Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

I was promised a recession.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

The willow is too close to the house.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night OT (Steve Gilliard Memorial Ed.)

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157Comments

  5. 5.

    JK

    @freelancer (itouch):

    greed drives you nuts?! Brother, this is America. We took local p2p corruption and institutionalized it. Baseball’s flawed.

    Baseball is one of the great inventions of mankind, so you better believe it drives me nuts to see the greatest sport being degraded and ruined by greedy owners and greedy players.

    Any system that allows a team or teams to buy a playoff berth year after year, until the sun goes nova, is sleazy, corrupt, and stench-ridden. The NY Yankees’ enormous financial resources enable them to always outbid any team for the best free agents and absorb $30 – $40 million for players who turn out to be a bust. Given their huge financial advantage, the Yankees are a lock to make the playoffs every year until the end of mankind.

    What drives me nuts is that the solution to this rotten system is staring everyone in the face and greed prevents it from being implemented. Baseball needs a SALARY CAP. If a salary cap is good enough for football, basketball, and hockey, it’s good enough for baseball. Contrary to the delusions of Sports Illustrated writer Jon Heyman, a salary cap is not communism. I’m very confident that Roger Goodell, David Stern, and Gary Bettman don’t have shrines extolling the virtues of Karl Marx.

    The one constant through all the years, freelancer (itouch), has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, freelancer (itouch). It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Freelancer (itouch). People will most definitely come.

    God Bless Baseball and Fuck Those Goddamn Motherfucking NY Yankees

  7. 7.

    The Dangerman

    Don’t worry about the Yankees; I think the Angels will beat them. For some reason, a Freeway Series seems inevitable (as well as freeway gridlock the LA area hasn’t seen in … well, ever).

    Then again, for good measure, FUCK THE FUCKING YANKEES. Feels kinda good.

  11. 11.

    Dan L

    Like all good hearted people everywhere, I despise the Yankees. But a salary cap doesn’t make things more competitive, it just allows the greedy owners to keep more of their money while fielding mediocre teams. Baseball doesn’t need a cap, it needs a minimum salary requirement.

  12. 12.

    MikeJ

    Thank gopod the Sox are back to the Sox I know. When I lived in Boston, the Red Sox would get your hopes up and then lose. People who have lived there since they won the series have told me the fans now don’t expect failure, they expect winning. This is *wrong* for a Red Sox fan. Today’s loss may steer the fans back on the straight and narrow.

  13. 13.

    JK

    @freelancer (itouch):

    I love that speech from Field of Dreams.

    I wish the owners and players’ union had the same reverence and respect for baseball as a fictional character.

    I don’t recall which baseball team is your favoite. Which one is it?

    Tonight’s episode of Mad Men was one of the best of the series so far. Lots of good conflicts.

  14. 14.

    Arguingwithsignposts - ipod touchs

    Yes, f the yanks, although I can’t be too sad since my fantasy football team kicked ass.

  15. 15.

    gwangung

    Meh.

    Salary caps DO NOTHING for competitiveness. Soft salary caps lead to the same teams winning; hard salary caps lead to constant roster turnover.

    Baseball, without a cap, has done pretty well in having a variety of teams win the World Series. And, frankly, I think a sport profits overall by having one team be a perennial contender–somebody gets to be the perpetual villain.

    I’m perfectly fine with having the Yankees be the bad guys forever.

  16. 16.

    bvac

    I had a dream last night that Obama made a joint appearance with George W. Bush to announce a bipartisan agreement to fully legalize torture by the CIA, and to grant blanket amnesty to those who carried it out in the past. It was very surreal yet plausible. Can you guys make the Balloon Juice banner text link back to the site? I find it much more convenient than clicking refresh, for some reason.

  17. 17.

    JK

    Anne Laurie ,

    What’s up with Fuck the Fucking Yankees?

    Don’t get me wrong. I wholeheartedly endorse the statement, but I thought you weren’t a baseball fan. I thought you weren’t a fan of sports in general. I could have sworn that you once wrote you didn’t care for sports.

  21. 21.

    General Winfield Stuck

    Normally, I’m a baseball fanatic. Even when my Reds end up in next to last place, or there abouts, for the last decade. But not this year for some reason. Maybe too much politics or something, but it just seems like things are more serious than they used to be. Like we’re all standing at a crossroads and who knows which way we will go. Just can’t hardly take my eyes off that for sports.

    I will say the one good thing about the Yankees getting to the World Series, if they do, I will become interested for sure to root agin them with abandon.

