held the Orioles back for the last few years. Most (80%, I think) of his contract has been covered by insurance. The problem is that the Orioles emptied their farm system in a devil’s deal to put together a great team in 1997, and re-signed lots of aging players who couldn’t be expected to retain their production. Then when those older players collapsed, they didn’t have anyone in the farm system to replace them. Let’s face it, the O’s haven’t brought up a Grade A prospect in about a decade. They might be on the verge of putting something together, but they need to get past the era of Tony Batistas, David Seguis and Mike Bordicks.
It’s those sorts of personnel decisions, not Albert Belle’s contract, which make the Blue Jays more likely to challenge for a division title next year than the Orioles.
Okay. I grant that Albert Belle was not a good example. I forgot about the insurance issue.
But the larger point, that the Yankees payroll gives them flexibility to sign a marginally effective reliever or bench player, then cast him off, then sign another marginally effective middle reliever or bench player (while, for example, I’m pretty sure that Detroit IS still stuck with Damion Easley’s contract and will feel it for another year or two) remains.
Few other teams could have paid Ruben Sierra just to pinch hit or Jose Contreras to pitch in the minor leagues for 8 mil or Jeff Weaver to do basically nothing.
I would argue that the procession of relievers through their bullpen this year indicates that the money was not terribly well spent. Although I admit that I’m not sure how much, if any, of those contracts the Yankees actually paid, particularly for two-weekers like Orosco and Armando Benitez. Orosco was released, so at least in his case, they should be responsible for the remainder of his contract, which wasn’t all that much in baseball terms.
The Orioles do have bad management. This is their true malaise. Angelos ranks with Loria as an owner I’d rather not see win anything, but Steinbrenner ranks even below those two.
A salary cap would be a good thing for baseball. I’ve never understood why so many fight it, considering that every other major sport has one and it hasn’t damaged the players’ earning potential that much.
^^^^
And dont get me started on the obscene contract that the Texas Rangers gave to Pay-Rod, aka Alex Rodriguez.
The yankees are too full of themselves. Im glad they lost. Baseball tends to get boring if it’s the same team winning every year. Glad to see FL get! 😀
Two points:
1. It’s great that Florida (the team, not the fans, nor the owner) won the world series. They were fun to watch, but they play for crappy fairweather crowds and for a shyster owner who bought his team in the shadiest way possible. F*ck you, Loria.
2. Anyone celebrating the yankees losing (the team, not the fans, or the owner) is a complete moron as well. Really no middle ground in that one. In terms of sheer obnoxiousness of their players, the Yankees come in second to last behind the marlins this season. Javy Lopez, the entire “cowboy up” movement, Sammy the latin retard, and the oakland complainers all have to place before them. Unless you want to cite david wells, in which case you may have a point. =)
I just wanted to see the Yankees get cut down a notch after watching my fave team loose to em, (the Red Sox) do I dare say? I actually enjoyed seeing them loose? Yupe, sure did. 🙂 Call me a moron then but I loved every minute of it. The above post cut me off that was supposed to be “get it”. 😛
Yankee fan here… 2 comments:
A) I also was horribly sick of watching the ridiculous jeter-george-visa commenrical….and the second version was worse than the first.
B) Everyone who is sick of the yankees winning just for the plain old reason they feel other teams deserve a chance…I wonder how everyone reacted back in the 40’s and 50’s when the yankees won 10+ championships. Yogi Berra himself owns something like 10 WS rings. If you dont like the reasons they are winning…fine…but the sheer number of times they have won lately pales in comparison with their history.
Mike (who was still a yankee fan during those wonderful last place years of the Kevin Maas era) 🙂
Michael C Lorah: A salary cap would be a good thing for baseball. I’ve never understood why so many fight it, considering that every other major sport has one and it hasn’t damaged the players’ earning potential that much.
I think a salary cap would be a disastrous thing for baseball. It damages players’ earning ability immeasurably, because it basically sets how much money they can make up front, and allows the owners to just sock away any extra money that comes in. It relieves the owners of accountability and responsibility to manage their own resources.
The strength of MLB’s players union is one of the best things that ever happened to baseball, both for the game and from a purely humanistic standpoint. I think they’re to be applauded for every gain they’ve made in the last 30 years, especially considering they (as a class) spent most of the previous century as little more than indentured servants, thanks to the unmitigated evil that was the reserve clause.
Before we start bandying about the idea of salary caps, I want to see the owners open up every last one of their books to the general public, and institute complete revenue sharing across the board. Then we’ll talk.
dam typos thats “lose”.
I would rather have seen the Cubs and the Sox battle it out this year but, that’s just my opinion. The poor Cubs should have had that last game.
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Okay, you’ve got me here. Economics are not my strong point, so I’m not sure what would be involved in creating a revenue sharing system or how it would work.
I understand the basic principle, everyone has equalish money, but that’s about it.
I totally support the players’ union and all that is has accomplished. That was not my intent. Occasionally, I still disagree with it however.
For example, steroid testing I support totally.
In my mind, a salary cap would be $110 to $120 million, which would only rein in the top three or four teams anyway. I’m not sure that would have the negative impact you mention, although I suppose it could. I like the idea, though I can’t recall where I read it, that there would also have to be minimum cap that teams must adhere to.
Revenue sharing would be better, but I don’t have any examples of how it works. I don’t follow any other sports even a little bit, so I know it exists, but not much more.
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People reacted the same as they do now, actually.
I read an article on espn just a few days ago, in which the writer looked through old articles from the late 50’s and found complaints from other MLB owners about the Yankees having so much additional TV revenue that they could afford to buy any unsigned player around.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=neyer_rob&id=1648152
Me I was just rooting for the team that “Pudge” was catching for this year. Having watched him come up through the Texas Rangers farm system , then catch for Nolan Ryan and never get even close to the Series.
Finally a team this rangers fan could feel proud that They (He) won.
Following up on what PAD said about Yankees fans, as a NYer I have to agree. There’s no real love for the team among most NYers. We like when they win but if they lose, the whole thing was a wash.
I was in a coffeehouse on the Upper East Side when the Yankees lost to Florida. For most of the final inning, I thought the Yankees were winning, given the shouts and hollers I was hearing. You couldn’t survive rooting against the home team in a Mets-friendly bar (say in Queens) or in a Chicago bar or in a Boston pub (that reminds me of one of my favorite scenes in “Cheers” if anyone cares to guess it).
Granted, I’m not a baseball fan, but the Mets, Soxs, and Cubs fans seem to represent more of what the sport is ideally about than the sort of fairweatherness I’ve seen from Yankees fans in NYC.
Maybe if it becomes less a foregone conclusion that the Yankees will win, we’ll start to see a change.
(People point out how the Lakers and the Bulls used to dominate, but in those cases, even if you hated the team, you just watched in awe at Jordan or Magic and so on.)
An amusing quote I found from an editorial at ESPN.com today:
“In winning four straight American League pennants and world championships, the Yankees have not won popularity. If anything, as they travel along the path to a victory record unique in baseball, they are also moving through a gauntlet of unparalleled emotion that ranges from fear, envy, distrust, disgust and displeasure to downright hatred.”
– Milton Gross, Sep. 1953 issue of “Sport”