From the unsubtly but accurately named website, "Why The Yankees Suck"...consider these facts, or deny them...

50 Reasons Why The Yankees Suck

1. George Steinbrenner owns the team. This is a man with the warmth of Pat Buchanan, the patience of Ross Perot, and the credibility of O.J. Simpson.
2. The Yankees honored a truant, Jeffrey Maier, whose interference transformed an out into a series-turning Yankee home run in the 1996 playoffs.
3. Yankee hype resulted in Joe Gordon winning the 1942 MVP award over Triple Crown winner Ted Williams. The "Splendid Splinter" led the American League in six offensive categories; Gordon led in one, most strikeouts.
4. Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak in 1941 is considered the record in baseball. Why is excellence over two months better than excellence over a season? (DiMaggio had 193 hits that season, sixty-four short of George Sisler's major league record.)
5. They make you envious. Their General Manager is thirty-three years old. Derek Jeter dated Mariah Carey. Joe Torre has spent forty years in baseball. Steinbrenner did not have to go to jail following his felony conviction.
6. The Yankees retired Reggie Jackson's and Billy Martin's numbers. These two played a combined twelve seasons for the Yankees and hit .261.
7. Yankee fans are impossible to like. More than three decades ago, Roger Angell described them as "overdressed, uncomprehending autumn arrivistes." Today we would describe them as front-running boors.
8. Bucky Bleeping Dent, Red Sox killer and ersatz Yankee manager. In the worst-ever made-for-television movie, Dent played a football player who fell in love with a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader.
9. Their dynasty began because the Red Sox owner, Harry Bleeping Frazee, needed money to finance his theatrical ventures. We are not talking about hard work by the Yankees; this was Dumb Luck I.
10. Just before the end of the 1920 season, the Chicago White Sox were a better team with a brighter future than the Yankees. By the end of that season, the Sox were a shell of a great team. Eight of their stars were on their way to lifetime bans as a result of throwing the 1919 World Series. This was Dumb Luck II in establishing the Yankee dynasty.
11. After Mel Allen (whom the Yankees fired), their best known broadcaster is Phil "Holy Cow" Rizzuto. His biases would have earned him the nickname "Homer" but for the fact he hit only thirty-eight four-baggers during his thirteen-year major league career.
12. Role models like convicted felons Darryl Strawberry and Steve Howe have played for the Yankees.
13. As a Yankee, Don Zimmer has evolved from "the Gerbil" to a Grand Old Man.
14. The Yankees are living in the past. They have won five World Series since 1962. Over the same period, the Montreal Canadiens have won twelve titles, and the Boston Celtics have won eleven.
15. The Reggie! Bar was as hard to stomach as its namesake.
16. Steinbrenner, who was banned from baseball for life, got reinstated after three years. We hope whoever made this decision never gets on the Unabomber's parole board.
17. Yankee hype resulted in Joe DiMaggio winning the 1947 MVP award over Triple Crown winner Ted Williams.
18. Roger Maris, who had three great seasons, had his number retired. Are the Reds going to retire George Foster's number?
19. Yankee reliever Sparky Lyle wrote The Bronx Zoo, a 300-page whine about how tough life is when you're earning a large salary for pitching for a World Series winner.
20. Yankee tragedies are supposed to consume the nation. After Thurman "I won seven fewer Gold Gloves than Johnny Bench" Munson's plane went down, the Yankee faithful wanted the waiting period for Munson's Hall of Fame election waived. Tony Conigliaro, whose life was more tragic than Munson's, and who hit more home runs in far fewer at bats than Munson did, is forgotten outside of Boston.
21. Two words: Jim Leyritz