  22. 22.

    Brachiator

    @bvac:

    Can you guys make the Balloon Juice banner text link back to the site? I find it much more convenient than clicking refresh, for some reason.

    You can click on “Consistently Wrong…”

  23. 23.

    Mojotron

    I used to simply hate the Yankees, but after reading this I loathe them. I want to go to the new stadium just to heckle the people in the Legends seats.

  24. 24.

    Keith G

    Hard to believe that its been over two years since I was last able to laugh out loud at Steve’s writing. He had me from “hello.”

  26. 26.

    wlrube

    As a Giants fan, all I can hope is that the Phillies beat the Rockies. Dodgers/Rox in the NLCS on top of Angels/Yankees in the ALCS would be too fucking much.

  27. 27.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @JK:

    I think it’s a law somewhere, or maybe an internet tradition that you don’t have to be a sports fan to hate the Yankees. It’s just the proper thing to do for any patriotic American. And also the Cowboy’s. Too, yes/.

  28. 28.

    JK

    @Mojotron:

    Thanks for that link. The wretched excess of the NY Yankees knows no limits.

    It’s time for the Los Angeles, Anaheim, or California Angels to send the Yankees to the showers.

    Let’s Go Angels.

  29. 29.

    Common Sense

    You guys are dangerously naive if you think a salary cap will fix baseball. The problem with MLB is half the owners are willing to handicap their teams since they can take money from the very few wealthy ones willing to pay. A salary cap won’t change that — the Pirates still won’t be going after Sabathia.

  30. 30.

    ricky

    Today Barak Obama has added one more month of peaceful freedom from attack on our homeland by Islamofacists. He surpassed the record George Bush established in his first term on September 12, 2009, the day of the Glenn Beck rallies.

    Let’s hope it continues.

  31. 31.

    Bostondreams

    Preach it, sister.

    (wanders off muttering about freaking radio guys who point out a post season scoreless innings streak a minute before the ace closer blows the bloody game and said streak in inexplicable fashion).

  35. 35.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @ricky:

    He surpassed the record George Bush established in his first term on September 12, 2009, the day of the Glenn Beck rallies.

    Why do you hate America!

  37. 37.

    NYliberal

    Fuck the Fucking Yankees. That is all.

    Ha ha…The irrational hatred, fear, jealousy and whining displayed here reminds me of tea baggers at a town hall meeting.

  38. 38.

    Cat Lady

    @JK:

    Best lines from Field of Dreams:

    “So what do you want?”

    “I want them to stop looking to me for answers.
    Begging me to speak again, write again, be a leader.
    I want them to start thinking for themselves…
    And I want my privacy.”

    “No, what do you want?”

    “Oh, dog and a beer.”

  39. 39.

    Martin

    I have a new idea.

    Every year a poll is taken only by season ticket holders of the various teams. Only the most committed fans may participate. The poll is to vote one team out of the majors to go back to the minors. The winning team in the minors automatically gets promoted to the majors.

    I think this would do the job.

  42. 42.

    Common Sense

    Why is it that Hollywood is seemingly incapable of making a truly great football movie? Brian’s Song is probably the best, and it pales in comparison to Field Of Dreams, Bull Durham, The Natural, Bang The Drum Slowly, etc. The only others I can think of would be Rudy and Friday Night Lights. I hated Remember the Titans — I saw Hoosiers already.

    The only sport that translates as well to Hollywood, for whatever reason, is boxing. Probably the best sport subject for movies ever (Raging Bull, Rocky, On The Waterfront). When We Were Kings was an absolutely stellar movie and very highly recommended.

  43. 43.

    ricky

    @skippy:

    i live in los angeles. freeway series, anyone?

    The last time a major fault like this erupted in the playoff system the Creator sent a warning to bipedal baseball fans
    by crushing a number of those freeways. This time the Creator may be pissed the warning was not fully understood.

  45. 45.

    JK

    @ricky:

    Excellent point. Fortunately, you live in the real world. Unfortunately, too many Americans live in Beckworld where according to raving, drooling, bedwetting loon Glenn Beck, Obama is negotiating our surrender to the jihadis.

  46. 46.

    Arguingwithsignposts - ipod touchs

    @Martin: But you assume the most committed fans are necessarily season icket holders. Not always the case

  47. 47.

    Common Sense

    @Morbo:

    Indeed. All a salary cap would mean is less money to the players and more for the owners.

