Little Yanks? Puh-leeze
Ludicrous talk from other side of rivalry
FORT MYERS — Sooner or later — and the money is on later — the Red Sox are going to put out the good china and hold a “Welcome J.D. Martinez” dinner.
But yesterday came and went with no news on whether Martinez and the Red Sox have formalized the five-year, $110 million deal that’ll add the boomin’ bat that supposedly has the humble Yankees believing Boston’s the team to beat in the American League East this season.
It’ll happen, probably this morning. But judging by comments being made by Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, the deal is already signed, sealed and on its way to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s file cabinet.
Have you seen or heard the public relations porridge that’s being ladled out by this guy?
“We’re ‘The Little Engine That Could,’” Cashman said during a Wednesday appearance on “The Michael Kay Show” on ESPN New York.
“I look at (the Red Sox) as the defending American League East champions,” Cashman continued. “We have to find a way to close the gap on them.”
He referred to Martinez as “another piece to improve on what they already had. So we already know who they are and what they are. And our job is to find a way to figure out to somehow get past them, and at the same time keep Toronto and Baltimore and Tampa behind us.”
With the exception of Red Sox Director of Fan Services David Price telling USA Today that retired Sox hero David Ortiz was “booed many times in Fenway,” Cashman’s take on the AL East is a leading contender for Perplexing Sports Quote of the Week (Baseball Division) honors.
It’s perplexing for two reasons:
• While the Red Sox’ current payroll ($230 million) is larger than the Yankees’ payroll ($162 million), it’s laughable for the Yankees to call themselves “The Little Engine That Could.” With few exceptions, such as the Horace Clarke era (1965-1974) and a few clumsy seasons in the early 1990s, the Yankees haven’t been The Little
Anything since the early 20th century.
• For baseball teams — the Red Sox and Yankees especially — to play nice-nice with each other stands in sharp contrast to the way the National Basketball Association conducts its affairs. Consider the recent Rajon RondoIsaiah Thomas dust-up, or Paul Pierce making it clear he didn’t want Thomas, still a Cleveland Cavalier at the time, to get his little video tribute on the day The Truth was getting his number retired.
There’s an edginess to the NBA that’s not always evident in Major League Baseball. Yes, we had the Orioles and Sox going at it last year after Manny Machado took Dustin Pedroia out at second base, and the Sox and Yankees went at it over Boston’s clumsy Apple Watch signstealing caper.
But if there was bad blood between the Sox and Yankees last year, it was bad corporate blood. It was New York’s suits going at it with Boston’s suits, and fans in both cities didn’t care at all.
This isn’t a tired, retread of a speech about how “baseball is better off when both the Yankees and Red Sox are good,” since they’re both already good. But the spring training lip service is lame, as well as being an example of baseball failing to market itself to the moon and back.
Imagine: The Yankees have gone from Murderers Row to the Bronx Bombers to “The Little Engine That Could.” I’m sure Yankees fans will be waiting in line — oops, sorry, in New York it’s on line — for the pinstriped Little Engine Tshirts and hoodies to go on sale.
It’s not just the Yankees who are playing nice-nice. Red Sox first baseman/ DH Hanley Ramirez, asked the other day if Boston is the team to beat, replied, “No. We’re the underdogs. There are other good teams out there too. This is baseball. Anything can happen. It’s better when nobody expects . . .”
Blah, blah, blah. You’ve heard of Fake News? These are Fake Views.
The Yankees went out and acquired the mashing Giancarlo Stanton to beat the Red Sox. The Red Sox plan to bring in J.D. Martinez as their answer to Stanton.
In an upset, the only person from either team who seems to get it is David Price.
“OK, yeah, we hate the Yankees,” he said the other day. “Yeah, it’s building up big time.”
Baseball needs more of that. What it does not need is this “Little Engine That Could” fertilizer.