Yankee Haters Raise Your Hands

Enough Already: The Yankees win the pennant again

Photo: Associated Press

It was the bottom of the eighth in Sunday night’s closeout game of the ALCS and the Yankees were tacking on some extra runs on the way to another World Series appearance.

With Mariano Rivera coming back out to shut down the Angels in the ninth and preserve the victory, I was coming to the realization that my dream would not come true – that the Angels would actually take Game 6 and I would be able to say, "The Yankees lose … The Yankees lose … Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Yankees lose." No such luck.

The great American pastime, the World Series, begins Wednesday night, and I’ll be watching every pitch like every year. And you guessed it, I’ll be rooting for the Phillies. Sorry.

See, I hate the Yankees. But I don’t want to be predictable about it (OK, yes, I am an Orioles fan whose hometown club hasn’t had a winning season in 12 years). I also don’t want to be trite and petty. I love the great game of baseball too much for that -- a dyed-in-the-wool fan who really does believe that everybody has a chance to win the pennant at the start of spring training.

Only the Yankees have won 7 of the last 14 American League pennants and make their way to their 40th World Series against the Phils.

My ill will toward the Yankees began long ago. It probably started first watching the 1958 classic film "Damn Yankees" as a teenager -- when Joe Hardy had to sell his soul to Mr. Applegate just so the Washington Senators could beat the Yankees for the pennant. Gosh, just to beat the Yankees you have to make a pact with the devil.

Then growing up in Baltimore, I realized that Babe Ruth was a native of my city who went on to become baseball’s most legendary figure, of course, with the Yankees, no less.

There was having Reggie Jackson play a wonderful season in Baltimore in '76 before unceremoniously bolting to the Yankees for money and fame. There was the Jeffrey Maier game in the 1996 ALCS between the Orioles and the Yankees, in which the Yankees prevailed in the series after 12-year-old Maier’s "dastardly" deed. Then there was losing our best pitcher since Jim Palmer, Mike Mussina, to Yankees’ free agency in 2001. (For Orioles fans, what if Mussina makes the Hall of Fame and goes in as a Yankee?)

All in all, I am OK with Yankee fans. There are plenty of them here in Baltimore and Washington. True baseball fans do respect Baltimore's winning tradition with Frank and Brooks, Eddie and Cal and Palmer, McNally and Cuellar. I lived once in New York City, and I do love New York. It has to be the greatest city in the world in my view.

And I do admit to love Yankee history and lore. Who can argue with the Babe, Lou Gehrig, DiMaggio and the magical season that was Mantle and Maris in 1961. And my favorites like Whitey Ford, Elston Howard, Thurman Munson, Billy Martin and Guidry, Mattingly and Bernie Williams.

So no problem with Yankee fans or the city. It is a big place up there with lots to satisfy. I understand Wall Street, big money, celebrity, endorsements and market size. I know what it means to be in New York.

Still I just hate the Yankees – but also all the other "payroll" teams of current day baseball.

In the run up to the 2009 World Series, I am reminded that I feel a similar way about the Dodgers, Red Sox or Angels, too. The Dodgers and their money still lost with Thome, Pierre and Hudson as bench players. Bench players, mind you. Boston for all its payroll was swept by the Angels after spending the season beating up on rookie teams like the Orioles. The Angels plucked Torii Hunter from free agency a couple of years ago, sending (former Oriole) Gary Matthews Jr. and his millions to the bench. That's baseball today.

When the Yankees signed C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, A.J. Burnett and Nick Swisher to start the 2009 season, I figured you could just spot them the pennant -- not much unlike in a courtroom when you stipulate to a set of facts and move on with the testimony. You could have played the World Series in April between the Yankees and Phillies/Dodgers and let the rest of us (Orioles, Pirates, Indians, Nationals, etc.) just play out the season against one another.

In a post game interview to conclude the ALCS, Yankee captain Derek Jeter said, "It's not easy to get to this point of the season." Well, with the big payroll, Derek, it really is. Put your roster up against the Orioles or Pirates (who have won World Series before). It really is easy in 2009 to get to this point as Yankees when you buy everybody’s players.

