SO, DOES JOE TORRE TREAT BLACK AND WHITE PLAYERS DIFFERENTLY?

The case for the prosecution should begin with one Kenny Lofton.

Charges against Torre of racism or its near, unconscious relatives were summarily dismissed by the press owing to the unreliably egocentric, paranoid and all around prima-donnaish nature of the plaintiff. And I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment of Gary Sheffield's character, or lack thereof. I mean this is someone who manages to be a confessed steroid cheat while continuing to deny the offense.

But the one man who has backed Sheffield up is Kenny Lofton, and his history with the Yankees and beyond makes him, in my view, a compelling witness. Lofton was brought to the Yankees to take over cf duties from a failing Bernie Williams. But Torre never gave him the opportunity to be a full time player in NY, which is clearly what he was signed to be. Instead torre used him part-time and used every shortcoming in his performance as a part-timer to lessen his playing time even more. Now all these years later, Lofton has since proven and continues to prove--in LA, Texas, and now in Cleveland--that he remains the 300 hitter, basestealing threat, and run-scoring machine the Yankees thought they were signing. Of course, the "couldn't do it in New York" label has been dragged out by Yankees management and their journalistic acolytes to explain this state of affairs. But as Melky has proven, the inability to sustain a decent BA or OBP on 10 at bats a week is no indication whatever of one's ability to do so on a full time basis. As fans and followers of the Yankees, I believe we should utterly reject and denounce the whole NY is a "special trial" discourse, which may have had some explanatory value concerning Doyle Alexander but has increasingly become a means for disguising or disavowing the organization's responsibility for not getting what they should have out of their players. Lofot didn't fail as a Yankee because he was playing in NY; he failed because he wasn't playing in NY. Torre's refusal to use him as the regular he'd always been and was expected to be cost the Yankees a first rate CF, who still is a first rate corner outfielder, and may well have cost them a championship in the process.

But, you may now be asking, what does this have to do with skin color? Or what makes me opine that it might have something to do with race? The short but complete answer is Johnny Damon. Damon, like Lofton, was brought to NY to be the regular CF. But unlike Lofton, he is white. And unlike Lofton he was allowed to play regularly and so was given a chance to succeed. Unlike Lofton, when he started to make outs, he was left in the line-up. Unlike Lofton, he continued to hit poorly as a regular and was still left in the line-up. Unlike Lofton, he has now made it clear that he can't, for the moment anyway, hit major league pitching consistently, and he is still left in the line-up. Unlike Lofton, he quickly came to the point where he could no longer hold down center field, and still he is left in the line-up. Unlike Lofton, none of his miscues or misthrows have caused him to be shown-up by his teammates, the way Mariano Rivera showed up Lofton, something you don't do without the manager's consent or connivance. The showing up is important because it chimes with Sheffield's complaint that black players got called out by Torre and white players did not.

Does any of this prove Torre is overly race-conscious? No. Nor, to be honest, do I much care about such proof one way or the other. I root for the Yankees to win, not to be a model of racial harmony. When everyone's making millions, there may be racial victimization, but its priority, compared to things in the real world, is impossibly low. I do care, however, if Torre's latent racial attitude's constitute yet another weakness in his managerial arsenal, if those attitudes militate against the Yankees' defining mission: to win, to win it all, to win all the time.

Sports are the perfect racial laboratory, because performance between the lines is, or can be made, substantially color-blind. As a result, the phrase racist loser contains a basic redundancy. To be the former is, on a level playing field, to be the latter. The Red Sox proved as much throughout the fifties and into the sixties. And racially speaking, of course, the red Sox are the last thing you want to be.

SAME OL JOE

He'd rather have the worst DH in baseball, provided he's a veteran with a reputation, than a rookie like Duncan who has been successful so far. Maybe he'll be willing to put Giambi, a veteran with a reputation, in as Damon's replacement. He'd better because the guy is just killing us. How can you have an overpriced offense-heavy team and be playing a 240 hitter without power as your DH. Only in the bizzarro world of Torre and the Cahsboy.

CABRERA AND PHILLIPS CANNOT DO IT

all by themselves. Phillips had 2 hits and a walk, Melky a triple and an RBI and nobody else did anything. A perfectly solid performance by Pettite wasted. When a Yankee starter goes 7 full and gives up 3 runs, they need to win. Sometimes you let down, like the finale in K.C., especially when your starter puts you in a demoralizing hole. But when you've just put an easy win in your pocket (the suspended game) you have to keep the momentum going.

