Swisher Feels At Home In Yankeeland
Posted by Steve Lombardi on March 12th, 2010 · Comments (13)
Bryan Hoch writes that “‘Welcomed’ Swisher a perfect fit.”
Maybe I’m just the last Yankees fan out there who hasn’t warmed up to Swishalicious yet? I could be true…
Gagged me last year how after fifteen minutes in NY he acted like he was a spokesman for the team — and a lot of people just ate it up!
As a player he was somewhat better than I expected but as a personality he just seemed way too focused on pushing his way into the limelight.
We always seem to have one guy like this, and I always find myself baffled about why anybody falls for the old ‘class clown’ routine…
@ cr1:
It has nothing to do with his personality, IMO. Did you see the beginning of last year? We could have easily lost half of the wins if not for Swisher. That’s why, after “15 minutes”, he was accepted. Without him, it would have been a disaster.
I didn’t criticize his play, though I would hardly give him ‘half the wins’ of the early season, which, since you ask, I did watch. If I had only watched the post-game interviews I could easily have believed he deserved at least 50% of the credit, though. He certainly seemed to think so.
cr1 wrote:
They won 12 games in April, here’s 6 games where his contributions made the top 5 plays in the game, via wWPA:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL200904090.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KCA/KCA200904100.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KCA/KCA200904110.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TBA/TBA200904140.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA200904190.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET200904290.shtml
Unfortunately, at the moment, I don’t have the time to elaborate further. I will, however as Ahnuld says, be back.
@ cr1:
There’s a comment waiting moderation before this one, check back once Steve marks it as OK.
Swisher is strange for me. He’s charitable. He walks. He hits homeruns. He doesn’t hide from the media. He’s not rude to the fans. Those things, alone or as a group, on paper, are nice things to see in a ballplayer. Still, when I look at Swisher, he just gets on my nerves. It’s hard to explain. It’s not logical. It’s just a gut thing. To me, he’s more like someone that should play for the Mets than the Yankees…and that’s not being a snob. I loved some of the more wacky Yankees. Shoot, he just annoys me the way he walks around.
That said, he did have some clutch HRs last season. And, I appreciate those. In fact, I wish that I liked the guy – so that I could remove myself from this illogical dislike of him – but, my gut just won’t let me do it.
Steve Lombardi wrote:
I understand, that’s how I feel about Damon.
Corey Italiano wrote:
Although, Damon did break me in 2004.
Like I said before, my objection is not to his play, which exceeded (my) expectations. That said, making the highlight reel doesn’t mean you get credit for a win.
Again, making like team spokesman l5 minutes into his tenure made me gag. I can’t explain it more adequately than that, so I’ll leave it there and assume that those who get it already got it, and those who didn’t, won’t.
cr1 wrote:
Highlight reels have nothing to do with wWpa.
cr1 wrote:
So the writers weren’t supposed to ask a new player coming in questions? Or was he supposed to not answer?
his own teammates and coaches said that he almost carried them thru the month of april. i like him cause when he sucks he owns up and says he sucks. he doesnt make excuses he takes responsibilty for what he does. every team needs a guy like this to keep everyone kind of relaxed. this still is a game and sometimes thru a long season players can forget that and start to press and take the game to seriously. hes a big factor in why the yanks won this year, not only on the field performace but the little things he brought to the team. and u also need a guy that will talk to the media (especially in NY) cause not everyone wants to or can talk to the media the way he was able to. if i remember correctly when david cone came over he right away became a spokesman as well as with mussina.
Corey Italiano wrote:
There is no doubt that Swish carried the team through April with his bat. If I’m a reporter, I’m going to want to talk to the guy with the hot bat. Especially the new guy who is picking up the slack when Tex is struggling and Arod is absent because it makes for a good story.