Subway Squawkers - A Yankees-Mets Rivalry Blog

Squawker Media Alert: Lisa on radio at 1:30 p.m. today

2013-04-24T10:49:00.001-04:00

Lisa will be squawking baseball with Mike Lindsley of ESPN Radio 104.5 FM Albany at 1:30 p.m. today. If you are in the Albany area, you can listen to her on 104.5 FM on the radio. If not, check out the station's website and listen to her there. Thanks!

Harvey lives up to the hype

2013-04-20T10:08:00.003-04:00

Friday night, Squawker Lisa and I made our first trip out to Citi Field this year, along with our friend David, and we caught a glimpse into a bright future for the Mets. A dominant pitcher, productive sluggers and an energized ballpark. While it was great to see Ike Davis and Luca Duda homer twice each, particularly when two of those homers came off of Stephen Strasburg, the main reason to cheer was Matt Harvey. The Mets' history revolves around ace pitchers, and the Mets appear to have another one.

I grew up planning my trips to the ballpark around when Tom Seaver was pitching. Then it was Dwight Gooden. Last year, I went to the last home game of the year to see R.A. Dickey win his 20th. But at the start of 2013, the only pitcher I thought about planning to see was Dickey returning to New York as a Blue Jay and pitching at Yankee Stadium. Now it's time to start seeing when Harvey pitches next.

The Nationals are the team picked by many to go the World Series. The other two pitching matchups this weekend are Gio Gonzalez vs. Jeremy Hefner and Jordan Zimmermann vs. Dillon Gee. Anything can happen and I hope for the best, but, well, at least today is Bark in the Park and tomorrow is Ron Darling Bobblehead Day.

But the Nationals' top pitcher, the one expected to lead his team to domination of the Mets' division for the next decade, couldn't dominate the Mets last night, while the Mets' top pitcher showed that when he's on the mound, a so-so Met team can compete with anyone.

Last night, fans also got to cheer the announcement of the capture of the second Boston Marathon bombing suspect. I appreciated the playing of Boston-themed music before each inning. Even Lisa approved, though when "Sweet Caroline" was played in the ninth, she drew the line at joining me in singing along.

2013 Yankees: There must be a pony in there somewhere

2013-04-02T08:44:00.001-04:00

It's gonna be a long season. Yesterday's Yankees' opener ticked me off for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is to see the major league debut of the highly touted outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. I am not envious of very much about the Red Sox, but I am envious that their fans can cheer on Bradley, who seems like a good dude, as well as third baseman Will Middlebrooks. Instead, we Yankee fans can cheer on the ancient Vernon Wells in left field, and Kevin Youkilis, the guy who lost his job due to Middlebrooks' ascension. Oh, joy.

But how is it that Boston could have such good young players, given how high in the draft they have picked over the last decade? Isn't that one of the many excuses Brian Cashman has when it comes to the state of the Yankees?

Anyhow, it seems like most of the Yankee fans there at Opening Day seem to be as "optimistic" about the team this year as I am. Which is to say that they are not. Why else would they flee in droves *before* it rained, when the Yanks were only three runs behind in the seventh?

Loved Joe Girardi's excuse that it was a "school night" for fans leaving early. Really, Joe? The game ended at 4:47 p.m.! What a lame rationalization.

And so much for the Yankees' great pitching saving the day. If CC Sabathia's velocity doesn't increase soon, the Yanks will have a very long -- and losing -- season indeed. To top it all off, the Mets had a terrific Opening Day, making the Yankees look even worse in comparison.

I was completely unsurprised by this turn of events for the Yanks, though. Why should we expect crummy ownership, and a crummy general manager, and a crummy manager to produce a diamond in the rough out of this crummy team. Not to mention that the rest of the AL East has improved, while the Yankees have regressed. Maybe we can clap our hands and believe in fairies, but the reality is that the Bronx Bombers are really going to be the Bronx Bummers this year.

2013 Mets: At least there's no Vernon Wells

2013-03-31T20:02:00.000-04:00

If someone had told me a couple of years ago that in 2013, R.A. Dickey and Jose Reyes would be two key pieces on a contending team, Carlos Beltran would be batting second for a perennial winner and Angel Pagan would have a World Series ring as the leadoff hitter on the defending champs, I would be looking forward to the 2013 season a lot more than I am now.

At least the Mets found the money to lock up David Wright. And while I'm sorry to see Dickey go, the Mets by all accounts got a great prospect haul for him. The improving farm system finally offers hope for the future.

The worst thing about spring training was Johan Santana tearing his shoulder capsule again. I hope Santana is able to pitch again, even though it won't be for the Mets.

This year's Opening Day lineup, featuring the sad outfield of Lucas Duda, Collin Cowgill and Marlon Byrd, may be scary only to Met fans, but the Opening Day lineup in 1983 gave little hint that the team would become a 90-win contender the following year:

CF Mookie Wilson
SS Bob Bailor
1B Dave Kingman
LF George Foster
3B Hubie Brooks
RF Mike Howard
2B Brian Giles
C Ron Hodges
P Tom Seaver

This lineup was notable for the all-too-brief return of Seaver to the Mets. It also features someone I confess I have no memory of - Mike Howard. And no wonder - it turns out that Howard is one of just three major-leaguers since World War II whose last game was as a starter on Opening Day. ESPN's Mark Simon wrote about Howard in 2011.

Even with the May 6 callup of Darryl Strawberry, who would go on to win Rookie of the Year, and the June 15 trade for Keith Hernandez, the 1983 team still won only 68 games. But in 1984, Darryl and Keith played a full season for the Mets, the team added Dwight Gooden, Ron Darling and Sid Fenandez to the rotation and Wally Backman took over at second base. Still to come were trades for Gary Carter and Bob Ojeda, as well as other moves and callups.

So even if Wheeler and D'Arnaud come up during the season and are anywhere close to the second coming of Doc and Darryl, any comparison to the mid-1980s Mets will have to wait until we see how willing the Mets are to acquire established stars such as Carter along with top prospects.

The 1983 Mets opened against the Phillies, who would go to the World Series that year. The Phillies lineup featured future Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez and Steve Carlton, along with all-time great Pete Rose. And the Mets, behind 38-year-old Tom Terrific, won, 2-0.

There's always hope on Opening Day. Let's Go Mets!

"Knuckleball" DVD contest winners

2013-03-28T22:21:00.000-04:00

Three Subway Squawkers readers may not be able to see R.A. Dickey at Citi Field anymore, but they have won copies of the KNUCKLEBALL DVD starring Dickey, Tim Wakefield, and their baffling pitch, courtesy of MPI/FilmBuff. Congratulations to our contest winners!

Harold - Port Jervis, NY

Heather - Port Townsend, WA

John - Kentwood, MI

KNUCKLEBALL

From acclaimed filmmakers Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg (The Devil Came on Horseback; Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work) this heartfelt, funny and deeply engaging film delves into the legendary subculture of the knuckleball and the brotherhood of men who share the drive, imagination and humility to throw baseball‘s slowest, most disrespected pitch. Filmed throughout the 2011 season, KNUCKLEBALL follows 37 year-old R.A. Dickey (New York Mets and 2012 All-Star) and 18-year veteran Tim Wakefield, formerly the oldest player in the major leagues and an icon of the Boston Red Sox, detailing their personal and professional triumphs of the season while exploring the bond between them and their only allies, the five living retired knuckleballers - Charlie Hough, Wilbur Wood, Jim Bouton, Tom Candiotti, and Hall of Famer Phil Niekro. KNUCKLEBALL is the story of these extraordinary men, and the sacrifices they made to a pitch that would come to define their lives.

Bonus Features
Nearly 2 hours of Featurettes, Interviews, and More

You can check out the DVD here.

Lonn Trost and Yankees cry uncle on StubHub; will allow electronic tickets

2013-03-27T06:54:00.001-04:00

Remember the whole to-do this winter about how the Yankees came up with their own ticket exchange system with Ticketmaster, snubbing StubHub? And how the only way Yankee fans were going to be able to print out electronic tickets on the secondary market was with the Yankees Ticket Exchange? And that because of this, StubHub was going to have to open up a location by Yankee Stadium for fans to get their tickets before the game (a move the Yankees fought in court)?

Well, guess what? The Yankees have cried uncle on StubHub, folding like a cheap suit on the electronic tickets issue. They will now allow fans to print electronic tickets from StubHub and other secondary market sites from a window of 48 hours to three hours before the game. Oh, and that three-hour window before the game also applies for the Yankees' own ticket exchange, so it's not like you can get the tickets any later from them. This is a huge, huge concession on the Yankees' part, and it takes away the need for StubHub to have that location by the Stadium. After all, if fans can print out tickets at home in that time frame, they won't need to go to a StubHub office to do so.

