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Why Did You Go, Robby Cano?

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Derek Jeter, Robinson CanoThis post was written by Prof. George Clancy. Die Hard Yankee Fan, Knicks Season Ticket Holder, and Wierdo Cowboy Fan

Why Did You Go, Robby Cano?

I was in the blistering cold for the Yankee game last night, and listened to (and sometimes participated in) the numerous chants that cascaded down upon Robinson Cano during the game. It went from loud booing every time his name was announced, or when he made a fielding play, to chants of “You-re a sellout” and late in the game, the bleacher creatures chanted “No October” as the Mariners closed out their victory over the Yankees, ending a miserable evening at Yankee Stadium for all parties involved. Yet today, the narrative in all of the papers is how the Yankees fans embarrassed themselves for booing Cano. It amazes me that for five years, the critics of the new stadium have voiced repeatedly how quiet the stadium seems, but on a night when 10,000 brave fans sounded like a packed house, now the critics are focusing on what the noise was about.
Cano had a very productive, if not great career as a New York Yankee. He was durable, batted for average and power while playing a gold glove quality second base for the Yankees while only missing the playoffs twice since 2005. Yankee fans remember how he was called up by Cashman in 2005, in an attempt to bring young life to a team of veterans that was seemingly treading water in the early months of the season in 2005. He had a vibrant smile that never seemed to disappear, reminding the fans that beyond the million dollar salaries and cash grabs by owners building new stadiums, the guys on the field were playing a kids game.
Cano also had his faults. His stats in the playoffs were not up to his regular season standards, with his .222 playoff batting average being close to 90 points below his career regular season batting average. Every Yankee fan can tell you that Cano rarely hustled out of the box on groundouts to run to first (Even though C.C. Sabathia stated last night that it was one of the reasons why he was able to stay so healthy). Early in his career, there were rumors of Cano spending too much time partying with Bobby Abreu and Melky Cabrera. In 2008, Joe Girardi removed Cano from a game for not hustling on defense, stating, “I wasn’t happy with the effort on that ground ball, so I took him out.” When Cano was asked about being removed, his response was, “Ninety-nine percent of the time, I play hard.”
That missing 1% is what always irked the Yankees fan. When Yankees fans discuss their favorite players, they always talk about their hustle, giving that 110%, which is 11 points lower than Robbie’s 99%. Yankees fans always felt there was another level to Cano, that for some reason he wasn’t reaching. You can listen to all of the stories about Cano showing up early to work on hitting and fielding(I have actually seen him stay after practice in spring training to take extra swings), but there was always that feeling amongst the fans that he could be a top five player if he bridged that gap.

Players like Pedroia, who have less physical gifts than Cano, are beloved by their fan bases for their hustle, grit, and always leaving the game with a dirty uniform (Pedroia giving the Red Sox a hometown discount probably doesn’t hurt either when he was approaching free agency). Nobody accused Pedroia of not leaving it on the field, even if I believe part of that is Cano was so naturally graceful, he made extraordinary plays look too easy. Cano’s big issue is how he handled his upcoming free agency. When Cano left Scott Boras’s agency in April, 2013 to join Jay Z’s new agency, Yankees fans rejoiced because they were under the mistaken impression that due to Jay Z’s friendly relationship with the Yankees (Performing at Yankee stadium, even performing before a Yankees World Series game), that Cano would try to work with the Yankees to sign a long term deal that would allow them to try to stay under the $189 budget they had set as a goal to limit the luxury tax penalty the team was paying. Then throughout the year, Cano was making statements about wanting to be paid $300 million while his team was struggling to even stay in the playoff hunt. Finally, the season ended and the moment of truth approached. The Yankees offered Cano a 7 year, 175 million dollar contract; the Mariners responded by offering him a ten year, 240 million dollar deal, which Cano quickly accepted. Derek Jeter defended Cano’s decision the other day, asking a journalist if he would write for a different paper if they doubled his salary, which is not exactly a good way to justify the decision. An extra 65 million is hardly double 175 million dollars. Also, The Yankees offer was for $25 million per year, while the Mariners offer was for an average of $24 million per year. Granted, have an extra $65 million guaranteed is a nice luxury any of us would love to have, but you have to ask yourself if Cano thought he would still be playing at a level deserving a $25 million dollar salary at the age of 38, why not accept the Yankees offer, play on a competitive team in the bright media spotlight of New York and sign an extension at 38 if you can prove you are still an elite player who deserves that type of contract. Or did Cano make a quick money grab, knowing that in the post PED era, players decline at a rapid pace in their mid-thirties, especially power hitting middle infielders? Cano knew he would never be the type of player at that age to deserve that contract, so he took the guaranteed money and helped Hova attempt to build a solid negotiating reputation in sports management.

