Wednesday, March 25, 2009

A Tour of the Penthouse

With the season nearly upon us and the moans of Blue Jays fans everyone growing louder by the day, I thought I'd seek out the opinion of a Yankee fan. What are they thinking heading into the season? What do they think of the Jays? Do they think of the Jays? Below you'll find the hard work of J from 3:10 to Joba. Enjoy

(stumbles in out of a Rolls Royce)

Well, hello there Jays fans and Canadians alike. It appears I have left my usually friendly confines and wound up in the wrong corner of the Internet again. Damn this Garmin to hell.

(eats Almas caviar and crackers, wipes mouth with funny-looking Canadian money)

Lloyd graciously asked me to help him preview the Yankees season and let me tell you, after I finished playing squash in the indoor court in my house, I was all too glad to do it. You see folks, my excessive behavior before you today is actually a result of the team I love as much as my own family. Simply being a fan of the Yankees supplements your income... it's like being on welfare, except without the stigma. Or the lack of being white.

All kidding aside, with the way the Yankees front office conducts its business, the fans seemingly are only one step away from demanding that the Yankees start paying them for their loyalty too. Fans (and this includes me obviously) were all undoubtedly spoiled by the 1996 - 2000 dynasty, and as such we enter every season with ludicrously high expectations for success. Couple those four World Series titles with the fact that the brass has no qualms with outspending every other team on the face of the planet and it's hard to blame the fan base for expecting a championship every year. Spending that much money demands results and in an offseason where the team spent almost half a billion dollars on free agent talent, the expectations for 2009 have officially reached ludicrous proportions. CC Sabathia loses his first two starts? Booed. Mark Teixeira only hits .260 in April? Booed. A lot of outsiders seem to think the harsh treatment of the fans was solely directed at Alex Rodriguez in recent years, but we're talking about the same group of people that have willingly booed Derek Jeter as well. As a realist (who thought A- Rod was getting a terrible rap up until the revelation that he is liar and a cheater), this behavior is fucking absurd. You simply do not boo Derek Jeter. Ever. That would be like Lloyd heckling Roy Halladay. Both Derek and Roy have done too much for their respective franchises to have earned even a moment of ire from the fanbases, yet in NY it's a whole different ballgame. The "what the fuck do we pay you for?" mentality permeates every aspect of the organization from management down to the guy sitting in the bleachers. Sure it can be funny when a member of the Steinbrenner family threatens to have a pitcher deported for coming up short in the quest to reach 200 IP and 25 wins, but it makes any lack of performance by the team all the more brutal to witness. The amount of money that the Yankees spend on a yearly basis insists on the concept that nobody within the organization is safe and if a player or coach isn't comfortable walking on eggshells, he had had better get used to it. You know the saying, "Mo money mo problems"? You're looking at its physical manifestation on earth, people.

Having said that, it's a lot of freaking fun to see my favorite team outspend everyone. It makes the offseason a bit more meaningful and fun to watch when the checkbooks are opened and the team could have a new face added at a moment's notice. For all the complaining about the Yankees free-spending ways, people don't realize something: they almost have to do it this way if they want to succeed. Their success in recent years doomed them to having poor draft position so they couldn't necessarily develop a Mark Teixeira from the inside, but rather had to buy his services from teams that could no longer afford them. Heck even the players that we have drafted are generally flameouts to begin with anyway. Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes mark the first time in years I've been excited about home-grown prospects and they still are not even fully on the radar within the organization's plans. I'm not looking for you to "feel bad for us" because we have to spend loads of money, I'm just pointing out that some teams just can't or won't play the Moneyball-style game.

No team in Major League Baseball gets extra wins or a World Series ring for being an idealist, you simply have to do the best you can with what you have. The Yankees have money (a lot of it, to be exact) and they do the best they can with it, and as a result are subject to an entire fanbase's excessive expectations. Yet in recent years, the absence of a championship has had the somewhat unintended effect of detracting from intensity. Both the team and the fanbase seems to be caught up in thinking that because of the Yankees bottomless coffers that the team can simply reload during every offseason. I don't have to share in the mentality of Jays fans that the year 2010 is a sort of a last ditch effort for the team to get into the big dance before they lose all of their stars because the Yankees can always reload with the "get 'em next year" mentality. Well next year has come and gone more than a few times now and with nothing to show for it except a lot of cash changing hands, the Yankees have to be a bit concerned about apathy growing within a perennially fickle fanbase. While this would never apply to me personally, the extended absence of A-Rod deals a huge blow to the lineup and no doubt there are some fans (read: insane people) already considering 2009 (or at least the first 2 months or so) a wash. Such is life when you expect a title every year. In a way, I almost wish the organization and fanbase shared the "now or never" mentality of the Blue Jays because really the only things that separate the two of us is a pile of money and a willingness to spend it.