    I will continue to say this until I suffocate, whether the average fan listens or not. A salary cap would not affect the fans cost of attending a game AT ALL. Ticket prices are set based on the demand to see a game, not player salaries. Even if it did, a secondary scalper’s market would spring up overnight to correct the imbalance.

    Hell, it’s not even a salary cap. It’s a payroll cap. The owners want to legally collude to keep a higher percentage of their income. That’s it.

  51. 51.

    Brachiator

    @Common Sense:

    Why is it that Hollywood is seemingly incapable of making a truly great football movie? Brian’s Song is probably the best…

    Brian’s Song is not really a football movie. It’s a male weepie, Old Yeller with helmets and cleats.

  54. 54.

    Common Sense

    @Brachiator:

    Brian’s Song is not really a football movie. It’s a male weepie, Old Yeller with helmets and cleats.

    This is sort of how I think of Field of Dreams. It’s not a baseball movie, it’s a father/son movie.

    Dad?

    Wanna play catch?

    Any man that doesn’t choke up a bit on that has no soul.

  56. 56.

    ricky

    @JK:
    I only bring it up because to me the most valid complaint about Obama getting the Nobel Prize is “he only got it because he is not George Bush.” I just want to give those who have offered that complaint another example of why he is not. Always glad to help those with ODS.

  58. 58.

    Cat Lady

    @JK:

    … and with the benefit of being spoken at old school Fenway …

    I just love that movie. I watched that movie 5 times in a row after the Sox lost on the Aaron Fucking Boone homerun off Wakefield in Game 7, 2003. That movie was mother’s milk; it was the balm that soothed my troubled baseball soul.

  59. 59.

    JK

    @Common Sense:

    Why is it that Hollywood is seemingly incapable of making a truly great football movie?

    I haven’t seen it, but I’ve heard that North Dallas Forty is a good football move. Anyone have an opinion on that movie?

  60. 60.

    Common Sense

    @freelancer (itouch):

    I liked the movie and I loved the show. Still, I’m not referring to TV shows.

    Necessary Roughness, The Replacements, Little Giants, Any Given Sunday, The Program, Jerry Macguire, Varsity Blues…. All I am saying is that I’m starting to sense a pattern here.

  61. 61.

    Martin

    But you assume the most committed fans are necessarily season icket holders. Not always the case

    No, not exactly. I assume that season ticket holders are adequately committed fans. Sure there are more committed fans out there, but there is no reasonable way to identify them. Season ticket holders get the job done.

  62. 62.

    burnspbesq

    @Martin:

    As a soccer guy, I am completely accustomed to, and down with, promotion and relegation. It would be hard to make it work in baseball as currently organized because the Triple A teams aren’t independent. They rely on major league teams to provide them with players, and it would be really difficult for a newly promoted team to fill 10-15 roster spots with newly signed free agents.

    That said, if we were doing promotion and relegation, I would move four up and four down. The two worst teams in each major league go down, and the two best teams in each Triple A league go up.

    This year, we would be looking at Durham replacing Washington in the NL East, Louisville replacing Baltimore in the AL East, Albuquerque replacing somebody in the AL Central (there would have been a one-game survival playoff between Kansas City and Cleveland), Colorado moving to the NL Central to replace Pittsburgh, and Sacramento coming into the NL West.

  63. 63.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @JK:

    . Anyone have an opinion on that movie?

    Yes, terrific. Showed the seedy underbelly of pro football, or at least that of the Cowboy’s/

  64. 64.

    ricky

    @Brachiator:

    Brian’s Song is not really a football movie. It’s a male weepie, Old Yeller with helmets and cleats.

    More like Terms of Endearment without teats.

  67. 67.

    General Winfield Stuck

    Brian’s Song is not really a football movie. It’s a male weepie, Old Yeller with helmets and cleats.

    Based on a true story. I thought of it at the time as a “Love Story” sort of flick with helmets and broken bones as the backdrop./

  72. 72.

    Common Sense

    Here’s another way of putting it. I have a serious problem with any football movie being one of the top 10 sports movies ever. They aren’t all baseball or boxing, but there are just a ton of Hollywood flicks I feel are better than any football movie (even Leatherheads) ever made. Even Golf has Caddyshack (and Happy Gilmore, which beats the snot out of The Waterboy).