If a Yankee tree falls in the forest...

Only thing is, nobody in the mainstream media seems to have noticed that the Yankees have made such a big concession. But blogger Bob of BobsBlitz.com did. He wrote about how Yankee bigwig Lonn Trost, who talked last month on Mike Francesa's WFAN radio show about how fans would no longer would be able to get e-tickets from StubHub, has changed his tune.

Yet Trost won't admit that the Yankees have changed their tune and reversed policy. He tried to act like this was the deal all along, and denied that this was a change in policy, even though Francesa kept on asking him about this. (Click here to see the video.) Granted, fans cannot download and print out the tickets before that 48-hour time frame unless they use the Yankees' official ticket exchange, but that really isn't a big deal for most people.

So why did Trost and the Yankees change their mind? Bob's Blitz sums it up on what has happened since Trost's February pronouncement:

A little over a month later fans have been bombarded with Yankee ads for season and single tickets. Banners, radio, TV. 24/7 -- why? Because they can't sell anywhere near the amount of tickets they forecasted internally. And the one way to, they hope, increase the worst sales they've seen in over a decade? Allow StubHub users to print tickets during a window of 48-3 hours before game time.

You know, sorta like a partnership.

Oh, and then lie about the 02/12/13 conversation to Mike Francesa to cover up the change of course due to the poor sales.

Yep. I've noticed the Yankee internet banner ads everywhere. I have also noticed that there are plenty of tickets available, even for opponents like the Red Sox and Mets, on Yankees.com, and that discount sites like Goldstar.com are offering half-priced tickets for the Yankees.

And don't forget that if tickets are not sold on secondary markets, or if would-be season ticket holders won't buy tickets because they are afraid they won't be able to resell them in those markets, that this means those seats will be empty. This not only looks bad on TV, but it means fewer sales at the concession and souvenir stands. So after all the smearing we heard from the Yankeeland front office this winter, insinuating that StubHub was the reason for everything bad facing the Yankees, now the team has caved on letting them sell those tickets.

I have to wonder when anybody in Yankeeland will ever face any accountability for making such bad decisions. Picking a fight with StubHub, who is an official partner of MLB, never seemed to make any sense. Yet the front office has spent more time on that this winter than with coming up with a coherent plan for this team's future. And the NYC sports media doesn't seem to notice -- or care. Shocking.

Spin, spin, spin: Media pushes ridiculous idea that Vernon Wells trade is financially responsible

2013-03-26T06:39:00.002-04:00

I always have to laugh when I hear people talk about the tough New York sports media. You mean the ones who are Brian Cashman's spin doctors, who will carry his water for whatever ridiculous move he makes? Even now claiming that the Vernon Wells deal is somehow smart? Spare me.

Look at the morning papers' headlines and tell me that the mainstream media has any common sense when it comes to the state of the Yankees:

The New York Post claims: "Deal for Wells makes $ense for Yankees," while the New York Daily News sez that "Vernon Wells, despite his hefty contract, could actually help Yankees get under luxury tax threshold."

The basic claim from Cashman, happily spun by the NYC media, is that trading for Wells is somehow a smart, financially savvy move. This, even though he will 1) cost the Yankees $13 million for a player with below-replacement level value over the past two years, 2) will also cost the Yankees not one but two players in the trade, 3) will cost them flexibility this year. (Think such players in trades don't matter? The Indians got Zach McAllister, their fourth starter, from the Yankees as their player to be named later in the Austin Kearns trade. Shockingly, Cashman's minions in the NYC sports media never really want to talk about that deal.)

Only in the crazy world of Cashman's feeble mind is this a good deal. This is like putting in $100 in the slot machines, getting back $10, and thinking that you "won." Even if the Yankees somehow get a million or so "credit" -- which I doubt will happen -- next year, how is raising the payroll to $221 million this year by spending $13 million on Wells a good idea?

None of the knuckleheads in the media seem to acknowledge that the Yanks will have to pay luxury tax this year on the money, arguably making the $13 million a lot more than that when all is said and done. Or that this sort of deal can financially hobble the team this year, keeping them from making real changes.

The Yankees are paying $13+ million -- plus two players in the Yankee farm system -- for a fourth outfielder who will offer this, as David Schoenfield of ESPN notes:

...even if Wells can hit left-handers, why pay $13 million for that skill? The easiest thing to find in baseball is a right-handed corner outfielder who can hit lefties. There are guys in Triple-A who can do that for the league minimum. So the Yankees just acquired a hitter who was bad in 2007, bad in 2009, historically awful in 2011 (.248 OBP, lowest OBP by a full-time outfielder since 1904) and bad again in 2012.

But it's all good, because they are really somehow "saving" money on this. Good grief.

Has Brian Cashman lost his mind?

2013-03-24T20:46:00.000-04:00

I haven't squawked much lately because I don't really want to be a Swanny one-note, writing nothing but gloom and doom about the state of the Yankees. Especially when it comes to the madness of Brian Cashman. He is a terrible general manager, but our lousy front office seems to be fine with no matter what he does. And the media gives Cashman a pass, too -- more than they even did with Joe Torre.

It's gotten to the point where no matter what Cashman does, no matter how insane, he gets the predictable pass from everyone. Calls himself a wounded warrior after jumping out of a plane and breaking his leg? That's A-OK with the media. Decides to try to get Chipper Jones to come out of retirement? Par for the course. Brings back Chien-Ming Wang. No problem. (Actually, that was better than some of his other moves, which is saying something.)

It's gonna be a long season -- I was recently interviewed for my thoughts on what the Yankees would do this season. I predicted they wouldn't win more than 86 games or finish higher than third. And that was before the news of Derek Jeter's setback.

Anyhow, two things happened today that are insanely dumb, even for Brian (Fredo) Cashman, which made me feel like I had to squawk about them. The first is the pending trade for Vernon Wells. Because he's old, and broken down, and makes a lot of money, he attracted the eye of Cashman, of course.

Yet, as my Facebook friend Mike pointed out, the Yanks only have a hole due to Granderson being out for a month or two. Why trade for Wells when he has two years left on his contract? Tell me Melky Mesa couldn't have done better than Wells.

And so what if Anaheim is picking up a lot of Wells' salary? The Yanks reportedly are still going to have to pay $12 to $14 million over the next two years for him. Wells is one of the worst players in MLB right now. What a dumb move it is to get him.

Speaking of dumb moves, then there is what Cashman told the Star-Ledger in today's paper:

During the winter, the Dodgers usurped the Yankees as the game’s premier spenders. Cashman appears more than willing to cede that title. The Yankees will never feel like underdogs, he said. But they can adopt their rhetoric.

"Look at Vietnam," he said. "The biggest payroll didn’t win there, either."

What an incredibly dopey analogy. It never makes much sense to compare baseball to war -- it trivializes war, for one thing -- and this particular analogy turns a complicated issue into a dumb comparison.

At any rate, what is it going to take for Brian Cashman to lose his job? It's just ridiculous how much he gets away with. Again, it's going to be a long season.

Win a Copy of "Knuckleball" the DVD

2013-03-18T19:44:00.000-04:00

You may not be able to see R.A. Dickey at Citi Field anymore, but you can still enjoy the DVD starring Dickey, Tim Wakefield, and their baffling pitch. Subway Squawkers is giving away three copies of the DVD KNUCKLEBALL, courtesy of MPI/FilmBuff.

To win a copy, please send an email with your name and mailing address and KNUCKLEBALL DVD in the subject line to subwaysquawkers@gmail.com. Three winners will be chosen at random. Contest is open to residents of the continental United States. Contest runs until March 28 at 5 P.M.

KNUCKLEBALL

From acclaimed filmmakers Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg (The Devil Came on Horseback; Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work) this heartfelt, funny and deeply engaging film delves into the legendary subculture of the knuckleball and the brotherhood of men who share the drive, imagination and humility to throw baseball‘s slowest, most disrespected pitch. Filmed throughout the 2011 season, KNUCKLEBALL follows 37 year-old R.A. Dickey (New York Mets and 2012 All-Star) and 18-year veteran Tim Wakefield, formerly the oldest player in the major leagues and an icon of the Boston Red Sox, detailing their personal and professional triumphs of the season while exploring the bond between them and their only allies, the five living retired knuckleballers - Charlie Hough, Wilbur Wood, Jim Bouton, Tom Candiotti, and Hall of Famer Phil Niekro. KNUCKLEBALL is the story of these extraordinary men, and the sacrifices they made to a pitch that would come to define their lives.

