Hypocrite.

Imagine if the Yankees had signed Matt Holliday. Lupica would have chastised the Yankees for trying to buy the World Series, trying to buy an All Star at every position, blah blah blah.

I find it odd that everybody is telling the WS champs how they should spend their money:

"They are a better team with him than they are without him and they don't have to lay off members of the grounds crew to get him."

I agree.

Damon should be the fifth or sixth outfielder on this team.

Swisher, Granderson, Holliday, Bay, Manny, Damon. Though Manny would probably DH.

Oh, and Halladay should be the #1 starter.


"You know how long this would take to work out? One day this week. That's if the Yankees really ever wanted him back in the first place."

The. Yankees. Did. Not. Want. Damon. Back. In. The. First. Place.


"But it is better business for the Yankees, because they really can make their team better and their fans happy (does anybody NOT want Damon back?) at the same time."

I know some people who don't want Damon back, but that's just me.

Damon is suddenly being presented as some kind of fan favorite. Kind of reminds me of last year's sudden ascendance of Mussina and Abreu.


"You know Yankee fans know the market, they know about all those Carl Crawfords out there next winter. But they are infinitely more interested in the season their team is about to play, and winning two in a row, and having their team resume its play as the baddest on the planet."

Not even close.

It's sort of like when Cashman passed on Johan Santana because he had CC Sabathia in his sights.


"They're not being asked to break the bank here. It's not like the gap between the two sides is as wide as CC Sabathia."

Ha ha.

Tiger Woods has sex with lots of women and CC Sabathia is fat.



"But are we really supposed to believe that Hal Steinbrenner found $180 million under the bed for Mark Teixeira last winter and now can't find whatever it will take to bring back a popular, winning ballplayer and stick him back in the No. 2 slot behind Jeter?"

No, sir. We are not really supposed to believe that.

You figured out all on your own that the Yankees didn't want Damon back.

Granderson will bat second and play better defense than Damon. But it's not really a baseball discussion, anyway.

Lupica seems angry about the fact that the Yankees are disingenuous. Lupica finds it necessary to call out the Yankees on their bogus PR stance.

It's like being angry that Billy Mays lied to you -- the mighty putty doesn't really work.

Johnny Damon's Biggest Fan.

All I remember for four years were complaints about Damon's age, defense, fragility, and haircut.

Now, Lupica is Damon's biggest fan.

Also, Lupica evidently doesn't have the ability to look ahead to 2011 when Cashman needs to sign Jeter, Rivera, and Carl Crawford:

"The headline is that the Yankees have a budget. We are supposed to believe that this budget is the reason that goes now. Sure it is."

Nobody is supposed to believe it. It's public relations.

The headline says the Yankees are "demonizing" Damon. But the Yankees are being nice to Damon, blaming some imaginary budget constraints.

You weren't fired, you were laid off.


"Now you can take the Yankees at their word, buy this notion that they can't spend $200 million on baseball players anymore. But if you do, you sort of have to wonder if the team really is rolling in dough, the way we're constantly told."

Nobody believes money is the reason they passed on Damon.


"Really? Johnny Damon turns out to be the one guy the Yankees can't afford? It would be like finding the one bar girl Tiger Woods didn't want to take home with him."

Mike Lupica is short.


"But now Yankee fans are told their team went for Nick Johnson over Damon because Johnson is cheaper labor."

Johnson replaced Matsui. Granderson replaced Damon. The Yankees wanted better defense in the outfield without losing offense.


"The Yankees are always pretty sensitive when anybody suggests that they bought themselves their first world championship in nine years. And maybe they can win another one this season with an outfield of Granderson, Swisher, Gardner and Winn."

They pretend to be sensitive. Again, public relations.

Brian Cashman is reading this article while lighting his cigar with a $100 bill.


"For now, though, they desperately want Damon's departure to be somebody else's fault. Damon's. Boras'. Anybody but theirs."

I don't think Yankee fans really care nearly as much about Damon as Lupica seems to think.

Damon was here for four years -- I think it was four years -- played quite well most of the time. No arm, shaky in the field, getting older, 2009 offensive outburst aided a lot by Yankee Stadium's short porch.

