What in all f'ing hell is wrong with the Yankees?

[Guest Wildbomb 4:20]

Yes, both Nixon and Kapler were cleared of their suspensions, thereby proving that if you wait long enough, these things melt away.

 

Boston is 27-10 since the incident, mind you.

 

Yankees Achilles Heel: Starting Pitching. Vasquez hasn't looked good in a month, Mussina is pitching like a No. 4, not a 1, Brown...HAHAHA. What a joke. The only guy throwing well is El Duque, and he wasn't even ACTIVE last season.

 

It seems as if they don't even want to win, a problem I thought plauged Boston for the better part of three months this season.

 

--Ryan

[Guest Anglesault]

Yes, both Nixon and Kapler were cleared of their suspensions, thereby proving that if you wait long enough, these things melt away.

I just don't get it. I mean yeah, Selig is in bed with John Henry, but this wasn't a Selig move, and I'm not going to blame in on suggestions from Ol' Bud.

[mike546 0]

For the most part, the rotation looked very good this week. El Duque and Lieber had excellent starts, Brown gave up 3 runs in 6 innings, Mussina had a good start, and Vazquez had a good start today.

[The Man in Blak 0]

Now, now - don't forget: Kevin Brown bashed his non-pitching hand into a wall, taking himself out of the season, leaving Halsey or *snicker* Loaiza as the replacement for the rest of the regular season.

[Guest MikeSC]

Now, now - don't forget: Kevin Brown bashed his non-pitching hand into a wall, taking himself out of the season, leaving Halsey or *snicker* Loaiza as the replacement for the rest of the regular season.

That was probably Selig's fault. He's buddies with the BoSox, ya know.

-=Mike

[Guest Anglesault]

That was probably Selig's fault. He's buddies with the BoSox, ya know.

-=Mike

No, you're right. He's not. The deal that brought in John Henry and company to own the team was perfectly legitimate. And he just made an "oopsie" and forgot the maximum amount of cash that could be exchanged in a Red Sox trade last year, only to conveniently remember it the next week.

 

Silly me.

[Jericholic82 0]

lets not get ahead of ourselves, the problem lately, the reason the lead shrunk is that the Red sox have won like 18 out of 20 games since aug 16th. losing two out of thee to the twins and being swept by the angels really shrunk the lead down . What I mean is the Yanks are above 500 since that day, but the red sox won so many games in a row that the lead obviously shrunk.

 

 

No predictions here, that's why they play the games.

 

 

although don't be shocked, that

"when the leaves turn brown and there's a chill in the air, look towards the Bronx, cuz that's where the big show, known as the world series, will be played" (thanks to my dad for the quote)

 

 

so don't worry angelsault, because the curse works in mysterious ways

 

 

as for Brown, why are you shocked? he did come from the Dodgers after all

 

 

And no we don't miss Jeff Weaver cuz he sucks

[The Man in Blak 0]

There are two pitchers, with the following stats:

 

12 wins, 6.4 K/9, 3.72 ERA, 1.26 WHIP

10 wins, 5.7 K/9, 3.99 ERA, 1.25 WHIP

 

Now, no cheating - which one's Kevin Brown and which one's Jeff Weaver?

[mike546 0]

Now, now - don't forget: Kevin Brown bashed his non-pitching hand into a wall, taking himself out of the season, leaving Halsey or *snicker* Loaiza as the replacement for the rest of the regular season.

Whats wrong with Halsey?

 

The whole extra inning part of the Sox/Yanks 13 inning game this year overshadows the first part, in which Halsey outpiched Pedro.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

That was one game. Halsey had a 7.23 ERA this season. The only positive you can take out of that was that it was better than Esteban Loaiza.

[Brett Favre 0]

I'm better than Loaiza.

[The Man in Blak 0]

The whole extra inning part of the Sox/Yanks 13 inning game this year overshadows the first part, in which Halsey outpiched Pedro.

Outpitched Pedro? The kid went only 5.1 innings and coughed up 2 runs, while Pedro went 7 innings and gave up three. He may have been able to go step-for-step with him for half of a game, but he certainly didn't torch him.

 

But hey, if you feel good about a rookie with a 7.23 ERA in four starts (none of which lasted six innings, mind you)...then all the power to you.

[the max 0]

I feel good about the Yanks having a rookie starter with that ERA in their rotation come stretch time. Then again, I'm a fan of the opposing team...

[mike546 0]

Consider this.