The bottom line is the Yankees fans and Robinson Cano had a messy breakup this fall. When you break up with someone, in the beginning you tend to remember the bad parts of your relationship to get over the hurt of being broken up with. You hope that her new boyfriend is ugly or worse off than you (Which the Mariners are doing with their 11-14 record). You hope your ex puts on a few pounds or doesn’t look as good as they used to (Which Cano is doing with his .296 batting average and having only one homerun all season). Finally, sometime you make a drunken phone call or send out hateful, mean texts to your ex, saying things you hope lets them know how hurt you are under your false bravado. It’s part of getting closure. Maybe in future years, Cano gets light applause or as his career winds down, the Yankees will make a video montage to thank him for his years here. Who knows, maybe one day he will return to the pinstripes, as former Yankees greats often do. None the less, the NY media should not criticize the Yankees fans for booing a player for moving on, but instead celebrate the passion the fan base has for their team, even if it comes off as a loud phone ringing at three a.m. on a Friday night.

George Clancy

“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”
-Peter Drucker

So Long Jake and Thanks for All the Steak

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So Long Jake and Thanks for All the Steak

This Article is written by columnist and resident Redsox fan “stev-o”Big Stevie Lew.Editor’s Note: Apologies to Douglas Adams for the bastardization of the title of his fourth Hitchhiker’s Guide book.

Jacoby Ellsbury will be leading off and starting in center field for the New York Yankees on opening day this upcoming season. Those are hard words to comprehend as a Red Sox fan. Then you look at the contract that he was offered and signed (7 years, $153 million, with an option for an 8th that would increase the total to $169) and you scratch your head. Is that the going rate for a centerfielder these days? Maybe it is, or maybe the Yankees and their fans will one day look back at this signing as another feather in the Yankees cap and as another disappointing waste of money. I don’t think so. Ellsbury first got some burn with the Sox in 2007, and officially took over in center in 2008 (ironically, also the last season the Yankees did not make the postseason.) While he wasn’t perfect and did seem to get hurt a lot, most times it was because he was going hard into a wall while chasing down a fly ball. That seemed to go against this idea that he was “soft”, which is something he had been accused of in the past. At the end of the day, with Ellsbury in center and leading off, the Red Sox were able to win two World Series rings. He is arguably one of the top three current outfielders as far as covering ground goes.

Ellsbury was also able to dodge the media spotlight while in Boston, and remains relatively private. He’s married to the lovely Kelsey Hawkins, so you won’t see him out and about with Derek Jeter and his bevy of babes. He also is very even tempered, and comes off as a very likable guy during interviews. He is the first MLB player of Navajo descent and was raised in a family that belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). In 2009, my cousin (a diehard Red Sox fan) invited my father and I to join he and his father (my uncle) up in Boston for the Patriots Day game and the afternoon game before it. The Red Sox were playing the Orioles and Ellsbury had just completed his first full season as a Red Sox centerfielder. He was slowly turning into a fan favorite. His speed on the base path and in the outfield really struck a chord with the Red Sox faithful. The game the day before Patriots Day started around 3 or 4 PM, if I recall correctly, so the game was done by 7 or so. We stopped back at our hotel to shower up before us 4 guys went out to the best steakhouse in Boston, Abe & Louie’s.

