Don't hate the player, hate the fan

The Yankees fan lashes out to insulate from his misery and insecurities. Miserable bastards that they are, they cannot enjoy victory without you feeling as bad as they would have had they lost.

Had the Angels gone all the way, their fans could have gotten through the rest of their days from the magic carpet ride, especially given the Adenhart situation. If the philthies went all the way...bad example; the philthies fan didn't know that his team had won until a fan of the other team was finally able to congratulate him before he got punched in the face.

For the Yankees fan to go on that magic carpet ride, you'd have to replicate 1996, which followed over 10 years of a pretty-much garbage product. At that point, most of those assholes were still waiting on the line to jump on the bandwagon.

For them, winning the World Series is typically a slightly better than break-even event. Anything less is a disaster. They have all that firepower, yet whinge about needing to sign Mauer after next season. And, as evidenced from the talk shows around here this past weekend, winning this World Series wouldn't even get them square because they've had to endure two Red Sox championships and the indignity of blowing a 3-0 lead to them.

So, when they lash out at fans of the losing teams, they are simply projecting their own misery onto the rest of us.

I gotcha demons right here

As Bokolis has told many people, too much firepower. Continuing on the previous post, my buddy agreed that, with Pettitte and CC against Saunders and ??, it was a moot point.

Girardi again tried to squeeze more outs out of his starter. It was almost a carbon copy of Game 5. He got an out (just about) in the 7th, followed by a hit, at which point he went to Joba, just like Bokolis (see last post) would've done in Game 5. Of course, it seems like a much smarter idea when Joba comes in and gets two outs from 7 pitches. It also helps when Jeter boots the grounder and it goes straight to Cano, who was on the bag.

While the Yankees got the breaks and the bounces, they have too much firepower. I see them as a half-notch below a super team (not playing especially well and with a middling manager) that, despite blunted firepower- 2 HR in three games, one of them a short porch special- because the ball is not carrying, took all three at home.

The ending would have been much more interesting had the halos not flubbed the two SAC bunts. Mo wasn't that sharp and I thought the halos were on him. Having scratched out one, they must have felt they could get one more. But, I see all the mistakes they made as their inevitable succumbing to the pressure of having to play against such a strong team. While you can argue that they could/should have won Game 2, I could argue that they shouldn't have won any. So the two games Girardi gifted them is probably a good result in the end.

Moving on, it's not impossible for the philthies to win here. They are the holders and can match up firepower closely enough. They even have a horse that can match CC and there's no indication that the Yankees will play much better than they have. But, the philthies are going to find out the hard way that they're not playing the Mets. Uncle Chollie's bad moves figure to, at the least, neutralize Girardi's, they have no idea what they'll get out of Pedro and Hamels and I have no faith in anyone in that pen...to the point that, assuming that they could get Lee out after 7, I'll spot the philthies a 2 run lead after 7 in every game and would still bet on a sweep.

I'd want some odds, though. Yankees in 6, carbon copy of the LCS.

Demons?

One of my homeboys, a Mets fan who holds far more venom for the Yankees than I do, e-mails me asking if I think the Yankees will be feeling the demons of '04 creeping up on them if they lose Game 6. What follows is what I could muster.

The Yankees lost both games because of Girardi, who is apparently a graduate of the Willie Randolph school of pitching management. I've been saying for years that, except for a LOOGY, (and in a BIG spot at that) these managers are crazy for shuttling pitchers in and out during innings like they do. He totally mismanages Joba and Hughes and he's a muppet for trying to squeeze extra outs from his starters.

You can argue whether he should have sent out Burnett for the 7th. But, Girardi's rationale was shyte. He said that Burnett had only thrown 80 pitches through six, so he was good to go. Either he was now spent at 89 pitches (BS), or he preferred that Marte face Figgins and Aybar (more BS). Maybe he didn't want Burnett to go through the order a fourth time (even though that's pretty much why you signed him). But, if Girardi was going to send him out, he should have stuck with him...especially since Figgins was about to give him a free out. You have the option of walking Abreu and taking your chances against Hunter with Burnett, who had the ground ball working, rather than Hughes, with a two run lead and the DP in order.

He also messed up by playing Jeter- who is known to cheat to his left because his range up the middle is weak- so far in the hole against Vlad against a right-handed power pitcher.

Bottom line is, if you send him out there, the inning is his. He's either going to get out of the inning or leave trailing. The perfect example was the top of the inning, when Scioscia took Lackey out after 6-2/3 when Lackey hadn't given up a run. You saw Lackey's reaction...and you saw what happened. It's really too bad that their season didn't end that way, because it would probably have facilitated Lackey's free agency (to Flushing, God willing).

They got all they needed from Burnett, especially after a rocky 1st. Once they got the lead after a long T7, that should have been it. I would have sent out Joba to start the 7th with the lead, but really have no problem quickly pulling him because I think the way the Yankees have handled Joba has made him useless for the playoffs. Joba, Hughes, the LOOGY (you shouldn't be using a LOOGY to pitch to Abreu and to turn Figgins around)...the objective is to get out of the 7th any way possible because, once you get to 6 outs, with the next day off, Mo is in play.

The point of that rant is that they gave away two games, whereas the Red Sox took all four. Even if you see parallels, the Yankees have Pettitte and CC lined up, and the Angels don't exactly have Pedro and Schilling lined up and they don't have Ortiz and Manny steroid-up batting 3 and 4. And, if there were demons, I'm pretty sure CC could eat them.

It gets better...they did it again

What have we done to deserve such comedy? After enduring Phil Cuzzi's rather horrid fuck-up, Tim McClelland, with Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano as supporting actors, easily trumped Cuzzi.

