But since coming off the DL Chien-Ming Wang has cut his ERA by more than half… to 16.07. Two earned runs in eight innings pitched; maybe he’s fixed. If the Yanks keep this up I may start hoping for more than a week of post-season play in the Bronx.
I’ll spare you the details (thus the “abridged version), but suffice to say that when examining defensive metrics, surprisingly Manny is generally measured to be a better LF than Jason Bay - though both are below average. Many fans and media use “hustle” as the lone metric when assessing defensive value. Manny doesn’t usually appear to be hustling, so the general conclusion is he’s not that good defensively - and he’s not, but…. Bay does usually appear to be hustling, so the general conclusion is that he *is* good defensively. Unfortunately, he’s actually not very good in absolute terms (based on the actual, unbiased defensive metrics) and probably not even as good as Manny (based on the actual, unbiased defensive metrics).
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Anybody know what happened to Hank Steinbrenner? Is he in witness protection or something? Is he stranded on a deserted isle? Where’d he go? Is he like Super Joe Charboneau, a one-year wonder who burst onto the scene and steals the show (and the RoY from Dave Stapleton, but I’m not bitter)… only to do nothing after that?
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Why would the Yankees charge up to $2,500 for a seat amid the worst economic downturn since the 1930’s? And faced with scores of embarrassingly visible empty seats, why would they cut prices on less astronomically-prices seats while leaving the $2,500 price point intact? Wishful thinking undoubtedly played a role, but for the primary driver I suspect one need look no further than the tax code.
Manny Ramirez was just suspended for using drugs for his lady parts that were on the list of banned substances. MLB told him what he tested positive for, which was on the list, and has no legitimate utility to Ramirez (unless he really does have lady bits) and most people can probably agree that the process was reasonably fair.
Contrast that with the experience of NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield. He was just suspended by NASCAR for failing a drug test. For what drug? NASCAR won’t say. Was it on the list of proscribed substances? Well, no, because no such list exists. Mayfield says he is on a prescription drug and also took Claritin D for severe allergies; there is seemingly credible speculation that NASCAR’s silence is in part due to an unwilingness to offend Schering-Plough, whose Claritin brand is a sponsor of driver Carl Edwards.
Each sport is effectively “run” by someone for whom I have little regard; Bud Selig is a liar and a scoundrel, but Brian France strikes me as a truly Faulknerian idiot man-child. I guess the difference is the legacy of Marvin Miller in baseball, compared with the largely unchecked power of the sanctioning body in racing (as evidenced by the pathetic obsequiousness of EVERYONE in the sport when discussing the sanctioning body and the France family).
I think one of the things that bothers me most about the Yankees’ new white elephant is that it almost seems explicitly designed to appeal to the worst instincts in people. That is, even though there remain plenty of New Yorkers who can afford to spend $5,000 to watch, say the Cleveland Indians on a Tuesday night from the best seats in the house, I think doing so says something very unflattering about them. The poshest neighborhood in town - the upper east side - is adjacent to one of the worst - spanish harlem - so its not really possible to live here and be unaware of what two front-row seats at Yankee Stadium translates to for, say, those who live within walking distance of the Stadium. Among other options for the $5,000 burning a hole in one’s pocket would be watching the game from the bleachers (or on TV) in addition to:
Tuition for two children to leave New York’s rancid public schools and attend a quality private school that dramatically raises the probability of graduation, and matriculation to college:
http://www.innercitysf.org/csp.html
Surgery for 20 children to rectify cleft palates:
http://www.smiletrain.org/site/PageServer?pagename=home_b&pw_id=2721
Pay for 2 or 3 families to travel to be with a critically wounded soldier:
http://www.specialops.org/?page=Programs
I’ve been a Yankees fan since before anyone in Boston knew or cared who Bucky Dent was. And I really enjoy spending an evening watching a game and drinking beer. And I want the Yankees to have the wherewithal to be able to afford top talent. But damn. There are significant enough games that those seats might be worth $2,500 each to me, but even then, consuming that much value in that way would, I think, just feel too self-indulgent for me to pull the trigger, or to fully enjoy it if I did.
Has New York gone this long without a World Series Championship by one of its teams. It is 8 years and counting since the Yankees dismantled the Mets in the 2000 Subway Series. The longest-ever stretch was the 15 years between the New York Giants wins in 1905 and 1921. The third longest was the seven years between the Yankees’ 1978 win and the Mets’ victory in 1986. It wasn’t like this when Giuliani was in charge. The horror… the horror…
Johnny Damon’s 10th-inning home run gave the Yankees their third straight walk-off victory this afternoon. ESPN.com points out that this is the first time New York has done this since 1972.
Unfortunately that may not be the end of the parallels between these post-George Steinbrenner Yankees and the last pre-Steinbrenner iteration. The 1972 Yankees were a mediocre team (79-76, good for 4th place in the AL East), a decade removed from the last World Series championship of a legthy dynasty. They were also several years and near-complete roster turnover (and a new stadium) away from their next one; the 1976 pennant-winning team and 1977-78 World Series champs would retain only Thurman Munson, Roy White and Sparky Lyle from the 1972 team.
I guess we’ll have to wait for the next Ron Guidry to emerge from the Yankees’ farm system.
From the NY Post:
choose one of the two options to see a Mariners-Yankees game this season, and from the very best seats:
Option 1: Two tickets to Tuesday night, June 30, Mariners at Yanks, cost for just the tickets, $5,000.
Option 2: Two round-trip airline tickets to Seattle, Friday, Aug. 14, return Sunday the 16th, rental car for three days, two-night double occupancy stay in four-star hotel, two top tickets to both the Saturday and Sunday Yanks-Mariners games, two best-restaurant-in-town dinners for two. Total cost, $2,800. Plus-frequent flyer miles.