The More Things Change...

(Note: A.F.O.M.G. shares some last impressions of Yankee Stadium below.)

I am thinking of that beautiful moment in Varsity Blues – and really, aren’t they all – where the Ali Larter character (probably in some state of undress – I think she was changing in the car) drawls to Dawson, “things change, Mox. You’re the startin’ quarterback now.”

Things have certainly changed for me lately. I live in the Central Time Zone now, just outside Kansas City, where the hometown Royals are not – I repeat, NOT – one of the only two teams in the American League to have a worse record than the Yankees. Starting a new job in a couple weeks. I’ll be a father in a couple months. Good times.

But, as I sat in my brother-in-law’s house yesterday watching the game (fingers crossed for the cable coming here today), I realized at least one thing remains the same. Even when the Yanks have the 12th-best record in the AL, they are still America’s Team®. Derek Jeter will always be America’s Ballplayer ®.

And really, nothing annoys me more.

Now, I don’t think I personally have anything against Jeter. Seems like a nice enough guy. Got a lot of clutch hits back during the Clinton administration. Heck, I was watching the game with my nephew Derek, who may or may not have been named after him.*

(* Figured I’d try a Pozterisk** here. All we do know is that my nephew was born a few weeks after the ’01 Series, when the whole Mr. November thing got started. And my brother-in-law had the Sports Illustrated in his home. And this little Derek, all six-plus years of him, is already a hit with the ladies.

** So maybe, just maybe, I could feel like I’m 1/1000 as good as Posnanski, who is hands-down, bar-none, the absolute best sportswriter on the planet.)

But seriously, haven’t we gone a little far for some guy who, truth be told, hasn’t won it all since Mike Hampton, Bobby Jones, Kurt Abbott, Mike Bordick, Bubba Trammell, and Operation Shutdown were Mets in 2000? I mean, just this year, Ozzie Guillen called him “the perfect man”. And we have fans arguing with those evil computers over how he could possibly be the not-best fielding shortstop in baseball.

Indeed, as compiled by the invaluable and hysterical Fire Joe Morgan, there are innumerable examples of the media trashing A-Rod’s purported problems in the clutch, but ignoring Captain America’s issues:

Alex Rodriguez ALDS 2007: 4/15, 1 HR, 2 BB, 0 GIDPDerek Jeter ALDS 2007: 3/17, 0 HR, 0 XBH, 0 BB, 3 GIDP

Alex Rodriguez, September 2007: 10 HR, 31 RBI
Derek Jeter, September 2007: 3 HR, 14 RBI

Which slowly brings me to the point of this exercise. Yesterday, as you may recall, Carlos Delgado hit a three-run homer down the left field line to give the Mets a 6-0 lead. I remember this because the third-base umpire Mike Reilly, who had the only clear view of the ball, signaled as much.

Immediately, Captain Intangibles sprinted over to Reilly, gesturing wildly that he believed the ball was foul, even though it hit the foul pole and was therefore a home run. Well, we can’t have the Cap’n getting annoyed, so the umpires convened the quickest overturn conference in the history of baseball and Delgado’s home run was immediately nullified. By an umpire who admitted that he “expletived” it up four times in the post-game presser.

Now, that was annoying in and of itself, but not so much as what happened next. You see, in America’s eyes, this now had to be about the Yankees, not about the umpires who blew the call.

So Jon Miller began concocting this story about how “Reilly was hesitating to make the call” – even after a replay showed otherwise – and that “Jeter immediately ran over there to argue” (how brilliant!).

And Joe Morgan also patted Jeter on the back for his resourcefulness, adding that the Mets had gotten a bunch of breaks (i.e., Alou’s check-swing single) so that the Deej was helping the Yanks get a break of their own. It was Michael Kay-ism at its best. The Mets get lucky, but the Captain’s intangibility helps the Yanks succeed.

We know the rest of the story. The Mets won 11-2 and swept the two-game series, which couldn’t possibly be a three-game series because Hank the Bank saw a way to not have Rasner have to pitch against the Mets.

Joe Girardi is on the back cover of the News because the story has to be about the Yanks. (Though David Wright did get at least a piece of Newsday and the Post). And this site will continue to do the Lord’s work, reminding us that the Yanks are in last place.

Finally, if Yankee fans need a new bandwagon, there are plenty of good seats at Kauffman Stadium for next week’s homestand. (You’ll be rooting for ‘em anyway this week as they have 4 coming up starting tonight at Fenway). I’ll be about 30-35 rows back of the field for a couple of the games if you want to wave.

- Cousin Dan