YANKEES 2012: A TEAM OF EXCUSES

By the looks of this week's results, it seems many of you really like reading about sex and marijuana! Now, normally, I don't like to write about my favorite sports teams in my blog because any opinion that I will have will be biased, which is another reason why I don't include politics in my blog either. I want everyone to come here to get pissed off or for a good laugh or sometimes maybe even a tearjerker. Anyway, anyone who knows me knows that I am a diehard Yankees fan, and have been since as long as I can remember. I was never a bandwagon like most of you out there. I still rooted for my Yankees in the 80s when they were horrendous. My favorite player was Dave Winfield, but I also appreciated Donnie Baseball and watching guys like Graig Nettles, Chris Chambliss, and Bobby Murcer play. I used love watching Louisiana Lightning, Ron Guidry pitch while Goose Gossage got a ride in from the Dodge Bullpen car. Those of you who are bandwagon fans won't remember any of these guys or these moments because you only started rooting for the team when they became the Great New York Yankees again. You never suffered like I did, and if you did, then being swept by the Tigers and getting knocked out of the playoffs by them should be no surprise. 

With that being said, now that you know where I stand as a Yankees fan, I picked up the Daily News today only to read a headline that read "Yankees Player Says Team Was Rocked by Booing During Game 2 of ALCS." WHAT? The paper didn't release who made this statement, but whoever said it needs to be traded out of New York! This is the New York F**king Yankees! Don't they listen to the parting song after every home game? If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere? It's no secret that we Yankees fans will turn on you at the drop of a hat if you're not performing to our liking! Does it mean we will cause physical harm to you? No! It means we are just expressing our disgust with your performance. The second you do something big for the team, all is forgotten. It happens all around in sports. It just so happens that New Yorkers are much more vocal and much harsher about it. 

 Here was the problem, and I've said it on Facebook many times over the past few weeks, this year's Yankees were just going through the motions to get to the World Series. They were playing with absolutely NO heart whatsoever! During the ALDS, I seriously wanted to punch Nick Swisher in the face for smiling after he grounded into a double play with bases loaded. How is that funny? Where's Paul O'Neill when you need him? Punch a water cooler or something! Show us that you want to be there and that you deserve to be there! Everyone was putting the blame on A-Rod, who definitely wasn't hitting his way out of a paper bag, but he's one of nine players. How come nobody got on Swisher's case? Or Curtis Granderson? Or Robbie Cano? Or Russell Martin? Or Mark Teixeira? How about the .185 batting average the team posted on in the post season? Up until Game 4 in Detroit, the Yankees pitching staff had been stellar, so that was obviously not their problem. The Yankees did suffer a big blow when the heart and soul of the team, Derek Jeter went down with a broken ankle in Game 1, but again, he's one person! If anything, like someone said to me on Facebook, the team should have rallied around Jeter and won the damn thing for him. Instead, they just folded like an accordion.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that yes I am disappointed that the Yankees are out, but the only ones to blame are the New York Yankees. They can't point fingers at the “boos” they received for poor performance. If you can't take the heat, then get the f**k out of the kitchen! You can't only blame A-Rod on your post season woes, though it's been consistent for him except for when he was with Kate Hudson in 2009 (hmmmm....). There were other players this season that hit just as well as A-Rod did. Getting knocked out of the post season was a team effort and not a finger pointing on one person. The pitching was great, but there were no runs to support those great performances. I have to admit the only player that showed any heart at all was Raul Ibanez and at first, I hated the fact that they went out and got him, but once again, he was one player. I just want to beg the Steinbrenners, Brian Cashman, and Joe Girardi to please put some heart back into this team in the off season and stop pointing fingers! It's not the fans' fault and the blame shouldn't fall on one player! I know I'll catch a lot of flack for this blog from my fellow Yankees fans, but this is MY blog and MY opinion! Plus, I needed to vent after the Yankees pathetic performance in the post season, but as a diehard Yankees fan, sometimes you're just conditioned for disappointment.

DAMN YANKEES DISAPPOINT AGAIN THIS YEAR!!!

Once again, I really wanted to blog about my rip-off trip to Cancun, Mexico today, but last night's Yankees Game 5 loss to the Tigers really pissed me off! For the past week, I was living it up in Cancun missing the majority of the baseball post season because of the lack of Internet accessibility. Well, we made it home to see a 'do-or-die' Game 5, which I was pretty excited about. I thought that the Yankees had this one in the bag. Their rookie pitching sensation Ivan Nova pitching against the Tiger's Doug Fister, and the Yankees coming off of a 10-1 Game 4 onslaught in Detroit? The stage was set for a huge Yankee win. It was a familiar feeling as I sat down in front of the TV to watch the game. Unfortunately, that familiar feeling that I had was of the same old Yankees in the playoffs; from getting runners on base and not driving them in to not delivering the big hit in an elimination game atmosphere. The last time we actually saw that was Aaron Boone's walk-off home run in Game 7 against the Red Sox in 2003.

The Yankees got into trouble early in the first inning when Ivan Nova gave up back to back home runs to Don Kelly and Delmon Young, but as most Yankee fans know, a two-run lead is not nearly enough to hold this potent Yankee offense down, but when Tigers pitcher Doug Fister decided that he wanted to pitch like Tiger ace Justin Verlander on this night, two runs WAS more than enough. Yankee manager Joe Girardi pulled Ivan Nova in the second inning due to a muscle tightening, forcing Girardi to go to the bullpen early, but did he really have to treat it like a little league team where he tried to put in every pitcher that he had in the bullpen? I guess at the end of the day, Girardi's bullpen was not the problem, as they were lights out. It was the Yankees offense that killed them! I mean, the Yankees had bases loaded twice in this game with one out, and they could not drive in the big runs. How can their high paid slugger, Alex Rodriguez, strike out with bases loaded? I'll tell you how! Besides A-Rod's history in the post season going 0 for baseball every year, the guy missed half of the season due to injuries. How about keeping him off of the post season roster this year and go with what got you there? Maybe using Eduardo Nunez or Eric Chavez at third? I bet they would've helped out offensively better than a gimpy A-Rod!

Then there was Nick Swisher, who also struck out with the bases loaded, and hit only .211 in this post season. That's probably the best he's hit in the playoffs since becoming a Yankee. The Yankees offense was absolutely horrendous, and I knew after three innings that this Yankees team was not winning this game. When I was on facebook last night, many of my fellow Yankees fans were trying to stay optimistic saying things like, "don't worry, they'll rally back!" or "the umps were making some bad balls and strikes calls." The bottom line is that the Yankees as a team were not getting good swings against this Tigers pitching staff. You can tell right away, there would be no rally in the future, and there might have been some blown balls and strikes calls, but there were also a lot of pitches right down the middle that weren't even swung at. You have to swing the bat to get the hits! The almost 'sigh of relief' came when Captain Clutch, Derek Jeter came up in the eighth inning and almost hit a two-run homer to put the Yankees ahead by a run, but that ball came up short of the wall to end the inning! Oh, where were you Jeffrey Maier when we needed you? Once again, our Yankees have let us down!

Big changes are coming, but what are they? Is Brian Cashman stepping down? Did Yankee lifer, Jorge Posada play his last game in pinstripes? Will CC Sabathia opt out of his contract and play elsewhere? What will this team look like next year? I really thought we would see a Yankees and Phillies rematch, the way the two teams had been playing all year. All I have to say is, "Let's Go Cardinals!"