 

His first start was against the Dodgers, in LA, in front of 50,000 people and he pitched good, 5 two 3rds, one run. His second start, against the Mets, in Yankee Stadium, in front of 50,000, he pitched bad. Then he pitches in front of 55,000 against the Sox. So he pitched goos 2 out of three times.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

You're reading that backwards, and missing a start. He made his debut against the Tigers, and gave up seven runs (five earned) in 4.1 IP.

[Brett Favre 0]

It's always fashionable to blame the Yankees for just about anything and just about everything these days. Traffic. Inflation. Bad haircuts. Whatever.

 

 

So why not the weather?

 

 

Why not a hurricane?

 

 

Why not a headline that looked something like this:

 

 

HURRICANE FRANCES RAVAGES FLORIDA. STEINBRENNER BLAMED.

 

 

OK, it never quite came to that this week. But it did come to this:

 

 

DEVIL RAYS DELAYED BY HURRICANE. YANKEES DEMAND FORFEIT.

 

 

If you weren't paying attention, that looked like the clear seven-word summation of what happened Monday at Yankee Stadium, when the Tampa Bay Devil Rays failed to show up on time for a doubleheader without a valid note from their mothers.

 

 

But of course, it's more complicated than that. And as best we can tell, after hearing all sides in this fiasco, it isn't the Yankees who deserve to take the heat on this. Or the Devil Rays.

 

 

It's the poobahs at Major League Baseball, who must have been the only people on the planet not watching the Weather Channel over the weekend.

 

 

Does anybody out there really believe the Yankees are so desperate to hold onto their lead over the rampaging Red Sox that they tried to squeeze a forfeit out of a team caught in a hurricane?

 

 

Come on, friends. George Steinbrenner may believe that the goal in life is to go 162-0 and sweep the World Series by a score of 57-1. But he isn't that inhumane.

 

 

All the Yankees were really doing, in requesting that forfeit ruling Monday, was asking the commissioner's office, in that diplomatic way of theirs: Why the heck were we forced to wait around all day for a team that had no more chance of arriving in New York by 3 p.m. than it did of swimming from Tampa Bay to the Bronx?

 

 

Why were they there? Not because they wanted to be. They were there because MLB's COO, Bob DuPuy, assured them repeatedly all weekend that the Devil Rays would show up in plenty of time to play.

 

 

As early as Friday, Yankees president Randy Levine told ESPN.com, the Yankees called the commissioner's office and said: "There's a hurricane coming. What do you want us to do (about Monday's doubleheader)?"

 

 

"If they had just told us Friday, 'The Devil Rays are not coming,' all of this would have been avoided," Levine said.

 

 

But that isn't what the Yankees were told. They were told by DuPuy on Friday they should prepare to play, Levine said. They were told the same thing on Saturday. They were told again on Sunday. They were reassured yet again Sunday night, despite forecasts that showed the storm had slowed in the Tampa Bay area.

 

 

So all the Yankees did was what they were told. They prepared to play. They showed up to play.

 

 

And when game time rolled around (a couple of different game times, in fact) and there was nobody to play, they got slightly annoyed. Can't blame them.

 

 

There should have been a simple announcement Sunday, if not earlier: "The health and safety of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and their families is more important to us than any Labor Day doubleheader. Therefore, we're postponing both games." How complicated is that, huh?

 

 

But what were they doing there? Why were they told to play? Why did MLB even think it was possible to play? That still isn't clear.

 

 

DuPuy didn't return two calls for comment. But MLB spokesman Rich Levin says baseball was assured by the Devil Rays "that they would be there on time." Which is interesting, since the Rays themselves say they never had any intention of leaving until the storm had passed and they knew their homes and families were safe.

 

 

"We'd do it again tomorrow," said Rick Vaughn, the Devil Rays' vice president of public relations. "There's no way we wanted to come up during that storm."

 

 

Even the Yankees admit that Devil Rays GM Chuck LaMar talked to Yankees GM Brian Cashman as early as Friday and told them just that. They even relayed that message to MLB.

 

 

But Levine says the Yankees were then told by the commissioner's office: "That's not true. We're telling them to get up there."

 

 

There have been intimations that it was Devil Rays owner Vince Naimoli who told DuPuy his team would show up Monday right on time, ostensibly because it planned to leave Sunday.

 

 

But Vaughn says that while there was some preliminary talk about trying to fly out Sunday night, the forecast continued to worsen. So "by Friday night, when we left the ballpark," Vaughn said, "our traveling secretary told me, 'We'll leave Monday morning, unless you hear (otherwise) from me.' "

 

 

The commissioner's office, however, would not confirm that Naimoli had sent DuPuy a different message -- or, in fact, that he had told them anything about anything.

