This 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