Where are you from?

This just in...

By Greg Schultz
I have a grievance with anyone born in Massachusetts who has the nerve to be a "life-long" Yankee fan. I have a hard enough time arguing with my New York born college buddies, I don't need to hear 1918 in central Massachusetts. I find that the majority of perpetraters are Italian, with some distant connection to "The City." Personally, I think there's a hallucinogen in the marinara.

If you were born and raised in Massachusetts and you root for the Yankees; Root for Russia in the next Olympic games.

Notes from The Mail Room

We get some scintillating e-mail @YankeesSuck.com. It's all about the love...and the hate. So we thought you readers might want a peak at the mail files. You may find the comparison between our Yankee and Red Sox fans interesting...

Here's a soldier from Red Sox Nation who writes to us from Mosul, Iraq:

Name: Michael S.
Head: Yankees suck in Iraq!!!!

"My name is Michael S___ and I am currently serving overseas in Iraq as a part of Operation Iraqi Freedom 2. My unit is Alpha Company 118th Medical Battalion, from Concord Massachusetts. We were mobilized this past December and after a few months in Ft. Drum, NY arrived in various areas of Iraq in February. I am writing because residing in Massachusetts, I have enjoyed and appreciated your website, I particularly enjoy it now during the free time I have. During my active duty time in Korea, Bosnia, and Ft. Drum, NY, I remained a faithful Sox fan and put up with alot of BS especially being stationed in Upstate NY. It is extremely helpful having a terrific website supporting the Sox and hating the Yanks, especially over here in Iraq!!! (it's pretty hard to keep up with the time difference and all)! Unfortunately, our choices of television and sports to watch are somewhat limited here in Mosul, and it is hard finding out what happened with the home town team!!! There are many of my fellow soldiers from Massachusetts and various parts of New England whom would also love to stick it to the Yankees!!!! I appreciate your taking the time to read my letter and I look forward to being able to take in a few games once I return to the U.S. early next year. Keep up the good work with and I look forward to the new items your website has for the future. Thank you for your time."

. . . and here's our Yankees Fan:

Name: nyy
Head: I'm a yankees fan, chill out

"You people are pathetic. Listen to yourselves- you're just as bad as the people you paint to be a__holes (yankee fans). It's just a sport. You root for your home team and boo the other. But god, the stuff you're all saying is ridiculous. Do you actually hate the yankees? If you had gotten A-Rod, would you be booing? That's just hypocritical. Sure, Steinbrenner is a jackass. But that doesn't mean the yankees are. Don't diss talent. Honestly, how do the yankees buy championships? Jeter was brought up as a prospect. He turned out to be a great player. The only negative part about the yankees is Steinbrenner, and he's not the one out there playing the game. Look at Pedro Martinez, the guy has been the heart and soul of your team for however many years, and look at him now; he's abandoning you because he isn't getting payed enough (like $17 mil. isn't enough). Sure, he's got talent, but a mentality like that is far worse than a rich owner. The yankees worked their asses off since the franchise was started. We weren't rich from the start. And another thing; you haven't won a World Series since 1918. Boohoo. That's baseball. Look at the Devil Rays, they get pounded and humiliated every year. None of their fans go around talking trash about other fans.

Grow up. (this coming from a 15 year-old)"

This Week's Top Ten

Here are the winners for last week's Top Ten entries as compiled and edited by boogsBBQ@yankeessuck.com.

Thanks to Boog and all who entered.

Top Ten Least Effective Yankees Pre-Game Rituals

10. Whatever Gary Sheffield has been doing. (jerk_face__99)

9. Corking Steinbrenner's cake hole. (pags)

8. A-Rod laughing at the fans in the cheap seats as he pulls into stadium in gold-plated, diamond-encrusted Hummer.(toxictom77)

7. Taking warm-up swings on George's money piñata. (csjankun)

6. Making out with Babe Ruth statue. (GoblinDeath22)

5. Autographing federal prosecutors' subpoenas. (Ruben Sierra On Rye)

4. The Don Mattingly 8x10 color glossy photo rub. (bru77)

3. Wind sprints through the South Bronx. (eddied)

2. Replenishing Jorge's hand-care supply. (MrAcadoodie)

1. Derek Jeter putting on his uniform.  (heather032782)

Root For Mazzilli

Although Joe Torre won their first battle Tuesday with an 11-3 victory in Baltimore, “we believe” Lee Mazzilli will fight back. Mazzilli and Torre have a long history together. Maz has seen the relationship grow from mentor, to boss, to friend and now equal.

