Throwing blame
By God, the way they were whining you would think the Yankees had to open the postseason in the Outback instead of Orange County.
As the LA Angels’ scoreboard integer kept increasing in the latter half of yesterday afternoon, more than a handful of New York media members bemoaned the fact that Texas manager Buck Showalter removed a number of his starters yesterday, thus “tossing” a 4-1 lead away and into a 7-4 Angels win, a victory that sealed Los Angeles’ home-field advantage for the opening round of the playoffs.
That forced the Yankees to make the cross-country trip to LA, something Joe Torre wanted to avoid by starting his regulars.
Well here’s another way New York could have opened the ALDS at Yankee Stadium. Win. Just win.
Where the hell was Al Davis when the Yankees needed him most?
What a concept. But what’s being upset at the fact that you blew your chance to do such by tabbing Jaret Wright as your sacrificial lamb (who as expected was just plain awful) when it’s much easier to blame someone else? The new Yankee way, I guess.
“I just think there’s a code of honor when so much is on the line. You hope people do the right thing but you can’t control what people do,” said Alex Rodriguez, who it should be noted went 0 for 3 with so much on the line yesterday.
“I don’t care,” Yankee GM Brian Cashman said. “It’s not an issue for me. All I care about is what we can control.”
Which, actually the Yankees could have controlled. With a win, that is…
I guess the second avenue was to blame the Red Sox for trouncing them 10-1 even though they had already won the wild card by virtue of the Indians getting swept by Chicago. I mean, Boston knew in the fourth inning it was in, and as the wild card had no chance to open at home. Why wouldn’t they toss the game so the Yankees could open at home tomorrow?
What a joke.
Speaking of jokes, well where to start with those Indians, who pretty much laid down the welcome mat to October for the Red Sox with their inability to do much of…well, anything against the White Sox, a team that was supposedly prepping for this week’s playoffs. And yet, while his team was beating the snot out of Cleveland’s hopes, perhaps Ozzie Guillen made the biggest joke of himself. Jay Mariotti writes:
“Let me tell Ozzie Guillen that he did his Wacky Uncle image no favors when he became the first major-league manager in known history to flash a double-fisted choke sign at a mascot — Slider, employed by the Indians — and the Jacobs Field fans during a pitching change Sunday. When the Blizzard of Oz wonders why he’s not treated like Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa, he should examine the photo and ask if those gentlemen ever would stoop to taunting some poor mope in a suit whose team has just finished fading like, well, Craig Ehlo trying to guard You Know Who.”
OK, part of me finds that hysterical. But this is the manager of the nine that’s supposed to take down the defending World Champs? We’ll see you in Anaheim or New York in about a week folks.
Well, maybe. The White Sox have a pretty good darned starting staff to combat the vastly superior Boston bats (which one-two you like better, David Ortiz-Manny Ramirez or Paul Konerko-Carl Everett?). Jose Contreras, the best pitcher of the second half, will likely put the Red Sox in a 1-0 hole unless Matt Clement can massage his right shoulder’s flux capacitor back to May or June. From there, it’s a wash. Chicago has got to feel pretty tingly about sending Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland (likely) in Games 2-3, but both pitchers, likely to get some semblance of Cy Young consideration, have been handled well by Boston. So too though has Tim Wakefield, the Sox’ Game 3 starter Friday night in Fenway. The knuckler was pounded for seven runs back in July at the park formerly known as Comiskey, and rebounded with a win over the Pale Hose in August at the Fens.
Pitching, in favor of the White Sox all around. Yes, Chicago’s bullpen has had questions, but it has continued to answer them all season long with impressive showing after impressive showing. People waited for Dustin Hermanson to blow up, and though he struggled some in September, it was still better than any month Keith Foulke had in 2005. The Red Sox’ bullpen, meanwhile, looked pretty good over the weekend, no? Can we seriously consider that a “maturation” as Jason Varitek suggested? Eh, maybe. It’s more likely the brighter view to take on the whole thing is how Theo Epstein said the team plans to mask its inefficiencies with Bronson Arroyo being added to it. That’s a huge difference out there, especially when you’re talking about bridging the starter to Misters Papelbon and Timlin.
What will be most interesting to watch with this edition of the Olde Towne Team is how it responds if and when its backs are to the wall as they were a year ago. Will they, and can they, fight back with the same aversion to history and curses, or will the areas in which they have lacked all season be put out in the summer Chicago sun tomorrow, laid there to fester and rot with the Nation’s dreams of a repeat? Probably not.
Picks? I like the Red Sox in four, dropping tomorrow’s opener and then taking three straight. That will set up an ALCS with the Angels. One of those teams will face the Houston Astros in the World Series. That is all.
By the way, back to the Yankees. You figured tomorrow’s 4 p.m. start was due to the fact that Fox (which indirectly, by the way will deliver everybody’s favorite, Chris Berman to New England homes) wanted to showcase the Angels-Yankees game to LA and New York, the country’s biggest markets, right? Well, sort of.
”Basically, we had to choose between two solid matchups,” Fox spokesman Dan Bell told the Chicago Sun Times. ”With the Yankees and the Angels representing the top two [television] markets and the tradition of the Yankees, we decided to go that way.
And the tradition of the Yankees? I hope Mr. Bell at least rubbed the pinstriped paint off his mug before answering the reporter’s phone call.
I hope it’s OK with Fox and the Yankees if the Angels want to win this series, too.
