The Arrogance, or maybe Ignorance of the New York Yankees
The MLB playoffs finally are ready to start. I have grown tired of the 3 divisions, the wild-card, the NLDS, the long drawn out TV schedule, and horrible teams like the 07 Cubs playing ‘post season baseball’. Luckily for every real baseball fan, both League Championship Series are set to match the top 2 teams in each league. This is the first time since the inception of the current playoff system where the best records in both the AL and NL will face in the LCS.
Just because I have some distaste towards the 5-game series doesn’t mean I turned a blind-eye too it. I managed to watch about 75% of the innings played in those 13 games and here are some general conclusions.
1.) The Cubbies did not deserve to be playing in October. A lineup that scored a mere 4.62 RPG (slightly better than the often embarrassing Padres lineup of 4.57) with no left-handed bats (66 year old C Floyd was the best option) got exposed by average Arizona pitchers (Davis, Hernandez).
2.) The Rockies are legit. I spent all year trying to determine why and when the Rockies would fall out of the race. What I should have been doing was trying to determine how the Rockies were winning games. They have a great offense, adequate young pitchers who can get away with mistakes, and a tremendous defense. All the praise should be going towards the organization for having an intelligent plan to win with groundball pitching and defense in that ball-park.
3.) To be fair, the Angels never really had a chance. When you have Maicer Izturus batting 5th, Vlad hobbling on 1/2 of a leg, Matthews out, Anderson looking like he just went 10 rounds with Micky Ward, you’re not going to score enough runs to beat the Red Sox. Even with that bad of a lineup, Scioscia still couldn’t find Juan Riveria enough at-bats (I still can’t understand that). They’re pitching was good, but their lineup was 50% of Boston’s, and that was their downfall.
4.) The Indians and Red Sox are really really good. This series has everything: 3 aces currently under 30, October legends Schilling and David Ortiz, lineups that have 3-4 players that can jack one out at any time, lineups that 1-9 work the count relentlessly, and the next great closer in Pappelbon. I was so excited to watch these two teams make quick work of the Angels and Yanks so the appropriate pitching match ups could be set. Both teams have few holes, and both have that unequivocal ‘clutch’ factor that makes October so amazing. Which sadly brings me to my final point (well it’s more of a rant)
5.) The Arrogance and Ignorance of New York… October wouldn’t be the same without it. It’s hard to pick a place to start. It would be nice if the NY media finally ripped “Golden Boy” Jeter or “Staff Ace” Wang instead of A-Rod for a terrible series. Sadly the first NY Post column I stumbled upon today had a 100 word explanation on how bad A-Rod was, and about 25 words combined dogging Jeter and Wang in last night’s game. I have refrained from searching for anymore. A-Rod was not the problem with the Yankees for the first 162 games or the last 4. The problem was a poorly constructed team by Brian Cashmen. TWO everyday position players are right-handed. There’s is no balance in the lineup, that’s why a lefty like Perez could record 6 of the biggest outs of the year for Cleveland while only surrendering one run. This team had no major-league capable 6th starter/swing man in case of injury, the staff ace was at best a #2 starter, only 2 lefties on the entire staff, had to pay Clemens 18 mil for 12 starts just to survive, and terrible-to-average defense across the entire field. With the ridiculous expectations from ownership, the fans, and the media, it was ignorant for Cashmen to look at this roster in March and think it was a championship team. Cashmen should be the one on the chopping block, not Torre.
That brings me to my next point, the Arrogance of New York Fans. The entire culture that surrounds the Yankees: expecting to win every year, not accepting defeat, the George model, is annoying. Do any other fans act like this?? Do fans of other historic franchises like the Dodgers, Cardinals, Reds, or Giants act like this? How ignorant is it to believe you deserve a world series ring every year? I cannot stand Yankee’s fans that talk about their 26 titles. They’re acting like a loaded private-school prick, who inherited his great-grandfather’s multi-millions. I am a life-long Reds fan, and I have never once thought the Baseball Gods owed the fans anything (maybe a closer, PLEASE!!!). If the Yankees didn’t exist as they do today, I wonder how many ‘Yankee fans’ would exist?? I can’t decide if it is the arrogance or ignorance that aggravates me more about the organization, fans, and media. Either way, yet again we can wash our hands of them for the rest of the 2007 season.
Hopefully within the next 48 hours I’ll bring you previews and predictions on each LCS.