Bonus Features
Nearly 2 hours of Featurettes, Interviews, and More

You can check out the DVD here.

Time for Brian Cashman to grow up

2013-03-05T06:32:00.001-05:00

When Yankees GM Brian Cashman started his "look at me, I'm rappelling" nonsense a few years ago, I got hate mail from his minions for daring to criticize his immaturity. Apparently, if you act like a complete knucklehead, risking your life and health, but it's for charity, it's perfectly acceptable to some people. I wondered then about what would happen if something went wrong then, and he got hurt.

Now Cashman, who appears to be both bored and reckless, a bad combination, has a broken leg and a dislocated ankle thanks for his breathtaking irresponsibility. And don't tell me it's cool because it's for charity -- in this case, to raise awareness for the Wounded Warrior Project. He could get publicity for the organization by writing them a check, too, but that wouldn't involve the "look at me and how cool I am" act.

Cashman is unrepentant about twice jumping out of a plane, saying this:

“It was an incredible experience. I’m really into doing things I haven’t done before. I always say that’s called living. I don’t want to wake up when I’m older and say, ‘I really wish I’d done X, Y, or Z.’ You get a lot of opportunities when you’re the GM of the Yankees.”

Gee, and I thought it was all about the charity. No, kids, it's all about his self-aggrandizement. What's next, trying bath salts because he hasn't done that before, either?

And really, if he wants to do something he hasn't done before, how about drafting a pitcher who becomes a long-term ace for the Yanks? Or making a good trade in which the Yankees get the better end of the deal without overpaying?

Do you remember what Derek Jeter said about undergoing similar surgery Cashman did, and the aftermath? How Jeter, who never has been known to complain about health issues, called it an "absolutely terrible" offseason, and said he had to learn how to walk again, and got around on a motor scooter for over a month?

But Jeter got hurt playing all-out to help his team, not being a dumbass to promote himself. And he also had the offseason to recover. Our idiot GM will have to do this while doing his day job, too. Good grief.

John Harper quoted Cashman saying the following:

“I made a rookie mistake,” Cashman said before leaving for Broward General. “But I have no regrets whatsover. Stuff happens. It was an amazing experience.”

Cashman laughed and said, “Hopefully I’m raising even more awareness now. I’m becoming a Wounded Warrior, I guess. I’ll be fine. I was more embarrassed than anything.”

My late father was a paratrooper in World War II, jumping out of airplanes to defend his country, not to prove how cool he was. He also was a real wounded warrior, getting a Purple Heart in the process. For Cashman to compare himself to true wounded warriors like my father and the men and women wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan serving their country is the height of offensiveness. And the only "awareness" Cashman is raising is of what a dolt he is.

Kevin Youkilis sez he'll 'always be a Red Sock'

2013-02-15T08:30:00.001-05:00

$12 million for one season doesn't buy what it used to. Kevin Youkilis, who will make more in 2013 than David Wright will, made his New York Yankees debut Thursday. And he promptly announced his loyalties to his old Boston Red Sox team, saying "I’ll always be a Red Sock." Oh, great.

I couldn't stand Youk -- I call him Yuck -- as a Red Sock, and the fact that he is now a Yankee makes my skin crawl. This isn't the likeable, self-deprecating and fun Johnny Damon becoming a Yank at the prime of his career. This is an overpaid has-been who can't stay healthy, and who even some Red Sox fans and players acknowledge is a jerk. Even his fellow players got sick of the way he threw a hissy fit every time he struck out.

Can't say Youkilis has made a great impression on me so far. He's made Joba Chamberlain look like paragon of maturity -- Joba had the guts to reach out to him first, only to be treated to radio silence for a month. Then when Youk arrives in Florida as a Yankee, the first thing he did was buy a Red Sox fan coffee. Whatta guy.

Some say that he's just being honest by saying that he'll always be a Red Sock. But there is a way of saying that his time with Boston meant something to him, without saying it the way he did.

And really, if he were being 100% honest, here's what he should have said. Even I could have respected this real attempt at honesty:

"Hello, suckers! Of course I'll always be a Red Sox -- their fans are the ones who will be paying my freight at card shows and Red Sox reunion events for the next fifty years. You think I want to pull a Johnny Damon and alienate the people who will be paying for my time on the golf course in my golden years? No way.

"I have no desire to be part of the Yankee way, other than to cash that $12 million check that Brian Cashman gave me. And people think Bobby Valentine is a knucklehead. Only Cash would sign me, somebody who missed more time to injury in 2012 than Alex Rodriguez, to replace A-Rod. And pay me $12 million to do it, way more than anybody else even came close to offering me.

"But Cash goes crazy for anybody related to the 2004 Red Sox -- me, Derek Lowe, Alan Embree, Mark Bellhorn... I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to talk Curt Schilling out of retirement to make a comeback!

"Oh, and I still hate Joba Chamberlain.

"Now, I'm off to spend $12 million of the Yankees' money while I hang out with denizens of Red Sox Nation. Ka-ching!"

Lonn Trost, Hal Steinbrenner show the Yankees' real priority: Smashing StubHub

2013-02-14T08:24:00.004-05:00

I can't remember a spring training when I was this cynical about the Yankees' prospects for the season. World Series or bust? Really? More like $189M or bust.

That's what happens when you have a disastrous offseason like this one. I mean, really -- what Brian Cashman moves, exactly, excited you this winter? Signing the injury-ridden ex-Boston Red Sox Kevin Youkilis for $12 million, way above what anybody else would pay him? Going with Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart as your catchers? Starting spring without a right-handed hitting outfielder?

Then you have Hal Steinbrenner, who is so clueless that he told the Wall Street Journal he was "surprised" to hear of the fans' "anger." Really, Hal? Where have you been, exactly? Oh, I know. You've been worried about the evil StubHub, the real enemy.

I know it's become a cliche to wonder "What would George Steinbrenner do?" when it comes to any new development in Yankeeland, but when the only time you hear the team's co-owner show any passion, it's about smashing StubHub, it's pretty sad. Here's what Hal recently said in a statement about the Yankees moving to Ticketmaster for their new official secondary market venue:

"The Yankees Ticket Exchange will be a safe, convenient, reliable and expedient way to purchase and sell guaranteed authentic Yankees tickets," Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said in a statement. "It is unfortunate that unscrupulous resellers utilize deceptive practices and tactics and employ unofficial websites, all of which give rise to counterfeit tickets."

I'm sorry if I missed this epidemic of counterfeit tickets, especially given that StubHub guarantees all of the tickets they sell. The real issue, of course, is that the Yankees are greedy, and even though they have already gotten paid the first time around for ticket sales, they don't actually want to see a free market when it comes to reselling those tickets. They also don't like it when the secondary market shows the real value of those tickets, which is a lot lower than the Yanks would like to think they are.

Oh, and I have to laugh at the idea of anything connected with Ticketmaster as being fan-friendly. They are the ones who came up with "convenience fees" to print own your tickets. And while the new program's fees for sellers are 5% for season ticket holders, it is 15% for those who are not season ticket holders.

Lonn Trost blames Hurricane Sandy and snowstorm for slow ticket sales

Then there's the Yanks' Lonn Trost, who has made his contempt for those terrible Yankee fans who actually look for deals on tickets abundantly clear. He was recently on Mike Francesa talking his nonsense about ticket speculators, and comparing it the the Securities and Exchange Commission needing to crack down on short sellers.

Trost also claimed that slow ticket sales were due to Hurricane Sandy and the recent snowstorm. Huh? The hurricane was October 29, and Nemo was a typical winter snowstorm when it came to New York City (New England and Long Island was another story.) And there is zero evidence that either of them have had any effect on ticket sales.

If the Steinbrenner kids actually knew anything about business, they would realize that the lower prices on StubHub are not due to the bogeyman of ticket speculators. And counterfeit tickets are not really an issue. The real issue is that this isn't a very interesting, inspiring team right now, the tickets are way overpriced, and the novelty of the new stadium has worn off.

Trost also complained about StubHub being greedy, making 25% on each ticket sold. Strong words from a guy who sells $1300 seats for a baseball game. He also threatened to sue the organization for daring to have an office across the street from the stadium. (Right now, StubHub can still sell Yankees tickets, but fans can no longer print the tickets out on their home computer. The office would allow them to get hard copies of the tickets at their location.)