My cousin is by far the most talented and successful of anyone in our family, so he is doing very well for himself. He had his people call ahead and make the reservations for us, so we had prime seating in the main dining room. Now I love a steak, but I can rarely afford one, so believe me, just entering a steakhouse a smelling those delicious seared meats is a treat. To actually be  treated like a VIP was over the top. My second favorite moment from the night (which on any other night would the best moment) was how the waiter looked at my father funny when he answered the question “Who are you going to split the Porter House for two with?” with the one word answer, “myself”, and how the waiter totally lost it when my uncle did the same thing right after. The guy broke out of his stoic steakhouse professional mode and sort of cracked. He claimed the only other time he had seen two people at one table order individual porterhouses for two was when he waited on a New England Patriots lineman’s bachelor party.

My cousin and I really got a kick out of that. I will never forget that meal. Not only because we started off with a seafood tower (hot and cold) and hammered down slabs of meat with delicious sides, all the while drinking red wine and scotch, but also because, just as we finished our steak, in walks Jacoby Ellsbury. He was with a friend and two chicks, and had obviously done the same as us (showered up after the game and hit the town up for a nice dinner). Now, the way that we were sitting in the dining room, I was the only one facing the main entrance and saw him coming our way, led by the maitre d, unbeknownst to the rest of our party.

So in an attempt to be coy about the whole situation, I tried to say to the whole table, under my breath, “Nobody look, but Jacoby Ellsbury just sat down at the booth right next to us.” Immediately, my father, my uncle and my cousin, drop their forks and shoot a glance over at the same time (hey, I guess “smoothness” might not be genetic). In all honesty, we were all sort of star struck. We had just watched him hit a clutch go ahead double that evening, and were looking forward to our first Patriots Day game. My cousin had gotten us seats right next to the Red Sox dugout, which really makes you feel right in the action (something you can’t say about these modern day ball parks, especially the new Yankee stadium.) So as we nursed our post-dinner scotches, my cousin gets the idea to call the Maitre D over and ask him if it’s ok if we offer the Ellsbury table a bottle of wine, or a round of drinks since we are big fans. My cousin goes as far to recommend a bottle of “Lewis Estates” wine, which is pretty rare, so it’s not the kind of wine that’s priced to sell, if you catch my drift. The restaurant does their thing, and I’m the only one who can see the tables reaction, which was surprise at first, then the waiter pointed over to our table to indicate where it came from. Ellsbury got up and I could tell he was coming our way, so I jumped up and stuck my hand out for a handshake and broke the ice. He hung for a few minutes and BS’d with us. I remember him being surprised that we were Red Sox fans from New York, and my father and uncle got to tell him how grandpa was a US Marine and loved Ted WIlliams, and how it trickled down to my cousin and myself.

So after a really pleasant exchange, Jake goes back to his table and we get our bill (well, my cousin got the bill). We all were anxious to see what wine bottle, or what kind of drinks he and his table were drinking. To our surprise, Jacoby ordered the cheapest bottle of wine on the menu. Granted, the cheapest wine at Abe & Louie’s is better than the best wine at most places, but still. He could have ordered any bottle, my cousin had suggested one for about 200 bucks, instead he humbly chose the cheapest one, as to not run up my cousin’s tab, but also not turn down a gift.

From that moment on, my family became huge Ellsbury supporters. My parents even named their dog Jake after him. I refuse to call the dog Jake while Ellsbury plays for the Yankees (which will be at least 7 years…so, that dog better get used to the name Drake). But I honestly wish him all the best with his new team. He definitely did his job for us, and there was no way in hell the Red Sox would have matched that offer. Let’s see what Jackie Bradley Jr. can do. I’d love to see him try to mirror Ellsbury’s career path and make a name for himself while winning a few rings. If anything, it just spices up the rivalry that much more. And that is always a good thing.

Steve-O

Below is an actual photo of Steve

doom

5 Reasons the Knicks have 5 Wins in 20 Games

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  5 Reasons the Knicks have 5 Wins in 20 Games

This Column was written by Columnist CowBoy George C., Life Long Knicks fan, and Knicks Season ticket holder.