22. After the 1976 Yankees won the franchise's first pennant in twelve years, they were swept by the Reds in the World Series. Steinbrenner complained of how this loss to the greatest team since the end of World War II was a "personal humiliation."
23. The Kansas City A's were effectively a Yankee farm club. (Would you believe they sent Roger Maris to the Yankees for four spare parts?)
24. The Babe Ruth Story might be the worst sports movie ever made.
25. Howard Cosell rhapsodized about Mickey "the CAT-a-lyst" Rivers, Reg-GER-oo, and Chris "the Silent One" Chambliss when the Yankees were on Monday Night Baseball in the 1970's.
26. ABC called it Monday Night Baseball, but in practice it was The Yankee Game of the Week.
27. Above-average feats by ordinary Yankees make magazine covers.
28. Thanks to Yankee fans, Chris Chambliss's trip around the bases after his 1976 pennant-winning home run was more of an adventure than getting out of Saigon.
29. Steinbrenner, who has the Mona Lisa of ballparks, has demanded that New York City build him a paint-by-the-numbers stadium with luxury boxes.
30. Larry McPhail, the Steinbrenner of his time, made it impossible for Hall of Famers Joe McCarthy and Bill Dickey to manage the Yankees.
31. Steinbrenner and five-time Yankee manager Billy Martin made up and broke up more frequently than temperamental high school sweethearts.
32. A Yankee fan's contribution to baseball chat rooms is limited to "Red Sox suck" and "1918."
33. The Yankees exiled their greatest legend, Babe Ruth, to the 38-115 Boston Braves. They let stars like Frank Colman and Roy Weatherly wear Ruth's #3 before retiring it.
34. Yankee co-owner Del "Mr. Baseball" Webb
35. Yankee General Manager George "Chuckles" Weiss
36. Yankee backup catcher Charlie Silvera played in 227 major league games and one World Series game. Somehow, he was on six World Series winners, while Ty Cobb was on none.
37. Bill Mazeroski got the key hit in three Pirate wins, hit the World Series-winning home run, batted .320 and watched Yankee Bobby Richardson get named the MVP of the 1960 World Series.
38. Either the Yankees of the 1960's were a cliquish gang who slammed windows on kids wanting autographs as described in Jim Bouton's Ball Four, or...
39. Bouton is a liar, in which case the Yankees issued a paycheck to a big-mouthed malcontent who had a 4-15 record in 1965.
40. Joe DiMaggio was voted baseball's "Greatest Living Player" largely because that noted baseball expert, Paul Simon, wrote a line in "Mrs. Robinson" about him.
41. Free enterprise is free enterprise, but there is something terribly wrong when Luis Tiant is pictured in a Yankee uniform, holding a hot dog and saying "It is great to be with a winner." I blame the Yankees.
42. Wally Pipp could not play with a headache.
43. In the 1930's and 1940's, the Yankees would not allow radio broadcasts of their games.
44. You had to cheer for someone in the Billy Martin-Ed Whitson fight.
45. Shane Spencer had a few great weeks and the New York media compared the start of his career to those of various Hall of Famers. Earth to Spencer fans: baseball is a game of streaks. Hurricane Hazle, after a six-game major league career with the Reds, hit .403 in forty-one games for the '57 Braves. Within a year the twenty-eight-year-old was gone from the major leagues.
46. No matter how often I remind myself that he has a family and probably visits sick kids in hospitals, I cannot like Tino Martinez.
47. The Yankees have helped cause the exorbitant salaries in baseball. Bernie Williams makes over million a year. What does this make Chipper Jones or Alex Rodriguez worth? Can I buy a ticket on the installment plan?
48. Ron Blomberg was baseball's first designated hitter. There is something preternatural about a Yankee holding the distinction of introducing an odious concept.
49. Jerry Coleman, whose malapropisms ("Folkers is throwing up in the bullpen") as a Padres announcer are legendary, is a former Yankee.
50. Hillary Clinton, who knows less about baseball than she knows about the upstate New York town of Glens Falls, claims to be a lifelong Yankee fan.

