YA GOTTA BELIEVE - 2005 Edition

[TheGMANN]

[crx girl]

you see, the mets were in arizona playing a late night game for the east coasters. they didnt make the early editions. all the late editions featured the mets clobbering arizona.

and you see, i go to work in the evening. i buy my papers at 4:30 pm, i get the late city final. presumptually the last edition of the day.

[Keyser Soze]

[Keyser Soze]

you see, the mets were in arizona playing a late night game for the east coasters. they didnt make the early editions. all the late editions featured the mets clobbering arizona.

and you see, i go to work in the evening. i buy my papers at 4:30 pm, i get the late city final. presumptually the last edition of the day.

if you say so. i'm just saying i read the late city final and it had the cover i posted in this thread. i dont know if they have 2 different covers for one edition. i know the covers vary from the early to late editions but we are both talking about the late edition.

[TheGMANN]

The Post sucks

just had to say that.

[Keyser Soze]

the post has a bigger and more extensive sports section than the daily news.

[TheGMANN]

I like the Daily News better

[Keyser Soze]

Yankees Are Running in Place Behind Mets

By MURRAY CHASS
Published: October 12, 2005
New York Times

IN the end, the Mets had a better season than the Yankees. Yes, the Yankees won yet another division championship and the Mets only tied for third place in their division, but the Mets still had a better season.

That assessment will not make George Steinbrenner happy, but why should he be unhappy about what I think when he has been made miserably unhappy by the people he pays exorbitantly to win? They're the ones who are responsible for yet another postseason failure. I only watched.

Steinbrenner, the Yankees' principal owner, was characterized yesterday as being "very, very disappointed," as well he should be, considering he paid those guys $203 million (and that doesn't include Manager Joe Torre's $6 million salary) and got one round of the playoffs for his money.

The Yankees are slipping into the Atlanta Braves' world. The Braves have won 14 consecutive division championships, the best streak ever, but only one World Series. The Yankees have won eight division titles in a row, the second-best streak ever, with four World Series championships but none in the last five years.

Both teams were knocked out of the postseason in the first round this year, but the comparison of the teams ends there. The Yankees were supposed to finish in first place and did, but they clinched their expected spot on the next-to-last day of the season.

The next day, the Red Sox finished the season with the same 95-67 record the Yankees had, but the Yankees were awarded first place because they had won the season series between the teams.

The Braves, on the other hand, won in a tougher division (all five National League East teams finished .500 or better) and won with a vast assortment of rookies in key roles. The Yankees had one rookie, Robinson Cano. Not that the Yankees have the minor league talent to stock their team with rookies, but would they have edged the Red Sox with an array of rookies?

The Braves played with the 12th-highest payroll in the major leagues, $75 million. Quick, class. How many times does 75 go into 203?

Manager Bobby Cox did not have a lineup of cleanup hitters, as other teams have described the Yankees. When the Braves sustained injuries, they didn't fill the holes by acquiring players and their contracts from other teams. They called up another rookie, whom Cox inserted into the lineup and watched produce.

The best part of the Yankees' season was the work of the pitchers who replaced their injured starters. No one expected Aaron Small, Shawn Chacon and Chin-Mien Wang to pitch as well as they did. They, not Randy Johnson or Mike Mussina, saved the Yankees' season.

Steinbrenner disappointed? He has a right to be. He paid Johnson and Mussina a combined $34 million, and they pitched a combined five and two-thirds innings in Games 3 and 5 of the division series. The Angels won both games. Steinbrenner paid Alex Rodriguez $20.7 million. He batted .133 (2 for 15) and didn't drive in a run.

Before the final game of the division series, Torre was asked to compare this team with the teams that won the World Series.

"We had a different type of lineup," he said. "We had more of the type of lineup probably that the Angels have, where guys aren't known for their power. We have more of a power-laden ball club now than we had in those years.

"When you get to postseason play, it's not how far you hit it; it's how often you hit it."

The Yankees hit .253 in the series, the Angels .275.

When the Angels dumped the Yankees in the division series in 2002, they amassed 56 hits in four games; their hitters were relentless.

After Game 5 of this series, Mussina, who gave up a 2-0 lead and five runs in two and two-thirds innings, talked about how the Angels got to him by doing "small stuff."

"Small stuff wins games a lot of times in the postseason," he said.

If the Yankees aren't capable of playing that type of game, maybe they should find some players who can generate playoff-winning baseball. There must be room in that $203 million payroll for such players. But Steinbrenner needs his fix of All-Stars. He went awry in the early 1980's, stocking the team with multiple stars at the same positions, and maybe he has done it again.

Or perhaps Torre has to challenge himself and figure out how to manufacture runs with his existing lineup rather than sitting back and waiting for his power hitters to unload.

Steinbrenner willing, Brian Cashman or his replacement as general manager could make his off-season priority the acquisition of an Angels-type hitter or two. Cashman's contract expires at the end of the month. At the moment, his return seems to be more up to him than to Steinbrenner.

As much speculation as there will be about Torre, who is owed $13.2 million for two more years, Steinbrenner hasn't made any noise internally about firing him. But then, the Yankees' playoff body is barely cold.

The Yankees won half a dozen fewer regular-season games than they did last year, fewer than 100 for the first time in four years, and they didn't advance as far in the postseason. The Mets won a dozen more games than they did last year and finished one place higher. They have more work to do to become a playoff team next year; a lot of work, in fact.

But the Mets can feel better about their season, and they can feel good knowing they are headed in the right direction. The Yankees are running in place, and it's not the place the team or Steinbrenner wants to be.

[TheGMANN]

Im a Met fan and that still meant nothing to me.

[GonzoStyle]

so he's comparing the yankee drought to the atlanta braves drought, but how do you compare 4 wins to 1? Most teams don't have 4 in their franchise history. It's no doubt its dissapointing and the issue is that exactly, throwing money at has beens and guys who had a good season once, isnt the answer. But apparently the mets didnt get their bang from Beltran either, so this article is a bunch of hogwash from a writer who is competeing with so many others he needs to come up with some left field opinion.

[Goatweed]

he's just trying to say that the Mets aren't #2 in NY - even though they are.

[GonzoStyle]

that's just silly.

[The Jays]

aren 't the braves the opposite of the yankees? spending money developing minor league talent and building pitching by improving both new and veteran talent. and where has that gotten them?