Lee Mazzilli made his Met debut in September of 1976 by hitting a three run homer in his second at bat. At the time, Joe Torre was in the twilight of his playing career playing most games at first base. The next year when Mazzilli became a regular, Torre retired from playing and replaced Joe Frazier as the Mets manager. Torre and Frazier combined to lead the Mets to a record of 64 wins 98 losses that season, but "The Italian Stallion," as he was called by the New York media, and other young players gave Met fans hope that they would some day recreate the miracle.

Both Brooklyn born Italians were starting new chapters in their lives, but neither would find success in New York in those days. Mazzilli would be traded, (to Texas for Ron Darling and Walt Terrell, and later Texas traded him to the Yankees for Bucky Dent) and Torre would never win more than 67 games in his five years managing the Mets. They both did finally go on to find success in New York, with Maz coming back to help the Mets win the World Series in 1986, and Torre has single-handedly tamed the Steinbrenner beast to bring victories back to the wrong New York team.

Torre is also responsible for Mazzilli being where he is today having brought him back into baseball after Mazzilli left baseball world for seven years. Torre got Maz a job managing in the Yankee minor league system, and later hired him as a coach for the Yankees for four seasons. So for this week anyway, let’s hope this is a case of the student defeating the teacher.

Some Articles about the reunion;
Baltimore Sun
New York Post
Daily News

Tom Tom Club

In the 43-year history of the New York Mets no Met pitcher has ever thrown a no-hitter. Think about that. Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, Nolan Ryan, David Cone never accomplished the feat while wearing Met blue and orange. However, they all went on to pitch one after leaving the Mets. Ryan pitched seven and Cone�s was a perfect game in 1999. Now Tom Glavine can be added to the list. Glavine gave up only one hit in the eighth inning Sunday in his 4-0 win over the Colorado Rockies.

Maybe Glavine can start a new club with Tom Seaver, who made close no-hitter bids routine with the Mets having lost no-hit bids three times in the ninth inning alone.

Is there a no-hitter curse on the New York Mets pitching staff? And if so, who would have done such a thing? Casey Stengel?

From Jesus to Sampson?

Johnny Damon was often compared to Jesus Christ because of his long hair and beard. Let's hope that getting it cut off doesn't change the comparison to another biblical character by the name Sampson.

The fact that a very attractive woman did the cutting doesn't help, but her name was Letizia - and not Delilah.

Damon had been growing his beard since before spring training. But for charity and a Gillette endorsement, Damon is now clean shaven. In front of hundreds of fans at Boylston Plaza in Boston, the Red Sox center fielder climbed into a barber's chair on an elevated stage, donned an apron, and sat still while a Gillette M3Power razor took away months of growth. YankeesSuck.com was there to witness the extreme makeover and he autographed a couple of our logo hats. Damon will donate the fee he received from Gillette to the Read Boston program. This good deed should please the baseball Gods, as Damon's good nature and autograph signing pleased the fans.

As those of us who were forced into Sunday school know, Sampson lost all his power when Delilah cut off his hair. The good news, Sox fans, is that the power came back when his hair grew back. And even though the beard is gone, he's keeping his long hair. Damon has said he can grow a beard back in two weeks, so if there is a ConEd-style power outage of his bat, that can be easily rectified by tossing the M3Power razor.

Click Here for a Boston.com slide show of the event.

The Story of Sampson and Delilah

Check out this slide show of photographs by Boston Red Sox fan John Muller.

Sox Sign Ortiz

David Ortiz signed a two-year $12.5 million contract extension Friday, lessening the number of free agents on the Sox by one. And interestingly, in an interview broadcast on Boston's WEEI 850AM Sports Radio, he had some nice words for the Sox and an attitude change from Pedro. Ortiz said Pedro told him a few days ago that he wants to remain with Boston until he retires.

Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

With a rallying cry of "Johnny Don't Gillette them do it," sixteen high school students from Millbury Mass. have dedicated themselves, and a website to the hair on the chinny chin chin of Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon.

Damon will shave his beard off Friday, May 21, for charity. Click here to read the details on ESPN.

Boston.com also has a tribute to Damon's beard here.

Perfect Unit

After Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks threw his 117th pitch of the game, a 98mph fastball, past a swinging Eddie Perez, he pointed toward the heavens acknowledging his late father. The 40-year-old southpaw had just thrown the 17th perfect game in modern baseball history, striking out 13, and evening his record to 4-4 by beating Atlanta 2-0.

The five time Cy Young award winner was masterful all night and said he felt stronger as the game went on. In attaining his 195th career double-digit strikeout game, 87 of his pitches in this game were strikes.

Boys - you have no more excuses. No more mid-life crisis before your time. 40 is not over the hill, it's the peak. As NBCSports.com contributor Mike Celizic writes: "We are living in a remarkable era. The ancient rules that once pronounced players ancient at the age of 35 have ceased to exist, especially in baseball. The exception is no longer the great player who somehow manages to perform competently at 40, but the great player who doesn’t.

Barry Bonds, who is 39, Roger Clemens, 41, Randy Johnson — these are our great stories in baseball today, our standards of excellence. They are not just hanging on, cheating Father Time and wringing one more year of mediocre results out of aging bodies. They aren’t as good as they ever were. They’re better."

David Cone pitched the last perfect game in MLB for the Yankees on July 18, 1999 vs. Montreal. In the National League, Dennis Martinez pitched the last perfect for Montreal vs. Los Angeles in 1991. It was the first no-hitter for the Diamondbacks, who entered the NL in 1998, and acquired Johnson in 1999 as a free agent.

As his teammates converged, the Turner Field faithful of 23,381 recognized their role in history and stood and cheered, as Johnson became the oldest pitcher in Major League baseball history to toss a perfect game by beating their team.

This is from the msnbc we site: They're getting older - and better!

MLB Perfect Games

Ages of pitchers when they threw perfect games, from oldest to youngest

Randy Johnson (2004) 40 years, 8 months, 8 days
Cy Young (1904) 37 years, 1 month, 7 days
David Cone (1999) 36 years, 6 months, 16 days
Dennis Martinez (1991) 36 years, 2 months, 14 days
David Wells (1998) 34 years, 11 months, 27 days
Jim Bunning (1964) 32 years, 7 months, 29 days
Kenny Rogers (1994) 29 years, 8 months, 18 days
Sandy Koufax (1965) 29 years, 8 months, 10 days
Addie Joss (1908) 28 years, 5 months, 20 days
Tom Browning (1988) 28 years, 4 months, 19 days
Don Larsen (1956) 27 years, 2 months, 1 day
Charles Robertson (1922) 26 years, 3 months
Len Barker (1981) 25 years, 10 months, 8 days
Mike Witt (1984) 24 years, 2 months, 10 days
John Richmond (1880) 23 years, 1 month, 7 days
Catfish Hunter (1968) 22 years, 1 month
John Montgomery Ward (1880) 20 years, 3 months, 14 days

This Week's Top Ten

Here are the winners for last week's Top Ten entries as compiled and edited by boogsBBQ@yankeessuck.com.

Thanks to Boog and all who entered.

Top Ten Least Popular Yankee Stadium Souvenirs

10. Mike Mussina Pocket ERA Calculator

9. Jorge Posada's Home-Style Hand Cream (bambino)

8. The Billy Martin Sobriety Test Kit (lefty)

7. Official Derek Jeter Points-Under-The-Mendoza-Line Counter (mjr24)

6. Authentic, limited edition Jason Giambi syringe (craven32)

5. Luis Polonia's Underage Girls Gone Wild DVD (mlaprey)

4. Kevin Brown's DL Countdown Calendar (djw007)

3. "Chicken Soup for the Grossly Overpaid Free Agent's Soul" (RubenSierraOnRye)

2. Super-Absorbent Kenny Lofton Crying Towel

1. Jorge Posada's "How To Break Up A Double Play" Instructional Video (Celtics34425)

Thanks to all played. Please enter next weeks question on our home page. And check out the growing list of Top Tens in our Clubhouse.