    I already mentioned Field Of Dreams, Bull Durham, The Natural, Rocky, Raging Bull, and On the Waterfront. I’ll even leave out documentaries (which eliminates two of my favorites in When We Were Kings and Hoop Dreams. To these I would add White Men Can’t Jump, Hoosiers, Slap Shot, CaddyShack, Color of Money, The Hustler, and Eight Men Out. Chariots of Fire really wasn’t my cup of tea, but it may still beat out the schmaltz that has been written about football. The only ones worth mentioning are Brian’s Song, Rudy, and Friday Night Lights — and I didn’t even like Rudy all that much.

  73. 73.

    JK

    Common Sense, Morbo, and all people opposed to a salary cap for baseball

    The NY Yankees are the single greatest beneficiary of a system that lacks a salary cap.

    Common Sense and Morbo,
    For full disclosure purposes, are you Yankee fans?

  74. 74.

    Martin

    @burnspbesq:

    I’m willing to compromise, but I’d like it to be possible for a well-playing team to be relegated, simply because they are douches, or perceived to be cheaters, dopers, etc.

    And no team would be willing to dump $1.5B into a stadium with the risk that they’d be trying to attract fans to a game against Sacramento.

    I’d make the WS winner exempt, of course.

  75. 75.

    Common Sense

    @JK:

    For full disclosure purposes, are you Yankee fans?

    Good God no. I live in Houston, so the Cowboys might trump the Yankees on my most hated list. But most years they are right there.

    I don’t just root for the Yankees to fail. I want them to be embarrassed. I want them to lose in the most random and bizarre, heartbreaking ways possible. I want their fans to moan about curses for a hundred years.

    I like Girardi though.

  76. 76.

    Phoenix Woman

    @preston:

    Actually, that was the third base coach’s fault. Punto was just following his lead.

    And of course, the Yankees’ payroll didn’t stop Matsui from making a similar error earlier in the game.

  79. 79.

    Cat Lady

    @Common Sense:

    I liked Remember the Titans a lot, but I’m a woman and Denzell makes me feel a little funny inside. I loved the coach’s little daughter who broke down film, and Sunshine, the QB. It wasn’t exactly Shakespeare, though.

  82. 82.

    TwinFan

    @Ricky

    Made him tear down the wall? Made him??? LOL, that’s the funniest line of the day. He didn’t make him do anything.

    And yeah…. Fuck the fuckin’ Yankees. My Twins lost and I’m pissed!

  83. 83.

    burnspbesq

    I’m curious to see whether Rush will have anything to say about all of the NFL players who have said that they will never play for the Rams if he is part of ownership. Wonder when was the last time there was an all-white NFL team.

  84. 84.

    IronyAbounds

    well, I’m a god damn Yankee fan and have been all my life. Derek Jeter is class personified. So all you Yankee haters out there can kiss my pinstriped ass.

  86. 86.

    JK

    @Common Sense:

    I don’t just root for the Yankees to fail. I want them to be embarrassed. I want them to lose in the most random and bizarre, heartbreaking ways possible. I want their fans to moan about curses for a hundred years.

    Well said.

    The greatest joy I’ve experienced as a Yankee hater is watching play by play announcer Michael Kay come on the air of the Yes Network after the Yankees have been eliminated from the playoffs. In recent years, when the Yankees were beaten by the Tigers and the Red Sox, it was nirvana to watch Michael Kay seething with anger and trying to contain it. He looked like someone who had just lost a $100,000 bet and watched his dog get shot.

  89. 89.

    ricky

    @Cat Lady:

    If we are going for high school football coaching movies,
    I’ll take Wildcats. Early career star power and Goldie Hawn unamplified.

  90. 90.

    Martin

    Plague of locusts? I thought they tore down the old insect pit where those guys used to play.

    No, Cleveland is still there.

  91. 91.

    JK

    @burnspbesq:

    Browns and Bengals won on the same day. Does that mean we get locusts and frogs?

    It means the Republican ticket in 2012 will be Palin Bachmann, the Dimmer Twins.

  92. 92.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @burnspbesq:

    Does that mean we get locusts and frogs?

    Maybe. And frog legs are quite tasty if seasoned right. Fish would also be biblical and acceptable, I think.

    @ricky:

    That was the Dog Pound. It’s still there, but the spirit hasn’t returned, yet. Fuck Art Modell. That needed to be said.

  93. 93.

    burnspbesq

    @IronyAbounds:

    well, I’m a god damn Yankee fan and have been all my life.

    You should sue your parents.

    Derek Jeter is class personified.

    Derek Jeter is “lie down with dogs, get fleas” personified. And when Reyes is healthy, Derek Jeter is the second-best shortstop in New York.

