Andy Pettitte Bargain

I'd like to think Andy Pettitte resigned at $5.5million because the country is in an economic recession, but truly he did it because he wants to end his baseball career as a Yankee. It makes you wonder why the Yankees let him go. Maybe they have finally learned how to staff their pitchers................Nah!

I love Andy, of my all time Yankees, those who lived in my adulthood, Andy, Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter, take 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Why Andy? It's not a knock on Bernie or Derek, Andy in first, because he always gives it his all even when he is awful.

Andy came up as a young pitcher from the minors; it's a hard job; look at the current crop of Yankee AAA pitching talent and what has befallen them. Whenever Andy would lose, the Post and News would start rumors he was trade bait. but he was never traded; and is part of the reason the Yankees have some of those shiny World Series trophies from the Torre era.

Yes Derek is a superstar, but fielding isn't' as demanding as pitching. Pitchers have to think: they carry the responsibility for wins and losses. Derek just as to worry about his ERA, RBIs and Errors.

Yes the Yankees let him go; because of his arm; stupid move when you consider all the money the Yankees had singed to other pitchers who never made it out to the mound in the Bronx. Would I have gambled, yes but I'm biased.

With Andy resigned, his function should be to get all the youth talent ready for a new era. The children of the future need an older mentor, Moose is off in PA on his farm, so that leaves Andy.

But come the new season, who will be the better man pitch for pitch, C.C. Sabathia or Andy Pettitte. CC singed for the money first, being a Yankee second, Andy singed to be a Yankee.

Money can't buy you happiness, but being a Yankee can.

To quote another famous Yankee: "I want to thank the good Lord for making me a Yankee....Joe DiMaggio"

Major League Sports Can Take Lessons

While watching the Inaugural and listening to the comments about our peaceful transition of power; I was struck by how "uncivilized" power transitions are in sports. The outgoing manager, coach, etc is unceremoniously fired; there may or may not be bad comments from the departed manager or the team that fired him. And even when a manager leaves of their own accord to retire or go elsewhere, there is this air of hostility.

Granted American politics is hostile. However it is also democratic. On inauguration Day, the losing and winning parties smile at each other an d behave like civilized humans beings. They may have tossed barbs at each other before or after the election, but for the sake of the greater good they behave like ladies and gentlemen.

While the wining party may have to clean up after the departing party, they just do it. They try and not blame it on their predecessors as it does not accomplish the end goal. It wastes time and they just dig in and get the job done with their new rules. There are few if any temper tantrums. Unfortunately we can't say the same for sports.

Picture this scenario: Woody Johnson, Eric Mangini and Rex Ryan appear on ESPN and calmly announce Eric is leaving for the good of the team and Rex is taking over. There is no public firing and sulking, second guessing and speculating by the sports press on the new head coach; it just happens. But I guess that would result in a lot of dead TV and radio air. It would take away topics from the overpaid sports talking heads. Gee what would they do...well maybe they would actually analyze the teams for a change, instead of playing armchair coach.

Since the next round of end of season mass coach executions will be in the NBA, I challenge the NBA team owners. Leave the sports talkies wagging their tongues, call a press conference and fire the outgoing guy and announce his replacement at one time. Start a trend so we can get rid of this incessant run off on the mouth of weeks of speculation of who the successor will be. Think of all the phones calls from reporters you won't get.

The Great Ticket Relocation

As I previously blogged, the Yankees will invoice me when they get me a set of seats for 41 games. My last communication was the one back in the Fall, that was basically you'll know when we invoice you.

As such I have been watching the ticket relocation page. Last Sunday, it said the full season relocation was done and they were in the 41 game relocation. Well that must be an error, because when I checked today, the Yankees stated they were back on the full season relocation and the 41 game relocation had not begun.

Well I am not particularly anxious to part with my money to the Yankees; I am eager to see where I will be sitting. When I originally dove into season ticket ownership, The Yankees called me the 1st week in January; offered me my seats; then promptly invoiced me.

Despite the age of computerization, the Yankees appear to be doing seat assignments with a pencil and eraser. Its very frustrating; its getting closer to Opening Day, and I hate offering my guest a ticket at the last minute.

