What Have My Beloved Yankees Come To????..........

So the Winter meetings started on Sunday and are on the verge of wrapping up, yet little closure seems to have taken place. I've sat and watched what has become of the Yankees over the past few years, and there seems to be a simply reality that this team needs to accept. There are players that belongin NY and WANT to be in NY, and there are players who don't. The Yankees need to wake up and smell the coffee when it comes to the Jake Peavy's and (more importantly) the CC Sabathia's of the world. Guys like these have zero appreciation for what it meansto pitch for the New York Yankees. They have no appreciation for the history of the organization and for the players that emerged here. This is not by any means meant to be a diatribe about how great the New York Yankees franchise is and how everyone should want to be a part of it. The same thing I'm saying here can be applied to the Mets, Cubs, Angels, and even the hated Red Sox. What this comes down to is very simple. People are cut from a different mold. Guys like Sabathia and Peavy value there own agenda first and opt to take the safe option where failure in big spots matters little in the eyes of the general public and in the eyes of their fans. Sabathia has been sitting on a 140 million dollar offer from the Yankees for 24 days now. The next closest bid for his services is $40 million less. By not accepting the Yankee offer at this point, he has made it abundantly clear that he has little desire to be a part of the Yankee organization and that the laid back West Coast is better suited for his style. In one regard I can't fault CC for feeling this way. L.A. is a fantastic place, making a 100 million over 5 years pitching for the Dodgers or Angels is a pretty sweet gig. On the other hand, I'm having a tough time understanding something. My question to CC is....."At what point did you lose your passion for winning?" Love em or hate em the Yankees are 1000% committed to putting forth all measures to win championships every year. As a life-long competitor, I can't fathom how a player of CC's stature can pass up the privledge of playing for this franchise. I love this sport, and at one time felt that I was good enough to have a career in it. Throughout time the one thing that has never changed is my desire to win. Certain franchises stand for winning and I simply can't understand how any professional can not have the passion and desire for success that I do. CC is embarassing the Yankees at this point, and they really need to move on. The guy doesn't want to pitch in NY and the fans know it. For him to begrudgingly accept the deal would be a disaster, because the second he struggles the fans will be all over him. CC has missed the window of opportunity to sell people that he wants to pitch for the Yankees. Nobody is fooled at this point, and ithas all of the makings of a bad marriage. Here's what I think the Yankees should do at this point:

Take the CC proposal off the table and bring in Ben Sheets for 2 years, Derek Lowe for 3 Years, and yes.....I'm going to say it........Manny Ramirez for 3 years.

Sheets is loaded with potential, but is a clear injury risk. The upside is well worth the 2 year risk since no 2-year deal can hurt a team with the spending power of the Yankees.

Derek Lowe is onthe older side and from a talent standpoint isn't the greatest, but the one thing I will say about him is that he has some passion and really wants to win. The Yankees are in dire need for a guy with Lowe's character. His sinker-ball style also leads me to believe that age is not quite the factor that it would be otherwise. He's a gritty, gutsy guy who's won before. I'll take him in a heartbeat.

Manny deserves his own blog, but let's be honest here. The guy is a hitting machine and everwhere he plays teamates seem to love him. He may drive me crazy with his antics, but nobody in all of baseball can protect A-Rod tin the order the way Manny can. Plus.....How great would it be to head into Fenway with this guy on OUR side for once? There is always room for the best Right-handed hitter I've ever seen on the Yankees.

The best part of all these deals is that none of them should require more than a 3-year commitment. This free agency class is terrible and the Yankees would drastically improve their team whill not locking in to any crippling long-term contracts. Make it happen, Cashman!

Honoring the Dead in the World of Sports

As I settled in for some Sunday Football yesterday I read up on the Plaxico self-inflicted gun wound, and once again shook my head as I tried to understand how guys with such talent and all the fame and fortune in the world continuously perform acts of stupidity that jeopordize everything they've earned (or been given). Shortly after, I flipped on the Giants game and watched as the Redskins honored the tragic death of Sean Taylor by inducting him into their "Ring of Fame". Prior to this ceremony, players in the league wore #21 patches on their jersies and the Skins went out on the field with 10 players in honor of Taylor. As Taylor' latest honor was taking place I started thinking......"Am I missing something here????" The Sean Taylor I remembered throughout his college and pro career was an exceptional talent overshadowed by on AND off-field incidents again and again. So why is he being honored once more? Let's recap some of Taylor's "non-football" accomplishments over his 24 years of life:

In October of 2004 Taylor was pulled over for doing 82 in a 55 and subsequently refused to take a Blood-Alcohol Test resulting in his immediate arrest for suspicion of DUI.

In June of 2005 Taylor was named as a "person of interest" in a Miami assault case involving fire arms. He was ultimately charged with Assault with a fire arm (a felony) and misdemeanor battery. Shortly after the incident, Taylor's SUV was sprayed with bullets in a drive-by-shooting. He was released on a bond of $16,500.

