$20 million, divided by 162, comes out to $123,456.79.
I just thought you might want to know what the Red Sox paid for the privilege of watching Manny Ramirez sit during the most important game of the season.
(Bonus: throw in the Seattle game, and it's $246,913.58.)
In baseball world, that's actually not a very large amount of money as an absolute figure. But it is a number, and it's finally something that you can pin on Manny Ramirez. Sure, he's a terrible clubhouse presence and many of his teammates don't seem to like him, but it's hard to tell just how much, if at all, this detracts from the team's ability to win baseball games. Sure, his defense is terrible, but defensive liabilities are hard to put a number on, and they are surely outweighed by an .884 OPS and a .304 EqA. When Manny's being Manny, it's hard to put a concrete cost on it, and even if you could, that cost wouldn't even put a dent in his offensive production.
Last night (although it should be noted this isn't the first time Manny has sat out a game) changed all that. The gaudy stats weren't there; they were sitting on the bench while Coco Crisp and his .261 EqA took their place. And this time, there was a cost. A 1-0 loss, and $123,456.79. It's the 79 cents that really get to you.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Yanked Around
This is what you get.
Last night's event in the Bronx was a game for the ages that by no means disappointed, but the buildup to it was bloated with false significance and overhype, colored by the interminable "End of Yankee Stadium" storyline. Those running "Great Moments in Yankee Stadium History" segments on SportsCenter are supposed to fill me with nostalgia, I suppose they do, but they also make me angry. SportsCenter may treat the demise of Yankee Stadium as inevitable, but it's not. It's being destroyed and replaced for basically no reason--a plan from a bygone era when the Yankees were strapped for cash. Now that they're the richest franchise in the world, there's no reason not to be content with the stadium they've got and the history that comes with it--but, of course, they're the Yankees, so they're not. When most of us are unhappy with the way things are going, we don't destroy one of the greatest living baseball cathedrals. I'm just saying, we restrain ourselves.
So, fine. The Yankees are destroying their history. They own it, I guess, so it's up to them. But I don't appreciate the hypocrisy of tearing down their past and then asking us to mourn its passing with them. New Yorkers have a tendency to assume that everyone loves New York as much as they do, but they may actually be right when it comes to Yankee Stadium, and it isn't right that they're taking it from us.
So, as an extension of the Yankee Stadium Destruction Neverending Nostalgia Tour, we got the hype surrounding the Last All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, which was also misguided. Does it really matter if this is the last All-Star Game that Yankee Stadium ever hosts? Does anyone even remember what happened in the last All-Star Game that Yankee Stadium hosted? All-Star Games have given us some nice moments over the years, but in the end, they're just a fun midsummer spectacle. Why, in the last year of Yankee Stadium, have we suddenly decided that they are an integral part of the American cultural consciousness? For God's sake, just a few years ago we let it end in a tie. If the Steinbrenners suddenly decided to tear down the White House,* we wouldn't obsess over the fact that it was about to host its last Easter Egg Hunt on the lawn. We'd have more important memories to dwell on.
(A subplot to this subplot was the ridiculous"will Mariano Rivera start the All-Star Game???" debate. He was never going to, he shouldn't have, he didn't want to, no one really wanted him to, and no one really even wondered if he would until the media brought it up. This story was entirely media-created--I never heard any player or manager discuss it except in response to reporters' questions--except even the media thought it was a bad idea. Literally the entire story consisted of media members agreeing that their own idea was terrible. Great way to fill air time.)
All these elements combined to make the buildup to a perfectly ordinary All-Star Game feel like the buildup to Game 7 of the World Series. Of course, the All-Star Game did not end up being ordinary at all, but that was due entirely to J.D. Drew and Josh Hamilton, and not to Yankee Stadium. But that's the beauty of it. This should have been just another All-Star Game, but the Yankees and the media decided that it would be The All-Star Game to End All All-Star Games. And now that they've done that, the Yankees have to accept the fact that the MVP of the Yankee Stadium Sendoff and Weep-athon monstrosity was a player from Boston. That's what you get.
*This is by no means out of the question.
Last night's event in the Bronx was a game for the ages that by no means disappointed, but the buildup to it was bloated with false significance and overhype, colored by the interminable "End of Yankee Stadium" storyline. Those running "Great Moments in Yankee Stadium History" segments on SportsCenter are supposed to fill me with nostalgia, I suppose they do, but they also make me angry. SportsCenter may treat the demise of Yankee Stadium as inevitable, but it's not. It's being destroyed and replaced for basically no reason--a plan from a bygone era when the Yankees were strapped for cash. Now that they're the richest franchise in the world, there's no reason not to be content with the stadium they've got and the history that comes with it--but, of course, they're the Yankees, so they're not. When most of us are unhappy with the way things are going, we don't destroy one of the greatest living baseball cathedrals. I'm just saying, we restrain ourselves.
