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!!!!