In 2006 new charges were filed against Taylor that put him in position to receive a jail setence for up to 46 years!!! The case was plea bargained and Taylor served the community and made donations to locals schools.

In his first 2 years in the NFL Taylor was fined several times by the league for illegal hits and fined $17,000 for spitting in Michael Pittman's face on the field of play.

Quite a resume for Taylor in such a short career.......

Make no mistake about it, Taylor's death was an awful tragedy, and he was taken from his family and friends far too soon. The issue I have here is more along the lines of the way people of fame get treated by society. Taylor's death was ackowledged by the league and the fans shortly after it occured, but isn't that good enough for a 24-year old who in the minds of many will be known for his reputation as a talented yet dirty player who always seemd to find trouble off the field?

Maybe I'm being insensitive here (opinions will vary), but let's put things in perspective a bit. This guy's contribution to society was as a football player and quite frankly.....not much else. If you eliminate the football part from Taylor's lifetime list of life events I guarantee that every fan who paid tribute to him yesterday would have glanced over to a story about a 24 year-old trouble maker who got murdered in his home right before skipping over to the latest story on Lindsay Lohan's latest alcoholic binge or ARod's latest rendezvous with Madonna.

As a St. Louis Rams fan I can't help but wonder what type of ceremony and honoring would be done if Rams linebacker, Leonard Little was tragically killed in an awful turn of events. Little who is currently ACTIVE and earning a 7-figure salary was behind the wheel in 1998 with a .19 BAC when he crashed his car and killed Susan Gutweiler who was a wife and mother. Little served 90 days in jail and performed community service for this incident. Pretty awful right???? Well guess what......6 years later Little was caught doing 78 in a 55 and failed 3 field sobriety tests before being charged with another DUI.

Did I mention he's currently playing for the Rams? Hey...Little has 80 career sacks though, so let's make sure that if anything tragic happens to him that we honor him again and again and again. Afterall, he's a great football player!!!!

The "Clutch" versus Well.....the "Not so Clutch" plus Predictions and Awards.....

When people are spoiled the way me and my fellow Yankee fans have been over the past decade it can really make you wonder if you truly love the game of baseball, or simply stand by your team to the point where you don't even watch unless they are involved. I buried the 2008 Yankees a good two months ago and thought that there wasn't a chance that I'd have any interest in watching this Post-Season. I was so so wrong. I just love this game far too much to not watch it. The thing that I find myself really taken by thus far in the the 2008 post-season is watching those who thrive in big spots and those who flounder. The most incredible thing I'm seeing is that the guys who have done so in the past are continuing to do it, while those you expect to flop are flopping. The simple reality is that certain guys are "big-time" while others just aren't built to handle the pressure. In some cases I can point to specific players, and in other cases it comes down to an entire team. It's all incredibly fascinating to watch unfold.

My hatred for the Red Sox is well-known among my peers, but this franchise is freaking amazing to me, specifically for 2 reasons:

- Bucholtz aside.....Every single kid they bring up from their farm sytem not only pans out, but pans out in a huge way. Pedroia is the AL MVP, Ellsbury is already a leadoff guy that 90% of the teams in baseball would love to have in place of thier current lead off guy, Masterson clearly has solid stuff and is thriving in middle relief, Lowrie is solid at SS, and Lester is obviously tracking to become one of the best Starters in the Majors. They even have a few guys that I'm not mentioning that could be on their way as well. As much as I loathe this organization, they are doing an incredible job scouting and building their talent.

- The second thing worth mentioning, and there is no explanation for it, is that everyone who puts on that uniform thrives in big spots. I just don't get it. The entire line up, pitching staff, and bullpen all thrive in big spots. It sickens me, but it's the undeniable truth. It's something about that uniform, but when you go down the list of the most "clutch" guys in the past decade or so, you're going to have a tough time naming a more clutch Pitcher than Josh Beckett, a more clutch hitter than Ortiz, and a more clutch post-season hitter than Manny. Speaking of Manny.......

I find it both awkward and enjoyable to root for this guy as I have been doing in the 2008 playoffs. There isn't enough that can be said about the talent he has up at the plate. He's not only an amazing hittter, but his personality and child-like antics seem to be infectious to the point where the Dodgers are about to sweep the "Team of Destiny" out of the playoffs in the very first round. Joe Torre is quite the happy guy right now. Speaking of the Cubs.........