Read J here 8 days a week. Thanks J!

18 comments:

  1. You said it sucks being a Yankees fan because they need to win a championship every year to justify the payroll. Now this is fine and dandy if you can make the statement and back it up in a solid way, but you really didnt do it effectively, which is just going to rile up the majority of fans.

    I have not, in my life, been able to experience my home team(jays) in the playoffs. Ever. (I was a kid during 92-93)

    Thats hard for some fans, and I think the REAL reason most people hate the yankees/fans is because they are so ungrateful. I would give my left nut for the Jays to make the Playoffs every 7-8 years. You guys have the most fan-dedicated management in baseball. Be happy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Having said that, it's a lot of freaking fun to see my favorite team outspend everyone.

    I'm not looking for you to "feel bad for us" because we have to spend loads of money...

    Yes clearly I said it sucks being a Yankee fan...

    Just trying to give people a little more insight into the baser instincts/mentality of a fanbase than even I give into from time to time. If that was unclear of me, then all apologies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "...the Yankees have to be a bit concerned about apathy growing within a perennially fickle fanbase."
    I have to feel like this is a bigger issue for the Jays than the Yankees. You guys are the biggest show in your town. We're what happens when the Leafs aren't playing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "No team in Major League Baseball gets extra wins or a World Series ring for being an idealist, you simply have to do the best you can with what you have. The Yankees have money (a lot of it, to be exact) and they do the best they can with it, and as a result are subject to an entire fanbase's excessive expectations."

    What a fucking joke. Where did you find this fucking clown? No shit expectations Sherlock, you fucking Yankees "fat stacks" apologist chimp.

    I hope CC needs a fucking bypass, AJ blows his arm off, and Tex chokes on his fucking Moet.

    Fucking cunts.

    Good job giving this piece of shit a forum for his propaganda, Lloyd.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You haven't been excited in homegrown players in years?

    So you didn't take part in the Melky Cabrera love-fest? What about Robinson Cano? what about Chien-Ming Wang? Soriano?

    This may come as a shock, but awesome players can still be drafted at the end of the first round.

    You never got excited about any of those guys?

    Also, the fact that the Yankees pony up absurd signing bonuses for guys like Ian Kennedy mean that they don't NEED the hot pick.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What's that line about fighting on the Internet? "Even if you win, you still look like a retard"?

    With that in mind, consider this my official addendum to this post:

    This was intended to be over the top, hence the ludicrously silly intro. Despite the fact that I said I was going to be serious, a lot of the stuff is supposed to be read ironically. There are very few things here that I actually consider arguable or reasonable.

    If you've ever read my blog, you'll know that seriousness is not something I pretend to demonstrate on a regular basis. A lot of what was in here was meant to play into the very "Holier than thou/everything we do is for the right reason" stuff. I don't actually believe that poor draft position prevents teams from developing talent, and anybody who did believe that would be hopelessly wrong at best, as wald alludes to right above me.

    In talking about "expectations," sure I have "facts" that Yankees fans will boo stars if they don't perform (and I do disagree with this activity, the Jeter/Halladay sentiment is one of my "legitimate" points), but really, the fact that I dwell on the topic so much should be indicative that I'm not being 100% serious. The fact that I say that I'm not looking for sympathy but then make the most sympathetic bunch of statements I can think up is still considered irony unless my dictionary is hopelessly outdated.

    The notion that you can quantify anybody's expectations is so inherently stupid and I was trying to play on this a little bit. In talking about how I wish we were more like the Blue Jays, that is hopelessly sarcastic. Had I thrown in a line about "Yeah that would be nice but here's to another half a billion in 2010", it would have been much more clear that I wasn't actually trying to compare the apples and oranges/ reconcile sympathy between our franchises. Torgen more than adquately picks up on what makes comparisons like this ironic, but assumes I'm being overly genuine in my remarks. Again, totally my fault, sorry.

