Another Yankee Failure and Some Good News For Jimmy Sez

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Our objective was to win a World Championship. We failed in that endeavor. Does that mean the whole season was a failure? No. 

- Hal Steinbrenner, October 13, 2020

This quote is from two years ago, but really could have been from any October over the last ten years or so, including this one. Hal Steinbrenner always mentions winning the World Series when talking about his goals. His actions, however, indicate that his actual goal is to field a team just good enough to make the playoffs and potentially luck into a World Series rather than pursue a championship at any and all costs. The second half of the quote above reveals those true motives. The palpable cognitive dissonance within Hal's head is as hilarious as it is sad.

The 2022 version of the Yankees were no exception to this theme. They were a good team that was at times great. Yet come playoff time it was clear that they're nowhere near the same stratosphere as the Houston Astros, who have dominated the American League for about six years now. If Hal really cared about winning a World Series, he would have done something by now to close the gap between New York and Houston. Instead, we get this quote from the owner of the Yankees last week: "But you’ve got to give it to the Astros. They’re a very good team top to bottom. We just didn’t bring our ‘A’ game." Translation: The Yankees need an ideal set of circumstances to win in October since I took over, and those didn't happen. Oh well.

Nobody feels sorry for the Yankees, nor should they, but these are frustrating times for Yankee fans. We'll have plenty of time to get into where they go from here this offseason. For now, I'd like to shift gears entirely for an exciting bit of news.

The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) has existed for over 50 years and is largely known for advancing the use of statistics in baseball. However, the society goes well beyond statistics, as evidenced by the dozen or so books per year that are published under the SABR name. As a SABR member, I was notified early in the summer that they're looking for contributors to a book to be published next year in celebration of the 100th birthday of Old Yankee Stadium. That sounded like something I could do.

I contacted the editors with an idea to get really obscure and write an essay about the history of the "black seats" in Yankee Stadium. They kindly told me that could work, but it might be more useful if I could write a longer post on the entire 1970's renovation that resulted in that black section of bleachers. That probably made more sense, so I jumped at the chance.

More words from Jimmy Sez on Yankee Stadium's renovation, coming to a book near you.
JCruzTheTruth/Wikimedia Commons

Last week I wrapped up my first draft, about 3,000 words detailing every aspect of the renovation. The opportunity to have my rambling words about the Yankees published in a real-life book again feels great, but I'm most excited about the rest of the book. It will cover the full history of the old building from 1923 up through 2008 and is not limited to just baseball. Boxing, football, papal visits, concerts, if it happened at The House That Ruth Built it will be covered in the book by a long list of passionate writers. I look forward to reading about it all.

The exact release date of the book is to be determined, but I'll be sure to provide more details as they come. In the meantime, you have plenty of time to join SABR as a member and get access to all of the other great publications available on their website. Happy reading!

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