2011 MLB Season Discussion

[Icemizer]

Ventura??? Are you kidding me? We hire a guy with zero experience to manage the ball club. Just proves that Kenny is really running the team both on and off the field. So now Kenny has his little puppet who will play who he told to play. Both these guys(Ventura & Kenny) will be gone next year. Next year will be an absolute joke on the south side. Totally disgusted.............

 

[SmoothieX]

Robin Ventura, who has no coaching or managerial experience outside of a bit of work at a high school and was hired last year as the "special advisor to the director of player development," is the new manager of the Chicago White Sox.

This is ... interesting.

Heard that one earlier. Managers/HCs go back and forth between old and young, pro players or militant, experienced vs. fresh voice, and on and on.

In MLB and NFL, you take whatever you've had, and then go the polar opposite.

At least I still have fond memories of the Grand Slam Single.

 

[Timby]

Robin Ventura, who has no coaching or managerial experience outside of a bit of work at a high school and was hired last year as the "special advisor to the director of player development," is the new manager of the Chicago White Sox.

This is ... interesting.

Heard that one earlier. Managers/HCs go back and forth between old and young, pro players or militant, experienced vs. fresh voice, and on and on.

In MLB and NFL, you take whatever you've had, and then go the polar opposite.

I think in the case of the Sox, their primary criterion for a new manager was "not batshit crazy."

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

As much as I like Ventura, the WTF factor is definitely at play...

 

[clint g]

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Crap. Well, the Yanks sure had the opportunities, but missed 'em.

Here's to a Rangers win in the ALCS then!

 

[sidious618]

A-Rod really choked in the postseason.

 

[clint g]

A-Rod really choked in the postseason.

It's something we're used to by now Seriously, every time someone mentions the Yankees 200 million dollar payroll, I should toss out that a quarter of that goes to A-Rod and his useless ass self

Too bad the Rays didn't make it, I would have liked it for them to go the distance. Guess I'll settle for Texas for now

 

[Wanderlust]

Thank You Detroit!

 

[sidious618]

It's something we're used to by now Seriously, every time someone mentions the Yankees 200 million dollar payroll, I should toss out that a quarter of that goes to A-Rod and his useless ass self

Believe me, I know. He did good in the 2009 postseason but he choked in 07 and last year. Don't know what his problem is.

Thank You Detroit!

MLB won't be thanking them. Ratings are always down if the Yankees aren't in the postseason.

 

[Captain Ice]

Robin Ventura, who has no coaching or managerial experience outside of a bit of work at a high school and was hired last year as the "special advisor to the director of player development," is the new manager of the Chicago White Sox.

This is ... interesting.

This is just about what we said about Kirk Gibson when he was named manager. If Ventura does half as well, then the Sox will be in pretty good shape. If Gibson doesn't get MOY for the NL, I think there's something wrong with MLB.

Congrats Detroit!

Hopefully the Cards will win tomorrow (and the Dbacks too) since I really would rather not see the Phillies playing the DBacks next week.

 

[Tom Servo]

It's something we're used to by now Seriously, every time someone mentions the Yankees 200 million dollar payroll, I should toss out that a quarter of that goes to A-Rod and his useless ass self

Believe me, I know. He did good in the 2009 postseason but he choked in 07 and last year. Don't know what his problem is.

Thank You Detroit!

MLB won't be thanking them. Ratings are always down if the Yankees aren't in the postseason.

Well thank god the Yankees don't run MLB then...its good for the game that the usual suspects don't always win, especially the Yankees.

THANKS DETROIT!

 

[Cicero]

Well thank god the Yankees don't run MLB then...its good for the game that the usual suspects don't always win, especially the Yankees.

THANKS DETROIT!

I suppose that depends on one's idea of what the game is about. In my mind, baseball is about excellence, and the Yankees embody excellence more than any other team in any sport. I grew up a Yankees fan (in the Pacific Northwest) because I grew up a fan of Babe Ruth and (especially) Lou Gehrig. I'm not sure why; I think The Sandlot's promotion of Babe Ruth, occasional classic baseball highlight reels, an early viewing of The Pride of the Yankees, and the happenstance that my birthday fell on Lou Gehrig's all played important parts.

Essentially, I became a fan of the Yankees because I was a fan of the giants of Murderer's Row and the Bronx Bombers. They were Lou Gehrig's and Babe Ruth's team, so they were my team. I later discovered how many of baseballs greatest players had been Yankees, and, just as it finally dawned on me that Gehrig's and Ruth's team still existed, the Yankees won four World Series titles in five years - and I found out that they had one roughly a quarter of all World Series.