At any rate, after seeing what the Yankees choose to focus on, why should I be excited about this season? What is the team motto for 2013? Another year older and even more injury-ridden? You'll pay more for tickets and you'll like it? Good grief.

No sympathy: A-Rod and the Yankees are paying stupid tax

2013-01-29T22:17:00.000-05:00

Squawker Jon and I heard ESPN's PED investigative reporter T.J. Quinn speak this weekend when we attended New York's SABR Day festivities. Quinn talked about performance-enhancing drugs and baseball and said that the MLB PED test wasn't really a drug test; it was an IQ test. You know, how people like Manny Ramirez get caught while others get away with it.

I couldn't help but think of Quinn's trenchant comment when hearing about the allegations that Alex Rodriguez allegedly did PEDs -- again -- and that a Miami clinic reportedly saved information about him and other players. According to the Miami New Times, from 2009 to 2012 Alex, under the code name of Cacique, allegedly received a variety of PEDs supplied by an antiaging clinic. 2009 would be right after his PED admission, and 2012 would be the worst season of his career. (Did he ask for a refund on the latter?) What a dumbass.

So yeah, to expand on Quinn's point, if there were an IQ test here somewhere, A-Rod failed. Bigtime. How stupid do you have to be to do this again after being exposed as a PED user? Pretty dumb.

Stupid tax is in effect

But you know who was also pretty stupid? The Yankees for re-signing him to the dumbest contract in MLB history. And they have only themselves to blame.

Radio host and financial guru Dave Ramsey has an expression for senseless spending. He calls it a "stupid tax." So in essence, both the Yanks and A-Rod are paying a stupid tax. A-Rod for doing PEDs again and costing himself millions in bad reputation, and the Yankees for signing this ridiculous deal.

There's all sorts of talk that the Yankees are trying to void the contract. Good luck with that. Here are some of the many reasons why this will never happen:

* It is pretty much impossible to void an MLB contract for any reason. And nobody has ever successfully gotten a contract voided for PEDs.

* That's because the players' agreement with MLB does not allow for anything other than a 50-game suspension for first-time PED use (A-Rod's admitted use of steroids came in before this agreement, so this would still be a 50-game suspension.)

* The team didn't try to void his contract in 2009, when they knew he did PEDs. They also were unsuccessful in their attempt to have Jason Giambi's contract voided, even though Giambi had health issues reportedly related to his PED use.

* The Yankees can't claim to be shocked, shocked about PED use given that 10 members of the 2000 Yankees were named in the Mitchell Report, with 16 Yankees in all in the report.

* Even after the Mitchell Report, Cashman has repeatedly signed either players who tested positive for PEDs or were named in the report (Jerry Hairston Jr., Sergio Mitre to name two) or those who were strongly suspected of PED use (Andruw Jones, Bartolo Colon, and a whole slew of those so- called low-risk, high reward signings.) It's hard to say

* The Yanks re-signed Andy Pettitte FOUR times after his admitted PED usage. Shocking, I know, that a team that signed him and Jason Giambi would have no idea that A-Rod ever juiced.

Anyhow, it's stupid tax time. And forget all this nonsense about how the Yankees will get A-Rod's contract paid for by insurance. As if the insurance company will just willingly fork over $114 million just to save the Yankees from paying their stupid tax. Spare me. Nobody else is that stupid.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

For Mets, R.A. now stands for "Rebuilding ahead"

2012-12-20T00:36:00.000-05:00

When I had the opportunity to interview R.A. Dickey last month, he told me that people were still suspicious of knuckleballers:
The problem is, people still have this bias against the pitch. They think it's a gimmick, they think it's a trick pitch, illegitimate, whatever adjective you want to try and put there you can. It takes a little while to get people past that.

The lingering suspicion of knuckleballers, combined with Dickey's age, has given the Mets cover in sending Dickey packing instead of agreeing to his very reasonable contract demands. A 74-win team has gotten rid of the man who earned 20 of those wins. If more people really believed that Dickey could duplicate his great 2012, there would be a lot more outcry over this trade. Teams don't usually trade the reigning Cy Young winner.

And Dickey had become far more than just a great pitcher, but a local folk hero. As I've written before, Dickey's popularity could have led to his becoming a longterm representative of the franchise a la David Wright. Instead, Dickey is not only gone, but had to face anonymous sniping on the way out, aided and abetted by Post writer Ken Davidoff's attacks on the knuckleballer. It only serves as a reminder that much of whatever class the Mets have has left with Dickey.

I hope Dickey proves all the doubters wrong. With Jose Reyes also joining the Blue Jays, I now have a new team to root for in the AL East.

That said, with the current state of the Mets' franchise, trading Dickey for the haul of prospects the Mets got could be the right move long-term. Citi Field could even become a more interesting place if the team appears to be building for the future instead of treading water and denying they are in rebuilding mode.

You never know what will happen when you start stockpiling young players. Four years ago, Omar Minaya traded a bunch of players for J.J. Putz and Sean Green, both of whom are long gone from the Mets. One of the players the Mets gave up in that deal, lefthanded pitcher Jason Vargas, was traded today even up for righthanded power hitter Kendrys Morales.

Youk? Yuck. Why the Yankees signing Kevin Youkilis is a terrible idea

2012-12-12T08:39:00.002-05:00

Hey, kids. Brian Cashman made history Tuesday! Thanks to his idiotic signing of Kevin Youkilis, the Yankees will be paying more for the third baseman spot in 2013 than any other team has ever paid for any other position in history! That's right, folks. The Yanks will be spending a mind-boggling $40 million year for third base next year, more than the Miami Marlins will be spending for their entire franchise's payroll.

And what are the Yanks getting for their money? As I put it yesterday on Facebook:

Youk is a Yank? Yuck. Yet another dumb move by Brian Cashman in replacing an aging, expensive, injury-riddled third baseman with a bad hip, with another aging, expensive, injury-riddled third baseman with a bad hip. Not to mention that whole Red Sox thing. Good grief.

Only the Yanks would get "younger" (Youk will be 34 in March) with a player who misses 40 to 60 games a year, and who has been on the DL pretty much every year of his career. Only the Yankees would replace an overpaid, frequently-injured third baseman with an even more brittle version. And give him $12 million (!) to do so.

Not to mention that Youkilis is a jerk, and even his fellow Red Sox players long ago grew tired of his hissy fits after every strikeout. (And before you bring up Paul O'Neill, he acted like a baby, too, but he helped the Yankees get four rings. Youk won't be getting his own Yankeeography any time soon.)

Yesterday, I heard over and over from Yankee fans trying to justify the trade about how this was the best Brian Cashman could do. What nonsense. I would have been happy with a rookie or role player who can play decent defense and can stay healthy. But the Yanks are more interested in big names for ratings on the YES Network than with having some nobody (the horror!) field the position. Of course, having somebody who could, you know, actually be a relevant player in 2013, not 2004, never figures into Cashman's equation. (Hey, Manny Ramirez is still out there; maybe Cash can sign him, too!)

And by the way, Cashman has been GM since 1998, and got that vaunted "complete control" of the franchise since 2005. Who has the team's player development system produced since then? Arguably the three best players -- Jesus Montero, Ian Kennedy, and Austin Jackson -- are all playing elsewhere, traded for less than their value. The Killer Bs are nowhere. And there isn't just an MLB-ready backup at third in the Yankees farm system; there doesn't appear to be an MLB-ready anything.

You know who also got complete control as a GM in 2005? Andrew Friedman of the Tampa Bay Rays, who became their GM that year. And yet, with a payroll less than a third of the Yanks, and their best players leaving for free agency, Friedman is able to field a competitive team each year. (And no, it isn't just having had the good draft picks -- look at Kansas City!) In the old days, George Steinbrenner would have poached Friedman from the Rays a long time ago, instead of having a schlub like Cashman as GM for life.

Anyhow, don't fool yourself that Kevin Youkilis has somehow seen the light and will be a great Yankee hero. This is about the Yankees being foolish enough to pay a has-been like him $12 million for 2013. Nothing else. Meanwhile, Brian (Fredo) Cashman will preen somewhere about what a great GM he is, putting this golden oldies team on the field. Good grief. I haven't had somebody join the team that I had such a visceral reaction to since Javy Vazquez Part Deux. This is worse.

Guess what, folks? You can't count on the Yankees making the playoffs with this ancient crew just because they have in the past. Every single team in the AL East got better in the winter this year, except for the Yankees, who got worse (Rafael Soriano not being on this team will come back to bite them.) There's a reason my Sox fan friends are laughing over Youkilis being a Yankee -- they know what he is now. And the one-time .300+ hitter is not an All-Star third baseman anymore. He's slightly more relevant than Derek Lowe, but that's about it. Good grief.