It's not like the Mets trading Seaver or the Yankees passing on Jeter. It's more like last year when the Yankees passed on Abreu -- remember that guy?


"You know what the bottom line is on this sudden bottom line the Yankees have? If they wanted Damon to play two more years here, he'd be playing two more years here. They just don't want to say that. And for some loopy reason, they want to act as if they're the victims here."

If the Yankees wanted Jerry Hairston Jr. to play here, he'd be playing here.

What's your point?



"Except: Except none of those moves matters if Cashman didn't get to spend nearly a half-billion dollars on CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira last winter!"

Except: Except!

The Battle for New York.

"But Rex Ryan shouldn't worry about winning a fight with the Giants he can't win, that's he's never going to win. He should worry instead about beating the Patriots. And the Steelers. And the Colts."

Right.

I'll remember that the next time the Mets play the Yankees in the Ultimate Battle for the hearts and minds of grizzled New Yorkers.

Lupica should remember that the Mets shouldn't worry about winning a fight with the Yankees. They should worry about the Phillies. And the Marlins. And the Braves. And the Nationals. And the Cardinals. And the Cubs. And the Reds. And the Brewers. And the Pirates. And the Astros. And the Diamondbacks. And the Padres. And the Dodgers. And the Giants. And the Rockies.

They should worry about the National League.

If you want to be immortal, it's better to not be elected to the Hall of Fame.

When is the last time Rod Carew was discussed on a sports talk show?:

"So, Mark McGwire used steroids."

You're not shocked. Nobody is shocked.

You know what would be funny, though? If you sarcastically compared McGwire to his contemporaries.


"In other breaking news, Pete Rose bet on Baseball, Gilbert Arenas is familiar with the Second Amendment, and Tiger Woods is out of the running for Husband of the Decade."

HA HA HA!

Well played, maestro.

Gilbert Arenas and Tiger Woods ... in the same sentence! It's LOL overload.


"You probably want to know if this will change McGwire’s prospects for the Hall of Fame."

Err ... I guess I probably do. It's about 500th on my current want-to-know list:

1) Is Sarah Palin serious?

2) Should the United States continually sacrifice personal liberties in the name of security?

3) With the technological decentralization of information and entertainment, why does the resultant news and entertainment paradoxically seem more monolithic than ever before?

...

499) What is that stain on my rug?

500) Will Mark McGwire's confession change his prospects for the Hall of Fame?

501) Who was the lead singer for Kajagoogoo?


"You probably want to know if, in the great American tradition, this confession will start him on the path to salvation – in this case, Cooperstown, N.Y."

Okay, you convinced me I want to know this.


"You probably want to know if I view him differently, now that he has come clean. "

Actually, yeah, I want to know if you view McGwire differently. It was the first thing I thought of. Because, when Jon Paul Moroni talks, people listen.


"Let me explain. I’m not currently a Hall voter. But if and when I join the electorate, I will apply a different standard to hitters who played during the Steroid Era. That’s the period that roughly coincides with McGwire’s playing career (1986 through 2001)."

Okie dokie.


"So, I have a simple policy: If you played during that time, you will need to have done more than hit 400, 500 or even 600 Home runs in order to get my vote. One-dimensional players need not apply. It was just too easy for very strong men to get on the juice and hit baseballs over the fence."

a) Why was the "Home" in "Home runs" suddenly capitalized?

b) 600 Home runs is a convenient allusion to Sammy Sosa, I get it. But what about 700? 1,000?

What if Troy Tulowitzki ... prior to the discovery of an effective human growth hormone test ... hits ten-thousand Home runs?

Then, would you vote Tulowitzki into the Hall of Fame? No? Even if hit ten-thousand Home runs?


Hey, if Abba can make the rock-and-roll Hall of Fame, well, then I think a player with ten-thousand Home runs can make the baseball Hall of Fame.

"Adrian Beltre might be a great signing."

Lupica hyped up Cameron when Cameron signed with the Mets. Cameron was awful then and Cameron is awful now.

