It’s a beautiful thing, math where you can choose to find patterns, or not, and progressions, or not. But what we know is there are six days until the Yankees play against some team that has found its way into October baseball.
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Category: General Yankees
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Nearly Immortal
Alex Belth writes about the significance of Aaron Judge and his achievement in Esquire.
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Numerical Coincidence
Now that we can get over whether or not Aaron Judge is a choker because he took eight games prior to his previous dinger to tie Maris, who hit 61 in 61 and 61 years later Judge hits 61, we can stress about other statistically unimportant matters.
Such as, during the tortuous seven-game span when he didn’t go long, he hit “only” .263 when he had to chase to find something to hit, but walked 12 times in 31 plate appearances, had a .548 OBP (!), slugged .421 on 3 doubles and 2 singles, and plated 5 runs, and definitely made pitchers change their game so they don’t end up as an asterisk. All of this under an intense microscope. In which the Yankees went 6-1 with a very questionable set of circumstances that led to a loss in Toronto. And why do we play the game?
The 61-61-61-61 thing is a fun to play with as far as it is something that happens when you deal enough cards, or have monkeys with typewriters. But what Judge has done is special, and he has handled it with aplomb. Now, back to keeping things straight for the playoffs.
Judge stays on pace, hitting another homer off a three-one pitch left in the middle of the plate. What would one expect?
He was 1-4 in the match against Pittsburgh, so his average dipped slightly, but his slugging and total bases are better for the effort.
Today is the last day of summer before the boys of summer.. go on vacation? An interesting aspect is that Ruth hit 60 in 154 possible games. Judge did it in 147. Is that deserving of an asterisk, or an exclamation point? There are a couple other whales in the room, and the curious thing is that the first letter of their first name and first letter of their last name are the same in each case. Alliteration helps people remember what they read.
https://www.mlb.com/news/aaron-judge-hits-60th-home-run-of-2022
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Twenty One
I really enjoyed watching the way Paul O’Neill played as a Yankee. In his nine seasons, he lead the league in grounding into double plays twice, so at least he was trying to make contact, and he had a great batting average in a strike year. I suppose that I’m cynical about why this is happening.
Retiring 21 from the Yankees numbers (of which that is the 23rd number) isn’t egregious in any sense. He was always engaging as a player and an announcer, and was tenacious on the field and at the plate. But it makes me wonder if O’Neill gets his bronze in monument park, what about Chris Chambliss, or Willie Randolph? And don’t get me started on Mel Stottlemyre.
Not that it matters. Number 21 is number 23 of 99 numbers retired. Maybe they can start using decimal places for future candidates.
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What Happens Next
Aaron Judge is doing superlative things this year, as he usually does when he isn’t hurt. Such as launching the ball to places where “normal” hitters just can’t reach on a change-up. I’m not saying that Aaron Judge is abnormal. What I am saying is that he is made for his time.
When you think of someone who is 6’7″ and looks and plays like a linebacker, along with having excellent vision, he is something that will cause baseball to change the game in small pieces, as they did when Bob Gibson made fools of anyone who thought they could get a bat around on his fastball and decided to change the height of the pitching mound. Think about that for more than ten seconds.
Judge has traction that he is going to end up near Ruth and Williams in the pantheon of players that people love to hate, or hate to love, or just get scrutinized. If he can stay healthy.
The interesting thing to me is that if you read the box scores and stats of Ruth and Williams and Bonds, you see that they were players that played at an elevated level for decades. Because I bleed pinstripe blue, I want to feel exalted that when Aaron Judge is having a great season, but I know there is always going to be a stigma because doubt and denial of statistics seems to be the course of baseball analyses.
Put Barry in the hall, and Pete, and Roger, and Sammy, and just get over the incredibly horrible past that baseball wrote all on its own. Money grab with one eye closed to that present day mockery that people weren’t in on the gaming of the system, while comfortably forgetting that the same industry was denying the best players from making a living wage. Heck, even the Supreme Court of the United States got in on the act. AND, denying so many players from joining or staying in the game in the first place because of the color of their skin or the fact that players were legally chattel.
In the mean time, enjoy the Greatest Game Ever Invented.
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Millionaire Squabbles
Nothing like trying to retread the tires on your Maybach. h/t DailyBeast.
Tanaka out for a month minimum. In the meantime, Michael Pineda and the Yankees host the Rays and Drew Smyly in a getaway game before the Bombers go to Boston on Friday.
Comment away.
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Things Can Only Get Better
After the season opener loss for the Yanks, it has to get better. That’s just simple geometry, man, everything back to the normal. Or mean. Or what did I mean? 161-1 is the new goal. Love opening day, full of all new possibilities. Therefore it has to be a good thing that Ty Hensley is going to get a figure eight knot tied in his arm, right?
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Probably Nothing At All
C.C. Sabathia, as part of a group of 12, was booked for a flight to Jamaica but showed up too close to departure for boarding and was denied passage. He and his entourage went on a later flight. Supposedly, he started freaking out when he was told that he couldn’t board.
Been there, been there. From last season to this coming, who doesn’t want to get away?
Hiroki Kuroda is returning to Japan.
Also, nomaas.org is shuttering.
The Yankees are losing too much good shit.
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Yankees Re-Sign Chase Headley
Four years, 56M-ish. Hey, that’s Johnny Damon money, even a bargain. They must see something there.
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Fatty
Brian Cashman just called ARod fat.
Meaning, the Yankees GM just found a way to make the team a bigger joke.
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Goliath Gets Lonely
By the way, who is the Goliath? Betances?
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There He Goes, The Fishy Boy
My tormentors are right. I do smell like fish. Plenty of Puerto Caimito kids do. We live by the water, not far from a processing plant that makes fish meal out of sardines — or harina de pescado, as we call it. I am the son of a fisherman. I work on my father’s boat. The smell of fish overpowers everything in Puerto Caimito. Fish keep the local economy from drowning. Fish are what supplies jobs for many of the parents of the kids who are taunting me. I could’ve, should’ve, ignored them.
I do not.
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Honorifics
The Yankees will retire(!) #6 for Torre, and likewise put plaques in Monument Park for Goose, Paulie, and Tino. So, that will help this year. Yankee fans need ceremonies to remind them of how lucky they are.