That's what Yankee Stadium has become. In their most recent run to glory from 1996-2000, the Yanks could sign anyone and rejuvenate their careers for a week, a month, a season, just long enough to get the wins they needed. Now, players come to NY to die. Case in point: Randy Johnson.
I can't figure this out. Here's a guy who's been in the AL before. He's won and won big in the AL before. Sure, he's been in the NL for the last 5 1/2 years but hitters are hitters and a dominant pitcher shouldn't completely forget how to pitch just because he's changed leagues. Curt Schilling had a total of 5 AL starts in 1988-1989 before coming back to the junior circuit last year. He's old, he's brittle and he's found the AL to be no harder than the NL. The reason? Talent. I don't understand where Randy Johnson's talent has gone. All I know is that there must be a voodoo doll out there wearing Pinstripes. AEPi's softball team was better than the 2005 Yanks are right now.
PS -- Since I invoked AEPi's softball team, I felt the need to mention the following:
Todd Goren, if you can hear this, no one has forgiven you for dropping the third out on a routine popup at 2nd base in 1997. The very next pitch, Dave Forman of ZBT smacked Dazzlin' Dave Chatoff's meatball to the corner of Forsyth and Big Bend ON A FLY for the game winning grand slam.
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3 comments:
Mo, you raise good questions about what's happened to the high-priced players that were so good before coming to the Yanks and so uninspiring upon their arrival in the Bronx. It's tough to find an explanation as to why this happens to the individual players - but I do think the team's inability to win a World Series despite all this talent since 2000 can easily be explained:
Simply, the Yankees' strategy has been to outspend everyone else on the most expensive players without regard to team chemistry. It's as if Steinbrenner is thinking, "if we have all the best players, they'll find a way to win a title just because they're the best." Well, the last four years have been excellent proof of the failure of that strategy. In particular, the 2002 Angels and 2003 Marlins demonstrate that a winning team must have a combination of both talent AND chemistry. Those two squads played as true teams, with everyone's talent complementing everyone else's. This is something the Yankees have failed to do. Clearly, plugging in the likes of A-Rod, Giambi, Sheffield et al isn't enough.
Time to try something new...
I would have to say that I disagree with your analysis. I think that is the simplistic Peter Gammons/ESPN approach. The Oakland A's of the 2000-2003 period had wonderful team chemistry in the clubhouse and an abundance of talent including 2 MVP's (Giambi, Tejada), a star 3rd baseman (Chavez), a Cy Young award winner (Zito) and two 2nd place finishers (Mulder, Hudson) among other star players (Jermaine Dye, Johnny Damon, Keith Foulke, Jason Isringhausen, Ray Durham) and won squat.
Another example is the 1997 Florida Marlins team that won the World Series with a team exclusively made up of free agents. Bobby Bonilla, Gary Sheffield, Kevin Brown, Livan Hernandez, Alex Fernandez, Al Leiter, etc. are all fairly combustible players who have a history of not getting along with teammates or being cancers, to varying degrees. Yet, they beat the Cleveland Indians to win the title.
What I'm saying is that the Yanks aren't NOT winning just because they're 25 guys that don't go out drinking after a game. The Red Sox didn't win last year because they all choose to take shots of whiskey and grow their hair long at the same time.
Further, the question isn't why the Yanks aren't winning world championships, it's why, as of late, good players come to NY and simply stop performing. Randy Johnson has been a loner in each of his four previous stops. I don't think he walked into spring training this year and said, "Wow, no one speaks to eachother in the clubhouse, I'm going to feel lonely here" and now has gone on to suck donkey nuts this year.
Then again, maybe that is why he sucks donkey nuts this year. I think I'll buy him some flowers and candy. Anything to get him to take those donkey nuts out of his mouth while he's on the mound.
As Hart stated there are a number of interesting questions 1) Whats wrong with the Yankees and 2) How important is team chemistry? The questions can be mutually exclusive.
As to whats wrong with the Yankees it could either be 1) the yankees today are not as good as the teams of the 1990s or 2) players on opposing teams are better relative to the yankees of the 1990s. Its still too early in the season to point fingers but I would surmise partly its age and partly short sightedness. The Yanks one rather than developing players that will soon hit their prime have in recent years mainly signed players that have already peaked and declining (see Giambi, Johnson) Secondly a number of the signings of free agents tend to be driven by what did you do last year rather than longer term considerations (e.g. Jaret Wright)
As to the chemistry question, since its such an intangiable quality to begin with its very difficult to determine what the effect it is. I would note that like most things in sports there are exceptions. For example football we're told "defense wins championships" While a great defense may increase the probability of winning a championship it is neither a necessary or sufficient condition. The Rams in winning the super bowl, while a decent defense, never had a dominating defense. As the old saying goes "There is more than one way to skin a cat". As such I would say chemistry, which I often think manifests itself as a diffusion of clutch hitting (e.g. a number of players hitting well at key moments) can matter but can be substituted for with other factors at times. There was something magical in October that Jeter or Williams had that has been missing the past season and this year for the Yanks.
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