#and to have them play on the red sox so i can call it Bronx cheer

[elisela]

PLEASE do share!! I'm so excited you don't even know, I both admire you're writing and am like insanely jealous lmao I've been in the sterek fandom for like 8 years now and let me tell you there's definitely not enough baseball fics yet no siree

GOOD TO HEAR because I have an idea for a second one 😂

#it is wholly because i want derek and stiles to be battery mates #and to have them play on the red sox so i can call it Bronx cheer #i have needs #ask eli #why are you all on anon lets be friends! #sterek

[aboutcaseyaffleck]

BOSTON BY CASEY AFFLECK

October 25, 2020 For the record, what follows is nostalgia, false memories, and generalizations. But it’s all true. I grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, across the Charles River from Boston proper. Cambridge was one of the most diverse, multicultural cities in America. It was a beautiful, colorful, vibrant place. People from all over the world lived there, all mixed-up together. It is the place I was born and will return to, God willing. It is the city with the smells and sounds and tastes and people I love the most. Despite how much I loved it, when I look at old photos, I often look like this:

I’m in the front in the blue shirt. My best friend was Michael, the tall kid in the red shirt, whose family came from Barbados. Through the middle school years, anytime we weren’t in school we were roaming the streets like Dickensian urchins.

In the ‘90s, Cambridge got rid of rent control. Families who had lived there for four or five generations were squeezed out. Now the city is gentrified; but when I was growing up there, it was scrappy and beautiful. It was mostly working people, except for West Cambridge—where wealthy families lived, where professors lived. Where Cornel West, Yo-Yo Ma, and the Governor lived. East Cambridge was working-class Portuguese families, butcher shops, funeral parlors, and tow yards. Cambridgeport, where I lived, was mostly poor, Italian, Black, Greek, and Irish families. North Cambridge had some big housing projects and the school where my mom taught fifth grade—in a gigantic cement structure called The Tobin School that felt like it was far away because I would have to take a train AND a bus to get there. In reality, it’s like three miles from where we lived.

This is me hanging out in her classroom:

As people and places evolve, the past always reveals blemishes unseen at the time. However, Massachusetts manages, as time unfolds, to be a place that was so often on the right side. Not always, but often enough that I am proud to be from Cambridge, Massachusetts, no matter what.

From Massachusetts came the first national publication denouncing slavery, America’s “first feminist”, and The Cambridge Woman’s Suffrage League, which formed in 1886. My high school had the first girl to play tackle football in that division. Cambridge voted-in the first openly gay African-American mayor in our country. Right now our mayor is a very popular and forward-thinking Muslim woman who immigrated from Pakistan named Sumbul Siddiqui. We have marvels of architecture, science, and tech. It was in Cambridge that the very first email was ever sent (and received). And every year the Red Sox stand up to the wealthier bullies from the Bronx. These are all things we are immensely proud of, but nobody is resting on these laurels.

I am going to tell you about the places I remember fondly, whether they are still there or not.

Luckily, the city’s history isn’t going anywhere, and it hasn’t lost all of its charms. It is a place best seen by walking. So just walk. It’s also seasonal. Different activities for different seasons. But if you can hoof it for a few miles do this: start at the Old North Church and go by Paul Revere House, through Faneuil Hall, by The Old State House through Boston Common, through the Back Bay, go left and pass through Roxbury, another left, and go through South Boston till you hit the water and go left till you hit the Children’s Museum. Sit down and relax. If you just want a path, walk that. Map it or wander around. The city is full of little back streets with lots of character.

MY BOSTON FAVORITES

When looking for things to do and see in the area, you can ask ten people and get ten different answers. You will get a long list of historical buildings, or you will get names of some of the country’s prettiest parks, or you will get pointed toward the campuses of some of the very best schools in the world. But for every Bunker Hill, there are ten other places you haven’t heard of. So I am going to tell you about the places I remember fondly, whether they are still there or not. The thing about Boston is you can miss all the best stuff, and you will still leave thinking it is one of the best cities on Earth. Have fun. 

Pinocchio Pizza, Harvard Square. I asked my son to describe it. He says, “the food is good but the vibe is fire, old school; whatever, just get a slice and sit on the ground. That’s why I like it.”  I have no idea why he wants to sit on the ground, but I guess that’s part of the charm of the place. We’re both vegan so we both scrape the cheese off and eat bread and sauce. That should tell you something.

Oleana Restaurant on Hampshire Street in Cambridge. Chef Ana Sortun is a baller. The food is Turkish inspired, and it is delicious. Always. Friendly people, pretty inside, and it is in a nice residential neighborhood. My dad lived in an apartment a few blocks away behind a Store 24 until he was evicted back in 1989.

Maharaja, Harvard Square. Incredible Indian food. And it has one of the only third-story views of Harvard Square.

Veggie Galaxy is great diner food. It is vegan. It has breakfast, lunch, dinner, milkshakes and other deserts. All day and all night food that is filling and really good.

Life Alive Organic will serve you the healthiest and heartiest meal you can find anywhere. It’s across the street from City Hall, the post office, and the oldest YMCA in the country.

Cantab Lounge, where my dad was a bartender, and then a janitor when he was too drunk to be a bartender. I drank six thousand ginger ales, sitting in the corner at a sticky table while he worked. Forever it was a bar for postal workers that opened at 10 am, where alcoholics ate hard-boiled eggs from jars that had been sitting on the bar top for two weeks. A couple of days after initially writing this, I got an email from the owner. It is being sold after tens of thousands of years. I don’t know why I care because I don’t exactly have any fond memories from the place, but seeing the brick-and-mortar of your childhood torn down is a kind of mid-life, coming-of-age moment. Life is change.

Darwins Ltd coffee shop and attached mini-grocer and sandwich spot. If you get a coffee and then walk west two blocks on Mt. Auburn St. you will discover on your right a nice little park with a fountain to hang out. It is called Longfellow Park. Or you can look to your left and you will see the Charles River, and you can stroll there.

Fomu for dessert.

Zhu Pan Asian Cuisine and True Bistro for good vegan food.

Newbury Comics is famous and cool. 

Million Year Picnic is for comic connoisseurs. They are both great. And they were both plagued by roving bands of middle school thieves in my day. The most notorious was named Mathew Maher. He is now a well-known theater actor on Broadway and appeared in the comic book movie Captain Marvel. But back then he stole shit.

Harvard Coop is the best place to browse for books. Especially the kids section. We spend hours there and nobody kicks us out.

After the game ended everyone would come out and buy sausages [from me] on their way home, then I would clean up and go into a bar outside the park, where my boss was drinking and I’d wait till he was done so I could get a ride home. I was 12 years old. A couple of years ago I threw out the first pitch. Life is change.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is my favorite museum in town, maybe anywhere. It was once her home and it features an indoor garden that is perfect. It also has a great collection of art from around the world.  Back on March 18, 1990, two famous paintings were stolen from the museum. As I remember it, a couple of guys showed up in the morning in police uniforms and the guard let them in. They tied the guard up and took a dozen paintings—Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas—and vanished. The FBI never found them and never found the art. There are two plaques below two empty spaces on the walls to this day. On some days, classical musicians perform in random rooms while you walk around. You won’t want to leave.

Fenway Park. Greatest professional sports arena of any kind. I used to sell sausages in front of the Cask ‘N Flagon, a bar behind The Green Monster.

 It is the best baseball bar in the country. When everyone was in the park watching the game, and there was nobody buying food, I would go in and find a seat and watch the game with whoever I was working with; I have seen hundreds of games from every part of the park. After the game ended everyone would come out and buy sausages on their way home, then I would clean up and go into a bar outside the park, where my boss was drinking and I’d wait till he was done so I could get a ride home. I was 12 years old. A couple of years ago I threw out the first pitch. Life is change.

Plimoth Plantation is a living museum in Plymouth, which is 40 minutes from Boston. It is amazing. The actors working there are some of the best I have seen anywhere. If you are even mildly interested in history you have to go there.

Fresh Pond is where you can go running or biking. Two and a half-mile loop. 

Or you could hit The Emerald Necklace which is a great run that hits many of the best green areas, Franklin Park included. When we were young we would hop the fence and swim in the water. That isn’t done anymore ever, and everyone has grown up and leading better, more responsible lives.  

John Weeks Footbridge is a very pretty, very old, brick walking bridge that spans the Charles River. Watching the Charles Regatta from here is awesome. That is in the Fall. But it’s also great any night.  

The King School is a grade school not too far from there. It has maybe the best playground in the city. If you are there in the summer you can just walk on. When I was a kid, the King School is where a girl went who I was head over heels in love with. I finally got a shot at winning her heart in my early twenties and blew it.

Mount Auburn Cemetery is beautiful if you like that kind of thing. Lots of cool people are buried there, and the trees and stones are really nice. It’s a maze but just walk uphill. You will reach a monument with a great view of the city.

The American Repertory Theater puts on good plays. I grew up going there cause a friend of my mother’s directed many of the shows and could sneak us in the back. I wasn’t the adult making that decision; had I known better I would have scraped together the ticket price and supported the arts.

Boston Common is beautiful but you have to avoid all the shopping around it. If you have to shop go to:

NOMAD on Mass Ave in Cambridge is a store that you shouldn’t miss. In a world lost to chain stores and general homogenization of everything, Nomad is the real deal. Deb Colburn has been curating this place since I was ten. It is her store, and she has been trying to wake people up to folk art from around the world since Reagan was in office.

Bodega is a hidden high-end sneaker and casual wear store that must be entered through an unmarked door inside a bodega on a nearby side street. It’s cool how they have done it. Great presentation. Kids will like it.

KIDS ACTIVITIES

There are lots of things you can force your kids to do—things they won’t like the sound of at first, but will ultimately enjoy.

