The Vine: October 9, 2007
Dear Sars:
I was among the faithful at the Stadium last night, who stayed past Kyle Farnsworth’s miraculous scoreless inning, only to watch Torre pinch-hit the meathead that used to star in those deodorant commercials for Shelly Duncan.WTF?I witnessed Robbie Cano, A-Rod and Bobby Abreu’s home runs.And then nothing.It felt like celebrating Christmas on December 23.
What went wrong?Putting the meathead in…did nothing.Starting with Wang over Mussina…kind of a wash.Jeter hitting like A-Rod, and A-Rod hitting like Jeter?Harbinger of the apocalypse, anyone?Seriously, do I have to watch the Indians play the Red Sox, only to go on to play the winner of a Rockies vs. Diamondbacks playoff?
Again.WTF?
Sincerely,
Tier Reserved 11, Row V, Seat 2
Dear T.,
There are a lot of answers to that question, and which ones you get will depend on whom you ask, but since you asked me…the Yankees didn’t have the pitching.They didn’t have it all year, but that’s never going to be more glaringly apparent than in a short series — unless the heart of your order isn’t hitting, which was also the case here.Wang has looked tired for a month.Clemens is falling apart, and unless Moose starts throwing a knuckleball, he’s functionally done as well.Pettitte is still a go-to guy when you absolutely have to win the game, and he gave us that performance the other night, but the Yankee bats did nothing, and that won’t cut it.
The 2007 Yankees were not a great team.They were a good team that made the very best of a shitty start and rode an MVP performance from A-Rod (and a career year at the plate from the catcher) into October; they got as far as they were supposed to go.Should the umpires have stopped Friday’s game until the midges cleared off?I think they should have; it wouldn’t have made a difference.Should Torre have handled his pitchers differently?Yes, all year, but by this point, he had nothing left to work with, and it wouldn’t have made a difference.Why did he pinch-hit Giambi?The usual reasons — an excellent eye, can work a count and make pitchers throw a lot of pitches.My sense is that he’d gotten a bit rusty, but unless Torre’s asking him to bunt, I don’t have a problem with that decision.And it wouldn’t have made a difference.
It sucks.The too-little-too-late home runs last night were painful, the two runs Moose gave up that ended up being the scoring difference were painful, Jeter electing himself the mayor of GIDP City was painful, Farnsworth choosing now not to suck was painful — the team looked flat, like they knew it was pointless, and…it was, really.They got as far as they were supposed to, and then they lost, which was inevitable.They wouldn’t have beaten the Red Sox, not this year.They don’t really have an ace in the Beckett mold, the middle relief is middl-ing and seldom have I felt relieved to see it coming in from the bullpen…Joba’s great, he’s got a great story, I hope he moves up to the rotation and that we get to see him as a starter and watch him grow, but the fact that the sports media, and Yankee fans, became obsessed with the guy and the Joba rules and blah blah like we’d never seen a kid throw 96 before?Not to take away from the guy; see above.But all the fooferaw around him, when he’s one guy, one 8th-inning guy who can’t come in more than X times a week, smacked of denial to me.Like, this is not the answer; this isn’t even the question that was asked.
I don’t like it either, but in my opinion, the team got beat, fairly and predictably.They avoided a sweep; that’s the best we could have hoped for.Their pitching is old and not dominating; key guys didn’t hit until it was too late.I don’t know if A-Rod can live with that, or if Torre will be allowed to live with that for another season, but although it’s undesirable, this was the correct result.
And it could be worse.They didn’t give up a significant lead in the division, lose on the last day, and watch the team that beat them get swept authoritatively by an expansion franchise that has to keep baseballs in a humidor.The Yankees have excuses.The Mets, not so much.
The midges hit up Cleveland every year in late September/early October, but speaking as a Clevelander, it’s not like we get much action those times of years. Both teams were equally inconvenienced by the damn bugs.
I will say, you Yanks gave us a run for our money and that was some damn fine baseball.
Seriously. Fuckin’ Phillies, God love ’em. The Mets are on their way toward being one of the losingest teams of October, I’d bet. Beaten by losers who will be beaten by losers…
Do this year’s Rockies remind anyone else of the 2005 Astros? Team that gets really hot, bursts into the playoffs with a bunch of unknowns, gets deeper in said playoffs than they ever have before… and then they get flattened in the World Series by a vastly superior AL team. This is coming. I can feel it.
