Joe Girardi Should Be Fired on the Spot!

You know I’ve been one of the bigger Joe Girardi supporters since taking over for Joe Torre as the manager of the New York Yankees, although that doesn’t mean I haven’t reamed him a new one just like anyone else at times, but I have to say I am a tad bit disappointed in him lately. Maybe disappointed isn’t the word, maybe disgusted? I really don’t know and it’s odd for me to be speechless as you all may already know and I think I’m so beyond angry and frustrated that I don’t even want to rant and rave about it. I just want him fired, effective immediately. 

Alex is not the poster child for Major League Baseball like Derek Jeter was or Mariano Rivera was but he in no way, shape or form deserves this level of treatment from the Yankees and from Joe specifically. Joe fills out the lineup card and Joe either has it out for Alex, he’s managing for his job or both because in the grand scheme of things these games are meaningless. The message you sent to a long time Yankee and any potential free agent that is watching this and wondering if he should come to New York is the exact opposite of meaningless, it’s everything. 

Not that the Yankees tend to get into the deep end of the free agent pool lately, and not that money isn’t the ultimate motivator for many anyway, but if I am a Bryce Harper or a Manny Machado or an equivalent free agent that had any inkling of an idea that I wanted to come to New York this whole circus and the way Alex is being treated has to leave a sour taste in your mouth, no? It’s leaving a sour taste in my mouth and I’m just a regular guy with a blog so imagine what other players are thinking right about now. 

Joe Girardi has gone on record many times saying that it is not in his job description to run a farewell tour yet he had no issues doing so for Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. Now granted Rivera went out still pitching like the great arm that he was but Jeter was a far cry from the 2012 version of himself when he finally walked away. He was an automatic double play ball almost every time he had someone on base and yet he continually batted second each and every game. And yeah, Joe said the same things about the farewell tour but what Joe said and what Joe did were two different things. This time around with Alex it almost seems personal and that, Mr. Girardi, isn’t in your job description either. Your job description includes winning games and if you think throwing Aaron Hicks out there every day while Alex sits on the bench just a handful of home runs away from 700 then you should just turn in your uniform and your iPad binder now. You’re fired. 

You’re a disgrace Joe and you don’t deserve to wear the Yankees pinstripes any longer. Be gone. Oh and Randy Levine, who undoubtedly at least threw his opinion into the mix because it is no secret that he and Alex are not exactly fond of each other, get a haircut and be gone as well. We don’t want you and we, you know the fans paying your salary and Joe’s salary and Alex’s salary and everyone else’s damn salary, don’t need you either. Goodbye. 

Boycott the Yankees: Isn’t It Sad?

You know what Yankees family I came to a realization over the weekend. The New York Yankees have broken my heart and I’m not sure what they can will do to fix it. Now usually I am the fan that will sit through every inning of every game no matter if the Yankees are up 20-0 or losing 20-0, I just love baseball. I love baseball so much that I would watch any and all baseball that is nationally televised simply because I cannot get enough. This weekend though it was a different story and this week hasn’t started out much better either. On Friday night I watched until the Red Sox put up a five spot on the Yankees before turning it off and I did the same on Saturday afternoon as well. Sunday I didn’t even bother watching because what’s the point? Long story short the Yankees won Sunday but isn’t it sad that this team and the way it has been put together and constructed has essentially sucked all the baseball happiness out of me?

I can’t be the only one that feels burned out, can I? I mean it feels like every run the pitching allows feels like three runs and every lead the Yankees get doesn’t feel safe until or unless the three-headed monster is brought into the game. This team stinks, we all know that, but I guess what is depressing me the most is that there is no salvation in sight. And save the whole “we’re rebuilding for the 2018 season and beyond” garbage because, at least the way I feel right now, I’m not buying it.

