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.