Just as I wrote about the Red Sox having a "clutchness" to them, the Cubs are like the anti-Red Sox. They look like a team full of Post-season ARods from their coach down to the players. Something about Playoff baseball just seems to take things back to reality. For example....Cubs fans will argue with me, but Ryan Dempster despite his regular season effort is a journeyman who has failed time and time again to live up to the expectations he had as a minor leaguer. My buddy Jed and I always talk about guys like this who are overachievers for a brief period while failing to succeed during the majority of their career (see also.. Jared Wright). We are in complete agreement that these things have a way of working themselves out in the end. Ryan Dempster is just the latest example. Watching the Cubs over the past two games has been painful though. Game 1 was completely on Lou Pinella and his refusal to take Dempster out despite his 7 walks in less than 5 innings. That was in the top 3 among the worst pieces of managing I've seen in my baseball watching life. My apologies to you Bob Brenly and Grady Little if you just dropped a spot on the list, but Lou earned it in Game 1. Last night's game was just brutal though. The Cubs are a game away from ripping their fans hearts out, and I question that they have a single guy on that team that can rally that group and get them back in it. Bergen Catholic's own Mark DeRosa may be the closest thing they have to THAT guy. Oh...and to the Big Z.....you didn't get much help last night, but you sir are right there with the rest of your "unclutch" teammates.

That brings me to the Cubs of the AL. The Angels are like a nightmare to me as a Yankee Fan. Here is a team that just kills the Yankees with pitching, speed, defense, etc... yet they are a bunch of chumps who curl up into a ball when they come across those Red Sox uniforms. It took one playoff game for me to see that the best REGULAR season team in Baseball is once again going to get bounced by the Red Sox. When you lose 10 straight playoff games and your super-star has 1 RBI in his past 51 post-season ABs you know you are a bunch of chokers who were done the second Tampa clinched the AL East and left them with the Sox in round 1.

The one guy who I think of as the most intriguing in the "clutch" versus "not clutch" argument is CC Sabathia. Here's a guy who took a completely average team on his shoulders and went out and mowed every 3 days to sneak them past the most unclutch organization in all of sports (that felt good to write). However.....CC is going to sign a deal close to 200 million next year, and there is a strong possibility that it will be with the Yankees. So, based on yesterday's performance combined with his complete meltdown in last year's playoffs, I'm not feeling all that confident if I'm trotting out CC in a must-win playoff game in front of a raucous 50,000 in the Bronx. It will make for an interesting scenario if it comes up *fuming about not having Johan right now*.


Red Sox over the Phillies in 6 followed by multiple riots and looting in Philly and my wife talking me off the ledge.

I will be forever grateful to the New York Giants for their DOMINATION of the Patriots. They are a diamond in a pile of Boston shit.

Awards:

AL Cy Young - Cliff Lee
AL MVP - Dustin Pedroia

NL Cy Young - Tim Lincecum (thanks to the Mets sh*tty bullpen)
NL MVP - Ryan Howard

Boston Fans and Manny Being Manny......

So those who know me understand my hatred for all things Boston, especially the Red Sox. My hatred is further fueled by my buddy JB who epitomizes everything there is to hate about Boston sports. He's one of those private-schooled, Ivy-Leaguers who grew up on the mean streets of Richfolks, CT without a baseball team to call his own. He like most other Connecticuters adopted the Sawx, C's, and Pats. I'd include the Bruins, but New Englanders don't really acknowledge the Bruins, because they suck. When people say the fans care more than the players, JB and I resemble this. I think back to when the Pats won the first Superbowl of their so-called "dynasty", and the lowly Red Sox were 80+ years into their championship drought. An entire city came together in celebration of the great championship of the Patriots, and honored them with a "Yankees Suck" chant. This moment made it perfectly clear that the Patriots were 2nd class citizens to the Red Sox, and that all these "diehard" Boston fans really cared about was their beloved collection of losers called the Red Sox. A few years later the Patriots win again, followed by the Red Sox and Celtics, and now all of the sudden the Boston fans have multiplied throughout the country and rave about their Patriots and Celtics along with the Red Sox. It's bandwagon jumping at its finest in Beantown. So back to JB..... I suppose he could say the same exact thing about me when it comes to New York and the Yankees, but this is my blog so f*ck him :)

On to Manny. For a guy who has absolutely destroyed the Yankees, and will go down as one of the greatest right-handed hitters of all time, I have to say.....I LOVE HIM! How can you not??? This guy is going to end up walking away from Boston with $168 million dollars, at least 2 Rings, and the privledge of playing one of the best games ever created in front of a sell-out crowd of diehard fans every night. Now if that doesn't sound like "mistreatment" I don't know what does. Coming off an ass-whipping at the hands of Anaheim along with his blatant, ridiculous antics (not running out grounders, faking injuries to avoid tough pitchers, and holding up signs in the dugout), the Red Sox are either going to deal him for 70 cents on the dollar, or keep him and deal with the obvious distraction that could cost the Red Sox another championship. Did I mention that "I love this guy!"?

We'll know soon enough what the future holds for Manny. In the meantime, let's just hope the Yanks have a bit more success against Anaheim than the Sox have.

Welcome to "Poker Speaks"

Call me a conformist if you will, but I decided that starting a blog was the right thing to do, because well..... I have some things to say.

I hope to provide my readers with insight and perspective on a number of different things such as sports, work experience, entertainment, family life, and whatever else I feel like talking about. I will do my best to keep you entertained with my humor and wit, and welcome all feedback. Knowing those close to me, I'm sure there will be plenty of it.

Enjoy.....