 

 

"We're not going to talk about what conversations we had with the Devil Rays," Levin said. "We were led to believe the Devil Rays could make it there in time for the game. As far as who said what to whom, we're not going to get into it."

 

 

The other bizarre aspect of this story is the Yankees' suggestion that the Devil Rays took their time getting out of Tampa on Monday, when they could have flown out first thing in the morning.

 

 

"Let me tell you about our day," Vaughn replied. "We got to the park at 7:30 in the morning, because the bus was supposed to leave at 8. And we were ready to go. But the airport in Sarasota was closed.

 

 

"So then we tried to fly out of Fort Myers. But there were tornado warnings along I-75. And Chuck said, 'I'm not going to jeopardize these players' safety by trying to drive 2½ hours (to Fort Myers) in this weather.'

 

 

"Finally, around 11:30, we heard that the Tampa airport would be open around noon. ... But the bridge was flooded, and they only had one lane open, and it took us an hour just to get across the bridge. So there was no way we could leave Tampa until 3 o'clock.

 

 

"We left Tampa at 3 and played a game -- in New York -- at 7." Vaughn said. "I never heard of anybody doing that. But we did it. We walked in, put our uniforms on, went out, stretched and started the game."

 

 

The Yankees, on the other hand, say they were told at one point that the Devil Rays would leave Saturday, before the storm even hit -- then were told Monday that the Tampa airport was open all morning.

 

 

With all these different stories flying around, of course, who knows what any of us should believe. So Levine said the Yankees didn't demand they be handed this win by forfeit. All the Yankees asked MLB to do, he said, was "investigate."

 

 

"What we said to Major League Baseball was, 'Do an investigation,' " Levine said. "If you determine that Tampa Bay was supposed to leave and it didn't have a valid reason for not leaving and not showing up, then the rules say there should be a forfeit."

 

 

But MLB's "investigation" didn't exactly last as long as the Iran-Contragate hearings. Before Monday night's game was even over, Bud Selig had issued a statement saying MLB believed in determining the outcome of its games by playing them, not forfeiting them. And by Tuesday afternoon, MLB had rescheduled the postponed game as part of a Wednesday doubleheader.

 

 

The Yankees had asked for that game to be rescheduled for after the season and only played if necessary. But MLB rejected that argument, too.

 

 

"We try to play all our games," Levin said, speaking for Selig. "Things like hurricanes do happen. When they happen, you have to make an adjustment. And we made an adjustment."

 

 

That, however, isn't the Yankees' beef. They understand there was a hurricane. They understand that created issues for a lot of people. They understand why the Devil Rays didn't want to leave until the storm had headed elsewhere.

 

 

"We're not objecting to any of that," said the Yankees' president. "What we're objecting to is: That's not what (MLB) told us. ... If (the Rays) couldn't get there -- or baseball was telling them they didn't have to get there -- why didn't (MLB) just tell us that? If they'd come to us Friday, Saturday or Sunday and said, 'This is not going to happen,' why would we have opened the gates?"

 

 

Uh, good question. And one that could have been easily answered, too, had anyone from the commissioner's office just taken a good look at the Doppler, considered all the human issues involved and thought this through.

 

 

There should have been a simple announcement from Selig or DuPuy on Sunday, if not earlier: "The health and safety of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and their families is more important to us than any Labor Day doubleheader. Therefore, we're postponing both games and we're telling the Devil Rays to wait out this storm. We'll stay in constant communication with all sides. And when it's safe for them to leave for New York, we'll have a further announcement on rescheduling these games."

 

 

How complicated is that, huh? But instead, the Devil Rays probably will be fined and/or disciplined. Lucky them.

 

 

And all that forfeit hoopla has probably led most of the continent to think the Yankees' official hurricane policy was something to the effect of: "We deserve that forfeit. And oh by the way, we don't care if your power stays out till November."

 

 

Ridiculous.

 

 

But when in doubt, blame the Yankees. It's been a can't-go-wrong formula for 80 years. No reason to abandon it now.

 

-Jayson Stark

 

Guy has some points...

[Guest Smell the ratings!!!]

hey if I haven't said it already, thanks for taking Loaiza

[Brett Favre 0]

NP, but thanks for taking Contrera's contract. Luckily, Loaiza won't be here next year.

[alfdogg 0]

-Jayson Stark

...I thought Anglesault's first name was Matt?

[Guest Anglesault]

You're reading that backwards, and missing a start. He made his debut against the Tigers,

Uhm, no. Dodgers-Mets-Sox-Tigers.

