Archive for Whimsy
A bedroom fit for a Yankee fan
Posted by: | CommentsA long-term RAB reader e-mailed me this week with a note about his son’s bedroom. Craig had just redone his 14-year-old son’s bedroom, and the family went with a Yankee theme. So as we await the two weeks until Opening Day to pass us by, check out these photos. The only better room would be one that replicates the Yankees’ locker room.
And then go outside. It’s far too nice out in the New York area to spend Saturday indoors, March Madness be damned.
Talking to an anonymous scout about the Yanks
Posted by: | CommentsI recently had a chance to sit down and talk about the Yankees with a long-time scout. I’m not going to tell you who it is or what team he works for or if he even exists, but he’s been around the game all of his life, and he knows of what he speaks. Coincidentally, Gene Wojciechowski did the same thing at ESPN yesterday. Call it dumb luck.
Anyway, thanks to the scout, who shall remain anonymous, for taking the time to talk to us about our favorite team.
Mike: Thanks for talking with us. Let’s start right at the top and get your thoughts about the front of the rotation?
Scout: C.C. Sabathia is a beast. When you imagine an ace in your head, you picture Sabathia. But 50 lbs. lighter. [Laughs] Not that there’s anything wrong with being so big, he makes it work. I wish he was on my side.
[A.J.] Burnett’s got a great arm. A great, great arm. A great arm. It’s a great arm. But I’m not sure he’s intellectually all there for him to take that next step. I mean … he won 13 games with a 4.04 ERA. Jason Marquis won 15 games with a 4.04 ERA. What does that tell you? His pie facials are good for the team, though.
Andy [Pettitte] isn’t what he once was, but he’s still pretty good. A team like the Yankees needs that veteran stabilizer in the rotation, the guy who’s been there, done that. It’s hard not to like Andy, he’s such a competitor, and as long as they have him in the rotation, they’ll be fine. He’s their stabilizer. He stabilizes the whole thing.
They traded for Javy Vazquez, what are your thoughts on him?
Javier’s a nice pitcher. He had a great year in Atlanta, but the AL East is a different division. If I was the Yankees, I’d look at what he did in 2004 and wonder “Are we getting that Javy, or the Javy from the other 11 seasons of his career?” It’s tough to say. He’s definitely an upgrade over what they had in the back of the rotation last year, but they have to hope he pitches well so they don’t have to keeping starting guys on short rest in the playoffs again.
Actually, only four of the 15 games they played last postseason were started by a guy working on three days rest. What do you think happens with Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain this season?
Well, the Yankees need another starter. They only have four right now, and teams these days carry five. So that means one of those two will be their last starter. For me, I’d put Joba in the bullpen. He’s just a different animal when he works in relief, it’s almost like he’s a bull in a china shop. He’s a grunt and fart kind of guy. You can stick him out there, let him grow into the closer after Mariano Rivera, and not worry about that anymore.
Hughes is much calmer than Joba, he’s more like a cow in a meadow than a bull in a china shop. He was very good in the bullpen last year, which surprised me. It’s not often you see a young pitcher struggle as a starter before finding some success in the bullpen. I think he’s a changed man after working the eighth inning last year. He’s more aggressive, more dominant, yet so serene. I think he can carry that over and back into the rotation.
Speaking of Rivera, what’s it like scouting a guy like that?
Rivera’s on another level. It’s like going to business school and being taught by Donald Trump. I saw him in Double-A, and he was a stick. I didn’t think he would last as a starter, and sure enough he didn’t. What surprised me is that he succeeded in the bullpen without that bull in a china shop mentality. He’s one of the all-time greats, getting by on that great cutter. I tell my team to watch the inner half, then he carves them up outside. Then they watch the outer half, and he comes inside.
He’s amazing.
Any thoughts on the rest of the bullpen?
I didn’t see them too much last year, but [Damaso] Marte is a quality lefty. He won’t be as good as he was against the Phillies again. [Laughs]
I saw [Al] Aceves in Mexico and recommended him to my team, but the Yanks grabbed him before we could. I like him, he’s as gritty as a pitcher can be. He’s one gritty son of a bitch. Chan Ho Park gives them an Asian on the team, which is huge because they were going to lose a lot of money in Japan and stuff when they let Hideki [Matsui] leave.
Speaking of Matsui, the Yankees lost him and Johnny Damon, but replaced them with Curtis Granderson and Nick Johnson. How do you think that will work out?
