The Magic Carpet

At Rogers Center in Toronto on Sunday, the Yankees finished off its poorest effort in fifteen seasons to go into the All-Star break under a dark cloud and now prepare for the inevitable house-cleaning upon their return on Friday.

Given their 4 game winning streak in the Bronx to close out the split with Boston and the mini-sweep over Tampa Bay, Yankee fans dared to hope that the season-long slumber was at an end and could only drool in anticipation of an easy road trip against the Pirates and Blue Jays.

Then, given the benefit of a Cleveland Indians sweep over the Rays, the Yankees were in excellent position to go into the break RIGHT THERE for 1st Place in the AL East.

Instead, the Yankees mustered THREE runs in their three losses for the trip, posting an unforgivable 1-3 record at the most critical of times.

What's worse, the Yankee captain - long known as a 'stand-up' guy who doesn't sugar coat poor performances, responded to understandable criticism of the team's NON-EXISTENT offense by saying 'the offense isn't struggling, we've been facing some good pitching'.

Shut the fuck up, Derek.

Here are the F-A-C-T-S, the best Offense in the game - ON PAPER, the identical one that scored more runs than any team in Baseball in 2007 and has received better seasons from 3 of its cogs (Giambi, Matsui, Damon) has been regularly shut down whenever facing good pitching, scoring its runs in bunches when up against weaker arms to partially mask its ineptitude.

What's more, even given the devastating injuries to their pitching staff, with Ace Chien-Ming Wang and #4 Phil Hughes lost and top set-up men Brian Bruney and Jonathan Albaladejo injured as well, the pitching has actually been terrific. The bullpen has pitched beyond expectations and has established a solid 4 man bridge to Mariano Rivera, who not only put together a great first half, but the best of his illustrious career and one of the best EVER. Mike Mussina was reborn, easily pitching well enough to be a 14 game winner with even MODEST run support, sabotaged to 11 wins. Andy Pettitte has been GIANT and he too, on this day giving up 4 early runs and then shutting it down from there never has been given a SNIFF of Offensive support.

Melky Cabrera, who looked like the Yankee CF for the next 15 years at 22 and opened up in April with .300 hitting and .500 slugging, to go with 6 early HR's has COMPLETELY disappeared (although his Defense is Gold Glove quality) as a hitter and has become an automatic out against good pitching, posting a pathetic .234 in May and .206 in June and actually looks to be getting even WORSE in July! Worse than his disgraceful failure has been the unconscionable no-show from his best buddy, Robinson Cano (another whose defense has been oustanding) who - two years after posting .342 Batting Average and one year from 97 RBI's has posted Offensive numbers similar to Blue Jay Sunday hitting hero, the nobody of all nobodies - Marco Scutaro! Guessing the Yankees thought they had a perennial all-star, batting champion contender and power threat in the 25 year old Cano when they signed him to the 4 year contract before the season...instead they got a worthless pile of garbage who has failed the team and the city in every conceivable manner.

Bobby Abreu has been so-so, although HIS Defense is atrocious (except for his arm, which is still excellent as displayed on a huge throw to nail Scott Rolen at home on Sunday). Jeter is fine as well, but lost a month of production when his hand was bashed by Oriole Daniel Cabrera...Posada lost six weeks to a bad shoulder and has seemed to sulk about not catching enough, even though his bad shoulder FORCED the Yankees to protect their four year investment in him and the LAST thing he should be thinking about is his individual status...Rodriguez is the player we saw in his non-MVP years of 2004 and 2006, still top-tier but not enough to carry the team as he did in '05 and '07 (he too has been Gold Glove quality at 3B). Giambi has been terrific, closing out his solid 1st half with a 9th inning HR on Sunday to keep the Yankees from their latest shutout/humiliation. Matsui and Damon both played all-star caliber baseball all through the first half and their injuries have pointed out how weak the rest of the Offense truly has been as the COMPLETE offensive collapse followed their injuries over the past two weeks.