This is not to say the Yankees don't do a good job of developing players. There is Jeter, Rivera, Posada, Cano, etc. They all came through the system, but the big money gets them over the hump. And you might say the Phillies would not be where they are had it not been for adding Cliff Lee and Pedro Martinez at mid-season. But adding a piece or two to get over the hump is a time-honored baseball tradition.

I also cringe when I hear Joe Girardi interviews about his 2009 Yankees team. And, as beloved as he is for baseball, Joe Torre was the same way. They talk as if winning with the teams they have (compared with everybody else) is hard -- almost as if what they are doing is professorial, thoughtful and born of greatness. Dudes, your franchises bought the best players. You didn’t grow them like the great teams of the past.

I like to think I am a modern man who understands the era we are in today. But I loved baseball when, for the most part, you won pennants by developing and retaining players.

The Yankees are in another World Series. But for me, Alex Rodriquez will always be a Mariner, Sabathia an Indian, Teixeira a Ranger, Swisher an A, Burnett a Marlin and Johnny Damon a Royal.

Editor's Note: For readers of this blog, sorry for the ranting. I usually don't write in first person. But when you "hate" the Yankees, what is a Baltimore Orioles fan supposed to do.

LifeLock the Top Team in WNBA

When Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter go against San Antonio in an opening round WNBA playoff game Thursday, you won't see "Phoenix" or "Mercury" on their uniform jersey tops, except for the small team logo. Instead, you'll see "LifeLock."

Going into the playoffs, the Mercury and stars Taurasi and Pondexter are entering as the team to beat. The pair are the league's top two scorers, leading the club to the WNBA's best regular season record at 23-11. As the games tip off on ESPN2 -- the Washington Mystics made it and will host Indiana Thursday night at 7 -- the playoffs again will give the WNBA a much needed boost of television exposure after playing its regular during idle summer months.

Since June, Mercury uniforms have been adorned with the LifeLock name, a Tempe, AZ identity theft prevention company. The Mercury are even selling the jerseys that way at the WNBA online store, part of a multi-year marketing partnership with LifeLock. To boot, when existing jerseys with the Mercury name on the front are sold out, only those LifeLock ones will be available.

No other American sports team has gone so far as to actually place the name of a sponsor on its uniform instead of the team name.

Agreed, in an age where sponsorships provide key operating revenue to sports franchises, no league needs the money more than the WNBA. And today they name stadiums after companies, such as M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore and the Washington Redskins' FedEx Field. The Wizards in the NBA and the Mystics, of course, play at DC's Verizon Center. Look at the sponsors plastered on the racing attire of NASCAR drivers.

But on the jersey of an American professional sports team? Call it old-fashioned, but such is hard to fathom for some sports fans. The Mercury-LifeLock deal gives all WNBA season ticket holders a one-year complimentary membership valued at $110, among other benefits. Is that a win-win?

NBA Commissioner David Stern praised the deal as "groundbreaking" for the cash-strapped WNBA, signaling we can see others. But would Stern allow LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal to wear "Campbell's Soup Cavaliers" jerseys?

Why not go ahead and put the "Comfort Inn Cowboys" on the front of Tony Romo's America's Team jersey. Shucks, before Oprah Winfrey became a billionaire, she worked in television in the Baltimore media market. She has as much cash as some major corporations. How about the "Oprah Orioles." Why not the "Radio Shack Redskins"?

In justifying the deal, Mercury officials noted that European sports clubs regularly put the names of sponsors on uniforms. (Weak argument. This is America.) It is one thing to put a sponsor's name, logo or likeness on banners, courtside chairs, warm ups or gym bags, but it seems a stretch for the jersey top worn during competition. The uniform should be sacrosanct.

Sports still is supposed to be about the purity of the competition. Professional sports, too. Isn't that why Pete Rose is banned from the Hall of Fame and Shoeless Joe Jackson is one of sports' most infamous figures?

How about some what ifs? If a sponsor has a bad financial quarter, would the sponsor try to influence the competition on the court for "corporate reasons"? And what lengths would a money-hungry franchise go to to keep the sponsor's name on the jersey?

Go LifeLock!

• More: Mercury-LifeLock announcement, Mercury WNBA Web site.
  

