Turk's Take

So much for my case as to why the Yankees should retain Joe Girardi as manager.

Just as I sat down to put together the reasons why Girardi deserves to come back, the Yankees declined to renew his contract. That decision ended Girardi’s ten-year stint at the helm in the Bronx.

“With a heavy heart, I come to you because the Yankees have decided not to bring me back,” Girardi said in a statement released by his agent.

I feel his heavy heart.

For only the second time since 1996 the Yankees have a managerial opening. I wish that wasn’t the case.

Girardi, 53, succeeded Yankees legend Joe Torre, another disappointing departure for me as a Yankees fan, in 2008. During his ten years as skipper, Girardi complied a regular-season record of 910-710. In addition to a World Series title in 2009, Girardi’s Yankees had the best winning percentage in baseball, .562, and appeared in the postseason six times.

Perhaps his best year as manager was this past season. Girardi took a team that wasn’t expected to win more than about 84 games and finished with a 91-71 record. Not only did the team reach the playoffs as a wild card and defeat the favored Cleveland Indians, they fell one game short of the World Series.

Not bad.

At first, I was surprised that the Yankees decided to part ways with Girardi. But with more thought and a little insight, I shouldn’t be.

Thursday, WFAN radio personality Mike Francesca reported rifts regarding Girardi and the front office dating as far back as May of this year. Apparently, the rifts were more of the philosophical nature. Francesca also cited unnamed players, both current and past, who clashed with Girardi.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman issued the following statement: “I want to thank Joe for his 10 years of hard work and service to this organization. Everything this organization does is done with careful and thorough consideration, and we’ve decided to pursue alternatives for the managerial position.”

Girardi’s swan song occurred because of sabermetrics, analytics, Money Ball, or whatever you want to call it. Let’s call it the “new math” of baseball. But it’s not as if innovation just snuck up on Girardi. He often relied on his numbers-laden binder for guidance. But he preferred match-ups and instinct. He managed by the book. He was just using a different, older book. His book didn’t include the front office taking more of a role in day-to-day, baseball decisions.

So now we have Cashman turning to managerial alternatives. With the new trend in mind, don’t’ expect to see managerial veterans such as Dusty Baker, or Tony La Russo, or former Yankees greats such as Willie Randolph or Don Mattingly, who currently is the manager of the Miami Marlins, to fill Girardi’s vacancy. Organizations have been moving away from the old school, manage with their gut, type of guys in favor of automated managers that are more comfortable with spreadsheets and groupthink.

After news of Girardi’s departure, the New York Daily News released the names of five possible successors. The list includes: Tim Naehring Jay Bell, Josh Paul, Reggie Willits and Kevin Long. Neaering, Bell, Paul and Willits are currently in the Yankees organization. Neaering serves as Cashman’s Vice President of Baseball Operations, and Bell is the manager of the Class-A Tampa Yankees. Paul and Willits work as catching coordinator and specialty hitting coach, respectively. Long spent eight season as the Yankees hitting instructor.

Girardi and Mattingly were both candidates for Yankee manager in 2008. I favored Girardi only because he previously managed the Florida Marlins. Mattingly, at the time, had no managerial experience at any professional level, an important consideration.

I would like to see the Yankees hire a “baseball man.” A manager with more of a traditional approach. However, I don’t believe that actual the traditional approach to the game will count for much. In addition to a baseball manager, organizations also want an accounting manager in the dugout.

In case you’ve only been paying attention to Major League Baseball’s playoffs for the last few weeks, and with good reason, rumors of baseball’s future have been bandied about among baseball insiders.

Last week, Baseball America’s Tracy Ringolsby broke the story about a “building consensus” in baseball regarding the postseason, expansion and realignment.

So if you are a baseball fan who is not excited by a Dodgers/Astros World Series, here is something to think about this week and during this offseason.

According to Ringolsby’s report, MLB is considering adding two franchises. The rumored locations are Portland, Ore., and Montreal, Quebec, a former MLB city.