Even worse than the unreliable performance by the starters has been the complete and total failure by the bench. Shelley Duncan, relied upon the supply RH power - managed exactly O-N-E HR before being sent to the minors and promptly blowing up his shoulder (although he TOO looked good with the glove at both 1B and RF), Alberto Gonzalez, Justin Christian and Brett Gardner are all Defensive wizards and speed demons on the bases, but they are too raw to help the offense and require the type of opportunity that simply cannot be provided to them (see Melky and Cano). Young players cannot 'learn on the job' in the Bronx, they have to be the finished product (old version of Cano, Wang, Joba...) or they have to be shipped out to get their seasoning elsewhere and then, perhaps be considered as free-agents. The last thing a Yankee fan wants is to watch some kid's growing pains with hopes for the 'future'...WIN, or get the (expletive) out of New York.

Guru is sending out waves of murderous rage that had a passer-by recoiling in horror, so FURIOUS is he with the 1-3 trip...it will be three nights of no-sleep, while I replay every wasted at-bat and cultivate the garden of gastro-intestinal timebombs in my innards.

Watching the Yankees, the day after Bobby Murcer's death - with EVERYTHING on the line, against a pitcher whose ONLY weakness is his high pitch counts on day when he has only three days rest - swing at the first pitch and generally conduc themselves like 25 guys in search of an airplane ride home to their families for some time off was the ultimate (expletive) YOU to the fans, who, like Guru will now gnash their teeth in agony while the players relax.

I am SO (expletive) tired of hearing about the 'weather', the 'travel', the 'injuries' and seeing the team continue to support those who have failed us - Cashman and hitting coach, Kevin Long should have their heads lopped off in the most humiliating fashion possible - hey, it seemed to work for the Mets!

So that's it, a miserable 50-45, an all-world Offense that is practically invisible and impossible to replicate performances from their pitching and defense all portend a complete disintegration in the second half. The only solace that can be had is if the bloodletting and organizational clampdown is severe enough to create the same sort of misery for the clubhouse and the player's families that Guru will be going through these next 96 hours.

A TSN type once commented that Guru needed 'anger-management, IMMEDIATELY'...

Brother, you don't know the HALF of it - I could take out a small village right now - I am shaking with rage!

But I gotta walk Scout before I begin the killing spree.

If I manage to control the anger (50/50 proposition), then I'll return with more charming displays of an unhealthy psyche when the Yankees return on Friday.

Until then, fuming...

Bobby Ray Murcer (May 20, 1946 – July 12, 2008





There isn't a dry eye anywhere that a Yankee fan is found, Bobby Murcer died today...succumbing to the Brain Cancer that he has been fighting since Christmas Eve, 2006. I wrote about Bobby when he came back to the YES Broadcast Booth for the first time last season, but couldn't locate the entry today. Suffice it to say that he was my FIRST Hero, the best Yankee in the years when I became a fan, an Oklahoman who was more like 'us' to Mom and I as we adjusted to the move back to NYC from Texas. I met him in the Yankee clubhouse as a 7 year old in 1971 and worshipped him - he told me to be good to my mom (still am, Bobby). When the Yankees closed down the original stadium for renovations (the stadium that is in its final season in 2008, the Yankees moved to Queens for two years and Bobby struggled to hit those Yankee stadium HR's he had patented in the Bronx - his 10 HR season that year was the first time in seven seasons he fell below 22-33 and Yankees traded him that winter for Barry Bonds Dad - Bobby Bonds. Although Bobby came BACK to the Yankees in 1979, he missed the 3 world series and 2 World Championships his beloved Yankees went to during his 5 years away.

That year, 1979, Yankee Captain and close friend to Bobby, Thurman Munson crashed his plane flying home to Canton, Ohio and Bobby gave the eulogy at his service. The first game back, Bobby hit a 3 run HR and then had a game-winning 2 run 1B in the Bottom of the 9th, playing the Orioles and his longtime friend, New Yorker and fellow announcer, Ken Singleton. In 1983, when I was 20, Bobby retired and went directly to the Booth, making way for Don Mattingly, who succeeded him as 'Most Popular Yankee'. Bobby was the only Yankee to play with Mickey and Donnie Baseball, the bridge between generations of Yankees. Bobby lost two of his prime years in the late '60s to Military Service during the Vietnam War and never spoke of it as anything but an inspiration and a tool that made him stronger. He was 'old school' in the BEST sense of that term.

