Idiot. (and not the pop-punk American kind)

After watching Joe Torre once again manage the Yankees to death and destruction, wasting the super-human efforts of one Alex Rodriguez, I am quite ready to throw in the towel on the baseball season. Yes, this is completely irrational and ridiculous. No, I really do not care.

What a bum. Every Yankee fan on the planet should have been cringing when he overmanaged them to snap defeat from the jaws of—well, you know the rest. Clearly though, this guy sucks. If the media would stop slurping up to him, maybe some progress would take place in the Yankee clubhouse. But no. Of course not. Because their GM is almost as much of a dunderhead as Torre is (he actually has made some good personel moves lately, but being pro-Torre pretty much offsets any kudos that might have given him). This reminds me of Bill Simmon’s frustration with Doc Rivers in Boston. Apparently he stinks. Well that is kind of obvious (the guy has successively made his team worse and worse) to anyone but the Boston media, who love him. Torre is one of the most pathetic managers in the game, and this is obvious to anyone who just watches their games. Sure, maybe he smoothes over some egos and attracts some free-agents but you cannot win when your manager takes out a starting pitcher doing fine, then takes out a reliever who came in and dominated two hitters, than brings in Rivera against a hitter who has done consistently well against him throughout his career.
Idiot.
Idiot, idiot, idiot.
Idiotic idiot.

Anyway, commentators have been billing these April games as “just as important as those that come in September” because, well, that’s always what the talking heads say in April. Then, when September comes, the phrase changes to “the games that really count”. Then the next April they change their story again. Yeah well I got news for you. These games mean exactly the same as September games. But no one knows what they mean, and teams are still warming up, so they tend to go differently then September games. Still, they count just like all of the other ones. Either way, the ESPN analysts have to get their story straight. Or, wait, no they don’t, because that would hinder their ability to hype the games, which of course they do because they want people to watch them. And I have no problem with this. I just thought I'd point it out.

Baseball has lost most of its interest for me right now, though. I’ll probably get interested again if the Yankees get healthy and begin to rip through the league, but at the moment they aren’t healthy and the only one doing anything is getting wasted by a terrible manager and terrible injuries. As Kirk Vonnegut would say, “so it goes” (actually, for Vonnegut’s phrase to properly apply, someone needs to die in some horrible fashion. I vote for Joe Torre dying by a sudden stroke in the seventh inning of some game when he is about to go out to pull a pitcher who is currently throwing a perfect game but who has thrown almost eighty pitches and just threw a ball to begin an at-bat. Then, one could very easily proclaim “so it goes”)

As a sidenote, from a purely rational standpoint (it is completely absurd to bury your team in April, but it is too painful to allow yourself to care when they are losing), the series was actually encouraging if you look at it from this standpoint: The Yankees beat the snot out of Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett, and Diasuke Matsuzaka, otherwise known as the big three Boston starters. The Red Sox barely grazed Andy Petitte. Sure, they destroyed some minor league starters but what do you expect? If the Yankees get healthy before they are too far gone in this race (and Joe Torre has an unfortunate accident with an escalator or something), they still have a decent shot.

Meanwhile, I am enjoying the NBA playoffs. Why? Because there are series worth rooting for but not so much so that it kills you when Denver inevitably loses. Nevertheless, I immensely enjoy when they are victorious, because no one likes the Spurs. I mean, no one. And so far, the quality of the games has been decent enough, outside of that hideous excuse for a basketball game they put on in Cleveland. If Lebron gave a crap in that game, he forgot to let anyone know.

Something funny (unless you are from Philly): D.J. Gallo, a writer for ESPN’s page 2, wants Denver to reach the finals, along with Detroit. Not that this will happen, but you have to agree it would be pretty cool if the entire city of Philadelphia gets to see Iverson’s Nuggets squaring off against Webber’s Pistons. Yep. Or, maybe not. Cuz you know, I don't promote or endorse mass suicide.

Anyway, I haven’t the heart to continue talking sports while the Yankees continue reeling, so I have to be off now to... iron myself, or jump through flaming hoops, or get shot out of a cannon or something.

And by the way, the last column by Post Hill (tis on my links over in that nice, tidy little sidebar I provide you with) was absolutely hilarious, and if you don’t read it, you’re a chump. If you do read it and yet don’t get it... well then you simply don’t get random hilarious humor.

Okay, Daniel, I have really given you a shout-out now, so the least you can do is give me a comment saying thanks.


~The Sports Maunderer~