Swirling around expansion talk are also murmurs about realignment. We’re not talking about moving a team or two from the National League to the American League. No. We’re talking about scrapping the American and National Leagues in favor of one league separated into four divisions based on geography.

Finally, there are thoughts about shortening the regular season from 162 games to 156. While shortening the regular season, baseball’s masterminds would then like to increase the postseason by adding more play-in and wild card games.

Change does happen in baseball. But it generally happens slowly, not radically. The two, recent, radical exceptions were both leagues lowering the pitching mound in 1969, and the AL’s adoption of the designated hitter in 1973. Other changes included separating the leagues into divisions, also in 1969, the introduction of inter-league play in 1997, and the addition of the wild card in 1994. The recent changes have just affected scheduling and the postseason, not the dynamics of the game.

Expanding the number of participants in the postseason would generate more interest, both during the playoffs and the regular season. MLB tweaked the wild card in 2012 by adding an additional wild card team in each league. Adding more teams to the postseason would do little more than dilute the playoffs, a trend that has infected professional sports for years.

The idea of expansion is not necessarily and bad idea. MLB last expanded in 1998, adding the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Seeing new teams and new cities always creates excitement and intrigue.

In 2005, the Montreal Expos moved to Washington D.C., an area that already lost two franchises in a span of 11 years during the 1960s and early 1970s. After a small amount of success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Expos franchise later served more as a major league farm club, developing and trading super star players such as Vladimir Guerrero, Randy Johnston and Pedro Martinez.

Montreal is ready for another shot and baseball does have a long heritage in the city. Prior to the arrival of Expos, numerous minor league teams called Montreal home. Jackie Robinson started his MLB career in 1945 with the Brooklyn Dodgers’ minor league affiliate, the Montreal Royals.

Putting a team in Portland is an intriguing prospect. A franchise there furthers MLB’s reach further into the Pacific Northwest. The NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers planted roots in 1970. The area’s population is growing, according to Census Bureau estimates; the region’s population grew by 1.72 percent from 2014 to 2015. But rather than expand, MLB should consider relocating a couple of franchises.

It would make more sense to move Tampa Bay and the Oakland A’s, a franchise that has called three cities home since 1903.

The Rays suffer from low attendance, never drawing more than two million fans since 1998. Plus they are in need of a new stadium. The A’s also suffer from similar woes as Tampa. Although the A’s boast four World Series championships since their arrival in California in 1969, the franchise is in trouble. The club needs a new venue. But they need one outside of Oakland, where they averaged only just over 18,000 fans per game last year.

That leads us to the unimaginable idea realignment. According to Ringolsby sources, baseball’s expansion from its current number of 30 teams to 32 would require realignment to maintain geographical league balance. That change would open up other questions such as what should be done regarding the designated hitter. It would also disrupt decades of tradition.

Baseball needs to carefully examine such proposals. Realigning baseball would abolish the game, as we know it. That would certainly be a case of subtraction by addition and division.

Success in all sports depends on the proper execution of fundamentals. Baseball is no exception.

As it’s been said, in baseball you throw the ball. You hit the ball. And you catch the ball. Great. One fundamental aspect of the game that is often overlooked is running, without the ball.

In the first two games of the American League Championship Series base running has cost the Yankees one run in each game. Unfortunately the Astros’ margin of victory in each game was one run.

Now of course, scoring only two runs and striking out a total of 28 times in two games hinders winning. While Yankees have stumbled rounding the base paths, the Astros have been on a successful run. Houston’s Jose Altuve scroed Saturday’s game-winning run in the ninth inning, scoring from first base on a Carlos Correa line drive.

In Friday’s contest, Yankees first baseman Greg Bird attempted to score from second base on a two-out hit by Aaron Judge in the fifth. Bird, who runs like a flag post to begin with, had a short lead and kind of shuffled around third base. A textbook relay by Houston cut Bird down at the plate.

Saturday, the Astros threw Brett Gardner out at third base to end the third inning. In his attempt to take third, Gardner broke one of baseball’s many unwritten rules: never make the first or third out at third base. In all fairness, Joe Espada, the third base coach, waved the runners around each time. Regardless of the decision maker, they were wrong.