In the booth, he was a fixture with Phil Rizzuto (who we lost last year) and into the YES years, covering all of the Championships and becoming a fixture to NEW Generations of Yankees and Yankee fans.

He came from the places Guru comes from and lived his life in the place that Guru lives his. He was the finest public person that has ever been associated with the Yankees since my first season (1970), a deeply religious man, who, like Andy Pettitte, never pushed any agenda or pointed the finger at other lifestyles, but rather, who GLOWED with decency, good humor, love for the Yankees and most of all, devotion to his wife, Kay, whose name I have known since I was 7 and who my heart breaks for today.

We loved you, Bobby. We'll never forget you.

Game 91/ Rays

Guru was in the bleachers for this one, a blistering hot day in the Bronx that failed to heat up slumbering Yankee bats. With 20,000 Yankee fans sporting their Giambi Mustaches, Sidney Ponson danced on the edge for six innings of one run baseball before handing it over to the bullpen who supplied 4 shutout innings of relief. A 1-1 game became a 2-1 victory when Bobby Abreu doubled Derek Jeter in from 1B on a gap 2B for the walkoff, a sweep of the 2 game Rays series and a 4-2 homestand against the teams the Yankees trail in the AL East.

Game 92/@ Pittsburgh

Three weeks ago, Yankees had a 3 run lead with Mike Mussina on the hill, only to have the rains flood the game away. In the Makeup game, the Yankees once again received a terrific start from the suddenly dominant Moose, but came away with a tough 4-2 loss when Jose Veras was tagged for a clutch 2 run HR by terrific young Pirate CF (All-Star!) Nate McClouth. Veras, who had not been scored upon in 17 1/3 innings previously, can hardly be blamed for the rare mistake nor can Yankee hitters, who ran into a brilliant performance from Pirate starter, LH, Paul Maholm, who threw 8 innings of 2 run ball and Pirate Closer, LH, Domaso Marte, who shut them down in the 9th. A tough loss for New York, coming off the 4 game winning streak against their rivals, but no fluke - this Pirate team has some players and some pitchers and played inspired baseball on this night.

Game 93/@ Toronto

Once again, Yankees got a brilliant pitching performance from their starter only to lose to an even BETTER one from the opposing starter. Blue Jay Ace, RH, Roy Halladay toyed with the Yankees in a complete game 2-hit shutout, offsetting 7 strong innings of 10 K work from Joba Chamberlain. Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter had the only Yankee hits and Yankee LH callup, Billy Traber, surrendered a 2 run shot in relief to provide the final 5-0 margin.


Game 94/ @ Toronto

Derek Jeter led off the game with his 200th MLB HR, only to see it squandered by a 4 run Toronto outburst in the bottom of the 1st against hard-trying, good-guy, not-good-enough Darell Rasner, and given the Yankee Offensive struggles since Matsui's injury (less than 3 runs in 8 of 12 games, worst since 1991) it was an open question if they'd be able to overcome the deficit. But Blue Jay starter, Jesse Litsch, is no Halladay and Yankee bats came alive with 8 more runs on their way to the 9-4 victory, one of which came on Alex Rodriguez's 537th HR - passing Mickey on the all-time list to move into the #13 slot, eleven behind #12 - Mike Schmidt, still two weeks before his 33rd Birthday.

For his part, Rasner had some poor luck in the 1st Inning debacle, with some bad Defense and just ONE bad pitch that Adam Lind hit for a 3 run 3B. He struck out 6 in five innings and combined with four Yankee relievers (Edwar Ramirez, Jose Veras, Kyle Farnsworth and Latroy Hawkins) to record 8 shutout innings to close out the win.

Yankees try for the series win to close out the first half tomorrow with Andy Pettitte going up against terrific AJ Burnett (owns the Yankees) in Rogers Center, a game that is sure to be an emotional one for the Yankees and close Murcer friend, Joe Girardi (crying profusely and beautifully in the postgame, making me prouder of him that I already was). For a team that has been inconsistent with its approach and its professionalism, perhaps the example of their class act Manager and the great Bobby Murcer can be used to lift them up from their recent malaise. Facing Burnett, they'll HAVE to if they want to go into the All-Star break with a good taste in their mouths and keep the Rays and Sox right where they are.

