The best way to sustain a job you risk losing is to emphasize that failures are not your fault. Sometimes that’s true. You might have been in the World Series if the Houston Astros hadn’t sounded the quick-ball alarm in the ALCS. That’s misleading because there are dozens of years you’ve overlooked to take into account and that one of the “what if” will only get you a ballad from the smallest violin in the world.
Yankees GM Brian Cashman tell Athletic that the Astros were the reason for the drought in the Yankees World Series.
“The only thing that has stopped [us] is something so illegal and horrible. So I was outraged when I started hearing that we hadn’t made it to the World Series since ’09. Because I thought, ‘Well, I think we’ve actually done it the right way.’ Drag it down, bring it up again. Well drafted, good deal, well developed, well signed. The only thing that got us off track was a deceitful circumstance that brought us down. “
Damn, if you’ve done your job well, why can’t you repeat that success in the post-season years since 2017? And why did my colleague Jesse Spector write a piece titled, The Decline and Fall of the New York Yankeeswhere he thinks the team hasn’t been able to build a farm system since Core Four? Technically, that’s GM’s job.
I suppose Cashman can blame management for the team’s drought because they stopped splashing money like Antoine Walker did after a rough night at the casino with Michael Jordan, but I’m not sure it’s going to work out. How nice it turns out for him- an annual review with Hal Steinbrenner (even if he’ll win a few fans in the process).
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“Um, sir, excuse me, sir. I was wondering if I could have some more money so we could offer Freddie Freem—“
“If you say Freddie Freeeman one more time, I’m going to send you to Antarctica to scout polar bear carcasses for warmth! Your allowance is ample!”
The expectations in New York are only low if you’re conditioned to fail like Mets fans, and trying to live up to a title-per-decade-or-better standard on a relatively low budget (compared to the Dodgers and Steve Cohen) is an impossible task. Cashman isn’t going to get any sympathy for the team’s recent failings, and he better come up with something other than it’s “real to me” soon because that excuse only applies to one year.
Grudges are for fans who need ammo when their friends give them shit about Josh Donaldson being the Yanks’ big acquisition. They’re not for GMs who have the ability to improve a roster. If Cashman wants to rant and rave and vent his frustration, he can go ahead and break all the No. 2 pencils he wants — behind closed doors. Show some grace, move on publicly, and maybe actually sign Carlos Correa.
I agree what Houston did was disgraceful and miles beyond the leeway allowed under the unwritten rules of baseball. That said, New York got pinched for a sign-stealing scam, too. The only difference is it was less successful and less refined. You could say the Yankees’ tactics were within the realm of the ever-shifting unwritten rules, or you could say they’re inept at cheating, too.
Cashman did try to downplay bringing up old shit by focusing on this year, to Andy McCullough, “But hey! We come back to it. Every year, we still come back to it. We’ve qualified for the post-season, and we’re going to take this team as far as we can, and hopefully we can make it through.”
No one should be fooled by that hedge vanity as a disclaimer. The season starts in a week and Cashman is in five years ago. It looks like he still has a sore butt and has let his fans down. A title wouldn’t be guaranteed had Houston not cheated, and when New York had won it all, subsequent seasons of the game-free World Series would still go on.
Sure, the Yankees will be stripped of their titles for five years, but they’ll also have five more years if they don’t have any more titles.
