2025 WORLD SERIES LOSS
 
In reviewing our 4^th loss from Game 5 of this year’s World Series, let me first start off with the few positives:
 
I always appreciate progress, and this past season the Yankees certainly demonstrated progress.  They made it to the final round, the World Series, meaning they qualified as the best team in the American League (winning the American League Pennant/ trophy) which qualified them at the highest position for the playoffs in the American League.  That’s a lot better than the prior season in which they failed to even make the playoffs!
 
In the ALCS, they defeated the Cleveland Guardians in 5 games (in a potential 7-games’ series).  Some of the main highlights included a 3-run homer by Juan Soto in the 5^th game’s 10^th inning with 2 outs!  We saw some key homeruns from Judge and Wells, while also seeing superb performances from the aforementioned Soto (3 homeruns/6 RBIs) and Stanton (4 homeruns/11 RBIs/the ALCS MVP).
 
As for any positives from the World Series, Soto hit another homerun and Stanton hit 2.  Joining the homerun contributions were Jazz Chisholm, Jr. (1), Judge (1), Gleyber (1), Verdugo (1), and Volpe (1).  From a pitching standpoint, Gerrit Cole started 2 games with a collective 0.947 WHIP which was great from our ace. We also had some positive pitching efforts from relievers Clay Holmes (0.692 WHIP), Luke Weaver (0.400 WHIP), and Tim Hill( 0.750) WHIP.  Oh, and we won “a” game (Game 4) with a score of 11-4!
 
Now for the negatives which certainly outweighed the positives for all of the Yankees’ fans, including me:
 
Let’s start with some very disappointing batting averages from Anthony Rizzo (.125), Gleyber Torres (.143), Austin Wells (.176), and Aaron Judge (.222).  {Luckily Juan Soto hit .313 and Anthony Volpe hit a decent .250.}  Against us, was the "Main Man" of the series who happened to wear a Dodgers’ uniform, Freddie Freeman (who has always been a great player).  He batted .300, hit 4 homeruns, and drove in 12 runs!  “Our” first baseman hit a whopping .125 (as noted above) with only 2 hits in 16 at-bats and 0 homeruns, 0 RBIs, 0 extra base hits, and 7 strikeouts.  He was also part of the awful 5^th inning of Game 5 in which most of the team looked like the “Bad News Bears”.  Gerrit Cole was pitching a no-hitter into the 5^th inning when he gave up his first hit (to Kiké Hernández) then…
 
Judge was too busy looking at Kiké running the bases during a routine fly ball to him and he totally missed the simple catch.  Following that, Will Smith grounded “out” to Volpe who threw the ball short of third base making it difficult for Jazz to attain an actual out.  That created a bases-loaded situation with zero outs.  Cole seemed to still stay overly focused on the batters (like Andy Pettitte, but without the cap over the eyebrows).  He proceeded to strike out Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani.  That created brief relief to us fans until Mookie Betts weakly grounded “out” towards the left side of first base.  It was then that Rizzo fielded the ball about 8 feet from the bag and chose to wait for Cole (who at that time did not run enough and who was parallel to Betts, a speedy runner).  I’ve been watching Rizzo for a long time over the years and he typically avoids taking on those plays alone.  He, instead, tries to get a 3-1 play (first baseman to the pitcher) at first base.  Almost all of the other first basemen are better at solely making those plays themselves.  While Cole could have been better positioned, I realize Betts has a lot of speed to outrun and I also give credit to Cole for his pitching performance and total concentration (as mentioned) on the batters.  On the other hand, Rizzo was right there in the vicinity already and made his typical yet uncommon and illogical choice as Betts was pouring on more speed towards the base right in front of his eyes.  He could have even taken a few steps towards first base and lunged to touch the base with the ball in his hand or glove.  Eventually, during that inning, the Dodgers tied the game at 5-5!  The Yankees would ultimately lose the game 7-6 and the World Series 4 games to 1.
 
I anticipate my next article to be about the Yankees’ players who will be reaching free agency.  In that article, I will certainly offer my opinions of who I want to leave.  Obviously, Rizzo will be on that list from my perspective as I’ve had enough of his diminished all-around abilities!!  Oh, and as usual, I’ve also had enough of Boone and Cashman (the latter has been expressed so many times by me already, but I’m obviously not done griping)!