Those of us who understand the New York Yankees well, including Yankees themselves, understood that the CRITICAL thing for this 2008 team, the management team it had put in place, the youth movement they had endorsed...was one thing above ALL others;

A fast start.

That never happened, a Torre style sleepwalk ensued, the mysterious run of serious injuries to a team that expects those sorts of things won't happen to 'us' continued and the emerging young talent the organization place its faith in - not only did not progress but took serious steps backward just as young talent all over baseball was making explosive moves forward.

Throughout it all, the one constant that Yankee fans felt they could count on was the resolute veteran core, the four men who had been in place since 1996 and who, along with new Manager, Joe Girardi has always proven to be the very definition of 'winners' - tough, focused leaders who always raised their games and took their teams to higher levels at crucial moments.

Mariano Rivera

Jorge Posada

Andy Pettitte

Derek Jeter

Accordingly, Yankee expectations coming into tonight's first of four games in the Bronx against the rival Red Sox rested squarely upon these four to lead the way and provide the Yankees with a 3-1 series win that would propel them towards this season's surge - a desperate rationalization 'true believers' cling to when the deeply understood rationale (they need a good start) blows up in their faces.

Tonight, in the 1st Inning, Pettitte - who surrenders plenty of hits but strands them by guile and the ability to make big pitches when it matters - surrendered two singles with one out and then induced Manny Ramirez to hit into a Double Play. Derek Jeter then took the easy DP relay from Robinson Cano and threw the baseball into the Yankee dugout - missing Wilson Betemit, the 1B, by a good ten feet on one of the most inexplicable choke-jobs you may ever see on a Baseball field. We'll never know what happened, but it was INSTANTLY clear that Jeter's mind was anywhere but on the baseball field in the Bronx in the Yankees moment of need.

The look on Andy's face echoed every Yankee supporter who saw it - WTF?

And, in that moment, you knew.

Moments later, it was 2-0. An inning later, Pettitte allowed two runners on with nobody out and Jacoby Ellsbury blooped a 2B down the RF line for 4-0.

Pettitte had surrendered four runs in his last four starts. This time, with everything on the line, he gave up four in one inning plus.

And that was that. It was over before it began and the series was already irrelevant. Guru turned it off.

I never watch rivals thrive, I've missed every moment that has been positive for the Sox or the GOP or Obama - I am about tearing off the opposition balls not witnessing their triumphs.

It is a tough time in New York, the disintegration of the Democrats has us in bad moods, the disintegration of the Stock Market destroy our economy, the firing of Willie makes the Mets a 'who cares' and the Yankees, OUR Yankees, simply do not have 'it' - that drive, that toughness, that youthful push. Their veterans have failed again and again when failure was not an option and their youth has underperformed. With a hopeless pitching matchup tomorrow afternoon and a game they have no chance to win - tonight was literally the most important game of the season.

With all that on the line.

They lost 7-0, to a team that had lost five in a row.

Pettitte, who New York expected to casually dominate and overwhelm Jon Lester, was instead blown out by the Sox and Lester - a pitcher that Yankee hitters expected to rake, having recently faced the likes of folks like Volquez and Santana. But Lester, like Pedroia and Elsbury have turned out to be the types of players that once started their careers in New York. The Yankees believed their kids held all the advantages of Boston's youth, certainly Phil Hughes, Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera have decided PHYSICAL advantages and 'grade out' higher in a scouting report...but Hughes has been hurt all year, Cano now seems like a great talent who will take years to become a 'winner' whereas Pedroia, with a FRACTION of his ability is now a rookie of the year, a world series champion and an all-star. Ellsbury, while not the defensive presence that Melky is, has been more consistent offensively and LEADS the AL in Stolen Bases while Melky has followed up his great April (.300 avg, .500 slugging) with .234 in May and .206 in June...

Enough said.

Stick a fork in them.

They're done.