    So all you Yankee haters out there can kiss my pinstriped ass.

    If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather kiss Michelle Malkin’s ass.

  99. 99.

    Bostondreams

    @Common Sense:

    Well, for the greatest Yankee choke job ever, and one which is still considered perhaps the most stunning choke job in the history of MLB and most other sports, I give you your 2004 New York Yankees, who blew a 3 games to none series lead against the Red Sox after being one strike away.

    That game featured one of the most important stolen bases in Red Sox history, with Dave Roberts stealing second on the great Mariano Rivera.

    After this horrid sports weekend, I will be watching my DVD collection of that series all week. The last 4 games anyway.

  102. 102.

    tomvox1

    Man am I in the minority here but…fuck all you haters and GO YANKEES! We had 9/11 here in NYC after all and the Yanks gave me a reason to believe afterward even though those f*ing D’backs hosed us…not to mention ’04…so we’re due to win the whole thing again, damn it! So gee-whiz forgive me for rooting for the home team, rest of the “Real America” and all, but take your lame salary cap arguments & Field Of Dreams sentimentality and shove it up your ass, small(er) payroll losers. :D And go A-Rod! :) :) :)

  103. 103.

    JK

    @Bostondreams:

    That was the sweetest choke job and most exciting comeback of all-time. The cherry on top of the sundae was watching Michael Kay after the Red Sox eliminated the Yankees. It was fun seeing Kay struggle to avoid hurling a string of obscenities after the Yankees’ epic collapse.

  104. 104.

    JK

    @tomvox1:

    We had 9/11 here in NYC after all and the Yanks gave me a reason to believe afterward even though those f*ing D’backs hosed us.

    Do you have any evidence linking the f*ing D’backs to Al Qaeda? Seriously, I’m a lifelong New Yorker and love the city, I just hate the Yankees. I don’t think I’m a disloyal New Yorker or a disloyal American because I rooted for the Diamondbacks.

  105. 105.

    Anne Laurie

    @JK:

    I wholeheartedly endorse the statement, but I thought you weren’t a baseball fan. I thought you weren’t a fan of sports in general.

    You remembered correctly. However, the baseball playoffs now remind me of how much I miss Steve Gilliard. And since I grew up in the Bronx hating the Yankees (the Mets are for us natives), and then spent many years in the Midwest with no reason not to hate the Yankees, and now I live in the Boston area where hating the Yankees is always a popular choice, I will memorialize the first truly magnificent blogger I ever ran across by hating the godsdamned Yankees every October. I’m just a sentimentalist, in my own way.

  106. 106.

    drillfork

    @tomvox1:

    Saying that 9-11 should make us all wuv the Yankees (especially eight years after the fact) is bad enough, but the D-backs BEAT your asses. We have to deal with the Yankees’ unlimited resources; you should be able to A) come to grips with the fact that there’s a whole country out here beyond NYC and b) accept flat losing every once in awhile. Like for the past eight seasons.

    Sadly though, the Yankees will cruise this year. At least they’ll be beating the Angels and Dodgers from here, teams that are almost as evil.

    A salary cap does nothing for baseball unless there is true revenue sharing. And, beyond all the other issues, the morans in MLB are quite honestly happy with the status quo. To them, Yankees = ratings.

    And Nick Punto is the master of faux hustle with his routine slides into first base. He is not a good baseball player, and it’s no one’s fault by the Twins’ that they refuse to recognize this…

  107. 107.

    Martin

    so we’re due to win the whole thing again, damn it!

    Actually, I think the only team that can claim ‘due’ is the Cubs. The Yankees have won the title 1 time out of 4. I think they aren’t due to win again until 2290.

    And yes, go A-Rod. And Pettitt. Here have some more steroids so y’all can keep going.

  110. 110.

    K.

    It’s so fashionable to hate Yankees. I hate the Twins more than most any team in baseball. Rooting for teams shouldn’t be a moral issue yet that’s what it always feels like when people bring up teams like the Twins. Fuck the Twins and fan-based sanctimony and self-righteousness.

  111. 111.

    Dream On

    Worth pointing out that the Yankees haven’t won the world series since before 9/11. 8+ year drought makes them a fun villain to hate, but that’s ok. The Red Sox were poetic tragedy until they won the World Series twice. After that, they’re just another team – with a very cool old stadium.

    Baseball loves curses – now we only have the Cubs to provide that.

    But what do I know – I follow the Mariners and the Rockies.

  113. 113.

