Walk Offs, Cream Pies, and Sushi Fans

A guy could get used to this.

The Yankees walked off victorious for the third time in as many games Sunday, this time thanks to Johnny Damon’s 10th inning solo shot to right field.  What is with this team?  Three weeks ago the Yankees looked more lifeless than Joan River’s face.  Now, they look like a fun loving keg league team that actually enjoys showing up to the ballpark.

More than that, the Yankees look like they care.  For most of last season and this April, the Yankees looked like they didn’t give a damn if they won or lost.  They showed up, went through their at bats, sometimes won, sometimes lost, and rarely rallied.  If they were trailing going into the 7th, 8th, or 9th, they lost, and worse, they expected to lose.  When a team expects to lose, it manifests in the dugout body language, and the fans pick up on it.  The crowds stopped caring and started filing out when the home team faced a deficit late.  I started changing the channel to watch BIll O’Reilly.  If I was going to get mad at the TV, I might as well take out my anger on Papa Bear.

I can’t sit here and unequivocally say the players didn’t care in 2008.  Maybe they were trying their hardest and the team just wasn’t good enough.  But it’s very easy to look at  a team of multimillionaires and accuse them of not caring when they aren’t winning.  We expect someone making 100 times more than us to produce.  We expect this of our ballplayers, our wall street executives, and our cable news talking heads.  With great power comes great responsibility .  Thanks Uncle Ben.

But winning cures what ails ya.  Maybe the Yankees are still spoiled, unmotivated billionaires.  String together five victories and three walk offs and the team turns into happy go lucky little leaguers who jump up and down on home plate and hit each other in the face with shaving cream.  I’ll take it.

Speaking of which, can we stop referring to this as a cream pie?  I don’t need to read that A.J. Burnett gave Johnny Damon a cream pie after the game.  It’s like MSNBC referring to the government spending protests as tea bagging, except they got the joke.  Please ESPN, YES, et al, no more cream pies.  At the very least include the word “shaving” before the phrase “cream pie”.

I love the tradition though.  Please A.J., keep smearing walk off heroes with shaving cream, by all means.  Especially if you pitch the way you did today.  A.J. faltered a bit in the 7th, but he went 6 2/3 while allowing only 2 runs.  Burnett kept the bullpen in the bullpen as long as he could, and when Girardi had no choice but to bring in Albaladejo, he did his job, as did the rest of the pen.  3 2/3 scoreless ball, how bout that?

Dustin Pedroia Douche of the Week Award

The Dustin Pedroia Douche of the Week Award is given every Sunday to the person, place, or thing that best exemplifies overall douchiness this week.  If you’ve seen Pedroia’s MLB The Show commercial, or caught his E:60 piece, this guy manages to come off as a world class douche no matter the situation.  Dustin, this one’s for you:

The inaugural Dustin Pedroia Douche of the Week Award goes to the fan wearing the maroon sweater sitting in the Legends Suites.  During YES’s coverage of the game, they often cut to the right field camera angle used to zoom in on the right handed batters as they step out of the box in between pitches.  In the fourth inning, Jeter hustled down the line and legged out an infield single, and then stole second.  Damon bunted him over to third, but Teixeira couldn’t get him home, so it was up to A-Rod with 2 out.  The score is 0-0, and Slowey is dealin’ for the Twins.  This is a crucial at bat, and this maroon clad “fan” is using chopsticks to daintily sample his $14 sushi.  

First of all, wearing red to a Yankees game is just plain weird.  You weren’t coming from the office, because it was a Sunday day game, which means you made the conscious decision to take that abomination out of the closet and take it to the game.  Secondly, I realize you paid $9,000 for that seat, but do you really need to order sushi at a baseball game?  Are hot dogs, burgers, chicken fingers, chili cheese fries, and all the $8 beer you can drink not enough?  Thirdly, while you were fumbling around with your raw fish sticks, the best player on the planet was up at a critical point in the game.  You can’t stop eating your sushi for one minute and root root root for the home team?  You don’t even have to get out of your cushy front row seat.  All I want is a couple claps and maybe a shout or two.  $1.5 billion worth of amenities is going to ruin the home field advantage at new Yankees Stadium.  But that’s another column.  Douche.