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This is how the season ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.

No need to recap in detail the debacle we witnessed not just tonight, but really ever since the playoffs started. But what kind of blogger would I be if I didn’t use the internet to whine and throw in my 2 cents? A bad blogger.

I didn’t think the Yankees would lose this one, not with Fatso on the mound. But even if Fatso HADN’T been pitching, I’ll still have bet on the Yanks, because, well, getting swept? They wouldn’t do that to us. ‘Sides, it’s not like it’s unheard of to come back from a 3-0 deficit.

Turns out it’s a little harder to do that when your team just can’t shake this nagging [post]seasonal allergy to runs.

Alright, there’s no smooth segue into this, but I wasn’t happy with Arod being benched. I know I’m in a verrrry small minority that defends the guy, and I know he hasn’t given us a lot of reasons lately TO defend him.
 
But like Shakespeare said, “Love is not love if alters when alterations find.” In other words, there are few things I take more seriously than loyalty.

I don’t think it’s fair to ride on his coattails through the 2009 world series and then immediately revert to demonizing form, the second his supergod performance wears thin. The Yankees are better with him in the line-up. They are.
 
I’m watching the game with Glenn, Nick, and whatever office loony was nuts enough to come within 5 feet of me and my Budweiser and laptop, hunkered down in the conference room, like a soldier crouched in the trenches of a battle he knew he was losing, but yet refused to leave his post.

The points raised during the sad loss:

CYC/Glenn/Nick: f’d up to bench Arod

Glenn: someone needs to be fired for benching Arod

Nick: something went on behind closed doors that we don’t know about, whether it was an argument with Girardi about being benched the other night, or brass punishing Arod for BallGate Flirtation Scandal 2012.

CYC: if Jeter had done the ball thing, (pause), no one would have been lambasting him like this. I don’t think Jeter WOULD do it, because he’s the captain and takes her lead-by-example role seriously. But when news broke of his habit of sending his one-night stands home with a gift basket of signed balls and memorabilia, it was all “JETER’S SO BADASS!” If Arod had done that, it’d be tacky. Whatever, this is perennial issue with Arod. He can’t do anything right by the public’s assessment.

CYC/Nick: Think the ball thing was atrocious, despite our defense of Arod and belief that he should’ve played. Under NO circumstances should he have done that in the middle of a game. If we were playing softball for work and someone was doing that, I’d be livid. It’s unnecessary. Almost egregiously unnecessary…which brings Nick to his next point:

Nick: Arod is a student of the game. He is a manager’s dream in the sense that he studies the game, reads up on his opponents, plays hard always. (Plays HARD, didn’t says always plays WELL.) That said, the fact that Arod—knowing how his every move is subject to intense scrutiny—still took the time out in the middle of the game to write on a ball and make a show out of this, suggests that he may have just checked out of the whole thing already. Why? Because of that mysterious one fact that “they aren’t telling us.”

CYC: Swish’s presence in the game was offensive, I have no idea why the hell was playing, but ok cheers and thanks for the ribbie that kept the Yankees from not only getting swept, but shut-out on top of that.

CYC/Nick/Glenn: GGBG’s great.

Anyways, it was a tortuous night and I’ll admit that “devastated” wasn’t the emotion washing over me. It was partially that, yes, but there was also a marked degree of relief. No, of course I didn’t want them to lose, but after a few innings of watching them fail to bring any runs in, a few innings of appallingly apathetic defense, and a few innings of watching our favorite ace get battered around…well, how much more could we really take? They gave up on the game. It was hard not to follow suit.

Then Glenn kicked my ass in ping pong, while I made mental notes of all the people in the office who were going to have to sleep with one eye open for the rest of their lives thanks to their relentless poking-of-the-bear.

(At one point, 2 within earshot were discussing “what the one single line would be that could get Kris to just snap and punch us both out.” At that point, “Hey, Kris” would have fit the bill.)

But, to be fair, I am not exactly easy to deal with during the end of baseball season. So I probably owe my entire team a debt of gratitude for putting up with it for as long as they have.

(As if taking steroids—not the HGH kind, the antiflammatory kind—wasn’t hell enough, they hold a side effect risk of making you, well, completely insane. I skipped today’s dose. Figured it had “unemployment  line” written all over that lethal cocktail of office/playoffs/unpredictable drug side effects. Kind of like the opposite of that scene in As Good As It Gets.)

