Tanaka

Sometimes the efforts to reload the Yankees can boil down to a single word or phrase.  Last week it was Cano, this week it is Tanaka.  The poor judgement used in losing Cano can be erased in the minds of most fans by finding Tanaka.

The Yankees and their fans disrespected Cano, it is abundantly true.  They took him for less than he was because he is Black and Dominican, on the other hand, they gave Ellsbury far more than they should have because he is perceived to be White (but is also Native American).  We are all something or another, and in the color-conscious America in which we live, how we play our race card makes a difference in $ and sense impressions.

Cano was aloof, distant to Yankee fans, they characteristically judged him by his skin color and called his casual defensive and base-running styles - laziness.  They like the phony butt-busting of a Youkilis or Pedroia more, players who characteristically  play themselves into injury by running out routine ground ball outs at break-neck effort since they lack speed.  Cano tamed his style, sacrificed a rabbit start for balance and power, averages 160 games per season and is an all-time talent at 2B.  Pedroia is an overblown myth who gets better ball/strike calls than any whiner in the game-- Youkilis got $11 million last year for playing 20 PHONY butt busting games-- fans love him-- go figure.

Tanaka is another story, can the Yankees tame their urge to stereotype and misjudge? They suspended their petulance to hire CC and won a title. They did not do well with Jeter and embarrassed their classy leader during negotiations- only to have Jeter give them one of his best seasons. Kuroda and Ichiro give Tanaka two reasons to look at the Yankees, they will have to pay and average salary above $20 million to sign him and they are unlikely to do so,

My pick is Seattle where they would become contenders in the weak West with Cano, Felix Hernandez and Tanaka. The Dodgers can afford it but don't need a pitcher badly enough to pay $20m , money they can use to keep Kershaw and Puig.  However, if the Yanks do give in to the glitz and expectations that help sell tickets, they can get Tanaka, they can value him for what he is worth rather than what he appears to be. Signing Tanaka will expand the Yankees brand in Asia and in Asian communities in the US. That is worth millions now and potentially more if the team succeeds.
  
Tanaka represents a $100 m gamble, he could flame out and become a trade and salary dump leaving NY paying for the mistake for five years.  It is a gamble worth taking, because Tanaka adds something no one else can add right now-- a buzz in the Bronx!

ARod Steroid Case- Punish the wrong man, Again

There is this inevitable sense that baseball will hand down a lifetime ban against Alex Rodriguez- a player who has not tested positive for PED's in the MLB program. Now imagine this is true and it is based on something said, or proven by the drug dealer who operated Bio-Genesis.  Now this is an action to take away a man's livelihood, wipe out a contract worth $100m.  It would be done on the basis of Baseball acting as investigator, prosecutor, and judge.
This would be a good thing in the old Soviet Union, it would be a good day for the Mafia. It is not a good day for Baseball because...it punishes the wrong man for the wrong thing.

PED's have become a favorite in the press - they call it cheating.  As if the home runs were hit by the pills or the chemicals rather than the human being. As if the pills make you swing at the right time to make a round bat go square against a round ball- that is some goddamn pill eh? A pill that can do that should be legal-- we can all be baseball stars!
So here is the embarrassing question to ask DON Selig- do you have any friggin idea what you are doing?  Why would you ban someone for life without proof they did anything-- do you seriously think a private company like baseball can go on the untested word of a criminal under duress?
well even if you do Don Selig you should not-- it deprives citizens of due process- the basic right to confront the accuser and tear him apart on a witness stand-- because a drug dealer who has lied to everyone for years-- is not a reliable witness for anything.
Last- because sports fans have short attention spans- was ARod trying to cheat even if he did these things?  What was the intent-- it appears he was a man with a worn out hip. One who was trying desperately to heal himself.  A man who knows the God given talent to do what he does  does not come from a needle- even i the hands of an accomplished liar like the Bio Genesis man-- didn't I see him on TV denying all of this-- I think I did...I think we all did..
If you want to punish someone, punish the drug dealers severely. Some reasonable suspension is appropriate- a lifetime ban well that would be good for murder-- but trying to heal and injury-- hmmm.  Try to send the dealers to jail where they belong.  Confiscating income from athletes is a poor way to teach the world that steroids don't make you better, and that young people risk their health by taking them.  Punishing the athlete confirms the drugs do work, and everyone who wants to be better- should think about getting some . Ahh Don Selig, you have shown once again you are a very small man in a very big job.