    I cannot fault anybody for misinterpreting subtlety and irony when you aren't familiar with the writing style, or don't have the benefit of hearing the stuff spoken. I'll have to spell it out more, understandably.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Andy, seriously?

    Look, I get you don't like the Yankees. Many people don't. But they do have fans, people that live and die with their team, people that lived and died with their team as it struggled to win 80 games while our team HAD THE LARGEST PAYROLL IN BASEBALL, BUYING US TWO TITLES.

    I asked J for his perspective, as a fan that has to reconcile his belief in his team with the way they do business sometimes. And J delivered, better than I ever would have hoped.

    Irony helped J point out the occasionally ludicrous expectations and, dare I say, burden being a Yankee fan can be. I respect the way he made his point, and I respect the way he's come here to defend it. I'm having a hard time respecting the way you're attacking a man for his team's lack of fiduciary restraint.

    So yeah, fuck AJ (who our team signed as a free agent three years ago, outbidding everyone by a good mile) and fuck the Yankees. But there's no need to be a dick to J because of your bitterness over the Jays lack of success in recent years. Be a dick to Rogers, be a dick to geography, be a dick to Gary Denbo. But spare me your righteous anger.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  9. "you simply have to do the best you can with what you have. The Yankees have money (a lot of it, to be exact) and they do the best they can with it"

    Oh, they do the best they can. It must be so hard.

    Was that passage written with irony too?

    I reiterate my earlier point. F-U-C-K-I-N-G J-O-K-E.

    ReplyDelete
  10. There are very few things here that I actually consider arguable or reasonable.

    This would be one of the serious points/obvious The Dark Knight ripoffs. If you prove that there is so much as ONE team that doesn't at least partially abide by this mentality of doing the best with what they have, you win.

    It's not trying to make you feel sorry, hence the lines afterwards are meant to be the ironic ones. How could anybody actually feel sorry for what Torgen accurately calls the richest, most fan-devoted team in baseball with a proven track record for being in the playoffs?

    Maybe I would've broken through to you had I just typed

    "YANKEES RULZ!

    JAYS SUX!"

    and called it a day.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Keep telling yourself that the Yankees' spending is OK, and not bad for baseball.

    Your weak effort at humour doesn't make you look as smart as you think you are, BTW.

    Weak.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Was it bad for baseball when the Jays did it?

    Is it bad for baseball when the Yankees pay luxury tax on funds they reinvest in their on-field product while small market teams happily pocket the payments without transferring a dime?

    Is it the lack of salary cap you hate, or lack of salary floor?

    The Yankees make a great foil, but you're being a prick now.

    ReplyDelete
  13. As akin to the penthouse, you probably pay more than it's really worth. It's the price for gaining a reputation for always outspending the other guy, even if you later realize the "other guy" is the landlord.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ah. I meant to comment earlier and now I feel like a suck who is choosing sides but I thought the article was interesting.

    It hits a theme I've wondered before about Yankee fans. Spending all that money is fine because you can afford it but it makes it much more of a loss if you don't win.

    It's not a "we'll get 'em next year" of the Brooklyn Dodgers mentality, it's "holy crap we just spent an insane amount of money and didn't get anything we had hoped in return".

    I agree with Lloyd, though, the Jays helped start this way of building a team (though, they relied more heavily on trades).

    I just got all nostalgic about the Yankees and learning about the greats during my childhood but deleted it. I honestly wish I could like the Yankees now. They just make it impossible.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The article was good. But I still hate the Yankees. It's my duty.

    ReplyDelete
  16. "Your weak effort at humour doesn't make you look as smart as you think you are, BTW."

    At least he's smart enough to stay above ad hominem attacks...

    ReplyDelete
  17. There was no "love fest" for Melky amongst rational Yankees fans. I, as a fellow fan, knew what his limitations were, and respected his performance - that one time he performed...

    If we're going to assume that the actions of a minority group of fans represents those of the entire fanbase, well...

    (going back to 2005)

    "How about that fucking Gustavo Chacin! Woooohooo, he looks like a keeper!"

    ReplyDelete

Send forth the witticisms from on high