On Jorge Posada and the Real Core Four

Sorry for not Squawking much as of late, but I have been busy with lots of real-life stuff. Anyhow, this has been arguably the quietest Yankee offseason in ages, so I haven't missed all that much. The biggest news as of late is Jorge Posada retiring. I'm glad he's doing so, and that his last moments in pinstripes were when he was one of the few Yankees to hit well in the ALDS. (For another take, read my friend Jason Keidel's piece on Posada -- and people think I've been tough on Jorge!)

But can we please stop inflating his importance to the late-90s dynasty? Posada's best years were in the 2000s, not in the 90s. Joe Girardi, not Jorge Posada, was the No. 1 catcher for much of the Four Rings years. This Core Four stuff, which inflates Posada's importance to that team, is revisionist nonsense, especially given that Posada had nothing to do with the 1996 team. Yet there are worshipful knuckleheads like Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci, who writes nonsense about how Posada had an "underappreciated career" (underappreciated by whom, exactly?) and talks about Posada and Jeter driving to Yankee Stadium together in 1995:

It was like the Beatles back in Liverpool before things went crazy, this friendship that grew among Jeter, Posada, Rivera and Andy Pettitte, the Core Four, the most famous, longest-running quartet of teammates in pro sports.

Yeah, other than when Andy Pettitte left the Yankees for three years to play for the Houston Astros.

Newsflash: there was another Core Four in Yankeeland in the late 90s. You may have heard of them, although the Tom Verduccis of the world seem to have forgotten about who they were, relegating them to a footnote. Their names were Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill, David Cone, and Tino Martinez. All four of them had much more to do with the Four Rings than Posada ever did.

That's not a knock on Posada -- it wasn't his doing that he didn't get the playing time until late in the dynasty years. But it's a little annoying to notice how this other Core Four have been forgotten by sports journalists who should know better. Speaking of which, I never understood why Posada was so bitter and resentful at Girardi for slowing his chance as being the No.1 catcher, when it was Joe Torre, not Girardi, who made the decision to keep Girardi in that spot. Yet Posada considered Torre a father figure. Go figure.

Anyhow, my favorite Posada moment, as it is for many, was his big hit off Pedro Martinez in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS. And Posada was a valuable part of the Yankees team in the 2000s -- if he hadn't been injured in 2008, the Yanks would have made the playoffs. The only Core Four he belongs in, though, is the Core Four of Yankee catchers, as Kevin Kernan suggested.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

From Core Four to Sore Three: Why I was right about the Sports Illustrated cover jinx

I told you so. When I saw that Andy Pettitte got taken out of the game Wednesday with elbow pain, it was obvious to see - for the third time in a row - what a horrendously bad idea that Core Four Sports Illustrated cover was. I said nothing good could come of it, and I was right!

This is what I wrote on April 27, in a blog entry entitled: "Did Tom Verducci and Sports Illustrated jinx the Yankees' 'Core Four'", when I saw that SI cover featuring Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, and Jorge Posada:

If the Yankees' season goes up in flames any time soon, I know just who to blame - Tom Verducci and Sports Illustrated!

Because as a firm believer in the SI Cover Jinx, I feel like this cover story about the Core Four is just asking for trouble - times four.

Let's review what has happened so far:

* First, Jorge Posada got hit in the knee the previous Wednesday by an errant pitch from Jeremy Guthrie, and missed a game over it. Then he left Monday's game early with a calf strain, and hasn't played since.

* Then Mariano Rivera felt stiffness on the left side of his body after Friday's game. He hasn't played since.

* Now, Andy Pettitte left Wednesday's game after five innings with elbow pain. He has inflammation in his elbow and might miss his next start.

Derek Jeter needs to be put in a plastic bubble or something until this thing blows over!

Thanks for nothing, Sports Illustrated! And Tom Verducci, didn't you do enough damage to the franchise with "The Yankee Years"? Why must you continue to torture us so?

On the other hand, I think that I have a solution for Javier Vazquez's problems. Since he's already walking around with a black cloud of doom around him, a la "Peanuts" character Pigpen, maybe being on the SI cover would change his luck - for the better. SI needs to make up for this Core Four disaster by putting Home Run Javy on the cover, and hoping that a reverse jinx will turn his season around!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Did Tom Verducci and Sports Illustrated jinx the Yankees' 'Core Four'?

If the Yankees' season goes up in flames any time soon, I know just who to blame - Tom Verducci and Sports Illustrated!

Because as a firm believer in the SI Cover Jinx, I feel like this cover story about the Core Four is just asking for trouble - times four. It's why I was happy that Sports Illustrated picked the Phillies, and not the Yankees, to win the World Series. That jinx is powerful stuff - look what happened to the Mets' 2009 season after SI picked them to win the World Series!

I'll be interested to see if Verducci, not exactly one of my favorite writers, is able to conjure up a new angle - or new tidbits - about the four players. Not very hopeful, though, given that the cover line says they "broke in together 16 seasons ago," when only two of them - Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera - were playing with the Yankees regularly  in 1995. Jeter was a September callup that year and played 15 games. Jorge Posada played in exactly one game - without even a single plate appearance - that year. Posada wasn't on the full-time roster until 1997, and wasn't the No. 1 Yankee catcher until 1998.

But even the faint hope of new anecdotes isn't enough to have risked the tempting of fate entailed with putting those four on the cover. I have to get all A.J. Burnett here - again - and ask why, why, why did SI do it?

What do you think of this cover? Tell us about it!