27 Yankees

A fitting end, to a baseball season of unremitting agony, all the way down to the Hated Yankees’ fans getting to taunt Pedro, who arrived without his fastball. While Pedro pitched well enough down the stretch (3.63 ERA, 37/8 K/BB ratio) and put on a respectable showing overall in the postseason (3.71 ERA, 16 K in 17 IP), I have to wonder if it’s just time for him to hang it up while he can go out on something resembling a high note, if he’s out of gas starting his third game in a month.
I will say that Much as I hate the Yankees, I cannot hate Matsui; he’s the Japanese Tommy Henrich. But I will hate Matsui quite a lot if he is a Met next year, because he will hit .233 with 8 HR and 47 RBI. Fortunately, it looks more like he’ll stay in the AL even if the Yankees let him go.
As for Mariano Rivera, you just have to tip your cap; he was automatic again to the end, even at 39, even for the two-inning save. He ended up this season lowering his career postseason ERA to 0.74. Small sample sizes or no – Mariano’s never thrown more than 8 innings in a postseason series – he has now appeared in 29 postseason serieses, and his ERAs for those serieses break down as follows:
4:50: 1 series (1 HR in 2 IP in the 1997 ALDS vs the Indians)
3.00: 2 serieses
Between 1.12 and 1.93: 7 serieses
0.00: 19 serieses
The only players to hit postseason homers off Rivera in 133.1 postseason innings are Sandy Alomar in 1997 and Jay Payton in 2000.
Neither here nor there, but to update a figure I have cited before, the Yankees are now 20-3 in World Series play under Democratic presidents, 7-10 under Republicans. Since their first pennant in 1921, that’s 20 championships, 23 pennants and 26 postseason appearances in 41 seasons under Democratic Administrations, 7 championships, 17 pennants and 22 postseason appearances in 48 seasons under Republican ones.

10 thoughts on “27 Yankees”

  1. It alway amazes me when folks (such as the Phils’ knowledgeable manager last night) play LOOGY with Hideki.
    While Hideki’s going to the Mets seems a no-brainer for a number of reasons (an old-school steady, serious pro; first base not as much of a strain on his knees as the OF, albeit he won’t make anyone forget Keith Hernandez; bat and eye good for at least a couple more years; and almost walking distance for the largest Japanese population center in the NY Metro area, plus an already-established fan favorite in NY), the Mets GM is about half a brain short of having no brains. It just makes too much sense to be comtemplated. Plus, the Mets’ owners are still “suffering” the effects of the net $50 MM+ they MADE on the Madoff scam.

  2. There was a world series? This Mets fan stopped watching baseball two weeks ago.
    Did the Evil Empire buy some more rings?

  3. An avowwed Yankee hater here but as a Red Sox fan, Met fan, Angel fan, Dodger fan, Cardinal fan and a couple others you really don’t get to complain about the Yankees buying a WS. Yes, they spent $423+ million last off-season and have an almost incalculable salary burden down the road but so what? There are plenty of rich owners that don’t spend a dime to win. While the Yankees are out-of-balance even in the context of an unbalanced league they are somewhat reflective of American idelogy in general, no? Opportunistic, hungry, capatalistic to a fault, doing what it takes to get ahead, etc. If you’re a Royals fan, Pirates fan, etc. it probably sucks to watch the big boys pretty much year after year play for the toys. Eh, that’s the way it is. Life ain’t fair.

  4. I don’t hate the Yankees so much as their fans (not all of them, but a lot). I have a ton of respect for several of the players, especially Rivera — undoubtedly the best closer ever — and Jeter — not the best player, but someone you want on your team.
    Still, that last set of statistics you cite could almost get me to vote for a Republican for President. Unless it’s Palin.

  5. Let me see, the Yankees’ losses in ’01 & 03 were Bush 43’s fault.
    Fits the current all purpose excuse.

  6. Crank
    My comment above was accepted.
    Your site rejected me as a 1st time commenter Nov 3 on the BB comment in which I predicted a NYY 6th Game win 7-3 with Matsui getting 6 RBIs!

  7. The amazing thing about Rivera is that he still seems to be getting better. His career ERA through age 32 was 2.60, and it is now 2.25, and has been under 2.00 six of the last seven years. It has to end eventually, but there’s absolutely no sign that it’s going to be soon.

  8. Watched Game 6 at JFK until Matsui hit the HR. Got on a plane-no updates. Got off the plane in London-nothing in print. Got to my hotel-they had internet found out at 6am NYC time they had won. I feel so happy for Matsui-doing what he did in probably his last game as a Yankee. Resign Pettite, resign Damon for 1 year-bring up Austin Jackson to start getting some playing time. Rotate Posada, Jeter, Arod, Damon as the DH and maybe we get #28 in 12 months.

  10. That Philly team is loaded. If Cole Hamels starts pitching like Cole Hamels again they are right back in it. As a Yankee fan I just want a couple of more while we still have Jeter, Posada, Rivera, Pettite-I know-they have already won 5 so why do they need more-it is my feeling that’s all. I think those 4 are a very special group

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