Matsui and Damon have been great Yankees for a long time. And they were clutch, you could look them in the eye in a big spot and tell they weren’t scared. They’ll miss that.
I really like Curtis Granderson, but he doesn’t really fit with the Yankees. For one, he’s young. But for two, he’s athletic. The Yankees aren’t known for athletes, they’re known as the Bronx Bombers, they need power bats.
He hit 30 homers last year.
But will he do that again? Matsui was a lock for 30-100 every year.
Matsui had 30 homers and 100 RBI once as a Yankee, and it was six years ago.
I’m telling you, he was a lock for it. My point is, you don’t know what to expect from Granderson. He’s an exciting player, but I don’t think he fits the Yankee mold.
As for Johnston [sic], well I don’t know what to make of him. He’s got a bad body, and he’s too passive at the plate. It’s almost like he goes up there praying for a walk. I want my DH’s to be big boppers, and Johnston’s [sic] just big. You knew what you were getting out of Damon and Matsui, why fix what ain’t broke?
Fair enough. How do you feel about giving Brett Gardner a chance to play every day?
Gardner’s another guy who doesn’t fit the Yankee mold. He’s a gamer. He fights and battles and does all the little things that don’t show up in box scores. I like him, and they’re probably better off letting him use that speed at the top of the order.
Let’s move on to some of the bigger name players on the team. A-Rod looked like a new man last season, and he had some huge hits in the playoffs. A lot of people talked about how he used to be a cancer in the clubhouse, but that’s apparently changed too. How important do you think team chemistry is?
[Laughs] Well, they always said A-Rod was bad for clubhouse chemistry, but it turns out he was pretty good at chemistry, didn’t it?
Was that a steroids joke?
[Laughs] Yeah.
Look, A-Rod is a great player. Always has been. But he’s such a fake, I don’t know what to think of him. There were all these questions about his ability to come through in a big spot, and after he did it last year, you have to wonder if he’s up to doing it again. I think he has a chance to get complacent. He’s already made millions in this game, now that he has his title, what’s left for him to do?
We don’t know if he’s up to doing it all again, like the good old boys were. Bernie [Williams] hit that big homer once, Paulie [O'Neill] used to beat the shit out of watercoolers when he failed. Do we ever see A-Rod do that? No. That how I like my players. If they can’t hit the ball, hit the watercooler. I want passion.
What about Derek Jeter?
Oh, Jeter. Derek Jeter is all that’s right in baseball and the world. He’s obviously a great player, but he’s even a greater person. He’s done so much for the Yankees, the organization, the city of New York, their fans … he’s what makes it all go. If I were the Yankees, I’d give him a blank contract after the year, and let him fill in the numbers. I’d trust him to do the right thing.
You’d give him a blank contract?
That’s what I said. He’d do the right thing with it, because he’s Derek Jeter.
Okay then. Now let’s quickly touch on some of the other players on the team. Mark Teixeira?
Great all-around player. I’d worry about his performance in October last year, that could signify a lack of clutch.
Great swing, but he lacks focus. If he ever got his head screwed on straight, he could do a lot of damage in this game. He needs to look at that guy in Boston, [Dustin] Pedroia, and watch how he plays. He wants it.
Another guy like Johnston [sic], praying for a walk whenever he gets to plate. He’ll make you pay if you make a mistake, plus he’s a prankster. The Yankees aren’t known for pranksters.
Georgie’s been so great for the Yankees for so long. For me, he’s the glue that keeps the team together. Him and Jeter. We saw it in 2008, the team collapsed when he got hurt. He’s old, especially for a catcher, but I’d keep running him out there because he’s so important to the team. Georgie is like the Andy Pettitte of the hitters.
You mean he’s like a stabilizer?
Yeah.
What about Joe Girardi?
Joe’s a smart guy, but now he doesn’t have a contract. After this season, I mean. You have to worry that that might wear on him, and he might start making panic calls because he thinks his job is on the line. He got it done last year, but now he has to do it again. Plus, I don’t think the front office likes him very much.
Last question: How do you think the Yanks will do this season?
On paper, they’re the best team in the league. In all of baseball. But the games don’t get played on paper, they have to do it on the field. They’ve got a good rotation, and a good bullpen, and a good lineup, but will it be enough? They play in a tough division, you might say it’s the toughest in baseball.