IMAGE CAPTIONS, LEFT TO RIGHT

On a rainy day, hop on the T and ride around town all day reading comics. Then stand outside in the warm rain (kids from LA don’t get this much).

Looking at murals. Cambridge has great murals everywhere. They are old and, incredibly, not vandalized. This one has been on this wall near the river since I was a kid. The child is mine and he is sick of walking around Cambridge.

If you feel like a pilgrim hit the gift shop at Plimoth Plantation.

Playing chess at Leavitt & Pierce Tobacco. You can inhale the scent of pipe tobacco without smoking it, and rent a chess set, clock, and table for $2 an hour in a beautiful old, wood-paneled shop with great ambiance.

Going to the oldest YMCA in the country.

Kayaking on the Charles River. You can get your kayak on Soldiers Field Rd. Take it east under all the bridges until you get to the inlet at Kendell Sq. It will all be clear. It will take about an hour.

Climbing the stairs at Harvard Football Stadium.

Reading books at the Harvard Coop.

NEARBY BOSTON

If you wanna go a little farther, go out to Gloucester for the day. Swim, eat, walk around, go back.

Whale watching sounds like a lame tourist trap but seeing whales up close will change the way you think about life on Earth.

You can take the ferry from Downtown Boston to Provincetown. It is a great place to visit or stay a few days while in town. Ptown is the eastern-most point on the continent. I might be making that up, but it’s close. It’s an arm that sticks out into the Atlantic. It’s really lovely there with a great vibe all around. You can’t have a bad time and everyone is super happy to be there. The beaches are all beautiful.  Sharks mostly only eat the seals and won’t come any closer to shore than two feet—but if you want to see a great white up close, we can make that happen.

Cape Cod has some great flea markets.  If you plan on spending time on vacation with your family you can find some essentials, like a medieval battle helmet, at the flea market.

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS

30 minutes on the local train line from downtown. Made famous by the Salem witch trials; a fun place to visit and walk around for about 128 minutes. Newburyport and Rockport lines, which depart from Boston’s North Station, stop at the Salem station. You can go into the homes of people who lived during the witch hunt.

The House of the Seven Gables, made famous by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s novel The House of the Seven Gables, is a 1668 colonial mansion in Salem, Massachusetts named for its gables. The house is now a non-profit museum, with an admission fee charged for tours, as well as an active settlement house with programs for children. It was built for Captain John Turner and stayed with the family for three generations.

The Jonathan Corwin House in Salem, Massachusetts, known as The Witch House, was the home of Judge Jonathan Corwin. It is the only structure still standing in Salem with direct ties to the Salem witch trials of 1692, thought to be built between 1620 and 1642. Corwin bought it in 1675 when he was 35, and he lived there for more than 40 years. The house remained in the Corwin family until the mid-19th century and is located in the McIntire Historic District. 

A MECCA FOR ARTISTS

Lastly, for centuries, Cambridge has been a mecca for artists, especially writers. Here are some spots to see if you like that kind of thing:

The corner of JFK Street and 1390 Massachusetts Avenue. This is a good spot. Here is why: America’s FIRST PUBLISHED POET was a woman named Anne Bradstreet who died in 1672 and lived on this spot! It went through lots of changes, and 300 years later, by the time I was walking around, it became a great burger place called THE TASTY. In 1996 or whatever, The Tasty appears in the movie Good Will Hunting in the scene when Matt Damon kisses Minnie Driver. It might have also appeared in the film Love Story back in the 70s. I mix them up. Now it is a CVS.  God help us.  

The Longfellow House. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lived at 105 Brattle Street. The great poet taught at Harvard and lived in the Georgian mansion from 1837 until his death in 1882. Before the author, George Washington used the house as his headquarters during the Siege of Boston. The house is open to the public, and it is where I had my eighth-grade graduation ceremony. The mayor attended and forgot the name of our school in his address to the kids. I heard people mutter that he was drunk. I can’t blame him. I had my first drinks hours before that ceremony.

71 Cherry Street, Cambridge. The woman considered to be American’s FIRST feminist, Margaret Fuller, was born and lived here.

Henry and Alice James lived at 20 Quincy Street. The house was knocked down in 1930 and the Harvard Faculty Club was erected there.

W.E.B. DuBois lived at 20 Flagg Street. The writer and pioneer of civil rights rented a room in this Cambridgeport home from 1890 to 1893. This is blocks from my childhood home. He was the first African American to receive a degree from Harvard.

Robert Frost lived at 35 Brewster Street. Frost, who attended high school in Lawrence, Massachusetts, lived in the West Cambridge home from 1943 to 1963.

T.S. Eliot lived at 16 Ash Street.

E.E. Cummings lived at 104 Irving Street. He was an innovator. He also wrote a poem about “Cambridge Women”. He lived at the Irving Street home from 1892 until about 1917.

Also you can find homes of the genius Nabokov and the great and beloved Julia Childs if you look around.

Source

#casey affleck #quote #feature #boston

[brido]

Your Opening Week Baseball Guide

Well, March Madness is over. Your bracket probably sucked anyway. So you probably need to get caught up on the first week of baseball. I’m here to help you. And while it’s probably way too early to draw any real conclusions from the first week, I don’t want you wandering around looking as clueless as Gabe Kapler. EARLY SEASON BURN. It’s okay if you don’t get that joke yet. You will. Let’s start...  

AL East  

Current Playoff Team: Red Sox

Projected Playoff Teams: Yankees, Red Sox

See, what did I tell you last week? Winky smile. After the Red Sox blew a comfortable lead on Opening Day, I’m guessing that every psychotic Boston fan wanted Alex Cora run out of town. Now they’ve rattled off 5 wins in a row and we’re contemplating whether or not the Red Sox might have the best rotation in baseball. I mean, probz not. But a week in they sure do. 

You think Giancarlo Stanton is under a microscope in New York? Dude already got booed. It’s all fun and games in New York when you’re crushing two home runs on Opening Day, and it’s a lot harder four games later when you’re 0-for-5 with 5 K’s in football weather in the Bronx. I think he’ll be fine. Maybe Yankees fans should worry more about Dellin Betances.     

AL Cy Young: Dylan Bundy, Orioles.

For all the deserved accolades of Boston’s starting pitching, the best in the AL so far as been Bundy, whose WAR leads the league, accompanied with a 1.35 FIP and a 0.69 ERA. That being said, the rest of the conversations surrounding division are a guessing game about where the Blue Jays will be before the trade deadline and whether or not they should trade Josh Donaldson. Right now, FanGraphs has them a game off the second wild card spot and FiveThirtyEight has them at 26% to make the playoffs. That’s a tough call if that happens. It’ll probably be a much easier decision for the Orioles, so we’ll see who gets to slobber all over the chance to land Manny Machado for the postseason.       

AL Central

Current Playoff Teams: White Sox, Twins

Projected Playoff Teams: Indians, Twins (FiveThirtyEight only)

If you’re a Twins fan, you’ve got to be loving this early start from Brian Dozier. And Jose Berrios. And Eduardo Escobar. Right now I’m feeling confident in their chances. I’m probably even more excited if I’m a White Sox fan, since projections have them around 68-73 wins and they’re currently on pace to crush that. Yeah, they’re only 5 games in. I don’t want to get too excited. But the Sox have homered in every game. Matt Davidson’s 3 home runs on Opening Day were just a blip on the radar compared to the attention Stanton got. And this is a young team already headed in the right direction. The national sports media is still waiting around for the Indians to get hot before they care about any of this. 

AL West

Current Playoff Teams: Astros, Angels

Projected Playoff Teams: Astros, Angels (FanGraphs only)   

Did you see all the fancy Astros ring and banner celebrations? It’s looking like that’s gonna happen a lot down in Houston. George Springer led off the season with a home run for the second year in a row. They’re widely considered to have the best staff in the Majors (sorry Boston... and I guess everyone else). They’ve got four guys playing the outfield. And if the Division wasn’t looking so tough, we might be able to project the Astros at a billion wins this year. Speaking of which...

AL MVP: Carlos Correa, Astros.     

This Opening Week shit can probably get eye rolls for most things, but Correa wouldn’t be a bad pick to be MVP, anyway. Right now, Correa leads the League in WAR and he’s been the second-best hitter, so I’m giving him the early lead over Mitch Haniger of the Mariners and Didi Gregorius of the Yankees. 

AL Rookie of the Year: Shohei Ohtani, Angels. 

Remember when this guy fucking sucked in Spring Training? That was kind of fun. Now the Babe Ruth comparisons aren’t actually that insane. Ohtani might be the hardest-throwing starter in baseball. His hitting is starting to resemble the power exhibition he puts on in batting practice. And maybe we don’t need BREAKING NEWS every time this guy gets a hit, but this is one of the only over-hyped stories of the young season that actually has my full attention. Oh yeah, and he’s only 22.       

NL East

Current Playoff Teams: Mets, Braves, Nationals 

Projected Playoff Teams: Nationals, Mets (FanGraphs only)

I think there might be an East Coast bias when Derek Jeter sitting in the stands in Miami gets more attention than actual games in the Midwest. But a lot of the attention is actually warranted so far. The Mets are going to be interesting this year. They only won 70 games last year, which made me skeptical of picking them for a Wild Card. Right now, they’re projected anywhere from 81-88 wins. Maybe Mickey Callaway is changing the culture there. I don’t know. But after the first week, I’m actually going to say...

NL Cy Young: Matt Harvey, Mets.   

He’s back, baby! Or not. Like I said, nobody knows. But I’ll take that 0.00 ERA and 1.56 FIP as a good sign. Plus, it’s not like he has to be ‘the man’ in Queens anymore. 

NL MVP: Freddie Freeman, Braves. 