Can the Yankees hit good pitching (like Guthrie)? That appears to be the season-determining question. With Rivera, a resurgent Vizcaino, a usually solid Bruney, an adequate Proctor, one could make the case that the Yankees are a decent relief arm away from an acceptable bullpen, and Jorba Chamberlain could be that man. With a solid Pettite, Clemens and Wang going deep into games, and the second coming of Phillip Hughes, even the deplorable Mussina cannot stop the rotation from being good enough to secure a wild card. But while we know the offense can pile up the stats and score in bunches, it has yet to be demonstrated that they can hit good pitching, and with their legendary inability to manufacture runs, if they can't hit good pitching withn some degree of consistency, the latest spate of wins, however refreshing, is only a mirage.

But I generalize. The question as to whether the Yankees can hit good pitching does not apply equally to all its members. Jeter has obviously shown he does and so has AROD, whose troubles have always arise from the situation rather than the pitcher. Likewise Abreu--when he is hitting, he hits everyone, and when he isn't, everyone makes him look bad. It's too early to tell for Phillips and the indications are that Melky can hit good pitching, which is why he often has multiple hit games in Yankee losses. Posada has hit everyone this year. So that leaves, chiefly, Cano, Damon, and Matsui. Good pitchers give Cano trouble by working on his lack of plate discipline, but other than coaching him, what are you going to do? I mean you have to play him. The same is not true of Damon,however, who has only hit the cripples this year. I would submit that dropped to the bottom of the order a healthy Giambi, if he is indeed healthy, would be more productive than a Damon hitting 245 and under 200 against the top of the rotation. If Damon is playing left field, he's worth having in the line-up--he's so much better with the glove than Matsui. But I'm not at all sure he is enough of an offensive threat to be your DH.

Now I have not been enthusiastic about the prospect of Giambi's return, suggesting he should be left in the minors. BGW has likewise been scornful, wondering if the Yankees really need more offensive thump purchased at the price of speed, defense or fundamentals. Amid their recent winning streak, the answer seemed to be an obvious no, but then they didn't beat a decent starter through that entire stretch. And last year, with Sheffield and Matsui gone, Damon hurt one week, Jeter another and Posada another, Giambi's bat really did carry the team. Indeed, Giambi has produced every season prior to this one in the manner in which he is capable. I think he needs to be given the chance to display that offense again (if he is right), understanding that it is the job of the manager to limit the correlative costs of that productivity. Do not put him in the middle of the order where his talent for drawing walks merely clogs up the bases. Put him at the bottom of the order, where he can pick up Cano, Melky and Phillips, and where his walks will turn the order over to your new lead off man, Derek Jeter.

Here's a line-up I'd try. I would bat AROD third becasue you know he is going to hit until the games become truly meaningful, and right now you're just trying to make sure they do.

Jeter
Abreu
AROD
Matasui
Posada
Phillps
Cano
Cabrera
Giambi

YANKEES GONE WILD

Card.

Dice-K finally stepped up big against a good team last night and the Yankees were the main beneficiaries. With the Mariners dropping a doubleheader, the Twins losing again (and again today), Cleveland alone looks to stand between the Yankees and October. Seattle is only 1.5 games up (and cratering), actually just one if you count the game the Yankees have in hand from the suspended contest against Baltimore. And on that basis, even the Indians are only 4 up, which is nothing at this point in the season. What's more, Cleveland is playing really poorly at the moment. They looked just terrible against Lester, whose only out pitch was an out of the zone high fastball that the Tribe just kept swinging at. If they hadn't gotten themselves out repeatedly in the 4th, he never would have survived the inning. With Beckett going tonight, the Yanks have a chance to narrow the gap to 3, though Mussina may well scotch that hope.

Hughes looked great again last night, winning 4-0 and Clemens continues to pitch beyond my expectations. Almost every start since the first couple, when he was still in spring training mode, has not only been solid (look at his ERA!) but, more surprisingly, has gone 7 or 8 innings. With added rest, even the mediocre bullpen hads proven serviceable, particularly Vizcaino, whose ERA is 0.99 since May 28 (in 26 appearances). With RJ all but announcing the end of his career yesterday, I have to give the Cashboy credit for once. To get someone to take Johnson's contract and give up anything at all for the privelege looks pretty astute.

