Monday, June 29, 2009

(2) Comments

The "Skankees Sweep the Muts"

Vegas Rich

Sorry to have to stoop this low to call Major League Baseball teams derogatory names in this day and age of professional sports writing. However the product I just viewed over the past 72 hours leaves me with little choice but to degrade these teams that pretend to be high class organizations that put out a quality product.

I guess that’s what’s expected when the combined yearly payroll of these 2 teams equals the entire Gross National Product of a dozen third world countries where poverty and starvation runs rampant.

You ask what does this have to do with baseball? It has to do with the inequities of the game I love. I’ll be less damning on the bombers because they have been trying to buy championships for the past 30 years and since they haven’t yet to win one in the 21st century it serves them right.

They have a grand total of 2 quality men on their 25 man roster. Derek Jeter is the consummate professional and the fact that he smiles during the game and shows emotion probably the same way he did 25 years ago in Little League is the reason why I would still build a team around him.

The same thing can be said about Mariano Rivera. This future first ballot Hall of Famer notched his 500 career save tonight while driving in his first RBI in the his major league career. Good going Mariano you deserve all the accolades you get. I liken him to Barry Sanders who would drag people into the end zone and just turn the ball over to the ref. That’s class, That’s Mariano.

The truth of the matter is that when all is said and done for the 2009 “Subway Series”, the Yankees are not as good as they looked and the Mets are not as bad as they seem.

The Yanks beat a AAA team out scoring them 18-3. Their two very rich free agents easily handled the “B” Mets as expected and Mao Tse Tung showed that he still can get minor league hitters out.

When the dust clears and September rolls into October, the Yankees will be nowhere to be found. Boston is a far superior team in every aspect of the game and the Rays are starting to heat up so when July is finished the Yanks will be looking up at them as well.

As far as my beloved Mets, they need to only make one move to keep tham alive in the already terrible NL East. They MUST part ways with Jerry Manuel who is single handily managing the Mets right out of contention. I have been saying this since April and the last three games did nothing to change my mind.

For the sense of brevity I will give just one example of his obvious lack of managing skills which never fails to amaze me.

OK, ninth inning. K-Rod, the Mets always exciting closer , never knowing quite to expect has given us some agata by putting two men on with 2 out and Derek Jeter coming to the plate. On deck sits Mariano Rivera who has a grand total of one at bat last Wed in Atlanta.

Now try to keep this in mind. the Mets are paying Frankie close to 13 million dollars a year to get out of situations just like this. Any Little League manager knows that when you’re behind one run in your last at bat you never under any circumstances put the insurance run 90 feet away. If you load the bases anything bad can get that run home. An infield hit, a passed ball, a wild pitch, shall I go on.

So Jerry starts it off by doing the right thing and pitch to Derek. First pitch 93mph at the knees, strike one. The next two pitchers just a bit outside, not Bob Ucker’s “just a bit outside” but really just a bit outside. So what does Jerry do now? He calls for the intentional walk.

Are you frickin kidding me?. Over managing again. This is what he is paid for, to get out the hard out. You could see K-Rod’s eyes come out of his head when he saw the sign.

Well, he walked Rivera putting the game out of reach. Jerry has been doing this kind of nonsense since the day Delgado left the line up.

Will the Mets leadership do anything about this? No. It was ok to fire Willie Randolph in the middle of the night after his Mets beat the Angels 2 out of 3 last June but in this case it won’t happen and this year we won’t have to wait for a September collapse again. Why? Because the Mets will be buried in 4th place by then.

Not a fun weekend for this reporter.

June 29, 2009
2 Responses to "The "Skankees Sweep the Muts""
Mr. Met said :
June 29, 2009 at 4:50 AM
Rich, I was mostly with you right up until the point where you started trashing Jerry Manuel. I say "mostly" because in my opinion you give the Yankees way too much credit, and that includes Jeter and Mariano Rivera. Is there any more overused term than "class" in describing professional athletes these days? Having said that, Rivera's 500th career save will probably be the defining moment of the year at Sitty Field, at least as far as on-field accomplishments go.

The seeds for this mediocre season were planted when Omar Minaya signed JJ Putz and Frankie Rodriguez. At that time the lovely Mrs. Met said to me, "That's it. Omar's done." She was right in every respect (except the part where she also thought Moises Alou and Pedro Martinez would also be re-signed). There were more problems with the team than the bullpen. None of those were addressed in the offseason. The most glaring need was, as talked about on SNY in the wake of the 2008 collapse on the final day at Shea, "a leadership vacuum" on the team. Gary, Keith and Ron were unanimous in their agreement on that issue, as was everyone else throughout the month of October. Omar did nothing to address that shortcoming. Nothing.

Unfortunately Omar now has a built-in excuse for this year, the injury bug, thanks to the Phillies' lackluster play. Even if the Mets did not have all their injury troubles this year, they would STILL be chasing the Phillies right now if the defending World Champions were playing up to their potential. Now, however, Omar can go to the Wilpons after the season and say with a straight face, "Fred, Paris, look... if it wasn't for all the injuries we would have won the National League East." It's not necessarily true, in my opinion, but it will be enough to save his skin for next year.

Jerry Manuel has done about as good a job as can be expected with the Bag O'Crap he's been given to work with this year.

Let me close by asking you two questions. Were you a Willie Randolph supporter? Do you think he was a good manager?
Sparks said :
June 29, 2009 at 8:26 AM
Fire the manager because the closer walked an AL relief pitcher? Yeah, that make sense.

Putting Jeter on was the right move. With two outs, it's obvious with whom you take your chances. My only question is why throw the first strike.

They lost by 2 runs anyway. If you want to get down on Manuel about something, complain about the team's inability to get runs across or the sporadic defense.

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