Jon celebrates the Yankees and Phillies losses, and I agree with Wally Matthews on something

Squawker Jon must be exhausted from doing the Snoopy Dance this weekend. First, he got to see the Yankees get humiliated by the Rangers. Then, the Giants beat the Phillies, thanks in no small part to Bruce Bochy's great work. He was a manager who was unafraid to pull out all the stops, taking out his starter in the second, and using his best bullpen arms, including Tim Lincecum, in the game.

To top it all off, Ryan Howard pulled a Carlos Beltran, leaving his bat on his shoulder with the bases loaded, striking out to end the game, and the series. (Yeah, yeah, I know the same thing happened with A-Rod Friday, but he had nobody on base, and a 6-1 deficit to overcome -- what was he going to do, hit a six run homer)?

At any rate, two of the Mets biggest rivals ended their season this year, while the Braves' season ended in the NLDS. Jon as I were arguing on the phone last night over what team was the Mets' biggest rival these days -- the Yankees or the Phillies? He said Yankees, I said Phillies, telling him that right now, the rivalry between the Yankees and Mets is like the rivalry between the hammer and the nail. For some strange reason, Jon hung up on me over that. Touchy!

As for myself, a strange thing happened yesterday. I was reading Wally Matthews' analysis of Joe Girardi's bullpen mistakes in the Yankees' loss, and instead of muttering and cursing to myself, as I often do when reading his work, I found myself agreeing with nearly much everything he wrote. I hate it when that happens!

It gets better -- or worse, depending on how you look at it. I wrote words to that effect to him, and he wrote me a funny, self-deprecating response. Matthews came across as a likeable guy. I hate it when that happens, too!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Non-Shocker! Mike Lupica tells A-Rod to "show up," makes him Designated Yankee Scapegoat

After Alex Rodriguez's great October last year, most of the media have been mostly muted on his so-far-disappointing ALCS this year. That's a story in itself, as evidenced by what Mike Vaccaro and even notorious A-Rod basher Wally Matthews wrote on the subject today. Vaccaro said that "it isn't a matter of "if A-Rod will hit in the postseason, "it is a matter of when." But the Daily News' Mike Lupica is still writing like it's 2006, with his back-page column criticizing the third baseman.

I've never written a blog entry criticizing Lupica before, mostly because I try to avoid reading his mailed-in, cliche-ridden columns as much as possible. It's like Lupey constructed each piece in MadLibs or something -- blah blah blah, Yankee payroll, blah blah blah, the Wilpons are great, blah blah blah, let's make a lame joke at A-Rod's expense, blah blah blah, I have the greatest family in the world. Bor-ing. Shooting from the Lip? More like Snoozing from the Lip!

But I had to say something about Lupica's big screed on A-Rod, where he says that it's time for Rodriguez to show up in the postseason. Because even for Lupey, this column is ridiculously unfair. Some snippets:

The Yankees showed up on Wednesday in Game 5, they did, hundred percent. Now they have to do it again in Texas, or they become another big, bad Yankee team of this decade that got hit somewhere before the World Series and never recovered.

You know who is supposed to show up Friday night for Game 6? Alex Rodriguez. So far he has three hits in the series and only one of them - two-RBI single that Michael Young should have made a play on, eighth inning of Game 1 - has mattered. There have been times when he seemed perfectly happy to take a walk, leave it to Cano when Cano was still hitting behind him.

A few points:

* Lupica writes that "there have been times when he seemed perfectly happy to take a walk, leave it to Cano when Cano was still hitting behind him." Aside from Lupica not seeming to understand that getting on base by any means necessary is considered a good thing these days, how does he know that A-Rod "seemed perfectly happy to take a walk"? Is The King a mindreader now?

Incidentally, do you know how many times A-Rod has been walked in the eight games of the postseason?  Four -- three in the ALCS, and one in the ALDS. Do you know how many times he was walked with Marcus Thames, not Cano, batting behind him? Two. So we're talking about ONE TIME in the ALCS where A-Rod walked in front of Cano! So much for Lupica's point. At any rate, there were times in this series where I would have preferred that A-Rod take a walk, and not strike out or hit a weak dribbler or hit into a double play!

* Sure, A-Rod has had a bad postseason, but so has every other Yankee hitter not named Robinson Cano or Curtis Granderson. Not to bash Mark Teixeira, but he didn't merit a back page column when he had a .000 BA in the ALCS before getting hurt, the second year in a row he had a terrible postseason. What, is it because Tex is a "True Yankee," and A-Rod isn't? Puh-lease.

* At any rate, Lupica's article is very curiously timed, especially since Rodriguez had a good Game 5, and looked the best at the plate that he's been for the whole ALCS. A-Rod was on base three times Wednesday, twice via walks, and once via a sharply hit double to left field. (He didn't get an RBI -- Nick Swisher surely would have scored on it -- because it was a ground-rule double that bounced into the left-field seats.)

A-Rod scored the first run thanks to the first walk (so much for walks being bad!) He also hit the ball very hard a second time, but Michael Young made a great play to cost him a hit. And he looked good in the field that game, something he has not been during the series. A more fair-minded person would have seen this as a good game for Rodriguez. But that's not Lupica.  According to him, nothing Rodriguez did in this game "has mattered."  Good grief.

* Lupica does briefly mention that other players haven't stepped it up, but doesn't give them the full-throttle criticism he does A-Rod:

He's not the only one in the order who hasn't shown enough stick. Derek Jeter has hits, but has struck out six times Mark Teixeira was 0-for-14 before he got hurt. Nick Swisher is .105. Maybe the home run that Swisher hit in Game 5 is the start of something for him.

