If you stayed up late you saw more of the same from the Yanks: good pitching, no hitting. In fact, you didn’t have to stay up too late. The game was played in less than 3 hours and the Dodgers won 3-2 when Mark Ellis singled with 2 men out in the 9th against Shawn Kelly.
Five hits in all for the Yanks, who resemble the old Dodger teams in that they can pitch they just don’t score much.
[Photo Credit: Richard Mackson, USA TODAY Sports]
I think that it's time to be sellers, if we had anything to sell....... OTOH, perhaps Cashman's the game is one based on hope that A(effing)rod will be banned for life, freeing up sufficient $$$ to buy 2 or 3 starters for next year, presumably guys with bats.
[1] I thought we'd have been sellers long before this. Maybe the Yankees know more than the press about what the commissioner is planning. Love the idea of a lifetime ban. A fitting end to the "Curse of the A-rod".
I don't really get the A-Rod hate [1][2]. He was basically the best player on the team up through about 2010 and was critical to their winning the 2009 WS. Plus, it's the Yankees own damn fault they signed him to the crazy extension. He's a jackass to be sure, and it would be great if the Yankees can escape his contract, but I aim my re more at the organization (who surely knew he was juicing, too) than the player.
3) I agree more with you more than those who detest Arod (I don't) but does it really matter who receives the brunt of the anger?
Look at it this way:
You invite a guy to your party, and he acts like a jerk, and pees in the punch bowl.
Who are people going to be angry at? The guy who peed in the punch bowl, or the guy who invited him?
And at the end of the party does it matter who's to blame?
Everybody's just bummed, and thirsty because there's pee in the punch.
[4] I blame the guy. But if I invite him back again, and make him the guest of honor, and promise to make him the guest of honor for many subsequent parties...well, I think I'm pretty much to blame when he ruins the fest.
5) where I differ with you is that you're sugggesting the Yankees knew he was going to pee in the punch bowl because other guys were doing it, or that it was cool with them as long he didn't get caught. I don't think that's the case.
[6] They knew he was a jackass and a carnival show and a soap opera who cost a lot of money, yet they signed up for more years of it at a higher price. Then they get mad when he acts like a jackass and carnival show and a soap opera. They could have said bye-bye to him and his enormous contract years ago. They brought him back. They bought it, they own it.
All that being said, I *am* firmly convinced that every organization knows who is juicing, or at least they keep themselves willfully ignorant, which is about as bad.
7) I think they signed on for the silly soap opera, but not the drugs. As long as Alex could keep raking, the Yankees would happily deal with the diva antics, and laugh their way to the bank with him. His drug use, I think, came as a surprise. I don't think they were willfully ignorant either. They may have been suspicious of his home run totals, but on a yearly basis they weren't in the Bonds, Sosa, McGuire stratosphere. He didn't look like what everybody thought a juicer looked like. I think he passed the smell test, some level of scrutiny - however minimal - when they signed, and even resigned him.
He'll get his money from the Yankees, and I agree he should unless he somehow violated his contract.
[8] As long as Alex could keep raking, the Yankees would happily deal with the diva antics, and laugh their way to the bank with him.
I think *this* is the main issue. He started to get hurt and stopped hitting the same way. Then the Yankees suddenly got tired of his act. The steroids business is just an excuse for the organization to free themselves from the mistake they made in extending his contract. If he were still hitting, the steroid accusation would simply be one new facet to the carnival act and the Yankees would grin and bear it. At least that's how I see it, but maybe you're right. I *do* think a lot of people held out hope that he was clean and could somehow replace the known juicers from the top of the record books.
8) "The steroids business is just an excuse for the organization to free themselves from the mistake they made in extending his contract."
Precisely, that's the crux of the biscuit - and it's the key point ARod haters are missing, and/or dismissing. They don't care if he gets screwed out of money he's owed. They just want him gone.
Exactly. Fuck ARod. He's already a filthy rich lying cheater, who who cares if he gets screwed out of even more money. I would feel the same way about the Yankee brass, except I want my team to continue to be competitive. If they can get the rest of that contract money, I'm fine with it as long as they have learned their goddamn lesson, which I'm highly dubious about.
[10] love the zappa reference! i use it all the time : )
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[10] Wait, biscuits have cruxes? (Cruces?)
Leave it to Sliced Bread to have esoteric information about baked goods.
RI - "crux of the biscuit", is a famous Frank Zappa line from his album Apostrophe!
Speaking of baked goods, you should hear Zappa's awesome intro to his song "Muffin Man"!
[14] Oh, jeez. I've heard that song 100,000 times, too. (Although come to think of it, it's not that surprising -- listening to Frank Zappa and remembering things don't go well together.)