by Ethan Greenberg
[I love Jim Mora. Thank you for that infamous tirade. Although I'm still waiting for Joe Girardi to do his Jim Mora imitation]
Seeing the Yankees behind Tampa Bay and Boston late in August is something that has never happened. Many people are dismissing the Yanks as having any chance of making the playoffs, and it’s
not even September yet. Boston is not the best team in the division, and it’s no guarantee that they will finish ahead of NY- although as a non-Yanks fan, I’m hoping the Yanks just fade away so that every baseball fan will stop thinking NY has the slightest chance of sniffing the postseason.
It was only a few weeks ago when Hank Steinbrennar was declaring this season over and telling the Yanks fanbase that the team will be back with a bang next year. Hank is a tad bit crazy, but with father George leaving the head honcho job in the near future, Hank should be telling it like it is. It’s hard to find someone that is so passionate and incredibly annoying about winning as George, so the closest thing to him would have to be Hank.
It’s just hard to believe that 1993 was the last time the Yanks were not in the playoffs. That’s something that basically no other team has done, considering for so many years, there were 2 teams that made the playoffs and they both got into the World Series without having to go through playoff rounds. Joe Girardi has been there and done that, and he is a very capable manager, but taking over for Joe Torre is not an easy gig- so good for him for getting through his job as well as he has up to this point. Although, if he got along with Marlins management even slightly better than he did in 2006, he would still be with the Marlins and who knows who’d be managing NY right now?
Then you look in LA and you see how Torre has lead a team that is hovering around the .500 mark and struggling to keep up with Arizona- what a difference a managerial job, franchise switch, and a single year makes. Would Torre still be a hall of fame caliber manager if he never took the job in NY? Hard to say, but not many managers can deal with the daily bitching of a certain man with a last name that begins with S and ends in Teinbrennar.
What Will FOX do now that they can’t talk about the Yankees in October? FOX started covering the playoffs back in the mid 90′s when the Yanks run began, so FOX without the Yanks will be a difficult adjustment. Broadcasting a game from Tropicana field in Tampa- that’s not something FOX is used to either.
But you know, revenue sharing is a great thing, and allowing other franchises not in major media markets to succeed is a remarkable thing that should continue to happen year after year. So kudos to baseball for getting this right- it might be not long before we see a Royals-Pirates World Series, you just wait. People in NY who are sports fans in general should still tune in this year, for the love of the game and for the love of exciting playoff baseball. I just can’t wait for Tim McCarver to mistake Joe Maddon for Girardi, or Rocco Baldelli for Johnny Damon, or Akinora Iwamura for Hideki Irabu.
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