Why is it that Swisher getting only his second hit of the entire ALCS is "the start of something for him," but A-Rod having a very good Game 5 doesn't matter?

* Lupica isn't even willing to give Rodriguez credit for his huge hit with the bases loaded in Game 1,saying it was a "two-RBI single that Michael Young should have made a play on." Maybe in Lupica's world, Michael Young should have fielded that hit in Game 1, but most people think that would have been a tough play for Young to have made. I watched the video again, and broadcaster Ron Darling said that the batted ball was going "a hundred miles an hour;" thus, Young was unable to make the play. And Young did not get an error on it. So much for Lupey's great analysis.
* Finally, it takes more than one star to win a series. We saw A-Rod "show up," as Lupica would say, in September and win AL Player of the Month for his great hitting, going .295/.375./600 for the rest of  the season, with nine homers and 28 RBI . What was the Yanks' record during that time? 9-17.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Wally Matthews (who else?) attacks A-Rod for not earning his $32 million salary

I was wondering when ESPN's Wallace Matthews would get his "groove" back, so to speak. Other than him derisively name-calling Joe Girardi as 'Joey Looseleafs" on Twitter, Matthews hadn't written anything truly ridiculous in a while now, even writing a few decent columns here and there. But now he's back in postseason form, babbling about how A-Rod is unclutch. You can just sense the glee in Wally's tone, glad he could get back into the bashing A-Rod saddle!

Matthews writes:

So far, Rodriguez' postseason has been nothing much to cheer about, three singles in 11 at-bats against the Twins, a stat that is lost in the euphoria, or relief, over the three-game ALDS sweep, and not especially poor among Yankees regulars.

But against a team like the Texas Rangers, who have many more weapons on both sides of the ball than the Twins did, an A-Rod evaporation would not only be unacceptable, but perhaps insurmountable for the Yankees.

Let's put Rodriguez's ALDS numbers in perspective here. A-Rod hit 3 singles in 14 at-bats (.271 BA, .308 OBP). Jeter hit 4 singles in 14 at bats (.286 BA, .286 OBP) drove in one run, and scored one run. While neither of them had superstar series, neither of those sets of numbers were abysmal, either. Of course, only one of their numbers merits a column!

And Jeter is the player who hit just .270 this year, showing very little at the plate for the last 3 1/2 months. Yet how many stories did we read this year about how he turned it on again in October, even though his ALDS numbers are virtually the same as not just A-Rod, but as what he did in the regular season? Funny how two players with nearly the same stats get such different treatment from the media.

As for the whole "if one star stinks, the whole team is doomed" idea, Mark Teixeira went 3-for-22 in last year's World Series, and the Yankees still managed to win. Imagine that!

Funny thing is that Matthews then writes about Rodriguez (emphasis added): "Certainly the Yankees could have beaten the Phillies without him last year -- he tailed off to .250 (5-for-20 with 1 HR) in the World Series -- but there's no way they would gotten there without him." Which one is it, dude?

Matthews then opines that:

Now, it's time for A-Rod to start earning that $32 million salary again. One great postseason does not a career make or a reputation change.

Tell that to Bill Mazeroski. Or Bucky Dent. Or Aaron Boone. And also tell that whole rep-changing thing to Bill Buckner and Grady Little. 

Matthews continues on this dubious track:

There's never been a question of what Alex Rodriguez is capable of doing on a baseball field, only questions about whether he actually would do them at the time they are needed most.

Last year, he laid a lot of those questions to rest.

But in one of the most beautiful, and stubborn, aspects of baseball, every season those questions have a habit of re-emerging, demanding to be answered all over again.

Oh, please. This has nothing to do with being an aspect of baseball, but an aspect of the media. Writing about A-Rod, especially in a negative fashion, sells papers, and garners clicks on websites. And you just know if Rodriguez had hit .400 with three homers in the ALDS, Matthews and his ilk would write about how A-Rod could only hit in the playoffs against Minnesota!

What do you think? Tell us about it.

Not a good day in Yankeeland

Sorry I haven't written much as of late, but I haven't gotten to see more than bits and pieces of the last few Yankee games. No truth to the rumor that I was trying to snag that pork chop on a stick!

Of course, it figures that today's debacle is one I did get to see.

First up, seeing A-Rod hit that line drive that hit David Huff in the head was brutal to watch. Yikes! Poor guy. Fortunately, Huff is already out of the hospital, and appears to be A-OK.

I was pretty peeved to see Joba Chamberlain have yet another bad outing, and for the Yankees to lose this game. Geez, you have a six-run lead, you should win the game.

Squawker Jon was so pleased about what happened, he watched the seventh inning on the replay just to see it all!

And Wally Matthews, of all people, made an interesting observation, noting how Joe Girardi referred to Chamberlain:

Afterward, Girardi could barely conceal his disgust.

"We had the game where we wanted," the manager said, his face tight and the veins in his neck throbbing. "We had our eighth-inning guy in, we needed four outs from him ... and he left pitches in the middle of the plate. He just didn't make the pitches when he had to."

Not once did he refer to his pitcher by name. Chamberlain, the darling of the final days of the old Yankee Stadium, had become "he" and "the eighth-inning guy." No longer to be trusted, neither was he fit to be named.

"Players aren't going to be bulletproof," Girardi conceded. "But he's had some bad outings. He's our eighth-inning guy and he's got to get it done for us."

Yes, that's how strange a day it was - Wally Matthews made some good points!