I was a fan for life.

My greatest regrets about baseball all center on excellence as embodied by the Yankees. The first is that Ruth and Gehrig couldn't play forever. The second is that Cal Ripken wasn't a Yankee. And the third is that the Yankees don't win the World Series most of the time, only about a quarter of the time.

I don't root for them because of hometown pride (I doubt I would much like living in New York), but because for me the Yankees are baseball. They're Roy Hobbs hitting the ball into the lights, a diamond full of ancient greats hustling in a corn field, Babe Ruth pointing to the stands. Anything less than a Yankee championship makes baseball a little less excellent, and so a little less than it should be.

(Don't get me wrong, I love the Sox (White) and like the Giants, but their success is only a piece of hometown history - and a hometown victory. As much as I'm a dyed-checker Chicagoan, I will always prefer that the Yankees win.)

 

[Tom Servo]

Well thank god the Yankees don't run MLB then...its good for the game that the usual suspects don't always win, especially the Yankees.

THANKS DETROIT!

I suppose that depends on one's idea of what the game is about. In my mind, baseball is about excellence, and the Yankees embody excellence more than any other team in any sport. I grew up a Yankees fan (in the Pacific Northwest) because I grew up a fan of Babe Ruth and (especially) Lou Gehrig. I'm not sure why; I think The Sandlot's promotion of Babe Ruth, occasional classic baseball highlight reels, an early viewing of The Pride of the Yankees, and the happenstance that my birthday fell on Lou Gehrig's all played important parts.

Essentially, I became a fan of the Yankees because I was a fan of the giants of Murderer's Row and the Bronx Bombers. They were Lou Gehrig's and Babe Ruth's team, so they were my team. I later discovered how many of baseballs greatest players had been Yankees, and, just as it finally dawned on me that Gehrig's and Ruth's team still existed, the Yankees won four World Series titles in five years - and I found out that they had one roughly a quarter of all World Series.

I was a fan for life.

My greatest regrets about baseball all center on excellence as embodied by the Yankees. The first is that Ruth and Gehrig couldn't play forever. The second is that Cal Ripken wasn't a Yankee. And the third is that the Yankees don't win the World Series most of the time, only about a quarter of the time.

I don't root for them because of hometown pride (I doubt I would much like living in New York), but because for me the Yankees are baseball. They're Roy Hobbs hitting the ball into the lights, a diamond full of ancient greats hustling in a corn field, Babe Ruth pointing to the stands. Anything less than a Yankee championship makes baseball a little less excellent, and so a little less than it should be.

(Don't get me wrong, I love the Sox (White) and like the Giants, but their success is only a piece of hometown history - and a hometown victory. As much as I'm a dyed-checker Chicagoan, I will always prefer that the Yankees win.)

Listen, if that's how you became a fan of the team, that's great, and its always good to have more baseball fans around. However, and this is not a personal attack against you, so don't take it the wrong way, but this post is the PERFECT example of why the rest of the baseball world hates the Yankees, and their fans. It's that exact attitude of if the Yankees aren't in it, or if they don't win it, then the World Series somehow means a little bit less. The Yankees aren't baseball. They are one team, one of many, who have all added to the unique fabric of the game in different ways. Yes they have won the most championships, and good for them, but that doesn't elevate them to another plain in the history of the sport.

That is why to the rest of us, every loss, and every failure that they have is savored just a little bit more, because it denies Yankee fans something that many of them feel they are entitled to, a championship.

 

[datagal]

 

[SmoothieX]

I suppose that depends on one's idea of what the game is about. In my mind, baseball is about excellence, and the Yankees embody excellence more than any other team in any sport. I grew up a Yankees fan (in the Pacific Northwest) because I grew up a fan of Babe Ruth and (especially) Lou Gehrig.

Are you 114 years old by any chance? I'm assuming you don't mean you grew up watching them actually play.

It's something we're used to by now Seriously, every time someone mentions the Yankees 200 million dollar payroll, I should toss out that a quarter of that goes to A-Rod and his useless ass self

A-Rod is just coming into his prime. Don't worry. He'll do nothing but improve over the next 4-5 years...

Isn't he signed until soemtime like 2030 or something like that?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ 2017, actually.

 

[SmoothieX]

Ouch. That's a lot of contract to eat for a guy who is 41 or 42.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

The Yankees don't care about overpaying for players. The rules of baseball economics don't apply to them.

 

[Starbreaker]

Let's go Cardinals!