He’s been the best hitter in the League so far. And he’s probably the best player in baseball that America and your girlfriend have never heard of. The Braves have had the best offense in baseball early on. Freeman is a big reason why. Because he always is.     

The Nationals always seem to have fifteen different compelling storylines over the course of a season. There’s the lingering fact that they’ve never advanced in the playoffs. They have the impending free agency of Bryce Harper to talk about over and over and over again. I’m sure Nats fans love that shit. And since Harper always seems to be amazing in April, it’s not going to slow anything of those talks down. How anticlimactic will it be when he re-signs with Washington? Anyway, Adam Eaton has also made a big splash in his return from injury. So there hasn’t even really been much attention on their non-Dusty-Baker manager just yet. It’s just a matter of time to see who they’re gonna lose to in the first round. HUGE BURN to their zero fans that I know of.     

You know which new manager is getting scrutiny? Gabe Kapler of the Phillies. It seems like every team has a new manager, but only one pulled their starter when he was dealing on Opening Day and then blew a 5-run lead. And only one called to the pen with nobody warming up. And only one looks like he’s not gonna be done reigning down destruction on Philadelphia until every one of their relievers have Tommy John surgery. That’s probably harsh. But it’s also probably funnier to me because he also looks incompetent anywhere outside of a cross fit box or a gym that only plays butt rock. I’m guessing he figures it out eventually. 

Hey, look! Derek Jeter is sitting in the stands with Papi and Posada! 

NL Central

Current Playoff Teams: Pirates, Brewers 

Projected Playoff Teams: Cubs, Cardinals.  

Is it ever too early to start freaking out about the Cubs? I mean, Ian Happ was great in Spring Training. Then he homered on the first pitch of the season and after that, it’s basically been suck city. The Cubs offense is setting all-time records for striking out. They’re 2-3 after playing the Marlins and Reds, who are projected to win a combined ZERO games this year. Maybe we can blame the 17-inning game against the Marlins on Day 2. Maybe it’s way too early to be worried about anything. Maybe I should take solace in the fact that their bullpen has looked dope AF and that was a huge problem last year. They’re fine, right?   

As far as the rest of the division goes, you’ve got a fast start from the Pirates, who have only played in frigid weather. The Cardinals picked up Greg Holland, which could be huge for their chances at the Wild Card... or the Division, I guess. The Cardinals and Brewers played in a game that started and ended with back-to-back home runs. And Paul DeJong has probably been the most interesting story for STL. He’d be my second pick for MVP, after Freeman. He also hit .257 last year so whatever. 

NL West

Current Playoff Team: Diamondbacks

Projected Playoff Teams: Dodgers, Diamondbacks (FiveThirtyEight only)

If you’re a Dodgers fan, what’s freaking you out more; bad outings and decreased velocity from Clayton Kershaw or bad outings and decreased velocity from Kenley Jansen? Because both things are happening. Kershaw is 0-2 and you can hear the whispers about whether or not he’s past his prime, even though everyone was blowing him in Spring Training. Jansen has an 18.00 ERA. Is this the dreaded World Series hangover that is obviously not happening in Houston? I’m looking at the rest of that staff and thinking they’re probably going to be fine. The moral of this post is that everything is fine. Probably because as a Cubs fan, I’m trying to convince myself that everything is fine.    

As far as the rest of the Division goes, Nick Ahmed has had a hot start in Arizona. Joe Panik’s solo home runs in the first two games led to two 1-0 games for the Giants, which was super fucking weird. And Charlie Blackmon actually hit on the road for the Rockies... where he’s staying put. And just for fun...

NL Rookie of the Year: Christian Villanueva, Padres.      

Maybe the Phillies should call up Hunter Greene to make anyone give a shit about NL rookies this year. But Villanueva is tied for the NL rookie lead in WAR and he’s mashing for the shitty Padres. The Cubs actually got Villanueva with Kyle Hendricks in the Ryan Dempster trade. But they decided they probably didn’t have room for him in the infield, since he doesn't strike out every time at bat. Oh man. SELF BURN.   

So this is a good place to start. Everything will look completely different in a week. But that’s part of the fun. Baseball is fucking awesome.  

[ravensunday6-blog]

MLB Bullets and the kids are alright

You probably heard that Athletics first-round pick Kyler Murray went to the Cardinals (of the other sport) with the first pick in the NFL draft. That almost certainly ends his baseball career and it’s probably the last time we’ll mention him in these pages, unless he does something like throw out a cool first pitch some day.

C’mon, Molly, that’s not fair. There’s the day of the NBA Draft as well.

You know this already, but Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is going to play for the Blue Jays today.

Gregor Chisholm has what you need to know about baseball’s likely next superstar.

Jon Tayler has what to expect from Guerrero Jr.

Emma Baccellieri looks at what the projection systems say Guerrero will do this year.

R.J. Anderson notes that Guerrero Jr. looks (and has put up numbers) a lot like his dad. One difference was that when Vlad Sr. was 20, he was still in low-A. (But then, Vlad went from low-A at 20 to a cup of coffee in the majors at 21 and up for good at 22.) Another difference is that Vlad the younger doesn’t swing at as many bad pitches.

Kaitlyn McGrath speaks with Guerrero Jr.’s minor league teammates about him and their scouting report is one word: “wow.” (The Athletic sub. req.)

These photos of the two Vlads when the elder was with the Expos are making everyone go “awwwww.”

He’s not going to get as much fanfare as Vlad Jr., but the Nationals are also calling up shortstop Carter Kieboom. I’m glad I got to see him play once before he got the call.

Last year’s big shiny new thing was Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. and he didn’t disappoint, either last year or this year. Jeff Passan believes that it’s just a matter of time before Acuña is the best player in baseball. Of course, Mike Trout has to retire first.

Gabe Lacques has a profile of emerging star shortstop Tim Anderson of the White Sox. Anderson has been in the news lately, but Lacques points out that he’s had to overcome some tragedy to get to where he is today.

David Schoenfield thinks that the Padres have found an ace in rookie pitcher Chris Paddack.

Schoenfield also believes that Mets rookie first baseman Pete Alonso is baseball’s next big thing, both metaphorically and literally.

Mets reliever Jacob Rhame was suspended for two games for throwing at the head of Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins in Tuesday’s game.

Hoskins got his revenge on Wednesday when Hoskins homered off Rhame and then took 34 seconds to round the bases.

Who’s the hottest hitter in baseball? I’m betting you didn’t guess Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke and his 1.845 OPS.

Who leads the Angels in home runs? Trout? Albert Pujols? Kole Calhoun? Nope, it’s Tommy La Stella, who has seven already. He hit 10 home runs total in his previous five years with the Cubs and Braves.

While we’re on the Angels, Trout and Andrelton Simmons teamed up to turn one amazing double play. Trout made an incredible catch in center field and Simmons then pulled a semi-hidden-ball trick.

I’ve written a lot about the Yankees injury issues this season and the Bronx Bombers suffered another blow as outfielder Giancarlo Stanton suffered a setback in his recovery efforts.

The Yankees added outfielder Clint Frazier to their injured list.

Dan Szymborski writes that the Yankees injury issues are a major problem, but don’t write off their 2019 season just yet, thanks mainly to the team’s depth.

The Yankees added to that depth by trading for outfielder Cameron Maybin. The Indians got someone named “cash considerations” back in the deal.

Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia failed to get his 3,000th strikeout in his last start against the Angels, but he’s only three away and should get it soon. Tim Brown has a look back at Sabathia’s remarkable, hall-of-fame career which Brown calls “not perfect but close enough.”

The Brewers have signed free agent pitcher Gio Gonzalez to a one-year, $2 million deal.

Ben Clemens looks at the remarkable skill of Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong to control the strike zone.

Clemens also examines how Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer has found success after he changed his pitch selection mix this season. Of course, it wasn’t like he was bad last season. But now he throws almost exclusively fastballs when behind in the count.

R.J. Anderson notes that the Diamondbacks haven’t missed Paul Goldschmidt much this season because of the remarkable start by first baseman Christian Walker.

Reds broadcaster Chris Welsh has apologized to Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies after saying on the air that a poor kid from Curaçao like Albies wouldn’t know the difference between $35 and $85 million.

Meanwhile down with the minor league Salem Red Sox, Melanie Newman and Suzie Cool became the first all-woman broadcast team in baseball. (The Athletic sub. req.) Brittany Ghiroli writes about how the two women came together and the hard work that they have in front of them.

Giants broadcaster Jon Miller looks back at his Hall-of-Fame career and how much baseball has changed since he started in 1974.

MLB announced that they are going to have a “Stranger Things” promotion this summer. June 24 will be “Stranger Things” Day at Wrigley. That show is about the only thing I can get my daughter to watch with me, so I have a soft spot for it at the moment. She’s a huge Millie Bobby Brown fan.

Stephanie Apstein has the story about how the Orioles team have mostly adopted a new form of transportation to get them to and from the stadium: motorized scooters. Or as outfielder Trey Mancini said “[The Orioles] may be the lamest biker gang in the world.”

A 59-year-old grandmother and Orioles fan got tired of the way everyone was booing Orioles first baseman Chris Davis, so she got a tattoo to honor Davis. It’s her only tattoo.

Alfonso Tusa looks back at the history of the “kangaroo court” in baseball and in particular, the legendary one that Frank Robinson ran with the Orioles of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

“Tommy John surgery” has officially been added to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary.

Brewers pitcher Jeremy Jeffress is going to bring his food truck to Miller Park next week. I am 100% in favor of food trucks at ballparks. Jeffess’ one serves fried seafood.

He eventually decided against it. but Reds outfielder Jesse Winker considered helping himself to some nachos from a fan in the stands after going for a foul ball.