Did you see the SportsGuy was suggesting the Joba should stay a reliever as Mariano either leaves or fades? Really, that could make some sense. Of course, there are also a lot of places at the starters’ table now that Roger and Moose should be done, so I guess it’s just a matter of which they do better at filling in the off-season.
I gotta say, as a Red Sox fan, I don’t think anyone in NY can really complain about seeing anyone play anyone else “again” what with the what? 7 straight years they won the world series? I mean, yeah, this season kind of sucked for the Yanks, but I’m in Chicago right now – at least the Yanks put up a good fight.
“They didn’t give up a significant lead in the division, lose on the last day, and watch the team that beat them get swept authoritatively by an expansion franchise that has to keep baseballs in a humidor.”
HA!
Good point, though. The Yankees are the only team that *wasn’t* swept. That was a pretty pathetic first round, if you ask me.
I wasn’t rooting for the Indians much (I really couldn’t decide who to back, honestly), but at least with them winning makes me feel better about the Tigers. (See: Mets)
Speaking as a Yankees fan in Boston, I’ve gotta say, this is making a lot of the Red Sox fans insufferable (This is not directed at Sol, nor am I saying it’s EVERY Sox fan). There is a certain class of Sox fans that talk like their team is this folksy bunch of ragtag players pulling themselves up by their bootstraps when they’re the second richest team in MLB. Dude, shut up. You’ve got a great team. You don’t need to make them sound like they’re the Newsies. It’s almost as annoying as the fans who make a bigger deal about the Yankees not getting into the ALCS than they do about their team getting into the ALCS. These are the same people who yell ‘Yankees Suck’ in movie theaters. In February. Be a Sox fan, not a Yankees Suck fan.
I’m a native New Yorker and a Yankee fan (occasionally a rabid one), and I have to go with you on this, Sars – the Yankees got as far as they were going to go with what they had on hand. Personally, I was surprised they made it this far. They just don’t have the pitching, and haven’t had it for a while (it feels like years).
I also have a sneaking suspicion that Alex Rodriguez has been cursed since he joined the Texas Rangers (!!!!!!!) for the purpose of getting a record contract; I’m probably imagining this and/or making stuff up, but it feels like teams do better after he leaves. And I say that as a former fan -one year I saw the Yankees play the Mariners so many times I lost count, so I could root for A-Rod on one side and the Yankees on the other. That was back in the days when you were pretty much guaranteed to see A-Rod hit a home run.
Those were good days.
@Cara: God, seriously. Shall we review the numbers from the Dice-K transaction? …Okay, then.
Equally insufferable: Yankee fans who put all the team’s woes at the feet of “Pay-Rod,” or whatever other “witty” nickname he’s stuck with this week. Without the season he had, the Yankees are in third place at best, in a weak division. You want to get on someone for not earning his paycheck, start with the walking pharmacy who can’t play the easiest position on the field even when he’s healthy. And I don’t dislike Giambi, either, but: come on.
I can’t even think about baseball right now. Damn you Cubs.
Wow – I had completely forgotten that Farnsworth landed with the Yankees. As a Cubs fan who suffered through too many years with that pukka shell necklace wearing headcase, I feel your pain. (Seriously, he was actually caught on camera crying in the dugout during a game.)
The Cubs and I have been on a semi-break the past couple seasons, so I didn’t follow baseball as closely this year. But Yankees fans should be proud the Yankees didn’t get swept and actually made an impressive comeback to get into the playoffs.
All very true. We/they just weren’t good enough and that’s that. As I texted some friends post-game: “Approximately 119 days til pitchers and catchers.” I got a couple of sweet text messages from the Sox fans in my life expressing their love for me, if not for my team. And now I have to find a happy place while my boyfriend, who I live with and love dearly, enjoys his continuing post season as a Sox fan. grrr…
I love reading TN but when a baseball post comes up I think, “Huh?” with a stupid look on my face, as I am clueless about baseball. However, my 6 year old nephew is crazy about it and the other night asked who my favorite team was. I grew up in SoCal so I said “Dodgers” although really, I don’t have a preference. He asked who my favorite player was and I said “Derek Jeter” as it was the first name I could think of. When I asked my nephew “Doesn’t he play for New York?” he replied, “No, that’s Alex Rodriguez!” Clearly I must keep reading these baseball posts…
Wait a minute! Derek Jeter does so play for New York – on the same team as A-Rod, right? The Yankees? Oh, burn on my nephew – I might be clueless about baseball but the yahoo search engine tells me I’m not THAT clueless! I learned something from TN after all!
