"Gratuitous in his dominance"
Steve Goldman says...
I haven't written much about Bernie. He's always been my favorite every day player on the Yankees. But to think of him hanging around Westchester County, "working out three or four times a week," and waiting for Hideki Matsui to break his wrist again is very sad and disturbing. It's hard watching great athletes come to the end of their playing careers. It's harder still watching them unable to come to terms with it. The Yankees success over the decades is due in large part because the organization has been unsentimental. This is the franchise that wouldn't make Babe Ruth a manager and that nudged DiMaggio to quit while he was "on top" so they could give the job to Mickey Mantle when it was clear DiMaggio could no longer get to balls hit to center. In fact, it was their sentimentality towards Mantle that ended the Yankees long dominance in the sixties.
Last year Bernie did contribute. But the fact that he was on the team illustrated unusual sentimentality on the Yankees' part, basically giving him a victory lap around the league. He was better then they probably expected, but no where near what a successful team would expect from their fourth outfielder, and he has proven unable to hit as a DH or a pinch hitter. And if it weren't for the broken bones of both corner outfielders last year, we might never have seen what Melky Cabrera could do.
He was a great Yankee. But, like DiMaggio, he should quit while he's "on top." Hell, he'll blast the cover off the ball in "Old Timers' Day." Or, conversely, no Yankee fan is going to stop loving him because he decided to extend his career wearing a different uniform.
Unless it's a Red Sox one.
On Monday, Mariano Rivera was almost gratuitous in his dominance. He's a unique pitcher, an artist with great stuff. Think about the contrast between him and Bernie Williams, between a great star and a Hall of Famer. Williams was excellent in his day, but there were always flaws, and in the end he will be one of many great Yankees whose career you will honor. "He was good," you will say. Rivera is the one, if your children or grandchildren are baseball fans, of whom you will say with pride, "I saw him pitch."
I haven't written much about Bernie. He's always been my favorite every day player on the Yankees. But to think of him hanging around Westchester County, "working out three or four times a week," and waiting for Hideki Matsui to break his wrist again is very sad and disturbing. It's hard watching great athletes come to the end of their playing careers. It's harder still watching them unable to come to terms with it. The Yankees success over the decades is due in large part because the organization has been unsentimental. This is the franchise that wouldn't make Babe Ruth a manager and that nudged DiMaggio to quit while he was "on top" so they could give the job to Mickey Mantle when it was clear DiMaggio could no longer get to balls hit to center. In fact, it was their sentimentality towards Mantle that ended the Yankees long dominance in the sixties.
Last year Bernie did contribute. But the fact that he was on the team illustrated unusual sentimentality on the Yankees' part, basically giving him a victory lap around the league. He was better then they probably expected, but no where near what a successful team would expect from their fourth outfielder, and he has proven unable to hit as a DH or a pinch hitter. And if it weren't for the broken bones of both corner outfielders last year, we might never have seen what Melky Cabrera could do.
He was a great Yankee. But, like DiMaggio, he should quit while he's "on top." Hell, he'll blast the cover off the ball in "Old Timers' Day." Or, conversely, no Yankee fan is going to stop loving him because he decided to extend his career wearing a different uniform.
Unless it's a Red Sox one.
posted by John at 3:58 PM
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