Saying Goodbye To Mariano Rivera

Chad Jennings on LoHud wants to hear your goodbyes for Mariano Rivera and has opened up a hotline for the fans to call in. If you want to share your memories about Mariano Rivera you can call 914-696-8561 and leave a voicemail explaining your favorite Mariano moment, what he has meant to you, what you will always remember about him, etc.  Chad asks that you speak clearly, leave your name, hometown, and a phone number where you can be reached so they can be collected and used either in the paper or online as a part of "42 Farewells" running next Thursday. You can also send pictures of you and/or your Mo memorabilia to pkramer@lohud.com

I don't know about you guys but I am making this phone call right now...

Andy Pettitte Knew All Along He Was Going To Retire

Andy Pettitte has known since the beginning of Spring Training that 2013 would be his final year but decided not to announce it like Mariano Rivera. Speaking of Rivera Mo was one of the few people to know that Andy was going to hang it up after 2013 and insisted he let it be known but Andy responded by saying "That's just not how I wanted to do it." This is the second time that Andy will be walking away from the game, the first time walking away after the 2010 season only to come back in 2012, and I think this time it will stick. The Cour Four may be reduced to one if Derek Jeter decides to exercise his players option for 2014 so this will truly make Sunday a special day for all Yankees fans.

San Francisco Giants @ New York Yankees 9/20

The New York Yankees will play their final three interleague games this season, thankfully at home, this weekend against the San Francisco Giants. The Yankees will send CC Sabathia to the mound to face off with, if you are asking my friend Bryan Van Dusen, future Yankees reliever Tim Lincecum. The freak vs. CC tonight in one of your final chances to see the Yankees at home this season and by Yankees tickets before a possible playoff series. The game can be seen at 7:05 pm ET on the YES Network and MLB TV.

Yankees drop rubber game to Blue Jays, 6-2

Last night, Hiroki Kuroda lost again, dropping his record to 11-12. He pitched okay, giving up just 3 earned runs in 6 innings. But nevertheless, he still lost. He's had a great season, yet he's now below .500. That is not good. 

Anyway, as you guys definitely already know, this was the rubber game of the this series, so the Yankees did drop 2/3. That number is extremely dissapointing, but let's remember that this 2013 Yankees team has been really beat up. So I'm not mad that they're losing now, because the fact that they're even above .500 this late in the year is very good. Yea I'd rather win a World Series, but if you the make the playoffs chances are your season will end in heartbreak. At least now they have a chance to go out on a high note.

P.S. Thanks for everything Andy Pettitte, have fun in retirement. 

Imagining The Worst Case Scenario For 2014: Part 1

As many of our readers and our followers on twitter (@GreedyStripes) know I am very active and talkative on twitter but when I was asked this question I did not even attempt to answer it using 140 characters. This tweet gave me the uh oh feeling big time because I never really gave it any thought as to what we would do if this were to happen... Could we survive it?

@DanielBurch Have you thought of having a hypothetical look at Yankees 2014 if ARod is banned, Jeter retires and Cano goes elsewhere?
— Rooney (@CelticYankees) September 13, 2013

What would the Yankees do if the worst case scenario comes true this off season with Derek Jeter joining Mariano Rivera to retire, Robinson Cano decides to take his talents to South Beach, or Los Angeles, or anywhere besides Yankees Stadium, and what if Alex Rodriguez is suspended for the entire 2014 season as we are expecting and maybe even hoping? To add to that what if the oldest starting pitcher in all of baseball, Andy Pettitte, decided to hang it up thus ending the core four all together? That would make the 2014 season a complete and utter disaster, or would it?

The Yankees would be left with absolutely huge and obviously glaring holes at second base, short stop, third base, in the back end of the bullpen, and the starting rotation heading into November and the Winter Meetings. Granted the Yankees would have somewhere around $100,000,000 to spend this off season while still toying with the idea of keeping the payroll under the $189,000,000 luxury tax thresh hold. This would probably be the closest thing to a Boston Red Sox circa 2012 reset that we are going to get but we have to navigate this smart and not just throw money at aging veterans just because we can. We have proven that time and time again simply being the biggest bidder for the best players available just does not work anymore. The Yankees are getting burned by players who would rather stay away from New York at all costs, see Cliff Lee, not getting anywhere near the production we are paying for after being acquired in free agency, see AJ Burnett, or we are missing out all together on free agents specifically in the international market, see Yu Darvish, Yasiel Puig, Yoenis Cespedes, yada yada yada. The Yankees "we can retool via free agency and build up our prospects hype to make big time trades in July" has been exposed and it is just not working anymore, bottom line, so how do we fix this?