The Knicks lost a game on the road to the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight, 109-94, dropping their record to 5-15.  The Knicks had lost 15 games last year as well, the difference was that they reached 15 losses on January 26th, a month and a half later.  The locker room interviews were a collection of seemingly shell-shocked Knicks players (Besides for Carmelo remaining his jovial self) being unable to provide answers for the team’s poor start.  Below are five reasons that have caused this demoralizing start…

5.  Adjustments (Or lack thereof)

After the game tonight, Woodson stated, “The third quarter caught us again.”  For a coach, those are dangerous words.  Great coaches are known for coming up with a game plan that maximizes their player’s strengths while attempting to hide their weaknesses.  Another area in which coaches can have an impact on the game is making halftime adjustments.  For a coach to state that his team is having difficulties in the third quarter is an indictment of his own coaching job in a way.  Coaches such as Phil Jackson were famous for their teams coming out of the locker room and making third quarter runs which shifted the momentum of games.  Woodson has watched his team get outscored by 51 points by teams in the third quarter (84 points if you don’t count the two blowout wins last week).  This is hardly a winning formula for a team.

4.  Defense

For a team that has hyped up the defensive attributes of their players such as Shumpert, Chandler, Martin, World Peace, etc. and the defense first mid-set of Woodson, they sure do seem to be confused by the concept of defending the pick and roll.  Woodson has stubbornly stuck to this policy of switching on all picks, leaving men open for easy jumpers of creating defensive mismatches all over the court.  I’m not sure if it is due to the low basketball I.Q. that many of his players demonstrate, but he rarely, if ever throws new defensive wrinkles like matchup zones or aggressive traps on pick and rolls that could possibly confuse the opposition.  I understand how the Knicks have problems rebounding and rotating on defense, but at this point an adjustment might have to be made out of desperation.  The Cavs were ranked the worst offense in the NBA and they dropped 109 points tonight.  Teams have to salivate seeing this team on the upcoming schedule.

3.  Rotations

When this team was being constructed during the season, it seemed like it was being put together by a fantasy basketball manager from 2006.  Having a front line with basically three max contracts limits the options for the Knicks, and they are forced to sign veteran players to minimum contracts to try to create depth, but the pieces were going to be a tough fit.  Besides for the garbage time players, most of the Knicks starters and backups are shoot first players, with the exception of Chandler, Prigioni and Felton (sometimes).  Of the 14 players on the active roster, the only players who have not started this year are Aldrich, Murry and Stoudemire.  The main issue is that Woodson is 20 games into the season and it seems like he is still trying to get a feel for this team.  Players are sat or left in games with no logical explanation for the move.  There is no way that the team can build offensive and defensive chemistry when different players are shuffled in and out of the lineup.  I understand trying to shake things up once in a while and getting an energy guy in there, but there has to be a smaller rotation with defined roles set.  Great teams use their strengths to make their opponents adjust, yet Woodson has repeatedly shuffled lineups to adjust to the opponent, rather than making them have to change their game-plan.

2.  Urgency

After the loss tonight, Carmelo Anthony was quoted as saying that, “Losing is becoming unacceptable.”  When was losing ever acceptable??????  I understand that losing is part of the game, just like winning, but when you demand a trade to an organization and state that your goal is to bring the Knicks a championship, losing should be unacceptable every day.  This team seems to be coasting at various points of every game, giving up runs that put them behind with large deficits.  You don’t want the team to be so tight that it affects their game, but being ten games under .500 twenty games into the season, maybe it is time for the “leaders” on this team to start upping the ante.  Carmelo, stop telling the press about how much fun you want to have, and show the fan base that losing is now unacceptable.

