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Mike’s Rants

This is stuff that really makes me pazzo (crazy)! I want to use this page to comment on those things that come up that I have just got to address but there’s not enough for a whole article. Please, if you have any comments on these subjects, just let me know by going to mike@mikestakeonsports.com . I’ll see that your comments get included here.

 

9/10/11  Why the Slump?

In tonight’s Yankees-Angels game the broadcaster asked if the Yankees are slumping because of Weaver and Haren or something else.  If it was because of those two Angels pitchers, what happened in Baltimore?  I think the reason for the slump is that they have just decided to not play any longer.  Remember last year?  They did the same thing.  They just stopped playing around the 140 game mark.  This year, though it’s really ridiculous.  The way they’re playing you’d never think they’d be in first place but they are.  Of course, the Red Sox could not be more accommodating.  They have been giving the Yankees every opportunity to run away with the division, but the Yankees are refusing to do it!  It’s starting to look as if nobody wants to win the American League East Division.  The last week or so, the Yankees didn’t even need to bring bats to the ball park.  So if the question is why the Yankees are slumping so badly, I think I’m going with they have just decided to slump.

 

8/9/11

Couple things I took away from tonight’s game with the Angels.  First, this talk about who would go to the bullpen to get down to a five man rotation.  Come on, that’s about a no-brainer.    If I had to make that decision, Burnett would already be there.  Yankees scored a run right away tonight in first inning, but I knew they needed more because there was no way Burnett could hold a one-run lead.  Heck the other night he had an 11 run lead and barely held it!  Then another thing.  Somebody needs to think about how much longer Rivera’s got left.  Maybe he’s losing it some?  He didn’t look so sharp Sunday night against the Red Sox either.  Then, last, who’s idea was it to have Granderson try to steal with two outs, two on in the ninth?  They were down by two with a guy who already has 32 homers at bat.  Come on, y’all use your heads!  There’s a reason y’all make these decisions and I just write about it.  You’re supposed to know more than me.   

 

7/2/11

I’ve been watching the play of Eduardo Núñez who’s been playing shortstop for the Yankees since Derek Jeter has been out.  During that time, he’s only been hitting over .300 and his defense has been as good as Jeter.  The Yankees are 15-4 with a 7 game winning streak since Jeter left.  He’s 7 for 8 with a homer in the two games against the Mets.  Here’s the problem I have watching this.  Captain Choke is due to return on Monday the 4th.  When he does, regardless of his excellent play and the Yankees performance since he’s been in there, Núñez will be back on the bench.  You know this is going to happen.  Mostly because of Jeter’s run at 3,000 hits.  Núñez has more than earned that position and should remain there after Choke returns.  When’s the last time Jeter had 7 hits in 2 games?  I can’t even remember.  What does a player have to do to earn a spot in that line up?

 

5/15/11 When’s that bus leave?

Just finished watching the last game of the Red Sox sweep of the Yankees tonight.  It’s also the fifth straight loss for the Yankees.  I watched two of the three games in this series.  The one I did not see was even worse.  My question is to MGR Girardi.  When’s the bus to Trenton leaving and I hope it’s a big bus.  That’s because every player on the team needs to ship out to the double A team in Trenton.  And when I say every player I mean exactly that, without exception.  I mean I was not really expecting this season to be a really great season and I still am not counting on one of the best seasons, but hey, come on, is it too much to ask for the players to almost look like major leaguers?  Nobody at all performed as if he belonged in the Majors.  I think my grandson’s tee-ball team played better the last time I saw it play.

 

5/8/11  Totally Unprofessional

In today’s Yankees-Rangers game, a call At first went against the Rangers.  Nick Swisher hit a grounder in the infield.  The umpire ruled that the Rangers first baseman failed to touch the base and Swisher was safe.  The Rangers’ manager argued the call, but it stood.  It was unusual in that the Yankees very rarely get close calls.  This time it appeared they did.  Following that play the next two batters got aboard loading the bases.  Francisco Cervelli came up and hit a grand slam followed by a two run homer scoring six in the inning.  That put the game in the bag for the Yankees.  They won 12-5.  The next inning, Yorvit Torrealba hit a fly ball out to the outfield.  As he got to first, he said something in reference to the call.  The umpire threw him out of the game.  Now let’s consider a few points.  First, there’s a reason the umpires are positioned where they are and not in a dugout.  He probably had a better view of the play than anyone in a dugout or at the plate for that matter (Torrealba was the Rangers’ catcher).  Second the Yankees won by seven runs.  So let’s say the umpire missed the call and Swisher was out.  Since Swisher scored on the grand slam, we’ll take that run away from the Yankees.  So, Cervelli’s homer was a three run homer instead of a grand slam and the Yankees score five runs in that inning instead of six.  The score ends up 11-5.  Hey, Texas, losing’s losing whether by six runs or by seven.  Now I’m sure that the smart people will be writing about how the Yankees got the benefit of a bad call.  But did that bad call lose the game for the Rangers?  No, so why did Torrealba have to go act like a little kid who got picked last in the sandlot game.  That was highly unprofessional!

