Jimmy Sez

Earlier this month the Baseball Hall of Fame released the 2023 Contemporary Baseball Era ballot . This is their latest iteration of a veterans committee designed to give former players a second chance at enshrinement. The eight-man group up for election is a star-studded cast that includes some former Yankees. Don Mattingly was a Yankee lifer and spent the maximum 15 years on the conventional ballot voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America ( BBWAA ). His share of the vote steadily declined over that time, but he's a player that was, and still is, adored by his contemporaries. Soon after Mattingly's run on the BBWAA ballot, the rules were changed to a maximum of ten years of eligibility. Roger Clemens spent a full 10 years on the ballot. However, he would have been a first-ballot slam dunk had it not been for the steroid controversy that defined the end of his career. In contrast to Mattingly, he spent only a brief portion of his career with the Yankees and his ...

It's time for amateur GM's everywhere to start prescribing a treatment plan for the Yankees' woes. As mentioned here recently , the biggest problem in Yankeeland heading into this offseason is the large gap that still exists between the Yankees and the Houston Astros. That gap exists for two main reasons: (1) for more than twenty years the Yankees have failed miserably to turn homegrown players into everyday major leaguers, and (2) they refuse to spend the money it would take to make up for the first reason, despite being the wealthiest team in baseball. The Yankees aren't a bad team. They're just not good enough to be the top World Series contender that they say they want to be. The glaring holes in the roster are relatively easy to diagnose. However, coming up with a plan to fill those holes from the corner the Yankees have painted themselves into is a different story. Here's my amateur attempt, which has a roughly 0% chance of actually happening. Assumptions ...

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 fo...

The jazz world said goodbye to one of its great innovators earlier this month when Chicago native Ramsey Lewis passed away at age 87. While his name may not carry the same gravitas as jazz heavyweights Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, or John Coltrane, his contributions to the artform were just as impactful. KPLU Radio/Wikimedia Commons Chances are if you've never heard of Ramsey Lewis, you've definitely heard him and just didn't realize he was playing the music. In a career that spanned 66 years he recorded more than 80 albums, all of them featuring his distinctive style on piano. A style that was improvisational and deeply rooted in the blues like most great jazz artists, but had an everyman appeal that could please ears unaccustomed to the jazz genre. Most of those ears were introduced to Lewis' music via 1965's "The 'In' Crowd", the highest charting tune of his career. It's easy to see why: Clocking in at just under six minutes, Lewis' si...