Discuss.

Don't you want your Senator to know more about upstate towns than baseball?
What's next, "George Pataki, who knows less about lacrosse than about milk subsidies in St Lawrence County, claims to enjoy West Genny LAX?"

46. No matter how often I remind myself that he has a family and probably visits sick kids in hospitals, I cannot like Tino Martinez.

There we have it, undisputable evidence that rooting for the Yankees is akin to rooting for Al Qaida! I'm sold!

Was that list supposed to be funny? Entertaining? Witty? Anything but whiny?

Can someone please start a new game thread. I feel like the Billy Goats Gruff trying to cross the bridge.

5. They make you envious.

This is as far as I needed to read.

It's obvious that RMc's favorite song is 'Hey Jealousy' by the Gin Blossoms.

It's obvious that RMc's favorite song is 'Hey Jealousy' by the Gin Blossoms.

More like 'Jealous Again' by the Black Crowes.

RMc rather enjoys playing the victim. Or rather, he enjoys deflecting the blame for his own team's perpetual irrelevance.

2. The Yankees honored a truant, Jeffrey Maier, whose interference transformed an out into a series-turning Yankee home run in the 1996 playoffs.

Uh, that was a night game.

The winner goes on to face the Chicago White Sox in the ALCS

I'm sorry, I just love to see that. It just makes me so happy.

That list is so old (HOW OLD IS IT?!) that A-Rod is still underpaid - see #47.

And yes, JRE, it is a wonderful feeling.

That was a really stupid list. Some of it is even flat wrong, though I think I reemeber that the Maier game was one of those late-afternoon games. I remember walking around in the St Louis Zoo while listening to it on the radio.

Well, I can probably find out...

All-right, well retrosheet says it was a day game, and the ATL-STL game was a night game, which corresponds to my memory of watching the end of it in a truck-stop restaurant. It must have been a 4:05 start, which means that Maier was legally gone from school for the day, one would think.

I'll add that the Harry Frazee thing (#9) has been shown to be completely untrue. He was quite well capitalized.

The story was spread greatly by the anti-Semitism of the Boston media at the time (it originated in Henry Ford's virulently racist Dearborn Independent.) Although Frazee was not Jewish, he was viewed as a Jew because of his involvement in the New York theater.

I think it is is really important to give moose a lead and touch Bartolo early. Escobar looked really nasty, really.

question #2, should I go with total media blackout and watch the game after it is over? Or should i watch bits and pieces in the break room and online?

question #2, should I go with total media blackout and watch the game after it is over? Or should i watch bits and pieces in the break room and online?

Can you really wait that long for an elimination game?

Escobar threw 35 pitches last night and has had some arm problems this year, so even with the importance of tonight's game I don't know how much he can give them here. But unless it's one-sided, Francisco Rodriguez will probably pitch the eighth and ninth.

I want to use this handle again next year. GO ANGELS!!!!!

I always wondered - what does your handle reference, two!-oh!-oh!-oh!? I always assumed it was a reference to the cross-town World Series, but #17 seems to be counter to that.

Oh, wait - now I get it.

Never mind.

I want to see this Moose put his Big Unit in the Angels' Colon! Go Yanks!

That list is so old (HOW OLD IS IT?!) that A-Rod is still underpaid

Ah, Match Game. I love that show.

What's next, "George Pataki, who knows less about lacrosse than about milk subsidies in St Lawrence County, claims to enjoy West Genny LAX?"

As a Finger Lakes native, I can say this may be the best way to secure votes in the Lakes/Syracuse region.

That list was terrible.

Um,

Red Sox Suck. 1918.

Uh, that was a night game.

No, it was an afternoon game.

A-Rod is still underpaid. On MH/M$ (Marginal Hype per marginal dollar), only King Felix and Derek Jeter are more underpaid.

I liked this one:

32. A Yankee fan's contribution to baseball chat rooms is limited to "Red Sox suck" and "1918."

At least that's in a baseball chat, so the Red Sox are a viable point of 'discussion.' During the SB parades for the Patriots, the fans chanted "Yankees suck."

Bartolo Colon, Kevin Gregg, Ervin Santana and Frankie Rodriguez are all well rested.

And the 5 pm Pacific Time first pitch will forever cement shut any argument that East Coast residents have about scheduling of game times.

Nothing can justify or invalidate any rooting interest. It's a silly thing to argue about.

I somehow expect Johnson to go at least two innings tonight.

Bartolo Colon, Kevin Gregg, Ervin Santana and Frankie Rodriguez are all well rested.

No offense to that middle pair--espcially since they will almost surely now deliver 12 scoreless innings or something--but Kevin Gregg and Ervin Santana are hardly Scot Sheilds and Kelvim Escobar

Why would a governor not knowing anything about a powerhouse high school lax program be reason not to root for the Yankees?

Is it reason not to root for the Bills too?

Why would a governor not knowing anything about a powerhouse high school lax program be reason not to root for the Yankees?