king rat

Bud Selig has never been a favorite of mine, his leadership has not impressed me as fair, genuine, nor competent.  Owners choose a Commissioner and among the primary goals of the organization are to promote the sport, make baseball appealing and more popular.  Steroids have been a fly in the ointment for baseball since the golden post work stoppage days when McGuire, Sosa, and Bonds parlayed long distance hitting into a national resurgence for the game.  It was wonderful to see those scores of home runs, and many new records.  McGuire one day gave an interview before his open locker and there on the shelf- Androstendione. It was regarded as a muscle supplement in those days- a steroid of the finest water- but not illegal, not banned by baseball then.
Some fantasies have grown among the weeds, that steroids creates baseball abilities, noticeably and measurably makes a player perform better.  This has not come from scientific research- they know better than to say this home run was caused by a steroid.  No, only drug dealers and sports reporters say such things and when they do - they too become drug dealers.  Many impressionable young people believe they can be great athletes if they eat steroids too. Drug dealers tell them it is true- then the sports establishment says amen!
Frankly, every confessional i have heard from someone I regard as sane and reasonable( excluding Jose Conseco and a few other avid author and book promoters) suggests that the steroids didn't work. Didn't heal the bum shoulder, didn't avoid months of tedious rehab.  The suggestions that the effects are greatly exaggerated or as they say on the web--OOOVVVEEERRR RRAATTEED

I think there is a deeper question in the latest steroid/Biogenesis flap.  Why are we exalting the veracity of the rats!!!???  For every athlete dumb enough to risk his life on an experimental drug, there is a criminal waiting somewhere to prepare it, promote it, and conspire to transfer it.  He takes no risk except getting caught in a lie. Then when we catch the lie we exalt him, give him center stage to take down otherwise law abiding productive citizens.  I mean- compare baseball steroid buyer to the Biogenesis dude- one is a crook and a rat, the other is sadly mistaken, about to lose millions$, and put out as an example for our children-- that steroids make you better.  See the sad truth is otherwise--
steroids make you stupid-- before and after you buy them!

Today there was also a ballgame...

a contest between two evenly matched squads, middle of the pack teams, not expected to contend for the championship as presently made up.  There is a big  IF in that prediction and it involves the man whose presence has made this game an afterthought.  Derek Jeter  one of two certain Yankee Hall of Fame players o this roster is back from a long period of rehabiltation.  The trolls on the talkboards proclaimede all winter that this would not be; that we had seen the last of jeter as a player.
The Return of the Captain could be a novel but in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, in all the Boroughs and minor principalities of megaNewYork,  it is an epistle- the latest Book in the Pinstripe Bible. There is a game and it is the necessary backdrop to the one-man show, the long awaited return of the esteemed and  beloved pride of the Yankees.
Now back to that big IF; Jeter can begin and continue to regain his form, the Yankees will contend.  They have been missing a clutch hitter, and they have clearly missed their Leader. As they gather strength: Granderson will be next, perhaps also Youkilis near season's end, they will become a balanced team of hitting, power, base running and pitching.  They will catch the ball more often than expected on defense.
In this very balanced league, and in this strange season, New York vs. Detroit is my prediction for the ALCS.

Yoda Berra

Yogi finally looks old to me.  Like Yoda we met him when he was old yet we viewed him as a timeless force: a bridge from our time to a more golden past. Suddenly-we see him as an old man.  But this is Yogi, and the most quoted man on earth might say:   I was older when I was younger too! 
Yogi Berra was always old in baseball wisdom, one of the old wise heads in the game: as player, coach, manager- an evolving icon.  In my lifetime he was always around in some way.  As kids growing up, someone I knew had always seen him 'the other day' in downtown Ridgewood, N.J. or heard him speak somewhere for a good cause. To baseball fans of the generation before me, he was always the one grinning at the end of the World Series- especially when the 'World' was an Island  in Hudson Bay between the Hudson River,  the East River, and a mouth of the Atlantic Ocean.  Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle,  Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays all went to baseball battle with or against Yogi.

I imagine his occasional flashbacks to his playing days  would be  Hall of Fame dreamlets...perchance... Jackie Robinson would be called out on the steal of home,
Don Larsen would always be perfect, and
Yogi would flash ten championship rings, smile a winner's smile.
Yogi and baseball had a certain and wonderful chemistry, a profound sense of joy.  He seemed to glow as if every baseball memory were fresh and new.  In his recollections,  baseball was exciting  and amazing.  Now, it is bittersweet, like autumn and the season's end.  Yogi finally looks old, and the baseball diamond is a bit dimmer.