No Panic?
A look back at some great quotes regarding this topic from September 9, 1978:
Don Zimmer: “I’m always positive. That’s my personality. I’ve said it all along; these guys have found a way to get it done all year long through a lot of adversity, through a lot of injuries, through a lot of different things that we’ve been through. I believe they’re going to do it. That’s who they are and I believe in them.”
Carl Yastrzemski: “I think nobody’s panicking. We’ve done this for a long time. The important thing for us is we have to focus. Number one is we have to worry about winning series and number two is doing the little things. That’s always been our focus around here. If we focus on those things, this team’s going to be fine.”
Mike Torrez: “It’s baseball. We’ve got to go out and keep playing. It’s a tough game but we still have a lead. It’s all up to us and hopefully we can turn it around. … I mean, we’ve had some injuries. We’ve got some guys coming back. Hopefully that could give us a shot in the arm to be able to take off and start playing well.”
Jerry Remy: “It’s not a good feeling. You lose some games, and you just want to win games. You don’t want to put your head down. Just got to turn the page. Just be ready for tomorrow.”
Bob Stanley: “Every loss right now hurts. We need to hopefully win the next two games here. That’s really all we can focus on. Today is over and done with. We’ve still got the rest of the series, we’ve got two more games against them, and we need to pick up a couple of wins.”
Well, actually, these quotes, from top to bottom, are from Joe Girardi, Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, Robinson Cano and David Robertson. But, they sure sound like the crap that the Red Sox would have said back around this time in ’78…
Guess what boys? It’s time to hit the panic button. Start playing with a sense of urgency. Play every game like it’s “Game Seven.” You only have 28 games left and 12 of them are against teams chasing you in the playoff hunt and another 12 are against teams from your division who would love to knock you out of it.
The clock is ticking.
Lock and load, strap it on, and get it done. Or, just curl your tail between your legs and go crying to your mother. But, please, save the bull spit pollyanna propaganda. For cryin’ out loud, it’s September 3rd and you’re down to a one game lead with only 28 games to play. Stop talking and go kick some ass.
Please.
And they were right. Within another week, they had lost another 4.5 games to the Yankees, and on the morning of the 16th, they were 3.5 games out, having lost 17.5 games to the Yanks in less than two months.
And still they didn’t panic. Despite having lost 3 more games in a row to Yankees, themselves. They won the 3rd game of the last series of the season between the two teams (in Yankee Stadium), and proceded to go 12-2 over the last 14 games tying the Yanks on the final day of the regular season.
The Yanks fell behind in the playoff game 2-0 and were within inches of being put away when Pinella made a miraculous catch in the brutal sun field to rob Freddie Lynn of at least a two-run double.
The Yanks then rallied thanks to Bucky’s HR, and added two more runs to take a 5-2 lead. And the Sox rallied and got two back, and should’ve had the tying run, but again, Piniella, after losing the ball in the sun found Remy sinker liner hit and stabbed at it, and Burleson, who should’ve made 3rd on the hit, only got to 2nd, and then only got to 3rd instead of scoring on Rice’s deep fly ball.
So let’s not criticize the ’78 Red Sox too much for no heart and no guts. One little break, any one of a couple of times in that game, and the story goes the other way.
Just beware losing out on the 2012 post-season because of a homer by Cliff Bleeping Pennington during a play in game…
I was really hoping Sabathia would step up and have a shut down game for us today. That’s what aces do when their team needs them the most. I know Sabathia has had a good season statistically but he’s been far from the dominant ace he is being paid to be. Personally, I think he is dealing with a nagging injury that is keeping him from being truly effective.
Also, in yesterday’s game, I thought Girardi should have pulled Hughes before the Reynolds at-bat. At that point he had walked or given up hits to 6 of the previous 9 batters he had faced. And they were hitting him hard. Hughes gives up too many homeruns to trust him at that point. Girardi has to start managing these games with a greater sense of urgency. He can’t afford to keep his starters in when they show signs of unraveling. And he should look to play some small ball. This team isn’t scoring runs so he should look for some ways to produce runs. We have guys that strike out alot. Nothing good happens when you don’t put the ball in play.
LMJ229 wrote:
Take Hughes out, and bring in who? There are no answers in that bullpen. The best hope was to stick with Hughes and hope he rights the ship.
There may be some value in testing the Yanks in this manner. If the team can’t get it done in September what would make anyone think the team would be successful in October.
@ Evan3457:
The Remy line drive to Pinella in the 9th is the one I remember best. Burleson was on 1st. Pinella couldn’t see it in the sun but made believe he did, preventing Burleson from going to 3rd.
The thing that bugged me most yesterday was Cano not running hard out of the box on the drive to 3rd in the 8th. Why is it these guys can’t bother to do that?? If he had, he would’ve been safe at 1st. It’s fundamental baseball. Not much to ask.
Cano has been dogging it on the bases for a while now.
Joseph Maloney wrote:
Excellent point.
Steve L. wrote:
Not really, one has nothing to do with the other. We’ve seen the gutty, gritty Yankees bounced out the first round in 2005-07 and there were plenty of storms weathered during those seasons.
@ Raf:
My point, and I think Joe’s point, is that these games now for the Yankees are nearly must win – since they no longer have a cushion or a lot of schedule in front of them. And, that’s the same as the post-season.
If you can’t handle those conditions now, you’re not going to be able to handle them in October when it’s even more intense.
Steve L. wrote:
My point is that they’ve handled bigger issues during the season and it didn’t mean a thing when the postseason started. They’ve had must win games down the stretch, where they had to win to stay in contention (1995, 2005) and they still got bounced in the first round.
The randomness of a short series means that the things that happen during a regular season doesn’t factor into the postseason.
Raf wrote:
Or even, this year, possibly a one-game playoff just to get into the 1st round.