I dunno Raf. With all due respect, it sounds like you have an opinion on this, not fact. And, just as you have a right to that opinion, should they not, as well?
—————-
I never said they weren’t entitled to an opinion, I just said their opinion was bs .

But if you or anyone else think that I am wrong, I’m not above being proven wrong. Tell me why I’m wrong.

It’s like what I was saying a while ago regarding Ted Williams. He had served a hitch in the Marines in WW2, I think he is able to handle the pressure of hitting a baseball. I don’t think “pressure” was the reason that he didn’t hit in the World Series.

There are players that have good series, there are players that have bad series. Reggie Jackson stuck out in the clutch in game 1 of the 78 Series, then torched Bob Wells for a HR in game 6 of the series. Was the pressure any different then? Did Reggie forget that he was in the Series?

If someone shows me analysis that says NY signing Pavano was a mistake because his numbers trend a certain way, that holds more weight with me than saying that signing him was a mistake because of intangible qualities that he may or may not have.

I dunno Raf. With all due respect, it sounds like you have an opinion on this, not fact. And, just as you have a right to that opinion, should they not, as well?

Raf – is it fair to call “BS!” on something, just because you think it’s not true…when you can’t prove that it’s not true?
———-
Tell me what you want me to prove, and I’ll prove it.

There have been teams that won that have had players that didn’t get along. You think Reggie, Billy, & Nettles had group hugs? Talks about chemistry are bs, and anyone with half a mind will tell you that.

Emotionally fragile? Pavano? He sucked before he came to NY, he sucked while he was in NY. Weaver? Lets see, after NY, he sucked as a Dodger, as an Angel, as an Cardinal and as a Mariner. He sucked in the Brewers and Indians system, I don’t hear anyone reasoning that “OMG PR3SSUR3″ is the reason that he stunk in his other stops. Contreras had one good year and one bad year in NY. Did he forget he was a Yankee in 2003? Of course not. Kenny Rogers had a season in line with his career, and another one that wasn’t.

Sometimes the answer is very simple, there is no need to make up things like “pressure,” “ghosts,” anything else to make a point.

So yeah, if they can’t back up their claims, it’s BS.

Raf – is it fair to call “BS!” on something, just because you think it’s not true…when you can’t prove that it’s not true?

Could one then not call “BS!” to your claims of “BS!”? This make sense?

“they weren’t famous for a roster of flashy superstars or power hitters”

David Justice, Cecil Fielder, Darryl Strawberry, Reuben Sierra, among others were power hitters.

I don’t know what is defined as “flashy superstar” but I remember Fielder, Strawberry, Justice, Knoblauch, among others were stars, all-stars, superstars.

“rather, they were a resolute band of brothers, who put collective play above individual stats”

Unless they can prove this, it’s a bs claim.

“Torre and Verducci note that as the core of the old guard from the championship years dwindled — Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius, Chuck Knoblauch and Paul O’Neill were all history by 2002 — the front office tended to turn to imported All-Stars”

Imported all stars? Like Boggs, Martinez, O’Neill, Cone, Raines, Strawberry, Gooden, Fielder, etc, etc, etc.

“The farm system, which had produced the likes of Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams and Rivera, was increasingly neglected”

The farm system was producing at the time. The Yanks made several trades using prospects from the farm. If the author is comparing those prospects to Jeter, Posada and Williams, then I’d say expectations are a bit unrealistic to expect any organization to produce 2 HOF caliber players (3 if you want to include Williams)

““collection of expensive pitchers” — including Kevin Brown, Jeff Weaver, José Contreras, Javier Vázquez, Jaret Wright and Carl Pavano — who “were ill suited for New York, either because they were too emotionally fragile or broken down.” ”

Prove it. The “emotionally fragile” title is bs. Weaver wasn’t expensive, Contreras wasn’t expensive, neither was Vazquez, Wright or Pavano. And the “OMG YANKEE PRESSURE” is nonsense. If these guys couldn’t pitch, is because they didn’t have game.

“Meanwhile, the team made only lukewarm efforts in 2003 to keep the clutch left-handed pitcher Andy Pettitte, who left for his hometown Houston Astros. ”

Didn’t have anything to do with fears that he’d blow out his elbow, right? Of course not.

“It was a devastating loss that only accelerated the Yankees’ dysfunction, the authors observe, resulting in more organizational backbiting and a team made up of “a slapdash collection of parts that didn’t fit or work.””

More blah blah blah…

Such as?

http://tinyurl.com/d275aj
———-
Looks like quite a few factual errors in that piece… Now I understand that Michiko Kakutani maybe doesn’t write about baseball, but there are several glaring errors in that piece.

Yeah, I guess we should ignore the reviews of the book that are already coming out

http://tinyurl.com/d275aj

and just wait until sanair has a chance to read the book…and then it’s OK for us to comment on it.

sanair – do we really have to wait to read the book to comment on the matter of the statement made today that the book called “The Yankee Years” by Joe Torre is really “not a Joe Torre first-person book”?
—————-
Not only that, it really isn’t that out of line to express an opinion one way or the other. Maybe it’s a tell-all expose, maybe there’s nothing there worth reading. Doesn’t mean we can’t discuss the talking points of the book.

Sanair has obviously imbibed the Kool-Aid laced Bigelow tea.