1.  Accountability

This was the buzzword Woodson started throwing around in his first full season to the point one began to think that he was a member of the Bloomberg administration.  Players were to be held accountable for their actions on and off the court.  Yet, one of the first things Woodson had to do in order to get his contract was to fire his agent and hire CAA to represent him.  CAA also represents Carmelo Anthony, director of player personnel Mark Warkentien, Assistant to the GM Allan Houston, head coach Mike Woodson, and J.R. Smith (And his little brother Chris Smith).  One has to wonder is Woodson is afraid to hold his two top gunners accountable for poor decision making, effort on the court, defensive lapses, etc. when they share representation and also have the ear of James Dolan.  Many people have started to call for Woodson to be fired, but that is problematic for the organization.  Woodson has a good rapport with the players on the team, partly due to his relationship with the stars on the team.  Traditionally, when teams fire a coach, the team goes in the opposite direction as the previous coach.  In this scenario, a coach that would come in would have to be a disciplinarian that would stress defense and limit the freelancing that many of the players do on offense in the current “system”.  With Carmelo being able to opt out of his contract at the end of the season, I doubt he would be thrilled to sign the extension with a team that fired a coach that he got along with and endorsed in order to bring a coach in that would limit his isolation plays and hold him accountable for defense.  Sadly, the Dolan appeasement strategy that he uses with his stars will probably continue.

Get ready Knicks fans, this season is going to be one of highs and lows, unfortunately, it seems the lows will far exceed the highs.

Best regards,
George CJeff andGeorge with the JYD(JunkYard Dog) Jerome Williams

Jeff and George with the JYD(Junk Yard Dog) Jerome Williams

“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”
-Peter Drucker

Stev-O World Series/Season Boston wrap up

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This article is written by Podcast Contributor and Website Columnist Big Stevie Lew/Stev-O “Steve” Lewis. Life Long RedSox Fan and professional wierd-O

Going back to April, no one except for true-blue, diehard fans thought the 2013 Boston Red Sox had a chance of making the playoffs. After back-to-back disappointing and embarrassing seasons, Sox fans and the rest of the MLB had no idea what to expect from this club. John Farrell had been brought on to replace that buffoon Bobby Valentine, and the Farrell trade was considered a move in the positive direction by the majority of Red Sox fans and talking heads around the league. He had great success as a pitching coach under Terry Francona and already had that bond with several of the veteran pitchers on the squad.

During the offseason the team made several moves that seemed innocuous at the time…and some that were even mocked (Victorino), but they brought in a certain type of guy. They picked up David Ross who has been known to be your typical “club-house” type of player. With a positive attitude, and an “always kidding around nature”, he kept the clubhouse on it’s toes. I actually had a video of him singing Shania Twain’s “Man I Feel Like a Woman” while sitting in the dugout as the cameras came back from commercials. I need to see if I can pull that out of the archives. They picked up Jonny Gomes, another “teammates teammate”. I think back to 2008 when Coco Crisp charged the mound against the Tampa Bay Rays after being plunked. Gomes was the first one on top of Coco in the pile, as he came to defend his pitcher. He’s the kind of guy that you hate…until he’s on your team (think Kevin Youkilis of old). Mike Napoli and Koji Uehara rounded of that list of important offseason acquisitions.

 

Out of desperation, the Sox gave Koji a try at the closer slot. Andrew Bailey and Joel Hanrahan both crapped out early in the season, and Koji was their third option. The 38 year old Japanese right handed reliever did a stellar job during the second half of the season, and at one point put away 37 consecutive batters.

So, all these moves didn’t seem to amount to much at the time, but something in the cosmos brought these pieces together to win a World Series championship in 2013 (or maybe it was Ben Cherington…aka Theo Jr).

American’s have a short attention span. It shrinks everyday. It was only this past April when we had the tragic Boston Marathon Bombings. The bombing itself actually happened shortly after the Red Sox traditional Patriots Day game let out. The bombs were set off in Kenmore Square, not far at all from Fenway Park. My family and I have been to that game before, so it was really sad to know that some scumbag out there would be so insane to do something as diabolical as stuffing a pressure cooker full of nails and explosives.

