Five Things I Hate About the Yankees

Confessions of a Kool Aid Drinker
Week 9
Heath Cummings
May 30, 2005

Once again I face the bleak prospect of the best story about the Royals coming from the team they’re preparing to play. Yes, at 13-37, with a six game losing streak, and a managerial search that’s looking more doomed by the moment, happiness is no where to be found at Kauffman Stadium. Today, hitting Coach Jeff Pentland got the ax. Tomorrow, the hated Yankees come in to town. Speaking of hated, my ode to the Evil Empire:

Five Things I Hate About the Yankees
1. Derek Jeter, not so much the man, but the hype- Watch ESPN, read the papers, you’d think Jeter was Cal Ripken, Ted Williams, and Babe Ruth rolled into one. A sure fire hall of famer….the best shortstop ever……a champion…..Here’s the problem; I don’t buy the fact that a shortstop leads his team into battle. How many other shortstops have been given as much credit for their team’s success? Derek Jeter is a good player, no doubt, but was Alan Trammel ever called the greatest shortstop ever? According to baseballreference.com that’s who Jeter most resembles statistically at age 30…with the rings of course. Jeter is a good shortstop who had the benefit of being on some great teams but don’t try and tell me he’s the best shortstop ever, or even of his own generation.

2. Yankees-Red Sox- Before their series with the Royals, the Yankees hosted the Boston Red Sox….like I really needed to tell you that. ESPN has turned this rivalry in to Star Wars, without the light sabers. They even had an article on their website contrasting the two. Without question it is ONE OF the greatest rivalries of all time. It was a great story to be told…until someone decided to tell it again and again for 180 days straight. Thank you Mr. Gammons.

3. Jason Giambi and the steroids scandal- I was appalled earlier in the month when many were claiming that Steve Nash won the NBA MVP because of racism. If someone really wanted to claim racism they should look no further than the different ways with which Barry Bonds and Giambi have been handled during the past year. Bonds, never a media darling, has been ripped to shreds while Giambi’s case is presented almost sympathetically. It amazes me that the media can cry foul in such an innocent case such as the NBA MVP voting, and then be so biased themselves for everyone to see.

4. $205 million- That is what espn.com estimated for the 2005 Yankees team payroll. Approximately 550% of that of our hometown Royals. Now, I’m not saying that everyone should be held to the same cheap standards of David Glass, but when the fifth highest payroll in the league is estimated to be less than 50% of yours, you might be overdoing it. And why not? To this point a luxury tax has been merely a write off for the Boss. He heeded the penalty by raising payroll heftily each off season. And what if the Yankees are still struggling come late June? He’ll raise it again by buying whatever aging star he can from a team like our Royals, who’ve already been knocked from the race.

5. All Stars- And lots of them. This year the Yankees sported 15 former all stars on their opening day roster. They’ll probably trade for one or two more before the year is over. This bothers me two fold. For one, the Yankees go buy other team’s all stars. Secondly, and more bothersome, many of the players that have been All Stars have been so more because of who the manager was than how worthy they were. Joe Torre was notorious for selecting his own players as alternates….and he had plenty of opportunities.

Call it obsession; call it jealousy, whatever you call it I’m not the only one. The Yankees have grown to be the most hated team in baseball, and for good reason. They’re owner is pompous and dismissive, their players are overpaid and over-hyped, and their fans are rude and obnoxious. They visit Kauffman Stadium this week for their only visit of the year, and they’ll be the talk of the town. Yankees fans will come out of the woodwork to tell how great they are and how much we suck. Thank you Mr. Obvious.

So what about the games themselves? Do the Royals have a chance at upsetting the vaunted Yanks and stealing two out of three? The mere mention of that to an expert would probably draw you an outburst of laughter. The game one pitching match up tells you a lot about the fortunes of the two teams. For the Royals it’s the only hope for the franchise, pitching phenom Zack Greinke. Greinke has been brilliant at times while sprinkling in a few sub par outings. He sports a respectable 4.13 ERA but has yet to get off the schnide and sits at 0-6. His opponent will be six time all star Kevin Brown. Brown, by all accounts, has had a dreadful start to the season. His ERA sits at a career high 5.14, yet he has a decent record of 4-4. Put Greinke on the Yankees and he may lead the league in wins, put Brown on the Royals and you have another Jose Lima.

The other two match ups look much worse for the Royals. In game two it will be five time CY Young winner Randy Johnson for the Yanks against former reliever DJ Carrasco making his fifth career start. Game three features Carl Pavano (4-3 4.18 ERA) against Ryan Jensen 1-1 9.72 ERA. Yes, if the Royals hope to steal even one from the Empire, they’d better be sharp Tuesday night.

To further put things in perspective, the combined salaries of the three Yankees starters this week is just over $40 million, approximately 3 million more than the entire Royals payroll. Regardless, it should be a good week of baseball at the K, with many Yankees fans lining the pockets of Royals owner David Glass.

FEARLESS FORECAST:

There was only one good thing about the Royals record last week. It proved I wasn’t jinxing them with my predictions. So with that burden off my shoulders, let’s review May.

I predicted 15-12 for the Royals in May and with one game remaining, it doesn’t look like they’ll get there. However, I also predicted a better record than April (6-18) and even with a loss tomorrow, they’ll accomplish that (by percentage points).

June doesn’t look any easier. The Royals resume inter league play against the NL West and face four AL teams with winning records. The only free pass on the schedule is a weekend series in Colorado. If Jose Lima is still on the roster at that point you might consider evaluating the futures market for baseballs. They’ll be exiting Coors Field like softballs at a Rock N’ Jock softball game. With 26 games on the schedule, they’ll need at least 8 wins to continue the improvement I promised. I bet they get 10.

Zack Greinke is going to get a win one day….I can feel it.