 

4/28/11  Well, That’s it for Baseball

This baseball season lasted almost a whole month.  Now it’s about to be up-staged once again by football.  They just started the NFL draft and players are starting to return to the teams’ facilities as the lock-out seems to be ending.  Now everything you see on sports shows is football.  Even that network that isn’t really up on sports has gotten back on the football bandwagon.  You know, that ESP something.  Well, it was good while it lasted.  I hope the NFL is thankful to baseball for filling in for it while it jerked everybody around.  But, TV has told everybody that it’s ok to go back to football and just forget everything else.  After all, TV tells folks what to think and according to TV, football is the ONLY game in town.

 

4/3/11  Slow Down Now

Well, the season’s here and already folks have the Red Sox down as slam dunk sure-fire winners of it all this year.  Of course a lot of this comes from the posers at that ESP something.  Maybe they think that with that ESP at the beginning of its network designation it means they can see the future.  Anyway, before the posers’ favorite team goes out there and starts sizing their fingers for this year’s ring, they need to take a look at last year’s season.  Everybody, even the best Yankees haters of them all had the Yankees as the slam dunk winners last year—-no question!  It looked like they were right as the Yankees led the entire MLB through about 140 games.  Then they stopped playing and that slam dunk people started back-pedaling.  Now, already this year as we get through the first series of the season, the Red Sox just ain’t setting the world on fire, getting swept by the Rangers!  Y’all remember it’s a long season and anything can happen.  Who would have thought that the Rangers and Giants would have been in the Series last year?  How do they say it?  “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”

 

4/3/11  Come on did I hear this for real?

I was up early this morning and turned on Real Sports on HBO.  One of the stories about how college athletes should get paid since they are the reason sports programs bring so much money into the schools.  It seemed as if the host and the reporter that did the story agreed with this.  Now y’all just wait a minute.  Professional athletes play in the NFL, NBA and MLB—-not college.  Colleges are not football teams or basketball teams.  They are schools that have football and basketball programs as extracurricular activities for students.  These student-athletes are called that because they’re supposed to be students first.  These players do get paid.  They get a free college education.  Now I know at most schools the education part is not why most of them are at the school.  They pick a college based on the sports teams.  Shoot, most of them don’t even graduate!  Hey, schools don’t have to be lenient on grades so these guys can play ball.  So that kind of says that these guys aren’t really student-athletes, doesn’t it?  There are some schools that do have true scholar-athletes and these guys do get the benefit of an education and graduate.  All the Service Academies and some schools that are contenders many years.  Schools like Penn State, Notre Dame and Boston College are examples of those that do require athletes to actually go to school.  One of the points the story tried to make was the coach gets paid, and gets paid well.  But, hey coaching is his profession.  Now I know that a lot of people try to justify this kind of college career by saying that these athletes are going to school in preparation for their follow-on careers.  Well, first, not all get to go to the NFL or NBA.  And you know what?  I went to school in preparation for my follow-on career and I had to study and graduate.  And I was not going to pursue a profession in entertainment.  My profession actually contributed to society.  There are many students at these colleges who do study and graduate in preparation for follow-on careers and they don’t get paid until they graduate.

 

 

3/15/11 That’s What I Said

If you’ve read my stuff at all, you’ve probably seen where I’ve said that a lot of folks treat baseball as a filler between two football seasons. Well, today I read an article by Joel Roza entitled NFL Lockout could further baseball’s reach. It discusses how football has in the past several years surpassed baseball as the country’s number one sport, but baseball could come back. And there’s nobody to blame but football itself. The current lockout could end up putting a sour taste in every sports fan’s mouth when it comes to football. The problems that baseball was struggling with have kind of faded. Really the only time we hear anything about the steroids issue is during Hall of Fame voting. The past few Major League Baseball seasons have brought a lot of positive attention to the game. The Rays reached the Series in 2008, the Yankees beat a very good Phillies team in 2009 and in 2010, there were several no-hitters, some of which were perfect. One pitcher even threw a perfect game in the season and a no-hitter in the play-offs. The Rangers made it to the Series for the first time and the Giants won their first Series since leaving New York. The NFL seems to now be on the verge of reclaiming second place in sports fans’ hearts. Baseball now has an opening to become the popular sport it was in the past. If that happens, I’m sure we’ll still have to get ESPN on board since those are the guys who have perpetuated that whole filler between two football seasons opinion.