The Red Sox responded. We had the now infamous Big Papi, “This is OUR F*CKING CITY” speech, and that seemed to really help distract the city, at least for a few hours as the Red Sox pulled off one of many come from behind victories that afternoon. The Red Sox players were a constant sight to see at the area hospitals, visiting the victims, and Fenway park paid tribute to those affected and the first responders at the beginning and 7th inning of every home game. Although I don’t live in Boston, watching everyday reminded me of how NY baseball helped New York City/Tri-state residents cope post 9/11 (obviously not as extreme a situation, but similar).

To me, that’s another intangible that the Sox had going for them. They had a special “617” Boston Strong Jersey hanging in the dugout all season. Even Neil Diamond came out in the bottom of the 8th to sing “Sweet Caroline” live for the fans (with the call and response part too, of course).

 

So fast forward to the end of the season, they ran off with 97 wins, and were the best team in the AL, securing an important home field advantage the whole way through, since the AL won the All Star game. Home field advantage is big for Boston in the traditional sense that you get last licks, and the Fenway faithful really know how to scream their heads off. On the night they clinched the World Series, more specifically, once they took a 6-0 lead, the jovial crowd broke into song, and belted out every chorus in unison with the PA at the stadium between batters and innings.

They started the playoffs with the hated Tampa Rays, a team that they had cleared the benches with several times in the past with, including this season. You have crazy Joe Madden over there with his team trips to the aquarium and other oddl team building exercises. Tampa was out matched and Madden even went as far as pitching every single pitcher he had available in the 4th game of that series. I personally had never seen anything like that before. It reeked of desperation. The Sox closed that series up and Detroit and Oakland went on to finish up their series. If you asked me then, I would have rather faced Detroit. They had seemed to be a little beat up and really had to fight to win over Oakland. Well, let me tell you, I was wrong. Shurzer had already started several times, Miguel Cabrera didn’t seem himself. Verlander had just thrown a near perfect game his last outing, no way he could do it again, right? WRONG. Detroit came out with some of the most dominating pitching to come from a starting corps since maybe the Atlanta Braves of the 90’s?

 

That series was the definition of heart attack baseball! Unstoppable pitching, low scoring, late inning heroics. Let me tell you, I was ready to jump off the ledge several times, but they always came back and rallied. The team definitely reminds me of the 2004 Idiots. We used to have the Idiots, now we have the Bieard-o’s. The team had that aggressive nature, which you have to give credit to John Farrell for. He got his guys to respond and to buy into his philosophy. The Red Sox played small ball in spots, which is something they don’t traditionally do. Detroit couldn’t match that, and the bullpen also just couldn’t get it done for them.

There were several magical moments in that series: the Big Papi grand slam (sending Torii Hunter into the Red Sox bullpen and a BPD officer’s hands into the air,) the Mike Napoli homer off of Verlander, and Shane Victorino’s grand slam to basically put the nail in the coffin for Detroit. I almost feel bad for them. Those guys could pitch on my team any day. Verlander, Sherzer, Sanchez, come to Boston! Please! We’ll win a few more….back-to-back, possibly threepeat?

The Cardinal’s had the best overall record in the NL in 2013, and the Red Sox were best in the AL. In the wild card era, this occurrence is becoming more and more rare. Game 1 of the 2013 World Series will be known for a, now much overshadowed, error/blown call and subsequent reversal. In the bottom of the first, St. Louis shortstop Pete Kozma could not handle a ball flipped to him on the front end of a double play. Initially the umpire inexplicably called Dustin Pedroia out at second on the force out. John Farrell immediately came barrelling out of the dugout, spit flying and neck veins popping. He was able to convince the crew to get together and see if anyone had seen the play differently (which is strange being that the umpire closest to the call was the only one who didn’t see Kozma drop the ball.) After the game, the Cardinals organization and fans seemed to agree that the right call was made. The Red Sox scored three runs immediately after this controversy on a Mike Napoli double. I actually went ahead and made an edit to Pete Kozma’s wikipedia page to make sure he never forgets how huge that was. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Kozma

Game 2 featured a great pitching matchup pitting John Lackey against the Cardinals pitching phenom Michael Wacha. The game stayed tight until the 7th inning when the Red Sox slipped mentally in the field, and a Craig Breslow throwing error allowed St. Louis to score and put together a rally strong enough to hold off the Red Sox.