So, fine. The Yankees are destroying their history. They own it, I guess, so it's up to them. But I don't appreciate the hypocrisy of tearing down their past and then asking us to mourn its passing with them. New Yorkers have a tendency to assume that everyone loves New York as much as they do, but they may actually be right when it comes to Yankee Stadium, and it isn't right that they're taking it from us.
So, as an extension of the Yankee Stadium Destruction Neverending Nostalgia Tour, we got the hype surrounding the Last All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, which was also misguided. Does it really matter if this is the last All-Star Game that Yankee Stadium ever hosts? Does anyone even remember what happened in the last All-Star Game that Yankee Stadium hosted? All-Star Games have given us some nice moments over the years, but in the end, they're just a fun midsummer spectacle. Why, in the last year of Yankee Stadium, have we suddenly decided that they are an integral part of the American cultural consciousness? For God's sake, just a few years ago we let it end in a tie. If the Steinbrenners suddenly decided to tear down the White House,* we wouldn't obsess over the fact that it was about to host its last Easter Egg Hunt on the lawn. We'd have more important memories to dwell on.
(A subplot to this subplot was the ridiculous"will Mariano Rivera start the All-Star Game???" debate. He was never going to, he shouldn't have, he didn't want to, no one really wanted him to, and no one really even wondered if he would until the media brought it up. This story was entirely media-created--I never heard any player or manager discuss it except in response to reporters' questions--except even the media thought it was a bad idea. Literally the entire story consisted of media members agreeing that their own idea was terrible. Great way to fill air time.)
All these elements combined to make the buildup to a perfectly ordinary All-Star Game feel like the buildup to Game 7 of the World Series. Of course, the All-Star Game did not end up being ordinary at all, but that was due entirely to J.D. Drew and Josh Hamilton, and not to Yankee Stadium. But that's the beauty of it. This should have been just another All-Star Game, but the Yankees and the media decided that it would be The All-Star Game to End All All-Star Games. And now that they've done that, the Yankees have to accept the fact that the MVP of the Yankee Stadium Sendoff and Weep-athon monstrosity was a player from Boston. That's what you get.
*This is by no means out of the question.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
An Open Letter To New York Yankees Fans
Hey guys,
How's it going? I caught that Darrell Rasner game the other day; that kid could be pretty decent in a few years. And hey, you guys got the All-Star Game this year. Pretty cool stuff.
Anyway, I'm writing to you today to make you an offer. I just purchased all seven games of the 2004 ALCS on DVD--not the highlights, but the complete games, every pitch, unedited, etc. But here's the thing--as much as I will enjoy watching games 4, 5, 6, and 7 over and over for the rest of my natural-born life, I don't really have any interest in games 1, 2, and 3--the ones that you guys won. Four years and a couple of championships have put those losses in perspective a little bit, but I still don't really have any desire to see them again--honestly, I don't see myself ever opening those particular discs.
And that's why I am presenting you with this unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For 3/7 of the price of the entire DVD set, you can now buy Games 1, 2, and 3 of the 2004 ALCS, unopened and in mint condition, and relive the three glorious Yankee victories from the 2004 league championship series! Better yet--through a small stretch of the imagination, you can pretend that the ALCS was actually a best-of-five series and ended after Game 3, making the Yankees the winners! Experience every thrilling moment as much-maligned Yankees star Alex Rodriguez finally gets that postseason monkey off his back! Watch as your favorite team vanquishes its greatest rival en route to another world championship, narrowly but successfuly avoiding a precipitous slide into a decade of mediocrity, overspending, and irrelevance!
This is your opportunity to change history, Yankee fans--I'll be waiting by the phone. And in the meantime, I hope for your guys' sake it turns out that Johnny Damon's injury isn't too bad.
How's it going? I caught that Darrell Rasner game the other day; that kid could be pretty decent in a few years. And hey, you guys got the All-Star Game this year. Pretty cool stuff.
Anyway, I'm writing to you today to make you an offer. I just purchased all seven games of the 2004 ALCS on DVD--not the highlights, but the complete games, every pitch, unedited, etc. But here's the thing--as much as I will enjoy watching games 4, 5, 6, and 7 over and over for the rest of my natural-born life, I don't really have any interest in games 1, 2, and 3--the ones that you guys won. Four years and a couple of championships have put those losses in perspective a little bit, but I still don't really have any desire to see them again--honestly, I don't see myself ever opening those particular discs.
