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Reality Check
Email:
Harold
Friend
Website: Suite101
Harold is a
science teacher who loves
baseball. Actually, he is a self
described "baseball fan who
became a science teacher because
he couldn't hit or throw." He has
been involved with the New York
City Education system in various
capacities since 1962 and he
received his doctorate in science
education from NYU in 1968. He
credits Casey Stengel with being
responsible for his first
baseball "degree," and in 1998,
Joe Torre and Don Zimmer saw to
it that he received the advanced
version. For that he says, "I
cannot thank them enough."
THE
YANKEES COLLAPSE against the Red
Sox in the second round of the
2004 playoffs was the greatest
collapse in baseball history. No
other team that won the first
three games of a best of seven
series failed to win the series
---until now. Part of the reason
might be that many of the Yankees
led by manager Joe Torre, refused
to and still refuse to face
reality. The following are just a
few examples of their
ostrich-like approach.
GAME 4
STATEMENT: "I thought El
Duque was good," Torre said. "His
velocity was good. It looked like
when he made his pitches he had
good bite on the stuff, so I was
pleased with his outing."
REALITY:
El
Duque pitched five innings,
allowed three hits, five walks,
six strikeouts and three earned
runs. Three runs in five innings
is bad. Three runs in five
innings is an earned run average
of 5.40. El Duque's velocity
might have looked good. His
velocity might have been good.
The fact remains that he allowed
three runs in five innings. But
Joe Torre was pleased with his
outing. Joe Torre refuses to face
reality, and least in
public.
GAME 5
STATEMENT: "I'm not sure
that these two games, other than
being frustrated as [heck],
change how we feel about
ourselves," said manager Joe
Torre. "Sure the momentum is on
their side," he added, "but I'm
not sure it affected us where we
don't feel good about
ourselves.
REALITY:
This
psychological approach is a bunch
of garbage. Throughout his
managerial career, Torre has
tried to make his players "feel
good about themselves." It really
worked this time, didn't it Joe?
The Yankees were a team that felt
good about itself as it became
the first team to lose four
straight games in a seven game
series after winning the first
three.
There are times
when an individual must face the
reality that he didn't do what he
had to do; when he DOESN'T feel
good about himself. Kevin Brown
didn't "feel good about himself"
when he left the Baltimore game.
He was livid, not at the Orioles
but at himself and he was right.
Did Torre want Brown to "feel
good about himself" after he
broke his hand?
How "good about
himself" did Paul O'Neill feel in
the bottom of the ninth inning in
Game 1 of the 2000 World Series?
O'Neill had struck out his last
time up and came to the plate to
face Armando Benitz with one out,
no one on base, and the Yankees
trailing the Mets 3-2.
Does anyone
seriously believe that O'Neill
was thinking about how he felt
about himself? All he was
thinking about was how he could
get on base against Benitez. In
one of the great at bats in World
Series history, O'Neill worked
out a crucial walk and eventually
scored the tying run on a Chuck
Knoblauch sacrifice fly.
Ralph Terry gave
up the Bill Mazeroski home run in
the bottom of the ninth inning
that made the Pirates the 1960
World Champions. Two World Series
later, Terry faced the Giants in
another Game 7. He shut the
Giants out through eight innings.
How did he feel about himself
during those eight innings?
Mateo Alou led
off the Giants' ninth with a
single. Was Terry "feeling good
about himself?" Was he thinking
about Mazeroski? Who knows? Who
cares? With Alou on first, Terry
struck out Mateo's brother Felipe
for the first out and then struck
out Chuck Hiller for the second
out, bringing up the great Willie
Mays.
Mays never had to
think on the baseball field. His
instincts were better than anyone
who ever played the game, with
the possible exception of Jackie
Robinson. A reporter once asked
Mays how he did the great things
that he did and Mays replied that
it was simple. "They throw it and
I hit it. They hit it and I catch
it." Mays wasn't too concerned
about how he felt about
himself.