And finally, this would be the ultimate breaking of the “unwritten rules” if it had happened in MLB. Instead, we got this cool video of Kenji Akasha of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks hitting a walkoff home run and then doing an amazing backflip as he crossed home plate.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.

Source: https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2019/4/26/18517513/mlb-bullets-vladimir-guerrero-jr-blue-jays-ronald-acuna-angels-tommy-lastella

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

[torentialtribute]

Sportsmail goes behind the scenes of ESPN’s coverage ahead of 2019 MLB London Series

It is just before 3pm on a perfect day for a ball game at The Bronx and Yankee Stadium is slowly waking up. ]

The tourniquets are closed for the time being, but they wipe out the 45,000 seats hanging above the field, bags of popcorn and crates of beer are dragged to concession stands and the smell of freshly cut grass fills the air.

In just over three hours, the venue will host the second game of the season between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox and the trains that run past the right-hand line along the subway line will become busier and busier

The New York Yankees organized the Boston Red Sox this month at the beautiful Yankee Stadium. the Boston Red Sox at the beautiful Yankee Stadium this month

The New York Yankees hosted the Boston Red Sox at the beautiful Yankee Stadium this month

] Fans filled the stadium in the Bronx around three hours before the opening exhibition "

Fans filled the stadium in the Bronx around three hours before the opening place

The atmosphere is just as subdued on the field. A number of Yankees stroll around and stretch the pains and pains associated with scheduling the MLB scheme The Red Sox, desperately in need of some inspiration with the bat, is swinging in front of the fences while the area around second base occupies ground staff.

In the gut of the stadium there is ec With another machine working hard before the competition. ESPN broadcasts to millions of fans in the United States and around the world tonight.

When baseball finally makes its long-awaited debut in Europe in June, ESPN will broadcast one of the two London

On this specific evening, 45 crew members and 12 cameras are playing. Collect extensive images that producers have to exchange, cut and replay to offer viewers the ultimate gaming experience.

The voices of the ESPN broadcast are housed in a cage above the home plate to give them the perfect image to call the game. In Britain we are used to a considerable amount of pre-game reporting, but the first pitch approaches comment team Jon Sciambi and Eduardo Perez go through notes and stroll through the dining room

<img id = "i-8d4b738069890874" src = "https://dailym.ai/2GBVxih" height = "423" width = "634" alt = "In the stadium, 12 cameras & # 39; s In the stadium 12 cameras & # 39; s capture the images that producers have to turn around quickly

In the stadium, 12 cameras capture extensive images that producers must turn around quickly

[De gamedagoperatie van ESPN komt van binnen in grote vrachtwagens net buiten de locatie] daytime operation comes from within a number of large trucks just outside the location "

ESPN's game day operation comes from within a number of large trucks just outside the loc atie

There are 45 crew members dotted around Yankee Stadium covering the ESPN "

<img id =" i-384c178402f18005 "src =" https : //i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/04/26/11/12743816-6962849-image-a-18_1556275672337.jpg "height =" 423 "width =" 634 "alt =" There are 45 crew members spread over Yankee Stadium working on the coverage of ESPN "/ img-share"

There are 45 crew members spread over Yankee Stadium working on the coverage of ESPN

ESPN went over the air at 6:30 pm, about eight minutes before the first field, and that means Sciambi and Perez are thrown directly into the action. Sciambi has been the regular voice on Wednesday Night Baseball broadcasts for the network since the 2014 season.

As a New York resident, I have mastered the microphone with its excellent game-for-play narration and insight .

& # 39; Which sport you like best, this is the best broadcasting sport there is, because the canvas is huge & # 39 ;, he told ] Sportsmail

& # 39; Our options tonight to tell stories, for Eduardo to analyze, for him to view something on the field, for us to deliver the prepared piece of analysis because of

& # 39; I call basketball and it just goes up and down the courtman. I may have a good story about you, but if you are not on the free throw line, I may not be able to tell. But in this case I have a good story about a boy, then we get it inside. And that is not what I am jammed with, he will come to the plate and then he will be the ball and I will start the story and then it is a foul ball and I will continue.

& # 39; It's a great broadcast sport because of its pace. It is slow but then you can become very fast. I don't work with someone who sees the field better than Eduardo. He will show me and the spectators things that I just won't see tonight. "

In the early stages of the competition, they are accompanied in the stand by none other than Alex Rodriguez, one of the greatest players of all time and a world champion with the Yankees in 2009.

The commentary duo Jon Sciambi (R) and Eduardo Perez (L) are the voices of ESPN's coverage Jon Sciambi (R) and Eduardo Perez (L) are the voices of the ESPN reporting "

Commentary duo Jon Sciambi (R) and Eduardo Perez (L) are the voice of ESPN & # 39; s report

<img id = "i-e14942ddd2f6981a" src = "https://dailym.ai/2V4e8Ok" height = "423" width = " 634 "alt =" Alex Rodriguez is an integral part of ESPN & # 39; s programming on Sunday evening and will be in London "class =" blkBorder img-share "/ Alex Rodriguez is an integral part of ESPN & # 39; s programming on Sunday evening and will be in London "

Alex Rodriguez is an integral part of ESPN & # 39; s programming on Sunday evening and will be in London

<img id = "i-98327036809b9d5b" src = "https://dailym.ai/2GFzPdp. jpg "height =" 422 "width =" 634 "alt =" ESPN will broadcast one of the games of the MLB London Series debut in June "

<img id =" i-98327036809b9d5b "src =" https://dailym.ai/2V2cKLR "height =" 422 "width =" 634 "alt =" ESPN submits June one of the games from the MLB London Series debut from "class =" blkBorder img-share

In June ESPN will broadcast one of the games from the debut of the MLB London Series, Rod is still fully immersed in an integral analysis of ESPN & # 39; sp rogrammering on Sunday evening. He works with Matt Vasgersian and Jessica Mendoza, the first female commentator on MLB for a national broadcaster.

Although he is not strictly in service tonight, A-Rod's input is always welcome and he makes a number of interesting points in his cameo clip, showing the value of his insight and proving that he has more and more confidence behind the microphone.

I love it. I enjoy every part of it. Working with ESPN has been a treat, & he told Sportsmail in his luxurious residence in Manhattan. & # 39; I feel like a game steward that I have the responsibility to talk about the game. I really love it. I am passionate. I work a lot with MLB, thinking of creative ways to connect with the next generation.

& # 39; For me, people who understand it at a really high level, you have to be able to chew it up, digest it, and package it so that you can understand it. It's my job to make this recipe, to pack it nicely and tightly, so it's not boring and goes over your head. I am open to football and cricket in the same way, but if it is not explained to me in a way that it is bigger than someone just kicking a ball, then I can get lost and go back to baseball

A-Rod is back behind the microphone for ESPN in London when baseball rolls to town. Around 55,000 fans will stand up for their first introduction to the ESPN sport and their massive operation will just be another day at the office.

ESPN.co.uk and the ESPN app bring fans extensive online coverage of the regular MLB season, the postseason and the World Series, with highlights from the game, interviews and in-depth analyzes. BT Sport gives viewers live TV broadcasts about the MLB throughout the season, this summer's London series and magazine shows.

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#Sportsmail goes behind the scenes of ESPN’s coverage ahead of 2019 MLB London Series"

[pete-and-pete]

Angel Hernandez Blows 3 Calls in Red Sox Blowout of Yankees, MLB Players React

Angel Hernandez had a worse game than did the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the team’s ALDS matchup with the Boston Red Sox. And that’s saying something, because the Bronx Bombers got hammered 16-1.

Working at first base for the night, the umpire had four of his calls challenged, and three of them were overturned by video replay review.

The first two blown calls came on tough, close plays.

.@RedSox challenge call that Didi Gregorius is safe at 1B in the 2nd; call overturned, runner is out.

Powered by @Mitel. pic.twitter.com/PenfubgKjm

— MLB Replay (@MLBReplays) October 9, 2018

.@Yankees challenge call that Gleyber Torres is out at 1B in the 3rd; call overturned, runner is safe.

Powered by @Mitel. pic.twitter.com/YmZ4QJLKET

— MLB Replay (@MLBReplays) October 9, 2018

But the final overturned call inspired more than a few former and current MLB stars to shake their heads in familiar disappointment.

.@Yankees challenge call that Didi Gregorius is out at 1B in the 4th; call overturned, runner is safe.

Powered by @Mitel. pic.twitter.com/NBArNpUh5P

— MLB Replay (@MLBReplays) October 9, 2018

Like retired All-Star catcher Paul Lo Duca.

How Angel Hernandez is still umpiring let alone the playoffs is unreal to me. He is far the worst umpire in the league. Every year.

— Paul Lo Duca (@paulloduca16) October 9, 2018

And Hall of Fame third baseman Chipper Jones.

Can I retweet this 100 times so it gets the point across!!! https://t.co/IFeU6PvaaX

— Chipper Jones (@RealCJ10) October 9, 2018

And Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martinez.

Pedro Martinez went off on umpire Angel Hernandez to open the TBS postgame:

“Angel was horrible. Don’t get me going on Angel now. Major League Baseball needs to do something about Angel. It doesn’t matter how many times he sues Major League Baseball. He’s as bad as there is. "

— Jake Seiner (@Jake_Seiner) October 9, 2018

And recently retired pitcher Brandon McCarthy.

Yanks can score 10 more and win in an all time come back and this will still forever be the 'Angel Hernandez game' for me.

— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) October 9, 2018

And retired longtime utility man Jerry Hairston Jr.

Working #Dodgers but Angel Hernandez is trending … I don’t know what it’s about but at the same time, I know what it’s about. #MLB #PostSeason pic.twitter.com/zdKnEkQcbB

— Jerry Hairston, Jr. (@TheRealJHair) October 9, 2018

And YES analyst and former catcher John Flaherty, who took exception to Hernandez’s laughing after one of his four challenged calls wasn’t overturned.