I’m starting to love the Rockies, a little. Not enough that I can name anyone on the team, but the start of hockey season reminds me that “major league baseball in Colorado” is not nearly as ridiculous — is not even a star in the same galaxy of ridiculousness — as “major league hockey in Nashville.”
Augh. Fucking Rockies. At least the Mets weren’t beat by them.
I’ve been coming across a lot of Yankee fans lately, and their general attitude is “What happened? Why aren’t we winning? It’s not fair.” And the only response I have is “Have you watched a game all season? That’s what happened. It is totally fair.” I want to say thank you Sars for stating that. The Yankees could not keep up, the bullpen struggled and the bats couldn’t make up for that. They shouldn’t have a reserved spot in the ALCS just because they’re the Yankees. Enough of the annoying “but we deserve it” fanism. I’m looking forward to the ALCS, the Red Sox against the Indians is going to be a damn good series.
My condolences to the Cubs fans.
I just scrolled up to get the name right on who said “not A-Rod’s fault, STFU” and it was Sars, yay! I swear to all that’s holy and the tiny little midges in Cleveland, I am not and never have been an A-Rod fan but ESPN and the NYC media are turning me into one, if only so I can have some sense of happy along with my anger every time someone brings up his “chokeyness.”
Jeter “choked” way more in this series. And sucked at shortstop.
The really happy thing for me is that now that the Yankees have lost, Fire Joe Morgan is updated 5, 6 times a day!
baggage: I’m with you. Try being a Cubs fan in Milwaukee, no less.
GO ROCKIES!!!
(I’m actually a Brewers fan, being a cheesehead by birth – but if I don’t root for the Rockies they’ll make me drink Coors & take away my parks pass…)
Coors Field is pretty nice though.
@ Jessica — Right on! My husband and I firmly believe hockey should NOT be allowed in any city where ice doesn’t form naturally. The Stanley Cup should never, ever have even the tiniest chance of ending up in any city where people think “hockey season” means “wear a light jacket; it’s a bit chilly out there!” (That said, we sweated through the Blackhawks home opener on Saturday during a freakish October heatwave…but there’s no chance of the Stanley ending up here anytime soon…)
Sniff. If he goes, I’ll miss Joe. But good pitching (which the Yanks did not have) will beat good hitting (which in this series, DITTO) any day of the week, especially in October.
I’m not really rooting for anybody now but I do hope the Rockies go all the way, since the team (players, coaches etc) voted to give a share of any postseason bonus to the family of the coach that was killed by a line drive during a game this year, since that’s just nice and cool and (in the TN way) awesome.
“You’ve got a great team. You don’t need to make them sound like they’re the Newsies.” That is hilarious. Yeah, I’m not that kind of fan, though I do get pretty indignant when I see someone in an Ortiz t-shirt acting like they’re born and bred – Boston’s been able to afford the pennant (among other things) for a while now, so…yeah. I think it’s a shame we haven’t had ourselves a streak not unlike the Yanks in the 90s/early 00s.
In other news, I boycotted this season because of Barry Bonds, so I don’t know what’s going on.
As a Cleveland fan, I have to say that Yankees fans, even in their losing, are highly irritating. The sense of entitlement…is something. Absent some unusual dominance, any given playoff team has a 1 in 8 chance of winning the world series.
Yet with Yankees fans, it’s “oh, no, what has happened?” “How can we have gone several years without winning a world series.” “If only Paul O’Neil were playing” “The universe and A-Rod have wronged us again!”
You lost to the Indians partially because they had really good 1-2 pitching, but mostly because winning a short series against a playoff-caliber team is largely a matter of luck. You will continue to not win the world series most years for the same reason. Odds are one of the three playoff serieses will go badly for you.
I know that this truth will continue to escape New Yorkers. Every year that the Yankees do not win the world series we’ll get the same whining about the current team’s lack of “character” and “grit” and “clutch”. The one thing that makes it bearable is that there is a good chance that the New York media will drum A-rod, without whom you’d be a .500 team, out of the city.
You guys, you know I have to ask. WHY is ML Baseball in Colorado ridiculous? We’ve won the Super Bowl and the Stanley Cup, why not the World Series? Is it the fact that the Rockies aren’t a “traditional” East coast team? I’m curious y’all.
Rockies fan weighing in here, and from where I sit, it’s dreamtime. It’s a ton of joy and gladness having a team that is so easy to love playing so awesomely. The team is having fun, the fans are having fun, and I wish it would never stop. It’s been a glorious fall here in Denver!
“Seriously, do I have to watch the Indians play the Red Sox, only to go on to play the winner of a Rockies vs. Diamondbacks playoff?”