I’ll tell you this much, I wouldn’t want to play them in the short series.
Crazy Ideas: A major MLB realignment
Posted by: | CommentsIf it weren’t snowing on a Friday in late February, I probably wouldn’t give Ken Rosenthal’s latest the time of day, but this 36-hour snow storm can cloud our better judgment for a few minutes. His thesis: The Yankees and the Red Sox are too good to be in the same division, and it’s bad for baseball to keep them both in the AL East. Thus, when the CBA comes due in December 2011, baseball should push to realign the American League.
Nutty, right? After all, why would Major League Baseball want to lessen the impact of its greatest rivalry? Why would Bud Selig take his Boston/New York cash cow — the two teams funding the vast majority of this year’s record-setting $433 million revenue sharing outlay — and stick them in separate divisions? The Red Sox and the Yankees play each other 19 times a year simply because it’s so good for the sport.
Rosenthal’s piece is hard to wade through. He’s writing one-sentence and sentence-fragment paragraphs, and his radical realignment plan is really far out there. He would flip the Red Sox and the Nationals. Boston would wind up in the NL East and the Nationals in the AL East. The league-flipping doesn’t stop there. The Rays would join the NL, and the Mets would move to the AL. The White Sox and Royals would move to the NL while the Pirates and Reds, two of baseball’s oldest clubs, would join the Junior Circuit. The Rangers would become an NL team, and the Dodgers and Giants would play in the AL. It would shock the baseball world.
Yet, on an individual level, for the Yankees and the Red Sox at least, the move might make sense. He writes:
The Yankees and Red Sox violently oppose the most obvious way to level the economic playing field — by putting a third team in New York and second team in New England. They will howl if they are asked to give a dollar more to penny-pinching teams such as the Marlins. But neither could protest too strongly if baseball assigned them to separate divisions.
Both teams draw well at home regardless of who they are playing; reducing the number of games between them would have minimal impact financially and benefit both competitively. The Yankees and Red Sox could forge easier paths to the postseason if they did not play each other so often.
Fans love Yankees-Red Sox games. The sport’s television partners, including FOX, love the ratings that the rivalry produces. Still, it’s not as if the teams would never play under an unbalanced schedule, and the networks are more concerned with the postseason, anyway.
In a certain sense, Rosenthal’s plan complements our look at the over/under lines. The AL clearly has something of a competitive balance problem. Early season indicators put the three best teams in the AL East, and they’re the best by a significant margin. (For what it’s worth, PECOTA’s Depth Charts agree.)
Furthermore, when the CBA negotiations commence, the Yankees and Red Sox are going to dig in. These two teams will push hard to overhaul revenue sharing rules. They’ll want to overturn the charitable contributions they make on an annual basis to the Marlins and Pirates of the game, but they’ll probably have to settle for a soft salary floor and the promise that revenue sharing will go toward improving the on-field product. The economic carrot of something new could placate these richer owners.
This major realignment though won’t happen. Would the Nationals consent to moving in with the Yanks? Or would the Mets, for that matter? Why would the Phillies, Braves and Marlins agree to compete in the same division with the Rays and Red Sox? Yankee fans would love to see Boston and Tampa elsewhere, but would anyone else? As the snow falls, it’s intriguing to contemplate these crazy plans, but when the skies clear and baseball is back, no one will think it a realistic solution to a problem that might not need fixing.
The initial over/under American League
Posted by: | CommentsWho’s smarter: baseball projection systems such as PECOTA and CHONE or good old fashioned Las Vegas sports books? It’s an interesting question to ponder in an age in which statistical analysis has taken center stage in the game, and the two options are one side of the same coin. Out of Las Vegas’ efforts to predict, via smart wagers, sports outcomes arose statistical analysis and more advanced projection systems.
I pose this question today because a few of the bigger sports books have released their initial over/under lines for the 2010 baseball season. Vegas Watch has the full league table, and I’ve broken down the American League by division. The Yankees, as you’ll see, win the over/under AL East but only by a hair.
AL East
Yankees – 94.5
Boston – 94
Tampa Bay – 89.5
Baltimore – 72.5
Toronto – 71
AL Central
Chicago – 82
Minnesota – 82
Detroit – 81
Cleveland – 73
Kansas City – 71
AL West
LAnaheim – 84
Seattle – 83
Texas – 83
Oakland – 78
In perusing this table late last night, I was struck by how few of these win totals I would bet on right now. When a team’s over/under lines up with the bettor’s estimated wins for that team, it’s a bad bet. Would you take the “over” on the Yanks and hope for a 95+ win season amidst a very competitive AL East? The initial line on the Yanks last year was 97.5, and I doubt many people took the “over” in February, March or even April.