Photo: Diana Taurasi Life-Lock jersey, http://store.nba.com

Rookie Pitchers Giving Orioles Hope

Chugging frightfully toward a possible 100-loss season, the Baltimore Orioles somehow showed up on national television Saturday in those throw-back Negro League uniforms, topping the playoff-contending Texas Rangers 5-4 on Fox's Game of the Week.

Major League Baseball fans know diamond-ball in the Baltimore-Washington market is bad this year and has been that way for too many seasons to want to count. With 26 games to go in the 2009 season, the Orioles, and the region's other MLB franchise, are sitting on 81 and 90 losses, respectively.

But for the Orioles on Saturday on Fox, baby-face rookie lefty Brian Matusz gave fans a glimpse of what could be -- though not forgetting a wretched streak of 12 consecutive losing seasons. Competing in the brutal American League East against the always big-payroll Yankees and Red Sox, along with the steady play of the Tampa Bay Rays over the past couple of seasons, the 22-year-old Matusz outpitched Rangers' veteran Kevin Millwood for seven innings to offer a peek into what could be an improving prognosis for the Birds of Baltimore.

Despite the team bottoming out in the won-loss department again since the All-Star break (15-33 so far), fans here at least can be comforted that maybe, just maybe, the Orioles are moving in the right direction to back up that their last World Series won in 1983 with Hall of Famers Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray as the anchors.

Matusz, the fourth overall pick in the 2008 amateur draft, and fellow rookies, righties Chris Tillman, 21, Brad Bergesen, 23, David Hernandez, 23, and Jason Berken, 25, are taking some hard knocks in the Orioles rotation while upping expectations for the future.

Add to them the 2009 fifth overall pick in 19-year-old right-hander Matt Hobgood, switch hitting catcher Matt Wieters, 23, the fifth pick in the 2007 draft, outfielders Adam Jones, 24, and Nick Markakis, 25, along with more deep talent Orioles President Andy MacPhail is nurturing on the farm, and there is reason for Baltimore to believe again.

With yesterday's outing, Matusz ran his season's record to 4-2 with a 5.26 ERA, winning three of his last four starts. Matusz had gone 7-0 with a 1.55 ERA in eight starts for the Orioles' Bowie, MD Double-A affiliate before being called up. The kid simply can pitch and is unflappable as he adjusts to big-league hitters, is how they describe him so far.

Tillman, acquired in the February 2008 deal with Jones that sent lefty Erik Bedard to Seattle, is 1-3 ERA with a 4.66 ERA; Hernandez sits at 4-6 and a 4.54 ERA; Berken, who has pitched the second most innings on the club is 4-11, 6.07; and, before being injured, Bergesen was the team's top pitcher at 7-5 with a 3.43 ERA in 19 starts.

You look at the numbers and think it's another of baseball's many "hope springs eternal" stories. Maybe so. But Baltimore has some history on its side in developing top-flight big league pitchers. These names ring a bell? Palmer, McGregor, Musina, McNally.

When he came up to the big leagues in 1965 as a 20-year-old rookie, Hall of Famer Jim Palmer finished the year 5-4 with a 3.72 ERA. The very next year -- the season the Orioles stunned the Los Angeles Dodgers with Koufax and Drysdale in a four-game World Series sweep -- Palmer raised his win total to 15. Lefty Scotty McGregor won three games for the Orioles during the 1976 and 1977 seasons, then pushed that to 15 games at age 24 in 1978. Similar with Musina, who went 4-5 in his opening Oriole campaign at age 22 in 1991, then skyrocketed to 18-5 with a 2.54 ERA the next season.

More history: Going back to 1970, the Orioles put up three 20-game winners (Dave McNally, 24-9, Mike Cuellar, 24-8, and Palmer, 20-10) and then four (adding Pat Dobson) in 1971.

Surely, this is a day and age in baseball where fewer starting pitchers win 20 games because of the expanded roles of relief specialists. But the Orioles could be setting themselves up nicely for the future -- a still proud franchise with three world titles since 1966 (Cubs, Indians have none). A Murray-like bat in the cleanup spot will help, as will a veteran starter to lead the young pitchers on the field.

Spring training 2010 won't come soon enough.

Photo: Orioles rookie Brian Matusz
Courtesy: http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com