1. Brian Cashman has messed up on big-time pitching in his term as Yankee GM. He wanted Jeff Weaver and Carl Pavano and Kei Igawa. It is a stain and it is a stain that is hurting the team, right now, as Pavano is again out injured and Igawa is so poorly thought of that the Yanks would rather turn to Sidney Ponson than to the Japanese lefty. That will be part of Cashman’s legacy in New York. But Cashman is getting a chance to do some amending of this legacy and it is not just with his fervor to inject high-end youngsters into the rotation such as Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes, that is if Hughes can ever prove he can stay healthy, show that he is not the pitching Nick Johnson. Cashman also has helped create an atmosphere in which the Yanks can turn to pitchers with lesser credentials and not expect the world to end. That is a big deal with the Yanks, who until recently operated as if a well-known highly paid entity had to fill every spot on a staff. That mindset permeated the clubhouse and gave the players what I will call the “Scoff Factor.” That is they would scoff if a journeyman or a mild prospect showed up to pitch: “This is what management sent us.” The whole organization had become over-privileged and I do believe that aura polluted play. As recently as 2005, for example, I remember someone like Tim Redding showing up to pitch against the Red Sox and the feeling that enwrapped the clubhouse before a pitch was thrown was that the Yanks had no chance. Of course, the pitcher can feel that. It took someone to have magical success such as Aaron Small to be accepted.
But as Cashman has shown an unwillingness to trade prospects — especially pitching prospects — and a willingness to trust his pro scouting department to find him “castoffs” with enough skills to plug holes adequately, the mindset has changed. I do think that helps castoff pitchers such as Dan Giese and Darrell Rasner and Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras have a better chance to succeed now because the mindset has changed around the team from “when is someone famous who makes a lot of money coming through the door” to a greater level of tolerance and belief in who actually walks through the door. Of course, the Yanks would be better off now if Pavano and Igawa had turned out to be what Cashman projected them to be. But as the Yanks so far survive this season with major rotation setbacks, Cashman’s ability to change the over-privilege mindset has a chance to be part of his legacy, too.
2. Felix Hernandez vs. Johan Santana at Shea had me at hello.
3. George Carlin was a hero to me. He was brilliant with language, using it playfully and with bite — often within the same routines. He was like a great journalist: He accepted nothing at face value and certainly had no tolerance for the party line. He had wit and anger, and was able to deploy those traits to create riffs that made you laugh and made you think — sometimes he made you hate yourself for not seeing through some bit of nonsense that he had. He deplored authority, especially authority that wielded power brutally or with intolerance. George Carlin died at 71 and many of his routines will be eternal. But that is no solace for me today. I didn’t want to hear the old stuff, I wanted to continue to hear his riffs on current events.