I’m further intrigued by the relatively weak AL Central and West divisions. At first glance, we wouldn’t assume that two division winners would be pegged at win totals in the low 80s. After all, the Angels won 97 games last year, and even the Twins topped their 2010 line by four victories through 162 games. In fact, the AL hasn’t sent two sub-90 win teams to the playoffs since 1998 when both the Indians and Rangers failed to top 89 victories. Yet, of the teams pegged to compete for those division titles, I would place a bet only the Rangers, and then, I’d be inclined to take the over. Texas should have a team better than 83 wins, especially in a division as weak as the West.
Right now, though, these lines are published to encourage bets, and they don’t represent the true Vegas predictions. For every $1000 placed, the lines will move half a point. If one team’s win total is grossly under-predicted, the line will quickly move upward to compensate as bettors take the over, and that’s where the crowd-vs.-computer debate takes over. As the lines shift and settle over the next few weeks, can early season oddsmakers and those willing to place bets beat the projection systems? The results should look fairly congruous by year’s end.
In my heart, I want to take the over on the Yankees, and David Pinto wants the under on Boston due to the team’s injury risk. But odds are good the AL East will be a dogfight. First team to 96 wins takes the crown.
Here’s your obligatory disclaimer: These lines and my thoughts are for entertainment purposes only. Don’t bet on baseball with my advice in mind, and if you or someone you know has a gambling problem, please contact the National Council on Problem Gambling.
Red Sox fan set to direct Yankee wife-swapping tale
Posted by: | CommentsIn one of the stranger baseball sex stories around, Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich, two journeyman pitchers from the late 1960s/early 1970s, owned up to wife-swapping while the two were members of the 1972 Yankees. Now, Ben Affleck, one of the most well-known Red Sox fans around, is going to direct and star in a film adaptation of the wife-swapping tale. According to the rumors, Matt Damon, another movie celebrity/Red Sox fan, will co-star in the flick, and the two will play Peterson and Kekich respectively. Dave Mandel, of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm fame, has been tabbed to pen the script, and the movie will be called The Trade. I see what they did there. (Hat tip to BBTF.)
Thinking about the Yankees’ numbers
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As Spring Training nears, the Yankees’ numbers are slowly talking center stage. Now, I’m not talking about wOBA, UZR or other intriguing numbers. Rather, I’m talking about those numbers on the backs of all of the players’ jerseys. As the old concessionaire’s saying goes, you can’t tell the players without a scorecard, and the Yankees are seemingly running out of numbers.
On Monday afternoon, Ed Price on Tweeter noted how the Yankees are pushing it numerically this spring. With their 40-man roster and 20 invitees, the team will have 60 players in camp, and a whole slew of coaches who need uniform numbers too. Last year, with 64 players in camp, the highest number on the field in Tampa was Kanekoa Teixeira’s 94. This year, the Yanks will again push toward 90.
This problem of numbers — if we can call it a problem — is generally a March-only issue. In recent years, the Yanks have had just two players sport numbers in the 90s range. Brian Bruney donned 99 for a spell in an effort to find some numerically-inspired consistency while Alfredo Aceves has embraced number 91 to honor Dennis Rodman. In 1952, Charlie Keller wore 99 for a spell as well, but when the rosters are pared, most players break camp with numbers at 55 or lower.
Why then are the Yanks heading to Tampa ready to dole out numbers more fit for linebackers and offensive linemen than baseball players? For the Bombers, it is one of nostalgia and historical recognition mixed with some recent stubbornness on behalf of the team and its fans. The Yankees, as we know, have retired 15 numbers — including Jackie Robinson’s and eventually Mariano Rivera’s 42 — for historical and political purposes. Does Phil Rizzuto’s number 10 need to be shelved? What of Billy Martin’s 1? Ron Guidry’s 49, hung up in Monument Park to lure him back to the team as a pitching coach? Reggie Jackson’s 44?