 

2/23/11 Payroll

Now I’m not one who spouts that crap about how payroll wins championships and when teams with big payrolls don’t win, it’s ridiculous. That’s usually how the Yankees-bashers talk because the Yankees have so much success. We know that the players still have to play and all big league teams have big leaguers on them. Look at the 2001 and 2003 World Series. In each a small market team beat the Yankees. That being said, I did see something today that bothered me. I was looking at the Yankees roster and saw that A-Rod’s salary this year is $33 Million. Now I’m not saying that it bothered me because of that broad payroll statement you hear thrown about so much, but it does bother me to see the team paying that much money to a player that consistently under-performs. He regularly fails in situations where the team really needs him and there are other players on the team who regularly out-play him and make less than half his pay. If he’s going to get that kind of salary, it’s about time he earns at least some of it!

 

2/23/11 How’s That?

I watched TV today and heard them talking about Bobby Cox and that old claim that the Braves were the team of the ‘90’s. How’s that? As I’m writing this, I’m looking at Cox’s managerial stats. I’m paying special attention to the ‘90’s. His Braves went to the Series five times in the ‘90’s and won once. Maybe in Atlanta, second place is good enough. When the Yankees make it to the Series and lose, they’re treated as real losers. And we Yankees fans think that too. Speaking of the Yankees, they were in the Series three times in the ‘90’s and won all three times, including beating the Braves twice.

 

11/27/10 Go Shopping

The Jeter deal is still not done. The Yankees have made an offer of 3 years at like $15 million per. It seems Jeter wants more like six years at $24 million. The Yankees are trying to sound tough by saying Jeter can shop around if he does not want what they offer. You think they mean it? Whatever happens, I can already hear the Yankees-bashing afterward. The posers bash the Yankees when they spend a lot on a player then they bash them if they don’t. Either way this deal works out, there will be a target-rich environment for these posers. Now, I know that a lot of Yankees fans want the deal to happen and keep Jeter in the Bronx, but I believe Captain Choke has come to the end of his super-star days. He really does not deserve what the Yankees over-paid the other choke master on that side of the infield. Do we really want half the infield to be over-paid for consistently under-performing? Maybe we need to look at other options.

 

11/7/10 Somebody Is Mistaken!

Turned on the TV this morning to Sports Reporters just in time for the daily Yankees-Bashing by those posers. They were talking about Cliff Lee. Everybody knows that the Yankees will be going after pitching; it’s what they need most and Lee is the big fish this off season. These guys were saying that no matter how much he liked Texas, he surely would take the big money from the Yankees instead. The Yankees would surely offer a big contract like the one they offered Sabathia. They did it with Sabathia to win a championship but they didn’t win it. What? Didn’t Sabathia play for the Yankees in 2009 and didn’t the Yankees win the Series in 2009? Or am I mistaken? One of us is mistaken, I guess. Probably the posers don’t want to remember 2009 because their team didn’t get there! It’s amazing how fast they want to forget about a season the Yankees win.

 

10/22/10 Season’s End

Congratulations to the Texas Rangers on winning their first ever American League pennant. They finished up the ALCS by beating the Yankees tonight. Considering his tenure with the Rangers, how appropriate was it for A-Rod to strike out for the last out. Having beaten the Rays and the Yankees (the teams with the best records in the Majors this season) the Rangers definitely deserve to be champs. Now, Rangers, whether you play the Phillies or Giants, go finish it up! We American Leaguers are convinced you CAN do it.

 

9/15/10 What A Waste!

The Yankees played one of the best seasons I’ve seen this year (well up to 140 games). Then they decided to completely stop playing. Tonight’s game with the Rays was just ridiculous. They had runners on in almost every inning and just refused to drive them in. What a waste of a good season. To lead the division all season just to quit with 22 games left is inexcusable! You may say well they’ll get in the playoffs anyway with the wild card. Well don’t start preparing for post-season play in the Bronx yet. Besides, the wild card is like a consolation prize. They played well enough all season to win the division up till now. The season’s still not over. They could lose even the wild card. The remaining schedule really favors the Rays as well. Yankees have to play the Rays, Red Sox and Rangers. The Rays play the Yankees and that’s about it. It’s over. Pack it up, turn out the lights and go home. What a terrible waste.

 

 

 

 

Mike’s Take on Sports