And that's why I am presenting you with this unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For 3/7 of the price of the entire DVD set, you can now buy Games 1, 2, and 3 of the 2004 ALCS, unopened and in mint condition, and relive the three glorious Yankee victories from the 2004 league championship series! Better yet--through a small stretch of the imagination, you can pretend that the ALCS was actually a best-of-five series and ended after Game 3, making the Yankees the winners! Experience every thrilling moment as much-maligned Yankees star Alex Rodriguez finally gets that postseason monkey off his back! Watch as your favorite team vanquishes its greatest rival en route to another world championship, narrowly but successfuly avoiding a precipitous slide into a decade of mediocrity, overspending, and irrelevance!
This is your opportunity to change history, Yankee fans--I'll be waiting by the phone. And in the meantime, I hope for your guys' sake it turns out that Johnny Damon's injury isn't too bad.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Mustache Love
As it often does, Jason Giambi's fabulous 70's-era porn mustache has gotten me thinking. As a Red Sox fan, a baseball fan, and a human being, I hate Jason Giambi. As a Red Sox fan, I hate him because he's a Yankee. As a baseball fan, I hate him because he's the kind of big, slow, lumbering, three-run homer-hitting Moneyball-proving juggernaut that wins tons of baseball games but is almost no fun to watch. And as a human being, I hate him because he cheated. Jason Giambi used steroids (no normal human could grow that mustache), and even though some of the players I love probably did too, it's different when someone's either admitted it (as Giambi has) or been caught red-handed. Jason Giambi, I would argue, is more objectively hateable than most major-league baseball players.
A problem occurs when I try to apply the same formula to another objectively hateable player: one Manuel Aristides (!) Ramirez. As a baseball fan, it's hard to like Manny, who doesn't seem to try very hard when it comes to baserunning, fielding, or holding in his urine until the game is over. As a human being, it's hard to root for a guy who shoved his semielderly traveling secretary for no good reason. But what do you do, as a Red Sox fan, when such a loathsome character hits a home run to help your team win?
The answer, I think, is that you're allowed to root for a despicable player as part of a team, as long as you don't root for him as an individual. It's a nuanced distinction that can be especially tough to swallow because it allows you to perform certain actions for some reasons but not for others. For example, as a Red Sox fan, I can root for Manny Ramirez to do well, but only because it will help my team, and not because of a specific desire to see him do well. For most players, you end up rooting for both--I want to see the Red Sox do well, and I also want to see the Jon Lesters or Jacoby Ellsburys of the world do well because I like them/their style of play. For players like Manny, you have to separate the two--you have to turn rooting for Manny into rooting for the Red Sox.
This line of thinking ultimately brings me back to Jason Giambi and his Fabulous 70's-era Porn Mustache™. Because they have every right to want to see their team win, Yankees fans have every right to root for Jason Giambi to succeed. Same with Giants fans and Barry Bonds, Patriots fans and Rodney Harrison, etc. However, many Yankee fans have taken to wearing replica 'staches of their own to Yankee Stadium, and that seemingly insignificant gesture makes a world of difference. It can be difficult, as a fan, to navigate a sports world in which it sometimes seem that few athletes make good role models. But in trying to make sense of it all, there is one rule that seems relatively clear: you can root for the Yankees, but you can't root for the 'stache.
A problem occurs when I try to apply the same formula to another objectively hateable player: one Manuel Aristides (!) Ramirez. As a baseball fan, it's hard to like Manny, who doesn't seem to try very hard when it comes to baserunning, fielding, or holding in his urine until the game is over. As a human being, it's hard to root for a guy who shoved his semielderly traveling secretary for no good reason. But what do you do, as a Red Sox fan, when such a loathsome character hits a home run to help your team win?
The answer, I think, is that you're allowed to root for a despicable player as part of a team, as long as you don't root for him as an individual. It's a nuanced distinction that can be especially tough to swallow because it allows you to perform certain actions for some reasons but not for others. For example, as a Red Sox fan, I can root for Manny Ramirez to do well, but only because it will help my team, and not because of a specific desire to see him do well. For most players, you end up rooting for both--I want to see the Red Sox do well, and I also want to see the Jon Lesters or Jacoby Ellsburys of the world do well because I like them/their style of play. For players like Manny, you have to separate the two--you have to turn rooting for Manny into rooting for the Red Sox.
This line of thinking ultimately brings me back to Jason Giambi and his Fabulous 70's-era Porn Mustache™. Because they have every right to want to see their team win, Yankees fans have every right to root for Jason Giambi to succeed. Same with Giants fans and Barry Bonds, Patriots fans and Rodney Harrison, etc. However, many Yankee fans have taken to wearing replica 'staches of their own to Yankee Stadium, and that seemingly insignificant gesture makes a world of difference. It can be difficult, as a fan, to navigate a sports world in which it sometimes seem that few athletes make good role models. But in trying to make sense of it all, there is one rule that seems relatively clear: you can root for the Yankees, but you can't root for the 'stache.
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