Worth Every penny?

Now - from the "what-is-this-country-coming-to?" department: The Official A- Rod NY State Quarter. WallyG - one of YankeesSuck.com's Clubhouse members spotted this advertised on TV. Of all the great historical figures that could appear on a coin - on legal currency of the great United States of America - now we've got A-Rod! We can hardly type for the gagging. The National Collector's Mint, who've issued this collectible coin, call Rodriguez the next "Pride of the Yankees."
(This must have both Lou Gehrig and Gary Cooper spinning in their graves.)

We can only figure it this way: the value of a quarter is $.25. This A-Rod coin goes for $19.99. So - to get his little face on a tacky-looking quarter, you've got to pay 80 times what it's actually worth. Hmmmmm - a practically-useless overpriced collectible....OK, we get the A-Rod connection now.

Trade winds

In the midst of a five game loosing streak and in New York for a three game series against the Yankees, Seattle is looking for some offense. Mariners GM Bill Bavasi, told Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter John Hickey, "They Don't play offense. They either don't know how to play offense or they can't."

So where is he looking to fill their void? According to the article, a three-way trade with Boston and Kansas City is in the works.

Here's the rumor: Boston sends pitcher Byung Hyun Kim and, possibly, outfielder Johnny Damon to the Mariners for pitcher Freddy Garcia and minor league starter Cha Seung Baek. Garcia is then traded for Kansas City's outfielder Carlos Beltran.

Are Beltran and minor league starter Cha Seung Baek worth Kim and Damon?
The Article

Posada "Nose" better

After Jorge Posada had his nose broken while attempting a slide into second base, Yankees Manager Joe Torre said of Angels' shortstop Alfredo Amezaga, "I don't think he should have gone underneath like that. I thought he could have just gone over the top.''

Posada's nose was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Amezaga did what every high school shortstop is taught to do: Make the baserunner get out of your way on the throw to first. The shortstop has to protect himself from being bowled over by a charging baserunner.

Posada accepted Amezaga's gracious on-field apology. Maybe next time, Posada will slide a little earlier and aim for bag instead of the shortstop. It's not all "bad luck" for Posada though. With a broken nose, he won't be able to smell his hands.

Eat ice cream to Reverse the curse

It’s considered bad luck to launch a ship on the 13th. It’s bad dinner-party policy to have 13 at table. But what if, on the 13th of the month, 13 people sit down to eat the newly launched flavor from Brigham’s Ice Cream? We theorize some kind of powerful Fibonacci vortex could be created that just may turn our luck around.

Triskaidekaphobics, fear no more! The (in)famous "Reverse the Curse" grafitti-sign over swerving, curving Storrow Drive is now immortalized as dessert!

Today, according to their press release, Brigham’s is inviting two renowned psychic advisors, Daphne Weld Nichols and Diane Dalpe, to bless the production of the new flavor - along with its recipe. All Brigham’s restaurants will offer free samples of the new flavor this afternoon from 3 to 5pm. (Incidentally, it’s "vanilla ice cream loaded with chocolate covered peanuts or "baseballs," chocolate covered caramel "bases," and swirls of Brigham's famous fudge sauce.")

Darryln Leikauskas of Brigham's says "To truly reverse a curse, we need to inspire a collective conscious. We will be looking to start a stream of positive energy with baseball fans so that every time they think of their favorite baseball team and enjoy the new ice cream, their positive energy will automatically flow to the players."

We at YankeesSuck.com wholeheartedly support Brigham’s efforts – and we agree with the power of mass karma. We’re collecting this karma on our REVERSE THE CURSE page, and we encourage all BoSox supporters to add YOUR ideas about how the curse can be reversed.

In the meantime, it’s a gorgeous summery day here in New England. Boston is playing Toronto. Pull the TV outside on the porch. Atkins be damned! Get some of that ice cream and enjoy it with twelve of your friends during the game. It’s a good night for a cone and a good night for a win. Aren’t we lucky?!