Because it's a ridiculous argument that doesn't bear refutation.

You know, I was talking to the famous SG this afternoon on the aim (I know, I am a name dropper) and I told him that last night's win had a very late 90's feel to it. The way they won, just enough pitching, just enough hitting, close plays that went their way, etc. He agreed

Did anyone else feel that way? Or is that just because they won, which they don't do that much of anymore?

You know, I was talking to the famous SG this afternoon on the aim (I know, I am a name dropper) and I told him that last night's win had a very late 90's feel to it. The way they won, just enough pitching, just enough hitting, close plays that went their way, etc. He agreed

Did anyone else feel that way? Or is that just because they won, which they don't do that much of anymore?

Ah, the double posts. I get nostalgic for old primer when i see the doubleposts.

Its nostalgia day!

Ah, the double posts. I get nostalgic for old primer when i see the doubleposts.

Its nostalgia day!

Ah, the double posts. I get nostalgic for old primer when i see the doubleposts.

Its nostalgia day!

I somehow expect Johnson to go at least two innings tonight.

Clemens and Johnson pitching in relief in successive days. That would be cool (as long as the Yanks win).

I enjoyed the list, laughed out loud a couple of times. It is ridiculous that Reggie's number is retired, while Tony Lazzeri's isn't (HOFer who played his entire career with the Yanks).

Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak in 1941 is considered the record in baseball.

Everytime I see "#56 Tanyon Sturtze, #56" come into the game, I think of the streak, and the '56 Series with Larsen's perfect game.

Did anyone else feel that way? Or is that just because they won, which they don't do that much of anymore?

It did have that late 90s feel, a late comeback off the bullpen, a couple of inches each way deciding it, all that stuff. Here's hoping they have 9 of those left in them

Lazzeri's number will be retired, as soon as Torre is done with it.

Ah, the double posts. I get nostalgic for old primer when i see the doubleposts.

Its nostalgia day!

How do you feel about the triple posts?

In the late 90's, SJ, the Yankees would have rolled through Texas already.

Reggie's number being retired was a backdoor deal with Big Stein, if he went in as a Yankee, he would get 44 put on the shelf.

The real crime is the Yankees not retiring Big Dave's #31.

Yanks are going to lose many, many numbers in a few years, although not as many as I once thought.

2, 6, 42 and 51 for sure.

Perhaps 21 and 13 have a chance as well. If Andy stays, he would have had one too.

I propose that the Yankee fans on the site chip in to "sponsor" the 2005 Boston baseballreference page with a message that properly describes their 2nd place finish.

Something like, "Congtulations to the 2005 Boston Red Sox, 2nd Place in the AL East and AL Wild Card!"

Congtulations; undulations on a Conga Line
"Congratulations" is probably what I meant to write...

12. Role models like convicted felons Darryl Strawberry and Steve Howe have played for the Yankees.

Hmmm. Dodgers too.

36. Yankee backup catcher Charlie Silvera played in 227 major league games and one World Series game. Somehow, he was on six World Series winners, while Ty Cobb was on none.

You're using Ty Cobb to drum up sympathy?! (Actually, that's pretty funny.)

48. ... There is something preternatural about a Yankee holding the distinction of introducing an odious concept.

First, every other entry on the list contradicts this statement. Second, don't put the Usage Police to the trouble of getting a warrant -- turn yourself in.

Smile, RMc. The Tigers have a rich owner and play in a good baseball town. They'll get back to the playoffs one year soon.

Go Angels!

Congtulations; undulations on a Conga Line
"Congratulations" is probably what I meant to write...

John, you don't think there's a chance that 20 gets retired? I don't think it's a sure thing, but I could definitely see it happening.

So what were those last 3 years of Lazzeri's career? A mirage?

Oops, thanks for the correction.

And it really burns me to see Alan Embree wearing Andy Pettitte's number.

21 is definitely getting retired along with the four you mentioned, it's clearly already de-facto retired. If Alex stays with the Yankees for the rest of his contract, he'll probably both get 13 retired and go into the Hall with an NY

Don't forget the sure-thing retirement of #22!

Don't forget the sure-thing retirement of #22!

Nah, Clemens wasn't that good with the Yankees.

I almost put 22 in there, as a joke.