Well you don’t have to watch anything. But why wouldn’t a baseball fan want to watch the four teams that earned their place in the championship series? Because they aren’t, with the exception of the Red Sox, the media darling teams? Because they don’t have players that do a lot of television commercials and cameos in bad movies? There isn’t anything inherently more compelling about the Yankees than the Rockies. There is probably an interesting story about every member of the Diamondbacks if the media would bother to dig a little. But they’d rather rehash Steve Bartmen or Alex Rodriguez contract or some other tedious shit.
Don’t worry, Sol, I get indignant about that too, and I’m not a Sox fan. You see a lot of it around here with the college students that come in and see how big the Sox culture is and how popular they are and suddenly they’re lifelong fans who see me with my Yankees shirt at a bar and start in with the whole ‘You’re only a fan because they always win,’ even though they haven’t won the Series since I was 16 and I’m pretty sure both sides of my family have been Yankees fans since they got to this country, and anyone who thinks differently will be disowned. I think the lifelong Red Sox fans want to punch them as much as I do. It unites us.
I was wearing my Yankees hat the other day and a guy with a Sox hat, a BU sweatshirt and a Southern accent said, ‘They lost, you dumb bitch.’
That perfectly sums up what is wrong with the bandwagon jumpers-on. They’re jackass crazy, as recent converts can sometimes be. Also, too many logos on one person.
Friggin’ Barry Bonds.
Leigh: It has been fun, and I also don’t want it to end. I was at the tiebreaker game and wish I had tickets to the rest…
Abigail: Thank you. My husband’s a huge Broncos fan and hates how much they’re ignored by the national media.
I was delighted when the Rockies knocked the Padres out with the one-game playoff. My hatred for the Padres grows exponentially each season, and when one particularly smarmy Pads fan told a Dbacks fan in a forum I read that “we’ll win the division and you can hang that Wild Card banner with pride,” I just…I…like…what? (And this was before the Dodgers totally imploded, so it pissed me off times two.) And the Padres are at home and the Dbacks won the division. I’m a Dodgers fan, so I have to make my own fun in October, and there it is.
But at this point, I am a wee bit tired of the Rockies. They have to lose sometime. Gah! If they win the pennant, I hope the Dbacks force them into seven games so Cleveland/Boston can beat on them with authority. And as a Red Sox fan, I do not care to face the Rockies in the World Series, really. They beat Schilling and Beckett to the tune of 19-3 over two days in June. Ew. (They couldn’t beat Wake, of all people. I love Wake to death, but I still can’t believe they only got one run off him in eight innings.) But I think this is the bitterness of the Dodgers’ epic collapse talking, and I won’t tear any hair out or scream bloody murder if they win the pennant in four, and I’m definitely glad Rox fans are enjoying it.
As to the Yankees, I am not allowed to count them out because I’m a Red Sox fan and when I do, it comes back to haunt me. But I can’t say I’m surprised about the ALDS. Pitching wins championships…and apparently, it wins the rounds before the championships. Using regular-season ERA+ (league- and park-adjusted) as the metric, all four of the teams that lost the LDS had the inferior pitching. The Dbacks and Cubs were closest at 114 and 113, but for example, Boston’s team ERA+ was 118 and Anaheim’s was 103. Colorado’s was 110 and Philadelphia’s was 96. Cleveland’s was 109 and New York’s was 96. Had the Yankees’ hitting clicked, it would have helped, but they probably still would have gone home before the ALCS. How they didn’t take advantage of Sabathia in Game 1, I do not know. But “mayor of GIDP City” = awesome. That was…eesh.
Yes, I am happy the Yankees lost, but it’s because my poor little heart can’t take another Yankees/Red Sox ALCS. Two in a row almost killed me, even given the outcome of 2004. I wouldn’t have cried if they’d advanced; I’d just sigh and avoid cholesterol until it was over. Indians/Red Sox is going to be epic. As soon as the Indians won Game 4, I called my Indians fan friend and announced, “IT IS ON!” Now this is a birthday present. (Game 2 is on my birthday, in Boston, Schilling vs. Carmona, and I’m going to be home in Rhode Island with Tim and Joe. That’s just plain wrong.) I am just as annoyed as anyone else that the focus is on the Yankees losing and not the Indians winning, not just by Boston fans, but by a lot of the media. We still have a good team to beat. Nothing’s won yet.
And now that my comment is longer than the blog entry, I’ll shut up.
Abigail: Hear hear!