    Comrade Kevin

    @K.:

    It’s so fashionable to hate Yankees. I hate the Twins more than most any team in baseball. Rooting for teams shouldn’t be a moral issue yet that’s what it always feels like when people bring up teams like the Twins. Fuck the Twins and fan-based sanctimony and self-righteousness.

    Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for US Steel.

  114. 114.

    JK

    @Comrade Kevin:

    Yeah, Pete Hamill put it very nicely.

    Sometimes, I think rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for the Borg because the Yankees are a heartless, soulless entity assimilating the best free agents each year.

  116. 116.

    gwangung

    And, beyond all the other issues, the morans in MLB are quite honestly happy with the status quo. To them, Yankees = ratings.

    Honestly, I don’t think they’re morons for being happy with that.

    I firmly believe for a sport to be healthy, there should be a mix of Up-and-Comers and Established Powers. And among the Established Powers there should be one White Hat and one Black Hat. Everybody needs a villain to boo, and it’s not a flaw in baseball that the Yankees are perennial villains.

  117. 117.

    BruceK

    I’ll never forget that Carl Pohlad was ready to take a $150 million payoff to kill the Twins. And that Pohlad could have bought George Steinbrenner twice, plus Jeff Loria, and still had money left over.

    Full disclosure: I was in the upper deck of Yankee Stadium with my family on July 4, 1983, watching Dave Righetti pitch to the Red Sox, and have been a Yankee fan ever since.

  118. 118.

    Robertdsc-iphone

    I’m glad the Yanks won. The Angels look tough. It should be a great series.

    /Dodger & Yankee fan

  120. 120.

    rh

    I’m a Twins fan because I’ve lived in MN for (most of) the past 9 years, but I do think K. is onto something. I cringe anytime I hear a neutral observer or sportscaster talk about how the Twins are so great because they’re “scrappy” and “play the game right” and “just a bunch of baseball players,” etc etc. Carlos Gomez and Nick Punto have made those people look particularly stupid in the last couple of games.

    That said, fuck the stupid Yankees, and I hope they never win another world series. And though their ’09 squad looks better than the last several, I still think either the Angels or Dodgers are going to knock them out before the finish line.

  121. 121.

    estamm

    I’ve been a Yankees fan since the mid 1970’s (the Reggie era). However, I really hated it when they fired Torre. I’d love to see a Yankees-Dodgers series again. And then I’d love to see Torre lead the hated Dodgers over my beloved Yankees.

  122. 122.

    Lou D. Jones

    Fuck the goddamn motherfucking, pissdrinking, steroid fueled Yankees.

    Here is to the Angels in four. And if that doesn’t work, may Joe take his karmic retribution.

  123. 123.

    Lou D. Jones

    It’s autumn, time for the Yankees on TV playing baseball … with the Red Sox watching … at home.

    Yeah, after a billion dollars spent and for the first time in a nearly a decade…GO ANGELS!!!!

  124. 124.

    Lou D. Jones

    I was in the upper deck of Yankee Stadium with my family on July 4, 1983, watching Dave Righetti pitch to the Red Sox, and have been a Yankee fan ever since.

    Bandwagoner. What, would you have been a Rangers fan otherwise?

  125. 125.

    Lou D. Jones

    Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for US Steel.

    No, it is like rooting for Fox News.

  126. 126.

    JK

    @The Grand Panjandrum:

    The NY Yankees are a pestilence. They’ve never had to compete on a level playing field because they spend every other team into the ground. They’re the only MLB team with a 99.99% chance of advancing to the playoffs every season which means that their World Series titles are bogus and bullshit.

  127. 127.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    I use a Steve quote as my tag line over at Teh Orange. And yes, his fuck the fucking yankees quote has been much on my mind lately.

    I have three favorite, no, 4 favorite teams in baseball right now: those remaining in the playoffs except the fucking Yankees.

    Wherever you might be Steve, I hope you’re still able to despise the Yankees like every good, American-loving ‘Murkin does.

  129. 129.

    PurpleGirl

    Don’t know much about baseball and don’t much care for sports… but I miss Steve’s. I often think about leaving FTFY(/i> as a comment in his honor.

  130. 130.

    Legalize

    Yep, it’s that Yankee payroll that caused Nick Punto to forget how to run the bases.

    Word.

    Yankee hate is remarkably identical to wingerism. There’s this religious belief that the Yankee payroll has caused them to win all these championships – despite the fact that since the Yankees have become a payroll-bloated team, they’ve won exactly 0 world championships. If anything, the big-spending ways of the Yankees have caused them not to win championships. A lock to make the playoffs every year? They didn’t make the playoffs last year.

