More On: aaron boone
Yankees can’t afford too many more clunkers like this
Yankees’ Clint Frazier begins rehab assignment in Tampa
Yankees’ gutsy win can be one that truly matters in the end
Yankees finally beginning to reward Aaron Booth’s faith
Yankees rookie Luis Gil comes up big in toughest of spots
I’m NOT a big league manager. I don’t even play one on TV. But I watch a lot of managers on TV. Mike Francesa once said he’d consider an offer to manage the Yankees, “But only if the money...
More from:
Phil Mushnick
NBA recklessly gives LeBron James another pass
Vulgar sports fans are only following many players' example
Breakfast with stars became routine for pair of old pals
Chris Carrino's courage puts Kyrie Irving's 'load management' to shame
Retiring Marv Albert is so much more than a broadcasting icon
I’m NOT a big league manager. I don’t even play one on TV. But I watch a lot of managers on TV.
Mike Francesa once said he’d consider an offer to manage the Yankees, “But only if the money is right.” He was serious, as if …
I harbor no such delusions. Besides, I married money. (Insert laugh track.) Still, I wonder about the current condition of MLB teams under the direction of their managers, especially from what may be seen watching Aaron Boone’s Yankees.
Let’s start Saturday in Detroit against the pathetic Tigers. Lots of pathetic teams these days. At 0-0 in the second, the Yanks had no out, the bases loaded on a hit and two walks including one to Mike Ford, who was batting a robust .140. Miguel Andujar was up next and the first pitch from Spencer Turnbull was a ball.
If Andujar was not taking the next pitch, Kyrie Irving was right: The earth is flat.
The next pitch was low and outside, yet Andujar swung and missed! On PIX11, Michael Kay and Paul O’Neill said zip about that.
On the next pitch, Andujar grounded into a double play. Nurse!
Later in a game the Yanks ended up losing 6-1, Gary Sanchez, oblivious to all that matters despite the annual assignment of coaches to tutor him, caught a third strike then headed to the dugout. But as pitcher Alex Abreu, body language in incredulous mode, signaled, there were only two out.
O’Neill laughed, as if we all should be amused by a big league catcher’s career disinclination to pay attention. Kay said, however, “It’s somewhat troubling that the catcher doesn’t know how many out there are.”
When Sanchez came to bat in that game, booing could be heard. Why? Might it be for the two cheap-shot sucker punches he landed on Tigers players during a 2017 hassle? With the shoving over that day, he hit Miguel Cabrera, who was on the ground and already engaged, then blind-sided Nick Castellanos with all he had.
But not a word from Kay or O’Neill.
The next day in Detroit, a 6-2 Yankees loss, the Tigers had six hits and eight walks! (That’s baseball, Suzyn!) And Sanchez killed a rally, tagged out due to oblivious baserunning.
That game ended with the bases loaded. After Giancarlo Stanton walked on four pitches (although a three-run homer wouldn’t have been enough), Aaron Judge batted. Now a home run would tie it.
But Judge swung and missed at two pitches below the strike zone, then stood and watched strike three, a meatball down the middle. Game over, court dismissed.
Sanchez, back in the lineup Tuesday, against the Rays, killed another rally when he was again thrown out — this time between second and third — due to mindless baserunning.
Also in that game, first baseman Ford headed to the dugout thinking there were three out. Well, he only missed by one.
On Wednesday, Clint Frazier, batting .185, stood at home and watched his game-ending blast land all the way back — in the first row.
If Boone were a Little League manager, after these games he wouldn’t even have taken the kids for pizza.
Penalty on NBC for botching NHL graphics
Of graphics and common sense: Throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs, NBC has presented a backwards graphic during power plays. Instead of the logo of the team with the man-advantage alongside the penalty clock, the logo of the team that’s down a skater appears.
How does the NHL’s national network get that wrong?
And YES’s score box graphics, showing both pitcher and batter, remain superior to SNY’s that only note the pitcher.
Good for YES. But now it’s time to lose that fat, all-the-time “THE YES APP” graphic. We get it. Even if we haven’t gotten it, we get it.
This column used to joke that if the money were right, big leagues would prevent games from being seen on TV. But here we are. Again.
Wednesday’s Mets-D’backs game was the latest to be sold — auctioned — exclusively for minimal viewing, this one via YouTube. If you’re scoring at home, put it down as “Bottom Line” Bud Selig to Rob “The Verb” Manfred.
A week from today, a Friday, no Yankees game is schedule to be played. And all rainouts now foretell seven-inning doubleheaders.
As 18th Century French Queen Marie Antoinette was reported to have said upon her visit to Citi Field, “Let them eat $14 Subway $5 Footlongs.”
Tired of being dealt the race card? Everywhere the Nets’ Kyrie Irving has played (when he’s in the mood to play), first Cleveland, then Boston, he has left hometown fans and patrons badly disregarded. Then, as a matter of self-generating prophecy, he blames their booing him on “subtle racism.” And the media buys it!
This week, Irving childishly stomped the center court Celtics’ logo — just to make it clear he’s above it all.
Irving, impossible to root for among those already excessively compromised, is another who demands respect in exchange for none.
What We Love, Allegedly: Not at all surprising to hear from golf fans who much preferred COVID-depleted galleries to the return of attention-deprived louts screaming “Get in the hole!” and “You da man!”
And they don’t believe the pandering network voices who claim we all love that crowds are back.
Last postseason we were told we all love how the Braves’ Marcell Ozuna makes the game fun, when he mimed a selfie after hitting a home run — even if many considered such immodesty sickening.
Yet that’s the junk MLB presents in promos as baseball at its best. Think Ozuna mimed any selfies during the two days he just spent in jail after being charged with assaulting his wife?
Belmont honor for late son of racing executive
In tomorrow’s Belmont — post scheduled for 6:49 regardless of NBC’s usual sucker bait — Hot Rod Charlie will be wearing a pre-race blanket embroidered with #RunningforJake, to honor the memory of Jake Panus, a 16 year-old passenger killed in a car accident, this past August. Jake was the son of Jockey Club exec Stephen Panus.
On Tuesday, LeBron James, who lectures on what’s wrong with the world outside of Communist Nike China, again abandoned his team — heading to the locker room with the Lakers losing big late to the Suns. This time, he explained his departure as getting an early start for treatment.
It’s great that the Mets’ Pete Alonso, given to speaking vulgarities, will host a one-day baseball camp for kids in August. Here’s hoping no kid asks him what the F stands for in LFGM.
Paul O’Neill’s long-winded, worthless “Keys to the Game” on Saturday, prevented Michael Kay from preceding the first pitch with his played-out “Let’s do it!” — one of Kay’s many silly, self-determined and self-defeating gimmicks.
So maybe O’Neill’s Keys weren’t that worthless.
Oh, those zany student-athletes! This week an ESPN-ranked Virginia Tech football recruit, linebacker Isi Etute, was charged with second-degree murder. He was majoring in Human Development. Seriously.
The school announced he has been suspended. Seriously. He must’ve violated unspecified team rules.
This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:Phil Mushnick