In what seems to be a recurring theme, base running has haunted the Yankees in past ALCS play.

In game 3 of the 1980 ALCS, New York found themselves down two-games-to- none in Kansas City. With the Yankees trailing the Royals 3-2 in the eighth inning, Bob Watson slapped a single to left. Willie Randolph, who was on first, headed to third. Yankees third base coach Mike Ferraro sent Randolph home where Randolph was pegged.

The Yankees lost the game and the series. Yankees manager Dick Houser, who refused owner George Steinbrenner wish to fire Ferraro, lost his job. Houser was later redeemed. The Royals hired Houser to be their manager in 1982. Three years later, under Houser, the Royals won their first World Series title.

Move ahead to 1995.

The Yankees and Seattle Mariners battled to send the ALCS to a fifth and deciding game in Seattle. The Yankees led 5-4 heading into the home half of the eleventh inning. With runners on first and third Edgar Martinez smashed a Jack McDowell pitch down the left-field line. Joe Cora easily scored from third. Meanwhile, Ken Griffey Jr. raced home to score, pushing Seattle past New York, blowing the roof off the Kingdome. That game, and that play, is credited for saving baseball in Seattle.

Nine years later, the Boston Red Sox made history in the 2004 ALCS. They rallied from a three-game-to-nothing deficit to beat the Yankees, igniting a string of four-consecutive series victories that led to their first World Series championship in 86 years. And it all started with a player running 90 feet.

With the Yankees about to seize yet another American League title, the team led 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth of game 4. Ace closer Mariano Rivera opened the bottom of the inning by walking Kevin Millar. Dave Roberts pinch-ran for Millar. Rivera nearly picked Roberts off first. But Roberts remained on first and stole second base on the next pitch. Roberts later scored on a Bill Mueller single to tie the game. David Ortiz homered in the twelfth, lifting Boston to the win.

Now, in a two-game hole of their own, the Yankees can still comeback to win the series. They rallied from the same deficit against the Cleveland Indians to win the division series.

To do so, they must stop running out of opportunities.

When George Steinbrenner, the late Yankees owner, ruled over the ballpark in the Bronx, a season that didn’t end with a World Series title was unacceptable. Fortunately, his son Hal, principal owner and managing general partner, demonstrates a willingness to wait. His patience is now paying dividends. Dividends welcomed by the fickle fan base.

The Bronx Bombers won their last World Series title in 2009, a lifetime under old management. Tonight marks the Yankees’ first appearance in the American League Championship Series since 2012. The team, dubbed the Baby Bombers, opens the ALCS in Houston against the Astros, the second-best team in the American League.

Considered the Baby Bombers because of their wealth of young talent, the current Yankees surprised both pundits and fans this season. Predicted to improve from last year’s 84-78 mark, manager Joe Girardi’s charges posted 91 wins, earned the first American League wild card spot, and advanced to the American League Division Series. There they upset the reigning AL champion Cleveland Indians, the best American League team in 2017.

I expected the Yanks to play solid baseball all season but start to fade toward the end of September. Instead the mix of veterans such as Brett Gardner, and CC Sabathia and the aforementioned Baby Bombers: Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, Greg Bird, and Aaron Judge (52 home runs), has over achieved. The club now find themselves four wins away from another World Series. Entering the series at hand, against the favored Astros, the Yankees have nothing to lose, other than the series.

As a Yankees fan it sounds like blasphemy, but this season, to date, has been satisfying. At the 2016 trade deadline, New York held a fire sale, trading All- Star players for well-touted minor league talent. Most of last season’s additions spent 2017 in the minor leagues, leaving the established veterans, Baby Bombers, and a few players acquired in July to surprise and thrill fans.

The team may be ahead of schedule, but now isn’t their time. Of course, I would surely welcome championship number 28 now. Falling short of the prize won’t be devastating. Yankees fans could look forward to future titles, reminiscent of the 1990s.

Still, enjoy the current ride.

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