    The Yankees literally subsidize the shitty teams of MLB. They are the biggest so-cial-ists in sports. Ask the ownership of your sucky team why it doesn’t spend Yankee money on good players.

  131. 131.

    PurpleGirl

    K, let’s try this again.

    Don’t know much about baseball and don’t much care for sport… but I miss Steve’s writings. I used to start the day with his blog. I often think about leaving FTFY as a comment in his honor.

  133. 133.

    BruceK

    Lou D. Jones @ 124:

    When you’re twelve years old, just starting to learn about the game, and you see a no-hitter in your first game at a ballpark with your family, that tends to leave an impression. And considering that the 1980’s and early 1990’s were lean years at the House that Ruth Built, “bandwagoner” isn’t quite the right word.

    Dammit, I’m a Yankee fan, and I’m once again proud to be an American, and I was working in the Kerry general election campaign in ’04, and none of that is contradictory! Even if someone from the New York Times back in ’04 thought I was enough of an anomaly to warrant being an interview subject (for a story that got spiked, sadly)…

  135. 135.

    JK

    @Legalize:

    A lock to make the playoffs every year? They didn’t make the playoffs last year.

    WOW, one year that the Yankees didn’t make the playoffs. You conveniently overlook the fact that 2008 marked the first season since 1993 that the Yankees failed to make it to the playoffs.

    Nice try.

  136. 136.

    HRA

    General WS: “Did I mention that the Browns won today. Tomorrow, a plague of locusts.”

    Hell! Our local high school team could have played that game and shown more promise. First time I can remember when the family hardly watched the game on our TV after a dinner at our house.

    Three of our granddaughters went to the game. One of them had to return a coat to a friend parked down Rt. 20. Right behind them as they were walking down the street, a car careened into a crowd of people. Three pedestrians and 4 policemen were injured. Thankfully our girls were spared except for the shock of it all and will not be walking after the games from now on. Their aunt lives on the street next to the stadium. They will go wait there for a ride.

  137. 137.

    Legalize

    Not really, JK. The “premise” is that the Yankees’ payroll causes them to make the playoffs every year. Big deal. A playoff team is going to come from the AL East every year. Making the playoffs hasn’t translated to winning the world series or even getting to the world series. The Yankees bloated payroll has only really been a factor since the 2002 season. Since then they’ve made the playoffs, but have won the World Series exactly 0 times. Between 1993 and 2008, small-budget teams have won the series plenty of times. So, what’s the argument? Why don’t the Pirates pay for good players with Yankee money? How are the Marlins and Brewers competitive with no payroll? The Cubs and Mets spend a lot and they’re dreadful. Why is that? The Reds and Cards are in similar markets. Why are the Cards successful and the Reds terrible?

    Why did the Twins run the bases like amateurs during the series with the Yanks? I know; A-Rod’s fault. His paycheck hurts the feelings of the opposing teams, thereby causing them such grief as to forget how to play baseball.

  138. 138.

    Gus

    @Robertdsc-iphone:
    Dodger and Yankee fan? I’m a huge baseball fan. It’s the only sport I really pay any attention to. If it’s a Dodgers-Yankees series I won’t watch an inning.

  141. 141.

    gwangung

    @Gus: Yup.

    At least, not in the way you think.

    Basically, it’s only loosely correlated in the fact that as players hit arbitration and early free agent years, players get more expensive. But remember, that’s just teams retaining their own players. If you give them away, yeah, you’re not going to win many games–but that’s not from salary, that’s from giving players away.

    And again….Florida Marlins. Twice. And that’s only one less World Series than the Yankees have managed in 25 years.

  142. 142.

    Howlin Wolfe

    @gbear: You shoulda seed the picture of the crying fan on the back page of Section A of the St. Paul Pioneer Press this morning. I mean, geez, I love the Twins and I was hoping they’d finally win a game against the Best Team Money Can Buy(R).
    I knew they had a very remote chance of taking the series, or even winning a game, given their pitching staff.
    But this fan looked absolutely shattered, devastated. There’s always next year, gbear! See you at Target Field *shiver*

  144. 144.