"It's not that funny, Angel … these are playoff games." – @flash17yes on Angel Hernandez's performance in Game 3

Also, Angel Hernandez will be the home plate umpire tonight. pic.twitter.com/Rkg0hTyrot

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) October 9, 2018

Hernandez will move from the second-most visible umpire position to the most visible one, home plate, in Game 4. Which doesn’t sit right with former reliever Jeff Nelson.

When we played the game of baseball and we stunk, we got released. When umpires stink, they get home plate game 4 of ALDS

— Jeff Nelson (@NYnellie43) October 9, 2018

Not Blaming the umps, never do. He’s just not a good umpire and doesn’t belong doing playoff games. Majority do a great job and care about getting the calls right. Good thing for replay

— Jeff Nelson (@NYnellie43) October 9, 2018

As you may have gleaned, Hernandez is reputed to be among the league’s worst umpires, if not the worst.

The ump opted out of meeting with media after the game, but the league offered this statement: “There were several very close calls at first base tonight, and we are glad that instant replay allowed the umpiring crew to achieve the proper result on all of them.”

Angel Hernandez’s Beef With Ian Kinsler

Red Sox second baseman Ian Kinsler might find it tough to get the benefit of the doubt from Hernandez in Game 4.

In August 2017, Hernandez ejected Kinsler, then playing for the Detroit Tigers, in the middle of a plate appearance, prompting the second baseman to recommend the ump find a new job.

“No, I’m surprised at how bad an umpire he is,” Kinsler said when asked if he was surprised at how quickly he’d been thrown out, according to The Detroit News. “I don’t know how, for as many years he’s been in the league, that he can be that bad. He needs to reevaluate his career choice, he really does. Bottom line. … This has to do with changing the game. He’s changing the game. He needs to find another job. He really does. … He’s just that bad.”

Kinsler then recalled a story from his rookie season. After making a throw to first to end a frame, the second baseman started heading off the field when he got an earful from the ump.

“He started screaming at me,” Kinsler told The Detroit News. “For, in my recollection, no reason. For no reason he is belittling me, telling me, ‘Rookie this,’ and ‘Rookie that.’ Because he said I got in his way of making a call at first base. When I flipped the ball to first base, I ran into his line of vision.

“I’m the one playing the game. It’s your job to figure out where to go to get a view of that play. I’m not going to worry about flipping the ball and getting out of the umpire’s way. I had no idea what was going on. I was just like, ‘OK. OK. OK!”

Angel Hernandez Is Suing MLB

The Cuban-born Hernandez filed a lawsuit on July 3, 2017, alleging that racial discrimination has prevented him from being named a crew chief and working World Series games.

“As a direct and proximate result of Major League Baseball’s wrongful acts and omissions, Hernandez has sustained injuries and damages including … mental anguish; physical and emotional distress; humiliation and embarrassment; and loss of professional reputation,” the suit reads.

Perhaps in response to the ump’s allegations, the league has assigned Hernandez to work in both postseasons and the 2017 All-Star Game since the suit’s filing.

His performance on Monday night should make a great defense.

source https://heavy.com/sports/2018/10/angel-hernandez-yankees-red-sox/

[marilynngmesalo]

WELCOME TO BROCK-TOBER: Red Sox rout Yankees 16-1

WELCOME TO BROCK-TOBER: Red Sox rout Yankees 16-1 https://ift.tt/eA8V8J WELCOME TO BROCK-TOBER: Red Sox rout Yankees 16-1

NEW YORK — Brock Holt had one thing in mind: He was swinging for the fences.

After all, the game was decided long ago. And everything else went Boston’s way all night, so why not this?

The part-time utilityman put the finishing touch on a Red Sox blowout, becoming the first player to hit for the cycle in a post-season game as Boston routed the New York Yankees 16-1 on Monday to seize a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five AL Division Series.

“This one I’ll remember for a long time,” said Holt, unaware of his achievement until told by a television reporter right after the final out. “Obviously, you don’t go into the game expecting to make history or do anything like that, let alone score 16 runs.”

Andrew Benintendi lined a three-run double and Holt tripled home two more in a seven-run fourth inning that quickly turned the latest playoff matchup between these longtime rivals into a laugher. Handed a big early lead, Nathan Eovaldi shut down his former team during New York’s most lopsided defeat in 396 post-season games.

“An embarrassing day,” shortstop Didi Gregorius said.

Benny says hello. #DoDamage pic.twitter.com/pSVGc2TqDq

— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) October 9, 2018

Game 4 is Tuesday night in the Bronx, where the 108-win Red Sox can put away the wild-card Yankees for good and advance to the AL Championship Series against Houston. Rick Porcello is scheduled to pitch against New York lefty CC Sabathia.

Boston battered an ineffective Luis Severino and silenced a charged-up Yankee Stadium crowd that emptied out fast on a night when Red Sox rookie manager Alex Cora made all the right moves.

By the ninth, backup catcher Austin Romine was on the mound for New York and he gave up a two-run homer to Holt that completed his cycle .

“You get a little antsy when a position player is on the mound. I told everyone, ‘Get me up. I need a home run for a cycle,”‘ Holt said. “I scooted up in the box a little bit, and I was going to be swinging at anything and try to hook anything. Obviously, you don’t expect to hit a home run, but I was trying to. I was trying to hit a home run. That’s probably the first time I’ve ever tried to do that. I rounded the bases, and seeing everyone going nuts in the dugout was a pretty cool moment for me.”

His teammates, too.

“He wasn’t shy about it,” Benintendi said. “Everybody was rooting for him.”

Boosted by noisy fans in their homer-friendly ballpark, the Yankees entered 7-0 at home the past two postseasons — against out-of-division opponents. But the Red Sox, frequent visitors who clinched the AL East crown at Yankee Stadium just 2 1/2 weeks ago, were hardly intimidated.

We're here for #Brocktober. pic.twitter.com/lqMUNv8NIm

— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) October 9, 2018

“I think from pitch 1, we let them know that we were here,” Cora said.

Mookie Betts, in fact, hit a 405-foot flyout to the centre-field warning track to begin the game.

Making his first playoff start this year, Holt opened the fourth with a single off Severino and capped the 26-minute outburst with a triple to right field. The 2015 All-Star also doubled home a run in the eighth and finished with five RBIs.

Holt also hit for the cycle against Atlanta on June 6, 2015.

“He’s been swinging the bat well for a while now,” Cora said. “We felt the matchup was good for him.”

Every starter had at least one hit for the Red Sox, who piled up 18 in all. The only time they scored more runs in the post-season was a 23-7 win over Cleveland in 1999.

Eovaldi pitched for the Yankees from 2015-16 before injuring his elbow, which required a second Tommy John surgery. Boston acquired him from Tampa Bay in July and the hard-throwing righty compiled a 1.93 ERA in four starts against New York this season — three with the Red Sox.

Bumped up a day in front of Porcello, he delivered a gem in his first post-season appearance. Eovaldi allowed one run and five hits in seven innings, throwing 72 of 97 pitches for strikes.

//<![CDATA[ ( function() { pnLoadVideo( "videos", "GGeMoxkMfRk", "pn_video_736104", "", "", {"is_mobile":""} ); } )(); //]]>

“I was just trying to use their aggressiveness against them and try and get some quick outs,” Eovaldi said. “It was a special moment for me. I don’t think it’s really quite settled in yet.”

Going with Eovaldi was one of several choices that paid off for Cora.

Looking to play left-handed hitters against Severino, the first-year skipper inserted Holt at second base and Rafael Devers at third. Christian Vazquez started at catcher over Sandy Leon.

Devers singled twice, stole a base, scored two runs and knocked in another. Vazquez’s infield single off Severino’s glove drove in the first run.

Benintendi, already a Yankees nemesis, was on base four times and scored twice. Betts also scored two runs and drove in two.

“It just kind of shows you what kind of team we have and that we could explode at any minute,” Betts said.

TBS reported Severino began warming up only 10 minutes before the game, and he certainly looked out of sorts from the start in misty weather. He left with the bases loaded and nobody out in the fourth and was charged with six runs and seven hits.

//<![CDATA[ ( function() { pnLoadVideo( "videos", "SBYPyLOuDI0", "pn_video_916723", "", "", {"is_mobile":""} ); } )(); //]]>

“He got his normal pitches routine,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It wasn’t an issue.”

STRANGE SIGHT

The only other position player to pitch in a post-season game was Toronto infielder Cliff Pennington against Kansas City in the 2015 AL Championship Series.

IF AT FIRST

There were four replay challenges in the first four innings — all involving calls by first base umpire Angel Hernandez. Three were overturned.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Red Sox: 1B Mitch Moreland sat out after leaving Game 2 when he hurt his right hamstring running the bases. “Mitch is available, but he’s not 100 per cent,” Cora said. Steve Pearce played first and had an RBI single in the fourth.

Yankees: CF Aaron Hicks remained out of the lineup after missing Game 2 with tightness in his right hamstring, which forced him from the series opener Friday. Boone said Hicks was doing “significantly better,” and sitting him was a much more difficult decision than it was Saturday. Brett Gardner was back in centre, but Boone said he wouldn’t hesitate to use Hicks in any role off the bench.

UP NEXT

Red Sox: Porcello (17-7, 4.28 ERA) got two late outs in relief during the series opener last Friday, so his start was pushed back a day to Game 4. The 2016 AL Cy Young Award winner, who grew up a Mets fan in nearby New Jersey, was 2-0 with a 2.31 ERA in three starts against the Yankees this year — including a one-hitter on just 86 pitches Aug. 3 at Fenway Park. He is 0-3 with a 5.33 ERA in 12 career post-season outings, including four starts.