Love the kind of player who has 1,798 career strikeouts to go along with his 265 career HRs. Keep swinging for the fences. It seems to be working out for you.


All of these signings of has-beens remind me of last year's John Smoltz signing. Remember how John Smoltz was going to win a bunch of playoff games for Boston?:

"The Red Sox have quietly changed a third of their starting lineup with Adrian Beltre - what might be a great signing - and Marco Scutaro and Mike Cameron, who now goes to center field."

And Tony Womack is going to be a fan favorite in New York.

And Alex Rodriguez is going to play first base.

And Wright/Reyes are better than ARod/Jeter. It's a modern-day Mays vs. Mantle debate that has swept the entire country as Wright managed to hit 12 HRs in a whole season.

And Mariano Rivera gave up that HR to Jason Bay last April (or May) and that means Mariano Rivera is finally finished.


"They are talking more and more about pitching and defense at Fenway, but guess what?

David Ortiz still better hit if they're going to make a run at the Yankees this season."

Beltre and Ortiz both need steroids to perform effectively, alright?

Guess what? That's what.

Andre Dawson played for a very long time and hit 49 HRs one year.

Jeff Pearlman is right:

"To be blunt, sportswriters have no business deciding which men do and do not belong in Cooperstown. It's a farce. A joke. Having spent many of my days covering baseball from press boxes across the nation, I will now proportionately break down for you what, exactly, we scribes do during a nine-inning game:

20 percent: Watch baseball

20 percent: Write skeletal game stories, with blanks to be filled in later

15 percent: E-mail

15 percent: Facebook/MySpace/Twitter

10 percent: Attack press dining room ice cream dispenser

8 percent: Debate the Jerry Mumphrey-Omar Moreno deal

5 percent: Return to press dining room ice cream dispenser

3 percent: Return again to press dining room ice cream dispenser

2 percent: Complain to neighboring writer that press dining room ice cream dispenser lacks chocolate syrup

1 percent: Shoot evil looks toward the overexuberant radio dolt screaming, 'I'M FRANKIE ZACCHEO! IN THE FIFTH INNING HERE FROM PNC PARK, IT'S THE BREWERS 3, THE PIRATES NOTHING!!!!!' into a telephone

1 percent: Google 'public relations' and 'job openings'

In other words, while most baseball writers attend 100 or so games per year, they are no more qualified to determine a ballplayer's Hall worthiness than, well, you are."

Jon Heyman is wrong:

"I don't put quite the same emphasis as some on career statistics, especially in cases where I've had the chance to follow a player's entire career as it was unfolding, as was the case with this year's entire ballot. (That happens when you get old.)

I consider impact more than stats. I like dominance over durability. I prefer players who were great at some point to the ones who were merely very good for a very long time. And I do recall it's called the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Numbers."

What the heck did I just read? Impact more than stats? You mean the non-statistical impact a baseball player has?

Seriously, get over yourself.

When you feel the need to spend 12,000 words explaining why you did something, it's probably because you're trying to convince yourself.

Peter Gammons is in the writer's wing of the baseball Hall of Fame.

"The perception that Bay didn't want to play for the Mets took on a life of
its own, all the more so after Peter Gammons said that Bay would rather
play in Beirut than at Citi Field. Just remember that nobody is
better-connected to the Red Sox front office than Gammons, and the Sox sure
did seem to have a lot to say, off the record, about a player with whom
they cut off negotiations."

If Peter Gammons is in the writer's wing of the baseball Hall of Fame, then Billy Jo Robidoux should be in the player's wing of the baseball Hall of Fame.

Tim Brown is not the only one ...

The first I've seen to address the subject indirectly for Roberto Alomar:

"I will not vote for a player I believe turned to performance-enhancing drugs, even if for a brief time."

I believe Roberto Alomar took performance-enhancing drugs.

I believe the same thing about Craig Biggio, Pedro Martinez, dozens of others whose numbers put them in the HOF.


I just think the whole argument is very odd. Clemens, Bonds, and McGwire never admitted to anything, we just believe what we see with our own eyes ... or what has been reported.

What's going to happen when the New York Times reveals Alomar's presence on a list ... after he has been inducted into the HOF?