Mets make Wright move; Yanks let Martin go to Pirates

2012-11-30T09:54:00.002-05:00

One New York team gave a star player a $122 million extension while the other New York team allowed its starting catcher to sign with Pittsburgh as they seek to cut payroll for 2014. And the first team is the Mets and the second team is the Yankees. It's Backwards Day!

The Mets had no choice but to lock up David Wright. Even the dollar store Tampa Bay Rays just gave a big contract to their star third baseman Evan Longoria.

But Tampa Bay still has a good chance of eventually trading 2012 AL Cy Young winner David Price. And the Mets still have a chance of trading 2012 NL Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey. If the Mets are really starting to make the transition back to big-market team, they'll keep Dickey.

As for trading Jon Niese, it depends on what they can get for him. I don't buy the "Mets have a surplus of starting pitching" theory. And Niese is not yet the kind of pitcher who can fetch a big return. But there is that little matter of not having an outfield.

At least there no longer seems to be any talk of trading Ike Davis.

I'm going to enjoy this Backwards Day while I can, because it is no indication of a long-term trend. Even if the Yankees do slash payroll to reach their 2014 goal of $189 million, that's still double the Mets 2012 payroll. The Yankees will end up with some sort of name catcher, while the Mets will proclaim faith in Josh (.584 OPS in 2012) Thole.

But as we head into the Winter Meetings, at least there's some good news from the Mets for a change.

Deja vu all over again: Brian Cashman more concerned with self-aggrandizing stunt than his day job

2012-11-30T09:01:00.003-05:00

For the third year in a row, Brian Cashman is wasting time in the postseason by doing his dopey rappeling stunt instead of concentrating on working as GM of the New York Yankees. And this year, he's doing this stunt with Bobby Valentine, of all people. Good grief.

In 2010, Cashman was apparently more concerned with getting his mug on the news dressed as an elf than he was at getting Cliff Lee signed. Cashman also did the stunt in 2011. And this year, Russell Martin left for Pittsburgh last night on a two-year, $17 million offer, reportedly without the Yankees even making him an offer of their own.

And before you start screaming at me again about how Cashman's stunt is for charity, why doesn't he just write a check from his $3 million a year salary and be done with it? Is it really necessary for him to rappel down a building each year, let alone now do it with Bobby V? Not to mention all the time and psychic energy this entails. Not only is this stunt dangerous, but it takes up way too much of his time and attention. Sorry, I'm like George Steinbrenner would have been on this. Stick to your day job, dude.

So who's going to catch for the Yankees next year? Is Austin Romine, who has back issues, going to get the job? (Because, you know, nothing helps back problems like being a catcher!) Or is Francisco Cervelli, who Cashman banished to the minors for most of last year, going to get the spot? Or are the Yankees going to decide to increase the jerk quotient for the team by signing A.J.Pierzynski for a year?

Granted, Russell Martin was not my first choice for Yankee catcher of the future (although as a person, he was one of my very favorites over the last few years.) But my choice, Jesus Montero, got traded to the Seattle Mariners for a bag of not-so-magic beans. Oh, by the way, Cashman recently said this about Michael Pineda, aka Carl Pavano with a DUI:

We certainly have high hopes for him, but in terms of planning and counting on him, it’s in everybody’s interest not to do that right now and just put together as deep and strong a staff as possible and be pleasantly surprised and appreciative if we can welcome him back to the fold at some point.

So this is what you gave up the player you compared to Albert Pujols for, Bri? Somebody who you can welcome "back to the fold at some point"? And yet again, present company excluded, nobody in the media questions Brian's judgement for making this trade in the first place. Nor do they wonder why, given that Curt Schilling, among others, was able to return from this same surgery in 10 months, why a surgery that was done in April 2012 should basically keep Pineda out for the rest of 2013 as well.

Anyhow, if not re-signing Martin is a matter of getting the Yanks down to that $189 million for 2014, it seems an odd place to penny pinch. Because if spending $8.5 million on a catcher next year is going to break the bank, then this team is going to be a real mess.

What do you think? Tell us about it.

Subway Squawkers interview with R.A. Dickey, Mets Cy Young Award winner

2012-11-16T20:43:00.000-05:00

I was very excited to have the opportunity to speak with 2012 NL Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey earlier today. Dickey is one of the stars of "Knuckleball!," which is now available through video on demand. The DVD is available for pre-order at knuckleballmovie.com. Squawker Lisa and I were able to see the movie last spring at the Tribeca Film Festival and we highly recommend it, particularly if you are a Met fan or a Red Sox fan, since Tim Wakefield is also featured. But overall, it's a compelling story for baseball fans in general.

Subway Squawkers: First of all, congratulations!

R.A. Dickey: Thank you.

Subway Squawkers: In the age of Moneyball, do you think there is going to be more of an effort to develop knuckleballers as another way for teams to get an edge?

R.A. Dickey: Well, I think at the very least, it's as logical as trying to teach a hitter to switch-hit – that happens all the time. If you can teach a guy who would otherwise be released, who has good makeup and good arm strength, how to throw a knuckleball, you may have stumbled on something that could really be a benefit to your organization.

The problem is, people still have this bias against the pitch. They think it's a gimmick, they think it's a trick pitch, illegitimate, whatever adjective you want to try and put there you can. It takes a little while to get people past that.

Subway Squawkers: I do the blog with a Yankee fan and we've seen many pitchers have trouble pitching in New York. You’ve had such success here. Tim Wakefield was very successful in Boston. Do you think it's harder to pitch in New York, or is there something about being a knuckleballer that might have made it easier?

R.A. Dickey: As a knuckleballer, you pay attention to climate from time to time, and the Northeast has always been a good place to pitch from a climate standpoint. The humidity's nice, and the field - I love pitching at Citi Field.

And also, I have interests that lie outside the game of baseball, and New York is a great platform to try and invest in some of the things that might transcend the game. And I’m thankful that that's been a place where I can kind of be myself. It’s a real cathartic place for me because I can get away from the field and do some things that I really feel like have a lasting effect. So it’s a good place for me.

Subway Squawkers: Trying to think of a good Kilimanjaro analogy – it was such a struggle for you to get to the top of your profession. Do you think it will be a struggle to stay at the top?

R.A. Dickey: Why, sure! I don't think there’s anything about me that says the hard part is not getting to the top, it’s staying there. I’m gonna tell you, it is hard getting to the top. (laughs) It’s not easy. The only thing I can do is try to be responsible for the moments that I've given, regardless of what I've done in the past or what I hope to do in the future. I have to really be invested in the moment. That’s what works for me.

Next year, I'm not going to try to be a Cy Young award winner, I'm just going to try to be me. And hopefully, at the end of the year, it will be a similar stat line. You just try to do the best you can.

Subway Squawkers: After you left Texas, when you were signing with other teams, were they signing you strictly as a knuckleballer or did anybody suggest you go back to being a more conventional pitcher or maybe do both?

R.A. Dickey: No, I was 100% knuckleball. That’s what I was known as. From the moment that I announced that's what I’m going to become in 2005, that’s what teams knew me as.

Subway Squawkers: My cowriter on the blog has read your book and I’m looking forward to reading it. We were wondering, are you going to do an updated version of it or are you going to do a sequel since so much has happened since the book came out?

R.A. Dickey: I’m in the process right now of writing an epilogue, a close to 4,000-word epilogue, kind of chronicling the 2012 season, including Kilimanjaro and the Cy Young experience.

Subway Squawkers: There’s been a lot of talk about the other knuckleballers, and I know you called Phil Niekro back as soon as you won the Cy Young and I’m wondering are there other people in baseball, like say, Buck Showalter, that have also been important in getting you to this point?

R.A. Dickey: There’s a lot of people I want to celebrate this with who impacted me. I am not a self-made man (laughs). I've had a lot of people who really care about me and I'm glad to be able to share this with them. This is an award meant to be shared. It's not an individual award for me. It's one that people should celebrate because they had something to do with it. Phil Niekro, Charlie Hough, Tim Wakefield, Buck Showalter, Orel Hershiser. The list is as long as Santa's naughty and nice list. It's long.

Subway Squawkers: You mention that you enjoy pitching at Citi Field. The Mets are traditionally a team that has been built around pitching, so that much be exciting that you're now part of this great pitching tradition the team has had, dating back to Tom Seaver.

R.A. Dickey: You know, to be considered with Doc Gooden, Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, the New York Mets pedigree of pitchers, the stable is deep, to be able to say I’m considered among those is a real honor.

