The Songs Remain The Same, Part 2 (With Previously Unreleased Bonus Tracks)

Song 3: Like Deja Vu All Over Again

Some games, you just know. Even before the first pitch. Wednesday night was one of those where I knew.

I heard all I needed to hear when they were giving the scouting report on the Rockies' pitcher. I didn't even hear the whole thing. But I heard the magic words.

"Doesn't throw very hard . . . good changeup."

We're losing this game, I said to Myself (and to iris, actually). Do the math. Pitcher we've never seen + doesn't throw hard + changes speeds + good control = Yankees do nothing against him.

And then, as Ive' seen at least 15 times over the last 2+ seasons in this scenario, we go. Quietly.

Weak grounder to second.
Swing and miss at an 85 mph fastball.
Lazy fly to center on a 3-1 pitch.
Rinse.
Repeat.

Pettitte does his best for five innings but when he gives up that home run to fall behind 2-1 the game's over. Colorado adds a few runs for show in the late innings.

Sound familiar? It ought to.


Song 4: "We're Not Hitting"

I rarely watch the postgame show(s), win or lose, but last night I couldn't be bothered to change the channel after the game ended so I caught Joe Torre with the press.

Joe's assessment of last night was basically, "we're not hitting."

Now, as of last night it was just two games that we were "not hitting," so I'd challenge the assessment "not hitting." But, OK, let's not quibble there. Where Joe's comment really irks Me is that he said that instead of saying something 1) constructive and 2) challenging at the same time.

Something like: "Guys, our approach at the plate tonight, and last night too, actually, was . . . I'll be truthful, unacceptable. It irks Me a little bit to sit there and watch us making decent pitchers look like Walter Johnson time and time again -- swinging at first pitches and bad pitches. This team is better than that, taking nothing away from the job of pitching that [Rockies' pitcher] did. I expect better from us offensively."

I know. There's 15 different reasons Joe would never say that. And that's one just one more reason he needs to be fired.


Song 5: Riot In Cell Block Number 9

The players love Joe Torre. We hear this time and time again. And I'm sure that it is absolutely, positively true.

It's true because, among other reasons, under Torre, the players, especially veteran players to dictate exactly what they will do and how they will do it (as long it doesn't involve any of George's rules on facial hair).

It's obvious that Johnny Damon is pretty badly hurt. In fact, Wednesday, after taking BP in the cage, Damon announced "my ribs are shot."

And yet he's not put on the DL. Joe's favorite group from the early 70s was Blind Faith, apparently, since Joe continues to use him even though he is useless right now, offensively and defensively. [One could even argue that Damon starting in CF today actually cost us the game, since the man who scored Colorado's fourth run most likely is on second instead of third when the sac fly is hit, if Melky is playing center at that point. But let's not get involved in that Michael Kay calls "the fallacy of the predetermined outcome." Which, while he has a point about, he takes way too far -- most of what happens in baseball would still have happened if you only change one little thing. But I digress . . . ]

His "ribs are shot." Put him on the DL instead of throwing away at bats and costing us defensively.

Who's running the show here?

Never mind . . . no need to answer that.

[Credit goes to iris for this topic.]


Song 6: Team Mascot, Bert Lahr

Bert Lahr played the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, and he is the perfect mascot for this team. This team for some years now simply can't take a punch. Like a cowardly lion, or a fighter with perfect musculature and a glass jaw, we usually fold up in the face of daunting circumstances. It's most evident in the playoffs but it happens all the time in the regular season, too. That's masked by the fact that we do seem to bounce back, and always figure a way to make the playoffs [thanks to the rest of the AL East minus Boston, and to Boston's fairly regular swoon jobs]. And in the playoffs our lack of heart is quickly exposed.

Granted, this is not the Rockies of old. They are better then they've been, but they are not a great team yet, and to get swept by them, topped off by getting shut down by (omg!) Rodrigo Lopez, is beyond the pale. Five runs in three games. In Coors Field. Humidor or not, that's pathetic.

Can anyone on this staff besides Wang respond, please? I really don't want to hear that Mussina "pitched well enough to win." No he didn't. He pitched well enough to lose. Clemens today, in a spot where we needed a big effort . . . 4.1 innings, 7 hits, 4 runs, all earned, 2 homers, 90 pitches.
$1 million a start. For that kind of money I expect a much better effort in game that psychologically was very important not to lose.

Could it be we've had too many mercenaries (Giambi, Sheffield, Clemens, Brown, Pavano, Johnson, etc.) on this team lately? Guys who don't get excited unless there's some problem with their paycheck?

Perish the thought.

Kei Igawa, who when last seen in the big leagues was doing a remarkably good impression of a deer in the headlights, starts tomorrow night in San Francisco.

Igawa the stopper. Heaven help us.