"Every single time the Yankees make a big free-agent play like Johnny Damon, the rest of the American League is immediately supposed to call off the season."
No, they're not.
"It happened when they got Mike Mussina."
No, it didn't.
"It happened when they got Jason Giambi."
No, it didn't.
Even though the Yankees had three straight 100+ win seasons, won the division four years in a row, and made the World Series once. Not too shabby.
"Go back to February of 2004, when Cashman made the deal for Alex Rodriguez.
People were saying the same things about the Yankees that they are saying now, how the addition of A-Rod would make this batting order the most unstoppable fighting machine in the history of sports."
Is that so? Is that what "people" were saying? Were these "people" anonymous sources, an AL "scout" or a "trusted executive" who magically created quotes for Lupica to put in his column?
See, what I remember is "people" saying is that the Yankees lost Pettitte and the Red Sox added Schilling and Foulke.
"But just remember:
The Yankees basically taking A-Rod away from the Red Sox wasn't just supposed to hurt the Red Sox.
It was supposed to destroy them forever.
Eight months later they won the World Series."
Only Lupica, with his misplaced boxing metaphors about "getting off the mat," could have concocted the absurd propostion the Red Sox with their $100+ million payroll and sold-out Fenway Park were Destroyed Forever by Aaron Boone's homerun and ARod's addition to the Yankees.
Besides, if Johnny Damon is supposed to make the Yankees an unbeatable team, then why are the White Sox the favorites to win the World Series in '06?
Lupica, you can ask just about "anybody." Johnny Damon does not even make the Yankees the best player in the AL, much less the most powerful entity in all human history.
It is true that I've read a few fringe opinions that are way pro-Damon, including a Joel Sherman article which asks if the Yankees will score 1,000 runs in 2006. (Quick Felz analysis: "No.")
But these are the extreme opinions and Lupica knows better. Lupica may not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but he's intelligent enough to operate a keyboard and he's intelligent enough to read the English language.
Lupica knows the reaction to the Damon signing has been lukewarm. So why is Lupica pretending that General Consensus is presenting Damon as a Yankees savior? Because Lupica is just setting himself up to be the Sole Voice of Reason when the Yankees fail to win 120 games.
You'll see. July 15th and the Yankees are playing .540 ball and Lupica will write an article that claims "everybody said" the Yankees were going to win 120 games this year! That's what "everybody said."
No comments:
Post a Comment