A rotation of Clemens, Pettite, Hughes and Wang, with added bullpen help from Chamberlain (to replace the hopeless Farnsworth) and Ian Kennedy (to replace Meyers) could get the Yankees into October even if they cool off, as they must, with the bats. Phillips has been transformative for this team in the field: with his average and pop, he allows Torre to DH Damon without worrying that he has sacrificed too much power and to DH Duncan without worrying that he has sacrificed too much contact. He's fielding the position beautifuklly as well. Plus last night, after the Yankees surrendered 2 rund of their early 6 run lead, Phillips successfully laid down a sacrifice that put them back up by 5 in the fourth. It's just that kind of tack on run that breaks the other team's momentum, prolongs the outing of your starter, increases the rest of your bullpen etc. and it all stems from doing the fundamentals right. When you trade Sheffield, Giambi, and Damon on the field for Abreu, Phillips and Cabrera, you have lost all sorts of potential in one sense, but you will be playing a sounder all around game. And that's what the Yankees are doing.

My in-laws are in upstate Pa. this week and say the weather is great. Jason, give Wilkes-Barre a try.

THESE KIDS ARE ALWRIGHT TOO

In last year's installment of the kids are alwright, I begged the Cashboy not to trade Melky for some middle reliever as he was proposing to do (please hold your applause), and I extolled the virtues of playing youngsters like Melky, Bubba, Wang, Phillips etc. I also excoriated Torre for his belief that youth is to be wasted on the minor leagues. His recent handling of Ramirez suggests maybe he hasn't learned his lesson thoroughly just yet, but there is also evidence that he is beginning compelled to. The right side of the Yankees infield, their hottest DH and the centerfielder of the present and future (thank god they didn't trade him), along with Wang and the soon to be returning Karstens and Hughes (not to mention the injured Rasner) means the Yankees are in a full fledged youth movement even as they strive to regain playoff position, or rather they have any shot at the playoffs thanks to this youth movement. If we had a manager instead of a head of cabbage, the return of Hughes would mean the end of Mussina and Igawa (bad as he is, he's better than Moose) would be left to fight it out with Karstens, the loser becoming the long relief man in a pen that would be shrugging off Farnsworth and Meyers and bringing up Joba Chamberlain, the 22 year old with Zumaya heat. And now that Giambi is just about ready to play, Scranton-Wilkes Barre should be getting an aging, steroid-addled slugger in exchange for Shelley Duncan, this years answer to Shane Spencer. Or Bud could just suspend G-force zero and spare us the drama, and the salary. In any event, I repeat what I said last year, win it with the kids or die trying. Either way, its better than another year of Torre's Hoaries.

And next year, hire someone worthy of the youth to be groomed, someone like Girardi. If he could take those Marlinings to the brink of the playoffs, imagine what he could do with these guys.

AS A PHILOSOPHER OF THE FUTURE,

Nietzsche likely had the sports pundit in mind when he conceived of man as a herd animal.

During this midseason's break madness, evryone in the punditsphere seemed to be asking the same question: can the Yankees catch the Red Sox, will the Yankees catch the Red Sox? I know that's two questions, but evidently they don't, becasue they treated these two propositions as coextensive with one another. Actually, they are not just 2 different questions, they differ in that one is a question, will they, and one is not in question at all? Obviously, the yankees can catch the Red Sox, have the theoretical capacity to accomplish this task, are sufficiently competent to keep such a mission within the realm of possibility. Will they catch them is another matter altogether.

Why does the heard treat these questions as one entity. Because their answer, no on both counts, is entirely centered on the Sox. The Yanks will not catch them becasue they cannot because the Sox are just too good to fold. now this is all preposterous in a number of respects. Firstly, with a 7 game gap and 70 to play, a team may be caught without "folding." Of course the gap used to be 14.5, which points to the fact that the Sox, far from being immune to the swoon, have already been doing their share of exactly that. Since the end of May, the Red Sox record is exactly the same as the Kansas City Royals record, and if that isn't folding what is. Of course the Sox could wellm fold and still avoid being caught by the Yankees.