(And what about that sign on Storrow Drive? It’s gone now, painted over by the Conservation and Recreation Department. Was the sign a good or bad omen for the team? Should somebody bring it back? Comment below about that as well.)

This Week's Top Ten

Here are the winners for last week's Top Ten entries as compiled and judged by boogsBBQ@yankeessuck.com.

Thanks Boog, and thanks to all who entered.

Top Ten Things Overheard In The Yankees' Locker Room

10. Funny, it doesn't smell like pine tar.

9. Just saw the starting lineup; I hope Kenny packed his pacifier.

8. I know it sounds like a lot, but that's $20 million a year before taxes. (RubenSierraOnRye)

7. Mussina is certainly businesslike -- if the business is Enron. (Hardball)

6. Sure, I was the star on my last team, but now I have a chance to ride pine with a winner!

5. Anyone seen my million-dollar sweat rag? (brianjamesstafford)

4. Cool! My personal trainer says I can visit him in the weight room when he gets out of solitary. (pags)

3. Are you sure this is apple juice, Jorge? (coolpapabell22)

2. People shouldn't criticize until they've walked a mile in my $700 Italian loafers. (Bambino)

1. Is this going to be Pedro's new locker? (jcp)

JCP your sticker is in the mail!

Enter next weeks Top Ten contest to win.

New Williams Biography

In the May 9, 2004 Book Review section of the New York Times, Alan Schwarz reviewed, "Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero" by Leigh Montville.

Did Ted Williams live too long to remain a true American hero? Schwarz says that Montville's biography of Boston's treasured hero, their "Splendid Splinter," illustrates how time - and the insatiable appetite of the public to know more - reveals the nasty warts, and takes the shine off the halo.

While Williams' 1941 season's average of .406 remains untouched, and his talent is legendary, what we are left with as fans and followers of the game is the final image - of a sick, elderly man used and abused in turn by his children, themselves the products of a hideously warped home life. And the final, final image is a decapitated, frozen corpse: preserved DNA for some diabolical future purpose?

This isn't the 1940's anymore, and we're not as naive a society as we were back before 24-hour cable television and the internet provided T.M.I. about everyone. We're less shocked now than saddened - and more in need of real "heroes" than ever.

So who are the athletes we can look up to today? Post your comments here - and as always, we invite our readers to recommend books and movies.

You're Soaking in it

Do you have callused and cracked hands? Is wearing gloves too cumbersome and just not your style? Then you should consider an inexpensive yet readily abundant remedy — your own urine. It works for Yankee Superstar catcher Jorge Posada.

Dan Graziano, of the Star-Ledger, reported today in his "Yankee Notes," that Posada indulges in the same ritual as Cubs outfielder Moises Alou and Anaheim outfielder Vladimir Guerrero.

"In spring training only," Posada qualified his admission. "You don't want to shake my hand in spring training before the game," he confessed to Graziano. "After the game, it's okay," he added explaining that the long winter off-time softens his hands.

Spit can have nasty affects on a pitched ball. But what does urine do to a ball moving at 90mph? Since Posada is a catcher, next spring, early in the game, if Mussina seems to have "a little something extra on the ball," I’d ask the ump to have it DNA tested.

Is that an endorsement deal we smell?

Maybe Posada is looking to supplement his $9 million salary as television's new Palmolive manicurist, now that Boston-born actress Jan Miner, passed away. Miner played "Madge" in TV commercials for Palmolive running from 1966 to 1992, and the liquid soap manufacturer may be looking for a replacement. Madge made famous the phrase "It softens hands while you do the dishes."

Posada can hawk his new product in sporting goods stores claiming, "It toughens hands while you swing at pitches."

Evil Empire defeats Spiderman

Spiderman was caught stealing today at Yankee Stadium.

Disguised as a marketing alliance between MLB, Colombia pictures and Marvel studios, Spiderman was trying to steal Major League Baseball’s last remaining strands of dignity. And the Yankees threw him out.

If you hadn’t heard, on Wednesday a plan as announced to allow Spiderman logos to adorn the bases of 15 ballparks on June 11-13. A six-inch square spider web would have covered the bases so all baseball fans would know that Spiderman 2 would be in theatres June 30. But the Yankees would have no one disrespecting the bases in “The House that Ruth built.’