Top of the 5th in last nights Yankees-Angels Game 4, 2nd and 3rd, one out, 2 already home on A-Rod's HR and Yankees slapping around Angels pitching: Swisher hits one back to the box. Posada, seemingly purposely gets hung up between 3rd and home.

With one out, the slow as dogshit and lazy as a dog Posada was going on contact- a bonehead play, but not relevant here. In breaking on a comebacker, it seemed his logic was that it was worth getting his ass off the basepaths to get Cano over to 3rd.

Uhhhh, Jorge, it's really only worth it if Swisher also gets to second. You force the catcher to throw back to 3rd and have the 3B haul ass to chase you home. But, no matter, you lazy cunt, we'll go with your logic.

Posada, after waving Cano on, apparently losing the battle with his ego, retreats back to 3rd to die. In doing so, he obviously forgot that Cano has the baseball savvy of a doorknob and that he'd be confused as to what to do when two players converge on the same base. Posada also showed his lack of baseball savvy by not considering that he, and not Cano, is entitled to 3rd base. With both of them standing on 3rd, Cano would be tagged out, defeating Posada's "point" of getting hung up.

Of course, reality played out even better than theory. Not only does Cano decide not to set foot on 3rd, Posada deliberately overruns the base. As the picture above- apparently owned or some shit by Getty images- shows, neither of them are on the base, and Angels catcher Mike Napoli tags both of these muppets.

This was far too much for McClelland to process. He called Posada out and Cano safe. To make things worse, they now show replays at the ball park (I know I don't go to many games any more but, whenthefuck did this happen?), so the fans went apeshit.

Mind you, this was on the back of ruling that Swisher left early on an apparent SAC fly by (Melky?). Replays showed that McClelland was not looking at Swisher when he left 3rd and was not in good position to see both the catch and the tag-up. This was minutes after the 2nd base umpire blew the call when Swisher was picked off.

No so quick stories:  Back in the day when Bokolis played ball, two of the umps were ex-Major Leaguers.  It was mind boggling how many close calls these guys missed.  They we're worse than some of the other shlubs that were umping just to get out of the house.  One time, our opponent tried to turn two on a ground ball.  They got one out but the other reached.  I don't remember who was who; all I remember was that the ex-ML ump blew both of the calls.  I was coaching 3rd. I said to their 3B that he blew both calls.  He thought about it for about a second and a half, then agreed and chuckled.

Another time, there was a similar play to McClelland's, involving the other ex-MLer.  I'm again coaching 3rd.  I set myself up to watch the play, the runner on 3rd AND the ump, who I saw was not watching the runner.  Of course, he blew the call.  I lace into him and let him know that I was looking right at him and know that he didn't see the play.  He got tight, telling me to "shut the fuck up."

It relates to McClelland because of McClelland's reputation.  McClelland is a big guy, even by today's standards.  In his earlier days, it was understood that he could kick the shit out of most players.  So, even when he blew his fair share of calls, no one fucked with him.  Scioscia, who hit the bigs about the same time as McClelland, didn't give him shit in the argument, in  situation where he needed to get ejected.

Neither Joe Buck, who is as clueless as he is useless, and Tim McCarver, whom the game has passed by, had the balls to say that McClelland's call on Swisher was a make-up call for the botched call on the pick-off.

It's probably for the best.  Another story:  I once got into it with the (first) ump from above.  I watched him botch a play from the on-deck circle where, similar to the first play above, there were multiple things going on and he blew both of them, ultimately calling my guy out when he was safe on that play, but should have been out earlier in the play.  I walked through the play and asked him what he saw...took about 10 seconds.  When he gave me a shit explanation, I took the first pitch and muttered "make-up call."  He called time and, with me smiling, proceeded to ream me a new one.

The experience was worth it; Bokolis learned that officials, whether umpires, referees or judges, are as lazy, if not lazier, than the next guy, and call whatever the fuck they want.  There is a lot of shit they don't see, so you have to pick up on that in your argument.  Your argument should involve gaming them for the next call.  If you think they have it for you, then you stand up to them.

God is a Yankees fan

The Yankees went up 2-0 in the ALDS, defeating the Twins 4-3 in 11 on Texeira's game winning HR to lead off the Bottom 11th. That it was game winner, as opposed to game tying (or merely getting them closer) shot, has much to do with a blown fair/foul call on Joe Mauer's fly ball down the line during Top 11.

those pictures may be owned or something by Getty images. Hopefully, they won't get too bent out of shape that I'm using them here.

As any Yankees fan- probably one of those guys that screams at you to take off your hat during God Bless America, or screams at a guy in a military uniform to take off his hat during the national anthem- will tell you, they are God's team and they would've won anyway. Though God had nothing to do with having Mijares in the game, God must have seen to it that some (DNA) got in Phil (s)Cuzzi's eye at just the right time. See the kicked up dirt a little below and to the right of center: that's where the ball bounced.

Of course, this is just the latest and a glaring example of a blown call that everybody could see. If you were focused, you saw it fair live; calls don't get worse than that...and they blow a lot of calls.

That will surely drum up renewed calls for expansion of instant replay.  Whether the umpires make the call from a viewing booth- which should be in open view, between the end of the net and where Giuliani sits- or it comes down from a command center at MLB (someone Bokolis knows has offered himself up for the job), it's not that hard to pull off. I could draw out the logistics of how it should be done, but that misses the point. Until proper replay is set up, the whole thing is little more than WWF (I use the erstwhile name, not whateverthefuck they call themselves now).

Now, if Cuzzi and C.B. Bucknor- who blew at least 3 calls at 1B in Game 1 of halos-sox- were on the same crew, I'd think that every call- every dust-off of home plate for that matter- would be subject to video review.