I was just out on the smoking area, waxing poetic about the Yankee teams of my young adulthood.

I really loved Cone and El Duque, I wish Cone could have held on, and El Duque was just about the craftiest pitcher I have ever seen.

El Duque has no shot at the hall, although it would be pretty cool if they had special inductions for foreigners (like BBall HOF does). I always thought of Cone as a Hall of Fame pitcher when he was going, but his numbers just aren't there. It's sort of funny that I always thought of Cone as a Hall guy, but isn't as qualified as someone as crappy as the Big Phony, David Wells. I am sort of rambling now.

I just miss David Cone.

I just miss David Cone.

Do you miss him with your whole body? Including your pee-pee?

lol

Steve Howe was born in Pontiac, Michigan.

The lesson of Straw and Steve Howe, is, as it always was, to be lefthanded.

The lesson of Straw and Steve Howe, is, as it always was, to be lefthanded.

If the Yankees lose tonight, there will not be a team east of the Mississippi in the either LCS, has that ever happened before?

If the Yankees lose tonight, there will not be a team east of the Mississippi in the either LCS, has that ever happened before?

Chicago is east of the Mississippi.

Remember when I had a huge nonsexual mancrush in Robby Cano back in July, and I said he had HOF potential and everyone said I was crazy and that he was a 3rd starter, tops?

Check out his Most Similar By Age on BBref

1.Fred Dunlap (961)
2.Tony Lazzeri (960) *
3.Jim Viox (958)
4.Erve Beck (945)
5.Dots Miller (936)
6.Ron Hunt (933)
7.Jim Tabor (929)
8.Paul Molitor (928) *
9.Billy Herman (926) *
10.Travis Fryman (922)

How bout them apples now.

If the Yankees lose tonight, there will not be a team east of the Mississippi in the either LCS, has that ever happened before?

2002: Angels, Twins, Cardinals, Giants. Minneapolis and St. Louis are on the Mississippi.

When Fox demanded that yesterday's game be played at night, I wonder if the network considered whether the delay impacted the outcome of the game -- I'm sure Fox wants the Yanks to win, so I wonder if this desire impacted Fox's decision.

I.e. Fox may have done the calculation on how much revenue having the NFL game at 4 and the ALDS game at 8 pm, would generate.

But then doing the calculation of the Yanks' chance of winning a 4pm game vs. an 8pm game; and winning tonight based on those game 4 start times; and then revenue from a NYY/LAA ALCS vs. a CWS/LAA ALCS.

I have no idea whether the 4pm or 8pm start times for game 4 would have favored the Yanks or the Angels disproportionately. But clearly the networks have a preferred winner, so their decisions on start time could influence the outcome of the game (hypothetically). That's not a good situation for MLB to be in.

funny how you have to go out of your way to point out that the mancrush was "non-sexual".

The immortal Erve Beck? Awesome.

Fox may have done the calculation on how much revenue having the NFL game at 4 and the ALDS game at 8 pm, would generate.

I'm sure they didn't have to think very hard. A choice between airing the NFL game alone and the NFL game and the ALDS game that night is pretty much a no-brainer.

I'm 99% positive that the NFL has a rock-solid "no pre-empt" clause with the networks that applies to everything short of an imminent nuclear attack.

I'm 99% positive that the NFL has a rock-solid "no pre-empt" clause with the networks that applies to everything short of an imminent nuclear attack.

I was wondering what was going to happen with the Sunday night NFL game if the Braves and Astros had played a few more innings. Someone was going to have to go to ESPN2, and I'm guessing it wouldn't have been the NFL.

I propose that the Yankee fans on the site chip in to "sponsor" the 2005 Boston baseballreference page with a message that properly describes their 2nd place finish.

Something like, "Congtulations to the 2005 Boston Red Sox, 2nd Place in the AL East and AL Wild Card!"

As I've said once before on this site: Now who's being silly about this?

Remember when I had a huge nonsexual mancrush in Robby Cano back in July, and I said he had HOF potential and everyone said I was crazy and that he was a 3rd starter, tops?

