Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Back At .500, And More On Clemens

Another night, another win against Texas. Yankees go for the sweep tomorrow, and their starting pitching is looking great.

I'm not too frustrated with the Yankees success. Again, they'll kill teams with lousy pitching. And Texas is bad.

The good news is, there are two hot teams in the Central. The Indians have put it together following that awful series against the Yankees, and the bats of Peralta, Pronk, and Barfield have been heating up. The Tigers have been red-hot, although I wonder how the Zumaya injury will affect them. Rodney is pretty solid, too, so I wouldn't worry about them.

Why do I bring this up? Because if Boston stays hot and the wild card comes out of the Central - we've got ourselves a Yankee-free October!

- I'm tired of people talking about how the preferential treatment of Clemens goes against the Yankee way. Shut up with the aura and mystique (and I love Schilling's line back in '01 World Series). The Yankee way was gone when they replaced a warrior like O'Neill with one of the biggest jerks to ever play the game, Raul Mondesi. The Yankee way was gone when Steinbrenner wanted to ruin the game and put Montreal and Minnesota out of business. The Yankee way was gone when Kevin Brown punched the wall. So give it up already.

- And by the way, you will not see me complain about the Clemens signing ruining the parity of the game. Not when the mid-market Brewers have the best record in the game. Not after the Red Sox shelled out $100 million for Matsuzaka. Not when only 5 teams came into spring training with no shot at the playoffs. Baseball's system still needs some work, but we've come a long way since the late 90's.

I will say this: one Yankee fan told me he'd love for the Yankees to sign Johan Santana when he becomes a free agent. If that happens, I think I'll be watching the NHL playoffs this time of year.

8 comments:

Craig Weinrich said...

Yankee fans will alway think that their team can just buy up the best player out there. I remember two years ago one caller to a sports talk radio station said they should just go out and "get Ben Sheets" (this after he just signed a contract with the Brewers). The fans tend to have this sense of "entitlement" to any player out there - realistic or not. It sucks, but I can't wait for that Yankee free October!

Peter N said...

First of all on this Thursday morning, that was ANOTHER great win for us. And by us I mean the Sox!!!! Thank you for putting my blog, Peter's Red Sox Forever, on your link list. And I just added yours! Maybe, just maybe could you add ONE word to my link. That would make it read like this..
Peter's Red Sox Forever Everything else is perfect, and when you click on your link to me, you'll see your own link!
GO SOX...Peter N, and thank you so much.

Anonymous said...

Nice to see you're not just whoring your blog on jere's and Allan's sites, peter.

Anonymous said...

The fans tend to have this sense of "entitlement" to any player out there - realistic or not.

That is the exact thing that I hate most about Yankee fans, that sense of entitlement. I've seen players like Santana, Carlos Zambrano and Miguel Cabrera all referred to as "future Yankees" by Yankee fans. Drives me crazy.

I would love for October to be Yankee free for a change, but I'm not making any bets on that.

Anonymous said...

I hate that sense of entitlement too but I think that all changed when they didn't get Beltran two years ago. I know they all stopped talking smack about getting the best player on the market that year.

The thing that gets me with the entitlement thing is that the World Series is ALWAYS listed as "Yankees and..." whoever is doing well in the NL (and that's just by looking at the record). I was SO happy when they were eliminated in the first round last year - I didn't have to hear my Yankee friends talking smack anymore.

Anonymous said...

Aaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnddddddd, the Yanks are back under .500.

Seven games back has to hurt.

Manny Ortiz said...

Peter: I updated the blogroll. Keep up the great work.

mouse and coop: welcome back! how ya been?

And about the sense of entitlement: I think it's still there (see: Damon, Abreu, Clemens), but in a quieter, more subtle manner. I'm gonna address that one soon.

Coop said...

Hey Manny - I will link up to you guys on my new Mets blog My Summer Family. You weren't posting a lot in the offseason (with good reason) and I didn't get a chance to ask. I will def link up to you guys. One of my guilty pleasures is visiting the Yankee Despiser!