Ahead of his time.

Imagine this guy with a juiced ball and acceptance of high strikeout rates?

He'd be ... he'd be ... Greg Bird.

"It's worth remembering ..."

Mike Lupica wants to talk about ARod some more:

"You can start here with sign stealing in baseball, and this week’s historical fallout because of it: The ones who got sanctioned got what they deserved. They were no better than all the drug cheats in the sport who thought they’d never get caught until they did. Those were the players who knew what they were doing was wrong and against the rules and kept doing it, going for the needle or however they got their happy juice. Know why? Because cheating worked for them."

I mean, sure.

One notable difference, of course, is that zero players were punished this time around.

I personally think the punishments were surprisingly harsh, but, whatever. I took it as a pre-emptive strike by the Commissioner who will be unable to push back against a tide of technological advancements.

"All of them can come back from this, by the way. You know why? Because Alex Rodriguez came back from twice being outed as a drug cheat; for lying about it after getting caught in Biogenesis; for being more than willing to take down anybody including the Yankees team doctor to save himself, and acting like then-Commissioner Bud Selig was the one engaged in a witch hunt against him, and hoax. And that’s the short list with Rodriguez.

Some people have short memories about the headbangers Rodriguez hired to save him. But not everybody does, starting with baseball executives who went as far as having their homes electronically swept when Rodriguez was in the barrel with Selig and Manfred, his top lieutenant at the time.

You know where Rodriguez is now, five years after serving his one-year Biogeneis suspension: He 's the mayor of baseball, with regular jobs on both ESPN and Fox. If he can come back, so can Luhnow, so can Hinch, so can Cora, so can Carlos Beltran, who never got to manage a game with the Mets because what he did with the Astros finally caught up with him.

The late George Steinbrenner was suspended twice from baseball, by two different commissioners -- still a world record for an owner that might never be broken. He got it for illegal campaign contributions to the Richard Nixon campaign, and got it again for paying a gambler named Howie Spira $50,000 to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield, one of Steinbrenner’s star players. You know what happened after that. Steinbrenner came back: The Yankees won four World Series in five years and nearly made it five in six years, and when Steinbrenner died, he was regarded as the patron saint of the modern New York Yankees."

I'm not disputing any of this ... I mean, I didn't read the whole thing, but I get the gist.

The gist being Mike Lupica really hates the Yankees in general and ARod in particular.


"Yankee fans are always going to believe they got robbed in the 2017 American League Championship Series. Fair enough. But if it was cameras and garbage cans and sign stealing that beat them in that series, somebody please explain to me how the Astros knowing the Yankees’ signs kept the Yankees to three runs in the four games of that series played in Minute Maid Park."

Well, that is probably because the Cheating Astros had good pitchers?

Maybe the Cheating Astros were a better team than the Yankees?

Their title is not being vacated. I personally don't think the sign stealing makes that much of a difference. But the Astros also have lost the benefit of the doubt.


(One minor point that seems to be overlooked quite often is that the Yankees would have had to beat the Dodgers to actually win a Championship, but again, this is all Imaginary Baseball League.)

If you don't need to cheat to win ... well, you can finish the thought, you cheating cheaters.


Sir Lupica is a True and Just Guardian of the Game when the dishonest person is wearing Pinstripes.

When a dishonest person is on a team that beat the Yankees, this his focus  shifts to the Yankees.


"Everybody gets the we-wuz-robbed mentality from the fans, and now from CC Sabathia. I get it, you get it, people in outer space get it. But before anybody around here gets too righteous about all of this, it’s worth remembering that when the Yankees won their last World Series, in 2009, their best hitter was Rodriguez. Who didn’t just have priors with performance-enhancing drugs, whether he ever tested positive or not, he had futures in the pipeline, with all his great and good friends at Biogenesis."

See?

I agree that lots of loudmouths are about to get thrown off of high horses.

But what do the 2017 Astros have to do with the 2009 Yankees?


As for the impact of ARod on the 2019 World Series, Hideki Matsui hit .615 in the 2009 World Series and won the MVP.

ARod hit .250.

But ARod was their "best hitter" ... and that tidbit is "worth remembering."

"Could baseball have hit the Astros harder? Sure. But take a step back and look at where we are right now in baseball, because of the sanctions just handed down: Three teams, Astros and Red Sox and Mets, are looking for managers a month from spring training. Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of the sport. The Astros are also looking for a new general manager, less than three months after leading the World Series three games to two.

Again: Do you think that anybody is going to go to an iPad or laptop to cheat the game ever again? Send up a flare if somebody does, and risks their baseball life in the process."

Second part first: Yes.

I'll send up 1,000 flares right now.

At this moment, the Astros are pondering ways to get away with stealing signs for the 2020 season. All 30 teams, actually. They're trying to figure out the line they're not allowed to cross and how to do everything right up to that line and then they'll occasionally cross it.


First part second: "The Astros are also looking for a new GM after leading the World Series 3 games to 2."

Yeah, but ... oh, never freaking mind.

It's the same reason Milli Vanilli never got another record contract.

it isn't funny, for one thing ...

Also, it brings to mind an aphorism about glass houses.

Let it go.

Zoom in on the crotch.

Mike Lupica also thinks there is no way the Yankees will miss the playoffs in 2020.

"So it really is silly to look at this as a 9-year deal. Think five or six. The Yankees got their guy, you bet. Now we see if he gets them back to the Canyon of Heroes. You don’t measure this deal in wins or Cy Young Awards. You measure it in lower Manhattan."

It's almost as if this wacko journalist is saying the Yankees should be insulted by the notion that they have to win in the regular season.

Mike Lupica doesn't think the Yankees will make the playoffs in 2020.

2020 is here.

As we prepare for our annual Mike Lupica preseason prediction that the Mets will win 100 games and take back the town from the Yankees ... a battle the Yankees don't even know they're in ... let's get an early January warmup:

"Nothing has changed since the Gerrit Cole signing, by the way.

Still getting the idea that the Yankees are supposed to feel insulted if they are asked to actually play the regular season."

Meaning what?

That you don't think the Yankees will make the playoffs?

Or that most baseball fans and observers think the Yankees will make the playoffs?


If you don't think the Yankees will make the playoffs, go ahead and say it. Then you get some sort of credit by those keeping score if you were correct with your bold prediction.

But you're not even talking about that.

You're talking about the reaction from the sports media.

Who you are chastising for making the obvious observation that the Yankees are expected to make the playoffs in 2020.


Last year, without Gerrit Cole, the Yankees won 103 games.

The Yankees play in a depleted AL East.

I therefore agree with the majority of people who think the Yankees are shoo-ins for he playoffs in 2020.

Normal disclaimers about injuries apply, but, you know what? The Yankees are very deep. I have no problem fast-forwarding he discussion to the playoffs.


"Man, Mets fans ought to be hoping that Josh Donaldson signs with anybody except the Nationals or the Twins."

Maybe it's an inside joke.

The Nationals, of course, are in the Mets' division.

The Twins?

Maybe I'm missing something obvious.

Why are we talking about Josh Donaldson?

Why are we talking about the Twins?

Why are we talking about the Mets recoiling in horror if Donaldson signs with the Twins in contrast to every other team?