2017 SEASON’S SUCCESS - THE YANKEES ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS!

Yesterday, the NY Yankees clinched their 53^rd playoff berth.  There are so many things out of sync in our world today; but, when the Yankees are about to participate in the playoffs, we at least have baseball seeming normal.  As almost all baseball fans know, the Yankees were not even supposed to have a season above .500 this year, much less qualify for the playoffs!  As a matter of fact, they even have a chance to win 90 games!

Their youth movement, which has been rapidly developing over the last 4 years or so, has produced many stars from last season into this season.  Key youth-movement contributors have included Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, Chad Green, and Jordan Montgomery.  In fact, three of them (Judge, Sanchez, and Severino) earned their first years as All Stars this season. 

Besides those five young players, the Yankees certainly received major contributions from two backup players, Ronald Torreyes and Austin Romine.  Both of them have exceedingly provided seamless efforts to help the team win during injuries to Starlin Castro, Didi Gregorius, and Gary Sanchez.  Speaking of Starlin and Didi, they have both proven to be exceptional acquisitions during their first, and now their second season as Yankees. 

By the way, Didi is now my favorite starting player on this roster.  Aside from his impressive batting and defense, he has seemingly become a leader on the field.  Yes, Judge and Sanchez do get a lot of rightful acclaim, but Didi’s implementation of public postgame comical tweets and his physical lifts of vertically-challenged Ronald Torreyes during Judge’s high-fives has shown his leadership towards making the game fun.  He, unlike Judge and Sanchez, also offers more commentary during his interviews.  I’m sure even Derek Jeter is proud to watch his successor’s contributions as a player and as a person.

Another reason the Yankees overachieved this year was because of Brian Cashman’s July acquisitions.  He thankfully brought four key players to this team - Sonny Grey, Todd Frazier, Tommy Kahnle, and my favorite returnee…David Robertson.  Grey and Kahnle (also a returnee) are both young pitchers.  Behind Severino, Grey is probably our second best starting pitcher.  Kahnle is a lot like Adam Warren.  He is an excellent bullpen pitcher who can offer multiple innings for most of his mound appearances.

One final player who deserves recognition for his contribution is Chase Headley.  This guy has had so many ups and downs on this team in the past.  This year, he only had one poor month (May).  While his offensive numbers have been overly steady, it was his voluntary sacrifice to completely learn and ultimately play first base when Todd Frazier was acquired that really stands out.  Yes, he had played some games at that position, but only as a last-choice backup.  He knew that Frazier was a better option to continue as a third baseman and he spent a multitude of hours dedicated towards becoming a decent first baseman - several levels above the skills of a backup.  The best thing is - he really did it!

Lastly, this season’s surprise success would not have come together without the person who has clearly led this team, Joe Girardi.  It’s strange to me how many Yankees’ fans dislike Joe.  Many nitpick everything he does - especially after the results of Joe’s moves.  It’s easy to offer strong opinions “after” results, but Joe does not have that luxury as many of his decisions require instantaneous choices.  Joe has visibly corrected Gary Sanchez during games, but not in a humiliating fashion.  He’s also shown some sturdy managing by immediately offering his verbal explanation to Jaime Garcia as to why he removed Garcia from a game in the 5^th inning of a game, right before Garcia could have possibly qualified for a win.  With all of the injuries in baseball today, perhaps Girardi’s best quality has been his rotating of players, even veterans.

As it stands today, the Yankees will more than likely be one of the wildcard teams and their opponent will probably be the Minnesota Twins.  Anything can happen during one game.  It’s not the best measurement of teams, but it appears to be the only way of entry for the Yankees.  Severino is deservingly expected to be the pitcher for that game.  Hopefully, he’ll pitch like he has during most of his impressive starts and the Yankees will go onto the second round.  We’ll soon find out!

“STICK”

Today, in my opinion, the baseball world lost the most intelligent talent evaluator that ever existed in Major League Baseball, Gene “Stick” Michael.  During his tenure in the late 1960s through 1975, he played shortstop for the NY Yankees with a strong throwing arm and a quick glove.  Later, he held many baseball administrative positions including Manager, General Manager, Third-Base Coach, Scout, Vice President of Major League Scouting, and lastly Vice President/Special Advisor.

He was a key contributor towards the signing of the Core Four (Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada) and Bernie Williams.  Later, he was the sole reason for the avoidance of trading away each of them during their pinstripe years.  Opposing General Managers sought trades for them, but he wisely declined.  Those declinations involved George Steinbrenner’s concurrence in most cases, which was not an easy thing to achieve.  George would typically jump for any opportunity to acquire more well-known players to help draw the fans’ delight and grow attention to the Yankees.  Stick, instead, showed a lot of strength and guts by dissuading George.  It also endangered Stick’s job security if he proved to be wrong.  As time passed, Stick’s strategy of promoting and retaining such young promising players proved to George Steinbrenner that the Yankees’ fans were on board with supporting youthful unknowns - demonstrated by the fact that the stadium and television audiences continued to grow.  Of course, it helped that the dynasty Stick built with the Core Four players promptly produced 4 out of 5 World Series Championships from 1996 through 2000.  That was enough persuasion for George!

Stick clearly had an eye for talent.  He was the first scout to emphasize the importance of walks (which help wear out starting pitchers) - a major factor in the acquisitions of Wade Boggs, Paul O’Neill, and Tino Martinez.  Also, he didn’t just examine mathematical statistics; he saw values in players’ intangible characteristics, such as morality, desire, and personal family values - traits most teams fail to strongly weigh.  In fact, even Derek Jeter’s parents were indirectly assessed by the Yankees because of Gene’s influence, before the Yankees committed to drafting Jeter as a first-round pick.  The other 3 member of the Core Four also offer such characteristics.  As a result, many non-Yankees fans who speak about the Core Four seem to have trouble expressing any “hate” of them because it’s hard to lambast players who have displayed such high characteristic qualities for such a long period, while winning so many championships. 

Stick’s intangible weighted values are still contributing towards the Yankees of 2017.  For example, Brian Cashman reacquired David Robertson - one of the players who displayed that strong desire and moral characteristics during his previous years as a Yankee.  Even today’s oldest active Yankee, CC Sabathia, continues to offer his own unending desire to win as he goes out to the mound wearing a leg brace - ignoring as much pain as he can.  Both CC and Robertson have also done so many good things for their selected charities with the personal aid of their wives (again, the family value Stick appreciated).  Stick personally contributed to many charities including one he leads for blind people.

Earlier today, I heard both Joe Girardi and Buck Showalter use the word “trust” when describing Stick, something Stick also earned from George.  Ironically, many past Yankees offered to talk about Stick’s high-quality/moral characteristics.

Lastly, I heard many say that the origin of his nickname, "Stick", was inconclusive.  Some thought it may have been related to his slim shape and some though it could have been used sarcastically towards his weak batting statistics.  As I thought about it more and more, I realized that I will always have my own reasoning - which is not even related to his playing days, but instead to his longer-tenured administrative days.  I will consider Gene Michael as Stick because he proved that the moral qualities he held so high regarding players' characteristics were retained by players a lot longer than their positive statistics as illustrated in today's overused sabermetrics.  In other words, some players will produce great numbers in short spans; some players will produce very good numbers during long spans; but, the morals, true desire, and large hearts of players (with family values) will always "Stick" to produce those key intangible values throughout their careers (and lives).  Thanks, Stick - rest in peace.