Subway Squawkers: Well, I certainly hope you'll be back with the Mets next year. We look forward to rooting for you.

R.A. Dickey: Thanks a lot. I appreciate it.

Mets Must Keep Cy Young Winner R.A. Dickey

2012-11-15T23:16:00.000-05:00

The last time a Met pitcher won the Cy Young Award, the team won the World Series the following year. 27 years later, I'll settle for a reason to come to the ballpark every fifth day.

R.A. Dickey is a great story. Now he's had a great season. Conventional wisdom says that the Mets need to sign David Wright to a long-term contract because he's the face of the franchise and can be a long-term ambassador for the team. But Dickey could also be a great representative of the Mets - a unique everyman who triumphed over great odds.

The odds were against my going to a Met game last September once another season was down the drain. But thanks to Dickey going for his 20th win, the Mets actually had a meaningful game in September, and I was part of a large and enthusiastic crowd.

Teams trying to contend don't trade Cy Young winners. In recent years, Kansas City traded Zach Greinke, Cleveland traded Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia and Minnesota traded Johan Santana. How's that working out for them?

2012's other Cy Young winner, David Price, probably just punched his ticket out of Tampa Bay because his price (no pun intended) just got too expensive. The Rays have had a lot of success in recent years, but it hasn't translated into a large fan base. Who wants to root for a team that keeps shipping out their best players?

A couple of years ago, Toronto traded away former Cy Young winner Roy Halladay, who promptly won a second Cy Young with the Phillies. But Toronto got back top prospects Travis D'Arnaud and Kyle Drabek. Isn't there a scenario in which the Mets could trade Dickey for top prospects and improve the team's chance of contending down the road?

Theoretically, yes, but most prospects are ultimately just prospects. Everyone's excited over how the Mets landed Zack Wheeler for Carlos Beltran, but Wheeler still hasn't pitched an inning in the majors. He's no sure thing.

And Beltran, always underrated with the Mets, has been a perennial star when healthy. Halladay is putting together a Hall of Fame career. Will other teams be willing to part with top prospects for a 37-year-old who finally found success with a knuckleball?

As Squawker Lisa knows all too well, finding good pitchers who can pitch well in New York is hard enough. The best thing for the fans is to keep Dickey around. It's probably the best thing for the Mets' hopes to put together a good team as well.

*

Lisa and I saw "Knuckleball" last spring at the Tribeca Film Festival and we both highly recommend it. The film is now available on DVD through www.knuckleballmovie.com.

More on the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in Staten Island and the Rockaways

2012-11-05T01:34:00.000-05:00

Squawking about the state of the Yankees is the last thing on my mind this days. Squawking about the state of New York City and surrounding regions after Hurricane Sandy is what I am most focused on. Here is the latest from Staten Island:

I was heartened to see that Mayor Bloomberg finally cancelled the New York City Marathon (and TheWeek.com cited this blog and the argument I made about the congestion issues of having it now.) But it still sound like he doesn't understand why people were so outraged over it. The New York Times said:

"Persuading the mayor to change his mind was difficult. Aides and friends said Bloomberg was not one to wallow, and he saw value in urging residents to move past the storm.

“It goes back to his earliest days in office,” said one person familiar with the mayor’s thinking. “He is an engineer, not a political science student.”

These aren't people wallowing in some imagined slight. It is hard to expect people living without food, water, electricity, heat or places to live to be moving on, when they don't even have the basics.

And Bloomberg doesn't sound like an engineer to me. I have worked with and for engineers, and none of them had as little concern for humanity as he does. Frankly, Bloomie just sounds like a jerk.

* * *

On another note, I was privileged to go out to the Rockaways this weekend with others to help a few friends and relatives of friends with cleaning up their homes. They weren't even in the hardest-hit area there, but it was still pretty terrible. Imagine 13 feet of water rushing into your home, ruining your basement, your first floor, and very well causing permanent structural damage to your house. Imagine having your possessions ruined, and having to throw them out, with no chance of salvaging them. Imagine having your photo albums waterlogged. And the people closer to the beach got not just water, but sand pouring into their homes.

Generally speaking, I'm not a big fan of when people say "I know how you feel" unless they actually do. But I do know a little of what it's like to lose nearly everything. Nearly 15 years ago, my apartment burned down, and I lost two cats and most of my possessions, with the exception of clothing that smelled like smoke. So while I am not going to say I know exactly how these families feel, I can at least relate to having your home violated and things you valued destroyed in the blink of an eye.

Back then, I also received much help from friends, family and co-workers when it came to going through my ruined things, trying to salvage what was left, and moving. So I was trying to "pay it forward" a little.

We felt good Saturday that we were able to help two Rockaway families -- one with packing, the other with getting rid of things. But it made me tremendously sad to see the damage firsthand that this storm caused. Every house we drove by had valued possessions ruined and sitting curbside for sanitation workers to take the items away. The trauma that this storm caused -- from deaths and injuries to ruined homes and cars to kids having to go to different schools -- is almost too much to bear.

On the way there and back, we drove through Brooklyn picking up and dropping off friends to help. On the way there, we drove by 4th Avenue in Bay Ridge, where the marathoners would have run by. That street was clogged on Saturday with desperate people in cars and on foot just trying to get gas. Imagine what would have happened if those folks had not been able to get gas on Sunday, in favor of the marathon!

And on the way home Saturday evening, we saw the marathon starting point, on Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island. It still had tons of porta-potties there. This, even though Mary Wittenberg, head of the New York Road Runners Club had promised to help give/loan such items to the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

After waiting on line for two hours to get gasoline on Sunday morning, and succeeding, I tried to go back there to Fort Wadsworth to see if there was food and water still there for the marathon, and to take pictures, but the security denied me access. Too bad.

But I did see a great sight on the way home after that -- hundreds of would-be marathoners streaming from the Staten Island Ferry to help Staten Islanders. They had more of the spirit of humanity than Mike Bloomberg ever will.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

On Hurricane Sandy, living on Staten Island, and the bad decision to run the New York Marathon

2012-11-01T22:55:00.001-04:00

Greetings, all. Squawker Jon and I are fine after Hurricane Sandy, but unfortunately, many of our fellow New Yorkers are not. Nor are many people in New Jersey, where I was born and raised. We've been very saddened over the hurricane's destruction, not just throughout New York and New Jersey, but on the Jersey Shore, one of our favorite places in the world.

Fortunately, we ourselves are okay, although I did lose power on Monday night here on Staten Island, and was without power until early Wednesday morning (Con Edison did a great job getting the power back in my neighborhood quickly.) I also lost cell phone service for much of the time. I consider myself extremely lucky -- I had great flashlights in the house, so I could get around okay, and didn't suffer any damage from trees or weather (unlike other houses in my neighborhood). I live two blocks from the North Shore but my house is dry. And Jon didn't even lose power in where he lives in Manhattan!

However, many Staten Islanders weren't as lucky. As of now, 19 people have died on the island. There are still many people out of their homes, and nearly half the island still doesn't have electricity. And none of us who work in Manhattan can get to work easily -- the Staten Island Ferry and SI Railroad are closed, and the lower Manhattan subways are literally under water. And forget about driving -- the gas shortage is horrible, with literally mile-long lines just to fill up the tank. Not to mention all the traffic lights still out, and Bloomberg requiring all cars going into Manhattan to have three passengers or more.

Other than what I saw with my own eyes, I really didn't know the full extent of how badly Staten Island was damaged until I got my power back (many of the worst areas shown on TV are not accessible to the public right now.) Things are a mess -- it truly is a disaster area. I know people who have lost their homes, who still don't have power, who don't even have water. Some people are running out of food, thanks in no small part due to them having food spoil when the power went out. And the Red Cross never even bothered to show up until Thursday, when the borough president called them out.

Anyhow, do these sound like the type of conditions that you would have a sporting event with 47,000 participants, thousands of volunteers, and, more importantly, many first responders focused on in this borough? That's why Mayor Bloomberg's decision to have the NYC Marathon continue is unconscionable, especially when he had the gall to suggest that the dead people would have wanted it to go on! "You've got to believe they would want us to have an economy and have a city go on for those who have been left behind," he had the nerve to say. No, Mikey, I think the dead people would like their families to be safe, and have the basics, like electricity and water and heat and food. I think they would also like their families to have the freedom to travel, something we effectively don't have on Staten Island right now. Not to mention that we are literally still finding deceased victims of the storm at the very same time first responders will have to break away to do marathon preparations.

