Comments on: Feeling Happy For……..

By: Old Ranger

Old Ranger — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:51:34 +0000

Your last lines hit it on the head…
Now days most fans are very spoiled (as you guys stated), they never saw Joe D, Whitey, Yogi, The Mick, Vic Raschi, Allie Reynolds, Phil Rizzuto and (one of my favorite pitchers of all time) Ed Lopat play in person. Reading and seeing clips of these guys is great but, having watched them play in person gives one a little leg up on those that have only second hand knowledge.
This team of 2009 is a good comparison to some of those earlier teams; good hitting and pitching plus good defense and BP.

By: oldfan

oldfan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:10:12 +0000

Yes, Those early and mid 1980’s Yankee teams had powerful lineups, but were always short on pitching. I always thought that we were one ace pitcher away. I always hoped that George would acquire Jack Morris, as I thought that that would do it for, at least, 2 or 3 pennants.

Never happened, After the Dodgers came back on us in 1981, and Reggie was traded away–it was a long decade. I liked watching Donny M., Henderson, Winfield, Guidry, Tommy John, Phil Niekro, etc. play, though.

By: oldfan

oldfan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:56:25 +0000

Peter,

I agree 100%. Thanks.

Tom

By: Peter Lacock

Peter Lacock — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:27:56 +0000

Good post oldfan. I remember those years when staying ahead of Cleveland for last place was the only realistic hope. CBS ran the team into the ground until George came along. The teams with Henderson, Winfield, Baylor and Mattingly never had enough pitching. The decades+ before and after ‘76-’81 were much different than this decade. Back then, the Yanks were not in the playoffs. With a few exceptions they were not even contenders. The youngsters that occupy 99% of the internet were spoiled by the late 90’s teams and are influenced by fantasy games that they always win. In real life, winning it all is the only true satisfaction but losing in the playoffs is nothing to be ashamed of and certainly nothing to complain about. Every year (but one) in the playoffs is easy to take. Even last year the Yanks stayed in it until the end but it was like the end of the world to everyone but guys like you and me. We know stuff that the young whippersnappers have yet to learn, even though they think they know it all.

By: oldfan

oldfan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:28:37 +0000

The last 9 yrs were not as hard for me to endure as some other periods.
The last 9 yrs at least were powerhouse run-scorers, and made the playoffs every yr but one.

The late 1960’s and early 1970’s were hard in retrospect, but at the time, I was young, and i actually thought the Yanks were close to putting together a winning team, every yr. Didn’t happen. We actually finished last (10th!) one yr and 9th the next. I remember Jake Gibbs at catcher, Bobby Cox at third (got a lot of kudos, but only hit around .230 for the yr), Jerry Kinney at third,Horace Clark, Bill Robinson (the next Mantle) hit below .200, etc. I watched the whole crop of early 60’s Yankee stars decline and being given away for journeymen, (Maris to St Louis, where he won a WS), Clete Boyer to Atlanta (where his power hit its peak), Elston Howard go to Boston, Tom Tresh and Jim Bouton diminish to nothing,Al downing never quite make it.etc. Stottlemeyer was the only star for a while, toiling for horrid teams (that I still rooted for). 1977 and 1978 were a long time coming.

But the worst period was the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. The constant upheaval and tension made the best free agent players in the league say that they would never be a Yankee. When the Yankees had a somewhat good yr,(in the ’80’s) the best teams of the league (like the Tigers, would come in and totally demolish us in a series). We always played decent against Boston, though. I eventually came to beieve that the Yanks would never win a WS again.

Then we stared getting good again. I felt we would have went to the series in 1994, if not for the strike. Then 1996 came, and the Braves looked like the team of the decade, but the Yanks took it from them.

So, the last 9 yrs, except for 2 yrs, were not that hard for me to take at all.

By: The other Chris H

The other Chris H — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:36:22 +0000

wow…

By: daneptizl

daneptizl — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:21:08 +0000

This is a joke, right?

By: The other Chris H

The other Chris H — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:18:17 +0000

I heard The Babe use to be the team’s designated driver… to the bar…

By: The other Chris H

The other Chris H — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:17:35 +0000

Yeah Moose should have been here but I doubt he would have done as well this year as he did last year, he survived on a lot of magic last year and I don’t think even he believed he could do it as well this year. He won 20 games and was the only good part of last year hopefully he was watching last night and feels somewhat apart of molding some of the players on this team.

By: JW12

JW12 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:11:15 +0000

I’m sad Moose wasn’t a part of this!!