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May 13, 2004
HAVE SOME CHEESE WITH YOUR YANKEE WHINE?
One of the things I have always hated about the New York Yankees is the oppressively whiny air that clings to the team like a shirt to your skin on a hot, humid day. Usually, this whinyness manifests itself in the team's fans, who approach each season with a sense of entitlement that borders on the ridiculous... the sense of entitlement that leads them to boo a four-time World Series champion because he gets off to a slow start, or to throw their hands up in panic every time the Bombers lose one game and ask, "What's wrong with the Yankees?" ... the sense of entitlement that leads the utter yahoos who call into sports radio in this town to ask the hosts, in all seriousness and with no sense of irony, why the Yankees can't trade two farmhands and their backup catcher to the A's for Barry Zito and Tim Hudson, or to the Cardinals for Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen -- and sometimes have the homer radio jocks agree that the trade might work... the same sense of entitlement that leads people here to wash their hands of the team and declare the season a loss after they lose five in a row -- in April.
But every once in a while, one of the guys who suits up takes a swig from the bottle of whine. Tonight, it was Joe Torre, the allegedly-esteemed Yankee manager. See, Yankee catcher Jorge Posada was injured tonight on a routine double play. He aimed his slide a good four feet to the right of the base -- attempting to take out the shortstop and break up a double play. The way the rules are interpreted in modern day baseball, that's standard. (One of these days, maybe they'll make a player actually slide for the bag -- the way they taught us to in Little League.) Angels shortstop Alfredo Amezaga, a rookie, submarined his throw to first -- that is, threw the ball sidearm and not with an over the top motion. The ball hit Posada's hand, deflected up, and hit Posada in the face, breaking his nose.
A fluke play and a fluke injury, right? An unfortunate confluence of timing as a runner tried to break up a play and a fielder tried to make a routine double play, right? Not according to whiny Joe Torre. He spent the evening crying about the sidearm throw.
"I don't think he should have gone underneath like that. I thought he could have just gone over the top," Torre said. "I'm not saying he wanted to hurt him, but I thought it was unnecessary to do that."
Let me see if I have this straight, Joey Walnuts. Your guy slides well out of the basepath -- four feet to the right of the base, actually -- trying to take the fielder's legs out from under him or block his vision. But when your guy gets hit with a ball... it's the fielder's fault for throwing the ball? Riiiiiight. I guess I forgot that the Yankees are entitled to special rules of their own. I forgot that when a Yankee tries for a base, the opposing team is supposed to just roll up and give it to him. I forgot that the Yankees are supposed to just get their whiny way, without question and without effort.
The national media's already been all up on Torre for this; the overnight hosts on ESPN Radio have already nominated him for next week's "Just Shut Up" award; the late night SportsCenter anchors belittled Torre's crying over the throw. But I guarantee you here in New York, the sports pages and talk radio will be full of whining and crying about the meanie from Anaheim who deliberately hurt little Jorgie Posada. Amazega might as well have shot Bambi, the way the media here will treat the situation. And that's just one more reason to utterly despise the New York Yankees -- their fans, their players, their staff.
Oh, and one more sports related thing... Mark it down: The NBA playoffs are rigged.
UPDATE: Don LaGreca opened his show on 1050 New York Sports radio this morning with the following word-for-word quote: "Alfredo Amezaga is now the most hated man in New York. His family is no longer welcome in the New York Metropolitan area." Hate to say I told you so, kids... but I told you so. I hate this town.