Jessica: I was at the Sunday game before the tiebreaker, and gave up my tiebreaker tickets because that Sunday was an utterly perfect afternoon of baseball, and I couldn’t bear the thought of how the memories would change if the Rockies lost the tiebreaker. I’m still getting goosebumps when I think about that Sunday…
Well, since my two teams (Yankees and Cubs) imploded in the first round I’m now backing the Rockies. I haven’t really followed them at all this season, but they just seem to all have such joy in the fact that they’re still in it so far. And I appreciate any team that looks like they’re having fun playing the game; it’s so rare in major league sports nowadays.
As for hockey, I’m in Dallas Stars territory and I’ve been a fan since they moved here in the late 90’s, when no one down here knew a thing about hockey but loved fistfights. It’s rough when I travel up east and always seem to run into fans who think that because I’m a Stars fan I automatically know nothing about the game or its history.
Amy — understood. I was a Jeremy Roenick fan way back in the day. I make an exception for the Thrashers since we did have a team in the Pre-Mega-Expansion Era, but seriously, all together now: Nashville?
(I actually have not kept up with the Thrashers, I have to say. The Dany Heatley/Dan Snyder crash left an awful taste in my mouth, for some reason, and I have no idea who the Thrashers’ cute guys are now.)
Yo, Fyodor – How you doin?
Read my post if you want to hear from a Yankee fan – one of many – who understands why the team ain’t going to the World Series this year, and hasn’t for a while.
And as for A-Rod, I may not like the guy, but at least I understand that only a damn fool expects one man to carry an entire team.
I’m a Sox fan (RI), but part of me wouldn’t mind seeing the Indians win. I have this weird kind of guilt when it comes to the Sox, because I know the fans can be obnoxious, the media scrutiny is endless, and I’m perfectly cognizant of the fact that the payroll is every bit as ridiculous as the Yanks’. I root for the Sox, and I love most of the players (shut up, Schill), but part of me feels a little bit of glee every time the Indians or the A’s or the Tigers do well.
Cry the Beloved City of Brotherly Love, my fellow Phillies fans.
Someone please send Joe Table back to tee-ball practice until he learns to actually, you know, PITCH. It being HIS LIVELIHOOD and all.
I don’t know who to root for, really. Being a true Philadelphia fan, of course, I secretly knew we didn’t have a chance, but I hung on to that fool’s hope. Now I might be rooting for the Indians, just as a nod to my old days whupping my brother’s ass on Sega Baseball.
I’m a Dodgers fan too, Amanda! While it really sucked that they faded so hard at the end and then couldn’t even sweep the Giants to finish the season, I’m ok with how the season went. Mostly because they finally brought up some of the babies, and my heart swelled with love everytime I saw Martin/Loney/Kemp/Ethier up. I know R-Mart came up last year, but how great is it to see a young healthy catcher that can hit *and* run?
It seems like Coletti isn’t too interested in trading them away for a quick patch, and that makes me very, very glad. Penny was really good, Lowe had his moments, and Billingsley and Broxton also impressed me. I wasn’t really expecting them to do too much this year. It’s all about the future.
But the Rockies are my team for this post-season, and I don’t understand the hate, either. I’m guessing it’s mostly East Coast Bias. Tony mentioned that the Rockies remind him of the 2005 Astros, but they actually remind me more of the 2003 Marlins. A lot of young talent, incredible defense, a veteran leader, and a great bullpen.
Go Rockies! And Indians!
Indians fan weighing in here. I spent most of the series against the Yankees on my living room floor, praying to Jesus that we win. I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but is every Cleveland team completely ignored by the sports media until they actually beat one of the big teams? And then it’s all, oh wow, they DO have a team that has been playing well most of the season!
I know we don’t have a great chance against the BoSox, but I’m desperately hoping we beat them, just so I can wear my Indians gear around my (very southern, backwoods) college campus that is somehow become filled with Boston fans. Funny how all those those fans only showed after they knocked the Yankees out last season…
/end incoherent ramble
Gotta say, as a Michigan-born Tigers fan transplanted to Denver… the Rockies have been fun to watch this year, and in a football-obsessed town where John Elway, nearly a decade past his retirement, is still a demigod in status to the point where his son’s high school football games can be the lead story on the local news, it’s been kind of a nice change to see the Rockies getting more press coverage, even if I have tired of the word “Rocktober” being beaten to death by the media.
Plus, winning 18 out of the last 19 after being on the brink of being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs and winning a 13-inning tiebreaker? Kind of awesome.
And WORD on those believing that hockey should not be found in places where palm trees form.