The Yankees originally made their objections known and said they would only allow the ads to appear before the game. However, after the media and fans amplified their objections, Bud Selig stopped the $2.5million deal and told the Associated "It isn't worth, frankly, having a debate about."

It’s funny how some things kind of send the fan over the top. Are the fans ears as sensitive as their eyes to this blatant selling of the game? Maybe next time Joe Torre call to the bullpen “Is brought us by Verizon Wireless,” the fans will have the same reaction.

The Collective Fist Pump from Red Sox Nation

By Brian Buoniconti

With Red Sox Nation holding it's 'breath, the Boston Boys of Summer (well, okay, I guess for now they are "Boys of Spring") - after what seemed like forever - broke their five-game skid and the bats are beginning to snap out of their "mini-slump". Over the past week, the Sox have gone from a team on a six game tear, to one that couldn't get anything done, but it happened with the oddest of results...the fans, the media, everyone in Red Sox Nation is still behind this team.

If this were last year (or any other year for that matter) at this point the Nation would be down on their boys. Reporters and analysts would be all over the Sox with accusations of not living up to the hype and writing columns about how they're doomed to another year of playing "great" baseball only to finish second to the Yanks. (God, I hate them so much...). But not this year! Even after five dismal, sometimes "oh, so close" losses, hope still lives, and, in fact, is alive and well in Red Sox Nation. Even analysts are still praising the Sox as the "best team in the league." There is a faith that the slump will end, that the bats will come alive, and the pitchers will realize that they are - when they're all on top of their games - undoubtedly the best in the majors...and basically, in a word, unbeatable.

Why is that? Why is the faith now present in a notoriously critical Red Sox Nation? Why have fans not turned and the infamously negative Boston media jumped all over the slumping Sox? Because this year isn't any other year, it's different and you can feel it in air. It's what Sox fans cling to with every heartbreaking end to season after season; it's the reason we keep the faith from the day the Sox start spring training 'til they're mathematically eliminated (and beyond) and every time in-between; it's why we follow message boards and rumor mills to see who's going to be putting on the red socks in the off-season and why we do the same at the trade deadline; it's what keeps us selling out "friendly Fenway Park" on weeknights in April; it's what we've been waiting for so long...it's "next year." And we all know it.

How, you ask? How do we know in early May that we're watching the beginning of history? How do we know that this season could end a streak of eighty-six consecutive falls of saying "we‚ll get 'em next year!"?

...Because like the Boston Globe ad says
"On a clear April night...You can almost see October."

...Because on a Thursday night in April, while the Sox were playing the Devil Rays, the Fenway faithful that sold out the park were on their feet and loud as ever for the last out, and when Fouke struck out the batter to end the game, you could see the collective fist pump of Red Sox Nation.

...Because we all still believe. And no matter how much A-Rod talk there is, how many times the Yankees sign the big free-agent, how many times we see the heart wrenching replay of Boone's home run sailing out of Yankee Stadium and how many times we remember that sinking feeling in your stomach when you saw it happen, no matter what happens we'll still stay with this team 'til our last game, sometime in November, when everyone will realize that they'd been living "next year" all along.

— Brian Buoniconti

Doesn't "ad" up

Did George Castanza leave the Yankees to work for Channel 2 out of NY?

Bob Raissman's Daily News column mentions a controversial ad broadcast during a Yankee/Red Sox game April 23 on Channel 2 . The ad proclaimed that the upcoming Kansas City series would wake up the Yankees slumbering lumber because of Kansas City’s “terrible” pitching. Sounds like a George move to me.

For some reason, the Yankees didn’t like that show of support. After the ad ran at least one more time, YES, which I think stands for Yankees Entertainment Sucks, and produces Channel 2’s Yankee telecasts, but not their ads, got a call from a “Yankee Boss.” Eventually, the Yankees found the right arm to twist and the ad was pulled.

What do you make of this? Was Channel 2 conceding the Yankees can’t hit good pitching? Raissman quotes a "Yankee Boss" as saying “We don’t condone or engage in that kind of advertising.” But were they really afraid it would piss off a few of the Royals players and entice them to swing a little harder? Too bad the Royals didn’t know about this before the series.

