The 2006 American League East Division Champion New York Yankees

  I was sitting with Acc in front of a mammoth TV at the Salty Dog in Brooklyn.  We were putting back some wings, potato skins and burgers.  We were winning, then we weren’t.  The Twins were winning, then they were losing; now they’re winning.  It’s the top of the ninth inning as I tap the keys, and the Twins are up 8-2.  This is a foregone conclusion, of course.  But it’s the worst possible clinching scenario.  Not only did the Yankees already lose – on the road, but the Twins have gained a hugely valuable game in the standings by beating the Red Sox, which has brought them to within one game of the Yankees for best record in the AL.  I can’t even pretend to get excited about this.  I will admit, however, that I’ve got one eye on the gamecast, because when the Red Sox game gets to the bottom of the ninth, I’ll go upstairs to the loft and put on the YES network, because I’m sure there will be some kind of cosmetic champagne-spraying.  They have the bubbly on ice, after all, so they might as well use it.  So I guess I’ll watch.  Why not.  But it might be lame.  Any Yankee celebration that isn’t the World Series is secondary to me. 

       But anyway, it’s the bottom of the ninth in Fenway, so I’ll go flip on YES.

        Okay, it wasn’t as lame as I thought.  They genuinely looked like they were having a good time.  The young kids were psyched.  Melky, Robbie Cano, Giambi, Damon, Jeter, Mo, the call-ups.  Even Allie-boy and Sheffield.  Everybody looked pretty psyched.  Interesting that you saw throngs of Japanese media in there, but you couldn’t see The Ferocious Lion.  I guess he was in the middle of the throng.  Randy Johnson was pretty tough to miss, as he was towering over everybody, spraying champagne around.  I’m glad they were enjoying themselves.  There are plenty of fans in plenty of Major League cities that haven’t gotten to see that in years.  So I’ve changed my attitude about it all, and in the span of just two short two paragraphs.

         Tony Sherry called me today, and asked if he was a bad guy if he thought the Mets celebration was a little bush league.  I told him to think what he wants.  It’s all relative anyway.  I don’t fault them for having a good time, but it was a little over the top, maybe.  They talk about acting like you’ve been there before.  And the Mets have been there before.  They won the pennant just six years ago.  But I won’t kill them about it.  Like the Mrs.’ cousin Ellen always says – celebrate everything.

         I would be remiss if I didn’t touch on the Allie article in Sports Illustrated.  Here’s where I weigh in.  I never particularly cared about whether or not the players on the Yankees were good guys.  In fact, I don’t care about their race, ethnic background, religion, gender, sexual orientation or favorite color.  I have only one criterion.  I just care that they will help the team win.  Now, there are limitations, of course.  If anybody was a convicted felon or something, I might reconsider.  So Allie-boy is a little “out there.”  No kidding.  He always seems to step up and make silly missteps when it comes to the media.  Just like David Ortiz last week, you can’t mention other players’ names when griping about this or that.  You just can’t.  Even if asked.  You have to side-step the question, take the high road, and move on.  Allie, because he generally doesn’t understand why he isn’t more loved, will prattle on about whomever.  Bad move.  But not only that.  He doesn’t have a good feel for how to navigate the clubhouse.  So he comes across as aloof.  That’s him.  You’re not going to change him and make him a better guy, so you just deal with it.  The article really didn’t tell you anything about the guy you didn’t already know, on some level. 

        There were a few interesting things about the article to me.  I’ll start by saying that I think Tom Verducci, as did most of the media, just got swept up in the media story that all of Yankee Stadium completely turned on Allie and booed him mercilessly.  A salacious story, sure, but it simply isn’t correct.  The truth is that none of the talking heads who are saying Allie was roundly booed were at the games.  Has anybody ever heard/seen a clip of Allie getting booed?  Most likely not.  Do you know why?  Because many a media outlet probably went looking for one, and they kept coming back with, “That’s it?  There must be a better one than that.”  But there wasn’t.  The booing was absolutely noticeable and discernible, but at no time was it just a chorus of unified boos.  I know.  I was at the games.  The truth is that at no point was even the majority of the crowd booing, and as soon as the booing started, there were always those who started cheering extra loud to try and offset it.  And it was pretty much a wash.  But the media can’t resist.  They keep insisting that he was overwhelmingly and viciously booed, when that was absolutely never the case.  With that said, the boos were there, and Allie most certainly heard them. 

        Probably the most interesting thing to me was the access that Verducci seemed to get.  There were a lot of pretty frank disclosures from Giambi, Torre, Reggie Jackson, Allie himself, and others.  That’s very unusual for any team, especially in mid-season, and it’s especially unusual for the Yankees.  Some of the insights were admittedly fascinating, like when Giambi acknowledged he was willing to go after some pitches he ordinarily wouldn’t go after in order to try and spare Allie the burden of getting the big hit.  Or when Torre acknowledged that he decided to call Allie in when Giambi came in and said, “Skip, you have to stop coddling him.”  But interesting as it was, I found myself asking why these guys didn’t just shut up about all this.  If you’re the team, I have to believe you think that people don’t need to know all of this stuff.

        But here is what I am left with.  This, undoubtedly, will send Allie-boy spiraling into another slump.  Just what the Yankees do not need as they march towards the playoffs.  Anything that’s going to make that guy play worse is bad for business, bad for the Yankees, and bad for the BPS.  So I hope he finds some sort of magic potion to get him past this.  Because I agree with what Allie-boy replied, when asked at the very end of the article, about the words Torre left him with when he had his sit-down.  “We need you.”

        Congratulations to the New York Yankees, the 2006 American League East Champions.