The Yankees will have money coming off the board but until or unless they show that they will not only spend it but spend it right what does it matter? The last time the Yankees went on a huge spending spree they added two contract that they are now hoping to unload just a few seasons later. I personally loved and clamored for the Masahiro Tanaka and Brian McCann contracts but the Jacoby Ellsbury contract has disaster written all over it. Who is to say the team won’t take the money given to Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran and others and give it to another drop in the bucket player whose best days are behind them?

I guess I’ve just lost all confidence in the team and the front office and that’s truly not fair. It’s the mindset now. Do your best (elsewhere), get the big contract (here) and rake in the dollars rather than the wins and the hits. It’s an attitude that we the fans have allowed by continually pouring our money into this game we love. That’s why we need to take this team back, take this stadium back and take the whole damn organization back. Let’s see how Hal would like operating the team in the red year in and year out like his dad did. We can’t do little to nothing (double negative, sue me I’m ranting) and expect something to come of it. That’s crazy. Just like this team is being run. Crazy.

Boycott the Yankees at BoycottTheYankees.com

Boycott the Yankees: Why the Business Side of the Yankees Needs to Pay Attention

Boycott the Yankees. This is a movement that many of us have wanted to do or want to do and many of us may or may not have even realized it yet. I interact with so many people on a day-to-day basis either on Twitter, Facebook, face-to-face, email, comments on the blog and other forms of social media and I know the Yankees fan as a whole is frustrated. Many of us want to do something whether we say we do out loud or not and many of us just simply don’t know where to start. I include myself in this equation because I have been very vocal about “hitting the Yankees in the wallet” and doing something about this current regime of Hal Steinbrenner, Randy Levine and Brian Cashman (among others obviously) but saying it is one thing, doing it is another. That’s where Mike DeLucia comes in, the author of the book Boycott the Yankees, comes in. To organize all our thoughts and begin a movement to take our team and our stadium back.

If you’re still on the fence about the movement then here is an example of what we, as fans, are talking about. Earlier in the week we learned the real reason behind the decisiveness whether to sell, buy or stay still at this year’s trading deadline. It’s not because the upper management and front office believes the team can compete or can’t compete, no, they are more worried about the business side of it. Now sure baseball is a business first and foremost but to some that’s all it is, a business. To most of us and to the ones that matter, you know the ones pouring our money into the business, it’s much, much more than that. It’s a passion.

According to this same ESPN report, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Brian Cashman wants to sell off assets and jump start the rebuilding process while others (*cough* Hal Steinbrenner and Randy Levine *cough*) do not. Those “others” don’t want to trade because it would make the team better they just want to continue to milk the fans for profits and money. Simple as that. Fans won’t come to see this team nearly as often (and attendance is once again way down in 2016) if some of Carlos Beltran, CC Sabathia, Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Pineda, Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances, Aroldis Chapman, Ivan Nova, Mark Teixeira and others aren’t there. That’s why the team isn’t sure about selling or not, not because they think this team can win. 

Money should not dictate playing time on this roster and money should not dictate the decisions that are made concerning the roster personnel either to a certain extent. This team has made money hand-over-first for far too long and they made that money at the expense of the fans and at the expense of what truly matters, winning. This team is going nowhere this year nor is it likely going anywhere next year when their aging players are one year older either so do the smart thing, and the business thing, and think about the long term. Sell now, don’t hold onto something for too long and then get stuck with it like you always do. 

Boycott the Yankees – The Movement Has Started

In case you missed it here is a quick recap of what I mean by “Boycott the Yankees” and that the movement has started. In my book review of Mike DeLucia’s book “Boycott the Yankees” I kind of hit the high points of what the book was about and suggested you pick up a copy for your own browsing. Today I want to get a little more in depth with this and I want to start the movement, or better yet continue the movement that Mr. DeLucia has started with this book. We need to boycott the Yankees and take OUR team and OUR stadium back.