On that note, this year, I will be soliciting for an Opening Day guest through a letter wrintng contest; those of your who want an early jump; you will have to state why you deserve to be my Opening Day 2009 guest. Details will follow in another blog shortly.

Nothing About Baseball or Sports

The country has been besieged by “Sully Mania”; Sully being the nickname of the Captian Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, III of US Airways flight 1549 that ditched in the middle of Hudson River on Thursday afternoon. What is so special about this man that all, young and old are fixated on him; outside of the hero part; he is a symbol of hope in bleak times; he may even overshadow the Inauguration of the new President.

On Tuesday Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States. In a period of hard economic times, record unemployment and business failures; he promises change; he promises to put America back to work. However for those of us waiting to see what the new administration will bring; we remain hopeful, but guarded; Washington has a way of working; and generally it is not to the benefit of the majority of American voters, but to the benefit of the few. Americas are skeptical that we have become a country of “me first, you later”. Captain Sullenberger represents the hope that “me first” can be banished from our society.

If the new President restores the US economy he will go down in the record books as a hero. He has a lot to overcome, because he is up against a crowd of rich and powerful me first people, Wall Street. To fix the economy, bad trading, lending, and business consolidation practices need to be stopped. Wall Street has been artificially inflating stock prices for years based on earning reports. Stock has been used like cash in business merger; one of the primary reason our economy has plunged. Stock like credit cards has no value unless the business succeeds.

So on Thursday afternoon, when Captain Sullenberger choose a water landing on the coldest day in NYC, he showed that there are still many Americans who aren’t “me first”. He represents the ability of people to make the better choice; the choice that will benefit the majority, not the minority. There could have been losers Thursday US Airways, lost an airplane and got a lot of negative crash publicity. However the plane will be covered by insurance and all the crash publicity has been countered by the ability of a flight crew to get everyone back to their families alive.

On Tuesday the new administration will ask all to make some sacrifices; while they fix the economy. Wall Street and big corporate executives need to take the biggest sacrifices. Much of our economic waste starts at the top of companies, with extravagant salaries, perks and bonuses. I say this; if one man could make a life or death decision based on what is best for all; then a handful of powerful and rich people can make a decision to sacrifice their extravagance to benefit the a majority.

“Sully Mania” is the promise that it might happened; that Americans will sacrifice to benefit the majority.

And for those of you people who still treat out soldiers like lepers. Remember this also; sacrifice is the heart of military personnel. They give up a lot for our freedom with the hope to protect those who cannot. Captain Sullenberger was one of those military men, before he became a commercial pilot. Maybe that made his decision easier Thursday; he was use to sacrificing.

We all want a nice comfortable life. But how comfortable must it be? It does not need to be extravagant. We need to make sure we have food, clothing and housing and a salary to pay for it. Being a common person is not a bad thing; however being an uncommon person someone who thinks of their self first and how to be as rich as possible is a very bad thing.

America is the land of the common person; granted our Founding Fathers were men with money and estates; however those men gave up their easy lives to establish this country. Had the Revolutionary War ended differently; all would have died on King George III’s gallows.

Its time for executives and unions to make sacrifices, to help this economy; follow Captain Sullenberger’s example and think of others, and not yourselves.

New Yankee Stadium

As the Yankees gear up the staff by spending too much, construction on the stadium continues. The seats must all be in, finally, because seat assignments have begun. After 4 weeks of filling full season ticket holder requests, the Yankees have moved onto the 41 seat ticket plan holder. People like me. I hope it's not another 4 weeks.

In the meantime, some Yankee management might not get to Opening Day. Subpoenas have been issued to investigate the funding and overspending of public money. It's nerve a good idea to bilk public money when the economy is going to hell and state budgets are being cut beyond the bone. Scandal and rumor about how the Yankees got the funding have been circulating for a year, and now Yankee executives will be questioned.

As to Opening Day... I am looking forward to it, now that the Giants went down to the Eagles last Sunday. Time to pay attention to baseball. As to football, lets go Steelers!!! I can't stand the Eagles.