The Yankees are off message with all this whining and unprofessionalism. They did it to you good, you missed it, and they got caught. Move on, boys…
The Yankees, in theory, represent the elite in professional sports. This is the organization that bans facial hair and salutes the neutered outpourings from Derek Jeter, no matter how bland they were.
The Yankees are also the franchise that has 27 World Championships, the most in baseball, to their credit. They print money, and they use it to strike terror in the hearts of their rivals – whenever they have the urge to do so.
Never mind that Aaron Judge, the captain in wait of the Yankees, spoke the truth at the end of the 2019 season, declaring six months of baseball and 103 wins – a “failure” – before the excuses and rationalizations offered in Yankees camp yesterday came forward.
We was robbed. No, you weren’t robbed. But you did lose. Just like you lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2001 World Series.
Oh, it hurt when Luis Gonzalez, facing the mighty Mariano Rivera, hit that bleeder into short centerfield beating all the odds against a pitcher with a lifetime 0.91 ERA in the postseason.
Or, maybe we should ask the Baltimore Orioles if they was robbed too. You know what I’m talking about.
Maybe all these years later, Jeffrey Maier wants to own up to how he helped his Yankees cheat their way to a title when he “caught” Jeter’s fly ball.
The pendulum swings both ways, and no team wins them all.
Yankees news in the New York Daily News today reads like a catechism of remorse against all comers, but mostly the Houston Astros.
It began with CC Sabathia a couple of weeks ago when he rued about how the Astros cost him a chance at a title. I got that, mostly because Sabathia had run out of time, and he has no more opportunities.
But now, the virus has spread from the top and Hal Steinbrenner, “I was as upset as anyone,” to Aaron Boone, who “is still mad.”
The articles go on to Gary Sanchez, who says if he ever hits a walk-off as the one Jose Altuve hit to down the Yankees, “he would be willing to strip naked,” a reference to the claim Altuve had a buzzer under his shirt signaling the pitch coming to him.
Chiming in as well, we hear from Luis Severino, who fought against reports he was tipping his pitches, claiming he felt all along “something was wrong,” but he, like Sanchez, did not ring the bell.
It’s over dudes. You are the New York Yankees, and you need to begin acting like it – once again.
Oh, the psychologists will tell us that venting is good, and how we don’t want to keep these things inside.
Hogwash. And besides, I thought we already knew “There’s no crying in baseball”…
Not to go unnoticed is the silence coming from the players who “get it.” Aaron Judge knows better, and so does Brett Gardner. DJ LeMahieu and Gleyber Torres too.
Blame the media if you wish, but these guys are only making a living. And they’re smart enough to stay away from the pros who will only tell them, “No Comment.”
A final note tells the Yankees to mark May 15-17 on their calendar when they are slated to play three games at Minute Maid Park, and then again on September 21-23 when the Astros will be at Yankee Stadium.
Those six games are the only “statements” that count.
Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.