    Gus

    @gwangung:
    And why do they give players away? Yes, there are the outliers, but 6 of the 8 teams in the playoffs this year are in the top ten in payroll, and if the Twins hadn’t finished ridiculously strong, it would have been 7 of 8. What really bugs me is the way the Yankees, Angels, et. al. are perfectly happy to eat millions in unproductive contracts. They throw money at players for long term contracts when they know that the player won’t be productive. Torii Hunter will not be worth the $20 million (or so) he’ll be making at the end of his contract. A-Roid will not be worth the $25 or $30 million at the end of his contract. The Angels and Yankees don’t care. They’ll deal with that when the time comes, and they’ll have the luxury of eating those contracts. The Twins and the Rays don’t have that luxury. A team can somewhat overcome that by good scouting and smart trading. The Twins are an excellent example. However, they’re good enough to get close and will never (almost) be able to take it that extra step. I don’t know what the solution is, or if there is one, but watching the enthusiasm level drain out of once great baseball cities like Pittsburgh is a goddamn shame.

  145. 145.

    gwangung

    The Twins are an excellent example

    Really? They’ve won the Series twice over the last 25 years. That’s one less than the Yankees. And they’re consistently in the hunt. Sounds like that disproves your example.

  146. 146.

    Gus

    And again….Florida Marlins. Twice.

    If you’re talking about the ’97 Marlins, that’s a perfect illustration of money buying a championship. They signed a bunch of stars and raised their payroll nearly 70% over the previous year. The ’03 Marlins are one of the outliers, as are the ’08 Rays. That type of team will win one once in a while, but I really can’t believe that anyone thinks there’s no correlation between payroll and the ability to win a World Series.

  147. 147.

    Gus

    @gwangung:
    You must not have read that very close. I said that the Twins are an example of a team that is able to overcome a low payroll with judicious scouting and smart trades. They’re in the hunt largely because they play in baseball’s weakest division. Also, looking at the past 25 years in this discussion is misleading. Salaries have escalated astronomically in that time. The Twins twice made Kirby Puckett the highest paid player in baseball with contracts that averaged $3 then $6 million. I’m not saying that payroll is the only indicator of future success. Look at the Mets. I’m saying it’s an important one, and to deny that seems kind of silly. (Also, I want to agree that the Yankees payroll didn’t make Punto fuck up on the basepaths or Joe Nathan groove a fastball to A-Rod.)

  148. 148.

    kelly

    steve gaillard, the fucking racist asshole who called Mike Steele “simple sambo”?

    o, I forgot, black people can’t be racist, right?

  149. 149.

    Linkmeister

    @burnspbesq: The last time an NFL team was lily-white was 1946. There’s an excellent article in last week’s Sports Illustrated about the racism which caused the NFL to eliminate black players from the league in 1934 and keep it white for the next 12 years.

  150. 150.

    Lou D. Jones

    Ask the ownership of your sucky team why it doesn’t spend Yankee money on good players.

    Ummm, because there are no good players left, after the Yankees pick clean what they want. All that is left after that are the dregs. Anyway, do you seriously think the Yankees could subsidize the Pirates or the Reds to the point that they could afforf a Sabathia or Teixeira on luxury tax alone?

  151. 151.

    Lou D. Jones

    When you’re twelve years old, just starting to learn about the game, and you see a no-hitter in your first game at a ballpark with your family, that tends to leave an impression.

    Not a good enough reason by any stretch. You need to read Bill Simmons’ rules for being a fan.

  152. 152.

    Gus

    Ask the ownership of your sucky team why it doesn’t spend Yankee money on good players.

    Yeah, I’ve got the Pohlad family in my address book. I’ll let you know what they say.

  155. 155.

    BruceK

    There are also “therapy groups” to cure people of being gay.

    And, also:

    – The Yankees were (and are) my hometown team.
    – I was following them in the dark times back when they weren’t winning anything. Including at least one last-place finish.
    – I’ll take Bill Simmons’ advice on being a fan of the Yankees the day President Obama takes Rush Limbaugh’s advice on governing the country.

    Also.

  156. 156.

    redoubt

    @burnspbesq: The 1961 Washington Redskins. Then owner George Marshall wanted to move from Griffith Stadium into the new DC Stadium (now RFK); the Kennedy administration threatened to refuse until he integrated his team. They traded the #1 pick in the 1962 draft to Cleveland–who turned out to be Ernie Davis–for Bobby Mitchell.

    @kelly: My memory is that Gilliard apologized and moved on. Who knew that Gilliard turned out to be right at least four years early?

    (That was a two-for-one when Jonah Goldberg, Boy Historian, accused Gilliard of being racist. Hilarity ensued.)

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