This is a movement that I am 100% behind. Why? Because it makes too much sense not to. No longer are the fans dictating where the dollars are spent, when the dollars are spent and how the dollars are spent. They are OUR dollars going into the team, the Steinbrenner family’s contribution is ZERO to the payroll and to the new stadium that we continue to pay for, and we should at least have something to say about it, right? Instead of the team sitting on their hands while watching the best free agent class of the last 10-years or so to pass us while not signing anyone we want the Yankees to do right by us, not do just enough to get the books into the green and preach “World Series or bust” and “World Series caliber team” while counting your money in your back room.

I’m angry with this team and this organization. I touched on it a bit in my previous post, the contract and the money are dictating things here and not what should be dictating things. On the field performance. Character. Versatility. WINNING. I could spend hours ranting and raving on the topic but I don’t think I could say it any better than Mr. DeLucia did. He really lit a flame in me, a flame that has always been there but lacked the organization to really do something about it, and I think it would have the same effect on you if you read it.

Check out his website BoycottTheYankees.com where you can sign his petition to take the stadium and the team back as well as purchase a copy of the book and other pretty cool items. Again I want to reiterate that this is not some sort of paid promotion. I get nothing for promoting the site or the book and I get nothing if you buy the book. I am promoting it because I believe in what the book says and the message it brings and I know you will too. We interact all day, every day on twitter and I know you’re just as frustrated as myself and Mr. DeLucia as well. Check out the book, sign the petition and join the movement to take our team and our stadium back because it’s not only the right thing to do it’s the only option we have left before falling into eternal mediocrity on the field. 

Better Things to Do Than Watch the Yankees Lose This Weekend

You don’t really want to sit around your television for a collective 9-10 hours this weekend just to watch the Yankees lose to the Cleveland Indians, do you? I don’t either and I don’t blame you so here’s a few things you can do this weekend rather than watching the Yankees lose. You’re welcome

• UFC 200 is Saturday night and despite Jon Jones being taken off the card the show should still be worth the three or so hours and the $60. I’m still buying it, I know that much. Brock. Lesnar. Meisha. Tate. Woo!

• Talk to people. Not digitally. Really talk. 

• Go to Wal Mart after 9:00 pm. 

• Go outside.

• Read a book.

• Read a book outside. May I suggest Mike DeLucia’s “Boycott The Yankees”

• Order a TGP T-shirt including the Jacoby Ellsbury milk carton shirt for stealing home not once this season but twice.

• Check out the BYB Hub at BYBHub@blogspot.com.

That’s it folks, there you have it. That should keep you plenty busy not only this weekend but through the All Star break as well. Again, you’re welcome.

This post was done all in fun. Treat it that way. Thanks.

My Book Review of Mike DeLucia’s “Boycott the Yankees”

About a month ago or so I received an email and a comment on the blog from a Mike DeLucia asking if we would like to read a book that he had written titled “Boycott the Yankees.” For obvious reasons I was a little reluctant at first but as an avid reader and someone who is constantly searching for new types of literature to expose myself to I accepted. I received the book maybe two weeks ago and for two weeks it sat on my desk at home unopened and untouched. I decided to pick up the book on Tuesday and by 8:00 am Wednesday morning I had read the entire thing. Now for some that may not be much of an accomplishment but between my job, my two children who I adore, my wife, this blog and a little thing called “me time” it usually takes me a good week or more to read a book. That should tell you how absolutely hooked I was once I started reading.  

The basic premise of the book is the idea to boycott the Yankees and it’s something I have found myself saying since the end of the 2012 season. Hit the Yankees where it hurts, in the wallet. This is no longer OUR stadium and this is no longer OUR team. The team has forced Bald Vinny into the workforce and out of the stadium, the Bleacher Creatures back from the field and the real fans out of the building entirely. In its place are men in suits and like I like to say on twitter, suits don’t cheer. Mr. DeLucia has a plan to send a message to the Yankees and maybe take back what is rightfully ours, the New York taxpayer did foot the bill for the stadium and the Yankees fans everywhere pay the salaries for the players and the employees and not the Steinbrenner family direct, the New York Yankees.  