Yankees: The 38-year-old Sabathia (9-7, 3.65) will be on 11 days’ rest when he makes his 23rd post-season start. The big lefty was ejected from his last regular-season outing for hitting Tampa Bay catcher Jesus Sucre with a pitch during a testy game between division rivals on Sept. 27. Sabathia appealed a five-game suspension from Major League Baseball that would not take effect until next season. He said Monday he definitely wants to play in 2019 — even if it’s not for the Yankees.

  Canoe Click for update news world news https://ift.tt/2yur29U world news

#metronews24 bangla #Latest Online Breaking Bangla News #Breaking Bangla News #prothom alo #bangla news #b

[newssplashy]

LEADVILLE, Colo. — As Goose Gossage, a coffee cup in hand, stepped onto the deck outside his cabin on a recent morning, he considered the view.

Beyond the small lake in front of him, a broad grass valley gave way to an escarpment of spruce and pine that climbed until it ran out of oxygen, leaving exposed the tops of a snowcapped, snaggletooth row of 14,000-foot peaks.

Gossage, who turns 67 next month, first came to the edge of this former mining town one summer in the late 1950s, singing, “America the Beautiful,” while riding in the back of his Uncle Bert’s Jeep on what was then a day trip from his home in Colorado Springs.

Gossage bought one cabin here in 1974, just as his Hall of Fame pitching career took root. He bought the cabin next door, one that belonged to a Maytag heir, in 1978, after the New York Yankees bestowed on him what was then an eye-popping, free-agent contract for a reliever: six years, $2.85 million. Ever since, the cabins have served as retreats — to hunt elk, fish for trout and revel in the solitude.

“I was put on Earth to be a baseball player and to throw a baseball; I’m convinced,” Gossage said. “But my whole life isn’t that. I’ve got another life. I love my life. I love being up here. The mountains — if you’ve ever grown up around an ocean or the mountains, the power of those are incredible. They’re in your DNA.”

If Gossage sees this place as a sanctuary, as the ideal counterweight for the 23 years he spent bouncing from city to city, including a season in Japan, it is not hard to see it now as an island — a place where he is living in exile.

Few sports franchises embrace their history as firmly as the Yankees, and few former ballplayers relish reliving it more than Gossage. But that was not enough to prevent the Yankees from banishing Gossage from two of his most cherished rituals: working as a spring training instructor and participating in Old-Timers’ Day, which is Sunday, when the Yankees play the Tampa Bay Rays.

The culprit, not surprisingly, was his mouth.

In recent years, Gossage had become a headache to the Yankees, railing about what was wrong with today’s game to any reporter who would ask. His short, expletive-laced answer was: just about everything — analytics “nerds,” bat flips, drug cheats and how Mariano Rivera (and other modern-day closers) had it easy throwing just one inning.

Then, when word got out before spring training that Gossage had not been invited to return as an instructor, he incinerated any bridge that might have led to reconciliation, laying into general manager Brian Cashman as “a disgrace” and “an embarrassment.”

Gossage’s pique toward Cashman stems from the general manager’s not returning his call more than a decade ago when Gossage was hoping to garner an invitation to minor league camp for his youngest son, Todd, who had recovered from a detached retina at the end of his college career.

Gossage does not blame the Yankees for casting him out. “I didn’t leave them any choice,” he said.

He understands that these episodes have painted him as a cartoonish character — the foul-mouthed crank whom the game has passed by. “Grumpy old man; get off my lawn; another pie in the face,” he said with a laugh. He particularly likes “get off my lawn.”

Yet a fuller portrait might be of a man who is as vulnerable and bighearted as he can be vicious and boorish, who feels a great debt to the game but can’t find an open avenue to give back.

Or maybe he just can’t let go.

“He’s not very good about accepting the changes because he loves baseball so much,” said his wife, Corna, with whom he has three grown sons. “Everything is always going through change, so you can’t expect it to be the same as when you played. He wants to keep it as pure as it used to be and he can’t, so it’s a source of frustration to him.”

Few have seen as many sides of Gossage as Bucky Dent, who roomed with him in Class A ball in Appleton, Wisconsin, teamed with him to win a World Series, and managed him with the Yankees in 1989.

“There’s a lot of things that people don’t understand because they only see the gruff side of him,” Dent said. “He’s all baseball. His life has been baseball, but he’s got a heart of gold. He’s a lovable guy. I love him to death.”

Asked if he was saddened that Gossage could not restrain himself, Dent said, “That’s just Goose.”

A Fierce Facade

Gossage, who grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Colorado Springs, realized early that he had a gift for throwing things — first rocks, then footballs and baseballs. He had never been out of the state until he boarded a plane for Sarasota, Florida, after the Chicago White Sox drafted him in 1970 and gave him an $8,000 signing bonus.

Shortly before he left, he borrowed his brother’s car and drove to his favorite spot, near the Wilson Ranch, where his father, who had died the year before from emphysema, used to take him to hunt rabbit and deer,.

Gossage sat under a pine tree and cried.

“I was scared to death,” he said. “I thought Hank Aaron and all the greats put their pants on different, that they were fictitious characters that didn’t really exist. But through those tears I had a talk with myself, that there aren’t going to be any woulda, shoulda, couldas. When I made that commitment to myself, I felt this weight off my shoulders.”

The White Sox, the first of nine teams for whom he would play, had the foresight to stick Gossage — with his tempestuous demeanor and blazing fastball — in the bullpen, where he could let his adrenaline ride.

Even now, nearly 50 years later and with a left ankle that had to be fused after decades of landing on it, Gossage ambles in his familiar slump-shouldered, pigeon-toed gait. His hair is white and mostly gone, although his Fu Manchu mustache — the one that somehow evaded George Steinbrenner’s grooming police — remains.

Gossage can still reach back for that intimidating glare, the one that radiates an uncomfortable intensity — particularly when the subject is Cashman. But he admits that it was largely a facade, that the cocksure confidence he projected on the mound was fragile.

So it was that Gossage broke down when he described how Steinbrenner consoled him in private after Gossage gave up a three-run homer to George Brett that sealed Kansas City’s sweep of the Yankees in the 1980 American League Championship Series.

As Gossage wiped away tears, he moved on to another story: how Catfish Hunter extended a hand and then a dinner invitation with several teammates after Gossage had collapsed amid a pile of clothes in his locker after throwing away two bunts in the bottom of the ninth inning in Toronto shortly after he came to the Yankees in 1978.

This brought more tears. “You have no idea what that meant to me,” Gossage said, wiping his eyes.

This is the 40th anniversary of the Yankees’ 1978 championship season. It was the only time Gossage won a title, and he treasures the season because of how it unfolded. The Yankees, after trailing Boston by 14 games in mid-July, caught and passed the Red Sox by mid-September, but could not shake them. The Yankees won six in a row in the final week but lost on the final day of the season to force a one-game playoff at Fenway Park.

While Dent is remembered as the unlikely hero that day for his three-run homer over the Green Monster, Gossage helped the Yankees hang on for a 5-4 victory, stranding the tying run at third base when he retired an old nemesis, Carl Yastrzemski, on a pop-up for the final out.

Two weeks later, he was on the mound at Dodger Stadium, retiring Ron Cey on a pop-up for the final out as the Yankees, after losing the first two games to the Los Angeles Dodgers, clinched the title.

“To go through the absolute lowest, to experience everything in one year, was completely overwhelming,” Gossage said. “After the game that we clinched, after the World Series was over, there was no celebration. We were all sitting at our lockers — I think we were all kind of in disbelief.”

No Olive Branches

Old-Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium had always been a chance to rekindle memories like those, even if the event has evolved over the years. The former players no longer change into their pinstripes alongside current players in the home clubhouse but in an auxiliary room where stories are not so easily swapped and bonds between generations not so easily forged.

The Yankees have invited eight members of the 1978 team to Sunday’s festivities.

If today’s Yankees are largely petrified of saying something provocative, the Bronx Zoo teams of the late 1970s just needed to be asked.

Manager Billy Martin, perpetually hired and fired, had a drinking problem that was nobody’s secret. Star player Reggie Jackson and captain Thurman Munson openly feuded. Gossage missed two months with a thumb injury in 1979 after he brawled in the showers with burly designated hitter Cliff Johnson. And lording over it all was the bombastic Steinbrenner.

“If those guys didn’t like you, it was honesty,” Gossage said. “Now, nobody says anything no matter how bad it is.”

As he sat in a vintage wooden chair in his wood-paneled cabin, surrounded by his hunting trophies — deer, owls, rams and fowl — the only remnant of his playing days was a Yankees travel bag stuffed with clothes from his home in Colorado Springs. Gossage said he did not watch much baseball these days, maybe an inning here, an inning there. The game, with more strikeouts, more home runs and fewer balls in play than ever, bores him.

The irony, of course, is that many millennials, the ones who might cast him as a dinosaur, feel the same way.

“The strategy is gone,” Gossage said. “Moving guys, cat and mouse, pitchouts — you don’t see that. You don’t see pitchouts because you don’t see steals. You can’t pitch inside, you can’t take out the shortstop, you can’t take out the catcher. Hitters are so offended when they get knocked down because they aren’t expecting it.”

As Gossage got more animated, he turned to replay, which has ensured that most umpiring mistakes are rectified, but at the cost of disrupting the game and largely robbing it of a favorite sight — managers kicking dirt on umpires.

“Wow, that was awesome,” Gossage said. “It woke me up.”

By now, he was worked up — and headed toward his favorite punching bag: the Ivy League-educated numbers wonks who never played the game. They have, he said, turned managers and coaches into baby sitters.

