What I’m Thinkin’
August 4, 2010 - By Norman Rey
I don’t care what Bill Simmons says about rooting for more than one team, I’m a transplanted Detroiter, who has lived in New York for 35 years, and most of my family now resides near Philadelphia. So, I’ve got a broader point of view than most. I’m just a little confused when Philly, Detroit and New York teams go head-to-head….Starting with the Yankees, the $1.5 billion team that Saint Steinbrenner built, the biggest reason the Yankees are so valuable is their successful launch of the YES Network, where they keep every penny of ad revenue. The trouble is the ads that YES plays during breaks from Yankee action are the dregs of the world. Watch any Yankee game and learn how to improve your credit score, how to settle with the IRS for pennies on the dollar, or sue someone if you have lung cancer. Put in those appealing and uplifting anti-smoking PSAs from New York State and visions of orphaned boys, goo encrusted arteries and guys smoking out of holes in their neck, are just the break someone needs from the A-Rod 600 homer chase. Then again, if you want to get away, you could buy a car from any of about a dozen local dealerships who advertise on YES….I told you when they got him that Curtis Granderson couldn’t hit lefties and strikes out a lot. But he does hit homers, is a decent fielder and is as articulate and classy a representative as you can get….Somehow Lance Berkman, who is a shadow of what he once was, Austin Kearns, have mitt, will travel, and smooth shaven Kerry Wood, injury tempermental and easy to hit as he has ever been, are not the types of guys who have traditionally been added to the “Yankee Family”….Umpires are wrong about 90% of the time on close plays, not the nonsense figure that baseball wants to feed us. Granted, viewers are armed with instant slo-mo, but umpires are guessing on close plays and have been forever….Ken “The Hawk” Harrelson is the biggest “homer” in the ranks of announcers and is proud to tell you so, but watching games on WGNA, the “Superstation” that puts White Sox and Cub games into many other markets, is a trying experience. Not because Harrelson is so blatantly one-sided and announces pretty much like he golfed – not quite good enough – but because the necessity to mute Harrelson cheats viewers of hearing his partner Steve Stone, who is one of the best….Ever get the feeling that Lane Kiffin, one of the youngest head coaches at a major program, isn’t going to have a long career?….Bobby Cox, Cito Gaston, Lou Piniella, and perhaps Joe Torre will not be managing their teams next year. Charlie Manuel and Jim Leyland are looking worn out by their injury-plagued pennant races. Jerry Manuel and Don Wakamatsu are on the hot seat. The short list of managers-in-waiting shrank when Buck Showalter returned to take the helm of the Orioles. Now, only Bobby Valentine and Fredi Gonzalez are automatically named when an opening arises. Ryne Sandberg is a candidate to replace Piniella. Don Mattingly will again be given consideration when Torre leaves. Trey Hillman could join that group depending upon whether he’s considered the mastermind of 2009 when he breathed life into the moribound Royals or the guy who didn’t make it to half way this year.