[The Man in Blak 0]

June 19 - LA: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

June 26 - NYM: 3.1 IP, 5 H, 6 ER, 5 BB, 4 K

July 1 - BOS: 5.1 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K

July 7 - DET: 4.1 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 5 K

[Guest Anglesault]

June 19 - LA: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

June 26 - NYM: 3.1 IP, 5 H, 6 ER, 5 BB, 4 K

July 1 - BOS: 5.1 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K

July 7 - DET: 4.1 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 5 K

Seriously, for a rookie, not so horrible. And the Boston numbers look a little worse than they are, because Quantrill and Lofton fucked up a bit.

 

The Mets were his Yankee Stadium debut, and the Tigers (at the time, at least) were one of the best offensive teams in the league.

 

I'll take this guy against Tampa Bay.

[Guest Anglesault]

The Times has an article with George lashing out on the idiot Commisioner. The Obvious Double Stardard against the Yankees by baseball is also briefly noted at the end of the article. They fail to mention that the Yanks were ordered to stay under threat of forfeit. For a agme in the middle of September, mind you.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

The Times has an article with George lashing out on the idiot Commisioner. The Obvious Double Stardard against the Yankees by baseball is also briefly noted at the end of the article. They fail to mention that the Yanks were ordered to stay under threat of forfeit. For a agme in the middle of September, mind you.

So why did Steinbrenner vote to renew that dipshit at the owners' meetings a few weeks ago?

[Bruiser Chong 0]

He didn't know what he was signing; honest!

[Dr. Tom 0]

I'm sure the Times is a completely unbiased source for the supposed double standard against the Yankees...

[Guest MikeSC]

I'm sure the Times is a completely unbiased source for the supposed double standard against the Yankees...

Tom, if you can't trust the NY Times, who can you trust?

-=Mike

[Guest Anglesault]

The Times has an article with George lashing out on the idiot Commisioner. The Obvious Double Stardard against the Yankees by baseball is also briefly noted at the end of the article. They fail to mention that the Yanks were ordered to stay under threat of forfeit. For a agme in the middle of September, mind you.

So why did Steinbrenner vote to renew that dipshit at the owners' meetings a few weeks ago?

Because the dipshit has shown time and time again that he has a problem with Steinbrenner and/or the Yankees. If George takes a stand against him, the imbecile will veto every major trade we try.

[Jericholic82 0]

Once again, say it with me JEFF WEAVER SUCKS.

 

 

anyhow, this whole forfeit thing peeved me a bit. I am not going to say that the rays should have left last friday, cuz I understand their concerns with their familly, but if they weren't going to get there till monday night, MLB should have cancelled the games that day.

 

as for NYY asking for money back, I guess they have a valid point there.

 

There is an obvious double standard here.

 

 

besides that, the yanks are in the middle of a pennant race here, they don't need to get up for a game, then sit around all day, we can't afford complacency here. However I don't want any forfeits here, it won't mean anything unless they earn it.

 

 

I'm glad they solved the problem (although they did wind up missing one game there-no bigee) promptly, but I am sick of all the anit-yanks whining going on. and of course ESPN basically rooting for them to lose and trying to promote the sox as the next big thing (John Kruk has a mouth to match his "rotund" fram-especially for someone who never won the big one-then again maybe thats why he likes the sox lol)

 

I have a huge problem because it occurs to me that everyone hates on the Yanks, not cuz of the money, not cuz of the success, not cuz they like the underdog, but because THEY HATE NY PERIOD. (except for the post 9/11 lull when they pretended to give a damn, if only to get sympathy for themselves-well that's mostly californianas :<) and or they are jealous of the publicity NYC gets or its standing as the basic capital of the free world. which is understandable of course.

 

look any other recent dynasty got comparably less hatred (eg Bulls, Lakers ) so whats up here?

 

The Yanks have been, are now, and will always be my favorite sports team period, win or lose. I wish more could just accept the fact that there are true diehard Yankees fans (like myself and anglesault) out there .

 

That's really my only gripe

 

Maybe you can understand now that I have clarified my feeling on the matters

 

 

 

 

and one more thing, the sox-yanks rivalry defines what baseball is. It doesn't ever get any better than a pennant race between the two old foes. I have a begrudging respect for Boston fans as they are about as dedicated as any sports fans out there, and when there aren't any brawls we can, however begrudgingly, respect each other even as we hate each others guts. I hope I am making sense here

 

 

 

Thanks for hearing me out

[The Czech Republic 0]

look any other recent dynasty got comparably less hatred (eg Bulls, Lakers ) so whats up here?

Zuh? Which Lakers? You must mean the Magic/Kareem Lakers, as opposed to the Kobe/Shaq Lakers, because if I recall correctly, America rejoiced as the Pistons made the Lakers look like shit.