But I digress (Ahh!! I haven’t said that in so long! Felt nice. Felt real nice.)

When I think back on the season, a lot of it is a blur. You know how there are some periods in your life that had this weird dichotomy of both flying by yet seeming to last forever? Yeah, me neither.

No, but seriously, that’s kind of like what 2012 was like. There were high points, and a lot of low points, and ultimately nothing ever seemed to go right. I don’t mean “right” as in “the Yankees had one misfortune after another” kind of way. I mean “right” as in “corrent.” Nothing every seemed to go the way it should, for good or for bad.

It wasn’t just the Yankees, though. The whole MLB season seemed like the baseball gods decided to hand the reigns over to their wives and put them in charge of being the invisible hands that guided the season. So all these baseball god wives were like, “Really? Ok, great! Ok, yes, yes. We have the list of instructions. We won’t mess it up, we promise. Just go have fun in Barbados, we’ll see you when you’re back!”

Then: “There’s a team called RED? I LOVE IT! Can we make them win every game?”

“Whoa, I don’t know. Is that on the list?”

“I accidentally lost the list.”

“Wait, didn’t they call it the National Pasture or something at one point? National something?”

“Wait, the Nationals are a team. Ok, they’re going to get some love, too.”’

Boston may as well have named themselves
"The Hangnails" or "The Spinning Beach Balls of Death"
or some other term just as synonymous with aggravating.
“THERE’S A TEAM CALLED THE RED SOX? UGH. Do you know that happened to me the other day? One sock. Whole load of white robes? Pink. Why would they name a team after that? They’re done.”

Etc etc etc.

Seriously, it’s the only thing that makes sense, ironically.
 
Because how else do you explain the Yankees collectively forgetting how to hit after making it to the playoffs by virtue of their knack for the long ball?
 
How else do you explain Tubbo.com, one of the best pitchers I’ve ever seen in my life and will ever see, bookending the season with losses, getting shelled?
 
How do you explain Mo blowing the save on opening day...and then blowing out his knee exactly a month later?

And yes, it was a pleasure seeing Boston vomit away their season and chance at the post-season, but that doesn’t make it any less weird.

How else do you explain July 8 when Derek Jeter dropped acan of corn pop up, prompting a hush over the Yankee Universe, as Suzyn Waldman quietly says, “That was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” I mean, how else do you explain Suzyn Waldman saying anything quietly??

How do you explain the Yankees going from the guys that always manage to pull it off the final innings, to the only team in baseball that didn’t have a win when trailing in the 8th?

How else do you explain the Baltimore F'n Orioles?
 
How do you explain the fact that a team who spent the better part of their storied history being the hottest team post-all star break, spent this season cruising right along just UNTIL the ASG?

And how do you explain that the Yankees spent  76 years alternating between pinstripes and away grays only…but this season they had a day when this tradition died?

I’ve said it countless times before, and I’m sorry for repeating the analogy, but really I cannot think of a better one than Marble Madness:


But tonight? After the loss, things didn't feel wrong, for the first time in a while. That's how I knew it was really over.

You know I’m not much of a blogger during the offseason, so it will probably be a little while before I write again. Of course, should the Yankees actually have some “breaking news” or even any news, really, I’ll throw my hat in the ring of opinions. But you know how I feel about the “hot stove.” Kind of like how I feel about meetings: I don’t want all the background information,  just give me the bottom line.

So thanks again for reading this for another year. I like doing this a lot. It keeps me sane. (EYE-RUH-NEEEE!) And it makes me feel really (for lack of a better word) touched when I realize I’m not talking to myself.

I owe a big, nay INFINITE TIMES INFINITE GIGUNDO, thanks to David Cone, forgiving me the plug of a blogger’s lifetime.

I swear, Coney, if you ever need someone to teach your kid piano lessons, or clean your house, or fold laundry, cook, stand around and break eggs on my head for entertainment purposes, you know who to call.