“Here are people trying to control this game that really, really don’t have a clue about the game, period,” he said. “Whatever that computer spits out, that’s it. There are volumes and volumes of knowledge that go into playing baseball — that computer has no idea — and it’s called the human element and it’s everywhere. They think they’ve got it figured out because they won their rotisserie leagues at Harvard.”

Gossage, inflammatory rhetoric aside, has a rather unlikely ally: Rob Manfred, the baseball commissioner. He recently acknowledged that data’s influence had not necessarily been good for the game.

“There is a growing recognition that analytics have produced certain trends in the game that we may need to be more proactive about reversing,” Manfred said last month in an interview with The Athletic. “There are owners that feel that way. There are fans that feel that way.”

But in March 2016, when Gossage criticized Jose Bautista, then with the Toronto Blue Jays, and Yoenis Cespedes of the New York Mets for their exuberant bat flips and decried how analytics nerds were ruining the game, Cashman summoned him.

Cashman asked Gossage to be more considerate, in part because the Yankees have one of baseball’s largest analytics staffs. Before the 2017 season, Cashman called Gossage’s agent, Andrew Levy, extending an offer to return for spring training, but only if Gossage promised not to be disruptive. Levy checked with Gossage, who told the Yankees he was in.

Then, several days into spring training, Gossage, in an interview with NJ.com, decried being compared to Rivera and current Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman, who, unlike Gossage, were rarely asked to get more than three outs.

Another meeting with Cashman ensued, which included Joe Girardi, the manager at the time, and Jason Zillo, the team’s director of media.

Gossage was not invited back this spring.

“We run our organization in a certain way,” Zillo wrote in a statement after Cashman declined to comment. “Goose Gossage believes it should be run in a different way. It is fine to disagree with us and constructive dialogue is a healthy thing, but being disruptive, disrespectful and detrimental to the organization is something different.

“We respect him as a great Yankee and a member of the Hall of Fame,” the statement continued. “But we disagree with his positions and the manner in which he continuously presents them.”

In preparing the statement, Zillo asked if there was any sign of contrition from Gossage, something resembling an olive branch.

It was hard to find one. Peppering his words with expletives, Gossage described having the urge last year to stuff Cashman into a trash can.

“My mom must have been watching over,” he said, “because somebody was telling me: ‘Don’t! Don’t do it.'”

Gossage, who played in a charity golf tournament for the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center on Monday with several of his former Yankees teammates, said he was sorry he would not be able to experience Old-Timers’ Day, which he has not missed since he was first invited about 20 years ago.

But he was not sorry about anything he had said. “I am absolutely at peace with it,” he said. “I said my say and I’m glad I did. I’m glad I got it off my chest.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

BILLY WITZ © 2018 The New York Times

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[samanthasroberts]

Alex Rodriguez is Major League Baseball’s last megastar, and that’s OK

David Lengel: A-Rods fame transcends baseball; plus, Prince Fielder retires, Gary Sheffield demands respect for Tim Tebow and the Mets manager Terry Collins is under fire

All the way to the bitter end, and it is bitter, the fans want A-Rod. On Tuesday night, with Alex Rodriguez bizarrely left out of the lineup by the Yankees manager, Joe Girardi, Boston Red Sox fans chanted his name at Fenway Park, letting Bombers brass know they made a mistake by sitting the slugger who is (for now) set to retire after one more big night in the Bronx, this coming Friday against Tampa Bay.

Can you blame the Yankees for sticking it to their man, even if he was, at least seemingly, provided with a graceful exit plan on Sunday? After all, were talking about player who tried to torch his employers, the league he played in and the union who helped guarantee most of his 10-year, $275m deal during a scorched-earth defense of his role in the Biogenesis PED scandal.

Except this shouldnt be about the Yankees settling scores, this is about pure entertainment. And with the clock running down on one of the most significant sporting careers this country has ever known, limiting the owner of 696 of the most controversial home runs in history to pinch-hit duty is the direct opposite of giving fans what they want.

Yes, they still want A-Rod, a player who cant hit like he used to, but can still light up talk radio switchboards for hours, rattle social media and fill countless pages with pixel after pixel. In an era where content is in demand like never before, A-Rod has been just that: walking, living, breathing, never-ending content. At the next Baseball Writers Association dinner, they should give A-Rod an award for enriching their lives with some of the most colorful, controversial and polarizing stories theyll ever scribble. He deserves it, because another A-Rod isnt going to walk into the sport anytime soon.

A-Rod is arguably, along with his ex-team-mate, Derek Jeter, the most recognizable name in modern baseball times, and not just to sports fans, to everybody. A-Rod has transcended the game in a way almost all ballplayers dont. In retirement, his place in mainstream gossip columns will continue, especially if he sticks with billionaire CEO and co-founder of 23andMe Anne Wojcicki, who was once married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin: know any other baseball players who have landed in Vanity Fair lately?

The NFL has their Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and until last season, Peyton Manning, while the NBA has their LeBron James and a host of strong second-tier stars. After A-Rod, baseball has nobody on or near that level of national, crossover stardom.

Think about all the game-changing talent that is around the league today: Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, Jake Arrieta, Jose Altuve, Kris Bryant: the list of standouts goes on for a very long time, but theres no one that moves the needle like A-Rod, who is known by 50% of all Americans six years or older according to Q-Scores. Bryce Harper, who did make a late-night appearance with Jimmy Fallon in May, and is by far the least vanilla young ballplayer around, is the next highest at 20% awareness.

Alex Rodriguez (@AROD) October 30, 2015

Had a blast on my first time on @fallontonight with @jimmyfallon. pic.twitter.com/Gi3HjYu3rR

Every circuit wants to market its stars, who are the one of the main reasons the Big Four leagues are the behemoths they are today. But in todays sports world, MLB operates well despite the fact that their players have lower national awareness than those from other major North American sports leagues.

The league may wish their national ratings for all-star games and the post-season were rising rather than falling, but in MLB today, all of that matters much less overall. Their digital service, 33% of which was just picked up by Disney, is valued at a staggering $3.5bn, while local television and radio perform well. Their biggest issue is finding a way to maintain the status quo when it comes to the billions of dollars in local revenues earned via cable bundling, where many fans who dont watch an inning of baseball have been subsidizing huge rights deals for years and years.

So really, the model of pushing stars to drive national awareness across Major League Baseball has more or less been on life support for many years, meaning that the days of grandiose ad campaigns, as rare as theyve been, probably went out with Jeter.

As for Rodriguez, well, based on ticket sales for Fridays game, which is being broadcast nationally on Fox, hes certain to go out with a bang, whether he swings and misses or hits yet another A-bomb. As always, A-Rod will make an impact, simply by showing up.

Video of the week

ICYMI: Manny Machado: three at bats, three home runs in three innings, single handedly wrecking the White Sox on a Sunday afternoon. Thats one heck of a third of a game for the Orioles slugger who is breaking out from his breakout seasons. Is he your MVP? He certainly deserves to be in the American League conversation.

Manny from Mercury.

Quote of the Week

Take your stupid baseball team and get out.

Documents obtained by AZCentral.com say thats what Maricopa County supervisor Andy Kunasek said to Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall during an April tirade. The county, which includes the city of Phoenix, has denied the D-Backs $65m in ballpark renovations in an ongoing dispute that could threaten Arizonas long-term future at Chase Field. Kunasek also told Hall to go back to fucking West Virginia.

Whos closer to victory: Donald Trump or the Cubs?

Well, you would like to think that in a week that Le Grande Orange alluded to a possible assassination threat to a would-be presidential-elect, that the Trumpster would be farther away from victory than ever before. However, we also know that Trump bounces back easier than one of those 25 rubber balls your kid makes you buy outside the pizza shop: the Dems should limit any embarrassing high-fives.

The Cubs? Well, whatever was eating at them in July, when they were, somewhat amazingly, just 12-16, is done and dusted. Chicago raced out to a 8-0 mark this month, and their July to August ERA dropped from 4.47 to 1.29, while their OPS popped by over 60 points during the same span. That makes the Cubbies easy winners this week.

How did the kids piss off Goose Gossage this week?

The St Louis Cardinals, down 4-0 on Monday night to the Cincinnati Reds, on the verge of a three-game losing streak, got yet another gift from God. After rallying from a 4-0 ninth inning deficit, Yadier Molina stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and brought the winning home run by any means necessary.

Yadier does it again.

Theres only one thing worse than a bases-loaded walk to end a ballgame a bases loaded hit by pitch. Molina didnt exactly run away from Ross Ohlendorfs offering, and so Goose may be thinking that is one bush league way to win. Then again, hes probably thinking what we most of us think when the Cardinals somehow find a way to rise from the dead, and thats not printable here.

Nine thoughts in order

1) Prince Fielder is retiring from baseball after a second neck surgery forced the Rangers DH to call it quits. Aside from the sad news that one of the games most prodigious sluggers is retiring, it now confirms that then Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski made one heck of a deal when he shipped Fielder to Texas in exchange for Ian Kinsler. By the time Fielders deal runs out, he will have been paid $138m for 34 home runs and a .760 OPS over 289 games. The Tigers will have paid $62m for Kinsler up until 2018, which includes a $5m buyout of the final year of his deal, but doesnt count the $30m they kicked over to Texas to help pay Fielders deal. So for $92m total, Detroit have received an .794 OPS, in over 400 games and counting, with the second baseman currently enjoying his best season since 2008. Theres some relief for Texas however – its reported that some $36m of the remaining deal will be covered by insurance. Fielder retires with the same number of home runs as his father Cecil: 319.

2) Toronto Blue Jays starting center fielder Kevin Pillar is out with for at least two weeks with sprained thumb ligaments, and considering the way he routinely bounces around the Rogers Centre outfield walls and dives into its turf, its a real wonder how he wasnt injured sooner. Luckily, GM Ross Atkins, who is quietly patting his own back this week, has an everyday center fielder in Melvin Upton to replace him. Upton is enjoying something of a comeback season, but has been slow to get going in T Dot now hell get his chance to play every day and make that deal look even better.

