Pinstripe Chatter Bob Loblaw

Here we are in the throes of the NFL season, the midway point of an exciting and chaotic college football season (I know, some people hate it when the top teams all get upset and this chaos they can’t quite understand ensues, but that will be the subject of another article for another day), and 4 teams are left on the road to the World Series.  So I wake up today and what is the top story in sports?  Is it the amazing finish of the MNF game?  No.    Of course it is whether or not the Yankees will fire Joe Torre.  That is all ESPN wants to talk about: what will happen?  Who will they hire?  What will his legacy be?  They could wait until he has been let go; then he will be replaced and they can spend the next FIVE MONTHS until the first pitch of 2008 breaking down the deeper meaning of all of this, but what would they talk about today?  Of course if the Phillies had fired Charlie Manuel after their loss, it would have been a 10 second blurb and a sentence on the ticker, but it is the Yankees, so it is so much more important.

We often theorize about the East Coast bias and the media rooting for the Boston and New York teams to win.  It seems to me that covering the goings-on on the field has become secondary to the networks creating drama to keep all the talking heads employed.  As long as something is happening besides them playing baseball and winning or losing, then ESPN has something to nosh on besides actually telling us who won and lost and why.  How the ramblings of Stephen A. Smith, a basketball expert, about a baseball managerial situation changes anyone’s opinion is beyond me, but as Latrell Sprewell would say, “the guy’s gotta feed his family.”  So he does it. So why are the Yankees not winning the World Series anymore?  Besides the obvious reasons like whoring out your entire farm system to build the Free Agent Hall of Fame with the likes of past quick fixes Clemens, Johnson, A Rod, Abreu, Boggs, Sierra, Mussina, Kevin Brown, Carl Pavano, and even Juice Canseco, there are other factors.  The teams that won it all in the 90’s had veteran leadership with guys like Brosius, Martinez, O’Neil, Tartabull, and Charlie Hayes.  Those teams had leadership, clutch hitting, and most importantly they were charitable.

Who can forget Paul O’Neil hitting 1.9 home runs in one game for a little kid in the hospital, or Danny Tartabull trying in vain to get to a PBS charity event on his night off?  Those were the days of a team that had unity and class.  What brought them all together, you ask?  The one piece of the puzzle that George Steinbrenner let get away in exchange for some chicken in 1999, the man who made it all happen.  From getting his secretary a larger salary than himself, to instituting cotton uniforms that quickly shrunk, to faking his own death in an effort to get a promotion, George Costanza was the force that made the modern Yankees great.  Unless he replaces Joe Torre, the Bronx Bombers will only endure more of this futility.

Pauly promises to hit 2 home runs for Kramer's poor bed-ridden friend.

Hey, the Jerk Store called.  They're runnin' out of you!

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