{"id":1163,"date":"2009-04-26T08:24:07","date_gmt":"2009-04-26T15:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/26\/mojo-rising\/"},"modified":"2009-04-26T09:12:58","modified_gmt":"2009-04-26T16:12:58","slug":"mojo-rising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/26\/mojo-rising\/","title":{"rendered":"Mojo Rising"},"content":{"rendered":"

The self-destruction of the Yankees’ bullpen has the author looking to a higher power.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m depressed.\u00c2\u00a0 If these last two Yankees-Red Sox games had taken place later in the season, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be a shell of my former self.\u00c2\u00a0 You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have found me wandering down route 117 in Bedford Hills muttering to no one in particular.\u00c2\u00a0 Both teams entered the series hot\u00e2\u20ac\u201dNew York had won three games in a row, Boston seven\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand they matched up Friday night for a compellingly taut battle.\u00c2\u00a0 Both teams worked the count and drove the starters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pitch counts up early in the game.\u00c2\u00a0 Joba Chamberlain exited after throwing 91 pitches in 5.1 innings of work, having yielded just two runs.\u00c2\u00a0 Jon Lester was able to finish the sixth, hurling 114 pitches and also allowing only two runs.\u00c2\u00a0 By the seventh, the match-up had evolved into a battle of the bullpens.\u00c2\u00a0 Over the winning streak, including the two outs gathered by Mariano Rivera in the ninth, New York\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bullpen had thrown 15.1 innings and given up one earned run on seven hits.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, with a runner on first and Jason Bay at the plate, everything went to hell.<\/p>\n

Rivera hung a cutter to Bay, who crushed it just to the right of the homerun line in the Green Monster in almost dead center field.\u00c2\u00a0 Two innings later, Damaso Marte did what he does best and gave up a walk-off <\/a>homer to Kevin Youkilis.\u00c2\u00a0 Flash forward a day later, and the Yankees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 bullpen is a mess.\u00c2\u00a0 In three innings of work on Saturday, Jose Veras, Phil Coke, Jonathan Albaladejo, Edwar Ramirez, Damaso Marte, and David Robertson combined to allow 7 ER on 5 H.\u00c2\u00a0 The game was ridiculous and anything but crisply played.\u00c2\u00a0 Both teams made errors, committed base-running blunders, and we even saw a case of catcher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interference!\u00c2\u00a0 Catcher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interference in a major league game is like catching a re-run of Seinfeld\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Puerto Rican Day Parade episode\u00e2\u20ac\u201dit just doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen.<\/p>\n

After fifteen games, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty clear that this Yankees team is going to rise and fall with its bullpen, describing which as streaky would be an insult to streaky athletes everywhere.\u00c2\u00a0 So, whom do we blame for this debacle?\u00c2\u00a0 The front office for dumping hundreds of millions of dollars on high-profile free agents and not dropping a few hundred thousand to acquire some proven late inning hurlers?\u00c2\u00a0 Pitching coach, Dave Eiland?\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, I blame the YES Network.<\/p>\n

With one out in the ninth inning of Friday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game, Rivera was cruising to his ninth save, and the Yankees were en route to a fourth straight win.\u00c2\u00a0 Then YES announced their Chevrolet player of the game: the Yankees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 bullpen!\u00c2\u00a0 The next pitch Rivera threw was rapped up the middle for a single.\u00c2\u00a0 Two batters later, Bay took him deep.\u00c2\u00a0 In my March 23rd running diary of the WBC, I wrote the following.<\/p>\n

8:39 pm:\u00c2\u00a0 Miller and Morgan throw it down to Pedro Gomez with Jake Peavy.\u00c2\u00a0 Gomez concludes the interview THAT OPENS THE BOTTOM OF THE SECOND INNING by alluding to the fact that the U.S. currently leads and could win the game.\u00c2\u00a0 New rule: all broadcasters must complete a graduate course on religions, superstitions, and jinxes before they are hired.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m calling it right now: if the U.S. loses, blame Pedro Gomez.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The YES broadcasting crew has become one of the most egregious culprits of introducing bad mojo to an otherwise positive atmosphere.\u00c2\u00a0 During A.J. Burnett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bid for a no-hitter, every sentence uttered by Michael Kay contained the words \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hits,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d despite the time-honored tradition that you should not talk about a<\/a> possible no-hitter.\u00c2\u00a0 Ever.\u00c2\u00a0 You reference it; you allude to it, but mention it?\u00c2\u00a0 That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the kind of offense that would lead to you washing up on the Jersey shore with Sylvio Dante\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fingerprints embedded in your neck.<\/p>\n

What makes the actions of the YES booth so particularly galling is that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s filled with recent athletes that should know better.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be willing to give Kay a pass, because he never played.\u00c2\u00a0 Joe Morgan and Tim McCarver get similar passes, not because of their talents as broadcasters, but because at some point in their careers, they crossed the line from ex-ball players to journalists.\u00c2\u00a0 But the YES booth comprises people only a few years removed from their playing days, such as David Cone, John Flaherty, Al Leiter, and Paul O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Neill.<\/p>\n

In \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bull Durham,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kevin Costner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Crash Davis explains the situation perfectly to Susan Sarandon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Annie Savoy.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A player on a streak has to respect the streak.\u00c2\u00a0 You know why?\u00c2\u00a0 Because they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen very often. If you believe you’re playing well because you’re getting laid, or because you’re not getting laid, or because you wear women’s underwear, then you ARE! And you should know that!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

In this case, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m Crash Davis and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m wagging the proverbial finger at Cone, Leiter, Flaherty, and O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Neill.\u00c2\u00a0 You should know better.\u00c2\u00a0 Chevrolet couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait two more outs to present the player of the game?\u00c2\u00a0 As a fan, when the game progresses in your favor, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t talk about it.\u00c2\u00a0 You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t switch seats.\u00c2\u00a0 You certainly don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t reward the players with sponsored fake awards until the end of the game.\u00c2\u00a0 You just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.\u00c2\u00a0 Watch \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Major League.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Bob Uecker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Harry Doyle sips whiskey and rubs a little behind his ears.\u00c2\u00a0 He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shout, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh my god, the Indians win it!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as Willie Mays Hayes rounds third.\u00c2\u00a0 He certainly doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t announce Rick Vaughn as <\/a>the player of the game after his big ninth inning strike out.\u00c2\u00a0 Why?\u00c2\u00a0 Simple: he understood the rules of the game.<\/p>\n

Baseball is a game where failure is constant.\u00c2\u00a0 Players do anything to repel negativity, from skipping over a foul line to Chris Von Der Ahe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s strategy of touching a cross-eyed person.\u00c2\u00a0 A teammate of mine once refused to wash his socks for so long that they eventually could stand up on their own.\u00c2\u00a0 Knowing this, why do announcers take part in levying bad mojo back on the players?\u00c2\u00a0 Shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they respect the nuances and subtleties of the game they claim to care so much about?<\/p>\n

Now, if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll excuse me.\u00c2\u00a0 I have to spin around three times, eat exactly twenty-two sunflower seeds, and take a shower at precisely 5:57 pm.\u00c2\u00a0 Without it, the Yankees just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stand a chance tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The self-destruction of the Yankees’ bullpen has the author looking to a higher power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t