Syble Townsel's blog ::Red Sox Claim Johnny Damon
Is Mike Lupica on a vendetta against the New York Yankees or just carrying water for Johnny Damon and his agent Scott Boras? In his most recent column on the Yankees, it seems that it must be one or the other. Mike Lupica has been writing for the New York Daily news for generations now. Aside from a few years in the early 1990's when he wrote for a now defunct national sports newspaper, Lupica has served as a witty conscious of sorts for the New York area sports scene. His reputation is largely based on his willingness to see through the hype, spin and overreaction and put things back into context. Nobody is truly great or truly horrible when it comes to sports opinions. It's one of the reasons why fans keep coming back to the games and why sports radio, blogs and barroom arguments will outlast us all. For years, though, Lupica was the authority figure. He had a perspective that was special. More than a perspective, he had an ability to express it that set him apart. His Shooting from the Lip Sunday column, and his regular columns (which have included non-sports articles), were the crown jewel of the New York sports pages for decades. As with anybody who holds strong opinions, Lupica was never universally loved. But in his recent columns about former Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon, Lupica is feeding his worse critics. Quite simply, he seems to be off the rails. While many Yankees fan have expressed disappointment, even anger, that Damon is likely to never play for them again, they do so from a fan's perspective. Lupica, however, should know better. Johnny Damon is a winning baseball player. He has played a significant part of two World Series championships for two of baseball's signature franchises. He has a sense for the big moment and a veteran toughness that any contending team would appreciate. Damon is also 36 years old and is arguably the worst defensive left fielder in the American League. Last year, by left fielder standards he had a good, though not great, offensive year; hitting.282, with a .365 on base percentage and 24 home runs. The bottom line is that there is little market for Damon's services. The Yankees offered him two years at $7 million per year. Damon refused the offer. The Yankees claim that they made clear that they were not going to go higher and through the course of the winter, acquired Curtis Granderson (a much better outfielder than Damon who hit 30 home runs last year), Randy Winn (a bit player costing the Yankees $2 million), and Nick Johnson, a .400 on base percentage type, though without Damon's power or speed. If Johnny Damon can get better than $14 million over two years, then good for him. To date, the only offer that it seems Damon has received was from the Yankees. For his part, Damon has said he holds no grudges against the Yankees...he understand that they were in two different positions. But in some bizarre way, Mike Lupica seems to be angry about all of this. The same Mike Lupica, by the way, that railed against the Yankees for years for having a payroll light years beyond the rest of the league, now mocks them for saying that they want to stay with a budget. You want to ask Lupica what exactly the problem is. What is his issue, exactly? Is this a dated and sad attempt to stay relevant somehow? Is this a personal vendetta? The Yankees have spent and spent and spent money on players. It's not as if they don't re-invest back into the product. But even with the free agent signings last off season of CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett and Mark Teixeira, the Yankees did actually cut their payroll going into the 2009 season. They project to do the same this year. And yet Lupica scoffs at this. He writes, "If the Yankees want to have a budget, tell them to tee it up with the same payroll the Mets have, the Red Sox, the Phillies, the next biggest spenders". You want to ask Lupica why it's a crime to try to cut payroll, even if it's largely symbolic, when defending a world championship. If the Yankees would like to make it a goal to cut their payroll year to year, even if their payroll is still by far the highest in the sport, is this somehow an issue for him? Is it a problem for their fans? You want to ask Lupica why it's a problem if part of this Damon decision might have come down to ego between Cashman and Scott Boras. As if that would be a first time a baseball decision was made based on ego. The Yankees do set the market for baseball in many ways, and you wonder if Lupica realizes that the higher they go, the less teams will work with them. You want to ask Lupica why the Damon decision is this important and why he never said anything about Hideki Matsui, a better offensive player than Damon, being allowed to walk out the door for a smaller contract than what Damon was offered. You want to ask Lupica why nobody else has matched the offer that the Yankees made for Damon, if he's so valuable. In his column, he notes that 'some players are worth more to some teams than they are to other teams'. Fair enough. But does that mean the team needs to pay far more than what any other team offered? To date, there seems to be no other offers for Damon from anybody. You want to ask Lupica if he thinks that Damon would, if he could, re-set the clock and take the Yankees offer and play happily in left field in a stadium that might as well have been designed for him, in back of the great Derek Jeter and in front of the best three/four tandem in baseball today. Somehow Lupica wants this to be about the Yankees and about Brian Cashman's ego. When in fact, the Yankees offered Johnny Damon far more than anybody else has. If anything, Cashman might have had some explaining to do to his bosses...they are not your father's Yankee owners, after all. Source: Mike Lupica, "New York Yankees and Johnny Damon Still Have Time to Make a Deal", nydailynews.com |
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