As for the economy issues, it sticks in my craw that according to the owner of the Hilton Garden Inn on Staten Island, the New York Road Runners Club tried to pressure him into kicking Staten Island hurricane victims out in favor of runners with reservations. Are you kidding me? That's yet another reason this race should have been postponed -- most hotels below 39th Street in Manhattan don't even have power, which means that hotel rooms are at a premium. And Manhattan evacuees are having to give up their hotel rooms for the marathon runners. How does that make any sense?

Not to mention the congestion issues. How are you going to get 50,000+ people on Staten Island when the roads are so congested? The ferry is supposedly starting again on Saturday. What about Islanders who actually need to start rebuilding their lives again? Why should their needs play second fiddle to sports? Not to mention the bad taste of seeing runners throw half-full water bottles and food items to the ground at the same time so many are going without here. Every year, some marathon runners end up in the hospital. Are they going to take away already-stretched resources from the truly ill people who have already been evacuated from other hospitals due to the hurricane?

Look, I love sports -- baseball is the focus of this blog, after all -- but they have a time and a place. The first baseball game after 9/11 in New York was ten days later. There was a 10-day gap in the 1989 World Series after the earthquake. The New Orleans Saints didn't play in New Orleans for the entire season after Katrina. Here in New York, we are literally still finding dead victims of this storm, and so many don't have even basic living conditions. I appreciate the marathoners' sacrifice and dedication, but now is not the time for this race. To have a marathon in this town six days after the worst storm we have ever seen is a real bread-and-circuses move, and is in extremely poor taste. Shame on Mike Bloomberg.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Denial is not just a river in Egypt -- It's the state of the Yankees

2012-10-23T08:15:00.001-04:00

History's greatest unexplained mysteries include Easter Island, the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, and why the Yankees got swept in the ALCS. At least that's what Yankees president Randy Levine seems to be claiming. He told the New York Times that "there was a total collapse in the A.L.C.S. that was very surprising. Why did that happen? Nobody will ever know." Really? We will never be able to figure this out, no matter how many sabermaticians and baseball historians pore over the numbers? Ridiculous.

Brian Cashman also treated this debacle as some sort of great mystery. He told Ian O'Connor on ESPN Radio that "I'm not sure if I can ever give you a tangible, realistic, honest, this-is-what-I-know from (what) CSI New York has provided. ... I just don't know." Are you kidding me? It's not that complicated, Brian!

Cashman also said this:

"It was kind of like a Yankee flu went through five of our guys in the lineup. ... I do think there is a mental component that really crept in on us, and all of a sudden & you hear our players talking about passing the baton. Well, I wonder if the baton that was passed was one of pressure and tightness and it started going throughout our entire lineup, that, 'Oh jeez, he didn't get it done; I've got to get it done.' And they started getting us out of our game.

Gee, you'd almost think that Joe Girardi's indefensible panic in the playoffs, where his only answer to any dilemma seemed to involve somehow benching/humiliating a player, whether it be Alex Rodriguez, Nick Swisher, or Curtis Granderson, may have had a ripple effect. And that instead of projecting calm, Girardi projected instability and lack of trust in the players who got him to October in the first place by putting up a spring training-style lineup in a postseason game. Nah, that's too out there, right? Who would ever think that a manager showing such lack of faith in his players would have such consequences?

It is interesting that Cashman used the term "Yankee flu." Because there is a term called "blue flu," which describes when police officers, who are not allowed to go on strike, call in sick en masse to express their displeasure with their contract and work situation. Is Cashman suggesting that the Yankee bats deliberately went on strike?

Of course, Cashman still refuses to acknowledge that there is anything wrong with the team he assembled as far as having a season-long inability to hit with runners in scoring position, as well as generally only winning when they hit homers. Mix in some angry boos from the hometown crowd, and add a little missing leadership on the team thanks to Derek Jeter getting hurt in Game 1 of the ALCS, throw in the lack of faith Girardi and Cashman showed in their team, which led to tightness and panic, and it shouldn't really be a big mystery as to why the Yankees lost.

I do have to ask this: have Cashman or Girardi ever read a modern management book? Ever given some thought about how to motivate people? For that matter, reading a classic book like Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" would have served them better than what they did. Because their actions in the postseason seem to show not just lack of baseball skills (sorry, Joe, Derek Lowe is not a good option when the game is on the line!), but a lack of people skills. At this point, I wouldn't trust either of them to plan a one-car funeral, let alone run a baseball team.

Unfortunately, they work for the Steinbrenner kids, who are just as unaware of good management as they are. So they will all pretend that this was just some big mystery as to why the Yankees lost in the postseason. Heaven forbid anybody actually be held accountable for this disaster.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Shocker: Mike Lupica makes more sense on the Yankees than the Steinbrenner sons do

2012-10-22T07:53:00.001-04:00

Sports columnist Mike Lupica may be the newspaper equivalent of a slugger whose best days were in the 1970s, but every once in a while, he can still hit a mistake pitch out of the ballpark. The New York Daily News writer had a great column this Sunday about what I've been saying and thinking recently about the Yankees front office -- that the Yankees' rhetoric about how the season is a failure without a World Series title no longer matches reality.

Lupica writes:

Yankee fans really need to take a deep breath here, be a little more realistic about who their team is, has been for a long time. We hear constantly about the Yankee “brand.” Well, here is what the Yankee brand has become: Winning a lot of regular games, drawing a lot of people, making a lot of money. They are big winners, unprecedented winners, April through September. Just rarely in October. October was the old brand.

And they’re still working off an old script at the new Yankee Stadium. The comments from members of the Yankees’ high command after the team doesn’t make it to the World Series have become as predictable as their baseball team not making it to the World Series.

Lupica is right to point out that the Steinbrenners are now more concerned about "profit and loss" than playoff losses. Quite frankly, fans are more upset over the ALCS than Hal Steinbrenner or Brian Cashman is. While Hal acknowledged in a statement that the Yanks "fell short of our singular and constant goal, which is a World Series Championship," and called it a "bitter end" and a "disappointment," nobody is going to lose their jobs over this. George Steinbrenner may have gone too far when it came to firing people, but the Steinbrenner kids are way too passive on the opposite end of the spectrum, guaranteeing Cashman and Joe Girardi's jobs after the postseason even began.

By the way, a "disappointment" is when Starbucks ran of Pumpkin Spice Latte mix. The Yankees are a disaster. They didn't play hard and just come up short in the ALCS -- they were annihilated, embarrassed, and humiliated. But Hal doesn't seem really upset over it. If he were upset, he would get rid of at least one of the architects of this disaster.

Anyhow, Lupica didn't stop there. The columnist calls the Yankees the "New York Braves" (ouch!) but notes that the Braves got further into the postseason than the current Yankees did when Atlanta was dominant (ouch again!) Lupica also notes that the Yankees "consistently fall short of what they say their mission statement is, but nothing really changes in the organization." Yep. So we will have another year of Joe Girardi panicking, and Brian Cashman getting ripped off in trades, and Kevin Long no longer being up to the job. Oh, joy.

As Lupica says:

They consistently fall short of what they say their mission statement is, but nothing really changes in the organization. You know the only person who effectively got fired from the World-Series-or-bust Yankees lately? A.J. Burnett. They paid the Pirates to take Burnett off their hands. They might pay somebody else to take A.E. Rodriguez off their hands. That is the modern Yankee idea of holding somebody accountable.

By the way, I loved Hank's complaining to the Associated Press about too much blame being put on A-Rod, saying that it wasn't fair "to accuse him of everything but the Kennedy assassination." Um, Hank, your crew did that all by themselves! Hank also had this to say about his feelings about the ALCS debacle:

"It was something to not be very pleased about," Steinbrenner said. "Everybody is kind of a bewildered and a little angry, too. But that's natural."

Even hothead Hank is way too passive in his comments.

How weird are things in Yankeeland these days? Even Lupica, who has been a longtime A-Rod hater since he was on the Mariners, thinks that Alex should have played in the postseason. He has this to say about Hal's comments:

But whatever Steinbrenner the Younger does say, you have to say he seems pretty happy with the way his team is being run, and managed. For now he doesn’t say a word about his manager benching A-Rod in favor of a guy, Eric Chavez, who couldn’t hit or field by the end. Doesn’t seem bothered by the fact that after a decade of record spending, the Yankees have won one World Series to show for all that spending.

