Daily Archives: October 29, 2003

There is a fine post about the misery of being a baseball fan by Flynn over at Redbird Nation. He talks specifically about St. Louis Cardinals misery, but he’s really talking about all of us (well, maybe not Yankee fans, who rate at the top of the list in terms of Fan Enjoyment):

Each year 29 teams go home unhappy and one gets to enjoy it all for about five minutes before the speculation begins about whether they can do it again.

Misery? Fans need misery. Misery begets hope. Hope generates interest, interest turns to obsession, and obsession turns to ecstasy on those rare moments when it all goes your way. Hereís hoping weíll know what that is again, next year.

Here, here.

I don’t know what moves the Yankees will make this off-season, but I’m excited about next year’s squad. The 2003 Bombers had a great year, but there is plenty of room for improvement. John Haper suggests that Yankee fans remain calm:

A little perspective, please. This team got to Game 6 of the World Series in a year when virtually all of their stars – except perhaps Jorge Posada – had average or even below-average seasons, at least partly because of injuries.

…They were a flawed team, to be sure. Their weaknesses have been analyzed to death in recent days…But as long as George is free to keep spending, and as long as Torre stays on to maintain sanity in the clubhouse, the Yankees will continue to be October mainstays.

This isn’t the ’80s, when he threw money at name players without rhyme or reason. Steinbrenner’s surrounded by smarter baseball people now who, if nothing else, have made him understand the importance of investing in pitching.

Harper goes on to delineate the moves he would consider making if he ran the Bombers.

I have flip-flopped on the subject of “Jeff Weaver: Yankee pitcher” all season long. One the one hand, he’s been infuriating to watch. His demeanor is less than inspiring, but there is something about him that I like too. I think it’s because he comes off like a slacker with a chip on his shoulder, or a spoiled and tempermental child, but part of me likes his foolishness. Weaver has been labled as a guy who can’t pitch in New York, the new Eddie Lee Whitson. But Whitson was a veteran when he came to the Yankees, and he truly hated pitching for Billy Martin in New York.

Weaver is young, likes it here and wants to stay. I don’t know whether he will ever pitch well in New York, or if the Yankees are willing to give him another chance, but it seems like he’s got enough ‘stuff’ to be able to pitch well somewhere. I like how Weaver hasn’t completely caved in on himself either, despite being a favorite target of the fans and the media.

The Daily News ran a piece on Weaver’s wanting to remain a Yankee yesterday. The headline ran: “Weaver’s Pitiful Pitch.” So much of objectivity. And this is a guy who wants to do the right thing:

“I like it here,” he said. “I love the stage that we get to play on, and I like the focus and competition. … It’s taken a little bit longer than I hoped to get things going, but there’s no doubt in my mind that I can get things going here.”

…”I went out there and pitched the best I could,” said Weaver, who hadn’t pitched in a game for 27 days. “I hadn’t been out there in a long time, and then you get your first taste of it, right in the mix. I was hoping for the best; I felt confident going in there. I know that I could probably throw the same pitch again, and it could be a ground ball to third base.

“It’s something that you never want to really second-guess,” he said, “but at the same time it ended the game and changed the complexion of the Series.”

Will the Yankees be willing to give this string bean another shot? I would say it’s a 50/50 chance at best. But as a number five starter? I would like to see it happen.

Travis Nelson has designed a very amusing diagram of what Yankee Hell looks like right about now. Head over to Boy of Summer and create your own version of Yankee Hell. (Don’t forget to include the photo of Zimmer wearing Cliff Huxtable’s worst nightmare.)

AND ON AND ON AND ON

There is still plenty of great baseball writing out there, man. Here is a sampling of some of the more interesting articles I’ve run across this morning:

1. David Pinto links Ira Berkow’s sympathetic piece on Joe Torre from Tuesday’s Times.

2. Aaron Gleeman is back with another installment of “Rating Derek Jeter,” a juicy topic that is sure to keep the traffic flowing.

3. Ben Jacobs and Edward Cossette weigh in on the Boston’s decision not to retain Grady Little.

4. Rich Lederer offers an interesting look at Josh Beckett and Roger Clemens.

5. Steve Goldman gives his take on the World Serious and the Yankees’ 2003 season over at The Pinstriped Bible.

6. And of course, don’t sleep on the latest from two of my favorites: Jay Jaffe and Will Carroll.

Bob Klapisch reports from Tampa and speculates on what moves the Yankees will make this off-season. Larry Mahnken and I were interviewed via e-mail by Bryan Smith about what we would do if we ran the team. I am no expert in this field. In fact, I am a rank amatuer. But that makes me like just about everybody else with an opinion about what should be done. I’m sure I’ll be changing my mind about fifty times in the next month. But for my initial, off-the-cuff reactions, head over to Wait ‘Til Next Year.

Derek Zumsteg of Baseball Prospectus is another excellent journalist who can be labled as a Yankee-hater. He had a piece on Prospectus yesterday about the run-of-the-mill Yankee fan (subscription is required). I like what he wrote about Jason Giambi:

Dogged by a knee injury that affected his swing, Giambi only hit .250/.412/.527 on the season. Sure, towards the end of the year he tailed off (badly) and when (if) he comes back on a surgically repaired leg he’ll need to establish he can hit strikes. And yeah, he’s a big guy who likes his women and fast food and we’re told, fast women and fast food on fast women, but there’s a crazy desire to bury him, to ship him off to the remotest corner of baseball and eat his salary for the remainder of that crazy deal they gave him, all because he had a year that wasn’t as spectacularly amazing as the previous three. But he’s Jason Freaking Giambi, one of the most feared hitters for years! Turning his hitting struggles into character issues and his character issues into proof he’s not a Yankee and thus needs to be exiled–it baffles me.

Derek, I’m less baffled than simply vexed. This is the way it works around here—produce and you are a saint, fail and you are a bum. Oh, brother.

The Yankees fired hitting coach Rick Down yesterday. The only surprise is that Down lasted through the entire season. Joe Torre–who was invited to Boss George’s Tampa Summit for the first time–spoke with Down yesterday and wished him the best of luck.

The season really feels over this morning. Not because Down was canned, but because the baseball articles in the papers are dwindling rapidily. We were spoiled in New York once again with a long post-season run. The papers were filled with all sorts of Yankee news on Sunday and Monday and yesterday as well. But today, vacations start, and the dearth of baseball news begins. Anybody ready for the Knicks? (Insert agonizing screams here.)

Still, I think we’ll find something to talk about. Somehow, someway.