Let's break down last night's debacle. First of all, we need to revisit this post:
http://205.214.94.186/forums/showthr...759#post156759
Next, let me say that I don't think we deserved to win. I think we were outplayed and the guys we needed to play well, the guys we brought in to be superstars, played mostly like crap for 5 straight games.
Although I think Sheff wouldn't have caught that ball even if there had been no collision and even though he should have caught that bloop off of the bat of Molina (and he would have if he wasn't so slow and didn't get such a shitty jump on the ball), I don't blame him for that loss. I don't even blame Matsui (stranded 8 men last night), who has been very clutch in the past. (We better re-sign him.)
I blame Rodriguez. Boston fans rejoice. He is our curse.
ARod is the Charles Smith of baseball. He is a joke. A charlatan. A fraud. A smudge on the Yankees uniform. A piece of shit. I would rather have Boone. I used to think that he should win MVP over Ortiz because Ortiz is a one-dimensional player, but I was wrong. ARod is the anti-MVP. He is going to be miserable in this town. I don't know how he will be able to walk the streets. If he would have simply struck out in the ninth, the Yankees would have won that game yesterday. That's two* of the three games that we lost because of his
malfeasance. And his
nonfeasance the rest of the time didn't help, but at least it didn't actively hurt.
Next up? That bullshit call. Or should I say
those bullshit calls. If anyone,
anyone argues that Cano should have been called out on that play, I will have absolutely no respect for you when it comes to sports because you simply cannot be objective.
Cano ran up the baseline. His feet were actually
on the fucking chalk and his foot hit the middle of the bag. First of all, that is not a violation of the rule. If he had been inside the chalk at any time after the catcher picked up the ball, the umpire may have had a point. But he wasn't. Second of all, the first baseman was on the part of the bag Cano would normally have stepped on because he wanted to give his catcher an better target. To make that call in Game Five was just completely fucking ridiculous. And he's the same jackass that called the runner safe at second when he was clearly out the other night on the force. He should be removed from the playoff rotation at the very least and sent down to Single A, where he belongs, at the worst.
And then, there's Torre. I think Torre is a good manager of two things (and
the game, where he is average, ain't one of them). One: the personalities of the type we had from '96 to '01. Quiet guys who are team players. Guys who you can motivate with a look or gesture. Guys like Bernie, Posada, Martinez, Paulie, Jeter and Rivera. He can't motivate any other type of player. He can't get in someone's face when they're playing like a little bitch and tell him just that. It's not in him. And that's what we needed this year.
The other thing he's good at is managing outside influences. He can manage Steinbrenner and all of Steinbrenner's henchmen who try their best to interfere. He manages the press beautifully and manages to keep so much pressure off his guys and on him. Compare Steinbrenner's quotes when Winfield was playing horribly in the postseason to now, when ARod is ten times worse. Back then, everything was the fault of the players. Today, Steinbrenner blames Torre. And I credit Torre for deflecting that heat.
Sweet Lou will be our next manager and as much as it will hurt to see Torre leave on terms not his own, we need to enter a new phase. Bernie, Posada and Tino are not the future of this team. We need a different leader. And I think Piniella will get the most out of the ridiculous team we field next year.
Last up, center field. Bernie, it was nice knowin' ya. Can't wait to see you on your first old-timers day. Make way for Torii Hunter. If we don't acquire him, I'm going to be fucking furious.
TM
*Remember his game-destroying error in Game 2?
