Yankees general manager Brian Cashman believes his team's 12-year World Series drought should have an asterisk. When asked about that championship drought, he rejected "the notion that the franchise is in the midst of an arid stretch".
While Cashman is free to reject reality (many Americans have chosen to do so in recent years), it doesn't change the facts: the MFY have not won (or even played in) a World Series since 2009. (That was so long ago, Daniel Bard would still pitch in four more seasons with the Red Sox.) Oh, just as a reminder, the Red Sox have won two titles since then and they personally ended the Yankees' 2018 and 2021 seasons.
Cashman is still bitter about losing the 2017 ALCS in seven games to the Astros.
The only thing that stopped [us] was something that was so illegal and horrific. So I get offended when I start hearing we haven't been to the World Series since '09. . . . The only thing that derailed us was a cheating circumstance that threw us off. . . . People are like, "Oh, we haven't been to a World Series" . . . and I'm like, "Yeah, I don't think that's as true a statement as it could be." We had a World Series team. . . . People don't want to hear that. I get it. But that's real to me.
The Yankees have made the postseason in each of the four subsequent seasons, winning only five of 16 games.
In 2018, they lost to the Red Sox in the ALDS (1-3).
In 2019, they lost to the Astros in the ALCS (2-4).
In 2020, they lost to the Rays in the ALDS (2-3).
In 2021, they lost to the Red Sox in the Wild Card Game.
Cashman should probably "smoke the objective pipe".
The Athletic:
Cashman . . . hears the proverbial roar outside the gates in The Bronx from a populace accustomed to something more glorious than one-night Octobers. He has worked to temper this desperation by implementing a more dispassionate, level-headed approach . . .
The team's luxury-tax payroll resides at nearly $246 million, according to FanGraphs. That figure is above the first threshold of the competitive balance tax. . . . [That has] limited the Yankees this past winter. . . .
The relative passivity was met with groans from segments of the fanbase. These are not simply the grumblings of spoiled supporters. Rival evaluators wonder about the wisdom of an offense built around injury-prone players like Judge, Stanton and Donaldson. . . .
[Cashman again] bristled at discussion of a drought.
"I'm past it now," Cashman said. "But it does bother me when it comes up. . . . I can't tell you we would have won. I can't tell you we would have beat the Dodgers. But I do feel pretty confident that that team [the Astros] wasn't stopping us . . . That's all."
Without Apple TV+, you are not watching these Friday night Red Sox games:
May 6: White Sox at Red Sox
May 27: Orioles at Red Sox
Thanks, Manfred.
Bauer's intent with this latest lawsuit is clearly, as Craig Calcaterra writes, "an effort to intimidate and silence his critics by virtue of an expensive legal defense or the threat of one". Assuming Bauer actually goes through with it, he would have to sit for a lengthy deposition, during which he would be forced to, as Calcaterra describes,
make sworn statements about all manner of facts related to his alleged sexual assault. Which — in addition to putting him in the news, often, over the course of months and even years as an allegedly violent sexual assaulter — will, in turn, put him in legal jeopardy, both for perjury and for the underlying claims of assault. "I choked a woman unconscious and punched her and anally penetrated her while she was unconscious but I DID NOT break her skull!" may seem like a safe harbor to someone like Bauer, but it's not a super duper safe harbor in the grand scheme of things nor does it put him in anything approaching a flattering or sympathetic light.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Rob Manfred has done nothing about suspending Bauer (as per enforcing MLB's clearly-written policy on sexual assault).
No comments:
Post a Comment