As mentioned before, the overturned call in the bottom of the 1st of the first game would surprisingly not be the most controversial call of the series. Game 3 saw the Cards get ahead early, only to watch Boston crawl back. The Cards then took another lead in the bottom of the 7th, only to see the Red Sox answer again in the top of the 8th, to even the score once again. At that point, you knew you were watching something special, one of those traditional “Fall Classics”, but anyone who saw a game ending obstruction call coming is full of sh*t! I won’t get into detail as to what exactly happened (what a bunch of horsesh*t), or what my initial reaction was (almost got arrested), because the play was so widely covered by sports media outlets that I’m sure you’ve seen the play by now. To see both teams storm the field, and a crowd stunned and silent while their team had just scored the winning run was very unusual.

Coming out of this game, it was my opinion, which was shared by many other diehard Boston fans, and St. Louis fans alike that, this series would eventually hinge on how Boston responded to the obstruction call. Would they adopt the “Why me? We were screwed,” stance, or would they come out with a chip on their shoulder and continue to work counts and swing smart…a tactic they had been practicing all year successfully? The largest crowd in Cardinal history came out that night to watch the Cards lose another tight game. The Red Sox got a humongous lift from a Jonny Gomes 3-run homer in the 6th inning that featured Gomes signature bat flip as he stared a hole through the ball as it cleared the wall. If it weren’t the World Series, with everything on the line, I’d imagine that Gomes would have had one thrown high and tight his next at bat, but that never happened. Maybe Gomes was doing his best Big Papi impersonation, a guy who has actually earned the right to stare at the moon shot home runs he is known for. As an old school guy, I’m not a fan of that stuff, even when it’s my own team doing it. I never liked the way Papelbon reacted when he recorded a save. My pops used to say, “Act like you’ve been there before, no need for showboating.” I also must add that the weirdness continued, as the game ended on a successful pickoff play. With two outs in the bottom of the 9th and Carlos Beltran up at the plate (arguably one of the most prolific post season hitters in the wild card era) the Cards brought in a rookie, Kolten Wong, to pinch run because of his speed. Well, the rookie made a ……uuuummm…rookie mistake and Koji Uehara caught him sleeping. This was the first time a World Series game ended with a pickoff, a night after the game ended on an obstruction call for the first time, making this the first World Series where back to back games ended with a “first time” for the first time. 😉 Tim McCarver and Cardinal’s play by play announcer Michael Shannon both questioned why the Red Sox would hold the runner on in that situation, only to be shown why immediately. Happy trails Tim McCarver…enjoy your retirement. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of you. This link has a great vid of all 3 calls (it doesn’t include the McCarver comment, but does feature the Cards call…pretty funny)…

http://thenosebleeds.com/cardinals-radio-announcer-openly-laughs-at-red-sox-holding-runner-on-seconds-before-game-winning-pickoff/

As the fans exited Busch Stadium, there was a slight sense of defeat that hung in the air. The Cards and their fans knew that Game 5 was going to be somewhat “do or die”. If they were to lose Game 5, they would need to go back to Boston and win two games in a row in the unfriendly confines of Fenway Park. St. Louis could not rise to the challenge, and they floundered by giving up crucial hits to David Ross and Jacoby Ellsbury, two players that were struggling mightily at the plate leading up to those moments. The big star of the game would have to be the Red Sox pitcher and cancer survivor, Jon Lester. With that win, Lester’s World Series record improved to 3-0 with a 0.43 ERA, the stuff legends are made of.

