new-york-yankees

Slip Sliding Away

~ latskojerry ~ Leave a comment

As a famous peanut farmer once said, life isn’t fair. Here I am rooting for the Yankees for the first time in a long, inconsequential life, and they are losing. As many folks with black eyes and bruises have said over time, it ain’t over yet.

I have no evidence before me, but I am sure that Aaron Boone has been crucified by many followers of the New York Yankees and the assigned press corps for his pitching moves in the first game. Gerrit Cole came out after 88 pitches and the starting pitcher used in relief to pitch to Freddie Freeman had not pitched for a long time, blah blah blah. I would agree with Derek Jeter who said that we have to acknowledge that managers know much more about their teams than cab drivers or people who write blogs. But…but..let it be known that I would NEVER, that is , NEVER walk the bases loaded to pitch to Freddie Freeman. I realize that Mookie Betts is one of the best hitters in baseball but NEVER. And I have to add that, if a Los Angeles Dodger has to be a hero, I can handle it being Freddie. It was a great game, and keep in mind that Dave Roberts pulled his starter, Jack Flaherty, while he’d been masterful as well. Two great teams are playing close games and this stuff happens, doesn’t it?

New York needed to bounce back strongly the next day but, except for Juan Soto, they waited until the ninth inning as Yoshinobu Yamamoto showed why the Dodgers traded an aircraft carrier and four Trader Joe’s stores to obtain his services. Aaron Judge will crush baseballs again. The Yanks hope that it’s this year. Boone didn’t have a dangerous batter to use in the ninth with two out because of the need to have eight or nine pitchers sucking sunflower seeds and blowing bubbles in the bullpen.

I sincerely hope that Shohei Ohtani is good to go for the rest of the series. If he’s not, I just cringe at the thought of the Dodgers having any excuse if they get beat. Don’t worry, the kind and considerate New York crowd at The Stadium will be extra sensitive to his pain.

Back to the Fifties

~ latskojerry ~ 4 Comments

It’s the Yankees and the Dodgers in the World Series! Casey Stengel‘s five straight World Series appearances as manager of the Yanks began in 1949, once with the Phillies and once with the Giants and the other three with Brooklyn. That was when television was in its infancy and they were still making Studebakers.

My first was one of my favorites, 1955. I wanted to be like Johnny Podres. Brooklyn’s lefty pitched two complete game victories, including a 2-0 win in the seventh game at Yankee Stadium helped by a great running catch by left fielder Sandy Amoros to win the series for the Dodgers and a new Chevrolet Corvette for himself as the most valuable player. Eleven years later, I was the letter carrier who delivered to his bleary early morning eyes his contract offer from the Detroit Tigers. We don’t always realize how quickly the time is passing.

Then ’56 when Sister Angeles let us watch the first three innings during my favorite school period, lunch, and then the end of Don Larsen‘s perfect game.

Being a Dodgers fan was fun in the fifties. They were the underdogs of autumn in the big city against the we like white Yankees of Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford and friends. The Dodgers had Roy Campanella, Jim Gilliam, Gil Hodges, Don Newcombe, and Carl Furillo, plus a guy who didn’t mind being called Pee Wee Reese. In addition, their center fielder was the Duke of Flatbush, Mr. Snider.

The two teams met again after being separated by thousands of miles. Kind of the same but not. The last time was in the punctuated season of 1981. That brings up the sad shock of learning of the passing of Fernando Valenzuela. Even after I stopped loving the Dodgers I still loved “The Fat Kid”. He was an absolute tiger to oppose and an absolute gentleman to observe at all times.

That still won’t make me favor the Dodgers. There are matchups sometimes when I want both teams to win and sometimes I want both teams to lose. This one comes close to the latter. The best contests are the ones where you don’t care who wins, you just want to see the games. My solution to the Joe Davis /John Smoltz thing is to just kill the audio. That also works well between innings. Let’s just enjoy it.

Pride and Prejudice

~ latskojerry ~ 2 Comments

How is the 2024 Major League Baseball “post season” going for you so far? There are only four teams remaining now. Some of us can remember the awful old days when only two teams participated unless one of the two leagues ended the regular season with a tie for first place as the National league did in 1951, 1959, and 1962 and the American League did in 1948. Then, at most, ten games would be played to decide what is called the World Champion. So far, in 2024, 27 games have been played and we are just getting started. We think that it’s great.

Being exclusively a television viewing fan, which as we know is short for fanatic, we do get tired beyond exhaustion with the same old insurance, beer, car, truck and stomach churning fast food advertising but it’s the price we pay for living in a country where Rupert Murdoch and now the loathsome Larry Ellison control much of the airwaves. We do get some really good games and, when TBS is involved, some really good analysis from the likes of Pedro Martinez, Dusty Baker, Jimmy Rollins, and Curtis Granderson with Lauren Shehardi as an excellent host.

