by Paul Semendinger
October 6, 2022
***
As Billy Joel once sang... And so it goes. I'm always sad when it ends. Baseball. The Yankees. The regular season. I feel like a friend has left me. And it has.
Now this friend won't go completely away, he just won't be with me on a daily basis as he had been. He'll be back, but the relationship will be more stressed. Each day will have higher stakes. And unlike the regular season when I know he'll be with me almost every day until early October, now when he comes he doesn't promise how long he'll stay. I hope he stays a while. A long while. All the way to a World Series championship.
The baseball season is long. There are ups and downs. This year had some of the best ups and some of the longest and worst downs. But it's great. I love it, even when I don't love what I see.
We now have to wait until Tuesday for more Yankees baseball. I'm glad we will have that. It will be stressful. There will be angst. There will be guessing, second guessing, and more. Hopefully this is the year that the magic of October favors the Yankees. It can happen. And it just might!
We have been spoiled... the post seasons have not often ended the way we want them to, but, at least we have post seasons to keep us hopeful. I remember those long cold lonely winters of 1982 through 1995 when there was no Yankees post season. On the last day of baseball season those years, it was much sadder. The winters were also longer.
We have the playoffs and with the playoffs comes hope.
Let's Go Yankees!
About Last Night:
The Yankees lost to the Rangers to close out the regular season. It was, in many regards, a throw-away game, but it would have been nice for the Yankees to win and reach 100 victories for the year.
Yesterday, the Yankees didn't do it in pretty fashion. But 99 wins is a great season. One can't argue with the success the Yankees have had. Does that mean Aron Boone is a great manager? No. But he did guide the team to another post season and that does say something. Maybe it says the Yankees have a deep roster and talented players. Maybe. But he's the manager and he gets the credit. There were times when it seemed mighty close that the Yankees were about to give it all away, but Boone held the team together. He gets credit for that. His job is to now manage well in the postseason and to get the Yankees to the promised land.
In the game, the Yankees had a 1-0 lead. Domingo German gave it right back.
The Yankees also had a 2-1 lead, but that was also coughed up.
The Rangers then took advantage of some less-than-fine defense, scored two more runs in the fifth, and that was that. (The Rangers scored a run in the eighth inning, but the call was overturned.)
The Yankees went down quietly.
I was disappointed that Aaron Judge sat the last game. He had a chance to play for history. If he had gathered a bunch of hits, he just might have been able to win the Triple Crown. I feel that if a milestone is right there, you go for it. This is one of those things that Aaron Judge, someday, will look back and state, "I should have played." Of course he should have. He has today, tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off. The upcoming rest will be plentiful. Sometimes there are situations and moments that can be bigger then us. Ted Williams going from .399+ to .406 on the last day of the 1941 season by going 6-for-9 in a double header was one of them. Judge had a chance to add to his legend by going for it. He didn't. It was a lost opportunity. It is extremely unlikely that this chance will ever come back again for him. In sports, we love when our heroes step up. I know many will disagree with me, but this is when the Yankees come up small. Yesterday there was a chance, a small chance, but a chance nonetheless, for history. Aaron Judge and the Yankees took a pass. They do that a lot. What a shame. What a disappointment. Let's hope Judge makes some great post season memories to add to his legendary 2022.
If I were Judge, I would have demanded to play. If I were the manager, I would have at least started him and saw how he did with his first two at bats. If he had base hits, I'd keep him in there to take his stab at history.
Of note, also, baseball is an entertainment industry. By not playing Aaron Judge, tens of thousands of fans, who went to the park in Texas to see him, had to leave disappointed.
Quick Stats:
Jose Trevino hit his 11th homer of the year
Kyle Higashioka and Jose Trevino were both in the game. Trevino was the DH. Higgy was the catcher.
The only 100-win team in the American League was the Astros (105 wins)
The Braves, Mets, and Dodgers in the N.L. all won 100 or more games.
Notable Performance:
This goes to Phil Cashier of SSTN. Phil has been a rock. Every single year that we've been here, since the start of the 2018 season, he has put-up the Game Threads, game-after-game-after-game. This is no small feat. In fact, it's a HUGE commitment. I can't thank him enough. I know our loyal readers are also very thankful and very appreciative. Great job Phil. We appreciate you. A ton!
Next Up:
It is postseason time, but not before a respite until Tuesday.
I don't watch much of the other teams or games, I will take my own baseball break, but I will be rooting for the Mets. I hope Buck Showalter can lead them to a World Series against the Yankees. Boy would that be fun! If the Yankees and the Mets match up, I'll have to root against ol' Buck. Let's get there first!
Over the next few days on the site, we'll be posting all sorts of articles previewing the next series, looking at the roster, thinking about awards, and so much more.
Of note, our old site, which we kept up for about six months in the background, will be going away in a few weeks. The expense to keep it running just wasn't worth it. Over these next weeks, as I did yesterday, I'll be re-posting some articles that didn't transition to the new site. Most of the archive is here, but not all of it. I'll be working to getting as much as I can here on WIX before the old articles go away forever.
Also on my agenda is reformatting many of the older articles. Most were not assigned to the original writer and on many, the graphics duplicated as the articles came over and the paragraph formatting went away. If you notice an article that needs to be cleaned-up and/or reformatted, please let me know. It's all a process, and it all takes a lot of time, but like all of this, it's a labor of love. Running a blog like this is a huge investment of time. It's great, but it's not easy. Thanks for taking this journey with us!