The Sox came home to Fenway for game 6 knowing they only had one more to win, and needed to avoid a game 7 at all costs. In Game 6 they put a 3 spot on the board in the bottom of the 3rd and 4th. Shane Victorino, who had sat out the previous two games with an injury delivered the first of several nails in the coffin with a three run double in the third. The Flyin’ Hawaiian, or the Maui Wowie, as I like to refer to him as, really personified the toughness, the unwillingness to give in and grittiness that the 2013 Red Sox team displayed all year. After all that Red Sox fans had been through the past 2 and a half seasons, and the tragedy that the town experienced, the Red Sox faithful were ready to party late into the evening as the town took to the streets. They held a parade on that Saturday and broke out the famous duck boats.

And Boston celebrated the only way they know how….drunkenly kick the sh*t out of each other.

Bonus,added by jeff.

Steve testing hiss crackpot theories in a livery cab in the bx/inwood

Cab 1

Cab 2

Cano a Hoe?

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This is a written by good friend and Website contributor (Cow Boy)George Clancy. Life Long Yankee Fan and current angry man/former bleacher season ticket holder. Please excuse any format errors bc i am an idiota-Jeff

Resign Cano????????

As the Yankees head into the offseason, there are many questions regarding which direction the team should take regarding resigning and acquiring players. With the ownership pushing for getting under the 189 million budget to avoid paying heavy luxury taxes, there are some important decisions  coming up in the next couple of months, the most important being Robinson Cano’s upcoming free agency.

In past years, resigning Cano would be a no brainer for the organization. Cano is a home-grown talent and has put up all-star numbers at a middle infield position in which power hitting is a rarity. He is a slick fielding second baseman with a left-handed swing that is tailor made for the short right field porch at Yankee Stadium. In his last three seasons, he has accumulated 20.7 WAR and has hit .309/.371/.55 while batting in the middle of a lineup filled with aging stars and stop gap replacement players. King George would have basically handed Jay-Z a blank check and there would be a press conference scheduled in November to make the announcement. Yet, with the murky future of the Yankees organization, it doesn’t make sense for the Yankees to resign Cano. There is 31 million dollars of cap space that the Yankees are unsure of having, depending on what happens with A-Rod’s suspension appeal. That case will drag potentially until late December, and I doubt Cano will want to wait the market out that long and risk teams signing other options at second base instead. Cano has asked the Yankees for a ten year, 300 million dollar contract, which is insane numbers for a contract that would stretch until he is 40. With the Yankees on the hook with big contracts for A-Rod, C.C. and Teixeira, I doubt they would want to have another aging star on the books limiting their spending flexibility. Many experts see Cano signing a seven or eight year deal worth between 160-230 million. The Yankees have about 65 million dollars in their budget for free agents this offseason if they are to achieve their goal of staying under the 189 million threshold. Committing 25 million to Cano would eat up a significant amount of this money and hurt their chances of addressing other areas that clearly need to be shored up.

Aside from the money issue, there is the possibility of Cano declining rapidly while playing in his mid-thirties as well. For some reason, there are many all-star second basemen that have seen a rapid decline in their numbers as they approached their mid-thirties. Names like Edgardo Alfonso, Carlos Baerga, Marcus Giles, Chuck Knoblauch, and even Roberto Alomar are examples of second basemen that saw their numbers drop off of a cliff when they hit their mid-thirties. The last thing the Yankees need to do is get caught in another long term contract with a player with eroding skills. If the Yankees are going to commit to this 189 million dollar payroll figure, resigning Cano doesn’t make sense. They would be much better off letting him go as a free agent and getting the two  compensatory draft picks from whichever team signs him. (There can be a quick turnaround with these picks, Mike Trout was drafted by the Angels using the picks they acquired from the Yankees after the Teixeira signing in 2009.) They are better off signing a player like Omar Infante and hoping that they can  develop a minor league player in the future to take over at second base. As much as the Yankees tried to promote Cano, nobody was buying tickets to see Cano play baseball. He was a good to great middle  infielder for the Yankees, but the inherent risks involved with signing Cano outweigh the rewards of keeping him in the Bronx with a long term contract. If the Yankees are going to commit to this fiscal responsibility, moves like not resigning Cano will have to be the norm rather than the exception for the immediate future.

Best regards

George Clancy

“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”
-Peter Drucker