The Over Managing of Joe Girardi

Don’t get me wrong, I love Joe Girardi as a manager and I think he does a great job of getting players ready for the games and does a great job with the many day-to-day responsibilities that an MLB manager faces. He brought the Yankees their 27^th world championship in only his second year managing the team and in my book that cements his place in the history of the storied Yankees franchise. However, when it comes to managing in game situations, especially late in games, frankly he sucks. I almost feel like I could do a better job managing the team in late game situations. It seems like he’s thinking too much and trying to make everything perfect and have everything play out like a script. But the fact is that baseball games are ever changing and the great in game managers have great instincts, they just know what to do and what calls to make. Joe Girardi lacks this ability.

There are plenty of good examples of this and one perfect example was earlier this year in the first inning of the year against the rays. There were runners on second and third with two outs and CC Sabbathia, the Yankees ace, was on the hill. Sean Rodriguez was at the plate and the dangerous Carlos Pena was on deck. Joe Girardi thought it was a good idea to intentionally walk Rodriguez in this situation. I understand what Girardi was thinking, but I couldn't agree less with this decision at this point in the game. He was thinking that it was a good idea to walk the righty Rodriguez against the lefty Sabbathia to get to the lefty-lefty match-up against Pena where the pitcher statistically has the advantage. Sean Rodriguez also has better numbers against Sabbathia than Pena does, but in a sample size that small you can pretty much throw statistics out the window. Anyway, he walk Rodriguez and Pena hit a grand slam to put the Rays up 4-0. The first inning of the year is not the time to worry about match-ups. You let your ace pitch and let him do his job. Maybe he gets out of the inning against Rodriguez, maybe he doesn't, but you gotta give CC the chance their to pitch his way out of it. I am confident that Joe Girardi is the only manager in the MLB that would have made that call, because he over manages games. He needs to take a step back and let his players do their jobs.

What happened afterwards was pretty funny. Girardi got a whole lot of criticism for the move (a lot more than he would have 20-30 years ago). The Yankees blogosphere blew up in reaction to the managing style. It ranged from "he needs to relax" to "we need to fire him immediately" but none of the reactions were good. This is what the internet and the increased sharing inhibits. There is no relief for a manager or a player if they screw up, especially in New York. There is heightened scrutiny for anything a player or manager does and the internet and blogs has a lot to do with that.

Bleacher Creatures

The title of this blog, The View From Section 203, is the section that the Bleacher Creatures sit in at the New Yankee Stadium. The bleacher creatures are a group of die-hard Yankees fans that are there for all 82 Yankees home games every year and sit in the same seats every time. They are the most die-hard Yankees fans out there and they truly live and die by the successes and failures of the Yankees. The name was given to these fans in 2004 when a columnist for the New York Daily News, Filip "Flip" Bondy, did a piece on these crazy fans. These bleacher creatures were said to be found by Ali Ramirez who was said the be the "original bleacher creature" in the 80s and 90s when the yankees weren't all that good. He died on May 8, 1996 and on May 14 the Yankees front office dedicated a plaque to Ali Ramirez on the seat where he was for every Yankees game. It read "This Seat is Taken, in memory of Ali Ramirez 'the original bleacher creature'." The cool thing about this is that the day they put this plaque on his seat Dwight Gooden pitched a no-hitter, one of only 11 in franchise history

The bleacher creatures are know for their many cheers and chants, most notably the roll call to begin each and every home game. It stats of with Bald Vinny, one of the bleacher creatures, yelling out to who ever the center fielder (currently Curtis Granderson) "Yooooo, Curtis!!"After that the entire section chants the starters names (except for the pitcher and catcher), which is followed by the players acknowledging the chants. Some of the players get very into this and come up with their own unique way to acknowledge the fans. My favorite one is Nick Swisher. After they chant his name he turns around and salutes the bleacher creatures. After this is over they break into a chant of "Box Seats Suck" except when the red sox are in town and then it becomes "Boston Sucks". Here's a Video of the roll call


With and influx technology the bleacher creatures have been able to continue the cheering for the yanks and the heckling of the opponents even when there isn't baseball being played. Many of the bleacher creatures have twitter accounts and Facebook pages where they continue to show their love for the yankees. fans tweet pictures of players and bring what happens on the field to social media, like this picture of Curtis Granderson acknowledging the fans (http://yfrog.com/obeidxuj). The Bleacher creatures are the heart and soul of Yankee Stadium and they represent all of the die-hard fans everywhere who are watching onTV, listening on the radio or following on their computers. They embody what it means to be a true fan of any team. They are passionate about what they do and they love their Yankees.

Opening Day

Opening Day is all about excitement and anticipation. Everyone involved feels this excitement and anticipation whether it's the players, the management, the fans, or even the bat boy. It's about a fresh start where any imaginable success is still possible. Opening day is the time when every team, and every teams fans think their team will be the one to win the world series. Opening day is baseball's New Year. It represents a fresh start for every team where they can throw all their past failures out the window. Here's a little video from ESPN that highlights that excitement of opening day

 

 

The Yankees had their opening day last Friday against the Rays in Tampa. But today is their home opener. The home opener is the first time that the fans get to see this years team. We get to see all the fresh faces of new acquisitions form the offseason. Although, this year there weren't many fresh faces except for Raul Ibanez (who is absolutely ancient at this point and a shell of the player he used to be),  the overrated acquisition of Michael Pineda who came into camp as a fat piece of shit and found himself on the DL to start the year, (please tell me again why we gave up our best prospect for this guy?) and the under the radar but in my opinion the best acquisition of the offseason Hiroki Kuroda. We also get to see how the returning players changed in the offseason such as the A-rod knee surgery (thanks Kobe) and the slimmed down Mark Teixeira.

Some changes in technology recently have made it even easier to follow your favorite teams. The internet and portable devices like IPhones and IPad make it possible to follow your team anywhere you are. MLB has an application on apple devices that let you follow gamecasts of the games and even watch live games (if you pay a little money). Even if you are not in front of a TV you can still follow your teams and get live updates in seconds. I think these creates more and more fans and can only be good for the sport. More people will have a rooting interest and follow baseball since games are now easier to follow and can be done on the go.

With all these changes sometimes it's easier to forget that the best part about opening day is the thing that never changes. And while it may sound a little corny, yes, the fans are the best part of Opening Day. After a long offseason of waiting and anticipation Yankees fans show up in full force to root for their team. Opening Day is one of the loudest days of the year because all of the the waiting and anticipation of the die hard fans shows itself with 50,000 screaming and yelling fans. That is my favorite part of Opening, the atmosphere. It doesn't get any better than this.

 Let's beat the Halos!