Daily Archives: November 24, 2009

Yo, dig this, courtesy of Gabe Schechter of the Baseball Hall of Fame, via Bruce Brown (a baseball fan who has been formulating imaginary teams on a daily basis for almost a decade).

“To make the team,” writes Schechter, “you had to play in at least seven seasons with the Yankees without winning a World Series title as a player. The lone exception is manager Clark Griffith, who played only five years with them but had the longest tenure (six years) of any manager who never won a title with them. Here they are (with number of seasons as a Yankee in parentheses).”

C: Rick Cerone (7)
1B: Don Mattingly (14)
2B: Horace Clarke (10)
SS: Roger Peckinpaugh (9)
3B: Randy Velarde (10)
LF: Dave Winfield (10)
CF: Bobby Murcer (13)
RF: Willie Keeler (7)
DH: Ron Blomberg (7)
PH: Jason Giambi (7)
PR: Birdie Cree (8)

SP: Mel Stottlemyre (11)
SP: Fritz Peterson (9)
SP: Tommy John (8)
SP: Mike Mussina (8)
SP: Jack Chesbro (7)
RP: Dave Righetti (11)
RP: Steve Hamilton (8)

MGR: Clark Griffith (6)
Owner: CBS (8)

Bench:
1B: Hal Chase (9)
SS: Kid Elberfeld (7)
OF: Oscar Gamble (7)
IF: Gene Michael (7)
P: Ray Caldwell (9)
P: Sterling Hitchcock (7)
P: Rudy May (7)
P: Jack Quinn (7)
P: Jack Warhop (8)

Mgr – Clark Griffith* (6)
GM- Gene Michael (7 as a player, 5 as GM)
Owner – CBS (8)

Bench and Bullpen
Ray Caldwell (9)
Kid Elberfeld (7)
Oscar Gamble (7)
Jack Warhop (8)

*Hall of Fame
ALL CAPS = All-Star
Bold = Inspiration

Albert Pujols, three-time MVP…and counting.

(I couldn’t resist.)

 Mr. Goldman on Mr. Mauer, Mr. Jeter, Mr. Teixeira and the AL MVP:

Mauer had a historic year at catcher, even having missed the first month, and there should be nothing remotely controversial in his winning the award. What is more interesting is the way the rest of the votes fell, and the apparent perception that Teixeira, a first baseman having a very good but by no means great season. Jeter had a season that ranks among the top 25 by a shortstop in the past 60 years. Both were integral to the success the Yankees experienced this season, but there’s a huge difference between a shortstop contributing at the level that Jeter did and a first baseman doing what Teixeira did.

In the end, I suppose it doesn’t matter — Jeter has been robbed in previous awards voting. He wasn’t robbed this time. This is more a cri de coeur against misapprehensions about the replacement value of a great shortstop season versus a good season by a first baseman. Before anyone jumps on me for saying Teixeira’s season was “good,” not “great,” it’s not meant as an insult. It’s just that the hitting standards at first base are so ridiculously high that to call Teixeira’s season great would be ludicrous given the existence of Albert Pujols.

The boy in the middle of the photograph is my great uncle Albert, my grandfather’s brother. The picture must have been taken some time in the 1920s, somewhere in Belgium.

I love his expression. He’s really working, boy, forget smiling.

This winter, we hope the Yankees’ live up to their Business-First image. As Jonah Keri mentioned in the Times the other day, they caught lightening in a bottle with productive seasons from their old-timers (Rivera, Posada, Pettitte, Jeter, Damon and Matsui). That is not likely to happen again. So while we wait out this lull, the hope here is that the Yanks go into 2010 younger.