This story sounds too much like a "Seinfeld" episode.

Pedro or Nomah?

So, it seems as though the Red Sox may be faced with a dilemma...Pedro or Nomah? Which do you keep? Neither wants to stay. Perhaps the answer is to get rid of them both. It certainly could be what the Sox ultimately decide.

With Schilling wrapped up for another year and D. Lowe easily in Boston's price range, the Sox could sign a top pitcher for 8 million instead of 15-17 million. With the extra money, they could go after Ordonez or a big name hitter, letting injury-prone, whiny Nomar find solace on the West Coast. McWorld: it could happen.

Don't Cry For George

In an interesting article on Page 1 of today's New York Times, titled "Steinbrenner Aims to Put All His Houses in Order," reporter Juliet Macur gives us a glimpse into the interior world of "The Boss" (such as it is.) The portrait is of a man feeling his own mortality, who breaks down emotionally three times during their two hour interview.

What to make of this? Well, is anyone really surprised that this guy has issues? Take a quick look at Steinbrenner's upbringing - always priveleged, always entitled, always expected to be the winner, yet never "good enough." Sheesh! He makes the British royals look earthy and well-adjusted.

So this story leaves us pondering the question: Do we feel sorry for George? Should we? By his own admission he's been abusive, he's been a chauvinist, he's been impatient and cruel. But as he sees the golden sun that has shown upon him nearing its horizon, does George have regrets? Will he decide, Ebeneezer Scrooge-like, to throw open his heart and his coffers and make it Christmas every day for the little people? Apparently, not yet.

The ego - however fragile aging has rendered it - is still there and still demonstrates a hearty appetite. We can feel pity for George. But we should feel more pity for Rita, his secretary, Jenny, his daughter and the rest of the people who toil to keep that giant ego-beast fed. Yeah - we still feel worse for them.

The article

Enough is Enough

Pedro Martinez, earning $17.5 million in the final year of his seven-year, $90 million contract, declared his free agency intentions with the words "Enough is enough."

"I would be disrespecting my career and the future of the game for the other players coming up," Martinez, the highest-paid pitcher in Baseball, explained of his frustration with Red Sox management’s lack of a "fair" counter-offer to his proposed acceptance of a lower salary. See the Boston Globe’s story.

Two questions Pedro:

The first is: What’s enough?

Of the 35,000 "Average Joe" Fenway fans cheering for you at every home game, the well-educated, Boston-area professional finds his "above average" salary of $75,000 "enough." Still, it would take that "Average Joe" 233.3 years to make what you did last year alone. Pedro, that has him working away - without a raise - until September, 2,237!

When you were growing up in that Dominican Republic town of Manoguayabo, and playing "beisbol." with those rolled up socks and the heads of dolls borrowed from your sister, what was your sense of "enough?" And what of your friend Jose whose arm wasn’t as golden as yours, and is now living on the average per capita Dominican income of $1,600. That "Average Jose" would have to work 10,937.5 years to earn as much money as you do. Pedro, that’s October of the year 12,941. The Yankees would have won 2,600 pennants by then. You have every right to bargain for your best deal. God bless you. You deserve every penny the owners think you’re worth.

And this brings me to my second question: What about the fan?
The owners will pay whatever they can make off you, because they pass the cost down to the fan. They’ll up the prices of tickets, parking, soda, Fenway franks and Sam Adams. They’ll get a TV deal and justify earning back your salary through the wallets of the asses that warm their wooden seats. The TV commercials will cost more, so the guy at home pays more for his tires, his shaving cream and his nacho chips.

Pedro, the real question is: What will make you happy? You mention respect, and then you say you’d be just as happy to don those pinstripes. To free you from the Sox lineup, "The Boss" will buy you and own you and move you to the Bronx. With the amount of money you’ve made in baseball you can afford to have this contract be about other things. If you want to be closer to home, sign with Florida. If you like the heat, look at Texas. If you want the money, your pinstripes are already being tailored. You say, "I have to earn a living. I have to keep a job." OK. So maybe $17,500,000 per year isn’t "enough" of a living.

But if you’re really looking for respect from the fans of the game of baseball, you’ll retire wearing socks of red.