Why does the Big Red Press assume their beloved Sox can't fold despite the abundant evidence to the contrary? Their pitching is apparently too good, too deep or both (the minor variations in the bleat of the sheep). A pitching staff with Tavaras as its fifth starter can hardly be called too deep, and one that also has Wakefield as its fourth starter can hardly be called too good. All the more so since the bullpen, though monstrous strong at the end, is almost as weak in the middle as the Yankees'. The too strong, too deep predicate ultimately rests on the notion that the Sox have not 1 but 3 bona fide Aces in their rotation, as well as the best closer in baseball. I won't quibble the last point, although Joe Nathan and K-Rod might be counterposed, but the 3 Ace thesis is just further preposterousness. Schilling was no ace before he went on the DL, and while the Nation-al spokesman are fond of saying he'll be rested and ready, a brief glance is enough to confirm he's also fatter than ever and not shape. Schilling hasn't been scaring good teams since 2004 and invoking him as an ace now is an exercise in nostalgia. As for Dice-K, he's just great, as long as the opposition isn't very good. He has had 2 weak starts against the Yankees, been clubbed by the Indians and the Tigers, chased by the White Sox, beated badly by the Blue Jays. He has not been very good when he doesn't get alot of runs. His record, 11-7, is good but not ace-worthy; his ERA, 4, is good in the AL but not Ace worthy. his record at stopping losing streaks is okay, but not Ace-worthy, and his propensity to blow up in the 4th or 5th inning is dangerous for Boston come playoff time. That leaves Beckett, a true ace this year, but alone in that regard. Tavaras, Shilling and Wakefield have all been very bad in their last 4-5 starts; Dice-K has been bad in 2 of his last 3. The slump Boston has experienced since the middle of June is directly tracable to a pitching rotation "too strong" and "too deep" to allow it to happen.

If Boston wins the East this year, it won't be because their pitching was too great or because they were so good as to be uncatchable. It will be because the Yankees have already blown 10-15 games they should have won, because the Yankees still only have three starters worhty of the name, because an already bad bullpen was destroyed by mismanagement, because Damon is hitting in the 230's etc. etc. We who have watched in agony as the Yankees sink into an unworthy decline can only stand amazed at the fact that they are a mere 7 games behind, and if we seek an explanation for this undeserved good fortune, the last place we will find it is in Boston's invincibility.

But then one should remember that the pundits report less on the games being played than on the sound of their own collective voice. That's what being a herd animal is all about.

JOE MATTERS BECAUSE

Shit Happens.

Psychoanalysis tells us that whatever the status of reality an sich, our experience of the real is exhaustively determined by the frames provided by our fantasies. Analogously, our current experience of the game of baseball has been fundamentally altered, reconditioned, by the explosion in fantasy baseball. For one thing, the existence of leagues in which the game is literally played "on paper" or the virtual equivalent thereof has tended to endorse the phoney science of sabermetrics beyond anything justified by what happens on the field of dreams. I mean, sabermetric me this, what passel of context insensitive numbers can explain or could have predicted your 2006 world champions, the St. Louis Cardinals. Sabermetrics, as we know, is a discourse of the GM (and of one GM in particular, Billy Beane, who, the last time I checked, has won exactly what his discourse is worth, nothing--he's the alan Sokol of baseball, only without the irony, but maybe that's Michael Lewis's bailiwick: after all, he first became famous writing Liar's Poker not Money Ball).

A related effect of the fantasy (league) frame is to turn MLB into a GM-centric game, the way college basketball is a coach-centric game or the NFL is a QB-centric game. An admittedly important part of the game--finding, recruiting, signing, keeping and trading talent--has become the essence of the game, from the fan's perspective, because it is the aspect that they can, in their fantasy leagues, participate in fully. We now have pundits discussing who "won" the trading deadline, as if it is a game in itself, because in the fantasy world it is the game in itself. This phenomenon has in turn changed the way we think and talk about the "real" game in itself. When a team like the Yankees is stinking it up for an entire half season, all of the talk revolves around what they need in the way of additions: a new first baseman with pop, a middle reliever with an out pitch, more speed etc. All valid points of analysis, to be sure, but none provide actual solutions the way they might in a fantasy league, where the objective is to maximize your statistical load through GM-like, or GM light, decision-making. This is where the problem of baseball fundamentals becomes important: who gets the bunt down, who hits the ball to the right side, who throws to the right base, hits or misses the cut-off man,who works the walk and, most impotantly of all, when. It doesn't take the best or the most talented ballplayers to get the fundamentals right and yet you won't win over the long term if you don't. So no GM is baseball can ultimately provide for fundamentals; the next big acquisition will not solve this problem, the next brilliant move, be it a trade or a promotion from the minors won't create the team efficiency that sound fundamental baseball affords. Fundamentals are both the both the basic unit of play and the aspect of the game least amenable to outside control. They constitute a margin of irreducible difference between fantasy ball and actual ball, hence between an imagined GM-centric MLB and the real MLB, which can never be GM-centric in the end.