And then, the Yankees have those numbers than sit in limbo. Joe Torre’s number 6 will remain reserved for a future reconciliation. Bernie Williams’ 51 has been unissued since Bernie didn’t retire after the 2006 season. And who could forget the uproar over the Yanks’ willingness to issue 21 to LaTroy Hawkins for a few weeks? O’Neill might have been the 41st Yankee to don that one, but in the collective mind of the fans, it belongs only to him.
Eventually, the Yankees will have to hang up a few more numbers. Rivera’s 42, already on ice due to the league-wide retirement of it, will earn a place in Monument Park. Derek Jeter’s number 2 will never see another player, and if we want to get overly sentimental Andy Pettitte’s 46, Jorge Posada’s 20 and maybe even A-Rod’s 13, depending upon his career accomplishments, might wind up unused forevermore.
So at some point, the Yankees will run out of single-digit numbers to hand out. They’ll have to break that triple-digit barrier unless they do what the White Sox have done and unretire some numbers. Omar Vizquel will wear Luis Aparacio’s number 11 with the Hall of Famer’s permission, and the Yanks, a team that has, in the Steinbrenner era, put its history on a golden pedestal, may need to unretire some respectable numbers. The fans too may have to let go or else we will be cheering on future greats wearing awkwardly large numbers on their uniforms.
Above: Bernie Williams’ 51 remains in limbo. (AP Photo/Ed Betz)
Budget? The Yanks don’t need no stinking budget
Posted by: | CommentsBreaking news: Yanks will have a limit on payroll this season. Buster Olney even tries to peg it at between $190 and $200 million. “Of course,” he adds, “it’s not a hard ceiling.” Damn right it’s not a hard ceiling. The Yankees have some important spots to fill, and they’re not going to cheap out on them. No, they’re going to hit the free agent and trade markets hard. At least, that’s what Yahoo!’s Tim Brown1 tells us in his AL East hot stove primer.
Holes to fill: In spite of their World Series championship, the Yankees could use help in places, but nothing they can’t throw a few dollars at. The obvious issues are in the rotation, in left field, in the bullpen ahead of Mariano Rivera(assuming Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes are going to the rotation) and at DH. Yankees problems, however, aren’t often like other people’s problems. They’ll have Andy Pettitte back, or jump in hard on John Lackey and/or Roy Halladay (or all of the above). They’ll have Johnny Damon back, and/or add Matt Holliday or Jason Bay. They’ll have Hideki Matsui back, or run the DH at-bats through the guys they already have.
Yes, there will be a hard cap on the Yankees’ payroll this season. It’ll be somewhere around $260 million, but it’ll be there. Somewhere.
Exclusive photo taken outside the Yankees organizational meetings.2 Photo credit: Tim Brown3
Don’t think that’s it. Oh, no. Brown wants to make sure you know that the Yankees are prepared to pick up salary in trades, too.
They’ll be in on Halladay. And they’ll talk to the Tigers about Edwin Jackson and Curtis Granderson.4 They’ll talk to the Reds and Braves about pitching.5 In some cases, they’ll have to be prepared to part with Hughes or Chamberlain and outfielder Austin Jackson.6
Projected 2010 Yankees lineup:
C: Jorge Posada
1B: Mark Teixeira
2B: Robinson Cano
SS: Derek Jeter
3B: Alex Rodriguez
LF: Matt Holliday
CF: Curtis Granderson
RF: Nick Swisher
DH: Johnny Damon
SP: CC Sabathia
SP: Roy Halladay
SP: A.J. Burnett
SP: John Lackey
SP: Aaron Harang
RP: Edwin Jackson
RP: Javier Vazquez
RP: Andy Pettitte7
RP: Bronson Arroyo
RP: Phil Hughes
RP Damaso Marte
The 8th: Joba, where he rightfully belongs because he’s a bull in a china shop
CL: Mo
World Series on a budget, folks.
1Clearly, Tim Brown is mryankee. (Up)
2Not really (Up)
3Not really (Up)
4Who will cost money (Up)
5Who will cost money (Up)
6Who will not cost much money (Up)
7Even though he’s a starting pitchah (Up)
U.S. economic growth and the Yankees’ World Series wins
Posted by: | CommentsUnfortunately, during the crush of the World Series, I missed this tidbit the first time around, but it’s never too late for some rosy economic news. In the waning days of the World Series, Andrew Leonard at Salon explored the reality that a Yankee World Series win brings with it an average GDP growth of five percent. So not only is our horrible endless nine-year ring drought over, but that the recent economic recession should be over too, right? After all correlation always implies causation no matter how tenuous the connection between the two events may be.
