A visitor' posted on the Thu 21 Oct 2004, 7:02 pm I agree with much of the criticism in this column, with a couple of notable exceptions (not counting the "dancing on their grave" Yankee hatred thing, discussed separately): 1. Pettite had major elbow problems and has missed much time (and the whole postseason) for Houston. He also turned down a higher Yankee offer because: (a) he wanted to play near his home; and (b) he was miffed that his elbow caused the Yankees not to pursue him as aggressively as his fragile ego would have liked. 2. Before razzing the Yankees for stooping to a "vanity" acquisition intended to keep a star player away from Boston, has everyone already forgotten how the "Evil Empire" moniker was coined two years ago? It was an expression of frustration by the richer-than-George (and none too savory) Larry Lucchino, when Boston GM Theo Epstein failed to sign Cuban defector Jose Contreras*, despite booking the ENTIRE HOTEL near Contreras' home in an attempt to block Brian Cashman (the Yankee GM) from even making it to a negotiation session. The Sox front office** is neither impoverished nor innocent, by any stretch. But then, why let reality intrude on a good David v. Goliath storyline? 3. The "end of the dynasty" stuff is getting old, as noted earlier by A. on the blog board. The Yankees were actually written off as old and disjointed every season since 1999 (and then won the WS in 2000), and were predicted by many to lose to Minnesota this year, and then get blown away by the Sox in 5 in the ALCS. *Contreras turned out to be a "raw stuff" head case who couldn't handle pressure situations, and was traded away, leading some Bosox fans to crow about how smart the Sox were for, um, failing to sign him. ** Boston was late to the game of well-researched player development -- not for lack of funds, but because it took Bosox management until the mid-1990s to decide it might make sense to place less emphasis on having "Boston-kind-of-guy" (read:"white") players. Daniel
A visitor' posted on the Thu 21 Oct 2004, 7:02 pm I agree with much of the criticism in this column, with a couple of notable exceptions (not counting the "dancing on their grave" Yankee hatred thing, discussed separately): 1. Pettite had major elbow problems and has missed much time (and the whole postseason) for Houston. He also turned down a higher Yankee offer because: (a) he wanted to play near his home; and (b) he was miffed that his elbow caused the Yankees not to pursue him as aggressively as his fragile ego would have liked. 2. Before razzing the Yankees for stooping to a "vanity" acquisition intended to keep a star player away from Boston, has everyone already forgotten how the "Evil Empire" moniker was coined two years ago? It was an expression of frustration by the richer-than-George (and none too savory) Larry Lucchino, when Boston GM Theo Epstein failed to sign Cuban defector Jose Contreras*, despite booking the ENTIRE HOTEL near Contreras' home in an attempt to block Brian Cashman (the Yankee GM) from even making it to a negotiation session. The Sox front office** is neither impoverished nor innocent, by any stretch. But then, why let reality intrude on a good David v. Goliath storyline?
3. The "end of the dynasty" stuff is getting old, as noted earlier by A. on the blog board. The Yankees were actually written off as old and disjointed every season since 1999 (and then won the WS in 2000), and were predicted by many to lose to Minnesota this year, and then get blown away by the Sox in 5 in the ALCS. *Contreras turned out to be a "raw stuff" head case who couldn't handle pressure situations, and was traded away, leading some Bosox fans to crow about how smart the Sox were for, um, failing to sign him. ** Boston was late to the game of well-researched player development -- not for lack of funds, but because it took Bosox management until the mid-1990s to decide it might make sense to place less emphasis on having "Boston-kind-of-guy" (read:"white") players. Daniel
A visitor' posted on the Thu 21 Oct 2004, 7:02 pm
ReplyDeleteI agree with much of the criticism in this column, with a couple of notable exceptions (not counting the "dancing on their grave" Yankee hatred thing, discussed separately):
1. Pettite had major elbow problems and has missed much time (and the whole postseason) for Houston. He also turned down a higher Yankee offer because: (a) he wanted to play near his home; and (b) he was miffed that his elbow caused the Yankees not to pursue him as aggressively as his fragile ego would have liked.
2. Before razzing the Yankees for stooping to a "vanity" acquisition intended to keep a star player away from Boston, has everyone already forgotten how the "Evil Empire" moniker was coined two years ago?
It was an expression of frustration by the richer-than-George (and none too savory) Larry Lucchino, when Boston GM Theo Epstein failed to sign Cuban defector Jose Contreras*, despite booking the ENTIRE HOTEL near Contreras' home in an attempt to block Brian Cashman (the Yankee GM) from even making it to a negotiation session. The Sox front office** is neither impoverished nor innocent, by any stretch. But then, why let reality intrude on a good David v. Goliath storyline?
3. The "end of the dynasty" stuff is getting old, as noted earlier by A. on the blog board. The Yankees were actually written off as old and disjointed every season since 1999 (and then won the WS in 2000), and were predicted by many to lose to Minnesota this year, and then get blown away by the Sox in 5 in the ALCS.
*Contreras turned out to be a "raw stuff" head case who couldn't handle pressure situations, and was traded away, leading some Bosox fans to crow about how smart the Sox were for, um, failing to sign him.
** Boston was late to the game of well-researched player development -- not for lack of funds, but because it took Bosox management until the mid-1990s to decide it might make sense to place less emphasis on having "Boston-kind-of-guy" (read:"white") players.
Daniel
A visitor' posted on the Thu 21 Oct 2004, 7:02 pm
ReplyDeleteI agree with much of the criticism in this column, with a couple of notable exceptions (not counting the "dancing on their grave" Yankee hatred thing, discussed separately):
1. Pettite had major elbow problems and has missed much time (and the whole postseason) for Houston. He also turned down a higher Yankee offer because: (a) he wanted to play near his home; and (b) he was miffed that his elbow caused the Yankees not to pursue him as aggressively as his fragile ego would have liked.
2. Before razzing the Yankees for stooping to a "vanity" acquisition intended to keep a star player away from Boston, has everyone already forgotten how the "Evil Empire" moniker was coined two years ago?
It was an expression of frustration by the richer-than-George (and none too savory) Larry Lucchino, when Boston GM Theo Epstein failed to sign Cuban defector Jose Contreras*, despite booking the ENTIRE HOTEL near Contreras' home in an attempt to block Brian Cashman (the Yankee GM) from even making it to a negotiation session. The Sox front office** is neither impoverished nor innocent, by any stretch. But then, why let reality intrude on a good David v. Goliath storyline?
3. The "end of the dynasty" stuff is getting old, as noted earlier by A. on the blog board. The Yankees were actually written off as old and disjointed every season since 1999 (and then won the WS in 2000), and were predicted by many to lose to Minnesota this year, and then get blown away by the Sox in 5 in the ALCS.
ReplyDelete*Contreras turned out to be a "raw stuff" head case who couldn't handle pressure situations, and was traded away, leading some Bosox fans to crow about how smart the Sox were for, um, failing to sign him.
** Boston was late to the game of well-researched player development -- not for lack of funds, but because it took Bosox management until the mid-1990s to decide it might make sense to place less emphasis on having "Boston-kind-of-guy" (read:"white") players.
Daniel
2. 'A visitor' posted on the Fri 22 Oct 2004, 3:13 am
ReplyDeleteMy overly optomistic vision for the 2005 Yankees right over here at my blog.
Avraham Bronstein