THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Whenever the Yankees and Mets play against each other, I make it a point to watch the games on the Mets’ live telecast, while I DVR the Yankees’ telecast for their increased camera coverage, if I want to see a great replay from any angle.  Watching the Mets’ live telecast enables me to promptly hear and see exactly what is being brainwashed into the Mets’ fans heads.  Now, I’m not stating that the Yankees or any other team don’t have broadcasters that favor the team that’s paying them (directly or indirectly), but it’s important and advantageous for me to constantly educate myself by learning what the Mets’ fans are hearing as I prepare myself for the inevitable post-game comments by the Mets’ fans.  Unfortunately, their ignorant fans are the ones that typically speak like parrots, when it comes to their supposed pro-Mets or anti-Yankees “knowledge” - which they had learned and believed from their team’s radio or television telecasts.  I, on the other hand, typically dispute many comments that are stated from the Yankees’ telecasters, especially those of Michael Kay or of John Sterling.

The last few years, the Mets’ telecasters (especially Gary Cohen & Ron Darling) have been emphasizing the lack of distance of Yankee Stadium’s outfield walls, mainly its positioning in the furthest right field corner where it meets the right field foul pole at 314 feet.  In contrast, Citi Field’s same right field location is 16 feet further at 330 feet.

This year, their primary example is Curtis Granderson because he played for the Yankees over the last 4 years and now plays for the Mets - drawing a Yankees Stadium versus Citi Field comparison.  Like usual, though, both Gary Cohen and Ron Darling really need to get their facts straight before making their constant whining statements over the air - especially since they’ve harped on the issue numerous times year after year.  First of all, anyone who knows a little about baseball already knows that Yankees Stadium‘s dimensions are predominantly smaller than Citi Field’s…duh!  For the Granderson instance, according to measurements calculated by SR Nation’s amazinavenue.com, out of the 63 homeruns that he hit at Yankees Stadium, only 8 would not have been homeruns at Citi Field; however, Granderson would have also gained 3 home runs with Citi Field’s short portion in left-center field, where it has 28 feet less to offer than Yankee Stadium!  In the end, Granderson’s differential is only 5 home runs!!

Of course they weren’t the only ones with unfounded blanket statements, but they were the main ones who, as I stated, helped get the Mets’ fans riled and complaining all over the airwaves throughout the second half of the subway series.  Again, many Mets fans presumed they were right and other sportscasters and writers joined the band wagon, especially after the Mets hit 6 homeruns and scored a total of 21 runs at Yankee Stadium for that 2-game series and then failed to score any runs for the following 2-game series at Citi Field.  Further analysis, if only Gary & Ron would bother, demonstrates that the Mets failed offense at Citi Field had nothing to do with the stadiums, it was mainly because of the Yankees great pitching (especially Tanaka & Betances) and the Mets’ anxious hitters.  The Mets struck out 22 times in those 2 Citi Field games.  That’s 22 untouched outs, or 41% of their total outs for the 2 games!  Hey, Gary & Ron, a strikeout has never resulted into a homerun or even a hit at any stadium, including tiny Yankee Stadium or even within the confines of a Cracker Jack box!  Oh, and by the way, the Yankees (unlike the Mets) were somehow able to hit a couple of homeruns in Citi Field during their 2 games there.

Gary, Ron, and the Wilpons need to stop blaming Yankee Stadium for the Yankees’ success and swaying it into a twisted excuse for the Mets’ woes.  They are a pitiful team because the Wilpons are the total opposites of the Steinbrenners - the Wilpons look for every opportunity “not” to spend on their team and for their fans in one of the largest cities in the United States of America!

Now, getting back to the two stadiums’ comparisons…

Yankee Stadium:  In 1923, the Yankees consciously designed portions of Yankee Stadium to mainly coincide with the swing of Babe Ruth (the greatest player of all time).  Hence, back then, Yankee Stadium was nicknamed, “The House That Ruth Built” - the Babe even hit a homerun during its grand opening to demonstrate how fitting it was.  Since then, while Yankee Stadium’s dimensions have changed, the Yankees have always ensured to purposely build the stadium’s walls to benefit left-handed hitters and (somewhat) left-handed pitchers.  They have also continued to appropriately build their team towards the stadium’s dimensions, including their new ballpark built in 2009.  After all, it’s common sense to do that since half the games of every season are played there.

Citi Field:  The Mets also built their latest ballpark in 2009, but never bothered to consider their team’s hitting, or anything else that made baseball sense for their team.  The Wilpons instead focused on the history of their favorite team from the mid 1900s, the Dodgers and made that their priority.  Just 3 years later, after hearing gripes from David Wright, other Mets’ hitters, and their fans, the Wilpons decided to potentially help David Wright by moving in and lowering the heights on portions of the walls.  Of course, David Wright is no Babe Ruth and while it somewhat helped increase his homerun output, it didn’t help him or any other Mets drastically enough - yet, another failure for the Mets/Wilpons.  They keep pointing out that it’s an advantage for the pitchers (another “duh” moment); but, the bottom line fact is that the Mets have a better record in almost every other ballpark!  Plus, most baseball fans love the excitement of homeruns.  The Mets’ fans and I actually agree that the Wilpons need to once again adjust the walls at Citi Field; but, will the stubborn Wilpons ever click their heels 3 times to recognize “There’s-No-Place-Like-Home”?