Check out his Most Similar By Age on BBref

1.Fred Dunlap (961)
2.Tony Lazzeri (960) *
3.Jim Viox (958)
4.Erve Beck (945)
5.Dots Miller (936)
6.Ron Hunt (933)
7.Jim Tabor (929)
8.Paul Molitor (928) *
9.Billy Herman (926) *
10.Travis Fryman (922)

How bout them apples now.

Um, it's one season. It was a nice season, but it was one season. Let's not go crazy yet.

Washburn is still out with his sore throat? Gargle some salt water, dude.

Kruk, Reynolds, and Kay have all picked the Yankees to win today. Thus, the Angels will win.

any guesses on the lineup tonite?

after last night ... i'm expecting giambi at 1st, bernie in cf, and sierra at DH

Torre better not push his luck with Sierra DHing. He had a pinch hit last night. That doesn't mean that he'll be any better than during the season tonight. Torre should go with the same line-up that won game one. Most importantly, Good Mussina better show up tonight.

I'm no Sierra fan (lord knows), but does it really matter if he or Bernie DHs tonight? They are both fairly useless at the plate lately, both switch-hitters, and probably equally likely (or unlikely) to close their eyes and luck into something good. I usually have plenty of stuff to jump on Torre for, but I hereby forego my vengeance should he start Ruben tonight.

I imagine the Yankees will be the most hurt by the circumstances, they're an old team facing a well-rested power pitcher. Bad combo

But either way he needs to put Bubba in CF to start the game. Why isn't Lawton on the roster again?

I imagine the Yankees will be the most hurt by the circumstances, they're an old team facing a well-rested power pitcher. Bad combo

Bright side: maybe some of Sheff's hard fouls will stay fair.

Jeter, SS
A-Rod, 3B
Giambi, 1B
Sheff, RF
Matsui, LF
Cano, 2B
Bernie, DH
Posada, C
Crosby, CF

Figgins, 3B
Cabrera, SS
Anderson, LF
Vlad, RF
Molina (B), C
Erstad, 1B
Rivera, DH
Finley, CF
Kennedy, 2B

Remember in July, when Giambi was crushing the ball and Torre kept batting him 6th or 7th? and he kept hitting all those solo homers?

I wonder how many wins that cost the Yanks.

How bout them apples now.

That's a nice list but check out Dustin Pedroia's Most Similar By Age as adjusted for MLEs.

Roberto Alomar (862)
Joe Morgan (838) *
Robin Yount (829) *
Lou Whitaker (822)
Ryne Sandberg (802) *
Vada Pinson (778)
Charlie Gehringer (773) *
Paul Molitor (760) *
Barry Larkin (753)
Alan Trammell (751)

Damn, this game is on FOX? No AD tonight, then, I guess...

No AD tonight, then, I guess...

My guess is no AD until after the World Series.

AD returns on Halloween

AD returns on Halloween

Not the best day for it to return. Not for me, anyway.

Not the best day for it to return. Not for me, anyway.

Does it interefere with your plans to dress as an academically prepared emotionally well-adjusted person?

Does it interefere with your plans to dress as an academically prepared emotionally well-adjusted person?

No, but it does 'interfere' with my, ah, 21st birthday...

21st? Hey, congrats Biff. I'm sure you know how I would handle the situation. In fact, did handle the situations

I thought the union had procured an agreement to move Game 1 of the ALCS to Wednesday to give the Angels or Yanks a day off in between series. Was I dreaming? I'd like to know.

AL East Chump.

heh heh.

Speaking as a person who has Tuesday off, I really want a Tuesday game.

ALCS schedule remains as originally planned.

ALCS schedule remains as originally planned.

That's kind of dumb, but I'd be pretty happy if I had a chance to really bemoan it

Just a reminder kids...

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies!

Bonus pearl of Shawshank wisdom for everyone - it's time for the Yanks to get busy living or get busy dying.

####!!!

It wasn't until Biff's 81 that it put it together that tonights game would preempt Arrested Development. There goes my monday nights. I mean playoff baseball is nice, but I'd still take AD.

At least season 2 comes out tomorrow...

Time for blackout. See you all at 9. Go Yankees!

MEGA SUPER OPTIMAL LINEUP!

I must say I'm shocked that Sierra's not in there tonight, but I approve.

Indeed SG.. Indeed.

Dear Yankees,

It's not 2005. It's 1998.

Love,
SG in ATL