With Alou on
first and the Giants down to
their final out, Willie lined
Terry's pitch down the right
field line for a hit. Alou, a
fast runner, rounded second,
heading for third. Roger Maris,
who had followed his sixty one
home run season with a
disappointing season in which he
batted only .256 with thirty
three home runs, raced toward the
line and, in what turned out to
be a World Series savings play,
cut off the ball to hold Alou at
third, bringing up the dangerous,
left handed hitting Willie
McCovey with the potential tying
run at third and the potential
winning run at second.
Yankees manager
Ralph Houk went out to the mound
to talk to Terry. The right
handed hitting Orlando Cepeda
followed McCovey. Houk, Terry,
McCovey, Cepeda, and Bobby
Richardson all were asking
themselves how they felt about
themselves as they prepared for
the crucial next at bat. The
Yankees would face McCovey. Terry
delivered the pitch and McCovey
hit a screeching line drive right
at second baseman Bobby
Richardson, who caught it for the
final out. The Yankees won, the
Giants lost, but McCovey probably
felt good about himself because
he hit the ball as hard as is
humanly possible.
GAME 6
STATEMENT:
"If
we win tomorrow, it won't be
embarrassing," said Alex
Rodriguez of his team's
three-game losing streak.
REALITY:
Even
if the Yankees had won Game 7, it
would have been embarrassing.
Even if the Yankees had won Game
7, they still would have been the
only baseball team to lose three
straight games after winning the
first three of a seven game
series. Only the 1998 Braves and
the 1999 Mets ever even got to a
Game 6.
That is Alex
Rodriguez, who talks to his
friend Derek Jeter while his
Seattle teammates are involved in
a brawl with Chad Curtis and the
Yankees. That is Alex Rodriguez,
who tries to illegally slap the
ball out Bronson Arroyo's glove
instead of trying to legally
barrel him over.
STATEMENT:
"It's a beautiful
thing," said Tony Clark. "These
two teams have been so evenly
matched all season, so to have it
come down to Game 7 is nothing
surprising."
REALITY:
Being involved in
the greatest collapse in baseball
history is not a beautiful thing.
The fact that Tony Clark can say
it is after his team has just
lost three straight games speaks
volumes about Tony Clark. He is a
wonderful person and a wonderful
teammate, but he is not a winner.
STATEMENT: "Lieber pitched
dynamite," said manager Joe
Torre. "Just one bad pitch to
Bellhorn cost us three runs, but
he certainly hung in there and
pitched very well."
REALITY:
See
El Duque above.
GAME 7
STATEMENT: "Those guys kept
playing the way we used to play,"
Williams said. "They have two
great horses in Manny and David,
but the rest of the team are
tough outs, too. They gave our
pitchers a run for their money.
They just weren't going to be
beaten."
REALITY:
Bernie is
correct. We had David Wells and
David Cone, who won the World
Series in 1992 with Toronto. We
had a healthy El Duque, a young
Andy Pettitte, and a determined
Roger Clemens. We had Paul
O'Neill, Tino Martinez, Chuck
Knoblauch, Scott Brosius, and Joe
Girardi. Those guys just weren't
going to be beaten.
Now, only Bernie,
Posada, Mariano, and of course,
Jeter remain. They need help.
Only Sheffield and Matsui can
provide that help when it counts.
It certainly hasn't and isn't
going to come from Kevin Brown,
whom we defeated in the 1998
World Series, Jon Leiber, who is
one of the most hittable pitchers
in the major leagues, Javier
Vazquez, who still doesn't know
what is happening, or Mike
Mussina, who always gets close
but never gets close enough.
Don't even mention Jason Giambi.
References:
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/nyy/news/nyy_gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20041018&content_id=898590&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/nyy/news/nyy_gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20041018&content_id=899464&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/nyy/news/nyy_gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20041020&content_id=900377&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/nyy/news/nyy_gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20041020&content_id=901385&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp
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