The book was not all doom and gloom though. Much of the book touched on key aspects and players from the team’s history and DeLucia’s personal time being a fan. DeLucia did not think we could get behind his ideas without knowing who we were following for lack of a better word and in the book he shared his personal opinions on everything from George Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Shane Spencer, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, David Ortiz, Yankee Stadium in general and Fenway Park, Johnny Damon and a slew of other topics. 

The book can be an eye-opener for some if you don’t know or don’t truly care about what is truly going on and the book can be a call to arms if you have been. Like I said I’ve been saying much of what Mr. DeLucia said in this book since the 2012 season and this has reinvigorated me and reenergized me because what he says in this book makes a whole lot of sense. The Yankees don’t like sense, they like money, and it’s time we give them more of one and less of the other. That’s the only way to get OUR stadium back and OUR team back. 

This book comes highly recommended by me and just as an FYI I receive nothing if you buy it. This is not a paid advertisement or anything like that but just a genuine opinion on a great piece of literature. If you want to join Mr. DeLucia and other visit BoycottTheYankees.com on the web, give him a follow on Twitter @DeLuciaBoycott or shoot him an email at GreenTBooks@hotmail.com. Purchase the book, it is well worth the read and well worth the money. Enjoy Yankees family!

Have We Heard the Last of Alex Rodriguez?

The New York Yankees have done something over the past week or so that I have said on Twitter and on this blog many times that they would never do, the team has benched Alex Rodriguez due to production. As a fan of Alex’s and as a fan that has stood up for his forgiveness and playing times many times here, maybe more than anyone and certainly before it was “cool” back in 2015, it’s bittersweet for me because I know he’s hurting the team as an automatic out and as a black hole in the middle of the lineup but at the same time it still hurts to see the players you have watched all your life grow old and let father time catch up to them. Rodriguez is saying all the right things though including a statement that resonated with me. Alex said that “you haven’t heard the last of me” so I beg the question, have we heard the last of Alex Rodriguez?

Honestly I don’t think so. So many times we’ve heard the stories of Alex being done and that Alex needs to retire only to take a few games off and come back hitting like a 31-year old again instead of a 41-year old. That may not be the case this time around but I don’t think we’ve heard the last of him regardless. He’s a proud man and a loyal student to the game and he will not simply ride off into the sunset because of a bad stretch. Michael Kay told a story on the YES Network the other day that really cemented this thought process home for me. He said he was driving home from the stadium and he was listening to Suzyn Waldman on the radio and in the background a “crack” could be heard every 10 seconds or so. Suzyn commented that the sound they were all hearing was Alex Rodriguez taking batting practice in the cage. Forty five minutes after the game had come to an end Alex was still in the cage working, tweaking and adjusting with hopes of getting back into the lineup and making a contribution.

This really stuck with me because I am currently reading a book called “Boycott the Yankees” by Mike DeLucia (have no fear, when I am finished I fully plan on doing a review of the book) and in the book DeLucia mentions what I have mentioned many times on this blog. A lot of players don’t have the incentives to do well or to even give a crap in the world of guaranteed contracts and bloated MLB salaries. What does Alex have to gain? He’s five home runs away from the 700 home run club and despite anything he says he wants that in the worst way. In fact he wants Barry Bonds all-time home run record but I don’t think taking batting practice before, during and after a game is driven by his own personal goals and admirations. It’s not because he’s working towards a salary either. It’s because he loves the game, he loves New York and he wants to help his teammates. 

Alex could ride off into the sunset if he wanted to with his millions and live happily ever after. But he won’t. He’s too proud to go out like that and he wants to help this team win so no, we haven’t heard the last of Alex Rodriguez. Not by a long shot. Given the next opportunity he will prove to you all once again what I already know and understand. He’ll be back, mark my words. 700 home run club here we come.