MONUMENTAL DECISIONS

This week, the Yankees finally designated a date (8/23) in which Joe Torre will receive his honored plaque and have his #6 retired.  For 2014, they also announced that they will be honoring and presenting an individualized plaque for Tino Martinez (on 6/21), Goose Gossage (on 6/22), and Paul O’Neill (on 8/9) in Monument Park, presumably without their respective numbers (24, 54, and 21) being retired.  Lastly, they additionally announced that Bernie Williams will also be honored with a plaque, but not until next season; also, without mention of his #51 possibly being retired.

The choosing of a separate year for Bernie is interesting and mysterious.  My hunch is that Tino, Goose, and Paul were grouped for this year because, while they were World Series heroes, none of them originated from the Yankees’ farm system, like Bernie did.  Hence, perhaps next year they will also add Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte to the 2015 grouping.

Maybe they’ll eventually designate a special Core 4 plague, bringing each of the 4 back for an additional Monument Park recognition.  Of course, that could only happen after Derek’s #2 is officially retired.  I don’t know how or when they can acknowledge and honor Jeter because no one knows for sure if they’ll make the playoffs or not, especially since they’re playing in the toughest division in all of baseball.  Last year, ironically, because of their failure to make the playoffs, it was actually easy and appropriate for them to have had the maneuverability to schedule Mariano’s honor and retirement of his special #42 to join Jackie Robinson’s commonly retired #42.

There’s one thing that will surely come out of these designated celebrations…disputes.  Some folks will undoubtedly argue that the Yankees have been honoring too many with a plaque and/or a retired number in Monument Park.  Of course, no other MLB team has had so many championships and All-Star champion players, making it hard for non-Yankees’ fans to be objective in their arguments.  Even most of the Yankees’ fans have had, and will certainly continue to have, debates over the overload issue and the choices made, especially when it comes to the prestigious retirement of the Yankees’ numbers. 

Thus far, the Yankees have retired numbers for Billy Martin (#1), Babe Ruth (#3), Lou Gehrig (#4), Joe DiMaggio (#5), Mickey Mantle (#7), Yogi Berra & Bill Dickey (#8), Roger Maris (#9), Phil Rizzuto (#10), Thurman Munson (#15), Whitey Ford (#16), Don Mattingly (#23), Elston Howard (#32), Casey Stengel (#37), Mariano Rivera & Jackie Robinson (#42), Reggie Jackson (#44), and Ron Guidry (#49).  That’s 16 numbers representing 18 players before Joe Torre’s upcoming #6 & Derek Jeter’s inevitable #2.

No one in their right mind could dispute Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Berra, Dickey, Ford, Howard, Stengel, or Rivera for their contributions.  Nor could they dispute the eventual retiring of #2 for Jeter.  The others are far more debatable. In fact, I’ve already heard arguments for and against the others (Martin, Maris, Rizzuto, Munson, Mattingly, Robinson, Jackson, and Guidry).  Not many have disputed Torre’s upcoming #6 retirement, but many are questioning the deservingness of possible future retired number candidates O’Neill (#21), Martinez (#24), Williams (#51), Gossage (#54), and, possibly Jorge Posada (#20) and Andy Pettitte (#46) - two players the Yankees haven’t even mentioned yet.

It is my opinion that they should not retire all contributing players with multiple championships.  Otherwise, they’d have to backtrack to the 1920s, 30s, 40s, & 50s where many players contributed towards several championships.  Generally, I believe that the non-Hall of Fame caliber players don’t deserve to have their numbers retired in Monument Park with the exception of Thurman Munson and Ron Guidry.  The severe tragedy of Munson obviously shortened his career, but his Rookie of the Year, All-Star numbers, impressive defensive stats, and his deserving Captain title and leadership clearly qualified him as one of the greatest Yankees, even with his tragically shortened career.  Ron Guidry was one of the most dominating starters the Yankees ever had.  In fact, his 1978 Cy Young record of 25-3 with a 1.74 ERA was considered one of the greatest years by any pitcher in MLB history.  He had other years in which he won 16, 18, 17, 21, & 22 games from the mid-70s through the mid-80s.  Guidry also had another qualification that I consider; he played his whole career with the Yankees.

For me, if a player is either a Hall of Famer or a borderline Hall of Famer and has played most or his entire career with the Yankees, then I believe he generally qualifies for a retired number in Monument Park.  Hence, I also support their past retired number selection of Don Mattingly and a possible selection of Goose Gossage, but I wouldn’t support retiring the numbers for O’Neill, Martinez, or Williams.  I don’t even support them receiving plaques just because they each have 4 championship rings, although I respect each of them and am very grateful for their past contributions.  Again, the Yankees have many players that have won multiple championships throughout the team’s long existence.  For them, the Yankees should have plaques representing the decades with these key types of players designated on the plaques collectively.  For instance, they could create a plaque for the 1990s decade with an inscription representing Joe Torre as the manager, each Core 4 member, and perhaps an inclusion of the teams’ other All-Star players which would include Tino Martinez and Paul O’Neill.  I think that would be a great solution, while offering a compromise and adding key names that deserve recognition.  That would also help fans realize the importance of other key contributors towards multiple championships including deserving names such as Lefty Gomez, Tony Lazzeri, Earle Combs, Hank Bauer, Bob Meusel, and manager Joe McCarthy.