The point of mediation between what happens on the field, baseball as a players game, as we used to think of it, and what happens in the staging of the field itself, baseball as a GM's game, as we currently imagine it, is of course the manager. He is the proximate influence not over whether the team hits or pitches--hence the old saw that he's not responsible, he can't play the game for them--but over whether they play the game the right way, whether they do all the things they absolutely must do to win and they absolutely can do as professional athletes, if they maintain a sufficient intensity of focus and concentration--which is precisely why managers do matter so much even though they can't actually play the game.

In a fantasy Gm-centric world, Joe Torre can remain serene, as he was yesterday, that his team is enormously talented and will win in the end despite their egregious failure in every category of fundamentals. This is the manger as faux GM, which is what comes of earning your stripes as a clubhouse "presence" rather than an on-field tactician. But in the real world, where baseball is not just a sport, an athletic competition, but a game, a contest that admits of multiple ways of seeking advantage, a manager who relies on talent alone or who is negligently wastes his talent by not compelling them to do the little things they might feel are "beneath" them (like bunting) will soon be a losing manger, and then a fired manager, and finally a manager in the one league suited to his tastes and talents--fantasy baseball.

Unless of course his owner has lost the mind his GM never had. And then the manager will be left to wake up to reality on his own or to ruin the franchise.

CASE IN POINT

Anyone curious about why the Yankees will not be playing October baseball need only have tuned into today's game against the Angels to have all their questions answered. The panopoly of Yankee shortcomings was on display. They scored a run early but failed to bust the game open then and there because they couldn't comeup with the necessary 2-out hit. The culprit was Damon, who remains a mere husk of his former self and currently one of the worst all-round players in the league. Clemens pitched brilliantly and would have won the game on a shutout except for a mishandled play by AROD that prevented getting the man at the plate. It was a miscue, not an error, but don't worry there were 5 of those, all committed by the Yankees. Two of them cost the Yankees the winning run in the 13th, but only after they'd squandered opportunity after opportunity to win the game. Most notably, they had Posada on 2nd with noone out, but failed to play the kind of small ball that wins games.

Finally, down 2-1 in the 13th, the great wild card, Torre's ineptitude, revealed itself and the game was lost. Actually, it was pretty interesting watching the game on Fox because Girardi was serving as colorman. He was trying not to criticize his "mentor" but stumbled into it at the end. With 1 out, Cairo singled and then stole second (he was out, but they are the breaks you have to cash). A wild pitch put him on third before K-Rod walked Damon, creating the possibility of a DP. At this juncture, Mo-Jo suggested that slow Joe might have Melky, who'd already KO'd 4 times, lay down a drag bunt to bring in the tying run and put Damon in scoring position for Jeter. Then he said if Cabrera drag bunted, Cairo could walk home. Melky takes strike one. AgainMo-Jo says if Melky bunts down first, Cairo walks home. Pitch out. Now it seems slow Joe has extracted the committment from Soscia that he wanted, surely a bunt is in play. No, Melky is swinging away and fouls it off. Again Mo-Jo talks about the easy run a bunt would provide, while conceding that it is harder to do with two strikes. He adds, however, that Melky will probably be thrown the same curve in the dirt he'd fanned on all 4 times. So why not pull a surprise 2 strike drag, especially since you wouldn't have to start the runner? Melky strikes out on a curve in the dirt. Jeter almost gets one through the infield but they lose. The lasting implication from the broadcast is fairly simple to read: if Mo-Jo were the manager instead of slow Joe, they'd be playing more small ball, worrying more about fundamentals, looking more like and winning more like the Angels.

All I can say is, welcome to our world Mo-Jo. Errors, situational hitting, making contact to move runners, bunting at the right time, stop giving runs away and start stealing runs late in the game. We've been saying it all along. What's wrong with the Yankees is simple, painfully simple, with the accent on painfully. They play lousy fundamental baseball, maybe the worst fundamental baseball in the entire major leagues. And no amount of talent can compensate for that. But you know you can't make this case while repeating the mantra about how great a manager Slow Joe is. If the manager is responsible for anything, it is making sure the basics are attended to and refusing to excuse the failure to do so. But all Mr. Mellow Joe does is make excuses for the stinking fundamentals of his team. After today's debacle, he actually said he didn't let the 5 errors bother him because they were the result of great effort. Heavens, can somebody tell me what the fuck Little League baseball is if not a prolonged series of errors, miscues, misjudgements and missed opportunities caused in the main by great but inefficacious effort?

If you're about good baseball, major league baseball, playing the game the right way, then Mr. Mo-Jo, you have to join the infantilized rabble who keep saying the Emperor Has No Clues, instead of defending the status quo on status quo Joe, that he is some kind of saurian genius.