3) Tim Tebow is going to try and play baseball, allegedly, and as usual, the media are tripping over themselves to cover whatever he does. Personally, I thought he deserved more of a chance in the NFL after guiding the Broncos to the playoffs in 2011, something a whopping 10,000 Denver fans agree with after signing a petition for his return. Baseball? Well, I was tempted to write that its never, ever, EVER going to happen. Then I saw this tweet from Gary Sheffield:

Gary Sheffield (@garysheffield) August 9, 2016

I spent time w @TimTebow in the cages recently, he’s a NATURAL. I absolutley believe in his ability to play in the bigs. Tim has IT #focused

If you read Sheffields recent piece in the Players Tribune, youd have to think twice about Tebow he demands that you do! So, as per Sheffs orders, Im keeping an open mind, for now.

4) On Tuesday some 15,000 Red Sox fans learned theyd be denied a David Ortiz bobblehead doll, just hours before their game with the Yankees.

Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) August 8, 2016

We’re back home tomorrow night and we’re going big with the #BigPapi bobblehead! Get yours: https://t.co/uQuufP0I67 pic.twitter.com/Y5CzCEb5g8

I thought the bobbleheads were an inaccurate portrayal of David, said Sam Kennedy said. To go further, I thought the facial features were racially insensitive. Sox brass later announced that fans in attendance would actually be eligible to receive a more politically correct doll with a significantly thicker neck once a new figurine is made.

5) Heres an admission: my fascination with Ichiro was such that I used to write emails about him to friends before every spring. Mostly they rambled on about certain stats on how he missed just 33 games over his first 11 seasons in Seattle, or that he would have almost definitely been MLBs all-time hit king had his career started off in North America.

The first Japanese player to play the field, Ichiro is without question one of the most intriguing players in the long history of the game, and his 3,000th hit is just the latest statistical wonder surrounding his game. Ironically, after all these years of racking up hit after hit, my fondest Ichiro memory remains his throwing out of Terrance Long in 2001.

Incredible Ichiro.

6) Last month Pete Rose sued John Dowd for a statutory rape allegation the criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor made last year. During a 13 July 2015 radio appearance, Dowd, who lead the 1989 investigation into Roses gambling, referenced Roses ex-associate, Michael Bertolini, who allegedly told him that he ran young girls for him down in spring training, ages 12 to 14. Rose said there was no truth to the statements, which took place before the MLB commissioner, Rob Manfred, elected to not take him off the sports ineligible list in December. Now Dowd is trying to have the case dismissed, a move Roses attorney, Martin Garbus calls a stall tactic. Like anything involving Rose, this latest saga is unlikely to end anytime soon.

7) Yasiel Puigs reputation in Dodgerland continues to spiral. This time the recently demoted Puig was seen drinking beer in a party bus with a bunch of young Triple-A Oklahoma players, some of which were under the legal drinking age, having as much fun as possible inside a vehicle parked in Iowa. Unfortunately for Puig, who is just 25, these completely normal acts, which included singing, profanity and inside jokes, he posted videos of the partying on social media and so now its a full-blown controversy. Management said theyd handle it internally, while Puig merchandise was removed from Dodger Stadium stores. A word of advice to Yasiel: the nail that sticks up will be hammered down.

8) Terry Collins is under more pressure than ever after a shaky week featuring what were, more or less, indefensible decisions. On Saturday, down a run in the ninth and two outs, he didnt pinch-run for the plodding Jay Bruce, who was then thrown out at home to end the game.

Jay Bruce might be faster than anybody on our team for all I know, said Collins. I know he is a good base runner.

Bruce is new to the team, but in the age of information, there is no excuse for Collins: he has to know his players.

Making matters worse, Collins didnt challenge the call at the plate.

Mets fans have been critical of several of Collins moves this season, never mind the fact that he manages a would-be play-off team that hasnt won consecutive games since 7 July. However, few managers have had to deal with the injury issues hes faced over two seasons, and after taking New York to the World Series last season, hes probably safe for the rest of the season.

9) And finally, Clayton Kershaw is still finding ways to contribute in LA, despite being sidelined with back issues until at least 27 August. On Sunday, he led a dugout prank on Alex Wood.

LasMayores (@LasMayores) August 8, 2016

Clayton Kershaw jugandole una broma a Alex Wood. #LasMayores #MLB https://t.co/KK5eI5UkFc

A full video of Claytons stacking seeds on to the back of Wood, narrated to perfection by Vin Scully, can be found here. Rather incredibly, the Dodgers have gone 23-14 without their ace in the rotation, pulling even even with their NL West rivals, the San Francisco Giants, if only for a day. The Dodgers bullpen has played a large role in that success they have the lowest batting average against in innings seven through nine in baseball history according to SI a remarkable turnaround considering the fits LAs relief core caused their fan base over ensuing seasons.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/2017/12/01/alex-rodriguez-is-major-league-baseballs-last-megastar-and-thats-ok/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2017/12/01/alex-rodriguez-is-major-league-baseballs-last-megastar-and-thats-ok/

[usnewsaggregator-blog]

Joe Girardi, Brian Cashman both deserve to return to Yankees

New Post has been published on http://usnewsaggregator.com/joe-girardi-brian-cashman-both-deserve-to-return-to-yankees/

Joe Girardi, Brian Cashman both deserve to return to Yankees

HOUSTON — The two most significant free agents now that the Yankees’ season has come to a disappointing end both deserve to return in 2018 back after retooling and guiding the franchise to within one victory of the World Series.

GM Brian Cashman and manager Joe Girardi both have expiring contracts at the end of this month and both should be commended and rewarded for what they squeezed out of this 2017 season of rebirth and rejuvenation in the Bronx, even if it all came to a crashing conclusion with a 4-0 thud of a loss Saturday night to the Astros in Game 7 of the ALCS at Minute Maid Park.

Cashman will meet with owner Hal Steinbrenner in the coming days to discuss his future and that of the revitalized organization, but getting this close in a season few outside the Stadium or the Tampa complex thought possible has to feel like unfinished business for the brain trust and the manager – possibly on the precipice of something special eight full years removed from the 27th and most-recent championship in team history.

“There are a lot of decisions to be made for the future. I haven’t thought about any of them yet, whether it’s yourself or anyone else,” Cashman, who has been the team’s general manager since 1998, said after the game. “We’re hoping to kick the can down the road, but we’re like 28 other teams right now and we’re now in that pile of what’s next?

Joe Girardi finished the final year on his contract.

(Elsa/Getty Images)

“I think everybody did everything they possibly could to get where we wanted to go, which is to be the last team standing. We fell short. We had a great season, it’s been a wild and fun ride, but tonight it hurts because the ride’s over. Obviously we’ll all get back to New York and deal with what’s next.”

Cashman came into spring training comparing rival Boston to the Golden State Warriors of the AL East, while categorizing his team as one ‘in transition” but “not waving any white flags.”

The Yanks widely were expected to chase from behind following a playoff miss and a pawning of veteran players late last season, only the regular season didn’t exactly play out that way despite the Red Sox barely capturing the division crown and the Yanks earning a playoff berth as a wild-card team for only the second time in the past five seasons.

Brian Cashman will most likely sign a new deal to return as general manager.

(Kathy Willens/AP)

The infusion and quick maturation of young homegrown stars such as rookie AL MVP candidate Aaron Judge, who led the league in homers and a few other offensive categories, Gary Sanchez and pitcher Luis Severino into first-time All-Stars prompted Cashman, with Steinbrenner’s blessing, to make two significant go-for-it trades over the summer — sacrificing several prospects in two shrewd deals for third baseman Todd Frazier and relievers David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle from Chicago and starting pitcher Sonny Gray from Oakland.

“Obviously for the young guys, it’s great to get exposure to (the postseason). But we went all-in this year trying to….We felt we had a team that was capable and certainly played at times, or most of the time, very capable,” Cashman said. “For the younger guys, that their major-league careers are just getting started, obviously this is something they can fall back on.

“But ultimately the future is never promised, so that’s why you try to do everything you can in the present. I’m confident that we did that and I’m looking forward to obviously, hopefully being a part of the process as we move forward. But that’s for another day.”

Yankees lose to Astros in Game 7 of 2017 ALCS

As is the status of Girardi, the team’s manager since succeeding Joe Torre in 2008. He reiterated following Saturday’s Game 7 loss that he will sit down and discuss his future with his wife and children before making a decision on returning, assuming the Yankees want him back.

Of course, Girardi committed a colossal blunder in Game 2 of the AL division series against Cleveland by not requesting a video review of a clear missed call and he initially compounded it by making nonsensical excuses afterward. After owning up to ‘screwing up” the next day, however, the players rallied around their manager and overcame an 0-2 deficit to knock out the Indians and reach the ALCS, where they fell behind by two games again before forcing Game 7.

“I love what I do,” Girardi said. “I’ve always said, the first thing that I do is I always talk to my family first. They come first. Because I think when you have a job, your family has to buy in, too. It’s not just what you want out of life. It’s everyone buying in. So I’ll sit down, talk to my wife and kids and see where they’re at and what they’re thinking. And then we’ll see what the Yankees are thinking.

Hal Steinbrenner will decide whether or not to bring back Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi.

(Nam Y. Huh/AP)

“But that’s not my concern right now. I’ve had ten great years here. I feel extremely blessed. God has been good to me. And we’ll see what the future holds.”

That future, both immediate and long-term, certainly appears bright once again for the Yankees. As close as they came this year, there is no reason for Cashman and Girardi to not be a part of it.

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