We'll get to tonight's rare win in a moment.
The Yankees haven't exactly gotten off easy with the media this year (the Mets could throw four no-hitters in a row and still not make the back pages), but I think there is something to the point that there's a hesitancy to bury them (second comment because I was dumb and didn't open up the last post to comments).
That doesn't apply everywhere. ESPN, the bastion of Red Sox fans, openly called for the ax on Joe Torre a few weeks back. But in the New York-area media, the fascination with the Yankees has only grown, but the screaming-headline demands have not quite made it there.
I think part of this is because the Yanks, by and large, have been so calm, almost comatose, about the losses. People get fired up by action. If the Yankees were fighting, either themselves or other teams, that would give every columnist the opening to suggest decisive action -- in other words, demand change of one sort or another. That hasn't quite happened.
Now, the new story of A-Rod and his blonde not-wife friend may help fuel that fire. It's silly. Not because he's a saint, but because it's not relevant. Or rather, not nearly as relevant as it's made out to be. Bronx Block and WasWatching have good thoughts.
As for tonight, nice to see some runs, finally. Disconcerting, though inevitable, to see Derek Jeter with another 0-fer. Tyler Clippard really is not very good when he's not dead-on with that mediocre fastball, isn't he? He's tough, and that'll get through five innings sometimes, which is what happened tonight.
Labels: Yankees
You make a good point. The New York media prefers to add gasoline to a fire but rarely start one themselves. In other words, since the Yankees organization does not seem to be sweating it too much, neither will the press.
Agreed on A-Rod sleeping around on his wife being non-news. I think its just a way to villianize the guy so the Yankees and its fans can justifiably be okay him leaving when he opts out of his contract at the end of the year (personally, I still yearn for the days of Soriano, even with his 200 strikeouts a year).