Jeter hard up for the dough
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Just a few hours ago, we were talking about low-level rumors concerning a Derek Jeter contract extension. Later in the day, pictures emerged that showed Jeter could really use the dough. As you can see, he’s been reduced to begging for money on the streets of Coney Island. And his hair grew out since last week.
Nah, I’m just kidding you. Derek’s filming a movie. The film, called The Other Guys, stars Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell as two cops who, in the words of The Post, “are permanently benched after Wahlberg’s character wrongly shoots Jeter in the leg after seeing him walking around with a bat.” Jeter plays a future washed-up version of himself.
Click here for a rather amusing photogallery of scenes from the movie shoot. With that scraggly long hair and oversized puffy coat, Derek has never looked better.
After the World Series, mixing baseball with politics
Posted by: | CommentsRarely do we mix baseball with politics around here. We all have varying opinions on the political landscape, and we use River Ave. Blues to argue over Joba Chamberlain and his role on the pitching staff, not health care and the debate over a public option. Trust me; it’s just better that way.
Sometimes, though, the political stories involve baseball, and winning the World Series certainly brings out some amusing baseball stories from the political realm. So as your work day draws to a close, we’ll just jump right in with one the more amusing pieces The Times has run in a while. Yesterday’s Week in Review section featured a Yankee-related Op-Ed from former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.
Fleischer has been a long-time George W. Bush confidante and is close friends with the former president. Still, he knows who’s responsible for the Yanks’ World Series drought:
It is hard to find a bigger admirer of President George W. Bush than me. I support his policies; I believe in him; he’s a really good guy to be around; and he throws a mean fastball. As his press secretary, I stood by him through thick and thin. But recent events require me to speak out about my former boss: For eight long years, President Bush put a curse on my New York Yankees.
It’s not lost on me, as a lifelong Yankee fan, that the Bronx Bombers won the World Series four times during Bill Clinton’s presidency, the last time in 2000. On Wednesday, they won it again — in the first year of Barack Obama’s administration. Yankee success bookended the Bush presidency and that presents a problem for fans like me.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was standing in the Oval Office when the president secretly put his curse on my team. The 2000 champions paid a celebratory visit to the White House in May 2001. President Bush gathered the players in the Oval Office and was telling them what role models they were when George Steinbrenner, the team owner, suddenly tried to talk over him. “George,” Mr. Bush interjected, “not even the Boss gets to interrupt the president.”
The Boss tried to talk over the President, and the Baseball Gods did not smile upon the Yankees. Or maybe the Baseball Gods didn’t look kindly upon President Bush’s silencing of the Boss. Either way, as Fleischer wrote, “For eight straight years — all of which perfectly coincided with his time in office — the Yankees didn’t win.”
Fleischer notes that the previous eight Yankee World Series wins have come under Democratic presidents and wonders what a G.O.P. Yankee fans is to do. “If you’re a Democrat who wants the Yankees to lose — like the Boston Red Sox president, Larry Lucchino — you need to start voting Republican,” he said. “And if you’re a Yankee fan like me, well, I just can’t bear to say it … ”
Fleischer’s Op-Ed comes on the heels of a House vote on H.Res. 893, congratulating the Yankees on winning the World Series. Usually, these ceremonial bills pass the House with little debate and most are unanimous. Not this one though for baseball brings out the partisan debates like no other.
As you can see from the above map and this roll call list, not everyone in the House voted to congratulate the Yankees. It passed with a vote of 386 for, 17 against, 11 present and 19 non-votes. The nays were a nice mix of Democrats and Republicans from anti-Yankee districts. A few Phillies fans objected; a few Red Sox fans voted no; some Yankee haters couldn’t stomach the bill; and one guy voted against it because the Yankees, well, “just they’re not the Padres.”
“I’m usually rational but when it comes to the Yankees, I take a hard-line position. For those of us in Red Sox nation, it was a sad, sad day,” Bill Delanhunt, a Massachusetts rep, said. “It tells you something about the corrosive nature of money in sports and politics.”
Even Mets fans from the New York delegation to the House who supported the bill heard from their colleagues while 2013 mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner voted for the resolution but did not support it. All in a day’s work for the House.
Just a friendly reminder to play nice in the comments…