Thank you Charmian, Cricket, K.C., Brett C., Nina, Maria, MJM, Uncle Mike, Jeff K., Rob A., Frank C., Theresa C., Matt W., and Glenys for always being so diehard, without question. And cheers to Alex R. for Game 5, (who I would not have had the pleasure of meeting if not for Coney). I would say he's my favorite Alex who isn't Arod, but it's dead heat with Alex L.

(Actually, you know what, speaking of Account guy Alex L., cheers to our friends in San Francisco, who let me wear my hat to meetings and who text to send condolences after Yankee tragedies.)

And requisite season MVP awards to Ollie, Strange, Keith, Kerry, Evan, Krista, and Pollina sisters #2 and #3. (Season Rookie of the Year award to Matt in Finance department. Season LVP to Ohyob for skipping off to Germany during a High Stress Alert Week.)


Gratias multus, HisDudeness and Infantry Michael for guestblogging. (HisDudeness and I will be working on some CYC site stuff over the offseason, and I hope Infantry Michael will want to blog again come 2013 season..yes? Please?)

Anyways, I'm starting to sound ridiculous (well, more than usual, anyway). It’s just a few months, yeah?


I miss it already. But maybe it was a blessing. My endurance is not what it used to be, and it turns out I’m not invincible after all. Maybe the off season will give me some time to get back to being bionic. Same goes for the Yankees.

It was a rough year, overall. But sometimes you gotta have one of those so everything comes into focus and you know what direction to go. It'll be interesting to see where it takes the Yanks.

So, cheers, Yankee fans! You know what? If we’re fans of another team, the offseason is the 5-month wait for opening day. But since we’re fans of the New York Yankees, the offseason is the 5-month anticipation of dominating the game.

Est magna esse iuvene quod a Yankee.

5 Comments:

  1. Professor Di said...
    Thanks so much for enhancing the Yankee fan experience so much this season. I always looked forward to your quirky, smart, and keen analysis. See you in April!
    Infantry_169 said...
    I for one am eternally grateful that David Cone did plug your blog, otherwise I'd never have heard of it. I have enjoyed immensely the content, the humor, the passion and the camaraderie. It's like we were on an adventure together, a fellowship if you will, a fellowship of the ring (#28). And I hope that you will continue to have discussions now and then, as the offseason progresses and moves are made or not made. And CYC as far as the 2012 Postseason went, the top players were as follows: 1) Derek Jeter, 2) Raul Ibanez, 3)Mark Texeira and 4)Ichiro Suzuki. If anyone disagrees just look up the stats, I love numbers, they don't lie. And also CYC, tell the AROD haters that it is vastly unfair to hang this on him. True, he only had one good postseason appearance in 2009, however, without his production during those seasons maybe we might not have been as successfull. Remember you can't play in the postseason unless you get there (Yeah I'm talking to you MET's haters). So, if AROD is so-so in the postseason, it is what it is, deal with it. And to be even more fair to him, Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson had more at-bats and more games played then AROD and they finished below him in batting average and on base percentage. And we won't even mention Swisher. Your top producers in AVG, RBI's. BB's, and OBP, were the top four I described above. And Ibanez was just supposed to be a part-time player, a utility player, yet he carried us - with the assistance of Sneach - despite our anemic batting to several wins and we got as far as we did because of those two. And they weren't even supposed to be everyday players, let us not forget this. And last but not least, our Captain, Derek Jeter, that man gave it ALL for the team, God speed his recovery. So, in the off season, let us give this AROD bashing a rest and just face facts that our collective batting sucked major ass in the playoffs. God bless the NY Yankees and God bless America.
    Infantry_169 said...
    P.S. On AROD, his 3B replacement, Eric Chavez (whom I really like), was 0 for 16 with 8 strikeouts.
    JM said...
    Thanks for a great season of posts. I'm with you on A-Rod, something was up there and whatever it was smells funny. I like him more than ever for the way he's handled all this crap.

    Have a good wint...wint...I can't say it. You know, when there's cold and things like that.

    I'm with Alphonso on 'It Is High', half of this team or more should be cleared out, but that never seems to happen, ever.
    MJM said...
    Thanks for another season of being the only Yankees blogger I care to read, CYC. And thanks for nudging those cortical neurons of mine that haven't had to translate Latin for over 20 years.

    We'll wait until after the Series to tackle the "reigns"/"reins"/"rains"/"Raines" thing. ;-)

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