Lupica ends his piece by noting that while "the people in charge say what they think George M. Steinbrenner would have wanted them to say," but with "the old man, it was more than just talk." Ain't that the truth!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

The smearing of Curtis Granderson

2012-10-20T07:50:00.003-04:00

The New York Yankees may not actually have any true accountability anymore -- after all, Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi still have jobs after the most embarrassing postseason since the 2004 ALCS -- but boy, do they know how to stick it to people. Fresh off their humiliation of Alex Rodriguez, they have now moved on to smearing Curtis Granderson, the player who led the team in home runs and RBIs for the last two seasons, and led the AL in RBIs in 2011.

First, Kevin Long, the hitting coach who was once credited with helping Granderson improve his approach at the plate, told this to the New York Post:

“We all know Curtis is a swing and miss guy,” Long said of Granderson, who went 3-for-30 (100) and whiffed 16 times in the postseason. “He started to struggle in situations where those swings and misses become more glaring than usual.
“I think Curtis can take something out of this: Where was my head at, was I confident enough? There might have been a little bit of self doubt that I saw. He’s got to go through that and see where he’s at and make adjustments.”

True, I don't know what's in Granderson's head. What I do know is that it's pretty unseemly for Long to publicly accuse Granderson of having a confidence issue, and to single him out this way. Especially when the powers that be in Yankeeland did everything they could to sap this team of their swagger by all the crazy lineup changes and public humiliations of their players.

Gee, I can't imagine why Granderson might have had self-doubt, if he actually did, when Joe Girardi panicked and showed that he had zero confidence in the hitters that, as the Yankees like to continually remind us, won 95 games in the regular season. Girardi's bizarre moves did nothing but make the team look like a laughingstock.

Sure, Granderson probably needs a better approach at the plate -- his strikeouts are rising, his batting average is falling, and he was horrible in the postseason. You know, something a batting coach is supposed to help him with. I guess Long did "help" him, though, by telling the New York Times about how Granderson went 0 for 11 in "chases" -- those are swings at pitchers outside the strike zone -- during the ALCS. Classy!

Now I see in this morning that a "Yankee source" reveals to the New York Daily News that the team "plans to send Granderson to an eye specialist to see if his eyesight has been the source of his problems at the plate." Gee, it's too bad that the Yanks had to wait so long to get a referral from their HMO for Grandy.[/sarcasm]

I have several thoughts on this. The first is that it is not beyond the realm of possibility that somebody who struck out 16 times in 30 postseason at-bats, and 195 times during the regular season, might have an issue with his eyes. The second is that if this is indeed the case, then why the heck didn't the Yankees do something about it when it could have actually mattered? There are a gazillion eye specialists (many of whom are even Yankee fans) in New York City who could have examined Granderson earlier, and at a moment's notice. It's not like he would have had to wait for an appointment!

But the third, and most cynical, reaction to this story is that I remember what George Steinbrenner did to Reggie Jackson at the end of his time with the Yankees, when Steinbrenner didn't want to re-sign him. Jax was struggling, and The Boss made things worse by publicly ordering him to get an eye exam, treating it like a punishment. It was not one of Steinbrenner's finest moments. Regarding Granderson, there are rumors that the Yanks will pick up the 2013 option on his contract, but don't want to sign him to another deal. Is this their way of explaining why?

I was as frustrated as anybody by Curtis Granderson's postseason numbers this year. But his poor playoff outings don't justify the Yankees treating him like a human pinata, especially given that Granderson not only has helped the Yankees as a player, but as a person. He's a good man, and he doesn't deserve this type of treatment.

You have to wonder if this smearing is being done to somehow redeem Brian Cashman's reputation for trading for him, given that Austin Jackson, Phil Coke, and Max Scherzer -- all players the Tigers got in the trade for Granderson -- helped beat the Yankees, while Granderson didn't even start the final game of the ALCS. Yes, that makes me extremely cynical. But we just finished watching the Yankees scapegoat Alex Rodriguez to run him out of town, and then have to start doing damage control when they finally realized that he, for now at least, is going to exercise that no-trade clause. I have good reason to be cynical!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Yankees lose in humiliating fashion, and the recriminations begin

2012-10-19T10:25:00.002-04:00

I missed seeing most of yesterday's game live due to work projects. This was a blessing in disguise, of course. From what I saw later, heard about and read, it doesn't sound like the Yankees even showed up. I was angry before the game, and furious after it, and I'm still ticked off now.

When I saw the first part of Joe Girardi's postgame interview, when he talked about "life goes on" and "moving on," I was more than a little annoyed -- he sounded like Tom Glavine, circa 2007, talking about not being devastated by killing the Mets season. Towards the end, though, Girardi got very emotional, especially when thanking the media for the way they handled his father's death. (I lost my own father five years ago in a similar way to Girardi's dad, so I understand a little of what he's feeling.)

At any rate, Girardi did the worst managerial job of his five-year tenure with the team with all of his panicky moves. I actually agree with Michael Kay about his assessment of the postseason -- that after Girardi pinch hit for A-Rod in Game 3, which provided the playoff's best moments, the two Raul Ibanez home runs, things went downhill, causing what Kay called a "toxic atmosphere" that surrounded the entire team. Girardi went from doing a gutsy but understandable move, to scapegoating Rodriguez by having Eric Chavez, who never even got one hit in the postseason, going 0 for 16, continually fill in for him. There was nothing "gutsy" about having Chavez start in ALDS Game 5, or in having him start Games 3 and 4 of the ALCS. It just smacked of scapegoating. To top it all off, Girardi ended up having journeyman Jayson Nix bat in Chavez' place yesterday! So much for that.

Ironically, Brian Cashman was still patting himself on the back for constructing this team. And I'm sick of his stupid "big, hairy monsters" nonsense and his ridiculous assertions that this team is Gene Michaelesque, and similar to the late 90s teams. Yet the NYC media is so in the tank for him, that nobody has the guts to point out these obvious lies -- for one thing, the late 90s championship teams never had one hitter who had more than 30 homers in a season.

Now Cashman won't even acknowledge that maybe hitting coach Kevin Long should go -- he says he'll be back next year! This is why I think the nonsense this team talks about how winning is all that matters, and that any season without a World Series title is a failure, is just sanctimonious blather. Joe Girardi will be back next season. So will Brian Cashman, and Kevin Long, and everybody else. Cashman has been GM since 1998, one of the longest tenures in baseball history, and he has one ring since 2000. I guess they will designate A-Rod as the scapegoat, and will try to trade him, but he is only one part of the problem.

Cashman also said one of the more infuriating things I heard yesterday, saying "Unfortunately, a bad spell hit us right now," and that “The perfect storm hit us, where a collection of the opponents’ pitching made great pitches and also our guys were getting themselves out and getting away from their DNA a little bit.” What self-serving waddle. No, Bri, this was your team -- a one-dimensional one that can hit a lot of homers, mostly against mediocre pitching, but that utterly failed in the postseason. Knock off the passive voice, and take some frigging ownership already.

The way Girardi and Cashman changed the lineup made little sense, and helped psychologically take the team out of the game before the series was over. You cannot say that the Yankees put the best lineup on the field in this series. It was more about settling personal scores than about winning. Because if moving people around the lineup and benching them was solely due to their numbers, and not scapegoating people, then why didn't Robinson Cano, by far the biggest goat of the series, ever get such treatment? (And no, don't tell me it's because of lack of great options as backup. As if Chavez and having Brett Gardner bat leadoff when he hasn't played since April made sense!)
A lot of fans are very upset with the quotes from an anonymous player in today's Daily News, which the headlines suggest are blaming the fans for the loss. But that's not exactly what the player said. Here are the actual quotes:

“I really think the booing spooked a lot of guys," the player said. “A lot of guys hadn’t been booed before, and they couldn’t believe how nasty it got in the stands."

“A lot of guys were talking about it in the clubhouse," he said. “I was surprised by how much it bothered them. I really don’t think they ever recovered."

Yeah, yeah, I know, according to a lot of fans, they should just suck it up. But it is bizarre to me, that fans will wear lucky socks, or sit in certain places, or do all sorts of superstitions that they think will help the team. Yet they seem completely unable to grasp that booing their own players on the field may actually have negative effects. Forget the lucky hat, folks -- how about not booing your own team when you're at the game, when they can actually hear you!

CBS Sports' Gregg Doyel wrote an article the other day calling the fans "unforgiving jerks." As he wrote, "Booing a baseball player isn't going to make him better -- but it sure could make him worse. The Yankees fans who booed their own players, they don't get it -- or they just don't care." That's about the size of it. These fans think they're awesome, though! They pat themselves on the back about as much as Cashman does!

I was okay with last year's loss to the Tigers. This season, not so much.