It’s great to know that Cleveland will be there to challenge the New York Yankees. Tarik Skubal and the Detroit Tigers were a great late season story and proved that, though it seemed they were giving up at trade deadline time, they will be a force to reckon with in the future. Their addition of Trey Sweeney at shortstop looks like it will solve the hideous Javier Baez situation very well. A.J. Hinch has bounced back well from the over rated “scandal” of his Houston Astros tenure. I’ll be rooting for the Guardians in their matchup with the powerful Yankees. Aaron Judge is likely to wreak havoc with Cleveland’s overworked pitching staff but Stephen Vogt has them believing. Emmanuel Clase is the true “closer” that most teams wish they had. Jose Ramirez and Andres Gimenez give them veteran strength that all teams crave. Judge, Juan Soto, and Giancarlo Stanton strike real fear in opposition but the Yanks may be vulnerable on the mound after Gerrit Cole. We must not fail to mention the stalwart, inspirational story of the Kansas City Royals, the team that lost 106 games in 2023 and won lots of games and many hearts as they became very serious threats this season Few if any of us expected three teams from the A.L. Central to make the playoffs but there they all were, and deservedly so.

For the first time since 1969, I will be a diehard New York Mets follower this autumn. Like the San Diego Padres, they were a fabulous second half team. No one should count them out against the Los Angeles Dodgers in this League Championship Series. Francisco Lindor is on a sensational roll these days and the Mets have a strong balance of speed, defense, and pitching that is reminding me of a World Series team from last year–the Arizona Diamondbacks. If this is a “new” trend in baseball, we will all be happier. Full counts, walks, and solo home runs are large contributors to snoring nationally. I once loved the Dodgers, but their yard has turned into a noiseatorium and they just have too much money . I do like Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez but they are like the old Yankees, too arrogant and wealthy. Plus, their DH has poor judgement. San Diego might actually be the better team, but not for the last 25 innings. After the Braves fell out amid lots of bad injury luck, I thought the Phillies would end up N.L. champs. That’s why I think the Mets are for real.

In other news, what do you call it, irony? Pete Rose, deservedly banished, has passed away in the year that Fan Dual has become “a proud partner of MLB”. Line up, suckers! Also, all of those team color towels were a bit tacky.

It’s still the best game in the world, let’s enjoy!

 

 

Those Silly Millionaires

~ latskojerry ~ 1 Comment

Imagine what you could do with 4.5 million dollars. Perhaps some of you don’t have to imagine. If so, congratulations. You can probably afford season tickets. We may never learn the real story with the probably untouchable Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher/slugger. His interpreter said he had a problem and his buddy helped him out. I really wish that I had a second language. I keep going back in my mind to Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.

In today’s world, gambling and sports are partners, simultaneously raking in the big bucks with little or no consternation. Not so long ago, their paths were separate. Betting made money for some, but the whole thing was mostly underground, illegal, and considered by many to be immoral. The Black Sox scandal of 1919 nearly destroyed the integrity of the game of baseball when Chicago White Sox players were paid by “gamblers” to throw the World Series to the obliging Cincinnati Reds. Professional boxing and horse racing were other “sports” often linked to “fixes”. From club owners’ point of view, people buying tickets to watch sporting events need reassurance that the outcomes are not prearranged.

1951 was the first season that Mays and Mantle played for the Giants and Yankees and New York City simultaneously claimed three of the best center fielders of all time. Duke Snider was already established in Brooklyn. They each eventually played in World Series and were elected to the Hall of Fame. They were all three extremely talented and relatively well paid. Plus, if you played in New York, it was easier to make a few extra bucks endorsing products enjoyed by baseball fans of the day such as tobacco, beer, shaving cream, and razor blades. They didn’t have the kind of paydays we see now. One hundred thousand dollars was a huge salary in those days, not tens of millions. However, for a quick study of the ravages of inflation, please note that $65,000 then was like $500,000 today.

Players not named Yogi Berra were not able to manage their money so well. It would be a couple of decades before free agency,player agents, and financial managers joined the game. Neither Mays nor Mantle was headed for the poorhouse after retirement but they needed work. After former Cleveland star Al Rosen left his job with the Yankees to become executive vice president at Bally’s casino in Atlantic City, he quickly offered Mays a ten year contract at $100,000 per year to become a Bally’s employee, essentially a casino greeter. Soon, another casino, Claridge, made the same offer to Mantle.

Commissioner Bowie Kuhn countered that the two stars could work for casinos if they wanted to but they could not be employed by any baseball team at the same time. That was how squeaky clean the sports world wanted to be or at least look to be as late as the 1970s. A later commissioner, Peter Ueberroth of Los Angeles Olympics fame, lifted the ban and, oh how far we have come since then. Some of us had reflexes of shock and dismay to the recent merger of sport and betting. Now, articles concerning ballplayers note their salaries and length of contract details as much if not more than their batting averages, earned run averages and other statistics. Now we see the odds on everything from winning a game, winning a pennant, or striking out as part of every telecast brought to us by Fan Dual and other venues for dropping cash. I’ve lately been watching a lot of European soccer matches and the advertising in the stadiums and even on the uniforms for betting outlets is widespread.

Millionaires abound, paid by billionaires in the world of professional sports. Is this a good thing? Young people in their twenties or early thirties have enough spare wealth to “help their friends” in million dollar debt. it’s worrisome.