(Aside: This just came to me. One of the best things to watch during the NBA Playoffs is Kirk Hinrich. Watch him whenever he's on the offensive end with John Salmons and/or Ben Gordon. They both refuse to give him the ball. It's delightful. After a few years of being The Guy for the Bulls, Hinrich has turned into a pretty solid complimentary outside shooter. He gets open behind the arc and knocks down shots at about 40%. However, when either of the two aforementioned me-first scorers is on the floor, Hinirich jumps up and down in the corner calling for the ball.
Hinrich hit one three today. Here's how that play went down. Gordon gets the ball on the right wing with about about 20 seconds on the shot clock. Hinrich is in the right corner. He drives right, Hinrich's defender crashes in to help, Hinrich calls for the ball, Gordon continues trying to drive finally proceeds to throw an ugly cross court pass to Salmons--12ish seconds. Salmons stutters inside the arc, loses his dribble, fights to put up a shot, but eventually decides to pass back out to Derrick Rose at the top of the key. Rose, far and away the best player on the team (36-11-4 this afternoon), quickly touch-passes it back to Gordon with the assumption (I assume) that Gordon, with about five seconds on the clock would touch it over to the still open Hinrich in the corner. He, again, drives right. Nothing there. After he picks up his dribble, he considers forcing a shot to the point of actually jumping with his side to the basket. He pumps in air, relents, and gives it up to Hinrich. He knocks down the three. Buzzer. Hinrich is noticably upset he didn't get the ball 20 seconds earlier. Good possession!)
In the time it took me to write that, the second inning ended. It's 14 to 2. The ball really, really, really carries to right. Awesome. All of this may render what I'm about to do totally meaningless. Anyway, during the Yankees/Indians Friday afternoon game, I sent message to Phlip in regard to the Yankees home-opener loss. It read, "I don't want to read the New York Times article about the new stadium "missing the mystique of the old one." That article, of course, already existed. The author, William C. Rhoden, probably had been waiting all winter to break it out. Here it is in annotated, nitpicky, Fire Joe Morgan form.
By the middle of the seventh inning Thursday, the Yankees’ highly anticipated home opener had officially been declared a disaster. The Yankees opened a new season and christened a new stadium in the eerie shadow of the old.
The new stadium is a bit bigger and sits directly between the old stadium and the sun. Okay. I don't know if any of that's true. But! What exactly makes this particular shadow "eerie"? Aren't all shadows kinda eerie?
The home team trailed, 10-1, after a nine-run seventh by the Cleveland Indians on the way to a 10-2 loss. And Yankees players were showered with boos in the new $1.6 billion stadium.
The boos were mainly directed at Damaso Marte. He has not been good in pinstripes.
For most major league baseball teams, the home opener is the essence of the clean slate, the fresh start. For the Yankees, the idea of starting with a clean slate is daunting, like climbing Mount Everest. After they were pasted Thursday, the incline became a lot steeper.
This was much more than a simple home opener: This was the opening of a lavish new Yankee Stadium, built by a franchise with baseball’s highest payroll, despite the economic collapse around it — a franchise accustomed to winning championships, although it hasn’t won a World Series title since 2000. Old Yankee Stadium represented one of the greatest, or at least one of the most storied, home-field advantages in North American sports. Visiting players routinely gushed about walking into the Stadium and soaking in its history.
This sounds a lot like "gushing" for the new stadium too.
"I'd be lying if I said it isn't special" and "It's got to be the biggest visiting clubhouse you'll ever see." - Eric Wedge
"This is top of the line. This is just like being on the home side. It's got everything you need." - Ben Francisco
With a simple move across the street, that part of the Yankees’ legacy is gone and the franchise, payroll aside, is now on a level playing field with the competition.
Talent aside as well, apparently. Rhoden goes on and brings up various historical moments, outside of baseball, that happened in Yankee Stadium: "Win one for the Gippper" speech, a Joe Louis fight, The Greatest Game Ever Played (Colts def. Giants). Basically, his thesis is: Without The Stadiums history, the Yankees are fucked.
Manager Joe Girardi said that Thursday’s game was “hard to watch,” but he added that the Yankees’ fate and the legacy of the new Stadium wouldn’t be decided on the first day.
Exactly! Your column is worthless!
True enough, though Thursday’s rout, three days after the rout against Tampa Bay, raises questions about how long it will take these Yankees to fill a new stadium with the sort of championship moments that made the old Stadium so special.
Soon?Well, no, it couldn't be soon. It took 80 years the first time around.
Longer? Never?
I guess we'll have to wait 80 years.
Before Jeter’s first plate appearance Thursday, a bat was placed across home plate. The bat, we were told, was used by Babe Ruth on opening day 1923, for the opening of the old Yankee Stadium. Ruth homered that day and the Yankees swept the opening four-game series against the Red Sox, then cruised to the pennant and the World Series title.
On Thursday, Jeter flied out and the Yankees were pummeled.
Those two events were directly related, you see. Noteworthy Note: Jeter never flied out in the Old Yankee Stadium.
Mystiques are created by championships and championship moments: title fights, football classics and World Series victories. The old mystique is gone. You can argue that the mystique began to fade seasons ago.
You could make that argument. The Yankees have had mediocre pitching staffs over the last several years. It's a good argument. You are not making that argument, though. Your argument is that the mystique is missing.
What will that legacy be? Who will be the first group to win a championship in the new Yankee Stadium?
How the Yankees transfer that mystique from the old building, now gray and dark and awaiting its demise, to the new is Girardi’s challenge.
THAT is Girardi's challenge. It has nothing to do with, I don't know, baseball.
The questions may not be answered for years.
The architects and the Yankee organization did a great job of moving as much memory as they could into the new Stadium.
Sadly for these Yankees, some spirits just don’t travel that well.
The Yankees ended up losing 22-4. I have totally changed my mind in regard to the everything in this post. Steinbrenner should call John and see if he can do anything about this stubborn ghost moving problem.
I'm not very good at this. Good night.
Sweeney, Derek Jeter did fly out ONCE in the Old Yankee Stadium. He flied out to center during the 22-0 game on 8/31/04 vs the Indians. So, obviously, whenever Jeter flies out to center (as he did in the home opener) against the Indians, the Yankees get pummeled. I can only assume he flied out to center in today's game as well.
ReplyDelete