In the non-existent Battle for New York between Judge and Alonso ... Judge takes an early lead.

It's time the U.S. started celebrating Christmas on December 25.

"There was a time with the Mets, briefly, when we talked about 'Harvey Day' when it was Matt Harvey’s turn to pitch."

Matt Harvey.

You're talking about Matt Harvey again.

"But now we have "Jake Day" with the Mets because of Jacob deGrom, who has been the best starting pitcher in baseball the past two years, with back-to-back National League Cy Young Awards to prove it."

Is that right?

Strange.

I'm a baseball fan who lives in the NY metropolitan area, and I have never heard of this ... who was it again? ... Jacob deGrom?

Huh.

"In Gooden’s two magic years when he was a kid, 1984 and ’85, he was 41-13 with that 2.00 ERA and struck out 544 batters in 494 2/3 innings. He was the NL Rookie of the Year in ’84 and the NL Cy Young Award winner in ’85. Seaver in '72 and ’73 had a record of 40-22 to go with a 2.48 ERA and struck out 500 men in 522 innings. He was fifth in the Cy Young voting in ’72, won it in ’73. And deGrom? In addition to the win-loss record, he has struck out 524 batters in 421 innings."

Harvey, Seaver, Gooden, deGrom.

Great stuff.

You should give Evan and Joe a call in the afternoon.

I mean, look, there's not much here to argue with.

Everyone knows deGrom is great and, because he's a Met ... I guess there are parallels between deGrom and other great Met pitchers.

So what?

DeGrom has been great for a lot longer than two years, but if Lupica has never gotten psyched about "Jake Day" until now, that's because of his own ignorance.

DeGrom was Rookie of the Year way back in 2014, and has been various degrees of great ever since.

On the field, deGrom has never been overshadowed by Harvey, Syndergaard, Wheeler ... Jon Niese, Dice-K Matsusaka, Bartolo Colon.

In Lupica's columns, on the other hand, deGrom has been given short shrift.

Not suddenly.

Still hoping for the best, but this season has always had the Sword of Damocles hanging over its head.

The headline reminded me of a talking head who briefly infiltrated my attention span, screaming that the pandemic is unprecedented and unforeseeable.

The details change, but the pandemic is neither of those things.

Seventh of the depth chart? He's better than that.

At some point, the Yankees just need to trade him and get something valuable in return.

Maybe I'm just mellowing in my old age.

"Now, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the Astros won't be booed, either. This year's rescheduled Opening Days will be played in front of nobody -- nobody cheering and nobody booing, the only possible way to have baseball in a pandemic. We all have a good sense of what the game misses when there is nobody cheering. But what does the game miss when there's nobody booing? Quite a lot."

LOL.

Core Five

Healthy and empowered, huh?

Britt and Chappy

I had forgotten how much I missed baseball's childish nicknames.

For a long time, I just assumed Whitaker was in the HOF.

Giancarlo Stanton is the DL Midas

Lojack

Everyone Loses

It really does seem MLB owners and players don't pay any attention to the fans. Few are excited to see the return of baseball for 60 games.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

"The 30 Major League Baseball owners want to play 60 games this year. The players want to play 70. Here’s a better idea: How about 0?

On Monday afternoon, the players voted against the owners’ most recent proposal, leaving it to commissioner Rob Manfred to mandate a season. He will likely try to set a schedule of 50 or so games. It doesn’t matter. This isn’t safe anymore. It probably never was.

Many of us have been distracted in recent days by calculating teams’ EBITDA when we should have been calculating states’ coronavirus case rates. I wrote last week that the owners are being intransigent. They are. But the news on Friday of COVID-19 outbreaks in Phillies camp, in Clearwater, Fla.; and in Blue Jays camp, in Dunedin, Fla.; and in Giants camp, in Scottsdale, Ariz., have made it clear: The labor issue is not the problem. The virus is."

Crisis Management

Manfred gets a failing grade.

Even though some factors are beyond his control, he is ultimately responsible for this disaster.

He doesn't even seem like an interested party. He doesn't even seem excited for the return of baseball.

The Commissioner of MLB is doing a great job.

He doesn't even seem to care if MLB has a 2020 season.

A great article by Mike Lupica about Hank Aaron.

“I see kids out there,” he said. “I see black and white. But I see those kids. You know where the social change everybody’s talking about is going to come from? It’s going to come from them. Black or white. They’re the ones who are going to make the change that we need in our country.”

Finally the great Hank Aaron said this:

“I’m not able to move around much anymore. But if I could, I’d be out there marching. I’d be right there at the front of the line.”

Yes, I hope they play baseball this season. This is encouraging.

The commissioner of baseball announces the return of his sport with the enthusiasm one might expect when reviewing the findings of an internal audit.

Living in the past.

Matt Harvey's best season was probably 2013. A long time ago in MLB years.

He did not get a lot of wins in 2013 (9), but he was fourth in the Cy Young Award voting and made his only All Star appearance.

For a few years, Harvey struck out a lot of batters and had an excellent SO/W ratio.

Those days are long gone.

He has not been a good major league pitcher since 2015.

I have never heard anyone refer to Gary Sanchez as "El Gary."

Gary Sanchez's 162-game average is .246, 46 home runs, and 114 RBIs ... and this writer is questioning whether the Yankees should sign him.

If that production was cut in half, even with his defensive troubles and seemingly lazy attitude, Sanchez would be one of the top catchers in baseball.

I think MLB will have a season.

"If that doesn't happen -- if they can't agree on a deal to play in 2020 -- baseball will become a loathed presence on North America's sporting landscape, scorned by many fans. The labor fight will merely be deferred, with escalation in some form all but assured because of the unresolved issues.

Next spring, with only months remaining in the current collective bargaining agreement, the players are more apt to use the threat of a strike. Owners, already damaged by the money losses this year, could be more inclined to dig in and wait out the players, aiming for a lasting reconstruction of baseball's financial model. The labor fight could go on and on, and by the time it all plays out, it's impossible to know how many fans, feeling alienated or disgusted, will leave baseball behind once and for all.

The only sure thing is that the owners and players will lose, unless they settle this standoff that risks mutually assured destruction.

So they have to make a deal. Right?"

We'll see.