Let's start by looking at the roster penciled in using only 40 man roster players as of November 1st:

C: Francisco Cervelli

1B: Mark Teixeira

2B: Jayson Nix

SS: Eduardo Nunez

3B: David Adams

LF: Alfonso Soriano

CF: Brett Gardner

RF: Ichiro Suzuki

DH: Zoilo Almonte

BN: Austin Romine

BN: Vernon Wells

BN: Corban Joseph

BN: Ramon Flores

SP: CC Sabathia

SP: Ivan Nova

SP: Michael Pineda

SP: David Phelps

SP: Vidal Nuno

CP: David Robertson

SU: Shawn Kelley

RP: Cesar Cabral

RP: Preston Claiborne

RP: Dellin Betances

RP: Adam Warren

LR: David Huff

Will David Robertson stop trying to make the "perfect pitch" thus bringing him into more full counts than any pitcher in the history of the world, mild exaggeration, and succeed as the heir to Mariano Rivera? Can the Yankees rebuild 3/4 of their infield on the fly and replace the best offensive second basemen in baseball in Robinson Cano? Can the Yankees get just one more ride out of aging veterans Alfonso Soriano, Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia (wow I really just said that), Mark Teixeira (see CC Sabathia), etc? All these questions to answer and not enough time and space today to do so in one post so check back tomorrow to see part two to see if I can really "put the best team on the field one dollar at a time."

Tonight Starts Mariano Rivera's Last Home Stand

This kind of sucks to think about but, assuming we do not make the playoffs of course which is still very much in the air, this starts Mariano Rivera's final home stand of his storied career tonight when we host the San Francisco Giants. This is going to be a long, heartbreaking, and overall sad seven days for me as I have still yet to come to terms that Mariano is going to retire at the end of this season. All the more reason to get this man one last playoff shot at a ring. #SprintTowardsOctober #OneMo

Andy Pettitte To Announce Retirement

It's being reported by numerous sources that Andy Pettitte will announce his retirement later this afternoon.

This isn't the first time Pettitte has done so, as he said he was done after the 2010 season, after which he sat out the entire next year before returning in 2012. But at 41 years old, I believe this time retirement will stick.

It's really sad that the Yankees are going to lose both Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte in the same year, but at the same time it's nice that they will retire together. I hope Rivera gets to close Pettitte's final two starts, one of which will be this Sunday against the Giants, and the other against the Astros the next weekend.

We'll be talking quite a bit about the careers of both Mariano and Andy in the future.

Yankees Playoff Tickets Go On Sale This Morning

This is not a joke, the New York Yankees have announced that potential home playoff game tickets are going on sale this morning. I absolutely cannot wait to hear the results of this pre-sale because I cannot fathom all that many people making the investment when the team on the field has not been up to par this season whatsoever. Average prices for the potential wild card game is around $100 for sull season ticket holers and closer to $225 when they go on sale for the public. Buy your Yankees tickets now right here on The Greedy Pinstripes or by visiting Yankees.com

Unrealistic 2014 Free Agent Targets: Paul Konerko

Paul Konerko would be the ultimate addition to the Yankees as a platoon player with Mark Teixeira at first base and serving a big chunk of time as a designated hitter. Would the long time White Sox be willing to leave Chicago and come to New York to be a part time player though? Well if he was then I do not think he would be featured in this "unrealistic Yankees free agent targets" for the 2014 season feature.

Paul Konerko is a career Chicago White Sox and even in down years they have had an unwillingness to trade him probably out of respect for Konerko. He has never wanted to tuck his tail and run when the Sox were losing and was always a big part of the team when they were winning. If Konerko wants to keep playing it will be for no other team but the Chicago White Sox unfortunately.

Konerko would look so good in those Yankees pinstripes though...

This Day In New York Yankees History 9/20

On this day in 1968 Mickey Mantle his his 536th and final home run of his 18 year major league career all spent with the New York Yankees.

On this day in 1980 the Yankees unveiled a bronze plaque honoring recently deceased Yankees captain Thurman Munson. This came just a season after the 32 year old was killed while trying to fly a Cessna airplane and crashed.

On this day in 1998 Cal Ripken takes a game off for the first time in over 16 years breaking the iron mean streak for most consecutive games played. The streak that will probably never be broken ends at 2,632 straight games all for the Baltimore Orioles.

On this day in 2010 George Steinbrenner is honored with a 7' x 5' 760 lb. monument made of bronze at Yankees Stadium. This is shortly after "the Boss" passed away.